A NEW CHRISTIAN BROTHER!!!

Toby accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior last Saturday the 6th!!! We were driving out to the Marsing Disaster Auction when Toby asked if Jesus killed Judas. I explained that Jesus did not kill Judas, in fact Judas felt so badly for betraying Jesus that Judas killed himself. Toby then wanted to know how. He hung himself. How? With a rope tied around his neck so he couldn't breathe. How? I'm not sure exactly, but he may have tied one end to his neck and one end to a tree and jumped. Toby likes to thoroughly know the how and why of everything. =)

Anyways, after a minute or so, Toby responds with "good, I'm glad he died. He deserved it." I soberly told Toby, "we ALL deserve to die and go to hell because we have ALL sinned." He started crying and said "but I want to be with God!" I'm driving down Highway 55 and reaching back to reassure him. "It's OK honey, there's Good News! Jesus came to Earth and lived a perfect sinless life. When He died on the cross, he took all our sins on Himself so He could wash our sins away. All we have to do is believe in Jesus and pray, asking Him to forgive our sins and be our Lord and Savior." Toby said he wanted to pray that and so with a heart that was bursting with gratitude I pulled over so I could lead him in prayer! What a glorious day! And all the angels rejoiced!!

Random Summer Pictures

I haven't changed this for quite awhile and I'm getting tired of looking at the same (although adorable) pictures when I come to follow the links to everyone's blog. Soooo, here are a few pictures I took last summer and am finally getting around to posting.

Levi is getting so big!

And a big helper to boot! =)

The biggest change for our big guy would be the absence of diapers! YEP! That's right! At only 19 months Levi was potty trained! He caught on quick and soon was completely trained. Even at nap and night time! No more diapers! YAY!!! =)

Silly Toby

Skater Dude!

He LOVES to spin!!!! I would sooooo hurl!!!

I think he would spin for hours!

Levi Cutie Pie!

Levi is such a cute little rascal! I caught him the other day rearranging the pantry cabinet. He loves to stack the cans and then crash 'em down!

Silent Sunday

Paper Boys

Toby and Levi have both been in the local paper, the Owyhee Avalanche, and just the other day I realized they have archive copies available online. I thought you might like to checkout our little newspaper stars!


Look on page 5 to see Rob and Toby(2) playing on the merry-go-round.
http://www.owyheepublishing.com/pastissues/2007/07_11_07%20LR.indd.pdf

Find Levi(1) and Toby(3 .5) on page 12 sitting on Santa & Mrs. Clause's laps.
http://www.owyheepublishing.com/pastissues/2008/12_17_08%20LR.indd.pdf

Toby(3.6) is Front Page news as he helps Grandma advertise for the Marsing Disaster Auction.
http://www.owyheepublishing.com/pastissues/2009/02_04_09.indd.pdf

Our Story Twister

You may have noticed I haven't posted in a few weeks and while that is not altogether unusual my reason this time is once again computer problems. Rob is still working out the bugs in our new system so I don't have access to all my really cute pictures of the boys. In the mean time, I'll entertain you with yet another comical quote from Mr. Toby. Keep in mind that Toby has a talent for taking quotes and concepts from stories he's read and infusing them into his conversations. This one is a bit long but stay with me.

Tonight after we tucked the boys in, it wasn't long before we heard voices and rustling coming over the monitor. As I entered the room I heard Toby conk his head on the wall as he dove for the pillow!

"What were you doing, Toby?" I asked.

"Headstanding" he replied, knowing full well this is a forbidden activity. I told him to lay down and wait for me as I needed to lay Levi back down. When I finished re-tucking in Levi I went over to deal with Toby.

He tells me, "first you have to sniff my bum."

"What?"

"You have to sniff out my bum first."

"What?"

"Like Scooby does for Freddy and Daphne to find the honey. You have to sniff out my bum before you can spank it."

Amazingly, I managed to not howl with laughter or completely lose it until after I'd dealt with our little headstanding story twister and left the room!

Interviewing Toby

I copied this fun idea from my friend Lisa. Interview your child(ren) and enter their answers...quite amusing! Of course, you may have a little explaining to do afterward! =)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
No computer & I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
Playin'

3. What makes mom sad?
not playin'

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
silly things, like tickling

5. What was your mom like as a child?
nothing was invented yet

6. How old is your mom?
5

7. How tall is your mom?
5/8th, 9 parts, and 11 parts

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
hug and play games

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
look and try to find me

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
for me

11. What is your mom really good at?
playin' games

12. What is your mom not very good at?
not running into walls

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Working on the computer, no that's Daddy's job. So what is your job?

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Life cereal

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
running around the house three times

16. If your mom were a Cartoon character, who would she be?
pretend

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play, we get honey, go swimming in the ocean, nothing else that I can think of.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we have bones

19. How are you and your mom different?
I'm three and you're 5

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Someone told me

21. How do you know your mom loves your dad?
No one told me

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Carl's Jr. because I miss playing on that toy.

No matter how big he gets he'll always be my baby!

Toby is whooping Mom and I at Settlers of Catan!

I just love this little guy to pieces!

I LOVE his smile!

Mr. Insightful!!!

Tonight as I was making dinner Toby was playing on the floor behind me. I hear him giggle and this is the conversation that followed:

Toby: (giggling) I just farted on my knee!
Mama: Silly boy, why did you do that?
Toby: Only God knows.

(So true my boy, so true!)

YOU COULD WIN!!!

I love give-a-way's don't you? Well, here's one that I'm taking from my friend Lisa's blog (plus I want to win too!) And this will make me be creative.

Here's how it'll work...The first three people to comment on this post will get something made by me! My choice--but just for you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did, will win a marvelous homemade gift by me! Let the games begin! Oh, and I have to be able to contact you with mailing information! I promise it will be something good! Good Luck to all!

A New Generation

You know it's a new generation when your son is watching Grandma gargle and says, "Grandma, what are you Googling with?"

Grilled Tomato and Cheese Sandwich

I made this for Toby today at lunch because he LOVES tomatoes. Sometimes I wonder if he's really my child, I don't understand how but he can eat a whole tomato just like an apple. Uuuugggg! Anyways, I made this for lunch and he gobbled it up. I even liked it and I don't like tomatoes, so it must have been good.

Grilled Tomato and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:
sliced bread
butter
Monterey Jack cheese- thinly sliced
tomatoes - sliced
oregano
basil

Directions:
Prewarm pan or grill on medium low heat. Butter bread, place both slices for sandwich buttered side down to grill. Add cheese to each slice. Place sliced tomatoes on grill just long enough to get warm. Arrange grilled tomatoes on one side of sandwich, then sprinkle with basil and oregano. Put your two pieces together and enjoy!

My Sweet Geek

Rob has put in lots of hours on the computers lately trying to get everything upgraded. His inner geek really loves it though especially when there's not too much pressure and everything works properly! I recently found this picture of Rob several years ago playing with his computer boneyard. He was trying to Frankenstein a good system out of several that he'd picked up for pretty cheap. Doesn't he look like a kid in a candy shop!

Photo Meme

Since I haven't had much time to get up any new posts lately, I thought I would play along with this meme from a friend's blog.

If you want to play along, here are the rules:

1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2. Select the 4th picture in the folder

3. NO CHEATING! (no cropping, editing, etc...). Join in the fun!

4. Explain the picture

My mom has a picture of her older two grandkids crawling under a coffee table at this same age. I was instructed to be sure and take Toby's picture so she could add it to her collection. So here's a picture of Toby crawling under an end table at about 8 months old. It's actually a copy of the original in a folder of pictures that need sorted.

This isn't part of the meme but just for giggles I thought I would post Levi's end table picture too! Levi was almost 10 months in this pic. I just have to say, Rob and I make really cute little boys!!!

Recent Pictures

Our main computer recently croaked! Rob's first thought was that it was the hard drive! Which would mean all my pictures would be gone. 8-0 Just poof! Turns out its the motherboard so we're still down a computer but my wonderful geeky husband hooked up the old hard drive to a different computer so I can still access all my documents and pictures! YEAH!!! We're still working the bugs out but I thought I would post a few recent pictures to commemorate his many efforts.

Aunt Misha holding Anna and Levi

Toby, Laine, and Ayden playing on the dirt pile at Grandpa & Grandma's.

King of the Hill!

Our little "Pig Pen" loves to literally roll in the dirt!

Toby and Ayden sharing a new language toy Levi got for Christmas. For some odd reason Toby LOVES to drag this thing into the bathroom for potty time entertainment!

Toby and Jade playing games and ringers on some old cell phones.

Laine, Toby and Levi wrestling Grandpa!

Game night!

Levi is 1 Year Old!!!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old! Each month, I took a picture of Levi so we could see how much he changed and grew. Unfortunately, I missed his 6 month picture though, 'cause it was so crazy getting ready to go to WA for almost a month. So you'll notice the pictures go from 5 months to 7 months. But anyway, here he is. Levi Daniel Forras. The first year.

As you can see Levi is getting to be quite the big boy! He is 23.5 pounds and 30.75 inches tall already! That puts him in the 60th percentile for weight and the 75th for height. He's wearing 18 & 24 month clothes (depending). He's got 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

Levi took his very 1st step on Thanksgiving day! He's up to 3-8 steps at a time when he's coaxed but is still faster and more comfortable crawling. We're planning to take him out to Givens Hot Springs next weekend for his birthday party. We took Toby out there when he was at this same stage in walking and the resistance and buoyancy of the water "tricked" him into walking ALL over the wading pool area! I'll let you know if it works for Levi too.

Levi's vocabulary is steadily growing. He now says "momma, dadda, Grandma, Grandpa, Toby, more, hi, and up". We're doing sign language with him too and so far, he signs "more, all done, please, and thank you."

One of Levi's favorite activities is putting stuff into a bucket, box , or hole and then taking it back out again. Over and over. 8-) He also loves to play "airplane", tickle monster, and wrestling.
He's all boy! Our Boy, Our Big 1 Year Old Boy!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEVI!!!!
We love you!

Whaduya Do?

So what do you do when your child hears from the Lord? Tonight as I was tucking Toby in for bed and singing him a few goodnight songs, he says, "Mama, the last song was so long that Jesus looked down and said "Little Boy, go get another drink of water!"" This was not the first time God has "spoken" to Toby. He did get the drink but we also had a little chat about being truthful and just asking nicely if we want something.

Please post a comment if you have any wonderful ways of encouraging him to listen for God's voice without using or lying about it to get what he wants. Thanks!

Second Thoughts....

I recently babysat for my sister, Misha, while she and her husband, Eric, went to his work Christmas party. Because they live in Meridian and we live waaaay out here in Marsing, the kids stayed overnight and we met up at a different Christmas party the next day.

Anyway.... I learned a very valuable lesson during those 32 hours! I've said for some time now that I would like to have four kids. BUT........I don't think I want 4 children under the age of 4! The older two mostly entertained each other when they weren't disagreeing about whose turn it was. The babies, however, had a way of ganging up on this poor mama when they got tired and hungry. I didn't have a lot of time to snap pictures but here are a few.

Ayden & Toby loved jumping on my bed!

Wanna Double?
Levi is trying to horn in on Anna's car ride.Bathtime!

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three Boys in a Tub...

Would you care for a spot of tea?

Drying off and warming up by a nice cozy fire.

All in all we had a great time with the cousins and look forward to many more sleepovers in the future!

Construction!

You may have noticed I haven't posted anything lately. He-he! 8-) We've been very busy working on "the house". Here are some recent pictures of our progress.

Not that you'd recognize it but this is our kitchen.

Dad almost has the subfloor finished!

Uncle Lonzo building a wall!

Wow! A new wall between the kitchen and the dining room.

Bye-bye dinky little kitchen window!

Hello, big new kitchen window!

This yucky old sliding glass door had to go!

It's outta here!

Here's the big gapping hole in the side of our house.

Dad is using ALL his muscles cutting out the warped old header!

Toby helped Grandpa glue in the new threshold.

TADA!!! Our new french doors!

That's all for now. As you can see we still have a lot to do but I'll keep you updated....eventually. 8-)