Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Happy Birthday Christian!!!

 So we were able to celebrate Christian's 29th birthday in fashion!  We had babysat some older girls the day before and they were intent on decorating everything!  They did a great job :)
 We had waffles (Greg's waffles) for breakfast and the boys actually ate...or should I say stuffed their faces?!
 Christian was pretty excited about his gifts this year.  We got an awesome game from Heidi and a tire pump from my mom.  I re-gifted him his green shorts I had given away and some candy.  He was thrilled!  Oh and Tyson wrapped up a pin for him :)  He also put together a coloring book for him!  It was simply relaxing and fun!  Thank you everyone for the cards and gifts!
 I made an apple pie for his birthday dessert and when we stuck in the candles, the pie was so hot it melted the wax off the ends!!  Isn't that crazy?!  We had our friends the Lees over to share it with us and it was wonderful!  Happy birthday Christian!  I hope your last year of your twenties is the best yet!
And here are the bunnies that frequent our yard! They are pretty cute!  I tried to kill a fly today and it got away.  Tyson looked at me and said, "That fly was like Peter and you were like Mr. McGregor!"  I was legitimately impressed by his logic!

Anyway, I'm so grateful to be married to Christian Francis!  I love him so much and am so grateful he's given me the best years of his life!  Here's to hoping there's many more to come!  Happy Birthday!

We've been busy!!

So this blog post will be a catch up of everything we've been up to the past two months!  Mostly it has just been fun!
 Austin basically completed this maze...on his own.  I was amazed!  Here he is enjoying corn on the cob--one of the few foods he'll eat without coaxing!
 Here we are at the park that is walking distance from our house!  Tyson calls this the park with the 'slippery slide!'  It is his favorite.  He has recently learned to climb the short rope and do the monkey bars all by himself!

 



Luckily the boys are still very good at letting me stroll them everywhere!
 We were so SO lucky to have the Despains come and visit us for a few days on their way from Ohio to Indiana!  I am always amazed at how long we can go without a thing changing in our friendship--just add kids!  We went hiking, to parks, to the Old Friend's race horse retirement home (where we got to see them shoeing one of the horses!) and just had a great time!  We love hanging out with them!
 Of course they helped us indulge in yummy 'healthy-ish' treats and played games with us all night!  Hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!
 Tyson played soccer this Spring.  He definitely earned the "Most Improved" award.  I don't think I'm cut out to be a soccer mom.  He had fun and if we were ever running late to a game he would say, "It's ok mom, we'll still make it in time for the treats!"




 Austin was a sport and only occasionally ran out onto the soccer field!
 One morning when Christian was on his way to school, he noticed this turtle in our driveway just wandering through everyone's yards!  The boys were thrilled!


 Luckily for the turtle, it made it safely under our neighbor's rose bush and out of Austin's reach!
 Memorial Day weekend, we were so blessed to have Uncle Ben and Aunt Laura and "Baby Mash" come camping, hiking, to the duck pond, to the 5k ward breakfast, play Disc golf, duck duck goose, and games at night.  What a treat!

 Nash is the cutest little baby!  Austin LOVED him and now whenever we talk about the baby he says, "Baby Mash?" and points to where he had slept at our house!
 The boys are getting so much better at hiking on their own!  It's so nice to not have to carry anyone anymore!  Thank you Ben and Laura for coming!  We really had a fun time!
 Our garden was harvested partly by bunnies and partly by boys!  Here we are with our radishes!
 Tyson got a big one!
 I think next year we'll have to thin the radishes before the tops get so big!
 Here's our harvest!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Coltrin!
 On one of Christian's days off we headed to the Airplane museum.  The docent was 94 and was awesome! He reminded me quite a bit of Grandpa Felsch as they shared many of the same stories from the war!
 Here the boys are inside of a helicopter!
 This is an engine--isn't that crazy?!  There were some massive airplanes here.  Some were small.  My favorite one was made by a teacher and her husband.  Under its wings it read, "Stay in School!"  It was pretty cool!
 The boys ran up to this with Austin shouting, "Turkey!!  Turkey!!"  He was very excited :)

 The second largest sheepherding competition is held in Lexington yearly.  I guess you need a certain amount of points to go to the championship competition.  These dogs were very well trained and it was still difficult for some!
 Our boys lasted two rounds before we had to head to the playground.  They were somewhat distracting to the other spectators :)
 We were able to go to Keeneland with some of Christian's co-workers and residents during the Kentucky Derby.  It was such a beautiful day!  The boys got to make visors, eat yummy food, listen to live music, watch some races and we only had to pay $5 per adult!  It was awesome!  We lost Austin temporarily (which is not a new occurrence, just scary in such a huge place).  But overall, we had a great time!  Thank you Andrea!
 Tyson's preschool class got to tour the Bluegrass airport for a field trip and it was so cute!  The tour guide had us go to the metal detectors and asked what sorts of things would make it go off.  His classmates rattled off, "Guns and knives!"  "Swords!"  The guides did not even crack a smile--but I thought it was pretty hilarious!  They did show us some freaky lipstick knives and throwing stars recently taken off of people.  It was crazy!  Also, apparently the first passenger to arrive was a pig (sent from the governor of Cincinnati as a practical joke) and there is a huge mural of horse champion pedigrees on the floor as you walk in the main doors.  The things you would never know without a tour!
 The grounds have a bunch of statues around it.
 Here Tyson is waving at the watch tower!  The boys had fun watching airplanes take off and land and it was overall a very fun day--despite my worries of potentially losing Austin!
 Tyson was invited to the coolest birthday party of all time!  They had pizza, treat bags, cake, juice, and all of it at Monkey Joe's (Tyson's favorite bounce house!)  The guests each got 20 bananas worth of points they could play on the arcade games and they LOVED it!
 Christian may have had even more fun than the boys :)
 The only lame part was when Austin took a skeeball and nailed Tyson in the head with it.  Other than that, it was the funnest birthday party ever!
 I love that my boys will read!  Austin is such a cheeseball!
For Mother's day this year I was spoiled!  Christian got me the most beautiful watch (literally what I have been dreaming of without telling him).  I don't know how he picked out EXACTLY what I would have chosen--he's just amazing like that!  I also got to teach singing time--my favorite thing in the world and Christian made hamburgers and corn on the cob (complete with the Despains showing up just in time for dinner!).  It was perfect!
We got to lounge and read the Friend (a children's magazine put out by our church--my kids and I love it!)  Thanks Babe for making me feel so loved!