Friday, August 8, 2014

Major Photo Catch Up

This is going to be mostly pictures with just a bit of commentary so I can finally catch up with all the photos that have been sitting on my cameras.  These are also probably totally random.  What can ya do?

This is a little embarrassing but a very realistic and accurate view of what my house typically looks like before the big end of the day clean up.  It's pure disaster.  This particular evening after dinner they were riding the broom like a horse.



And also trying to pull each on the broom.



Jacob and I both love when Ben finds a book and a blanket and sets down to read.  Cuteness abounds.


This is also a recent favorite game.  Not sure why it came to be.  Ben sits on whatever bag with a strap he can find and calls it his car.  He pretends to steer and honks the horn with a little "beep, beep."  I guess the straps are a must to act as seat belts.  Clever boys.



And of course emptying the big toy bin provides lots of fun both in toys and an empty bin.



Ben had corn on the cob in Oregon for the first time and wanted nothing to do with the cob.  I had to cut the corn off the cob.  I was pleased to see him figure it out and REALLY enjoy it once we got home.  Seriously, he will gnaw at the cob until every last kernel is off.



This is a random picture of the progress on the LDS temple that is being built not far from our house.  So exciting!




Ben won't touch anything with bread like texture, including pizza.  This was the face he pulled while I tried to get him to taste it.  Later that week he actually ate tortilla and a little slice of homemade bread.  Maybe we are moving to new place where he won't be so picky.  I can only hope.


Trying to put daddy's pants on one morning.  Ignore the embarrassing mess in our bedroom.  It was clean few days later.  You see, I have a system.  I clean one room a day, this day was not the day for our bedroom.  And, let's be honest, it's the room that often gets neglected because "who sees my bedroom?"  Hmm....I guess you all do now.



This was our "Family Fun Day" that began with our annual trip to the county fair.  It was a good time as always.  This year we were there in the morning and saw the old, antique tractor parade.  The boys loved that.  We also saw some fun horse race of some kind.  We saw the junior division, a bunch of kids racing their horse and trying to put flags in a bucket or something.  I enjoyed that a lot.



We also rode the trolley for part of our fun day.  Ben's face was pure awesomeness.  He settled down but at first he was so wide eyed and nervous looking.  They both really loved it.  We ride the trolley a couple of times each year and it's always a good time.






Isaac had his 6 month cleaning this week.  Jacob took him.  I'm glad he snapped a picture since I never did of his first dentist appointment 6 months ago.  So there it is.


Ben climbs the walls.  Literally.



Last week I took the boys to a park that has a farm.  We loved these turkeys.




I think this water pump was the boys favorite part of the whole trip.



In an empty silo.


Ponies.



Pigs.


Goats.



More matching cuteness.


Water balloons!  So much fun for these boys this summer.






"Build a track that looks like a car mom."  Done.


I guess I'm all about the matching lately.  They are just too adorable.  And this series of pictures made me laugh.  It shows their little personalities perfectly.





Ben loves to copy Isaac in all things.


And then we had some more water fun in our back yard.  I bought this little splash pad type set up at Target for pretty cheap and I sure love it.  It's great for when I don't feel like packing everything up and going to an actual park.





These boys have also really been into fort building and "car" building with my couch cushions.  I probably should not allow it as much as I do but they love it and it gives me a few minutes peace and quiet.


We also recently did back yard s'mores.  All the boys wanted to match in BYU shirts.  Okay.  Let's do that.






Ben ended up with a whole marshmallow stuck to his shirt which then ended up on his face as I took the shirt off to clean it off.  You can tell he loved that.



Phew!  Officially caught up on blogging!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Life After Vacation

Believe it or not, we did do other things this July, and this summer, besides a trip to Oregon.

The day after we got home Shannon and her family stopped to stay a night on their way back to their home.  I hadn't seen them for several years, never made it Germany to visit, so it was really good to see them.  My word her kids have grown.  I guess mine have too!  They had never met Ben after all.  And Isaac was Ben's age the last time we were all together.




I just wish we had longer to visit.  It was a short visit, but a good one.




I hope to make it out to Ohio to visit them sometime soon.


I've been feeling hot ever since coming back from Oregon.  It's actually been a pretty mild summer here.  We did come home to some pretty bad hail damage on our home.  We're getting a new roof, paint, couple of window, the works.  Not looking forward to that starting up.  But I will like the finished product I'm sure.  Anyway, we've been spending time at the park and the boys especially love when I take them to the splash pads.  Ben is normally really into the water but for some reason he wasn't into it nearly as much this day.



And I've been wanting to get some good pictures of him in the water and all I could really get was him running out of it.  Oh well, another time.





Cute boys enjoying their snacks.



And cute Riley who wouldn't get in the picture with the boys at all.  She's pretty adorable though.



Shannon left behind this backpack with wheels for Isaac.  He loves it and quickly turned it into a riding toy for Ben.  He would pull him around on this thing and Ben would laugh and smile the whole way.



Isaac thought he was pretty awesome wearing this apron to help me cook one Sunday.  He was dancing around in it.  I loved it.


I had an appointment I needed to go to and Jacob came home early to take care of the kids while I did that.  He said Isaac was entertained the whole time with making this cheerio necklace.  I don't know why I haven't thought of that before.  I love that Jacob is such a good dad.  He does good things for these boys.


Oh Ben...he is into mischief all the time.  Climbing tables, dumping toys, coloring on things, total toddler mischief.  And I adore him.  I just look at his little face and hope I never forget what he was like at this age.  Such a cute little stinker.


Aw, matchy matchy boys.  I don't do that often but these cute shirts were on clearance at Target.  So I bought this set and another and they are cute matchy matchy boys.



We took the boys out for frozen yogurt recently.  They loved it.  It was a fun family date night.



Isaac was far more clean than Ben, but still plenty messy.

I'll have to upload the rest of the photos to finish this catch up of mine.