Three blessed and undeserving boys!

This December, the boys and I have realized how incredibly blessed we are with our dear Valeria. Valeria is such a blessing to all of us. JJ, Eli, and me speak regularly about how good we have it with Valeria.

Proverbs 31:28 says "Her children rise up and call her blessed."

JJ has learned to tell momma that "she is pretty." He also loves to go to 'mamart' (wal mart) to get momma some flowers. He gets excited to acknowledge momma as wonderful.

Eli loves his momma. If Valeria is in the room, then all eyes are on her. Eli follows her with his eyes everywhere she goes. JJ and I look forward to the day when all three of us go get her flowers and tell her that we love her and that she is pretty.

As for me, I do not deserve such a loving wife and precious mother to our children. When we were united April 2, 2005, I had no idea what I was getting into. I thank God that He has given me a gift in Valeria that I certainly do not deserve. Valeria as my wife and as JJ and Eli's momma gives me such great joy and increases my love for God.

The three of us thank God for Valeria.

We love you, momma!

Our son is bilingual! Nuestro hijo es bilingue! :)

No es el mejor video, pero sirve para que vean que nuestro JJ si esta hablando espaniol! :) Con la ayuda de Dios, esperamos que nuestros hijitos crezcan hablando ambos idiomas bien, ingles y espaniol. Esperamos que Dios permita que nuestra familia viaje al Ecuador pronto para que JJ y Eli se sumergan bien en nuestro idioma.

La escuelita en casa continua... :)


This isn't the best video, but it serves to show (our Ecuadorian family especially) that our JJ is indeed speaking Spanish! :) With God's help, we hope our boys with grow up to speak both languages well, English and Spanish. We also hope that soon God will allow our family to travel to Ecuador so that both JJ and Eli can completely immerse themselves in our language.

Home schooling continues... :)

Trick-or-Treat

We had a fun night, taking JJ and Eli trick-or-treating for the first time! (It was actually my first time, too!) We had friends from church join in, as we took the kids to several homes of dear church family members. JJ loved it and quickly uderstood that if you say "trick-or-treat" you get candy! He did not want to stop! He got to try his first Milk Duds among other candy. Eli will taste the candy next year :) Afterwards, we gathered back at our house to pass out candy and fellowship with more church family. We thank God for our FBCF body of believers!

Getting ready for bed with daddy...

Our boys love their daddy! I was able to capture on video a snapshot of what it looks like when daddy gets our boys ready for bed. Josh is always making up fun songs for our boys and they absolutely love it! They try to sing along and dance, and just laugh, laugh, laugh...perhaps it's daddy's way to wear them out so they crash once their bodies hit the crib. :)

Buenas Noches!

A Beautiful Fall Day at Huber's Orchard

Our family had a wonderful day this past Saturday with some dear friends from church. We traveled into Indiana to "Huber's" where we had a delicious lunch, picked pumpkins, rode a tractor, let the kids run around, and simply enjoyed the beauty of God's creation at this time of the year with wonderful fellowship from brothers and sisters in Christ. God is good! Here are several pictures of our time there. It was a windy, very cold day, but the sunshine made it beautiful!
As you can see our boys are growing quickly. Eli is now sitting up by himself (though we still need to make sure he is on a soft surface:) and has gotten his first tooth! JJ is talking more and more and amuses us all with his little personality. As you can see in one of the pictures below where he has his arms raised, he loves to yell, "touchdown" while watching football, but also at random times throughout the day...we have even heard him yell "touchdown" and chant "football, football, football" through the intercom hours after putting him down for the night. :)

Videos of Our Boys!

One of our biggest joys is seeing our two precious boys starting to play with eachother....or rather, JJ trying to play with Eli, who simply loves to watch his big brother run around! Here is a video taken awhile back of our boys playing ball. :)



JJ loves the ABC song and he is getting better and better at singing it! Homeschooling has begun at the Greene home! :)

Lullaby for Eli!

I wrote this Lullaby on January 11, 2008 after our first son Joshua Jr was born. I contemplated writing one for Eli, but I realized that I would only be trying to do it just to do it. This lullaby seems to really express my heart in being a father to my boys. So instead of trying to write another one for Eli, I just changed some words and adapted it to him. I think this way is better. This lullaby is written for all of our children. JJ & Eli now, and any future kids the Lord may desire to give us. As the lullaby reveals, I have such a deep desire to be everything to my sons. By God's grace, an example to them of what a man should be.

Hush little Eli don’t you cry
Daddy’s gonna sing you a lullaby
I hate to see you crying red-faced with tears
Let me tell you ‘bout us in the coming years
The joy of rearing you can make this grown man weap
Right here in my arms you can fall asleep
& I’ll stare at your face & kiss your chubby cheeks
Watch you start to grow in the coming weeks
God gave you a great mother who takes care of you
In love together we will teach you what’s true
& a big brother JJ you can look up to
You become like him, yes I hope you do

It’s a simple lullaby about what matters in life
Like trusting in God & faithfully loving your wife
Like serving other people & devotion to the sword
The Word of Jesus Christ our Savior & Lord

Son, I wanna teach you to throw and catch a ball
& I can hardly wait until you learn to crawl
We can walk to the park & I can push you on the swings
Raise you up right so you’ll appreciate things
I wanna teach you about pets like cats and dogs
And how to catch lizards, turtles, & frogs
I’ll show ya how to catch fish & how to bait a hook
And how to treat a girl and how to read a book
And how to play with kids and not be weak
Playing outdoor games like hide and seek
I wanna teach you about bruises, scars, and scabs
And how to play wrestle and throw left-hand jabs
I’ll teach how to ride a bike & how to climb trees
I‘ll teach you about caterpillars, birds, & bees
I wanna pick you up when you fall & scrape your knees
Teach you how to pray, and say “yes ma’am” & “Please”
& we can walk to the creek, I’ll show you how to skip a rock
I’ll show you how to play sports & how to wear a jock
I wanna teach you how to not get upset by jokes
& how to be grateful & respect your folks
Eli, I wanna teach you how to love your mom
& how to read the Bible, a daily Proverb & Psalm

It’s a simple lullaby about what matters in life
Like trusting in God & faithfully loving your wife
Like serving other people & devotion to the sword
The Word of Jesus Christ our Savior & Lord

Son, I wanna teach you how to be a man
How to look ‘em in the eye & firmly shake their hand
How to keep your word & always work real hard
How to pay your bills on time & how to mow the yard
I’ll teach you how to keep a job & not be lazy
How to speak the truth in love and not be hazy
I wanna show you how to love & how to be a friend
And when to compromise and when to take a stand
And how to apologize and also how to forgive
Son, these are simple lessons on how to live
And life is not easy, it can be quite hard
Keep your eyes on Christ & don’t be caught off guard

It’s a simple lullaby about what matters in life
Like trusting in God & faithfully loving your wife
Like serving other people & devotion to the sword
The Word of Jesus Christ our Savior & Lord

JJ welcomes little brother Eli!

It has been a while...and we now have another precious little boy in our home! Praise God! Eli Lucio Greene was born on April 30th, weighing in at 8 pounds 12 ounces! Life has been busy adjusting to having two little ones to take care of...hence the reason why our blog has been neglected...but we are back and have so many pictures to share with you. JJ loves his little brother and can't wait til Eli is big enough to play with him! Keep us in your prayers in this busy yet joyful task of parenting two boys for the glory of God. We love you all!

Primer corte de pelo...JJ's first Haircut!!

It has been almost a month now, since JJ had his first haircut. With tio Andres and soon-to-be tia Kim (who has experience cutting hair) visiting us, we decided it was about time our little boy got a little trim. Josh and I both want to keep his hair fairly long, and after this first haircut, Josh is ready to now let it grow and grow...we'll see how long that lasts! JJ has always had a lot of hair (from birth) and it is already growing so fast! Here is a pre-haircut pic of little JJ. It was getting a bit out of control! :) Mama trying to explain what was about to happen...

JJ, "I think I can handle this..."

Just a cute shot of some chubby legs :)

Cartoons on TV worked for just a little bit...

Half-way there...

It really proved to be alot harder than we thought...we had to constantly think of something new and interesting to entertain him with...and still, he was fully aware that something was going on behind him and constantly trying to brush it off.

"Ya no mas!" Kim trying to console our little JJ and let him know that it wouldn't be much longer.

JJ believed her and stayed still for just a couple more seconds. :)

The last and oh so difficult part-- the front! JJ would not hold still, so Josh had to step in and hold his head...poor JJ!

It was all worth it, though. Here is our "guapito" (handsome little guy) with his new haircut! Gracias tia Kim!!!

One-Year Portraits

Our little boy is now 14-months, yet I have been meaning to post these pictures since he turned 1. Time flies by and I do apologize for not doing so earlier. Nevertheless, here is our little JJ... We are reminded daily of how quickly he is growing up! He still absolutely loves balls...any balls...and almost anything that's round and resembles a ball! If you show him a ball, pass or throw him a ball or start bouncing a ball, he immediately breaks into a big smile and tries to imitate. He recognizes and tries to say both english and spanish words for ball and one of his favorite games is to find the ball and take it to the hoop! Here are the portraits, courtesy of tio Andres! Let us know what you think.

Laughing and Playing with Daddy

One of JJ's favorite times of the day is when daddy comes home. He often runs to the door to look for daddy, as soon as we see his car pull up. As a mother, it is one of the sweetest things for me to see my husband playing with my son...and making him laugh so hard! It brings tears to my eyes, as I realize just how blessed I am with these two men that love eachother so. God is too, too good to me!

Uno de los tiempos favoritos del dia de JJ es cuando daddy llega a casa. JJ corre a la puerta a esperarle a daddy, apenas vemos que su carro ha llegado. Como madre, es una de las cosas mas dulces para mi el ver a mi esposo jugando con mi hijo...y haciendole reir tanto! Trae lagrimas a mis ojos, al darme cuenta de lo bendecida que he sido con estos dos hombres que se quieren tanto. Dios es demasiado bueno conmigo!

Sitting on snow...walking on snow...playing in snow...snow, snow, snow!

This past week, God gave us an amazing and beautiful display of beauty, as we got about 6 inches of snow and 2 inches of ice within days! The result was a gorgeous landscape, work and school cancelled and power outage (meaning no heat!). God graciously saw us through the inconveniencies and we were able to stay warm with some friends and their wood-burning stove. We thank God that we are now back with power and in a warm, cozy home. The landscape we got, however, was absolutely beautiful and, in spite of the cold temperatures, we couldn't keep our little JJ from seeing, feeling and walking on another beauty brought by the hand of God- snow!

Gracias a la familia en el Ecuador, quien nos mando este lindo sombrerito de lana para JJ. Thanks to our family in Ecuador, we had this cute little wool hat to put on JJ, which kept his head and ears nice and cozy. Here he is getting ready to head outside...

He wasn't too sure of the snow at first, so he ran to mama. It's a great feeling to know I can offer my little son some comfort! :)

He quickly gained his confidence, though...

And took off for his first walk on the glistening snow!

Snow is fun!!

Cute little footprints in the snow...

Together with some friends, we had fun showing JJ how to build a snowman. We went all out with buttons, scarf, hat, arms, eyes, nose and mouth!

JJ examining our finished snowman...

The sunset provided a beautiful landscape for our family shot...

Then, we ventured to take our little JJ on his first sledding experience...He really loved sitting and being pulled on the sled!

Then we found a small hill, and zoomed down with our little man...

Getting worn out from all the fun and laying with daddy in the snow...

We are predicted to get more snow tomorrow, but who knows if it will accumulate as well as this past snow blizzard. We enjoyed it, though, and would actually welcome some more! :)

Back inside, trying to get warm and showing off his matching-daddy-outfit. We have much to be thankful for having a warm home, clothes to bundle up in and a nice kitchen to cook a warm meal. We were reminded of these things, which we often take for granted. God is good to us!