Mothers Day [2014]

 Mothers Day. 

Its a day I feel so blessed to have my two little boys that have made me a mama. And also a day to be reminded how special my mom is to me!

Ben had gone to Topeka Saturday to help his parents move into a different house...so he was at least able to see his mom on Mother's Day weekend! We are quite thankful for her too!

This year we just did one mother's day celebration. We went to Mitch's house after church. He grilled us some very tasty kabobs with steak, chicken, and shrimp. Ben made the angel food cake...and strawberries. We spent the early afternoon there. It was quite warm..but also EXTREMELY windy, so it made it next to impossible to play games outside!

This was the best picture with the both of them I got for the day. 

Love them both...definitely have changed my life forever!

 We were matching...hence just the three of us :)

 The mamas

(We were missing Carissa for these photos...I don't know why she couldn't have made it for the meal...its only a "short" drive?!) 

I love my mom. 

Couldn't imagine life without her.

It's an extra special feeling to have another little baby that will someday call me mama growing inside.

So thankful for these blessings...so thankful.

Outside helpers

The weather has finally been nice. It kind of skipped spring for a couple days I feel like...seeings it went from 50's to 90's. But I'll take it, I was just done with cooler weather!

We've been outside most days. We're not doing a garden like we have in the past at our house. We planted a few vegetables in pots and are calling it good. I also got some flowers to put in containers..and a few different things to put in the front bed of our house. 

We went over to help Grandma plant a few things one day. The sprinkler had been running, and there was such an irresistible puddle to play in. It started out pretty innocent...and quickly got MUCH messier from there.

I really should've taken a picture of his back side with and without his shirt on. He had a large very muddy spot on his bum...and his diaper was weighed down so far he couldn't walk right from all the water he sat in. 

Christian had found flags in Grandma and Grandpa's yard (from the sprinkler system that was just put in)...and he thought he needed to "decorate" the flower bed we just planted.

"Sure. I can do it!"

Helping me move the flower pots to the front of our house to plant new ones in.

 My biggest helper of all :) We cleared off all the mulch and took out several things that were planted in there and transplanted them to other areas (they needed more sun). Then Ben planted several hostas, laid down plastic weed barrier, then covered back up with mulch. 

Thankful for the weather, the plants/flowers, and all my handy helpers!

Garbage Truck Cures All

Christian was having a particularly rough day this Wednesday (4/30). He hadn't napped and really needed one...he had built a track with his blocks...and then Noah came along and gave him a hard time with it! The reason I started videoing this was he kept saying, "Its gruined. Its all gruined!!!" And I wanted to get a video of how he said ruined, because he uses that word frequently.

You'll just have to watch to see....but the garbage truck definitely saved the day!

Sprinkler Fun

It has been warm. It feels lovely to me :)

Christian was REALLY wanting to go swimming..the pool is not warm yet, or ready...so the sprinkler will do. He was excited! And his little farmer tan just cracks me up.

We received this lovely tractor sprinkled lately..and it was wonderful and all...but lets just put it simply..it is defective. Sorry Brent, but it doesn't really work. So we switched out sprinklers..and the fun continued. Oh, it was so fun for me to watch. I love watching his shear JOY from just running through water!

Noah is not a fan of the sprinkler. It wigged him out. He was intrigued by it..he likes to watch, and he even got really close. But when the water sprinkled over him...game over. He was perfectly fine being held by Daddy (who looks thrilled to be talking on the phone!).

I'm sure there are plenty more sprinkler...and soon pool days ahead!

Baby Chicks

Grandma and Grandpa got a little over 50 brand new baby chicks at the end of April.

They are so soft and SO cute. 

Christian talks so nice to them, as if they really understand him. He likes to hold them..its pretty cute how he takes it very seriously. "Ohhhh, they are so cute. Cute little chicky. Ohhhhh. Ahhhh. Look at them. They are just adorable."

Noah..he just watches and giggles at them. He likes the idea of touching them, and then he does (not near as gently as Christian!) and just laughs.

After many visits with the chicks...I think I've decided it is the one pet I think I could handle right now. And it would be convenient if we got some that laid eggs. Maybe in the near future we will have a few (definitely not 50) of our own.

Preschool [end of year]

First Day of Preschool                                             Last Day of Preschool 

(it was literally freezing outside if you can't tell by his posture, but he INSISTED on wearing this outfit!)

 The last day of preschool was at the ZOO!! 

Christian fed the giraffe! He loved it.

All the preschoolers/families met for lunch.

This picture was intended to be for the kids wearing their "I Hesston College Preschool" shirts...and Ms. Larissa. 

Christian and Ms Larissa.

Its pretty crazy how many things he has learned through preschool...whether it be actual information that the teachers taught, the silly things that other kids have taught, or different art projects that he has learned to appreciate.

He can count easily 1-20..sometimes up to 40

He can recognize numbers 1-9..and surprised me when he puts bigger numbers together correctly, like 84.

He knows the alphabet, but is a little sketchy on recognizing ALL the letters without help.

He can write his numbers and letters, mostly all by himself, some assistance still required. 

He easily writes the CHR part of his name..then always says "what comes next", even though he spells his name all the way through. 

He tries to refer to things in lengths of time..however this far from accurate. It's usually something like, "that will take 50, 100, 62, 100 days" or "that will take a year, and a month, a year, and a month!" Although, it is interesting how he grasps how many "tomorrows" take...as in if its in three days, he'll ask "tomorrow?...tomorrow?...tomorrow?" The first time he did this I said, "I said no," after the second tomorrow...but I then realized what he was doing after he argued his point.

There was a little boy he enjoyed playing with at preschool, and apparently they liked to be rather silly. After telling him its fine to be silly..but not when the teacher is talking. He would say, "I let ____ know we can't be silly when they are talking...AND we HAVE to pick up our toys when they say its clean up time!"

For some reason he didn't like to do the art project for a large part of the year. This surprised us quite a bit..because any time we would do some kind of craft at home he was excited about doing a project. Towards the end of the year, we had some conversations and tried to really encourage him to at least TRY the project. He started doing many more of them. The one that he learned to really love is the hot plate "melting crayon" pictures. It's kind of funny, since Grandpa H. is an artist and his paintings are made with melted wax.

It will be so fun to see what preschool brings for him next year!

Bugs and Worms

Christian didn't used to be a big fan of bugs, or things that crawled outside. Some of those things, he's still not a fan about and makes quite the noise when he comes into contact with them.

However, since last fall, when he learned about various bugs in preschool...which ones were good for the garden and just other tidbits about bugs, he's come quite the affectionate one towards them. 

He knows which ones help plants grow...and I guess that means he will be friends with them too!

Ladybugs

Then in preschool last week they talked about worms. I would've never guessed he'd be this friendly with worms..but you'll have to check out the the picture of him on the preschool blog! When Grandpa gave a reaction...he said, "Well GRANDPA...worms are good for the garden!"