No Shirt, No Shoes, No Pants... Plenty of Service

In other words, a day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I stole some pictures off my mom's camera this weekend, and it's always fun to see what that kiddos are up to when mom and dad are away. They never seem to have much in the way of clothes on, but it seems that they have lots of fun! Oh, the things that Nanas and Papas let them get away with.

Ice Cream sandwiches in the living room? (half-clothed, of course)... why not!... Grandma just cleans the carpet afterwards.

Birthday cupcakes for other little ones in the neighborhood, sure... why not! - that's what Grandmas do, right! (can't see Joel's lower half here, but I would bet he doesn't have pants on)

Throwing balls around the house ... sure, why not! (with no clothes, of course)

Grant cleaning the bathroom floor??... well, at least she teaches them to clean-up after themselves. (without pants, of course)

Eating healthy food, of course.

Playing with bubbles in the driveway (without pants, once again)

Whoa!, what is this! The have pants on, what's the occasion!

Thowing toilet paper in the living room, why not!... (and why would you need pants for that!)

I like to give my mom a hard time about the clothes, but I really just think it's funny. Heck, it seems that everything is more fun without pants!

It's HOT out there!

I'm not sure how it happened, but August 12th and today was the first time we had the pool out this year. (well, actually it was our neighbors pool we borrowed since theirs was all ready to go and ours still in the box!). Between vacations, a cool summer, and the fact the the boys nap the whole afternoon, somehow today, was indeed, their first time in the pool this summer. It was about time!

They loved it (for about 30 minutes... not bad I guess)

Peek!

Friday Night Out (with Joel and Grant)

While Jeff and Mitchell caught a movie (GI Joe), in Atwater with Uncle Jon and Lincoln, and Grandpa K. not coming to Buffalo until tomorrow, my mom and I decided to take the boys out for a swim at the Monticello Community Center. I've been TALKING about taking them there forever, so I'm glad we finally did it! They have a great zero depth entry pool and a nice-sized area for very young kids. Perfect for Joel and Grant. Joel LOVED it right away, but Grant took quite awhile to warm up to the water. He is much more daring and crazy on land than he is in the water, I've noticed. As you can see in the pics, they both enjoyed themselves plenty.

Bed Racing!

Joel, all ready for bed, in his NEW race car bed! (I bought it on Craig's List and just picked it up in Blaine today). Isn't it cool! I never would have guessed I could be so excited about a big, blue, plastic bed :) Joel seemed to really like it, and yes... it was HIS idea to put his head at this end of the bed, although, I have a feeling, if I would suggested this side, THEN he probably would probably have his head at the RIGHT end of the bed, but whatever...

New bed, getting a car wash in the front yard

Joel got pretty serious about this task. He cleaned it without a break for about 10 minutes :)

Boys, boys, boys

If one thing is for sure, the boys in this house are happiest, when running, jumping, and tackling, and preferably all of this with a ball in hand. I have a feeling football will be a favorite in our house for years to come :)

Should we get him?...

Yep!

Mitchell never gets a break from the big brother role

All my boys... aren't they cute :)

The Difference a Day Makes

I was a little shocked, at FIRST today, when I realized that my definition of a "trim" and the stylist's that cut Joel's hair, definition of a "trim", were a bit different. But, it's already grown on me and I think I like Joel's new hair :) I should have taken a picture of the back, because all his curls are GONE!

***********************

Friday morning update: Dad saw the haircut for the first time this morning and didn't like it... looks like we'll be growing those curls back soon :)

Everything...

is....

more fun...

TOGETHER!!

Pictures Online

Grant's one year photos can be viewed online at www.hjsphotogallery.com. Go to "Client Proofing" and enter "Grant" as password. They are reasonably good, considering he was not exactly thrilled about cracking a smile with a stranger in the room and he did not sit still for more than a few seconds at a time.

Summer Vacation Round 2

We managed to wrap-up our SECOND, week-long vacation, in a month's time, and here are the pictures to prove it. I had trouble narrowing down the pictures, so there are LOTS in thse slideshow.

If there has been any notable weeks of weather this summer, they would probably be during our first vacation (sunny and 90 every day), and this last one (rainy and in the 50's for the majority of the week). Oh well, we made the best of it and the kids don't even notice the weather... they just want to be outside all day, regardless :)

Some of the pictures are not the best quality. That is due to my the small picture size, because my sister-in-law sent them over email to me and that reduced the quality.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Favorite Pic

I had to post this picture my sister-in-law, Terri took at the 4th of July parade, simply because it's a great picture, for many reasons. Joel's cute little face, and curls poking out his hat and great use of aperature (creating the blurred background (I learned lots about aperature last week from Terri)). AND, the picture is also great because Joel was terrified, in a big way, of the exact type of big trucks you see in the background of this picture.

The 4th Weekend

All in all, we had a nice, long, holiday weekend. We got to spend some much-needed quality time at home, BBQing and hanging out in our own back yard and eating in our new porch, but also didn't miss out on the traditional 4th of July at the Spicer parade with the Benson's and Grandma and Grandpa Benson's farm afterward. We were missing Mitchell, as he spent the weekend with his mom and relies in WI.



Mmmm....

Double Mmmm....

No, I most certainly did not let Grant run around naked in the back yard... as usual, he escaped during a clothing change.


Joel pitching the ball to daddy... I love this, because nobody had actually taught him to throw like this (lifting leg, etc)... just must watch Mitchell, and baseball on TV with dad, I guess :)


Jeff, demonstrating how to run through the sprinkler (it took Joel quite awhile to get brave enough to do it.



Grant would always run up REALLY close to the sprinkler and then realize he had gotten way too close, after the fact. Funny, the difference between 1 year olds and 2 year olds... (or maybe just the difference between Joel and Grant, I'm not sure). Joel's approach is think carefully first, then act, while Grant's approach is act first, then think. Funny.


Joel, still contemplating a run through the sprinkler (note, dry hair)


Saturday morning at the Spicer parade. The parade did not start well for Joel... MULTIPLE fire trucks and rescue vehicles all with sirens going and horns honking. Joel just kept saying "go away, go away". He was pretty scared whenever he saw a big truck, for the rest of the parade, but was brave enough to collect candy and watch the rest of the parade, which I was thankful for.



Eventually, Joel and Aunt Dar got a little routine going... whenever a siren or loud horn was coming, he would go to Dar's lap and she would cover his ears until the noise passed.


The only routine this little guy had going, was his mission to bolt across the street as fast as his little legs could go. Jeff and I took turns running out to get him and hauling him back. He never gave up though. I was glad it was a pretty short parade :)


Cousins Jayna and Lincoln watching the parade with us.

Eating back at Grandmas.

I really didn't get many good pictures this day. In hindsight, I missed out on pictures of the animals at the farm, Grandma and Grandpa Benson, etc... but maybe next year, when Grant hopefully isn't about to be in grave danger at any moment, by running in the street, rolling off a curb, running out to meet the dogs and horses in the parade, running out to see the horses at the farm, etc.... maybe then I will get some better pictures :)

"Scrunchie" Face

Today, for fun, Grant started scrunching up his face and making a loud breathing/snorty sound. It has been cracking us up, and he thinks it's even funnier if you do it back at him. Thankfully, there are no pictures of me doing it back to him, since he is way cuter when he does it :)

(click on the picture to see it bigger)