School starts back here is less than a month. Geez. Normally that date wouldn't effect me, but this year it does. Not only do I volunteer with the high school ministry and the start date of school is correlated to the start date of small groups, but Josh starts school this year.

Mind you it is just preschool, but it's 4 days a week. That's a lot. I'm trying not to think about it because when I do it makes me want to do crazy things. And he's playing soccer. So while last year the start of school came and went without much notice, this year it will bring a busier schedule, trips to a soccer field for practice, lonelier days, and Saturday morning soccer games.

It's so funny Chris and I always talked about these days with excitement, but admittedly I'm getting a little apprehensive now that they are here. I'm sure it's mostly the intimidation of change, and I'll love the freedom and excitement of our new schedule. But like it or not, there is no more escaping the fact that Josh is growing up.

Normalcy for the most part has been restored in the Kelly household. I'm restocked on my usual grocery supply, after this afternoon the house will be completely clean (I use that phrase loosely, meaning that it will have been completely cleaned at one point, not that it still is), we are back on our typical eating and sleeping schedule and have already finished testing the boundaries.

I think it's a little crazy how it takes nearly as long as you were gone on your vacation to recover from it. Again using the term vacation loosely. If you have ever been on to youth camp you know what I mean.

Last night we had a lovely family evening. It's rare that we all have a really good night at the same time. Either Chris is stressed from work, or has something else on his mind, I'm thinking about what kind of cupcakes I'm going to make or how to explain apologetics to 15 year old girls, or one of the kids is fussing because of teeth, they are tired, or just because.

But last night the stars aligned. We had a nice dinner, of which everyone ate well, and then headed over to Dairy Queen to pick up a treat. We took it over to this area in historic Buford where train tracks run right through the historic area. On either side of it there are large areas of grass and benches. We took our treats there and the kids played in the grass, being incredibly sweet to one another while Chris and I got to hang out and talk. The boys got to see two trains go by within a couple feet of them.

We came home and Chris and the boys played with these little plastic army soldier guys (which I got in the Target $1 section, they have a bunch of great stuff for boys right now, those and foam swords). Jack joined in trying to make shooting noises which Chris coined as chemical warfare in the form of spit. Even bedtime went fairly smoothly.

These nights, however few and far between make it all worth it.

I'm home, we're home, and resuming a state of normalcy.

I'll try to do a quick summary here with more in depth posts later.

Camp was good, but for reasons other than I expected it to be, and it was a very different experience that what I had in mind.

Savannah was AMAZING! I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but since our honeymoon, Chris and I have never gone anywhere just the two of us. It was a much needed time away, and what a blessing it was!

It was great to come back home, I got quite the greeting from Josh. I don't think he stopped wanting to be close to me for the first 24 hours and even after that he will still randomly come up to me and tell me he missed me. Jack on the other hand wouldn't have anything to do with me at first. He refused to look at me and gave me a bit of an attitude like he was mad at me for leaving him. After the first couple hours though he was his normal self.

Now if I can get all the laundry finished, and the house all clean, we'll be in business.

We've had a problem recently with Josh occasionally picking his nose and then feeling then need to ingest the results. Gross I know, but necessary information for the story.

Chris had been getting onto him extra hard recently to help him try to kick the habit. After having the incident happen a couple of times today, Chris finally just asked Josh, why do you do that? To which Josh replied:

"Daddy, sometimes I just get hungry and I need to."

Our kid has an excuse for everything.


In other news, I leave Monday for camp, and then on Friday Chris is meeting me half way and we're headed to Savannah to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. Things will be silent for a little bit.

Hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!

I'm making fourth of July cupcakes today. Josh was asking why I was making red cupcakes, and I was explaining to him the holiday and why we celebrate it. I told him that not everyone gets to live in a country where they are free to worship and love God or whomever they want. He thought about it for a minute and then responded with a very sincere and concerned, "aw, that's sad". What's sad? I asked, wanting to make sure he got the concept. "That some people don't get to love God".

Yes it is.

Josh has been coming up to me randomly throughout the day to tell me:

"Mommy, your my best mommy."

I'm not sure what that means, but I like it.

Jack officially took his first steps today. Not sure how soon he'll actually be walking, but we're getting there. Having one that I already have to run around in, I'm actually hoping he gets to walking sooner rather than later. My arms and back are protesting this stage.

Can't believe he's already to this stage. It such a funny contrast. Here you have this little boy, that still looks like a baby, has the cute chunky thighs, adorable fat baby wrists, and the pinchable cheeks, and yet he's doing something like taking a step.

Josh had a great one liner tonight. We've been out all evening, and we came home and were all having a snack before we put the kids to bed. Josh looks up and says "what a nice family snack." Chris and I cracked up. Chris told him thank you for being so nice, and Josh replied "it's my pleasure".

We also had our first major "girl talk" tonight. Josh was at a friends playing, and him and a couple of them were in the playroom. There is a girl that lives at that house, so as you would expect there are dress up clothes galore. I guess one of the girls changed into one of them while Josh was in the room, and he decided to tell us all about how he saw a girl naked (she had her underwear on). Didn't expect to have that conversation at four. Daddy handled it quite well teaching him how to handle those situations, and I quipped in that was a gift God wanted him to have when he gets married.

In typical Josh form he made us laugh out of the situation later. I was asking him what he had fun doing tonight, and he said "I didn't have fun with the girls while they were naked". Well thank God for that I guess.

What a week. And it's only Wednesday.

For the record, so far this year every birthday, or holiday (Father's Day, Mother's Day) someone in our house has been sick.

Sunday Chris got food poisoning in the evening, and it hit me Monday during the day. That's right, Father's Day and Jack's birthday.

Yesterday Jack had his one year check up (everything was good, 50% height, 25% weight, and 95% head, surprise surprise.) and four shots. Josh was extremely good at the doctors, and I told him I would take him to Chick Fil A for lunch and let him play.

After he was done eating he went to push his chair back form the table and instead of it moving back it flipped over with him still in it. He got a nice scrape on his chin and a bump on the head, plus he bit the inside of his cheek pretty good. He got free ice cream out of it.

Then last night I was trying to get dinner going with two fussy children (Jack is teething) and not paying attention to what I was doing. I was putting a piece of chicken (chicken paremsan in case anyone is curious) into hot oil, and it slipped off the fork while I wasn't looking and splashed all over my neck and chest. I finished making dinner, and told Chris about it when he got home. It was hurting really bad, so we finally decided a trip the ER was merited.

The 5 extra strength Tylenol they gave me helped quite a bit, as well as the special cream.

Chris is putting me on probation from cooking with oil. I call it an occupational hazard. At least I don't cut myself.

So far today has been an uneventful Wednesday. We are hoping to keep it that way!

Today Jack is officially a year old.

Bittersweet. On one hand, I remember the time between one and two years being one of my favorite periods with Josh. So I have that to look forward to. On the other hand I am painfully aware of how fast time is going.

As I rocked Jack last night and looked into his sleepy blue eyes, I was aware of the fact that this could be my last time rocking a baby boy that is mine.

If we had decided to only have two children, than this would be it. It would be over. That makes me feel very old. It still seems like yesterday we had just started this whole parenting business, and now we're over halfway through with it. Winding down with babies and moving on to little leagues games and school.

So today as Jack comes and endearingly lays his forehead on me, is screaming at me for more food, while he giggles uncontrollably as daddy blows raspberries on his belly and crawls after his brother every where he goes, I will be extra thankful for this time that we have with our baby boy. Because before I know it he will be a toddler.

I feel like I haven't updated much on Jack recently, so here goes.

He is on the verge of walking. He pulls himself up on things cruises around while holding onto furniture, and can get himself standing without pulling up on things. He's just not interested in taking steps. We'll see.

He also jabbers up a storm. He can say mama, and dada, Jack and he says something that sounds like Josh. He can also say ow, and uh-oh.

Besides talking he has no difficulty expressing himself. He screams at Josh when he takes something away form him, and if Josh is being too rough with him he doesn't hesitate to hit him. He yells at us when he wants more and is already throwing fits when we take something away from him (namely, remotes).

He turns one on Monday which seems absurd to me. It really does fly by. It doesn't help that a lot has happened this year either. It makes me want to cry to think that my baby is pretty much done being a baby and on the verge of being a toddler.

Thankfully he hasn't lost wanting to cuddle yet. I call him "bug" sometimes because he's such a cuddle/snuggle/love bug. He is such a sweet natured boy. Whenever we ask for kisses he leans his head over so we can kiss his forehead, and mommy picking him up and holding him can still make everything better. He lets Josh hug him, and nothing gets him more excited than Josh coming into a room.

On one hand I'm not quite ready to loose my baby, but on the other I'm excited to see more of his personality come out. I'm just praying that it's a little bit more mellow than Josh's.

Josh loves the bible. In fact we even got into our first theological debate the other day. I was so proud. He has his own little bible that he carries around, and will take in the car, and flip through the pages one by one "reading" them. Of course his favorite is David and Goliath. He even role plays it with Chris, alternating which one of them is Goliath and gets to "die".

That's also where our debate landed. He was looking at his bible in the car and telling me the story about how David "shot" Goliath with the rock and he fell down dead. I told him I wasn't sure Goliath died, and he told me "yes, he did mom it says so in my bible" (love that he already believes in the inerrancy of scripture!), so of course I looked it up in my real deal bible. While driving. I don't recommend that. My bible said Goliath fell facedown. Sketchy. So I looked up the Hebrew, and he did die. Josh was rather proud of himself.

It gives me such joy to see him having a passion about God and Jesus and the bible, kindling a deep relationship with all three.

It is also very rewarding in another sense. It's proof that he really does hear me (and hopefully see). For all of the things that I tell him to not to do, and all the manners I try to teach him that seem to fall on deaf ears, there is some tiny little bit that may have sunk in. Not negating God's role in this, obviously he's the main orchestrator already giving Josh a disposition towards himself. But to know that a little something of what I said was heard.

I can't begin to express how encouraging that is. It gives me hope, and encourages me. Maybe sometime soon we'll see some fruit from some of the other things I've repeated to him over and over. Like not shooting at people while we're in the store.

Best line of the day:

Mom, don't touch my bum, it's expensive.

Josh just came down to give me a hug and tell me goodnight. He comes down, puts his hand on my arm, looks in my eyes, tell me he loves me, climbs up on me to give me some love... and farts on me. The he laughs and squeezes out a few more.

This is life living with boys, and why I need a girls some dresses and princesses to balance it all out.

Stubbornness in play:

We go to Kroger a lot down here. Every time we go, Josh asks, "mommy are we going to Krovert?". I've explained to him several times that it's Kroger, but he refuses to believe and still keep calling it Krovert.


He also has this argument that he uses for everything I ask him not to do right now. This is an example of a typical conversation of ours:

Me: Josh, don't put your hand down your pants.
Josh: But mom, some people do it.

Me: Josh pick up your toys.
Josh: But mom, some people don't pick up their toys.


Jack is into EVERYTHING. If I turn my back for two second he has the bathroom cabinet open and his mouth on the cap of the hydrogen peroxide. Problem is I hate those baby proof openers they put on cabinets, plus I want them to learn not to do it.

I feel like my expertise in life right now is tearing/cutting food into minuscule bites, and saying no. I'm looking to expand my resume soon.

Josh has such a curiosity about Jesus and God right now, I love it. At least once a day he asks to hear a "God story", and every night he wants one also. He also prays on his own before we go to bed now.

We were in the car the other day driving and he saw something up in the sky, and then followed it with, "yeah, that's where God lives", I asked him where else God lives, and he said "your heart". But only if you ask him to live there, right? I replied. Have you asked God to come live in your heart? "Hey God come live in my heart" he yelled out.

Not sure he completely gets the concept yet, but I'm glad he's getting there, and has a desire for God to live in his heart.

Tonight he asked to hear the story of David and the rock (the story involves fighting, so he's totally sold on it). At the end he told me that when he sees bad guys he's going to pick up a rock and throw it at them. Seeing that the outcome of that could be potentially harmful, I cautioned him that we can only throw rocks at people if God tells us it's okay. He pondered that a minute, and quipped back "umh, he told me it was okay."

For all his stubbornness and inability to listen, he sure is a great kid. Smart, funny, handsome, and already loves Jesus. I'm pretty proud of my little man!

Birthday Boy:

Birthday Cake:

New round of pictures:

STL Trip

STL Trip and our trip the Fountains

Today was one of those days.

Josh pulled the ottoman down on Jack today. Our ottoman weighs a lot. I don't know how it didn't break Jack's leg.

Josh was in a lot of trouble. He's been on a tirade recently.

I need a lot more patience to deal with the incredibly strong willed child I have.

Thankfully our neighbors brought cake.

Everything is better with cake.

So I realize in all the craziness of the last couple of weeks, I haven't updated this blog with a very important milestone that we hit.

Jack is officially crawling. He started in STL, and when we hit home we was all over the place. The hilarious part, is it's not crawling in a standard form.He has one knee bent in a normal crawling position, but the other he has his foot on the ground with his knee up in a 90 degree angle, and uses that leg to push off.

It's pretty entertaining to watch. However, I'm kind of over it. Having one that I already have to chase around, the whole having to hold him all the time (even when he is pushing away and squirming because he wants to get down and can't) thing is kind of getting old. I'm ready for walking. And he doesn't seem too far off. He'll pull himself to standing, and even stand for a little bit on his own.

We'll see. Just wanted to update everyone on little Jacksters progress!

It feels like I have been gone for a long time. I apologize for my absence. It's been a pretty crazy last two weeks.

First off we went to STL. Which was quite possibly the worst road trip we ever had.

The kids had been sick, but were feeling better by the time we left. The first night we were there we were woken up by Josh at 3am. We were pretty much up with him the rest of the night with him complaining that his ear hurt. We had to take him into the Urgent Care the next day to be diagnosed with an ear infection (really? we had no idea.... sometime the whole doctor thing and having to get told what you already knew was wrong with your kids annoys me, but that is another post.).

Apparently the dose of antibiotics the prescribed him was ridiculously large for him and proceeded to completely wipe out his little intestinal tract, with what resulted in several days of horribleness that I cannot even put into words.

We left a day early. What usually takes 10 hours took almost 13. Josh had to stop to go to the bathroom almost every hour (most of the time not even really going) and Jack was teething and we had no access to Tylenol for him. It was bad. Really, really bad. Like the only reason we are even considering going to STL again is because my BIL and SIL are having a baby, if it weren't for that, well... I think it would be a very long time. Even with that trip Chris is wanting to look into airfare.

But for now, normalcy has been restored. Somewhat. Check our this to get caught up on a new venture of mine.

And I can't help but end with a great line from Josh the other night. We were at the park and he was playing on the tire swing with a girl about his age. I was pushing them, and very much enjoying overhearing their conversation. It was adorable. But the best line came when the little girl was talking about her baby brother and how she was a girl, and Josh replied, "I'm a girl", then I proceeded to call him a silly goose and remind him he was a boy, and that when he turned and told the girl "I forgot, I'm a boy."

If there is one thing (which there's not just one, there is about a million) that Josh brings to our lives it is humor.