Look-A-Likes

A poster for people to look at I had up at both parties called "Who's Who?" Just some pictures where the boys are in similar positions or the same clothes! It's funny, to me they looked more alike when they were newborns and now, in my opinion, they only have coloring in common. Although, they still look related. One thing is for sure, I love watching these boys grow and change and become little men!  

Jonathan - 3 Days Old - Just arrived home for the first time!

 Benjamin - 2 Days Old - About to leave the hospital for the first time!

 Jonathan - 1 Week Old

Benjamin - 1 Week old - you can tell it's Ben if you look at the blanket - It's been washed a few times! :) - My Grandma O'Brien made it!!  

 Jonathan!!

 

 Ben!

 Jonathan - Santa Baby - 7 months

  Benjamin - Santa Baby - 7 months

Captain Adorable #1      

                                                              

Captain Adorable #2      

Jonathan - The Famous Bath Photo at my mom and dad's! 

Benny in the Bath! 

Jonathan - 1 Year Old  

Benjamin - 1 Year Old

(And sadly, the bench just broke, it came with the house, so it was really old, but no more bench photos;( )

Cake Decorating

I decided to let Jonathan decorate his own cake for the second party. I was really just trying to get out of making another "shaped" cake, like the airlplane. He wasn't really understanding that Ben's party was also for him too and I remembered seeing a Pioneer Woman episode where she said she always lets the kids decorate the cakes! And I thought that was genius! And it got him exited about the second party!! I just made a 9" round chocolate cake and my famous butter cream frosting! I bought some fun candies for the party any, so I just poured them in bowls and told him to have at it!

By the way, so many of you love my Butter Cream Frosting, here is the recipe! It's so funny, my mother taught me to make Butter Cream Frosting, but she was never one to use recipes. She was a "little of this, little of that...taste it...add more of something..." kind of baker/cook. I AM NOT! I need precise instructions! So after trying my hand at the little of this and that method to make her frosting, I got frustrated and went to the Internet searching! The funny thing is, a lot of frosting recipes require cooking on the stove top, but not this one. This is the exact ingredients and exact method that she used, just more precise! :) - Make it, you'll love it!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butter-frosting/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=%22butter%20frosting%22&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

 Before!

 Perfect placement for M&M's

 Serious about Sprinkles

CANDY! 

The Artist with his Masterpiece

After

Jonathan's Birthday Party at School

That's right, ONE more party to share with you! Of course, it is his classroom party! I made chocolate cupcakes with blue sugar sprinkles! It was so much fun!

The class singing "Happy Birthday"

 Some of Jonathan's classmates.

Head of the table, these are assigned seats! 

 Little brother might be feeling a little left out!

Singing the "Superman Prayer" - it is so cute. 

To the Superman Theme song tune:

"Thank you God, for giving us friends.

Thank you God, for giving us food.

For giving us food.

For giving us friends.

Thank you God.

Amen."

 All the sudden, I hear a commotion in the other part of the room and I realize, my other little ham is telling jokes or something. All the kids are laughing and Ben is acting pretty proud of himself and laughing too. He decided to just make himself apart of the group. I guess I am glad that neither of my boys are shy AT ALL!

So I moved Benny over near brother. Jonathan's teacher gave Ben a couple of crackers to enjoy while he watched all the kids eat cupcakes...sorry buddy! :)

Art Fest 2012

Every year Jonathan's school has an Art Fest. It is a fundraiser for the school and lots and lots of fun. The 2's, 3's and 4's each sing a song. You might remember from last year!
This year Jonathan's class sang "What a Mighty God We Serve" and it was oh so cute! He is not shy about being on stage and I love it, I hope he doesn't lose that! Benjamin had a blast! He loved all the children's performances and clapped and cheered!

This is him right before the big performance!!! From the left: Brady, Piper, Luke, Diego, JONATHAN, Owen, and Chloe! - Just a few of his friends from class!

Here is the video of the performance!!!

Benjamin's 1st Birthday

Our little Benny-boo turned 1 on April 29th! This year we decided to let Jonathan have his own party on his actual birthday and invite all his friends. But we also wanted to have a party for Ben to celebrate his 1st Birthday. So we invited family to both parties and said, if you choose 1, please choose the party on the 29th. We also invited some close friends!! We made that more of a double party to celebrate Jonathan with the family too. I know the boys had a blast, I hope everyone else did too! Thank you so much to everyone who came and made the boy's Birthday's so special!
I'll admit that I was a little exhausted by the time this party started. So much so, that I forgot a bunch of food that I had ready in the garage refrigerator. Oh well, I guess I am officially open to suggestions on how to celebrate two Birthday's 1 week apart! It was fun, but I think we are all still recovering!
As you can imagine, lots of pictures...I'll try not to post ALL my favorites! ;)

The Birthday Boys! (and best buds!) When Jonathan saw this picture he said, "Hey, where did my color go?"


OUTDOOR PLAY TIME...Cars, Swings, Bubbles, and Airplanes! Oh My!

Chris (Hudson's Daddy), Hudson, Will, Ben and Waylen (Will's Daddy)! All the little dudes congregated together! Hudson is 11 months and Will is 16 months!

Chris, Shannon, Hudson, Michael and Lisa...All trying to figure out what to do with little walking Birthday Boy! (Ben is trying to go play with the big kids!) Ben had been walking on and off for about a month and a half, but on his birthday he decided crawling was not cool anymore.

Scarlet = Pure FUN

It was Ben's nap time and he is just about to fall asleep here! Plus a great shot of the siblings! 

Jonathan's favorite phrase is "Double Trouble". I think I like it when he says it, because he doesn't quite understand it just yet. Like Ben will drop food on the floor and J will shake his head and say, "Double Trouble Ben". - But one day I will show this to him and tell him, THIS is Double Trouble!!! :)

Scarlet, Joseph, Owen and Joe...and our little hot-rod taking Katie for a spin!

Holly, Ben and Owen!

Ba Ba Ba Benny and the Bubble Machine.

The family all gathered around: Waylen, Will, Amy, Leanna, Sarah, Holly, Joe and Owen.


CAKE TIME!!!!

 Ben's Cake!! Vanilla Cake with Butter Cream Frosting and Green Sugar Sprinkles on top. So funny because Jonathan's first cake was Sugar Free Applesauce Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting. Funny how things change with the second one...Oh Well!

 What is this???

 Don't Care, 'cause it's good!

 Sweet Boy.

Jonathan's turn! He had his very own cake too! Chocolate Cake with Butter Cream Frosting and...lots and lots of other stuff! I let him decorate it himself! He had too much fun doing it! I gave him bowls of candies and jars of sugar sprinkles! I have tons of pictures of him decorating, so I will have to share it soon too! There are M&M's, Skittles, Gummy Worms, Gummy Bears, Runts, and Orange Slices - Pretty gross if you ask me!

 This is what everyone else ate. It is supposed to look like a Caterpillar.

The Food Table...minus the food I forgot to put out (I won't forgive myself for this for a while). It was Hungry Caterpillar Themed. So we had all the food from the book. Example: On Monday he ate an Apple, On Tuesday is ate 2 Pears (I forgot the Pears)...etc. On Saturday he ate a whole bunch of stuff and I tried to include of all of it!

PRESENT TIME!!!!

Pat, Olga and Michael starting off the opening!

Jonathan and I did a lot of the opening too! The other kiddos helped with playing with the new toys! it was so much fun!

Benny doesn't know where to start!!

Taking a break to hug Daddy!

Good times!

Stopping to read one of his new books!

 LOOK AT THIS! So many wonderful and generous gifts and so many wonderful people! Thank you so much everyone!

 Holly (you can see her knees behind Scarlet) is getting the kids to JUMP! I love Olga's face!

 A Group Photo of all the kids! Owens profile, Scarlet, Ben, Will, Katie, Joseph and Jonathan!!!! Love these kids!

Now the party is officially over...Benny says, "It's my party and I'll cry if I want too!" - He was just tired and wanted OFF the couch!

Thank you again everyone!