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!

Quick Update!

I've decided to post some random things here to feel like I'm caught up:) Picture Post  - woo hoo!! I struggle with moving pics around in this blog, so they are not in order. Sorry!

These boys are playing together more and more - it's fun to see:)

Ayden got his first haircut!! Dave took him down to a barber
Just a little bit, he has Lenninger hair!

Collin just got a hair cut too! High and tight! Dave took them all to the barbershop
this was not Mom-authorized, but I do like it. He looks so big!

Kate and Dave got away on a snowshoe hike one day when he was home!

This guy likes to lay on the ground, roll around - so cute!
Oh and life is too short for matching socks:)

Life is also too short for pants

Dave and I and our romantic Valentine's Day meal out:) 

We were back in Decorah briefly for George Kruse's funeral and we made
sure to stop by and see Grandma!

This guy is silly.
Oh and he is SOOOOOOO obsessed with cars right now.
He spends hours each day playing cars. Sleeps with them (eek!)
Also obsessed with farms, farming, John Deere, tractors, etc. 

Opening birthday gifts from Japan!

Mom came up to help me for a bit and we were able to escape together for a bit!
I temporarily lost my sunglasses. She had 7 to choose from in her car:)

Kate meeting tiny baby Benjamin! Be still our hearts!

I went to get my haircut in La Crosse. It was a windy day. 

Why didn't I get this shirt? Why didn't I get this shirt?..

My shopping buddies
Also, Collin was using two wrapping paper tubes as weapons or something. Obviously.

This guy is ALL about the accessories these days....hats, glasses, cars, tools...we take it all with!
He was a big helper this day and he also was yelling things while shopping, like, "I love rocketships!" 

So, there are just some pics from my phone! I have videos too, but they never seem to load! The days are crazy and fun and I really am trying to soak them up. Ayden and I spend a LOT of time snuggling and giggling and on the floor playing peek-a-boo. Best part of my day:) If I can get the big ones to do the same - I do! And lately, we've had a lot of dance parties when Daddy gets home.

We seem to finally be healthy (I know. I said it out loud) so maybe that is why things have seemed so much better lately! It is going to be WARM the next few days and wow - we have another birthday this weekend!!  I guess my next post will be for a certain 3-year-old.... <3 

Things Are Crazy

Well. I ended the last post telling you that we had some sickness in the house. I wish I could say that we were over it. But we are SO not over it. 

We've had a rough couple weeks. Most of us have had some sort of illness. There are a lot of medications that have been taken. And a lot of tears shed as well. In the midst of all the illness, we unexpectedly lost our Abigail.

She had been getting more sick. We knew that. Our trips to the vet had increased. But they would just put her on some meds and never indicated anything was dire in any way. 

In the very early morning hours of Thursday, January 28, I noticed she had been sick up in the loft. I was up with the boys and so let Dave handle it. But she was not moving (was breathing). The only place that was open was in Madison and Dave picked her up and carried her to his car. He drove down at 2:30 a.m. in the morning but sadly, when he arrived, she was already gone. He had some brief time with her there but then had to turn around and drive back, arriving at 5 a.m. It was horrible. 

We didn't tell Kate before school that day. The boys didn't notice. I cried. All day. Dave had a terrible day at work. But he did arrive back home just before Kate came home on the bus. Telling her was awful. She cried hard and was very upset for about 20 minutes. She then went and found her LeapPad and showed Dave the pictures she had taken of Abby. It was very sweet and very hard. Since then, she has gotten sad a few times. She came down in the early morning to our bed crying the other day. After a lot of talking those first days and lots of tears, we are at peace now. She was a great dog. She handled the kids and company and moving and being left alone for long periods of time - like a champ. She was very low-maintenance and adored Dave. We, well we tolerated each other most of the time:) I will say that I was surprised by how deeply I felt the loss. Though, I guess we did have her for 11 years. Rest in peace, Abby. We will miss you. 

SO....during all of that. Ayden got slightly better, though is still suffering from a cold. Kate ended up on meds for another UTI and Dave got on meds for strep. We were also supposed to go to Des Moines to meet up with friends and meet our godson, Cooper!! Dave didn't feel like going and Collin started running a high fever. So, I was getting upset that we might not go. But I decided I needed a break and needed my friends! So, the plan was for Dave and Collin to stay back and Ay, Kate and I to go. But Dave was getting stuck at work so late, that it would have delayed me too much. So, I decided to take Collin with.

By the time I got us all packed up and loaded, Dave was on his way home. It was 5 p.m. and Collin was super excited to go. So, we said good-bye to Daddy and hit the road at 5:30 p.m. I had never driven to Des Moines from our house. The route was to go west on I-90 to Albert Lea and then south on I-35. I was tired. It was a new route in the dark (thank God it was Interstate). The kids did not cooperate. I've never been so happy to arrive at a hotel. 5.5 hours later.

After a rough and late night, we got up and made our way to Jenny's house! I ended up packing a little bag to hopefully shower there so they could watch the kids:) but that didn't even happen! We had a fun-filled day! A great joy in my life is watching my kids play with my best friend's kids. It's loud. It's crazy. But it is joyful. And makes me feel old. :)

Ayden and Mason - the "1 year olds" :) 

Getting to hold Cooper!! He loved me :)   

Adorable. Peanut.

The playroom! The one place we could corral them:)

Some of the boys...

We were happy to be just together to catch up, meet Cooper and also were celebrating some birthdays and it was Mason's 1st birthday that very day! So we had some cupcakes and opened gifts which was fun:)

Cupcakes!

Well, they need to burn off those cupcakes somehow! Some wrestling:)
I think there were four of them in there

Attempting some pics of all the kids...hmm...this was what we got. And Cooper was upstairs sleeping. Maybe next time!

 We also went for an outing in Des Moines. We took the kids to a cultural event at the Iowa Events Center. The kids were most excited about the bounce houses, of course:) It was rather loud and we weren't there too long. Headed back to Jenny's house for some pizza!

The big kids! And Collin:)

Opening some gifts after pizza

Ay loved his gifts:) and bags, of course!

Whoa. Check out Mr. John Deere!

He LOVED it:)

We went back to the hotel and had a nice, normalish bedtime Saturday. Then, after a not-great night, we tried to get back to Jenny's house as early as possible on Sunday morning to have a little more time together. I showered (victory) and we played a bit more before having to say goodbye. 

More gifts for Mason who was sleeping the night before!

The balloons were also a hit!

Collin saying goodbye to Waylon and Mason

The trip back was WAY better. Praise the Lord. I kept Ayden up until we had to go, so he fell right to sleep. I hit Starbucks and headed north! I played movies for the kids and Collin still fought sleeping with all he had:) But eventually, both boys were asleep. It was lunchtime, but I wasn't stopping! So, we drove until they woke! We stopped near St. Charles/Lewiston, MN and ate at an Amish restaurant. It was very quaint and cute. And good:) Diapers, bathroom, gas and back on the road. Ayden did great until the very end. Collin did ask to go back to Aniyah's house:) but was happy to see Daddy when we finally got back! I certainly was!

Dave spent the weekend sleeping and laying on the couch:) He got stronger meds at Urgent Care but we think then caught the nasty virus that Ayden had. He is just now getting over it!

Dave has this week off...so the goal is to rest up, get healthy and relax!