A Summer Stroll

I'm convinced that I'm not biased.  She is adorable.  She spent the afternoon chasing Daddy and Benny around while they mowed the grass :)

https://youtu.be/D2ON3xGJ24w

Go Little Lady!

This past week, Claire loves to push this cart around.  She laps our kitchen/dining room/living room area over and over again.  Someone just needs to teach her how to steer :)

http://youtu.be/zqmz5S0xFnA

Easter 2015

I love music on Easter Sunday.  Terrific brass, organ, and choir music to celebrate the triumph of Jesus over death!  (Although, its probably the only Sunday a year that I feel stressed about church.)  Nevertheless, what a privilege I have to play music to praise our great God!  We had a wonderful family time too.  Here are pics to remember the fun :)

A chilly but sunny day for the community Easter egg hunt.

Chillin' with the Bunny

He's a big kid now.

Brooke wore this dress to our wedding nearly 10 years ago!  

Happy 85th Birthday Nana!

Here is our 3rd annual Happy Birthday Nana photo!  Here is just an abbreviated list of the reasons we love Nana:

1) She makes awesome pancakes and sausage---even made into the shape of Franklin!
2) She always has cookies!
3) Most of the time she has a bowl of chocolate candies in her kitchen.
4) Benny is really good at saying 'please.'  Thus, Nana is more than happy to give Benny above mentioned cookies and candy :)
5) At age 85, she still gets down on the floor to play with Benny and Claire.  (I hope I can do that when I'm 85...)

The list could go on and on...  Really, what's not to love about our sweet Nana!  Just yesterday, Benny got all of our sprinkles out.  I asked him what he was planning to do with all those sprinkles.  His reply?  "I'm going to go bake cookies with Nana."  Obviously.

This year features Benny spreading Birthday cheer!

http://youtu.be/CNA37y3RZK4

Mama's Little Cupcake

Today Claire Capri turned 1 year old!  She is certainly sweeter than sugar.  We had a 'cupcake' party for her to celebrate the big day!

My cupcake creation.  When I made this, I felt like I was on an episode of DC Cupcake!

Claire shares a birthday with this lovely girl.  Today Callie turned 9.  It was a combo cupcake/mermaid party.

Let me see here...

Not too bad...

Why does my mommy make me eat raisins, bananas, and green beans when we could be eating cupcakes instead?

My brother assisted with opening gifts...

Benny also assisted with toy operations...

Stevie and Lindy made it!

I'm only slightly biased, but this little lady is wonderful!  I'm blessed to be her mommy!

Fun Claire facts on her first birthday:

1) She still only has 2 teeth.

2) Crawling all over the place.  She will pull herself up, but gets scared and quickly cries for someone to come save her.

3) She talks!  I've caught her saying a variety of words including all done, hi, banana, and water.

4) She is getting more opinionated.  If Benny has something she wants, she'll put up a fight for it!  Likewise, he goes out of his way to keep Claire away from his things.  Sibling quarrels have begun!

Christmas 2014

The month of December never fails to be quite busy!  But, we managed to have a pretty grand time celebrating Jesus' birthday :)

Kevin's work has a breakfast with Santa each year.  Thankfully, both kids liked him.  No tears from these two!

Benny's big request from Santa for this year was a new Mickey shirt.  Benny wore it for 3 days straight.  I'm not kidding.  He wouldn't take it off.  He was thrilled :)

Christmas morning snuggles with Mommy.

Christmas morning snuggles with Daddy.

Trying out the new hat and tasting a candy cane :)

Claire got a new doll.

Benny got a new BMW.

Christmas day was at Nana and Papa's house.  Marian and John's family came with Buddy.  Benny and Claire adore this doggie!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

My sweet baby boy turns 3 tomorrow.  Yikes!  Time does fly!  We celebrated today with his party.  Stevie, Lindy, Nana, and Papa were the elite guests :)

When it was my birthday in September, I asked Benny what he wanted to do for his birthday.  He decided back then that he was going to have a Franklin party.  Franklin isn't the most popular character these days.  But, Benny loves him.  Franklin is a cute little turtle that has a best friend Bear and other friends such as Snail, Beaver, and Fox.  We love the books and the videos :)

Here are photos from the Franklin party!

Hey its Franklin!

Daddy surprised him with this jumbo Mickey Mouse balloon.

Claire loves to chase Mickey around the house :)

Semi truck car carrier from Nana and Papa.

Some more farming equipment from Lindy and Stevie.

What's great about Benny at age 3?
1) He loves to learn about the makes and models of cars.  For Christmas, he got the Disney CARS movie.  The whole family had a movie night to watch it.  He points to one of the cars and says "That's a Porshe.  Its engine is in the back."  I look at Kevin with a questioning look.  All Kevin says is "He's right."  Its safe to say his mom didn't tell him that.
2) Every time you go to the bathroom, you have to take the back off of the toilet so you can see how the toilet works.  Every time.
3) Cars---you wash them, you park them, you fix them.
4) He never, never stops talking or singing.
5) He likes to "hibernate."  This means he gets out daddy's sleeping bag, zips himself up in it, rolls around, and says he is a bear.