Florida Vacation

Yesterday I got back from Florida and had a great time! I of course missed the family, but enjoyed the time that I was able to spend with my sister and grandma. We did everything- went to dinner, the beach, shopping, manicure and pedicures, went for walks, went to Sanibel Island, and I read an entire book in one day while sitting on my grandma's porch with the warm breeze blowing - it was heaven! I feel totally rejuvenated and could not have asked for a better vacation. Thanks Kelly for an awesome time and for everyone who helped me out with the kids - mostly my wonderful husband and mother-in-law!! I am back to reality and happy to be back with the kids and family. Jim and the boys had a great time together - he loved his "boys weekend"!

My BIG Helper

Ethan has been into helping mommy do everything these days, which I love and find so much fun (well most of the time)! This is a picture to show how much he helps me out :)

"Momma, I will help you put butter on your bread."

Thanks for the help Ethan! (Not sure if you tell but there is about half the tub of butter on the piece of bread).

Daddy Daycare

Tomorrow I leave for Florida to see my grandparents and sister and Jim gets to hang out with his boys all weekend!! He is very excited and they will have a lot of fun. Jim's mom is also coming to help out with the boys, which is a huge help! I have never left the boys for more than a night and I have never left Caleb at all, so I am going to miss them dearly, but they will be in good hands :) I am looking forward to some relaxation and good times with my sister and grandparents!!

I sure am going to miss these two boys (All three I should say!!)

Silly Boys!

Ethan thought that it would be a great idea to take a nap in the laundry basket...it did not last long!

This picture was taken by Ethan and I just love Caleb's expression! (Excuse the morning look.)

This picture was also taken by Ethan (who is totally into taking pictures with our camera - good thing for digital!) and I thought he captured a great "what are you doing?" moment of Caleb.

CHEESE!!

Ethan thought that in order to be a good big brother, he needed to have some battle scars so that Caleb did not need to be the only one. He took a dive right into the corner of his bunk bed and it left a big gash on his forehead. He could have used some stitches, but instead we used liquid bandage glue and that seems to be doing the trick!

Oh yeah...yes he is wearing a helmet while driving his car and no we did not tell him he had to :)

Caleb loves making the biggest messes with the toys. Finding him here with toys surrounding him is a common occurrence!

Helping Mom

The other day Ethan wanted to help me make cookies and it ended up that he did it all pretty much by himself with a little help from mom :)
Good thing that these cookies were for our family only because he took lots of licks between each scoop of dough he put on the cookie sheet!

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter! Ethan really enjoyed coloring Easter eggs with his friend Ava, looking through his basket that the Easter Bunny left and finding all the hidden eggs in our house filled with candy or stickers. Caleb enjoyed his first Easter too, but really was only interested in the grass at the bottom of his Easter basket:) We had a wonderful church service and brunch at my grandma and grandpa's afterward. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Ethan and his friend Ava coloring Easter eggs :)

Check out the eggs that Ethan colored all by himself!

Ethan helping Caleb with his Easter basket.

Ethan loved opening the eggs in his Easter basket to see what was in them and of course eating whatever it was right away before moving on to the next egg.

Ethan with his great-grandma!

Ethan took this picture all by himself!Ethan and Auntie Leigh-Leigh :)

Caleb talking

Caleb has been talking quite a bit lately (well babbling for the most part) but he does say mama, dada, and here is his new word...

Vacation with the Ludwigs!

The first part of our vacation was spent with our wonderful friends from medical school, the Ludwig's. They have two sweet kids Logan(8 years old) and Maddie Ann (3 years old). They arrived on Friday and stayed until Wednesday and the time went by way too fast! We had a blast going to the Air Zoo, Pirates Island Water Park, Jungle Joes, playing in our backyard, playing at the park, watching MSU win with the Sanchez Family, more great friends from Medical school, having BBQ's, the guys built a bunk bed, the girls went running, and the adults were able to spend a nice evening together out to dinner thanks to Jim's cousin Katie who came to watch all four kids (thanks Katie!). The kids played wonderfully together and really became good friends. Ethan is still asking when Logan and Maddie Ann are coming back. Needless to say, we miss them already! Thanks for coming!

Caleb had his first accident with the sidewalk last week. Unfortunately the sidewalk won, but he is a trooper and only cried for 20 seconds!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Rock Climbing

On Friday, Jim took Ethan rock climbing here in Kalamazoo. Ethan loves climbing all over his bunk bed (Jim put rock climbing holds that he had in college on his bed) so we thought that he might like actual rock climbing. They had a great guys night out and Ethan did enjoy climbing, he also enjoyed climbing and jumping on the mats that they have there. It was a great way to burn off some energy and he has lots!

Someone was in love with their reflection this morning...

"Hmmm who is this handsome guy?"
"Looks cute enough to kiss!"

Getting Spring Fever

The other night the boys and I decided that the cold was not going to stop us from doing some of our favorite warm weather activities. So after a long walk we headed to the backyard to blow some bubbles and swing - the boys had a blast!Ethan was so proud of himself, he had been trying to catch a bubble for 15 minutes and finally snagged one!
Caleb was grinning ear to ear the entire time he was on the swing (despite the fact that he has a double ear infection - poor guy!)