Diggers Galore

Our street has been under construction for quite a while and will be for the remainder of the year. We have enjoyed watching different parts of it. Today was the highlight so far. We even invited a few friends over to watch from Ryan's truck bed. And the workers were nice enough to warn us before they started so I could get my van out of the driveway just in case we needed to go somewhere!

First Family Pets

Ben has been asking for a pet for a little while now. A fish is about as far as we plan to go! Grammy and Papa came to visit and took the boys shopping for a fish! They were amazingly patient as we had to rinse all the tank stuff and let the water get to room temperature (18 hours!). They were giddy when we finally got to put the fish in their new home.

Tank is rinse and prepped. Now we wait.

 Putting Nate's fish in, meet Macaroni & Cheese.

 So happy.

 Meet Ben's fish, Lightening McQueen.

  Enjoying our pets.

Thanks Grammy and Papa!

Tulips...Finally

Our local botanical garden has a huge tulips display each year. I have managed to miss them every year since we moved here. I have gone too early and I have gone when they were actually digging them up. This year, we made it! And the weather was gorgeous. We tried to get some pictures. The colors of all the tulips were incredible - more than the pictures can describe! Enjoy.

We tried for a family photo!

 So grown up.

 They touched all water in sight.

  Yellow!

 Purple!

 

My baby boy.

 My big boys - who fell off his bed into his toy box and left a big mark on his forehead.

 Brotherly love.

 Father and sons. 

 Nate's "cheese" smile.

 Playing in a squirrel's tail.

 Feeding the massive fish.

Ma and Pa!

More Soccer

Forgive me, but this is the first time my kids have played a sport and I am photo/video happy! How can I not be? They are so cute out there. Practice last night was a lot more chaotic than last week. Ben likes to stay far from the chaos and Nate always wonders off and does his own thing. The coach did let Nate get in on the practice and he even got a snack and juice at the end! We told him he can wear that shirt every week as his "uniform" and that seemed to be ok even though he would prefer a jersey like big brother.
This week was COLD and windy and bright sunshine. Next week...our first GAME. The only instruction on game rules from the coach was "if the ball goes outside the big white line we freeze and someone else goes to get the ball." This could be interesting for sure!

It doesn't get much better than having Daddy there!

Brothers!

Check out that face!

Hard kick!

Kicking the ball in a circle. Didn't go too well with a bunch of 3-4 year olds. And 2 yr old since Nate snuck in there.

Weaving in and out of the cones.

Nate got to play with the kids the whole time. He was in heaven.

Shamless Sharing of Cuteness

On my worst days I wonder if anything I did in the day was a positive example for my boys. Most days though I look at them in wonder and think surely it is the grace of God that I get to be their mom and they are so tender and eager to learn. Each night Nate hugs my neck tight and let's his body go limp because he knows I've got him. I ask "Who loves you?" Without fail he says, "You and Abby (his cousin)." And then I ask "And who do you love?" He almost always says, "Me, you, Ben, Daddy..." and then a list of various friends and family! Whenever we talk about God Nate is always quick to say in a very excited voice, "We know God!" They both love to read our Bible story at bedtime and insist on holding their own Bibles while we read from the Jesus Storybook Bible. Ben has them almost all memorized! And he likes for Ryan to find the next story in his Bible so he can use his ribbon to mark it. He finds the chapter number and "reads" along.
It does my heart well!
So well!

On another note, Ben played outside in shorts yesterday and this is our afternoon today! Kansas is crazy!

 

 

 

GOOOOOOOOAL

We signed up for Ben to play micro-soccer at the YMCA a couple of months ago. It has felt like it would never get here. Yesterday was his first practice (technically he missed the first practice because of our Maundy Thursday Easter service, but he doesn't know that).
He had on his #19 tshirt (currently his must-have) his jersey and of course his shoes that make him run faster and jump higher by 9am! The countdown began until the 6:30pm practice. He even asked me, "Can we have dinner now?" at 9am since I had told him soccer was after dinner.
He was super enthusiastic about everything the coach had them do. He ran and kicked and squashed the ball like a pro. Well, not quite, but he is naturally very coordinated so he did well. He will have a few more practices and then they scrimmage each other. That will be quite a sight, I predict.
Nate was none too happy about big brother getting to do something without him. I even brought our own soccer ball so he could play on the sidelines and he refused it and only wanted the ones the coach had. There were many tears and many not-so-nice things said to mommy about his involvement in the game. I felt sorry for him so I was too easy on him. Hopefully, he will settle into his sidelines position with the other two younger brothers and be content. I'm not holding my breath!

The gang!

His buddies Jackson, Judah and Nadia are all on his team too!

 And little brothers Nate, Justus and Tytus are the cheering squad.

 They were to aim to hit the orange cone. Right on target!

Dribble 

 Dribble

 Dribble some more.

 Weave in and out.

The coach told them to go slow. A snail could have out-raced him until Ryan explained what she meant. He got the hang of this one easily too!

Shoot and GOOOOOOOAL.

Pure JOY! Can you see it on his face?

"Squashing" the ball.

 At the end of practice they were told to sit with the coach. Ben planted himself directly in front of a random mom. She was confused at first, while we all laughed from the sidelines. Eventually, he found the coach.

 Little brother got a chance at the goal. 

The boys were just looking through these pictures with me and Nate said "Where's me? I cried!" That boy! He remembers!