What William Prays For

We've been reading a story Bible and praying with the boys before bed. At first William never had anything to talk to God about, but now he has a huge list.
He wants to pray that he can be a policeman when he grows up.
He thanks God for snacks, church, a good story Bible, our new balloons, our house......
Tonight he wanted to thank God for "nice parents." What a sweety.

Thanks for the Hats!

Grandma and Grandpa Rittgers went to the Iowa State Fair and sent caps for the boys. These are their "smiling for the camera" faces.

Sometime soon I've got to get a video of Brian praying before bed. I showed him to fold his hands together and close his eyes and he makes a hysterical face in effort to keep those eyes closed. I'm not sure how to get the video without him knowing though.

William and I have started doing school regularly now. I have him read to me in the morning (we are almost done with the first McGuffey Reader), then we do a math lesson (or part of one), practice handwriting, and do at least one page in Explode the Code. Soon we will add literature. We will do First Favorites from Veritas Press. There are a lot of neat activities that go along with all the classic children's books. I think he'll love it. He still begs to do school if we miss for some reason. I'm trying to keep it simple and short at this point. We are always done within an hour and he will often ask to do an extra Explode the Code page. Now I need to come up with some more ways to keep Brian busy during that time. He just wants to be on top of us all the time.

Brian is growing up a lot too. He's speaking more clearly now and comes up with some fun ideas. He also spends a lot of time trying to get William to wrestle with him. William is usually willing as long as he's not reading a book. Brian begs to go to work with Daddy every morning and is near tears every time he gets left behind. He's the first to notice when Curt pulls into the driveway in the evening and always runs to greet him. Brian has also recently learned to jump and to pedal his tricycle, though it's still much faster for him to walk it with his feet. The boys have fun seeing how fast they can go and do all the silly things that boys do on bikes!

They are usually covered in sand and dirt by the end of each day, which means a bath every night. Some days I think, "Oh, I can just wash their extremities today!" Only to have Curt come home and dig a hole for something and of course the boys are "helping" and come in with dirt in their hair, etc....

This weekend when we had the tropical storm we had a big mud pit where Curt had buried the propane line to the grill. They begged to go out with umbrellas and so Curt had them stomp in the mud to help all the dirt settle. It wasn't long before they figured out that getting rained on was much more fun than an umbrella. Curt had to hose them down before they came in! They had so much fun! I'll post a pic. once I get it on my computer.

Baby Lydia is doing her fair share of moving and shaking. I'm 24 weeks pregnant now. Last week I had a lot of hip pain so I went to a Chiroprater yesterday and he put my sacroiliac joints back where they are supposed to be and I feel much better now. I'll get Curt to take my picture the next time I'm dressed nicely so I can show off my belly.