The Knight & The Deer

A couple of weeks ago my dad took Judah and his cousin, Alex, out for breakfast. On their way back home, dad pointed out a dead deer in the ditch to the kids. Deer cross in that area of the road all the time at night (I've personally almost hit a deer two different times on that same stretch) and I'm surprised there aren't more that actually get hit. Anyway, my dad must have mentioned something about the deer being killed at night because Judah came home and told me that a knight had killed the deer down the road. Judah has been learning about knights and their armor and what it means to put on the full armor of God so I guess when he heard the word "night" he thought Grandad meant "knight." :)

Can It Be MAY Already?!

Well another month has flown by and I've not really documented much of anything for April so this will be a long one.

During the Easter season, Judah learned all about Jesus dying on the cross to take our punishment. He also had fun searching for eggs in the back yard at Grammy and Grandad's with his cousins.

Steve's parents came and picked Judah up to take him to their house for a few days. That was the longest Judah has been away from us and we weren't sure how he would do but he had a GREAT time with Grandma and Poppy and didn't seem to miss us at all. He seemed like such a big, mature boy when he came back home. I guess a little independence away from us was good for him. It sure was good for Steve and I to have some alone time together...lingering over a cup of coffee at the book store, uninterrupted talks, relaxing dinners... THANK YOU GRANDMA & POPPY for taking such good care of our little guy and giving us some time alone. Below are pictures of our visit to the John Deere Tractor Museum and The Machine Shed restaurant with Steve's parents.











































Steve took Judah fishing the other day at Hennepin Canal off of the Rock River here in Rock Island, IL. Below are a couple of pictures of Judah's first fishing outing. They gathered worms together after an overnight rain and spent about an hour fishing. They didn't catch anything but Judah sure got dirty and had a blast. Notice that he is holding the pole with his left hand and crossing over the pole with his right hand to turn the reel.












Judah and I also went to the local zoo one day with my sister Becki and her 4 kids. It was a short visit right before they closed for the evening but we all had a great time. I forgot to take the camera so no pictures on that outing but my sister was prepared.

Judah's View on the Letter "T"

The other day at the gym, Judah and I walked by the little "announcements" chalkboard that we walk by every day. This time, though, Judah noticed a lower-case "t" written in the message. When he saw it he said to me, "Mommy, that's what Jesus died on!" I guess to his little eyes, the "t" looked like a cross. As I looked more closely at it, he was right. I thank God that I sometimes have the opportunity to see the world around me through the eyes of a little child.

All Gone!

This morning Judah noticed an empty microwave popcorn bag in the trash. He sadly exclaimed, "Nobody saved me any popcorn!" :( He paused and thought for a minute and then said, "But I didn't ask anyone to."

How cute is that?!

Mom, You Can't Do That!

Lately, during our car rides around town, Judah and I have been talking about stoplights and what each light color tells us to do. Yesterday, on our way to the grocery store, I came to a red light, stopped to look for traffic coming from the left and proceeded to turn when I saw no one was coming. Immediately after I turned, Judah yelled from the back seat, "Mom, you can't go on a red light! A red light means STOP!" I then had to tell Judah that he was right but explain that it was okay to turn right on red when there weren't any cars coming from the other direction. A pretty deep concept for a 3 year old to grasp!

The Popsicle Stick Cross

Judah has moved up to the Pre-school-Kindergarten class at church. Since he is at the low end of the age group, there are a lot of things taught in class that he doesn't fully grasp yet. Yesterday though, their lesson was on Jesus' sacrifice for our sins. Judah brought home a popsicle stick cross with a piece of paper glued to it. The paper said, "Jesus took my punishment." Last night when Steve and I were tucking Judah in to bed and praying with him, he asked for his cross. We gave it to him and talked about what that statement meant. We then prayed with Judah and thanked Jesus for loving us so much that He took our punishment. Today when I put Judah down for his nap, he asked to look at the cross again. I gave it to him and asked him if he remembered what it said. He told me word-for-word what it said and then began to tell me about Jesus going into the cave and then rolling the stone away and not being in the cave any longer. I was amazed that he was finally getting old enough to grasp the lessons that he is being taught (by us and at church). It touches my heart so deeply to know that Judah is starting to understand what Jesus did for him and that he realizes just how much Jesus loves him.

Better Late Than Never

Okay, so I finally got around to taking Judah's 3 year pictures. I don't think they turned out quite as well as his 2 year pictures but I didn't have as much time for our photo shoot this time around. I hope you like them anyway. Judah's a pretty cute subject so how could I go wrong? :) I will be mailing "real" photos to grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. in a couple of days so be looking for your copy in the mail sometime next week.