August... the month of sleepovers!

 So August apparently was unofficially friend month!!  Yeah for lots of friends for my kids!

We are soooo blessed!

We had family come down for a birthday party and we got to host our cousin's!  For me, my cousin Lauren was here and her kids, Connor and Vale's cousins, Brennan and Makenzie!

They were so funny!  They had a great time together!  They were SOOO dirty! hahahaha 

Sweet Makenzie was nice and clean though! :)

We also watched our friends 2 boys Elijah and Calvin (though I have no idea how I missed getting a picture of Elijah!!!!)

Calvin was a little overwhelmed by the other three boys ruckus but he did great!  I told they boys they had to make sure Calvin had toys to play with and they did a great job of keeping his pile full!

They did such a great job of stimulating him that he fell asleep under the play table! HA!

We also had the Twiss children over for an overnight!  There were 5 under 5!! Whewww whooo!!! We bravely fed them all spaghetti but they did really well with it!

Vale thought the whole thing was a ball!

They played so well together and had a ton of fun!  Connor was soooooo excited that someone was sleeping on the top bunk he could hardly contain himself!

We also had baby jophis (as Connor calls him) come for a night as well!

Joseph is such a happy kid!!  Loved it!!! :)

We had a great time and my boys loved every second of it!!! :)

What my boys do all day...

So I hate to go into the blog with the presupposition that my kids get punished all day but lets just face it... they are rowdy brother and they are toddlers... should be nuff said. :)

Here we have a perfect example of the 'double time out'.  Sit on your bottom, hands on knees, don't make a sound and don't you DARE move! :) Ha... I don't even remember what this was for but you can tell by their faces that I meant business! 

Ahhh yes... and then we have this lovely number... Vale knows that we don't rip books... he knows that we are careful and gentle with books.  But I guess mommy should just never try to dry her hair because in the 7 minutes it takes to dry my hair, he massacred one of Connor's favorite books.  Sigh... not just accidentally tore a page... tore them then ripped them into little bitty pieces... see now that's just spiteful.

'Yeah... so mom put me in timeout for rippin up that book... ha... you see it!?  Did a great job huh??'

'Oh... your not too thrilled either huh...?'

Now onto the delightful part of raising my boys!!! :)

We took a family day on a Tuesday and went to the beach! It was GREAT!

All of my boys had a blast playing in the water and building sand castles.

It was about 77 degrees and there was NO ONE there!  It was perfect!

Both of my boys are hat people... they look so cute in their chosen hats!  

Vale looks sooo Irish with the rosie cheeks and all!

Connor loves his LA Dodgers baseball hat!!  We need to take him to a game before the seasons over... he'd love it!

So Vale's newest thing is hiding... and he's good at it.  He's good at it because he will just wait silently, in the dark, FOREVER for you to find him... NOT GOOD!  This particular time, pictured below, I called for him and looked for him for about 10 minutes... I almost had a heart attack.  He had closed himself in the bottom of jimmy's closet.  I checked the front door and it was bolted so he hadn't gone outside... I even checked the bath tube to make sure there was no 'drowning' water left in it!  He's gone into hiding at other people's houses too!  I'm telling you this kids gonna give me a heart attack.

My boys love to wrestle!  The fact that they are close in size makes it even better!

The last half of August it has been SOOOO hot here!  Like in the 100's... it's hard to play outside without them getting overheated and dehydrated.  I do like to take them for little runs around our neighbor hood though.  15 minutes will knock them out in 100 degrees!

So we've been doing a lot of indoor activities like painting and hatching baby dinosaurs... :)  Connor said he was gonna sit and watch it till it hatched... the box said 72 hours... yeah, he didn't make it. :)  Good try though son!

Recently, Vale has become much more of a snuggler and cuddler which is nice unless you yourself are trying to sleep... :)

Typical Vale picture... black eye, bottle and ball... yup... Vale in a nutshell...

He's such a sweet kid...

Connor has recently become very interested in 'instructions' on how to build things.  So I will draw him so plans, with the tools he needs and he will go build the table, chairs, bench, whatever from the plans I've given him.  It's soooooo cute!

Oh Vale my little independent one.  He doesn't need others to play, although he likes to play with other kids... if he wants to play upstairs it doesn't matter if anyone else is up there, that's where he'll go... dances to the beat of his own drum, this one...

For the most part, these two are pretty good at sharing.  It's really sweet when you can see your kids care about each other. :)

Connor LOVES to help mommy in the kitchen!!  Whether it's making mac n cheese or kool-aid he's right there wanting to stir, shake or pour.

Sometimes, the mess is compounded... but that's ok... the memories are worth it! :)

 He's my little cheese-ball who loves to snuggle and cuddle but won't sit still long enough for a sweet picture.

 He's really into super heros (and by default so is Vale)... be it superman, spider man or batman, he's a fan.

Connor also recently informed me that he has an imaginary friend named Dr. Beiber!  Well... there you do.  I will ask him sometimes how he knew how to do something and he will tell me that Dr. Beiber taught him.  This kid has a wild imagination!

Grandpa Gregory's Funeral

My Grandpa Gregory passed away at the end of July after a long struggle with pulmonary fibrosis.

There was a service on Friday in Florida at his church there and then the next Tuesday there was a burial and service in PA where he grew up.

My family was only able to attend the service in PA but it was truly lovely.

The night before the service (Monday) there was a time when people from the church could come and talk to the family.

There were a lot of people there.

There were a lot of large flower arrangements as well.

Grandpa was very loved and will be very missed.

The next day there was a graveside service for the family only.

It was a precious time but this was definitely the saddest part of our time together.

The kids started out pretty quiet and respectful then got restless.

So Jimmy took them over to this grassy hill and we could see them all rolling down the hill in their suit coats... what's great is that if grandpa was here, he'd probably rather have been over there rolling down the hill with his great grand kids :)

Uncle Rick said a few words, Rich prayed and a bunch of people just shared memories of grandpa, things that made him special to them... including his stinky feet. :)

My grandpa not only knew Christ, but was also known BY Christ... I love that that is what is written on the box!

We got a picture with Grandma and all the grandchildren.

My mom saying goodbye before they put him in the ground.

Although sad and difficult it is wonderful to know that those are only his earthly ashes and that my grandpa is in heaven, worshiping his glorious Savior.

My Uncle Rick preached at the funeral and it was a magnificent sermon!  The best part was at the end, he told us that it was one of Grandpa's sermons that he had preached in the 80's!!!  :)  It truly was wonderful to be reminded of what a faithful, godly, and loving man he was.

Here are some photos of me and my grandpa through the years... a little tribute lets say :)