Perfection

I found Josiah playing with the perfection game this morning. I'm so glad I picked up the camera and started recording. There are so many things I adore about this little video...

1. I adore his self talk through out the whole process. (Prior to recording, he picked up the dinosaur and said "rawwwhrrr" then placed it where it belonged.)
2. I adore how he tried and tried again on a few shapes.
3. I obsessively adore his actions when he couldn't find the cloud.  
4. Finally, I adore how startled he got, mainly because of the distraction from a shape coming lose in the very last seconds. 

All in all, this is just some really adorable material...

Aside: I also really love that this video will help us remember how long Josiah insists on wearing his hooded towel after baths. Even after he's clothed, he prefers (demands) for us to place the towel back on his head. 

H.E.A.R.T: Game Day

This kids played games, games and more games at their homeschool co-op this week. Some of their favorite games were Alphabet Bingo, Bean Bag Toss and Ring Toss. After Josiah warmed up, he really enjoyed playing with the nesting/stacking blocks. 

They all had a really great time!

(Thank you, Denise, for sharing your wonderful pictures.)

More Paint

Josiah has been asking to paint a lot ever since our finger painting adventure the other day. He specifically asked me before he started painting today if he could paint his hand. I told him no and he responded with an "o-tay mommy". Adorable! I left him for a bit to do something, not sure what, and came back to see this...

How's one to even be upset? I couldn't possibly and I really shouldn't even be surprised. Goodness, he's so stinkin cute! 

Look at all that concentration on his face! 

And, another day of painting...

Daddy must have really enjoyed painting, too. He decided to use our children as the canvas for his next art project. 

Mikey loved his mustache. :)  

My Sweet One Year Old

It came at no surprise that you crashed in the car on the way home after your birthday party. You earned yourself a good nap. I laid you down and took a moment (or few) just to stare at you. Of course, in tears thinking about how this would be your last nap as a one year old. Whew, my heart starts to race and the tears well up simply revisiting the moment. I love you so, my sweet one year old. 

Happy Birthday Party Day, Josiah

We had a small family party for Josiah's 2nd birthday at Pop-pop and Nana's house and it was nothing short of absolutely amazing. Nana never fails to surprise us. She sure does love her grand-babies. 

After our ice day this past week, it was really nice for the weather warm up some and have the chance to watch the kiddos play outside. And boy oh, boy where they happy about it, too! 

Attempting all kinds of grown-two-year-old stuff, here. 

Mush, That's what my heart turns into when I look at this next picture...

After our fun outdoors we came in for a birthday song and birthday cake. Look at this handsome (almost) two year old face! 

Josiah, you threw us quite a surprise while singing you Happy Birthday this year. You processed all of the excitement in a very unexpected way.  Contrary to what it may sounds like in the video, you were as happy as you could be.  

Hey, it's not everyday you have 10-15 family members all surrounding you and singing to or at you, right? It can all be a bit overwhelming. :) 

We love you so much, Josiah. Happy Birthday! 

Little River's Skating Party

We were so blessed to have attend Little River's skating party today. What a blast we all had!

I do admit to being pretty nervous at first about going with the three littles and without Daddy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that things didn't go at all as I thought they would. Mikey and Gabby were quite independent after the first five minutes of getting use to the wheels on their shoes. They had a blast skating up and down the rink, falling down every few yards or so. They took each fall in stride and laughed as they got back up to try all over again. 

I cannot believe how big these beautiful girls look here...

After about an hour, even Josiah felt comfortable enough to "let loose". He is always so much fun to watch when he finally let's down his guard. 

God is so good! He really blessed all of us today, especially the staff as we got to see his hand at work, even in a skating rink. We had such a great turn out and can't wait to do it again! 

Finger Painting

Uncle Phil took the girls to their dance class tonight and left me feeling like it was a great night to give the boys a chance to get messy. We even got grandma and daddy in on the painting action.

Grandma accidentally touched some wet paint on a freshly painted piece of art work and got some paint on her fingers. She chuckled and decide to add to it with her paint brush. I noticed that Mikey stopped what he was doing to intently watch grandma with what she was going. It didn't take him long before I heard him excitedly say "I wanna do that, too!". So he did and Josiah followed suit. I honestly expected it from the beginning but I loved that they only did so by following grandma's direction.

Here they are showing off their beautiful artwork :)

Rainboots

I wasn't even aware that they made rain boots this small. Goodness, are they adorable and oh, does Josiah love them! They are the favorite of his "shoes" to wear. There have been many days he's walked around the house asking everyone "where my boot at?". It's also a common occurrence for me to see them strung about the house. My heart is just going to break in the tiniest of pieces when he out grows them. 

Don't Forget to Floss

A really adorable reminder that we should all floss a little more often...

Ice Day, Take Two

On Wednesday we got the chance to investigate the ice in our very own back yard.  

Last year Gabriella picked up a piece of ice that resembled the shape of North Carolina. This year, I'm not sure...maybe Arkansas? 

I don't think I'm liking how big Gabriella is looking these days. Those legs look so long! 

Josiah enjoyed aggressively hitting and breaking up big pieces of ice with his bat.

Ice Day

An ice day and snow day are pretty close to interchangeable at this point in the kiddos' lives. They would have loved to play in a few inches of snow but ice made them almost if not just as happy. It was as if we opened the door to a ginormous freezer and got to walk right in. There seemed to be something therapeutic about listening to the sound of ice crunching beneath our feet and effortlessly breaking away icicles with the slightest touch of a finger. 

Because of the heat being out at our house, we got the chance to enjoy grandma's icy back yard. All of the ice covered branches, the frozen chain-link fence and the icicle adorned clothing line...everything was so beautiful. The kids had a such a good time exploring it all. 

I couldn't help but laugh and laugh when taking the picture above. Gabriella asked me to take a picture of her beautiful icicle but because my "camera" wasn't out and ready, her poor hands were freezing by the time I could capture the moment. Poor thing! 

After a bit of time outside we needed something to help us defrost. What better than hot chocolate? Why, nothing! Of course. :) 

Josiah took his cookie and dunked it right into his mug. He did so as though he'd been doing it every day of his almost two year old life. I could help but gasp while trying to hold back the I-never-taught-you-that tears. I've never seen any of the three of them dunk their cookies into milk before. I asked Gabby where?!, when?!, how?! this came to be and she pretty much said something along the lines of "Oh, mom! That's old news. Emily and Allison taught us how to do that!" Sigh...I guess it's pretty selfish of me anyways to think I'll get to experience every single one of their firsts with them. They absolutely adore their great-cousins, as do I, so I'm more than OK with allowing them the rights to say they taught my three how to dunk cookies. :) 

I love that trail of hot chocolate making its way down his hand.

Experienced cookie dunking...

Looking so very grown...