Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!

Yesterday, Jack turned 3!  This year has flown by and I can hardly believe I have a 3 year old now.  He brings so much joy to my day with his growing imagination, questions (oh my, the questions), easy sense of humor (he told me the other day, "I crack myself up!") and loving gestures.  I don't think a day goes by where he doesn't tell all of us "I love you". He continues to be so sweet to his sister and helps me all the time with her.  He could probably tell you the name of every construction vehicle and for that matter, every vehicle!  I'm so thankful for my little guy. He stretches me as I learn to be the best mom that I can be for him. We love our little buddy!

 We did a green and yellow truck and tractor theme.

 He liked his cupcake topper more than the cupcake. 

He did however, ask for more ice cream...such a Luerssen!

Of course, he did enjoy blowing out the candle!

He opened up one gift after breakfast, a set of unit blocks.

We headed to the park after Ella's morning nap and he had a blast.

He has never been too excited about swings and slides but I guess he decided he was 3 now so, it was time to conquer the slide! He went down it over and over again!

Ella rode on my back and she was as happy as can be too!

My best attempt at getting a picture of her blindly. :-)

These Lincoln Logs were a great garage sale find for $2.50!

My sister's family got him a bunch of much needed art supplies!

He loved it all but the clear favorite was from my parents...a tractor and wagon!

We had a really fun day together and he still gets to celebrate with Seth's parents this weekend.

We are SO thankful that God gave us you.
We love you!
Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!!!

Bits and Pieces

Here are some of the things we have been up to the past few weeks...

Jack has transitioned to a big boy bed!

We had a little bit of a hang up when we discovered that there aren't very many bed rails that are compatible with bunk beds.  I researched a little bit and found bed bolsters which got my wheels turning as to why I couldn't just use large pool noodles.  Sure enough, Google was full of people who have successfully done just that and we have been happy with them too!

For Father's Day we got Seth his favorite chocolate and a variety pack of Boylan's soda.

I also traced the kid's hands (it wasn't easy!) and made a little love note from them.

We celebrated Father's Day on Saturday with a trip to the park for a picnic.

Jack travels with his shovel so he won't miss out on any digging opportunities!  His other shovel had an unfortunate meeting with a car wheel but thankfully, Target's $1 bin had the perfect orange (his favorite color) ice scoop to take it's place!

He flashed us a one wink grin! He cracks me up. 

We checked out the wildlife in the river.

Again with the winking...seriously, so cute!

Sweet Ella has become even more vocal and is now chanting "da-da".  She also is shaking her head from side to side which has become a fun game for all of us!

We visited our local library and signed up for the kid's summer reading program.  Jack has already read around his board and has collected 5 prizes (things like a free ice cream cone and passes to a baseball game and the county fair) and he is doing it all over again.  Ella has reached 4 prizes but I think someone else will be eating her ice cream!

By the way, thanks for all the great book suggestions last month.  We already own (and love) quite a few of them and we have checked out some while putting the rest on our list.  Of course, his favorites were the tractor and truck ones that we checked out and he still talks about them and wonders where they went.  I think we might need to check them out again!

We have been enjoying our summer so far!

How about you?

Day 28

Happy Memorial Day!

Little Miss Ella was full of funny faces today...

the Miss Pris face

the "Mom, you are a riot" face

Then I tried Jack and Ella together...it didn't get any better!

Yeah right, Mom!

Then an ambulance was heard in the distance and Jack's full attention was on that and...

Ella was concerned whether I was shooting her best side or not... kids, you gotta love them!

 Dad with his 2 crazy kids!

Day 14

2 out of 3 people looking towards the camera isn't bad!

Today we celebrated Mother's Day.  Seth handled all the meals and we just hung out as a family.  It was nice and relaxing and we even all got a nap!

I'm so thankful for these kiddos and all that they teach me about being a mom.

I love them to pieces.

They definitely are my little blessings.

Day 13

Mothers are special people.

Here are just a few things about my Mom that put a smile on my face...

1. She is an amazing crafting lady.  Whether it was sewing us (or our dolls) clothes, stamping cards, paper crafting of any sort or even doing our hair.  She has some serious skills!

2. She loves her cats! We always had a cat when I was growing up and no matter how silly, grumpy, frustrating or crazy they were she has a special place in her heart for those felines...and always will.

3. She knows how to have fun!  She would play rousing card games, take us swimming, play badminton, turn mini vacations into wonderful adventures, dress Barbies with us and watch our silly homemade performances. True love.

4. She can whistle really loud! No matter where we were, if we heard that familiar whistle we knew to come right away. I need to learn to whistle like that.

5. She took me shopping and endured my overly penny-pinching ways.  She even bought me a calzone while she listened to me explain the pros and cons of making the purchase. True patience.

6. She created holiday traditions that bring such fond memories that I want to recreate them for my own family.

  Thanks for your great example, Mom and for being such a wonderful Gammy.  

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful Moms!

We Love You! ♥

Spring Travels Part 2

The rest of the trip was spent at my parent's house. Here are some of the highlights, at least the ones I took pictures of...

Jack spent a lot of time searching for the cats so he could terrorize pet and play with them.

Sweet Ella

Jack and Grandpa waiting for the lawnmower to come into view.

What was even more exciting was that Dad gave him a ride!

A crafting session with my Mom where we made lots of adorable hair things for Ella.

Ella's 1st Easter

Cousins on Easter

We had the bright idea to feed the ducks some bread.

Sadly, the geese scared the ducks away.

I wanted the kids to be able to at least feed something.

I tried to lure the geese over to them but the only birds that wanted the bread were seagulls, yuck.

I guess my screeching and running away from the swooping beasts made an impression on Audree. Kari told me that during her night time prayers she thanked God "that Aunt Bethany can run fast"! 

Oh well, at least someone enjoyed a piece!

We also enjoyed celebrating our Lord's Resurrection at my parent's church, having a girl's lunch outing one day and Seth and I even got to have our 1st date since Ella was born! We look forward to seeing all of you again soon. Thanks for a great time!

Spring Travels

We just got home from a visit with family in NY. We had lots of fun seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents...it was a full week! This was everyone's first time meeting Ella (except for my parents) and she was quick to share her smiles with them. The week flew by like it always does but we are thankful for the time that we did have with family. Hopefully, next time we can see Aunt Megan and Uncle Jeremy too. ;-)

We took a day to go visit Seth's Papa and Gramma's farm. The last time they saw Jack he was 6 weeks old! We thought it was time to see them again especially since we had another one in tow. :-) Jack had a blast playing with the same tractors and toys that his dad used to play with and Ella mostly slept.

In his world, this is extreme happiness!

Gramma used her skills to get Ella to fall asleep while the rest of us went out to the barn.

Our 1st stop was to see the chickens.

Seth was telling us how when he was a boy he used to sit on that blue bucket just waiting for a chicken to lay an egg. Sometimes not so patiently!

We visited the new calves next. 

Jack wasn't interested in touching them. :-)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of a red Holstein named Ovaltine!

I was impressed that every cow has a name.

Jack showed quite a bit of excitement at the wood pile. 

Papa with his grandson and great grandchildren.

Gramma made her famous pancakes, eggs, bacon and gravy.

We couldn't be more happy for this yummy meal.

Even Jack ate one of everything!

This last picture is one of my favorites because of the memories associated with it.

#1- Jack was enthralled with all of their chiming clocks. I asked them how many they have but they couldn't quite put a figure on it. :-) Every time one chimed he would stop playing and tell us "I back" and go running to find it!

#2- Jack came to tell me that he saw Jesus. I curiously followed him and had to laugh when he pointed at the little Dutch boy in this photo. Don't ask...I don't know why!

To be continued...