Cowboy Shep

Here's Shepard's latest outfit of the evening!  He found John's boots this time.  He's so cute (even though he has a knack for knowing how to pick clashing clothes!  I'm starting to think he sees clashing as his personal style. :)  Oh my!) 

Our Christian Patriotic Duty

I read this quote in a book today (Parenting from the Heart by Marilyn Boyer) and thought it was so good that I wanted to share it! 

"Far too long Satan has duped Christians and they have believed his lie that to be really spiritual, you ought to be a pastor or missionary, but whatever you do, keep out of the civil arena.  He has managed to render Christians ineffective in their society by keeping them within the four walls of their churches.  John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and perhaps the most influential writer of the Constitution, stated, 'Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.'  We have a heritage of godliness.  We must take back the ground that good men have given up by doing nothing."

You cannot tell me that the Founders did not intend for America to be a Christian nation with Christian leaders!  America has drifted away from the idea of America itself.  We don't even know who we are anymore.  And sadly, even our "spiritual" area of church is lacking bold, Biblical teaching - not all churches, but I would say most.  We've entertained those in attendance, but for what?  Christians need to engage in politics while we also become bold to teach God's truth.  Alexis de Tocqueville said, "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power."  Hmmm... our genius and power is waning today.  But they go together...  we have to have both real, true, solid, Biblical teaching that is flaming with righteousness and Christian civil servants who will serve the Lord through politics without fear!  Anyone?  Otherwise, America is dying...

More outfits

We had an invitation to a special friend's house this week...  the boys were so excited that they counted the days until the big day!  Will woke up each morning asking if "this" was the day.  While we were there enjoying the wonderful hospitality, Will dressed up in several outfits...  I got this picture of him as the football player.

Today Will played with the little Ronald McDonald (yes, it's a Happy Meal toy) and pretended that it was his little baby.  He was so sweet and took such good care of his baby.  He was sure "McDonald" needed a bandaid. :)  (Love the goggles!  They are always finding something unusual to wear around the house!)

Tonight we watched a sweet horse movie called Second Chances.  As soon as it was over we had two little cowboys riding their horses around the circle in our house.  Both of the little boys love to pretend about the movie as soon as it's over...  they can hardly contain themselves.  Josiah doesn't pretend like they do, so he watches them with us.  It was so cute!  Here are our little cowboys...  I guess these are the best cowboy hats we have.  (Shepard picked his own pajamas...  cute, huh?)

Popeye the Sailor Man

Shepard has a fascination with eating spinach just like Popeye...  I guess he thinks he'll get those big muscles!  So, he begged for a can of spinach when we were at the grocery store - the one with the picture of Popeye on it.  He could HARDLY wait to eat it!  Finally...  the moment came!  I grabbed my phone to take a picture...

I think the best word to describe it is disgust. :)  I think the fascination is over!

The Stars Sing

I read this to the boys in our morning Bible study last week:  "while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy" Job 38:7 - and I asked the boys if the stars really do sing??  Our conclusion was that they must sing if the Bible says so and we thought we should study that sometime.  And then today's school lesson was about...  the stars singing!!  We studied pulsars and their sound waves and we were able to actually listen to a recording of the stars online!  We literally sat here at my computer with tears in our eyes as we HEARD the stars praising God!  And we are also studying about speech and languages in school right now so we talked about how God created us with voices to communicate and the most important thing we can do with our voice is to praise Him.  If we don't, He says the very rocks will cry out in praise to Him... just like the stars!  We'll study math and grammar this afternoon, but I have a feeling that this morning's lesson about the stars is the one that will have a lasting impact...  at least it will for me!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  All the boys and I had a nice candlelight dinner together...  there's just something magical about eating by candlelight.  My sweet hubby bought us heart shaped pizza - always a hit with the boys - and a treat for me since I didn't have to cook!  And then he cleaned up the kitchen and even unloaded the dishwasher for me!  Awww, thanks Honey!  I love how you love me!

The boys were pretty excited about this Valentine cookie for dessert!

I wuv you, mommie!

A few days ago, I was working in the kitchen when I felt little arms wrap around my legs...  I looked down to see my little Will (2 years old) burying his face in my knees and then I heard those most precious words from his lips for the first time...  "I wuv you, mommie!"  Out of nowhere, completely unsolicited and so sweet that my heart melts again just thinking about it.  Does it get any better than that?!  I love you, too, Will David!

Josiah's Latest School Project

We've been studying architecture and Josiah made some models of homes from different cultures.  Good job, Josiah!

Snow Fun!

We don't get this kind of snow very often...  in fact, this was probably Will's first time to ever play in snow.  He loved it!

Shep's snow angel...

Will does everything Shep does... 

John's putting some finishing touches on the snowman.

Josiah drew a smiley face in the snow, but it's too bright to see it.

What's a good snow day without a snowball fight?! 

The Wasson boys with their snowman - great job guys!  (This was the first time our boys have ever been able to build a snowman!)

Dressing Up

The boys were waiting for John to take them outside to build a snowman and I was busy cleaning...  next thing I noticed... these three characters!

Volcano, Snow and Boxing - A day in the life...

The day started out with a cold dreary rain and a yard full of mud...  too yucky outside to send all these rambunctious boys outside to burn off some energy.  I've learned that my guys need a break to expend energy in order to sit still again for school.  Boys. :)  Plus we had workers coming and going constantly which just makes the boys more curious and more energetic.  Not to mention that today was the day we were finishing our volcano experiment.  I had to take a break and assign the boys to jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, and running laps around our interior circle.  Then on to the volcano experiment...  here's our finished volcano after it was painted.  Cool, huh?

Woohoo!  Lava!  (Or at least some red foaming substance that oozes out of the top!)  They were thrilled!

I love that all three of my guys can do part of their school together!  I hope that one day they will treasure this opportunity to build their relationships - especially as we have to work together to figure out who gets the only good paintbrush and who is going to pour which item into the volcano.  :)

Then came the snow...  the beautiful snow!  Shepard had to get out in it and played by himself for quite a while.  Josiah was more content to stay inside.  And Will was napping.

When Shep finally came back inside, his hands and feet were so cold...  I wrapped him up in a blanket with a heat pillow - ahhh - and made him some hot chocolate.  Life is good!  I went upstairs to tell John how Shepard was in ecstasy in his cozy environment and John chuckled, then said, "He's a lot like you".  Hmmm... I hadn't thought about that, but come to think of it, I guess he is.  I had made myself my own cup of sweet coffee with the intention of sitting in a cozy chair with a good book and watching the snowflakes fall - just the thought of it makes me feel warm and cozy.  But, alas, I'll have to just enjoy the thought of it because life is too busy for me to just sit and enjoy anything. :)  I was constantly up and down and then just as I thought I might actually get to sit with my now lukewarm coffee, Will woke up from his nap and I traded that book for some sweet cuddles with him for a few minutes.  That was a good trade - even if it only lasted a few minutes!

So, tonight was Family Night at our house and we cozied up with pizza and one of the Rocky movies.  I'd never watched any of them before and didn't think that I would have any interest in it, but it was good.  I was pleasantly surprised.  When the movie was over, we had the most rambunctious boys ever.  Their reactions to the movie were so according to their personalies.  Shepard immediately had to BE Rocky.  He stripped down to his boxers and went into character-mode.  Will was begging to get out of his seat even before the movie was over so that he could "box" - he just had to get in some action.  And Josiah was planning his next Wii characters - Rocky and Apollo.  I would have taken pictures of the boys, but in their underwear?  Will came out of his room with striped underwear to put on over his diaper and eventually added a stocking cap and gloves for his boxing outfit.  I wish you could have seen him hopping and punching the air.  Too cute!  And in the middle of all this - and I was really enjoying it - the Lord reminded me that these are boy-men and that the rambunctiousness of boys is part of the process of growing them into men.  I had been longing for quiet and calmness earlier in the day - (remember the missed cozy chair with a book and coffee? :) ) - but the Lord showed me how blessed I am to have these little growing men to train in His ways.  Boys just come with rambunctiousness.  I figure that cozy chair will be part of my life again one day in the future.  Until then... Lord, give me strength!

Making a Volcano

I admit it...  I felt like a cool mommy today! :)  We are studying volcanoes in school right now - a subject that my boys love.  I hate to admit it, but I'm not one of those fun moms who does lots of projects with our school (or any time really).  But today we made our own clay from scratch and then shaped our volcano.  I'm sure lots of families have done this same experiment, but this seemed like a big project to us.  (And actually, now that I know how super easy it is to make clay, we could do this again!)  Now we just wait a couple days for the clay to harden and then we'll paint it and create an explosion - that's the really cool part.  Here are the boys working with the clay...  you can see that Shepard did not like to get his hands dirty.  So, Josiah did most of the work and Will was eager to join him.  That is, until Will fell off the bench with a big crash bruising his chin and biting his tongue in two places - yes, there was blood.

Isn't it a beaut?!  I explained that real volcanoes don't have smooth edges either. :)

Sing It, Will

I've been noticing lately that Will tends to drag out the old guitar just about every day.  He doesn't know much about how to play it, but he sure loves it.  It's completely out of tune, but he delights in the sounds it makes.  Last night I heard him strumming away again and then I realized that he was singing the words "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" over and over again.  What a precious sound!  I think it was the best worship song I've ever heard!  What comes to my mind are the words of Jesus, "Let the little children come to me."  My heart says, "Yes!  Go, Will, go!"

Here are a couple of pictures of the other boys in some of their latest costumes.  Dressing up seems to be the theme of the season.  And they are getting very creative. :)

Things I Treasure

Today was hard...  just plain and simple, hard.  When we finally finished school and all the workers had gone for the day (we're remodeling two bathrooms) I told the two oldest boys that I needed to rest for a little while - while Will was taking his nap.  Shepard immediately got up and went to separate corner of the room and bowed his little head and began to pray out loud...  "Lord please help Mommy to feel better" etc.  Oh, I treasure his prayers!

Tonight as the boys were getting ready for bed, Josiah came to us and expressed an interest in helping to serve at the Community Rescue.  His face showed a true compassion as he was telling us about some of the families that he remembers meeting there.  Oh, my heart swells.  I praise the Lord for building this character trait in Josiah.

And little Will...  whenever Shepard has his latest injury and the tears keep flowing, Will is quick to stand by his side and gently rub his back until he feels better.  So sweet!

These are some of the things I want to remember!

It's Monday!

Anybody else have MONDAYS??  John noticed the trend first...  Mondays just never run as smoothly at our house.  We started a new curriculum in school today...  why would we do that on Monday?! :)  Actually, that went ok, but we've got to get our new school schedule figured out.  This afternoon while I was helping Josiah with his schoolwork, I heard Will start to cry and then Shepard started crying, too.  There was blood.  That's always a bad sign.  Apparently Shepard was climbing up the bunk bed ladder with the big garbage truck toy - trying to find a secret place to play with it most likely - and he accidently dropped it on Will's head.  That explains why Will was crying.  But, then Shepard fell off the ladder and busted his lip.  That explains the blood.  All is calm now...  Will actually asked if he could go take his nap - he MUST be VERY tired! :)  Shepard is resting on the couch.  Josiah is doing school.  Ahhhhh....  peace!  It won't last long, but maybe the "Monday" part of our Monday will be behind us????  We'll see...

Will in the cabinet

I heard Will calling "Mom", so I went in search of the little voice...  and found him here inside the cabinet in the play room!  He even had the doors shut.  Little rascal!  Now I know how he broke the drawer underneath it.  Apparently this is his new favorite hiding spot!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning...  everyone is excited!  We finished our advent reading by candlelight and in the warmth of a cozy fire that John had built before opening presents.  I had made this new recipe called Overnight French Toast that I thought would be such a treat on Christmas morning...  nobody liked it.  Maybe we'll just try donuts next year!  (Great idea, mom! :))

Here's everybody getting the goodies out of their stockings...

Now let's open those presents!

Grandma and Grandpa came (over the river and through the snow) to have Christmas dinner with us.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful and very blessed Christmas Eve. Here are some pictures from the day. Before we headed over to Ken and Shelley's we took these pictures of the boys in their matching sweaters.

First we celebrated Christmas with Shelley's Aunt Aurea - here are the grandkids with her. We sang several Christmas songs with her... that was fun.

Shepard got a helmet and shield from AA and we thought it was so funny the way he was wearing it on his nose. :)

After dinner we all settled in to exchange gifts, and before tearing into the packages, we enjoyed hearing Ken share with us about the best gift available to us... the Holy Spirit through salvation! That was a real treat and I'm always grateful for his spiritual leadership.

CHRISTMAS SNOW! HOW FUN!

Shepard is trying to catch the snow on his tongue.

Josiah is snow-covered!

Here is Shepard wearing one of his Christmas gifts. He sure loves to dress up!

We're posing with our matching Christmas gifts from Ken and Shelley. :)

On the way back home Christmas Eve, Shepard said, "Isn't it wonderful that God gave us snow for Christmas?!" Yes! We enjoyed it so much. It had been 19 years since we had snow for Christmas! Here is what our house looked like when we got home.