Ellie Girl

 These boys love her so much!

 Ellie borrowed her cousin Levi's bathtub, it can't hide her rolls though :)

 Chatting it up with daddy is fun

 Charlie starts early making the moves

This cool new chair is awesome, Mom!

My big boy

Zeke is so big lately.  He looks more grown because of his haircut.  He is eating more and actually tries more foods (apparently broccoli is a favorite, who knew?).  He has gotten taller and weighs more (I can barely pick him up and hold him anymore). Conversations with him are legit.  He asks questions about how things work.  He calls his brother out for lies and can decipher when it is happening.  He weighs obeying and disobeying.  You can see his conscience weighing on him when he chooses disobedience.  He is super helpful.  He loves playing with Ben and tries to include Ellie as well.  I can't believe how grown up he seems to me

 He asked me to make a collage of him :)

 At the beginning of summer, I thought he might be a 5T...

 after losing his suit while playing at a friends, we realized this was not so

 He is more adventurous

And one of my favorite new things is being able to rationalize with him.  When he got his hair cut, I was able to talk him down from his typical crazy over it (yeah we have issues, but are working through them)

Buddies

I recently asked my boys if they were best friends.  They quickly responded, "no, we're brothers!" 

 They talk to each other all day... and sometimes all night

 They make up games with each other

 They make plans together

 and sleep together

 They are silly together 

 And they eat together

 They are adventurous together

 and they share

 They wrestle

and they are best friends

Bunk bed boys

The boys helped Spence flip Zeke's bed so it would be a bunk.  To say they were excited is definitely an understatement

They grabbed their gear and got to work:

they quickly tried it out... and were given all top bunk rules :)

Ellie didn't see what the big deal was 

but the boys immediately tested their new beds out

Middle child

We like to say that Ben was born a middle child.  From the beginning, he has worked super hard to keep our attention on him.  Starting with his early arrival, he has demanded it.  Ben is really coming into his personality right now.  At 2 and a half, I don't always love the personality I am seeing and it isn't with out it's challenges.  But he is so much fun and has such strong opinions about everything.  At the park the other day, someone asked who the little bitty boy who doesn't even really look like he should be talking but was bossing all the other kids around was.  I immediately knew she was talking about our ringleader wild man himself.  Here ware some fun things he has been up to lately.

 He will jump on or off anything.  I'm a little fearful of the pool this summer

 He tried gum for the first time and LOVED it, but I won't give him it often since he just swallowed it

 Oh, bedtime.  Ben just transitioned to a twin bed from this toddler bed (bunkbeds pics to come).  We find him on the floor about twice a night.  We also have started not only taking him to potty around 10, but switching him into a pull up too.  He protests them strongly if he is fully awake and says they are diapers, but our little buddy can't make it through the night quite yet so until then we will be sneaking in and pulling a switch

this shows a bit more of his personality.  While he loves his haircut and he also loves having his picture taken.  It was not his idea to take the picture, so this was the face I got

Put those kids to work

 They started out dry...

 but where's the fun in that?

And this is what little priss did the whole splashy wet time 

Awana

There was an end of year awards ceremony for Awana.  It has been so great seeing Zeke blossom this year.  He started the year rough with crying at every drop off.  He ended the year with running into class and hugging his teacher.  We weren't great about memorizing verses (totally my fault and not because he coulnd't have done it.  I was just slack), but we had decided our family goal was for him to enjoy going and get more used to being away from mommy some.  We definitely accomplished this goal, with the help of his teacher and the rest of the Awana team.  We love you, Zeke and can't wait for next year's Awana!

Zeke's class coming in

Sweet buddies, Zeke and Lincoln

The reason Zeke had such a great year.  Thank you, Ms. Miranda!!!

Sweetest picture ever.  I was trying to snap a picutre of Zeke (failed because of Gaynor waving to Hudson).  BUT Lincoln saw me and began waving.  We love you buddy!

Ben cheered so hard for everyone, but most especially for his big brother :)

This was the best picture I could get of Ryah Layne.  Sorry, V, I couldn't catch her smiling :(

Zeke was so busy smiling at us, he didn't notice Miranda trying to give him his certificate.  She finally gave it to another child to give to him.  It seriously took about 5 minutes before he took it.

Once he got it though, he was busy trying to get the necklace off and kept holding it up and yelling to me.

This is the vide of the kiddos singing.  Zeke got into it with one round left to go.

3 months

Our girl is 3 months.  She has grown a ton this month.  She now weighs 13.5 pounds.  She is wearing 3 month clothes, but won't be for long.  We moved into size 2 diapers.  Her brothers are still enamored with her.  They ask to hold her, talk to her often, tell us how much she likes them and will even sing to help calm her down sometimes. Ellie not only smiles at us, but coos and talks with us.  She still enjoys snuggles and being worn in the Moby.  We haven't checked her into nursery yet, because she usally does so well and sleeps right through. We think she looks like Zeke at this age.  I need to do a side by side comparison of the boys are here.  Be on the lookout for that.

 Ellie loves bathtime.  She kicks and coos the whole time.

 She found her tongue this month and will copy you if you stick out yours

 Baby girl likes to sleep!  She has gone 7 hour stretches and usually will go 5 hours every night

 It took awhile, but miss loves her daddy

 Ellie likes to be swaddled half way. 

 She can be quite serious at times

But also pretty outrageous as well.

Dear Zeke, Ben, and Ellie

It is my greatest joy to be your mother.  Thank you for making this Mother's Day so sweet.