Weekend Review

Friday night, Matthew had a softball game at 9:30pm and left the house a little after 8:00pm to go by his Mom's house first as her garage door was having a problem. I say this to let you know I had the house to myself! Yes the kids were here but Braewyn doesn't care what's going on yet and I worked hard on getting Philip to bed early (all summer it's been around 9:30pm by the time he got to bed, but I was closing his door at 8:09pm this night). I had an objective -- watch "High School Musical 2"!


If you're saying, "What's that?" just ask any girl age 7-17 who has The Disney Channel on her tv. Obviously, it's the sequel to "High School Musical" which I attempted to watch (very cheesy) at a girls' lock-in we had at the church last fall. My opinion of both movies is they are kind of cute with songs which unfortunately get stuck in your head for much longer than you want them there. You can experience that part for yourself by clicking here! Bottom line, the movie is the new generation's Grease but cleaner. I wanted to watch it because I teach the 11th grade girls' Sunday School class and I knew they'd all be watching it.

Saturday was full yet fun. Matthew had another softball game at 9:00am so I planned on taking the kids as the mornings are not too hot these days. We drove separately as it was a tournament so I didn't know if there would be more games to come. Unfortunately, his team lost the Friday night and that first game Saturday morning so it was over for them. We went over to Ruth Ann's house so Matthew could look at her computer and she bought Subway sandwiches for us for lunch. Home after that to get some rest as we were going out later that evening.

Our evening began with dinner at the new Pizza Inn here in town. We ran into Alison who teaches kindergarten at one of the elementary schools and who we know because Matthew's mom has been her assistant for the last few years. They began a new school year together today and if you want to hear how that went, check Alison's blog! Alison and "Mrs. Brooks", we prayed for you today!

Anyway, back to Saturday night... after dinner we drove over to our local community park for a Blue Grass concert. I think I posted about taking the kids to one a few months ago with Mollie, Michael and our friends Kelly and Don. Well, hearing about this one I really wanted to take Philip as he enjoyed the last one. I thought Matthew could stay home with Braewyn, but was really happy when he said we could all go for a family outting!! At dinner we were all together, but the concert ended up a little different.

When we got there, we sat our folding chairs near the back of the crowd. Matthew spotted Kelly and Don so I took Braewyn to Kelly as I knew she'd love holding her. She said to bring our chairs up near them so I did. Matthew began talking with Tyler, one of the youth guys from our church, and his dad Rocky so they stayed standing in the back of the crowd the whole time. Matthew didn't really come to hear bluegrass so I was glad he got to talk sports with the guys. Lastly, Philip saw that some other kids were dancing/playing on a little dance floor (i.e. plywood laying on the grass in front of the stage) and he wanted to go. Another friend from church, Mr. McDonald, took Philip up there. They came back after a few minutes and Philip wanted me to go with him instead. (Philip looked a little puzzled when I told him who had taken him before; I think he was trying to figure out if that was the man who owned McDonald's!). The rest of the concert, I sat on the edge of the dance floor while Philip ran around in circles, jumped up and down clapping, or tried to get Matthew's attention. The music was great and as I told some friends, it was a free something to do!



Philip relaxing in his chair. Mr. Don is behind him in the yellow shirt.


Braewyn is just taking it all in on Ms. Kelly's lap.


Mr. McDonald tries to get Philip to dance. This was just after we got there but before long Philip was running wild!






Finally, Sunday was Aloha Day at church. Everyone was invited to wear Hawaiian or casual clothes as it was promotion day in our Sunday school departments and just a fun way to welcome everyone back from summer with school beginning the next day. After church, my mom asked us to follow her to the daycare where she used to work. She will no longer be working there but is painting murals on their cafeteria walls. If you like her work and live in the area, she is taking orders!



Us in our Aloha-wear. Thanks, Mom, for taking our family portrait. It's a rarity!



One scene from Mom's mural.


And another.

My kids are growing up!!

Milestones are great in the lives of your kids. Each proves that the child is growing just the way God intended, but they can still be hard on a mom. Philip is doing excellent with potty training. Like most things he does, I'm amazed at the seeming maturity level involved. It's very easy for me to forget that he is only 2. In the last month, he has only wet his "sleeping pants" once! That's naps and overnight. Last night was surprising. Philip was in bed around 9:30pm (I'll have to work on backing that up with MOPS and BSF starting next month) and we went to bed at 11:30pm (I need to back myself up just so I can clearly function all day). Just after 12:00am, I woke up to Matthew getting out of bed. I didn't comprehend what I had heard over the monitor, but it was, "Daddy, I need to go potty!" Wow. Philip pee'd, crawled back in bed and slept soundly until 7:30am.

The other milestone is his ever-growing group of friends. These are not imaginary or stuffed, but real-live kids he knows! Philip's list of friends includes Emily, Anna Grace, Hayden, Jordan, Jayce, Jaina, Emma, Meredith, Zac, Nic, Elizabeth, Josiah, Nicholas, Caleb, Sara Beth, Brittany, cousins Hannah and Madeline, I suppose Braewyn should be on the list, and I've probably forgotten others. His 3rd birthday party will most likely not be at our house!



Philip with his friend Josiah.



Philip and Hayden acting crazy in the poo-wah!



Jordan gets a pat-a-cake lesson from Philip.



Braewyn's milestones seem to be coming even faster which makes me sad as she is already growing way too fast for me. With Philip, I didn't know what to expect next, but this time I'm really trying to cherish each stage in Braewyn's life. She turned 3 months old last week and is now 12 pounds. Most nights she is sleeping from 11:00pm until almost 6:00am. This means we might soon be moving her from the bassinet in our room into the crib in Philip's room (making it "their" room). She's doing great with breastfeeding and I plan to solely nurse her until 6 months. It works out perfectly that she turns 6 months on November 2, just in time to start food and enjoy some Thanksgiving B.B.F.F. cubes (our homemade baby food if you're new to the blog)! Anyway, she's a tough little girl. I'm always telling Philip, "Why are you laying on your sister? You had it so good. No one bothering you. But now I have to protect Braewyn because you are stronger and bigger. She's your little sister. Please be sweet to her." I love having a little girl and it's only fair for me to have a little fun with her myself, right?



I've owned this Build-A-Bear for five years.



Now someone else in the house can wear her outfit too!



She's just too cute!



You did a great job again, Jesus!

He's in the army now!

Please pray for Keith, his wife Darlene and their son Mike. Keith is our Minister of Senior Adults. Tuesday, Mike entered the US Army. They are a really great family and are all proud of Mike's decision, but it's very hard on them at the same time. This is the first time Mike has not lived with them and now they won't see him for weeks or months at a time. He's at Fort Benning in GA right now. Mike plans to become a Green Beret and then a sniper. He wins cool points in my mind. Matthew has played sniper-like games on XBox before, but it's still hard for me to visualize people actually doing that kind of thing out in the world somewhere. God bless you, Mike!

Special Delivery for Jesus

A few weeks ago, Philip found a dead moth in the house. He asked me what it was and I told him. I picked it up and let it fall to the ground to show him how it used to "fly". Philip wanted to play with it but I said the moth was dead and that it might have germs on it. I then told him we could flush the moth in the toilet and send it to Jesus. That seemed to suit Philip so down the toilet went the moth.

Flash forward to a few days ago. Philip calls me and tells me to come look. He had gone in the bathroom by himself and went poopie. After I told him how proud I was, he flushed the toilet and said, "I'm sending my poopie to Jesus!"

Jesus said to let the little children come to Him. I'm just not sure He would want their poopies too.

Silly Kids

Philip loves to laugh and act silly. Here he is after getting out of the bathtub one night. We were talking about swimming in our pool which became, "I want to go in the poo-wah!" I began laughing at how his hair was flipping back and forth which just made him continue longer laughing at himself. Had to get it on video!

Braewyn, not to be outdone, made us laugh hard one night too as she discovered how to propel herself off of Daddy's lap. The girl is going to be buff! She's only 2 months old (3 months old tomorrow!) and already doing ab crunches.

(Videos are below. Click on the arrow in center of video twice to start.)

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