Too much TV?

The other night I asked Jake where he wanted to eat. Then wondering why I asked when I KNEW what he would say, and he did: "E-McDonald's." (He's called it this since he began talking - he mixed the restaurant up with Old MacDonald, the song. He used to say E-I-O Donald's.)

I told him no, that's like greasy fast food and we want to go to a restaurant.

He said, "Well, let's go to Wendy's. It's WAY better than fast food."

Oh my goodness, it's amazing how much advertising affects us! I didn't even know he had seen that one that much.

Also, for you moms who ever watch QUBO (channel 68.2 on our digital converter box - a big step up from the 5 channels we've gotten our whole married life ;)) it's a channel with only cartoons all day. I like some of the shows better than others. This is how we discovered 3-2-1 Penguins, a cute show made by Big Idea, the people who made VeggieTales. Jake loves it and so do I because it always has a biblically-based lesson in it. But Qubo also has shows like Miss BG, which I have banned because BG is a not very nice little girl. Anyway, all the commercials in between the cartoons are for random as-seen-on-TV products, like space bags, this under the bed shoe holder, the pancake puff maker, etc.

Today we were in the Walmart checkout line and on the shelf were Aqua Globes.

Jake was like, "Mom, we need these because they water your plants perfectly every time."

Oh my goodness...

I'm Here!

A HUGE thanks to my sis-in-law, Erin, for her (always) brilliant comment to make my pics smaller before uploading them. (duh.) It took me a while to figure it out, but MY GOODNESS it's so much faster now. So, here's some recent kid pics. No cohesive theme or anything funny...just our household over the last few weeks:

Max LOVES reading. Crazy - he'll be quite in his room for up to 15 minutes (!) just doing this. He likes to sit in this chair in his room or the recliner in the living room to "rock-rock" and read books.

We went to a park a couple weeks ago. He still LOVES balls...mostly "be-be-ball" (basketball).

Jake has been practicing writing his name at school. Funny - at home he doesn't want anything to do with writing or even coloring, but he comes home from school every day with papers from practicing the letter of the week. Glad Mrs. Parker (or maybe just watching the other kids) motivates him! So I was surprised when he wanted to do this on a magna doodle...

all by himself - I asked what letters it spelled. Thought that third letter was supposed to be an "a" but then he read out "J-K-Q-E." Ha. At least he knows what he wrote...

I'm learning to encourage practice without correcting too much. My instinct is to correct, but he gets discouraged so easily and hates making any mistakes. At this early stage of writing as his motivation and self-confidence are so small, I'm trying to praise any effort. We'll correct soon enough...

Kicking a ball with Daddy

We didn't catch the beginning of the soccer season this year, but we want to do Upward soccer next year...

Before church the other day...

Sweet boys...