Luke's 3!

Luke turned 3 on Wednesday. We had Emily and Katrina come over to help us eat some spaghetti, corn on the cob, and baseball birthday cake.

I think Luke asked for another baseball cake cause that's all I can decorate.

Cheese! (look at that shiner!)

What's this?

Star Wars toys!

And from Mom and Dad...

a fire truck couch to relax on with Ben...

and sleep on for a camp out with Daddy that night.

BEN

I never understood the big deal with having boys. I was surrounding by them growing up. It never seemed like a whole lot of trouble. Boy was I wrong! Luke had me completely fooled. A little hyper but mostly easy going.

Then came Ben. This kid does it all. Climbs on the highest fort, dives under water in the bathtub, takes on an entire hive of yellowjackets and Sunday, lands on his forehead off one of Scott's desk chairs. Now, one might think no big deal. The boy got a goose egg the size of a golf ball. And course it didn't go down after an hour of (on and off) ice. It didn't go down after a three hour nap. If fact, it is now Tuesday and it still looks AWFUL. But the doctor said the bump was more to bother mom, not an actual problem (she also remembered taking the call when Ben got stung a dozen times). These are the pictures. I don't know if you can tell just how ugly his little head is, but if this boy doesn't give me gray hairs it will be a miracle.

My three boys

We spend a lot of our evenings trying to entertain ourselves. Friday night was no exception. Scott, Luke, and Ben "broke" in Luke's new lightsaber.

And all heck broke loose. I got a ton of pictures of my three boys playing around in the living room (I find it safer to observe from the rocking chair)

Thumbs up!

We've got him pinned!

Can't get enough Daddy time!

Daddy and Ben take a picture of me and my Luke.

10 years? Really?

So, I'm old. Me and the boys traveled to Wixom, MI this past weekend to attend my 10 year high school reunion. It was a nice small gathering. Not that there could be a real big turn out since there were only 57 in my graduating class. Anyway, it was a great time. I am still in awe of the number of babies we had among us. It was great to see everyone and catch up on where God has taken us over the last 10 years. I hope to reconnect with many classmates before another 10 years goes by!

The group who came (minus Jessica and Katie who left early)

Organizing these people should've been easier, they're grown ups now!

Sam! (that's for you Grandma J!)

Luke and Sam trading stories about what their mommies are like at home.

Ben teaching Sam the fine art of chair and table climbing.

Me and Steph (and Sam of course) after a quick dinner.

Then on our way home Sunday I realized I'm not that old. We spent the afternoon with a few of Scott's friends from high school and they graduated TWELVE years ago...who's old now! We had a great time letting the boys run around with the other kids and dinner was DELICIOUS! (Thanks Katrina and Nathan!)

Scott and his new buddy Rhylah

Ben and his tomato supplier, Heather.

Time in Dimondale

I love that we live so close to my grandparents. When I found out my 10 year high school reunion would be close by, we decided to bunk with Grandma and Grandpa B.

Luke got to see the "Big Wa Wa" that is in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. He looked like all of us grandchildren sitting on the wall with his lifejacket on. He did hook a teeny bass but couldn't quite get the hook set. It was fun to watch.


And of course Great Grandma made sure they had some ice cream before getting ready for bed.


Ben loves reading on Great Grandpa's lap. I don't think Grandpa is used to jumping around a story the way Ben turns pages.

And I love seeing Grandpa and his great grandsons playing together. There just aren't many of us who have an opportunity like that. They started an alphabet train puzzle but only got up to H before they turned their attention to the toy box on wheels (Eldor and Dorothy grandkids know which box I mean!)
We were glad to have some alone time with the Grandparents and look forward to crashing at their place again soon! (say in a couple of weeks?)

Boys will be boys

Two bananas - $1, two bowls of cheerios - $.38, matching family reunion shirts - $0,

watching tv with your brother in your underwater - priceless

We've had a full couple of weeks. The kitchen still makes me smile everytime I walk by and see the pretty blue. Our Wednesday afternoon was rattled last week when Ben happened upon a bee's nest and was attacked by 2 or 3 dozen bees. He ended up with 10 stings on his legs and 1 on his arm. Scott and I even managed to attract a few while trying to detach those evil little things from my baby's body. He was a trooper though, the doctor told us to give him some Benadryl. We had a hang over toddler the next morning but other than that we can barely tell where he was stung. He did spend this evening yell "no" at the gnats that were flying by his face...I wouldn't blame him for hating bugs forever.

On a lighter note, Uncle Ben (not to be confused with our Ben) came to see us Saturday. It was a nice relaxing afternoon of grilling, swimming and Mario Kart. Luke loved having a grown up who would play with him, Ben just kept trying to figure out why that guy looked so familiar. Thanks for coming, Uncle Ben!

Our Kitchen Adventure

Our kitchen is done! For many of you who haven't been to our house, you cannot know the difference a little paint has made in our little cave of a kitchen. For those of you who have been to our house, you will not believe the difference a little paint has made in our little cave of a kitchen.

Let me take you on a little tour...

I know it's hard to see but this was the state of our kitchen walls when we moved in 3 years ago. Since the color isn't very good on that picture, I've included the next one to give you an idea what the color was.

So a year ago I decided to see how hard it would be to remove the paper. It came off in about a day and half and our walls were bare for 12 months...

Scott sanded and puttied

and Saturday our friend Katrina came over and we primed...


and we painted. Beach White on top, Cloudy Day on the bottom. It went really fast and we're SO happy with the results. Now everyone should come over and visit!

And as you can see, Mom, we moved the white pantry over to the wall and so the area right next to the fridge (under the light) is open, the room seems 6 feet bigger...figured you be excited for us!