Over the River and Through the Woods...

...to grandmothers house we go.

First stop was my parent's house, grandma in the pink shirt's house (as the boys call her). And at her house the first stop is always the chicken coop. Every day after my mom got home from work the boys went running to get the eggs.There was tons of playing with cousins.Followed by exhaustion and sleeping with cousins.Cousins getting ready for bed.Then there is the endless fun on the rope swings.And playing with Annie and Rufus (Rufus in Benny's favorite).
At first Benton was terrified but after a few days he warmed right up and treated them as part of the family.I dare say that the dogs loved them too.Paisley did a lot of hangin out.And she loved being outside and in the grass....
until she didn't anymore.
Jason had fun working in my dad's wood shop. The finished product deserves a post in and of itself...to come later.I mentioned that there were cousins. My sister's family and my brother's family were both there at the same time as us, so it was quite the crowded house. As a result we were a little short on bedding. So we fixed up the suitcase with a bunch of blankets for padding and Benton enjoyed his new bed. Isn't it great to be little and be able to sleep anywhere?I just have to share these pictures of Paisley. She is always pulling her legs up like this, in the high chair, in stroller, in the grocery cart. Handy if you get hungry I suppose.My husband decided to be a turd as usual and took a picture of me feeding the babe.So I returned the favorAnd took some gomer pictures of him.Grandma and Grandpa took everyone to the zoo. Oh wait....he's not from the zoo.
The boys got to pet some goats.Pretty Miss P's had a good time too.I just love this pic of the boys. Shows the brotherly love.It was hotter than hot though. Luckily they had these misting things all over the zoo. It was the only way to survive.Poor Pais zonkedPais melted for grandpa.Speaking of grandpa, he made these awesome boats for the boys.They just love them.While we were there we took the boys for a hike in a place I loved visiting when I was growing up named Otter Creek.It was a blast. We had fun skipping rocks.
And on our way out of town we stopped and visited my grandparents.

We've had some birthdays, shout HOORAY!

Tab turned 5 right before our trip and Paisley turned one while we were at my parent's house.

So we will start with Tab. This kid is crazy. Seriously... I think he has more mood swings that a teenage girl. Oye. For about the past year he has had a fairly grumpy personality and it has been very challenging. But he makes up for it just at the right moments. He knows just how to melt our hearts. He gives the best snuggles. Sometimes he will come up to me and start rubbing my cheeks just to be sweet. He is so smart and starts kindergarten in the Fall.Each year I make the kids a special cake for their birthday. This year Tab requested the same cake as last year at first. With a little suggestion he decided that he would rather have something different. He decided on a transformer cake. Not a big surprise. This is what he ended up with.
It was the worst looking cake I have ever made. I got a little impatient, resulting in it being kind of lopsided on top. Tab didn't notice, so who cares right? I asked him if he liked it and his response was, yeah, but I wanted him to be in robot mode, not vehicle mode. At this point I tried not to strangle him as I had been up until 3 AM the previous night working on it. Sigh.Blowing out the candles!
And here he is playing with his present and ball and glove!
Now on to Paisley. As many of you know this past year has been a real struggle with this little girl. When I look back over this past year it is hard to hold in the tears. It has been a real toughie mostly because of this little girl. At about 2 months old the screaming started and it didn't end until she was about 9 months old. I kid you not she screamed bloody murder 24 hours a day. When she was 9 months old we by chance had a different dr. for her well-child check. And he LISTENED to me. We got her on some GERD medication and she was almost instantly a happy child!

I feel as if the past few months with her have been the "babymoon" we never got, lol. She has come so far. She has so many nicknames. They started out not so nice. PITA for example. Now she is our Pretty Bird and Skinny Minny. Milestone wise, well....let's just say she has her work cut out for her. We are truly blessed to have her as part of our family.Her cake. After 1 Bug Mountain, 1 Train, 1 Dinosaur, 1 set of Cowboy Boots, 1 Pirate Boat and 1 Transformer cake, I finally got to make a girly cake for Pretty Miss P's. I had fun doing to lopsided layers. I kinda wish I would have made it a bit more exaggerated but I still really like how it turned out. I had fun using the gum paste on her cake as well as Tab's. At first she was a bit hesitant, taking dainty little bites of the frosting.Mmmm... this stuff if pretty good.Oh yeah.Now she is shoving it in by the fistful.Sharing with mommy.

Happy Father's Day!

We are back! Ok, so we've been back for about a week now, but I'm just now getting around to downloading pictures and updating. However, you will have to wait for pictures of our trip until later as today's post is about Jason, as it is Father's Day!

We love you babe. I know that you didn't get breakfast in bed, but I did get up and make you breakfast before you left for meetings this morning. Does that count for anything?

The kids and I made him a few little gifts. First was this.... The bottles are filled with his favorite candies and gum. I got the idea here.I also made him a little flip book that the kids drew pictures in for him and I traced their hands, etc. I forgot to take a picture, but it is like these.

These guys sure love having you as their dad!

It's a MONSTER!!

The boys had so much fun making these awesome monsters. I saw the idea in Family Fun Magazine, only they made theirs into a frog. Anywho... We had a blast making them and the boys have had even more fun playing with them.

Tab'sBenton's... he was roaring at me.Tab named his monster Toby. So we affixed his name to him. Tab said his name needed to be on his but. Nice. I pulled the letters out for Tab and asked him how to spell Toby fully assuming that he was going to spell in Tobe. He surprised me by spelling it correctly. I'm guessing that there is a kid in his class named Toby?
They had a a lot of fun making them eat all sorts of random things too.

Family in Town

We were lucky enough recently to have Jason's grandparents come out to visit us. We had a short but nice visit. On Saturday, we trekked to Grand Haven as it was supposed to have some nice shops and a nice beach (not that we were planning on swimming, though some were...crazy I tell you...anyway, back on subject). It was a bit chilly and quite windy. Benton during our walk around the shopping area decided he was done wearing his hood. So he tipped it back, hat and all. I thought it was pretty cute.We walked out on the pier to see the light house. (I have fallen in love with the light houses here). If we had more time I would want to travel to all of the different light houses in MI.) It was beautiful.And I have to share this picture. I know that it is completely blurry, not a single aspect is in focus. I don't know what it is about it, but I LOVE this picture. Jason said it is because my glasses are always smudged and so I'm used to things looking blurry-perhaps he's right.Family photo op. In case you are wondering, Tab does not usually ride in the stroller but Benton was on Jason's shoulders, and I was holding Pais to block to crazy wind. There were no railings and I didn't trust Tab not to goof off and fall in. (Have I ever shared the gut feeling I have that something awful is going to happen to this kid. I haven't... oh yeah, that is because it is creepy and I don't like my blog to be creepy).Standing on the Pier.

Jason and Benny Boogs.Jason was getting a picture of Paisley clapping. She loved getting her picture taken.

Thanks for Rocking my World Hubby!

Truly, my husband rocks my world. Sometimes I seriously feel bad that I got so much goodness in just one man. Don't get me wrong, he has his faults. But really, I couldn't be happier with anyone else.

1. He expects to help me put the kids to bed, even when he is busy studying. If he hears us start the bedtime routine he comes right upstairs. He helps bath, dress, sing, snuggle, you name it.

2. He puts the kids to bed for me occasionally if I need to get out.

3. He helps to clean the house. (He almost exclusively cleans the bathtub because I hate it.)

4. When he is home while I'm making dinner he takes the kids downstairs so that I can have peace and quiet and thoroughly enjoy the process.

5. He doesn't really complain when he has to dig his g's out of the dryer for a week. He's just grateful that they are clean

6. He tells me I'm hot when he comes home at six and I have clearly not made it into the shower yet.

7. He gives me the support that I need to make up for the confidence that I so frequently lack in myself.

8. He makes it very clear that although he has a lot of studying that he could be/should be/needs to be doing, that our family absolutely comes first.

9. He's freaking hot. Seriously. mmmm.....

10. He brings me home flowers about once every month or two. (They may be the cheap grocery store flowers but I love them.) I love that he thinks, hmm, I'm going to stop at the store on the way home from work and pick up some flowers.
11. He supports my habits. I have major crafting addictions and he is very supportive. He rarely gives me crap about a new project I want to do. He often helps me develop ideas that I may be working on. The only thing he gives me crap about is the Cricut Expressions that I NEED ok, fine, want desperately. And mostly that crap is in jest.
As a matter of fact a week or so ago he brought these come from the hospital. They are about 4" tall pieces of PVC pipe. He informed me that they were from the empty rolls of prescription paper that they use. He saw them and thought that I might have a vision of something crafty that I could do with them. I love this about him. He is ALWAYS thinking about me, even if it means that he is bringing home pieces of pvc piping.

Wonder who taught him that?

If only I could show you the picture that Jason took of himself that pops up on my cell phone whenever he calls. It looks eerily similar to this one. I guess he just had to get this one in for good measure. What a silly kid. I think I'll keep him.

Great Lengths

This girl has crazy long eyelashes. I am so jealous. Just thought I would share.

Sleep Tight, Sandman's a comin'

Tab and Benton really are the best of friends and the worst of enemies. Benton is a real sport. He will follow along with whatever crazy make believe game that Tab comes up with. This particular game Tab was pretending that Benton was his baby. He was doing such a good job taking care of him. He got him a pillow and swaddled him up for his nap. He even got him a stuffed animal to snuggle.And what a sweet boy, he snuggled with him and sang him songs.

Bathtime

Paisley makes the funniest faces. Our favorite face that she makes is when we flick water at her face in the bathtub. We were trying to get a picture of the puckered up face she makes, but we were unsuccessful. However, we did get a few other good ones.

This one was about as close as we could catch of her pucker. Alas.Not too happy when her brother decided to try and help us out by dumping an entire cup full of water on her head all at once. Opps...Now, she is just lapping up the water like a little puppy.For reals, are you still trying to get it out of me?

Ahoy!

Tab regularly likes to pile things up around the edges of the train table and pretend that he is on a boat. On this particular day he made his Pirate Ship and started yelling, "mom, mom, come here". So I came to see what all of the ruckus was about. He was standing like this and wanted me to come take a picture of him looking like a pirate.The facial expressions are my favorite. I love how he thinks that this is how a pirate stands. Where do kids get these things?

Ever wonder what....

15 sticks of chewed up gum looks like? Benton loves gum and got into my purse to get some. I had a brand new pack in there. I had only eaten one piece and there were only two pieces left when I caught him hiding and drooling as he chewed. Sigh...

Me and My Boys

My boys are very challenging sometimes, ok regularly. But it's the moments like these that make my little mommy heart sigh. Jason had taken the boys downstairs while I made dinner and when they came up they brought me these flowers made from pipe cleaners and my scrapbook paper. Of course daddy helped.So, we've not been having good nights around these parts lately and so one morning as it was spring break and I didn't have to worry about the bus, I decided to go back to sleep on the couch while the boys were eating breakfast. Benton came to join me. Though he more likely decided to join me as I was snuggled up with his beloved blankie than any other reason.

My First "Quilt"

I made my first "quilt". I put quilt in quotes because the top isn't pieced together and that is what I generally think of when I think of a quilt. Anyway. This was my first. I made it for Jason's mom for her birthday/mother's day. It was a crazy amount of work. The trunk it made up of all of our footprints and the top of the tree is obviously all of our hand prints. I used freezer paper stencils to do the lettering. And for the record a did all of the quilting of it on my machine. That was the most time consuming part and it took well over a spool of thread!

I am really happy with how it turned out. I'm proud of myself despite all of the flaws in it. So if you actually quilt just don't look closely. I learned A LOT while making this. I have to give many thanks to my mom for her help over the phone. Thank you for listening to me cry when I messed up and just needed to whine about it. Thanks for all of the tips and tricks. I only wish I lived closer so that you could teach me in person how to for real quilt.I love the fabric that I used for the back, it worked perfect with the colors on the front.And an up close shot of the top. We did Pais's hand prints in pink with Jason's yellow thumb print as centers like little blossoms. (Jason's idea!)