Horsing Around

This morning the boys and I headed out to Madison to visit my good friend Maggie and her little girl, Savannah at their farm. Savannah really wanted to go swimming, but Drew and Ben were too excited about all the room to run. There were too many things to play with and explore, so sweet baby Savannah had the water all to herself. Isn't she the cutest?! Ben was so shy around Savannah, but once he warmed up to her, he had fun sharing her bracelets. Drew LOVED the horses, which was not really a surprise at all. This horsey was so friendly and let the kids love on her as much as they wanted. When Drew began to walk away, she followed him wanting a little more attention. And here are the three of them trying to get inside the chicken coop. I'm sure if we had let them work on it long enough they could've figured it out. But for now, they just had to settle for peeping in. We had such a fun time at the farm. Maybe next time Savannah's daddy will let us sit on one!

In other news, we've had two really big developments around here: Yes, that's right! Ben has been consistently telling me "pah-dee" for almost three weeks now. I'm not pushing it at all, and only take him to go when he tells me he wants to. But he is so eager to be a big boy. He is very proud of himself and always claps and says "yaaaaay!!" after he's finished. Drew isn't interested at all, and that is fine with us. He'll let me know when he's ready.

One thing he IS ready for is his own bed. After 21 months of sharing a bed with his brother, Drew has very blatantly told us that he's ready for his own bed now. To be perfectly truthful, I think it's harder on Michael and I than it is on them. We thought they'd share a bed for at least another year or two. In fact, the first night that they went to sleep in separate cribs, Ben was lonely and waking up at not being able to feel Drew. So before we went to bed we moved him to Drew's crib. Now that Ben has adjusted to sleeping alone, he seems to be better. But it is a little sad to me since I have loved tucking both of them in every night, usually snuggled up together.

I snapped this of Drew at Michael's Championship softball game. He gets down like that any time he has a ball, and if you tell him to "get ready to catch the ball" he crouches down low and holds both hands out. We've never taught him to do that, but we think it must be because Michael played Catcher, and he has really liked watching his daddy play ball.We've been playing so hard lately with all of our friends that this is the most common sight in the backseat of our car. Hope you all are having a fun summer too!

Easy Does It

For a nice change of pace, things have been pretty laid back and slow this past week or two. Not too much has been going on...just the usual play dates with friends, errands, swimming at the pool and other summer fun. No complaints from this girl!

Drew and Ben are pretty funny, and are showing us their developing personalities more and more every day. For instance, the other day, I had told Ben several times to put his toys back in the toy box, and he wasn't minding very well. So I said "Ben, if I have to get to 'three', you are going to be in trouble. One...Two..." and then Ben looks right at me (while putting toys in the toy box, no less) and says "Free, Far, Fiiie, Fits. Yaaaaaaaayyyy". The moment was lost, and I stood there cracking up. All three of us laughed (but I'm sure they didn't know why we were laughing), and then we all picked up the toys together.

They are both beginning to put two and three words together to make sentances, and it's really nice to be able to know what they are trying to communicate since they can say just about everything. They're pretty obsessed with the movie 'Cars', or anything that has wheels and goes "passt" (fast). Maybe that's why Drew runs everywhere he goes. His favorite phrase right now is "aahhh sern, mommy" (my turn, mommy), and any time Ben has anything -regardless of how long Ben has had it- Drew immediately looks at me and tells me that it's "his turn." It's a process...

Anyways, I've been trying to post video of the two of them splashing in the baby pool we have on our deck. They really have fun with it when we're not at the Y. But so far, Google Video hates me, and won't let me post. Any computer savvy blogging friends out there, feel free to offer any advice. Until I can figure it out, here are just a few random pictures I've taken lately. Enjoy!
"Mommy, look how much I love my pacies!" "Ben, honestly, you look ridiculous!""Oh wait! I didn't know it was cool. I guess if you can do it, then I can do it too."

Better Late Than Never

We are home from a fun getaway to visit our good friends, TJ and Holly in the Dominican Republic.....uhm...I mean Paradise. Actually, I should clarify: we HAVE been home for a couple of weeks now, and I have been (once again) the Web's Worst Blogger. But I digress. This is the beach that they took us to for some fun in the sun and lunch on the sand on our first day there. It took an extra day for our luggage to get to us, but we were just so excited to see our friends and be in one of the most beautiful places on earth, that we really didn't care too much.

We met the boys that they are working with, helped them in their outreach center, ate all the fresh fruit that you could ever want, and had a GREAT time just hanging with our friends. This is the four of us before we began our hike up 27 (yes, you read that correctly: 27) waterfalls and jumped or slid down them. Seriously, it was one of the most fun things I've ever done!

And here is an action shot of Michael. I'm sure glad they didn't tell us how high up those waterfalls were before we went there. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have agreed to go. I'm also pretty sure I impressed both my husband and myself at climbing up some of those rocks and jumping off. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
This is the mountain that we drove up to get to the church where TJ and Holly worship and work with. The people there have no idea how we feel about the natural beauty that surrounds them. It was such a blessing to worship with believers who are our brothers and sisters, but who speak to the same God in a different language and are in a completely different part of the world.
We ended our trip with a short stay at the most romantic and beautiful places I've ever been. All in all, it was the perfect getaway vacation. But I will say we were both really ready to come home to our buddies....even if it did mean leaving Paradise! We're already looking forward to going back.