Happy 9th Luke and Liam!

Luke watching the WILD practice

Liam 

Luke and Liam wanted to go to a Hibachi steakhouse to celebrate their birthday

They are both wearing the goofy heads while the staff sings "Happy Birthday"

My late grandmother (who also had twins) holding Luke, Me holding Liam, and Aunt Sarah holding Calvin on their first Christmas and just a few days before the three boys turned a year old.

Luke (left) and Liam (right) a few hours after birth

Luke, age 4

Celebrating our 5th and 3rd birthdays with best twin friends, Jack and Charlie

Luke (left) and Liam (right), 6 months

A bonus room marker party

First day of kindergarten

Brothers

Ice hockey outdoor jamboree over the weekend


It is very hard to believe that 9 years has passed since Luke, Liam, and cousin Calvin were born on January 11th, 2008.  The time really does pass quickly.  While their birthday this year fell on a Wednesday, we plan to celebrate with a big party on the MLK holiday.  That will be an entirely separate post at some point when I recover from the craziness of all the boys I agreed to invite to the party!  

Nonetheless, we enjoyed celebrating Luke and Liam's 9th birthday this week.  Our final year in the single digits!!  They wanted to have dinner at a Hibachi restaurant where they cook in front of you with cool knives, fire, etc...It was a lot of fun and the boys loved it.  They also received gifts from family and were able to speak with grandparents and aunts who wished them a happy birthday.  

We are so proud of both Luke and Liam.  Luke is a kind hearted, loving kid who would do almost anything to help his younger brother Finn.  He loves to help others and works so hard at everything he does.  He has a passion for hockey and in particular loves playing goalie.  We will see where he goes with this, but you can count on him to work hard and give it his best effort.  

Liam is a quick witted, funny, often quiet, yet smart kid who also loves hockey and is quite diligent with his schoolwork and everything he does.  He makes friends easily and is easy going.  He is very teachable and generally catches on to new things quickly.  He is agile, fast, and athletic yet also quite creative and could spend hours playing on his own.  

What an amazing ride the last 9 years has been for John and I.  Enjoy the Ride!

Goalie Fever and Finn's Hair

Luke and Liam played in a hockey tournament over the weekend.  This is their Blackhawks team.  I don't see Liam in this picture, but Luke is in the back on left in goalie gear.

Finn has the "goalie fever" that is going around our house.  Everyone likes trying on all the gear!

Here is Finn getting his very first trim!  He was not excited about it at all.  We went to the wonderful lady that cuts my hair and she did a great job just trimming it a bit.

Finn got his first trim last week!  Yes, he is 3.5 years old and this was his first haircut!  We didn't want to cut off his curls, but he needed a trim.

Here's another shot of his hair.

Aiden and his hockey buddies at a hockey party over the weekend

Finn with Luke and Aiden playing hockey in basement

Luke and Liam played in a hockey tournament over the weekend and Luke really enjoyed playing goalie.  He has taken an interest in the position quite a bit lately and even got his own goalie knee pads since the ones that the association provides were 6 inches too short!!  Their team did pretty well in the tournament, they won two games and lost the other two.  Overall, it was a good learning experience and a good opportunity for Luke to see if he really likes the position of goalie as much as he thinks he does.  From a parent perspective, its extremely stressful to watch your son be a goalie.  Its all fun when they win, but if they lose it can be brutal.  The highlight of our tournament was a tie game followed by a shoot out where Luke stopped both of the kids in the shoot out and we won!

The "goalie fever" has spread to Aiden and Finn as well (Liam is thankfully not interested in the position).  They love to practice goalie in the basement and on the ice rink so we have to rotate who gets to wear the pads.

Finn had his very first haircut at the end of last week.  He hasn't ever had a haircut and really needed at least a trim.  His hair was getting to be a little frizzy.  He wasn't excited to have a haircut and I guess its probably related to one of two reasons: 1)  He seemed to think it might be painful and 2) His brothers are growing their hair out and don't want haircuts right now either!  Finn knows all about "hockey hair" and he gets lots of comments on his long hair.  

Christmas 2016

Liam (and Luke) were very excited to receive a drone for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers

Luke and Liam working on their Pokemon card binders, a gift from Uncle Jason and their cousins

We decorated gingerbread houses a few days before Christmas

We got together with our good friends and Finn's godparents, the Weigels.  This is Kevin reading a book to Finn before bed.

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Finn and his new toys!  Thanks to the Barnes family, Mimi, and Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers

Finn and his Paw Patrol dog Marshall along with the MN Wild mascot Nordy.

John painted Luke and Liam's room over Christmas and Mimi gave them a MN Wild fathead for their room.  The room is supposed to look like a hockey rink with the "ice blue" walls and blue and red lines.  Aiden also received fatheads for his room with all the NHL team logos.

Waiting at the top of the stairs to come down on Christmas morning.  Finn decided to sleep in, of course.

Finn is checking to see if Santa ate some cookies and if the reindeer ate the carrots and apple.  Finn insisted we put the plate on the fireplace for Santa.

Luke got his goalie stick!!

Aiden loved his Playmobil hockey rink from the Barnes Family and the zamboni from Grandpa and Grandma Carrithers

Minnesota Wild jersey from Grandpa Morse

On New Years Day, we worked at Feed my Starving Children with another hockey team to fill bags of food to send to Haiti

Aiden celebrated his 7th birthday on January 2, 2017!!  This is he and one of his best buddies, Mark.

Happy 7th Birthday Aiden!!

Aiden received the fit bit watch that he wanted so much!  Its kid friendly, durable, and water resistant.  Aiden loves numbers and data so he enjoys telling all of us how many steps he has taken each day.

We had a wonderful Christmas break filled with so many activities that its hard for me to recall everything we did.  We started out the holiday break playing and skating with some of our best buddies, making gingerbread houses, more skating on the rink, and visiting with friends.  Luke and Liam played in a holiday hockey tournament after Christmas and really had a great time in several fast paced 4v4 games.  Luke was very excited to try out his new goalie stick in the game.  Their team came in 4th place which isn't bad considering this is the first time we have ever played together with this team.

A lot of our time over Christmas was spent skating in the backyard.  We taught our neighbor friends how to skate (the girls next door).  The girls really enjoyed it and somehow overlooked all the chaos.

John painted Luke and Liam's room over the holidays.  The boys requested a hockey themed room so we can up with the idea of painting the walls "ice blue" and adding a red and blue stripe similar to a hockey rink.  It turned out really good.  Mimi purchased fatheads for all the big boys for their bedrooms so those added a nice touch as well.

Finally, Aiden celebrated his 7th birthday on January 2.  His one request was a fit bit and he was so excited to receive one.  He has been giving all of us updates on how many steps he has taken.

Towards the end of our Christmas break as John and I were taking down the decorations, Finn came downstairs and saw all the boxes of decorations and started asking questions.  He said, "why are you putting all of this away?"  We explained that Christmas was over and so it was time to put away the tree, ornaments, etc...He got upset and started crying and said, "But when will Christmas come again??  I don't want Christmas to leave."  I am certain he had a wonderful Christmas as did the rest of us.  It was great to have some time off from work and school.  Happy 2017!

Skating, Santa, and Third Place

Drumroll.......The ice rink for 2016!!!

First night of skating...December 15, 2016.

Aiden 

Finn with Aiden and Liam in background

Daddy (the Coach) with Luke and Liam post game

The "Dragon Warriors" basketball team

Luke receiving his trophy

Liam and his trophy

Shaking hands after the game

Finn and his buddy, Max (left), singing in church

All four boys are in there somewhere, but hard to see!

Skating with Santa.  Luke is so good with Finn

Finn and Dad

In our 5 years of building the ice rink, this is the first year that we have skated BEFORE Christmas.  We usually start building the rink around Thanksgiving, but typically do not fill it with water until after Christmas because the temps are not cold enough.  This year, however, has been very cold so far.  After a week of subzero temps and 4 consecutive days of indoor recess, the boys were dying to do something.  Anything to burn energy....It was a cold week with minimal opportunities to play outside.  We had a slight break in temps last Friday afternoon so John quickly pulled things together so the boys could skate for awhile.  Thankfully, this week is going to be a bit warmer so we are excited to spend more time outside.

Luke and Liam finished their basketball season over the weekend with a tournament and eventually a third place trophy.  It was a fun season where they really developed a lot and have a much better understanding of the game of basketball.  Overall, they are doing so much better with passing, dribbling, and shooting.  It has been fun to watch them this season as we played in "real" games where we kept score, had referees, fouls, etc...We have lots to learn, but its been fun to watch their progress.

The rest of our weekend was spent enjoying some festive activities.  All four boys sang in church on Sunday, including Finn!  I am not sure he actually sang that much, but it was funny to watch him.  We also skated with Santa on Sunday.  Finn was so excited about seeing Santa and "telling him what a good boy he has been."  Finn was certain that he saw Santa's sleigh leaving the community center after we finished skating.  

Snow and Ice

Aiden is helping me shovel snow over the weekend

Finn helped too but didn't exactly shovel in the direction needed to clear the driveway!

Aiden at an outdoor skating event with his team.
Note on the jersey:  John and I bought the USA jersey in Lake Placid, NY when we were on vacation several years ago.  We purchased two of them for John's nephews who are now in college and high school.  At the time we purchased these, our nephews were around the ages of the boys and they were very into hockey.  Fast forward 10 years and our kids are wearing the jerseys!  They also love the movie "Miracle on Ice" which tells the story of the USA Olympic Hockey team in Lake Placid.

Aiden and Dad

Nice night for skating.  Cold, yes, but nice.

We had our first big snowfall of the season over the weekend.  We had a smaller snow about a month ago, but it melted quickly.  This one will be here for awhile, I would guess.  The temps have fallen to highs in the single digits or teens and wind chills are hovering around zero.  It got really cold, really fast!!  John began the process of filling the ice rink with water over the weekend.  We both noticed one good aspect of the cold weather...that is, the ice rink freezes quickly.  The rink was never made to hold water like a swimming pool so the quicker it freezes, the better.  The boys (and our neighbors) are excited about the prospect of being about to ice skate in the backyard very soon and they are enjoying snow forts, sledding, and all the other winter activities.  The laundry room is an overnight drying facility with wet snow pants, coats, and gloves hanging to dry before they head out again tomorrow.  Cheers to Winter!  

The Countdown....

Double Brick Wall with Aiden and Luke at a Goalie Clinic

Look Mom, I have four arms!  Take a picture of me.

Finn is lining up the hockey players and he's singing his version of the national anthem

Blue Slushie at hockey practice on Saturday

Liam as the goalie for practice on Saturday

Aiden is on the far right with a couple buddies on his hockey team

We are counting down the days in December until Christmas arrives.  Aunt Charlene and Uncle Tom were kind enough to give the boys a Lego Advent calendar so each morning until the 25th, we have a little box to open with legos inside.  The boys are taking turns and really enjoying it.

The boys are also counting down the days until Daddy starts filling the ice rink.  The temperature is scheduled to plummet this week so it looks like that countdown will soon come to an end.  The boards on the rink are up, the tarp has arrived so all we need is several consecutive days of really cold weather to begin the process.  Finn asks everyday if we can put the tarp in now.  The other question we are asked almost daily is, "when will we have ice?"

We are still deep in hockey for all three older boys.  Luke has been trying out some free goalie clinics to see if he really likes being a goalie as much as he thinks he does.  Aiden has gone along several times to try it as well.  While Liam takes a turn in the rotation to play goalie for his team, he has no real interest in the position.

Enjoy the Season!