Easter Egg Hunt #1

We had a beautiful day on Saturday, April 12.  Perfect for our first Easter Egg Hunt of 2014! 

 

This handsome mad was ready with his basketball basket.  I quickly grabbed these from the basement storage room on our way out the door. 

Tyler waited patiently for his group (4-5 year olds) to go. 

The rule was they only wanted kids to get 6 eggs so everyone could get some.  Nathan got his 6 and was ready to go. 

Showing me his loot.

Grandma helped Nathan empty his eggs.

Tyler was out in front picking up eggs fast and furious. 

 

Tyler and his friend from school, Ollie, compared their haul and opened their eggs together. 

Nathan was content to sit and watch. 

I promise Nathan does not drink coffee but he does love his "little latte" cup, as we call it.  He is also in LOVE with this ambulance that Grandma Francis gave him the night before.

 

Grant was content and happy in his car seat while the big boys had all the fun.  Best. Baby. EVER!

 

 

 



2 year / 4 month appointments

March 17 was a busy doctors visit.  Anytime you take two kids to be seen during the same appointment by yourself it is going to be busy.  Nathan was getting his 2 year checkup and thankfully NO shots!  Grant was getting his 4 month checkup and several shots. :( 

We arrived a bit early and they were not quite ready for us and there were a LOT of sick kids in the waiting room so we checked in and headed down to the pharmacy for a beverage and a snack. 

 

Nathan had a bit of a cold and was not happy about Dr. Rudloff checking him out. 

"Mom, why the heck are you taking my picture?"

Nathan weighed in 31 lbs 12 oz (78th %), was 36 inches tall (90th %) and had a head circumference of 21.3 inches.  I didn't get a chart for head circumference but we are usually OFF the chart.

Grant is getting giant fast! 

He weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz (70th %) and was 26.3 inches long/tall (93rd %) and had a head circumference of 17.6 inches...yep, you guessed it - OFF the chart! 

The boys just must have big brains. :)

I love Nathan's sweet hand holding on to Grant in this photo.  Both Tyler and Nathan are so protective of Grant around other people...not always as protective in the play room with just us.  It is going to be one of those relationships that the only people that can mess with Grant will be his big brothers...otherwise, hands off! 

 

Dr. Rudloff ordered some lotion for Grant's sensitive skin.  The first one was $550!!?!! and the second was $150 and that was with insurance!  Dr. Rudloff said he wouldn't recommend getting it unless it was less than $50 so I took his recommendation and didn't purchase it!  His skin is not that bad!  Grant's skin has actually gotten MUCH better since that visit. 

 

Other than some sensitive skin, both boys are happy and healthy and we couldn't be more pleased at how they are growing.  If only I could slow it down a bit! :)   



Fishing Fun!

The day before Nathan's birthday party, March 15, we went to Bass Pro for a kids fishing event. 

Nathan colored a fish magnet while we waited for our turn to fish. 

He obviously needed a hair cut too. 

The "fishing" was in this large pool filled with small fish.  Jeff wanted the boys to enjoy the excitement of catching a fish so hopefully they would want to go fishing for real sometime soon.

This was my view.  Tyler was fishing by himself, Nathan and Daddy were together and Grant was sleeping in his car seat in the shopping cart.

Nathan caught his fish right away. 

Tyler had fish just swimming around his worm. 

 We had to switch poles with one of the nice Bass Pro workers.  Then, amazingly enough Tyler had a fish!  (wink, wink)

He was SO proud of his catch.

He still didn't want to touch the fish.

 

Here are our official photos from Bass Pro:

Nathan wasn't too sure about that fish that dad wanted him to touch. 

This one is a classic!

 

After fishing, Jeff did a little shopping and the boys had their own idea of shopping. 

The idea of these two driving is terrifying but at least they were sure to buckle up. 

Nathan always seems to push Tyler out of the way for the steering wheel spot.

They were chatting about how this boat was the one they thought we should get.  Jeff was on board with them to get a boat too so I had to be the bad guy...story of my life. :)

 

It was a fun afternoon followed up by a trip to the toy store (the last place this family should be shopping!) and dinner out.  Sorry that there are no photos of Grant on this outing.  He was a gem, as always, being patient for feedings in the car in between activities.  Oh, the life of the third child. :)



Tyler's Spring School Photos

Little Rascals does both fall and spring photos.  I thought it was a bit unnecessary and after his first school photo in September you can see here I had low expectations. 

 

We were pleasantly surprised this time around.

 

I took a picture of the picture hence the glare in the upper left hand corner. 

We did pay for the photos so I didn't feel bad taking a picture of the picture.

I think he looks so grown up in this one.  I intended for his shirt to stay tucked in and it was when I dropped him off at school, but it he is a 4 year old boy.  What was I thinking?

He looks a bit unsure here but still better than the photo in September. 

The class photos are a favorite keepsake of mine. 

I think my mom and dad still have my class photos from Little Rascals. 

Tyler likes to name all the kids in his class from this picture so I thought I would document them for future reference. :)

 

Row 1: Wade, Sarah, Dillon, Annalise, Lexi, Autumn, Gabe

Row 2: Jonathan, Baya, Olivia, Sophia

Row 3: Tyler, Nathan (ironic that those two names are next to each other, eh?), Avery, Ollie, Cora, Ella H., Andrew

Row 4: Ella L. Natalie, Kalem, Nate, Max, Landon, Jackson

Row 5: Stella, Leah, Kirsten

 

 



Bike rides

We have taken advantage of any day that has included mild to warm temperatures to enjoy time outside.  It has been a long, cold winter cooped up inside with the boys.   

 

We broke out Tyler's bike and took it down to the trail.  The little two boys rode in the stroller.  Tyler got good and fast in a hurry.  We had to run on the trail to keep up with him which probably all bad but was unexpected.  :)

The Rocket!

I love this photo!

 

This is when he was still being nice and not going too fast. 

 

We let Nathan pick something fun to do since he just got to ride in the stroller the first bike ride of the season and he was NOT thrilled about it.  Nathan got talked into making his choice Dairy Delight for cheeseburgers.  It was a fun Sunday afternoon.

 

This first bike ride of the year also prompted Nathan to ask for a bike too.

Luckily for him, his birthday was right around the corner...

We went to Wal-Mart to see if his feet could even reach the pedals on one and indeed they could on the smallest one.  I ordered one from Amazon that night!

 

He saw it when it arrived on the front porch and since the weather was nice that day, Dad put it together in the garage right away.  Nathan had his helmet on, ready to go. 

He got a little impatient with Dad.  He doesn't like to wait.

 

Nathan working on his pedaling.

We had to take a little break to watch the train go by. 

 

Grandma watched Grant for us while we took the big boys to the trail to ride. 

I posted this photo on Instagram and Facebook with the caption: "My future's so bright I gotta wear shades." :)

 

We have also done some riding of bikes/tractors in the back yard when possible too. 

 

These last two photos are from a while ago but fit with the blog. :) 

Nathan turns 2!

I didn't forget about my middle child turning TWO, I just have been a bad blogger. 

 

It is hard for me to believe that Nathan is already two while at the same time hard for me to believe that he is ONLY two.  I suppose the later is because he has been walking FOR.EV.ER.  Nathan's favorite thing this year has been basketball so that is the theme we went with for his party.  Bubble Guppies has been running a close second lately, thanks to cousin Hadley introducing our household to the Nick Jr. show. 

 

A bad scan of the invite but you get the idea. 

 

 

I love making the themed birthday sign's.  I will probably be tired of it by the time the kids actually start to care about it. ;)

 

 

Nathan was so excited to see Matthew since they no longer see each other several times a week due to Nathan and Grant going to a different sitter. 

This was one of my fun ideas that I waited until the last minute to do.  We were in STL the day before the party to do some fishing (another post coming soon) and shopping.  I told Jeff I wanted to find Nathan a jersey for his party.  When Tyler played in his YMCA basketball league Nathan always wanted a "bassetball sh*t" (yep, he often left off the r - we tried not to laugh).  I thought I could easily find a kids jersey and just iron on the name and number...not so easy.  The smallest size I could find in all of St. Louis...I called EVERYWHERE...was a youth XL.  I bought it and after getting home and baths, I completely took apart the youth XL jersey, dusted off the sewing machine and re-pieced together the jersey 2T size.  It was great until I realized I might have been cutting it close on the size of the head hole.  It didn't fit...barely.  Scissor to the rescue!  I snipped a few threads and squeezed it over the Francis size head.  Ta dah!  Why do I do this to myself?  Nathan had forgotten all about the "bassetball sh*t" and it really wasn't cool anymore because Tyler wasn't wearing one.  Oh well, I thought he looked cute. :)

Grandma and 2 of her little men.

Hugs all around.   I promise this really was a hug and not a headlock. 

Grant got lots of cuddle time with Anna.  For the record, Anna and Grant have done a lot of bonding lately!  Anna got to hold Grant 3 weekends in a row!  :)

Krista was busy winning Nathan over with the first present he opened, a new remote control car!  And it is "yell-low" which is at least his favorite color to say.  Nathan didn't care about a single present after opening this one.  Party over - let's go play with the "mote car."

So Hadley helped open some presents.  I think she was disappointed it wasn't shoes.  A girl after my own heart.

We made 48 of these basketball cookies for the party and after everyone left, this was the only one left.  I am pretty sure our boys had about a dozen of them.

We had basketball Halo oranges along with burgers, brats, peanuts and popcorn to go with the basketball theme.  Taco dip too...Jeff thinks it is against all rules for us to have people over and not serve taco dip.  He said it was our play on nachos. 

 

Nathan didn't care about the cards but Tyler read every single one of them.  Even after the party was over he went back through them and read them again.  He told me he is very excited for September for his party. 

 

Great Uncle Doug got Nathan this cool new ball.  Uncle Doug sure knows the way straight to Nathan's heart! 

Tyler got some special one on one cuddle time with Aunt Sandy.  He still gets jealous of Nathan, Hadley and Grant on Tuesdays but is getting better. 

This was my attempt at getting a photo of the birthday boy.  He turned his head right as I took the photo so this was as good as it got.  I didn't do the best with my birthday photos.  I was borrowing my dad's camera since I dropped my big lens from my camera.  I actually just got it back from the camera shop today! 

Daddy helped Nathan blow out the candles on his basketball cake. 

 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Nathan! 

We cannot imagine our lives without your fun personality and crazy cute smiles. 

 

We love you to the moon and back!