Summer

Today is Labor Day, the official end of Summer so wanted to capture all of our fun times! June was our family vacation month - went to Massanutten, Virginia. We had the best time. Weather was beautiful - we swam, went to their cool waterpark, played golf, did ziplines and a tube hill, the ski lift, played putt-putt - you name it, we did it! Boys especially loved the giant bathtub in our condo! The highlights of July included having visits from our Georgia cousins and Kentucky cousins. Sam stayed busy with Tae kwon do and Ben with Ninja. Sam was able to do the First Tee golf camp out at Shaker Run for the first time. Boys did a vacation bible school that they loved. Sam did an all sports camp at the Y and Ben did a couple Y mini-camps. Made trips to Kings Island - Sam rode the Beast, Adventure Express and Mystic Timbers for the first time! Ben rode Surf Dog and the yellow coaster for the first time! Had a fun day at the Beach waterpark with our friends the Karsner's in early August. Many many parks were visited and many monkey bars were climbed! Had our annual 4th of July party which was fun. We did get sad news that our neighbors were moving - Scarlett and Addy are already in Cleveland. Avey and Gannon will be moving there in less than two months. Other than that, not sure how the Summer could have been any better - we are a very fortunate family. Sammy started 2nd grade and has Ms Elabbassi. Big Snug started Kindergarten and has Ms Murrell. Both seem to love their teachers and are enjoying being back in school. Can't believe our baby is in Kindergarten!!

Rewind

So I was going to do a post about some recent things and realized there has been a lot the beginning of the year that I haven't referenced so I wanted to include some of those pictures.  We went to Great Wolf Lodge in February with Keelie and Chase -kids had so much fun (as did adults)! We went from extreme happiness to coming home to extreme sadness. Our sweet Jaxson was sick and we had to put him to rest. He turned 11 in January - we were thankful he did not have to suffer long. He and Bunker were the absolute best dogs and we miss them so much. After Jax passed we decided pretty quickly to get another dog. Our house just felt so empty without one and the boys really wanted a puppy. So we picked out Hogan in March - he was born Feb 17th. Had a wonderful Easter down in Atlanta - everyone was healthy this year and we had a really fun time. Boys especially loved the Ninja training place they took us to. Brought Hogan home right after Easter. He's a big sweetie - loves to bite and chew though which we hope he grows out of soon! Boys love him so much and are doing a great job helping with him. We like to call him Hogey, Giant Puppy and Puppy Love. He's a great snuggler, when he's tired =-). Sam had fun playing basketball in January-February - had a great coach and team! Boys had a really fun couple of weeks with their birthdays - since they are 11 days apart we basically just celebrate for 2 weeks. And then with Dad's being 12 days after that - it's basically a birthday month! They had a fun party at Niederman Farm with about 25 friends and then a birthday party back at home with the Robertson side fam. Still can't believe they are 5 and 7!! Right after their party Sam was playing flag football and broke his collar bone - good news it's 4 weeks later and he's healing just fine! Then at the end of May we celebrated Ben's graduation from Liberty Heights preschool! He was the cutest! Going to miss Miss Amy! Now it's officially the start of summer and we're looking forward to vacation in a couple of weeks! Last picture I included is our Ninja Warrior Ben - loving his Ninja classes at GymNation - can't believe how strong he is!

Ben turns 5!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Ben Ben who just turned 5! How is our baby 5 years old already? For his birthday he insisted on getting 5 kisses, 5 hugs, 5 spankings and 5 high-fives. =-) He told everyone he could that it was his birthday!
Here are some updates on Ben:
- Ben is finishing up preschool at Liberty Heights in the Owl class with Miss Amy and Miss Tracy. He's done an awesome job at school this year. Loves Wednesday's because he gets to learn new sight words. He's even starting to read a little bit. He will start Kindergarten in August which is hard to believe!
- Ben is a Ninja. He loves his ninja class at Gymnation. And he loves watching America Ninja Warrior on tv. He is super strong and flies across monkey bars now. Even can swing and do rings now. He also just finished up Soccer Shots at preschool - really seemed to like it, but doesn't seem real excited about joining an actual soccer team in the fall. Think Dad is trying to talk him into it. Says he wants to play golf and tennis.
- Ben's favorite shows are Paw Patrol, Blaze and America Ninja Warrior.
- Ben is the slowest eater there ever was (except when it comes to desserts). Kind of drives us all crazy =-). He's always telling me to slow down! He is a chocolate man. Favorite foods are probably muffins, pancakes or waffles, peanut butter and jelly, pizza and any kind of dessert.
- Ben is riding his bike with no training wheels! We got him a new bike for his birthday that he's excited about. He loves to play outside - especially on the swing set.
- Ben doesn't really have a favorite stuffed animal. He likes to mix it up. Does love his beanie boos (which get lost in his bed and we can never find them!) He loves to bring as many as he can down to the couch every morning. Still loves his blankie too. Loves to sleep on the top bunk now every night!
- Ben is a goofball. Likes to be silly, say silly things and dance around naked while slapping his butt cheeks (definitely takes after his Dad)! He likes music a lot - says he likes "rock and roll" and will play his air guitar alongside his Mom's mean air guitar.
- Ben likes electronics and board games like Sam. Likes to play Peggle and his favorite board game right now is probably Monopoly Junior. He is also really into Lego's.
- Ben is crazy good at hidden picture searches in Highlights magazines. =-)
Ben is a great brother - has been so fun to see him get older and see him and Sam play more. He doesn't put up with Sam bugging him anymore - stands up to him which is fun to watch! Hard to believe that we were worried about Ben's speech being delayed. He is a total chatter box now! He's in a very loving and snuggly (thus the nickname Big Snug) phase that I hope he stays in forever! We love our Big Snug so much and are so proud of him!

Sam turns 7!

Well I'm having major issues uploading pictures for some reason, but wanted to wish our Sammy a Happy 7th Birthday. Here are some updates/fun facts about Sam =-)
- He likes to be punctual. Actually he likes to be early. He kind of freaks out if we don't get somewhere on time. I'm always late so we run into a little conflict. Glad he's like that, but also kind of drives me nuts.
- Sam has turned into a big eater - favorite foods are pancakes, eggs (loves and always asking for eggs), hamburgers, chicken fries, ramen noodles (though Dad won't let him eat anymore because he read some article how they are really bad for you), loves my meatloaf, tacos and anything sweet! He's a vanilla lover like his Mom.
- Sam is a little smarty pants - does really good at school and enjoys going. Reading at a 2nd/3rd grade level in first grade. He's very good at math and back in the fall we received a letter that his test score indicated he is "gifted" at math. Definitely did not get that from his Mom (or Dad for that matter) =-).
- Sam is a social butterfly - he loves playing with friends/loves being around people. Constantly asking to play with neighbor friends.
- Sam loves sports - he's doing Tae kwon do (orange belt right now), starting golf lessons and playing flag football right now. He likes soccer in the fall and basketball in the spring. He's asked to do others but told him no way Jose! Already too much on his plate - but he loves it. He also loves to watch sports - especially football and golf. Loves to watch the Bengals and would probably say his favorite golfer is Jordan Speith and Bubba.
- Sam is a good big brother (most of the time)- he and Ben play great and are now bunk bed mates.
- Sam loves electronics - his Nintendo DS, phone, xbox- he'd play all the time if we let him. Have to limit it for sure. He equally loves board games - Yahtzee is his current go-to.
- Sam loves his new puppy Hogan. It's so cute to hear him talk to Hogan. "Here buddy, give me a kiss" "Yes, I know...I love you too Hogan". I love it
- He is a sleeper - when he is out, he's out. He sleeps through bad storms, Hogan barking and Ben puking...
- Sam is goofball - likes telling jokes, likes to dance and be silly.
- Sam can be very blunt - says what he is thinking...not sure he has a filter. Kind of scares me as he gets bigger =-)
- Sam likes going to church and his Sunday school class.
- He likes his head rubbed every night (by Dad) and his back rubbed by Mom - "very very lightly" he tells me every night =-) His favorite stuffed animal is still Rufus and he loves his white blanket
- Sam's confidence has seemed to have grown in the past couple of months. He's doing awesome riding his bike and doing monkey bars.
Very proud of our 7-year old Sammy. Love him so so so much!!!!!!!!

December 2016

So my camera memory card went bad and I'm unable to upload pictures from Halloween through Thanksgiving =-( Good news is that I realized it before Christmas so I have lots of pictures from December. I also had a couple of Halloween pics on my phone so I have one of those to put on here. Our Stormtrooper and Spiderman with crazy Papa C. We had a really fun month of December with all of our annual traditions. Did the Niederman Farm Christmas walk, saw the Smith Park lights in Middletown, had fun ice skating and seeing Santa at Prasco and had fun seeing the horses at the Lebanon horse parade. We had fun celebrating Christmas early with our Robertson side and celebrated Christmas after the fact with our Smith side. Had a fun Christmas party with our neighbors. All of our family and of course Santa was very generous to the boys. They got lots of fun presents - Sam loved his Nintendo DS. Ben loves the air hockey table and his paw patrol toy and hot wheels garage. Had a fun New Year's Eve at our house and boys stayed up for the ball drop for the first time! It's now the end of January - getting over colds and sickness which is a bummer. Hoping for a healthier February. Though I can say I think we've all enjoyed a little down time with movies and lots of board games. Sam playing basketball right now and Taekwondo. Ben just finished up his music makers class and wants to try a ninja class. Both are doing great in school! Looking forward to a night at Great Wolf Lodge at the end of Feb!