A Little Taste of Summer And an EASY Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

I love Memorial Day Weekend.  I love it because it is a great time to get together with family and remember the people that made our country's freedom a reality.  My Grandaddy Beam and Grandaddy Fuller both fought in WWII.  What an honor it is to be their granddaughter.  Grandaddy Fuller is with the Lord now so I have quite a tender heart on days like this.  I am so glad that we have Veterans' Day and Memorial Day to stop everything and remember.

Memorial Day also gives us a little taste of summer every year...swimming, watermelon, and hamburgers cooked on the grill.   We have 3 more days of school with kiddos and Friday is a workday.  I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can!  Summers are just such a treasure at our house.  We live such a hectic life from August to May.  It is a complete blessing for us to have 8 full weeks of family time. 

We started off the weekend with a visit to "Tractors, Trucks, and Heavy Equipment Day" at the Farm in town.  It was awesome!  I have never seen so many little boys in one place in all my life.  Nathan and Jordan loved all the trucks!  It was a little boy's dream!

The Antique Fire Truck!

The John Deere Tractor!

The Dump Truck!

And FRRAAAANNNNKKK!  (just like in the movie, "Cars.")

Little toy tractors!

And the best for last....the FIRE TRUCK!

Then, we celebrated Brayden and Bryce's 4th Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.  So fun!

The Birthday boys!

The Ticket Blower! 

Today: a cookout at Gram and PaPa's for lunch. 

Tonight:  a cookout at MiMi and Grandad's for supper!  Bryan's birthday is on Wednesday so we were able to celebrate him today. It's always special to celebrate the one you love. He requested peanut butter cookies for his birthday treat. So, I have to share the fabulous Paula Deen recipe...

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
Mix it all together and form into balls the size of walnuts. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Sprinkle them with sugar while they are still hot. They were delicious and so easy!!
Remember the dress-up clothes MiMi gave the grand kids for Christmas?  They have provided lots of fun over at MiMi and Grandad's house!

Nathan was a football player today.  Isn't that helmet hilarious?  He was playing catch with Aunt Jenn.

Jordy thought he would be Santa Claus in May.  He does request Santa Claus stories for bedtime quite a bit!  HA! 

"I sing for joy at the works of Your hands!"  Psalm 92:4

Weekends like this make my heart just overflow with praise.

It's Potty Time!

Well sort of.  Jordan has been so interested in all things "pottyish" recently.  He wakes up in the middle of the night and early in the morning asking us to change his diaper because it is "wet."  He lets us know when he is stinky.  However, Nathan has not shown any interest at all.  So, we bought the coolest toddler potty we could find in hopes that it will keep Jordan's interest and eventually attract Nathan's interest.  We plan on having a serious potty intervention in the late summer or fall...just whenever we think they are both ready.  But, these boys sure were excited about their new potty tonight.  Jordy cried big tears when I made him get up and go play.  Wish us luck!  And, if you have any great potty pointers, please share!

Oops!  I guess we might need to get a second potty!

What is better than the swingset PaPa built for the boys in his backyard?

The box it in which it came!!!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

We celebrated the resurrection and life of our Savior last weekend.  It was a precious time!

We practiced hunting Easter eggs the night before the boys had an egg hunt at preschool last week.  Then, the boys decided to hide eggs for Mommy and Daddy to find.  They worked and worked and worked in their room with the door closed. This is what we found when they told us they were ready for us to hunt their eggs...

Jordan is admiring his loot from the church Easter egg hunt on Saturday.  He was so serious about his egg hunting.  It was almost embarrassing.  Jordan was running and putting eggs in his overflowing basket as fast as they were falling out the backside of his basket!  We just let them fall out the back...he didn't seem to notice and he needed to give some back for other children to enjoy anyway. 

Nater-Tot is so excited about all the surprises in his eggs!

Dying Easter Eggs at home!  Jill - Do you recognize these pjs? We have worn these several nights a week since their birthday. 

The Easter Bunny made a visit!

BATMAN PJs!!!

A real MACK truck!!

My handsome boys before church on Sunday...(They were so cooperative.  (sigh.))

We celebrated Easter with our Calvert family for lunch.  Thanks to Aunt Mary for hosting all of us!

The boys were so excited that Aunt Mary had two child-size guitars! 

The big cousins set up an egg hunt for the little ones. 

Ready.  Set.  GO!

Granny's 9 great grandchildren!  And, #10 was born today!!  Congrats to Johnny and Jackie for the birth of their baby boy, John David!

After nap, we spent Easter evening at my parents' house.  Baby Georgia was so excited about all the fun!

The boys loved hunting more Easter eggs with Vivi!

Oh, and at nap time on Sunday, Nathan escaped out of his pack-n-play for the first time!  YIKES!  We heard a commotion coming from their bedroom.  Bryan went back there to check on them and he could hear Jordan saying, "No Tot!  BED!  No Tot!  BED!" He opened the door to find Nathan sitting on the floor looking at a book.  Nice.  Any bets on how long it will be before he is climbing out of his crib.  Oh, I do not look forward to that day.

The Joys of Boys

The other day I was moving a load of laundry from the washing machine to the dryer and all of a sudden I heard A LOT OF GIGGLING!  I grabbed my camera on my way to the living room because I knew it would be a snapshot moment. 

This is what I found...

Wrestling = Hilarious = Only Little Boys

A Day at the Zoo

We decided to spend a day at the zoo before the weather gets too hot.  Our little family had the most delightful time! 

Jordan was so excited to see the "Ellies!!"  He thought they looked just like his Ellie that he sleeps with every night.  What a special treat...to see real elephants!

We fed the birds!

 Nathan and Jordan were so thrilled to ride the train. 

Look at this face...how could you not pay the extra $4 to ride the train?!  So fun!



Nathan and his "Beeeeeeeee"

Nathan has a new pal: Buzz Lightyear!  Buzz goes with my Nater-Tot everywhere, to bed, to naptime, in the car, yep, everywhere.  Nathan says, "My Beeeee!"  Then, he has his own gibberish version of "To Infinity and Beyond!"  Nater-Tot loves Buzz.  You always invision your child getting attached to a sweet, soft, cuddly teddy bear or blanket.  But, nope.  Not my Nater-Tot.  He is a Buzz-Lightyear-kind-of-kid. Although he does have a blue "kanket" that he loves and cuddles with every night too.  :)

Sleepy Nater-Tot with Sleepy Buzz in the car on the way home from Sunday School.

Hanging out at home with his pal, Buzz.

Bryan and I got so tickled when we walked into the boys' room last night to check on them.  It looked like Buzz was on guard for Nathan.  :)

 Can't believe it has been such a long time since my last blog post.  Today was Day 1 of our 5th Grade State Testing....whew!  Life gets a little less stressful after tomorrow.  Plus, I have been so bad about picture-taking lately.  Just a few more weeks until summer break!