Family...isn't it about time?

OK, so we've been busy!! Ben (my brother) came back with his boys, Luke and Jesse and left them with us while he finished up some job issues. Keeping 5 young boys busy and out of trouble is no little task!!!! Thank goodness they are all good kids, and surprisingly helpful too. Just very BUSY!
Angie and the girls (Cameryn and Caroline) joined us a few days ago. We are still adjusting to having a few more people in our snuggish house, but we are really enjoying having them. Yesterday we made arrangements for the dads (Ben and Ben) to take the kids to a local 'carnival' and then watch a movie or two while the girls (Angie and I) headed into the city to try out "Taste of Chicago". Off we headed....and missed the train. So we wandered for a few minutes, checked out a fun open house in the historic district of Naperville, then discovered we'd missed 'the next train' too! So we just parked, pulled out he strollers and hit the shops in downtown Naperville. It wasn't quite like Michigan Ave, but it was fun and we got some 'girl time'.
We're going to have some fun this week! I'll try to keep you updated on the fun we are having...

Happy Father's Day

To all the Dad's out there...Happy Day to you. I sure do miss my dad. I'm so glad that my children have their dad around to teach them and influence them for good. Ben is a great man! (Jones, I love you)
We had a great surprise...a visit from my little brother, Ben. He stopped in for dinner and dessert with us on his way from Whitewater WI (where he's currently has a crew working) back to Bath NC (where his family is) to deliver a new van to Angie. She did plenty of research to find what she wanted. Bonus was that is happened to be here in Chicagoland. We enjoyed the visit, and the kids even got him to try the Wii. He learned that boxing works your biceps, triceps, and lats along with other muscles you aren't even aware of! Hmmm, who-da-thunk.

Solid Food--celebration!!

OK, so we haven't gotten the OK from the Pedi yet, but Dr MOM says this boy is ready for cereal. So I mixed up some rice cereal and the boy went crazy. He made a bit of a mess on his face (obviously) but he loved the stuff!! He wasn't happy when I scraped the bowl dry and couldn't give him more. We just topped it off with a drink, then he was ok.

Toes...

The baby has made a marvelous new discovery...TOES. And they fit all the way to his mouth! How can they do that?

Michael, the Amazing

Mickey has come up with some amazing things, but this one is a WOW in my book. In the last few weeks, Andrew has been talking about individual states in the US in his 4th grade class. Mick came with me to the school when the 4th graders did a 'parade of states' as part of a state report. Michael seemed very interested so we've been talking about the states at home as well. I broke out a map puzzle and we've put it together several times. But this morning I was SO impressed when he got the puzzle on his own, dumped it out, and started working on it on his own. He had half the puzzle put together before he ran into a problem (Colorado was upside down). Ben called me away for a few minutes and when I came back, this is what I found. Mickey honestly did this ALL BY HIMSELF!! He's also impressed me by showing me several of the states such as Utah, Illinois, Texas, Alabama (he says it looks like a 4) and my favorite: Hannah Montana!

A funny story about Hannah Montana: Michael was over heard to say to one of his friends that his grandma and grandpa lived in Hannah Montana. (they live in Billings MT)

Food glorious food...

William's showing most of the signs of being ready for solid food, I'm just not in a hurry to feed it to him. However, yesterday, he was very interested in the apple I was eating so I gave him a 'taste'. He sucked and sucked and sucked on it. Then he threw a royal tizzy fit when I took it away from him!
(The apple core looks bigger than he does.) I get the idea that he liked it.

...and growing...and growing...

Well, I was excited with the milestone yesterday. William rolled over (stomach to back) TWICE! It sure seemed intentional. He creeps his little legs up until his buns are in the air, then it just 'falls' over and he follows. But today...well it's raspberries that I'm hearing. He was SO vocal in church yesterday and now the raspberries today...Am I gonna have competition?