Thursday, January 28, 2016

Lost Boys and Snow Play

Kaleb and Aiden had their 3 year health and wellness check-up a week 1/2 ago and brought smiles to the entire office.  We were in the middle of a 48hour snow dump, so most of the morning appointments had canceled.  I had to plow the entire driveway before leaving, and upon our return!  

Our office has the sweetest decor and the boys feel so comfortable roaming those little halls.  Kaleb made everyone giggle directly through the door when the nurse got his weight and height.  She told him to look straight at me...so his head went up.  She told him to drop his chin down, and he immediately looked at the floor.  So she asked him to look up a little and he looked at the ceiling.  HA, my literal little boy.  Meanwhile AJ was off visiting every lady in their work station showing off his socks and collecting stickers.

Our Stats:
Kaleb Jesse stands 37 inches tall (28th percentile for his age) and weighs 29 pounds (30th percentile).
Aiden Jake stands 38.25 inches tall (59th percentile) and weighs 33 pounds (69th percentile).  I think this boy will be tall like Keith.  He's always been a half inch taller than Kman, and just recently has really starting putting distance between them.

SO, now that we're three-years-old the boys wear paper gowns, which is hilarious.  They were not impressed at the discomfort and long length, so I told them all about Peter Pan and fashioned them accordingly.  When Dr. Ann came in she found two boys standing with hands on hips and ready to fly.  I give you the lost boys:



Our time with Dr. Ann was so entertaining.  She sat and chatted with the boys, asking them almost every question, and turning to me every so often.  She was very impressed they were potty trained, especially during naps and bedtime, gave us all things to work on-like correctly holding a pen, constructive drawing/coloring and tips for increasing speech development.  

We were happy to spend the rest of the day cuddling indoors watching both Peter Pan and the snow gather outside.  A fast 29 inches, which has almost completely disappeared now, was pure beauty!  These are from a few days ago, where the boys were thrilled to make fresh tracks, build frosty the snowman (although they were very disappointed he didn't come to life when they threw their hats on his snow head) and lick the powder like doggies.


Monday, January 18, 2016

Pittsburgh Last Week

Hope everyone had a great weekend and in spirit of Martin Luther King, JR I'm sharing a favorite quote:

"You don't have to see the whole staircase.  Just take the first step."

We are heading into our 3-year-old pediatric appointment tomorrow morning and currently enjoying LOTS of snow.  Before I share updated stats I wanted to post about our time in Pittsburgh last week.

The boys and I had a lovely visit with my Grandma to sing her happy birthday.  She smiled, sang along, laughed when the boys played airplane on the love seat cushion and her kisses are as sweet as ever!  This past Friday was her 96th birthday and we send additional love, health and happiness to her, one day at a time :)



The following day Kaleb and Aiden had their very first visit to see the dinosaurs at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  What a treat!!  Many thanks to Aunt Nan"ne" and Uncle Dennis who had the idea and made it happen!  I heard Kaleb say "look at that dinosaur, right there" about 200 times, the boys transformed into paleontologists, chisel and brush in hand, to dig fossils in the quarry, changed floors to learn about building a snow house, posed like a mummy, ran around in circles in every room possible and picked out a fierce t-rex to bring home!  AJ named his Mickey dinosaur (from the book the night kitchen), then Kman followed with Minnie dinosaur (haha, how predictable.)


Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Less is More

I began this post right after New Years, then completely forgot about it.  The boys and I just had such a wonderful weekend in Pittsburgh, which I'll share next, but wanted to publish my goal for the year first.

I decided my big resolution this year is to minimize!  I'm SO excited for this one, and have a really great support system on board.  Not only is Keith excited to see me let go of SO much, but my mom is doing the same thing in her mountain home.  Every week I plan on tackling a small area of the house/life.  Last week began with myself in the bedroom.  I have a feeling I'll have some difficulty learning to purge, so I'm going to begin with my clothes, accessories, what I store under the bed, see what I come up with then eventually cycle back around to Keith's section of the room.  It's gonna get messy, then it's gonna get organized.  Plus, minimizing will contribute to my other goal....to give.

Less is more!


A scene from last week.  Items piling around my office.  All that gave me one whole closet back!


Sunday, January 3, 2016

Happy New Year

Happy 2016!!!!



We all had a wonderful beginning of this new year together.  At my continued request the boys and I all stayed home together.  We picked up some yummy snacks to make, fresh flowers, hung a couple garlands, the boys cracked up when Keith popped a champagne cork and when I ran upstairs to kiss the kids at midnight Aiden said "happy new year mama."  

We spent the first morning of the new year luring Keith downstairs with bacon, riding bikes and traveling to Pittsburgh for a surprise visit with Kristen and baby Zoe.  She's grown so much this past two months and the boys are in LOVE with her!!!  



Our slumber party was a blast and we thank Mama Strayer so much for inviting us over.  We gave hugs and kisses the next morning and came home to write out our resolutions, wishes, dreams and all good thoughts for what we hope 2016 will hold.  Once the sun went down Keith's family joined us in releasing our sky lanterns.  This is definitely my favorite tradition!