Busy with Boys!

Some might say there can be a lull after Christmas or there is nothing to look forward to in the early months of the year...well, not so in our house! We have a lot going on during these winter months:) Collin did indeed turn 3 about a week ago! I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it. Honestly. Sometimes I feel he is much older than 3. Or at least has been around us for much longer than that. I also ache to hold our baby Collin again....time to go click through a million pictures of our sweet, first son....:) 

For his 3rd birthday, we.....didn't do much:) His bday landed on a Sunday (which I realized about a week out. Kept thinking it was Saturday. Don't worry, I had the date right:) Anyway, we didn't make any big plans, we had done a lot of traveling, some of the family was just up for Ayden's bday, Dave was on call....so, we tried to just make it a fun day for him with our little family of five:) 

The night before his birthday

This is a good picture of his personality right now:)

Just another pic of that new haircut:)

Kate did his hair that day. Yeah.....
you could smell the hair product (Dove mens hair paste) a mile away

The other boys napping
Did I mention Ay got another ear infection?!?!?

Collin's birthday morning!
Making pancakes!
"I Chef Collin!!"

Kate was in charge of fruit

I put sprinkles in the batter:)

Balloons. Obviously.
Three balloons. Obviously.

We set up his big boy bed that day!
New to us - I found in LaCrosse at a consignment store - score!

He loves it

We took a walk. The roads were clear. Cool day though.

Collin refused to ride the new bike we got him for his birthday.
He decided on his balance bike. I insisted on the double stroller.
Thank goodness:)

I meant to make them sooner, but we ended up making cupcakes after supper!
Ayden, Daddy and Kate missed out...it was just the birthday boy and me:)

He likes frosting

And here are a couple random pics from the same time....

Collin trapping Ayden in the laundry basket

This guy had some 12 month pictures taken

And last weekend, we trekked over and down to Des Moines to celebrate the baptism of Cooper Duane Swoboda - our Godson! He was born in December and we are totally in love with him. We stayed with Derek and Jenny and so we had 6 kids ages 6 and under in their house....it was crazy! And awesome. We are aching for a time when the adults can really have full length conversations but it is fun to see our kiddos enjoy playing with each other so much. And we even had a really warm day so they could play outside!! Come on more warm weather!!:)

Me and Cooper at church!

Our crew. Sitting in the back - duh:)

Dave. Manning the 1-year-olds.

Ayden playing with Cooper before church.
It was so adorable!

What a sweetie!

After the baptism, back home  - Kate had been asking to hold him all day:)

Aniyah, Kate and Cooper

He gives me lots of smiles!

Collin wanted to hold him too!

He kept talking to him..."Hi Cooper, Hi Cooper" :) 

Aniyah's cousin Mara was there too. She is 8 months younger than Kate
and they had a great time playing together!

The road trips went pretty well for us! Each time, we actually only stopped twice! Once to eat and once for potty/snack/gas. Kind of amazing. They slept well and we have a DVD player, so we totally utilized that! It is a 5-6 hour drive - over to Albert Lea on I-90 and then south on I-35 straight down to Des Moines. Easy peasy! 

We should be home for awhile now. We hope to celebrate Collin's bday with some family soon and Dave has some work-related travel coming up this spring. We are all VERY excited for warmer weather and much more time outside. It snowed today. Quite a bit, actually. Pretty. The kind of snow I usually love. But not now! I'm done! :) 

Side Note: we finally had Kate's parent-teacher conferences! We took the boys with us because I thought they would have babysitting there (did last time) but we didn't see where it was and the middle-schoolers selling raffle tickets at the door had no clue. About anything. :)

So, the boys had a good time in Kate's classroom and I paid attention to Mrs. Dummer while Dave made sure they didn't destroy anything. She is doing amazingly well. There are no concerns. In fact, she did better on her test than the last time. In the fall, she got 101/102. This time she got 102/102. Good grief! She is quite competitive with a couple boys in her class that are maybe a little better at math than her. That is her favorite subject, she really likes it and wants to practice and get better. The highlight for us is probably the stories/books she works on. We get to keep them after each quarter. It is so sweet to see what she is writing about and see her talent! She writes a lot about her brothers:) 

Lots of celebrations and fun in the first part of the year - it sure makes the time fly!