Both of my boys have been showing such a heart for the Lord recently. I feel so grateful.

We pray over them every night that the Lord would reveal His glory to them and for their salvation.

Every night Josh prays a prayer that he makes up that generally goes something like: Dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross, I'm sorry for the bad things I've done, please come live in my heart. He usually follows it up with additional requests but that's the gist of it, almost every night.

His momma happens to missionally minded and tries to teach him about some of what is going on the world and how he can help. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when out of the blue he ran up to me and told me we needed to get food and toys for the kids in Haiti.

When something is wrong he wants to pray for it. He's been sick recently and he wanted to call Chris's grandpa (who taught him how to pray, and has quite the legacy of prayer) otherwise known as Papa Ted and ask him to pray for him. What joy to watch my 4 3/4 year old bow his head and be prayed for by his great grandpa.

Jack also seems to have a heart for prayer. Every night I get ready to rock him he wants to pray. That boy will not let me forget or skip a night! Even if it's 10:30 and he can barley keep his eyes open, you better believe we are going to "pway".

If there is nothing else I have done right as a mom it brings me inexplicable joy to know that so far we have been given the grace to impart a heart for the Lord to our boys.

I adore my boys. Boys are crazy and messy and non stop. But they are fun, and mine happen to be especially sweet and mostly surprisingly well behaved.

I'm not quite as thrilled with how quickly time seems to be whizzing by though.

Josh has started t-ball and is all boy (no little) in his helmet and cleats. Between that and his starting kindergarten in the fall I am painfully aware of the fact that my oldest is now a school aged kid. I'm thrilled to be able to get unsolicited "I love you's" and hugs still. He will still occasionally snuggle with me as well. Lucky me.

It's been a lot of fun to see him in baseball. It's so his thing. And soccer so wasn't. He never kicked things around. However he was throwing things shortly after 6 months. Even though it's a bit slower sport that involves a lot more technique and things to remember he already seems to be holding his own on the field. And daddy (coach Chris) couldn't be happier.

Jack has apparently hit the terrible two's early (although I never thought they were all that terrible). He's started showing his defiant side and isn't the least bit timid about telling me "no" or looking me in the eye while he disobeys. It seems much more bearable having been through it once and knowing the key to it: unwavering discipline and boundaries. No giving in!

While I love having a toddler it's been hard to know there's hardly any baby left. Maybe this is why the youngests are usually spoiled: because the parents have learned how quickly it all goes by and what to hold on to as much of the baby phase as they can. I get it now. We're not doing that, but I get it.

I do love that he still wants me to rock with him before he goes to sleep. Mind you instead of quietly snuggling it's now filled with praying and talking, but I'll take it. As soon as we hit the rocker he asks me to "pway". He folds his hands and closes his eyes for about a second, but usually stays quiet (as long as big brother isn't around). He says "Jeus" when trying to "in Jesus name", but his favorite part is "AMEN", which he nails. And yells.

I love the phases both of them are in. I just wish I could slow down my own life to take more of it in!

Jack is transitioning from calling me "mama", or "ma" when he's yelling at me to "mommy".

The only issue being that what in his mind sounds like "mommy" actually comes out sounding much more like "money".

I'll take it.

It's been a fun filled few weeks.

Jack is caught in limbo between a few remaining signs of babyishness (like falling asleep in my arms, and needing me every time he hurts himself) and full fledged toddlerdom.

When we tell him love you, he will reply, "wuv wu". When I was trying to get him to say it to me just before he fell asleep the other night all he would do is respond by making farting noises with his mouth.

He is repeating (literally) every word we say. We're trying to encourage him to put more words together so this is a typical scenario at dinner: (Chris) I (Jack) I (Chris) want (Jack)wanT (Chris) down. (Jack) dow.

His favorite word is "no". But he doesn't seem to quite get the concept of the word. He tells us "no" for everything. We'll ask him if he wants to eat (when we know he's hungry)- no, if he wants to play- no, if he wants down from dinner- no. He also says "no" like Andy from The Office. It sounds like "noo-wa".

Both the boys loved playing in the unexpected 4 inches of snow we got a week ago. It was nice to see Jack warm up to it this time around. He still wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but at least he enjoyed himself.

Josh also enjoyed his first day playing "hookie" for one of his best friends birthday party today.

He showed himself to be of a child of a technically advanced generation with a great one liner the other day. He got a kids digital camera for Christmas and had been using it the other day and he turned to me and told me "hey mom, we should put these up on facebook".

He starts t-ball tomorrow with his first practice. We're preparing ourselves for the major schedule adjustment.

Transitioning into being parents of a school-aged child is not with out it's difficulties!

I feel like there is a lot to update on and yet I can't think of words to do it justice or even specific examples.

Chris and I both have been marveling at the changes in Jack. He's officially a little boy and getting into almost as much trouble as his brother. His biggest word to date is "cupcake". Go figure.

We had a fun instance the other day when I went to get him up from his nap. He'd has a dirty diaper and had decided to take it off. And play with it. And get it e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. Nothing else in life can prepare you for some of the experiences of motherhood. On the bright side, I remember Josh did that once and it wasn't too much longer before he started potty training.

Josh has been doing so good at school and we are so proud of him. Not that he's not always good but this semester they have started "quiet time" during lunch. They put a timer on for ten minutes and the kids are supposed to sit still and be quiet. Well for those of you who have met my oldest know this might as well have been asking the impossible. The first few weeks were pretty rough. We started having consequences/rewards for his behavior after he got home. It was hit and miss for awhile, but for the last four days of school he has stayed on green every day! Quite the accomplishment for the little man.

He also really enjoyed having his friends (and their parents) over for a Super Bowl party on Sunday. One of his best friends came over and he loves getting time to hang out with him.

We are so ready for it to start warming up and stop raining so we can get back outside and have fun with friends more. It's hard to keep boys cooped up!

I've been doing double takes recently with Jack. His hair is getting longer and right now is styled very similarly to how Josh's was at the same age. I was thinking I'd have an easier at toddlerdom with Jack since he was an easier baby that Josh, but I think I may have been mistaken in that assumption.

He acts so much like Josh did at that age, running as fast as his little feet will carry him, bumping into all sorts of things on a regular basis, testing the boundaries of "no", relishing in making people laugh and repeating whatever behavior elicited it. He's jabbering up a storm when he's around us or other people that are familiar, but shys up around new people. He's started putting two words together like "up, please" and is working on multi-syllable words like "cracker" and can name pretty much every one of his body parts.

His cute (albeit sometimes obnoxious) habit that he has is when he wants you to hold him he stands in front of you with his arms reaching up. If you are at something like a counter (which as a cook I regularly am) he pushes and wedges himself in there until he has placed himself between you and the counter disabling ones ability to get anything done. And then he looks at you with his baby blues and says "u" over and over. Which is his way of saying up.

Josh's funniest moment recently was when he came home singing "Pants on the Ground" from school. For those of you not in the know it's a song that was on American Idol. Even though he occasionally gets to watch some of Idol, he missed that part so I guess one of the kids at school started it. He told us his teacher was singing it as well. I think this is just the beginning of all sorts of "fun" things he'll learn at school.

We've had a fairly mellow and healthy couple of weeks, we almost don't know what to do with ourselves!

Josh has officially started reading. His interest level isn't as high as I would like (meaning he'll entertain you through a few words and then he looses patience, I can't imagine where he gets that from...) but he'll let you read to him all day long plus progress is progress and I'm pretty proud of him! He points out letters everywhere and his favorite book for me to read to him is the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (by C.S. Lewis). A non-picture book. I'm so proud!

He has also been praying some very entertaining prayers recently. Some snippets are: "please help the people in Haiti and watch over my family and help none of their cities to catch on fire." and "please help Sonic and all my superhero friends beat up all the bad guys" plus " please help my head to feel better and Dad, don't EVER do that again, okay?!".

The last one he was praying after him and Chris had been building Hot Wheels race tracks and he was standing on a chair to reach the tracks. He climbed up too fast and fell between the chair onto the fireplace. Scared us really bad we thought he had dislocated his shoulder or broke his arm or something, thankfully it was just some really bad bumps and bruises on his head, shoulder, elbow and hand.

Jack's letting more and more of his personality shine through and there is a lot of feistiness coming out in it (I personally applaud a little feistiness so don't read that negatively). He knows how to pretend to fuss to get Josh in trouble, he can fake cry or pout to try to get his way and he also will come lean on you and look up at you with his adorable baby blue eyes and just gently rub your leg until you cave and pick him up. The boy knows how to work it.

He's also reached the age where he has the patience to read books so it's been fun getting to read to both him and Josh together and working on creating a bedtime routine that we can do with both of them. Transitioning Jack out of the rocking phase into the bedtime story phase.

Jack is also fascinated with the potty. He follows everyone in there when they go and comments on whatever business you're doing in there. Whenever someone goes he always wants us to take his diaper off and let him try to go too. He's also started going off in a place and standing with his knees slightly bent when he has to go #2. It's really funny to watch if you catch him, but if he sees you watching him he freaks out and starts crying and won't stop until you change him. I'm not sure if all that means anything, he may very well not end up being potty trained until he's 2 1/2 but it's interesting to see him catching on so quick and being aware.

That's pretty much life with us. We've been doing some painting around the house as well and it's nice to start getting (and having the time to) get some things done around the house again. I think I've gone through almost every closet and gotten it organized in the last two months. I'm not sure what it is about Christmas that makes the amount of stuff we have more noticeable, but I'm not a fan of clutter or junk so there have been lots of Goodwill trips.

I find organization with two boys plays a large role in my sanity. Now if I could just figure out what to do about laundry.

Check out what Josh and I did today on my CupKates (my business) blog:

I had to make an emergency trip to the dentist yesterday. That was a first (strangely).

While at church Jack fell and hit his mouth really bad. We thought it was just a bumped lip and it would be fine, but when we tried to feed him lunch he couldn't eat or drink he was in so much pain.

We thought the next morning would be better since mouth injuries tend to heal pretty quickly, but when he took a bite of something he started crying. After checking things out a little bit I realized that the pain seemed to be coming mostly from his teeth. Great.

Long story short, the visit was much less traumatic than I was expecting (expectation courtesy of Josh) it to be. One tooth is loose, but thankfully the root isn't broken. However they won't know for about a month (when we have to go back) if it's damaged the nerve endings or blood supply (which would make it turn brown).

Add additional medical bills boys incur to post below.

I have heard several people comment on how girls are more expensive to have than boys. Mainly because of the cost of the wedding.

I disagree with that. Not only do the guys parents have to cover the rehearsal, but there is one major factor that everyone fails to take into consideration about the expense of boys:

All of the money you have to pay to fix or replace all of the many, many, many things that the boys destroy!

In the last 24 hours Josh has managed to tear a hole in our couch and sit on silly putty which was on the afghan my grandma made me, in his new superman costume he got for Christmas.

So in case your counting, mom gets to either fix or replace a couch, an afghan, and a superman outfit. Although I will not be replacing the silly putty.

So I'm kind of anal about what I feed my kids. Not obsessive, but I don't like them to have junk. I know if I can make it it's going to be way better than anything I could buy that's full of preservatives and artificial coloring and other kinds of yucky stuff. My two biggest "no-no's" are hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, mainly because it easily weeds out a lot of junk.

Chris had a big party at his work this week and they were pushing food off on employees. I guess from his college days he's always enjoyed chewy chips ahoy, and when they were up for grabs gladly took them off their hands. He also decided he would bring them home.

He brought them in to get them checked, and I told them I didn't think it was a good idea (high fructose corn syrup, plus we still had several homemade desserts left over from the holidays), but the kids had already spotted them. I told Josh they weren't very good because the had high fructose corn syrup, but of course he didn't care.

After eating them he looked over at me and claimed "mmmm, I love high corn syrup!"

Happy New Years!

We're off to par-tay tonight. Excited to be with friends, and the boys!

We are all still getting back to normal habits, the boys in particular. Normal sleeping, eating, and um... other bodily function related issues.

Jack has had some rather odoriferous incidents recently. There was one in particular today that made me anxious for potty training.

Josh told me several times within a few short minutes how much Jack stinked, then he finally came to me and said "mom, I don't like the smell of him". Me neither Josh.

Hope your New Year smells better than ours!

Shew. A week of nonstop visitors from both sides of the family and we are pooped.

We had a great, and tiring Christmas. The boys both took long naps today to prove it.

We are looking forward to heading out to some friends house (with the boys) tomorrow night to celebrate New Years with some friends (of ours and the boys). I still feel like it's a luxury to get to do that!

The boys have been full of new things that they are up to. Josh is officially reading now. I think we are up to two words (other than his and Jack's names) and counting. Every where he sees letters he reads them. Reminds me of what I did when trying to learn Russian.

Jack repeats virtually everything you say and wants to do everything big brother does, this includes jumping off the stairs, jumping on the bed, throwing things, and shooting things (he knows how to make a gun with his fingers and make the shooting noise). He has also told me several times when he has poopies, which I'm hoping means I get to start potty training sooner rather than later. My favorite new things of his are the animal noises. We taught him how to make animal noises, and those are hilarious. The best is how he roars like a tiger. He does it in his throat so it sounds like a real roar. Precious.

I treasure how well the boys play together. Josh told me the other day that Jack was his best friend. I think Josh returning to school will be rough on Jack for a few days, he's loved having his big brother to play with and get in to trouble with.

Hope everyone had Merry Christmas and that ya'll get to enjoy your New Year!

Lord. Have. Mercy.

Josh had his Christmas party today and got a new book about Jesus' Birthday. After reading it we were talking about God and Jesus and related issues. We were talking about how the bad guys beat Jesus up and how he died on a cross, and off that how sometimes it takes more strength not to beat people up (since Jesus could have). Somehow that spun off into how tough God was and I told Josh God was the strongest guys ever, and he goes "no, I'm stronger than God is". Shortly after that I was telling him how we needed to love and obey God and Jesus because that is how we get to heaven and he proceeds to tell me he doesn't want to go to heaven.

Somebody tell me how you parent through that? It always cracks me up when people try to say kids aren't sinful. The sinful and rebellious heart in my child is quite present today.

So if anyone feel like praying for mercy for my oldest child, it could definitely be used!

*edit* he did pray and ask for forgiveness. He told Jesus he was sorry for the bad things he said

Okay, recap of the last month:

The trip to STL was probably the most successful we have had to date. The boys did quite well on both legs of the drive (with the exception of hotel sleeping, but that wasn't in the car) and managed to stay healthy and fairly happy most of their stay. Such a relief!

Josh was sick most of the month. He had to take two rounds of antibiotics for an ear infection (as did Jack) and 5 days after being off the antibiotics we had to go back into the doctor and get on more for... walking pneumonia. Thankfully he is back to himself!

We've been busy finishing up all of our Christmas obligations and after Wednesday are looking forward to a schedule free week. I tried to be intentional about having the week before off where we could hang out and make memories without being stressed. We're excited to have everyone down here for the holidays. Really excited about getting to celebrate Christmas in my own house!

Josh and Jack are Pete and Re Pete right now. They play together all the time, and if one goes somewhere the other goes off to find him. It's fun to watch them and their camaraderie. They have their tiffs, but for the most part I really am amazed at how well they get a long. Such a blessing.

We've been rocking out the Charlie Brown cartoons recently. At one point Lucy tells Charlie that he's so stupid, Josh heard it and gasped and looked up at me and said "that's not nice! Where is her mommy?!"

Hopefully I will slide back into the blogging mindset and have some more cute stories about the boys soon!

So my kids are STILL sick. Apparently the antibiotics they were taking didn't work. We're on another round and if this doesn't kick it then they will have to be injected with antibiotics. It would be super if they were better by the time we left for Thanksgiving!

Thankfully Josh is at least showing a little improvement. He still has a fever but he's being a lot nicer and has more energy to run and play. I think he must have came up and told me he loved me at least 4 times yesterday which is miraculous after the week we had. Mind you I found out he had been sneaking bites of cookies I had made for a bake sale and he may have been trying to cover for that, but I'll take what I can get!

Josh had his Thanksgiving feast today at school. They dressed up as indians, he was super cute. I almost didn't take him to school today since he still wasn't feeling well, but I'm glad he made it. Even if I did have to carry him through the food line.

Jack has officially lost his last bit of babyishness to him. I looked at him the other day and was struck by what a little man he looked like. He's loosing his baby potbelly and really slimming out, which makes him look like a toddler. He's still in the phase of wanting to scream for everything he wants but he knows how to say "please" now and we're trying to make him ask for whatever it is he wants instead of just screaming. We're getting there.

So that's our life right now. Trying to get ready for our trip, half excited, half anxious. Our kids don't do so well traveling. They don't sleep as well in new places and want to be in on all the action. Their eating is also usually pretty off and they run on a pretty constant sugar high. Sometimes it makes it more difficult for Chris and I to enjoy the holiday since we are so busy running interference. Hopefully this trip will go smoother. At the very least the drive should be, I think the extra space in our new car will really help the 10 hour drive the be less claustrophobic feeling.

I'm so grateful for our car. I fit 200 cupcakes in it last night, 75 brownies and 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies. And I still had room for 4 people. Maybe a smoother ride will help start the trip on a better note. Here's hoping.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

*edit* I went into the other room to check on Josh and he had chocolate on his face. He gets in BIG trouble for getting into things on the counter without asking (since I have a cupcake business and he once drank over half a bottle of Tylenol). I ask him to open his mouth and you could see the cookie in his teeth and smell it on his breath. The problem is, I have NO IDEA where he got this cookie. Nothing on the counters has been touched or moved, it's a mystery cookie that is untraceable. Chris said maybe we shouldn't punish him because of the sheer amazingness of his feat. We think he may have a place he hides things in or something. The kid is so stinking smart. DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M DEALING WITH?!

It's been a L.O.N.G. week.

Not only have the boys (all 3 of them) been sick for almost a full week, but we have hit some interesting phases with the boys as well.

Jack has been screaming virtually non stop. He's getting a couple of teeth in, as well as being at the awkward stage where he knows he can just yell to get what he wants, but he also knows enough words to be able to ask for it. This results in him screaming and me constantly getting onto him to "ask!".

He also really likes to yell my name a lot. He calls me "ma" most of the time. Chris always laughs at it because he thinks Jack sounds like a New Yorker when he says it.

Josh has hit a(nother) phase of very poor listening. Amidst his inability to listen there have also been some infuriating behavior thrown in the midst of it. The first one was that he just decided to randomly pee on the carpet. I still can't wrap my mind around why or how... there are some things I just don't understand. The second was that he decided to take a sharpie to our couch. Mind you the sharpie was in my purse (which he knows he's not supposed to get into) and he drew on the couch (of which he KNOWS we only color on paper). Thankfully some BRILLIANT person invented microfiber of which we were intuitive enough to buy. A little bit of rubbing alcohol took it right out. For the record I have removed chocolate, olive oil, tomato sauce, pen, sharpie, snot, and only God knows what else from our couches all except the sharpie with nothing more than water.

I've had people on a regular basis tell me that I'm going to miss this phase when my kids are teenagers and they can talk back. Meanwhile I'm thinking they're crazy because if they knew Josh they would know how much talking back I get. My only hope is that the consistent discipline we do know will make life when they are teenagers a little easier.

There have been too many times this past week where I have questioned my mommy skills and if I'm a complete failure. Parenting is not an easy business, at least not with my children. For whatever reason it seems as though God has entrusted us with more challenging children than other people seem to have. I try to trust that means he's given me the capability to come out the other side a sane person, with well behaved kids. This week has required a lot of trust and faith.

So you know how in that last post, I talked about Jack being a daredevil and it becoming problematic? Yeah, that turned out to be true.

So Friday he fell out of the shopping cart. He kept standing up in the front and he can get out of the buckles, so I put him in the back, because at the lowest part it was up to his chest, and I thought for sure it wasn't mathematically possible for him to fall out, plus he was mainly sitting and playing with a toy. I was wrong. I guess he leaned over the end while I looked away for 30 seconds and flipped out onto his back, getting a nice little chunk out of the top of his head.

Then, yesterday, I had the back door cracked open because I had been cooking and it had gotten smokey in the house. I guess he had gotten outside, which wouldn't be a big deal (we have a fence) except when he went to come back in he tripped over the mat and hit his forehead on the ledge of the door that's covered in metal.

The doctor told us to go straight to Scottish Rite (the kids hospital here, and a 45 minute drive NOT in rush hour traffic). I asked them if I could have a doc check it out to make sure it needed stitches, since I knew it was borderline. They would, as long as I was there by 5. It was 4:30, my kids had no clothes on and I was watching a baby girl who was still napping and the doctors office is every bit of a 20 minute drive not in rush hour traffic. Long story short, by the grace of God we made it there and he didn't have to have stitches.

At this rate I'm going to have DCFS called on me! I'm seriously considering bubble wrap...

So I've discovered two potentially problematic attributes of my children in the past couple of days.

Jack apparently is a dare devil. We went to the park, and he will climb all the way up to the big slides BY HIMSELF. Not only does he get himself up there, but he proceeds to throw himself right on down them. And not always int he regular sliding procedure. Sometimes he decides to turn around on his stomach and go down. This is a little unnerving for me. The kid isn't even a year and a half old and I'm not sure he need to be sliding down slides by himself that are a story high. Not to mention he doesn't even wait to make sure Chris or I are there. Josh had some fears that we wanted to be better about not letting take root in Jack. Apparently we went a little overboard in the prevention. Now we need to work on reinstating some healthy fear.

Last night we had small group, at the end I was asking the babysitters how he did. They looked sheepishly at one another and proceeded to tell me that him and one of the girls were sitting in the corner kissing each other on the cheek. In Josh's defense after interrogating him in the car he wasn't doing the kissing he was just letting himself be kissed on the cheek. Still not ok, but better. After the babysitters told me that one of the other moms piped up that her middle daughter refers to Josh as her boyfriend. So apparently I have a ladies man. I thought the only fighting off of the opposite sex I would have to do was for my mythical (at this point) daughter. Apparently I was wrong. How young is too young to have to start talking about relationships? And does this mean Chris and I should stop kissing in front of him? How am I already asking these questions?! This is all too soon!!!

Conversations with a pint-sized sports fan:

Josh: mom, I can't be friends with Tristan any more.

Me: why not?

Josh: because he likes the other Georgia team, the bee team (that would be Georgia Tech yellow jackets for all you non-Georgia dwellers) and he doesn't like my team.


Thank goodness we live in a football focused state and happen to like the most popular team. If he had this issue with baseball, poor kid wouldn't have any friends. Not a whole lot of Cards fans in GA.