Random Cute Pictures and Funny Quotes from June

Chicken dinosaurs are sooo much better with "white" (ranch dressing)!Moo and Roo chillin' Micah has learned from his big brother (who maybe learned from his daddy?!) that the potty is one of the best places to read. How could I not take a picture?
On the last day of swimming lessons, the kids learned about boat safety and life jackets. The canoe in the pool was super fun!
What a goob!
I love, love, love dressing these boys alike! I think I squeezed Joey into this shirt for the last time on Sunday, though. His belly is about to bust a few of the buttons and the sleeves barely cover his elbows. (That's why they're rolled up!) So sad... I had laid Conner's still-a-little-damp-from-the-dryer comforter on the back of the couch to finish drying. It made the perfect hiding spot!
Joey's found those little feet...he's constantly kicking at the toys that hang in front of him when he's in the bouncy seat. (What in the world would I do without that?!)
Sweet, sweet.
There's that big ol' grin!

I'm not sure who's more into who...
Conner was a lot of "help" at the church workday!
Always coloring...
They just look sweet and innocent!

Conner, after rubbing his face on Bret's: "You got to shave that! Don't you know that's how it works?!"

"Pooper" -what Micah calls his friend, Cooper

Conner, to Bret: "Dad, how old is Mommy?"
Bret: "How old do you think she is?"
Conner: "Maybe fifteen?"
Bret: "I think she's a little bit older than that."
Conner: "How 'bout 65?"

"Dad, you're here now!" --what Micah has started saying as soon as Bret gets home in the afternoon. It melts Bret's heart.

As I was walking into Joey's room one morning, Conner close on my heels, I was greeted by the smell of a very stinky diaper. I said, "Choo-wee, Joey, you stink!"

Conner: "Joey doesn't stink. I think it's Daddy."

Rachel: "Why does Daddy stink?"

Conner: "'Cuz he toots a lot."

About a year ago Conner started telling us about the times when we lived in Oklahoma, New York City and Houston Texas...go figure. The other day he was talking about living in Oklahoma and Bret asked him: "Conner, what was my job when we lived in Oklahoma?"

Conner: "You had to study at the library."

Bret: "Awesome! What about when we lived in New York City?"

Conner: "Oh. It was bad. You had to study in a dark, spooky cave!"

Bret: "Wow! What about when we lived in Houston?"

Conner: "Houston Texas? That was even scarier, you had to study in a bat."

Bret: "In a bat? How'd I do that?"

Conner: "It was a bat statue on the ceiling. Very scary. And when we lived in Mexico your job was to study on top of a car while it was moving."

...aparently we also lived in Mexico.

Micah (counting down): "fy (5)...fo-wer (4)...gwee(3) ...one...ay (8)...bwastoff!!

We rented Meet the Robinsons from Blockbuster the other night. Micah was really excited about it and kept calling it "Meet Da Robins." Conner, being the good big brother that he is, continually corrected him. "No, Micah. It's Meet the Robin-sins!" Gradually, as he got the hang of it, Micah started saying, "Meet Da Robin...sins," as if the "sins" part was an afterthought, a separate word. By the next day he was carrying around the movie case saying, "Mommy, Meet Da Robins. Want watch it...sins."

Josiah's Baby Dedication

"He [Josiah] did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left."

2 Kings 22:2

Today was Baby Dedication Day at church. All of the babies who were born in the past year were honored, along with their families. We as parents, publically committed to raising our children in the Lord, and the shepherds prayed for each child and his family.

All of the families were asked to come onto the stage to receive and gift and be prayed over. I had a friend take a couple of pictures, and I think the shots she got are kind of funny. I don't know what Ben, our little friend, has, but Conner and Micah sure are into it!When we were supposed to go sit down, Bret turned to me and said, "I have to stay up here and give the invitation." I was so exhausted by that point (details below), this was not what I was wanting to hear. Bret said that I said, "You have got to be kidding me!" with a look on my face that he knew called for immediate intervention.

He quickly added, "You take the big ones, I'll keep Joey." Hallelujah! So Joey got to give his first invitation:

There was a slide show (featuring pictures of the babies, of course!) as part of the service. Thanks, Lee and Michelle, you guys did a fantastic job. Here's the pictures we chose for Joey:

Because all of the babies were a part of the service, and most of them had older siblings who were also included, there was no nursery or Jesus Rocks (children's church) today. That meant that we had all three kids with us during worship...quite a change since Micah usually stays in the nursery, and Conner usually goes to Jesus Rocks during the sermon. (Or as Conner likes to call it, "Daddy's long turn on the microphone.")

Thank goodness it was a short sermon...those few minutes (and the other times Bret was busy doing preacher-type things) that I had them by myself were exhausting. Church as the preacher's wife...and the preacher's kids' mom...is really hard! It wasn't Joey, he was so good, eating and even at one point taking a short little nap...it wasn't Conner, he was being even better than usual, more than happy with his markers and stickers and paper...it was Micah. He wasn't being bad, he was just, as Bret put it, "on." I could not, could not, could not let my guard down for a second, or he would be gone. I lost track of how many times I caught him by the tail of his shirt or drug him out from under the pews by the waist of his britches. There were several times that I was actually holding him with my legs and/or feet to keep him from running away, just so that I could put Joey (who was trying to go to sleep) down, so that I could manhandle Micah and settle him down. (Yes, I felt a bit like a Momma Monkey...the opposable thumbs on my feet would have been nice!) I don't think I've ever been so exhausted and so sweaty after a church service!

When I finally gave up (which, since we were a part of the service, wasn't until church was nearly over) I did what any good mom would do. I took him to the back and let him drink red Kool-Aid from a "big boy cup"! Yes, risky...yes, sugary (I'd probably pay for it later)...but yes, it kept him still and busy for a few precious moments...
Josiah, thank you for sharing your special day with your crazy big brothers. We give you this verse, 2 Kings 22:2, and pray that one day the same may be said of you. We love you and are so very proud of you!

More Pictures from Texas

My mother has been super busy the past couple of weeks getting my grandparents moved and settled in. But somehow, she found the time to send me lots (and by lots, I mean lots -- like over 300!) of pictures from when the boys were at their house. I thought I'd share a few more...

I know I already shared a couple of pictures from the visit with my MeeMaw and PeePaw, but Mom got some special shots that I didn't. I love this one of PeePaw meeting Joey. PeePaw is grinning big and Joey is just taking it all in.

There are four great grandkids, all boys. My cousin has a little boy who is about 9 months younger than Micah. Here's MeeMaw with my three. I'd love to get all four of them together someday...The first night after Bret and I left, they went to Life Group at the Moody's house. I don't remember what exactly happened, except that no one else showed up. From what I understand, Life Group ended up being a pool party for the Spies and the Moodys. The big huge deal of the week was the Splash Water Park (or whatever this thing was called!) It's like a bounce house, only it's for water. It's got a wading pool, tunnel, water gun, slide, rockwall, who knows what else -- and Mom and Dad own it! Bret and I didn't actually get to see it, but I think it might really be as big as they said, compared to the house.Conner loved the water gun...
Yogi loved splashing Conner... Micah needed some help getting down the slide...and who could resist throwing a ball in there, too?!
From what I understand, they played in this thing nearly every day. There are several pictures of Joey enjoying it in his own way:
Conner made several art projects. Leave it to BooBoo and Bubba to come up with something like this robot!
They also went to several parks with playgrounds. The one with lots of brand new equipment also had fresh pea gravel. I think they played with the rocks just as much or more than the playground stuff! We were so not surprised...
...and Joey slept...I'm so thankful that he's such a good sleeper!One of the parks they went to is called Big Rocks. It is on the Paluxy River, and is full of big -- I mean huge -- rocks. Big Rocks is special because my brother and sisters and I spent a lot of time there growing up. It is fun no matter how old you are.

There aren't any pictures of them climbing on the rocks...not sure if it's because they didn't really attempt it...or if they did but didn't dare try to take pictures, too! Here's the crew in the river. Aunt Jodi and Uncle Robert were able to join them for this adventure. I hear that Aunt Jodi even caught a tadpole.
...and Joey was actually awake (and busy blowing bubbles)!There is a snow cone stand right next to Big Rocks. Looks like Conner got blue......and Micah got green. The other cool place they visited is called Dinosaur World. Bubba was able to accompany the crew for this outing! Dinosaur World was new this spring, and this was everyone's first time to go. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical, but it really looks pretty cool. I'll try to post some more pictures of it in a couple of days.
Okay...so maybe I'm a bit like my mother. This was a very picture-heavy post -- certainly more than just a few. They just did so many cool things while they were at Yogi's and BooBoo's. If you read this far, you're sweet!