This week

Kristin and the girls came over one night for dinner and Connor got some Megan snuggles in.

This past weekend I went away for a few days to scrapbook with some girl friends. We stayed at this great house in Hastings. It was a wonderful time full of scrap booking, movies, laughs, and much more. We even got out one night for dinner, drinks, and ice cream! We had to laugh at our close quarters in the basement where we did the scrap booking. The rest of the house was great.

Thanks for a great time ladies. I am done with Nolan's first year book except for 2 page spreads. That's good for me. Now I will move on to Lucas's book. There is just no time to do it, and do a nice job with it. I enjoy putting these book together for the boys. I hope they some day enjoy looking at them (or maybe their wives and kids will if not them). I don't know how much more I will actually scrap for them now that I make the blog into books, but we'll see. I love these scrapbook weekends with these ladies. It's always nice to have some adult women time and time for me, but great to get back to the guys also.

The guys actually survived without me. Can you believe that?! ;) I did have to give Matt a hard time because I swear every time I am gone they go out to eat. ;) I even went grocery shopping before I left to stock the fridge and cupboards. They also went to the movie Cars 2. I'm glad they had a good time. On Saturday they went to the 2nd Annual family fish fry. I was bummed to miss it. Thank you to Michele for taking this picture of the boys. Of course I was not around so there were no picture taken. ;) Sounds like they had a wonderful time. Thanks Gary, Flory, and Brad for hosting again.

Sunday Matt, Natey, my dad, and I went to the Twins game. It was HOT...however the first three innings took so long that we finally got some shade by the fourth inning and the rest of the game was perfect. Though they lost. It was the day that Bert was being inducted to the Hall of Fame.

Thought Uncle Natey would get a kick out of this picture. Nolan always has to have something in his hands when he sleeps (He still holds on to the tag of his blanket).

Jacob and Connor are at VBS this week from 9-12 every morning. Jacob was a little nervous about going (something new again) and I was VERY nervous about him going. We talked about it quite a bit Sunday night to prep him for it. Jacob was a little unsure in the car, but we got there and he looked like he was fine. Everyone sat down while they called names for groups. They called his name and he got right up and found his leader. There were no issues!!!! I stuck around just for a little to watch and he was absolutely fine. He's been fine all week. The kid surprises me sometimes. That would be the last two things that he has been fine with now, t-ball and VBS. There is hope. I think he is coming around and feeling more comfortable with and confident in himself. I can see the change in him. I'm so happy for him. ;) The real test will be Kindergarten.

While they are at camp Nolan and Lucas and I have been hanging out and playing and running errands.

It's been a good weekend and week so far.

What else can we get done at the dr?

I was very behind and finally got Jacob and Nolan in for the Kindergarten and preschool check ups. Jacob had to get his shots and they both had to get some forms filled out and signed.

Call me crazy, but I took all four boys with me. Piece of cake right?

Well we started off great. We got there at 1:45 and got in right away, the boys got coloring pages, we were playing "I'm thinking about"....

The Dr. checked out Nolan first. He looked good except for his ears were full of wax and he needed to have them washed/flushed out. She would have the nurse come back for that. She asked if I had any other concerns. I had her check out his pinkie finger because he jammed it about a month ago but it was still bothering him. She took one look at it and said he needed to get an x-ray. I also mentioned to her that I think he has to go potty more than normal, and in short periods of time. She wanted him to get some lab work done.

She then checked out Jacob. No issues there, and the nurse would come back to give him his shots, FOUR shots that is. Gulp.

The nurse came to first clean out Nolan's ears. I have never seen so many gross dried clumps of wax and dried blood come out of some one's ears. At one point his ear started bleeding and he was screaming because the wax was stuck to his skin and pulled (side note -he woke up the next morning with blood all over his pillow and ear).

Then the nurse came in for Jacob's shots. Poor kid kept asking me if it was going to hurt, I couldn't lie to him but I also didn't want to scare him. Connor helped keep Lucas occupied so I could be by Jacob and squeeze his hands. He cried a little, but was very brave.

Two things done - check - two more to go.

We went to go get Nolan's x-ray next. He thought that was pretty cool. They all did actually because they had never seen an x-ray before. We found out that he broke his finger - pretty bad actually. There was nothing they could do for it though at his age and with how small his finger is. I'm wondering why they had him get an x-ray then........

Last but not least Nolan had to pee in a cup. That was quite an experience - four little boys in the bathroom, me holding Lucas with one arm and holding the cup for Nolan to pee in with the other. The boys were pretty amused. HA!

We finally got out of the clinic around 4:30 with school forms signed and filled out, lots of suckers and stickers, and hungry boys.

Whew.

Duluth Day 3

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast again, packed the van, and then let the boys decide what they wanted to do before we headed home. We gave them a few options and they chose to go back to "our" spot to find rocks and play in the water and then tour the S.S. Irving. It was a HOT one out....we were sweating from the start.

I thought about having the boys put their suits on...and just should have, but we had them all packed in the van already.

It was hot on the tour of the ship, but the boys thought it was cool.

We were glad to get into the van with the air. We stopped to eat at a place outside of Duluth and it was very good. Jacob had macaroni pizza....he was in heaven -two of his favorite foods combined! We ran into some bad construction traffic and it took almost double the normal time to get home. It was a long drive. The boys did fantastic considering....

What a wonderful family weekend. Again, I am so blessed and grateful.

18 months

This little man is 18 months. We have his appointment in a couple of weeks. Here is what he is up to:

He loves to sing and dance like his brothers. He sings "Baby Baby oh".....whenever Justin Bieber's song BABY is on. No kidding.

He gives knucks and high fives.

He is learning his own way of communicating. It consists of taking your hand and pulling you where he wants you to go, pointing to what he wants, and lots of babbling.

He seriously is so silly and crazy. He constantly has us all giggling and full belly laughing.

Some of his favorite words right now are Ball, Mama, Car, Hot, PU (as in I have stinky diaper and he plugs his nose), Uck...

He likes his lawn mowers a ton and if only they really worked, we would never have to mow because he pushes them around so much.

He likes to jump on the trampoline or I guess it's more of a run around and fall. Whatever you want to call it, he enjoys it.

He likes to read books.

He is great in the car. I always thought this was a touch age in the car because they are a little older they can actually keep themselves busy doing stuff and babies sleep most of the time....he was awesome the whole 5 -1/2 plus hours home from Duluth.

He tries to tickle people by moving and wiggling his fingers all over you and making a sound like he's trying to say "tickle, tickle, tickle". It's hilarious. He mimics everything - dance moves, talking, ....

He is very lovey and likes to snuggle and sit on laps.

He blows kisses and his kisses are now puckered instead of open mouth.

He is one smart cookie, kind of scary. He knows how to play it, and throws a fit when he doesn't get his way.....

Oh we love him so!

Duluth Day 2

We started Saturday morning with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. There was some fest going on here this weekend so there were more boats/ships than normal, tents with food and music, and these pirate ships that went in and out of the canal and put on a show out on the lake sending cannons off.

We rented a 6 person bike and toted around for an hour or so. The boys got a kick out of it and Matt and I got some exercise in.

We of course had to make a stop at our favorite spot for throwing some rocks.

We enjoyed watching the bridge go up and down.

After making lunch we headed to Park Point to the beach. We stayed there longer than planned because the boys were having so much fun. Again, ALL of my boys. I joke about it often, but I truly do love that Matt is such a boy at heart when he plays with the boys. Wouldn't want it any other way.

After the beach we came back and Nolan and Lucas took a short nap while Jacob and Connor played Pokemon cards on our patio and enjoyed watching these people walk the tight rope over to what is called the "cribs". This ship/barge was fun to watch go through the canal also.

For dinner we took the pizza train ride. The boys were excited being they'd never been on a train before. It was fun and glad we did it, however it got long and our car was unfortunately the only one with the air not working. It was hot. Lucas got antsy about the last 45 minutes or so ( it was 2 -1/2 hours long), but the older boys played cards and were fine.

Each person got 1/2 a pizza and a pop. Sad to say we only had one piece left (what is our grocery bill going to look like in a few years??!!!).

After the train ride the boys made some s'mores and then took a night swim in the roof top pool. They thought it was pretty cool, plus it was as warm as a bath tub would be. ;)