Cutest girls in the universe!

Jade and Gracie Tepfer are six days apart. gracie is in our small group. i so hope the girls grow up to be the best of friends. i swear taking these pics i saw ann (gracie's mom) and i sitting as little girls. it was funny. don't they look like they're ready to be buddies?

and here is the world's greatest blackmail picture

RONAN TURNS TWO!

holy cow...ronan is 2!!!! it's insane! i was sooo pooped last monday that i didn't write about the little guy's big day. we spent 5 hours at seaworld in the morning which was challenging. i had jade strapped to me, and the boys in the stroller. and it was hot! sooo...the boys had tons and tons of fun and absolutely love fish. ronan's decorations at home were all nemo too. so it was an appropriate place for his bday. then we came home and went to bed. when they woke up i cooked dinner for my parents and fam, then we opened gifts and played with the gifts. my parents got ro a little water table for outside that he LOVES! and so does zander. my mom also made the most amazing little nemo cake that ronan thought was awesome too! she didn't think she did a good job, but it was REALLY good. i soooo could not do that. i'm so glad she makes the cakes for each of the kids bdays. they love waiting to see what she's made for them. so a BIG THANK YOU MOM!
oma and opa also sent an inflatable fire house that the boys had a blast playing in today...to the point of taking only 45 minute naps so they could wake up and come play on it again...blah! so they went to bed early!
i'm going to go get my camera and upload pics in a minute. so stay tuned!

The Del Mar Fair

so many of you michiganders have grown up going to county fairs and such...but weirdly enough, i managed to miss that part of the upbringing in mi. i did go to festival downtown but there is a major lack of rides and animals that the fair provides. ben however grew up going to fairs and has not been a fan of the dirt, stink, and hot. BUT....we always have heard good things about the Del Mar fair out here and i finally talked ben into going. my dear friend monica gets downright GIDDY when she talks about the fair and that is not characteristic of her, so i figured we should finally try it. the great thing about the fair is that it has a completely isolated kids area with tons and tons of kiddie rides and attractions. the boys absolutely loved it! ronan cracks me up cause just like at disney, he gets still as a church mouse for every ride. and zander got really daring on some of the rides he did all by himself. there was even one where he could lay on his belly (like the superman rollercoaster at six flags you midwesterners.) and it rose up and flew around. he was scared at first but started talking to the little boy next to him and eventually loved it. and of course ben and i went crazy on the food arena. goodbye diet for that night. i ate an indian taco and ben got australian potato cakes. YUMMY! then for dessert, deep fried smores. oh man it was good!!!!! and of course like every good fair we went and visited the animals too. all and all i highly recommend it and will try to post some pics soon. however, i'm swamped and tired with ronan's little bday tomorrow. happy birthday ronan! you'll be 2 tomorrow! we're having a nemo themed day and going to sea world with some friends. lots and lots of pictures maybe tomorrow.

Rolling baby!

Jade rolled over twice today from back to front! she's 14 1/2 weeks! good job little fat baby! i really didn't think she'd roll for a while!

Only Ronan

Only ronan can try to potty train himself, and still make me crazy! he's been obsessed with going potty by himself lately. but it's only when he's getting his diaper changed cause he's already gone bathroom. so then he wants to go sit on the potty....and sit.....and sit.....and sit........ i swear he's going to pop a gonad with as hard as he pushes to get some form of pee or poop out. it's weird. today i had to threaten to leave him at home to go to the park cause he wouldn't get out of the potty. and he'd been there for over 1/2 hour. and no, i don't sit there the whole time but if i do venture out to go check on the rest of life, the boy dumps three pounds of toliet paper down the toliet the minute i walk away. so i've had to hide the toliet paper in the bathroom! HIDE TOLIET PAPER! good grief....now weirdly enough he has pooped in the toliet a few times and peed. the child is not even two yet! it weirds me out. i'm not ready to deal with this and him right now. but apparently he poops in the bathtub just as much....who knows...with ronan it could just be a phase.

Photos with Grandparents

Now they're gone....

and man is it hard to be a parent again! Oma and opa left yesterday and so today i was back to being full time mommy. boy did it suck! by 10 am ronan had gotten into the tolietpaper, gotten my foundation in his hair, and beaten the tar out of zander. why does he save it all for me?! the break oma and opa provided for me was absolutely amazing and needed. i didn't realize how worn out i was till they stepped in and started playing with the kids. and the boys warmed up to them right away so there was no worries there. and of course they helped with jade too which was nice. i even got solid naps every day they were here....so nice. but now, it's back to reality and back to the fights, disciplines, but also to the hugs. the boys gave me lots and lots of hugs today and i enjoyed that!
here's yet another poop story from our house. two nights ago, ben was supposed to be giving the boys a bath...well, for some reason he was roaming the house occasionally yelling "marco/polo" with the boys. suddenly zander starts screaming and ben runs in and starts gagging like he's going to throw up. which of course prompts zander to do the same. so i go running in and there is ronan holding up a bucket for me with his poop/water in it. (hey at least he caught it i guess) and let me just add the little detail that he had gogurt poop. anyone feed thier child that stuff? then you know the bright bluish/green color i'm talking about! so i quickly pull z out and send him off to the shower with ben in our room. i turn around to grab ronan who apparently found some more poop floating outside of his bucket and picked it up. UGH! eventually he ended up in the shower, the poop was all gathered and flushed down the toliet (thanks to me, NOT ben), and the bath was cloroxed. ewww....

For Darla and Kelsey Diebert

Here is the adorable outfit that the Diebert's bought for miss jade. she wore it to bethel seminary's graduation today. everyone ooohed and awwed over here. my poor dad made me stand up and show her off as my 'four week old baby'. yea dad, she's almost 14 weeks.

Oma and Opa Visit

so Oma and Opa (ben's parents) have been here since tuesday and it's been great. the boys have LOVED having them here and we certainly have too! they have been such a godsend to us! i've gotten to run errands, take naps, and have a date with my husband! the boys even spent the night with them last night and had the time of their lives! although i'm not sure opa did as he slept with ronan who tosses and lays on you! :) but Ben and i slept in till after 9! wooo hoooo! today we went to inflatable world and mission valley and had a blast! it's kind of expensive, but tons of fun! i highly recommend it for you san diego people! ronan is a boy of NO fear and will go down these gigantic slides by himself! zander, well, he took some warming up to the idea to go down by himself. but then you couldn't get him to stop. poor little ronan was so worn out he took a 4 hour nap! the kids are loving their oma and opa and having time with them. oma and opa have really gone crazy in loving our kids. we are so blessed to have them but we wish they lived closer. little jade has taken to them too and loves laughing whenever she hears oma. it's adorable. i'll include some pictures.

oh and here's a gross story for the day....last night i gave jade a bath and the boys were up on a chair watching. after i took jade to her room to change her, i came back and started to drain the water. but i noticed that there was something stuck to the bottom...thinking ronan had dropped one of his gummies in it (was he eating gummies? umm...no, but it's what i thought was in there) i stuck my hands down and dug my nails into it and pulled it up. poop. yup, it was poop. good grief....


ok i got a little scared....

At the hotel with Opa

packing their bags to go to oma and opa's hotel

Jade's 3 month pics

My chubby wubby 3 month old baby girl!

"my mother is manhandling me!"

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!

It's our anniversary today! happy 6 years to us! i love my husband so much and i am so blessed to be his wife. i have truly become a better person for being married to him. these years have flown by and i honestly can't believe it's already been six years. saturday morning dilenna watched the kids for us so we could go to breakfast together. thank you so much dilenna!!!! tonight, sunday, we had a baptism for church so that's why we did breakfast.
anyways, i am married to the best man ever. he is a great husband and an even better father. he puts his family first and treats me like i'm the only woman in the world. he's caring, loving, funny, and just all around my best friend. i love you more today than ever before ben!

A Clean house...again

yup, i'm pathetic. i hired someone to clean the house again. i'm a big loser. except the poor woman came and spent four hours cleaning only my bathroom and kitchen. thats it. poor thing. probably nearly killed her. but she wasn't through a company so she was much cheaper. but then i felt that you can't have a 1/2 cleaned house so off i went! i dusted, swept, mopped...and folded clothes. then i died. my hip and my back have not recovered from carrying jade at disney yet, so i'm hurting tonight. praise God for the heating pad which gives temporary relief.
so onto the kids. i am absolutely flabbergasted by ronans vocabulary. he will say absolutely anything you ask him too. he even attempted to say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (yeah i'm sure i slaughtered that spelling) tonight when ben prompted him. he cracks me up with his new thing saying "right now!" cause i always tell him to 'come here right now!'. so now he always says "i get it, RIGHT NOW!" or "i'm going to play with my toys, RIGHT NOW!". and he says it so emphatically. and if he drops something he loves to say "oh man!" but my favorite quote comes from zander who has taken to telling ronan he is 'so done' with him right now. apparently i have a tendency to say that to ronan too....hmmm...better watch what i say! little ears are listening! zander also had his awana awards night on tuesday! he was so cute and so proud to stand up there and get his little certificate. i'm so proud of him and how easily he memorizes and retains God's word!
as for jade, she is a sweet, mellow, chubalicious baby. she is getting to be so fat and i LOVE it! she's shorter than ronan was, but the same weight which makes her seem chubbier cause she has less height. i was giving her a bath today and i just love squishing her little belly. and she just smiles and laughs all the time. it's adorable! i'm so in love with that little girl!

Disney

well we are back from disney and sooo exhausted. my hip and back are absolutely killing me from carrying jade and ronan for most of the time. we did the 2fer ticket so we did cal adventure on sunday and disneyland on monday. man was it soooo hard with three kids! the kids loved it but there were a lot of meltdowns. ronan loved seeing the characters and such. but i think we're going to wait a while till we do that again. so here's a few pics.