February Flashback

Ciao. Salut! Shalom my friends!  It's been awhile and I'm sorry to have disappeared.  Today is a happy day and since it's a sweet little girl's birthday, I am inspired to update the blog.

We are due for a flashback of last month to catch up to now.  

February, a month full of BIG love did not fall short.  I kept the boys busy with heart-shaped activities, which showcased Kaleb's impressive red wheels collection (obviously his favorite color), cookie decorating, crafting, picture taking and baking.  

Valentine's Day we received unexpected news and headed to Pittsburgh.  My sister and the twin cousins drove in a few days later, and you know how much I love seeing the quads together!  All the cousins had a sleep over, nail painting party, we had a quick visit with little Zoe (GOSH I LOVE HER SO MUCH), and spent an entire weekend visiting with family and celebrating the outstanding life of my 96-year-old Grandma!  

Valentine's activities, and the boys FIRST tiny box of chocolates:Thanks ZOE!

Taken April 2015

Uncle Dennis taught the kids it's okay to have ice-cream for lunch, we enjoyed an epic game of Simon Says and later in time I began another miraculous trip around the sun.

Valentine JAMMIES made by BMA!!  Thanks for hugging the kids to sleep all night long.

And now:  Happy March.  We are loving the Spring weather and hope it's here to stay.  Our windows are open, I'm back to purging the house, the boys FINALLY got a much needed hair cut and we had a visit from a beautiful red fox in the backyard.  

Lots of fun heading our way this weekend with family and friends, and an upcoming trip to CHICAGO is fast approaching!  

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.

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.)

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!

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!

Kids love Santa

The boys got a full run-down of the man in the red coat this year.  A Winnie-The-Pooh holiday special taught them everything about Christmas time, and became clear as day when we accidentally ran into St. Nick at our favorite play center.  Kaleb's reaction left me feeling a little magical...He yelled "Santa" ran straight up to him with his hands covering his mouth (he was SO excited) climbed right up on his knee and said " KK be good boy, wants red car go really fast with wheels."  AJ was happy, but a little more timid.  He did share his gift request (tractor with wheels with tractor trailer), said thank you and left to stand in the trampoline line.

Like last year Keith and I took the boys to spend the night at Great Grandmas house, where they have a big dinner, gift exchange and the boys got to run around the house chasing the sound of sleigh bells.  They got really lucky and even heard a "ho-ho-ho" in the distance.  The excitement was priceless.  Keith and Timmy used to do the exact thing as kids, so they ate up every second of sharing the tradition with K&A.

Keith also grew up visiting a tree farm, which he did with the boys for the first time this year.  The boys helped make the final decision, watched Keith saw it down, then AJ pulled the tree back to the barn all.by.himself.  Seriously.  He is so strong.  And since we were away on the actual Christmas eve, Santa visited our house a couple nights later instead.  The boys we're ecstatic at the first sight of their new bicycles.  These balance bikes are probably the best things ever.  Aiden is a total pro....the first time outside he gave himself a giant push off, pulled his feet up and coasted.....like he's known how to ride a 2-wheeler for years.  I think he'll be on a pedal bike by the end of summer.

Big thanks to everyone for contributing to another amazing holiday. 
Happy new year to you all.  May 2016 bring you good health, love and happiness.