Baby Day is approaching!

Today is April 22nd and that means the baby will be born exactly 1 month from today!!  We are getting super excited at home.  Austin and Colton have been good helpers . . . sorting baby toys from big boy toys, organizing baby books, folding baby laundry, etc!  They are also starting to ask a lot of questions about the baby.  Both of them love to touch my belly, kiss my belly, and talk to the baby!  They are going to be amazing big brothers.  At my Dr. appointment today the baby heart beat was a strong 160.  The Dr. said everything looked, felt and sounded great!  Now, just to work on getting everything in order at home!!! 

Bubble bath time!

Last night Austin got to go to Zoey's church with Zoey and Sarah to watch the movie Wreck it Ralph.  He got to wear his Superman jammies and bring his lion sleeping bag!!  He was very excited and watched out the window, waiting for Sarah to pick him up!  About half way through the movie Austin wanted to come home but he did get to enjoy the popcorn, snacks and water at the show!  Not sure what scared him but Sarah brought him home since that was where he wanted to be.  While the big kids went to the movie, the two little ones stayed to play at our house.  I gave Charlee and Colton a bubble bath and they had a great time!  They played very well together in the tub, no surprise there!  Each of them took turns with all of the toys and when the splashing started to get out of control I decided bath time was probably over!!

Here is a picture of one little frog and one little shark! 

 

 

After they were all cleaned up, we headed downstairs to watch a show.  This is where we got into some trouble because Charlee wanted to watch Dora and Colton wanted to watch Team UmiZoomi.  They compromised on Bubble Guppies but they didn't want to sit by eachother anymore!  Two little, adorable, stubborn two-year-olds!  It was a quick little visit, since Sarah came back with Austin an hour after she had picked him up, but these two little ones sure think a lot of eachother!



Swim Lessons and other stuff!

Austin started swim lessons again at the beginning April.  We head to the pool every Tuesday/Thursday evening for about 45 minutes of lessons each night.  He is loving the water and we are hopeful this will give him a refresher course before summer starts and we are at the pool all the time.  Colton has enjoyed going to watch Austin practice this time around.  He watches his brother, as well as spends his 45 minutes walking around making new friends with other kids and their moms.  The first picture is Austin and Colton waiting patiently for swim lessons to begin.

This is a picture of Austin working on his back float kick.  He is supposed to keep his hands up by his head and sort of flutter kick.  So, in the next couple of pictures, his teacher Emily, is working on helping him to keep tummy out of the water as well as keeping his legs straight.  He does a pretty good job, he just needs to work on keeping his head up too!

I took Colton to the Dr. on Monday because he said his ear was hurting on Saturday and Sunday.  Turns out he has a ear infection in his left ear!  So, he is on amoxicillan for the next 10 days and is taking his medicine like a champ!  While we were at the Dr. they weighed him and he is now tipping the scales at 30.8 pounds!  His heart rate was 134 (normal for a 2-year-old) and they also took his blood pressure (102/68).  They took out a tiny little blood pressure cuff and took his blood pressure!  This was new to me and the nurse said it is something that is now regulation; as of January 2013 anyone over the age of 2 has to get a blood pressure check.  He cooperated with the nurse and the Dr. very well.  The Dr. even commented that he was one of the most well behaved two-year-olds she had seen in a long time.  We are just busy as usual around our house.  We have no activities this evening and it is raining like crazy here so I'm looking forward to a nice quiet night at home!

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend!  Austin and Colton were able to go to the March of Dimes Easter Fundraiser at the Crossroads Mall in Fort Dodge.  They spent a couple hours there, riding rides, finding Easter eggs and playing some games.  They both got back to Annie and Papa's with a bucket of little toys, candy, and Easter eggs.  Austin had some concerns that the Easter Bunny would not know that we were going to be in Fort Dodge on Sunday morning so at first he was hesitant to leave Cedar Falls, but boy was he excited on Sunday morning.  Austin ran downstairs to see if the Easter bunny came and Papa overheard him say, "No Way!" and then he ran back upstairs to wake up Brian, Colton, and I.  He was so excited to tell us that the Easter Bunny brought toys and candy! 

 

Austin was very interested in the Easter baskets and enjoyed pulling everything out and telling us what he had received.  Colton was content walking around and finding one egg at a time.  Colton would find an egg, open it up (which was a bit of work sometimes), then get so excited over whatever piece of candy was in it, and then would sit down and eat the candy before finding the next egg.  He definitely loved that there was so much candy involved with Easter!  The Easter bunny hid about 40 eggs!  It turns out this may have been too many so Brian ended up finding the ones that the boys gave up on.  Nick and Courtney joined us in Fort Dodge after church and we had a great Easter dinner.  The boys got outside to play for a little bit, but the wind forced us to spend most of the weekend indoors.  It was a fun weekend!

This picture is of the boys finding the eggs the Easter bunny left in their shoes.  And then my camera battery died!

Okay, since I have been bad about updating the blog I am going to give a quick recap of our February! 

This is Colton helping Grandma Kliegl make brownies.  Him and Austin both had to try all of the ingredients and after the flour Austin says, "Grandma, I like suga better than flour!"  And he says suga with this drawl so it was actually pretty funny and now he likes to remind me every once in awhile that he likes sugar and not flour!  Colton was smiling on cue . . . I'm pretty sure he got this cheese ball smile from watching his brother smile for the camera over the years!  And the brownies were phenomenal!

 The boys received a trampoline from Annie and Papa for Valentine's Day!  This is used every day now at our house.  We realized quickly that only one person should be on it at a time so we have to use the timer or Brian and I have to be in the room while the jumping is happening.  They love the trampoline and they are usually really good about taking turns.  Austin and Colton both like to do all their dance moves on the trampoline and put on shows for Brian and I.

 We visited Nick and Courtney and the boys went in to wake up Nick and Courtney on Saturday morning.  Austin is enjoying the view out the window, while it appears Colton is checking out Aunt Courtney.  The boys loved sprawling out on the big king size bed that they have at their house!

 We went to Carol and Al's house in Granger and Colton and Austin got to 'drive' one of Al's Mustangs around.  Colton said he was going to visit Papa several times, then he would wave out the window and say, "bye bye mama".  After a very quick trip, he would tell us he was back!  He loved being in charge of the steering wheel and Austin didn't mind either.  The boys also got to play with the balls on the pool table in the basement with Carol.  Austin made up a game called "Smash Ball", which was played a lot like the title sounds . . . just smash the balls together and various pockets were good ones to have your ball go into and other pockets were bad ones to put the ball into.  We had lunch and then Carol loaded us all up with candy and sweets to head back to Nick's house!

It was very cold outside so Nick and Courtney set up a little Smores maker in their entry way!  The boys were patiently waiting for the marshmallows to be cooked.  Nick was helping Austin and Courtney helped Colton hold the marshmallow for a while too.  Colton was more interested in eating the chocolate candy bar than he was in roasting a marshmallow!

Colton had his very last day at Bri's house on March 1st.  It was a sad day since Bri is moving to Davenport and will no longer be able to watch Colton.  March 4th through March 8th, Annie came and spent the week with the boys!  It was a great week at our house as Annie had the boys helping make delicious meals, which Brian and I greatly enjoyed in the evenings.  They played, did art projects and even went on a walk during one of the warmer afternoons.  This last week the boys have been going to our friend Jana's house and playing with her kids.  It has been a great fit, as her kids are the same ages as our two boys!

We are heading to Emmetsburg this weekend for the big St. Pat's celebration!  We are looking forward to a fun time.  The boys will get to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Kliegl all of next week.  They are very excited for their 5 day trip! 

I love this huge smile on Colton's face so I thought I would share!!

 

Last night we went to play with Zoey and Charlee!  Colton and Charlee were very excited to be together to play again.  They both seem to talk about eachother all week, so our get togethers are always a really great time.  Colton's favorite word this week is 'no'.  It seems to be his answer before he even really knows what the question is.  Austin has been testing him . . .

Austin:  Colton do you want to go to the beach?
Colton:  No
Austin:  Mommy, Colton doesn't want to go to the beach?  Colton we could wear our beach clothes.
Colton:  Oh . . . (thinking, pondering)
Austin:  So, do you want to go to the beach?
Colton:  mmmmm . . . no
And then both boys break out into laughter, since Colton has now just said the funniest thing ever. 

These little conversations are happening all the time and I love being able to listen to them.

Austin has also been very inquisitive around bed time.  I'm sure it is just a new stalling tactic but he sure does come up with some good questions.

Austin:  Mommy, I need a drink of water.
Me:  Okay.  (I head to his bathroom to get him a drink of water)
Austin:  Mommy, once I drink all of the water from my bathroom how do we get it filled back up?
Me:  Well, we have a pipe that runs from your sink to the water tower and we get water from the water tower. 
Austin:  Well, doesn't the potty water go into a pipe too? 
Me:  Yes, it does.
Austin:  Well, how does the water from the potty know where to go?  Does the potty water come back up the pipe to my sink!?! 
Me:  No, it is two different pipes.  So, the clean water comes to the sink and the potty water goes away from the house.
Austin:  Where is away?  Where does the potty water go?
Me:  To the sewer.
Austin:  And what does it do at the sewer?
Me:  The sewer is just where all of the potty water goes.
Austin:  (Clearly not convinced this is the right answer)  Oh, okay mommy.

We are looking forward to a fun weekend!!

Going to visit Jon and Clare's house!

So Austin has been persistently asking if we can go to Jon's.  I don't know if the cold weather is making him want to head out to Jon's where it is sunny or what.  But, about every other day he will ask me when we are going to Jon's.  Here is how one the conversations rolled out . . .

Austin:  "Mommy, can we go bowling some day?"
Me:  "Yes Austin, that would be a very fun thing to do some day."
Austin:  "Then after bowling can we go to Jon's?"
Me:  "Well, it is a really long drive to Jon's, so we have to plan out a trip.  And then we can go there."
Austin:  "Well, Colton and I will sleep the whole way and you could make pbj's for us to eat in the car for lunch.  That way we won't even have to stop.  We can just sleep and eat sandwiches until we get there!"

This morning on the way to school . . .

Austin:  "Are we doing anything on Thursday?"
Me:  "Nothing special planned."
Austin:  "Well, let's go to Jon's on Thursday!"
Me:  "Well, Austin, Thursday is only two days away and I have to work so that isn't very much time to plan a trip to Jon's house."
Austin:  "Well, two days is a long time mommy.  You can just tell your work that you have to go to Jon's on Thursday."  (He says this with his adorable shoulder shrug, while his hands are in the air)

He has got it all figured out, that's for sure!!