Happy Birthday from Grandma & Grandpa Erb

 The UPS man brought a very special delivery for all three boys!

 They worked together to open the big box.....

 John was most excited by the bubbles....and Kenny & Jacob about the Nerf guns inside:-)

Once the bubbles were popped, the nerf gun war began!  Thanks Grandma & Grandpa....it's going to be a fun summer:-)

Our babes are 4!

 John & Jacob....2 months old

 Jacob & John....4 years old.  Time flies when you're having fun:-)

 Jacob is such a fun, sweet boy.  He loves sucking his fingers and playing superheroes with his big brother.  He is strong, loving, confident and fearless.

John is our sweet and sassy boy.  He loves bugs, any sport with a ball, and girls.  He is our cuddler, crawling in bed with us every morning at 6:30, and picks whatever is opposite of his brothers:-)

Happy Birthday from Grandma Bolthouse

 Grandma flew all the way from Michigan to celebrate the J's birthday!  We had fun shopping, assembling and wrapping presents.  And we couldn't have pulled off the party without her.  I'm so thankful for the extra set of hands:-)

 John's cool cash register....it weighs produce, counts money, and even has a scanner!

 Jacob's Scooby Doo pirate ship was a hit!

Kenny, always the manager, trying to instruct John on his new toy.

4-Year-Old Antics

 These two are 4!  And their antics get better by the day.  I'm not even sure what was going on here....

J&J's 4th Birthday Party - Wild Kratts

 We had a great Wild Kratts party for the J's.  Family friends and school friends rounded out the guest list.  The kids earned a creature disc for each game (bug hunt, platypus egg rescue, kangaroo jump, and tiger tail tag).  We closed out the party with creature cupcakes. 

 Whitten and Ian loved the frosting most of all.

 Ainsley, Colten, John & Jacob

 Jocelyn & Kenny

Ian & Keegan sharing the 4-wheeler and some brotherly love.

Happy Anniversary to Us:-)

It’s our ninth wedding anniversary today.  Wahoo!  Or not really…..Darin has had a frantic week at work.  He barely made our son’s school conference, and then had to “run an errand” (aka pick up flowers for me) on the way home from the conference.  I’m not one to judge.  I did my weekly grocery shopping today and “anniversary card for Darin” was an item on the list.  We had dinner at home with our 3 boys and Grandma, who is visiting from Michigan.  It wasn’t long ago that this type of anniversary would have left me feeling unsatisfied and sad.  But as I cooked dinner with our favorite band playing on Pandora and my 4 guys wrestling in the family room, I felt nothing but joy and contentment. 

Life looks very different now than it did nine years ago.  We’re not so footloose and fancy free.  We’re too exhausted to practice the type of romance that was so important in the beginning of our relationship.  But what we have built over the last nine years is an incredible partnership.  We have faced babies, cross country moves with babies, new jobs, loss, and illness.  The result is a deep love, respect and understanding of one another that is as tough as steel.

My Grandparents’ anniversary is two days before ours.  They just celebrated 74 years of marriage, which makes our nine years look like a night at the prom.  Their relationship has never been what society would label a romantic one.  I’ve never known of my Grandpa to give my Grandma flowers or jewelry, but their romance is real.  You see it in the way they look at one another and the little jabs and jokes that are a reminder to not take them too seriously.  Their romance is expressed in the number of pots of oatmeal cooked by Grandma (27,010); in a poem written by my Grandpa; in the goodnight kiss that now requires the help of a caretaker to wheel one of them across the room to the other. 

 

So in this time of the Bachelor and crazy celebrity weddings, Facebook feeds full of the most thoughtful and romantic acts by husbands, my personal desire for diamond earrings….I’m choosing to bask in the reality of an ordinary night.  Filled with bedtime antics, a Transformer’s Rescuebots episode, and maybe a little NBC Nightly News if we can stay awake.  God has granted us a beautiful life together, and I’m not going to take one moment for granted.  

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”   Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV

Young and in love nine years ago.

Saturday Morning Fever

It cracks me up how they use the fireplace doors as a mirror...what funny boys!

John's a funny boy:-)