Potty Training!

We have been potty training Baxter this week...it's gone better than I thought, and yet we have a long way to go! Owen was 3 1/2 when he went through this, so he got it in a day. Baxter still doesn't seem to get it, but he's going in the potty and today he stayed dry all day. I'm very proud of him and can't believe we might be diaper free (aside from naps and bedtime) until January! Here are some sweet pictures.

We need to find some pink!

Here is a video of us telling Owen and Baxter that they are going to have a SISTER!

"My New Bed"

Baxter has made the transition from his crib to a toddler bed in the last week. He has done way better than I ever thought he would do! He stays in the bed for the most part, and we're trying to teach him how to read his clock to see when it turns 7 in the morning and 3 after naps so that he won't call out until then...that is going a little slower, but that is ok! Here are a few pictures from right after we set up his bed, and a few from he and Owen on the bed.









Calling Gramma and Grampa to tell them about his new bed.

Cows

Once again, we enjoyed some FREE chick-fil-a food by simply dressing up as cows. This year, Owen wanted to be colorful cows, so I obliged. They still gave us the free food. I was hoping for a bonus milkshake for creativity, but I guess I shouldn't push it! Here are our two little cows. We didn't get a family shot, but we all had different colors on. Quite a scene!



Owen wrote his own "Eat Mor Chikin" sign. Not sure why I had him write the words correctly - guess I didn't want to get him confused as he's learning these things...

Three

I have been meaning to announce on our blog that we are expecting Purdy baby #3! We are do in early January, and are now 15 weeks along. I have been feeling sick pretty consistently since we found out we were pregnant, so that is why I haven't thought to update the blog! I am STARTING to feel a little bit better, so I'm hopeful that the end of the sickness in near.

We are excited - the boys are too! Baxter always gives the baby (my growing tummy) hugs and kisses and talks to it. Owen talks about "when the baby comes..." and sweetly tells me that my tummy is getting bigger often. He means well :) For those who would like to know, we WILL find out if it's a boy or a girl. I think that is at the end of August.

Please join us in praying for a healthy baby and pregnancy!

Happy BELATED Father's Day!

I had wanted to post something for Father's Day, and the day came and went. SO... a week later I thought I'd still go ahead and post afew pictures of Matt in action as a loving, fun, faithful father. He has energy and creativity that I just can't muster up and it's a beautiful thing. Owen and Baxter are very blessed to have him as their daddy!

Here are some of my favorites: some sweet ones and some products of "boy time" (which are sweet in their own way!).

Camping

I went camping for the first time this weekend! I was very nervous, but it went very well - I'd even look forward to doing it again! The occasion for this trip was with our home group. There were a few more experienced campers, so that was helpful! We ate well and just enjoyed time around the fire relaxing and chatting. The boys stayed home with Matt's parents (Thank You Grams and Grampop!) so that Matt and I could enjoy this time without trying to figure out how to sleep two boys in a tent! Someday we'll try that! Here is a picture to prove it!

Williamsburg

We spent a few days this weekend/week in Williamsburg to celebrate Mother's Day and our Anniversary (8 years today!). We "won" this trip through one of those time share companies - give them 90 minutes of your time and they pay for 2 nights stay and give you some gift cards. SO... the "pitch" to buy was harder than we thought, but we succeeded in saying no. After that, we enjoyed some time away from home, doing pretty much what we do at home. Vacation with a 4 year old and a 2 year old looks a lot like life at home, just away. But it was joyful to be able to spend time together without the distractions of laundry, work, email, etc. Here are some pics.


Lunch at a yummy spot, "The Cheese Shop."





Anything can be made into a drum!






Even with all that there was to see, the boys just loved RUNNING around! It was a beautiful day and a beautiful place to run and play! Their favorite was riding in the stroller over the bumpy rocks! Who knew! In a few years we'll have to go back and enjoy more of the history that surrounded us.









We went down the Colonial Williamsburg Parkway and found a great spot to walk on the beach and throw rocks into the river. We stayed for about an hour. It was awesome, peaceful, fun, etc. I am not sure who had the most fun though, Matt or the boys! There was a stick out in the middle of the water that Matt was trying to reach. He tried valiantly! He came close a few times, but it was fun to watch him try. If I had known ahead of time how peaceful this was going to be, I could have brought a chair and a book! That is how great it was!

For God So Loved the World

In our "school at home" times, we have gotten back into the swing of things a bit. Spring and Easter occupied much of our time at home in March. Now that April is here, we are back to Susan Hunts "ABC's of God's Word." We did the letter "E" last week, and I didn't get any pictures of it. So we'll just jump to letter "F".

F - "For God so love the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

This was neat to study right after Easter, since at Easter we celebrated just what this verse is speaking about. God giving His son, Jesus, to die for us so that those who believe in Him will not perish but will have eternal life with God. Does it get any better than that?! It was neat to touch on the first part of that verse too - the LOVE of God. And that that love is so great and so big and so personal. And that through His love, He accomplishes our salvation! Not based on anything we have done, but solely on what He has done. Now if only those truths can remain in my heart and on my mind each day, and sink deeply into our children's hearts and minds as well.

We made a FFFlag that has our Bible verse on one side and a big F next to a heart with a cross in it on the other side. I think that I found this more clever than O did. Oh well!





On another day, O and B did some gluing. I cut out the pieces, and as we walked through the verse, they each glued (B with lots of help, O with just a little) the pieces on. The pieces I used were:

- a BIG heart (God so loved)
-a world (one piece blue, one piece green...the world)
-a cross (gave his Son)

I'm sure you could add more parts to get the whole verse in, but this is where I stopped. I also saw a neat mobile for this verse at a neat website called Impress Your Kids.

Cousin Love

We got to spend a few days in Harrisonburg last week for Spring Break. My brother Brett and his family came down for most of the week since they were also on Spring Break. We enjoyed time with the cousin's playing, celebrating Matt's bday at our favorite Mexican place from college (El Charro), Carolyn and I were able to get pedicures :), and chatting. It was a treat to see them. The biggest treat by far was to see Owen and Anna play together. They are 6 days a part and just LOVED being together this visit. They have always been very fond of each other, but this trip they seemed most fond of each other. I think they are over some of the sharing issues that were more of a part of our other visits (which Baxter and Jake are now wading through at 14 days apart.). Here are a few pictures from some cup cake decorating with Gramma. We can't wait for Cousin's Camp 2010 this summer where ALL of the Gillan cousins will be together!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Matt turned 30 last week - we enjoyed celebrating with a few days in Harrisonburg with my parents and my brother Brett and his family. Before we left, we made him this yummy BIG cookie and gifted him with some homemade cards AND tickets to a Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game. Yes, I said Flying Squirrels. They are our new minor league baseball game. Happy Birthday Matt/Daddy! We love you very very much!!



Here is the recipe I used for the BIG cookie. (Thank you Blair!)

BIG Cookie Recipe:
6T butter, softened
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C chocolate chips

Cream the sugar by mixing both sugars with the butter. Add the egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add the flour slowly. Stir in chocolate chips. Press all of the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet or pizza tray into a circle about 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Add whatever icing words you like (Blair said they help hold candles in AND look fun!). ENJOY!

Happy Easter!

The Lord is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!

"Him Came Out"

This morning, B woke up and came downstairs to see the Easter mountain. For the whole weekend, Jesus had been in the tomb, with the stone covering the entrance. This morning, He is out of the tomb, the stone rolled away with an "angel" on top. Immediately B said "Him came out!" with a little giggle. So precious! Owen is more concerned with HOW did Jesus come out.

Happy Easter!

(Here is a video from one of our favorite Bibles about Easter morning. CLICK HERE)

Two other Easter ideas

It is so tough to figure out the right balance of SPRING celebrations and EASTER prep/celebration. They are both fun and good. I hope that in the midst of the Easter Egg hunts, budding trees, 80 degree weather, jelly beans and mini eggs (my favorite!!) we don't forget that this weekend there is something else that we are celebrating. There is great joy in spring and all of the fun that comes with it, but what greatER joy there is in the fact that Jesus died for us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS. Not only did He die for us, but three days later He ROSE AGAIN! I feel like I grasp 5% of the amazing reality of what we are celebrating, but thankful that it's great no matter how much I grasp it or don't grasp it.

Here are a few more of our projects this week to help focus our hearts and minds on what this weekend means for us.

Owen came home from school with a few Easter eggs and so we added to the collection (he would draw the egg and "decorate it" and I'd cut it out) and taped them on our back door into a cross shape.





A little dancing to "To Be Like Jesus." Note how fired up B is.






This is called a "wordless book." Originally it was used by Charles Spurgeon (from what I gather). I found helpful info HERE. We basically punched holes at the top of each color of paper and glued a Bible verse on the back of each sheet to have a reference to what the color should remind you of (Black = sin, red=jesus' blood shed for us, white=being made clean, white as snow, yellow=heaven, that because of Jesus, we will be there with God one day, and green=growing in grace). If you'd like more specifics, let me know! (NOTE: This is NOT a good one for a 2 year old, at least not my 2 year old. B ripped his a part rather quickly. Maybe a laminated version would be better for him!)

Easter Mountain

You may remember that we made an Easter Mountain last year. We got this idea through a fantastic book by Noel Piper called "Treasuring God in our Traditions." If you click HERE you can follow to a post that her son Abraham made a few years ago that includes instructions. I thought I'd post this now in case you are interested in joining us in this this week!

One thing that this post didn't include was how to break up the scripture into sections. Below you will find how we decided to split up the verses. Each day I would (and will again starting in the morning...our "mountain" is in the oven as I type!) set up the "people" and the "mountain" in a scene contained in the verses, we would then read the appropriate section of verses to the boys. Some sections are a bit long, and I even skipped over a bit. You can decide the best way to divide it up for your family. Just be sure to capture the main parts!

Monday - Mark 14:22-31
Tuesday - Mark 14: 32-42
Wednesday - Mark 14:43-51
Thursday - Mark 14:53-65 (maybe just part of this since it's a long section)
Friday - Mark 15: 21- 41 and 42-47 (again a long section, pick what you think is best)
Saturday - Nothing. Just wait.
Sunday Mark 16:1-8

I hope and pray God will use this to sink His truth deeper into our hearts and minds this Easter. How much we need to be reminded of the great love that the Father has upon us, sinners! That He would give His Son to die for us and bring us into His family. "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." 1 John 3:1