Anna Channels Betty Crocker

Anna loves to cook and bake with me. Here we were whipping up some cookies for daddy...and us. I love her goofy smile. She just cracks me up. I tried uploading a video of her, but ran into difficulties. Hopefully next time.

When Anna does something that she thinks is "naughty" she'll say to me, "You have to be nice to me, mom." (As in, don't get upset and don't put me in time out.) I'll give her credit, I do feel like being nice when she says that to me first.

Anna has started asking things or stating things and then telling us how she wants us to respond. It is hilarious. For example: Anna- "Please can I go outside to play. And Daddy you say 'Sure Anna'." Again, it's hard to say no when she's thought it through so thoroughly.

Winnie-the-Pooh Blankie

My mom made a quilt for Anna and made this Winnie-the-Pooh blanket for Benjamin. Of course Anna thinks it is for her, and Ben was nice enough to share.

I think that Ben looks like a turtle in this picture. An adorable turtle. hehe

Brother - sister bonding time. Anna was "helping" me change Ben's diaper.

I love baby fingers and toes...they're so tiny! And the smiles are so big and gummy.

Baby Ben is awake!

Morning time is Benjamin's favorite, most awake time. Just look at that big smile. His personality is really starting to show. He is a lot more smiley than I remember Anna being. She was pretty serious/concerned for quite awhile. Ben is always trying to tell me things in the morning. (I didn't really think this "photo shoot" through or I would have had a cuter background. He just had his diaper changed.)

I think he looks a lot like Ethan in these two pictures above, and I'm not usually one to "see people" in little babies. Maybe it's just that dimple...and the hairline...and the eyes...and the lips. Ok, I'll stop.

Big stretches! I love it when he startles himself with his stretching. Notice that Ben is finally starting to put some meat on his little chicken legs. I have a feeling we're in for another adorable, chubby cheeked, roly poly. Yay!

Morning Stretches

This totally reminds me of Ethan when he wakes up in the morning. Seriously, sometimes Ben has to stretch for 10 minutes before he's actually ready to wake up. We just have really sleepy babies. I realized we didn't have as many pictures of Ben as we did of Anna at that age so I've been stepping it up a bit. Hence the videos. (We've been busy, but that's no excuse.) They change so quickly at this stage. I'll get a video of Anna up soon.

I Know He's Trying to Tell Us Something...

I love when babies first try to start communicating. You just know they're trying to tell you something important...you just can't quite tell what it is. Ethan and I find it very amusing putting words into Ben's mouth and speculating what he is trying to tell us. Benjamin is 6 weeks old today and I cannot believe how fast it has gone. He is changing and growing every day. It's sweet. Oh, sorry about my creepy whispery voice but a) Anna was still sleeping and b) Ben usually reacts to the high "baby voice" that I swore I'd never use. Enjoy!

4 YEARS!!!

I can't believe that four years have gone by. It's been fun, crazy, and sweet. We've experienced some big events that have made us stronger and closer as a couple. Mostly I'm referring to our 2 sweet little babies. We've also bought a home together, that we're now ready to sell, helped each other through school, and encouraged each other in our various callings and assignments in church, among other things.

Our actual anniversary was April 30th, but we didn't get to celebrate until this week because of finals week and graduation. My mom was sweet enough to babysit. This was the first time Ethan and I have gone out just the two of us since Benjamin was born. We shared a delicious pizza at Up Front and Company (highly recommended) and went shopping for a bit. We were going to rent a movie too, but then decided we should start on some fix-up stuff around the house. It was still fun.

I am so lucky to be married to my best friend. Ethan is amazing. He is so giving in our relationship, so kind and so understanding. He is the best dad in the whole wide world and it makes me so happy to see him interact and care for Anna and Ben.

Whenever I get overwhelmed with things, yes I tend to be a worrier, Ethan always puts things in perspective for me. I am so grateful for that. I feel so blessed in my life and look forward to many, many more years of growth and love in my sweet little family. I look forward to eternity with Ethan.

Graduation Day

Ethan graduated from NMU with honors yesterday. Good job baby! I'm so proud of him. Many of you know it was kind of a last minute occurance due to an acceptance letter he recieved one week ago from the University of Michigan's Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program. Desipte an extremely busy finals week, everything was lined up in time. There was still room for him to attend the honors breakfast with his parents and he was able to walk at graduation. His name just wasn't on the program. Oh well.

The graduation took 2 and a half hours, but seemed to go quickly. Whew! Both kiddies were really well behaved. Benjamin mostly slept. Here he is with his Grandma Melissa.

My mom played with Anna for some of it and we also took a few walks when they were going through all the names. Our seating made the whole event very doable - lots of room. Anna was a little confused why Ethan couldn't sit with us, and her feelings were hurt a bit, but she was really excited to see him on the "big TV." She kept telling him, "Daddy, you are graduated. 'Con-graduations.'"

It was a pretty chilly day, but no snow! This is the Superior Dome where graduation took place.

Ethan's dad, Chuck, teaches finance at NMU and also walked at graduation as faculty. Here are father and son all decked out in their robes.

Here is Ethan with Melissa and Chuck. We went out with our parents for a yummy dinner the night before graduation. Melissa even arranged a babysitter for us so we could enjoy the dinner with just "grown-ups". How nice! Always fun to have a reason to celebrate.

We're still looking forward to a pretty low-key summer. We just have to take a few trips down state to arrange housing and look around. We need to sell our cute little house, and do a few other things to get all ready to move on to this new stage of our lives. How exciting!