Father's Day Silliness...

We showed up to wish Pop a happy Father's Day and found this cool new pool to play in:

It's only fair that the guest of honor take a dip although he surprised us all by jumping in!

Will thought Pop was funny:

We all think Pop is funny too, and a pretty great dad and grandfather too!

Father's Day...

Ashton helped Wesley paint a card for Daddy. He was really proud of it:

I thought Ashton's card was very beautiful and it was trees which went along with the theme of our gift (leave it to my little gift giver love language to think to do that!):

Will hadn't participated in the painting the day before so sweet Ashton brought him downstairs early and gave him a crayon and paper so he could make his own card:

Jon mentioned a month ago that he always wanted a book to tell the different types of trees so that's just what he got:

There aren't enough gifts in the world to thank him for being the awesome husband and father he is, but this was a nice start :)

My Little Art Teacher...

I'm not sure any child's gifting has been as clear as my sweet girl's is. She has been given the gift of teaching. I can't tell you how many times I find her teaching her brothers. She reads to them, sounds out letters for them and often makes them tot school games and activities. While Jackson is good at playing with them it is usually loud and always potentially dangerous :) Yet, when Ashton is in charge I can actually get a little peace because she is so great about involving them in her play. Since we've started our new tutorial on Fridays complete with new lunch boxes and backpacks, the game of the day is going to school. These days I find the boys with their Lightning McQueen backpacks traipsing along after her. I also frequently find one of them tied to a "leash" being her puppy.

On this day of yard work, I came to the garage to find an art lesson going on:

She's so patient and sweet with them:

She even prepared the materials and made sure he made Father's Day cards for everyone!

I love seeing her sweet spirit. She often stresses out and asks me if it's possible for her to be a kindergarten teacher, nurse, art teacher and Sunday School teacher. I tell her I'm sure she can be. I should just tell her she can be all that and many more- it's called being a mom :)

Why Do These Amuse Me So...

Why do I find spaghetti pictures so funny? I have several scrapbook pages devoted to them and even more blog posts, but here's one more:

Looking at these the question should probably be: why do I ever cook spaghetti???

Crazy Day...

For crazy day at VBS I gelled the boys hair. It was too cute. I also had them wear each other's shirts with names on them backwards- pretty crazy huh??? I'm sure their teachers were thrilled!

Wouldn't you love to be their teacher when you were just thinking you knew who was who?

Will was not happy with the craziness, but I spiked his hair and it was darling. I'm so sad he wouldn't let me take his picture. I need to do it again.

This is the best shot I could get. Doesn't he look thrilled?

What totally freaked Will out was him wearing a sock on one foot and Wesley wearing the other one. He was not happy. We had shoe troubles at VBS period because having two identical shoes in two different sizes yet each boy will only wear a certain kind gets very confusing and frustrating. Add to that fact that we have lost 1 shoe from 3 different pairs (and by we I think we all know who I mean!) and my boys ended up at church one day with Will barefoot and Wesley in two left shoes. Incidentally, I won the 'mom of the year' award on that day- yeah, probably not! I'm going to channel a little Kate Gosslin and just say, "It might be a crazy life, but it's our life."

My Little Acrobat...

Will learned how to climb out of his crib much earlier than I was ready! He thinks he's so clever, see:

Wesley's climbed out a time or two but isn't quite as brave, thank goodness! He does like to do acrobatics by using his feet to climb up the rails:

The bad part of a child climbing out of their crib is that when you think they are napping and you go up to check on them you start to panic when you can't find them! Then you notice Ashton's door is closed and locked. You break in to find little Mr. Mischief:

In this boys' life sheer meanness = sheer happiness:

That's what I get for naming him after another man who was just as bad!

TWO Cute...

I always take pictures of the kids the night before their birthday a.k.a. their last night of being that age. Here are my sweet two on their last night of being 2:

It was a lot trickier than I imagined getting boys to hold up just two fingers:

Wesley always closes his eyes when I take a picture. Then he realizes how annoyed that makes me and he begins doing it on purpose like here:

Little stinkers, love em'.

There's a Hot Dog in There...

The twins have been really into corn dogs lately (and I've been really into not cooking). Every single time they eat one after the first bite Will gets all excited and runs around telling everyone, "There's a hot dog in there!" He is amazed every time. He laughs hysterically and think it's the best thing ever:

I am ecstatic that I got these pictures of him showing us the hot dog in there because this will always be one of our favorite memories of him!

He goes and shows every person in the room. Look how excited Wesley is! These poor boys need to get out more :)

After everyone has seen it, it's go time:

I a.d.o.r.e. this boy. He makes me laugh and on corn dog night he has us rolling. Sounds like a good excuse to not cook dinner to me!

Favorite Foto Friday...

Wesley said, "Look, I a Granpa!" Too funy!!!

Favorite Foto Friday...

Now that the twins are in bunk beds and able to move around you might think they are resting quietly and come upstairs to find this:

Nothing like finding a naughty boy, a pirate ship and a DS in your bed!

What a Way to Get the Summer Started...

At our very first summer play date swimming a friend's little boy accidentally hit Jackson with a dive stick. It hit him in just the right spot on his cheek bone and sliced it right open. So, I am a friend's pool with all 4 kids in my bathing suit and cover up- no other clothes with me! Jon came and picked us up so we could head to the ER. Sweet Jennifer bravely kept the twin along with her other 5 kids! We decided to stop by and see out pediatrician first. She came out to the waiting room prepared to tell us to go get stitches, but decided she could glue it together. We were very glad to be avoiding the ER! Jackson wasn't upset at all. He said, "Granda says girls think scars are cool!" Heaven.help.me!!!

She did a great job gluing it, but his eye just kept getting blacker and blacker. He now has a scar, but I'm sure my future daughter-in-law will dig it, right?

Deer Run...

The kids got to attend Deer Run day camp this year, and they were in love. I wish parents could go because I so wanted to try the zip line into the pond! All the awesome outdoor activities, crazy songs, wrapped up with a christian message-perfect! These are our homeschool peeps who were also there- all making goofy faces of course :)

I have been telling everyone how great it is and hope we can convince even more friends to join us next year, but for now at least Ashton had Dan the Man!

Next Party...

We left Gram's and stopped by Nana's so they could see the boys on their birthday. She surprised us with an ice cream cake for them. They were excited:

I've decided that I think it's only fair that they each get their own birthday song (Kate does it 6 times for all hers!). Though he's younger, we let Wesley go first for a change:

Will tried hard to blow out those candles (especially before Wesley did!).

The cake was yummy and we quickly cleaned it up :)

Thanks Nana for yummy cake!

A Cars Kind of Party...

We headed to Gram's house to have a family party for the boys' big day. Of course, we had to celebrate Cars style since they are Cars obsessed.

My sweet daughter whose love language is gift giving went around the house wrapping up things to give them. This is Wesley unwrapping his monster truck from home. We were laughing about her regifting, but he was so excited over it that I've decided she's on to something. I should've just saved my money and given them something they already had!

Mawmaw and Aunt Joan decided they needed some big boy boxers. We put them on later and their little booties in boxers was priceless!

We made them each their own cake with a Cars figurine on top. McQueen for Will and Mater for Wesley, or as he calls him, "Dadgum".

I made a ridiculous, amateur decision to buy them different gifts instead of buying two of the same thing. Big mistake, huge. They have fought over this Mac daily then and every day since.

We had a great day hanging out with family and celebrating my asweome twosome!

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but the twins just celebrated their third birthday! As always we started with cinnamon rolls in their number:

The big kids are so sweet and get so excited to do things for them. They even made sure the night before that I had cinnamon rolls at the ready!

How sweet is this big boy?

Of course, I think this one's pretty stinkin' cute as well!

Every birthday for the twins is another milestone that we've survived! This one was a hard one too, but we made it and have some great memories to show for it. We love our double blessings!