Wesley loves boots. 

I could just end there.

But you know I'll keep going :)

Wes has a pair of Buzz snow boots that he adores (that he got from his cousin). But now that we're well into Spring I figured it was time to put the snow boots away. But that just wasn't going to do for Wes. So I bought...(yes, I actually bought something new for my kids. Found a killer SALE!) rain boots for Preston and Wesley. Preston requested plain red because red is his favorite color. And Wesley (might have been persuaded by his mother) picked crocodile boots. There kind of the most adorable things on him. And I LOVE that he LOVES them so much. He gets lots of comments on them when we are out and it makes him so happy!

We love rainy days and the boys look forward to them more than ever now. Always wanting to go puddle jumping in their boots. 

In my family(The Steels) the order of kids is...

Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl, Boy, Boy, Boy

All of us are very close and love being around each other. But I think we would all agree that there are two kids that seem to be inseparable. 

Ryan and Tayler.

They're the two youngest brothers that are closest in age. And when I say inseparable I mean it. They are the ultimate best friends and have been for 17years.

So when I See Preston and Wesley hang all over each other and laugh their little guts out playing, I get so happy. I hope they are just like Ryan and Tayler. Inseparable, best buds. 

I look at these pictures I get so excited for our next little boy to join the party. 

Preston is 5!

Can you even believe it? For some reason 4 still sounds little...but all the sudden 5 sounds so grown up. 

I try to set up a photoshoot specifically for the boys on their birthday. They seem to get more excited about taking pictures when I tell them the shoot is just for them. Of course it ended up being a brothers photoshoot, but Preston didn't mind at all. 

Preston is a pretty serious little boy. Sometimes I feel like he's ten years older than he really is. I don't spent much time around other 5 year olds, but he seems to be pretty smart. He's always thinking things through to the very last detail. I think he's shaping out to be exactly like his Dad. 

Skyler started teaching Preston to read a few months ago. They try to do a reading lesson every night. As of now he is about half way through the lessons and reading paragraphs by himself. It's pretty fun to see. Especially since I am NOT a reader. I don't love to read. I would much rather be up and doing something hands on. So I love that Preston enjoys it.  He really is a mini-Skyler. 

Mostly I think he just enjoys the one and one time he gets with his Dad (because that seems to be pretty coveted time when any of us actually get it).  

I try to convince Preston to sleep in every morning. But he always reminds me, "If I sleep in I wouldn't get to see Dad in the morning and tell him goodbye." 

Seriously, I'm telling ya... The time is precious. 

>> Prest LOVES art. I guess that is the one side of me he did get. He can sit down and color for hours. He currently says he wants to be an artist when he grows up. Exact thing I said at that age.

>> Loves to sing.

>> Loves flying planes with his Dad.

>> He's starting to like Legos more and more every time he builds with them.

>> Loves Play-doh  

>> Most of all LOVES hanging out with Wesley. 

Here are a few pictures from Preston's birthday.

The whole day was a party. Right up until....cake time. After dinner Preston said his stomach hurt. Less than an hour later the poor boy was hovering over his barf bucket for the rest of the night. We took the candle off the cake (we weren't about to spread those germs) let him blow out the candle and sent him to bed. We ended up eating the cake 2 days later. What a way to end your birthday. 

Preston is a little sweet heart and we Love having him around. It's always fun watching him grow up. Great things are in store for this little man. 

The boys and I were driving around looking for good photo shoot locations when we stumbled upon this gorgeous site. Doesn't it just scream fall. I came up over a hill and all of the sudden was engulfed in GOLD. It was literally all you could see. 

Thankfully I had my camera in the car. 

And along with fall come Halloween. Grandma & Grandpa Steel sent a Halloween package in the mail full of lots of goodies. But our favorite item...the face paint. We got down to business and came up with a Zebra and Spiderman. We were entertained for hours.  

Happy Fall Friends. 

Preston is a grown up in a little body, and a very logical thinker.

{Just like his Dad}

Everything Preston does is done with a lot of thought.

This past week I turned our water table into a sand table (which the boys are in love with)! 

Now I tell this next story not to boast about being the greatest Mom ever...because let's face it, I am very far from that. I just had a good laugh about this and thought I would share.

While I was sitting outside watching the boys play, Preston said, "Mom, you know who should enter into the World's Best Mom Contest? ... YOU! "Because I don't think there are any Moms in the whole world that could win it except for you." 

Really? Did you really just come up with that? He didn't just declare me as the World's best Mom, because come on, that's a pretty big title to just hand out. I would have to actually go to the contest and win it. He's such a sweet kid. I'm glad that every once in a while I do something cool enough to make him so happy. 

Lately Wes has been sleeping in Preston's bed (twin bed...good thing they love each other). While we were getting the boys ready for bed we played the whole... last one to the bedroom is a rotten egg game.

Wes was last, and totally rotten. End of game. The boys went to bed.

At least 10 or 15 minutes later Preston walked into our room. He then told us, "I can't sleep because Wes stinks so bad like a rotten egg."

Really Preston? Nice try. 

Skyler's summer break didn't start till July4th, so we had quite a bit of summer before we actually got our "summer break". I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the things that kept us busy while Skyler worked away the majority of his summer...poor guy, we sure do love him for it though.

Summer nights are the best...that's all. :)

I had been looking (more like glanced once) at these cute little 4wheelers, I thought Wes would love one for his birthday. Once I realized it would require us to spend more than $30 for one (thanks to my sweet husband we have one pretty awesome budget) the 4-wheeler just wasn't in the cards.

I quickly threw that idea out the window, Bummer...I thought.

Literally the next day we had some friends offer up their 4wheeler that they didn't want to move with them. I very quickly snagged that offer. Seriously? How incredible did that just work out in our favor.

Wes loves the thing. We have to hide it under a blanket cause every time we go to get in the car (in the garage) it's a fight to keep him off it.

I signed Preston up for swimming lessons. Everyday for 2 weeks. 

He was so excited to actually get to go swimming everyday. 9:15 every morning (and not that warm) I was thinking he wouldn't love jumping in a cool pool. I was wrong. He was having so much fun he didn't even mind the water.

At this point in our summer Wesley still didn't love the water. He sat patiently and very happily on my lap and watched his brother swim for 2 weeks.

I'm not over exaggerating when I say Wes hated swimming at the beginning of the Summer. But apparently after watching Preston for 2 weeks he found his love. I filled a bucket on our deck and he "swam" his heart out for hours. Dunking his head under and everything.

Everything is better in the Summer right? Even breakfast.

And we all love to lounge...

Happy Simple Summer.