This How We Celebrate 5!!

5's a big deal around here! (just in case you couldn't tell by the trip to Disneyland!)  It feels like it's the jumping point into boyhood.  He's no longer a toddler, not a pre-schooler, not a little boy - He's a boy! (and boy-oh-boy is he all boy!)  I'm so proud (and humbled by) of this sweet, shy, goofy, precious blessing from God, I'm bursting at the seams.  What a gift he his.  I'm amazed that God entrusted this sweet life into my hands.  His life is one to celebrate, so we did it up big!

After the Disneyland trip, we celebrated his birthday on Mother's Day with all the family.

Here he is with Auntie and the awesome superhero cake she made:

I missed the blow out the candle picture, so here he is being silly and trying to "fake it" for me:

Here's the bday boy posing with his two favorite guys!

Opening presents with the help of his favorite cousin! (these 2 love each other!!)

Enjoying his strawberry birthday cake, his choice, don't know where that idea came from!

He got to celebrate his actual birth-day at pre-school with all of his little friends.  He loved getting to wear the birthday crown!

Getting sung to.  He's so funny, he's so shy, yet you could see him beaming at the attention.

I "made" ice cream cups with super hero suckers popping out the top.  He wanted ice cream to take to school and I was more than happy not to bake!

Then, later that afternoon, we had three friends over to celebrate with a few games and more ice cream.
Here's our superhero tower that was knocked down (in the backyard) by the marshmallow shooters below. (thank you pinterest!)

Another pinterest find, water balloon pinatas!  These guys were harder to pop then we thought they would be!

 The birthday guests!

 The "cake" is a box of vanilla ice cream with re-used decorations from the cake my sister made and it's surrounded by all of Thomas' favorite ice cream toppings.

Uh-oh!!!  Here's Thomas with two of his friends from church (they are also in mom's group with him and our weekly home group).  If you ask him if he has a girlfriend, he will shyly answer that it's the sweet one on the right!! (just had to note that for the future!)

And here's his best buddy!  These two crack me up!  They have so much fun running around together.  Can't wait to see them grow up together.

Oh my sweet Thomas, what a love you are!!  I praise Jesus for you everyday!!

More Cousin Fun!!

We got a special visit from family last week.  My mom and sister decided to join us at Mother's of Faith.  It was fun having them there, especially since it was the first time my sister was able to come.  I was teaching, so that was different to have family there listening.  It was just a short lesson on a few mother's in the Bible with lots of opportunity to discuss and think.  After the lesson we all got to do a craft!  We made resurrection eggs.  The moms were excited to do something a little different and to just have the fellowship time.  (I'll have to get some pictures of the eggs up, didn't think to take pictures of us doing them... bummer!)

After group, we all headed back here for a healthy lunch (5 guys--- not so healthy, but grammy's favorite!) and some quality hang out time.  We had no agenda for the time, just to sit around and visit.  That's a thing to treasure, we Stansberry girls seem to have it running through our blood that there must always be something productive done.  But sometimes, the sitting is more productive and just what really needs to happen.

While we enjoyed our coffee and chat time, the boys kept busy playing and napping.  Thomas pulled out the tent for he and Ethan to play with and when Ethan went down for a nap, Thomas got a chance to hold Andrew.  Can't you just see the love of Thomas on Andrew's face.  Thomas' love for his cousins just warms my heart!!

A little more on family...

It's been a few weeks now, but when Andrew was just a week old, I was able to go and spend the day with my sister and her family.  I wanted to go up and there and be a help in whatever way I could.  That meant my sweet ones spent the day with Grandma Matlock having fun so I could just focus on the Byer's family.

I got to snuggle this precious little blessing:

And play with this sweet one:

It was a day full of blessing.  Ross got out of the house for a little bit.  Audra and I got to visit.  I folded her laundry and even did a few dishes.  Then I got to hold Andrew while everyone napped and get dinner going!  All throughout the day, I got to be "Auntie."  This is a role I haven't really gotten to focus on lately!  Benjamin and Ethan are just a few weeks apart, so for all of Ethan's life I've been busy being a mommy (just as it should be, yes.  but, a little sad to not have had the time to really get to know Ethan).  That Friday, I got to focus on Ethan.  We read books, played with trucks, visited and just had a good time.  Audra and Ross left for awhile and I got to give Ethan dinner.  He had fun eating yogurt with his hands and I had fun just enjoying him.  We bonded.  It was a blessing to me and a blessing for my sister.  We were best buds by the time I left.  He even cried!

Then, just a few days later, they Byers family made their way to our house for the super bowl and we all got many more blessings of life with 3 little boys running around!  As you can see below, the boy-ness is really kicking in!  They are all little boys now.  Not babies, not too much toddler left in them, just all boys!  We rode bikes and they had their first wrestling match!  Ethan and Benjamin loved tacking Thomas and Thomas couldn't get enough!

Benjamin was fascinated with baby Andrew and would just stare at him.  That was a blessing to my heart!

 We had superbowl sundaes and all enjoyed them!

 And here they all are!  The 4 cousins!  Maybe someday a girl will get thrown into the mix!

I had to get these two cute shots in of the guys on the bikes.  They aren't quite able to move them around too much, but it was fun to watch them have fun and try.

More on My Sweet Nephew

As promised, I am finally posting more pictures of this sweet little boy.  It's been almost 2 weeks since I've seen him and I just know that he has changed and gotten bigger.  So, in honor of his 3 week birthday, I wanted to share his birth story.

As you know, he came several weeks early.  All along, my sister's time table was several weeks off from the doctors, so she wasn't surprised with his early appearance.  What brought it on was a surprise.  She began showing signs of pre-eclampsia (sp?).  The doctor called her into labor & delivery to be checked.  They monitored her for almost 12 hours and finally decided it would be better for her and sweet Andrew if they induced her.  She gave me a call at 10:00pm to let me know that if I wanted to be there for his birth, I better get on up to the hospital.  So, off I went, got a few hours of sleep at my parents and got to the hospital.  At 6am they told her it would still be awhile, so I got a few more hours of sleep.  

Thankfully, I got ancy and headed back to the hospital around 9:30.  She felt things moving along down there, was checked at 10am and told the doctor she was going to have the baby by 10:30.  Sure enough, he was born at 10:31.  When Audra makes up her mind, she has made up her mind!!

I can't even begin to explain how amazing it was to be part of this birth!!  I missed Ethan's birth, since I had my own little one at home (only 4 weeks old!  and I was sleep deprived!) and both my boys were C-sections.  it was awesome to be a part of a birth and witness this miracle.  It was a blessing to be able to share it with my sister!  I was able to pray with her as she was trying not to push.  Hold her hand and cry with her as we heard his first cries.  Then, I got to cut the cord!!  Andrew and I bonded at that very moment!!  It was so COOL.  I'm sure there's a better, smarter word, but really!!  It was so cool!!

So here are a few pictures of that special day.

As he was being measured, he just held tightly onto my finger.  Talk about warming an Auntie's heart!!

This is when I became Aunty Flash!!  He's squinting because I was taking too many pictures!

Here's my big boy all excited to go up and see his new cousin!!

Grammy and Papa getting some early snuggles!!

Sweet Benjamin getting his first glimpse of the little bundle.

Andrew with his daddy, auntie jenica and grandpa byers

i finally got a few sweet moments to snuggle with him!!

Then the boys got to come back in and meet Andrew.  They couldn't take their eyes off of him.

Ethan getting to meet Andrew was so sweet!  He was momentarily more excited about his new car than his new brother, but when the excitement of the car was over, he couldn't get over his brother!

Andrew is Here

Just 2 short days ago, my baby sister gave birth to her second son!  I was able to be there for the birth and it was just simply amazing.  I have so much to go on and on about, but for now... some pictures, since I know that's what you all really want!!

Look at these two, sleeping!!!  Audra kept saying I was way more excited for what was going to happen then the rest of them.  Yep!  I was, cuz I didn't have to do the hard work.

Here he is, all squishy and new!!

Weighing in at 7lbs, 21 inches--- big boy for being 5 weeks "early"

and a very healthy set of lungs

I loved the tongue!  He did this several times.

The sweet boys!  We need another shot with Ethan in it as well.  I got a little excited and wanted one with my boys and the baby... Then when Ethan got there, it was too exciting!  He was a sweet big brother.  In the meantime though, check out my mom with her girls and her grandsons!

I'll be back with more real soon!!

A Party For a Special Little Boy

We just celebrated my nephew's first birthday!! It was so much fun, we made a weekend out of it! We headed to mom and dad's on Friday, played with some friends Saturday am, I head to party central at noon to find a way to calm, pregnant mommy of the birthday boy (my normally not calm sister) ready for me to do "whatever." So we relaxed for awhile and then got into the decorating, set-up fun! Here are the pics I got on my camera:

Our last minute centerpieces:

It was a space theme, that's a start that's crooked.

We re-used B's birthday banner and made and "Ethan" out of starts (not photographed)
The birthday boy enjoying the bday meal:

This beautiful cake was made by Audra's friend, Lauren. It was amazing!! Ethan really did love it, he was just upset to find out the whole thing wasn't for him!
Much happier now!

He enjoyed the cake and even the singing. It was so cute, he kept clapping for himself.
The birthday family! Ethan's showing off his cake:
"Yeah, presents!!"

What to play with first?

Yep, those are my sweet boys and yep, they are matching! I loved it! They're having fun here bouncing with Papa!