Gratitude

This morning Samuel woke up at 6:40 and I was not happy. I started to complain to myself and then came to a realization. Rather than complain, I should be grateful that he slept through the night. I should be grateful that I got to bed early so I was more rested. It didn't make it easier, but at least better. Our lesson in Relief Society was a good one. The woman teaching had some examples that demonstrated just how obvious some of Heavenly Father's blessings are in her life and how you can see some of the miracles he has performed. I was thinking to myself if there were any examples of those obvious blessings. I couldn't think of any outright example, but could see many of the smaller more subtle ways he blesses me. I am going to try and look more this week.

This week will be a crazy one. I am substituting all day at the charter school I used to work for full time a few years back. It is going to be a challenge because I love my boys and will miss them sooooooooo much.

Joseph is a cutie. In his prayer last night he asked that Jesus help us get back to live with him and our Heavenly Father. Yesterday was a primary activity, so he went to B.O.O.T (build on our testimony) camp. They worked as teams and graduated B.O.O.T camp at the end. They had real soldiers there and he just had fun. He was telling us about some of the obstacle course stuff and how soldiers say "hooah" for yes. It was cute to hear him say it to his Uncle Esteban who is in the National Guard. At the end of the activity they sang Nephi's Courage. Joseph knew the hand signals to the song. I should have taken a picture of just how much fun it was to watch him sing. Next Sunday he is giving a talk on how God speaks through prophets.

Sleeping in...

is not meant for mothers. :P
Maybe one day...

Crazy

Today we had a very busy day. I had the lesson at Joseph's preschool and it was on trains. I ran to the library last night right before it closed to get a few books that were on hold for me. I didn't know what to do for an activity, both moving and craft. I debated on what snack to bring. I finally decided to bring some cuties, some goldfish and popsicles. For the moving activity, I put some tape on the floor and had them make a human train. Of course, to begin class, there were only 3 kids and Samuel was one of them. I was the only parent. It was kind of nice to have so few, but about 45 minutes into the class, another mom came with her 2 kids. The human train was fun. Each kid got to be the engine once and lead the other kids around the "track." We practiced making the number 7 with play-doh and had snacks. Joseph and I read the The Little Engine that Could. We brought lots of toy trains and wooden tracks for all the kids to play with and share. They did that most of free play time. Our lesson went okay. Samuel was super hungry, cranky and tired, so he wanted to be on my lap. That meant I read the book upside down and had to avoid Samuel during the craft. Joseph had fun, but tonight he was talking to us and said, "I like it when it is quiet." It is true. There are some kids that make it really loud and it was nice when there were only 2 kids because it was so quiet.

As I started to write this, Samuel was crawling around. He started to cry, so I went to check on him. The other day we bought a big packet of toilet paper. He spent yesterday night climbing all over it. Well, he managed to push it next to our bed and used it to climb onto our bed. He was stuck because he didn't want to fall off the bed. Samuel is a natural born climber, just not a natural born descender. He loves to try and climb on everything. He throws things on the floor so he can try and stand on them. What a cute and silly boy. :)

Words that Joseph uses...

Predator, Prey, Carnivore, Herbivore, Arthropod, Orthocone, armored fish, saber-tooth cat (not tiger), flesh, last morning (still haven't figured this one out), so many more, but I have to hear him talk about it.

Things I love

I love when Joe plays with his boys. They love having him around. Joseph loves to sit in his daddy's lap and have daddy show him things on the computer. Samuel loves to be within reach of all of daddy's electronic equipment.

There are certain things that I don't want to forget. Every night I rock Samuel till he is almost asleep and then I place him in his crib. If I stop rocking him, he tries to rock himself. When he doesn't want to walk to someone, he takes a step and then turns around to get back to me. I started this post yesterday. Tonight Joe and I were having Samuel walk back and forth between us. He started walking to daddy and then turned around and walked back to me. I love it when he sees me after I get back from teaching Spanish class. He gets so excited and can't stop whimpering to pick him up. He loves to sit in my lap, especially if he is super tired. We have a lot of wooden puzzles and Samuel loves to make them fall all over the place. There are certain pieces that he always gets first. There is a letter "i" with an ice cream cone on it. He crawls around with it everywhere and we usually have to look for it. Right now, the caterpillar piece ot one of our puzzles is missing because he crawled with it somewhere. He also likes the peg puzzle because he can hit two pieces together. I love my little Samuel.

Also, when I ask what vegetable we should cook for dinner, Joseph normally says carrots. His reasoning, "I don't have eagle eyes anymore. I can only see my family and my toys." He is a very helpful little boy and likes to learn how to cook different things. One other thing he especially enjoys is to wash dishes. Of course, his version of washing dishes is running the water and pouring cups of water onto things. Joseph is getting lots better at cleaning up things. The picture is of Joseph and Samuel playing with all the puzzles. They were laughing and laughing so I had to get a picture. I love to see my boys playing together. I love my big boy Joseph.

Joseph's coloring skills

Joseph is getting better at coloring. Here is a picture he started to color on Sunday and that he finished today. Other than the red and the little green plant at the bottom, Joseph did this whole thing himself. There are some black crayon marks from almost a year ago when he first got this and didn't know how to color.

Other Joseph sayings:

"Please bless that daddy won't get fired because he will get burned."

"I need hand sanitizer because I picked my nose."