Pumpkin Patch 2011

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch last weekend.  Judah wins the prize for being the most cooperative.  He is a ham.  So, Luke and Eli, when you are grown and going back through the family pictures, you can refer to the above statement as explanation why there are far more pictures of your younger brother than of you two.  Not because you're not just as cute.

 Luke loves to say, "Hey, Dad, I like to do the same things you do.  Because we're twins, right?"  Almost.

 I believe this is the only photo we got of Eli actually facing the camera.

 I guess we will not be replacing last year's family pumpkin patch photo.

 A ham, I tell you.  But cute enough to eat.

 Two more tasty morsels.

BookSneeze

A friend (Thanks, Hannah!!) recommended the website http://www.booksneeze.com/ to me. It is a site that offers free books in return for a review on your blog as well as a review on a consumer retail site. This is my first review and all the comments and opinions that follow are mine, all mine.

 I love Jesus, but I do not always love Christian fiction.  Many times while reading Christian novels I find myself thinking, "Cheesy, unauthentic and boring!" and reading about every third page. Shocking confession, I know, but I like to think that I am not cheesy, unauthentic or boring, and I don't want what little time I spend reading for pleasure to be any of those things.  (If I am cheesy, unauthentic or boring, please, for the love of heaven, tell me!)  But I really liked Softly and Tenderly.  I felt like it was an honest portrayal of what it's like to suffer, feel real emotion and then lay those emotions, feelings and your will at the feet of Jesus.  This book had enough twists and turns, both in the story line and in the characters' responses to them, to keep things interesting without frustrating the reader.  It definitely gets a two thumbs of from me and I highly recommend it to you.

I'm Trying Not to Get My Hopes Up

I know there's a good chance it was just a fluke.  I mean, he is only 21 months.  But we are celebrating, nonetheless.  He's been sitting on the potty for a few weeks, but today, Judah actually pooped in it!

 Give that boy a sticker!!

 "Bye, bye, Poo Poo!"  Yuck.  I wish the potty was cleaner.

The next time I tried to put him on the potty he wanted to stick his foot in there instead of sit on it.  He won't get a sticker for that.

Way to go, Judah Lee!

Smart Cookie. With a Dash of Sass.

Eli is honest.  He doesn't mince words.  He's very matter of fact.  And quite frankly, when he feels like it, he can be a bit of a smart ass.

Last night he was falling asleep in the car, (which we always frantically attempt to prevent so he won't be awake at ten p.m.) and I said, "Eli! What movie can I put on for you!!!!!!"  He sleepily informed me, "I'm going to fall asleep no matter what movie you put on."  

This morning he was looking at my daily calendar, which was still on the 5th, and said, "We've had six days in October." I asked him how he knew it was the sixth since the calendar was still on the 5th, and he said, "'Cause I know how to count." Ooookay.

Eli is only competitive where Luke is involved.  Any other time when we attempt to motivate him to "try his hardest" he looks at us like, "Why?"   But if Luke is doing it, by gosh, he can do it!  So while Luke was doing homework yesterday, Eli wanted to do "math".  I wrote down 2+2= and he said, "Four!"  I knew he knew that one, so I wrote 7+3=, thinking it would be too hard for him.  After a few seconds he said, "Ten!" I was pretty surprised and asked him how he knew that, and he said, "I just hear a voice in my head that says, 'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven' and then it says, 'eight, nine, ten'."

You make me smile, Eli.