Enjoying Beautiful Weather

The past week was beautiful with a beautiful weekend to match. The girls have been so excited to wear short sleeve shirts and play outside on the playground again. Friday afternoon when I got off work I went to the church and decorated Fellowship Hall with a Valentines theme for Fellowship Lunch while Joe headed up his committee meeting with the Grounds Property Committee. It was so beautiful that Saturday while Joe helped my dad do something Other Mama and I took Josie, Jolie, and Joel to the Zoo. It was a great trip. The girls really took an interest in the animals and wanted to know what their names were. They definitely expended some energy. We were there from 9:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. so it was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. At one exhibit the sheep noticed a cart pulling up and started heading towards it. I made a comment that the sheep knew it was lunch time. Jolie said "They didn't say their blessing" so Josie sang the blessing we sing at home "God our Father, God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for our many blessings, for our many blessings, Amen, Amen." And then all was right with the world again:) At another exhibit a money was eating an orange and Jolie commented that the monkey didn't have a napkin. I looked at her and said you do know your manners. While at the Zoo I found out a new thing Josie has learned from her fabulous teacher, Ms. Jessie. She asked me "Momma, Guess What? (that is her new saying these days) What letter does Kangaroo start with" and before I could answer she said "K." At first I thought maybe she had just learned that but what she was doing was sounding it out. Once I realized what she was doing, I kept asking her what other words started with. Some she got right and some she got wrong and some are just plain confusing to little children. For instance, Cat. To sound it out you would think it begin with a K. But she was doing great and I was super super impressed with her. She will be reading before long :)

After the Zoo we picked up lunch and went back to Nanny's house to eat lunch with Pap-paw, Joe, Nanny, and Uncle Ben. After lunch we went home for naps. That evening Joe and I dropped all three kids off with Quint and Sheila, picked up our friend Tim, and went to our Progressive Dinner with my SOS group. We had a blast and the food was great. It was a much needed date night. The kids had a blast too playing on "Caden's playground" at Aunt Sheila's and Uncle Quint's. Sunday morning we got up early so we could pick up ice for Fellowship Lunch and then headed to church. Josie helped take up offering again but this time Joe got to see it and I missed it because I was in Fellowship Hall getting things set up for lunch. He said she did a great job. We are so proud of her and she is excited now about "doing the plates." After cleaning up after lunch we went to my Aunt Elisa's house to take her something for my cousin. We ended up staying and playing a little while because my other cousin, Sara, was there with her daughter Clara Beth. Clara Beth was so cute and was torn between watching baby Joel or playing with the girls.

Sunday was a rough day for Joel. He has two teeth trying to come in on the bottom and he still has a cough that he can not get rid of from the flu. He was so pitiful Sunday. It just broke my heart. Yesterday he was still fussy. I can't wait for those teeth to just go ahead and break through so that he can get some relief. You can feel both teeth on the front of his gums when you rub them. My poor little man.

Yesterday after I picked up all 3 kids and got home there was still about 30 minutes of daylight so I told the girls that they could ride their bikes. This was the first time they had gotten to ride their new bikes that they got at Christmas. Josie loved her new bike but is having to adjust to having a brake on her handlebar. Lollie, well, we will have to work with her on riding her bike. She is doing the same thing Josie did when we were teaching her by always pushing backwards (which is the brake) instead of pushing forward. A little bit of work though and she will be riding right beside her sister. I put Joel in the stroller and just walked around. He loved just looking at everything.

Tomorrow night the girls have Awana which they always look forward to. Friday night Caden is spending the night with us and Ansleigh will spend the evening with us. I'm so looking forward to it and we'll have to figure out something fun to do with all the kids. Saturday we head down to Aunt Becca's to celebrate her birthday which was this past weekend.

I'll end with a somewhat blurry picture of me and my handsome little man: