Overheard around here lately.

Aidan to his little brothers, holding a bible in the backseat of the van, his carseat squeezed in between Kellan's and Ethan's:
"This is God's Word. These are all the words of God. And this God's Word says to... always remember to get out of the house if there is a fire." "Slam. Slam bam." (I think the ending is 4 year old cool for amen.)

Caleb to Ethan who had a toy that he desperately wanted to play with: "Ethan, Mom will give you 100 m&m's if you let me have that sword." (I discovered this negotiating tactic when Ethan came into the kitchen after surrendering his weapon and asked for his candy, fully believing he was going to get them."

Caleb, correcting his brothers after they were discussing the balloons they had just let go and how high they must be rising: "No, balloons can't go to Heaven. The only way to get to Heaven is to trust in Jesus, and things can't trust in Jesus." Preach it son!

Aidan, after being asked by a babysitter how he knew for sure it was Kellan and not Ethan next to him. In other words, how does he tell them apart? "By his sound." Isn't that adorable?

And one more, just because it's my birthday. Kellan: "Mommy, you are my bestest Mommy ever." :) Melt my heart.

We LOVE visiting daddy at camp!

Quinn at 7 months... almost crawling!

For your viewing pleasure...

Caleb turned 6!

His actual birthday was the 30th. We had a fun family lunch at Happy Joe's, and did cake and presents at dinner (right before Junior High Bible Study). Then, his very much looked forward to party, was last Wednesday. He chose a Fighter Jet theme, which was fun to get creative with. Weston brought in a big screen to do some flight simulation activities, and we had some paper airplane creations. Caleb had so much fun with his friends, and especially enjoyed having 2 school friends be able to attend.







click here for more birthday pictures

Indiana Jones

The admission to the Safari Adventure Park included a pony and camel ride for the boys. One by one, off they trotted. When Aidan came around the loop, I could hear him humming, "da da dat da, da da da... da da dat da, da da da da da..." (The Indiana Jones theme song).

It was so sweet. His sure-footed slow little pony was galloping gallantly away from bad guys in his imaginative adventure-filled mind. What fun!

Encouragement for my soul today...

In the middle of another day in which the lack of time I find to accomplish anything was starting to seem overwhelming... God sends this via the Gospel Coalition Blog.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones once spoke with a group of medical students who complained that in the midst of their training and the ferocious work hours they really didn’t even have time to read the Bible and have their devotions and so on. He bristled and said, “I am a doctor. I have been where you are. You have time for what you want to do.” After a long pause he said, “I make only one exception: the mother of preschool-aged children does not have time and emotional resources.”

It is important to recognize, too, that there are stages of life where you really don’t have time to do much, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it. Children will sap you. If you have three children under the age of six, forget serious reading unless you have the money for a nanny. When our youngest finally went off to kindergarten, we celebrated that day—I took my wife out for lunch. Only then could she get back into reading again. It’s the way life is. You have to be realistic.


Click here to read the whole Gospel Coalition blog entry


It always helps so much to know that others 'get' it, and have been there. :)

Happy Father's Day!

The Mighty Quinn

That's a song. I was recently informed of this by a friend. A folk song about an eskimo by Bob Dylan. Also a 1989 Denzel Washington movie... Who knew?

Anyways, I just wanted to post some recent photos of our almost 6 month old. My how fast time goes by! More quickly with each one I think...

He is definitely a keeper. Mostly smiley and happy... Sleeps well... Not quite sure how we got so lucky, again.

He is starting to sit up on his own... Not crawling, but rolling/rocking around the floor, and he just started some solid foods. Drooling a lot, but no teeth yet. Babbles often, has a great giggle, loves his toes, and is our thumb-sucker #4. (even in between spoonfuls of food... it's like it helps him swallow and get all the goodness in his mouth.)

We love you Quinn! Please do well on our 13+ hour car trip on Thursday!

Winter Fun (trying to catch up...)

During the winter months we planned a fun bowling and miniature golf outing. It was nice to have something fun to do out of the house. And they, of course, had a blast.

How blessed am I?

How can I look at these 5 beautiful faces each and every day and not feel that my cup runneth over?

So much joy. So much love. So deeply deeply grateful.