summer happenings

It has been a while since I last blogged- it seems life has picked up some speed along the way, and the weeks are flying away from me faster then I can record the events in here! so this post is an overview of the happenings in our family for the past few weeks.
The most important thing that has happened in our kids lives happened on Monday evening just before bed time. Carson and Logan and I were doing devotions together, reading a children's version of the bible, and talking about the stories we read. Carson piped up and said:
"did Jesus die for my sins?" "yes" I told him.
"You know that Jesus and God are the same person," He answered emphatically, " they are the SAME person." "that's right" I answered.
"why did Jesus have to die?" I asked
"Because I sin." Carson said, his eyes on the floor.
"That's right. and even if we just sin once, we can't be with God, because He is completely WITHOUT sin, and there cannot be sin in heaven with Him. "
"yeah," Carson said. "and you sin, and Daddy sins, and so does Logan. and me too."
"yes we do." I said, noticing how closely Carson was listening, "so that means that we aren't going to be able to get into heaven, doesn't it?"
"yeah, because I don't have Jesus in my heart." Carson said, sounding a little defeated.
"and we have to have Jesus in our hearts to be saved from our sin," I said, "He died to take away all the sin that we have done when we follow him and have him in our hearts."
"well, I don't have him in my heart. and I can't because I'm not an adult" Carson said. (one thing that is typical of all unbelievers, even ones that are being drawn to Jesus, it seems that we all have excuses of why we can't come to him, even a three year old... )
"you don't have to be an adult to have Jesus in your heart" I told him. "you just have to believe on him, and want to follow him."
"oh." Carson said.
We continued our devotions, and went on to different subjects. Ten minutes later when we were finished I asked Carson if there was anything he wanted to pray about before we went to sleep. Usually the requests are to go to someones house, have company over, or see family members, but this night he surprised me by immediately saying:
"yeah. I want to ask Jesus to come into my heart." so I told him to go ahead and pray. he closed his eyes tight, and said "Jesus, do you think you could come into my heart?" Then he grabbed me and hugged me and said "I think he said yes!!!" I prayed with him, and have continued to pray for him, for understanding to be given to him, and for his heart to be responsive to the Word of God.

We had a movie night with the cousins, it went well until everyone decided it was more fun to run and scream than it was to sit and watch... we still had a great time.

Logan has been learning a lot of new words, and continuing to amaze me with the things he can do on his own. He is definitely a toddler and not a baby... growing quickly into a big boy. its hard to look at him with his (almost) full head of hair and remember what he looked like weighing less than 30 lbs and bald... he is now getting his own utensils and feeding himself, asking for specifics like apples out of the fridge, he's still asking for juice 40 times a day or so, but he is suffering it out on plain old water most of the time so that he doesn't keep refusing it. Daddy is still his favorite person, he asks for him numerous times throughout the day, and screams his name and runs for him when daddy finally gets home. He calls for Carson whenever he doesn't know where brother is, and can say his name well. his favorite word for this week is "again" - always referring to some kind of body slam performed by daddy or uncle Asa... which is a favorite of both my sons. Carson has been requesting the "choke slam." Logan can say the words "you hurt me" now, which he says even when he slams himself into someone and hurts himself...

We had a great visit with my parents and Lisa, they were down last week for 4 days. it was wonderful having them around. Dad fixed everything in my house that needed fixing... right down to the shower head that got duct taped. my house now seems so much more livable with the utensil drawer now being able to open without falling apart!! Mom made the most delicious
lasagna rolls, I'm going to attempt to reproduce those sometime in the coming week.

the 4th was spent at my place, we had a cookout with my parents and Nathans, it was a great time, with great food- mom Mendes made the greatest steaks that we bbq'd. We ended up watching fireworks on our new 52" plasma... it felt nice to have both our parents enjoy it with us. hopefully fun vacations like these won't be too far apart.

Main pit stop

On our way to my parent's place a few weeks ago, we stopped at a friends house, who has the nicest place I've ever seen. the kids fell in love with the dog- I think her name is Grace.
The whole trip Carson was so excited to get to Nanna and Papa's, but once we arrived at Betsy's house all he wanted to do was swim in their pool and play with the dogs, goats and cat. we finally pried him away, and after many more hours of driving we arrived at my parents house

quotes for the week #3

Carson:

"I put the crayon in your purse, because Logan had it in his mouth and I saw him. it was like a tongue tattoo." -after attempting to let Logan color with him.

"daddy, I'm on your team. it'll be great. yo ho ho, go cowboys!" (they teamed up on me with the squirt guns)

"proverbs 1:8, My son, hear the instruction of your father, and don't forsake the law of your mother. " - it took about 5 minutes of solid repetition, but he got it!!

"mommy, you look good today." Carson said. I said "awwh, thanks hun. that's so sweet." Logan leans over and touches Carson's arm and says: "good boy."


Logan:

"hey, dudes!"

"free DVD" (Carson saw the advertisement on a cereal box for a free dvd, so that's what he calls it, Logan keeps asking for "more free DVD!!"

"I'm juicey." this is Logan's way of telling me he's thirsty and wants juice... he just kind of blends them together!

Logan's new thing this week is greeting every single stranger that he crosses paths with. he'll stick his little hand as high in the air as it can go, and cheerfully call out "Heyyoh! HI!" (hello, hi) and if the person doesn't respond, Logan simply calls louder "HI!" with a bigger wave... this process continues until the person Logan is trying to communicate with finally notices and says hello back. to which Logan smiles like his mission is accomplished and keeps on his way.

blazing heat- defined

We had a great trip to Canada, thanks to my parent's hospitality, and my mother in law accompanying me, Cathy's amazing community breakfast, and Erin and Gene's hosting skills. we did a lot of fun things, but the best part was just spending time with family and friends. We arrived back home without the hoopla of the trip down. (one missed turn and a VERY late arrival... resulting in 911 calls by my parents, and a few calls to the Maine State troopers... once again mom, I apologize if I am the cause of any ulcers or cardiac stress ! )

Now that we are back home, we find ourselves in the middle of a terrific heat wave. the weather has been amazing- for those who live on a lake, or have air conditioning in every room of their house, that is. the thermometer was reading 95 degrees , and that was at the beach which was much cooler!! Yesterday I took the kids to the beach with my friend Sheila and her three adorable kids. I have some cute pictures that are being stubborn and not transferring to my computer, once I have that hitch figured out I'll be displaying them proudly online.

Today, another scorcher, trapped us inside our house for the afternoon, but finally when we spotted a breeze picking up outside we decided to try for a water fight with our family of squirt guns that we had picked up for precisely this occasion.
I, however, had not considered the possibility that my boys would ALL gang up on me and drench me from the very top strand of hair on my head down to the bruised foot I got from attempting to wrestle away a gun from my much stronger hubby... :) good times. The kids ended up jumping in their little kiddie pool- Logan ended up exploding his huggies diaper from jumping repeatedly on his bottom in the pool for a reaction from mom and dad. he really will do anything for a laugh that one!!
anyways, we just found out that this is subway's customer appreciation day, so we are headed out to subway for a free six inch sub with purchase of a drink. :)

Window Shopping- prudential style!

So today I met up with my friend Ashley (who is moving to Washington State in a few days *sniff*, but such is the life of a coastie wife, right??)
so we took the subway from the north side, over to the prudential section of Boston- and went to the ritziest mall ever... just for kicks we took the kids into a few shops that we wanted to window shop in- Tiffany's, Gucci, Coach, Louis Vatton, Sac's Fifth Ave, etc. the prices blew me away- can you believe that some people out there in the world will spend over $400 on a TANK TOP? we're talking about a tank top that looked like it should cost $5 tops. I found a dress that was so cute at Gucci- only to find the price dramatically reduced and still waay out of my price range- $1,995. for a SUNDRESS!! we were checking out the shoes, and admiring the extravagant colors and styles, when Carson realized the buzz was all about shoes.
So he sat down on a stool, and posed his sneaker (dirty and untied as it was) right beside a polished leather stiletto (yeah- over a grand for that one too) and said
"oh, its so cute!"
I guess after hearing mommy and Ashley shopping, this was the comment that the kids picked up on as being universally accepted as the thing to say.
We stopped on our walk back from the train to meet daddy and Shawn (Ashley's husband) at the base, and got some ice cream at the world renowned Mikes pastry shop- the best ice cream I've ever tasted actually!
So now we're home, back to reality- and I'm still left to wonder- what exotic breed of people actually spend two thousand dollars on a sun dress, or nine hundred on a pair of ballerina flats? I'm perfectly happy to keep up my bargain shopping and come home with that "treasure" that I've been waiting to go on clearance- after all, a girl doesn't have to spend over five dollars to treat herself- sometimes the best feeling comes from finding the best deal around! -Like the bargain I brought home from the extravagant mall I visited today- a tub of shea butter scented cream - 75% off- I spent $2.50. now that's living the good life! Two happy boys, a husband that got to hear the good news that our bank account hasn't been overdrawn from my wild shopping spree, and I didn't come home empty handed. It was a great day.

RING BEARER!!

My sister in law Rachael is getting married on August 4th, and she's asked Carson to be her ring bearer. Francesca (there are a few pictures of her on here somewhere) Carson's cousin is the flower girl, so today Francesca's mom (Cynthia) and I took the kids shopping for their outfits. Rachael is having a super laid back beach wedding at a gazebo in New Jersey, so we knew we were looking for a linen type look- nothing too frilly. We lucked out, and managed to find the most adorable linen dress for Francesca that exactly matches Carson's linen pants. We found them sandals that coordinate well, and will be picking them up this week (gotta wait for those great sales!!) I'm so excited for the wedding- the two of them are going to be adorable!! Francesca is very sure of what is supposed to happen- she grabs Carson's hand and tells him "Okay, Carson, its time for us to go over THERE now. let's go okay?." and they walk together wherever she leads. I think they'll do just fine on her lead!! I'll be posting pictures of his new outfit soon.

Look Alike!!

Here is Logan with Uncle Daniel Mendes, we realized when he was down for a short visit this past month that the two look more alike than any of us realized! I thought it would be fun to do some look alike photos, so we'll see what else I come up with after this one!

Chatty Tuesday

This morning when we got up Carson and Logan immediately spotted a cute little robin outside our patio window. They were studying it for a moment before Carson ran to get my attention as I was making breakfast saying- "mommy- come see! its a very mysterious bird outside, come and see it!" of course, it wasn't too mysterious at all, but it did hop around in and out of the bushes and the kids thought it was great.

This afternoon I fed the kids left over spaghetti from last night (it wasn't very good because I didn't have enough spaghetti sauce for the amount of noodles that I cooked.)
But Carson, being the ever encouraging child that he has been lately took one bite and asked-
"How did you get this scrumptious, scrumptious sauce in here ?" I answered that I had dumped a bottle of ready made sauce into the noodles.
"how many bottles did you use?" Carson wanted to know.
"two." I answered.
"well," Carson said looking at the food in front of him, "maybe next time you can use four."

Logan had been quite loud all throughout lunch time, and finally my elder boy had had enough of it. He looked at his brother with a smile and used a line he'd probably been thinking up all afternoon- "shut your voice mail."
I don't know where kids come up with the things they do, but I'm glad that I'm hearing it first hand- its a blast!

a family thing

Today was a different kind of day- it started raining a little bit during breakfast, but the day didn't look too extremely yucky. At 11 am Nate walked in the door- he had the day off from work so that he could get the cars fixed- a nice surprise. (we've been having some car trouble in the past week with both of our vehicles.)
We decided to drop off both vehicles at the same time and then take the kids for a walk from the mechanic's shop and go to the Christian book store down the street, but by the time we arrived the rain showers had turned to a downpour. Nathan dropped us off at home, and drove back to the shop to wait out the repairs. I put the kids to bed and turned on a movie, wondering how Nathan's day was going. an hour later the door opened, and I got a glance of my husband- honestly he looked like he had just jumped in a lake. he walked the 5 miles home from the repair shop in the hardest rain fall of the entire season thus far. We both busted up laughing as soon as he stepped in the door. it was unbelievable.
The rest of the day was full of silly jokes and laughter, everyone was in a good mood and rested and enjoyed having daddy home for most of the day.
This evening, as Logan played on the living room floor, I sat on the couch beside Carson and Nathan watching TV. Carson, sitting between Nathan and I put his little arms around my waist and tried to wedge his hand behind daddy's bigger frame.
"why are you poking me in the side?" Nathan asked him
"I'm just putting my arm around you" Carson answered.
"why?" Nathan asked.
Carson answered quickly, his little face lifted up to explain to daddy-
"I'm just trying to do a family thing."
"you're alright son." Nathan said with a grin on his face. "so are you daddy." Carson said. "so are you."

weekly quotes

Carson

"the suspense is killing me!" (wondering if dad was going to be home when we arrived)

"its a competition to the death!" (battle with a caterpillar and his water gun.)

"you need to help me destroy the whole city" (imaginary city with our water guns)

"I'm four... and I don't have a girlfriend." (he's still only three, and was talking to a family friend that he's never met before.)

Logan

"excuse me" -usually he says "excuse YOU" every time... we finally had a breakthrough this week!

"oh geez"

"I got YOU." - when he kissed me back after me getting him good... repeating slowly and clearly what I had just said.

all played out

The weather has been so nice- hot every single day, that we've been spending a lot of time running around outdoors lately. I was teaching on this evening, and daddy was spending time with the boys. I was really impressed with the sound level in the next room- it was so quiet and peaceful for the entire lesson. I went out to see what activity daddy had involved the kids with this evening, and this is the scene that greeted me. all three of my boys, completely knocked out and splayed across the couch. I took three pictures with flash and all... and not one of them even flinched!

I don't like my haircut!!

Carson got a trim the same day Logan got his first haircut, and wasn't pleased with the results...

freaky picture- it scares me every time I see this face on my little boy... yikes!

Okay, he's just a clown. not really angry!! I think he got this posing deal from his cousin Francesca, she is only 3 months older than Carson, but she is completely different from him. Whenever a camera appears, Francesca begins striking poses faster and with more energy than any real-life TV shoot I've ever witnessed... (if there is a such thing as a real life TV show... lol)... so cute. So when Carson saw my camera, he tried to do the same thing, only we got some crazy faces and a lot of action shots... I don't think Carson gets the idea of a still picture yet!!

Logan's first haircut!!

after a year and a half of waiting for Logan's hair to grow in enough to call it a headful, we finally noticed that the back was looking like a mullet. so on Saturday, May 26th, Logan got his very first trim! he sat very still on daddy's knee, made funny faces (pictured here) and listened intently to the sound of the scissors snipping away at his wisps of hair. When Aunt Natalie had finished the trim there was only a tiny bit on the floor to show for it- a far cry from Carson's first haircut that filled the entire dustpan! I love Logan's haircut, he looks pretty much the same but less scruffy, which is always good!

the baby store

Carson was trying to play with his golf club, using it as a hockey stick and "scoring" on the cabinets with his squishy baseball. The game was fun and he was enjoying himself. Then over came Logan. He picked up the ball, and wrestled his way past Carson with it, screaming as he went by. Carson didn't even bother to try to get it back this time, he just came straight to me with his idea (which I think had been developing for a while in his little mind.)
"Mommy," he said, obviously trying to be mature and convincing in his tone of voice, "I think we should take Logan to the baby store."
"really?" I asked, wondering what this newest idea was about. "What happens at the baby store?"
"well," Carson said cheerfully, "Thats where babies go and get snacks and play games together. its fun."
"thats good," I answered, wondering what he was getting at. "and after Logan plays and eats snacks we take him home?"
"No." Carson said emphatically- his eyes conveying that this was the important part of his scheme- "Logan has to STAY there- we'll pick another baby, maybe one that is nice. Logan is just bad all of the time. We'll EXCHANGE him."
After covering my smile I was able to answer him, "Well, Carson, Logan is the baby that God gave us, and we have to try to help him grow up to be a good boy. I get to take care of him, and as his big brother, so do you."
"I don't think so." Carson said, the cheerfulness back in his tone, "we should just get a good baby."
The funny thing was that later that night, we put the kids to bed, and went into the kitchen to clean up... what we found was a 2 gallon puddle of water on the floor- apparently Logan had opened the spout of our water jug a little bit and let the entire thing drain on the floor quietly.
Five minutes into sopping up the mess I looked at Nathan and said "maybe the baby store was a good idea after all?" just kidding. we love our baby Logan, and hope that this terrible stage (and he's not even two yet) is almost over....

Bandits!

We decided to take the kids for a walk the other evening - it was a beautiful evening, the trees lining our street are all blossoming, in fact there are so many blooms outside at this time of year the air smells like honeysuckle. (or what I THINK honeysuckle smells like...)
So we loaded up in our double stroller and took a hike a few blocks up to Friendlies where we got chocolate brownie sundays, and shared with the kids. By the time we got back to the house, the kids were on the sugar high of their little lives! They ran around the backyard chasing each other and yelling for me to follow. Carson decided that he was a bandit and that I couldn't catch him. he yelled "yippi oh, yippi eh! I'm a BANDIT!" and laughed as he ran around the bush in our backyard for the 150th time. Pictured here is Logan, being himself eating Carson's "gun" stick, which led to another chase, tackle and wrestling match. good times. but it may be a while before we get them more ice cream!

so generous!

I gave Carson and Logan both drinks of apple juice (which is a favorite in my house) and they each had straws in their glasses. I was holding Logan's so he wouldn't spill (yes, all the sippy cups were dirty again, my kids eat and drink A LOT) and Carson was holding his own. Suddenly Carson looked at Logan and did something strange.
"here you go little buddy." he said as he gave his own straw to Logan. Logan looked warily at Carson, and then started drinking from the offered straw. Wanting to reinforce this nice (albeit odd behavior) I said "that's nice of you Carson" and gave him Logan's straw. Carson took a tiny sip, and returned to his own cup. 10 seconds later the same thing happened again. Logan drinks some of Carson's juice, and Carson sips Logan's. the third time this happened I was kind of baffled, but thrilled that my three year old was sharing so well- that is until Carson slurped up the last drop of his juice, jumped in the air with fists raised victoriously and shouted "YESS! I WIN! I beat you Logan!!" Logan didn't seem to care, as he finished up his own drink as well and smiled.
maybe that idea of racing at the dinner table to have everyone finish at the same time wasn't as brilliant as I had first imagined... but there aren't too many 2 hour dinners for Carson any more either... we'll just have to weigh the good and the bad before implementing any more of my plans. Leave it up to my little ones to take competitive EATING to a whole new level!

bowling

We went bowling today with some teenagers from the church we go to and brought the kids along. We didn't have gutter guards, so it was difficult for Carson to get the ball down to the other end. Logan tried one- but the ball was bigger than he is, so it didn't work out so well. We were pleased with the kids success at the sport - none of the balls actually stopped before making it to the end which was a good thing... I didn't realize that something moving so slowly could make it that far though. fun times. The kids ended up with a grand score of 9, which made the teenagers pretty happy because their scores were mostly in the low 40s.

Quotes for the week

"oh good. We've got Possibilities." - Carson upon finding our Campbels soup in the cabinet.

"yeah, my eyes- they're like vinoculars." - Carson upon spotting a really far away plane in the sky. (binoculars.)

"maybe you could put on some makeup or something?" - Carson upon taking a closer look at mom in the morning.

"if a dinosaur attacked me I would just do karate on him cause I'm not scared." - Carson upon being reminded that he should be thankful for parents that take care of him and protect him... he didn't quite catch the idea of it though.

"suck it up - you're a WOMAN." - Carson upon seeing mommy say "ouch" when Logan hit her with a stick outside.... yeah, we have a lot of refining to do with Logan!

"excuse YOU" - Logan upon burping

"umm- juice? PLEASE?" - Logan, seemingly every minute of the day.

And that's all for this week... tune back in next week and I'm sure there will be many more silly quotes and views of life from the eyes of people a lot smaller than us.... sometimes its quite funny to take ourselves a lot less seriously and just enjoy the times that we have together!