Last night we celebrated my brother Ben and my brother-in-law Ryan’s birthdays. Their b-days are one day apart – Ben’s is on the 11th and Ryan’s is on the 12th. These two have been best of friends for as long as I can remember. They grew up together and lo and behold, Ryan ends up marrying my sister Natalie. So Ben got a best friend as a brother-in-law.

Ben is my “little” brother – he stands at 6’4″ and is a giant of a man. When I was younger, I used to pull on his ears, tease him, throw him off the porch, try to sell him, because you see he invaded my lovely world of “only child-ness” and threw a split into the attention I received. My dad used to say, “You better be nice to him because one day he will be bigger than you.” Little did I know how much  bigger. But thankfully my brother has never tried to capitalize on his height with me. 🙂 I love him so much for who he is and what he does. He is a good husband, a great father to one firecracker of a little girl, and the best person I can think of that my little boy idolizes so very, very much.

Ryan, likewise, is a fantastic father to his brood and loving husband to my sister. He is one hard worker and Caden loves to spend time with him at his shop or construction sites when possible. Ryan is not a quiet guy, and by that I mean his booming voice. Those who know his dad, Russ, can attest to the fact that deep, booming, authoritative and commanding voices run in his family. But the timbre is always full of love. They are great big teddy bears, if you ask me. Ryan is one awesome brother to have and I love having him as a part of our family.

Enjoy the last year of your 20’s, boys.

(I think my sister Allison is so pretty in this shot)

and Logan ran away with the spoon…