Still reading?

Three posts in one night?! I'll try to keep this one short :) just a little of what we've been up to:

1. I've been picking up Josiah's cousin, John, from school a couple evenings a week and he spends a few hours with us. The boys have been having such a blast together! They are 18 months apart... The same as me and my sister... And its fun to know they'll grow up together!

2. Danielle and I did another freezer cooking day on Saturday. This time we made lots of breakfast meals (baked oatmeal, pancake & sausage muffins, whole-wheat/flax Belgian waffles), toffee nut and chocolate chip cookie dough balls, a ton of empanadas, plus 14 dinner meals each! It was a rather relaxing day and I'm really excited about trying everything!

3. I made another wreath today. Just wanted something a little brighter for Spring.. But the other one will definitely come back out in August for football season.

4. I gave Mike a haircut and I love it! I never knew how good he could look almost bald but he wears it really well! :).

A first time for everything...

So I love food, right? I love to buy food. I love to cook food. I love to read about food. And more than anything, I love to eat food. I do NOT like diets! I have little experience with dieting because I've rarely even been committed enough to try... I think the most I've ever done was make it through 5 days of the 7 day cabbage soup diet back in high school! So when I was browsing through popular apps to put on my iPhone, I haphazardly installed one called My Fitness Pal. I decided to just see how many calories my typical food added up to (not intending at all to change what I was eating). Well... I realized that I had used up my recommended calories for the day by lunchtime!!! Holy cow! I knew I wasn't eating light intentionally, but I didn't realize quite how bad I was! Shame on me!!

I linked up with a few friends that use the app and got Mike on board too, and for the last three weeks, we have been doing great! I've lost 6 pounds and although I'm still not real excited about exercising, I have been doing more than I was... And Mike is a great motivator because he is so disciplined... It almost makes me mad but really I'm just jealous :)

Sooo... There's my little unpaid plug for My Fitness Pal. :). Because if it can motivate ME, then I promise you, it can help anyone!

Isn't it Ironic? Dontcha think?

Now that you all have Alanis Morisette stuck in your heads... On to my point :) After my last post, Josiah had two daytime accidents (after almost 4 months of none) and then he sang and played in his bed for two hours instead of napping and the next day, Mike found him out of bed, playing in the dark during naptime. Well... I guess he is normal afterall. :). Hopefully those won't become the norm... Sleep or not, he is going to have quiet time in his room until he is at least 5! At least that's my plan! :)

Bye bye baby

We definitely had our share of struggles during Josiah's first year. He wasn't exactly an easy baby... mostly due to his terrible silent reflux and the effects that had on eating and sleeping. But I have been so pleasantly surprised at how easy of a toddler he has been. All of the transitions that I feared dealing with have been so so easy! And I am so grateful!

First it was potty training. He literally just started asking to go! As soon as he started going on the potty, he stayed dry all night and hasn't had a single accident yet (we are about 3 months in) We did hit one bump in the road with his fear of pooping (which had been an issue long before potty training), but after much prayer and some extra miralax, one day he just got it and again, no accidents since!

So the only two things left were getting him out of a crib and getting rid of the pacifier (which he only slept with). We weren't in any hurry with his bed because he loved his crib and had never tried climbing out so we figured, "why fix something that's not broke?". And I wasn't stressed about the paci either... Just figured we would address it when he turned three. And then on a whim, I asked him if he would like to help daddy fix his bed so that he could get in and out by himself. He said yes, (loves to be independent and do anything requiring tools) so we converted it to a toddler bed last weekend. And then not being fully committed at all myself, I just thought I would test the waters by telling him that paci's don't go in big boy beds. He agreed and hasn't had one since! He asked where his paci's were if they weren't in his bed and I told him we gave them to some babies that needed them and that was apparently a reasonable answer to him! He did wake up about 30 minutes early the first two mornings but never even asked for the paci!

It's definitely bittersweet that he is pretty well out of the baby stage completely. I'm a little sad about him turning 3 in a few months but mostly I'm enjoying him so much and I am really proud of him for being such a big boy!

Friday photos

"The Boys" - Luke, Liam & Josiah

Josiah and the girls (Katelyn & Charlotte)

Hours of entertainment - black bean construction site

He's so into construction vehicles right now!

"fishing" at the Children's Museum

Getting Brave!

Family Movie Night - Finding Nemo!  He watched the whole thing with us!

His Storytime Class

Did I mention he likes construction vehicles?

An evening walk to the beach

Two year old Theology

It's awesome to see how to Josiah's faith and understanding of Jesus is already growing! I wanted to document these little conversations from yesterday so i don't forget them!

Yesterday, he had asked me to pray for him because his tummy hurt, but after I did, he said "but Jesus isn't helping me right now because I want him to help Grandma first.". So of course I explained to him that one of the awesome things about Jesus is that He can heal him and Grandma at the same time. But of course my heart just smiled to think that he would rather have Jesus help someone else than himself.

So then He asked "how many Jesus's are there? Because in my Bible, there are lots of Jesus's" and that of course led to me telling him that just like we have lots of pictures of him doing different things even though it's the same Josiah, his bible has lots of pictures of Jesus doing different things. And that even though there is only one Jesus, He can be everywhere. And I told him how He can live in my heart and his heart and anyone else that invites Him in and then he said: "Jesus will you come live in my heart?"
and "when daddy gets home I want him to ask Jesus to live in his heart too."

Last night we were sharing a dessert and when Mike asked Josiah if he wanted the last bite, he said "no, you can have it Daddy.". So I asked him why he gave the last bite to Daddy and he said "because i were sharing and God told me not to be selfish." :) :) just the night before, we had read a Bible story about how Abraham wasn't selfish when he gave the best land to Lot and how that made God happy and God blessed him even more since he didn't just keep all the good things for himself. Apparently Josiah was really listening! :)

Pinterest inspiration

I keep seeing these cute felt flowers on lots of things on pinterest and everyone says how easy they are to make... So I gave it a try! It's true! They are very easy, and I had fun making this wreath during Josiah's nap yesterday. I picked out the colors and then realized I've truly been brainwashed: I managed to subconsciously pick maize and blue... Michigan colors! :)