Splish Splash!!

This guy is having tons of fun. On Tuesday they have "Mom and me" time at a nearby water park. You get a nice discount to swim for a couple of hours. The boys really, really enjoyed it. I thought we would have an extremely difficult time getting them out of the water, but they actually both came out on their own, partly because they were hungry and partly because they were freezing. Their lips were soooo blue. Middle-G was trying to jump off the steps into Daddy's arms in the water, but he was shaking so bad he couldn't realy control his muscles. Kind of pathetic looking but kind of funny. I tried to get him to come out and warm up a few times, but he would have nothing to do with it. Big-G got to ride in the lazy river with Daddy and play a little water basketball. Little-G slept almost the entire time. I think the sounds of all the rushing water kept him sleeping. Daddy was brave, and did all of the water slides by himself, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I was trying to control the 3 little ones. Maybe next time.

Over the weekend we also went to get one last carmel apple from the orchard before fall was over. I think these boys could live on apples. Papa encourages their love of apples by bringing apples with him every time he comes over. Middle-G was actually saying "Papa apple" last night when I was tucking him into bed. The only problem with a lot of apples is that it is a lot of fiber... if you know what I mean!

I actually got a good picture of Little-G, so I will post that. The boys were outside in the backyard burning off some energy with Papa, but I can hear them stirring downstairs, so I better go.

Here are a few more pics:


Daddy and the boys at the orchard.




Big-G with carmel on his face and looking kind of crazy!!


Pure excitement at the water park.


I inadvertantly got both of them smiling in the same picture.


Here's our Little-G... what a chunker! Can you believe he's only 7 weeks?

A Sweaty Head Day

We went to the local children's museum on Tuesday and boy did they have fun. We were there for over 3 hours, and they just kept going and going and going. You know Big-G is having fun when he wants you to hold his cap because his head is sweating so much. He has the sweatiest head ever. In addition to the sweaty head, he was rolling around on the floor and rubbing his head on the carpet in the "Big Back Yard" exhibit. Needless to say, they got their hair washed when we got home. I'm sure they were entirely covered in germs, but I try not to think about it too much so they can still have fun.

Middle-G loved the mirrors and Big-G loved all of the ball mazes. He could just sit and do the same thing for hours and not get tired of it. I think Middle-G did 10 activities for every 1 activity Big-G did. They both loved running through the giant human heart and sliding out the arteries. There was also a tiny town that you could make believe in. It had a grocery store, a bank, an auto mechanic and a post office. Everything was just their size.

By far, their favorite was the Big Back Yard. There was a sand table, a little house, a little garden, a slide and a giant tree. I think that is where they got the sweatiest! Middle-G really enjoyed the little steps at the little house and slide. We try to keep him off the steps at home because he is such a daredevil, so he was taking advantage of the freedom. Here are a few pics:

Smelling the flowers outside the parking structure.

This picture just shows what a gorgeous fall day it was outside.

Here is little Farmer-G transporting corn to feed the cow.

Big-G playing at the sand table in the "Big Back Yard."

Middle-G at the tiny bank pretending to be Daddy.

It's pumpkin time!

This Saturday was our annual pumpkin decorating day. Big-G really enjoyed this project. He got to cut with scissors and use glue, some of his favorite things. Middle-G got in on the act a little, but it didn't take him long before he just started throwing all the tissue paper on the floor. Destructive is his middle name... or at least it should be.

They boys also had a great time at the football game on Friday night. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, which is a shame because they were hugging each other and acting so cute. Big-G loves the cheerleaders. I think he wants to be one! Middle-G loves the marching band. He just can't stop tapping his toe and clapping his hands whenever they play. He is extremely musical. Little-G got to stay home and sleep on Uncle for the evening because it was soooooo cold out. The boys were like little frozen popcicles by the time we walked home.

I'm sure Big-G's would like to mention how much fun he had watching the tree trimmers put all of the branches into the chipper on Saturday morning. Even Middle-G was having fun watching them cut some of the big trees in our back yard. Usually they get excited when the Village sends the chipper through the neighborhood on Fridays, so it was pretty cool to have one at our own house.

Lastly, we dropped the boys off at Nana's and Papa's house on Sunday after church, so that we could go to Red Robbin for lunch. Uncle came along, and we had a very nice meal. It's always a treat for a mom to be able to eat an entire meal without feeding anyone else or cleaning up something messy. Thank you to Nana and Papa for giving the boys lunch and keeping them occupied. They had lots of fun of course (a few pictures below) and were sad when they had to go.

Sweet and innocet Middle-G.

Big-G showing me how many leaves he collected. I think he might have missed a few.

Middle-G mowing the lawn. What a gift it will be when he can push a real mower!!

Here is a real smile from the very big Little-G!!

Looking back...

I'm just going to start out with our first sort of smiling picture of Little-G. Unfortunatey, he is wearing the same clothes as the last picture so it looks like I never change him. I weighed him at home today - 15 pounds. He is sooooooo big!

This was a very quick week for us. Didn't do much by work, but it flew by anyway. We've been taking lots of walks this week while we still can. It's already getting into the 40s in the evening, so we have to bundle those poor kids up and push them around so we can get our exercise. I need to lose enough weight to fit into my shorts by the time we go to Florida in December. Don't know if that's gonna happen.

I took Middle-G for his immunizations and a check-up on Thursday. He hadn't been in since his 9 month exam and he's 21 months now. He's just been in the hospital so much that all of the routine things have gotten pushed aside. Needless to say, he didn't enjoy catching up very much. He had to get 4 immunzations. Yikes! He was screeming for Papa and Uncle the whole time. He's is healthy and growing though which we are so thankful for!

Tonight we are off to the local high school for the final home football game. It's is going to be freeeeeeeeeeeezing cold! I'm just going over for a little bit, but my husband will probably stay the whole game and freeze his butt off. I just don't love football that much. I'd rather come home, get under a blanket and fall asleep, which is what I plan on doing. I got up at 3 a.m. one too many times this week, and I'm looking forward to the weekend.

We got a new camera this spring, and I happened to check my old one to see if there was anything on the memory card. It had about 200 pictures on it all the way back to last Christmas. I didn't have time to take too much new this week, so today we're going to look back to last winter. Looking at all the old pictures just reminds me of everything our family has been through, and I am so thankful to God for bringing us through it all with flying colors.

Enjoy:

Here is Big-G and Middle-G last New Years Eve.

Here is Middle-G on his 1 year birthday.

Here is Big-G at the auto show with Uncle. He has never had more fun.

Here is Middle-G from probably last November. It's a whole face smile!

Burn, burn, burn...burning ring of fire

We can't have any sort of fire in this family without that song coming up. This is the campfire that we had the other night at my parents' house. It was a great night, not to warm, not to cool, crickets chirping, almost full moon...a perfect night to sit around a campfire. Big-G had his first smores and Middle-G just had a lot of graham crackers. We tried to limit the marshmallows before bed, but I think Big-G still had about 5. You could tell too when we got inside, and they were running around like crazy monkeys. They sure did sleep good though when they came down from their sugar high.


The night ended, as usual, with an exciting show by Papa who runs around the yard in the dark with a stick with glowing embers on the end. He makes circles and figure eights in the air. I think you'd have to be there to expirience the full effect. Big-G of course wanted to try it, but we told him you had to be a professional stick handler. I'm not sure I want him playing with fire at 3-1/2.


Here are some other picturues from last night, took quite a few:






Here's the whole gang.






Big-G and Middle-G with the pretty flowers.






They both loved picking them. Everybody had a flower behind their ear after it was all said and done.






Who's the bucket-head? Middle-G!





This is just too cute.


Never happier than when he's with a smores!


A rare picture of the Uncle.

Papa...need I say more?

Not in our house! Everybody's favorite playmate came yesterday. This picture is one of the reasons why is he their favorite. No one else would take out every dirty plastic toy out of the garage and set them up in a big city and make-believe with the action figures. This is Big-G's favorite thing to do. Middle-G just runs around the yard putting things he shouldn' t be eating into his mouth. They always get baths after playing outside with Papa. I guess that just shows how much fun they had.

As soon as Papa walks in the door he has Big-G, Middle-G and both dogs jumping on him. The boys literally fight over him when he is here. They can never get enough Papa. He is only here for a couple of minutes before Big-G is telling Papa to play trucks and Middle-G is grabbing his finger and pulling him to the door and saying "outside, outside." We are definitely blessed to have him.

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday:

"Look mommy!" Here is Big-G doing his new "trick."

Such a cute face.

Here is Middle-G with his pine cones. Also the only picture I could get with him facing me and standing still.

Just 1 more pic to show how big Little-G is. He's just about grown out of the 3 months clothes and he is only 1 month. I can't wait until we can get some smiling pictures!

Speeding through the museum

I think we broke our record for fastest museum visit ever yesterday. We went through the Streets of Old Milwaukee and the European Village in about 20 minutes. All we did was basically race through the entire place chancing the boys from one thing to the next. The longest time we spent anywhere was at the "How to Dig a Hole to the Center of the Earth" film because jumping off the steps repeatedly held their attention. Lukily we had the place to ourselves for the most part. I couldn't really get many good pictures because the lighting was poor most of the time, not to mention it's very difficult to get 2 kids still in the same picture. I'm really dreading taking them to get their Christmas picture taken this year!

Here are a couple more recent pictures.

Big-G at the zoo. He must be pretending to be a beaver!

Here is Middle-G with Papa.

Here we go...

I'm going to try something new. I'm not a computer person, but I hope I can use this site as a way to keep you all updated on what is going on with our family. I haven't been the best at taking pictures or sharing them with anyone, so hopefully this will motivate me to get my butt in gear get that done. I know I'll be sorry later when they are all grown, and I barely took any pictures.

There isn't much going on today, just meals, naps and play and work for me. Not that our day isn't plenty full with that. I'll try to get started with putting some pictures on here if I can figure out how!

What a yawn! Little-G's first train ride at the zoo.

Here is our Middle-G on the train. Fits his personality perfectly!

Here is Big-G with his pumpkin at the orchard last week.