What's Cooking?

This is what a leisurely Sunday morning looks like at our house, when we do not have early service.

The BBQ was a garage sale find from Grandma Ann. All of the boys love it.

Hot dog anyone?

All Boy

Look at my baby, trying so hard to not be my little baby!

Owen wants so badly to be able to experience all that his older brothers are doing, and yesterday was no exception. I opted to just let him go at it, in the dirt, and go he did. Imagine how this made my little boy feel. He lives to be outside, and especially loves being in the dirt. Can you tell?

How about that post-op rule about only giving sponge baths?

All better

Owen had surgery this morning to repair am umbilical hernia. Everything went well. We are thankful that we decided to have the procedure done since the doctor confirmed that without it, the hernia would have never closed entirely on its own. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Waiting in the playroom, for our room to be available.

Getting undressed.

Not a great picture, but you can kinda see the belly button popping out.

All ready to go and enjoying the view (of grey skies and rain) out our window.

In the recovery room, and not real happy or sure of what is happening.

Back in a room, resting and waiting to go home.

Art

Did I ever mention that I made art smocks for the boys? Well, here they are, being put to use recently.

And, this little picture was done by Levin the other day. He only asked how to finish spelling the word "to". This really surprised me since he had never done anything like this before.

At Last

Over the past two months, Philip and I have been working together on potty training, and tonight, Philip finally earned his last sticker for his chart. Those of you who encouraged me along the way, thank you. This was no walk in the park, but then again potty training rarely is. Honestly, I was ready to give up before I started. I was sure we were going to be on this journey for the next year, at least, but thank goodness we will not be.

Instead of handing out candy after each success, we do a sticker chart. Once the sticker chart is filled up, a bigger (within reason) reward is given. In Levin's case, he knew long before we began, what he would want. That being, a weed eater. Philip never came up with what he might like, so mommy got to decide. Conveniently enough, the item had been purchased months ago and stashed away for a future birthday gift or something. What can I say, I love finding good deals.

Philip was pretty excited. In fact, for the past few weeks, he has been talking about when he would earn his treat, whatever it would be, it would be something he could share with his brothers. And share he has done. What a sweet kid.

Now, if Owen is like his brothers, I have a good 2 1/2 years before I need to begin this whole process again. Phew, I could use a good break.

Kids can be so funny

I want to share with you all a funny little conversation that we had, with Philip, over lunch today. Somehow, the question of whether cows dance or not, came up. Without pausing to think about the answer, Philip jumped right in and said, "No...well, sometimes, when they do the milk shake." Where do kids think up these things?

Party

Here are the pictures, from Owen's birthday party, that I promised to share with you.