Sleeping Baby

I just love the look on his face of pure contentment and relaxation. There is nothing more comforting than having your babies asleep in their beds. Everybody's safe and everybody's quiet.

Kentucky Boys

We just returned from a quick trip to Kentucky over the 4th. Jack, Nicholas and Nate were going around saying they were brothers. Here is a great picture that Papa took on our last night there.

A Real Airplane!!!

Our neighbor, Peter, is an Airforce pilot. His wife, Mary, invited us to come and tour the airplane he was flying that day and watch Peter take-off. Unfortunately, the day of the flight, it started to storm and made the entire event a bit hairy. However, Mary and I were determined to go. It's better than being cooped up in the house on a stormy day.

We all piled into Mary's truck. Here are the boys; thrilled to be riding all together.

The big plane. I believe Peter said it's a 737 - like airforce one but smaller. I couldn't get the plane in one shot as I was taking this picture from a truck that had come to pick us up since there was lightning.

Jack sharing his umbrella with Tommy. You see how well he's doing it?

First class seats.

Ready for take-off.

Oh boy, we're in trouble. Fasten your seatbelts.

Checking it all out.

Peter says the plane flies around politicians and such.

Peter and Mary

The boys seem absolutley thrilled to be posing with me.

We had a blast despite the rain/thunder/lightning. Thanks Birchenoughs!

Boys are so sweet

Jack went out back to play while I worked on dinner. He came back inside a few minutes later and said he had two dandelions; one for him and one for me. He said, "lets go blow them and make a wish." So we went on the back steps and made our wishes and blew the dandelions. He asked me what I wished for and I told him that I couldn't tell him or it wouldn't come true. He seemed okay with that explanation and went back to playing and I went back inside to work on dinner. A few minutes later, he comes through the screen door again and says, "my wish came true, my wish came true!" I made sure I was really excited for him and asked, "oh, what was it?" He said, "I wished that I would find some flowers to pick for you and here they are." He handed me a bunch of weeds and I will cherish them. They are in water right now.

Bug Kit and Spaghetti

Memom sends Jack packages in the mail at least every week-and-a-half to two weeks. Jack looks forward to those packages. They contain coloring books, books, fruit snacks, suckers, cars, shirts, bags, stickers, etc. She knows what a four-year-old likes. Our most recent package had fruit snacks and a bug catching kit in it. He has enjoyed the kit and has been hunting his little heart out for bugs.

Jack and his bug kit.
Ben after a spaghetti dinner. He loves pasta and sauce, but I hate the clean up. After I wiped him off, he looked like he had gotten into a jar of self-tanning lotion. He was soooo orange.

Ben's obsession . . .

. . . is Cubby's food. If and when he hears the food being poured into the dog bowl, he books it in the kitchen as fast as he can. He must have a front row seat, he must try to help Cubby feed himself and he will often take a piece here and there for himself. Drives me insane.

He's actually being pretty good in this series of pictures because I'm sitting so close to the action.

All gone.

Just makin' sure it's really gone.

Video of him telling me about it.

Playing cubs

Sam always compares he and the boys wrestling around to a lion and it's cubs. When the boys are rolling around on the floor around him, he'll say, "they're playing cubs". I love these pictures. They love it when dad is home for the weekend.

The Giant Balloon!!

Last weekend our neighborhood had a promotional thing. They planned to have food and there was a spongebob bouncy house. Noone could enjoy it because of the rain until the last day (late Sunday afternoon). Since it was the end of the promotion, those in charge let Jack have one of the giant balloons. I had stayed home with Ben so when I saw Sam and Jack walking down the street with this giant thing, it was just hilarious to say the least.

Of course we had to tie it on our fence in the back yard for all to see (until it drooped the next day).

This video of Sam running around with the balloon just doesn't do it justice. It was pee-your-pants funny in person.

Bananas, Sandbox and Love

I know it's not a big deal for Ben to eat a banana, but since my first child was such a gagger, it's nice to be able to just give Ben food and see that he handle it okay. The smacking noises are super fantastic as well.

I was tired of fighting off Ben with the sandbox. So, I let him go at it until he started to eat the sand.

I'm not sure what I was doing, but I looked down and Jack and Ben were loving on each other. By the time I got the camera, it just looked too posey. Cute during the authentic moment.

Neighbors and Lawn Care

My neighbor, Mary, got a new bike seat and offered to take Ben for a spin. He enjoyed it at first, then started to cry - so it lasted all of two minutes. He looks so cute.

Below are pictures of Jack mowing with me. It was cold and drizzling and he stayed the course with me. He even came in the house to tell Sam, "I'm sorry I can't play with you and Ben right now but Mommy needs my help". So sweet.

My mowin' buddy. I love how the ear protection squeeze his cheeks.

Happy Mother's Day to me

Today was great. I had a card from the boys and a card from Sam. Sam cooked my favorite meal (blackberry chicken) with made-from-scratch brownies. Oh, and I also received a dozen roses. Mama's love flowers, especially roses.


So, Ben is super clingy and it's hard for anyone to get anything done. We've decided that he's going to have to have "independent" time in the evenings if we ever want to get dinner ready. During his independent time tonight, he was snuggling with Mickey. So chilled and laid back until he started biting his nose.

Yummy nose.

My beautiful roses.