Somebody's 3!!!!!!

Wyatt James turned 3 years old on August 16!!!!

From 9.5 lbs little infant to.... 

  My sweet little first born is a walking, talking, running, playing, singing, potty trained, imaginative boy now!  

What better way to celebrate the BIG 3 then at a park with the fam:)

 With a wrestling match with the little bro!

 A picnic on the porch

 Super yummy dinosaur cake

 A big splashy bath

 AND  PRESENTS!!!!

 AND PLAYING WITH PRESENTS:)

 To extend the birthDAY into a birthWEEK:) Spent with a fun-loving cuz

 eating McDonalds and playing till sweat trickles down your face

 and topping it all of with...of course, MORE CAKE!!!

Happy Sweet 3 to you, my son.  Mommy and Daddy are so in love with you and cannot wait to see what the Lord brings our way with you in this next year!!!!

VBS and Big Words:)

 

 A sweet picture of our boys on their first ever day of Vacation Bible School at our church.  Wyatt even has a nice big camo backpack to carry all his treasures home in:)  The are growing up so fast!!!!

The video is just a mommy and daddy amazed at the big words coming out of their little guy's mouth!  Sure we think he is smart....and we aren't the least bit biased:)

A Trip to the Zoo

Wyatt has a huge fascination with animals.  He absolutely loves getting books from the library that are all about whales, dolphins, wild animals, zoos and aquariums.  He will sit and look at a big book filled with words as long as it has enough cool pictures of jelly fish and beluga whales:)  

There was a free day at our local zoo and we took advantage of it with some friends. 

 Wy could NOT stop talking about going to the zoo and seeing all the animals!! While we were there he would look at one exhibit and then ask what the next one was....over and over and over:)   

You can just barely see a male lion right behind him in the glass!!!!

 The one animal that he apparently really wanted to see was the hippos....but, sorry to say, our zoo does not have hippos. Which I had to continually remind him of this sad little fact:(  

It didn't have whales either, but it did have a fun little blue whale and blue dolphin that he could sit on:)

 

Enjoying watching the giraffes eat and gazelles graze:)

All in all it was a great day and one that he still is CONTINUALLY talking about:)

"I need to GO!!"

That is the current mantra in our house today.  

A spur of the moment decision on Monday to "just go for it" brings us to day 5 on the journey of potty training!

To say that this was easy is a big ol' lie!!!!

However, to sit in this seat 5 days after Monday I will say that our journey was a lot easier than some others I have heard.

Monday is a day that I never want to relive...too many accidents, too many changes of clothes, too many sprays of cleaner and rags used, too many "Almost buddy...next time you will get it."

We were both exhausted after Monday.

I do believe that Wednesday was the turning point...it finally "clicked."

I sit here on day 5 and can say that there have been no "accidents" since Tuesday.  What joy of all joys that means after a day like Monday:)  I won't sit here and feel all confident and that we got this thing in the bag. I am not that naive. But, I will sit here and HOPE AND PRAY AND HOPE AND PRAY some more that we will have this thing down by the time he is 20:):):):

Growing Up:(

The truth is that my little babies are growing up.

 Wyatt is changing daily and telling us his own opinions.

He is using his imagination to play with T-Rex and the Big Fish (which of course like to chase him all over the house:)

Wy is learning how nice and important it is to share with his little brother, then asking to share all on his own!

He is starting to 'read' stories to himself and Tuck.

He is saying on his own without prompting from Mom or Dad sweet words like "I love you" and "Have a good day."

His picky eating skills are finally starting to calm themselves!

He is developing quite a love for drawing circles and triangles:)

He can spell his first name!

 Tucker is our little wrecking ball.  He loves to destroy.

He loves to wrestle and frequently seems to get Wyatt pinned:)

He has filled his little mouth with 7 teeth.

He is Mr. Adventure and loves to try and do everything that his brother does!

His sweet smiles and giggles never fail to  change my mood:)

He still refuses to sit still for books...but he loves songs!

He has come up with his own language and loves to scream it out...especially in the backseat of our van:)

When he thinks he hears Daddy come home he makes a beeline for the door giggling, laughing and saying Da-Da-Da...lets just wrap Daddy a little tighter around that chubby little finger:)

All this change and growing up can leave a mommy in a bit of hysterics!!!  The baby that was ~ is no more:(  But, what joy is mine when I look on the "new" from my little guys and see all that they are becoming.  God has immensely blessed us as parents to see and experience first hand the transformation from baby to toddlerhood to preschool.  God is so good!! 

So, to my little men...who seems to steal my heart daily ~ I love you with love that only God can comprehend.  I rejoice in the boys that you are growing in to. I pray for the youth and man that you will both one day become.  May the Lord be your Good Shepherd and your everpresent Help.  You are cherished beyond words!!

Just a Friday night in our house:)

Wyatt and Daddy working hard to mow our lawn:)

 A wrestling match in the living room....

 Looks like Tuck is the winner:)

how we roll in spring...

Our little walker enjoying some fun in the grass:)

 The sandbox....extreme fun for kids...extreme pain for moms because of the sand that seems to find its way into our home:)

 Tuck wasn't quite sure what to think about the sand and toys...

 His "So Big" has morphed into "I can't hear you!"

 My blue eyed baby boy!

 Wyatt's constant request "BIG SWING!!"

 Tuck wants in on the action too:)

 Daddy and Wyatt working on getting our new vegetable garden all ready!!!!  He had lots of fun finding worms in the mud:)

Favorite Places

There is a new favorite place in our house to hang out...it is cozy, warm, a little secretive and just plain exciting:)  It would be right here....behind the couch cushion that Wyatt especially has found his niche:) 

 Wyatt will crawl back here multiple times a day to read books, watch TV, play with his cars, or just get away from the little busy body-destructo called Tucker:)  

Looks like he just might need to find a new sanctuary!!

A pictureless trip and fun in the sun:)

A couple weeks ago Jonny spent a week in Indiana at a biblical counseling conference for his job...and being the scardy cat that I am I didn't want to spend a whole alone.  So, the boys and I took ourselves to St. Louis for a week:)  We stayed with my sister the whole time -they just adopted their sweet little new Brock who we finally got to see. He was only 4 weeks old and sooooo tiny and sweet!!!  There were 4 kids in that house all under 3 years old....can you say loud and crazy!!  The cousins all enjoyed each others company, but I think by the end of the week there was definitely some much needed time apart called for:)

While we were there my dad, me and the boys made the 4 hour journey to Branson to visit with my most favorite aunt in the world!!!!  Aunt Sharon really enjoyed the boys and I think they enjoyed seeing her too! We left at 6 am then came back the same day and got home around 7 pm. A long trip in one day, but the boys were amazing and it was definitely worth the logged hours on the road:)

 We had a nice sunny day last Sunday so we took advantage of it and went on a very muddy hike in the park...not everyone came away clean.

 Um, that would be me....slippery and muddy...but at least Tucker stayed clean. It seems his favorite thing to do our hikes is sleep:)

What we've been working on...

Daddy has been working with Wyatt each evening before bed on some bible memory verses.  So far they have gotten through C....I am going to write the verses that he is saying because I think it is a little hard to understand if you don't speak "Wyatt":) 

A-All we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6)

B-But he was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5)

C-Children obey your parents in the Lord (Eph 6:1)

The book was a gift from Grandpa and Grandma Walberg! Thanks so much!! 

The ABC Memory Book (Scripture Memory Fellowship)--this book is great because the verses can "grow" with the child.  It has a  verse for every letter in the alphabet and it separates the verses into two parts... the parts that Wyatt is saying are a shorter version or just the first half of the verse. As he gets older and can memorize more and talk better he can memorize the whole verse.  

What Saturday brought us...

It was a typical Saturday....Daddy at work, Mommy and the boys hanging out at home.  That is until Wyatt decided that he wanted to investigate the contents of Mommy's purse.  Working zippers that are even hard for me to work. Bypassing the yummy temptations of two packs of gum.  Going straight for the little blue bottle that has tylenol and ibprofen in it!!  I can in just in time to see him with a full mouth and a look on his face that said "Oh, man! You caught me!!"

I got him to spit it out and when I saw how much was in my hand I didn't think that he really could have swallowed that much if any of the pills.  But, as the hour ticked by I just kept thinking of how much he was salivating and how much the pills had already dissolved by the time I found him.

I called poison control and recounted the story....of course they share worst case scenario which is liver failure and liver transplant because just 6 tylenol is all it takes to hurt his little body.  He definitely could have had 6 tylenol! 

So, I am frantically trying to get ahold of Jonathan, who is reffing basketball games all day.  Not answering his phone I finally reach a family friend and they were actually going to where Jonny was working!!  They tell him "CALL YOUR WIFE!!"  Then those same sweet family friends come over immediately to watch Tucker for us as we rush off to the ER.

Our Wyatt was on a bed in the ER for over 8 hours!!!!!  They had to draw blood from him twice to test his tylenol levels to make sure he didn't have a toxic level. But, lots of movies, books, and toys were just the right thing to keep him happy and in bed for that long.  He did amazing for a 2 1/2 year old!!! We were both so proud of him and how he handled the pokes, prods, needles, nurses, and doctors.  The last 45 minutes were the hardest because Wyatt was finally ready to move! Jumping on the bed wanting to get down and walk or sit on our laps while still having wires and a port still stuck in his arm.  Our discharge was at 8:45 pm...finally!

While we were in the hospital we counted about 11 people came and went from our house without us there.  All wonderful people who were gracious and loving enough to drop what they were doing and take care of Tucker for us or check in to see how we were all doing.  What a blessing God has given us in these sweet friends!!!!! 

How we thank the Lord for His care over our little son....seeing my child going through all of that and the fear that can get the best of you was definitely waging war inside me. But, our God who is faithful, caring, loving, generous and perfect was watching and orchestrating all the right things for us on this day.  Thank you Lord for being so amazing!!!

How we spend a warm day in January!!

This day was absolutely perfect for a hike in the woods with the boys. God blessed us with unusually warm weather in January (of all the months to have to go out in just long sleeves and no coat, hat, or gloves!) and we strapped the kiddos on and took advantage of it!

 Hhhmmm...looks kinda like Tuck slept the whole time...dead weight!

We took some time to find some treasure hidden in the park too...geocaching got Wyatt a new dinosaur! It's name is Loccy...since he is a velociraptor and all:)

What!?!

I cannot believe that this kid made the transition into his big boy bed so easily!  This is the kid that needed a crib tent to go on the bed just to keep him in it!  But, maybe it's the kid or the magic of a great daddy, but the first night we tried it he didn't get up once!!  Now, we don't want to jinx anything but so far so good!!!!!  Even my biggest dread, naptime, didn't have any problems!