Scary Uncle Josh

One of Hadley's favorite things to do is watch videos of her cousin, Joel on his blog. Every time one ends, she says "MO!" for more. Well, all of them except the one where Uncle Josh is "getting" Joel. This one seems to make her more terrified than excited. Don't worry Hadley, Joel really does like it, even if you don't.

a few pictures

Here is a cool butterfly that was in our yard one morning...


I had good intentions of getting some cute fall pictures but didn't pick the best time for cooperation, so... maybe next week.

faker

Drama Queen...

avoidance

Well, here is parental avoidance at it's finest... Leave it to Drake to ask this kind of question out of the blue, catching me totally off guard. We haven't decided what we will tell Drake on this issue. We don't plan to encourage it but don't want him to be the kid that ruins it for his friends either...

so I don't forget...

I just felt the need to take some sleeping pictures tonight. I was looking through some baby pictures of Hadley last night and I realized I have a hard time remembering so much of her early months. Our family was WAY too busy: I had two part time jobs=more than a full time job, ministry life is always busy, the kids and I did A LOT of traveling to Lincoln while my dad was sick, none of these things I regret for what they have taught me, but I am so glad to be enjoying each minute now, much more relaxed. So, here is my baby now, and I don't want to forget this moment in time. She is growing up so fast and I don't want to forget what she looks like... sleeping like a baby. Here are some of the things I love about her: I love that she goes to sleep looking at books and she never leaves blankets on and she never wakes up in the night and she sleeps until almost 8:00 every day and she's so darn cute!

Here is my big kid sleeping. That is what he is... a big kid. How can that be? I love it that he loves to sleep with something "cuddly"- right now it is Rudolph that has super soft fur. He has always been so tactile going to sleep. When he took a paci, it was not just one, it would be at least one in each hand too! I love this picture because it shows him being quiet. He is such a talker. I mean, he never stops talking. Today was one of those days, when he went to bed, I just had to have quiet, not even a TV on, because I had heard so much talking. I think his favorite thing right now, is listening to stories (and asking lots of questions about them!). He loves to have anyone tell him stories, about their childhood, scar stories, famliy vacations, Zane stories (his 2 year old cousin that says some pretty hilarious things!), anything...and the longer the story, the better. Tonight, he talked to Grammy and Uncle Eric for 40 minutes on the phone, just wanting to hear stories. It has been fun, to hear many family members tell him stories, ones that you don't sit around and talk about anymore, but are intersting to hear again and are absolutely fascinating to a 4 year old. It makes me wish Drake could have asked my dad for all of his stories because they would have been fun conversations to listen to.

Conversation with a 4 year old...

In the car on the way home from church this evening...

Gabe and Lori: (singing) "...o happy day, happy day, when you washed my sins away..."

Drake (wanting to sing along, but distracted by the words): "what are sins?"

Lori: "when you do something you shouldn't"

Drake: "how do you see them?"

Lori: "what do you mean?"

Drake: "how do you know where they are to wash them away?"

James 4:7-10: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. HUMBLE yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."

We pray you'll come to understand, Drake.

New word!

Another post, because I wanted to show off Hadley's cute new word! I apologize for the spacing issues, I haven't quite figured all that out yet. And for those of you curious, her words now include: mommy, daddy, Draker, many animal noises, kitty, shoe, bubble, nana, grammy, and other various words that we usually can't get her to repeat.

Are these two related?!

I just had to share these cuties in the tub, but would you ever guess they are first cousins?!

A whole lot of fun!

We've had quite a lot of fun over the last week! We had a fun visit from Aunt Kara, Uncle Bart, Zane and Annabeth over the weekend. We got to do lots of fun things like, go to the park, eat at Chuck-E-Cheese (where A.Kara whooped me at ski ball!), celebrate Uncle Bart's birthday, go out to eat at a real live restaurant without a playground while Grammy watched all the kids, and stay up way too late talking!

On Sunday night, we headed to Lincoln to J.Street for a fun night at the fish fry and the oh, so favorite thing- inflatable games!! Drake and Gabe had a good time fighting each other and we all had a good time catching up with friends and more family time!

This week has been great and fast. Monday, while Drake was at preschool, Hadley and I headed to the YMCA for her first taste of swim lessons. It's a mommy and me class. Let's just say Hadley would rather just spend her time jumping in than actually trying to work on any kind of technique. I mean, I know she's only 14 months old, so I can't expect much. She has no problem going under but doesn't really like the whole idea of "instructed" water time. Maybe next week, after she has turned 15 months, she'll be ready to kick on command, float when asked, etc... HA!

Firsts

We have had a lot of "firsts" in the last week.

Over the long weekend we took the kids to Washington Park for the first time. They had a fun time playing on the equipment and getting filthy in the sand. On Sunday evening, we headed over to camp to visit Nana and Papa and got one last swim in on Monday. Drake is now able to go down the slide alone and swim (Doggie paddle style) to the side by himself without any floaties! (Of course, he learned to do this after I have already signed him up for swim lessons- keep reading...)

Drake also started preschool this week. Yesterday was his first day. He will go three mornings a week. He, of course, had no problem running right into the classroom and getting started. I had to remind him to come tell me bye. He had a really good time and I think he's going to have a great year.



Another first this week was Drake starting swimming lessons this morning. He did really great and loved it. The teacher did a really great job working with the kids and since there are only 3 boys in the class, there is lots of time for one-on-one. They worked on using reaching arms, kicking feet and of course some fun splashing and jumping in. Hadley did an amazing job of waiting patiently on the bench, watching the boys, reading books and eating a few fish crackers.