Pour Some Emit On Me

This post is FULL of pictures of Emit. Mainly because he likes to be right next to me no matter where I go or what I do these days. He's my little buddy. He always says things to me like, "You're the Best!" 

OR "Everyday where you go is where I wanna go, mom!" OR "I love you ALL DAY!" OR "All the things you make are the best things in the whole wide world!" So you tell me, I'd be crazy not to want to hang out with someone that talks to me like that most of the time ;)

I was having a blast one day snapping a bunch of pictures for our praise sets with church and just a good excuse to snap some pretty flowers that are popping up all over thanks to some much needed rain lately. I love all the colors!!!

Emit was helping me get a few photos of their room the other day. I wanted to take some pictures of their book collection. 

I know I can't even read half these titles from these pictures, but I just wanted to capture some of our books these days. 

We have a pretty sweet collection going and the boys get extremely excited over new books. We have started reading chapter books. We have mainly been doing the short ones like the Magic Treehouse, but we have some really great ones that we can grow into pretty soon. The Illustrated Classics and Hardy Boys came from Dallas' mom and I was thrilled to get those. Many of those Classics I haven't even read myself...YET ;) 

And I'm pretty sure I forgot to add one or two shelves of books to these photos :) 

Just for fun I thought I'd share where our kayaks are stored now. They used to be over at our old storage sheds...but now, they are right in our back yard and we can see them from the boys' room. Makes cleaning them up and getting them back on the rack a lot easier and we can do it a lot faster than before (means our driveway gets cleared out sooner after trips now)--Win Win! 

My cool dude!

Talking to Xander on Facetime. This boy is so funny with the iPad. He is a techno baby for sure. If Bev ever calls me (or others..not just me) on the phone, Xander will get so upset if he can't see who she is talking to. I think that is so funny! He knows that when you're talking you should be able to see, and he wants to see. He is the best baby I have ever seen talking on these things. He will eat you up on the screen with kisses :) And if you're his CC, forget it... kisses, hugs, angry cries because he wants her in real life..not through the screen. 

The look Emit is giving me below most likely was saying something like, "But mom, I don't want to stop and look for cars." That is definitely his I'm going to disagree with you right now no matter what you say, but I'm going to do it in a cute way so you don't get too upset with me kind of expression. Did you get all that? :) 

We heard something, so off the road we go just in case it is coming this way. So far they are trained really well to listen out for cars and get over ASAP. I'm really proud of how well they listen when we're out here playing. It took some foundation, but they do really well!

I got so tickled the other day our at Barretarre. I was helping Dallas load something on or off our boat at the dock there and I asked the boys to stay where they were playing. They were playing on this little stage that had been setup for the regatta out there (those pics to come). Well, it was fine until they started running around on it and getting closer and closer to the edge that was right on a wall by the water. 

Then all of a sudden I got that gut feeling that something bad was about to happen and the worst case scenario scenes go racing through my mind to send me into a panic. Any other moms get those? I was holding something heavy and couldn't just drop it down and go running to them so I yelled out there names once, they turned and looked at me, I pointed my finger down and said SIT DOWN very firmly (none of it was all panicky and screaming, but in my firmest momma voice). They both dropped to their seats immediately. The guys all out on the dock with me all started in saying things like "Whoa momma... you've got them boys trained!" "Watch it now, she means business!" etc. It was so funny, I'm sure, to watch because of the way the boys listened to me right away and plopped down, but I was so stinking proud of how they responded. 

Playing on our slanted palm tree is so much fun. They always pretend that they have the cross it without falling in the hot lava!

Joss does the monkey walk and Emit does his little scoot here all....

the...

way across!!

And after they reach the other side they are glowing with pride :) Or running as fast as they can like Joss because he's so jazzed about crossing the whole thing which is why I didn't get to snap another picture of him here... he's just a blur in the one I did take. 

I can't remember if I have mentioned this on here, I believe I have, but the boys and I have started memorizing bible verses together. The hard part for me on this is sticking to some kind of schedule with things. We don't always work on it at the same time every day or do the same thing with it. Some times I think that is good, and other times I want to change that part of me and just can't seem to progress from that point of wanting to change. {sigh}

Anyway, we have bible verses taped up on our glass door that we go in and out of all the time. We try to review our verses when we are getting our shoes on and getting ready to go outside to play. We go out multiple times throughout the day, but sometimes it just gets so chaotic because getting our shoes on turns into such an ordeal. You know because we can't find the same shoe; we want to put on tennis shoes, but we're going to the beach so crocs would be better, but we just really want to wear those tennis shoes;the phone rings; we need a certain toy, you know that toy that hasn't been played with in over a month, but something at that moment made him think of it, so he has to find it...NOW; we had a snack about 5 seconds ago, but if we're going to be out of the house for more than 1 minute we may want to go ahead and grab one because they will certainly be wanting another one right away...yes, that is pretty typical for one of the times we go out on a given day ;) SO--chaos ensues on our departure so sometimes we don't get the verses reviewed. 

I am totally amazed at how well they memorize the scripture though. It is incredible! These are the verses we have been working on so far: 

"Be kind to one another." Ephesians 4:32

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart" Pro-sah-vurbs 3: 5 (LOVE when they say Pro-sah-vurbs)

"Children obey your parents for this is right." Ephesians 6:1

"For God so loved the world He gave His only Son" John 3:16

"Love is patient, Love is kind" 1 Corinthians 13:4

"Do to others as you would have them do to you" Luke 6:31

We have many more to add, but they are doing fantastic so far! Don't you love my heart in the sand above that Joss drew me. 

This day makes me sad and happy all at once. We came down to the beach this evening because I just wanted to come down for a quick sunset stroll on the beach with my family. Something happened, I don't even remember what now, and Joss got really upset and started pitching a fit. We got into a fight, he got a spanking, lots of crying, lots of yelling on  and we just got off to a horrible start on this outing. We had our time-out and our discussion and then we walked down to the beach and talked on our way down about what had just happened. It was quite the downer on the sunset walk on the beach, but then he ran off quietly and drew that heart for me in the sand. I gave him a big ole hug and we talked a little more and made amends. 

I am so thankful for forgiveness and apologies. I hate fighting with anyone..family, friends, total strangers. Makes the neon light over my head that reads SINNER flash bold and bright. But with these sweet boys they are living examples of how God wants us to make amends with each other. We talk about our feelings and what happened. We explain what was wrong and why we shouldn't do what we did. We tell each other I'm sorry and mean it. We hug and squeeze each other and then we move on. We may feel the guilt that comes with the fight, but then we draw sweet hearts in the sand and give extra hugs and kisses so we know that we have and are forgiven and that we are still loved. 

Emit being completely adorable for the camera again :) 

We have had a ball with school lately. We are enjoying it up in the boys' bed this morning. 

Who cares if it is a little more effort to get up and down, who cares if we make a mess cutting things and accidentally cut our sheet a little, who cares if our lines aren't perfectly straight because after all it is a little harder to draw straight lines while sitting in bed...Who cares?  

Not these guys.. they loved it and did a really great lesson for me!

Some days we just have to break from the norm and this was one of those days.

My mom got a new roommate. She's been bouncing from Alabama to New Jersey to the Bahamas to Missouri so much lately with all the goings on with everyone. I'm honestly amazed she's still managing at this point she's been going so hard lately. She got this cute little puppet  monster friend that likes to come out when the boys call on the iPad. They love talking to puppets and they honestly probably believe this little guy is real :) She's going to call him JEX for Joss, Emit & Xander! Jex is still very shy and hasn't quite figured out how to talk to the boys, so when he does I'm sure it will be an even bigger hit. 

One of my latest...creations. I've had these great prints from Heather's photshoot a couple summers ago and I've been trying to find mattes and frames for them since she gave them to me with no luck on my couple of shopping trips...SO, I made my own. It isn't perfect by any means, but I really like it. The shells and the ropes and the raw wood give it a great feel to me. Feels like Us!!