Benjamin at 17 months

This month shed a little more light on Ben's personality or maybe it's just a phase, but we are finding he is quite dramatic.  These days when he gets hurt or scolded, he will put his hands over his eyes while crying and then take them off to see if someone is looking.  It's difficult to hold back a little chuckle.

Ben is still jibber-jabbering for the most part, but he has added a few more words to his vocabulary such as baby, no way and Mommy, which actually sounded a little like Mammy when he first started saying it.

You know you're loved when your child shares their most coveted food item with you.  Recently Ben was eating some Lucky Charm cereal while I prepared his oatmeal.  As I was getting ready to help him eat his oatmeal, he reached his little hand up to my mouth and offered me one of his marshmellows.  Now that's love. :o)

Ben is expressing his displeasure in having to sit still for 3 seconds.

Did someone say squirrel?

Aron - 3 months old

This little guy has been through quite a bit in his 3 month of life in comparison to his siblings.  We went to his 2 month well-baby doctor visit and found that he had actually lost one pound.  The pediatrician referred us to an endocrinologist to get him checked further.  Having an inkling already that my milk supply was low we asked the pediatrician if we should start supplementing with formula.  She was not optimistic that it would help, but gave us the thumbs up.  So, in the meantime we did begin supplementing and saw noticeable differences even in the first couple of days and by the time his endocrinologist appointment rolled around (2 weeks later) he had gained a whole pound back.  The endo. doctor did want us to go ahead and get bloodwork done just to be safe.  Long story short, he had his endo. follow up appointment and all the tests came back normal and he had gained 3 pounds from the time of the last endo. appointment.  We can't thank everyone enough for your prayers and words of encouragement.  God is so good!!!

I call Aron Mr. Smiles because he seems to smile the majority of our day.  He loves hugs from his big Brother which is a good thing because Ben likes to give lots of hugs.

Emily - 4 years, 7 mo. - Mar. 16

You can see it on her face....quite the personality. If I could only capture an ounce of her energy.

Recently we have been dealing with bad dreams. We have our regular prayer time at night and ask that God would help keep her mind on Him and we encourage Emily to talk to God about her fears. One night after I left her room I could hear Emily praying and it went something like this....Dear God please help me not have any bad dreams and please keep bad people away from our house and if there are any bad people in our house please kill them with your mighty power.

Since then, a great friend of mine recommended reading a few pages from our Systematic Theology book regarding children's dreams. On page 430 it says, "Children from a very young age can be taught to say, "In Jesus' name, go away!" to any images that may appear in their dreams or in mental images that trouble them at night, and then to pray to Jesus for protection and happy thoughts of Him. Such action by those little ones who trust in Christ will often be remarkably effective, for their faith in Jesus is very simple and genuine."

Home and Garden Show 2011

We ventured out in the rain to the Home and Garden Show this year.  Emily and Cameron were excited to get to see the python and the little playhouses.  The show itself was ok, but not as good as prior years.