January 2015!

Ready or not here is 2015! 

 

We sat the boys down again this year and talked to them about our goals for 2015. When we asked them what we should do to make us closer to God and to make God happy Ben said, "We should go to Heaven and do what God says."  That boy is smart!  We also decided to continue our nightly bible readings in the New Testament and to memorize the beatitudes. 

 

To help others we're going to assemble and deliver 12 sunshine baskets, continue going to the "old folk's home" to sing monthly and continue to help others when they need it.

 

Our family goal is to be more thankful and say "thank you" more often.  We're all going to try to speak more kindly to one another as well.

 

Personally Charlie wants to "try to not get any 'spankins' all year", "read the clock a lot better, you don't tell me the time" and "play more things with us mom, you're not very playful".  Charlie also suggested we get a soccer goal because that's a goal. 

 

Here's Charlie and Ben's year in review of 2014:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life is changing.  Ben starts preschool!  How is it my little Benny boy is old enough for preschool and how is it possible that I'm registering him for kindergarten next year???!!!  Time is flying!  Ben was dismissed from speech therapy too.  He has met all his goals and meets or exceeds his sounds for his age - we are so proud of him!  Ben continues to be the sweetest, kindest, and most considerate boy.  He has a servant's heart and is just a great, funny guy.  We love him to PIECES!

 

 

 Here is Ben on his first day of preschool!  He was excited and nervous.  We all went to drop him off and Charlie told him preschool is awesome and that he wished he could go too!  I was so proud of Charlie for encouraging Ben and helping him feel more comfortable.

 

 

 

 Happy 1/2 Birthday Ben...you get 1/2 a doughnut :)

 One of the MANY silly Ben faces!

 

 

 

 

 

So, there's lots of things I miss out on being a mom a boys and not girls, but this day is one I'll treasure FOREVER!  This is the day Charlie and I practiced tying ties on each other. 

 

 Ben was our photographer

 True was trying to get in on the picture taking too :)

 

 We're were getting it!

 

 

 Hey, blue-eyed boy!

 

 Success!

 

 

 We both felt very accomplished!

Truman wanted a turn too :)

 

 

 

 

Charlie brought me this heart leaf he found outside :) 

 

 

 Truman on his Dusty ride-on airplane.

 

 

 

 

I put a sign on the outside of the garage door that read, "Welcome home daddy!  Here's your ammo, come find us!"  I put a bucket of fake snowballs right below the sign on the floor.  The boys and I hid and we had the lights off.

 He found us!

 The boys thought it was awesome!  We have almost weekly snowball fights...thanks mops and pops for the snowballs!

 

 

 

 

 The boys have really enjoyed playing with legos lately.  Here's Charlie's creation.  He wanted me to take a picture of it incase it broke....then he'd know how to put it back together again...smart boy!

 

 

 

Uncle Bruce stayed with us for the night!  It was so great having him and the kids enjoyed visiting and having him over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mr. Ed and Ms. Karen from church gave us a peach tree cutting from their awesome peach tree.  We had to take out one of the little elm trees in the back yard.  Daddy started out showing the boys what to do...

 ...then they each had a couple of turns

 It made me nervous, but boy they were having a good time.  I especially love Ben's intense facial expressions :)  That boy never fails to make me laugh.

 

 

 

 Ms. Norma watched Truman and Ben for me so I could volunteer in Charlie's classroom so we made her some lemon cookies.  Ben helped make the cookies.

 Charlie helped frost the cookies.  Charlie's thick, long eyelashes kill me!

 

 

 

Well, I finally put that tortilla press I received for Christmas to work and made home made refried beans.  It was a lot of work and I wasn't too impressed with this recipe, but the boys gobbled it all up!

 

 

 

Truman started climbing in and out of his crib, so I decided it was time to take it down and transition him into a bed (his crib mattress on the floor).  I put Charlie in charge of undoing all the screws.  He did a marvelous job and really was very focused and eager to help out.

 Don't you unscrew things with your ninja headband too? :)

 

 Truman was putting the screws back in their holes, while brother was taking them out :)

 

 

 True's pretty proud of himself.

We had it down in record time.  Hooray for no more crib and for me not stressing about him falling and hurting himself!

 

 

 

 

Charlie's first loose tooth!

 It was getting pretty loose and he wanted to try some string.

 He was too nervous to yank it out that night :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ben brought home Teddy, the preschool's class teddy bear.  (He went right into the dryer for 30 minutes on a heavy high with all his clothes...I'm such a germ freak!)  Ben loved having him.

 Uncle Bruce and Aunt Kris came up for the night and Ben wanted to take a picture with them with Teddy.

 Then of course, Truman wanted to take a picture with Teddy...This little boy loves his brothers!

 We went out to eat with Aunt Kris and Uncle Bruce while Teddy stayed home and had Honey Nut Cheerios.  When we got back from the restaurant Teddy's bowl was empty :)

 

 

 

 

 

 He did it!  He was so happy!

 

 Love that little gap!

 

We also discovered that tooth fairy's can be boys.  I've always thought of the tooth fairy as being a girl, but both boys were convinced the tooth fairy was a boy :)

 

 

Charlie made a card for Poppy (my mom's 92 year old dad), and it was too cute not to share.

 

 

 It's a picture of Poppy and Charlie picking avocados from his tree.  He did this all on his own!  One of my favorite cards he's ever done!

 

 

 Here's Ben and Teddy mailing off Poppy's card.

 

 

 This picture cracks me up of True.  He's just chillin' playing a game on the ipod with ear buds.  This child is not quite 2, but he thinks he's 10.