Boston Bound

At the race expo with a couple of our running friends. Crazy busy expo! Our race numbers, Boston jackets, and lunch with my Dad Race numbers

Very tired boys

Movie time (left to right: Liam, Luke, Karsyn, Houston, and Chase above)

Taking a walk to the park with six little kids

Dinner time!

Liam and Aiden playing with chalk

Sweet AJ

Thanks to all our friends and family who have sent so many well-wishes. John and I are planning to run the Boston Marathon on Patriots Day, April 18, 2011. To run the marathon together was a goal that John and I have talked about for nearly 10 years. After many long runs in -20 degrees this winter and several marathons to qualify both of us to run Boston in the same year, we are finally here. We have had a great weekend catching up, visiting with my Dad and Jane, and enjoying the peace and quiet. So what are the boys doing? They are having a blast and probably will not want to come home. They are staying with our wonderful babysitter and her family for a few days while we are gone. Ironically, our babysitter also has twin boys that are a little younger than Luke and Liam. She also has an older daughter who has been helpful with Aiden. Although she thinks we are amazing to be running a marathon, I think she is amazing with her ability to handle six children (all 5 years of age and under) with such ease. I am pretty sure that I am better suited to run marathons than handle that many kids at once. I have to add that I am completely and utterly amazed at what our boys are eating and drinking while they are away from home! I feel a bit defeated to find out they will eat vegetables, drink milk and water, and eat fruit or anything else that is put in front of them while we are away! What?! John and I are laughing at the emails we have received from our sitter. The boys are in for some changes when they get home, that is for sure.

Basketball Goal

He Shoots He Scores!! Check out the basketball on the nice stand in the background. It's just about six inches too high. No more stand, its in the ground and a little lower now.

Thanks Dad!

Shoot!

Swish!

Look Mom, its a worm! Not sure why Dad had to bring them in the house. They only dropped the worms once or twice.

Luke's worm was about twice as long, but not now.

It is finally spring in Minnesota!! It is going to be awhile before we need to mow the grass, but we are finally able to see the grass and the temps are reaching 50 degrees. The boys have been outside a lot this week and loved it. One of their favorite things to do over the winter was to play basketball in the bonus room. So, rather than carry the entire goal up and down the stairs from inside to outside, we decided it was time to invest in a new basketball goal. Unfortunately, I do not think there is much of a market for basketball goals for three year olds because they are all way too high. John quickly had to improvise the goal as we became very frustrated with the height of the goal and clearly our entire basketball career was in jeopardy. haha!

Bunk Beds!!!

Aiden trying out the new beds Everyone on the top bunk

Yipee! The beds are here!

I know I have mentioned this before, but he is seriously the messiest kid I have ever seen. Spaghetti, bread, and one mini oreo cookie in case you were wondering....

One night last week before the new beds arrived, we went in to check on Luke and Liam and this is what we found.

Sweet Brothers

We are in the process of making the transition from cribs to big boy beds. After 3 years and 4 months in the cribs, I think the boys are ready for the change. They are so excited about the idea of the bunk beds and we have been counting the days for the bed delivery all week. The beds finally arrived today and the boys could not have been any happier. It was like Christmas around here and I am not sure who was the happiest-Luke, Liam, or Aiden. Why Aiden? He loved trying to climb the ladder and playing on the beds with his brothers. We have a few "ground rules" for sleeping in the beds so we are hoping for a smooth transition. We have not finished putting their room back together after the painting and arrival of the beds, but I am posting a few initial pictures of the new beds.

New Room

Painting with Daddy

Watching and Listening, but VERY excited to paint!

Luke playing hockey in basement after breakfast (yes, he's in his pajamas and hockey gear)

SCORE!

Aiden at his desk

Just when we thought it was spring, we got another big snow storm. I have learned a lot about snow since living in Minnesota. There are a lot of different types of snow and spring snows are definitely my least favorite. Spring snow is messy, slushy, wet, and heavy. It is warmer in the spring so the snow is not light and fluffy like it is in January. The wet and heavy snow makes running outdoors and driving pretty difficult. Due to our cold week, we spent more time working on indoor projects. We played lots of hockey and rode our bikes in the basement and we started painting. We are working on a new room for Luke and Liam as they transition from cribs to "big boy beds." They are more than excited about the idea of beds, but we will see how it goes once the cribs are gone. They are getting bunk beds which are scheduled to arrive any day so we worked on painting their room over the weekend. After moving several many times, John and I have lots of experience with painting rooms; however, this was by far our most challenging paint project. Why? Three reasons...Luke, Liam, and Aiden. We had lots of little helpers who made the project a little more interesting and challenging. Stay tuned for pictures of the new room.

Almost Spring...

Aiden climbing the steps to the deck

Liam playing baseball with Daddy. Liam says he is "hitting homers"

Luke and Baseball

Aiden pushing the well-used lawn mower. This is one of Luke and Liam's favorite toys and during the winter they called it their "snow blower"

Aiden on his bicycle

Luke and Liam on their bikes

Liam and Aiden

The Maniac

We had our first taste of spring outside today and the boys really had a great time. They have been talking about taking their bikes outside everytime we see the snow melting. It has been a relatively long winter that started early and was quite snowy. John and I had a long run this morning with our running group and then returned home to three kids who were dying to go outside. So, of course, we bundled everyone up and took them out only to take turns basically running behind Luke as he rode his bike! Luke is fast on the bike and he has no fear. Liam, thankfully, likes to take his time, check out the birds, the planes, the rocks, etc...Aiden, on the other hand, is all over the place. I don't remember this stage too fondly with Luke and Liam because it is very hard to keep track of them as this age. He gets into things very quickly and really has no discretion. It could be the trash can one minute and the toilet the next so don't turn your back. Of course, when we go outside, there are all kinds of things to put in your mouth that are not supposed to be in there. There will be lots to keep us busy over the summer, that is for sure. I am posting a few pictures of our wonderful afternoon outside, we are so ready for spring! While we were outside today, Liam even pointed out that he heard "lots of birdies!"

Real Life

My cleanest eater award goes to...Liam

And the messiest...to Aiden. Yes, for those of you who have eaten with Luke, I think Aiden might be worse.

One of Aiden's favorite "loveys"-his blanket and pacifier. His blanket is actually the swaddle blanket we used for all three boys when they were infants. The nice thing is we have about six of them so there is always a clean one!

Asking (or demanding) the T.V. remote up on the mantel. This quickly led to an all out tantrum since I would not give him the remote.

Aiden running away at bath time, another one of his favorite games to play

We are "stopping" at a stop light and waiting for the traffic while riding our bikes in the basement

Liam painting a fake egg

Luke and his egg

The boys are "helping" with some laundry. Aiden screamed until I put him up on the bench right between his brothers.

I think the most exciting news I have heard recently is that the temperatures in Minnesota might hit 50 degrees this week! We cannot wait for some snow to melt! Every time it gets sunny and a little bit warmer outside (i.e. 30 degrees), the boys get so excited to see the snow melting because they know they can ride their bikes outside pretty soon.

This week was filled with a lot of "real life" stuff for us. We did not have anything major happen this week, just the day to day stuff of keeping up with three kids that are three and under. We had two ear infections, one pink eye, some respiratory issues, and colds so it was not one of our better weeks. Here are a few random pictures from the our "real" week!

I want to ride my bicycle!

The puppy, the monster, and the tiger

Liam trying out his new bike for first time

Love the new bikes!

Luke is crazy on the bike, I am so nervous about taking him outside! Good thing that John and I are runners.

Aiden's bike

New bikes!!

Only in Minnesota and a few other areas, would you learn to ride your bike in the basement in March. After my last post, we went shopping for bikes for Luke and Liam. They have been riding them all the time in the basement since we purchased them. They cannot wait to get them outside when the snow finally melts. We passed down their old tricycle to Aiden and thankfully it is working well because I am pretty sure it would be miserable if we did not have something for Aiden to ride. We are beginning to think that we need THREE of everything rather than two.

Luke is a maniac on the bike. He rides so fast and we are trying to teach him to watch where he is going because he tends to look around or ride right into the wall while looking at his feet turning the pedals. We had to put arrows on the floor in the basement so that they would both ride in the same direction. Liam, on the other hand, is slightly more cautious and controlled on the bike, but we had to mandate that they stop riding if they are going to try to drink from their water bottles because drinking and riding do not mix at all.

I also have to post a picture of the boys in the triple stroller with all their winter hats and coats. We get comments every time we go somewhere with our dog, monster, and tiger hats but I imagine most of our out of state family and friends have not seen them. I was pretty determined to find something cute considering how much we have to wear these each winter so we even have gloves to match our hats! It makes the cold winter a little better, I guess.