Entertained by 4 year olds....

I am so blessed to have so many good friends!! But I am especially thankful when one of them is in the exact same season of life as myself!! I am speaking of my friend Suzanne Burgess. Quick background ... I went to high school with her husband Randy who is now the operator of the Truett's Grill at Mt. Zion. So I know Suzanne through CFA. They have two children and one on the way Madelyn who is 4, Samuel who is around 18 or 19 months and Caroline will be here sometime toward the end of October. Nathan and Madelyn are in the same class at school. Madelyn got in last minute and we are so thankful that God provided her a spot. So you can see what I mean when I say we are in the same seasons of life!!! Since school started we have been getting together once a week usually on Wednesdays having lunch at CFA and letting the kids play in the play place. It has been a great time of fellowship for us and the kids. So much so after our first playdate after school Nathan wanted to go and spend the night with Madelyn. I informed him boys don't sleep over at girls houses to which he responded "well she has a brother." Oh what I have to look forward to!! Then last week Madelyn was sick and had to miss some school and we missed our playdate. When Madelyn came back to school he was soo excited that was the first thing he told me when he got in the van that day along with "Madelyn is my best friend!" When I told Suzanne about this she told me that Nathan informed Madelyn she was his best friend but Madelyn is not on the same page. Kids are soo funny!! So this week we took our playdate to the Georgia Aquarium (we had been given some tickets and Suzanne and I thought it would be fun to do before we have our babies!!) We had such a fun time!! We picked up the kids after school and took our packed lunches and ate outside of the Aquarium before venturing in. I am not sure what was more fun listening to them in the car to and from the aquarium or the actual aquarium visit. It is so fun to hear them talk to one another and then of course you have me and Suzanne who are 9 months pregnant .... I am sure we were quite a sight. And I almost forgot Luke went totally spastic over the dressed up "nemo" fish. He would cover his ears and scream ....... He DID NOT like that fish - I guess it will be awhile before we visit Disney with him. After we went to the aquarium we stopped in Johnny Rockets to get some milkshakes. Suzanne says Madelyn doesn't ever drink a milkshake but she was sure slurping this one down - we got such a kick out of it!!! Oh if you could have heard us on the way home all just giggling!! It was a fun afternoon! Here is a snippet of conversation I heard between Nathan and Madelyn and of course some pictures!!!

On the way home....
Nathan - "Madelyn did you have fun at the aquarium?"
Madelyn - "Yes did you have fun?"
Nathan - "Yes you want to know what my favorite part was?"
Madelyn - "No"
Nathan - "Well I am gonna tell you anyway - it was the beluga whales. What was your favorite part?"
Madelyn -"The beluga whales."

Getting Crafty....

Sew... (ha ha ha!) I recently inherited my late grandmothers sewing machine. A year later I have finally gotten it into my home and boy have I been busy!! It is a really nice Kenmore machine made of metal and requires oiling so it is an older model but I hear those are the best! It sits inside a desk and my grandmother had everything in the desk including the instruction manual as well as many other things. Who knew sewing could be soo much fun!! David had asked me a couple of years ago if I would be interested in learning how to sew and I told him no .. I just didn't think I was the sewing type. Boy was I wrong! JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby are my new favorite stores!! I have really enjoyed this new hobby and I am thankful for Angie taking a few days, phone calls and video calls over the computer to help me learn this new craft! I have made quite a few things and look forward to making many more in the future... probably not the near future seeing as how I think I will have my hands full but we'll see! I have taken some pictures of the recent things I have made. I also let the kids finger paint today so here are those pics as well. You can see Luke really had a good time - as it was the first time I have let him paint! We are just turning into one crafty family!

Daddy's always get to have the most fun

Who would of thought bath time could be soo fun??!! Our bathroom just has your average size bathtub - but it does have jets in it. Recently David suggested the boys take a bath in there so they got quite the experience . The pictures are priceless so I thought I would share!

First Day of School

As I type here I am looking down and my huge belly and thinking back.... Nathan was once that small ......... where did time go??!!! Today my little man started his first day of "preschool" as he says it is not school mom...... just call it preschool.

He got up really well and only once stated he didn't think he wanted to go - but I just kind of ignored it and we went on. I dropped Luke off at my inlaws so I could take Nathan in and get some pictures. When we met his teachers last week Luke cried because he wanted to go in a class. I did not want a repeat of this today so dropping him off for a few minutes worked out well!

You know all my good conversations with Nathan are in the van and today was no exception. He has quite the imagination!! He told me a long time ago he went to Africa and he and his friend saw some palm trees and then he decided that they had really seen the palm trees at Stone Mountain. Mind you he has never been to either of these places. And then the talk went back to Africa and his journey there. To be honest I don't remember much more of the adventure ... I should have blogged this morning. I can say all this talk of Africa is due to our friends the Flintoffs - they are missionaries headed to Africa. In fact a few Sundays ago they had their commissioning service at church and Nathan payed very close attention. The next Sunday he was so excited to see Hannah (the Flintoff's daughter who is Nathan's age) he said mommy "look Hannah's back from Africa!!" Poor guy the Flintoffs haven't even left for Africa - it was humorous! So hecne all the discussion on Africa.

Back to reality ... we get to school and I take a few pics and he goes in and that was it - he just really wanted me to get on my merry way. The kiss and hug were a little too much for him!! So that was it. I went and picked up Luke and we went home. It was a very quiet morning with the exception of the 500 times Luke asked for "Naney."

I picked him up right on time and here is our conversation:

Mommy - (very enthusiastic) hey Nathan how was your first day?

Nathan - I have homework we have to do it right away.

Mommy - (thinking to myself they told us you wouldn't really have homework - but whatever you say) well tell me how your day was..

Nathan - mom we didn't learn anything, we played outside and then came back in and then the teacher told us to go back outside because the moms and dads are here to pick us up!

Come to find out he did have a little project and so did I. My assignment was to find out about his day for his scrapbook and write verbatim what he says. You can see I didn't get much!! Thankfully I did manage to pry out a few more things this evening. He continues to remind Luke that he has to go to "preschool" tomorrow and that Luke will just have to stay home alone and play toys by himself. It is so funny to hear him tell Luke all this!! Overall I can say we have had a great first impression and we are excited for the year to come!!

Ready??

Mrs. Brook: Nathan are you ready for school to start?

Nathan: Yes and for hunting season to get here!

Can we say his daddy was soo proud!!!

Care Group

Many churches have what they call care group, small group, home fellowship........ you name it. We at Berachah call it care group. What is care group? It is a few couples who meet together on a regular basis studying, praying and fellowshipping with one another. Our care group has dinner together and we rotate whose home we are going to be in and we bring our kids. This is a plus to me!! Obviously since our kids come along Nathan is very familiar with care group. So the other morning while I was having a baby shower David and Nathan are watching some hunting video. At one point in the video there are a group of deer gathered together to which Nathan responds "look at all those deer eating together daddy.........(long pause)......... maybe they are having care group." I love it!!

It was just a matter of time ... How is Ethan going to come out??

Just so you know words will not do this conversation justly - I wish you could have seen facial expressions and the use of hands - but this will just have to do for now!

This morning I had finished eating my bowl of oatmeal and was just sitting at the table. Nathan waiting on me ever so patiently so he could play a computer game asks me what I am doing -he obviously notices I am not eating anymore. So I replied that I was just sitting there letting my food settle. To which he says maybe baby Ethan is eating your oatmeal now. Then he gets this puzzled look on his face and here it comes - "How is baby Ethan going to come out?" He then begins to answer his own questions with possibilities. Using his hands as he speaks he says "will he just come up out of your mouth, do you have to open up your stomach, how does he get out?" I just sat there laughing and wondering what in the world to say. And then I just said God made babies to come out in a special way. He says "well when Ethan gets older we can just ask him how he came out." So I decided to ask Nathan - well how did you get out to which he said "I don't remember." We just left the conversation at that and both giggled a little! I breathing a sigh of relief that the conversation is over!!!

David hard at work

Doesn't it look like he is working soo hard!!?? Well just call it one of the many perks of CFA. So far he has been to Nashville, Baltimore, Houston and then off to Florida next week. The first pic is in DC taking a tour on some sort of motorized scooter the next one he is in Annapolis - sailing and then the last is Minute Maid Park in Houston. I guess they work during the day :)

My Olympian Swimmers.....

I just love the Olympics! Many reasons especially this year seeing as how they are in China!! The summer olympics are my favorite - I love to watch the swimming, the cycling, the running, gymnastics - well you get my drift I just enjoy it!! David and I have both joked about being up so late - it isn't too terribly bad for me but I know it is going to catch up to him. And speaking of late we thought we would let Nathan stay up one night with us and watch the swimming - you know he is a fish!! He LOVES swimming!! Both my boys love the water but there is no way Luke would be remotely interested in actually sitting and watching swimming nevermind the fact it comes on way too late!! But back to the story on Sunday night we let Nathan stay up to watch the swimming - little did we know he wouldn't swim until very late - but yes Nathan made it to see Michael Phelps win a gold and at 12:01 am our son was reminding us to put our hands over our hearts while the national anthem was playing!! Yes I am shamefully admitting my 4 year old was up until midnight watching the olympics with his parents. At that time of the night the fact that he was alert enough to remind us of our patriotic duties was worthy of a blog! And no he has not been staying up that late since then!!! Here are a few pics of my own athletes - who knows maybe they will be olympians themselves one day! I don't know do you think he can be serious enough for Olympics??

Then again ....

But this one .... he is my fish!!!

Baby Nesting....

I am sure you have heard that along with pregnancy comes nesting - especially in your last trimester. I am OCD on cleanliness and order in the first place so just crank that up a notch and you get me nesting. For example today I cleaned out my husbands closet hanging all his shirts and pants in a specific order. I told you OCD!! Actually the reason behind this was I needed to get the cradle cleaned out and it had kind of become Dave's hanger amongst other things. So yesterday I dumped everything out and cleaned it up washing all the bedding and today I put everything of Dave's away.

My most fabulous church threw me a baby shower recently and I of course had to put all the goodies away. The nursery is for the most part complete - just a few more things to get but I have taken pictures of the room from start to finish. The colors are yellow, green and brown with animals. I had lots of fun putting it together - usually David is the one doing the painting etc but I wanted to do it this time and I enjoyed every minute of it. I couldn't have done it without help so thanks to Melanie, Shannon, Kimberly, David, and even Nathan!! Some of these pics are not too good as they were taken on the wrong setting but at least you can see some of the baby shower and the nursery!! For now we will just finish getting necessities and wait for little Ethan to make his arrival!

Go Braves!! Luke's first baseball game ......

If you have ever been with either one of my boys you know they can be LOUD! Thanks to CFA we have had many opportunities to attend Braves games this summer and for one of the game days we decided to take the boys. Nathan had been to a game before and of course loves all the action! This game was Luke's first and he had just as much fun but of course could not last an entire game. This was upsetting to Nathan as he wanted to stay much longer!! I think we stayed maybe 4 innings but none the less they were both very much into the game screaming and shouting as we were losing terribly to the St. Louis Cardinals - when I say terribly I think it was like 8 to 0 when we left! The funny part was we sat right in the middle of tons of Cardinal fans so their screaming went right along with those Cardinal fans - my kids didn't know the difference - they just like to be loud! They are definitely all boy!! It was hot evening and we made the game a true experience having some dippin dots ice cream while we were there. I do enjoy seeing all my boys having a great time!