Taters

I had an unexpected 12 hour shift today. I git this super cute picture half way through he day. It really cheered me up. I love Mr. Potato head creations.

An Amazing Man

My amazing Grandfather Roy Carlson passed away in December. However, today we celebrated his life with a small get together and service at my Grandmothers house. It was a great service and we all spent some time remembering how special he was and laughing at funny stories everyone had to tell. My grandparents are such amazing role models being happily married for 64 years. 

 He loved to restore old cars and jeeps and refinish antiques, he was a perfectionist.

 I have so many wonderful memories of spending time with him and going for rides in all the cars he fixed up. 

 We all will miss him dearly.

Eggs and Bones

I know it sounds weird, but we love getting creative with food to get the kids excited to eat new or random foods.  Tonight we had dinosaur eggs and bones covered in sauce.  The kids thought it was fun to eat something special like this for dinner.  We also say broccoli are trees that need to be trimmed.  I love their reactions to the random things we say we are eating.

Who needs beds?

This is what we found when we went to check on the boys before bed tonight. Zackary half way in bed and Lane in the middle of the room. How is it that they can be perfectly happy sleeping this way? I keep finding Lane sleeping on the floor. We had a challenge the other night getting him to sleep so we put him back in the crib. Well, apparently he climbed out and fell asleep in the middle of the room, and without me knowing I went to check on him and stepped on him. 

 He is obviously over the crib thing, but doesn't seem to stay in bed. How cute is this?

Sneak Peak

Here is a little sneak peak of the new nursery. Yes, bubble gum pink, and so far I love it. The painters have to come back to do a couple more things. I can't wait to get it all set up. The due date is really sneaking up fast!

Digging

Somehow our yard is digger central. Every kid including my own feel the need to dig in our yard. We have done everything to somewhat control the rock situation but for some reason the LOVE digging in the yard. Perhaps it is the thousand dump trucks and shovels we have. Notice the empty sandbox, that is because they (my children) emptied it within a couple of days of us filling it up so we decided not to refill it right now. My only rule right now is to keep the rocks OFF the patio and the pavers. And I'm sticking to it. I've given up the battle of digging and moving rocks...it's way too much work.

The boys found some mud as you can see. This is how Lane showed up from around the corner. Zackary and Ryan came shortly after covered in mud and explained to us how they were throwing mud balls. 

 I say it again, boy will be boys.

Zackary is really into coloring and drawing right now. His new thing is to trace peoples feet on the ground then make a little person out of it. He even makes them boys and girls if you know what I mean.

Creations

Just another one of Aaron's fantastic creations. It's salmon not a giant carrot.

Here is Lane's creation. He is really into cutting whether it is with scissors or knifes he loves it. 

 Doesn't it look appetizing?

New Room

Tonight was the big night. Moving the boys into 1 room, in an attempt to get the nursery ready. We have been talking about this for quite some time and finally we did it. The beds were supposed to come yesterday (another plan gone wrong), we figured the transition over the weekend would be a little easier on us. The mattresses and bedding made it so we decided to go with it and add the beds on Monday when they get here. I've actually been dreading this night for a while. Lane is still so young to be in a big boy bed but we have to do it. If you read the last post, we attempted to push through the day without a nap so bedtime would be a cinch...bad planning. They were ready to have a good time in their new beds. I still tried, for a while, then gave up. They were really cute together giving several goodnight kisses and hugs to each other but just wouldn't calm down. So Lane went back to the crib, Zackary fell asleep, then I moved Lane back in and laid with him for about 10 minutes and he was out. I guess next time it will have to be one at a time until we get this down. We will see how the night progresses, I just hope it lasts or I might be up all night.

Here they are about an hour later...wish me luck.

Friends

Today was a full day of friends and brewing for the boys. Aaron and Scott were back to brewing after a little time off. We enjoyed the day with friends and yummy food. The boys spent all day outside playing and just being boys. It is so wonderful to have such great friends that have kids the same age that absolutely adore each other. It is so great to see them play and be creative together. We pushed through the afternoon, with all the chaos it wasn't worth even attempting a nap...but look what happens just before dinner. They are all passed out on the couch watching a movie. This blew the whole plan of getting them to bed early and attempting something big tonight (more on that later).

 Plans ALWAYS backfire!

Star Student

Last week Zackary was Star Student at school and got to take home the special bag with Freedom Bear, a couple of books, and a CD in it. The book was one of his favorites, Brown Bear, in which we read several times, even though we have read the book 20,000 times. We need to get these pictures printed so we can put them in the Freedom Bear journal. Yes, I am a procrastinator and waited until the last minute, so the pictures will have to go in later. He thought it was pretty cool to get the bag and carried it around, we took it in the car with us every time.  He is really only into Monkey so the bear sort of got the shaft.  But can you blame him, Monkey rocks!

Date Night

We changed it up a little tonight. It's actually something Aaron and I decided to do with the boys from now on. We feel we need to spend some extra special one on one time with each child. So we have decided on Wednesday nights we would each take one little out by ourselves. Then the 3rd Wednesday of the month we would have a date by ourselves and the last Wednesday we will have a special family night. So I guess you could say we have dubbed Wednesday as a family night. We will try our best to make this work, however with a new baby coming it might be difficult, I figure I will take the baby and one boy on my date and Aaron can have the one on one time. Tonight I took Zackary to dinner and a movie. We saw 3D Gnomeo and Juliet. We enjoyed our date, the movie was okay, probably not one I would want to see again, but the 3D was neat. Aaron took Lane out to Liberty Market and Water Tower Park, then finished the night with ice cream sundaes and a long ride in the truck. The boys think that Ol Blue is awesome and love to take rides in it. It was really nice to have some one on one time with our special little boys.

Talent

If you are a reader of the blog you know how insanely talented by amazing husband is. Not only is he amazing to his family, he is an excellent cook, and an even better Landscape Architect. One of his many amazing projects made the cover (along with a 7 page article) in Landscape Architect. Granted, not many (probably none) of you subscribe to this great magazine so you won't get a chance to read it, but I think it is a pretty great acknowledgement. If you haven't checked out this great place to visit I suggest to take an afternoon and head out to Downtown Gilbert grab a bite to eat and visit Western Powerline Trail and Water Tower Park. Then you can see what amazing work he produces. 

 I love this man!

Boyce Thompson

I purchased another excellent Groupon, a annual membership to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Aaron got the day off work today so we decided to head out to activate our membership, do some hiking, and soak up the wonderful weather. 

 The boys enjoyed all the hiking and the fact that they got to play with sticks and dirt all day.

Here is my pack mule at the end of the day. We decided to leave the stroller in the car and let them do all the walking. I worked out for majority of the time but about 4 hours into it those little legs got tired. I was proud of my little hikers they did a great job with out any complaints.

Bows

I've been trying to make some bows for our baby girls hair/head. I have gotten several of the little rosettes made but haven't been able to attach them to anything. Today I had a little free time and got a couple completed. I just need my precious little model.

I love this one. The pinks look really different in the picture but the actually match just fine in real light.

This brown one just need a little feather or some sort of addition. I need to make a run to the craft store to get it finished. I have some red ones and white ones that just need a little more to be completed. 

 Girl stuff in so fun!

Saturday Nite Fun

We had great dinner and great company tonight. This was just some of the fun we had today.

Zackary got the Freedom Bear at school this week. We will be taking several pictures of him and the bear this week for the journal.

Otis's evenings

This is how Otis spends his evenings. Watching for something really important, we just aren't sure what he is so interested in.