Merry Christmas!

I am looking forward to a long weekend with family. The kids are very excited to open their gifts. Merry Christmas everyone!

Ethan is 7!

Over the weekend Ethan had a birthday party with two of his friends, Alex & Gabe. Jarred took them swimming at the YMCA. They came back to our house to play and had pizza and cupcakes. Grandpa & Grandma Poppe came to visit Ethan yesterday for his birthday and gave him a lego semi set, he worked on it all night long and finished it pretty much by himself. He was pretty proud of himself. Tonight we are going out for pizza with Jarred's family. It has been a fun couple of days.

I still can't believe you are 7, Ethan! Mom, Dad, and Carson love you lots!!!!!!! Happy Birthday!

Halloween/Birthday!

Just cathing up and adding a few more pictures from Carson's birthday and Halloween! Only a month behind. :) Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Bowling at the Wow Zone on Carson's birthday.

Eating supper with friends, Aubrey and Jack.

Tractor cake!

The dragon.

The skeleton.

Ethan's pumpkin that he carved in school.

Carson turns 3!

Our little guy turned 3 on Saturday! Carson had special birthday pancakces with candles and whipcream for breakfast on Saturday morning. His birthday present from us was a new "Toy Story" bike...he would have rode that bike around all day if he could have. At one point when he was riding he said "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!". :) Later on Saturday Jarred and I took Carson and Ethan bowling at the WOW Zone. Auntie Andrea came with us too! It was a fun night. On Sunday we had our family/friends birthday party. Carson got all kinds of nice presents, he doesn't even know what to play with first. He also had a tractor cake! Carson, you are growing up so fast...we love you!


(more pictures to come!)

Fall Fun

Carson, Grandma Renee and I got to take a trip to the Minnesota Zoo a few weeks ago. Carson had the most fun checking out the new penguin exhibit and he loved the farm animals. Anytime he talks about the zoo, the first thing he brings up are the cows and pigs! We had a lot of fun that day.

We met Margo & Owen out at Center Creek Orchard over the weekend. It was nice to get together and the kids had fun. We also went out there again later in the day with Grandpa & Grandma. The bouncy houses and super slide are definitely their favorites!
The boys have also been enjoying riding in the tractor and combine with dad and Grandpa John. In a few weeks we will be celebrating Carson's 3rd birthday...hard to believe he is already going to be 3.

Fall is almost here!

It's my favorite time of the year. FALL! :) Ethan has started soccer. They play on a bigger field this year with goalies. It's a little more running than those kids are used to and you can tell they get tired out a lot quicker. Ethan doesn't seem to be as into soccer as he has been in the past few years, so I am not sure how much longer he will want to do it. Next fall he will be old enough to be in a flag football league, that might be something that will interest him more. So far 1st grade is going really good! He also lost one of his top front teeth.
A few weeks ago we brought a few baby hamsters home. Carson named them Buzz & Woody. Carson just loves watching them, almost every morning when he wakes up he asks us to bring them out. So far they haven't escaped and the cat doesn't really seem to care about them, which is a good thing. We have been trying to work on potty training with Carson. It's hit or miss! I know one of these days soon it will just click with him. He is so close! I am sure he will really love me for this someday, but I can't resist posting this picture of him in his cute little underwear. He was so proud....and then 5 minutes later he peed in them. Oh well. :)

Ethan is on the blue team this year.

Carson wanted to be in a picture with his big brother on his first day of school!

1st Grader!!

Ethan started 1st grade today, hard to believe! He looked so grown up this morning. I knew he was excited to start school because lastnight he came in from outside, took his shower and went to bed with no arguing! Usually we have a little resistance because he is busy playing outside with his friends. :) I am excited to see what kind of homework he will be bringing home to work on. We met his teacher and she seems really nice. I think he will have a great year!

Martin County Fair

I took the boys to the Martin County Fair over the weekend, they had a great time! They both love rides and enjoyed checking out the animals. We went out there with Grandma Renee and met up with April! April was nice enough to go on a few rides with the boys too. :)

Vacation

We took a little trip up north last weekend with the kids to stay at Jarred's aunt and uncles place. It was a good time! The kids had fun swimming, fishing & tubing. Carson even had a tube ride! He loved it, he's a brave little guy. Ethan is quite the fisherman, he was pretty proud of all of the fish that he caught. Being at the lake was nice and relaxing, I am glad we got to take some time off of work to go on a vacation with the kids.

Big Boy Bed

Carson is now in his big boy bed! We went and bought "Buzz Woody" bedding. He was pretty excited. After we first put the bedding on he sat in his bed and played his fishing game. Shortly after that, he tore all of the bedding off and stashed it under his bed. :) Sleeping has been kind of interesting. A few mornings he comes down to our bedroom around 4 or 5 ready to watch TV and he usually wakes up a few times during the night. So hopefully after some adjusting he will be just fine. He is growing up to fast!

Sunshine

A few weekends ago it finally got warm enough for Carson to swim in his new pool. It was too cold when we first put the water in, but later in the day when it got warm he loved it. He loves pools and being in the water! Hoping to take him to one of the waterparks sometime this summer. The kids also got to go to the carnival in Janesville, they are both really into rides. Good thing Jarred likes rides, because I don't! But I did go on the ferris wheel with Carson, I can handle that! :) Ethan can go on the bigger rides now, although he still likes to ride the little kiddie rides too. This last weekend the kids went to Grandpa and Grandma Poppe's. They kept busy catching teeny tiny toads, they were the cutest little things! I wish I would have taken a picture of them. Ethan let them all go in our backyard, he's hoping a few will stay around. :)

Kindergarten Graduate!

Ethan graduated from Kindergarten lastnight! The school put on a very nice little ceremony for them. The kids sang songs for us and they had a slideshow. His teacher made the neatest little photo book for each of the kids, it is something we will keep forever and pull out at high school graduation...in 2023!! Yikes! Afterwards all of the grandparents came over for cake and ice cream.

More pictures to come!!

Happy Spring!

We have a tree in front of our house that is so pretty in the spring, it gets white flowers on it. I had the kids take a picture under it. I think I will try and do this every year, it will be fun to look back and see how they have changed.

A robin decided to make it's nest right at the kids level in the branches. Ethan loves it and checks on it everyday. When Carson first saw the blue eggs he thought there was candy in there! I hope they hatch so that the kids can see the baby birds!

We have been doing a lot of riding bikes & scooters, playing ball, going to the park & playing with friends. It's hard to get the kids inside at night. Since Ethan still has school he has to be in bed before 8:30, and he just doesn't understand why he has to go to bed when it's light out! I keep telling him he will be done with school soon enough. Kindergarten graduation is on June 1st, this year flew by!

Easter

Easter was a beautiful day! When the kids woke up in the morning they collected their eggs that the Easter Bunny hid around the house and found their baskets. Once Carson realized there were jelly beans in his eggs, he was shoving them in his mouth as fast as he could! It was cute. Ethan had to sing in church that morning, he did a great job. Grandpa Brian and Grandma Renee came with us to church and we had brunch at our house afterwards. After we ate the kids played outside and we enjoyed the weather. Later in the day Grandma Sheila, Grandpa Ron and Andrea came over for dinner. More good food...and more playing outside with all of the new toys they got for Easter. It was a great day with family.


Dressed up for church

This was my attempt at making a bunny cake. :) It turned out pretty cute for my first time ever putting one together. The kids liked it!