Three Times the Fun: 2014 - time to get back on track

Now, i can not believe it has been over four months since I have updated this blog. I figured with working, I would be far more productive, but for some reason I have not been.

Grandma and Grandma V visit us in October - we had so much fun while mom and dad went out of town for their 10th anniversary! (BGA)

Aidan and Brady actually got into cleaning out the pumpkins for Halloween this year

This was about as close as Gavin got to cleaning out his pumping. No, really.

Our three superheroes (GBA)!

Poor Gavin came down with a fever that morning, so he only went out for about an hour with dad and his brothers, but he was a super helpful and polite candy distributor!

We had a lovely fall with Curt taking a class, teaching a class at Kirkwood and being the primary stay-at-home parent and co-oping at the boys school. Well, I had a lovely fall, I know Curt was a little more stressed out than i was. :) I will tell you that the boys have absolutely LOVED having dad at their school. It makes me really happy to see them interacting with Curt in ways they haven't before because they are getting so much more time together. It also makes me a little sad because I am out of the loop in many ways. It's a bittersweet pill to swallow, but overall I know it's for the best. Brady and Gavin regularly tell me they wish I was "fingerprinted like dad" so that we can both come to their school. I got to do my first co-oping so Curt could do some last minute prep for his class on Monday and it was GREAT! OK, so cleaning the toilets wasn't my favorite part, but on the whole, it was great! For the most part all three boys ignored me, and I thought they might be a bit more clingy, especially since they have been asking me to do it. The teachers told me, however, that when I would leave the room, one boy would come up and say "where's mom?!" so that made me feel good. :) It was so fun seeing them learning spanish and sign language and listening during story time and playing with their friends.

Daddy turns 40!(AGB)

That afternoon we took them ice skating with a friend since I had the day off for MLK Day. At this point, Brady is the most into ice skating and the most interested in gaining his own balance and making his own way around the rink. Gavin wanted to hold my hand or have me hold him up the entire time, so he ended up taking some LOOOOONG breaks from skating. Aidan was also tired (turns our he has strep throat - but never complained of a sore throat - WHAT?!) but somehow was able to make friends with some little girl who was there and she proceeded to help him skate around the rink by pulling him. So ridiculous. :)

Ice skating in Des Moines over winter break - Aidan is one cool kid!

Look, mom and dad in a picture TOGETHER!

Mom and Gavin!

Grandma and Brady! He went around the rink 11 times that day!

Gavin's new smile!

Gavin lost his first tooth the day before Thanksgiving. It had been loose for a few weeks and he was SO funny about it. He would just sit there in the car and wiggle it back and forth. As Curt and the boys were getting ready to come and get me from work to head to Des Moines for Thanksgiving, Gavin SAYS Brady hit him in the mouth while they were in their car seats (Brady swears up and down this isn't true) and the tooth just popped out! On the way to Des Moines that afternoon, he just rubbed his finger back and forth on the spot. There is nothing that feels more weird than the space where your tooth USED to be. Now his adult tooth is coming in rapidly and taking up more than the original space! uh oh! Better start losing some more! (*Side note: Tonight after shower as i was getting ready to help him with his teeth Gavin says "my tooth is REALLY loose!" Now he has been saying this about his teeth since he lost the first one and none have been loose. So I say "Oh really? which one?" and he shows me the lower front tooth right next to the one he lost and the dang thing is moving like, an INCH in either direction! I will be surprised if he DOESN'T lose it overnight and swallow it!)

Decorating our Christmas tree! (BAG)

Mom and her boys (BGA)

Brady and Santa - once again, he was at a loss for words. :)

Gavin however knew JUST what to say!

Aidan wants a drum set this year! Not sure if Santa has room for that buddy!

At the Festival of Trees 2013 - the whole family! (GBA)

We LVOE cousin Noah! (GBA)

We had a fun Christmas with the Kenoyer's this year. The boys loved being around their cousins as much as they could be, we did ice skating one day, saw Frozen with grandma K, and just played with their new toys a lot. I still can not believe how PATIENT the boys were with the whole christmas thing. Now, we had let them open gifts from my side of the family the sunday before christmas so i'm sure that let a little steam out, but even on christmas morning, they had woken up around 6 AM (after going to bed around 930PM - WHAT?!) but STAYED IN THEIR ROOM playing with their cousin until 630 AM. oh. my. goodness. and then, after breakfast it was taking the adults FOREVER to get around, luckily they had already opened their stocking stuff, and the boys were waiting patiently for the bigger family gifts to be passed out. When the family gifts got passed out they were sitting with 4 gifts in front of them, just sitting, while the adults were still not all settled. I said it looked like dogs whose owners put a treat on the tip of their nose and just make them sit there. Even after that we had asked them to NOT actually tear open the Lego boxes they got as gifts because we didn't want them getting mixed up with the other Legos Peggy and Larry have at their house. So Gavin would say "are we going home TOMORROW?" and we would say "no, not for 3 days, sorry kid." and he would just stare at the boxes, but never threw a temper tantrum or got upset or angry, just wistful. We did let them put their Legos together the day before we left because they were just being too sweet, and we figured they wouldn't want to take them apart the first day they were put together.