Housekeeping

This past weekend we started the prep work for the house to hopefully be painted this weekend(pray for nice weather!) We have to replace some trim around a few windows as the wood was starting to rot and we also took several storm windows off, including our very large front arch window. I was pretty nervous watching them take this one down, I can't imagine that one would be a cheap thing to replace:) We tried to power wash the house too but due to unforeseen circumstances with the power washer(hole in the hose, motor wouldn't stay running) we ended up not getting that part done this weekend. We have since borrowed a different power washer and Carl will attempting that again this week. Gabe was very interested in this power washing thing and thought that it meant we were going to put the whole house in a great big washing machine, not quite but it was funny when he asked. The boys had fun even though it was pretty cold and windy that morning, they especially loved the ladders. Ty is fearless and climbed to the top of the high one, his brother is just as fearless and did the same thing when he came out later. They made for great toys for the morning. Gabe also practiced his ladder gymnastics:)We are hoping to get more prep work done this week and start painting on Saturday. On a random note these are some of my favorite things growing in our yard right now.

Someday When He's a Teenager...

I will play him this video and show him how much he loved us once upon a time:)



and just because they wanted to pose this morning and they are cute.

Morning with the Dinosaurs

We took a short trip down the street to Reiman Gardens the other day to check out their new dinosaur displays. Brenna and Steph met us there too! Gabe loves the garden and we had to make sure to check out the butterfly wing first. Ty was interested in the butterflies this year too and would point and squeal his delight when he saw them flying around and sitting on the plants. We then headed out to the gardens where we found this large mama dinosaur waiting for us. The tulips were beautiful when we visited and I tried to get a good picture of the boys by them, surprisingly(note sarcasm) they just didn't cooperate very well so I settled for some good pictures of their sides and backs looking at the tulips and just decided to take a few shots of the flowers minus the uncooperative kids. We then found the fun chimes and Gabe loved to jump on them to make them play. We visited the childrens garden where the frog pumps are always a hit(although it seems only one of them ever works:( Ty checked out the covered bridge and everyone enjoyed the wooden paths. There were some allosaurus by the lake(Gabe was careful not to get too close as he was warned by the front desk lady when we came in not to touch them) We then went over to the practical garden where the apple blossoms were in bloom over the arbor, we tried to get Ty and Brenna to pose for us but it just didn't work. By this time it was starting to spit rain and seemed to be getting heavier so we headed home. We are excited to go back again as the dinosaurs will change throughout the season and living only a few blocks from the garden has its advantages! We have also been very busy working on our joint garden with Andrea and Alan, click here to see the progress!

Dandelions

A few weeks ago the boys stayed at my mom and dads while I had a Dr.'s appointment. The weather was beautiful so lots of outside time occurred that day. The boys are both obsessed with dandelions, Gabe likes to pick them just because he thinks they are pretty flowers and Ty well you can see what Ty likes to do to them, this is probably one of the tamer outside items Ty puts in his mouth. He amazes me, he is the pickiest eater in the world but will eat grass, dirt, rocks and apparently dandelions with no problems(disclaimer he doesn't actually "eat" them as in swallow it down, he just puts it in his mouth and then spits it out) I don't get it...I'm sure it won't be the last thing these boys do that I just can't wrap my mind around:)

Omaha

On Friday we headed out to Omaha to visit Carl's aunt and the zoo. We left around 2:00(nap time) thinking the boys would sleep in the car at least part of the way, oh so wrong, ,Gabe fell asleep for about 30 minutes and Ty did not sleep at all! Usually in the car he zonks out when I don't really want him to and for the trip he was awake the whole time and not very happy to boot, ughh. We arrived Friday evening and Sara had supper all planned for us, when we were done we headed to a park nearby and let the boys burn off some pent up energy from the car ride. It was a nice park and they both had fun. Ty aquired a fan club of two preteen girls who would follow him around and make sure he didn't fall and help him up on things and get him off of the slide when he went down, the whole time exclaiming he's so cute(even though his butt was wet from his car seat(he leaked bad in the car on the drive) and he was unbeknown to us poopy) Gabe just loved everything and had a great time, neither wanted to leave when it was time. Saturday we woke up to a little rain and wondered how the weather was going to be for our zoo day but it turned out pretty well. We arrived and it really wasn't raining anymore so we set off to do our outdoor things. We walked around and looked at all the animals and rode the train. By then it was lunch time and starting to drizzle a little bit, we grabbed some lunch and the boys were quite cold so we went in the gorilla exhibit. Gabe loved all the bubble windows you could climb into to look at the gorillas. We then headed to the very busy aquarium where the boys loved the penguins and especially the shark tunnel, I think they could have sat there watching them for hours. When we were done in the aquarium we made our way to the jungle where we went from cold and rainy to hot and humid. The boys loved all the bridges and water falls. We ended our zoo day by visiting the desert dome where Gabe was really wishing he could have climbed up on all the sand and played, he also really enjoyed the cactus. Our zoo visit wore Ty out and by the time we arrived at the desert dome he was out for the count. Gabe soon followed on our drive back to Sara's. Sunday we woke up to more rain and thunderstorms and made the drive over to Council Bluffs for my cousins confirmation lunch. We didn't stay for confirmation itself as the boys were getting quite crabby and we needed to be back by 6:00 for connection group. Ty once again failed to fall asleep on the way back and we drove through some very unpleasant rain, we were glad to arrive home! All in all it was a great weekend!