The Countdown and Hosanna!

The countdown has begun to building the tree house. Gabe wakes up everyday and asks how many more days until we get to start. Today he was very excited to learn that it is only 2. All the materials are in the garage. and the area has been marked for any underground utilities and everyone is just waiting for the fun to begin! This is a rough picture of what it will look like when it's done.

On another note we were outside playing in the yard and Gabe found a leaf blown off from one of the trees. He started waving it up and down and saying Hosanna Hosanna blessed be the name of the Lord! I caught him action when we came inside:) In the meantime Ty ate this lovely piece of chalk:(actually he ate an orange one I saved this purple one)

First Tractor Ride of the Year

It was finally relatively nice the other day so we decided it was time to bring the tractor up from its winter home in the basement to its new Spring/Summer/Fall home in the back porch. Last summer Ty did not care about the tractor but this year is going to prove to be different I think. He was just as interested in riding the tractor as Gabe. I thought I found a good solution in putting Ty in the wagon that hooks onto the back of the tractor(max load for the wagon is 22 lbs Ty is approx. 22 lbs. 8 oz. so it worked out well) Ty thought it was okay for awhile but then realized he was not in control and it no longer worked so well. Gabe did do a good job taking turns and let Ty drive every once in awhile the problem is Ty doesn't understand that you have to press the pedal to make it go so he got by with a little help from big brother. Then he decided it was fun to just push the back of the tractor and follow behind it when Gabe was driving, this worked well until Gabe decided to go in reverse:) Luckily the battery needed to be recharged badly so it was pretty slow moving and no damage done. Despite the gloomy, cold weather the past week or so we do have a few more flowers up in our yard. These really pretty purple crocus(different from last weeks crocus) and a few daffodils are starting to open up. Come on warm weather:)
PS Did anyone notice that the baby on the widget on the side bar started to look kind of freaky today, it must change at 13 weeks:)

Introducing....

Baby Clark #3Due to arrive October 2, 2009(technically October 8th but since we have c-sections it is already scheduled for the 2nd barring any unforeseen complications)

Growing well with a healthy heartbeat of 165 beats per minute at 12 weeks!

We are so blessed and thankful to have watched our tiny little one squirm and wiggle all over the place during our ultrasound this morning, praise God he/she is growing well!

Spring!

We are so excited that it is officially spring now! We have been enjoying some great weather the past few days and have taken full advantage of it! Carl spent most of the weekend raking the front and back yards and getting rid of a few trees that were taking over our backyard. Gabe loved it, he thought the tree was his jungle gym and loved to climb in it, he was bummed when Carl cut it up and he didn't have his jungle gym anymore. Carl is working on plans to build Gabe and Ty a tree house/sandbox with a slide so hopefully that makes up for the tree:) We were thankful we all pretty much recovered from our boughts with the crud before this beautiful weekend. Carl has been feeling bad for at least a few weeks and it finally caught up with him this past week and he had to cave and go to the doctor, I believe it was the first time since 2004(minus the ear infection a little bit back but that was on a holiday and we had to go to urgent care so it wasn't on his record) He was given some antibiotics and feels much better now. I have been struggling with a cold and chest congestion forever now and the cold finally seemed to be better but the chest congestion is not, and now my allergies are here, lovely! Claritin seems to help though and I think we are all on the road to recovery, even Gabe was running a fever last week with no other signs of sickness but he seems to have recovered too. Hopefully that is it for us until next winter! This weekend when we were out in the yard we discovered many plants popping up out of the soil and even a few crocus. So fun to see color out there after a long winter. To celebrate Spring the boys and I made some cookies, I'm actually glad I took a picture because the next morning a little red headed monster who shall remain nameless climbed up on the table and pretty much smashed the heck out of the majority of them, that will teach me to leave them on the table. I'll leave you with a few random pictures from the last few weeks, the boys having play doh time with Daddy and hanging out at the top of our stairs.

Silly Boys

The weather has taken a turn for the worst around here so we have once again found ourselves stuck inside. Daddy's hat is lots of fun. Making funny faces at the camera is also a good time waster:)

Saturday in the Park

well not Saturday but Wednesday and Thursday! We have been enjoying the nice weather greatly. Wednesday we went to Brookside to play on the slides and fire engine, the kids loved it as they hadn't been to the park since last fall. Brenna and Steph joined us too! Today we went out to Ada Hayden so Gabe could ride his bike around the trail. We had several stops along the way to discover the cool "cave" like thing made of weeds and twigs, watching the ice melt in the water, the bridge and watching all the geese. Ty seems to find pools of water no matter where we go and ended up on his back in a puddle yesterday and today...poor kid. Gabe did a great job on his bike and made it all the way around the lake. After we were done there we went to Inis Grove to play on the equipment for awhile before lunch. I am hoping after all this outside air nap time will be looooong today:)

In Like a Lamb

March is finally here! I was very excited to see the calendar flip over from February to March in hopes that warmer temperatures will soon be here. The first day of March was very mild but cold so hopefully if it does go out like a lion it goes out like a warm lion:) Ty had his 18 month appointment today. He weighed in at a whopping 22 lbs. 8 oz. (8th percentile, meaning he is bigger then 8% of kids his age) and 31 inches long(12th percentile) He is our little peanut for sure but what he lacks in size he makes up for in fire(any of you who know Ty well know what I am talking about with that statement, if you don't and want to find out we are open for babysitters anytime:) One of Ty and Gabe's favorite things to do is help me in the kitchen. This past week we made a pan of brownies and I let the boys lick the spatula from the frosting, at first Ty wasn't sure he wanted to put that in his mouth but then once he figured out what it was, it was rather difficult to get away from him. Ty was also a fan of the finished product(although I think more ended up on his face then in his mouth) Gabe is always asking questions and learning new things. He loves "reading" books on his own now and reads Ty Pajama Time nightly. He is starting to write letters more now on his own and is definately curious about everything. He is quite the talker and will introduce himself to anyone around(I think we may need to talk about stranger danger) My parents took both boys to Silly Sally the clown last weekend. They told us Gabe talked up a storm to her as well. Ty wasn't quite as big of fan and didn't want his picture taken with her.This week we are supposed to get weather in the upper 50's so we are excited to get Gabe's bike out again and get out for a few walks.