We're Ready to Go!

For 2 months, Noah and Levi have been marking off the days in anticipation of our upcoming visit to Grandpa and Grandma Schrag in Illinois. Grandma Schrag made the boys these nifty calendar pages and the boys have enjoyed "marking" on them.

We made it through April...

and May is just as colorful...

and we can hardly wait to get to Illinois on Wednesday! Tuesday we'll take off and visit our friends Garry, Lori and baby Emily in Kansas City. Hopefully breaking up the 9 hour drive will help to make it feel more manageable.

The end of an era

In the past few weeks, we've been scheming and thinking about transitioning Levi from his crib to the toddler bed. So, in order to make that happen the boys needed to switch rooms. We talked up this change for a while and finally what had been Levi's room was ready for Noah's full-size bed and it was time for the crib to be taken apart.

Ben and I were busy inside rounding up tools and cleaning up supper and in from the garage came Levi.

The boys tried to be helpful as the crib was quickly disassembled. I mostly sat there...remembering my boys being babies in that crib. Remembering how fast they went from newborn infant to crawling in and out of the crib toddlers.

I think I shed a tear or two - sometimes transitions are harder then I anticipate them to be.

But, Levi is just THRILLED to be in a big bed. He's stayed in it when it's time to sleep and proudly walks out of his room to find us each morning.

Wild Times

These boys love to run, jump and wrestle. Ben smiles when they start to wrestle. I wince and try to keep my mouth shut. So far, our philosophy seems to be that if neither one is protesting the rough play we let it go. We'll see how that plays out in the long-run.

The Hair

A week ago, Levi went from this:

to this:

He looks tough now...too tough. After a week, I'm finally used to it. Maybe next time we won't go quite this short.

Storm water

It stormed...well, it rained hard and the clouds were super-freaky, but it quickly passed and the sun came out. The boys got their boots on just as soon as we finished supper and headed out to play.

Eventually, we took Levi's pants off. They were so heavy with water they were starting to sag anyway.

Our neighbor, Aubrey came out too!

Look out Aubrey...

Levi likes to give BIG hugs.

The Roof

Grandpa Schrag came to Kansas on the train to help us with our re-shingle our roof. Jeremy Voth, of Voth Construction, helped us as well. The boys know Jeremy from church and he's also the guy who finished our basement for us a few years ago. Thankfully, he's patient with little "helpers".

Thanks Tim for coming out and helping us!

I just have to say that I did not approve of Levi being on the ladder, but I seemed to be the only adult in the group with any concern...Ben was standing right next to the ladder (I just cut him out of the photo).

Apparently I didn't photograph the truck we borrowed from my dad to dump all the old shingles into. The boys were THRILLED to have a huge truck in our driveway.

Cousin Time

The cousins spent an evening together and these are a few photos from the evening of outdoor fun.