The Fast the Furious, and the Fireworks.

Hey Everyone!

Life has been full and busy.  Here's the run down.

Anthony 

He is becoming the yard man, and is having fun trying to find ways to improve our greenery.  He also just finished a week-long training at work, and is tackled by the boys every night when he gets home.  Both Anthony and I also just finished an online (coursera) art class, which was 6 weeks long, and fun to do together, but not very impressive. His baseball league only has the championship games left before they're through for the summer.  

Sharon  

I have a handful of projects lined up and ready to tackle.  Our latest completed project was the bathroom.

Before  

After

 My African comb collection.  I bought a cheep frame for $4 at Salvation Army, sanded and painted it, then used a cloth napkin for the background.  

Our Chilean Masks

The fact that the bathroom actually has art hanging on the wall, officially makes it the classiest room in our house.  The total project only cost $19.  Yippee!   

Anyway, I've also been getting better at running...slowly.  But I've met my goal of running 2 miles 3 times a week, a few weeks in a row and rewarded myself with some real running clothes.  Goodbye ill-fitting men's gym shorts from my mission and huge t-shirts from high school!  They'll make great pjs.

Ira

Ira completed his "quiet dragon" chart, which means he went out in public 15 times without growling or snarling at ANYONE!  Yes, this is big news in our house.  He's been less of a dragon and more of a real boy lately, surprising us often with how kind and social he is with other.  That's much of the time, but sometimes he still has emotional melt downs and will start hitting everything in sight.  And this morning he was entertaining himself by (can you guess?) being a dragon, and broke a window.  Arg.  Not the best start to the week, since Eliot cut his hand on it.  The upside is that Ira decided to donate his allowance (about $1.50 total) to the cause of replacing the window.

 

Ira also likes to spend a lot of his time chilling on his bike.

Eliot

He is a happy, energetic, curious, little tornado.  I can't create order as quickly as he creates chaos, so it's good that he's so stinking cute.  A few weeks a go, he figured out how to open the bathroom doors, which for some insane reason (my suggestion) we put lever handles on.  We went to the Doctor's for his 15 month checkup, where we found that his weight is back up from his stomach bug at 12 months, and is all around healthy.  Ira tried to dance around to make him happy while he got a few shots and blood taken. 

Eliot is sort of/maybe saying a couple of words, but not very consistently.  His main expression is "Uh-oh!" which he says almost consonantly as he does things like tares books of the book shelf, or whips his applesauce all over the kitchen.  He currently has several bruises on his head.  Some from running quickly into walls, and some from trying to pick up objects off the ground without bending his legs.  It's pretty funny to watch the physics of it all.  His proportionally giant head just kind of falls to the ground before his tiny arms can pick up the object.  Fortunately he's a toughy and rarely seems to notice when he's beating himself up.

Like Father Like Son

   

Anthony at age 2

 Eliot at 15 months.

Quinn Visit

It's always a blast having Grandma and Grandpa come visit.  They spoil us with fun like Hungry Hungry Hippos.  Anthony and Paul were also able to construct the perfect monitor stand, so our "t.v." isn't leaning up against the fireplace any more. 

The Fourth of July was fabulous.  

We attended the Ypsilanti parade with some old friends and in the evening joined some new friends for a BBQ and early evening fireworks.

  

Homemade Red, White, and Blue popsicles. 

Or just red.

Last weekend we had the chance to visit the Henry Ford Village and Museam with our friends the Wendts. 

There was a fun 1860's reinacted baseball game.

  My favorite part was the Museum since it was my first time inside.  They have the bus Rosa Parks got arrested on, and you are allowed to walk on, and sit her seat.

  I was overwhelmed with emotion.  It was absolutely cathartic.  It's hard for me to comprehend being that brave, and the feelings she must have felt that day.    

Generally, we've been busy with kid's birthday parties and dinner party type deals, and our regular just running around.  After a week straight of not having a normal family dinner, we were feeding two sets of missionaries, and Anthony just kind of stood in the corner.  Yeeaahh, I guess I over booked us.  This week should be a very mellow time of recovery.  So that's our life!  

We're keeping many of you in our prayers with your special needs and are grateful for your friend and family-ship!  Happy Monday!