Minneapolis!

***Warning, this is a really, really long post*** :)

It's been a LONG time since we spent some time away from home enjoying our little family. I think the last time was August when we spent a week at Clear Lake. So last weekend we left Friday early afternoon and drove up to Minneapolis to spend the weekend.

The boys did a good job in the car - Isaiah fell asleep but Levi managed to stay awake the entire drive! With just a couple "are we there yet?"s from Isaiah about 10 minutes after we left, we made it without any complications!! We stopped at our hotel first to drop off our stuff...Then went out for dinner at the restaurant right outside our hotel. It was fun to try something new and they gave each of the kids a little ball of dough to play with along with crayons and coloring pages. They thought that was pretty neat!
And then we went to...We were so overwelmed and excited by all that we saw at IKEA that we could have stayed there for 3 days straight! But, the daycare for Isaiah was only an hour long (can you believe they offer daycare for any potty trained kid!?) and after a few hours the boys had had enough...and the Panthers were playing in the Sweet 16, so back to the hotel we went!! Levi went to bed (remember no nap in the car!) and Mark watched the game, while Isaiah and I went to check out the pool (remember he DID nap in the car!). We had a great time swimming and Isaiah had so much fun jumping into my arms over and over!

We managed to get up Saturday morning at our normal time and be up and ready to go...or at least Levi was, he got his shoes and coat and climbed in the stroller by 8:15. The only thing open was...
so we shopped at Target for about an hour before we went and found this...
and then this...
Isaiah and Levi were both amazed with all of the Legos. So of course we stopped to play.But they couldn't miss all the excitement going on at the Nickelodeon Universe, so we moved on...We ended up buying Isaiah a wrist band for unlimited rides (we had a coupon so it wasn't too expensive and a chaperone could ride most of the rides with him for free!).

Mark took him on his first ride, The Log Chute. Isaiah got pretty nervous on the ride! Mark asked him if he wanted to do it again and he said, "maybe I'll do it again when I'm bigger."
We went on several other rides, Mark and I taking turns going with him and a few he went on all by himself!

Swiper no swiping!
(Swiper is a character from the Diego books and shows)

Azul, Azul!! This is the train in one of our Dora books! Isaiah was VERY excited to see this ride.
Bumper Cars - Isaiah drove the car all by himself! At first he kept going in a circle, but then he figured it out and actually bumped into lots of other cars. When I asked him what his favorite ride was that night, he answered this one (but he also said he liked the Swiper ride the best too -- and that was the only ride he rode twice).
Levi was very patient throughout the day. He had fun watching the rides and all of the people.
Mark decided to climb high on the ropes course. He was so close to the ceiling!!
Somehow through all of this Mark managed to get Levi to fall asleep! He slept for about an hour in the stroller in the midst of a crazy amusement park and a wild mall!!
Isaiah kept asking, "do we get to see the REAL Dora and Diego?" and guess what, we did!!
After all of the excitement of the mall, we decided to walk back to the hotel and go SWIMMING!
Like usual, Levi wasn't so sure about the pool at first, he decided to stay back and watch.
and then watch from the chairs.
He eventually got in and was fearless in the water, jumping in just like his brother, and didn't mind getting his face all the way in. Isaiah was so much more comfortable in the water than he's been in the past. He was jumping in from such a long way out, he was letting me hardly catch him so he was so deep in the water. I was so proud of him.
We decided to walk back over to the mall to get something to eat, let Isaiah ride a few more rides, and say goodbye to the "big mall."

We also needed to stop and play the games we passed by several times during the day. Mark loves to play carnival games. Whenever we are somewhere with them, we have to stop and play at least one :) So of course he and Isaiah played a few...and look what Isaiah did!!Finally we got strawberry smoothies for a bedtime snack. YUMMY.
Since we were at the hotel, we decided to let the kids enjoy their treat in bed :)
We woke up Sunday morning and headed back to IKEA to actually buy some things that we came for...and then realized just how tired we all were so we headed home after lunch.

What a great get-a-way as our little family!

Isaiah's drawing.

Isaiah has just recently started "drawing" rather than "scribbling." We were making St Patrick's Day cards a few weeks ago and I left Isaiah to color his card and came back to find this picture:

I was surprised! This was the first time I had seen him draw a picture that was so clear like that! I had seen him draw other things but it really just looked like scribbles...I asked him what this was a picture of and he said, "it's Levi." :) Didn't he do a great job? He's since drawn several other people that look very similar to this and several other drawings! I'll share some more pictures again soon!

change.

Several months ago Laura, my job-share partner, decided it was time to quit working and be a full-time stay at home mom. She has baby #3 due in July and they are building a new home this spring so having work mixed with this was just too much. So she was done working January 28th which meant big changes at our house (and hers!)! Congratuations Laura!

I was able to quickly find a new job-share partner at work--really, you couldn't ask for a better part-time job if you are looking to only work 20 hours per week--what other part time job offers, vacation time (5 weeks for me!!), 401k, health insurance, life insurance, flexible hours, etc...so finding a partner wasn't hard!! :) My new partner, Cassy, is a full-time student and has class every morning so she needs to work afternoons/evenings...which means I get to work mornings!!

Starting February 1 I have been working 4 mornings a week from 8-1. This has been a good change for me. It's been nice getting out of the house just about every day, just long enough for me to be ready to go back home and play!

Mark also started his internship this semester (which means he graduates in May!!) and so he no longer has classes to attend, but a job to go to. He is interning at our church and has a flexible schedule!

So what about the boys? With Mark's flexible schedule, he is able to stay home 2 mornings a week to watch the boys while I work. The other two mornings that I work Laura watches the boys. (Thank you Laura!) The boys love it at her house and have so much fun with Jayda and Jonah. I am so thankful that I have no worries about the boys while I work.

So everything about the change has been just fine...except... I never get to see Jayda and Jonah!! It's been really hard for me, Isaiah and Levi not to have them at our house 2 or 3 days a week! Isaiah so often asks, "When is Jayda coming over?" or "I want to play with Jayda."

They have been over to play a few times since this big change...Hopefully they will get to come play at our house more often when Laura has more things to do with building her new home!

Yesterday was one of those days they came over...and it was great!

Watching a morning "show" while we waited for Isaiah to wake up! This pose lasted about 3 minutes and then they were all off to something more exciting than "Super Why."
Twins! Isaiah and Jayda thought it would be fun to both wear overalls!

And then vests when we went outside.

It was a GEORGOUS day! We spent most of the day outside and the kids played and played...

So the change is good...and hopefully we'll experience much more change in May when Mark graduates and gets a new job!! We can't wait to see what God has in store for us!

plants.

I love tomatoes. They are my absolute favorite food. One of the moments I look forward to each year, all year long, is the first bite of homegrown tomato every July. There are days in the summer that I eat two (or three) large tomatoes (just like an apple) and handfuls of cherry tomatoes all throughout the day. I just can't get enough. Strange, I know.

So clearly I need to have a garden to keep up with my summer habits!

This year my dad inspired me to grow my own plants from seeds -- thank you dad! This was a fun activity for Isaiah and I to do together!

First we filled the planter with soil.

Levi had to come check out what we were doing...

Then we put the seeds in--we planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green peppers and jalapeno peppers (can you picture us using all of these to make SALSA!!)--and watered them. Shaking a water bottle was the only thing I could think of that would just lightly sprinkle the water on the planter. :)

Here it is...

hopefully in a few weeks we'll see little plants, I'll keep you posted!

Go Panthers!

more spring break fun!

We were lucky enough to spend Thursday with Caiden too! The weather was perfect again so we walked to another park! This time it was just me and the three boys so we filled the wagon and off we went!The kids loved being out at the park again. They smiled and laughed the entire time we were there!and raced each other back and forth, back and forth on the bridge.
Then the dinosaur and the ninja showed up!
After lunch we were ready to go back outside...and spend the rest of the day (until dark) outside! The boys slept good that night!We woke up Friday to snow flurries ... that lasted all day long. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the park, the boys were so ready for another day outside... Thankfully it's warm again today and we've spent most of the late morning and early afternoon outside! Hooray for spring!!

to the park and the jeep.

What a beautiful spring break week!! I was lucky enough to have Wednesday-Friday off work (because I got to work this Saturday) and enjoy the 60 degrees with my boys, Caiden, and my mom! Caiden's daycare was closed and my mom was off work so we had a fun sunny afternoon on Wednesday!

We walked to the brand new park by our house! One of the schools near us tore down their playground late fall and built a new one over the winter! It is very nice and perfect for my kids.Time to walk home...

After all the running and playing, we were ready for snack time!
And then daddy got home and decided it was time to bring out the Jeep! This was the first time Isaiah had driven the Jeep outside. He LOVED having the space to drive it FAST! We are going to have lots of fun with it this spring and summer!