Johnny is 2!

My baby boy turned two years old on May 7th!!!  I don't want to believe it.  I keep thinking he's going to be my baby forever, but he keeps growing and getting bigger and talking and learning things.  He's such a fun child, and I am still so, so in love with him.  My third time around, and I am amazed at how he is saying words and stringing sentences together and putting together the world around him.  I love seeing the world through his eyes as he learns and discovers new things and excitedly points out animals he sees.  He is precious.  On Johnny's actual birthday we celebrated with a visit to Yogurtland which we all love.  We serenaded him, and he was all smiles.

I'd planned his birthday party for that following Friday when Steven would be able to be there with us to celebrate.  We'd planned to have a picnic in the park and play with family and friends that afternoon, but after a storm was brewing and threatening to rain on our party we called it off last minute and had everyone join us at our house instead.  Thank goodness for my sweet mother-in-law who came over early and helped me shift gears and get everything set up!

We had Chick-fil-A nuggets and chicken salad sandwiches with fruit, chips and cupcakes.  Thankfully the weather didn't turn out too ugly, but it was pretty darn windy.  The kids wasted no time and after eating commenced to running around and making up new games.

Look at these party people!!!

Johnny is wild about Yo Gabba Gabba, so I went with colorful cupcakes as a nod to his favorite show. Everytime I ask Johnny if he wants to watch Gabba (while I make dinner, of course) he trots off to the living room shouting, "Will!!  Babba!!!  Babba, Will!!!!"  And Will comes running in, and the two of them cuddle up in the same chair together and Will always sings the intro song to Johnny while Matt rolls his eyes.  It's pretty cute.

Chocolate cupcakes are gooooooood!

The two Hanks hamming it up.

Grandma & Grandpa gave Johnny two very fun and noisy gifts that he has loved.  One is a remote that sings, but Johnny thinks it's a phone because he's always holding it up to his ear and having conversations.

My little sweetness is growing up.  I can still snuggle him a little bit though, and he lets me kiss those sweet little cheeks.  Time is flying.  I wish it would slow down.

April

Matthew is the first to rise in the mornings so he can get ready for school.  His brothers could sleep in if they wanted to, but they very rarely do.  They sit at the table and support their big brother.  And they are endlessly amused by him.  These 3 boys are buddies, and it is the sweetest thing to watch.

Steven and I had a hot date out on our own (thanks to Aunt Pam!).  We saw The National perform at ACL live.  It was a great venue for old folks like us who don't really care to stand for the entire show and would rather sit and gently bob our heads to the music.  It was a great show.

In April we took the kids back to Sweet Berry Farms but this time with our Rener friends.  This time, there were strawberries galore!  We only went down one aisle and collected 3 full baskets worth.  Huge, ripe, red berries ready to eat.

The kids had a blast picking them and trying to find the reddest and biggest ones.  Johnny loved running up and down the aisles, picking the fruit and saying hi to the goats.  He looks like he's got something in mind, doesn't he?

Ava & Matt always scale this fence and gaze at the horses.

I came home with a huge load of berries.  Most of which we either ate or I put in the freezer for future baked goods and margaritas!

After all that berry picking we went back to the Rener's to dye Easter eggs and bake resurrection rolls, a little tradition we've tried to continue throughout the years.  They were all very focused.  Johnny frustrated all of them by moving the eggs around to different dye baths.  Maybe next year he'll get it.  :)

Easter Sunday we enjoyed early church together before Steven had to be at work.

That afternoon we went over to Mimi & Papa's to celebrate with family.  Lucy brought her tiny little toy animals, and she & Johnny had a ball looking at them and attempting to make all their animal sounds.  Uncle Bryan got them going with monkey sounds.

After we ate a fantastic ham dinner with all the yummy accompaniments, the kids were dying to hunt eggs.  The waiting was unbearable.  Why is it taking so loooooooooong???  Well, because there was a ridiculous amount of eggs to be hidden!

And then they took off.  John really didn't understand the concept at all.  I helped him find his first egg, and he proceeded to do exactly what Matt did at that age: he sat right down, opened it, and ate all the jellybeans inside that egg.  He found all he needed!

Will's excitement is so cute, and I love Matt inventorying his egg stash in the background.

The two Hanks.  Such cute trouble.

Look at all those kids!  Thankful they were still enough for a picture.

My beautiful nieces.  Growing up.

I kept finding Will passed out in the living room chair on more than one occasion.  He for sure needs more sleep than Matthew but won't stay in bed in the morning and sleep after he hears Matt get up.  Lately though, I've trained Matt to quietly tip-toe out in the mornings without turning on his light and come out in the living room and read, and thankfully Will will stay asleep now.

Matt had a research project at school.  The kids were all assigned a different fruit to research and gather facts about.  They had to collect information on their fruit and write down facts on index cards.  They also had to make a food friend to present to the class as well as the parents one morning.  Matt was assigned star fruit.  His food friend turned out pretty well I think.  And, to brag on my son, the teacher was so impressed with his fact cards that she asked if she could keep them as an example for future students.  :)

And, here's Will and his cool moves.

March

Wow, so waaaay back in March Matthew had his Sports Day at school---a highly anticipated day where the kids play field games and just have fun all day long.  Matt was teamed up with his buddies for most of the day.

When it came time for the baton relay, Matt was pumped and ready.  I didn't get to go watch him that day, but when he came and told me about the relay he said, "Mom, I was on a team of girls." What?  Girls can run too!

So, I'm not sure what I like best about this video.  The armpit farts at the end or Steven's giggles.  Classic.

Spring Break was a rather chilly week.  No complaints about that!  We took advantage of the lovely weather and went to the Waco zoo with the Rener crew.

We saw some really amazing animals: orangutans, tigers, a kimodo dragon, elephants, giraffes, bears, otters, and meerkats to name a few.  Johnny loves animals so he was fascinated by everything he saw.  He kept trying to get into the animal displays.

Matt reading a map while sitting in his babiest brother's stroller.  Pretty sure he's way over the weight limit that that stroller can handle.

These two...inseparable.  It was so cute listening to them talk about the animals they saw.  They really enjoyed it.

Little Johnny was a trooper and kept right up with those big kids.  He was thrilled to see all those animals we only see in books (that we read over and over and over) up close.  He fell asleep right away on the drive home, even with all those other kids giggling all around him.

There were a few Sundays back in the spring when Will would fall asleep either in the chair or on Steven.  He would not be convinced to go and actually take a nap.

And another little sleeper right here.  Poor guy gets woken up from naps all the time.  So precious to see him sleeping so peacefully.  And he's filling up that crib!  Thankfully, he still loves it and has made no moves to try and escape the thing.  Yay!

Matthew was ready for another go at flag football, only this time we switched leagues.  This time around we were only committed to one day a week with practice and the game back to back.  It worked out much better for us.

After Matt's football game one Saturday we drove out to Marble Falls to scope out the town.  The kids were pretty patient with our driving and exploring for the most part, but you knew when they had had their fill.  The whining came on like a steam train and didn't stop.  We ended the day at Sweet Berry Farms for some strawberry picking.

The plants were still pretty immature due to our crazy winter so we didn't come away with too much fruit, but it was still fun to be out there in such a beautiful setting.  And that didn't stop Matthew from scouring those plants to try and fill up our box.

Johnny wasn't complaining.  He found plenty of good fruit right off the ground to eat.  A little dirt never hurt anyone, right?  Blech.

Johnny was most captivated by the goats.  He and Will fed them for quite some time.  The delight John gets from seeing live animals is the best.  He squeals with joy every time, I love it.

Not sure what these two are doing...impersonating a goat?

Back at home Mr. J is still his charming, busy self.  He loves to be outside.  At some point nearly each day he and I are outside while the other two are inside racing cars or building Lego.  He says, "C'mon, Mommy!!" in the sweetest little voice while gesturing me toward him.  How can I say no?

For the two hours Matthew was engaged in football, I was charged with the task of running the other two around and keeping them entertained, out of trouble, and off the football fields.  We found these hurdles all chained together, and Will & John made it a game of crawling through them.  They ran around the track, played in the long jump and sand pits, and jumped on the crash pad under the high jump.  With snacks in hand at every event, of course.

In March the hills at the middle school where Matt played his games were covered in beautiful bluebonnets.

Lots of park time with these three.  Lots of 'tude, too.

This spring was the windiest one I can remember.  It made for a great kite flying day one afternoon.

After school one day Will fell asleep while cuddled next to Matthew.  I think he did it the next day too. Still wouldn't take a nap though.

Steven took the older two out to Goldthwaite to go collect his hunting gear and visit his Uncle & Aunt. Matt's favorite part about going there is looking for bones.  It never disappoints!

And this is a slice of life with these 4 boys.