New Bikes

Liam is so excited about the new bike!!

Helping Daddy put the bike together

Trying out the new bike

Luke calls his bike "Hawkeye"

At least the 9 inches of snow melted enough to ride on the driveway, but we got another 4 inches yesterday.  Despite the bright sun and lighter coats, it was still quite chilly outside (in the upper 30's), but this feels warm after all the snow, ice, sleet, and rain we have had.

I am not sure how they keep from running into each other

Liam calls his bike "yellow jacket bikey"

Pure silliness

And more silliness

Luke and Liam were quite excited about upgrading to bigger bikes over the weekend.  We got their previous bikes when they were around 3 years of age and now Aiden is big enough to ride them.  Luke, particularly, looked a bit like a giant on his little 12" bike.  When we first purchased Luke and Liam's bikes, it was during the winter so they technically learned to ride in our basement, but it took them all of about 5 minutes to figure it out.  Aiden, on the other hand, has shown little or no interest in biking.  He would much rather run around chasing the boys behind the bikes or pushing his cozy coupe and ramming into the side of them on their bikes.  Not sure what it is going to take to get him to actually ride a bike.  Next on the agenda for Luke and Liam this summer:  Learn to ride without training wheels!  Our forecast for the weekend shows a possible high of 60 degrees!!!  I will believe it when I see it, but I am still optimistic.

We have come a long way in our bike riding over 2 years!

Learning to ride in the basement

Luke (age 3) trying out the bike for the first time.

 

What a difference a year makes.....

Last April 2012......

We were playing in the sprinklers outside

We had on shorts and a t-shirt

There was an occasional cool day, but we had GREEN grass

Baseball in the backyard (no snow)



And what a difference a year makes!  "Spring" in Minnesota this year looks something like this:

The yard is still covered in snow (April 2013)

And more snow...

And many of the lakes are still frozen

What a difference a year makes...we are still waiting on spring to arrive in Minnesota!!  It is hard, however, to post about our lack of spring in MN when this pales in comparison to the other events of this week.

When I started working on this post, it was a few hours prior to the tragedy that unfolded at the 2013 Boston Marathon.  This hit very close to home for John and I since we ran together in 2011 and were also there when I ran in 2006.  Collectively, we have completed 13 marathons and a countless number of 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons.  We also had several friends who were running the Boston marathon this year.  Boston is by far the most prestigious race and "Marathon Monday" is an amazing day in Boston with all the crowds and the celebration surrounding the race, Patriot's Day, the Red Sox game, etc...  It is sickening to think that there is someone so evil that would destroy such an amazing event for so many.  After training for months to cross the finish line after 26.2 miles, it is ironic to think that these runners were suddenly running away from the finish line in fear.  While the incident doesn't make sense to me at all, I agree with Mario Fraioli (a writer for ESPN) when he said: 
"As deep and pervasive as this wound is for fellow runners, spectators, fans of the sport and residents of Boston alike, it will heal. In fact, that slow process has already begun. A marathon, you see, is more than just a footrace -- it's a symbol of strength and unity, regardless of where it's held or how many people are on the starting line. It has a unique ability to bring people both inside and outside of the running world together during tough times -- as we saw in New York last fall -- and the number of runners who took their shirts off at the finish line Monday for rescuers to use as tourniquets, or rushed to hospitals minutes after finishing in order to donate blood, only serves as evidence of the unselfishness of this tight-knit community. And that unselfishness is infectious, as others inevitably follow suit, offering their homes, food or whatever other assistance they can muster to help the innocent victims of a terrible tragedy."

Praying for Boston and all of the runners, spectators, families, children, physicians, etc...who were affected by this tragedy. 

 

 

Holding our race numbers prior to the 2011 Boston Marathon

 

March Madness

Aiden and his crazy hair after a nap

Aiden wanted me to take a picture of how his ballon was stuck to his face.  And yes, Aiden prefers not to wear pants when we are at home.

 

My pictures from this week are random ones of Aiden being silly, but I wanted to post about March Madness and our recent hobby of watching sports on television.  Over the long winter, Luke developed a favorite nightly ritual with John.  Almost every evening after we have finished dinner, played, taken baths, etc...he will ask John if there are any games on that they can watch before bed.  What started as a hockey, basketball, or football game on occasion developed into a passion to know who won, what was the score, how many points did they win or lose by, etc...Liam also plays along with this, but not quite to the extent of Luke.  However, when we turn on a game, the boys immediately ask John-"who are the bad guys and good guys and what color are their uniforms?"  They then decide which ones they are rooting for and name the bad guys and the good guys (by color of uniform) in a particular game. 

 

Both Luke and Liam have shown a strong interest in numbers over the last year.  They are counting things all the time, informing us of the posted speed limit, and adding or subtracting.  They do a "hundreds board" where they use numbered pieces to count to 100 and there is a row for the 20's, 30's, 40's, etc...  When they are watching basketball games, they will tell us the score by saying that the "bad guys are on the 20 row, but the good guys are on the 30 row so they are winning." 

 

Luke and Daddy watching the game

Game time

John obviously has his favorite teams and one of them is the Iowa Hawkeyes since his parents both attended the University of Iowa.  He has brainwashed influenced Luke to cheer for the Hawks as well.  I usually sit back and watch all of this until last week when the Iowa Hawkeyes played the Baylor Bears (where I graduated from college) in the NIT basketball championship.  Luke and Liam were quick to pick the Hawks to win; however, Aiden sided with Mommy and the Baylor Bears.  In the end, the Bears actually beat Iowa but I felt a little sorry for Luke.  He had to go to bed before the game was over, but the first thing out of his mouth the following morning was, "Did the Hawks win?"  We called John at work so he could break the news to Luke who was disappointed, but there is always next year! 

Easter and Baby #4 Update

Baby #4 at 19 weeks

Its a BOY!

 

The Feet!!!
 

Checking out some turtles and snakes at the Nature Center

Luke in a tree at nature center

You can see everyone but the Easter Bunny! 

Liam would easily sit in the same spot and pet the little bunnies all day.  He was so gentle and loved the animals.

Aiden is getting his face painted like a bunny

My first experience hunting eggs in the snow

Liam in the wood fort hunting for eggs

Easter 2013

We got some new sunglasses in our Easter baskets

IT's A BOY!!  I had an ultrasound last week and Baby #4 is doing very well.  I am 20 weeks and we were very thankful to hear that the baby is growing well, has 10 fingers, 10 toes, a healthy heart, kidneys, etc...He is measuring on track for a mid August delivery.  We are very blessed and happy to hear that he is healthy.

We also had a very nice Easter weekend.  John had an extra day off work so we went to an Easter Eggstravaganza at one of the local parks.  We have done this for the previous two years and it is a lot of fun.  The boys met the Easter bunny, hunted eggs in the snow, and got to pet some real bunnies.  We finally enjoyed at least one day of beautiful spring weather in the 50's over the weekend.  We played quite a bit outdoors and were finally able to remove the Christmas lights that have been frozen under several feet of snow for months now.  On Sunday, we attended church and hunted for eggs indoors.  This was the first indoor Easter egg hunt I have ever participated in, but I have a feeling it is not unusual to hunt eggs indoors when you live in Minnesota.  The boys didn't really seem to care and had a great time running around the house looking for eggs.  We hope you enjoyed your Easter as well! 

                                 

 

Palm Sunday

It is a little tricky to see, but I am in the far left of this picture (yellow sweater) and Luke is coming down the aisle at church (green sweater) in front of me and waving at Daddy with his palm branch.  Liam is in front of Luke, but pretty hard to see.

Luke and Liam sang in church for Palm Sunday.  You can barely see Luke's head in the top left (green sweater)

Sneak peak at Aiden in his Easter outfit getting donuts after church. 

 

 

Very blurry picture of everyone at the Mall of America

 

Aiden visiting with the Backyardagains at the Mall of America



Despite the lack of spring weather, we all wore our new spring/Easter clothing to church over the weekend to celebrate Palm Sunday.  Luke and Liam were singing in church and Aiden was more than excited to wear his hat, tie, and special pants to church.  He says he is wearing them "to work."  He has been asking to wear the bowtie since we bought it and the searsucker pants and hat totally fit his spirited personality.  We will have more pictures to come next week for Easter! 

 

I know I have mentioned many times before that John and I are not big on shopping or going to the mall.  There are times, however, that we have a lapse of judgement and decide it might be a good idea to take everyone to the mall.  This lapse of judgement could likely occur after being indoors for long periods of time due to never ending winter weather and colder than normal temperatures while trying to entertain and exhaust three small children.  I think that is what happened to us over the weekend when we decided it might be fun to take everyone to the Mall of America on a Saturday.  I never knew a mall could be so crowded on a random Saturday in March.  It looked a bit more like Christmas to me with the wall to wall people.  The boys had fun and that was the point of our excursion.  They got to ride some of the amusement park rides, eat lunch at McD, and play at Legoland.  We got out of the house for awhile and we were very happy to be home afterwards.

Aiden's first tubing, Stripes, and Cars

These tubing pics are a little blurry from my phone, but you get the idea.  Here are the boys with Daddy getting ready to fly down the hill.

I'm not sure who is more excited...Daddy or the boys?

Here they go!!!



Aiden's new stripes in his room (the striped lampshade on left gave me the idea for the stripes)

We have a few more things to finish, but I really like it.

The calendar might say that it is spring, but the weather in MN hasn't changed yet.  At this point, I hope the snow is gone by the first day of summer because spring is not looking good at all.  The tubing and skiing area was open for a week longer than normal so we made one final trip over the weekend.  This was Aiden's first trip to go tubing.  Typically, Aiden doesn't last very long outside due to the bitter cold temperature, crazy strong winds, precipiation, or some other issue.  So, John usually takes Luke and Liam while Aiden and I stay at home and Aiden naps.  This time, however, it was slightly warmer (and very sunny) so opted to get everyone out of the house and try the tubing with Aiden.  It took him one or two times to get the hang of it and then he loved it. 

 

After trying out the yellow walls for a few weeks in Aiden's new room, we decided to change the color. The yellow did not look bad, but we felt like something else would look better. The striped lampshade in the first picture from Aiden's room was the "inspiration" for the stripes. Aiden wanted some green on his walls so we decided on the green and blue stripes. The base of the walls is kind of a neutral gray color although it looks more blueish-gray on the walls. John painted the stripes and they really look so good, he did an amazing job!! We have a few more things to finalize, but I am pleased with how it turned out and AJ loves it.

 

Lastly, I have a few cute pictures of Aiden with his cars.  He still loves to line them up (he has been doing this since he was around a year old).  He makes all kind of noises and has the cars talking to each other.  He will say, "Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for coming to the show." 

 

Getting the cars ready to go

 

Puzzles and Eggs

Luke and Liam working on a puzzle

They did this same puzzle about three days in a row

Finished!!

I think I have mentioned it a few times recently, but we are growing very tired of winter around here.  Now that the time has changed and there is more daylight, it sure seems we should be playing outside.  There are a few issues with this idea: 1) we still have at least a foot of snow on the ground in most areas and 2) the temps still have not consistently made it about a high of 30 degrees.  Bummer.  It was quite a bit warmer by this time last year. 

One of the things we have done to fill our time this winter is puzzles. Luke and Liam, particularly, love to work puzzles and they have really gotten a lot better over the winter. For the first time, they are working an entire 100 piece puzzle without any assistance. It has been a good and challenging way to occupy time when we cannot play outside. It has also been a fun thing to do while Aiden naps in the afternoon since Aiden's attention span still isn't quite long enough for 100 piece puzzles. Luke and Liam pretty much gave up their afternoon nap when they turned five, but we still try to have a "rest time" where we do more quiet things and the puzzles have helped.

We also started doing our Resurrection Eggs for Easter this week.  I purchased these last year (see blog in April 2012) and they were a big hit with the boys.  The story of Easter with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is definitely not an easy one to explain to 5 and 3 year olds.  They seem to focus on the "bad guys" in the story along with the part where Jesus was hung on the cross and he was bleeding.  There were lots of questions about the blood, of course.  We talked about the definition of sin and how Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.  Later in the day, I heard Luke tell Aiden that he sinned because he took a toy away from Luke's hands.  Aiden started screaming and Liam told him he was being a bad guy "like Judas."  So, at least they were listening to the story of Easter.   Each egg contains an important element of the Easter story (praying hands, passover cup, silver coins, crown of thorns, etc...).  The boys get to open the eggs and then we talk about what the object means as we go through the story of Easter. 

Shaking the eggs to try and figure out what is inside

Everyone gets very excited to get their eggs and open them

Aiden is holding a leather whip similar to what was used to beat Jesus before he was hung on the cross.

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