fun with dad

so this is the fun that happens when the boys are killing time, waiting for me to get out of a store... we were at the mall (which we don't visit often). i was in maurice's, going as fast as i could, and i was sure that i heard benjamin yelling/crying, so i tried on two pair of pants as fast as possible, decided on one, paid and rushed out into the mall to relieve jake from what i thought was our screaming baby. i was wrong. instead, the screamer was a little, curly-haired blonde girl who wanted to eat her dad's pretzel, which he wasn't sharing. i started walking through the mall, not seeing any one of my four guys anywhere... then i found them at the other end of the mall, playing in the kid's play area (thank goodness these were invented!)  roman rushed over and showed me the picture that they took. he was so excited about the "pirate" theme on the paper.  we have this picture hanging on the fridge... so many emotions/expressions in such a small space... i love it!  $1.50 well spent, i'd say.  

song #6

driving to school today, the boys requested the CD that roman got at bethel's bible school last summer; this CD is one of their favorites.  song #6 started just as we were picking up journey, a little girl in roman's class who rides with us every other week.  as we started to drive off, roman started telling journey how much he loves this cd and that he got it at bible school and that it tells us all about jesus and how he loves us. he then talked about the words of this song... "this song is about paul and silas and they were in jail and all tied up and couldn't move, but they just kept raising their hands and praising jesus. isn't that crazy!?!"

my eyes started watering as i was listening to him ramble on, totally unfiltered and excited about what he was telling journey, which was not because he was trying to save her or convert her or anything more purposeful that just telling her about what he likes and thinks is cool!?  it was just a good reminder to me and encouragement for me to not be worried about who i'm talking to or what they'll think of me/what i'm saying/ etc... and to just be myself! and a good reminder that my little guys are SPONGES at this age... taking in everything that they see and hear!  precious little guys, they are... love them so much!  :-)

spring... just GET here! please?!

i am working on a post about my trip to nicaragua... it's harder to put my trip into words than i thought it would be... so i'm sorting through pics and waiting for a bit more inspiration for that one!  :-)

the trip was a good one - lots to process and think back on. one thing i can say for sure, i was very excited to come home to my boys!  i was also surprised to have left ames with snow on the ground, and to come home with snow falling again!  we are READY for spring here!!

in the past four weeks, we've had snow/cold and also warm'ish days ... SO confusing!

biking, even though they were in snowpants and it was cold out...
they just had to watch out for icy spots on the sidewalk!?!
thankfully, there were no injuries!

this is our snowman, "jake benjamin".

goodness, they all look like they're tired...
 they really were having a great time, i promise!!

Easter weekend... it was sunny out, and sort of warm... so they boys hunted easter eggs in our yard wearing short-sleeve shirts, jeans and snow boots... stashing their eggs in their halloween bags. fun times here at the stotts house!  :-)

i didn't think i was going to get a group pic of us/them, so i was quickly getting a smile from each fella... 

...and then we all got motivated to take a quick pic on the deck.  i sort of knew how this would turn out... all three, sort of looking at the same place, all making different faces... eh, i've done this before.   

so the tub is one place where they're all captive (sort of), and if i have jake standing behind me, we can get some fun shots!!  

jake got home early from work last night, so we bundled up (because it was sunny, yet windy) and helped him haul everything "summer" out of our shed.  so our deck is now summer-ready, covered in picnic tables/chairs, a fire pit, our storage tub of outdoor fun, and dump trucks of all sizes!

...so i think that i just talked about weather the MOST that i've ever talked about it in one post. not sure what that says about me... just think i'm really ready to be able to play outside every day!!  :-)