Busy Busy Busy and the Sickies

It has been extremely crazy around here lately. As predicted we did have a very busy Memorial Day weekend, with a beautiful wedding on Saturday(Congrats Nate and Christina!) in the Quad Cities, a birthday party a barbecue and one sick Daddy. Carl woke up very early Sunday morning not feeling well, so we stayed home from church because I needed to get a few things done anyway and he thought he felt better by the time we went to the birthday party, not so much he basically slept on the couch all through the party and then it was time to go home. That night we went to a barbecue at our friends house and Carl thought maybe he was doing better but still not right, when we got home I took his temp, it was at 103 so the next morning I called urgent care here in town to see if we could get him in. Luckily we got him an appt and found out he had strep throat and an ear infection, man it's like he is one of the kids or something. He is feeling much better now but needless to say our fireplace wall still looks the same as this. The rest of our week has also been rather crazy, between trips to the gym, play dates, cleaning and trying to catch up on laundry I can't believe it's already Thursday! This weekend we are heading up to Algona for my dad's cousin's memorial service, while we are there we are hoping to make a trip out to the farm so Gabe can have a tractor ride, this next week also kicks off the home show house in Ankeny, you can see very old pictures of it here. Carl needs to get some new ones posted as it has come so far since these were taken. The boys are continuing to do well and everyday make me laugh when they play together, which is happening more and more now, it is so much fun. Ty has mastered crawling up our two stairs between the kitchen and living room and between the entry and living room, no where is safe now! Speaking of climbing up things Gabe loves to climb in Ty's crib(which most of the time I don't allow but lately Ty just finds it hilarious so I have let him) Gabe will jump up and down and Ty just laughs and laughs.

Photo Friday

We have a busy weekend coming up so thought I would share some pictures from the past week since I most likely won't be on all weekend. Tomorrow we have a wedding in the Quad Cities, Heather and Mike generously offered to take Gabe with them to the zoo since Curious George and Super Why are going to be there for IPTV Kids Day, he is very excited. Mom and Dad are keeping Ty and then will get Gabe after the zoo. We didn't think a 3 hour car ride and then sitting for a wedding and reception and then a 3 hour car ride home would be a real fun thing for the boys so they are staying here. Sunday we are going to celebrate our nephew, Clark's first birthday and we have a BBQ for our connection group that night and Monday as of now we are planning on working on the fireplace wall(maybe Carl has been extremely busy with work so he may just want some down time) A Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone!

All About Me?

So I don't normally write a post all about me so this is a little strange for me but Steph tagged me so I guess I'll do it.

I am…shy
I want…to get our house finished so I don't have to look at the ugly wall anymore:)
I wish…I could predict when my kids would wake up from nap so I could know if I have time to do just that one last thing before they wake up.
I hate…snakes and anything that crawls with more then 4 legs
I miss…sleeping in
I fear…my kids, Carl or I getting sick...yuck
I feel…relaxed at the moment, both kids are napping and the house is picked up, life is good
I hear…the dishwasher running
I smell…nothing my nose is stuffed up for the bizzillionth week in a row.
I crave…jomocha shakes from Burgies yum:)
I search…google for random news stories and interesting facts
I wonder…what it would be like to have a girl around here
I regret…many bad choices with money
I love…my husband and my kids
I ache…after raking out my flower beds, man you use muscles you never thought you had.
I care…for my boys
I always…am up for hanging out with friends and family
I am not…artistic
I believe…that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I dance…to ring around the rosie a lot.
I sing... Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star at least 3 times a day.
I cry…at sad movies
I don’t always...make my bed
I fight…with Gabe consistently on not going outside without shoes
I write…my blog
I never…enjoy it when the boys wake up from nap early
I listen…to my itunes
I need…to fold clothes and put them away
I am happy…when I get to spend time with my family and watch my boys play with their daddy.

Okay so now I am supposed to tag someone else so Heather you're up.

Tuesday Troubles part Doo

So our afternoon after nap time started off very well, Ty woke up from his nap a little early so I brought him downstairs to play with Brenna( I watch her on Tuesday afternoons, so her Mommy can get some work done) Ty LOVES Brenna, he crawled right over to her and started giving her kisses, Brenna took it pretty well considering he was slobbering all over her:) Ty isn't normally a big kisser, he will do it sometimes but he was just a man possessed. It was after Brenna left and Gabe woke up from his nap that the rest of our Tuesday Troubles began. All was going smoothly, I was just starting to get supper ready when I looked out into the living room to see Ty's mouth and hands completely covered in a brown substance. I suspected immediately it was not chocolate but was wishing that it was. A sniff test confirmed my fear and Ty was immediately taken upstairs, he did have a poopy diaper, however on inspection of his big brother it was found he had some trace evidence left behind also. Both boys were thrown into the bathtub for a good wash down and when they were out and dried and dressed (Ty at this point was on his 4th outfit, Gabe on his 4th pair of underwear) I went downstairs and did an inspection of the play area, I found two very small little droppings and that was it, I cleaned those up and went back upstairs to get the boys. We are still feeling some effects from the incident this morning as Gabe found a couple of our toys with suspicious brown smears, all our toys are being sanitized as I type. Yuck is all I can say(at least Ty was giving Brenna kisses before he ate poop, right Steph?) On a happier less disgusting note Ty has learned to clap, it is pretty cute so I have a video of it, it took awhile to get him to do it for the camera, but once big brother Gabe helped out he did it right away.

Tuesday Troubles

Wow what a day, my boys must have decided that today was going to be the day to cause all kinds of trouble around here. It started off the same as always we come down stairs and eat breakfast well after breakfast Ty decided to crawl over to the bookcase and start to pull books down, there is also a cord he really likes over there as well so he was playing with that, Gabe being the excellent example of good behavior that he is decided to join him. Once the books were put back on the shelf and Ty put back on the carpet with toys Gabe decided to be an acrobat and climb the walls(well the window) After breakfast was finally cleaned up we made it upstairs so the boys could get dressed and I could get showered. I put Ty in his crib to play and Gabe was playing in his room, everything was going smoothly until I hear laughter coming from the Ty's room. Gabe had crawled into Ty's crib and was bouncing up and down(he is not allowed to get in Ty's crib) That was all well and good until Ty decided he wanted out of his crib and started crying, Gabe thought this was funny and started to imitate Ty, I wish I would have had the video camera, it was loud. After this Ty went down for a morning nap after putting up quite a fight and Gabe decided that going to the bathroom was no fun today so we ended up changing underwear and pants 3 times before lunch. Ty wakes up from his nap and it's lunch time, however, Ty does not want to eat he is too interested in watching Gabe and Brady play. Finally it is nap time and my two little cherubs are fast asleep in their rooms(well Gabe is asleep now, he was still awake when I took this picture) whew what a day it's a good thing my back is feeling better...long story to make it short I was on heavy duty pain killers and muscle relaxers for few days and am now feeling much better, hopefully our afternoon will go better:)

9 months!

That is how old Ty is today! We had his 9 month check up this morning complete with 2 shots in the leg, at least it wasn't 4 like the last few times and he didn't have to have the nasty oral rotovirus vaccine so those were positives. Ty weighed in at 18 lbs. 8 oz. and was 27 inches long. He was just over the 25th percentile for both height and weight. I was a little concerned since at his 6 month appt. he was just below the 50th for both, but the Dr. assured me that it is pretty common that between 6 and 9 months they slow down quite a bit since they eat more table food and drink less formula (less calories) and they start to move around a lot more. I am just not used to having a small baby as Gabe was in the 90th percentile for weight until he hit a year old:) Everything else checked out great and the dr. got a kick out of Ty's facial expressions and he even growled at him with a sneer to match. Ty's favorite thing to do is bite things, He pulls himself up on your step between the kitchen and living room and likes to bite the step and then last night he was standing against the couch and was biting the back of the couch, in his defense I am pretty certain he is getting at least one tooth on the bottom as his gum looks all bloody like a tooth is getting ready to pop through at any moment. Getting a monthly picture is getting increasingly more difficult as Ty does not like to sit still, this morning he was moving all over the place, trying to pull himself up and crawl forward and then his brother decided to help out too! I think I got at least one good for the baby book.













Gabe is loving the warmer weather with trips to the park, stroller rides and playing in the back yard. He is anxiously awaiting a trip up to the farm to ride that tractors now that it is spring. The house is kind of at a stand still right now as Carl is pretty busy at work. The fireplace wall has looked like this for the past few weeks with no finish date in sight as of now. We did manage to finally decide on paint colors for the outside of the house and hopefully before the dog days of summer we will be able to get that done(although maybe it won't be that warm this summer, if the cool spring is any indicator) We are loving our neighborhood right now as all the college kids are gone for summer, it is so quiet around here and there are places to park on the street! I'm sure the end of August will come before you know it but then we have some tailgating to look forward to, save the date for any home weekend, we will probably be having some tailgates at our place(let's hope it is done by then:)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day all you Mom's! We have had a busy mothers day around here. Ty was dedicated at church today so we had some family over for that. He had a cute little short-all outfit to wear and of course the weather was cold and windy, oh-well he wore it anyway with a coat and another coat wrapped around his legs, when is it going to warm up anyway? We were blessed to have my mom, dad and brother as well as Carl's dad and aunt and uncle from Omaha and my aunt uncle, and cousins from Council Bluffs come join us for church and lunch at our house afterwards. At least it wasn't raining so Carl could grill burgers, brats and hot dogs for lunch. Ty as busy reaching milestones this week as well. He finally learned to sit up from lying on his tummy and he can now pull himself up on things. He is pretty funny to watch get up into the sitting position, I was finally able to capture one of his push-ups he does while getting himself to sit up. He's got strong little arms! Gabe decided to make our weekend more interesting by getting pink eye on Saturday morning, luckily we were able to get him into the doctor right away Saturday morning and get him some anti-biotic drops and today they look much better. We hope he did not share this with his brother. Gabe loved having all the company at our house and was sad to see everyone leave, he is such a little socialite. We are going to have to work on him not talking to everyone he sees all the time. He is also a cheese who loves posing for the camera, here is our little ice cream hound the other night after he demolished an entire jumbo sized ice cream sandwich. We hope everyone had a great weekend!

Caught in the Act

This morning I was in the kitchen and heard Ty's laughter coming from the living room. I peeked out the door and there was Gabe tickling him with his head. I quickly grabbed the camera and got a little of it on video. Ty laughs harder at Gabe then anyone else it is so much fun to see them interact with each other. Gabe got a little out of hand towards the end when he rammed his head a little too hard into Ty's tummy, gentle is just not a concept Gabe is super good at yet. On another Gabe note- Last night we went to see the movie Expelled while Mom watched the boys. When we got out of the movie it was a downpour, the storm sewers were backing up the streets and sidewalks looked like rivers, it was crazy and we had to run back to the car a block and a half away, we were soaked. When we got back to mom and dad's Gabe was very tired and rather crabby and wasn't liking all the rain and thunder and crying a little. Carl called him over and was talking to him about how it was okay it was just rain and thunder nothing to be scared of, he asked him if he was getting wet, Gabe said yes, so Carl asked him where he was wet and he said in my eye's, darn rain anyway:)

Walks, Wind and Sunburns

We had a busy weekend around here. Saturday morning our family participated in the March for Babies in Des Moines. It was very cold and windy at first but as we walked into the trees it got a little better and almost warm. We only had one minor mishap when Carl decided to go off-roading in our brand new stroller, hit a big stick and basically went head over heals over top of the stroller, turning the kids upside down in the process, not to worry everyone was fine but it scared Gabe just a little bit but Ty just sat there and looked around, he didn't realize anything had happened I think. Carl stayed on the path after that. It was a 5K (slightly over 3 miles) but it went pretty fast since we were walking with a big group of friends and didn't seem to take long at all. The picture of the boys in the stroller was after the walk, we were getting ready to leave and Gabe was not a happy camper because he didn't get to play on the slide. Nolan, the baby we were walking for wasn't able to be there as he had been in the hospital towards the end of the week, he is home now and doing better but is scheduled for another surgery on the 15th, his mom and dad are not sure if it will happen because of this latest set back but continue to be in prayer for little Nolan, he has been through so much in his short little life. When we got home from the walk we played outside in our yard for awhile. I had to get some pictures of the boys by our magnolia tree. They weren't the most willing models in the world but I managed to get a few cute pictures. Gabe is smelling the magnolias in his picture, for some reason he thinks you have to wrinkle your face up to get your nose to work, he does that every time he smells something. Sunday we had a picnic for church, we stayed for a few hours, Gabe had a blast playing on the playground equipment and running around in the open field. Ty and I got caught up on some adult conversation and in the meantime both got sunburnt. It was pretty cool and windy so I didn't think about bringing sunscreen but it looks like it is time to add it to the diaper bag. Ty was in the stroller with a shade for most of the time so he didn't get too burnt, just a little bit of red cheeks but my arms and face are pretty red, I had a little trouble sleeping last night because of it(well and because of my lovely allergies) Welcome Spring!

TGIF

the title says it all. We have had a busy week so I am glad the weekend soon approaches. Ty is learning new little tricks all the time, like somehow getting underneath his highchair and not being able to get out. He also loves Gabe's car for outside he can stand behind the wheel and look out at everything. He hasn't quite figured out what to do when it moves though. Our big magnolia tree in the backyard has finally bloomed since we have had some warmer weather. It is beautiful and smells so good. Gabe is learning what all the different flowers are and can name daffodils and tulips, he is surprised by how many different colors of daffodils are in our yard, he will come out and look for new ones each time we go outside. He especially loves the yellow ones with an orange center. We watched Brady and Bree this morning and Kate and her kids(Brady, Mya and Sydney) came over to play so we had a full house. When Big Brady walked in Gabe exclaimed We have two Brady's now! He was very excited to have so many people to play with. We had lots of fun, perhaps Brady(small version) and Gabe had a little too much fun...
I thought it was a little quiet up there for awhile they successfully emptied every book off the shelf and every toy out of the tubs on the toy shelf and took Gabe's pillow case off, his sheets off and emptied his clothes hamper, they were busy. Tomorrow we are walking in the March of Dimes March for Babies hopefully the weather is nice. The little boy we are walking for is currently in the hospital with some intestinal issues so if you could send up a prayer for Baby Nolan we would appreciate it. Hope everyone has a great weekend.