wordless wednesday

life with brothers

ignoring the craziness of brothers
is definitely a skill olivia has mastered

sometimes

sometimes you just need to relax and ponder



sometimes you find a bin of green gourds and life is good

sometimes you don't want to say cheese

sometimes you want to be crazy



and sometimes i wish you could be 3 forever
ryan, you make us smile!

...

and sometimes i wish certain children could look
at the camera and cooperate :)

surprise...canon style

at first i was really good at posting my pictures
on my 365 blog.
i'd upload them every day or so
then i got lazy...

i still take the pictures,
but i'm slow at getting them off my camera.
if you visit my 365 blog,
you've probably noticed that i now tend to
upload 2 weeks in one fell swoop :)

recently i downloaded a bunch of pictures and started
sorting through to see what i had for each day.

here is one picture i found.
my little crazy cuties

thanks, tim!
what a fun surprise :)

life in the fast lane

ok, well we're not exactly living life in the fast lane,
but we've been busy none the less.

here's a brief pictoral recap...

october started with olivia's birthday
#7 to be exact

here's a little of how we celebrated...

...

a few days later it was garrett's turn...



...

the it was on to the pirates & princesses party
lots of kids
lots of fun
lots of crafts & cupcates
lots of fun presents :)


...

in the middle of all of this,
nana & papa visited from minnesota

they were happy there was no snow here!

...

and the perfect way to end a busy few weeks??

the grand rapids 1/2 marathon with my sister :)

so there you go -
a whirlwind recap of the past few weeks.
whew! anybody tired like i am?

definitely

without a doubt, she is definitely my child...

happy birthday, g-man

the big 5
you are so excited to finally be 5!!!!!!

you are obsessed with sports
you want to try EVERYTHING

so far you've been on lots of fun teams...
soccer, baseball & basketball
next up - floor hockey!
{getting a mouth guard was so exciting for you!!}

you are such a fun big brother to ryan
you've taught him to love super heroes, scooters & biking.
you never get mad when he steals your batman underwear :)

josie simply adores you.
she claps when you get off the bus at noon :)

this year you are at the same school as olivia
and you BOTH love it.
she likes to report if you hugged her at recess or not :)

and as answered by you {know that you're 5}:
favorite place to go: the beach
favorite food: mac & cheese
favorite tv show: phineas & ferb
future career: policeman & a fireman
best buddy: harrison & kane
favorite drink: chocolate milk
favorite sport: football & basketball
favorite toy: scooter

happy birthday, g-man.
we love you :)

miss olivia

today you're 7

you love...
jesus
your baby sister
your crazy brothers
alone time
the computer
magic treehouse
junie b jones
drawing
journaling
fashion
baking
playing outside
your ipod
school
your friends

you are...
crazy
sweet
loving
fun
{sometimes overly} dramatic

you are NOT a morning person
your ideal way to wake up is a bubble bath with candles :)

you could live on...
ham
pepperoni sandwiches
pasta with parmeasan cheese
lemon poppy seed muffins
apples
chocolate

when you grown up you want to be...
an artist
an author
a "fashion girl"

olivia, you're an awesome 7 year old -
you are such a cool piece of our family!

love you!!

finally

not too long ago, our dining room ceiling had some issues
thanks to a leaky roof :)
the ceiling issues, led to some wall issues -
gotta love old house plaster walls.

i hate to admit it, but the leaky roof was replaced long ago.
in fact, it was being replaced the same day ryan was born.
ryan turned 3 in july.

so finally we decided to fix the dining room.

it was a messy, dusty process...



but lots of fun to a 4 yr old with a hammer...



and peering in kept josie busy...



then there was the difficult choice on paint color.
fun & confusing all at the same time.

and now, finally, our dining room is done.
gaucho won out!
it's green and ryan is happy :)

as you can see,
we have yet to really decorate it.
it took us 3+ years to fix the room...
you wouldn't expect us to rush the decorating,
would you?



...

i had a hard time capturing the color.
basically, it's all 3 colors based on the lighting.
i know...
a real photographer should be able to capture the color
with just one shot.
a real photographer i am not.

but the room is finally done!!

...

and yes, i realize i posted back here
that we started painting.
it's been done for a while.
i'm just slow posting pictures :)

slow seems to be a theme...

conversations with garrett...

not long ago we were riding our bikes along the river trail.
it's a pretty spot this time of year.
and best of all, FINALLY no bugs.
garrett and i were talking about how pretty it is and
how God made all this cool stuff.
then garrett got really quiet.
finally he said, "i'm so mad!!! why didn't God make me FIRST and not adam???"
ha ha
then he says "so did God make you right after he made adam?"
umm, not quite.

...

a few days later, we're riding in the car and olivia is talking all
about her drawing & her journaling.
i casually said how cool it was that God gave her the gift of both
writing & drawing {because i seriously have neither!}
not to be left out, garrett responds--
"hey want to know what super power God gave me?"
umm, ok, what?
"he gave me the power to do hand stands"

ha ha.
sweet.
someday i'll have a daughter who can both write & illustrate books
and
a son in the circus.
life is good.

i wonder what the future holds for ryan & josie?