the graduate

my little man, who is not so little, graduated from kindergarten in june. he will be starting 1st grade on wednesday. his school had a little graduation program and grandma came along. yeah, jomi! congrats, my little graduate!

getting his diploma from principal brown



handsome jonas



the grad and parents



mom and jomi



grandma and jonas



jonas and principal brown



jonas and his teacher, mrs. yohe



jonas and his friend, sean



gryffie rolling down the hill after graduation



jonas with his kindergarten portfolio

happy 200th post!!!

although i have been not so good at posting the last few months, i am really trying to get back in the swing of things and i know i am bombarding you all with posts. but, i have so much to catch up on. jonas goes back to school next week and i haven't even posted his kindergarten graduation pictures (june) or his birthday pictures (april). for this post, here are a couple pictures of the boys' t-ball fun. they did not like t-ball and i don't think we will do it next year, but some of the games were fun. gryffin spent most of the time laying in the grass.









not to leave portie out, here is how amazing he is when we shave his head- he is better behaved than the older two! don't mind the drool on his lip...





on a side note, this past weekend, our bathroom flooded down into our basement so we are getting to remodel our bathroom. a blessing in disguise, i think.

ben is back to school today and it is my first evening home alone with the boys. i sent them all outside. the weather is gorgeous today- nice and fall-like. good thing i have homemade ginger snaps!

happy day! and happy 200th post!

ward camp out

in june, we went with our ward on a camp out in ohiopyle. it was tons of fun- over 50 people came and we really enjoyed hanging out with our friends. on saturday, we took the boys to the natural waterslides and while we did not do the slides, we enjoyed walking along the water and taking pictures. there were small little water puddles filled with hundreds of little tadpoles and the boys were enthralled with them. we made a quick stop by the waterfall, too, and hopefully next year will hike down to it.

pictures? of course!

marathon man

ben ran the pgh marathon back in may. it was his first one and he was able to finish despite some serious leg cramps. we were at gma and gpa kelly's house with family watching the race and ready to cheer ben on when he passed. it was raining and porter got very wet playing in the puddles. gma and gpa had tons of good food and we had fun! go ben!

catching up...

beware, i have added some newer posts that are back dated. i had started them, but did not download any pictures from my camera since easter. also i have a lot of catching up to do- pictures of jonas' birthday, a visit to chuck-e-cheese, jonas' graduation, ben's birthday, fun at the blue slide park, and more. sorry for the huge amount of pictures!

keller update: life is good.

ben: getting ready to start his last semester of classes in grad school before student teaching. he ran the marathon this spring (pictures to come) and has continued training for a half-marathon in the fall and a marathon next spring.

rachel: loving her new daylight hours, missing my friends at my old job and hanging out with kids/friends during the day, starting to go back to book group which she has missed, trying to not want a baby too soon after holding celeste's little maura today, and loving up her crazy boys.

jonas: ready to start kindergarten in about 2 weeks, looking as cute as ever with his missing front tooth.

gryffin: ah, what a personality, but don't let him get cranky. i will post a picture in the future that represents this. he is sweet, but easily provoked (not in a violent way).

porter: the kid never stops moving but is so sweet and happy. he has been the "easiest" child, which means he will probably give us hell when he gets older.

stay tuned...

lbi

early in july, we went with the whole kelly clan to long beach island, new jersey. we had a wonderful time enjoying the sand and sun. jonas and gryffie loved the water and porter loved the sand. and i mean, loved to eat the sand. gross little guy, but he couldn't resist. we only had one minor accident while we were there- which makes a successful vacation- jonas face planted into the ocean floor and now is missing his front tooth. at least it was a baby tooth, but it was not even loose. he was a trooper though and aunt tobey helped calm him down. unfortunately, we did not get to stay more than 4 days as i did not have any time off from my new job. but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the beautiful weather. a special thanks to gma and gpa kelly for all the fun!

some favorite pictures...













and a slide show of the rest...

kennywood

we went to kennywood on sunday. we left porter at home by himself...



ok, so not really, we left him with gma and gpa and then took the older two boys. we got there at 11:30 am and did not leave until 9:00 pm. i had to take off work the next day because i realize i am old. my hip hurt and my arm hurt after walking around and riding rides all day. when did this happen? i had so much fun with my boys, but i am not a sweet young thing anymore. crazy!!! here are numerous pictures of my boys (ben, jonas, gryffin) and me. my favorites:







the boys' favorite ride was the raging rapids. they rode 5 times.



the best part of kennywood for me was not the rides, but the food: corn dogs, potato patch fries, slushies, pizza, funnel cake with ice cream, whipped cream, and strawberries, and lemonade. delicious!

and a slide show: