Evie Joy in a basket...oh the memories!

i love this- Evie Joy is in this tiny basket
Josiah is pulling her around
by the string on her sweater! 
I love this because when i was little my cousins Chanse, Robin and I would play "Baby Jesus"- We'd put Robin in a clothes basket and drag her around being baby Jesus!  haha...brings back fun memories!

Daddy's Day 012

 well we were actually traveling on Father's Day this year so Mommy made Daddy a bunch of goodies before we traveled- a caramel apple pie, no-bake cookies, peanut butter cups, brownie, cookie, smores
As Evie Joy told Daddy "Mommy made you treats.  I didn't help, I just watched Mommy make them.  I didn't eat any, they are for you, but if you want to share them with me, you can"  haha!  That is how Daddy found out about his treats!

 They made Daddy a few little hand made Happy Father's Day gifts! 

The whole Mother's/Father's Day thing to them isn't super clear!  After Josiah gave DAddy his picture he made for him and said Happy Father's Day, he then hugged me and said "Happy Mother's Day!"

We love Wii Dance! And the Locals do too!

So FULL of personality!

So, this is my Evie Joy...she likes corn...she like ketchup...she doesn't like much else...eating with her is a fight!  Oh yes, she likes clothes, she changes her clothes like 10 times a day...her she is wearing an Orioles shirt on backwards!  And it is something I will not fight her about! This week she has been into vests, she will wear like 3 vests and it is 80 degrees?!  Her teachers undressed her and sent her home with a bag of the extra clothes she was wearing!

Sometimes she looks really sweet like here, hugh....well it doesn't last!

Everyday, about 10 times a day she looks like this!  Heart breaking!  I mean she looks and sounds as if something quite horrific has happened and really, only her feelings are hurt!  She is very sensitive!  Here she is pictured crying because she hung up on Daddy and Mommy said she couldn't call him back again...but Daddy did call back and calm the poor girl down....yes yes yes she is not lacking for personality! 

My sweet Josiah is growing up!

Soem fish he drew at local Preschool

Some fish and apples, not really sure what else he drew at Preschool!

I think this was suppose to be an attempt at learning to lace shoes at Preschool?!

With one of our sweet English Corner friends, Vivian!

This is the sweet face I love!  He loves chicken and dippy at McDonalds!

One day he cracked me up, just asked if he could read books while going potty! haha!

Josiah is really precious these days - he is growing in so many ways- he barely throws fits and argues, that stage seems to have come to a "pause" for this time, for he seems to really understand so much more and mostly attempt to be compliant, his heart is a lot softer than a few months back...he is maturing!  He is sensitive to the fact that the majority of the people where we live do not know or believe there is a GReat Creator God who loves them and wants a relationship with them...he knows they are in darkness and tries to remember that when relating to them!  He tries to love on Evie Joy, give her good advice, set a good example most of the time, invites her to play with him and tries to come to her rescue when she is in despair! He has such a sweet gentle spirit in giving Mommy lots of hugs and kisses everyday- Mommy really loves this about 4 years old!  He also has such a great learners attitude in learning so many stories and songs and verses in both in English and in Chinese.  He still loves singing and dancing as you can see from Children's Day!  He tries to communicate the best he can to the local children and asks everyday how to say so many new things.  He is learning more about worship like what mercy is and what it means that God is faithful and loving and what it means to be wicked and righteous.  He loves singing the song "Thy Word!"  When Daddy goes away he tries to be the "man" of the house and he loves to co-teach with Daddy at English Corner, it is so sweet, I should video sometime!  I praise God for the gift of being Josiah's Mommy, for this sweet stage of 4 1/2 years old with him, for his gentleness and sensitivity and joy.  I just wanted to take a few minutes to jot down some of the many things I am loving about Josiah these days! 

What we drew for Mommy for Mother's Day!

from Josiah who wrote Mommy, I love You, Happy Mommy Day but um, he wrote it all himself all over the page! haha!  love this kid!

from Evie Joy with the help of Daddy with the writing!

from Evie Joy with no help, wrote JOY!  so proud of that girl!

They were super cute- I went running and came home and they kept saying "Happy Day Mommy" I said "Happy Day to you too!" They were like "NO!  It's your Happy Day!"  Then Evie Joy said "Oh, I can't remember how to say it" and sat on the floor disgruntled!  haha!  They gave me lots of hugs and kisses and Daddy made us breakfast!  It was sweet!

Evie Joy is my little Helper!

EVIE JOY LOVES HELPING ME SORT LAUNDRY AND PUT IT AWAY!  I THINK SHE IS SUPER SMART AT 2 SHE KNOWS WHERE TO PUT ALL HER CLOTHES AWAY!

THIS IS HER STASH OF WIPES- I AM TRYING TO GET HER TO REUSE SOME OF THEM! SHE LOVES CLEANING!

LOOK AT HOW SMART THIS GIRL IS- SORTING THE LAUNDRY!

SHE ALSO LOVES HELPING WITH THE DISHES!  I ALWAYS WASH THEM AFTER SHE DOES (DON'T TELL) BUT SHE GETS IN A KINDA-PRE WASH! AND IT'S BETTER THAN HAVING HER GET IN SOMETHING SHE ISN'T SUPPOSE TO OR FUSS

SHE PRETTY MUCH ASKS ME EVERYDAY TO HELP WASH THE DISHES HA!  LOVE THIS GIRL!

One thing that is super fun about having a little girl is that she loves to help do housework!  She thinks it is fun!  So, I don't want to ever discourage that idea...I instead allow her to help as much as possible when she is willing or i find a task that is suitable.  She has her own little pink hand broom - now sweeping is not really that suitable for her but i let her try for awhile when she wants!  She is a good swifter though!  She is great as shown above at sorting and putting away clothes!  She loves helping wipe stuff off so i get her to help clean the doors and other toys that have been played with outside!  She helped me clean our bathtub last week and cracked me up saying "Mommy, Jenny's bathtub isn't so dirty, maybe we ought to go back to Jenny's house and take a bath!"  But the whole time she kept saying how proud Daddy would be of her!  She loves helping with dishes as shown above!  And like i said, I give her mostly their cups to use the bottle brush to clean out and i use her wash as a sort of pre-wash!  She would much rather clean than actually pick/straighten up but we are working on her picking up better after herself and her room :)  haha can't ask for it all i suppose! 

Boy have we been learning ALOT!



Practicing Writing our names on the bathroom door and wall!



Evie Joy has been loving her some just add water painting!

lovin puttin some beads on strings! 

Josiah only uses red, orange, yellow and a little white because they are McQueen colors!  haha!

enjoying reading some Chinese books!

Josiah did so well repeating The Three Trees in Chinese! 

Josiah has been loving learning about his tools in Chinese!

Evie Joy LOVES cutting!

Evie Joy has enjoyed learning Chinese while playing dress up!

Here she was Diego, a cowboy and some kind of princess!

learning to bake cookies and cake with some of the English Corner gals!

oh yeah M&M's in my cookies!

Evie Joy is learning Chinese while taking care of her bears- very important vocab!

Enjoying pattern pictures!

Super proud Jo & EJ matchining up their numbers while counting in Chinese!

Making Mug Brownies!  YUM!

It's Raining Outside so we played rice and beans inside!

Getting Ready to go to Preschool but played a little rice and beans before hitting the raod!

This was a "Mommy, will you take my picture" shot!



And so I did...color away Evie JOy! 

This is the end of our very long learning post...but we have had a super great learning month!  Thanks for checking in on us!