Winter Randoms

I am using this lazy Friday afternoon to make a feeble attempt to catch this blog up to 'current day' so maybe, just maybe, I might actually feel like posting something every night or every other night and not have to try to remember details from weeks or months ago :-)

So this post is just a hodge podge of pictures I've taken on the boys over the past month or so.  This winter seems to just crawl by some days and fly by the next.  I can hardly believe we're into the month of February already.  Yet, it seems like forever since I've felt warm sun on my skin.  *sigh*

Let the randomness begin....

 playing in a build-it-yourself paper rocketship :-)

 their Daddy was so great and took them on a trip to the moon complete with meteor showers that nearly destroyed the ship!

 My Dad reading Jonah one (or twenty) books

 Benjamin was so tired one day he put himself to bed.  Just went upstairs and went to sleep.  At 6:30pm.  

 Jonah being his normal goofy self

 sporting their new super hero tattoos that they got in their stocking!

 he loved his Hulk Smash tattoo :-)

 Just me taking a picture of Benjamin when he was crying over not wanting to take a picture.  Ha!!

 Benjamin recovered from his tears and took a picture in their new minion shirts from Auntie!

 Jonah is FULLY 2.  Fully, fit throwing, 2.  And we love him :-)

 love my comfy boys with their big tummies and sweats

 what do we do when we're inside a lot during the winter?  Play in the laundry basket of course.

 Benjamin was reading Panda Bear Panda Bear to Jonah the other day, too cute

 we babysat our friends sweet and adorable little girl Ruby last weekend.  Jonah loooves her and was very quick to start planting kisses

 Benjamin was quick to follow suit.  Ruby is hard to resist :-)

 Auntie Amanda brought a few super hero costumes from her daycare home one evening and the boys loved them!  I could eat them up, so cute!

 Auntie spiked their hair and they loved it

 handsome little goober

 Cousin Azalea stayed the night last weekend and we had to make a Princess Azalea cake for her.  For no reason.  Because Princesses don't need reasons to have cake!

 they are so handsome.  And so grown up.  Be still my heart.

 Oh Jonah, your smile is so sweet!

 Goofballs!!!

the buttons on Jonah's pants looked like eyeballs when we were watching on the monitor.  So Peter took electrical tape and made the rest of the smiley face on his bum while he was sleeping.  Too stinkin funny!!

Benjamin is 4!!!

4!  4!  I cannot believe I have a 4 year old.  Isn't that soooo old?  It's practically school age which means he'll be away from me longer during the day than he's with me and I am not.okay.with.that.

But Ben did turn 4 on February 3rd.  And though I was a little sad, he was so excited and we were excited for him.

Benjamin's best friend Micah shares a birthday with him, exactly one year apart (Micah is 1 year older)  Those two play together all day long, rarely fight, and love each other dearly.  It's kind of adorable.  So since Kristen (his mom) and I are best friends, we have their birthday party together, since that what they always want.  This was the first year they invited a couple other boys over to join in on the fun.  It was a low key party with their 2 little friends and their moms, my sister and mom, and Micah's grandparents.

We decided to do an evening party on the actual day of their birthday, Monday, and it worked out great.  We just served cake and ice cream and the boys played with all their new toys while the adults got to hang out.  A couple hours later we finally had to take Benjamin home and they were sooo sad to have to leave each other.  They're so sweet!

As always, my boys get to choose what kind of cake they want me to make.  And this year, Benjamin finally settled on a Wolverine cake.  He's really into super heroes right now and he decided that he wanted a Wolverine cake.....he always asked for it complete with the slashing Wolverine claw movements, ha :-)

So once again I found a picture that didn't look horribly difficult to recreate and attempted to freehand it on a sheet cake.  I lost a bit of steam toward the end but I think it turned out kind of cute.  And Benjamin was delighted.  He kept saying "how did you do that?  I didn't know you could do things like that mom, wow!"

Another birthday tradition we have is to take the boys to McDonalds for their birthday and let them have a happy meal (not the normal in our house).  So we met Daddy at our local McDonalds and the boys had a great time with their fun lunch.

A few pictures...

Benjamin Daniel, we can hardly believe you are 4 years old.  You are smart, kind, affectionate, and funny.  You are a joy to us and we love you to pieces.  Happy Birthday my Benjamin, love you to the moon and back.

Jonah is 2!!!

For some reason when my kids turn 2 I have a hard time with it.  Something about turning 2 makes them no longer have any inkling of being a baby and its just a bit emotional for me.  Peter and I always sneak into the boys' room before we head to bed to check on them and give them a kiss.  And so the day before Jonah's birthday we tiptoed into his room and I had to take a picture of his last night of being one.  And then I stared at him, stroked his back, smelled his sweet remaining moments of babyness, and cried a tear or two (or fifty).

Oh, Jonah, why oh why must you grow up????

The morning came despite my attempts to freeze time, and it was January 25th, the day my little guy turned 2.  We had a full day planned with friends and family and he was excited.  We actually had our best friends little ones over on Friday night to stay the night.  We had wanted to have them over for forever but with sicknesses it'd always been delayed.  Jonah looooved having his little friends over.  We had pizza on Friday night, played with all sorts of toys, watched 3 Ninjas (what a glorious flashback to my childhood!).  Then on Saturday we had a big breakfast, ran a few errands, played, went to the park and got ready for his party in the afternoon.  Jonah's cousins were heading over for the party too...they happened to be in town while their parents were on a trip.  I usually keep their birthday parties pretty simple, just a few decorations with a theme of their choice.  And I let them choose what kind of cake they want Mommy to make (or attempt to make!)

This year Jonah wanted a woo woo cake.  Translated that means he wanted a fire engine cake....woooo wooo....get it?  So when I realized that a fire truck cake pan was $13, the cheapskate in me decided I could just attempt to freehand one on a sheet cake.  So I found an imagine that looked simple enough and I just duplicated it.  It was far from perfect, but it looked like a fire truck!  And when I was making it Jonah kept saying "whoah Mom.  Whoah!!  That cool.  That cool.  No way Mom.  No way."  It was hilarious.

Jonah was really shy when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him at his party, but he finally smiled when he was eating his cake and ice cream.  After all the kids ate their weight in sugar, they went outside to play for awhile.  Then we headed to McDonalds to let the kids play some more and get some dinner.  It was the greatest idea ever to take that many kids there for dinner.  All the kids played together well and had a blast.  We finally left around 7pm so we could head home for baths and bedtime.  My boys were SO tired that night, but they had had such a great day.

Jonah Caleb, we are so smitten with you and so grateful you are in our family.  I can't believe 2 years has flown by but we have loved every day.  Happy Birthday sweet guy, love you forever.

The good kind of sick!

I have spent the past 10ish weeks feeling pretty sick.  I'm finally to the point where I don't feel awful all day long, but even on the longest days it was still manageable.  Because it was the good kind of sick.....

The I'mgonnahaveababy kind of sick.

Yep, we're expecting our third little one and we're pretty excited!  I found out the day before Thanksgiving so it was an extra reason to give thanks this year.  Yes, I have been feeling much more sick than with my other two pregnancies but I know it's all worth it.  I'm about 14 or so weeks along now and starting to feel a bit better.  An early ultrasound confirmed only one and we are due in the first week of August.  We had an appointment yesterday and baby's heartbeat was nice and strong in the 160's.  People ask if I prefer to have a boy or a girl, but really and truly, I'm okay with either.  A girl would be so fun, but I love, love having boys too.  So a healthy baby is what I'd like.  We should find out sometime in middle or end of March.  I'm way too much of a control freak to not find out what we're having :-)

Here's a picture from Christmas morning with some pickles (for my cravings I guess!) that Peter put in my stocking.  I printed the picture and we wrapped it up to share the good news with his side of the family.

Some days 3 kids seems overwhelming, other days I can hardly wait until he or she is here.  Either way, we're beyond blessed for our family together!

Christmas 2013

I realize I'm super late in posting this, but I have to put up the pictures for our memory's sake.

We had a fabulous Christmas.  We spent Christmas at our own home this year, so it was really fun to wake up in our own beds on Christmas morning.  We didn't let the boys get up until 7:30 (thank goodness for Ben's OK to Wake clock!) then they raced downstairs, excited to finally open all those presents under the tree!

They were beyond delighted to rip into their stockings and see their presents.  This age is so fun with Christmas because they both get so excited about the little things.  We had a blast picking out presents for them and finding lots of little gifts we knew they'd love.  Their enthusiasm on Christmas morning is contagious, I have fond memories of our morning together.  We ate my family's traditional monkey bread for breakfast after opening gifts, ate leftover meat/cheese/crackers for lunch, then I made a big ham dinner with all the trimmings for dinner.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

The boys happily played with their toys all day and we just relaxed and watched a few Christmas movies.  My sister and mom were here with us too, so it was nice to have some family with us.

The next week we took off to spend 5 days with Peter's family in Spokane.  We arrived in the afternoon on New Years Eve and had a nice, relaxing visit.  I didn't take a single picture, but I'll have to steal some from my sister in law.  We took my nieces and nephew to see Frozen and had a great time.  We went on a double date with Anita and Nate to see the new Hobbit movie and we ate a lot of yummy food that his mom made.  We had to take off Sunday after church and it was sad to say goodbye.  The boys were great on the drive home as usual, but poor Jonah had a fever of 103 when we got home.  Jonah and Ben had been taking turns getting over a cough since Christmas, and then they had a weird virus with a fever but no other symptoms.  Both boys had the fever for the next couple days so it took a little longer than normal to recover from all the Christmas festivities, but after 4 or 5 days we were all finally better and settled back into our home.

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month and a half since Christmas, but it's fun to look at the pictures again and remember those fun times as a family.  A Merry Christmas it was!