Austin is 5!

 What a fun and busy weekend we had celebrating Austin's 5th birthday!  On Friday, Austin got to bring treats to school.  He chose brownies with mini m&m's sprinkled on top!  He was happy to report that his birthday was a lot of fun at school.  He wore a crown for all of his preschool class and they sang to him two times at snack time . . . one round of happy birthday and then a round of the thank you song, since he brought treats!

 We got home Friday evening and had presents waiting for us!  The boys were all excited to get started on ripping the wrapping paper off of them.  Austin wanted me to read all the cards out loud to everyone.  One of the cards was a Transformers card that talked and it was a lot of entertainment the rest of the evening.  Another card had ninja guys on it, so Austin and Colton tried to act out all the moves the guys on the card were doing!  Gavin just wanted to get as much wrapping paper in his mouth as possible!

 Austin's big boy bike!  The bike has rockets on it and the helmet has flames on it, so obviously this bike is going to go super fast.  Austin cruised around inside on Saturday because it was way to cold to go outside first thing in the morning.

 Captain America cake as requested by the birthday boy!

 Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for Austin and a few of his friends at the Jump House place in Waterloo.  The kids LOVED the party.  They took a 20 minute break from jumping so that we could eat cake and open presents, otherwise they jumped from 1-4pm.  It was a great time.  Colton wasn't up for a picture when this was taken, so that is why he is not in it!!

 Gavin, having a blast at the jump house!

 After the party we went to the hotel where Annie and Papa were staying.  Austin and Colton got to swim, open more presents and we ordered pizza.  Grandma and Grandmpa Kliegl had to take off after dinner because the weather sounded like it might get bad.  We headed home from the hotel around 8:30 . . . . everyone was tired.  It was a long fun day! 

 Gavin didn't swim on Saturday night, he was exhausted, but on Sunday morning we went back out to the hotel so that the boys could swim and Gavin even got in the water.  I held him at first to get him used to the water . . . he kept picking his toes up out of the water!  Then Brian held on to him and walked him around for a little bit so he could see what all the excitement was about!  He seemed to enjoy it and really just laid back and kicked his legs a little bit!

Swimming Lessons!

 Colton had his first day of swimming lessons last Saturday and he did great.  He jumped right in and wanted to head for the deep end!  The teacher had to coax him back up the ramp, which he was not happy about at first.  He wanted to, of course, be where Austin was.  Austin is already in level 2 and Colton wanted to be jumping in and having fun with him instead of starting in the preschool level.  Once I talked to him for a few minutes he was just fine and spent the rest of the lesson blowing bubbles and listening attentively to the teacher.  I think his swimming skills are ready for level 1 but he needs to know how important it is to listen to his teacher and learn all the safety rules!  Hopefully the rest of the lessons go well for him!

 Here is Colton sitting on the edge of the "hot pool" as he likes to call it!

 And here is Austin going round and round in circles while holding on to a green noodle.  He wanted me to keep taking pictures and was definitely being a bit cheesy for the camera!  He is in Level 2, which is over on a part of the pool where he can just keep his head out of the water by standing on his toes.  He loved it though!  Both boys got to sit in the "hot pool" for five minutes after their class.  Papa was able to come and watch their first lesson and the boys were excited to have an audience!

And Gavin is able to get everywhere!  He is doing a scoot-crawl maneuver that gets him everywhere he wants and/or needs to be.  We have been working on baby proofing the house all over again.  It is funny how Gavin will crawl through a living room full of appropriate baby toys just to reach that one toy on the other side of the room that he shouldn't have!  Austin and Colton are really good at keeping the little toys picked up and of course Brian and I are constantly checking and double checking to make sure everything is picked up that Gavin could reach. 

 

Gavin is making clicking noises with his tongue a lot and he loves when you do it back to him.  He has 8 teeth now, four on top and four on bottom!  He gets really excited about imitating noises that we make to him.  And he also lights up every time he lays eyes on his mama (which I LOVE, of course!)  Colton and Austin greet him every morning with kisses and hugs!  The perfect little trio most days!

Christmas Fun!

On Christmas Eve we went to Fort Dodge to spend time with family!  It was so nice to sit around and chat, open gifts and eat too much food!  Below Austin has just opened his new bow and arrow from Jon & Clare.  He is sure excited about getting some targets set up so we can start practicing.  I think this might be a little more fun once it warms up outside!

 

We were able to get outside and make a snowman one day.  Brian and I had a snowball fight with Austin and Colton that was a lot of fun!  We have also been playing with all the new toys non-stop, playing some new games and also watching a couple of new movies!  The excitement these boys have for the holidays is wonderful.   

 

And this is a picture of Austin and Papa enjoying a Tom & Jerry!

 

 

On Saturday we headed up to Emmetsburg for a Kliegl Christmas celebration!  Although it was a quick trip for us this year, it was a lot of fun to spend time together.  Colton is pictured below with his new Optimus Prime mask.  There is a button on the right hand side that you can push to have it talk.  Colton pushed this button over and over and over again!  The mask is so big on his face, it makes Brian and I smile when he puts it on at home.

Aaron and Becca gave Austin and Colton some Nerf guns and it had a target with it.  So, the target is taped to the wall in the basement and grandpa is helping Austin aim.  He's pretty good at getting it in the right direction.

 

At home yesterday Austin wanted to feed Gavin a bottle.  So, at bed time we gave it a try.  Austin did a very good job!  Gavin kept putting his hand on Austin's face, which would make Austin laugh.  He drank half of his bottle for Austin and then I took over, I think Gavin was laughing more than he was eating.  Super cute and it's great that Austin wants to help out!


 

Merry Christmas!

 

Gavin's 1st Christmas!!  He couldn't be happier.  The little guy has a third tooth coming in on the bottom and a second tooth coming in up top, so he has been red-cheeked now for the last few days.  He got to try squash on Christmas and he loved it!  I couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.  I'd say he definitely likes the squash more than he likes the peas!!

Christmas time!

Santa came early this year because we are going to be out of town on Christmas Eve!  So we had a wonderful Christmas celebration on Sunday morning.  Below is an adorable picture of Gavin in his new 'Minion' had that he got in the mail from Judy Saturday.  So cute and his older brothers thought it was great.  I also wanted to include this picture because Gavin is showing off his teeth!

 

Saturday night we went outside and scattered around the reindeer food!  The boys walked all over the yard and then made a trail right up to our front yard just to make sure the reindeer would know what house they were headed to.  They took this job very seriously.

 

Sunday morning these three boys waited patiently at the top of the steps while Brian got the video camera ready!  Gavin and I were up at 7am and Colton finally woke up at 7:30 and then woke Austin up right after that.  I think Gavin and I were more excited than anyone else!! 

 

All three of the boys in action.  Colton and Austin were great about helping Gavin open presents.  Gavin opened up a toy and Colton looked at it and said, "Oh Gavin, that is sooo cool!  Very cool present Gavin!"  It was pretty cute.  Austin and Colton were also complimentary to each other on the gifts they were opening.  They loved playing with all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutle stuff and for the most part they shared very well.  The art easel was another big hit!  We played some impromptu Pictionary with the dry erase markers and had a great time.  Austin drew a picture of 'the galaxy', which Brian finally guessed.  Brian drew a picture of 'the solar system', which Austin guessed.  I drew things like 'school buses' . . . so I was a little out of my league playing with those two!

 

One of our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in action!  It was non-stop ninja moves all day and Austin told us that he wants to wear these jammies every day forever . . . and then the doorbell rang and his friend Harrison asked him if he wanted to come play in the snow . . . and those jammies were off in 1 second flat!  I played with the boys outside in the morning for about an hour before we started to get cold.  Then, in the afternoon, Austin and Colton went over to the neighbors to build a fort with them at their house.  They were outside again for over an hour.  They definitely love the snow and it was a good day for them to be outside, since it wasn't as cold as it had been the previous week.

Gavin had his first bite of vegetables on Sunday afternoon.  He had peas!  And this only happened once.  After the initial shock of getting to eat something besides oatmeal, he ate all the rest of his peas.  He ate peas at dinner time too and seemed to like them.  His reaction wasn't as strong as what we got from Austin or Colton the first time they ate peas, so Brian and I were surprised that he seemed okay with them.



And here is a picture of our three little elves!  I will try to get another one but really . . . looking at this picture of Gavin cracks me up EVERY TIME I see it!  All three boys were wearing their hats sticking straight up and it was adorably hilarious!  We are looking forward to spending time with family in the upcoming days!  Merry Christmas!!



Gavin has been having a hard time staying asleep these last couple nights.  I thought we were on the right track towards sleeping through the nights and was wondering yesterday morning what could be going on with our little guy.  Well, I found out!  He has TWO MORE teeth coming in.  A third one on the bottom and his first one on top have broken through the skin.  So, it seems these last few nights have been restless for him because his little mouth is hurting.  So, hopefully now that the teeth have broken through, he will get some better sleep in!!

Austin's Christmas Show!

 Long overdue 6 month picture of Gavin.  I should have posted this with the last update!

 

 Today was Austin's Christmas program.  They sang 7 different songs. . . a couple of regular songs 'ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle' and then all traditional Christmas songs.  Austin did a great job of singing and knew all the words.  Jingle Bells was the most fun to watch, because they jumped up and down with jingle bells during the chorus.

 This is Austin's buddy Lincoln!  This is a great friend of his this year.  He has told us a lot of stories about his days at school and daycare . . . most of them involve Lincoln.  He very proudly introduced Lincoln to all of us.  And then they posed by the class Christmas tree!  After the singing show, the kids frosted sugar cookies and got to show us their favorite toys.  Brian read Austin and Lincoln a book about monster trucks.  Austin showed all of us the class guinea pigs; Carmel and Angel.  Colton was pretty curious about the guinea pigs and Colton was also very curious about the sugar cookies!  I think both boys had two cookies each.  It was a great little Christmas party.  Now Austin is officially on Christmas break and doesn't go back to school until January 6th! 

Annie drove over last night so she could join us at the Christmas program.  The boys got to play with her all morning and were very excited to have her at our house.  They had fun showing her all the special Christmas ornaments on the Christmas tree and got to watch Toy Story 2 with her.  Annie had to head home after the Christmas program, it was a quick but fun trip!