Feburary 3, 2014

Owen has recently taken an interest in his older brothers.  They love making him giggle and smile.  I still have to remind them about 6 gajillion times a day to give him space and not talk so loudly in his ears, but mostly, I'm just glad they like him, and he likes them.  Give him another year and I'm sure he'll be running around and a part of their brother puppy pack for real.  He's lucky to have been born into a family with such awesome brothers already!

It has made my heart grow about three sizes watching Spencer figure out what being a big brother is.  He seems to realize this added responsibility to take care of Owen and look out for him.  He's matured a lot in the past couple of months since he's decided he's head over heels for "Baby Oh-beh." [O-bear.  He hasn't quite mastered "R"s yet... haha!)  Spencer is the most imaginative little three year old ever.  He is constantly building something or pretending something.  He entertains himself so easily.  He is so delightful to be around these days.  He's cheerful for the most part and has lots of interesting things to do and say all day long.  I laugh at least 586 times a day at the things he says and does.  His latest self-given responsibility is bringing a snack in the car for Landon when we go to pick him up from school.  He jumps out of bed after his nap (He still takes a 3 hour nap... bless him.) and immediately starts brainstorming snack ideas.  He gets two granola bars or string cheeses or what have you and heads to the car.  He carefully guards Landon's snack and excitedly hands it to him when he gets in the car.  It's so sweet.

Landon continues to be such a responsible and mature little 5 year old.  He loves going to school.  He's definitely tired and cranky when he gets home, but I can tell he's getting used to it!  All of the sudden he knows how to read, too.  No surprise there, but it's still so cool to see his little brain work and figure out new things.  He's amazing, not only because he is so smart, but because he seems to understand other people's emotions in a very mature way for a small child.  It's hard to explain, but he's just so observant and concerned about "big people" things.  I try to remember to still treat him his real age and let him be a kid, but at the same time, I really appreciate his independence and ability to help around the house.  We are lucky to have him!

BK and I chose our family theme for 2014.  It's the hymn "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?"  Each month we are going to discuss a different line of the song.  We listen to a cute version of this song almost every day in the car and the kids almost have all of the words down! It's been a good reminder for me to have this written on my chalkboard in the kitchen.  When I find myself getting irritated about an inconvenient service opportunity, I try to remember the words and make my choices based on them.  It's helped a lot.  But of course, because the Lord is so merciful, He always seems to bless us tenfold when we make the smallest of efforts.  In one instance this past month, I knew of a friend who needed a rather large favor--my first reaction was to not volunteer to help, but I looked at my chalkboard and felt guilty--how can I teach my children to serve and love doing it when I'm not? So I changed my mind and responded to her plea.  It ended up being a huge blessing to our family in a couple of unexpected ways. I wasn't really expecting to get anything in return, but like I said, it seems like when you do service, you end up being the one who gets more out of it--more patience, more humility, more perspective.  At the end of the day, it really does come down to what we've been able to do for others--not about our perfectly scheduled day or about getting all of our "wants." This is what I've learned so far with this little project.  I still have much to learn!!

Well, the little chickadees are getting restless... it's that magic hour right before BK gets home... I better go come up with a plan for dinner and take some deep breaths! ;)