We love Joel.

We love Joel. He such a good boy. We are still working on potty training but he is trying. He loves singing. His favorite songs are "Jesus Comes Again", "Daddy's Homecoming" and "I'm Trying to be like Jesus". He enjoys saying the blessing on the food although we still have to correct him as he currently prays to "Heavenly Family".

I took this picture of him from a weird angle but he looks SO grown up here.

Of course when Vance was riding the the train Joel wanted a turn.
My silly boys.

This outfit was my nephew's.
Joel is finally big enough to wear it.
Seeing him wear this made me feel very patriotic.

Here is Joel with his disc-man.
He can now listen to "Man From Snowy River" anytime he wants.
So funny!

We love Vance.

We love our Vance. He continues to surprise us and makes us laugh. His vocabulary and sentences literally keeps us on our toes. He loves reading and constantly wants us to read to him, again and again. He also loves singing and our day is never complete without his rendition of Happy Birthday.

As mentioned previously Vance is our "Little Linus". Nama found this shirt for Vance. Vance kept laughing as he told us "I am the head." He thought that was really funny, he has such a funny sense of humor.

Vance loves riding toys- even if they're not proportionally correct.

Vance loves music. Pa bought him a disc-man- as any 2 year old needs. lol

Vance is our sweet sleeper. He loves sleep and will actually ask for his "blankey and nap". He has also taken to using his Pooh Bear as a pillow. I love watching him sleep and he have to resist picking him up and cuddling him at night.

Vance is hilarious. He will confiscate anything that is Pa's- especially his glasses and phone.
And of course no day is complete without his "Elmo shirt". If I had any idea that this shirt would be so popular with Vance I would have bought half a dozen of them.

Our First Rodeo

So last weekend Pa took us to our first rodeo. It was a bit rainy but ended up being a fun night. We got to the fairground to stormy skies.


Not five minutes after we got there the skies opened and it began pouring rain. So we all ducked for cover. While waiting for the rain to clear the boys got to get close to a horse named "Hollywood".
The skies cleared, and we were set to watch the rodeo. We all stood for the National Anthem.

We watched a few rounds of bull riding. But then it started raining again.
As you can tell the boys were not excited about the rain. Vance kept saying "I got all soaked wet." But they loved their first rodeo. Thanks Pa for the fun night!

Happy Father's Day

So while everyone (Joel and Tj) were napping I was attempting to keep Vance from waking them up (we nap in shifts at our house on Sundays). Here's Vance's rendition (with a little help from mommy) of "Daddy's Homecoming."

Happy Father's Day to all my favorite dads! Most especially you Tj, Love you!

Summer fun.

It's hard to believe that summer is in full swing here. You lose track of time when it has been hot and humid for the last four months. But we're starting to get the afternoon storms which signal that we are into our infamous hurricane season. I am praying that this is a slow season!

Things have been pretty busy though. I don't have any pictures because I'm a slacker mom lately. But here's what we've been up to:

• NEIGHBORS! We had two new families move in across that street. They go to our church and even better have kids for the boys to play with. (One mom told me that Vance and Joel have been nicknamed "The Boys Upstairs".) One family has a little girl and the other family have two little boys (well they both have babies but Vance and Joel don't play with the babies much although Vance is very interested in them). It's been so fun to have other moms close by to chat with while our kids play, other kids to ride bikes with on the street and just all the fun things that come with having fun neighbors. Of course this means that we'll probably move (that's just my luck) but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!
• SWIMMING! So as I mentioned before it is HOT and HUMID here. We are loving that Nama and Pa have a swimming pool and that our Friday playdates are usually scheduled for pools or at least around water. The boys are getting to be pretty good swimmers. Nama has talked about getting them swim lessons which I think they'd both love. So hopefully by the end of the summer at least Joel will be a free swimming fish. They of course have been loving to go over and swim at Pa's house recently because Pa has been home the last couple of weeks. That is always so much fun! And then of course when Pa is home they cap off the day with a little "Man From Snowy River".
  
• POTTY TRAINING! Right now it's the bane of my existence. It is the ultimate necessary evil. I know this sounds dramatic but this week was our first week of underwear only for Joel. It has not been going well. **shakes her head** But alas I keep trudging on. Today I had a stroke of genius (okay everyone else probably had already figured this out but it was a new idea for me). Joel had had several accidents in his underwear today. So I thought I'll buy him plain white underwear and if he can keep those clean and dry then we'll break out the fun Thomas and Bob The Builder Ones again. It's hasn't been going ALL that great after that but tomorrow is a new day.
  
• MISSING NAMA! So the boys are missing their Nama. She had gone back to Idaho for a wedding and then stayed to visit family for a few weeks. She got home and they had a really fun sleepover last Friday night but then she left for church camp on Tuesday. Vance asks for her every time we see Pa. Joel misses her too but disguises it as annoyance. (I guess during the sleep over he told her "I'm mad with you because you left me for a long time." Or something like that.) We'll all be glad when she comes back from camping. (Maybe her most of all!)
• FUNNY THINGS KIDS SAY! The boys continually crack us up with the things they say. The other night we were trying to teach them the art of the knock knock joke. We started with the ole "Boo" joke. (Knock knock- who's there? Boo- Boo who? You don't have to cry about it.) Vance totally 'got' it. The punch line was the best though. His take on it: "Stop cryin'!" He continually amazes me with the sentences that come out of his mouth. He LOVES books though. He loves to read and he loves to be read too. Today at the gym there was an older girl (maybe around 10 or so) who had a book (I think it was one of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books) and he wanted her to read to him so she was reading out loud to him. I don't know how long it lasted but it was so cute. Joel is getting so big. He makes me laugh with the way he reasons through things. My babies are getting so big! His favorite thing is when we're driving somewhere he'll call over to Vance "Hey Vance- you sleeping?!" Sometimes Vance will say yes and sometimes he'll keep calling even though he doesn't get a response. Joel LOVES singing. It makes me so happy to hear him sing. Tonight we went and got ice cream with Pa and it was starting to storm and Joel started singing the "Raining pouring" song. It was so funny- he didn't know all the words so he'd rush through the parts he didn't know and kind of mumble something until he got to the part he did know. The other night we were driving to the beach and we had the radio on. The song "Never say Never" by The Fray came on and it repeats the line "Don't let me go" over and over and Joel started singing along. It was so sweet.
  

Anyhow. That's us. Nothing more to see- move along.

An "Ah- Ha!" moment captured.

Every once in awhile I think that as parents we're blessed with those "Ah-ha!" moments. The ones were you feel like you're given a little insight into what you're doing right. I had one of those this morning.

I think having boys is the best. Now this is because I have boys. When I had one little boy I thought he was the best, then I had two and now I think having two boys is the best. I'm sure if I had a little girl or if I had girls I'd think they were the best too. But I especially think that boys are the best. In the news and in society you hear about all these studies and you may see all these little boys who are mischievous, active, and high spirited. You hear everyday about the numbers of kids-but especially boys- diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. You hear about how boys struggle in school and get into fights and you get the feeling that as a parent of boys- look out! You're in for struggles. I was terrified when I found out I was having a boy- I didn't know how to raise a boy.

My boys are energetic, they love to race and wrestle, they love shooting monsters and/or aliens with guns, they love playing with each other, they love jumping off of anything and EVERYTHING. They love swimming and splashing. They love "pain" and love giving "pain". They think goofy faces and noises are hilarious and potty humor is a comedic gem. They make up stories involving monsters and animals- who usually are getting into trouble- and they themselves are the heroes of the day. And you know, I feel so blessed to be able to experience all of this with them. They are such good boys and yeah they have their moments and most of the time I feel completely wiped out trying to keep up with them. But I love being part of their "boy world". Nobody can prepare you for a little boy. And heaven knows I have SO much more ahead of me that I can't even begin to imagine.

I just hope that I always remember this moment. Sometimes I feel like I'm a slacker mom because I don't sit down and drill my boys on shapes and colors and numbers. We don't do flashcards and I don't start teaching them how to read at age 3. But I read to them and we talk and I let them play. And I realized today that right now that's what matters. I love that when I have Vance in my lap it's his first instinct to grab a book and have me read to him while we cuddle. I love that Joel is so concerned about his friends and his brother. I love that when things are stressful or they're away from me they ask for me because they know that I love them and will try and make it better- even if it's just giving them a hug and telling them I love them.

I think there is so much pressure today for parents and kids alike to perform. There's the expectation- whether internal or from society- to put on appearances: drive the "right" car, have the "right" house, maintain said house, have kids meeting the "right" milestones and achievements at the "right" time or early. And it's so easy to get caught up in all of it that you forget the important things. Eating dinner as a family, playing and pretending, treating people with kindness and respect, and maybe most importantly showing love and appreciation for those people who matter most- your family.