Lilykins!

Lily is now 15 months old and growing and talking like crazy! She is 26lbs 12oz & 32inches. She is 95th% tile for both. Now that she's been walking for a few months she thinning out and looking longer.

She has been quite the shoe fanatic lately. She loves to wear them and carry them around. Her Aunt Tracey will be proud.

We've given her a doll to play with but she'd much rather use diggers, cars, and trains (no brother influence here at all ;). She even tips over monster trucks like the boys, pretending its a tractor tipping like in the movie, Cars.




Daddy is playing with her here on a beautiful day!
She loves to go outside not only because she likes to play out there, she gets to put on her shoes too!

Anytime she sees birds flying by she gets super excited. Its very funny to see.

She discovered that there are steps on the slide/climber, just like ones she goes up on inside when its bath time. She also likes the sandbox, though its not as much as the stairs. She uses chalk pretty well. She also rides the big wheel an her little car. Of course we can't forget the picking up of super tiny things she finds like, pieces of driveway, or some bark mulch, little rocks. But she so kindly hands them to me and says "Thank you". A few times I catch her sampling bark mulch. Though I'm thinking its not a food that gets better with age, like cheese;) She'll figure it out one day.

Don't you just want to eat those cheeks!

Only 1yr old and riding a Harley already! She's happy she was able to get to it in time and snag it before her brother noticed she got it.

Her hair is getting pretty long now and needs to put to the side so its not in her eyes all time. I can't wait to be able to put it up in cute pig tails!

She's sporting some super cute jammys here.

Lily is a happy, silly and great baby girl to be around. She'll make you smile and laugh and even if your having a bad day.

I love you Lily!

Rowen's first swim lesson!

Rowen had his first swimming lesson on Saturday. He was so excited all day that it was finally his turn. He had SO much fun! In his class they allow to be in the class for the first couple but recommend you to let them do it with just the instructors. If your child is really having a hard time they will just let you stay with them since you want them to be comfortable.

I am a nervous parent when comes to things like this, so I was in there with him but he did everything himself or with the instructor when it was time. He hasn't been in an actual pool like this on his own so I was near him for the first few minutes but then stayed off to the side and let him be.

This is before class

They did all sorts of fun things with them. Here they are crawling like alligators.

Part of the class was in the deep pool for them to learn to jump in and float assisted. He jumped in just fine the first time but realized that it was much deeper than the first pool. He was a little scared to go back in so I went in and he saw that it was OK, so he decided he would come in with me then after a few minutes he let the instructors take him again and he had fun as you see.

They were playing red light, green light here to learn to kick fast, slow and when to stop.

He was lucky because his class got to play in the fountains and on the water slide. Corbin's class is too young to.

He was so happy he got to go down the slide! When we walked in and he saw it he kept asking to on. I'm so glad it was part of the class. I was surprised at how well he did all by himself. I told the instructor to catch him because he had never been on one before but he didn't need it.

They also did a ring toss where each kid was given a color and then the instructor would throw them for the kids to grab them. They would make it a little deeper each time. When it got to his neck while bending to get it he was a bit scared but did well.

There are 2 other boys in the class his age and 2 instructors so I think that works out well for him. He gets to socialize and have a ton of fun! And learn water safety of course.

Corbin's first swim lesson!

Corbin had his first swim lesson last night. He had a blast! I wasn't sure about how he was going to do. He loves baths, but essentially being in a big bath with lots of other people, I was wondering about that. This was after we had checked in and was getting ready to swim!

We started out the class in the water with the play structure you see behind him, with the teacher dumping two baskets of balls in for the kids to throw back in the basket. Then we went over to a bigger pool that was no less than 3ft 5in and no deeper than 4ft 2in. Of course me being short I some how ended up being in the deeper part. The class was us holding them the whole time while singing songs and moving them to swim on their backs, belly's, and side. And having them pop out of the water during certain parts of the song, like- the people on the bus go up and down; for the wheels on the bus. We also did a lesson for them to learn when its ok to go into the water. I would stand him on the outside of the pool and do some counting, then clap and say ok, then he would jump into my arms.

He wanted to test out the water before hand and decided to start walking in, at which point when he got to his shins he fell as he discovered it was getting deeper and was a bit scared. But after a few reassuring words and distracting him, he was fine when it came to swim, thankfully.

After class he was all pumped up. He had so much fun and was surprised himself I think at how much fun he had. He is excited for his next class.

Rowen's first class is on Saturday. He was very unhappy that it wasn't his turn. But he knows that in a few days he gets to go and Corbin doesn't. We had originally decided that we were definitely going to have Rowen take swimming lessons, but realized that Corbin needed to do an activity too and get out of the house and know that there are other people in the world.

Brandon and I will be switching off taking them so they get to have some one on one time with us both. They are taking the lessons at the health club that recently opened up down the road. Its the same place I go to for yoga.

Grandma & Grandpa come for a visit!!!

We had a very nice visit from Grandma and Grandpa (Brandon's parents). We haven't seen Grandpa for over 2 years so it was nice for him to come see the kids again, and meet Lily for the first time. Needless to say Lily wasn't too sure about him for the first couple days but slowly warmed up. By the last day she would touch his hand but sill wasn't thrilled about him holding her. She is a total Ma-ma's girl and doesn't really like anyone else holding her for that matter. Though she did let Grandma hold her and would do her bum-backing up thing to sit on her lap and was very content with her. She isn't a big fan of other men I guess I should say.

Corbin needed some time to warm up as well. He isn't a big people person (like his dad), at least not yet. Rowen had no problems, not surprisingly. He probably remembers them a bit more. We do video chats which helps I'm sure. And Rowen loves to chat anyone's ear off.

Lily isn't too pleased that I'm taking a picture with her boobies exposed, ha ha.

Grandma and Grandpa brought some toys for the kids. Lily got a new book.

The boys (and Lily) got some new play veggies and trucks.

And of course the boys are still into puzzles. They had fun showing them how good they are at them.

We took a trip into the the city to go to the Science and Industry Museum. We were thinking the aquarium but discovered there were train and farm exhibits, so we had to go there.

Walking into Museum

Lily walking around the farm exhibit.

Just a tiny (and I mean tiny) section of the model train exhibit.

Rowen learning about combustion

Corbin learning about combustion

Boys sitting in a tractor

Sitting in a harvester

I'm sure Grandma has some more, if not better pictures, so once I get them I will post some of those as well.

Brandon and I were lucky to have them offer to watch the kids so we could have a kid-free night! We stayed at a nice hotel in the city and were sure to get a room with a 2 person jacuzzi. We hung out in that most of the night and morning. We stopped for lunch on the way in at the Cheesecake Factory and I found my new favorite drink...a Tropical Martini, Deeelish.

We hope that it isn't another year before seeing Grandma and 2 years before seeing Grandpa again. It is nice for the kids to spend time with them but it is also hard since we live so far away. So where are the teleporters already???

Eblesk... What?

I made the kids a special breakfast this morning of Ebleskivers. They are a Danish filled pancake. They are SOOO yummy! I have been wanting an Ebleskiver pan for a couple years and finally broke down and bought one. They aren't super expensive, I got mine from Amazon for $25 and free shipping. I just kept procrastinating.

They are simple to make, its basically a regular pancake batter but you fold in some stiff egg whites and don't want the batter lumpy. Then you put some sort of yummy filling inside like chocolate, jam, fresh fruit, or a nice cooked apple mixture...mmmm. Today they had organic strawberry jam and wild organic mini blueberries with a tiny sprinkle of confectioners sugar on top.