4K Info Night

4 year old kindergarten…already? How did we get here so quickly??!!

It’s hard to think about next fall, with it being just the end of January but we attended a 4K information night at the boys’ daycare center last night. The 4K program is set up through our public school system and is held at numerous sites throughout the city – including our daycare center! That is so convenient because the boys will be in an environment that they already are comfortable in and we don’t have to worry about transportation to/from school.

They will go to 4K four days a week for 3 hours each day. This is to help prepare them for kindergarten the following year, although the curriculum in their current daycare class is doing a great of job this already!

Cory and I have talked a lot about this and have decided to split them up for the 4K program. Our center runs 2 sessions in the morning & 1 session in the afternoon, so we will put them both in the morning session with separate teachers. They will just be apart for 3 hours each day – which I think will be beneficial for both of them. Before and after 4K class, they will be together for breakfast, lunch & the afternoon in their regular daycare class.

There is a big debate in the world of parents of multiples on whether it is better to keep them together in the same class or to separate them at school. Some school districts even have general rules as to how they place multiples in classrooms. I have not done any research that far in advance yet to see if there is anything already in place in our school system, but we made this decision solely on giving our boys their “own” time for 3 hours each day and seeing how they learn/grown as individuals in that environment.

Now, onto filling out all that paperwork…x 2!!

Happy New Year!

Our New Year’s consisted of a night of yummy Mexican food & hanging out with a group of our bestest friends!

It was a fun night for kiddos & adults a-like. The boys had a blast. It’s fun to see all the kids playing together (which we were fortunate to do a couple times over the Christmas break), as I really hope they grow up being a group of good friends.

Hosting mama “A” had noise-makers & bling galore that the kids could not get enough of. We also did a “count-up” (because it’s too hard to get a group of kids 4 and under to count from 10-to-1 we counted up from 1-to-10 instead!) around 9 PM – complete with sparkling grape juice. Not surprising to me, my boys still have not gotten a taste for bubbly/carbonated beverages…not that I’m complaining though!

We headed home shortly after so the boys could get to bed – it was a late night for them. I’m not embarrassed to say that Cory & I did not make it up until midnight this year...

Thank you “S” family for hosting a great New Year’s celebration!

Our godson "J"!

Opening & checking out all the "bling"!

Failed attempt at a selfie!

Me & my boys!
(having someone else take the picture
didn't really turn out any better...Wyatt!!)

Friend "P" in the fireman dress-up
costume we gave "J" for Christmas.

Me & "J"-man

One of our littlest friends "E"
(Just wait until he can keep up with the "big" boys!)

Our other littlest friend "R"
(This little girl is a lover...cutie pie!!)

Wyatt & mommy

Colton & mommy

Happy New Year!

The 9 o'clock count-up!

Cheers!

3 year pictures

I was much more on-time on actually getting the boys 3 years pictures taken than I have been on getting them ordered & posted!

We had the boys 3 year pictures taken back in August. It was a beautiful, warm day (which sounds so wonderful right now during cold winter we’re in the middle of). We went down to a local park. The boys took a while to warm up to the photographers, even though they’ve been taking our pictures since the boys were 3 months old, so there was a lot of work on mommy & daddy’s part to get them to cooperate. Especially Colton, who sat on some steps with his head in his hands for a good amount of time, refusing to look up. I wasn’t even going for any posed pictures here…we were just trying to get them to play around in the park. Yikes.

Like always, our photographer amazes me & still gets some great shots out of what I think is a doomed session.

Here’s some of my favorites!

First picture taken = perfect!

Not cooperating...

Wyatt warmed up fast!

Colton, coming around...

Cute family pic.

Fishermen!

Wyatt

Colton

Another great family shot.
(We have a picture of Cory, Bailey & I in this
very same spot pre-kids that I just love too!)

Are we done yet??
LOVE this one!

Christmas Night

Christmas night had been planned to get together with my immediate family at my parents’ house. With Colton down & out for the day, Wyatt & I headed over, just the two of us, after he woke up from his nap. We were lucky to have everyone else be able to make it – both my sisters & their families.

We decided to do gifts before food and all three little boys had a blast tearing through their pile of presents. We saved Colton’s to take home to him later. He & Cory even called about them a couple times – seems that even though he wasn’t feeling good he was still worried about us getting him his presents back home for him as soon as possible.

We had a yummy dinner of honey ham (baked by me & cut by my hubby on Christmas Eve – first time ever & it was a success!), chicken noodle soup & more! My mom had even made a birthday cake (a request by my two boys!) for Jesus – chocolate cake with chocolate frosting…delicious!

We cut our evening a little short & took plenty of to-go boxes of food to share with the boys who had to stay at home. I wanted to enjoy a little family time at home before bed.

When we got home, Colton was excited to see what Wyatt had got and to open his own presents. A doctor’s kit, Jake movie, play money, police dress-up uniform, Match car ramp and a couple games were the favorites. Colton was in better spirits than he had been earlier in the day but ended up getting sick one more time before bed.

Both boys went down for bed without a peep while Cory & I crashed on the couch after a long day.

I figured it might be a long night ahead of us but that was the end of Colton getting sick – we all had a long, peaceful night’s sleep…which was much needed!

Despite a few hiccups, we had a great & blessed Christmas.

Passing out presents...

Wyatt, excited about his candy cane.
(cousin "I" in the background checking out Wyatt's gifts)

Wyatt pretending to sleep on mommy's new blanket.

Our Christmas crew!
(missing Daddy & Colton!)

Christmas Morning

Did Santa come? That was the first question the boys asked on Christmas morning. We were lucky to have them sleep in a bit, even though they were excited.

Santa did come & he was very good to the boys this year. They dug through their stockings, opened presents from Santa, mom & dad and each other (something new we did this year). Some of the popular items were Jake & the Pirate stuff, new LeapPad Ultras (might be a bit above their level yet), dinosaurs, books, PJs and a new train table. The train table was set up by dad & mom downstairs on Christmas Eve during naps & was a total surprise to the boys when we took them down there to see it.

Opening presents...

It's Bucky & the Jolly Roger!!

Train table surprise!

The morning went great with a yummy breakfast together and bunch more play time. We had Cory’s extended family Christmas gathering for lunch so we slowly got ready around noon.

This is when our day was headed for a big change – we just didn’t know it yet.

About halfway into our 20+ minute drive to Christmas, Colton mentioned that his tummy hurt and it wasn’t one minute later that we were pulling over on the side of the road because he had gotten sick. My poor little guy – no warning at all. We cleaned everything up as best we could & headed home. When we got home, I got Colton changed and laid down in his bed – poor thing feel asleep within minutes of lying down. Cory got Wyatt some lunch and then got him to lay down for nap in the playroom (to keep him separated from Colton). We weren’t prepared to be at home at all that day – so it was pizza for lunch along with a Redbox movie for Cory & I.

Bummer. This is the second Christmas Colton has been sick and has had to miss out on some festivities but I can’t complain at all because he got to enjoy all of Christmas Eve & Christmas morning. I also count my blessings because he only got sick one more time that night, before bed, and was the only one in the house affected by whatever he had – everyone else stayed healthy. That is a blessing in itself.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was quite at our house, which was nice. We shifted nap time a bit earlier to make it to the family Christmas Eve service at our church at 3 PM. I love going to that service because it’s geared towards the kids – no long sermon just a book reading up front for all the kids to hear (bonus: they also get sent home with a copy of the Christmas book that is read).

After church, we headed over to Cory’s brother’s house, for our first Christmas gathering with Cory’s immediate family. Both his mom & dad were there along with his brother, his brother’s girlfriend and our niece “H”. They decided to play it easy this year and have little snacks beforehand & pizza for our main meal.

The boys got a ton of presents. They were patient enough to watch grandpa open up his gifts first, followed immediately by them. They were really good about asking who each gift was from before opening it and thought that each present they opened was the best gift ever. They ended up playing with their new remote control cars (which I think will be even more fun this summer outside!) and leaf blowers right away. Such a fun age.

Present time!

Wyatt testing out his new car.

Colton ready to blow some leaves.

Teasing cousin "H".

When bedtime crept around we headed home with a couple to-dos on our list. The boys had made “reindeer food” at daycare (oatmeal with green glitter), which we needed to put outside to help Santa & his reindeer find our house. Each boy sprinkled his bag of “food” out in the freshly fallen snow outside of our garage.

Sprinkling the "reindeer food" on the snow.

Bailey sure was curious!

We set out some notes that the boys (mostly Colton) had made for Santa. We also set out milk and a blueberry cookie (Wyatt’s choice) and a rice crispy bar (Colton’s choice) before heading to bed for the night.

Our notes to Santa.

We were all excited for Santa’s visit!

Gingerbread houses & reindeer!

The week of Christmas the boys only had to go to daycare on Monday and then they were off until after the New Year (as was mommy & daddy)!

The boys made super cute milk carton gingerbread houses and reindeer antlers at school that day. They could barely wait to show Daddy their gingerbread houses before tearing them down (and by “tearing them down”, I really mean eating them!).

They were also good sports and tried on their reindeer antlers for me in front of the Christmas tree. I got some good video of them singing a couple of their favorite Christmas songs, but it is a “real life” video with a good old fight & meltdown right in the middle…keeping it real!

Colton & his creation!

Close-up of Colton's house.

Wyatt & his creation.

Close-up of Wyatt's house.

My two cute reindeer!

Haircuts

On our way home from the children’s museum, we swung into a local Sports Clips to have the boys get a quick trim before the Christmas holiday (their hair wasn’t all that long but was looking a bit long in the ears & neck area). Normally my sister cuts their hair, but I knew with it being so close to Christmas & such a busy time that we wouldn’t get to see her before. This was the boys’ first haircut at a barber shop. They did great & the results were great too.

Wyatt

Colton

New Fun at the Children’s Museum

We have a yearly membership to our local children’s museum. We use it plenty during the cold, winter months but also try to use it during the summer when it’s rainy or too hot outside. It’s one of the best Christmas presents we get & it lasts all year long – thank you Papa & Grandma!

The children’s museum just finished up a huge fundraiser & remodeling project and opened up a brand new 2nd floor this fall. Even though we’ve made a couple of visits to the museum this fall, we hadn’t been there since the 2nd floor was opened up. With the bitter cold temps, we met my sister & nephews down at the children’s museum the Saturday before Christmas to check out the new exhibits.

They now have a camping, fishing and barn/farm area. The boys loved it! The museum wasn’t busy at all either, which was nice. We spent most of our time there discovering the new exhibits. The funniest part of the day was how all 4 boys kept pretending the yellow Jeep was a school bus and were making trips back & forth to school, taking turns driving!

Colton's turn to drive the "school bus" Jeep.

Wyatt's the driver now!

Wyatt sleeping in the tent.

Colton driving the tractor & Wyatt supervising.

Wyatt "building" with foam blocks.