Fun with friends

We had some friends over to play last week. I'm so glad we decided to make the attic the play room. The kids are having a blast up there and we have plenty of room for all our friends to come over and enjoy themselves.

Ben was very excited to hold Aelyn. I don't think she shared in his enthusiasm!

Intense building session.

Mini Vanna White

Running buddy

Benjamin has been asking if he can go running with me for a couple months. I kept telling him he can go when the snow melts. Well, its melted so I made good on my promise tonight. Ben and I went for a "run" around the block. It was the slowest half mile I've ever run, but it was also the best. He loved getting out there and showing off his super hero speed. He is Buzz Lightyear today (as opposed to Larry the Bob cucumber or Larry Boy the Super hero) and he was "super fast".

Move over Emily, Benjamin is moving in on your running turf!

Play time

Cross Point Church held its annual Kids Fest Sunday afternoon. Its a lot of inflatables with balloon animals, face painting and fun. Sam seems to miss out on all the fun. Kids fest was during nap time so Ben and dad headed up while I enjoyed some quiet time at home. It sounds like they had a blast. Ben saw all his friends and went down the same slide at least 50 times! Thanks to the college group from Arkansas for helping make this year such a success.

The boys enjoying breakfast in the play room.
Aren't we the cutest???

Go Duke!!!

6 down, lifetime to go

Today is our 6 year wedding anniversary. I was just looking at the post from last year and I can't believe its been a whole year. Its been fast, life changing, but as always, fun! We started the celebrating last night. Pap picked up the boys and took them to Ravenna for the night as part of a dinner/date night present they gave us. We headed to Blakes at Crocker Park. The food was amazing and we had a ton. They gave us complimentary crab cakes as an appetizer on top of the calamari we ordered since we were celebrating our anniversary with them. After a feast for dinner, they also gave us cheese cake for dessert. While I'm not a big fan of cheese cake, it wasn't too bad. After dinner we walked around Crocker Park. Once we walked off dinner, we headed home, got comfy and opened a bottle of wine. One of my favorite dates with Jon is wine and conversation on our couch.

We are continuing the celebration today with some low key activities. We are going for a run together, lunch out, probably a walk around Lakewood and who knows where that will lead us. We'll be sure to keep up the tradition of watching our wedding video and dancing our first dance. It gets a little worse each year so I'm a bit worried about injuries, but I think we'll pull through. The boys will be home tonight and while its nice to have some us time, I'll be looking forward to having them home with us.

Happy 6th anniversary. I love you!

Did I say bed room?

Last time I mentioned the lego room I told you we were going to turn it into our bedroom, and maybe one day, a play room. Well, we kept talking about it and kept coming up with small reasons why it would make a better play room than bedroom. I'll spare you all the reasons, but at the last minute we made the switch to play room. We did some painting, got a gate and moved up half of the toys in the living room and all of Bens crafting supplies. Here is the finished product minus some decorating.

When you come up the stairs this is to your right:

This is the view straight ahead of you:

This is the other half of the straight ahead view:

This is the view to the left:

This is the wall in line with the steps:

Looking down the stairs:

Did you get that? Of course we did it just in time for the weather to turn nice when we'll want to be outside, not up in the play room. I guess we'll be ready to have some friends over on those rainy days!

Wordless Wednesdays

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Sam sharing his breakfast by feeding Ben!

More Wordless Wednesdays here and here.

Our turn

I've been feeling really lucky. A variety of illnesses have been going around the church and with our friends. It seems like someone has been sick for the last few months. The boys have had a cold here and there, but they have been pretty minor. Well, its our turn. Sam is ok for the most part. Saturday night he started with a bad cough. You wouldn't know anything was wrong just by looking at him. He has been playing and having a good time. Some friends started the same way and it turned into a nasty cold. We're hoping Sam will be spared, but he had a really rough night last night. His cough woke him up around 4am and he was up for a couple hours just coughing.

Ben is at the other end of the spectrum. While he also looks fine for the most part, as soon as you start thinking nothing is wrong, he throws up. He threw up half the night last night and this morning. He seems to be ok as long as he doesn't eat or drink ANYTHING! Even water wouldn't stay down. Lets pray he doesn't have much of an appetite today.

The boys had some fun pre-illness. We went to Chick Fil A last week for play group. Ben has finally conquered the slide. He's been afraid of it (although he wouldn't admit it) since day 1. Something finally clicked last week and he spent 2 hours going down the slide over and over again!

Saturday was Orens 3rd birthday party. It was during Sams nap time so I stayed home with him. Ben and dad had a great time. Ben did some bowling, ate cake and got some dinosaur favors to bring home. Happy birthday Oren.

Sam has rediscovered Bens "hard hat." He thinks its hilarious when it falls off his head.

Beautiful morning

The weather was absolutely beautiful this morning so we took advantage and headed to the park. The kids were great. Ben willingly got on the "big boy" swing for like the first time ever. He's working on pumping his legs, but still needs a lot of pushing. Sam was a walking machine. He took 12 steps by himself today and would have kept going if the swings weren't in the way. They had a great time out with their friends.

I think we finally have a decision about the bed room vs the play room. I know you've been on the edge of your seats waiting for this one! The lego room has been cleared out and even though I really wanted to make it into a play room, one thing kept coming back to haunt me. Being able to close the boys in Bens room when I need to take a shower or something along those lines is huge for me. I know they are safe. With the way the stairs are in the lego room, even if we get a gate, I don't think I would feel completely confident about leaving them alone up there. We are going to work on turning it into our bedroom this weekend. Our current bedroom will become the new play room. Maybe when the kids are a bit more stable, we'll consider switching things around again and turning it into a play room. I think the kids would have a blast up there. Don't tell Jon I said that though!

Reconnecting

A couple of us headed up to Einsteins yesterday morning. We haven't got to hang out with Melissa and the girls for a while so it was a great treat to get to see them. Ben and Layla did a great job of sharing a toy while all the grown ups talked.
Sam showing off his "cheese face". He has learned that when someone wants to take is picture, he should say cheese. His comes out more like jeeeeezz though.
After breakfast, Layla walked home with us for a little play date. She and Ben held hands the whole way home.
Melissa and Aelyn joined us a bit later. How can anyone resist those chubby cheeks?
Ben and Layla spent half the time over here playing train. They did a great job of taking turns being the leader.

I'm not Ben

Last night Ben informed us that his name was no longer Ben. We know he loves Veggie Tales, but we had no idea how much until he informed us that his new name was Larry the Bob cucumber! Not just Larry, but Larry the Bob cucumber. You have to love the creativity.

Do they look guilty or what?

You might remember in the last post I mentioned Bens run in with a door and the huge mark it left on his cheek?? Well, it officially looks like we beat our kid. His bruise grew. It looks like we drew a line from his eye to the bruise. I have never seen a bruise spread like that, but of course if its going to, its going to happen on his face.

I haven't been able to capture the full effect of the bruise with the camera, but it looks terrible. The best part (ok, not the best part) guess who ran into a door again today?? Luckily, I haven't seen any bruises from the latest run in yet.

He is just too cute! We're still working on the walking. So far he still definitely prefers to crawl.

Yes, I know this picture is up side down, but no matter how I rotate the picture, this is how it comes up on the blog. Sam has finally figured out how to get up and down from Bens bed with out falling face first. They will both get up there and just giggle at each other. When they don't have a toy to fight over they are the best of friends!