Let's be honest...

A conversation I just had with Henry:

H: Mom, can I have my firetruck back?
A: Do you remember why your fire truck was taken away?
H: Because I didn't listen and obey.
A: That is usually correct, but today it was because you didn't tell the truth when I asked you if you washed your hands..[long discussion about telling truth]. So, why was your fire truck taken away?
H: Because I didn't wash my hands.
A: No, it's ok if you don't wash your hands, I can just remind you. You were in trouble for not telling the truth..[same discussion about honesty with different words]. So, why was your fire truck taken away?
H: Because I didn't listen and obey.
A: !! Let's pray about being honest and making God happy by telling the truth (and for some parenting wisdom)! [prayer]. [another little chat about telling what really happened, ending with "your fire truck was taken away because you didn't tell the truth"]. So, why was your fire truck taken away?
H: Because I wasn't wearing any pants.


Oh my.

A: Ok, we'll talk about your fire truck later, let's eat lunch. Why don't you go wash your hands.
H: I just washed my hands. (he has not washed his hands)


So.. the idea of God possibly calling us to homeschool is deserving of a whole post in itself. But let me just say, Lord help me if that's the plan.

Clarification..

Ok, so speech impediment might have been too harsh, maybe it's just his "3 year old" dialect. Here are the latest Henry-isms
shicken= chicken
were= your
swailer= trailer
shoose= juice, not to be confused with shoes.

And, just for fun, he uses "don't" for "do", which is always kind of funny. "Why don't you do that?"
Also, he's had his colors down for a while now, but recently has been mixing up orange and blue. I can only assume it has something to do with the Gators.

Where to begin?

I am so incredibly behind on blogging, I get overwhelmed even thinking about how to catch up on everything that has happened in the past 9 months.  Life has been good.. just busy I guess!

I'll start with Emalyn:  She has been a dreamy little baby. As she is moving on from the "baby" phase, I am reminded just how "low maintenance" she's been. Now that she is wanting to explore and get into everything, I'm having to watch her every move!  At about a few months old, she found her thumb. For some strange reason, we tried to discourage it at first, but I think it gets some of the credit for her great sleeping habits. Either she finds it during the night and soothes herself, or she just doesn't wake up. Either way, it's been much easier than with Henry. He often needed help finding his paci during the night, then later, he was up a lot with ear infections at night; so 12 hours of solid sleep has been much appreciated this go round.

Now, at 9 months, she has 3, going on 6, teeth. She's had two on the bottom for a while, but there are 4 up top that are slowing starting to pop through. She can get anywhere she wants to go with her fast army crawl, and if she really wants to, she can pull up to standing, though her legs are very wobbly.
In my unbiased opinion, I think she is the sweetest girl in the world. She is always so excited to see Chad or I in the morning or waking from a nap, and is at the stage of just giving away that full faced smile any chance she can get. She's always making friends when we are out and about.
Her mobility and curiosity have led her to a place of driving her brother a little nuts. When I once would have said he does great with her and I can totally trust them in a room together, that is no more! Now that she is into taking his stuff, he can be very aggressive at "protecting her" and keeping all toys away from her. At the same time, he still can be very sweet with her and I do love seeing them together.



Henry at 3: Well, I've heard people say that 3 can be worse than 2. Hmm.. I will say that there have been a few very bad moments.. but also many, many, very cute moments. It's so fun seeing him learn and grow and develop his little personality. I keep thinking I'm going to write down all the funny little things that he says, but of course, I don't. He has a bit of a speech impediment that makes everything he says like 10 times cuter, I think. That coupled with the expressions on his face just keep us laughing.

He LOVES to help. He likes to help me do just about anything around the house, from vacuuming, to cooking, laundry, etc. His most favorite, though, is to be out in the shop "helping" daddy. He loves all things dad. They enjoy playing basketball, building robots, hitting golf balls, throwing the football... pretty much anything. It's very sweet. We pray daily for wisdom as we navigate this road of parenting. What a blessing and privilege to be the parents to these two sweet kiddos. We are learning so much!

Potty training for Henry may be the death of me, but I'm sure one day it will all be just a distant memory. I know Chad would prefer I leave the details out, so I will. I've been told many times that one day, he'll be ready and there's no sense beating my head against the wall before then. I keep thinking we should be there by now though!! 

We had a great time at his birthday party. Lots of little boys, dirt, cake.. what more could you ask for? 

Let's see. To cover a few more things really quickly:

Christmas- We get to celebrate Christ's birth in Pensacola and Gainesville each year, always a fun time with family. 

The Overman Grandkids

Gainesville Christmas

Yes, we missed the West Coast Conrads,
there may have been a few tears

In April we made our first family trip to SeaWorld and had a blast

the kids did great, Emalyn finally passed our for a short nap,
she doesn't like to miss out on anything! 

Introducing.. Emalyn Estelle Overman (2 months ago..)

It's just crazy how time passes. The months of waddling around barely able to breathe while working, and dismantling our house piece by piece, seemed to crawl by so slowly; but now that I'm off work, putting the house back together and have 2 children, it's flying by!  I can't believe Emalyn is now nearly 2 months old. She has been a delight. I think my view of the complications of starting life with 2 kids has been clouded by the fact that we had to (got to!) spend the first month at my parent's house. It was kind of a last minute decision to go home from the hospital to Newberry instead of our "construction zone" for a few days while we settled in with the newborn... that quickly turned in to 4 weeks! Well, if it was nice having my mom come over to help out some after Henry was born.. it was incredible to be staying with her for a month! Though some have pitied us for the chaos of it all, it was definitely a blessing to me (and to Chad as I'm sure it took some pressure off of him!) to have some much needed extra help. Here are some pictures of the big day

WARNING: photo of a brand new, bloody, cheesy baby is next. 

Welcome to the big, bright world, Emalyn!

Emalyn

Henry

Emalyn seemed a little feistier than Henry right at first, which might have worried us a bit about what was to come. As it turns out though, she has been a wonderful little baby.. well, crying or not, of course she's wonderful, but she has been very easy on us, thankfully.

They put her skin to skin with me almost immediately, which seemed to calm her down nicely

It took Henry a few weeks to warm up to this new member of our little family, but he is now VERY proud of his baby sister and loves to help with her

 Proud Grandparents

You would think I had labored for days with the "beat up" look of her face, but I'm not sure I even ever even had a real contraction!

Henry got to "ride" on the bed with Emalyn and I on the way to my room after recovery

Headed home from the hospital, in the gown I went home in, a blanket made by my grandmother and a bonnet that was my grandmother's. 

We're outta here!

It's about time!

Well, I guess at some point I am just going to have to start blogging again and accept the fact that I will never catch up with all the things I've missed in the last 7 months!!! (including, but not limited to- Disney trip with Baba and Pop, trips to Pensacola, Cousin birthday celebration, fun with the Conrads before they moved :(, me being pregnant, our house going under construction, and last but not least.. we had a beautiful little girl!)
So, this is the beginning of my effort to get back into the blogging routine. Maybe at some point I'll go back and revisit some of the stuff I've missed.
For now, here's a few pictures of life lately..

Henry has really taken off on his Strider bike! 

Here are a few random construction photos that are easily available at the moment... 

at the grocery store with Mickey Mouse

Introducing.. Emalyn Estelle Overman! I'm sure we've got some better pics somewhere!

Such a sweet boy

Playdate with his buddies Josiah and Elijah

Fun on the way to the airport! We miss these girls!!!

Love her! 

daddy's helper

Happy Birthday Emalyn!

Happy Birthday Henry!!

Wow, I can't believe my little boy is already 2!!! It's amazing to me how every day he just seems to get cuter and cuter and I find myself loving him more and more.. yet at the same time, he does seem to test my patience more than ever at the same time.  I think this is one of the cutest ages yet - as he is learning so much every day, he's like a little parrot, repeating everything we say with his own cute little dialect, wanting to do everything on his own, learning to be more and more independent. I guess the tantrums and frustrations are just part of the learning process, but they do leave Chad and I continually praying to God for wisdom for how to deal with it all. He is a little daddy's boy and it just makes my heart smile at night when I can not peel him off of Chad's shoulder because he just loves to cuddle with his dad before bed. Sweet, sweet, stuff.. and it's just going by way too fast!
We had a wonderful time with friends and family celebrating his birthday a few weeks ago. Here are some pictures..

Thank you to my friend Keila for making these.. I cannot take credit! 

Fun with his cousins! 

Not sure what Olivia is thinking, but I love her face here

right after "blowing out his candles"/spitting all over cake!

Friends!