Heaven is for Real for little ones by Colton Burpo

When I read this book to the boys, they were sitting on the edge of their seats, especially my nine-year-old.  They were all so eager to hear about what Heaven is like.  This book is full of hope and colorful pictures.  When I finished reading it, the boys argued over who got to hold it and look at it.

  Alan and I were talking yesterday about what an amazing Christmas the boys had this year.  How did this come up?  Here it is the 15th of January already..

  OH, I remember, I was doing some cleaning up in my room and came across the Toys R Us ad the boys had gone through, before Christmas, circling and initialing who was requesting what!

  Alan was looking over the sales ad and said, “Who circled the princess stuff??”

  I said, “Oh, one of them did that to make the other one mad.  I don’t remember which one was which.”

  (A lot of my stories go like that these days.)

 Alan laughed.  Then he said, “Wow, they actually got a lot of this stuff, so they must be happy!”

  Actually, I’m pretty sure they have no idea how great they have it, but they have been seriously busy playing with all their presents, and you know who benefits the most from that??

  Yep!  ME!!!  Busy kids = happy mom.

  Even Daniel detached himself from my leg the first week we were back home.  That’s over now, though.

  Dan is two, and he is more like a part of my body than his own separate person these days.  He has this ability to wrap his little body around my leg in a way that I actually do not know how to remove him!!

  In order to show my gratitude to the wonderful grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and Santa Clause that have kept my children so busy, I’m including a few photos of the stuff that frees my leg and my ears.

  THANK YOU!!!

  This keeps Caleb (age 6) busy, especially since every time he works on it, Daniel runs by, steals a spleen or a liver and takes off running…..just to tick Caleb off. Then we have to chase Daniel down, make him give Caleb his pancreas back, and apologize. Every time.

And Nonna, you’ll be happy to know that I did read the “My Body” book to them, and both Joshua and Caleb really enjoyed it.

color-by-number

another huge hit with Caleb

This one was actually for Alan:  all out battery recharger.  Yes, we can definitely use this!!!

This sewing kit was given to Dan, who tried but couldn’t really get it.   Caleb and Alan have done some impressive things with it though.

Then there are the obvious delights.  The boys’ grandparents gave them each their own tablets.  I know.  They sound pretty spoiled.  I gotta say, though, I can’t knock the Nabi.  With this tablet, we have set a timer that tells exactly what time each day they are allowed to use it, how long, and what time it has to be turned off.  ALSO, we can program it so that they can have unlimited Nook reading hours but only 30 minutes for games.  PLUS, it keeps them off our tablets.  PLUS, it’s more secure for them and for us.  It would always make me nervous to hand a little boy my expensive computer with all of my accounts on it for them to accidentally delete, move, or ‘share’, so  I think this is actually a really great idea.

  We have been amazed at their advanced abilities in getting around the parental controls.  One night Alan received seven emails notifying him that Joshua was trying to change his password on his Nabi.  We walked into Joshua’s room, and sure enough, there was Joshua trying to log onto his Nabi after hours.

  Joshua felt like he should be allowed to play it in bed, so he was trying to change the password and then change the parental controls. …..I never knew this sort of thing would start so early!  The boy is EIGHT!

  Joshua said, “I don’t understand.  I wrote it right!”  HAHA, little person.  You may know the username, but you will never learn the password!!!

  This doesn’t stop at Joshua.  Daniel has managed to switch his from “Daddy Mode” to “Mommy mode”…no idea how he did that……plus HALF of his apps are now locked by Nabi.  You can see the app, but there’s a master lock picture over it, and it reads, “Ask Mommy.”  I bet he’s tried to buy stuff.

On a much sweeter note, I was looking for something in Joshua’s drawers the other day, and lo and behold, I found that Joshua has amassed this impressive collection of “Gospel Project” cards.  I had no idea he had even been getting these at church, much less was saving every single one in a neat little stack, in his top drawer.  We were really impressed with this!

There were so many wonderful things they received for Christmas this year.  Thank you all so much.  I actually still have one suitcase left to unpack!!  Yes, I know, you can judge me now.

*****

Good news/bad news:

The bad news is that I took JD to the doc, and he has a double ear infection.

The good news is that he is now on amoxicillin, I think his fever is gone, and he should be all better soon!

Oh, and Joshua now also has a fever.  Does sickness ever end when you have four children!!!???

Quote of the Day:

Me:  Joshua, you need to eat something.

Joshua:  My throat hurts.  I don’t want to.

Me:  How about ice cream?

Joshua:  Nah…

Dan:  Me!  Me!! Ice cream!

Me:  No, Dan, you didn’t eat your breakfast.

Dan:  Me sick.  *cough cough cough*