Janetzke Fest

I'm really not surprised that it's already July.  We spent May and June traveling to and from our families' different celebrations.

We'll start in May with ~
Kurt's Confirmation

Kurt and Daniel

The WHOLE Janetzke family!

And the coolest part of the morning was being able to take communion as an entire family (well, at least those of us who we could squeeze up there)

After Kurt's opening house we threw in another family gathering and had a wedding shower for Ben and Christina.  Scott spent 18 plus hours carefully preparing wonderful bbq pulled pork.  It's was a nice evening to celebrate our new sister!

We went home to finish out the Sunday School year and came BACK to Wisconsin for Lydia's high school graduation.

Super proud of you, Lydia!  Can't wait to have you closer at CUChicago

Then we went home for about 4 days and the boys and I went BACK up to Wisconsin for Kurt's 8th grade graduation.

Kurt and his Goddaughter, Lilly.

We had a very nice weekend, including an impromptu concert featuring "Jesus loves me" by Luke, Ben, and Grandma.

The NEXT weekend we headed south for a trip to St. Charles.  Jen, Stacy, Stacey, and I threw Sally a baby shower.  The boys laid low at Grandma's house and enjoyed some down time.

Turns out Luke liked hanging out with Maggie and Ben LOVED swimming in Aunt Jennifer's pool.

The next two weeks were fulled with preparations for VBS and Scott's last SLED conference.

VBS week came and we said bye to Scott and within hours of him leaving on his airplane our first night without Daddy was interrupted with tornado sirens.  Luke, Ben, and I crammed in the hall closet until the sirens stopped.  We lost power right away so the boys did what they could to stay occupied... 

We found out the next day that an actual tornado touched down two blocks from our house.  We only went about 20 hours without power and are thankful to God for His protection of our family and our house.

The next DAY the boys and I headed back to Wisconsin once again for the much awaited wedding of Ben and Christina!

It was a wonderful weekend and a great party.  We had an awesome time.  The boys were troopers and walked down the "hallway" with their cousins like pros 

The bride was beautiful and the groom took everything in stride.

The wedding party was wonderful.

The siblings had a great time together.

And I can't believe my little brother is married!

The boys enjoyed the "special dinner" and the dance floor until they finally crashed from the sugar and excitement.

And a big thanks goes to Grandma and Grandpa for helping out the whole day (and night) with the boys!

We headed home that Monday and managed 3ish days at home before making the familiar trek back to Germantown for Lydia's open house and the traditional G-Town 4th of July fireworks.

We enjoyed hanging out with Drue and her boyfriend, Ryan.  We got to spend time chatting with Grandma and Grandpa Bickel and we even made it down to Summerfest with Chad and Erin to see Scott's favorite band.

And now we're home.  Really home.  It was weird to buy fruit and veggies this week since we will actually be home to eat them.  We still have no A/C but are learning to survive with a window unit in our bedroom and frequent trips to our friend's pool.  

May

We've had gorgeous weather this spring.  Our magnolia tree filled out the end of April.

We've spent a lot of our time enjoying the backyard.  Ben's caught his brother's love of baseball.

And the boys love helping Daddy dig up rocks.

Scott brought the boys a souvenir from his class trip to Springfield.  They may be Confederate soldiers but Luke loves setting them up for battle.  It's amazing how the classic toys never get old.

Grandma and Grandpa Huster, Great Grandma Huster, Uncle Matt, Aunt Jennifer, Cole and Mya all came to visit us for our show the beginning of May. 

Cole and Luke spent Saturday in the backyard.

Of course Ben had to try it out too.  (You'll notice Uncle Matt's hand on his belly)

And they showed PawPaw Ben's homework book about tractors.

The next weekend we had a lovely Mother's Day.  The boys got me very nice gifts and gave lots of hugs and kisses.  I even got to watch Enchanted.  (I don't get to watch a lot of girlie movies at my house)

Then inspired by a small rose bush I got as a gift from a youth, I decided we needed to spruce up the area in front of our picture window.  Luke and I went and bought a pair of boxwood bushes and spent the rest of Mother's Day diggin' in the dirt.

Luke loved the digging part, he found LOTS of worms.

The finished project.  

Of course you can't even see the rose bush in the middle, 

I'm hoping to makes a big comeback before fall.

Dinner Theatre

Fools has come to an end.  I have to say it has been one of our best productions yet.  The kids on stage were amazing.  The kids who worked behind the scenes were awesome.  The work Emily and Anne did was outstanding.  

The "stage" went up two weeks before show weekend.  We arrived at Trinity at 8 am and didn't leave until after 5.  Everything went up smooth and the results were great.

Of course Luke and Ben had to spend the whole day in Scott's room watching movies and playing with their toys.  They were real troopers, we didn't hear from them and they didn't get into anything they weren't supposed to.  When I came in the room at the end of the day to tell them it was finally time to pack up and head home, I found...

Needless to say, the boys are pretty happy the show is over.

Easter and Break

We headed up to Germantown for Easter weekend and had a great time celebrating with the family.  Saturday was filled with egg dyeing.

Luke loved picking phrases for the eggs...like He is Risen!  and Hallelujah!  

I think he's paying close attention is Sunday School.

The aunt and uncles helped out a lot!

It says "Ben!"

The traditional Easter basket shot.

Our little family.

Egg hunting!

Found one

Over there!

"Rabbit?"

Once they found all the eggs Ben started wandering the yard calling out for the Easter Bunny.  

We finally had to tell him that the "rabbit" went other kids' houses to hide more eggs.

The Egg Cracking Contest...a family tradition.

Luke liked saying "He is Risen" and "Indeed, Alleluia"

Uncle Ben won our tourney but rumor is that Grandma B. won the contest in Michigan.  Congrats, Grandma!

The cousins eating some ice cream.

On our way home we stopped by the bluff at CUW.  

It was a little windy.

Hard to believe we met there 10 years ago.

The day we got home Scott ran an errand at Toys-R-Us.

Luke's been digging all over our yard this spring looking for worms.  So we assumed it made sense to buy them a sandbox.

They both helped set everything up.

And although they've already spent many hours digging and playing with all their trucks in the sand, Luke is a little disappointed he can't find any worms at the bottom of the box.

More ice cream during spring break.

Tuesday we FINALLY got to meet Anna and Shawn's little one, Adelaide.  She's ADORABLE!

And already questioning what she's gotten herself into.

Ben really didn't care for Addy, but Luke was excited to hold her.  He also just loves hanging out with Shawn.

It was a fast week and we hit the ground running afterwards but we had a wonderful break.  

Catching Up

So apparently with Dinner Theater coming next week, I completely missed March.  So here's a quick tour of our last two months...

We've learned that Ben needs his own chair.

And it's just not safe in our living room anymore.  

So we headed outdoors and have spent our spring breaking in the new wagon.

   

And the other thing we've learned is that Luke and Ben are two peas in a pod...

even when we're not looking.