Exercising it up!

So I was asked to teach the aerobics class at church last month and we are starting our fourth week. It has been quite an experience for me and the kids. Andrew is developing a mommy complex and will no longer play in the nursery with the other kids, he wants to see mommy. So the kids have now moved into the gym with us. They bring their ride on toys and ride them around between all the girls who are working out. It was so cute the other day though, we were doing our squats and Andrew stood beside me and started bending his knees and jumping around! It was so cute!
I wish I could say that I have the body like Denise Austin, but it is slow going for me. I will be 32 next month and I guess it is true what they say about getting back into shape after 30. I am working hard to be healthy and it gives me more energy to play with my kids, that is what really matters, right?

Our housewarming Party and Andrew's First Birthday!

We had a great party to celebrate Andrew's birthday at our new home on the 19th. It was more stress and work than I would like to do again, but still good times. Our family all came from Chicago and celebrated with us. They kinda came in waves, some early some a little later and some came for dinner! We were so thrilled that they made the long drive to our little home in Davenport and I will forever be grateful to them, it made my day. The other great thing was the blow up jumper that we rented. It was a chunk of change, and it was more for Ethan than Andrew, but because Ethan's birthday is in January, he will never get his own. So he jumped from 7:30 that morning until 6 at night and loved it! We had our neighbors come and celebrate with us and Andrew got some great toys and clothes. Of course Ethan had to test all his new toys to make sure they were cool enough for his little brother! It was a great time and something I will never forget, we even found a shirt that said "birthday boy" on it for Andrew to wear, until he ate his cake of course!

At 11 months Andrew has learned to walk! What a great day, now he can start chasing after his big brother!

The cuteness of Ethan

I just had to share with you the funniest and cutest things from the life of my 3 year old! Ethan has been doing and saying the darndest things. He is so smart, like his Daddy, and he puts things together so easily.

RED LIGHT

. We were at Kohl's the other day shopping for some new clothes for Daddy. Daddy was in the dressing room and the rest of us were sitting on the floor outside the entrance when Ethan runs up to a guy getting ready to go in and says "Stop light!" and throws out his hands like a traffic cop! The poor guy was totally surprised and didn't know what to do, he looked so confused! Ethan put his hands down and said "Green light!" and the guy just kind of dazidly walked into the dressing rooms. As if that wasn't funny enough, when the guy finished trying on his clothes he came out and stood in the doorway and said "What color is the light, now?" with a big smile on his face. Ethan just turned red and said "Green light!". What a cutie!

JIGGIDY JIG.

I always grew up with my mom saying "home again, home again..." Then when Dan and I got married his mom told me the rest of the rhyme one day and we started saying it at home. " To market, to market to buy a fat pig, home again, home again jiggidy jig" The other day we were pulling into the parking lot when we hear from the back "Home again, giggidy gig." I looked at Dan and we burst out laughing! Ethan thought that was his cue to laugh too and we were all pretty entertained by that one.

PEE PEE IN THE GRASS

. So we went on a walk with the neighbors the other day. I had told Ethan to go to the bathroom before we left, but you know how easily toddlers get distracted. So when we got to the park he was swinging and sliding and running around... so not long after we got there he started dancing. You know the one that little boys do. So came our first lesson in potty emergencies because this was not a public park with restrooms. So we found a tree and hid from the other people and let him go potty. But I told him we only do that when there isn't any other way and only if Mommy is says its okay. Yesterday, he was outside playing and I heard him yell, "I need to go potty in the grass..." I, of course yelled out the door and told him to come in and go potty. Two seconds later, he hadn't come in so I walked out to the porch and what did I see? A bear butt , pants down to his knees, little boy peeing in the grass. Now if we had a private home and a fence it would be one thing, but our apartment is on the first floor and our back porch looks out on the courtyard and about 20 other apartments back porches as well! I sure hope no one was outside for that show!

JESUS IS MY TEACHER

. I have saved the best for last! I was giving Andrew a bath one evening and Ethan came running in with a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet . He said " Look Mommy, it's Jesus! Jesus is coming to our house today!" (I thought, this is a great teaching opportunity...we shall see who gets taught in this one.) So I said how Jesus wasn't actually coming but that we could think about Jesus everyday. He looked pleased with himself and then he said "Yes and Jesus is my teacher at church, too." I said "Really? What does Jesus teach you?" "How to be a good boy!" Oh, yeah, that one brought tears to my eyes! What a great kid!

There are so many cute things that these kids do! I am so happy to be their mom and to see them grow. Andrew just got his first tooth and is a little fussy, but I am so glad that it is finally here and he can start feeling better. The first is always the hardest I think.

I have so much more to tell you all, but I want to wait for the pictures to go with it! We bought a house! I will give you more details in June when we close, but right now it is a huge stress! Here is a picture of the outside! It is in Davenport Iowa and we love it! We also got it for a great price so that makes me very happy! More to come!

How do you get a baby to sleep better?

Andrew is almost 6 months old now and is becoming mobile! He sits on his own, can roll all over the place, though he prefers to just lay on his back and scream at the world, and he does sitting toe touches. He is quite flexible. But he still doesn't sleep very well at night. Kids his age usually sleep 8 or 9 hours straight through, but we are still fighting to get him on a schedule. If he isn't sick, then his first tooth, which has yet to show itself, is hurting or he has a runny nose. It is always something and Mommy and Daddy are wearing very thin these days. Ethan had noticed and demands one on one attention a lot more now. He is constantly calling for me to come and help him do the littlest things. He has made great improvements with his speech and is saying is "F" sound very well. His speech therapist has been using Easter eggs to hide pictures of a fox, face, foil, and foot. So each week he gets to hunt the eggs and practice his "F" sounds. So watch out cousins he has had a lot of practice hunting eggs this year. We even got out our eggs and we hide them in his room just for fun. Ethan has become an artist and has learned to color/paint in the lines. One day during speech he asked his teacher to color his dolphins and he watched so carefully how she didn't go outside the lines. It was the cutest thing how intent he was in his watching. Then he came home and asked for a coloring book and crayons. Off he went coloring pictures for Grandma because she was going to the hospital this week. With every finished picture he had to fold it up and put it in an envelope to send to Grandma. He has one favorite picture that he has been carrying around the house all week that he wants to give her when he sees her next weekend. It has traces of fruit loops on it and popcorn and who knows what else since it has gone everywhere! Watch out Grandma Hannah! We haven't been home since Christmas break, so we are looking forward to seeing our family again.

Here is my cute baby Andrew! He is almost 5 months old now and is doing great. We have been just hanging out at home everyday with Ethan for a while. I haven't been back to Chicago since Christmas and we are enjoying getting everyone back into a routine. Andrew is sleeping much better at night and so are Daddy and I. Ethan is potty trained and is such a big boy now. He is starting Speech Therapy again on Friday and we are very excited about it. It's more like preschool for an hour twice a week rather than therapy really. Mommy is working with the doctors to get things figured out with her feet that have been in pain since Andrew was born. They don't really have any answers, just to stay off of them and don't do any weight bearing exercise...right that should be easy! With 2 little boys there is no time to put your feet up, but no one could ask for better boys! Dan is getting close to finding out where our next rotation will be, but we think it will be back to Quad Cities. We will be happy to get into a new state where hopefully Dan's allergies will clear up. Something in Wisconsin has given him allergies for the first time in his life, weird , huh? All is good here, and we are grateful for such rich blessings!

My growing boys

Now that Christmas and Ethan's birthday are over, it is time to survive the bitter winter here in Madison, Wisconsin. Yesterday it was 20 below and no one was going to work or school. We on the other had got our gas bill and decided to turn the heat down and do some weatherproofing! We took the boys out to the Aldi to get some essentials and Dan told Ethan that it was so cold that his nose could freeze and fall off. Well, poor Ethan believed him and ran into the store holding his nose! 3 year olds will believe anything! Too cute! Ethan is finally getting potty trained and even though it is a slow process I think he is getting it. Yesterday he went all day by himself and I didn't even ask him to go. I just came into the room and he was pointing to the potty chair. Sure enough he had gone without being told! I was very proud, I almost cried! We took him to Chuck E Cheese's last Saturday to celebrate how good he was doing!