Photos of Noah

This is how I found the boys tonight on the couch. I thought it was so cute that Noah and Brenden were snuggled up together.

Noah has learned to smile and say "cheese" for the camera. He was totally saying cheese tonight!

I made the mistake of leaving noodles on the table after lunch. I left for a second and this is what I found.

So cute!

Yep, the top of the table is Noah's favorite new spot.

Summer Fun

We've been enjoying playing outside in the backyard with the pool and hose. The boys had some friends over to play. They were having so much fun, I decided to get the camera out and capture some of the fun. I love the action shots, and they are all action shots because they were moving constantly!

They loved chasing each other with the hose.

Noah woke up just in time to get in on the action.

This may be gross to some people, but I thought it was adorable!

I love the running shots! So cute!

A shot of the whole gang.

Happy 4th Sweet Sweet Connor

When I asked Connor last week what kind of cake he wanted he said chocolate. Then I asked what shape he would like his cake, and he said a triangle. I laughed so hard. So yesterday, I was getting ready to make his triangle chocolate cake and he asked me when we were going to pick his cake up. I asked him what he meant and he said, "you know, like daddy's cake. The ice cream kind. So we went to Dairy Queen today and Connor picked out this cake. I was kind of happy, I got out of making one!

Connor and Brenden both got this pool with a slide and shooting water. They love to play in the water all summer. We had a blast playing in it today!

Connor, Happy 4th Birthday! We love you so much. We feel so blessed to have you in our family. We love your laugh, your zest for life, your funny jokes, your imagination, your determination, and so much more. You are such a good brother and son! We love you!

My Favorite 4 Year Olds!

One of the funniest things that happened today, Connor's 4th Birthday, happened this morning as soon as Brenden and Connor woke up. They ran into my room and we were cuddling in bed talking about Connor's brithday. Brenden asked, "Connor are you 4 already?" Connor responds, "Yes, so are you 5 then?" Brenden says, "No, I'm still 4." Then Connor says, "No, I'm 4 you're 5." "No, my birthday is July 30th. Then I will be 5." Brenden says. Then there was silence. I think they were trying with all their might to process this. They knew they were both 4, but it didn't quite make sense to them how. I was dying laughing on the inside, I didn't let them know it. They truly are my favorite 4 year olds!

Happy 4th of July-Kind of

We started the day off great!! We had flag pancakes and we loved them! They were delicious.

Then we were off to the beach! The 4th of July has to include water sports. We decided to stop at Walmart for a cooler with wheels and some sand toys. While we were there Brenden tripped and fell, but didn't catch himself. So his smile went from this:

To this:

Can you tell Brenden is taking the picture of himself. I think it is hilarious. Also, I didn't take a picture of his "accident" on purpose, but as I was going through the pictures I found this. You can tell that his teeth are totally in the wrong place. This is after we tried for hours to get a hold of our dentist or a dentist. So the doctor in the ER repositioned his teeth to this position. It is so sad.

So after a trip to the ER and finally one to his Dentist. His new smile looks like this:

Because I am a dentist's daughter, this has been a fear of mine. I saw so many people bring their little kids in with similar situations; but I thought it would never happen to one of my kids. One of the things that made me most sad through all of this was that Brenden made the comment that he would probably not want to smile any more. That made me so sad. I, of course, explained to him that his smile is just as cute as it was before. Luckily, he has been doing plenty of smiling since this all happened. And we ended up having a pretty ok 4th of July after all that.

We still had a BBQ:

We still played in the water:

We played with friends. Thanks Cheryl for coming all the way to get Connor and Noah from me in the ER. Yes, I had 3 kids in the ER. It would have stayed that way, except when they put the IV in Brenden, Connor fainted. So that is when I broke down and asked for help.

We were still able to make homemade ice cream:

I am grateful for the 4th of July. Even this 4th of July. I learned a lot about myself and life. I am grateful to live in the United States of America. I have lived outside of the USA and I know what a blessing it is to live here. I am truly grateful for our freedoms. I am also truly grateful that Brenden didn't have his permanent teeth in yet!