Hot Dog diner, fireflies

Today I had 3 appointment for Tyler. For the first one Heidi kept Jacob for me, which was so so nice (it was opthalmology and it took about 2 hours). On our drive down our street, who did we pass but Heidi and Jacob, on their way to the hot dog diner at the end of our street.

Introducing...the Freeman minivan

Brian found a great, great deal on a minivan and it happened to be about 20 minutes away. (The other runner-ups were about 200 miles away, so we were so happy about this!) I love it! I must say it is going to take some geting used to driving a minivan around. I feel like I shouldn't be driving a minivan until we absolutely have to (ie 4 children, not 3)...that is just our mentality right now while we're in debt...if it's not a NEED then we don't get it. It is a little nicer than I expected, that will take some adjustment as well. I'm used to having things simple, functional, and not fancy or shiny, etc. Anyways, I really, really like it and am so amazed at how good of a deal Brian got.

Mom Freeman said that hitting the deer was probably a blessing in disguise...Heavenly Father knew that was the only way we would get a minivan is if we were forced into it pretty much. She knows us too well!

Our new Chevy Uplander 2007...just under 20,000 miles, still under warranty, for within our price range. Such a blessing! So nice to still have one full day of vacation before Brian starts residency.

Talk about easier to load in...I love it! Let's just say it was hard to fit an infant seat, booster seat, and toddler seat into the back seat of our Ford Focus. It was so tight that when you closed one back door, the seats shifted and popped out the other door slightly. Jacob couldn't buckle himself in because his seatbelt buckle was underneat Blake's infant car seat base. The kids were practically on top of each other, and took advantage of the close proximity to each other to whack, scream at, or otherwise annoy each other...frequently.

So nice not to have to bend over to put the kids in! And my double stroller doesn't take up almost the entire trunk.

Jacob goes outside every day to check the garden and the flowers. Then if anything has changed from the day before, he comes inside and tells me to put my shoes on and come out..."I have something I really need to show you...you wanna see it." I always know what that means (at least 9 out of 10 times). I love his love of nature and appreciation for beautiful things.

When 9:30 rolled around and Brian was still not on his way home from mutual, I got Jacob out of bed and took him outside to catch fireflies. He loved it! Our firefly catching of the summer.

lightning bugs (fireflies)

Jacob got the tape out of Brian's work drawer. He wanted me to help him put it on doggie's legs "so they can be straighter" (that's why we stretch Tyler's legs out every morning...so his legs can get straighter and he can learn how to walk). I told him the duck tape would probably not come off dog's legs if we taped them, so he decided on bandages instead (little washcloths). I started with just 1 bandage, but he thought dog needed them on all 4 legs so that "doggie can learn how to walk."

The boys were crawling under the "bridge" (my legs), and rammed heads. Jacob got the marks from it. He must have hit a hard part on Jacob's head, because Tyler didn't cry or have any bruises to show from it.

OUCH!

Jacob got all 4 big syringes, the little medicine syringe, and the extension tubing out for me this morning. I'm really starting to think he's going to be a huge help when this next baby comes in November!

Tonight we spotted a firefly on the back of our car. Caught him in a jar. Jacob was so captivated by it. He was so excited when it finally blinked its lights!

Shaking it up, trying to get it to blink.

We let Jacob keep the jar by his bed so he could watch it while he went to sleep. Asked Jacob to lay down. He laid the firefly jar down "so the firefly could sleep too," then laid in his own bed.

After the kids went to bed, Brian and I went out (when it got dark) and caught 4 more fireflies (lightening bugs). Took them back down to the kids' room to see if they would blink. They did a little bit, but not much. So we woke Jacob up and Brian carried him outside to see all the fireflies flashing their lights outside. A fun little date with Jacob. He went right back to sleep--no problem!