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On Monday, we went to the park and I put Joel in the swing for the first time. At first he was a little unsure but there were lots of smiles in between the perplexed faces. Once he was more confident in the swing, I pushed him higher and higher as his smiles grew.

A dress I made for a precious one month old little girl. I got lots of snuggles too. I can hardly remember Joel being that young. Time flies.

As much fun as dresses are on little girls, there are lots of handsome things for the boys. I’m enjoying dressing Joel as much as I did Leah. Love the sweater vest.

On Wednesday mornings while I attend a teaching and small group time with moms, Leah goes to a Christian preschool program called Cubbies. She adores the vest she wears and wore it all day long. Leah even has a little bit of homework. She and I have been practicing her memory verse all week and she has it fully memorized now. It is “God is love. 1 John 4:8”.

I was trying to go over the activities with her and she was really tired from all of the excitement of the week and I had bad visions of what homework time might look like in a few years. Life is very full of new activities for Leah right now along with the regular play dates and such and I need to remember and intentionally plan downtime for our family, especially as she gets used to the new routine.

This morning after researching a new car seat for Leah, feeding everyone breakfast, putting a roast in the crock pot and bathing and dressing the kids, we were finally ready to run some errands. Just before we left, I paused amidst the mental list of things to pack and the physical list of places to go and items to buy and reflected. I pulled out the camera, delaying the trip I had carefully planned and embraced the time.

I’m unbelievably thankful for my kids. Sometimes I let them drive me to my wit’s end and I require some time to myself before I can come back to being the patient, attentive mother I strive to be. But, for the most part, especially when proper sleep has been attained and they have been fed recently, I look at them with awe and wonder and consider myself extremely thankful that they are mine.

Joel is just shy of six months so we have starting feeding him some rice cereal. He was super eager to grab the bowl and spoon.

I don’t think he is too crazy about actually eating it. I tried a little bit and I don’t blame him.

Leah had her first day of preschool last Thursday. Her preschool does gradually entry so her first class was only an hour. She did great and seemed to really enjoy it. Leah didn’t want us to leave but didn’t put up a fuss when we left. When I peeked in the window, she was playing with ponies happily with one of her teachers. Morgan was able to walk to preschool with us to see Leah off to her first day.

When I came to pick her up, her face lit up and ran over to give me a great, big hug. So precious!

We went to Oroville for the long weekend and had a blast. The long car ride can frustrate Leah but this time she did awesome. She consumed Cheetos happily for at least an hour as I praised my purchases of junk food for helping the time fly by. It also helped that Morgan traveled with us this time and could walk around with Leah when we stopped to feed Joel along the way.

My aunt and uncle were up with their kids along with some of their extended family. One of the moms brought some paint for rock painting. It brought out the artist in all of us.

Joel tried out a cowboy hat but decided it looked too much like a sombrero on his head. Give it a few years buddy and it will fit you just fine.

Leah had fun hanging out with everyone and had a lot of fun with my cousin. She played with Leah for quite awhile in the water and got her prepped for a tube ride behind the boat. Here they are relaxing at the end of the dock.

There was no hesitation this time around the water. She copied the boys who were a few years older than her, running off the dock and jumping onto the tube. Leah had to start right at the beginning of the dock though and would always come to a complete stop before she jumped.

All of that fun led to this:

That’s Leah sitting in front of Morgan with me next to her going for a tube ride behind the boat. She screamed just like she heard her cousins do while going tubing because that is what you do when you are having fun. We were at an almost idle for the first minute or two but gradually brought up the speed and even went out of the wake a few times to Leah’s delight. An eight year old boy came along with us on the tube as well which helped Leah’s confidence. After a rather sharp turn he said, “That was awesome” which Leah promptly echoed with the same amount of enthusiasm. When he fell off, Leah was so eager to make sure we went back and picked him up.

She didn’t want to go for a boat ride this time around but I was a proud mom riding along beside her as we went tubing. Grandpa is going to be so proud.

On Wednesday, we went to Vancouver International Airport to pick up Grandma and Granddad. There were many, many questions leading up to this adventure. Leah wondered why couldn’t the plane just come to our house. She checked for the plane looking out the front window several times that morning. After we drove, parked and found a great look out, we saw the plane Grandma and Granddad were on.

There was so much to see while we ate our lunch and lots of explaining. Leah kept asking if Grandma was on the planes she saw taking off. She also wondered if she would be able to go on a plane.

While Leah watched and ate, Joel had fun playing with Sophie the giraffe on a bench.

I promised Leah one day we would take her on a plane. Probably not anytime in the near future and that it might not be as exciting as she was hoping for. For now, just visiting the airport is exciting enough for me.