And BABY makes.....

Luke, Liam and Aiden are excited to annouce they will be BIG BROTHERS....BABY #4 is anticipated to arrive mid August, 2013.    Needless to say, the boys are WAY excited about the news!

Opening the baby presents we had for them to tell them about the baby.  Funny story....of the three bottles (pictured above) the boys managed to "hide" one in less then 5 minutes.  Oh a sign of our times and we sure hope Baby #4 has a lot of patience.

Praticing feeding the Baby

That looks a little better.


And BABY makes...FOUR!  Yes, you read that correctly.  We are very excited to announce that we are expecting Baby #4 in mid August.  The reactions from the boys were all priceless.  Luke was, by far, the most excited about the idea and had lots and lots of great questions.  He was a little upset that the baby will not be here tomorrow.  The boys do understand the concept of seasons pretty well so we explained that the baby will not be here until the end of the summer right before Luke and Liam start kindergarten.  Luke hasn't stopped asking questions like, "do you think the baby can hear me talking or is he/she sleeping right now?"  Or, when the baby comes out, he will cry a lot, but I will hold him like this because babies like that."

To tell the boys about the baby, we gave each of the boys three small random baby items wrapped as presents.  Each of them unwrapped the presents with a somewhat puzzled looks as to why they were getting a swaddle blanket, pacifier, baby bottles, etc.  Luke even suggested we give them to our friend Kirsten who has a baby (Andy).  Aiden thought it would be fun to play with all of them and Liam really wasn't sure what the gifts were about.  Luke finally put the pieces together and figured out that  mommy has a baby in her belly! 

I am nearing the end of the first trimester and things are progressing well.  I had one doctor's appointment to confirm the due date and the fact that there is "just" one baby.  I am feeling fairly good, though I have had a lot more nausea and weird aversions to various foods with this pregnancy.  

We are so thankful and blessed to have this gift and we look forward to sharing the next chapter of our lives with family and friends. Oh the fun we will have and stories to tell....

Big Week for Aiden

As with several areas in the United States, we are having some absolutely frigid temperatures in Minnesota.  Frigid.  This will make 20 degrees look balmy in a few days.  Seriously, the daily "high" temperature has been below zero.  On average, the temps have been around -10 with a windchill around -20 degrees or lower.  So, we have been couped up indoors way too much and the boys have energy that could explode at any second.  We have managed to entertain ourselves with several other projects in our free time which made for a busy week for AJ.

We started potty training Aiden and he is doing pretty well.  He is a little more opinionated about when and where he wants to use the potty, but I should have anticipated that knowing his personality versus Luke and Liam's.  He managed to go to preschool for a few hours the other morning without having any accidents.  BUT, I should also mention that he never actually went to the potty while he was there either.  They took him to the potty every 30 minutes (so at least 4-5 times), but he chose to hold it.  So, we pottied right before leaving school and he still would not go potty.  Until, of course, we were driving home and he had an accident in his car seat.  He gets the idea and is more than ready to do this, but he is stubborn. 

In conjuction with the potty training, Aiden moved to a big boy bed and a new room.  We didn't intend for all of these changes to be so close together, but it just worked out that way.  We had some extra time to work on his bed arrangement so we purchased a mattress, shuffled some furniture around, and Aiden is in a new room!  The room is still a work in progress as he is getting dresser from Luke and Liam (who are getting a larger dresser) and we are ordering some bedding and drapes, but he does have a new room.  We are still discussing whether to paint the room or leave it yellow.  This room was previously a guest room, but we have never really spent a lot of time in it until now.  We transferred all of Aiden's belongings, clothes, animals, books, etc...and despite a few details needed to finalize, the room it looks great. 

Aiden is so proud of his new bed.  He spent the first night in his bed and never cried or tried to get out of bed.  In fact, I went to get him the next morning and he was laying there talking to his animals. 

One way we burned some energy recently was to play at the indoor soccer dome with inflatables and lots of area to run.  They have a small driving range on the other side and the boys love to watch the golfers.  Most of them are older grandparents and thankfully they also enjoy the boys watching!

Aiden in his "goalie gear"

Aiden in his new big boy bed.  The frame is a double bed and the headboard was actually the back of Luke and Liam's crib.  We bought two convertible cribs many years ago and they are coming in handy for Aiden.  He also got a Batman sleeping bag for his birthday.

Thankfully, he has been sleeping really well in his new bed.

Aiden's bookshelf and belongings.  He is showing me his basket full of big boy pants!

 

Blast off Birthday Party!

Climbing the bars at gymnastics



I am not really sure what Liam is doing here

The whole gang at the party

Aiden getting ready to jump in the pit!

Group picture

The cake was fabulous!  I ordered the candle holders to try and personalize it a little for the boys.  Each little guy is wearing a super hero cape.  Luke's is purple with Superman, Liam's is green/orange/yellow with Batman, and Aiden's is blue with Captain America.

Singing Happy Birthday and getting ready to blow out the candles

All five of us!

Playing with the parachute

Lunch at Chuck E. Cheese with our friends Jack and Charlie on Luke and Liam's actual birthday (Friday, Jan 11th)

Can't believe we are so BIG!  3, 5, and 5 years!

 

Over the weekend, we celebrated Luke, Liam, and Aiden's birthdays.  Aiden turned three on January 2nd and Luke and Liam turned 5 on January 11th.  As I mentioned previously, we decided to make things easier this year and have one big gymnastics birthday party.  The gymnastics open gym is a place we go almost weekly in the winter to burn off energy during the preschool open gym.  All three boys love it.  We started going when Luke and Liam were barely a year old and Aiden has been fairly regular since he was about 3 months old (in a Bjorn carrier)!! 

We had a rocket ship themed party.  This was a theme that seemed to fit with everyone.  We don't all agree on too many things, but they all like space and rockets.  It was a good fit for three boys plus I am not into character themed anything.  Disney World is overdrive for me!  We had rocket ship cups and bags for party favors along with a few other small items.  We played hard in the gym for nearly an hour.  The staff played games with all the kids and then allowed them some open gym time.  Next, we went to the party room for cake, ice cream, and presents.  It took them no time to eat cake.  I think they were finished by the time we got everyone served so we quickly moved back into the gym to burn off all the sugar.  The boys were super tired the night after the party.  All in all, it was a fun day and a memorable party for all three boys. 

Happy 3rd Birthday Aiden John!

We are in the midst of the birthday month at our house.  All three boys have January birthdays and that combined with the fact that they are right after Christmas makes for about a month long present and party extravaganza.  Last week, we celebrated Aiden's 3rd birthday.  Aiden is full of spunkiness.  He is way too smart for his age, very independent, hardly ever shy, and can easily handle both of his brothers combined.  He is also sweet and caring, observant, and creative.  He is a handful and fun to watch as he grows and matures.  He loves preschool (his big boy class) and his teacher, Ms. Kristi.  He also loves super heros, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, swimming, gymnastics, and playing with his brothers.  He is definitely a perfect fit with Luke and Liam and frequently gives them a run for their money.  On the agenda for Aiden this year are potty training and moving to a big boy bed.  We have successfully weaned him off his pacifier that he was using during naps and at night.

To make things a little more simplistic this year, we are having one big birthday celebration for all three boys.  Honestly, it just made sense for us.  They all play with the same kids at playdates, preschool, in our neighborhood, etc...so we are inviting all of our friends to a gymnastics party.  We will update on that after the big event this weekend!

In other news, the boys are loving the ice rink.  On New Year's Eve, there were probably 10 kids skating in the backyard at 9pm.  Luke and Liam skated for a little bit before going to bed.  Our neighbor even purchased a light for the rink so we can skate at night.  The boys have done far better than John and I expected and have really improved with their skating.  By the end of this winter, they will easily be keeping up with some of the older kids.  Aiden has not really shown an interest in skating, but he shuffles around on the ice in his snow boots.  Despite my hesitations (since the boys seemed so uninterested in skating), it has been a fun winter activity that has gotten us out of the house and helped to burn some energy. 

Lastly, the blog is doing something weird with the pictures so I apologize that they are out of order.  I have invested too much time already trying to figure out the issue. 



Aiden getting ready to blow out his three candles on the cupcakes

Don't ask me why but he wanted green cupcakes with an incredible Hulk so we improvised a bit to make that happen

Sunday afternoon open skate!

Luke on skates

Liam showing me how fast he can skate

Blowing out the candles

 

Happy 3rd Birthday AJ!!