Nathan 14 months

Happy. Playful. Funny. Silly. Content. These are how I would describe this precious boy.
"I want that camera!"

And he LOVES everything ball and ball-related. Give him a ball and he will play for 30 minutes! Kicking, throwing, you name it. But don't try to give him a book. Wow, if you want to see how fast Nathan can run away from you, just try to read him a book :)

Elijah's 3rd birthday!

Ok, so I'm totally ashamed that its been over a month since Elijah's birthday and I'm just now posting pictures!

I really can't believe that he is 3. He is such a big boy! This past year has been a very, very challenging year with Elijah. I'll make a long story short by just saying that around 8 or 9 months ago we starting noticing that some of Elijah's behaviors were pretty extreme. I know that toddlers can be emotional, but it was obvious to me that his anger, aggression, and overall emotional state was just not quite normal. So, we starting doing some research, and the Lord led us to some information on food sensitivities.

We already knew that he has some food allergies, but when I started reading about these food "sensitivities", he fit the mold perfectly! It was wonderful to finally feel like we might have some answers, and have a way to help him. The things that we know, without a doubt, that he is sensitive to are: artificial food colorings, artificial flavorings, bell pepper, tomatoes, pineapple, almonds (plus he is allergic to egg and soy). There are more things that we suspect he might be sensitive to, like apples, oranges, and berries, but we haven't yet determined for sure.

He is on a diet called the Feingold Diet. There is a systematic way of determining which specific foods are causing the problem, but it takes time. First we had to eliminate all of the possible offending foods, until we saw an improvement for about 8 weeks (and boy did we see an improvement!). So we did that phase for several months. Then, you take each food item, 1 by 1, and add it back in to the diet for a week or two, carefully observing behavior and any physical symptoms (for example, excema). Once you can determine if the food is a problem or not, then you must eliminate it, and keep the strict diet for a week or so to make sure that the previous food is out of the system, and then try the next food. So, it is a slow process, but one that we are more than willing to go through to be able to pinpoint exactly what foods are triggering these behaviors.

Ok, now onto pictures! We had a very small, impromptu party with some of our closest friends here (I don't think any friends are in the pictures though! How is that possible??)

The theme was, of course, Cars! Elijah's favorite :) I made lemon bars and sugar cookies (all are made of only ingredients that are acceptable on Elijah's diet.)
Blowing out his 3 candles!

Family picture

Happy birthday to our precious firstborn son! Oh how we have prayed and prayed for you. We love you so much, more than any words could ever express. We are so thankful for your fun spirit, your loud laughter, and the creative things you do to get into trouble ;) How full you have made our lives! How blessed we have been to watch you grow and learn this year, and to see the "real" you emerge when we started your special diet. How we love you, little one, and pray each day for God to draw you to Himself, give you a new heart, and grow you into a mighty man of Faith. Have fun being 3!!

homeschool blog

Ok, so I started a different blog for our homeschool pictures. The link is over on the right side under My Homeschool Blog. Its called School Days. So, if you are interested in what we are doing in preschool you can check it out!

School is now in session!

Today was a very special day in the Jung house. Elijah and I started preschool! We don't have any extra rooms in our apartment, so Elijah's bedroom is also his "classroom". The plan, right now, is to do 3 days a week for about 1 hour and 15 minutes in the morning. Elijah is an early bird (getting up around 6:15 or 6:30), and his little brother Nathan is far from an early bir (getting up around 8:30 or 9), so I thought the best time to do preschool would be from about 7:30-8:45am, since that is about the only alone time I have with Elijah each day.

I've had a blast planning thematic units, lessons, projects, etc. It feels good to use my college degree again! I didn't realize how much I've missed teaching until I started preparing this stuff. And I feel so blessed that I get to teach my son.

So, here are some pictures from our first day of preschool!

Each week we will have a "letter of the week", plus a different thematic unit. This week our letter is "A" (naturally) and our thematic unit is Animals. This thematic unit (animals) will last 3 weeks. So this week we are studying "farm animals".
This is Elijah's "I Can!" chart. It is a sort of behavior chart. The two things I am focusing on behavior-wise for him right now are listening (hence the picture of the ear) and obedience (the picture of the check mark). If he gets a "thumbs up" in each box each day, then at the end of the week he gets a treat!

Below the "I Can!" chart is our weather chart that we will do each day.

Here is my big boy, on his first day of school!! (I covered his bookshelf with the red material so that he wouldn't be tempted to play with his toys during school)

Above is the weather chart after Elijah looked outside and decided what kind of day it was. He was right!

Above: Elijah working on his "A" worksheet. I am using Horizon's Preschool Curriculum (put out by Alpha Omega Publications) which is a Christian preschool curriculum.

Below: Mommy's example of making an "A" with craft sticks.

And here is Elijah's "A"! Hey, I'm just thankful that all the craft sticks made it onto the paper! :)

Elijah working with his Farm Animal set. (has a fence, trees, and all sorts of farm animals. purchased at Wal-Mart for like $3)

And here is the "I Can!" chart at the end of our first day! He did great!

**I think that I'm probably going to be blogging alot about our homeschooling. Mostly for grandparents to see, but also for anyone else who is interested. But, I know that some of you who read our blog may not really be interested in the day-to-day homeschooling stuff, so I'm considering starting a different blog just for our school pictures/experiences. I'll let you know when I get that started and will have the link over to the side, so it will be easy to find!

Attention Parents of Boys: Prayer Challenge!

And not just parents, grandparents too! Or, aunts and uncles, or even friends! Please go here to read about this incredibly important challenge.

We ALL know that prayer is important. If you're like me, you probably constantly feel guilty because you know you should pray more. Sometimes, I start to pray but then get lost in thought, and 10 minutes later realize that I haven't been praying at all, just thinking about all sorts of random things! It helps me to have structure, to have specific things to pray for/about.

This prayer challenge is specifically about praying for sons (or grandsons, or nephews, etc.). Even our little toddlers need our prayers, when sin is started to rear its ugly head and their character begins to take shape. We need to begin fervently praying NOW for their precious minds and hearts!

This challenge is definitely that, a challenge. It won't be easy, but just imagine how these prayers will move the heart of our Creator, and how they will eternally effect our boys.

The dates are September 6th-26th. There is an ebook available (Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need It Most) for download on kindle, nook, etc. that is on sale now for $1.99!

I just downloaded the book and hope to start reading it today. Please leave me a comment if you decide to participate, I would love to know!

Haircuts

Yes. You read the title correctly. That would be "haircuts", plural.

For those of you who don't know, I've been dragging my feet to cut Nathan's hair.

I'm not really sure why.

Is it because I know that with a haircut he will look older, and not look like a baby anymore?

Possibly. Highly possibly actually.

Or is it because he had those precious little curls, fulfilling a dream I've always had of having a boy with awesome crazy curls?

No. Well, kind of. But his curls would NEVER have been awesome crazy. Just really sweet little curls right at the very bottom of his hair.

And I KNOW, that with a haircut, those curls are gone forever.

So, I've been putting Daniel off for several months now on this haircut thing. But this week, I finally had enough of people calling him a girl. I mean, its not fair to him to make him look like a girl just because of my issues.

So, we did it, and he looks PRECIOUS!!

Don't they look excited that they are both about to get haircuts??

Oh yeah, they are pumped!! ;)

I only took about 100 pictures of Nathan's hair at the hair place while Elijah was getting his hair cut. This is Nate's hair before.

And this is Nathan, at home, in his high chair, in our shower, getting his very first haircut.

Daddy did an AWESOME job!! And Nathan wasn't too wiggly.

I apologize for these after pictures, but this little guy was a MANIAC for the rest of the night, so these are the best I could get!

He and Big Brother look even more alike now!

Happy boys.

Loving Husband and Daddy.

Blessed Mommy.

America post #2

Ok, back to posting pictures from our trip to America. These are pictures from our time with my family in Midland. There are so many pictures, it was so hard to choose!

Here is Nathan one night, around 1 am or so...let's just say that jetlag was rough. Really rough.
Cousins.
Wrestling.
Cowboy Boots and shorts.
Priceless. :)

Nathan and I were just watching Elijah and his cousins swim, and the next thing I knew my less-than-1 year-old son just dives in to the pool! So, here is little Nathan thrashing around in the pool in his clothes! This was our first clue as to how much he LOVES to be in the water. Our second clue is the HUGE FIT that he throws at the end of his bath every night :)

Sweet cousins...taking a water break. Driving a John Deere is hard work, but somebody has to do it

Nana took Elijah to the duck pond, and boy were those ducks hungry! Elijah was their best friend! (as long as his bread held out)

Nathan and his cousin Joel at their 1 year birthday party! Big boys!

Aunt Shawn threw the most AMAZING birthday party for these boys. It was a Bee theme, and I just don't have the words to tell you how cool it was.

Shawnie's birthday party. Isn't she beautiful?? I love you Shawnie-bear, and I'm so thankful I was able to celebrate your birthday with you in person!

My mom, grandmother, and neice...my cup definitely overflows, I'm so blessed with such and amazing family. And now I have TWO amazing families since Daniel's family so graciously allowed me to come in to theirs!

After 20+ hours of travelling, we finally have arrived in America. It felt surreal to see this sign!!

We had a couple of hours to kill in the Houston airport, so we felt like eating would be a good way to pass the time! Here is Daniel, at Chili's, about to eat his first chip with queso....ahhhhh.....how we had missed you greasy fatty food

The kids did LOTS of swimming! So fun!

Quality man-time on the couch

Fun at the playground!