Welcoming in 2016

Poor Henry had a rough start to his week.  He had gotten in trouble and was sent to his room.  I went up to talk to him and he just had a total meltdown.  It was so sad to hear him.  He said that he wanted to be 7 and older than Josiah.  School [in general] was too long and he didn't like it.  He doesn't want to do a lot of school like Josiah has to do.  He doesn't ride his bike as well as Josiah does.  Josiah never likes his Lego creations.  It was really sad.  So I told him how much we loved him, how much God loves him, how special he is.  I told him how all his teachers make mention of how special he is.  I think by the end he was feeling better.  Then he had me just hold him for a good 20 minutes.  By the time he got up, he was all smiles again.  Later I had a talk with Josiah about being a big brother.  Henry admires him so much and takes what he says to heart (like criticisms on Lego creations).  So, I asked him to be more encouraging with him.  I gave him the example of how he is encouraging with a boy in his CC class and he smiled and seemed to "get it."  I have heard him use some encouraging words since then, so that's a plus!

Tuesday we got a new couch!  We haven't had a real couch since we moved to Texas, so we love having it.  Josiah has taken to sitting on it and turning on the t.v. in the mornings.  I came downstairs the other morning and he said, "At first I was watching the news. There was serious damage to houses in Oklahoma."  Then he went back to his cartoon.  Just a little public service announcement.  (We've since established rules of watching t.v. in the morning.)

We finally made it to Second Baptist Church and saw their Christmas train display.  It was quite large and really neat to look at.  They had different neighborhoods of sorts - Americana buildings, Frozen scenery, Bethlehem, etc.  All with model trains riding through.  We saw one mom chasing a little boy around saying, "[Child's name!] it's not going to stop!"  He was chasing the train in a giant circle.  :)  They did have a card with pictures of different buildings or features for the kids to find.  That made the whole thing much more fun for the boys.  At the end they got a lollipop each for finding everything.  On the way home, Josiah asked a general question about gum and what you're supposed to do with it.  I gave my explanation and then said, "Why? Did you swallow it?" Well, yes.  He's never had gum before.

Enjoying the "bubble" 

The boys spent another afternoon talking about marriage.  They both wanted to marry Caroline, but after explaining that they couldn't marry her (for the umpteenth time), Josiah got the utterly brilliant idea.  He suggested to Henry that they play Rock, Paper, Scissors for whom they could marry.  Henry won the first three girls, Josiah got the fourth.  So, watch out ladies, my boys have an amazing vetting process for future spouses.

Cheers! We figured out our future spouses!

We got a little more Texified this week, too.  Todd took Caroline to the boot store and got cowboy hats for all the kids.  They were all just super cute in them.  We couldn't stop taking pictures.

Henry was swinging his invisible lasso.

We finished up the year watching fireworks from the boys' room.  We learned that Texans love their fireworks.  We had neighbors on all sides of our house (not directly) shooting off fireworks from 7:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. (at least, that's just when we fell asleep).  It was constant.  From the boys'  room they had fireworks coming from three different areas, so for about an hour we were all in there just looking out for them.  It was fun, but I'm glad I don't have to hear that for 5+ hours all that often.  :)

One last school project.  We made Ancient Greek paper doll figurines.  The boys colored their figures, clothes, & accessories.  Henry cut his out.  Josiah wanted me to cut his out because he prefers perfectly cut items.  Then they put the clothes on their newly named figures - Helen, Zeus, and Poseidon.  Henry did not quite get Helen's dress on her.  When Josiah pointed this out, Henry said that she was showing off her muscles and that the wind was blowing.

Henry's Helen in the wind.

Unfortunately, Todd has to go back to work this week.  It was a good two weeks of having him home. We are going to try to start off this school year/semester with more enthusiasm and a bit less complaining.  We are all a work in progress!