She said "Yes!"

Five years ago today...he asked, and I said yes! I can't wait for the next five. I love you more every day!

Toby's Birthday at Gitmo

Well, as so it has been lately, we're finally getting around to announcing Toby's 3rd birthday. We had a small get-together at our house a few weekends ago. Kelli, as always, did a great job of organizing, planning, developing and producing a theme consistent with Toby's interests this time around. So, Fire Trucks it was. This lead to one of Toby's funnier lines lately while we were in the midst of trying to get everything done in preparation for the party...

"Mom..."

"Yes, Toby..."

"What rhymes with truck???"

Granted, maybe it was the sheer timing of this question, but Kelli and I both broke out laughing as to what we were going to respond. Let's just say after trying to get everything done, we had a one track mind when giving, er, almost giving our response...

As to why this is titled "Gitmo"... please see below-

Apparently, they have softened the rules since Obama took over and now allow the detainees to have their woobies, but we are a softer, gentler country on terrorists these days... Kelli had the kids play "pin the spot on the dalmation" in honor of the Fire Truck Theme, but made for some interesting pics.

We are in the early stages of re-refinishing our basement, as we grew tired of the faux wood paneling and enormous Fire Place that led to nowhere. That and if anyone came to visit, they were relegated to the basement floor with a blow-up mattress. So, the kids had their party in the dungeon of Gitmo and they seemed no worse because of it.

After enjoying the surroundings for only so long, it was off to the Crestwood Fire Department for a tour of the Fire House. Aside from our kids, everyone was looking forward to it!
The Crestwood Fire department did a great job entertaining and informing the kids about their role and why its so important. The kids were able to see where the firemen sleep (if anyone is concerned about me saying firemen instead of fire-people, deal with it. it is used in the same context of mankind, hence everyone included. This is not the direction to look for PC anything!), eat, lounge, and work. Everyone also got a chance to shoot the fire hose out the back door.

Alas, our little guy is growing, but what a joy it has been and will continue to be. More to come on "Operation Gitmo" in the basement.

The Blog... Really???

Well, for all of you wondering if we have fallen off the face of the planet, we have not... just planet blogspot. Here's the skinny, as some of you know, I undertook the wonderfully enjoyful task of gutting our quasi-finished basement over the holidays and subsequently disassembled our "office" space as well. On top of that, Kelli's computer has recently been rather tempermental and slower than The Supreme Court Justices clapping for Obama. (So, if anyone out there knows how to diagnose the source of a slowa** computer, please let us know :)

I am rather leery of Kelli doing any blog work on my work laptop (hope you're reading this, big brother HR department), so we have been non communicato.

Here's ths short-short version:
Joe- Working, playing with Kids, Trying to play with Kel, Deaconing, sleeping
Kel- Momming, Momming, Momming, tolerating Joe trying to play with Kel, planning to take over the world with Heather Dillard one summer ministry at a time...
Toby- Growing like a weed, being a great big brother, watching every possible train tv show and movie ever made.
Piper- Being cute, sassy, expressive, tempermental, adorable, and a wonderful tackling dummy for Toby
Max- Trying to avoid deportation to anywhere but here.

That's us these days. Kelli is promising to get her computer to a more functional state and I am promising to actully get cracking on the basement, so if you see many more blogs from me instead of her, know things aren't tracking as planned.

a playdate at the park...

before we left for the park, I caught piper reading some books in her room...

yesterday we played at the park with some friends...it was a beautiful day and the kids had so much fun!

piper thought she would check out the sprinkler since the boys were enjoying it so much...
and she HATED it!
she also doesn't like laying in the grass...the sunshine must have been hurting her eyes.

more picutes

Fun picutes of our sweet...and very funny Piper! it is really fun to have a little girl in the house!

At Joe's softball game...Toby's new favorite place to go!

Forth of July...Piper and Sugar!

we spent the morning with Becky and the girls...the big kids had cupcakes for dessert, so we gave some to Piper...as you can see she LOVED it!

Joe's sisters family came in for a visit...here was a quick cousin photo shoot for Baci!

recommitting to the blog!

I pledge my recommittment to our family blog. I am sorry to have left you in the dark while my kids grow and change! I promise to be better about updates. but for now I'll just share as many pictures as I can...

Piper just woke up...I'll add more pic later. These are actually a couple months old.

stay tuned...

Spring break...

We headed to Florida for our first annual family Spring Break! What a week it was!

We had so much fun with the Thompson family and had a glimpse into what our life will be like in 10 year...raising teens! I'm not in any hurry!

the weather was not great to say it nicely...although this looks like a beautiful day, there were 40 mile an hour winds and it was in the low 70's...COLD. Toby and Joe are huddling together for warmth!

our bathing beauties!

The rest of the week was cloudy and raining. we drove home in severe weather...flash floods, tornado warnings, and when we got home it SNOWED! Crazy week for weather. this is just a glimpse of what we saw...

Let's GO Blues!

After 12+ years in STL Joe finally has a St. Louis sports team he will root for! This is HUGE! For some reason this season he likes the Blues and a friend from church gave us two tickets to todays game, so Joe and Toby had a father/son date and they had the time of their lives! They bought souvenirs, it was free food night and they saw the mascot! Toby was BEAMING when they got home.
(thanks again Nancy for memories that will last a lifetime!)

updates and pictures!

TOBY...
This winter Toby has done some REALLY fun things! When it snowed he shoveled the sidewalk and driveway with Joe...it was really fun at age 2, we'll see how fun it is at 12!

Joe's parents sent Toby a Thomas tent! this is worth HOURS of fun! And oh, the personality! He wears a bike helmet and calls it his football helmet...he tries to put it on himself but doesn't quite have it...as you can see.

He thought it would be funny to put on Piper's hat and play his guitar. I'm not sure he knows he is a BOY! He is surrounded by girls...where are all the 2 year old boys? We need a play date where ever you are...

We introduced him to Monkey Joe's! it is a great place to get rid of some energy!

and we went bowling with our church. our neighbors came with us...
Kim, our neighbor and friend, with Piper!

Toby and Piper in the tub...I can't believe how different they look...

PIPER...

we started Piper on FOOD! and she has loved it. this was day 1 of cereal.

She is sitting up so well and loves it, but she hates to be on her belly, I'm not sure she will ever learn to crawl.

My beautiful baby girl is all smiles!

and she has fully out grown the size 3 diapers...this happens at least 2x a day! incase you don't know what you are looking at...its poop!

She has even been talking. watch and listen. the other day she was talking on the changing table and she says, "da, da, da..." to which Toby proudly told her, "Daddy is at work, piper. Today is a work day." I love being a mom, and I have two amazing kids!