This Little Light of Mine

A few weeks ago Drew sang with his preschool choir at church. It was absolutely precious. As parents and teachers we work hard and stress wanting everything to go as planned BUT at this age anything they do is cute so who cares if they make a mistake! Right? Drew is typically a shy child but in the video below he is pretty excited about shining his light 'til Jesus comes. He holds "his light" up high in the air and sings so loud. It makes me smile and giggle just watching it. He is growing up so fast and changing everyday. I know when he starts to Kindergarten he will change even more. I try not to be tooooo sad because I know with each stage in life there is always joy to see. Joy & Laughter when they are babies to toddlers to preschoolers to "big boys". He said to me in PURE & UTTER EXCITEMENT the other day "Mommy, I'm big now. I am 5 and I have a mole. See I have a mole...that means I'm big now". These cute little things he says I never want to forget! He is so sweet to always tell me I'm the bestest mommy ever or that I look pretty. Moments like that are what make all the hard work of being a mommy worth it!!!
Recently we started paying him a small allowance for doing chores. He has 3 cups to put his money in...1) offering 2) savings 3) spending. We are trying to teach him to give back to God first, then save, then shop for something special he has wanted. Right now he is trying to earn enough "spending" money to buy another Ben 10 Alien. His nightstand is FULL of Ben 10 characters but he says there are more to get. He organizes & reorganizes them often and these are toys he would rather "brother" not play with but occasionally he will give Alex the HONOR of playing with a Ben 10 character. We look at Walmart/Target each time we go to make sure no one has bought all of the Ben 10 toys while he is saving his money to buy one.

This Little Light of Mine (this makes me smile)
----You will have to copy the link below & paste it into the address box on your internet browser. The other video worked with embedding but I couldn't get this one to. Any suggestions? The first video I did from the upload window but when I went back to YouTube that window was gone and I couldn't find the embed object box anywhere----

http://www.youtube.com/user/dadamcelhaney?feature=mhee#p/a/u/0/TOosUtkPeAg

He Makes Me Laugh

The other night while watching American Idol, Alex decided to give us our own show. He makes me laugh soooo much!!! It is times like these that I am filled with such joy by just watching him. Sometimes I just sit & look at him and just giggle at how funny he is. He is frustrating at times when he throws fits and whines but the joy far outweighs those times! He talks so much and tries to do everything big brother does even if it doesn't make sense. For example, the other day at my parents' house Drew opened the movie cabinet to get out a DVD. Alex then opened & shut the cabinet door even though he didn't need a DVD...just wanted to do what big brother did. When he does things like that or sings or dances or tells me he loves me...I am so thankful to be a mommy!! Every night at bedtime we read books and sing "jesus loves me". He is now able to sing along and it makes me smile EVERY SINGLE time we do it because it is just the cutest thing. I am going to get David to secretly videotape it soon because I don't ever want to forget it.

Now for your enjoyment...here is Alex performing at American Idol.

Preschool Choir at church

Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World

Singing their little hearts out!

Drew & his buddy Jackson - They walked onto stage holding hands and held hands for much of the program. One day they will be embarrassed knowing that. ha!

Drew & his friend, Emily. We love sweet Emily!

He has risen!

Weeks before Easter Alex found their pillow pets in the back of my car. I told them that they were a gift for a friend who just had a baby. A few days before Easter Drew found their pillow pets AGAIN under the bed in our guest bedroom. He said "I know these are for your friend but can I just play with it today?" I couldn't take it away at that point because he loved it so much & has wanted one for a very long time. So...I told an Easter bunny tale. I told him that the Easter bunny must have come a day early to leave them an early surprise. The Easter bunny crawled through the window and hid the pillow pets. Drew's response "Well, I don't see his footprints on the carpet." I knew Easter morning I had to leave evidence of the bunny so we messed up the blinds and drapes. We left their baskets where the pillow pets were originally hidden. He never questioned it. The Easter bunny left them a note saying he hoped they liked their pillow pets he left Saturday. Holidays are so fun with little children!!!

Very happy the Easter bunny knew they love powdered donuts. They did not waste time digging into those!

We had a wonderful church service on Easter morning. I am so thankful for a wonderful church that unapologetically preaches the truth in God's Word! Every year Dr. Junior Hill speaks at our church but this is our first time to see him. He had an amazing sermon! Many people were saved which is always such a joy to see. I can't help but think "wow...that person was unsaved when they came to church today and now they will spend eternity in Heaven"!!! Words could never express the gratitude we have for Jesus taking the pain for all of our sins so that we can spend eternity in Heaven. I love that Drew is starting to ask questions. At his age, the questions are precious!
We had Easter lunch with our friends, the Vestals and the Shinlevers. We had a delicious lunch! We had ham, hashbrown casserole, Amy's yummy corn, green bean bundles, rolls, and Amanda's chocolate cake. It rained all day long so with a full tummy and a rainy afternoon, the only thing left to do was to take a nap.

Drew, Neely, & Alex in their Easter outfits...so cute!!!

Getting ready for Easter!

The boys had an Easter program at their preschool. We didn't get really great pictures because we were so far away and the boys were on two different ends of the group. As the picture of Alex shows...he's REAL enthused to be on stage. He is sitting down leaned back on the steps while everyone else is standing up. Drew was just concerned with where we were sitting because we constantly walked in the back of the room to go from side to side to get pictures of both boys. They are wearing green and navy sweater vests (if you can't see them in the pictures).

As usual...these three are up to no good. I don't think they are ever together and not laughing. After the program, there were cookies and lemonade so I think they were anxious to get their cookies maybe.

Alex really got into hiding Easter eggs. He repeated for EVERY egg..."this goes here...and this goes here...and this goes here...and this goes here". It was hilarious. He organized & reorganized the eggs in the basket on our coffee table.

We attempted decorating real eggs this year. I have not done it since I was a kid. I actually had to call my mom to ask how to boil an egg. I do not eat eggs and the only thing I know how to do with them is add them to items I'm baking or occassionally & I do mean occassionally scramble them for the boys.


The look on his face should tell you how the egg decorating went with a 2 year old. "what I can't throw the egg in the dye? I can't dip the egg in & out of the dye over & over?" As usual, it was like a bull in a china store!

Happy 5th Birthday!!!

He had a Ben 10 themed birthday party. It is his favorite show to watch and favorite toys to play with. All he asked for his birthday was Ben 10 aliens which is really a small request. Rick's Bakery did an amazing job drawing the Ben 10 watch on the cake. Picking up the cake was the highlight of Drew's Friday afternoon. I'm pretty sure he showed my parents and nieces 10 times Friday night when they got here....as if it was changing in the refrigerator.

Thanks friends for making Drew's birthday special!! Sweet Neely was his only girlfriend that came but he could not have celebrated his birthday without her. He loves her so much. I love to see them together playing, laughing, & hugging goodbye.

We put "trick" candles on his cake. He blew...and blew...and blew...


and finally realized they WERE NOT going out! Notice Alex finally started helping him blow.

Thanks Auntie, Heath, Hannah & Jenna...he LOVES his scooter!

For lunch we had Red Robin. I told our waitress it was Drew's birthday (knowing he probably would not like the embarrassment of them singing to him - whoops). Initially he wasn't happy but he warmed up at the end.




He is not a real big ice cream eater so Jenna was happy to eat it for him.

We also went to Touch a Truck despite the January like temperatures.

Drew loved shooting the BB gun (with David's help, of course).

They were happy to take this picture because it was so warm standing beside the

muffler on the fire truck.

Jenna driving the postal truck.

Jenna & Alex in a Tyson 18-wheeler

Drew was asking to open presents days before his birthday party on Saturday. He was counting down the days until Gran & Pop, and Hannah & Jenna arrived. Then he was also counting down days until presents and his party. We didn't let him have the bounce house until my parents got there because it was also from them. He knew that he could get a gift when we woke up Saturday morning...so that's what he wanted to do as soon as everyone woke up. It was a huge hit!

He is still jumping in it everyday. Luckily we have a bonus room and have

used it so much with all this rainy weather.

Favorite game with the bounce house is playing "hide from the monster" - AKA pop & daddy chase us around the bounce house while we scream & jump & laugh. They never get tired of that game but Pop & Daddy do.

One of his requests for the bounce house is that it would have a slide. Their favorite thing to do is pile tons of pillow, stuffed animals, and blankets at the bottom of the slide & crash into it all. Also they love to lay on a pillow & slide down.

It was such a fun weekend. I was so glad my parents and nieces were able to come for the weekend. Thank you friends & family for making it so special for Drew!

On his birthday (Monday) he received a card in the mail from my Granny Welch. He always hopes there is something in the mail for him when we check the mailbox. Even better...there was a card with money for him. Usually we put it in his piggy bank but there was another Ben 10 Alien he was wanting so he was so excited to go pick it out at Wal-Mart. He thought it was really cool too that he had his own money to give the cashier. He picked out 2 toys and put the rest in his piggy bank.

My next task is to print a group picture from the party and mail thank you notes. Some of my friends are so quick at that and I am terrible. I wish I could remember things like that quicker than weeks after the event.

Hanging out at Home

When we went for our monthly Aldi trip this week Drew asked for a watermelon. I was afraid it might be too early for a really good watermelon but surprisingly it was good. The boys loved it!

Last week in the middle of all the crazy rain and storms...a cold front moved through. The cold weather made me have the NEED to put on jammies, order pizza, and make cookies. The boys love to make cookies and of course lick the spatula when we are done.

Drew & David playing basketball. Drew loves for his daddy to play with him. He takes his basketball very serious too...notice the "real" basketball clothes he has on. He also asks for music to run out to & we have to call out his name and cheer for him. Soooo funny!

Drew's "basketball face" while he's "running out on court"

Alex doing his favorite past-time of coloring. I love his fat little cheeks!!!

We were having a family dance. All I had close was "Cinderella" (not the princess). The boys loved playing their air guitars to the music & dancing like crazy. Drew was dancing so hard he worked up a sweat & needed to take his shirt off.

Playing outside

On a VERY windy Sunday we bought the boys kites. Poor Alex couldn't get his off the ground but a few times. Once he did the wind demolished it because surprisingly it can be TOO windy for a flying a kite. Whoops!

Alex running to try & get his kite off the ground

Drew's worked pretty well