Summer 2012 Fun

Joel loves a chicken leg! 

He's just so cute!

Ed's job is still going well. Since he doesn't go into work until 3pm each day, he was able to go to the pool with us almost every day this summer. We had so much fun! All three boys loved the pool. I think I have a video of Samuel swimming that I'll have to dig up.

Me. What can I say about myself? I had a great summer with the kids. I enjoyed being a mom to three boys. Although a girl in the family would be nice - I feel pretty outnumbered!

T LOVED his first taste of ice cream. His favorite was to grab the cone and try to eat the whole thing himself!

Trying Again

Well, I am going to try again with our blog. I'll post a few pictures from the months I've been behind and let you know what's happening with everyone. First, there's these two knuckleheads. Somehow the picture below captures a lot of their personality. They are into Lego, super heroes, and wrestling.

And then there's this special boy:

I think most of you know the story with T. The short version is that T first came to our home in February for a long weekend. Then we had him back and forth until he finally landed with us in June. He lived with us for 5 1/2 months until just recently he has gone back to his mom. But more on that later. Just enjoy the cuteness!

Ed and the boys had a little fun with the leftover drywall from a home improvement project.

Psalm 23

I found this sweet video of Samuel reciting Psalm 23. This was taken in January 2011 when Samuel was 4 and a half.

MOM! COME QUICK!!

 The boys burst into my room this morning at 6:50am to announce "IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Then commenced the begging to go outside and play in it, eat it, and bring some in to make snow ice cream. We ate a quick breakfast and were definitely the first ones out to enjoy the snow!

If you were a fly on our wall this morning...

(Samuel and I are unloading the dishwasher...)
Samuel: I like doing this job. It makes me feel helpful.

So sweet, right? But a little while later...

Samuel: Mom, when you leaned over, I saw, like, half of your boo-boos. I think you should go put a bra on. I'm just saying that I think you should wear a bra every day.

Curb Appeal

Our recent burst of nice weather inspired me to spruce up the front entrance. All of the houses on our street look so similar. I wanted some things to set it apart so that people could find the house easier.

1. Red star. Now I can just say, it's the one with the red star. Easy enough.
2. Red door. I really wanted a red door all along!

3. New house numbers. I didn't want to drill a bunch of new holes in the brick to attach these new house numbers. So I got the idea to use a picture frame. I covered the back with Stampin' Up! paper and then screwed the numbers into the back of the frame.

4. High gloss black paint on the mailbox. This mailbox definitely got a second life after an easy coat of spray paint.

Still to do...find a new handle for the screen door. It fell off the other day (old age). Ed put a zip tie in to use for now. Yes, that is white trash.

Still to consider...do I paint the shutters black? The railings black? The screen door black? White? I'm not sure how far to go with this. But I'm super pleased with the results so far. For comparison, here's what the house looked like not so long ago:

And here it is today:

Payneful Wrestling