Long time...

It's been a long time since I've posted! We have been busy with WB's classes and all the boys being in school on top of my work schedule, Bible studies, etc. There is just very little down time these days. That siad, I am totally loving my Bible studies right now. My Tuesday morning Bible study is called "Because He Loves Us" and is so uplifting. The theme of it is that we need to focus on God's love for us and not so much on our faults and our failures. I'm working very hard to place God as the focus of my life. Then we have our small group Bible study. We are studying what it means to go into the city and serve without losing your identity as a Christian. In addition, it helps us meet other Christian couples our age. Unfortunately, that one is meeting on Tuesday nights and WB has class. I'm not sure if we will be able to continue doing a Tuesday night Bible study because it's likely WB will continue to have Tuesday classes. Anyways, Doc was invited to his first classmate birthday party! Mr. X was also invited to a birthday party but it didn't work out for him to go this time. We are enjoying this season in our lives. As promised, I have the pictures from the last time we went to the pool. We haven't made it back lately. I'm not sure when the pool closes for the year so we will need to check that out.

This is the baby/toddler pool. It is only 8 inches deep and stays very warm.

GQ loved it because it was just his size!

He would have stayed there all day if we let him. He doesn't even like the shallow end of the big pool unless you hold him even though his feet can touch.

Doc and Mr. X swim all over the pool but they insist that they need the life vests on. It's a good safety measure but it doesn't teach them to swim.

Doc discovered that he enjoyed jumping in the pool.

He likes it under water so he says.

 

Mr. X is learning the mechanics of swimming well so we are hoping we can teach him how to swim without the life vest next summer. He just needs to try and trust in his abilities.

The kids like the water slide too. Mr. X will take off his life vest for that. It's not very big but they like it just the same.

We are thrilled to have access to a pool that we can go to whenever we want. It helps beat the summer (spring and fall too if I want to be totally honest) heat and it gives us a good family outing.

This and That

There are bugs everywhere, I get that. What I didn't realize was the different sizes in bugs. We have the humongous looking grasshopper things. Thankfully they have stayed outside so far.

Isn't that huge?! Gross!

I love that my kids are becoming more independent. Doc likes to do everything himself. For Christmas last year, my parents got Mr. X a weather station. It tells you the indoor temp and outdoor temp as well as a few other tidbits of information. There is also a guy on it that dresses weather appropriate so you know how to dress for the weather outside. Doc has started looking at it in the morning when it's around 70*. The weather guy dresses in pants and t-shirt. Naturally, Doc insists that he must wear pants for the day too. What he doesn't understand, no matter how much we try to explain it to him, is that it will be 90*+ by lunch time or shortly there after.

 See the weather guys dressed in swim trunks?

And this is Doc wearing jeans because at the beginning of the day, the weather guy was in pants.

We had another fun afternoon at the pool. It was cloudy though and the water was a bit chilly this time. We didn't stay super long but long enough for the kids to have fun and tire out good for bedtime. I took pictures on my phone but of course can't get them to upload now. I will try to fix that and get the pictures posted. Anyways, the kiddos are all getting more comfortable in the water which is good. We can get each of them to happily take of the life vests a little bit. GQ started inching along the wall. Doc started jumping off the edge of the pool (more like walking off but he was trying to jump). He would go under water briefly and the life vest would bring him up pretty quickly. Then he would smile huge and tell us, "I like being under water!" He did that a few times. Mr. X will take his life vest on and off when he chooses but will only stay in the shallow end with his feet touching bottom. He refuses to try to swim. We'll get there. He is at least getting comfortable enough to take off the life vest and he tries to swim while wearing the life vest. Baby steps I suppose.

In other news, we are suspecting that GQ doesn't like his bed. Right now, it's just the converted crib. He loves our bed and his brothers' beds. However, we find him regularly sleeping on the floor in his room. I'm not sure what the deal is. Tonight, when I put him to bed, he beat me to his room. I found him lying on the floor with his blanket pulled up to his chin ready to go to sleep, hands folded waiting for prayers. It was so sweet, but I feel bad just walking away with him sleeping on the floor. I pulled his mattress off the crib and laid that on the floor and he was happy enough to climb onto it so he is going to sleep on the mattress on the floor tonight I guess. We will see how it goes. We are working on getting a new mattress for our queen bed and then we will shift around beds and GQ will have a real, big boy bed. Maybe then he will like it better.