Summer picture catch-up

The weather this past week has been pretty much perfect.  I am loving all these beautiful, sunny days and warm summer evenings.  The boys are at a great age to enjoy all that a backyard can offer....swingsets, pools, balls, bikes.  I'm kinda loving spending our days with the boys stripped down to diapers and undies and just playing like crazy.  With lots of sunscreen of course :-)

I have a bunch of pictures from the past couple of weeks so I'm just going to dump them all in one blog post.  That's the best part of blogging, it's my online scrapbook.  Even the boys love to look back at old pictures.  Definitely makes it worth any effort it takes to keep it up!

 Auntie Amanda is staying with us for awhile, and the boys love the extra attention

 this boy is nuts.  Adorable and nuts

 I know I'm their Mom, but they are so.stinkin.cute

 Jonah is obsessed with "We're going on a bear hunt" right now and Benjamin sweetly read him the whole thing.  He has it nearly memorized and it was soooo adorable to hear him read it to his brother.  Love!

 Another summer day.  Another afternoon in the pool

we are making great use of our zoo membership 

both boys love being at the zoo! 

 love watching them grow up together

worn out! 

 out before we exit the parking lot!

 Amanda and I picked almost 20 pounds of blueberries and Jonah was enjoying the fruit of our labor!

storytime with Nana (or Nanee as Jonah says!) is great 

 fireman Ben to the rescue

Jonah and his crazy spinning.  I'll have to post a video of how absolutely insane the boys get in the evening when they have the attention of all of us.  It is hysterical!!!

Father's Day 2013

If there is one thing I know, it is that my husband Peter, is an amazing Daddy to our boys.

Not just a good Daddy.  Not just a great Daddy.  But an amazing Daddy.

Our boys adore him.  Peter plays with them, loves them, teaches them.  He is so patient with them, silly with them, generous with them.  He changes diapers, cuts up food, carries them, bathes them.  He shows them who Jesus is and teaches them His Word.  He takes them on walks, goes on slug hunts, throws rocks with them, wrestles them, tickles them, reads to them.  He is so, so good with them.

the matching cargos just kill me with cuteness

My boys always wait by the front door for him to come home from work each day.  And quite frankly, I can't blame them.  He's amazing and we all love him.

We celebrated Peter at church that Sunday.  Peter and Benjamin sang "Nothing but the blood of Jesus" together for offertory.  It was ridiculously precious.  It was a beautiful day honoring the man who I want my boys to grow up to be like.

My 29th Birthday

On June 9th, I turned 29....which according to my husband is "almost 30 which is almost old".  Thanks sweetheart.  Ha!

This year my birthday fell on a Sunday so we spent the morning with our church family in worship.  We hit up the Pizza Hut buffet, the boys napped while we vegged.  Later we headed to our local ice cream joint and got a yummy cone!  We took the boys on a little walk that evening, and it was just a wonderful day spent with my loves.

Peter spoiled me with a gift card to Etsy and the sweetest video compilation he made of our years together.  It was so thoughtful of him and I really enjoyed seeing old pictures and "reliving" those memories.

I received some other thoughtful and generous gifts from friends and family and felt really blessed by all the wonderful people in my life.

The week before, Peter and I were able to have my sister babysit and snuck away to dinner at Benihana.  SOOOO yummy.  And I loved the uninterrupted time on the drive and at dinner with my love!

My biggest "gift" from Peter is the chance to go to with my best galfriend Kristen to our annual garage sale weekend.  2 days of uninterrupted garage sales (over 170+ sales)....pretty much perfect.  It was a blast, and I'm pretty sure the boys had a blast with their Daddy too (and thanks to Auntie Amanda for making sure they stayed alive, ha ha ha!)

Although it's a little weird that I'm almost 30, I love where I'm at in life right now.  This past year just seemed to fly by, and I'd like for this year to have a bit of a slower pace....just trying to enjoy each moment and not let it pass me by.

So now I'm 29, which is almost 30, which is almost old.  But if I have to get old, at least it was a fun day celebrating!

Church Block Party

This year is our church's 50th anniversary.  That's pretty remarkable.  I always think it's such an amazing thing when I see a couple that's been married 50 years, and it's just as striking, if not more so, when a church hits that milestone.

Earlier in the year, we celebrated with former members and sister churches.  And 2 weekends ago, we celebrated with our community.  Not so much celebrating how great it is that our church has "made it" 50 years, but celebrating how good our God is and how we want to share His good news with our neighbors.

A planning team coordinated free carne asada and ice cream, games for the kids, bounce houses, classic cars, and a band that shared the gospel through the music of Johnny Cash.  It was a really good time and so amazing to realize what a great opportunity we have to share Christ with our neighbors.  I'm soo guilty of thinking too inwardly or too small when it comes to my witness at times.  It was a big stretch to get out of my comfort zone, actually engage with perfect strangers, and try to connect with their lives.  I hate that I can be so timid and I'm trying to work on it.

Anyway, there was about 350'ish people there and it all went off without a hitch.  It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day spent investing in each other and the community.

Week with the grandparents

Over Memorial Day weekend, we headed back to Idaho and Spokane to see both sets of grandparents.  We stopped by Idaho first to drop off my sister who's staying with us for a bit, and then headed to Spokane to spend a week with Peter's folks in their new house.

Peter could only stay until Tuesday but we stayed the rest of the week, and the boys had a blast.  Ben woke up super early every day, but Poppy & GongGong entertained him until Jonah and I woke up a bit later.  We went for walks, went to the park, shopped on craigslist, went swimming, and just had a great time.