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.