Rain Run

There is no denying, Brandon is the fun parent. He can take a boring rainy day and turn it into "The BEST. DAY. EVER" I don't know what prompted him to think taking kids out in the pouring rain and running up and down the street in bare feet was a good idea, but the kids loved it. 

This has become a almost daily tradition and the rain never seems to stop these days!

My kids are pretty lucky to have such a fun daddy!

Happy Father's Day....a bit late

I did a brief coverage of Fathers Day in this post , however, I didn't go into all the really awesome things we did for Brandon to celebrate the day. 

Ok, well,they weren't so awesome! 

Back story: We bought an ArtWise calendar this year from Elias when they were selling them for the art program at school. On the calendar, it had father's day being the 22nd of June. I woke up on June 15th and found myself annoyed by all the people who were posting about their fathers, a whole week early! Why on earth was everyone celebrating so early this year. I googled Fathers day 2014 and lo and behold, it WAS the 15th!!! My calendar was wrong. 

I had nothing planned. No photo collage, no video montage, no cards..NOTHING. Well, lucky for us, daddy sleeps in later then the rest of us, so I had time. 

I had the kids tell me things they loved about Brandon, then I typed them up and printed them out. We got out the crayons , scissors and glue and went to town. It was a wonderful quite activity to do while Samuel slept!

 After the coloring and cutting was done, I hung up the pictures and we got dressed and headed back downstairs to make daddy some special muffins! I found a very yummy chocolate chip muffin recipe a few weeks back and they have been a bi-weekly must! Everyone loves them including Brandon! I don't know if it is because we use raw butter and milk or if it is just that good of a recipe, but boy are they good! Annie did a great job helping me eat more chips then we put in, mix in the chips and pour the batter into the pan. After the muffins were done, Samuel taste tested them, he approved, so we brewed Daddy some coffee and woke him up!

 The card is actually from my mom but I pretended it was from me for a moment

After all the babies and daddy were up and fed, I took some really great pictures of the 5 of them. Please feel free to laugh at the annoyance and finally acceptance on Benjamin's face. No wonder the poor kid isn't too fond of his brother!

Some of the things the kids wrote on paper for Brandon were:

" I love going on rain runs with you"

" I like when you play with me"

"I like when you go to work to try to get money for us"

" I like when you play video games with me"

" I like when you snuggle me"

Happy Fathers day to our very hard working daddy!!! We love you!!!!

"Cousins"

Mim has been dating Jeff for all of my children's lives. While my kids don't call him grandpa, he certainty is one to them! Jeff has a 2 year old grand daughter Norah that he gets to spend time with in the summer.She was up for a visit during Nana's visit and they stuck around Grand Forks for a few extra days. Mim and Jeff had been on kid duty so much with the family being in town, we decided to have the kids over at our house so they could eat a kid free meal and take in a movie. My kids really only know one cousin their age, Gavin, so it is nice that Norah will grow up being like a cousin to them!

Funny side story- we call our courtyard the quarry. It stems from Elias' Thomas loving days. Anyways, Jeff grew up in an area where there were actual quarries and when we told him where we were going, he grew pretty concerned about us taking 5 small kids there!No worries Jeff, our quarry is just around the corner!

 Annie was a great leader! She was so excited to go and play with the kids, she pulled the wagon all the way to the quarry!

 The girls played some mean baseball while the boys looked for pine cones.

 Getting ready to play hide and seek!

 Love this picture of little Benjamin and Norah running!

 This picture pretty much sums up our lives and parents of lots of kids

 Benjamin stole a kiss

 Elias was really excited to practice his climbing skills

Sammie!

Eberhardt Family Reunion

The New York family left on Wednesday afternoon, and on Saturday afternoon it was already time for another large family visit! This time, from the Eberhardt side of the family!

Brandon the kids and I couldn't make it to the cities for his cousins Cassie's wedding last year due to sick kids. Since then, his Aunt Sue had really been wanting to get us all together for a visit and she made it happen!We reserved the pavilion across the street and we had a good ole fashion family BBQ.

Each person brought something delicious and I think we all ate ourselves silly. Good food. Good family. Good times!

There was only one downside, it happen to be the hottest day we have had in WEEKS. It was 86 degrees and hot hot hot. We stayed outside for about 3 hours but did eventually move indoors for the last hour or so. 

Brandon's Dad's side of the family consists of the two parents( both his grandparents have passed away) 4 children( three living) 6 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Everyone was able to make it with the exception of one of Brandon's Uncles and one of his cousins. 

It was very nice to be able to get everyone together and to catch up a bit. The Eberhardts seem to be plagued with bad luck and medical problems so seeing everyone healthy and happy was wonderful!

In ture Amber fashion, I took some pictures! 

 Daddy and Sammie hanging out

 The "Eberhardts" Brandon's Uncle Dave, Aunt Sue, Cousins Adam, Cassie and cousin-in-law, Mike

 In 2010, while visiting the national zoo in D.C, I bought this spray bottle fan thing. It has sat in the closet for the last four years and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Today proved why. Benjamin LOVED it!

 Cousins! Brandon, Jordan, Cassie, Adam and Amber. Just missing Amber's Brother Nathan

 Cassie and her husband MIke

 Mike was great with kids!

 Eberhardt family photo!

 Brandon's Aunt Sue and Uncle Warren 

 Brandon's cousin Amber and her husband Eric, and their fur babies

 Final pictures with family before the long drive home!

In much relieving news, Brandon's Aunt and Uncle did confirm that Samuel looks JUST like baby Bruce( Brandon's father) phew, we were starting to worry he was switched at birth!

Nana's Last Night

For the last night in town, we threw a BBQ at our house. Jordan manned the grill, and the rest of us chased babies and visited. 

Mim's birthday is the end of June and her family wanted to celebrate with her. Nana and Brandon picked up a dairy queen cake and we surprised her with cake and a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday. 

 Who even knows what is going on in this picture!

 Jeff's grand daughter Norah was in town visiting him, isn't she a doll?!

 SURPRISE, Happy Birthday!

 I LOVE this picture. The kids are just waiting to get their mouths on that cake!

The next morning, Nana and family stopped by to visit one last time and say our final goodbyes. The kids were all very sad to see the New York Family go! They had so much fun this week!!