Happy 75th Dad!!

Happy 75th birthday today to my dad George!! This is one of my favorite photos of the boys with Grandpa when they were little...they loved hanging out with Papa George at his service station and helping with guy things and riding his motorcycle.  My dad has always been an awesome grandpa to my boys and I am so thankful they love him so much.  Dad never likes a fuss made over him and hates parties, but I want him to know how much he is loved by us all today on his special day and always! 

Easter

We were blessed to have a picture perfect day to celebrate Easter.  Robert and Teresa hosted and as usual Teresa had everything decorated so perfectly!  DInner was delicious and the company was even better!  The big kids had a great time playing Easter bunny and hiding the eggs for Bode and Brystol. The little guys found all the treasure filled eggs , but Brystol liked to take time out after finding each one to eat the treat that was inside the egg!  Oh that boy makes me laugh!

 We also celebrated Brystols 4th birthday which is in a few weeks, he was so funny opening his gifts and had us all cracking up!  The kids spent most of the day outdoors playing baseball, fishing, and playing with the dogs.  Dallas decided it was great fun to run and play in the mud puddle and then proceeded to lay down al roll around in it like a pig--he was a muddy mess!  Love spending time with my family , we are so very  blessed!

Only girl in the world

Jonah likes to roam around the house singing his favorite songs and as of late he likes to bust into his rendition of Rhiana's popular song "Only Girl in the World". He is so funny and totally cracks us up and doesn't seem to care that the lyrics do not quite fit him.... for example....Want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world, like I'm the only one that's in command, cuz I'm the only one who understands how to make you feel like a man...

Oh that boy. Sometimes I wonder.   He is so comfortable with who he is, nothing much seems to bother him and I so LOVE that!!  Wonder what the next bust out song will be and if it will be by Brittany, Fergie, or Beyonce, until then keep making me laugh Jonah!!

Teenager!

Jonah turns 13 today! Can't believe how quickly the time has passed since you joined our family.  Becoming a mom is the greatest gift that I have ever known. From the moment they put you in my arms, I knew I would never be the same..being a mom makes you see things very differently than I had before.  The love I felt was amazing and continues to amaze me, watching you grow and learn and become a caring young man is a wonderful feeling.  I hope you realize how much joy you bring to our family Jonah and how proud I am to be your mom! Here are 13 of the things I love most about you!!

1.  Your love of family
2.  You are  always willing to hug and snuggle :-)
3.  That at 13 you still love to sit on mom and dad's lap
4.  Your big brown eyes and how they sparkle and dance when you are excited about something
5.  What a neat freak you are...you never have to be asked to pick up your room, everything is always in it's place.
6.  You are an honor student
7.  How you are so good at playing with your younger cousins and making them feel special
8.  You can be a goofball at times and like to dance and sing!
9.  You can always make me laugh...even when I am trying to be serious or mad at you!
10.  How you love your dog Dodger
11.  Your caring heart
12.  How you treat me and seem to really enjoy being with me. You never make me feel like I am just a mom.  When I am feeling sad or just having a bad day, you have a way of just putting your hand on my shoulder of giving me a hug when I most need it.
13. How you don't really seem to care what other people think, you have your own opinions and aren't afraid to do something different from the norm.

As you enter your teen years Jonah I hope you continue to be your own person and don't let others influence you or get in the way of your hopes and dreams.  Being a teenager can be hard at times and I just hope you remember that you can always come to us for anything!!  I love you with all my heart and feel blessed to be your mom!!

LIttle Assassins

Are we bad parents if we are 3 months late having our sons 11th birthday party?  If so I guess you can call us BAD!  We just celebrated Jensen's 11th birthday  2 weeks ago and his special day is October 20th...With sports and the holidays it just was never a good time, so we procrastinated. We took J and 6 of his buddies paintballing and they had a blast shooting at each other and dodging bullets. Jonah took a bullet to the mouth and had a face full of yellow paint~we all thought it was pretty funny!!  The boys didn't care that we were partying a little past the actual birthday.  One of the boys mom told me that he wouldn't let her wash his sweatshirt until he wore it to school so that everyone could see it.  Kind of like a war wound I guess you could say.  Needless to say it was a fun night and I am sure that Jonah and Jensen will be begging to go back again soon. Guess it was even better than sitting in the basement playing Call of Duty online with their friends!  The best part of the night was after everyone had left and Jensen came in to tell me goodnight and thanked me for the awesome party--what a great kid!

OUR THING

Tonight the 4 of us were watching a show and a couple of guys were doing a cool fist bump/handshake kind of thing.  I said "that's cool..we need a thing like that."  Jonah speaks up and says "we have a thing, our thing is to make you happy!" Oh how that made my heart smile!  I am so lucky to live in a house full of guys who treat me pretty darn close to the way that a Princess (like I like to think I am) should be treated!! Love you guys!

Christmas fun with the Plummer's and the Deitch's!

We were lucky enough to get to celebrate the Holidays with both sides of the family this year.   On the weekend before Christmas we traveled to Cedar Falls and had a fun weekend with all of the Plummer's at Steve and JEnny's house.  The boys had great fun making a funny video with their Aunts using a laughing dog that someone was lucky enough to get in the White Elephant gift exchange!  I am sure they will be talking about that for years to come--as well as the "fake" Dennis we created since he was unable to join us!

On Christmas Day we hosted the Deitch family gathering at our house.  We had a huge meal and then the cousins exchanged gifts, Jonah got an ISU shirt from Bode and Jensen got a cool racecar from Brystol.  Dala brought new puppy Dallas so we all had fun playing with that adorable puppy!  Uncle Steve and AUnt Joyce got the boys gift cards to their favorite restraunts--Applebees and Buffalo Wild WIngs--what a great gift!!  It was a beautiful day filled with love and SNOW!!  Jeff took all the kids sledding and then you came back to enjoy hot chocolate!