New Look

Luke with the Dot paints. Painting is something Luke really loves right now.
Liam working on his snowflake

Aiden is just a mess.

The finished snowflakes

Liam with his puppy hat he made from the craft stuff Calvin sent us.

Daddy and Luke

All five of us (standing, looking, and halfway smiling!)

John and I on an old historic bridge

Stinker

The boys

We are trying out a "new look" for the blog. I did some reading to try to make a few design changes so that we could try to incorporate some recent family pictures we took. I am definitely not a blog designer and now I know why they pay people to do this stuff. As with many projects, it was fairly time consuming. Anyway, about the family pictures....We found a wonderful photographer to take some pictures of all five of us. We have been a little slow in getting family pictures made since Aiden was born, but this actually ended up being relatively easy. Our photographer was very patient, talented, and fun. We basically took pictures of the boys playing outside. It was cool on the day we took the pictures, but not cold so we were able to enjoy the time outside and get some great pictures. I am posting several of our favorites.

We also did a few craft projects recently. We made some snowflakes out of coffee filters and then painted them. We also received some puppy dog craft projects from our cousin Calvin's birthday party and we loved making puppy hats, collars, and eating the "dog food" and "dog vitamins." Thanks Calvin!

I am borrowing this from another blog, but I really liked it and wanted to repost it:

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize

they were the big things. Robert Brault

Here are a couple funny "little things" from our week:

1. Aiden does this thing now where he will be walking along and stop and say, "I stuck, I stuck." So, we will say, no you are not stuck, let's go and he will start walking and say, "oh, there I go."

2. The boys received the movie, "Cars 2" from Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers for Christmas and they love to watch it when we are driving in the van. Each of them has a different car from the movie (Lightening McQueen for Luke, Francesco the race car for Liam, and Tow Mater for AJ). They always want to bring their cars with them and when a racing scene comes on the movie, they will race their cars as fast as possible in their laps and discuss who is winning while makes all kinds of car noises. It is hilarious to watch.

3. Liam notices everything, seriously he is so observant. I wore a new shirt the other day and he said, "Hey mom, nice blue shirt you are wearing."

January Snow and Saturday Trains

Liam's snow Angel
Luke's Snow Angel

Dump Trucks hauling snow

This activity lasted almost an HOUR for Luke and Liam! Too bad I didn't have a cup of coffee out there.

Saturday Morning Trains!

Saturday morning trains

Racing the Trains

Checking out the bridge

Cheeeeeeese!

We have had one of the mildest winters on record for Minnesota this year (so far, that is). I keep wondering what the repercussions of such a mild winter will be in the long run. Like more bugs this summer, a longer winter with snow in the spring, etc...? I have no idea because I have never seen a winter in Minnesota where we could actually play outdoors without snow gear in January. But this winter has been relatively mild and it has been nice in my opinion though many of the natives are crying for the lack of snow and "good ice" to play hockey outdoors. We did, however, get some snow over the weekend and the boys love playing in it. They (minus Aiden) love to shovel and could spend hours outside "working" on the driveway. Aiden spends his 10 minutes outside before he is ready to come in, but that is hardly worth the nearly 20 minutes it takes to put on all his snow gear since he is not exactly tolerant of all the clothing.

Another one of our weekly traditions recently has been donuts with Daddy on Saturday mornings. I am usually trying to fit in a longer run either solo or with our running group while John takes the boys out to get donuts. Its a special treat that they really look forward to and I will never complain about a clean kitchen and some time away. We do have days and hours when everyone plays really well together. Luke and Liam do a relatively good job of including Aiden and tolerating his sometimes destructive forms of play as he knocks down their Lego towers or pulls apart the train tracks. The pictures are proof that sometimes it does work for all three to do the same activity at the same time!

In other news, Aiden had his 2 year check up this past week and his is pretty close to the size that Luke was at 2 years of age. He is 34.5 inches and 32.9 lbs. That is about an inch shorter than Luke and 1.3 lbs heavier! We all knew he was a butterball.

Birthday Boys

Lots and Lots of boys!! Left to right back row: Justin, Jake, Eli, Liam, AJ, William, Caleb, Jack W., Luke, Charlie, and Sean. Front row L to R: Zac and Jack B.

Getting ready for the big party. Aiden is holding up 5 fingers. Everytime you ask Aiden how old he is, his response is very matter of factly-"five."
Watching the safety video with our friend and neighbor, Jack W.

Air Hockey

Aiden went up and down this 30 foot slide multiple times by himself. I just happen to go down once with him and John snapped a picture.

Basketball with Liam and Jack

Trying to climb the big wall

Luke with his flag to pin on the wall

Hungry and thirsty boys

YUMMY cake

Happy Birthday Luke and Liam!

We had a 4th birthday party for Luke and Liam over the weekend at Pump it Up, a party place with large inflatable jumping things. We debated on where to have it this year and finally decided to have the party at the same place we went to last year. It is not a place where we play during the week so it is still new for the boys and they love it. They do excellent parties and are so helpful from the time you walk in until the time you leave (they even carry everything out to the car for you). Since we have January birthdays, I really don't ever see having a party at our house for 15 little boys. It is hard enough to entertain 3 little boys, much less a roomful of boys after they eat cake and ice cream. We had a few friends from school, our twins group, and our neighborhood. In reality, John and I thought the party was easier than taking the boys out to dinner on Saturday night! We were able to stand around and talk with the other parents. We are all "partied out" until the next birthday in our family....not until August!

4 and 2

Birthday Lunch at McDonald's with our best twin friends, Jack and Charlie
The crazy boys in maroon at Open Gym (and one white shirt that Kirsten babysits)

More climbing at the gymnastics place

Happy 4th Birthday Liam Carey!

Happy 4th Birthday Luke Allen!

Take One: Aiden's first Day of school!! January 3, 2012

Take Two: First Day of School. Everyone is looking, but no one is smiling.

Take Three: Aiden's first Day of School, Luke is getting bored and Aiden is following him.

Take Four: Aiden's first day of school. Luke is no longer interested, but good job Liam and AJ.

Happy 2nd Birthday Aiden John! Not the monkey cupcakes from Aunt Sarah, but it was tasty.

This is the month for birthdays at our house! After all the parties and celebrations at Christmas, we move into birthday party mode. We celebrated Aiden's second birthday last week and we are preparing to celebrate Luke and Liam's 4th birthday this week. Luke and Liam are very excited about their birthday for two reasons: 1) Cake and 2) They will be four and they are now eligible to go on the field trips at school (translation: they get to ride the school bus). Happy 4th Birthday Luke Allen and Liam Carey. We love you and cannot imagine how we spent our free time before you arrived! Happy Birthday wishes to our Cousin Calvin who also turns 4 today. We miss you and wish we could be there to celebrate with you.

Aiden hit a big milestone last week when he started his first day of school. This was a surprise Christmas gift to me from John for Christmas and I could not have been more excited. Don't get me wrong, I have a great time with Aiden when the boys are at school, but honestly...everyone needs a break. Aiden is a handful! He is very mischievous and he has been asking to go to school like his brothers for several months now. He generally has a melt down when we have to drop off the boys at school and Aiden has to go home with me rather than staying to play. On his first day, he was a little timid and cried a little, but by Day 2 he was walking right in and starting to play. I am excited for Aiden to start school because I know he needs the challenges and interaction with other kids his own age. All three boys will now be going to school on two mornings each week for about 3 hours. Hallelujah!

Happy 2nd Birthday Aiden John!

Aiden is playing a little piano with Liam
The crazy FOUR!

Merry Christmas!

Super Friends! up up and Away!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our little monkey!

Happy 2nd Birthday Aiden! Its so hard to believe you are already TWO, the same age your brothers were when you arrived. You are so smart, funny, mischievous, as well as very persistent at times. We love you very much and we are so thankful to have you in our lives. You and your brothers are the best of friends and so much fun to watch.