parent prayer

Dear heavenly Father, make me a better parent.Teach me to understand my children,to listen patiently to what they have to say,and to answer all their questions kindly.Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them.Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.
Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes,or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.
Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal.And guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty produces happiness.
Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.And when I am out of sorts,help me, oh Lord, to hold my tongue.
May I ever be mindful that my children are children and I should not expect of them the judgement of adults.Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests,and the courage to deny them privileges I know will do them harm.
Make me fair and just and kind. And fit me, oh Lord,to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.
Amen

Yeah for Friends

Yesterday Samuel and Hanna had a great day of play together. Faye (Hanna's mommy) and I are swapping out a few days so that we can do Christmas shopping alone (somehow seems to go by a lot quicker and a lot less stressful that way ha)

Here they are sharing goldfish

(yes Al, that is an "OU" shirt he is wearing!!)

They had a great time throwing balls around the entryway (then soon at each other) Right now Samuel LOVES his balls and I think eventually he got tired of "sharing" them. I found him hiding his balls behind the pillow on the couch whenever Hanna wasn't looking. Unfortunately, he did not see me go in behind him and throw the balls back out hee hee.We all went on a walk around the neighborhood in Samuel's cool wagon (He got this for Christmas last year from his Uncle Rod and Aunt Kelly... He LOVES going out for walks in it!)
Though no walk is perfect unless you bring a stack of Lego blocks with you!

We had a fun filled day, and I understand Faye was very successful as well! Now that is what I would call a win - win situation!!

The Perfect new TOY?!

Though he is nowhere near ready to use it, we decided to start introducing Samuel to the next exciting milestone~ POTTY TRAINING. Kirk and I wanted to make it sound interesting and like a lot of fun. We apparently did a great job, as he is very fascinated. He really enjoys sitting on it though he has not "used" it yet. He likes it so much that he feels it needs to go everywhere with him (instead of staying in the bathroom)He loves the lid on it, constantly opening and closing it (he even tries to close it while he is perched upon the throne)

Here he is enjoying the nice cushy seat... guess it makes a great hat?!

Really?! must he place his new potty on the couch?! Thankfully it is still clean and new

Happy Halloween

Who is the cutest Horse EVER?! why Samuel of course!!! who else?



For Halloween Samuel went to the fall festival at our church. He was still a little small to understand what all was going on, but he enjoyed watching it and taking it all in. He got to meet a cow, a lama and feed the goats (Kirk had a hard time trying to explain that the food was for the animals and not for Sam to eat!)

He did not enjoy the hood of the costume, so these are the only pics I got with it on!!

Pumpkin Patch

What a busy week thus far! We have not been home all week long, but Samuel has taken it all in stride. He is so good to go with the flow! (sometimes he pays me back for it later, but while it is occurring he handles it well.)

Tues we went to the Arboretum with Faye and Hanna and Alison and Josh. We had a nice time. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, couldn't have asked for better weather. Sam and Hanna enjoyed running all around the pumpkins while Josh was as good as gold posing on the patch for his Mom!




Once he was all through with the pumpkins, he decided he needed to climb the tree.He enjoyed hugging the goats and the woolly sheep. Apparently the kids had a good time, both he and Hanna actually fell asleep on the ride home!