Play date with the Rogers girls

Our dear friends, Karl and Kristin Rogers, have adorable (almost) two year old twin girls and the other day they came over to play for a few hours with Josiah.  Having 3 toddlers running around the house could cause stress but not so this day!  The three of them had a blast and giggled and ran and played the whole time with only a few minor "bumps"  It was a great reminder of how uninhibited children are and how they find joy in everything...even cooking plastic lizards in a fake microwave or wearing bags on their heads as hats.  Jesus loves the little children and it's easy to see why....

Think Karl and Kristin will see this expression
again...I suspect we can pull this photo out
in about 10 years and the answer will be yes:-)

Cheeeeeeese!!

Sophia chillaxin with her juice

Jocelyn was the more serious of the three for the
evening...here she is catching up on her reading

"How do you like my hat?"

Two peas in a pod!!

Service Project for the summer

Seth and I belong to a small group through our church and absolutely LOVE it!!  All of us have become like family and we have a blast whenever we all get together.  For the summer, our fearless leader Ryan volunteered us to maintain four of the flower beds on the church property.  Last night was the first go-round of prettification (is that a word?) Between the 4 couples we have 7 little ones so it's always an adventure to keep everyone entertained and happy but we're getting pretty good at it:

Josiah and Norah all ready for the fun to begin!

What is a kiddie get together without bubbles??  Sophia was delighted that no
blowing was necessary, just hold the bubble wand up and.....

...VOILA!!  Bubbles galore!

Josiah didn't pick up on that so quickly....

...trying to blow the bubbles...not as successful:-)

No climbing toys available?  No problem
 for Miss Ashlyn, she makes her own in the car:-)

Giant fields = running kids and happy parents 

We did actually do a little work too...and by "we" I mean everyone else as I mainly stuck to my forte of wrangling kids:-)

After all the hard work, we of course had to have nourishment:

If you're counting kids and thinking we lost one, don't fret,
Miss Raegan is only 5 months old so she was hanging out in the car out of the wind

Here we all are relaxing and eating while Matt
is still working hard....thanks Matt!!

And we wrapped up the evening with a yummy treat:

Root beer floats all around!  I think they were a hit:-)

Yep, bath needed after this evening but totally worth it!!

Spring has sprung!

Praise God, spring has arrived!!!  We spent the weekend doing "springy" things including fighting off the inevitable change of season cold for Seth.  Friday night we spent the evening with the Davidson's and helped Aubrey "spring" into her 2nd year of life as she turned one and had a very fun party!  Josiah's favorite part?  CAKE!  This boy definitely inherited his daddy's sweet tooth:-)  Aubrey on the other hand wasn't so thrilled about the cake, she was much more excited about the chicken sandwiches, she inherited her mommy's love of everything chicken:-)  I neglected to take any pictures but imagine a house full of family and fun and you'll get the image:-)

Saturday we took advantage of the nice weather to the fullest!  Josiah started the day donning his Twins gear to celebrate the season starting (yes, we know it started Friday but we choose not to claim that game as official, we will just call it an embarrassing practice round).  Josiah also had to sport his shades most of the day since he now declares that things are "too bright" and likes to have his glasses on...even indoors.  Yes Jan, it's a lot of look:-)

We stopped at Grandma and Papa's to say hi and play a little Ring around the Rosie with cousin Addie who was staying with them because she got a new brother on Thursday!!   Bennett Michael Myran arrived safe and sound as is an absolutely adorable little peanut!!  We are SO excited to have another cousin to love and spoil!!  Welcome Baby Bennett and congratulations Vanessa, Erik and big sister Addie!!(pictures coming soon!)

Cousin Addie and I are so cool!

Thanks for the "samich" Grandma!!

Saturday also had us joining a good portion of my family for a nice long walk and yummy lunch (thank you Auntie Jen for organizing!) followed by a 3 1/2 hour nap for Josiah, guess this boy has been missing the fresh air as much as the rest of us!  Hope everyone else was able to enjoy the warm weather too!

All the kids on the walk: L-R is Nick, Miles, Ellie, Josiah, Olivia, Sophia, Jocelyn and Callan (snuggled in his stroller but he's there!)

Auntie Nykki and her boys!
Josiah (21 mos), Callan (2-1/2 mo), Miles (2 1/2 yrs) and Henry (14 mos)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

St. Patrick's Day has become one of the biggest parties of the year for my side of the family and this year was no exception!  My dad (dubbed Michael John Patrick O'Becker for the day) holds nothing back preparing the feast fit for an Irish king!  This year he even corned his own beef..deee-licious and picture worthy (see below).  Other items on the menu this year included colcannon, mulligan stew, green beer, guacamole, and mint chip ice cream among many other yummy green/Irish items. Everyone gets in on the preparation:

Henry helps Nana make the green jell-o salad...no, not traditionally Irish but green and yummy anyway!

A small taste for good measure...

DEE-Licious!!!

Yumm-o!!!

 

Along with the yummy food there is always plenty of green clothes and of course, pieces of flare....even the littlest ones get into the fun:

And of course no celebration is complete without matching PJs and an endless stream of group shots...some more successful than others:-)

6 kids under age 3 group shot...mildly successful:-)

Splish Splash!

So, we knew that Josiah loved his bath time and loves the water table and baby pool but would he love the big pool?? Turns out, YES, this baby is a water bug for sure! We went swimming with our good friends the Rogers' on Monday and had an absolute blast! For those of you in the Rochester area, you can go to the Kahler Grand Hotel and pay $6/adult (kids are free) to use the pool, not a bad deal! The pool is on the 11th floor so the views of the city are an added bonus! Not only did Josiah love the pool, so did his two friends Jocelyn and Sophia (7 mo old). All three babies splashed and kicked and giggled the whole time, it was great fun! We will definitely be making another trip there soon, what a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Also, as if the joy on their faces wasn't enough to make the day a success, the babies were all so worn out that they napped over 2 hours that afternoon:-)

"Hey, this is like a big bathtub, sweet!"

"Splash splash!!"

Jocelyn was "cruising" around the pool in style!

Priceless face Sophia, what a doll!!

"Hey Karl, isn't this great??"