Happy Birthday, Maryn!

I just had to include this adorable pic of my sweet baby.

 On the day of Maryn's actual birthday, I woke up early and Josiah and I made her some yummy cinnamon rolls, which we stuck a 4 candle into and sang her "Happy Birthday" when she awoke.  She ate two whole cinnamon rolls!

Then after Daddy woke up, we got ready for our day and headed to the seminary clinic for SHOTS.  Ah!  I hate shots!  But they all did just fine (Josiah didn't cry one bit!), and haven't had any side effects so far.  Then we had lunch at the seminary, including ice cream sundaes for dessert.  I love college cafeterias.  :)

That night, we made Maryn's recent favorite dinner, Chili Mac, and ate leftover birthday cake and rainbow sherbet.  Then she opened presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Maryn loves to build!  We got her her first set of real Legos.

And a princess Barbie with matching unicorn!

On Sunday afternoon, we had our community's quad cookout but made it Maryn's birthday party as well :). Meaning, the carry-in item we brought was a huge birthday cake!

I just had to add this cute picture of my boys. :)

I love her so much!

Showing off her ballet moves, her new ballet skirt, new shirt and new headband.  Spoiled!

I'm so proud of our sweet girl and the young lady she is becoming.  She has a strong will and a strong mind to match.  John and I are making more of an effort to answer her questions.  We know this is not a behavior she will always possess--someday she will find her answers other places.  We are trying to see these questions as windows into her heart and opportunities to strengthen her mind and thought processes.  We love how she makes us think, and appreciate all she teaches us every day.  Being her parents is anything but easy, but it sure is a gift.

An Evening with the Erdmans

 We like being silly with Daddy on the couch after dinner.

 And then we sometimes have some drawing time.  Mommy draws animals.

 Maryn makes birthday cakes, flowers, or rainbows...

 Josiah colors and makes beautiful circles.

 Daddy draws weird geometric shapes.

by Josiah

 I love evenings with my family.  :)

I love this guy :)

So I've been trying this new thing.  It's called thinking of others before I think of myself.  Revolutionary, I know.  I've been pretty whiny lately.  It's really awful.  God has really convicted of me this as I think of others before myself.  What could others be complaining about, but they don't?  

 John has been working so hard in his classes and in his job.  He works so, so hard, with little reward.  He's been waiting too long (in my opinion) for a promotion.  You probably know that when waiting for something like that, it's easy for the bitter weed of discontentment to rise up inside your heart and take over.

But not John.  My sweet husband has been driving around in an SUV every day this summer without air conditioning,  I had almost forgotten it didn't have a/c because he never complains about it.  It has been a terribly hot summer, and traffic can be pretty awful on his way home from work.  I'd be pretty worked  up into a tizzy by the time I got home!  But he is kind, and greets us all with a smile, hugs and kisses.  :)  He will step in immediately and assist with dinner, make dinner, or take control of the children during the "witching hour" as I make dinner.

Josiah put on a button up, collared shirt today and walked around very proudly saying, "Daddy's shirt," because I guess he thought he looked like his Daddy.  Our children have the best father.  I'm so happy our boys have him to look up to.  I'm so grateful our daughter has him to show her how a man should treat a woman.

We love you, Daddy.  And John, I'm amazed by you.  God is good.  He has been so good to us.  I know it's only through His Spirit that John is as faithful, hard working, and loving as he is.

The righteous who walks in his integrity– blessed are his children after him!   Proverbs 20:7

Parenting is a temporary stewardship.  Marriage is forever.  The best thing you can do for your kids is to be a good husband.  (Wayne Stocks, Ministry-to-children.com)

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. [Genesis 2:24 ESV]

The Louisville Science Center

Last December, our dear friends the Schwenkes moved away.  It was really awful.  We are all still pretty sad and not at peace about it, I'll just be honest.  Many friends move away because they are done with seminary and find jobs.  The Schwenkes had to move because they couldn't sell their home in Eastern Kentucky and the people (the state?  the gov't, whoever) wouldn't allow them to rent it any longer.  And a few months ago, Matt got his orders from the US Army...he'll be leaving for Afghanistan soon...for over a year.  :-(  They have three children ages 8, 6 and 5 (something like that).  Please pray for this sweet, precious family.

We are reading the story of Joseph right now.  The story always convicts me and teaches me,  more and more every time I read it, that God's plans are the best plans.  That there is a bigger picture we can't see.  That He does love us so very, very much.  

I don't know why God has taken the Schwenke family away from us.  Josiah doesn't understand why I don't let him have whatever he wants, either.  He lets me know through frequent temper tantrums that hurt my heart, my feelings and make me angry.

He doesn't understand because he is two.

He is small.  He's short-sighted, selfish and immature.

You see what I'm saying, here, right?

Every now and then, the Schwenkes visit us.  They make us go crazy places like they always used to.  Jenn always planned our home school field trips.  She got us all motivated to drag our clan to places us moms would probably never go by ourselves, without our husbands, because it is quite a chore!  But in a large group, we watch out for each other, and it all works just fine.

Plus a lot of people leave when they see our big group coming...

On Tuesday (yesterday) we went to the Louisville Science Center.  We all had earned free passes anyway with the Louisville Free Public Library Summer Reading Program.  So this trip was almost free.  I paid for my ticket and we all packed our lunches.  We left at 9:15 am and got home at 2:30.  Shwew.  It was quite a day!  

Waiting outside the doors for all our friends to arrive.

Our 5 and 6 year old friends  really know how to get into character.  We love playing with them!

Josiah was an excellent bus driver, even though he was convinced it was a train.  Choo choo!

He spent an hour playing in the water, getting soaked.

The rain jacket didn't help much!

He loves to make tea for Mommy.

I l-o-v-e this picture of our sweet seven year old friend, Kaylee.

The tubes of air...shot balls out, so cool!

"We need these blocks at our house.  These are REAL blocks!"

Shopping for shapes!  The kids could grab a list of shapes to "buy" and checked out at the register.  

Maryn apparently had a very, very long list.

Building a rollercoaster!

After our friends left, we stayed a while since Owen finally fell asleep.
I got to play with them finally, and we all built a couple castles.  :)

A Walk with Daddy

Room to run!

Get that nectar, Mr. Bee!

The community garden gets a little overgrown.

Cuties

Sleeping in the big boy bed is still going well.  Most of the time.

Somebody...

Somebody

 got a new

CAMERA!

These are just the pictures we took when John brought the camera home.  We haven't read the manual yet.  It's more like a BOOK!  Holy cow.  I guess I'm in this mommy blogging business for real!