Eli's Three!

Okay, I know this is long overdue, but better late than never. I can't believe that Eli's 3rd birthday has come and gone (even if it was a couple of months ago)! I remember when we brought him home from the hospital and he was so tiny that we thought we would break him.

I wish I knew then what I know now-- that they grow up so fast and we must enjoy every moment even if we have to remind ourselves 20 times in one day (on those most difficult days) that "this too shall pass".

We were so thrilled to celebrate your birthday at the Fire Station with our family & friends. It was so fun to meet some real firefighters and to see all their equipment and to explore and play on the enormous fire trucks! Woo hoo! And the parents liked it too!

Eli, you are truly a wonderful blessing and a joy to our lives! You make us laugh, you make us silly, but mostly you make us so very happy and proud to be your mommy and daddy! We love you with all our hearts!

The best encouragement

Last night while I was getting Eli ready for bed, we were talking about how he needed to obey me because the Bible says, “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Somehow this led him to say something about mommy and daddy and their cross. He said that we had to die on the cross. I was so glad that I could tell him that we don’t have to die for our sins because Jesus already did that for us. After we talked about that for a few minutes, he said that he wanted to be baptized with Madelyn, Avery and Zoey. So I explained to him that he couldn’t get baptized until he asked Jesus to come into his life and save him from his sins and be his Savior. Then he talked about how he wanted to go to a mountain (like his daddy had done when he went to India). I asked him if he wanted to go there to tell people about Jesus and he said, “yes.” But then he talked about how he did a race [for missions] and I explained that the money was going to go to help people to be able to go tell people about Jesus. I asked him if he would like to go to another country to tell people about Jesus and he said that he did. After our conversation, he wanted to read “Paul’s Journeys” in his Bible.

I am so thankful that God knows when you need some encouragement and he brings it to you even when you don’t ask for it. I often feel that I don’t talk with Eli enough about God and Jesus or teach him God’s Word, but I am so thankful that when we do he truly is listening. Praise God, He is so good!

The puzzle

Today after lunch when Eli was sitting on the potty, I asked him if he was done yet. He proclaimed, "No! I'm working on a puzzle." I tried hard not to laugh. After I asked him a few questions, I realized that he was talking about what I thought he was talking about and I had to laugh out loud. A few minutes later, he said, "Yay, I got the last piece of the puzzle!"

The potty poses

As some of you know, we have been potty training Eli for 3 weeks now. He is doing so good going on the big potty and has only had a few accidents. In fact, this week he has started to go out in public with just his big boy underwear (of course he has pants on too;). But the funny part of our training has been how he gets the "brown" in the potty. First, daddy encourages him by saying "What can brown do for you?" which used to get him really excited. But then Eli proceeds to getting up in a squatty position on the potty and often sings "Old MacDonald had a farm" while he does his business in privacy nonetheless. It is a sight to see:)

Then of course, our little miss Zoey has caught on to the potty thing. So we have started to let her practice sitting on the little potty. Yesterday after she sat for only a few

seconds, she got up and then tried to get back on. Andy and I were cracking up (no pun intended) to watch her figure out how to get back on with her littly booty showing. She did it, but she ended up facing the wrong way with her booty hanging off the potty--it was hilarious (so of course we got pictures).

This ain't no rodeo...this is harder than it looks!

Side of bologna for the day

Whoever came up with the colloquialism "that's bologna"? Did they use the word bologna because it isn't a real meat (don't get me wrong I still eat it from time to time) and therefore its a good description for something that is thought to be true but is actual false? Your thoughts...