Theology with a 3 yr old

Alli has become quite the little singer/song-writer lately. She will just randomly start making up and singing songs, some of which are quite amusing. The lyrics to one of my favorites were "CoYOte, CoYOte at the petting zoo." I'm thinking: I'm not sure a coyote is a good candidate for a petting zoo animal, but it would be interesting.

Alli has also really started diving into and absorbing her religious education lately, so the following is a great video that captures the two...

In case you didn't catch those lyrics they go a little something like this:

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus- what are you saying?
hmmm, mmm, mmm, hmmm, mmm, mmm
Jesus, All the power.
Jesus, All the power.
Jesus, Jesus- where are you going?
Jesus, Jesus- where are you going? where are you going?
Before Buzby, before Buzby (Buzby is a character on her Christian cartoon)
The Lord, the Lord...

We have also had some funny conversations about God with her lately. Here are some examples:

1. Alli was on the phone with daddy one day and happened to be very talkative rambling on and in the middle of it all she says:

"Jesus is the Lord of my blessings!"

Before daddy could even finish his response of "Somebody's been going to church," she follows it up with

"AND, Shamu is the Lord of my blessings!"

Daddy responds "Somebody's also been going to Sea World lately"

2. As I was putting Alli down for a nap, she got frustrated with me and shoved her Bible onto the floor. I sternly explained that we have to treat the Bible with extra special care because it is God's book. Her response:

"I want to give it back to Him."

Mom: "No, I mean He wrote it for us..." Nevermind. "Just please don't ever push it to the floor again."

3. At the dinner table, Dwaine and I were explaining to Alli that we can't hide anything from God because He sees everything we do (for what reason we felt we had to tell her that I don't remember). Her response:

"Where is He?"

Hmmm, the abstract concept of God being everywhere all the time even though we can't see Him is a bit too much for a 3 yr old (though I tried). She seemed more pleased with the answer "He lives in heaven" so we left it at that.

At other times, she seems to have just the right words for Him. Her prayers often go something like this "Dear God- Thank you for my blessings. I love you. You love us. In Jesus' name, Amen" How perfectly simple is that?

So, we're learning- all of us. Knowing what to say and what not to say to a small child about God can be very complicated. I think the key is to "plant seeds" as our church calls it. God made us. God loves us. God cares for us. We'll try sticking to those concepts for now, deal with questions as they arise and watch in amazement at how He is at work in our lives!

Sick Days

The kids are a little under the weather today, so this is what a good part of the morning looked like...

I received a little help from Clifford the Big Red Dog (or "ro ro daw" as TJ says). Sitting still on the couch watching a show is rare for TJ, so I can really tell he's not feeling well when he does this.

Already feeling a little better by lunchtime.

Yay! Hopefully this thing won't keep us down for long.

The Boys...

We are so blessed to have TJ's best buds Grant and Jake live just down the road in Boerne. We get to play with them a lot and TJ always gets excited when I tell him we're gonna see them and their mommy, Miss Wawa (Laura). If ever he's giving me trouble getting dressed or getting in the car, telling him that we are going to see Grant and Jake is a surefire way to speed up the process. He's 100% cooperation after that (I only use that little trick if we are in fact going to see them, although it is tempting sometimes when we are not).

Having fun in the water.

Typical boys- loving the Gator!

These 3 guys are going to be best friends for a long time I'm quite sure. I'm wondering how much stress they are going to cause Laura and me with the kind of trouble they may get into. The stories that I hear from Dwaine about the crazy life-endangering stuff he and his friends used to do have me a little worried.

So, I'll speak for Laura and myself when I say that for now, we'll handle the stress of the temper tantrums, the occasional hitting or pushing (usually TJ's doing), wrangling them up for meals, and doing our best to keep them from climbing onto and standing on and jumping off of things they shouldn't. At least we have them right under our noses knowing where they are and what they are up to at all times. We still have some control, most of the time, I think, don't we Laura?

We love you guys bunches!!!!

Lake fun!

We recently hit the lake for some family fun and had a blast....

TJ and Alli LOVE the boat. It was a long, exhausting day for them, but they were having so much fun that they hung in there and were actually very well behaved. I just love days like that!

Alli even had her first tubing experience...

She thought that was the best and didn't want the ride to end. But, thankfully she was also excited about climbing the ladder onto the back of the boat, so that kept her from throwing a fit about the tubing ride coming to an end.

It looks like we're flying across the lake, but trust me, we were not. Nervous mommy instructed daddy to just putt around. But when I discovered that the tube just collects water at a turtle's pace, we had to pick up the speed just a little. What an awesome first mommy-daughter experience. I was really trying to soak it in and was thinking "I can't believe she's old enough to do this with me!" And, I couldn't stop imagining how many more fun times like this lay ahead of us.

And yes, mom and dad had a little fun of their own too!

Above: daddy's second ever wakeboarding experience- he's quite the natural.

Below: mommy's first ever wakeboarding experience!!!!! I can't wait to do it again!

My goal was just to get up on the board, but to my surprise I popped right up there with Dwaine's "expert" advice about how to do it. And then I stayed up for quite a while.

The hardest part about it was getting my feet in those boots- I was pushing and pulling with all my might and was rather tired when my second foot finally squeezed all the way in. The funny thing is that board, boots and all, flew right off when I face planted while attempting a 180. What was I thinking?

Dwaine and I were starting to feel young again with all the fun and athletic recreational activity, but as we hobbled around in soreness and exhaustion the next day, we were reminded otherwise.

Meet Woosy and Efel

I came home from work a couple weeks ago (yes, I actually worked a day) after Dwaine had been watching the kids all day. And the first thing he says when I get home is "come look." I'm not sure what to think- that could either be really good or really bad.

I look out in the backyard and see a half-built chicken coop. So now I'm wondering "is this in preparation for the possibility that we might be getting some chicks soon or do we already have some chicks?"

Sure enough, we had 2 baby chicks. Wow- you never know what's gonna happen at home when you go to work for 12 hours.

So, the next day, Dwaine worked hard to get their little home finished. And it turns out he's not as bad of a carpenter as he thought...

Introducing Lucy and Ethel...

Lucy is the one with the reddish head and Ethel the blonde of course. Funny thing is their personalities match their names also. Lucy is a bit of a firecracker, Ethel more calm.

Alli loves them and always wants to let them out. She's constantly hollering at them "Come here Woosy!", "Get out of the mulch Efel!"...

Today she was even instructing them to share. "EFEL, YOU SHARE THAT OR I'M GONNA TAKE IT AWAY." Then she proceeded to chase Ethel around trying to take something out of her mouth. I can't imagine where she got that from.

This is the girls just a few weeks after Dwaine brought them home. They literally change daily. Yard eggs anyone? We'll have them in no time!