Thursday, June 23, 2011

Father's Day, Family, and Farm Animals . . .


Sweet Daddy Time pictures, that turned into  . . .

a smooching fest . . . which quickly turned into a tickling party . . .

until Ethan has to protect the baby from the tickling monsters . . .

Because he's just so little and helpless.  hehe.  Just look at that sweet, squishy baby face. . . don't you just want to smooch it and pinch it?!  Love. 

First of all, Father's Day.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  Ethan is such an amazing Daddy.  He's a natural.  Anna, Benjamin, and Caleb are so lucky to have such a fun, kind, silly, smart, hands-on, faithful, energetic Daddy.  He does it all, people.  And so, I am also lucky (blessed) to have such an amazing Daddy to my kiddies.  I love him so much.  

And for my own daddy - living with my parent's these past 10 months has been such a blessing, as I've mentioned many times before, and will many times after this.  There have been little ups and downs, but mostly ups.  There have been lots of good, fun, funny memories.  The relationship my mom and dad have with my children is so unique and special right now.  They interact so much, and love each other so much.  And although we only plan on staying with them a little longer, I hope we will all be able remember this unique time, and my kids will always feel close to my parents.  SO, I love and appreciate my dad for many reasons.  But I think most of all - lately - I love him and appreciate him as a Grandpa to my babies.  So much.  He is such a good Grandpa, and that has been even more evident during our time staying in his house.   Cooking eggs with Ben-Ben, night-night songs, playing with Caleb (Cabers LOVES my dad, and my dad LOVES Caleb J. . . it's pretty sweet to watch), daily compliments for sweet Anna, and he's even changed diapers and helped with potty time.  Wow.  Thanks dad!  You are a natural at being a Grampa, and my kids love you so much!     

Also, a quick shout out to my older brother Andrew.  He celebrated Father's Day for the first time this week as a new dad (and his 32nd birthday).  It has been sweet seeing Andrew be a daddy to baby Hudson.  He is doing such a wonderful job. . . .warms my heart.  :)     


Next up, Family.  (I don't have the time to mention everyone right now, but know that you're loved!)  We have been especially grateful for all of our family lately.  My kids love their family, and it has been great living so close to all of them for this year, especially since we still don't know where we will end up after Ethan graduates in August.  The first picture above is from a tea party cousin Rebecca planned for Anna and Benjamin a few weeks ago.  She is so sweet with them, and they love her.  And they love going to Auntie Beth and Uncle Stuart's house.  (Anna often asks Ethan if he can make her a play set like Uncle Stuart made.  hehe.)  My sister Beth and I try to get together about once a week or so just to chat, catch up, and sometimes have lunch.  Love my sister time!  (And we've recently resumed playing doubles tennis - after a two year hiatus - with Stuart and Ethan . . . so fun!)
 
The second picture shows Uncle Joe helping feed Caleb his first bites of baby food (a few weeks ago).  They both look very in to the whole experience.  Ashley and Joe are getting married in August, and then Joe will officially be Uncle Joe, although he's been called that for almost two years already.  My kids love him, especially Ben-Ben.  Joe and Benjamin have recently started having occasional "guy time" together, and Ben just loves it. . . he's even trying to plan a slumber party.  hehe.  Speaking of, Anna has a few slumber parties of her own in the works, with her Aunties - which is why Ben-Ben wanted one of his own - we just told her she had to wait til summer.

"Gramma Time" with Gramma Lissa has been a popular activity lately for Anna and Benjamin.  They take turns, so they can get some one on one time with their Gramma.  I think Ethan started calling it "Gramma Time," because he'd always call his mom to set it up.  Funny thing, during Benjamin's Gramma time last week, Grampa Chuck tried to entertain him a bit, but Ben-Ben would have none of it, "Where's Gramma?  I don't want to be with you, I'm supposed to be with Gramma."  Geesh, we'll have to start calling it something else so Benjamin knows it's okay to spend time with his Gramma and Grampa and Auntie KC too.  Silly boy.  

These three pictures above show a few "projects" my mom did with the kids.  She is always up with making messes, and doing projects . . . something I'm not always as great about doing lately.  (We love the HOW ARE YOU PEELING book we checked out from the library.  So fun.)  So, no pictures of Gramma Suse, but her influence is always around.    

And finally, Farm Animals.  We were at Econo (Grocery Store) the other Saturday, and they had a little petting zoo set up.  Random.  The kids, of course, loved it.  I stayed out there with them the whole time while Ethan got our groceries.  I thought it'd be a good opportunity to explain, again, about which foods we get from those animals.  But Benjamin and Anna just wanted to focus on petting them, and feeding them hay.  There were two big cows, a baby cow, a baby sheep, and a big, fat piggy.  They should do that more often!  Not that we typically grocery shop as a whole family.   

Okay, enough of my randomness.  Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! 

2 comments:

The Jones Family said...

Thanks for the shout out to Andrew for Father's Day, but I just want to point out that it's not his first. Lets try to make sure we keep Austyn in mind. Thanks.

Ange said...

Yeah I could have worded that differently, and did not mean to offend. Andrew is a great Step-dad to Austyn and they have a great relationship, and it was sweet seeing him become a father figure to Austyn when you met, which I've mentioned before . . . I meant it is especially touching for me to see him as a father to his own baby since I've never seen that before with him, as Austyn came into his life at eight years old. Hope that clarifies my true sentiments. :)