I've been a little sluggish on blogging lately, but life has been a little crazy. Last week, we had an incredible week at the park with our street friends. I'm still trying to gather my thoughts and post something later, but it was life-changing. We served dinner and did devotions each night, and it was more amazing that we imagined it would be.
Also over the last month, we've had a lot of breakdowns: car, oven, A/C, our confidence in the DMV and our insurance company, and most recently Josiah's health. It started off as just conjunctivitis, which we assumed to be viral. Then he started breaking out in bumps, which I later determined to be hives, but which led us to call the pediatrician. She discovered he had a double ear infection and that his pink eye was bacterial, not viral. The infection was causing the hives. Jonathan also got some of his conjunctivitis and a nasty fever one night.
So that's what's up with us lately. I've been meaning to post some recipes that people have requested lately. This crockpot barbecue is a great, easy way to feed a crowd. My brother, the barbecue snob, would say that it's not authentic because it's not smoked. But it's still pretty tasty. Carrie-Anne gave the recipe to me at a wedding shower - what a great gift! Both of these recipes come in handy when you don't have an oven for a month.
Crock Pot BBQ
1 pork Boston butt
1 large yellow onion, peeled and quartered
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Season pork butt with salt, pepper and garlic (I use garlic powder). Place in water with onions and cook on high all day. Drain water, chop pook and onions; add favorite sauce one hour before serving.
No-Bake Chocolate Cookies
1/4 cups cocoa
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well and drop by teaspoon onto wax paper. Let cool.
The tractor pictures are from a quick trip Josiah and I took to Atlanta this weekend. We also got to hang out with Carrie Anne and her family. We played in the pool and actually got to have some conversation. Nothing like a good friend.
For Moms and Tots this month we ventured to the splash pad in Gardendale. Way fun! 
At first, they were more interested in the playground. They were quite a team to keep up with! Josiah is very timid around playgrounds and new places in general, while Jack is an active climber and runner! So I was dragging Josiah and trying to hold back Jack to even them out!
Finally we went back over the the splash area. Josiah was cautious at first; I had to encourage him to splash in the water and touch the fountains. You can see here that he's still dry.
But when he got accustomed to it, he was all over that water area!
The boys took an ice cream break together. What cute little buddies! Children at the playground kept asking me if they were twins. They both actually were upset to leave each other. Of course, it was near both of the their nap times, but I still think they had lots of fun playing together.
Here are some of the babies and mommas of the group.
We went to a pool party last Saturday for JCRMA. I laid out a plate full of yummies from the potluck, giving Josiah some hamburger and beans. But while I wasn't looking, he swiped the chocolate treat! He actually didn't it all of it, but he certainly gave away what he'd been munching on!
He still gets frustrated sometimes, but his spatial reasoning skills have definitely improved. It's so fun to watch him learn!
It was a little late for Josiah, but he occupied himself by crawling under the "tunnel" of everyone's legs and playing with the stuffed bear and ball someone gave him.
The mascot and the post-game fireworks scared him. The fireworks started, and he kept saying "No, no. No, no," and buried his head against my shoulder. Poor boy.
We were so glad Aaron and Erin could come with us. We'd been talking about going to a game together, so it was fun that it worked out.
The restaurant is in Crestline Village, where they have a giant chess board. Jonathan and Anna are playing wizard chess.
The next day, we ventured to the zoo. Jonathan had the day off and finally got to come along. Here they're watching the monkeys.
This was just random. I wanted to show how similar all three of their eyelashes are.
Riding the choo-choo - the best part of the zoo!
I think he was happy.
Mimi enjoyed her view of the train ride too.
Jonathan and Anna got to ride a camel. Don't be fooled; Jonathan is no where near falling.
Feeding the fish. Josiah really liked this part.
We made it over to the children's petting zoo, which we'd not been to before. Josiah made friends very quickly with the goats and sheep.
He went right up to the goat and said "Maahhh", just like he would say hi to person.
Josiah was a whole new little boy at the pool this trip. Normally he stays cautiously at the edge of the baby pool, hesitant to even get on his knees or go to the middle.
But he just blossomed this trip, probably because he had the super-cool Anna and attentive Mimi there, and most of the kids were in the big pool. The last time we did the big pool, he clung to me like I was trying to kill him.
This time, he ran right up to the big pool. He splashed and dunked and lay on his stomach and got thrown in the air. It was quite the transformation!
Anna was very popular at the pool, especially with Lexi.
Getting dunked
Happy pool boy!
Kate was big enough to carry Josiah in the pool.
