Easter Eggs!!

We enjoyed some family Easter egg dying Thursday night.

Ethan drew pretty pictures on the eggs.
Luke ate the paper towels...
and tried to eat the eggs!

The finished product... a very proud boy!!

Bubbles

February Pictures

Ethan has taken a particular liking to Mr. Potato Head's glasses!

Mr. Potato Head vs. Darth Tater - What a match!!

PLAY-GO!!

Mommy needs a little girl

Luke started jumping out of his little baby tub - so now he spashes with Ethan...or gets splashed... and knocked over... and sat on, etc

Sleep sweet baby! He is growing up. These are his last days in this little car seat. His feet are starting to hang out the bottom!

What a great little helper!!

Bad Mother Award

Ok, so it's taken me a few weeks to gather the courage to tell this horrible story. Looking back, it is kind of funny now... but not really. This picture gives you a clue to what my precious little Luke did. The boys and I were busy getting ready to go to the gym. Luke was in his pack n' play and I had just put Ethan on the potty - he was having some trouble :) Well, Luke was fussing so I took him out and set him up with some toys to chew on while I finished packing the bag to go. Well, I am ready to get Luke strapped into his seat, so off I go to find him... no longer chewing on toys safely in his bedroom, but chewing on POOP in the bathroom where Ethan is just watching him!!! The bad mother award comes when I removed Ethan's diaper (that had a few little turds in it) and did not toss it, but rather folded it over and set it ON THE FLOOR!!! Did I forget that Luke is crawling like lightning these days and that he eats anything his chubby little fingers can find??? HORROR!! He just looked at me and spit a whole mouth full out - just like his garden vegetables!! I about gagged him trying to clean it all out with mounds of wet wipes. I could not get the smell off of him or OUT of him. I was sick all day - needless to say we did not make it to the gym that day. I personally have never heard of kids eating poop. Dog food, playdough, yes, but POOP -NO!! Now Ethan says "don't eat poop!"

This is Sophia, Ethan's girlfriend at the gym. They play so great together!!

Ethan turns 2!!

Basketball Cake!! I learned that making black frosting is virtually impossibe!
Thankfully, I found some black writing gel in the pantry!



Andy, Davina, Michael, and Caleb helped us celebrate. We had stromboli for dinner and then dove into the birthday cake!!





Ethan and caleb loved the cake and icecream!




Ethan had lots of presents to unwrap - the best being the little people airplane and the choo-choo from the grandparents!! The guys had fun putting it all together (after we unwired and untaped every piece from the package - why do toy companies do that anyway??).



Thank you grandmas and grandpas for all the fun Luke and I will have playing with my new toys. Mommy thanks you too because now we might leave her alone long enough to take a shower!! At least for a few days anyway!!

What cute kids!

The Holidays!

We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan with Ben's family and then went to Colorado for Christmas. We had a great time. Although, the plane trip to Colorado was a little nerve-racking with the boys on our laps! Just a few highlights: Ethan's diaper became defective 1/2 hour into the first flight and Ben got the overflow on his lap -quite a puddle if I do say so myself-hee-hee! During our lay-over, we grabbed something to eat and while Ben was ordering, Ethan got his head stuck between a trash can and a pole (why do kids stick their heads in small places??) Anyway, we made it there and back fine. I do love the holidays - except next year I want to get the Christmas tree up, the cookies and candy made, the family picture taken, the shopping, and the Christmas cards done EARLY so I can enjoy the holidays more -I think I said that last year!

Home Sweet Home!

The Lord is so good and His timing is perfect. Many of you know that our church here has been trying to build a house for our family to live in, but the red tape in Alexandria is outrageous! After almost 2 years, the city finally gave us the permit to build. Well, as you can see, it is a modular home that came in pieces. It was incredible to watch them swing a house around in the air and then just plop in down and bolt it together. It has been so fun for Ben and I as we get to pick out all the appliances and paint colors. Really, how many people get to do that (and pay for it all with the church credit card - hee-hee!) Like I said, the Lord is good and I think the 2 years wait will be worth it all when we finally get moved in and know we don't have to move again. The house will be complete in April-ish. Just a few more months of waiting!

Fun with the Youth Group!!

November was such a busy month with our youth group. The first 3 Wednesday nights we put on "Meals for Missions". This was a fund-raising event to raise money to buy Christmas gifts for 2 of our missionary families. The teens showed up, set up, served the meal, and cleaned up, and I made the food - chili for 60 people! Jamey was such a huge help!! She helped me shop and brown 25 lbs of beef!! Thank you Jamey!! At the end of the first night, we found out it was actually chili for 120 people because we had 6 big crock pots of chili left over! Better too much than not enough is my motto - so I went a little overboard on this one - hee-hee! We had "chili-mac" and taco salad for dinner #2 and used the left over - SHHHHH! The teens, or should I say the teen's moms made wonderful soup for the last meal! We made over $700 for our missionaries!!! The next Sunday, Ben took all the teens to Toy's R Us and let them loose to buy presents for the children. We actually were only able to buy presents for one of the families because of the over-seas red tape - so we sent the other family $$$ for amusement park tickets. This was a fun project, but I have to say I am releaved it is all over now.

Our other big activity for the month was the "Turkey Cam". This was so fun!! The teens had to go around town and take pictures of themselves doing rather... interesting things. The pictures tell the story. What a great night!!

Birthday Boy!

November 2nd was Ben's birthday! The boys and I made his favorite chocolate cake and we partied all night long - well, until 8 o'clock bedtime rolled around at least.

Halloween -yeah, so it was a month ago!

Jamey comes for a visit!

It was so great to have Jamey come for a visit. I must say it was nice to have help getting the boys shoes on, the diper bag re-filled, and best of all, another set of hands on the way up to our 3rd floor apartment! We drove down to Virginia Beach for Rebecca's wedding, which gave Jamey the wonderful experience of a 3 hour drive with Ethan, the wiggle worm, and Luke who HATES his car seat! Fun, Fun!! The wedding was beautiful and we got to see lots of friends - thanks Don and Katrina for the hotel accomodations and child care facility- I hope your dog has rested after the day long chase and your fish recoverd from the occasional tank pounding. All in all, we had a great week. More pics and stories to come of our week of fun.

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

Saturday Morning Cinnamon Rolls!

Everyone (Ben and I) decided that we wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast this morning and Ethan was such a big help!

Octoberfest!

Last weekend Andy and Davina came up to visit us and we took all the boys to Octoberfest. Bright lights, tons of people, and you can't forget polka! Ethan and Caleb even took their turn dancing under the big tent to the sounds of the polka band. You know, bearded german men in green overalls and knee socks! Ethan's newest of words: "Oh wow!"