More Birthday Fun...

Bright sun outside the LDS Chicago Temple.

Ethan's birthday was today, and now we're both 28. Yay! I prefer it when we're the same age, even though I don't mind that I'm older than him. hehe Is that a contradition? We had such a fun weekend, and it was kid free (a very rare occurrence these days). We went on a bus trip to the Chicago Temple with the congregation from Marquette. Just a quick trip - Friday at 5pm to Saturday at 12am. However, this was the longest we've ever left the kids, and only the third time for Anna and second for Benjamin. Long story short - the kids were perfectly fine, and they had fun. I, the worried/nervous mommy, was so surprised that little Ben-Ben was okay. He's more shy than Anna, but apparently had enough time to warm up to family before this. I talked with them both multiple times, and Anna always told me how much fun she was having. But today, she was a little more hug-y, sweet, complimentary, and a tad more sensitive than normal...so I think she missed us deep down. Ahhhh...sweet. I missed my sweeties, but considering how well it went, I think we're totally ready for a longer time away from them. We'll see when we can work that out. Probably not for awhile. Oh well.

The temple was so uplifting and needed. The trip and bus ride were tons o' fun. There were many friends of ours on the trip and it was great to catch up and bond. Meghan and Jake (my bro. and sis-in-law) went as well, and it was so good spending more time with them, sharing snacks, Meg and I having a singing session, getting silly as the trip wore on, and having an awesome game of euchre in which the in-laws (Jake and I) beat the Rayhorns (Meg and Ethan). It's funny, but when you have a rare break from the kids, anything seems exciting and special. Even a back to back seven hour bus trip. I loved it.

I love this picture of Ethan and Katherine. Eth is SO excited it's his birthday. hehe We were at the Rayhorn's this evening for celebrating. KC made these delish pies for her big brother...so sweet. Anna asked him numerous times, "Daddy, is this the best birthday you've ever had?" She dictated the most thoughtful birthday note, and helped pick out his presents. Anna loves helping people celebrate their birthday. Oh, and Ethan even got in some good games of ping pong, in which he mostly dominated. Nice. A good day!

I love Ethan so much...in case I haven't mentioned that in previous posts. He's the perfect man for me; I am blessed to be his friend and wife-y. And our sweet potatoes are lucky to have such an awesome daddy! So in honor of him and his birthday -

Things I love about Ethan: so handsome, thoughtful, his dimples, smarty pants (I love that he knows so many random facts and loves to learn and read), funny and clever, makes me laugh, responsible in so many ways, dedicated (to his family, to his religion, to his education), I respect his opinions and LOVE having discussions and friendly debates with him, I love the way he dresses (not important, but I like his style), that he sings to our kids at night, that he makes up fun games to play with Anna and Ben-Ben, that he leads us in family prayer every night, his smile and his voice, he stays up to talk to me even if he's very sleepy, he is understanding when I am overwhelmed, he is calm when I am anxious and worried, he kills spiders and does other various scary or gross things, checks on the kids in the middle of the night, gives me massages when I'm hurting or had a hard day, always drives because I don't like to even though I'm the biggest back seat driver ever, likes when I cook healthy meals for him (as opposed to being disappointed), runs and bikes and finds races to participate in, love his serious side, love his silly side..... I better stop now, but be assured, there are many more things I love and appreciate about Ethan. He is my perfect match. Happy birthday babe!

A Fancy 4th Birthday for Miss Fancy Pants...

Anna isn't the girliest girl I know, and I love that she is so well rounded. But, she does love to dress up every so often, and is certainly drawn to girly things lately. (Though she still loves pirates, cars, kung foo, etc.) Anna LOVES the Fancy Nancy books, seen above. I enjoy the stories too, and especially love the excellent vocabulary the books introduce to a young, fancy audience. So, for her fourth birthday this year, we went all out. We planned the fanciest little party together. It was so fun having Anna involved. And as you can tell from above, she was very excited for her party.

First picture - Anna playing one of the princess games with her little friends. (They all got a turn, but Anna thought she should go first since she was the birthday girl.) Second picture - Anna opening a present. Third - More present opening. (We had little toys for the kids to play with during this time...and Anna was much better than last year at letting her friends see/play with her new toys.)

Cake - yum, yum! (My mom made and decorated it. Nice.)

First - Anna enjoying the deliciousness. Second - Gram Melissa helping the kiddies with the fancy crafts. (Decorating fancy bookmarks for a book each recieved.) Third - Grama Susan dishing up some cake.

First - Auntie May-May sporting some of the fanciness she stole from the girls. :) Second - Anna and her cousin Austyn, who she just loves, and who is willing to humor her. Third - Anna and Becca looking through the birthday presents. So fun!

First - Eliza reading a new book to Kate and Anna. So sweet. Second - Grandpa Dew and Benjamin finishing up some yummy cake.

The beautiful cake, and some shots of the decorating that took my mom and I two whole hours to complete. (Lets just say I've already planned out a low key, yet special, party for Anna next year. It does not involve decorations.) Even though it was some work, I'm so glad we did this. Anna just loved it, and woke up on her birthday to the house being all decorated. She had such a fun day, and is such a little sweet pea. To top off her birthday fun, she had a special slumber party with her Auntie Ashley. Ahhh...lucky girl.

I love Anna so much and can't believe she is already four years old. She is such a thoughtful, smart, imaginative, funny little girl. I'm so blessed to be Anna's mommy.

We Love Daddy's Vacation...

One week down, and I'm sure no one will be surprised to read that we are still lovin' daddy's summer break. So many fun things to do; so much time to do it. Perfect. This past weekend, we had some good friends come to visit us from Indianapolis, Indiana. Elizabeth and I have been friends since we were little and our friendship has endured, even though we haven't lived in the same town since second grade. It was so great to see Liz, her husband Adam, and their two year old twins, Hannah and Noah. We tried to find lots of fun things to do, despite the crappy weather.

We went to Lake Huron in Bay City for a beach day. We all got soaked on the walk to the beach, but then the sun came out just in time. (This was after driving around Bay City for over an hour, looking for some indoor activities until the thunderstorm passed.) It was quite the adventure, but the kids had tons of fun playing in the sand. I think Anna and Ben-Ben were the only ones to go in, which was actually pretty gross from all the beach muck. Let's just say, it wasn't Lake Superior. *I have to give Adam credit for all the beach pictures. He has a great camera and great photography skills...thanks.*

Splashing around.

Beach babes.

Ben-Ben exploring the beach with daddy. I think one year olds in general are so stinkin' cute, and I'm particularly biased toward my own. They're still so little, and chubby, and baby-like in many ways. Yet, they act like they want to be little grown ups, walking around, being taken seriously. It cracks me up. (I also think that Ben looks like Charlie Brown a lot of the time.)

We went up to Frankenmuth to do some exploring, look through some shops, all while trying to avoid the rain. There was a war reenactment of Bunker Hill from the Revolutionary War. Ethan, Adam and Anna stayed to watch. Anna thought she'd be able to take part. But when she realized it was so loud, she changed her mind.

Of course we went to Bronner's. We couldn't let Liz and Adam pass up the chance to tour the largest Christmas store in the world. The picture of Elizabeth is posed. She kept getting so excited about all the cute Christmas stuff she was seeing, wanting to buy it all up, and I never had my camera ready. So, this was her re-enacting it...I forced her to. It turned out a little more crazy looking than excited.

And finally, more Children's Museum pictures. During the summer they have a whole outdoor section. Anna was of course drawn to the garden. (Ben, on the other hand, is drawn to the sandbox and big pile of dirt...trying to role around in each.) On a previous trip Anna was able to help plant some veggies and flowers, so in the picture above she's checking in on "her" tomato plants. For not having a garden of our own, and for Anna being so in to gardening, we've found lots of opportunities this summer. Finally, the last picture of Anna is her enjoying her favorite exhibit. It's called Camp Bowinkle, and Anna loves to pretend she's camping. So, there are a few of the fun things we did this week. We're taking a few days to prepare, then we're off to Marquette.

Haircut...

So, what's with all the pictures of myself??? Well, I got a haircut a few weeks ago, and I loved it. I've been getting a version of this haircut for a few years now, but I'm really bad at describing it. (I also let it go for much longer than I should in-between cuts...mainly for budgeting reasons.) I'm not very picky, but sometimes it turns out cuter than others. And I don't regularly see the same person. I mainly go for free, or cheap. My mom has cut this style on me and it's turned out great, but this time I went to Smart Style at Wal-mart. Like I said, I'm not picky and mainly go for price.

I loved how this one turned out...the angle, the amount of bangs, how short it's stacked in the back. So, I thought I'd take some pictures so I don't have to worry about describing it in the future. I've been trying to decide if I should grow my hair out one last time. It hasn't been past my shoulders since Anna was about six months old. I think longer hair is harder to keep cute, and is more time consuming. Mainly I find myself wearing ponytails everyday when it gets long. The cut pictured above, however, is super simple. Just wash and blow dry...I don't even use a round brush. (When it's air dried, it looks okay-ish too.) But I feel like if I don't grow it out now, I never will. What to do, what to do? Hmmm, what a long, self-centered blog. Oops! I guess I'm just trying to talk through my decision making process.

The New Park...

Let me just start off my weekly journal entry with a huge shout out to my sweetie - CONGRATULATIONS ETHAN!!! I'm so excited that he is finished with the first year of his Doctor of Physical Therapy program. Eth did a great job, good grades, good feedback, etc. The last four weeks of his summer term just about killed us though - me being alone with the kids so much, and Ethan using every spare second to study, write papers, work on presentations, and all that jazz. But we both made it, and at 11:45 am on Friday the 17th, Ethan completed his first year. So, what do we plan on doing with this five weeks of glorious, blissful summer vacation? Regroup, catch up, long trip to Marquette, fun with friends, but most importantly...lots and lots of family time. Like our little trip to the park on Friday.

This is a park I previously mentioned. I LOVE this park because there is so much space, and I can always see my mischievous little Benjamin. The pictures above show the wide, open space pretty well, with Ben-Ben wandering around in both of them. It's not like I ignore him the whole time, but it's very convenient to let him explore on his own too.

I love this certain playground apparatus shown below. It's so fun. Just get a running start, and with the tilted angle, you just keep going around and around...well, as long as you can hold on. Ah, to feel like a kid again.

Anna didn't want to get in any of our park pictures; she was too busy playing. BUT, I have a few funny stories about her. Yesterday, Anna watched the Disney movie, Mulan, for the first time. We got it from the library. She LOVED it, especially the action scenes. Anna has been imitating the fight scenes. She pretends the rest of us are the Huns - the bad guys from the movie who invade China. Benjamin makes a pretty good Hun. :) So, today at church, Anna kept pretending everyone around her were Huns...she would not stop. And since she doesn't whisper, it was a little awkward. She takes her make believe play very seriously.

Second story: At church during the primary time for kids, the leaders were trying to find out if it was anyone's birthday that week, so they could sing to them and give them a treat. Anna says, "Excuse me, I'm going to have my birthday in Marquette because then I will be four." The leader says how special that will be and starts to move on to other announcements. Then Anna says, "Excuse me, my mom doesn't know how to make a birthday cake, so my Grandma Susan is going to make it for me." The teachers and primary leaders thought that was pretty funny. I just had to clarify to them - I've made numerous, delicious cakes and cupcakes and cookies and banana bread, and brownies, and other baked goods...I just don't know how to decorate cakes all fancy like my mom. There's a difference, I'll just have to explain that to Anna.