Sick Week

The end.

Just kidding. But we've been sick all week, and it's been Ben's first full week of the second summer term here at IU. He is so busy, and is only in 3 classes (boo). He is in a theory class, Leonard Bernstein in Political History somethin' somethin' class and orchestra. "What?! Orchestra, you say?!" Why yes!! Ben does not suck at the stand up bass. So I get to see at least one concert of him not playing latin, jazz, or latin jazz music this summer!

The sickos in the house would be all of us left behind. This is Henry's first real "illness" and he is handling it well. Grant has been kinda a baby. Haha. I feel like I am comfort nursing a lot because I don't want to bug our neighbors by letting Henry cry. Oh well- 6 more weeks till we move! YEAH! But man, I hate being a mom and sick at the same time. It's tough. I also hate it because I feel like I have to ask Ben to do things that I normally feel bad asking him to do (like helping out a LOT, not just a little). Grant was indoors from Saturday night to Thursday (when we went to the library), poor kid.

Well Henry is CRAWLING for real. Not just his half army crawl and scooting thing. He has realized that he can get around the house a LOT FASTER when on all fours. But I think he just needed to gain the strength it takes to carry his heavy load around :) He loves cars, trucks and swords (we discovered today). He is CRAZY about Grant, and Grant is a little annoyed with that (he is Mr. Independent). His FAVORITE thing to do is BOUNCE and BOUNCE and BOUNCE in his bouncer/excer-saucer thing. He could do it ALL night. (SORRY FOR ALL THE CAPS... I am realizing I do that A LOT!)

Grant is doing well. He is getting into his own version of terrible twos. It's not BAD, but just annoying. He likes to talk back/repeat what I'm saying. We are doing the "when I count to 3, you better be..." and he likes to imitate that. However, the counting to 3 WORKS! And I love that he knows WHY he's in time out (when I actually get to 3). Ah- he's growing up so fast. But that's just his "terrible" side. He's actually quite the kid. As I type this, he is fake laughing over and over again. Um, so funny. He still loves to sing- in fact- that's how he's learning his articles of faith. He knows the first two now. YEAH! We're so excited to move and have a FENCED IN YARD for him to get his energy out. Man. he is WIRED everyday. He's like a dog- haha.

Here are some phone pics from tonight as we sit home alone waiting for Ben to come home from making money- Hooray for GIGs!!!!!!!!

Grant and his blanket.
Do you think I should start training him off the fingers thing??
Ah, cutie pie Henry.
Here he is crawling
and getting into the piano...
bad boy ;)

Life

When I have a question about how old Grant was when he started crawling or talking, I am able to turn to our trusty blog and figure it out. Don't worry, at this time 2 yrs ago (or same age as Henry), Grant was pulling himself up in the crib and figuring out how to stand on his own. I think Henry is taking his sweet time. While he crawls- he's not the fastest, or the most gracious. He just does his own thing. One more thing to add the "DIFFERENCES between Grant and Henry" list. That's ok! We love them both SOOO MUCH! Here are a couple pics/videos from the phone. Enjoy.

Being Lazy. He loves to kick things- tables, people, you name it!

Ah- loving the summer. We had a water fight the other day and he stayed like
this the rest of the day. Awesome. I CAN'T GET ENOUGH!

(ok, I am having issues with the video. I'll try to do it again later- sorry)

Hip Hop will make ya...

JUMP! JUMP!

Here are some pictures from a trampoline extravaganza. 

SO MUCH FUN!

Chloe admiring Grant's jumping ability

Henry feeling left out

Laurel, Grant, Chloe and Holly

Check out Grant's locks of hair :)

Henry jumped too!

We are so lucky to have so many people who love our little guys.

Here is Ol' Man pretending like he doesn't care about his grandkids.

Riley and his mini-me

Holly loving some Henry

Ben turned 30 at the beginning of the month. 

Here is his surprise party :)

After Ben was surprised. I'm so glad he had NO IDEA!

We love food!!

And fun friends who came to celebrate-

Hilary, Molly and Josh

Ben's fun school friends

And a sleepy Ol' Man after all the fun!

(also- don't miss the post below!)

Once Upon a Time...

We blessed Henry. Haha. This was back in February. We finally got the pictures from my mom's camera. I love being really photogenic. It makes me really happy. haha

The Men: Nate, Bishop, Ben, Henry, Barry and the Ol' Man

Ben, Henry, and his parents- Barry and Louise

Us and My parents, Ol' Man and Anne

Also, here are some pictures from California last month. Man, I'm ALL SORTS of out of order!

Grant at his 2nd Major League Baseball game. This one was the Angel's against the Ray's.

With his Grandpa, new hat and awesome sweaty hair.

I have more pictures, but I'll just keep them to myself! haha. Summer is ON IT'S WAY and we are getting BROWN! I love tan little kids. Super cute. More pictures and fun to follow.

Wow, this wind is coming out of nowhere.... wait a minute...

So we're sitting at home, Rochelle is watching Colonial House and I'm studying up on tube amp repair.  I get up to grab a snack, and as I'm in the kitchen the wind picks up like crazy and it's raining sideways, lightning and thunder everywhere.  Out of nowhere.  Like instantly... 
So I, being completely paranoid, immediately think there's a tornado coming.  I go to the computer and click our Bloomington weather.com bookmark (which I have set up for just such an occasion), and I see two different tornado warnings at the top of the page.  Here's one of them...

TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN 800 PM EDT MON JUN 14 2010 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN INDIANAPOLIS HAS ISSUED A



* TORNADO WARNING FOR...

SOUTHWESTERN BROWN COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...

SOUTH CENTRAL MONROE COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...



* UNTIL 830 PM EDT



* AT 758 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO. THIS DANGEROUS STORM WAS LOCATED 8 MILES SOUTH OF BLOOMINGTON...AND MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.



* THIS DANGEROUS STORM WILL BE NEAR...

CHARLES DEAM WILDERNESS AROUND 810 PM EDT...

WOODVILLE HILLS AND YELLOWWOOD LAKE AROUND 815 PM EDT...



PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...



TAKE COVER NOW. MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF A STURDY BUILDING. AVOID WINDOWS. IF IN A MOBILE HOME...A VEHICLE OR OUTDOORS...MOVE TO THE CLOSEST SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER AND PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FLYING DEBRIS.

The words "TAKE COVER NOW" are extremely intimidating.  Especially after reading the whole alert.  I mean, if it's that urgent, don't you think they ought to put them at the TOP of the page???  I could have used that minute and a half to get out of the tornado's way already, thank you very much.

So we booked it to the closet under the stairs, grabbed flashlights and the radio and told Grant we were hiding and let him play with a flashlight.  Henry got a little nervous.  Rochelle was way calm.  I was on edge the whole time.  Maybe borderline freaking out is a better way to put it, under my calm and collected Dad-Facade.  I'm not afraid to say, tornados scare me out of my mind.  Earthquakes I can do.  I kind of enjoy them in a morbid way. Tornados, no thanks.  You can keep 'em.

Fortunately we're fine.  We heard reports that there was a funnel cloud just down the road, but whether anything actually touched down we don't know.  Anyway, tornado scare over.  My heartbeat is back to normal.  I think.

And then there was this insane sunset.  Like nothing I've ever seen.

And a cool rainbow

 -Ben

When I'm 122 Years Old...

I'll have to renew my library card. 

It expires 10/27/2107

Catch up

We've been busy the last month or so.  Ben finished his school year so we celebrated by going to California. We took two cameras, so this is just a post with one camera. The baseball game is on the other along with some more pics as well. To be honest, it was warmer here in Indiana than in LA, but we managed to have a good time :) Enjoy!

Grant finally in his OWN seat without a car seat. Not too bad!

 CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

 Drew and Grant playing in the water

KISSES! My Lips are stuck :)

DISNEYLAND

Grant loving Tom Sawyer's Island. 

Pirates. He loved everything pirate.

 Driving Goofy's Car

 MICKEY. MOUSE.

Ben says that he was SPEECHLESS. Which is unheard of for Grant.

 WOW!!!!!!

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

Ben and Henry ready for fun and learning :)

 Hahaha.

I can't stop laughing.

We didn't get many pics at the museum, but this makes up for the lack of photos.

I love Henry.

 OK.

I'm sleepy.

So was Grant tonight. 

He's NEVER fallen asleep at the table. 

Oops, he didn't nap today.

I'll try and post more pictures sometime soon. 

The pool is open, the parks are buzzing with kids, and we are there!!

...With a little help from my friends...

We are alive. I promise :) Please forgive the slowness of me getting around to posting pics of the last month or so. They will be up soon.

I just found out about my dear friend's daughter, and I thought I would use this post to ask for some faith and prayers. My friend's 3 year old daughter had a tumor removed from her abdomen last week. Test results show that the cantaloupe sized tumor was cancerous and she will begin chemo today to make sure they kill any cells that may be hiding in her little body. Please say a prayer (either out loud, in your hearts, or even put her name on the temple roll) for Ashton. Not only for Ashton, but for her brave parents who have to hold her hand while all they can do is stand by.

I'm sure many of us know someone who has been touched by cancer- or anything terrible for that matter. I am coming to realize how precious life is lately. We never think anything could ever happen to us. We always seem to be the one person or family that is untouchable.  Natalie (my friend) and I used to dream of who we'd marry and how our children would play together (remember, Nat?).  I wish I could do something, and this is one of the ways I want to help- to get more people to practice their faith and help petition the Lord for peace and blessings on behave of her family. I know that any of us in the same situation would want the same.