10/11 - Playing around the house

It's been a challenging last week but we are making it through, one day at a time. I feel like I've been so busy that I haven't even been taking pictures of the boys to update the blog. Here is Aiden telling me has something stuck in tooth. He was so cute about and even brushed his teeth to get it out.

The boys (including Brad) have bonded a lot since Brad is taking them to daycare in the mornings and had to watch them while I was in the hospital. It's cute to watch them play together. Brad was flipping them around and wrestling with them the other day. They all seemed to enjoy it.

Eli's cheesy little smile just cracks me up and makes me smile.

The boys were even wrestling for a bit. Brad was trying to show Aiden how to pin down Eli. I'm not sure Aiden is wrestling material; Eli might be though.

Brad even gave rides around the house on his back. Yes, Eli still has his paci. I don't think Brad and I are quite ready to take it away because there are some nights when Eli just needs it. He normally only uses it while sleeping but obviously he can get it out of his bed when he wants. Night time is a hard time because Eli gets really cranky and tests our patience. 

Aiden is doing a great job of learning to just walk away from Eli sometimes. When Eli gets upset or tries to steal Aiden's toy, Aiden just gets up and leaves. That's great. He still whines and will cry if Eli takes a toy (I don't blame him) but he's starting to problem-solve on his own and just move away from Eli. Eli is a little bully right now. If he doesn't get the toy he wants, he falls to the ground and throws a giant fit. He can't stand to hear the word "no." Needless to say, we say it quite a bit to him because he has to learn not steal things from other kids. 

These brothers do love each other so much. Aiden is such a great big brother and Eli is .... getting better. He just turned 2 so he still has a lot of learning to do and is just starting to use words versus just crying.

Eli is finally in to reading books at night which is fun. Here is Brad reading the boys a book before bedtime.

I put up some Halloween decorations last night and the neighbors came out to see them. The boys love Ryan and Jen. With the help of daddy, they manage to play a little basketball. The first picture is Aiden, the second is Eli.

I had to put some Halloween stuff out because Jen has her house all decorated. They have this thing in their palm tree that responses to noise and motion. The boys were terrified of it last week but now that they know what it is, they think it is so much fun to play with. Here they are yelling at it, trying to make it go off.

It's too funny to watch because once it does go off, Aiden still gets scared even though he made it go off. Aiden is pretty dead set on being a pumpkin for Halloween. I'm not sure what I'm gonna dress Eli as ... maybe a pumpkin seed. Haha. We'll see. 

10/5 - God

Although I missed sunday school 2 weeks since I was in the hospital, I learned that the challenge we were given was to use social media to talk to people about God. Some of you may be rolling your eyes and are about to click the the screen closed BUT .... I love homework so here is my contribution.

I was raised respecting God. My freshman year in college I re-dedicated myself to follow Him. Apparently Satan laughed at me because 1.5 yr after doing that, my life completely changed. I was begging God everyday to help me and give me strength and everyday was feeling I was one step farther away from being loved by God. For years, I was miserable (it may not have appeared that way to many) but He kept me alive. I eventually gave up hope that God was there and would ever answer any prayers so I just stopped praying.

When Brad and I moved to MD 4 years ago, we started attending church. It was good. We really wanted to raise our family in the church. I loved our church and the relationships I had with people within the church were much better than I had every experienced before. I started praying again but assumed my prayers would fall on deaf ears. I was doing the "things" that I should be to convey I was a christian but my heart was still very scarred from my experience in college.

We moved to Florida last year and God ordained a friendship that would forever change my life. For the first time, I understood that God didn't leave me and abandon me like I thought, but that the idols I was worshipping were consuming me and I failed to realize God was actually still there, just waiting for me to turn to Him. Wow. This thought has turned my world of God upside down. God has had my number on speed dial for the past few months and I am often scared to pick up the phone when He calls. He is challenging me everyday within the various studies I am involved in (Bible Study Fellowship, Sunday school, and the study of Not A Fan (awesome book)). Here is what I know:
1. I don't know God and His love the way I want
2. I've had lots of experiences in my life that I wonder why they have happened
3. I know that God is working on my heart and wants to change it; I just have to let Him (very scary)
4. God is going to use my past experiences for Him. Not today, probably not tomorrow, but when God has prepared me for it, I know it will be amazing and I am excited

The Not A Fan study I am doing asked me last week to sign over all my possession, skills, and identities to God. Can you do that? If you gave your house and car away and all the things you think you know, would you be okay? It's one thing to think we trust God and that He is in control but it's another to BELIEVE it. I don't want to be a fan of God; I want to be a follower. What's the difference? Commitment!

10/4 - Making helos at Home Depot

It's been a crazy last week and weekend while I try and catch up from being gone for a while. I'm back and in full swing again which is great. On Saturday morning, we took a family trip down the block to Home Depot. The first saturday of every month they have a kids workshop. It was awesome. We were gonna leave on Friday and go down to St. Pete to go to my cousin's, Rachel, wedding reception. I didn't realize how completely run down I would be after being laid up for 6 days and then jumping right back in to things and how behind I would be. It just worked out for us to go to the workshop since we stayed home and had no plans. God's timing is crazy and it worked out that it was helicopter day!! Right was we pulled in to the parking lot at 9am, a helicopter was circling over and landing right in front of us. I've never even seen a helo land that close (and I've seen helos land well over a dozen times).

They both got little aprons to wear that had their names on them. Brad put Aiden's together and I put Eli's together. Of course the boys helped when they could. Home Depot even had little, kid-size hammers.

The boys did such a good job of being patient to play with their helicopters. There were dozens of people there.

After we finished making the helicopters, we went to go see the real one. I've never seen a helo this small because I'm used to Brad's huge one!

The Army Reserves were there with one of their rescue/ambulance type vehicles. Aiden was too scared to climb up the steps in the back (they were pretty steep) and Eli didn't care too much for sitting in the back either. They thought standing by the tire was pretty cool because it was so big.

Eli wanted to drive it though!! He was so excited to sit in the driver's seat and move the steering wheel.

Home Depot had stations for water, popcorn, and hotdogs. We got some of all of it although Aiden only wanted a bun, no hot dog! It's funny how little things like eating popcorn out of a bag is so exciting for the boys.

Eli enjoyed trying to shove the entire hot dog in his mouth while Aiden continued to work on his popcorn to make sure he didn't many any kernels.

The police were there too. They had 2 cars and opened the doors so the kids (and adults) could see go in the car. We help up the boys so they could touch the lights. Aiden thought it was cool but Eli was a little scared of them.

Thankfully, I've never seen the back of a police car before and had no idea that the back seat is all plastic. The boys thought it was pretty neat. Eli didn't mind getting in with me and closing the door.

We did take a few minutes to get a family picture although we were trying to look directly into the sun. We had a great morning and headed home around 11:00ish.

Here is a final picture of the boys' helicopters. Unfortunately, we left without Aidens and never found it. :(

We didn't do much for the rest of Saturday. Brad wasn't feeling too great and I had a ton of work to do. It is so cute that Aiden asked to read to Eli on Saturday night. Eli picked out his book and Aiden opened and it started asking Eli where some of the body parts are at (Eli is pointing to his head). It was too precious. We had to keep reminding Aiden that Eli had to be able to see the book.

I snuck the camera in while it was prayer time. My grandma used to have this picture of my uncle Jon kneeling by his bed praying and I always thought it was so precious. It melts my heart and makes me so happy to see my boys praying and kneeling by their beds and I would love to capture it. That said, when they see the camera, they like to smile. This first picture below is so cute because you can see Eli peeking up at Aiden. Aiden is so cute because we ask him to name at least one thing he is thankful for every night. Sometimes is food, playing, and trucks. He's too precious.

This last picture is Eli signing "night night" before he goes to bed.

We went to church on Sunday and Brad started feeling even worse. Brad stayed home and slept for the rest of the day. Monday he felt even worse and didn't go to work. Thankfully, he's feeling much better today. I have another post but that will have to wait another day or so. It's late and I need to get ready for my trip to Gainesville tomorrow. I love teaching!