may fun!

summer is ALMOST here!  i feel like it's not really here until school is out... and ames goes until june 4 this year, so we've got about two weeks left!  roman is actually skipping is last two days of preschool to go to bible school in wayland - something he's enjoyed in the past and talks about throughout the year, so we thought it was a good decision!

we have been loving this weather for sure -- spend most afternoons in the backyard, sometimes the front yard, and sometimes on walks around the neighborhood! roman leads on his bike, josiah follows on his trike and benjamin is pulled in the wagon as the "caboose".  it works for us.  :)  josiah can't quite reach the pedals on the trike, so he "fred flinstone's" his way around -- sometimes he'll put his head down close to the handlebars and put it in high gearing, quietly cruising past roman, who is unsuspecting that anything is happening.  it's pretty funny to watch. 

i feel like i've totally dropped the ball on mentioning benjamin's milestones... actually, i'm not sure that i ever got a good start on his like i did with the other two.  he's been making some major progress in the past few weeks -- we've put all of the bottles away (YEAH!) and are on to sippy cups for everything, no more "bottles before bed", he's feeding himself pretty well, and he's even starting to pull up on to some furniture!  he is still a scooter -- slides around on his booty -- no crawling, cruising or walking yet for this guy. we've decided that he scoots SO far and it works for him, that he has probably decided he doesn't need to crawl or cruise yet!  psht! but I do think that he is starting to get a bit frustrated when he tries to stand up to play with the big boys and can't... so i'm guessing he'll put it all together sooner than later!  :-)

I realized that I haven't really taken any pics of benjamin's "scooting" action... so here it is!

I let Benjamin feed himself yogurt one morning. The spoon worked for
him two times, but then he must have got tired of working so hard at it, so he
resorted to fistfuls for yogurt, but still held the spoon in the other
hand.  He was immediately put into the tub after this breakfast encounter!

and here is a short video of some sandbox fun...

here are some pics of what we've been up to... nothing exciting or crazy... just some fun at the stotts house!

dirty toes = happy boys  (enough said, right?!)

roman, searching for termites. we have never had termites at our
house that I know of.  this obsession with finding termites came
after we got the april issue of Ranger Rick, Jr.  ewww, gross. 

josiah loves standing in the window of the play house and
leaning out to this tree branch.  only once has he swung out
and needed my help to get down (at least that i know of!?)

the boys LOVE playing in the sandbox.  so much that jake built a
bigger sandbox that all three boys can fit in, along with their
trucks, diggers, etc!  i even sat in there with them one day. 

so the "old" sandbox is now a "rock box" - we put some leftover
pea gravel  in it... they can still bulldoze, scoop, dig and  push things
 around... it's  just a little cleaner than the sandbox!

the boys...

a happy mother's day pic of me and my boys!  :-)