Gobble, Gobble!

Dear Joshua and Luke,

It has been another fun week with family and all of the cousins. You have had so much fun with all of your cousins, and of course your aunt and uncles. On Monday, you made a trip to the Thole Dairy Farm - Aunt Sis and Uncle Andy. You were both amazed at the 650 cows that they milk morning and evening - that's over 6,000 gallons of milk each milking! Joshua wanted to know why some cows had blue tags and some cows had white tags on their ears. Daddy interpreted cousin Marge's explanation that the blue tagged calves had daddies on the farm and the white tagged calves had daddies on another farm! Great thinking, Dad! I was very impressed!

Aunt Amy was kind enough to spend her morning with Joshua on a field trip to Pottery Hollow one day too. Dad took Luke and the boys to the park to play ball tag. Isaac and Levi were pretty excited and talk about how much fun they had. Another day was spent at Monkey Joes. Needless to say, fun was had by all. We also celebrated Dad's birthday with a trip through the Way of Lights and dinner at Casa Gallardo. Thanksgiving Day was fairly uneventful, except for the 7:15 pm dinner time, but we had a feast! It was awesome. Mommy took time out of the day to visit Papa Ed who has been very sick and in the hospital. Everyone took part in preparing for a feast! We even had time to make the traditional turkeys with striped cookies, chocolate covered cherries, candy corn, and chocolate frosting! Leftovers on Friday were even better! The kids had more fun with ball tag and kickball at the city park again.

On Saturday morning, daddy and I went out for breakfast and to see The Blind Side. We both highly recommend the movie to anyone who is looking for a little inspiration and a reminder about how we should treat others. Uncle Luke and Aunt Lisa played with you and took you to feed the ducks. We also went to Grammy and Papa's church and dinner at their favorite restaurant. After lots of playing with toys at their house, we finally headed home. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Luke's family headed home this morning and it was very sad to see them go. We had so much fun with all of the cousins and family over the last several days.

Mama has decided not to get stressed this year over the Christmas holiday. Our family focus is going to be on the true meaning of Christmas and experiencing Advent. We are going to spend the time focused on preparing for and celebrating Baby Jesus's arrival. Yes, we are still going to have a great time anticipating Santa, but I am not going to get stressed about finding the perfect gift for each person on my list (sorry!) and I am not going to worry about taking the perfect picture for the Christmas cards, getting cards out on time, getting the decorations up quickly or any of the other tasks that seem to add to the stress. Instead, we will be prayerful and excited as we wait for Baby Jesus's arrival. This week out focus is on two of the three towns that were important in Jesus's life ~ Nazareth where the angel announced Jesus's birth and Bethlehem where Jesus was born. We already had a head start on this lesson as we drove through the shrine and discussed the bible verses.

I love you both very much. Love, Mama

Lots Going On.....

Dear Joshua and Luke,

A lot has been going on the last several weeks. First of all, you have both been very sick. You both tested negative for H1N1, but it was only a 70% accurate test. Luke was diagnosed with pneumonia, Daddy had a double ear infection and a sinus infection, and Mommy and Joshua had a viral infection. Now, Luke has a viral infection in his lungs. This was definitely the sickest that I remember being, but I can say that I think we are all getting better at this time.

Just a couple of short, sweet stories from the last few weeks. Luke first.....Luke wants to help with things all the time. No matter what it is, he wants to help with it. Just tonight he had finished nebulizing, and insisted on going into the kitchen to help me rinse the mask and hardware that goes with his mask. He always wants to help mix his chocolate milk, put his shoes on, something, anything to help. What a sweet boy!

Joshua was invited to one of his first birthday parties for friends at school. The day before the party he said, "Mom, I have to find something really nice to wear for tomorrow." I said, "Like what?" Joshua said, "A tie like Dad wears. Mom I need something really stylish." I quickly explained to Joshua that he could not wear a tie to Monkey Joes because he could get hurt with the tie hanging down, but I assured him that I would find him something very nice to wear." He had a great time at the party by the way and was one of the best dressed kids there! In the picture, he has already taken off the nice white button down shirt he had been wearing, but oh my he was stylin' that night!

Joshua has been having a blast with Tae Kwan Doe, but this last week was very stressful....a direct quote from Big Cousin Elsa who came along to watch Joshua'a new moves. The teachers indicated that there would be su mo wrestling that evening. The object of the match was to knock the other person down first. I can only imagine that the teaching objective was to teach balance, but as a mom and spectator, it was stressful to watch. I am not truly sure how I felt about it. It would have helped to have had a little explanation from the instructor...... I have many short video clips, but here is one that ended in a tie.....I did not want to put one where you won, or lost because you did both. But here is a tie........................

I love you both to the moon and back and back again.

Love,
Mama

A Week of Firsts

Dearest Joshua and Luke,

There have been many firsts this week. We had Joshua's first parent teacher conference. I will try not to brag here, but highlights of the discussion include:

Joshua's favorite interest center - Joshua loves to create a variety of structures using blocks and manipulatives. He also loves the art center. He is so creative.

Joshua's strengths: Language (We have known that since you were 9 months old!) Besides knowing 25 letters and 14 sounds, Joshua is able to sound out and label pictures in his journal. Joshua has well developed fine motor skills. Joshua creates a lot of patterns. Joshua is a social and kind boy - ALWAYS thinking of others and always verbalizing feelings in appropriate and acceptable ways. Joshua is always thinking and problem solving.

Needless to say, we are very proud of Joshua and his accomplishments at school. Joshua absolutely loves Miss Vicki as evidenced by seeing her at Trunk or Treat at church. As soon as I said, "Oh, look who is here..Miss Vicki....and you ran to her and gave her the biggest hug. I knew how much you liked her especially at that moment, but also by the way you talk about her each day. It is wonderful to see this, and makes me feel so good that she is your preschool teacher. I have always admired Miss Vicki's positive attitude and enthusiasm for children. It is always obvious to me how much she loves children. I can not think of a better place for you to be at preschool.





Joshua also started Tae Kwon Doe last week. Between seeing you do jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, or recite the creed, it is definitely a lot of firsts. More to come on this. My favorite part this week (and only a mom could love this so much) was in the middle of practice, you looked straight at me, and said, "I love you mom!" Yes, I was beaming in front of all of the other moms.




Luke - you have been quite amazing this week yourself. Between saying your favorite word, "lollipoppy" and how you told Daddy tonight that God loved you so much that he sent Jesus, his son, to die for you....wow....you are an amazing little guy. You are such a trooper while you have been sick this week, too. You want to be so independent and so many things for yourself. And you always want to help. You are always so thoughtful, too. Each time you open a piece of your Halloween candy, you look at us and say, "No nuts, no egg?" to make sure that you are eating safe candy for your brother. You thought you were pretty cute wearing mommy's boot around the house tonight. And yes, I think you were.


Remember that mama and daddy will always love you!


Love,

Mama