Jude - October

- We were laying in bed one night as I was putting Jude to bed and we got on the subject of heaven. zi thought we were getting pretty deep when Jude asked, "Are there donuts in heaven? What about cookies?" I told him that heaven will be better than anything he can think of, and he followed up with, "well does God had an oven?"  I guess he had sweets on the brain!!
- In another conversation with our little deep thinker he asked if we have to stay away from Jesus because he was on the cross. We reminded him about the fact that Jesus is no longer on the cross and that it actually ended well because he is now in heaven with his Father.  He seemed good with that and continued on.  I thought he was done, but a few minutes later he asks, "Why did Jesus have to leave all of his friends?" We love the fact that he is thinking deeply about these things, but truly "tests" us in explaining all of these heavy topics to a pre-schooler!
- Another evening when putting Jude to bed he asked me if I wanted to feel his heart beat.  He then grabs my hand and places it on his tummy and proceeds to tell me that its "beating" when his stomach goes in and out as he breathes.  I guess we need to work on anatomy a bit more!
- After dealing with what I am sure was a "major" injury, Jude starts to tell me about being tough. "I'm tough mommy, BUT sometimes I cry when I bleed....BUT really big boys cry when they have lots of blood too." (just in case I thought he wasn't tough!)
- One day when we were getting out of the car Jude found a little heart sticker.  He then begins to put it on his heart because "that's where Jesus lives and he loves Jesus."  We begin to walk, and a few minutes later, very seriously, Jude looks up at me and asks, "I wonder how Jesus stays in everyone's heart? hummmm... How does He do that?" (this was my first time to attempt the topic of the Holy Spirit, it was a lofty one!)
- After school one day I asked Jude if he ate the special lunch that I packed him and he confidently responded, "No, it was so and so's birthday, so I was holding out for cookies and cupcakes!" Well at least he's honest!
- We have been having to talk about not using "potty words" to be funny lately. After school one day he proceeds to tell me that a friend at school used a potty word so Jude put his finger up and shook it at him (he proceeds to show me putting his finger up and very slowly moving it side to side with a pretty good "mommy" face). I told him that, yes we don't want to use potty words, but that was the teacher's job. I then let him know that it isn't very nice to shake our finger at our friends and that we should use kind words instead.  He stops me and says very matter of factually, "Oh no mommy, we weren't allowed to talk, so I just had to shake my finger at him." So basically he didn't take in a word that I just said and let me know that he "needed" to do that!

 

Quinn - 17 months

This girl, this girl...she is all things sweet, cuddly, independent, and quirky.  On the other hand, she is also becoming very sassy, demanding, quick tempered, and a bit mischievous!!  Typically toddler traits, but also giving us slight nerve-racking thoughts of what our future holds with this little thing!! Good and not so good, we wouldn't trade a minute that we have with her! She is full-force on the move doing her thing most of the day.  She wants to be right in on the action with brother and is rarely even phased by any rough-housing or big brother authority he gives her!! When he's not around, you would think she would want to just drink in all of our attention, but she is usually just looking around for or asking for Jude! She pretty much thinks he hangs the moon!! She has always been our little talker, but she is really beginning to say more and more things that we can actually understand.  She will try to say and mimic almost anything you give to her, but still more often than not she thinks she is having a major conversation yet no one else can make any sense of what is coming out of her mouth!! Doesn't seem to mind her one bit though.  I love it when we pick her up from the church nursery and there is a new volunteer' they always comment on her busyness and/or her chatter! She LOVES going to church and being with her "friends". She also thinks that she is a big girl when we are at Bubba's school.  She instantly wants me to put her down to walk in by herself and will walk right into Jude's classroom and sit down with the rest of the kids.  Cracks me up every time! Speaking of walking...she wants to walk EVERYWHERE by HERSELF, and you better be ready for a mega breakdown if you try to pick her up! I love this independence, but she doesn't really understand danger at this point, so we need to find a happy medium! Oh the fits!!  They are not often with Quinn, but when they come, they come quickly and escalate to the top instantly! She goes straight into full out crying/screaming, super red-faced, tears streaming down face, not breathing until she has to, fully on fit mode!! But you give her what she wanted in the first place and she INSTANTLY stops like nothing ever happened! I guess a girl that just knows what she wants! Luckily right now, we can pretty much just laugh about it, but will need to "help" her learn how to use her words soon! Just don't eat around her if you aren't going to share, tell her no, or take something away from her and you'll be good.  Oh wait, that's called parenting!!! On the sweetness side though, there just couldn't be more! She loves with her whole heart, cuddles with the best of them, gives you the sweetest smiles, and cute little bye bye waves every time you lay her in bed.  Although we want her to stay our baby forever, we can't wait to see all this little girl becomes.  With all of this personality, it is evident the Lord has big plans in store!

Look at that sweet face!

Guilty!! 

Stole my cookie right out of my hand and ate the whole thing!

Checking out the crazy gorillas with Daddy

Loving all the sites at the zoo

Horrible picture, but caught her carrying around 

her purse with all of her "important" stuff inside!

All dressed up in her fancy dress 

(of course, a Grancy creation!)

This is how Quinn prefers to slide

Swimming with cousins and there was ice cream. 

She got her own cup and was in HEAVEN!

Peek-a-boo!!

Playing while Jude is in his gymnastics class

Pizza time

A cute shot the volunteers caught during worship at church. 

 She LOVES to worship and dance!

Quinn & Ava in their matching outfits...the refused to let us get a front pic!

"I'm sweet, she' wild...together we are dangerous"

Stats:
- Her favorite toys are pretty much anything that Jude is playing with that looks fun, driving Jude's cars around on the floor, her purse, our cell phones, and the vegetable steamer!
- She doesn't have any new words this month as much as really beginning to say things that she already knows better.
- Currently getting more molars in, but I honestly lost count on how many teeth she has in total!
-Wears size 18 month clothes, size 3 shoes, and size 5 diapers.

Jude - September

Crazy boy, crazy month, crazy Judisiums....

-One evening while putting Jude to bed we were talking about how God created him to be exactly how he planned and different than everyone else.  Jude's response was, "God made me to be a special me, but I don't have any sparkles." He followed up by saying that sissy does have sparkles, but that he doesn't.  Still can't figure out what the "sparkles" are and if he was happy or sad that he didn't have any sparkles!
- One day when Jude was getting a bit "excited" I asked him not to yell.  He responded by saying, "I wasn't yelling, just talking loud." hummmmm, sounds very similar to me!!
-We were playing with Jude's Picasso Tiles (best building blocks EVER) and he asked me to make a cross.  Since there are only certain sizes and shapes, I did the best that I could.  He looked at it and said, "It kinda looks like a cross...but it really kinda doesn't."  He tried to be nice and make me feel ok about my creation, but just couldn't hold it in!
-While playing balloon volleyball in his room one day we decided to switch sides to give him more room to run around.  As we were switching he looked back and said, "Can you handle it Mommy?" Like, that side is pretty crazy and not sure if mom is up to the task, ha!
-One evening before bed Jude and Daddy asked me to come up to his room, when I got in there they showed me their amazing creation they made out of his building blocks (seeing a pattern with the blocks?).  They proceeded to show me how their creation worked and Jude turns to me and says, "We're just a bunch of special guys building!"
-Jude was standing in front of the pantry trying to find something to eat one afternoon and turns to me with a very disappointed voice, "I haven't been able to find any treats in here in a while." Sorry bud, but for good reason!!!
-I was telling Sam one day that I wanted to try to cut Jude's hair myself.  Jude looked up and said, "Don't cut my hair mom, it looks nice and good.  I want it to stay fancy!" Well we like good and fancy hair, so maybe I should cut it!!! LOL!

First day in the older 3's class at pre-school

This year they have to put all of their stuff up by themselves each morning! Ms. Lisa was teaching him the ropes on day one. 

"Helping" us out at Costco 

Horrible picture, but awesome creation! 

After church fun at the playground! 

Any time something happens, we always have to check for blood! 

Getting his picture taken at Meet the Teacher

Helping Miss Missy play the violin 

Checking out the new sensory lab at school...right up his alley!!! 

All the Mommy's (plus Sam) took the kids to the zoo...it was a zoo!!!

The gorillas were just waking up

One day they will hate us for this pic, 

but its just too sweet and a perfect depiction of their love for each other! 

Watching the elephants eat lunch 

Headed to the splash pad to cool off after a long morning in the zoo. 

This picture cracks me up:

1. Jude's face

2. Jacob and Ethan watching & laughing at him like he is crazy!!!

He loved having control of the water and shooting everyone 

Jude started gymnastics class and is really liking it

He has some work to do honing his skills! 

I had to capture this moment, because we have be coming to this park since he was a little guy.  It has been quite a while though since we made a visit and this crazy ladder that he could never do before, was easy as pie this time.  Just crazy to see how fast kids learn and grow without us even realizing it! 

Snowball fight for Cade's birthday

Jude's "fort"...

my poor couch and pillows!!

Grancy & Pops have been sending the kids post cards when they are traveling on their adventures and he LOVES getting his special mail.  This day he got his post card, laid down, and "read" it for a long time!