Leo {5 years!}

Holy cow! Where did the time go? Today my Leo turned 5! He woke up just in time so we could sing to him right at 7:27 am!

First I'll tell a little about his day, and then I'll finish with sharing about the things Leo can do! After we sang, we played around for a bit. For lunch we ordered pizza. He was so excited for his pineapple and green olive pizza. :) After lunch we headed to G'pa and G'ma's church to help decorate for Auntie Jodi's wedding! We went without a nap or any treats. Let's just say, decorating wasn't really what this young boy wanted to do on his big day. Sorry, Leo B! A quick haircut before the big wedding, and we were back at home waiting for G'ma Jan, Amy, and Ivy to come over for dinner. Leo wanted manicotti (or as we tease him, girl-icotti) so G'ma Jan made it for us. There were cupcakes, ice cream, presents, and a happy birthday boy. When supper was over, Uncle Mike, Auntie Erica, Jaina, Jackson, Keith, Cheryl, Coryn, Hunter, and G'pa Randy came to finish off the cupcakes. A bath and stories ended his 5th birthday. "A whole hand! A whole hand, Mom! Can you believe it?" No Leo, I really can't... My Leo Beo has been busy ~

~Beating Loving on his brother. They are best friends or "frenemies" depending on the hour and who has the basketball! ~still loves to shoot baskets every.single.day. We've graduated to a bigger ball and the hoop outside. Our leftie sure is a good shot! ~may have an addiction to Wii games. His favorite gifts this year were Mario Tennis and Mario Baseball. We have to set time limits!

~reading 2nd grade leveled books. He loves to read and often reads my text messages. So, if you send something bad, chances are, I'll have to explain it! ~getting ready to go to Transitional Kindergarten in the fall. He's pretty excited to go 3 full days a week and be in "Mom's" building. Now I'm thinking he may not be a fan of that once he gets a yellow ticket or two, and I hear all about it before he can tell me! ~loved playing Tball and is excited for soccer this fall. ~deciding where to live as a "dad". He is thinking LA because he likes the Lakers or maybe Minnesota because of the Vikings. We'll have to wait and see!

~playing with his friends and cousins. ~swimming! This boy is a fish! He loves the slides and boards and anything else that has water near or around it. ~is in the 95% percentile for height (44 inches) and 25% for weight (40 lbs.). Not sure where he gets that. ;) ~being such a sweet and kind little boy. Often offering hugs to anyone who will take them. Leo, You've amazed me in your first 5 years of life. Your curiosity about everything is so fun. You've taught me how to go with the flow, slow down to check things out, and how to be a mommy. I'm forever thankful that God chose me to be your mom. I promise to keep praying for you and helping you to grow up into the man God wants you to be. I love you, Leo Beo! Happy 5th Birthday, my first born! Love always, Mommy

Missed

Missed these two crazies while we were gone!

His Works {Mission Trip: Alcoa, TN}

Cheryl has been after Justin and I to go on a mission trip with our youth group for quite some time. We planned on going to Parkersburg, IA to help after the tornado hit in 2008, but something came up. Or should I say someone was making all my food come up. (I was 15 weeks pregnant with Eli.) Justin was going to go, but he ended up getting the stomach flu and strep throat all at the same time. Not such a great week at our house. She finally talked Justin into going again, and was trying to convince me. I was less easily convinced. She finally said, just pray about it and let me know in a couple of days. Hmm... I knew how those prayers were going to go, "Dear Lord, how can I let Cheryl down without making her mad at me? Can you give me the words to say? I can't leave the boys and home for that long. Plus, I'm a total wimpy girl, I could never do it. Amen." Fast forward to a normal Tuesday night. I met a friend in the big city. We ate, talked and I mentioned how I was feeling about a lot of differnt things. I told her I was looking for a "Rocky Mountain High Moment." She said just wait and see what God had planned. Little did I know, I'd know in a few short hours. As I headed home, I was praying/talking/yelling at God for a lot of different things. And I said, "OK, God. Enough! I need a RMHM to tell me it's going to be ok." Side note: Cheryl had told me that there was an new radio station in our area that was KLOVE (a Christian station). So I turned on the radio, and I'm not even kidding you, the theme song from RMH last year was on! "My God is not dead. He's surely alive. He's living on the inside, roaring like a Lion." Holy cow, I nearly hit the car infront of me. (Just kidding mom...there was no car. That was for dramatic effect.) Being the "great" Christian that I am, I decided to do a little bargining with God. It went a little something like this, "Thank you, God for showing me that things will be ok. That I'm doing what you ask and I just need to be still where I am. Also, if you want me to go to Tennessee, please have the radio play another song, by the same artist, from RMH. I'll go if you do that. Amen" (Yeah, like a radio station plays 2 songs back to back by the same artist! Hold on to your seat folks, because the dj came on and said, "Alright listeners, I like this artist so much, here is another song by Kristian Stanfeld." At this point I really didn't know what to do or what to say. I just continued to drive dumbfounded for a mile or two. When we got to the chours, I called Cheryl sobbing like a baby and said, "I guess I'm going to Tennessee." Fast forward to June. I was nervous to go because may I remind you, I am what some people may call "weak". And by some people, I would be refering to anyone that knows me. We road on the bus for what seemed like days. Technically it was only 24 hours, but still: tall people+full bus=long drive. Something else I forgot to mention was that I was excited to add 2 states to my list of states. My bucket list goal is to get 50 states before 50. Since the trip I am at 31! Welcome to Kentucky! (be kind, I'd been on a bus for nearly 19 hours at this point...)

Family Fun Night {'12}

Tonight was family fun night again in our big city. They were supposed to have fireworks to cap of the evening, but due to the heat and lack of moisture (haven't seen rain in about a month... could use that 40 day flood... JUST KIDDING!) they moved them to Sunday night. That's a big bummer for us. Justin and I leave on a mission trip tomorrow night, but more about that in a different post. We took the boys down to the Whopper feed. Leo and E did a good job eating. Justin's parents and sisters met us there, along with the new Mr. & Mrs. Busch. :) After supper we heading to the CL Activities Center to play some games and dunk a few townsfolk. Leo won these glasses, much to his Auntie Erica's delight. :)

Leo busy tryin to milk a cow. A dairy farmer, he is not!

Leo eating his Whopper. Not sure what Auntie Jodi is up to...

Leo and his buddy, Cole, after Leo dunked him in the dunk tank. He missed with the balls, but ran up and slammed the thing and down went Cole!

Eli trying his luck at the color wheel. He won a beach ball, which he promptly wanted to take to the pool.right.this.minute.mother!

Eli's turn to milk, with my help. Let's just say I went into the correct profession...

E with Blake-y (his favorite baby!) and Ayda (his future wife, Meredith and I have all the details worked out...)

We had a great time celebrating our community.

Jodi's {Last} Fling

Tonight we celebrated Jodi's "last" single night. We headed to the big city, where a lot of her friends and coworkers met us for pedis. We had a blast getting pampered. Erica, Mindy and I got matching toes for the wedding. Well, semi-matching. The lady that was doing my toes was more concerned about where we were going to "party" than doing my toes! The water was cold, she rushed, and my toes weren't as cute as M & E's. Wah! :) The bride getting pampered

After the pampering, we headed to Olive Garden to eat. We of course had to play a little game, and have a little unmentionable fun (right, Mindy?!). We sat around and enjoyed each other's company for a few hours. Jodi & Mindy

After we left Olive Garden, we headed to Granite City to hear Brittany's boyfriend play on the patio. It was lots of fun! Angela, Brittany, Emily, & Jodi (her high school friends)

Jodi, Mindy, Me & Erica

We had a lot of fun helping Jodi celebrate. I'm so lucky to have these ladies in my life!

Cheering on Ivy

Even though she looks a little scary...

Eli wouldn't stand beside her because of the eye black. He wasn't so sure he liked that on Ivy. We headed to a softball game to cheer on the Mustangs. It was really a pretty night, until I noticed that Eli had a foreign substance on the back of his shirt and shorts. The substance was all over my shirt and shorts and hands. After a little inspection, our predictions were confirmed: Eli (who was on steroids for his cough) had had a major diaper malfunction. Eww! Usually I can dress my entire family from the clothes that I "keep" in the van. However, Cheryl had given me a hard time about cleaning it out, so I had only one outfit for E in the van. We were 20 miles from home, what was a girl to do?!?! Luckily, Coryn had been shopping and gotten a new pair of shorts that day. Score! I had clean shorts to wear. Brenda also happened to have clothes in her car ~ they were little leauge softball t-shirts. So I had a clean shirt to wear. Only problem with both: shortie shorts and tiny t! I covered up with the blanket most of the night!

Brett & Brittany {6-2-12}

This is the summer for weddings around here. We will be invited to 6 (yes, 6!) this summer. We have 2 down, and 4 to go. Today Brett and Brittany got married. The weather was warm and sunny. It was beautiful in the church as well as outside. The bride was so beautiful! Unfortunately for me, Eli was quite chatty at the wedding. After a few "looks" from someone who will remain unnamed...as soon as Britty and Tom walked down the aisle, E and I made our way to the nursery. I watched for a little bit on the TV down there, but then decided that if I gave E a treat, he might sit quietly in the back of the church. It worked! I was able to see them say their vows and have communion together. It was such a meaningful ceremony. Ever since Nate & Sabrina's wedding, Eli is all about girls in "boo-ti-ful" dresses. He was so excited to see Britty all dressed up. He followed her around for quite awhile. Eli & the Beautiful Bride The newly married couple The couple with 2 crazies Our family all dolled up Love this man! E and Daddy Mommy & her handsome date E & Leo with "their" Sabrina Sabrina & I Jus & Sabrina The beauty :) Jus, Britty & I Dancing Queens?!

The {END} of Diapers?

Could it be the end of diapers for our house? That would be amazing! We've had someone in diapers for nearly 5 years! As soon as Leo was read to get out of them, Eli was born. If you figure $29.99 for 3 weeks x 8 per year x 5 years = approx. $1,199.60 over the last 5 years on diapers. Plus the 6 months when they were both in diapers. I'm ready for the end of diapers! Here is E with his monkey. They are both in Pull-Ups. Eli did such an awesome job today! Hopefully, we can keep it going!