Tell me about Jesus

Slade and his mom and my mom often tell stories to the boys.

Slade used to tell Russ and Randall about the penny robot. He's told stories about the rubber band boy. We even sing a song about the rubber band boy; we've been singing it for years. There are stories about Speck (my niece and nephew still enjoy a good Speck story when they spend the night), stories about the rainbow fish and, Judson's newest contribution, Buggy.

The grandmas sometimes tells stories from their childhoods and Slade's mom will make up stories like Slade.

All of our boys have loved to sit and listen to story after story. I don't know how Slade does it. I have tried and I am just not able to think of good stories. Maybe because I think the stories need a good moral or to teach an important truth. It's the mom in me.

This morning, sitting at the table for breakfast, I was singing a Sunday School type song. I can't even remember which one. I sang while I cleared the table, waiting for Judson (the world's slowest eater) to finish his strawberries. When I finished, Judson said, "Tell me about Jesus."

So, I started by clarifying that a story about Jesus was real and not made up, like stories about Buggy or Speck. I told him that a story about Jesus could be read in the Bible and that everything in the Bible is true.

Then I told him about how Jesus fed 5,000 people with a little boy's lunch. When I finished, he said, "Tell me about Jesus again!" So, I told him about a man whose legs didn't work, but when Jesus' friends, his disciples, spoke to him, they gave him a better gift than gold or silver, because God used them to make the man's legs all better.

I teared up as I told him stories about Jesus. It isn't the first time I've told him about Jesus or shared stories from the Bible, but it's the first time he's requested them. And he listened so intently. I told him that God made the man's legs all better and the man was so excited and was jumping around, praising God and telling Him thank you and Judson threw both his hands up and cheered. It makes me cry just typing it.

I am so thankful to be blessed with three sweet and wonderful boys. I often feel inadequate to the task, but this Mother's Day, I was reminded that God has equipped me and is guiding me. And that He has been so good to give me such a wonderful man to help raise these boys. I am going to record Slade and Nanny and Grammy telling their fun and creative stories so we can enjoy them for years and years. And I'm so thankful that the stories of Jesus have been recorded for us, too.

Tim Hawkins

Back at the beginning of December, my sister, Christy, and her husband, Kyle, and Slade and I went to a Tim Hawkins show.  We decided to upgrade to enjoy dinner and a show.  Dinner was catered by Chick-Fil-A and Tim came out for a Q&A time before the show began.  

We didn't realize it, but we had a great table!  I made sure to get Christy and Kyle's heads in the pic to show how close we were. 

We got VIP seating.  And you can tell that we were so excited! *grin*

Tim was hilarious, as always.  We often watch his videos on YouTube, so I wasn't sure if there would be any new material, but it was almost all new to us!

Christy and I both said it felt like he kept looking right at us and he would make goofy faces like this:

Tim has another comedian that shares his show named John Branyan.  He was quite funny, too.  They did a short thing together at the end of the show where they went back and forth with one-liners.  They played off each other well and even got tickled at themselves.  It was funny!

Great evening out with one of my favorite people!

We stayed after the show to get autographs.  John was a hoot.

Right before the pic was taken, Tim said something about making sure he doesn't blink... He opened his eyes *very* wide to be sure.

We had a blast and Slade and I want to take Russ and Rand to see him sometime.  It's good, clean comedy and that's hard to find.  And, did I mention that Tim Hawkins is hi.larious?!

{Galveston Vacation} Days 4 and 5

Our last full day in Galveston was spent at Pleasure Pier.  It just opened to the public in May.  It was previously closed due to remodeling and rebuilding that had to be done following Hurricane Ike.

The weather was beautiful!  It was overcast and lightly rained on us a tiny bit when we first got there, but then it was cool enough that we hardly sweated the whole day.  

This was the view over the side of the pier.  Amazing, especially with the storm clouds.

We bought an all-day pass for the whole family and were able to ride any ride we wanted, as many times as we wanted.  Apparently, we were there at a great time because we hardly waited in line at any ride.  If we did wait, it was not for more than a few minutes.  We went back to our hotel for Judson's nap and lunch and then came back for more fun.

This was Russ and Rand's favorite ride.  We rode it a *few* times.

We also rode the Merry Go Round a few times.  Judson loved it.

Even Russ and Rand enjoyed it.

This was a second favorite.  It did pretty much the same thing as the first favorite (above).  But, was a little scarier, so that added to the excitement.

Riding the teacups for Judson, who wasn't sure if he liked going in circles.

There were a few rides I would've enjoyed riding, but no one else wanted to ride them and I hated for everyone to have to sit and wait for me.  Maybe when the kids are older.  Altho, then I probably won't want to ride them...

But, Russell and Randall decided they were going to ride the scariest ride.  Not sure why they didn't want to ride the other ones, but we waited in line together for this one.

I "encouraged" them with the reminder that we might not be back for years, if ever, and the ride might be destroyed by a hurricane between then and now and they might never get to ride it if they didn't ride it at that very minute and such.  I was very convincing and they decided to give it a go.

Here we are at the top of the roller coaster, about to go down.  We are in the back of the car and Randall is on the edge.  He screamed, "I'm going to die!" over and over and said he absolutely hated the ride.  When we got off, Russ said it was very scary, but then it got more fun in his memory as we talked about it and told Slade about it.  Randall got over his fear as soon as we were off, but still said he hated it every time we talked about it. *grin*

Judson took a break on a bench.

We ate dinner at the Pier and were pleasantly surprised that everything was quite delicious!

Another early evening of watching the Olympics wrapped up our 4th day.

Friday morning, we went to The Strand, in Historic Downtown Galveston.

These are two wooden statues, carved out of old trees using a chainsaw.  Very cool.

Favorite store was the candy store!

Randall wanted to hold Judson on his lap and, altho it's hard to tell in this picture, Judson thought it was great!

A dolphin ride in one of the stores.

A life-size chess game.  These kids aren't ours, but they were actually playing a game when we walked past, so we didn't bother to wait to get a picture of Russ and Rand "playing".  And, these kids looked a lot like ours, so it worked out fine. *grin*

We headed out before lunch and made great time getting back home.  Everyone traveled great and we all enjoyed hours of listening to our new favorite radio show, Down Gilead Lane.  It is similar to Adventures in Odyssey or The Pond.  There was no fighting or arguing when it was on!

We came home to a clean house (we had a showing the Monday we left, so that was great motivation to leave it spotless) and brought some really good memories with us.  We also brought a lot of dirty, stinky (beach water--shew!) laundry!  If you're ever looking for a relatively inexpensive family-friendly vacation, we highly recommend Galveston!

{Galveston Vacation} Day 3

 We slept in Wednesday morning (everyone slept really well, but our sleeping in still isn't very impressive...) and then headed out to Moody Gardens.

We did the Acquarium in the morning, went back to the hotel for lunch and Judson's nap and then went back for the Rainforest in the afternoon.

Looking at the penguins.  I loved how everyone was squatted down.

Standing with the penguins.

Shark teeth!

The Rainforest was, understandably, muggy.  We were all sweating.

Butterflies everywhere!

Some of the birds (we thought this one looked like a flamingo's cousin) were roaming free and would fly or walk right by us.  Randall was following this one.  Poor Russ got pooped on by a bird flying above him.  He was a very good sport and didn't let it ruin his mood at all.  Altho, he wouldn't let me take a picture and he couldn't wait to change his clothes.

Birds!

There was a neat replica of all of Moody Gardens.

We thought the Rainforest Cafe was a perfect ending to our day.  Judson did NOT agree.  He didn't eat a single thing and he did a lot of crying.  I think it might've been too loud and just overwhelmed him.  And he especially didn't like the gorillas that make noises or the "storm" that happens every half-hour.  Even Randall was a little scared by the gorillas.  Oh, well, we tried... The food was yummy!

After dinner, we found a place to rent a big bicycle!  It was a lot of fun to ride along the sidewalk, parallel to the water.  We were reminded that Russ is our worrier.  He was afraid we would run over someone or offend someone or get hit by a car crossing the street or... and on and on.  We were able to calm his nervousness and after a little while, he relaxed and really enjoyed himself.  It was very good exercise and we returned it before our full hour was spent.

Another fun, busy day!  We enjoyed our evening, back at our hotel, watching the Olympics before putting the big boys down for bed.

{Galveston Vacation} Days 1 and 2

We decided (a few weeks before leaving) to take a family vacation to Galveston.  I had a bunch of great suggestions from friends and did some research and planned our 5 days out, trying to squeeze in as much as we could.

Day 1:

The boys were ready for the drive with toys, books, games and Monkey.

Due to a random fender bender the day before we left (not my fault, I promise!), we had to rent a van.

We made great time and had happy kids.  We stopped for lunch and to play on a playground.  When we got to Galveston, we checked in and unpacked.  We got a two-bedroom suite since we would be there 4 nights and wanted Judson to have a quiet place to go to sleep while everyone else enjoyed staying up late.  Here's our living room.

We also had a kitchenette and bunk beds for Russ and Rand built into the wall in the hallway.


Then we packed a picnic dinner and headed to the beach!  Everyone loved the water!  We weren't sure if Judson would because he tends to be grumpy at the pool, but he loved it and Russ and Rand had a blast in the waves.

Day 2:

We rode the ferry in the morning.

At first, Judson wasn't keen on the wind blowing so hard and he kept request to "go ih'si" (inside).  In the picture, he has his mouth wide open to feel the wind like a puppy with it's head out the window.

After lunch and a nap at the hotel (for Judson), we went on a Duck Tour.  It's called a Duck Tour because part of the tour of the island is on land and for the other part, we literally drove into the water.  It was a little... disconcerting.  But, very interesting.  Slade said that after the informative tour of Galveston, he could see why people would want to live there.  I said I could see why people wouldn't want to...

Packed a picnic dinner and headed back to the beach!  Judson enjoyed the water, but he *loved* the sand! He brought home his fair share of sand in his swim diaper...

Enjoying the waves!  In Galveston, the land slopes so slowly that you can go out really far and still touch.

End of days 1 and 2!  By the second night, Judson was sleeping much better in his new surroundings.  Altho, we were all so tired that if he did wake us up, we were back out quickly!  Swimming wears you out!

Squirt Bottle from Nanny

Slade's mom often brings a little treat for the boys when she comes to visit.  When she came for Randall's birthday party, she brought Judson a squirt bottle.  He loved it!

He had a blast with it and was soaked by the time we took it away.

It takes so little to amuse him...

Visualize Whirled Peas

Judson is following in the footsteps of his beloved grandfather, Oscar. He loves, loves peas. Russell and Randall did, too, when they were younger. Me? I. Can't. Stand. Peas. They make me gag. I wouldn't eat them if you paid me. Slade isn't a big fan of them, either, so we just never eat them at meals. But, Judson does!




Big grin!


Kinda drinking out of a sippy cup. There seems to be more spitting and dribbling it down his chin, but I think he's getting some of it in.


Since this post is a shout-out to my dad, I had to include these pictures of Judson in his way-cool jammies that my dad got him for Christmas. These were taken at the beginning of July, when he was just learning to sit up.






Now all he needs is to learn to ride a dirtbike! But, I'm hoping his big brother, Randall, learns before he does...