sweet music to their ears!

The heat around here is calling for all things cool! So, yesterday afternoon was filled with just that! First on the list was playing in the sprinkler, which led to just the hose. Apparently that was ALL the rage! The boys loved it--I think you can tell by these exhilrated faces. . .

And, while we were playing in the sprinkler, we heard the sweet music of the ice cream truck, which in turn, ellicted lots of squeals from the boys! If you read our Summer List, a couple of posts ago, you might have noticed that getting ice cream from the ice cream truck and getting sno-cones this summer were both on the list. Well, Luke and Charlie combined the two and both chose a sno-cone from the ice-cream man! They were in heaven! I would also like to take a moment to say (mainly to my sweet hubby), I promise our children don't just eat sweets and treats. It's funny to me that my last post has pictures of Girl Scout cookies, my header (for those of you who read through Reader and don't see our actual blog) has the boys eating popsicles and now the boys are eating sno-cones. But come on, it's summer, and this is a fun part of life! I say, enjoy away--they get their fruits and veggies too!!

Yummy and soooo refreshing!!!

*And, I updated my photoblog. Again for my Reader readers, that is http://www.joyshots.blogspot.com/. For the rest of you, it's just a click on my link up at the right!

cookies and milk--the miracle cure?

You would think that this. . .

would make just about anybody happy, right??

The above picture, plus a little more, was our snack yesterday afternoon. Yummy! Or, at least Luke and I thought so. After the boys got up from nap/rest time, they requested cookies. I was feeling lousy all day and quite honestly thought, "Yep, some cookies would be good for the soul!" Charlie was the one who actually began doing a cookie dance!! But, all too quickly, his smiles turned to tears when he saw the Frosty the Snowman book he chose to bring downstairs and read AGAIN!

Lost? Let me back up. Yesterday morning I was a little slow moving on getting ready for the day. As I mentioned before, I was feeling crummy and exhausted and just struggled to get moving. I am usually showered, dressed and ready before getting the boys up in the morning---it just helps things go smoother in our house. But yesterday morning, I was not ready, so the boys came back to our bedroom and played while I finished up. Charlie decided to crawl under our bed and found, amongst other things, a beloved Christmas book, Frosty the Snowman! He immediately begged me to read it, so I did. Again, he demanded, so I obliged. Several more times and everything was fine. We then went and ran some errands and came back and started getting ready for lunch. Charlie went straight to the book, asked me to read it again, so I did. BUT THIS TIME, he burst into tears, when I read (actually I sang the book to him) the part where, "Frosty waved good-bye, saying 'Don't you cry I'll be back again someday!'" I looked at him, because I heard sniffles and sure enough he was genuinely crying! I started laughing because he was so darn cute!! He said, "No, no Frosty!" I asked Charlie if he was crying because Frosty was leaving and he said yes. So Luke and I consoled him and assured him that Frosty would be back in the winter. My sweet, sensitive boy! Well, he asked to read it yet again. Now, I was intrigued. Would he understand this time around? Nope, he did not. He loved every page until the next to the last page and he started crying AGAIN!!

Anyway, lunch came, naptime, etc. and then Charlie wanted to bring Frosty downstairs with him. And this is where we pick up. . .

Charlie brings the book to the table for snack, finds the page where Frosty waves good-bye and begins crying all over again!

Those are some real tears!! And they made my heart just melt---what a sweet heart he has! I just pray that the Lord will nurture his heart and use that to glorify Him! In the meantime, I need to be working on showing Charlie that cookies and milk make all things better! :)

multiplying love (on having more than 1 child)

I've been thinking a lot about what's in store for our family when we welcome #3 in September! We've heard a lot of comments about us having to move from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense! I do get a little nervous when thinking about taking 3 young ones out and about and not having enough hands to hold all of them. I think about how our kitchen table is perfect for 4 people--2 on each side and how that will eventually change. I think about car seats and space in the car (thank goodness ours has a third row---but someone will still be in the back). I think about our future trips to amusement parks and how we will have an odd number of people (assuming this is our last, right honey?) and so much more!

One thing I haven't been worrying about this time around is will we have enough love to give this new little baby? Some of you might think I'm crazy, but I certainly wondered that very thing when we were expecting little Charlie. I actually did think about whether or not I would be able to share the love we had/have for Luke with another one. Well, I'm here to say--absolutely!!! We have so many friends who are pregnant right now. Some with their third child, but a lot with their second. If you have felt, or are feeling like you could not love another in the same way--you will! The Lord miraculously multiplies our love, rather than dividing it! We don't split our love between Luke and Charlie and I'm not worried about having the divide our love into thirds for this new baby. In fact, I couldn't be happier to multiply our love! We are so incredibly blessed and will soon be even more so! The Lord has been pouring his love on us and that's what we all do with our children!

I came across this post today. It was incredibly encouraging to me (about to have 3), but can definitely be applied to those of you about to have 2! I had lots of anxieties about welcoming #2 into our family, but the advice given here is good!

the summer list

Summer life is finally here! It came a few weeks ago, but once school was out, we were off on vacation, then back to regroup for a short week and we just finished up a week of Vacation Bible School! So now, here is summer--along with the heat! With 110 degree heat indexes, I'm a little unprepared! Having boys, one always needs to be prepared. I'm all for lazy days, but lots of time unplanned leads to wrestling and results in someone crying, or it leads to "Can we please watch Diego?", which drives me crazy. Not the show. I love Diego. It's really cute and informative and right up my boys' alley! BUT, I'm only a fan of one show a day max. I don't even like a show everyday. AND, I try to use that time to my advantage, like when I'm trying to get dinner ready. Yes, there are some exceptions, but we try to stick to that rule of thumb. So, it's a lot harder in the summer when we have more time on our hands and it's blazing hot and too dangerous to hang outside.

As I've been trying to be intentional about seeking out fun activities for the summer (many for days without dangerous heat), Luke has been helping me come up with ideas for us to do. We decided to make a list. It's an on-going list, one that we get to add to, when we come up with more. I started writing down some of the ideas we came up with during the boys' nap/rest time last week. When Luke came down after his rest time, he was SO excited and immediately wanted to add to it---by drawing bugs and giving me more ideas! I love that he's thrilled to be a part of our planning! We already checked off our strawberry picking as you might have seen in our last post, but stay tuned for more fun filled summer acitivities in the Jackson household!

red, delicious treats!

We have been on a mission to go pick strawberries for some time now. Last year Luke and I went with some friends and had a great time. Charlie was sick then, so he didn't get to participate and I knew he would love it this year! The signs pointing the way popped up in late April, but May is such a busy time, that it was impossible to make it there until yesterday! As soon as we got out of the car, Charlie was screaming "dawberries" and Luke took off to find the best row for picking!

Luke was our #1 picker. He knew to look for the red ones because they tasted the best!

Charlie was so proud of every "dawberry" he picked!

Charlie was our box holder and he took the job seriously!

Because these strawberries were grown without pesticides, etc., we were told we could taste test a couple. The boys were delighted! Charlie was under the impression that it was snack time and had to be convinced we would take them home to eat them later!

After all the pickin' was done, we headed back home to enjoy our delicious treats!

Ripe, red strawberries-----yummmmmy!

a strange, exciting land!

"And I would like to go. . .to a strange, exciting land." These are the words from the song "Pirate Sam" a favorite of ours from a Music for Aardvarks class we attended in the winter. We listened to the cd on the way back from our Memorial Day weekend trip to visit dear friends in Michigan. As we were all singing along, Luke chimed in that these lyrics were exactly like our trip----and Michigan to be exact! We got a good laugh! Though 12 hours north-ish of us and filled with growing Christmas trees everywhere, Michigan is not all that different from the south. The weather was actually hotter there than it was at home while we were gone! But, Lukey was referring to the "exciting" part, because we all had a blast!

We stayed with our good friends, the Mills (in their beautiful house that my whole family is coveting). For the past 7 years, since graduating from grad school at IU, we have met up with the Mills family almost every year ( minus a summer having babies). They have been to Memphis, us to Michigan and we've even met in Destin. But, this was the first time for the boys to go to Michigan (Luke was in my tummy last time). The Mills have 3 girls, 2 of which are close to Luke and Charlie's age, so the long weekend was packed with fun and playmates! We hit their Botanical Gardens, the pool/water park, playground, a date night for the parents, had a cookout with more friends from our old Bible study, went to an ice-cream shop, devoured popsicles, had dinner with a good friend of mine from my teaching days back in Dallas and her family, played in the sprinkler, played golf, enjoyed our annual tradition of the game Yahtzee, etc. Exhausted at night, but raring to go in the mornings, this weekend was a treasure to us! We are so thankful to have these dear friends, and it's icing on the cake to see our boys and their girls developing these friendships so early in life! We love you, Mills'!

Luke and Janie---sweetest friends!

Our 2 boys and their 3 girls!

Charlie and Juliana "Juju" enjoyed a walk in the wagon!

Can't wait 'til next time!!!!