Brothers

We have a lot of boy power (energy) at our house. There is a lot of chaos and seems to be a lot of fighting. But there is also a lot of love. James wants to be like his big brother. And Austin likes having James as a brother and friend. Every once in a blue moon, I hear them say "You're my best buddy" I love that! And of course, they both love Benjamin--maybe a little too much sometimes.

Playing cowboys. Hats, check. Bouncy horses, check. Socks for gloves, check?? Very creative.

Hoping to win a spot for the GOT MILK? ads.

They were playing kings and drinking "tea". James would pour it, then Austin would pretend to drink it and dump the bucket on his head instead. It would make James laugh sooooo hard. They did this for about an hour!

Isn't this sweet? James always wants to give Benjamin a kiss. Austin is a great helper and will tell me, "I'll give Benjamin his binkie, we're ok."

Happy Birthday to James

James is a 3 year old now. He had a fun birthday, although, I would say his older brother was more excited about the whole thing than he was.

He got cowboy stuff from Mimi and Papa and he wore it the rest of the evening. So here is cowboy James with his rocket ship birthday cake.

James is full of energy and often wears us out but we love him so much. He bring joy into our home and just look at that face---it has kept him alive for the past 3 years.

Ashley

In August, Ashley got married. It was beautiful, she was beautiful, so was Brad :) Ashley is like a little sister to me--I have known her since she was 11. I was so glad we got to be there to see them on their big day!
I thought her hair looked great. Elegant, but not way over done.

Glamorous, aren't' they! Love you guys!

There is just something about sleeping babies...

First day of Kindergarten

Austin is now an official kindergartner. I'm so excited for him. There was a mom at his school talking about how "hard" it is. No way. I think it's great. He will love school and I'm excited for all he is going to learn.
He rides the bus to school each day, and LOVES it. He also LOVES that they get to choose either chocolate or white milk for their snack each day (he chooses chocolate).
He loves learning and always wants to learn "math". We worked on some addition the other day. He loved it and was able to add (then subtract) several number combinations. If we can just keep him interested in school, I think he has a bright future ahead.








Here is James in the pic too. I asked him if he would like a picture taken, and he wanted to wear the tie. Kind of a business casual look.
I'm excited to have sometime to give James more one on one attention (Benjamin can come along too but he won't be competing for the learning time). I'm going to sign him up for the music and movement class at the library and the mini monets (art class). He need to have his own special things to do too.

Water fight

The other day, Cam came home from work a little early (around 5pm) and decided to go play with the boys outside. They were having a great time, so I went to go see what was going on. Cam was having a water fight with them. Mostly he was drenching James, and James was laughing like crazy. Cam would dump a bucket of water on him, then he would take a small cup or funnel and throw it on Cam. I swear it went on like this for an hour. Cam is a great dad, and still a kid at heart. And where was Austin, he was attacking from a distance with a water gun. He didn't like getting the bucket of water dumped on him.

Benjamin Lee Stewart

On Thursday, 2:13pm Benjamin Lee Stewart was born. We are so happy to have him here. And I am happy to be home--hospital beds just aren't that comfortable. Austin and James love him. James doesn't quite understand how little he really is. I kinda have to keep an eye on him. Maybe someday I'll post some more, but for now, I want to catch a little sleep before awakened by a crying baby :)

Ok, so I look a little tired in this one, I am.

Cam and Benjamin.

First meeting of the new brothersJames came running in the house and wanted to know where the new baby was. He was pretty excited.

Just a few pics

Sunday best. Very handsome little devils aren't they!




Funny, I have this same pic from last year. Guess once a good idea, always a good idea!

Edit- Here’s the pic from last year. –Cam

The garden jungle

I like growing a garden. There is something very satisfying about planting a little seed and seeing a great plant with fruit/veggies grow. This spring was weird in ID. Cooler than normal and off and on with rain. So I have lots of big green leaves in the garden. Our pea plants loved that weather.


This is a pic of the boys with our first really harvest (besides peas and strawberries). We got some zucchini and dug our first potatoes. The potatoes were really fun, like digging for treasure. The boys want to dig them up everyday.


Here is part of the jungle. The first year I have planted pole beans. They grow like crazy. I swear, a few inches in height a day. (Pole beans behind the boys, potatoes in front of the boys.)

It's a jungle out there!! Austin is next to the zucchini. It is going crazy. I'm going to try to grow it vertically this year. We'll see how that goes. Off to the left of the pic is tomato plants in 5 ft cages. They are growing like crazy too. There are green tomatoes on the plant but none have ripened yet. The onions are at the bottom of the pic. Maybe I got carried away with those. Oh well. It's just fun to grow stuff.

Big Boys and Bikes

A few weeks ago, Austin said he wanted to try his bike without training wheels. So Cam took him out to the end of our street. Austin wanted to try on the little hill walkway, not the flat street. Then suddenly, it just clicked. Cam only had to help a few times, then with the momentum of the hill, he was able to figure it out. Way to go!!


This is James doing his "hey mom, see how fast I can go if I lift my feet up". He would really cruise along. Then he drags his flip flops to stop. Surprisingly, he hasn't scraped off his toes yet.

Dad giving Austin some advice.




Then off he goes!

He got it figured out for the flat ground too.

Much better bike learning experience than I remember from my own childhood. We had a loose gravel driveway. I remember crashing A LOT and getting gravel in my knees and palms. This day was much easier than that.