Pigtails and Policemen

Leah's hair is getting pretty long these days and I have been enjoying putting her hair in pigtails, since it is the only thing I can do with her hair that she can't pull out (she's not a fan of headbands or barrettes). I think they are adorable and go along well with her sassy attitude :)

It was either hand her the cell phone to distract her,

or she was getting down from that chair and

running away! Isn't it sad that this is the best

shot I could get of her pigtails?!

And since I was snapping pics of Leah,

Joshua wanted to smile for one of his own.

I absolutely LOVE that smile!

***

Now that Joshua has gotten pretty good with his writing and reading, I decided to make it more interesting for him (and me!) by using these weekly learning units I found online. I absolutely love the talented people who create things and share them online for others to use for free! Each unit is on a different topic and covers writing, reading, math, patterns, puzzles, and other activities, as well as a suggestion of books to check out from the library that cover the same subject. For our first week, Joshua chose the unit on police officers. He's loving the books and printable activities! We are fortunate to have a few Garner police officers that attend church with us, and I asked one of them if he'd be willing to let us meet up with him one day while he was working so Joshua could see him in uniform and get a tour of the police car.

Officer Kevan Anderson and Joshua posing in front

of the police car...Kevan was SO patient and sweet

with Joshua! We got to see a lot of the things we

have been learning about: uniform, badge, handcuffs,

flashlight, two-way radio, flashing lights, siren, and

police cruiser.

Joshua can be really shy with new people and

new things, and Kevan was great with him. He gave

Joshua a cool pencil and a sticker badge, and Joshua

gave him a thank you card he had made the day

before and some cookies I made as a thank you.

What a fun way to start our new learning time!

Time with Grandma

We love when Grandma comes to visit! She spent the weekend with us and I snapped this picture after church on Sunday. Leah is wearing a precious dress that my Aunt Sydney gave her for Christmas (we put a long-sleeved onesie underneath since it was chilly today, and the dress has a matching overcoat that is gorgeous!) and Joshua is sporting a new church outfit Grandma brought up this weekend, along with a badge they made in Sunbeams today. Side note: how much do I love that when I asked Joshua what they learned in Primary today, he said, "Heavenly Faver and Jesus love me SO much!" :)

Of the 20 or so pictures I took, Leah either had her eyes closed or her fingers in her mouth for all of them...this was the best of the bunch! As a baby, she'd suck on her fingers all the time for comfort. She rarely does it now, but I think she's cute either way :) Three of my favorite people in the whole wide world, all in one picture!

Leah-bug on the move

And lest you worry about Leah feeling left out during Joshua's school time...

She loves having free reign of all the toys, with no worries about Joshua taking them from her or pushing her over! It might be her favorite time of the day :)

Are you seeing this crazy hair she's got?! It is flipping further and further out from her head the longer it grows...I'm waiting to see when it will curl up like mine did.

Could you not just eat that sassy little thing up? She's constantly on the move and starting to talk up a storm. Her current favorite words are Da-da, ball, go, uh-oh, potty (she hears us talking about it with Joshua all the time), hey (she drags the word out like I do: "heeeeey"), ow! (wonder why she ends up saying that 20 times a day?) and bu-bye. We love our spunky little gal :)

School days

One of my goals for this new year was to do a set "school time" with Joshua each day. He absolutely LOVES to learn and we've been doing all kinds of activities regularly related to that, but I never had a set time each day for us to sit down and spend time on writing letters, reading, etc. Now we do...can you tell that Joshua is enjoying it? :)

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago. We focus on a new letter each day, as well as repeating all the ones we've covered so far. He's getting really good with his writing and he has so much fun doing it--it makes me so happy to see him enjoy learning so much! I love all the online resources available for him to do activities on the computer, as well as worksheets that I can print out and laminate for multiple uses. We're also using some online reading activities and the BOB Books, and I am absolutely amazed at how quickly he is learning. These little ones have so much potential and aptitude--he constantly surprises me. He loves to read words on signs or at the store or even on my shirt, and to see his face light up with pride at a job well done is just priceless.

I can only hope and pray (and encourage!) that he

will continue to love learning throughout his life!

Guess who is in a big-boy bed!

I know that a lot of parents move their kids out of cribs and into beds around age 2, so it may seem strange that Joshua is just now moving into a big-boy bed. David and I decided to wait until Joshua seemed ready to move over and able to handle the freedom that it entailed. We didn't want to have a lot of sleep interruptions and ups-and-downs that lots of younger kids often do when they move from their crib to a bed. He loved sleeping in his crib and only recently suggested sleeping in a bed like Mommy and Daddy. My mother had purchased a toddler bed from a yard sale a few years back (in anticipation) and purchased this really cute bedding as part of his Christmas gift this year. We set the bed up on Monday morning and starting with his nap that day, he has been doing GREAT! He has happily gotten in his bed for his nap each afternoon and for sleeping at night and snuggled right up with his lion to go to sleep. Since he's such an active little guy, I anticipated having some issues, so we've talked about how big boys stay in their beds and get their sleep--so far, he's doing great!

How did he get so big?!

He loves getting "snug," as he calls it :)

We are really proud of Joshua for making the transition so easily. We love our big boy! :)

Fun with Christmas presents!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas all this month! Joshua and I did lots of little service projects, we caroled with Grandma Martha and Granddaddy Bernie as we delivered yummy treats, and we spent time with friends and family numerous times over the past few weeks! Both David's parents and my parents, along with other sweet relatives, were very kind and generous to the kids with gifts that they are enjoying each day. Since you are reading this blog post, you obviously read this blog often enough to know I don't remember to take a lot of "in the moment" shots--I'd rather just be participating in the moment with the kids. So here are a few pictures I took a little later on.

The kids love their new table & chairs!

Love my smiley sweethearts!

Consider yourselves warned--this picture has

extremely high levels of cheesy smiling!

A rare in-between smile shot ;)

What a silly girl!

(You can also see the box of my new

vacuum behind her--I absolutely LOVE it!)

Leah's new puppy Violet

Joshua's big John Deere dump truck

Leah pushing her new baby doll

in her grocery-filled shopping cart...

now all she needs is her very own

coupon notebook and she'll be a

mini-Mommy :)

Joshua demonstrating his Cars racing track

and car carrier combo

Pictures!

We used some of the images our dear friend Katherine took to make gifts for our parents for Christmas:

And one for ourselves to hang up in our home:

Katherine also had a canvas made of one of our family shots for us to hang up as well--hooray for family pictures!