My Little Preacher Men

Over the past four to five months, the boys have adopted a small cabinet as their pulpit. Often they get their "preaching books" and stand behind the pulpit and preach away. This entails singing hymns, telling some sort of bible story (sometimes their own version, but they are trying) and prayer.

Sometimes they wear clothes...

sometimes they don't.Either way, it brings joy to my heart as they reflect upon what they have been learning. There are not many sweeter sounds than little voices singing worship to their God or saying prayers to the Almighty.
Sometimes they will get out their pretend bread and little cups to act out the communion service. They call it the bread and the blood...but they have the right idea. They try and talk about the bread being the body of Christ that was broken for us and the "blood" being Christ's blood that was shed for our sin. They always make sure that we all pretend to drink at the same time just like we do in church. I do not know what the Lord has in store for the future of my three little men, if they will be policemen, firemen, convertible drivers, or preachers, but I rest in knowing that they are children of God the Maker of heaven and earth. May their hearts continue to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From Cribs to Beds

The beds that were given to us from my beloved friends at RCS conveniently turn from cribs into toddler beds. I was a little nervous to make this transition as I was afraid of three little boys running from bed to bed waking one another up from their peaceful slumber. However, last month they started to climb out of their cribs from time to time. Once they learned that climbing out resulted in an unhappy mommy, they discovered that they could balance themselves on top of the rail and simply plop right back in bed when mommy or daddy walked into the room. This made me a little nervous as we had a few incidents of boys toppling out or pulling each other off of the railing. So it was time, time for my babies to have their very own big boy bed. Kenta took the beds apart and we went to the store with the boys to pick out their very own pillows. The transition has gone easier than I expected and the boys have taken a liking to their new beds.

For the first few nights we tried it with out buying railing for the sides of the beds. We just wanted to see if they could stay in on their own....

We quickly learned...the railings were well worth it!

This is Micah after he had fallen out of his bed...still sleeping on the floor. Please notice the nicely made bed...he prefers to sleep on top of his covers. For those of you who are wondering, Josiah likes to sleep tucked in nice and tight and Isaiah is somewhere in between.

Aren't they sweet when they are sleeping?

The Book Reader

Micah found just the spot for him. :)

Did you say please?

The boys surprised us with their palettes as they could not get enough of the Japanese pickles.

My Little Potato Heads

The boys think it is really fun to wear the potato head glasses themselves. Probably they want to wear glasses like daddy. They each put together the entire peg board while wearing their glasses. You would think the glasses would get in their way. :)

Happy Easter!

This Easter was the first one that we were able to talk to the boys about the meaning of the Holiday and have them begin to make some connections of why we celebrate! As it only seemed natural to continue the traditions that my parents began, we began the day with the boys waking up to three Easter baskets in a row. Underneath each basket was a brand new Bible for each boy. The boys have loved and loved their first Bibles so much that we had completely lost the story of Creation and a few stories in between. The boys had also begun to memorize the stories. They could say just about every last word in each sentence. So we decided what a great time to give them new Bibles than on the day that we set aside to focus on celebrating Christ's life, death, and Resurrection. They were pleased to find little treats in their eggs and M took only a minute before he had his dad reading to him out of his new Bible. K read to the boys the Easter story, then it was breakfast, getting dressed, and off to church.

The boys are dressed and ready for Worshiping!

This is K reading to the boys when
they first found their baskets and Bibles.

After fellowshiping at church, we drove up to see cousins, aunts, and uncles, and Grandma Ellis. We had a fun time of visiting with those we love. When we returned home, we found a wonderful surprise at our front door! Our good neighbor Sandra had brought the boys (and K and I) more Easter baskets! It was filled with cars, play doe, bouncy balls, bunnies, and of course chocolate!

After the basket opening, the boys got to open packages from their Grandpa and Grammy. They sent them more sweet treats, bubbles, pegs for their peg boards, and play sand! Thank you to everyone who made Easter fun and a special celebration. It is a day to celebrate for Jesus is Risen Indeed!

Enthusiastically Cooking

This morning I was helping M in the bathroom and I and J were happily cooking with their cooking toys. I was so pleased as they were laughing and playing so nicely! When I came out of the bathroom to check on them, I found out that they can successfully open the refrigerator and access exactly what they want. Do we really need to lock the refrigerator already?

J cooking his egg. I was lucky that it did not

break until I was trying to take it out of his hands.

I was so pleased to be scooping out little
bites of the refried beans with his play spoon.

I think M would really like a bite.

The Patient

The boys have acquired an interest in playing doctor. It began with our neighbor, Connor, coming over and wanting to play what we call the "horsey game." He was an injured horse that had to go to the vet for surgery. The boys took on the role of my assistants and would help me in "fixing" the horse. After Connor returns home, the boys always want to continue the game, but they have to decide on who will be the patient.

M was the decided patient this day.

M's favorite thing

Lately M has developed a deep interest in reading books. He begins with a pile on his left and then "reads" the books page by page....making sure he does not miss one.... then he places it on his right. This process will continue until each and every book from the bookshelf has been successfully read...if I let him. He is very persistant and determined. I hope that this love of books will continue as he grows older as there is so much out there to learn from books!

This is at the end of the process after he has read all the books that he picked out. When he runs out of books, he will often go back and get more to add to his read pile.

This is in the middle of the process. He is taking the books directly off the bookshelf and then after he is done with them he lines them up in this "neat" line.

This is the beginning of the process. All of the "need to read" books are on his left and the books he has already read are on his right. He has a long ways to go, but he did finish "reading" each and every one of these books!