Bubba is 3!

Monday was Nathaniel's birthday. We celebrated with a family party at Amazing Jakes on Saturday. A good time was had by all. Nathaniel didn't want to ride any rides, but had a good time in the toddler area playing with puzzles and on the slide.

Naomi and Joshua had tons of fun and Naomi surprised all of us by wanting to go on the "roller coaster" ride over and over and over again!









Bubba wanted a Diego cake for his birthday, even though we don't have cable and I think he's only seen one or two episodes of the show, but mommy obliged his request.

It's hard to believe he is 3, it seems like just yesterday that I was finding out I was pregnant with him. His pregnancy was emotionally my hardest, his labor was the most trying on our marriage, and he had the most serious health issues after birth (spending 1 week in the hospital at 5 weeks old with RSV) BUT, he is the most laid back of our children, the most loving and happy of the kids and the sparkle in his eyes when he smiles could melt anyone's stone cold heart. I cannot imagine our lives without him and it is a joy to be his mommy.He was born on the same day in the same hospital as Eva. A daughter of my good friend Julie. I was in labor much longer than she was and was shocked when I called to tell her he was born and her mother told me she was in the hospital also. Nathaniel is about 3 hours older. We always take a picture of the two of them together near their birthday. Don't they look thrilled???

He is ALL boy and always has been, he really loves playing with cars and trains and really loves digging and making mud! His language has grown a ton over the last year. At his 2 year check the Dr. wanted him to go to a speech therapist (which we never did) but at his 3 year check the Dr. felt like his speech was right on track for his age. It's so cute the way he says "yoocum" for you're welcome. It makes Joel and I smile. He is starting to show his little will, and does have to occasionally fight for his place in the family. Sometimes he gets easily frustrated with us when we don't fully understand what he is saying, but he quickly turns his attitude around. For now he is still Bubba, but I don't know if the nickname will stick forever, as he's growing up he seems less like a Bubba to me, but if you ask him his name he says it's Bubba. We love you Bub! Happy Birthday.

It's all hearts at the Dennis'.

For Valentine's Day I had seen a craft here to make salt dough and use heart shaped cookie cutters. I thought it sounded like harmless fun and knew the kids would enjoy it, so here are some pictures of our process.

Naomi adding the flour.







Josiah adding the water.





Nathaniel stirring the dough.







Joshua stirring the dough.





We did not have paints (besides that sounded too messy) so instead I thought we would use food coloring to dye the dough. It was all good in theory and actually worked okay, kind of gave it a tie-dye look, but I hadn't factored in that the dye would work extremely well on the kids hands as well. . .soap did not get the dye out. I had to bleach all their hands, but in the end they had fun, so mission accomplished I guess.
Here they are cooling on the rack, and finally the finished product!
And Valentine's morning I made chocolate chip pancakes for the kiddos. Here is what their breakfast looked like the morning of the 14th.

The Children's Museum

Joel's wonderful grandparents gave us a family membership to the Children's museum. We went on Sunday and a great time was had by all.

Nathaniel really liked the train room, Rebekah loved the grocery store,
Josh loved the painting,

Naomi loved the dancing and

Josiah and I got to build a train out of recyclable materials in the invention room. We are looking forward to a long year of playing and learning ahead. I realize the pictures don't match the things they "loved" but at least I got photos of each of them from the day.

I am an ISTJ, what are you?

I have been feeling a bit out of sorts since Samuel's birth. I have always felt a little like I don't fit into the feminine world. I often feel like the way other mothers/wives act is the way I should too, but no matter how hard I tried it wasn't natural for me to act and feel the way I perceived they did. I have a friend who is also struggling with not feeling quite like a fit mother/wife and that she didn't really enjoy doing the wife/mother thing and felt guilty about it.

Joel had been going through the Myers/Briggs personality test at work and had also done it with friends in the past. I had taken the test during a leadership course at Evangel (when I was 18) and again in my studies at CU Denver (when I was 22) for management, but about 5 weeks ago it occurred to me that often the Myers/Briggs Type indicator test is used in the professional realm and occasionally in the personal relationship realm, but I had never seen anything on it for motherhood.

All of this is a long explanation to say that I thought about writing a book on it to see if all the different types (there are 16 Myers/Briggs personality types) of mothers could relate to each other and stop trying to be some other type. Well before I got started on what would entail monumental amounts of research, I thought I should look up my idea on Amazon, and low and behold the book already exists. This discovery saved me a lot of time researching/writing and such.

Motherstyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths by Janet P. Penley and Diane Eble. My local library carried the book, so I didn't have to buy it (although I am considering doing so). This book was like a breath of fresh air. It is not Christian, but it was so helpful to be able to see what type of personality I have and why I often act the way I do and why certain things bug me and so forth. My sister calls it normalizing. It made me feel like I wasn't crazy or the only mother out there who thinks the way I think. Of course this is no excuse to not grow and strengthen certain areas that are weaknesses. I also learned that my type is extremely rare for a woman (i think less than 7% of the population) and that I'd be much more suited to be male, but none the less I am who I am and there are others out there like me. It makes me feel relieved to know that God made me this way on purpose and that he put me in this life situation on purpose and that ALL things WILL work for good according to His plan.