Prayer

Please join me in praying for the Carpenter family. Susie and Darrell's little girl, Addi, left this earth to be with her father in heaven yesterday just 11 months after her older brother passed away suddenly. 

My heart aches for this family in ways there are no words to describe. The Carpenters attend our church and are close friends to some of our friends. 

Please pray for their family and friends as they grieve. You can read about their story HERE. Thank you for your prayers. I cannot begin to understand their loss, but I can pray that God gives them peace and comfort during this hard time. 

Date with Mommy

Caleb and I went on a date this morning!

We left Aaron at home with Grandma and had a fun morning, just the two of us! We did a few needed errands to get the boys some summer clothes and then made our way to Jump N Jungle. We had never been before, but I'd heard good things and at $7 for Caleb to play as long as he wanted, I figured it was worth checking out.

He had a blast! The boy is fearless! Jump N Jungle has a bunch of the big inflatable "houses" to jump in with big slides and obstacle courses. He tried everything and LOVED it! He wanted me on with him at first, but a few minutes in and he was ready to do it all on his own. We will certainly be back again!





After jumping for an hour, we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I was so impressed with how well he handled time to leave! Most kids his age were throwing tantrums while putting on shoes. I told him he could slide one more time and when he got off he walked right over to the shoes to get ready to go. No fighting or anything. I'm so proud of him!

He nearly fell asleep in the car on the way home and passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow! He's still sleeping (2 1/2 hours later). I hope he enjoyed our date as much as I did!

Who's Who?

From the back, our boys are extremely similar! Can you tell which is which?

The first is Aaron at 8 1/2 months old. The second is Caleb at 9 1/2 months. It's amazing to me how much bigger Aaron is than Caleb in these two photos even though Caleb is a month older here!

I love my blonde haired boys!

Granny's 79th Birthday

Today, we celebrated my Granny's 79th birthday! We drove up early this morning with Aunt Katy in tow and spent the afternoon with the family before heading back home to our own beds. It was fun watching Caleb play with Eli and my cousin's kids: Sophie and Walker. The kids stole the attention (as you can see from most of the pictures), but I think the adults had a good time too.

Caleb and Eli playing with (taunting) Doofus  

Studying bugs in the water

Playing soccer - Walker and Sophie are really good at soccer, but every once in a while Sophie would stop and kick the ball to Caleb so he would have a turn...very sweet!

Lighting the candles on Granny's cake

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Sharon and Hannah Joy

The whole family (minus cousin Sarah)

Aaron studying Granny

It was a fun day with Granny and our family. It's been a rough month and a half since Grandpa passed away, but I think today was a glimpse into our new normal. We are still family, we will still get together, and there will always be an empty space where he should be. But we'll keep on gathering and celebrating because that's the way he would have wanted it. I hope Granny felt surrounded by love and warmth on her special day. Happy Birthday Granny!

GG & Papa's 59th Wedding Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, GG & Papa! 

GG and Papa celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary this week. Before I could call and wish them a Happy Anniversary on Tuesday, I got a call from GG inviting us to join them for dinner at Cracker Barrel that evening. We ended up with a great impromptu dinner with GG, Papa, Uncle Derrill, Grandma, Pops, and Aunt Katy! (and the four of us) I love that so many of us live nearby and can get together with just a few hours' notice! 

GG and Katy getting into trouble

A table shot

Aaron was looking at Mommy : )

Aaron was eating too! 

Randomness from the Week 3/24

We've been super busy having fun lately! Here are some random pictures....VERY random....

Jonathan took Caleb to the Lego store at the mall last week and let Caleb pick out a small Lego set. He chose Francesco from the Cars 2 movie. (Even though he hadn't seen the movie yet...he just likes race cars!) Caleb helped him put the car together after they got home, he was very proud of his creation!

 We're getting used to Aaron eating three meals a day. He still isn't eating much "real" food, mostly snacky kinds of things, but he's figuring out how to get his mouth to work the right way. Here are the boys eating their breakfast together one morning.

 Aaron is a very efficient crawler now and is even better at pulling up! I found him watching Thomas a few days ago just like his brother!

 Speaking of crawling, Aaron realized that he could chase Mommy this week. I went to the kitchen to work on some dishes and heard a happy squealing boy following me. He was super excited to find me : )

 The weather during the second part of the week was GORGEOUS, so we've spent a lot of time outside. Daddy decided to put Aaron in a silly spot one evening and Caleb thought it was a good photo op.

 Caleb is learning a lot at school. Every time his teachers write his name, they spell it out loud. Earlier this week, Caleb was drawing with some markers and started spelling his name. He made the C motion 5 times and each time said a letter of his name. I was so proud of him for trying to write his name! (On the paper he did it once in purple and another in red...can you see the Cs?)

 And to finish off the randomness...here's some pictures of a CUTE boy after eating cheerios and yogurt mels!

Well, I warned you this would be random pictures, but these boys are just too cute!

Cousins!

We're on Spring Break this week! I didn't even realize I needed a break until I woke up on Tuesday and didn't have to rush to get everyone ready. Of course, only having two days of school each week keeps us from getting burned out too much, but a break has been nice.

We spent Monday just relaxing around the house (it was nice not packing lunches for Tuesday). I knew we couldn't spend all week at home and we hadn't been up to visit cousin Eli (or his Mommy and sister) in a while, so we drove up to spend the morning with them.

When we got there, Aunt Kristen was ready for the boys to do some cooking. They made cookie dough truffles!

Getting ready

Caleb got to add sugar

Of course, the babies had to have their fun too...

Checking each other out

Getting a little closer

Got it! He happened to grab the bow right as I snapped the picture! Sweet Hannah Joy didn't fuss at all  : )

 When they were done making candies, the boys went outside to play. They started out on the swing set, but quickly moved on to the sand box.

Digging

Hmmm....maybe we should sit and bury our feet/legs!

 After getting good and sandy playing outside we did the only logical thing... we stripped down the boys and tossed them in the tub!

Getting all clean

Burritos after a bath... Caleb laid still for his picture, it was hard to get a shot of Eli not exposed, he was too silly to lay still! 

 After baths we came downstairs to get lunch. Aunt Kristen made pizza rolls for the boys and quesadillas for the two of us.

Hannah Joy joining the ladies in the kitchen : )

The boys eating their pizza rolls, strawberries and blueberries in the living room 

We had a great time visiting Eli and playing at his house. We left soon after and ended up in some major traffic, but both boys did great in the car and were patient even though it took around an hour and forty-five minutes to get home (usually a one hour drive).

Thanks, Aunt Kristen, for letting us come play! We had a great time!

Book Slings

I found an idea on Pinterest recently for making book slings. I loved the idea for our playroom, but it took me a while to find cute fabric.

The project only took a few hours from start to finish and I love the addition to our playroom! Thanks, Jonathan, for hanging them up this weekend!

They really are level and smooth...the books in them make the bottoms appear bumpy. 

I love the dinosaurs! 

Mobile and Dangerous!

Aaron is slowly realizing that he can get to things across the room! Today he found his brother's Duplos and then managed to get stuck under the table! I've been looking for toys that are two small for him or have small parts so I can get them put away before he finds them and not after. It feels like I'm constantly having to watch to see where he is and what he's getting into. Talk about exhausting...but how can I get frustrated with such a cutie?

Duplos (he crawled over from the middle of the room)

So happy!

Good thing Duplos are too big for his mouth!

And somehow he got stuck under the table!

Finally Eating - For Real!

I never thought we'd have two such different boys when it comes to eating! I have fought off and on for two months trying to get Aaron to eat solids. At first he just screamed at me and hit the spoon away. Around a week or so ago he finally let me get the spoon in his mouth, but gagged nearly every time.

We've been blessed to have friends that offer suggestions and different ideas. Several suggested that we try finger foods and see how he does with those as he may be gagging over the texture of purees. I gave him some snacks to see how he would do this afternoon. Oh My Goodness! He loved them! The first thing I offered him were Baby Num Nums, he did pretty well with one of those and then I offered him some veggie snack sticks. I tasted one before I gave it to him and it had strong flavor. I was sure it would be too strong for him, but he took one lick and went nuts over it! He had several for snack this afternoon and then a few more while we ate dinner.

Big brother had to be in on the action too! He kept encouraging Aaron!

At some point I know I'll need to get him to start eating "real" food, but for now I'm just happy to know he's got something besides formula in his tummy!

Here's a video of the happy boy eating this afternoon....love the lip smacking!

Two Big Boys

Not much going on here this week. The weather was nice over the weekend and at the beginning of the week so we spent some time outside. Aaron loved playing with a few toys and Caleb always likes being outside.

Cutie playing out in the sun

Happy!

SUPER HAPPY!!!

We also pulled down one of Caleb's old toys for Aaron to play with. He loves the new table to stand at and has figured out how to pull himself up without any help. Caleb plays with him most of the time and they have fun together. I LOVE it! 

Showing brother how it works

Sweet : )

And here are a few random pictures from the week...

He saw the camera and wanted a "cheese"

Jonathan sat down on the couch to finish his breakfast before leaving for work so Caleb had to do the same : )