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.

14 Months and Ready for Spring

Left to Right: Liam, Charlie, Luke, and Jack. This was taken at the Dome where I mentioned in an earlier post that we like the play. Luke and Liam are with our best friends Jack and Charlie watching the driving range on the other side of the soccer field. They cheered for this older man everytime he would hit the ball as if he was a celebrity and he thought it was hilarious!
AJ riding the infamous Mickey Mouse Car (one of Luke and Liam's favorite toys at the same age). In fact, I almost threw this little car out a few times since we had such a hard time sharing it!

I think I have hit my limit in terms of winter weather this week. It seems like the forecast is always for temps in the 20's and the snow seems to be never-ending. Generally, the cold and snow really do not bother me, but I think we are ready to play in the yard again! Luke and Liam are interested in getting bicycles after seeing some other friends ride bikes so we are getting ready to get outside. Aiden is all over the place and becoming more and more active and interested in whatever his brothers are doing. He will be 14 months old on March 2 and is not quite walking all the time yet, but he walks a little and then drops down to crawl. He is quite the picky eater and lets us know when he does not approve of what we serve for dinner. I am posting a few random pictures from the week. Enjoy!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Yep, that's AJ. At 13 months, he has already learned how to climb up on the shelves!

Aiden enjoying his popcorn and juice just like the big boys

Movie Night!!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Until recently, Luke and Liam really had no interest in watching television whatsoever and that was fine with John and I though it would provide a nice little bit of "down time" occasionally. However, they have started to really show an interest in the movie Toy Story. We started out buying Toy Story 3 and turned it on once and they were done in about 5 minutes or so. We tried it again about a month ago and they loved it. We have now purchased Toy Story 1 and 2 to go along with #3 and all of them are great movies. It probably helped that about half of our friends dressed up as either Buzz Lightyear or Woody for Halloween this year so the boys keep seeing these figures and they recognize them. Luke got a Woody for his birthday and Liam got Buzz so now they fly around holding Buzz and Woody screaming "To Infinity and Beyond!" We have already broken the legs off of Buzz by throwing him off the stairs thinking he was going to fly, I guess?

One night last week we decided to have our first official "movie night" so we made some popcorn and put in Toy Story and the boys loved it! I know that children who are Aiden's age are probably not supposed to eat popcorn, but if anyone has any suggestions as to how to do keep him away from the popcorn that the rest of us are enjoying, then let me know! Aiden sat with his bowl in his lap just like his brothers and ate every piece of his popcorn as if he did this all the time!

Mr. Mischief

Happy Valentine's Day! We got a Mickey Mouse card from Aunt Barbara and Uncle Ed and made some Mickey "panpakes" too.
Liam waiting for his Mickey "panpake"

Hey Mom, are you watching?
Here I go....

Up, up, and Away!

Luke and Liam at the Dome

Aiden at the Dome

More Walking!

Aiden seems to know he can get away with all kinds of mischief when I am busy. This has been especially true recently when I am helping Luke and Liam with potty training. Aiden loves to turn the t.v. on and off, climb the stairs, play in the toilet water when the bathroom door is left open, try to pull the phone off the coffee table, etc...He always turns and laughs at me while shaking his head as I say "no-no."

Several people have asked what we do all winter in an area that has snow on the ground and is so cold for many months of the year. Well, we try to stay busy as much as we can. It is really impressive how much there is to do in this area. We have several open gyms that we enjoy going to on occasion. We are a little limited with the timing of these due to Aiden's morning nap, but we manage to make at least a few of them. One of them is a huge soccer field with a big dome over it. They put several large blow up jumping things inside along with balls, goals, tunnels, and all kinds of things for the kids to do. It is specifically for preschool age children and is also relatively inexpensive. It is a great way to burn off some energy when you cannot play outside! I am including a few pictures from our week with Aiden climbing the stairs and our visit to the Dome. Enjoy!

Pee...Poop...Laundry...Eat...Sleep..Repeat

Friends Forever! Our good friends Jack and Charlie were nice enough to play with us last week while we were stranded at home! We were all getting ready for bed in this picture. (Left to Right: Liam, Charlie, Luke, Jack, and Aiden)

All Star AJ

Pee...Poop...Laundry...Eat...Sleep...Repeat. That pretty much sums up last week. Due to a somewhat last minute business trip, we braved the potty training without John last week. We started right before John left for Germany and Belgium and staying on top of things was not an easy task. I quickly discovered that we would not be going anywhere since it was far too difficult to take three small children into a public restroom and expect good results. So, we practiced using the potty and wearing "big boy" pants and in between that we did lots of laundry. After a little over a week, we are getting the hang of this and getting a little better at knowing when we need to potty. They still have to be told to potty most of the time, but it is getting a little better. Going to the public restroom, however, probably won't get easier until Aiden learns not to dig in the toilet or trashcan! We took lots of baths last week as well.

Aiden started taking a few small steps over the weekend. He is very similar to Liam in his walking. Both Liam and Aiden have taken a little longer to walk even though they have the ability to do it. They both use their push toys to get around and can coast around the room on the furniture without a problem.