Weekly Review: January 24 - 30

When we moved into our new house last summer, our intention was that we would gut and remodel the kitchen - our tentative time frame for this being this spring. In the meantime, the L shaped mud room that surrounds our current kitchen serves as a wonderful playroom! There is one little problem though, it gets really cold out there!

We were disappointed at the thought of loosing this great play area over the winter months. Even thought it probably wouldn't make a big difference, Daddy decided to make a couple small changes. We put down an extra area run, Daddy added some weather stripping to the back door and we hooked up a small space heater in the room. The results from these small changes ended up being nothing short of amazing! The boys now have a nice cozy little play area which they use a lot! Now that the cold weather has limited our outside play time, its great having this little spot available for the kids to just do their thing while confining the bulk of their toys to one area.

Just because we haven't posted any of Brian's "Tool of the Day" posts while Mommy has been playing catch up on the blog, don't think for a minute that Brian hasn't been hard at work! Last week Daddy wanted to install the wood thresh hold in our bathroom. Fortunately Brian was able to pry himself away from playing fireman long enough to show Daddy how to properly measure before cutting. As Brian always says: "measure twice, cut once!"

Mommy and Daddy had an appointment Thursday evening with Brian's teacher. That's right, their first parent/teach conference! When the first thing you hear is "Brian is a very intelligent little boy", you almost feel like you should be waiting for the other shoe to drop! Fortunately that was not the case! She confirmed some things that we already knew (ie: he knows his letter, colors, shapes and numbers, oh......and that he is left handed). She also said that while his attention span can be short, that's also very normal for a 3 year old! She also said that since he knows all his letters, she would now like to see him working at learning to write them. All in all, she said she is very happy with how well he is doing. Hearing this was music to Mommy and Daddy's ears! Brian spent his Saturday evening winding down with some Lawrence Welk. Yes, we still tune in to Public TV most Saturday and Sunday evenings to listen to the musical magic of Lawrence and the gang! Tonight Brian got interactive and with the help of a couple bowling pins, was directing the orchestra right along with Mr. Welk!

Weekly Review: January 17 - 23

The boys got a Mickey Mouse bowling game for Christmas. There has been a lot of bowling going on at our house lately and they are really having a good time with it. Little did we know that and as it turns out, this little game has turned into a good training tool for Brian! We mentioned earlier that the boys cousin Haley turned 5 years old earlier this month. What we didn't say is that she is having a birthday party for a few friends today and it is a BOWLING PARTY!!!!!

Mommy and Daddy made the managerial decision that Spencer isn't quite ready for a trip to the bowling alley yet so he stayed home and watched football with Grandpa. Brian however, was BEYOND excited! He picked out his ball (6 lb balls were the lightest ones available) and he handled it pretty well.

There were a total of 7 bowlers in attendance. They were split into two groups and used two alleys. Brian was a maniac and even though he wanted to completely explode from pure excitement, he did a great job of waiting his turn. Every now and then we had to steer him back to the alley he was suppose to be using but other than that, he didn't want much assistance. Mommy shot a few short videos of the bowling frenzy and she is trying to figure out if it is possible for them to be loaded onto the blog.

Every so often Brian's school has a theme that they encourage all the kids to dress for. This Friday the theme was "Cool School Day" so all the kids could dress in styles from the 50's or 60's. With the aid of some hair gel, here's the little greaser that went to school this morning!

Earlier this week, Grandma started having a lot of leg/hip/back pain. Haley was planning to go play at her house for a while on Friday but since Grandma was not feeling up to her ol' self yet Haley suggested that she hang out with us! She came along with us when we went to pick "Cool Brian" up from school and the boys LOVED getting to play with her when we got home!

Weekly Review: January 10 - 16

Daddy has been hard at work remodeling the kitchen of a very nice family. The boys have been extremely anxious for Daddy to install their new cabinets because as you may know, cabinets come in really cool boxes! You guessed it.......we just got some great new toys to play with!!!!!

Now that Brian is in school, he takes his role as the educated big brother very seriously.

Half the fun of bedtime is getting to pick out what books you would like Mommy or Daddy to read to you! Sometimes the books come from Spencer's bookshelf in his room, and sometimes they come from Brian's.

Weekly Review: January 3 - 9

Since this past December was our South Dakota Christmas year, now that we are home we are having our Illinois family Christmas celebrations! There were stockings to open.

There were also some new friends to hug! Uncle Corey gave both boys "Al", the Wells Fargo pony. Anyone want to take a guess as to where Uncle Corey works???? :-)

Grandma has a tradition that each Christmas Eve, the grand kids open a package that contains a pair of her hand crafted jammies! We thought last years were cute but this years are even more adorable!!! Thank you Grandma!!!!!!

Before the tree and all of the Christmas decorations are packed up and put away, here is one more official "holiday shot" of the boys!

This week started and ended with birthdays! So, Happy Birthday to Aunt Ann on Sunday the 3rd and to cousin Haley who turned 5 years old Saturday the 9th!

Weekly Review: December 27 - January 2, 2010

Our original plan was to have started for home yesterday (Saturday the 26th) and to be home by today (Sunday the 27th). The 16+ inches of fluffy white snow outside has slightly altered those plans. What would you do if you were snowbound at Grandma and Grandpa's house? Easy question........make home made ice cream! Spencer helped Grandma get all the ingredients mixed together. Brian helped Grandpa get the salt poured into the ice cream machine and...........






EVERYONE enjoyed the yummy results!!!!!

Just because we didn't want to be out driving in it didn't mean we didn't want to be out PLAYING in it! Daddy dug out a little snow fort area for the boys to play in.

Now, about that addition that Grandma and Grandpa put onto their house! Here's a picture of the front of the house. Yup, the garage and unsided portion of the house is all new! Amazing huh?




This picture was taken standing by the bay window at one end of the addition and looking into the sun room at the other end. With all of this new additional space to race around in, I think at the end of the day, the boys were actually more tired than they normally are!




Even though we got to stay a little longer than we anticipated, eventually the roads cleared up enough for us to start for home. Thank you for everything Grandma and Grandpa! We love you both and we love what you have been able to do to your house! Absolutely amazing!!!




We drove through a lot of drifting snow (like this picture) for the first hour or so but once we got onto the Interstate, things went very smoothly. We still saw a variety of vehicles in the ditch but for the most part, our roads were pretty clear. Up to this point we have always made the trip to and from South Dakota in two days. However, since the roads were okay and since Daddy was anxious to get back to the job he was working on prior to Christmas, we decided to try out luck at making the trip home in one day. We had lunch in Sioux Falls with Mommy's good friend Jannelle and didn't stop again until we had dinner just outside of LaCrosse Wisconsin.







The McDonalds we like to go to has one of the best playlands on the planet so after they had their dinner, we gave the boys a little extra time to stretch their legs and have some fun before we needed to got back on the road. The boys were fabulous little travelers, especially considering they were strapped into their car seats for well over 12 hours!





Once we were home, it was time to start planning the final details for our New Years Eve party! The group of friends/family that we go on our annual zoo outing with are the same group of family/friends that we spend New Years with each year. Kids and adults - eating, playing games, talking and lots of laughing. We have fun every year and this year was no exception. When the kids started playing Wii (an interactive video game played on the tv), Brian was front and center in the action! It was the bowling game in particular that he couldn't seem to get enough of and it was completely hysterical watching!



We wish all the very best in 2010......Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

Our first birthday greetings for 2010 go out to the boys cousin Lauren who turns two years old on January 1st! Happy Birthday Lauren!!!!!!!

Weekly Review: December 20 - 26

Christmas is only a few days away and the RSV (red sport vehicle) is loaded so we are set to start our 12 hours of drive time to Grandma and Grandpa's house in South Dakota! We spent the night at Great Grandma's house in Clear Lake Iowa (which just happens to be the half way point). Great Grandma had already left for her winter residence in Arizona so the boys took it upon themselves to make sure everything was okay in the Iowa house. She will be relieved to know that her organ is working fine.

Brian also made sure to light all of her candles. Don't worry Grandma, we made sure he put them all out before we left!

We made good time on the final leg of our trip and arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house in good shape......or should we say, we arrived at their NEW house! They have been hard at work doing an addition onto their house. When we say "THEY" we do mean that the two of them have done the bulk of the work! It's amazing and they nearly doubled the size of their house! Photos' of that coming soon. Shortly after we arrived the weather forecast turned ugly. The weathermen started saying that we were in store for a Christmas snowstorm so we made a few changes in our travel plans. On December 22nd, Uncle Seth, Aunt Ann, Nolan, and Lauren came over for an early Christmas. Since Great Grandma moved to a new apartment which is located just a few blocks from Grandma and Grandpa, we got to spend the day with her as well which was wonderful! With our tummy's full from Grandma's cooking, Brian, Lauren and Uncle Seth sang a few Christmas tunes before we opened gifts.

Apparently Old Man Weather was listening to the weather forecast because on Wednesday afternoon, it started to snow.....and snow........and snow some more! Thinking that this might be our last change to get out of the house for a few days, that night we ventured out for some pizza. There were several arcade games by the exit and there was no way we were getting out of the restaurant without letting the boys "play" a few games so, there ya go!

As long as you have some extra provisions in the kitchen (which we did) and have a nice cozy place to be (which we had), being snow bound can actually be a lot of fun! All of the local church's had to cancel their Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services but that didn't stop us from celebrating on our own! We opened gifts Christmas Eve and as it turned out, there were a few new games under the tree that we enjoyed playing over the next few days!

We are happy to announce that even though the Interstates were closed, somehow Santa was still able to make his way through the storm to deliver gifts! Brian was even willing to share some of his toys and books with Grandpa!

Weekly Review: December 13 - 19

Thursday night we were all on hand to witness Brian's first ever school Christmas program. It just doesn't get much better than watching a group of 3 and 4 year old's - standing up in front of the church - waving at their families and belting out a chorus of Jesus Loves Me. Too fabulous to describe! As they sang their 3 songs you could literally hear all the smiles coming from everyone as they watched. We have mentioned Brian's girlfriend Elizabeth before. Well, Elizabeth has a brother who also attends Brian's school. Brian thinks he's pretty cool when he is acknowledged by his upper class man (8th grade) friend Michael whenever he spots him in the school hallways!












Friday was the last school day before the Christmas break so prior to the early dismissal time, each of the class rooms had their Christmas party. Room parent Mommy dreamed up another game for the kids to play which Daddy hand crafted for her. Before having their snack they also made some "Reindeer Food" and "Snowman Soup". I believe it is fair to say that a good time was had by all!













We have an annual tradition that a group of our friends - (some we are related to and some not) and our kids pick a day in December and go on a group outing. For several years we took the train downtown to check out their window displays and tree at Marshall Fields/Macys. Last year we decided to try something new by going to Brookfield Zoo. The zoo is really decorated up with thousands and thousands of christmas lights so if the weather is even halfway decent, it makes for a beautiful late afternoon/evening! We did the same thing this year and once again, we all had a great time. It was a chilly night but it was easy to duck into a building to warm up while checking out the animals in that display. There was no way we were leaving without a carousal ride though!

Our group night out is always followed up by dinner. We went to Portillos' again this year and you will never guess what Brian and Spencer had! What? Spaghetti??? I can't believe you were able to guess that - AMAZING!