This and That: March

A trip with Grandma Utech and Auntie Kristin to the Children's Museum

Paging Utech Radiology!

A quick trip to the candy shoppe!

Thanks Pinterest for another fun idea.... marshmallows and tooth picks!

Little Engineers in training!

A trip to MOA to see the Easter Bunny

Our Easter count down

Happy 4th Gotcha Day Berkeley

Finishing his peeps... wearing a peep hat!

The best of friends

Two handed utensils

Welcome to the world Matthew Daniel!!!!

(PS... both babes were born at the new Mother Baby Center... 

hence the scrubs, I was at work both days!!!)

Welcome to the world Riley Ellen!!!!

Berkeley is just one of the family!

Dinner with Wyatt and Gretchen

Making Easter cookies!

Finished product

New summer sunglasses

Water table at school!

March Madness!  My friend Christie introduced me to a saying that her husband told her about..."Survive and Advance."  This may be the perfect quote not only for March Madness but for parenthood!

"Look mama.... we are spider man!"

Some spring Easter art projects

More peep pictures!

Getting ready for the Roller coaster!!!  We also rode the Dora Ferris wheel and the log chute ride.  They loved it all.... little ride daredevils. 

A final hug goodbye for the Easter Bunny!

Playing at the park... in the snow.

Giggle Factory

Shopping with Mommy!

A winter walk with Adam and Angela

A trip to Home Depot

And when all was said and done... we had two tired boys!

What a Week!!!

Snuggling with mama... we miss mama!

We joined the YMCA.  I've been happy to start running a little again... I also like the yoga classes.  The boys are enjoying playing in the gym with daddy and they started Swim lessons. They are in a class called "Pikes."  We had been talking about being little pikes, dunking heads in the bath tub and blowing bubbles.  The boys were so excited to start swim class on Saturday.

Listening to their teacher .. practicing kicks!

Holding onto the wall...

The back float....

Swimming to get duckies....

They were so proud of themselves.  We did make 2 trips to the bathroom during the short 30 minute class... even though we went prior to class.  Ben was a great listener.... Nathan was just so excited to be in the water and had to be reminded to hold onto the wall.  

It was a long weekend of studying... in preparation for NNP Boards.  To all of those that thought I was taking boards on March 5th... sorry I lied.  It was too much pressure to have everyone know when the test was so .... I told you a day later.  Sorry!!!  Regardless, I PASSED and I'm officially a neonatal nurse practitioner.  We all went out to celebrate at Bar Louie in Uptown.  We are joining a fabulous group of NNPs  and we look forward to the next step.  The four of us were pioneers of a 16 month NNP masters program at St. Kate's.... the pioneering will continue as all four of us will be Cross Campus NNPs (both St. Paul and MPLS)... something Children's has not done before. We are slightly apprehensive for what the journey will bring but we are determined and excited to make it work.  We will take this opportunity as a compliment. 

 SNOW DAY: a quick 6 inches of snow and we ended up with a much needed family day.  Shoveling and a snowy walk rounded out the day.  Now to figure out how we live our normal lives again....

Thanks Hannah for the beautiful spring flowers on a very snowy day!  Can't believe we did it!

This and That....February 2013

Cute Story from February: We always read stories before bed and every couple of months we pull out the children's bible and read it.... cover to cover over the course of a couple of weeks.  So this week we started it again..... 1st story Genesis 1: Creation.  The boys are all about counting so we talked about the 1st day and the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th days.... to which Nathan told me  "Mom its not the 4th day it is 4 day!'   2nd story: Adam and Eve. To which Ben asks "yeah is that guy my uncle Adam."  I just had to laugh... because we have hit a new point of not only understanding stories but watching the boys try and put the story into the context of their lives.  If only we could all look at the world through the eyes of a 3 year old!

Hunkle Stephen made us Ice Cream sundaes on Super Bowl Sunday

Hunkle Adam and Angela

Even super heros have bad days

All about the hot wheels

Fire man Sam to the rescue... there are fires all over the basement!

Nathan LOVES ms. Kate.... well actually her name is Ms. Kay, Brent misunderstood what her name was during the first semester.... so now the boys call her ms. kate.   Gosh we are GREAT parents!!!! Reguardless, Nathan LOVES her and sits next to her every Thursday at class. He listens to everything that she says, all the books she reads and alls the songs she sings.  Neither Nathan or Benjamin love to dance to songs in class.... however they sit quietly and listen and take it all in.  

Coloring and writting with markers is a new favorite.  They love to draw lines, make shapes and lists and create "pictures"

Ben made Berkeley a necklace .... Berkeley looks less then thrilled!

Enjoying one of the few days in February that I was home with the boys!

There truly are the best of friends!  I just wish sometimes they wouldn't "like" each other so much.  

Giving each other "rides" in the large motor room at ECFE

Now that Nathan and Ben are in their "big boy beds" they have freedom.  Most of the time they are great about staying in their beds.  However, they are getting up earlier in the morning then they use to.  So the other morning, Nathan got up and came into our room. We told him to go back to bed... it was too early, the sun is still sleeping.  Nathan told us not to worry... "i'll just sleep with Berkeley!"

GRUMPY PAPER: it is this yellow paper with perforations that grumpy gave them... we make lists on it, cut it, color on it.  The boys like to make books, write grocery lists and pretend they are "doing homework.... so their teacher no be mad!"

Nathan also loves his magna doodle that he got for Christmas.  A couple of weeks ago we watched Finding Nemo... they loved it.  This is Nathan's finding nemo picture...The big whale ready to swallow nemo's daddy and his fish friends.  So funny.  Unfortunatly they may have gotten my "artistic talent."

Architect Ben... always building and constructing something. 

Making Valentine's bracelets at the valentine's party.

Our PINK heart shapped cake... I need something pink in this house. 

Some of our ECFE friends at the Valentine's Party

Yummy Valentine chacolate dipped strawberries

Heart shaped cookies with friends!

Letter Factory on the Leap Pad

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting.... at home, at school EVERYWHERE

Tub Paint

Made it through the grocery store and were great shopping buddies and the check out lady thought they were so cute and good... she gave them a sucker!  Thank You!

Nathan made his bed all by himself... he was so proud!

Again cutting grumpy paper...

"Helping" mommy get ready in the am...or just putting on ChapStick

Ben showing off his Monster Slippers

Chemistry nerds... just like daddy!  Science toys at daycare... then they asked to make a valcano!

Movie night Picnic!

And if Ben eats anymore bananas this month we are going to have to start calling him George monkey!

March here we come!!!!!

3 Year Appointment

The boys had their 3 year appointment with Dr. Strong at Central Pediatrics in Woodbury.  We spent so much time at Central Peds when the boys were little... at least once a month.  Now we haven't been their in months.  The boys were excited to see Dr. Strong and show her all they have accomplished (shapes, numbers, alphabet, jumping, hoping and singing).  Just like the Dentist office, they were a bit quiet but followed directions and answered questions from the nurse and the doctor.  They were there to support each other.... holding each others hands and helping each other out a bit (on the vision chart).  We didn't have a whole lot of concerns about the boys. We had Ben's thumb looked at as it has been red for a couple months.... it got him a 7 day course of antibiotics.  Other then that the boys are growing and are developmentally on track!  We were thrilled to see that Ben is now at the 25%ile for weight.... since he was discharged from the hospital he has always been around the 5%.  Nathan remains on the 50%tile for height and weight.  Dr. Strong was thrilled and a little surprised at how fast these two are growing up.... a fact we are well aware of.  Her piece of expert parenting/medical advise for us was.... "don't you just hate when they act their age?"  She reminded us that the "job" of the 3 year old is to test boundaries and that our job as parents is to continue to set boundaries.  

Just keep doing what we are doing.  

A little support from his brother during the B/P check

Measuring Benjamin

Eye exam. Nathan told daddy "No, no put your hand on my eye, I trying to read the shapes!"

Ben was piping in answers from over his shoulder.

Hearing test... We told the boys to give us high 5s when they heard the beep.  The first time through Nathan didn't give an high 5s....when the nurse asked him if he heard the beeps.... he smiled and whispered "yeah I hear the beeps... you gotta be quiet!"

Ben very intently listened for the beeps and gave his mama a high 5 after each one!

A physical exam... getting ready for Dr. Strong's Arrival

Good Job little guys... so proud of you!