Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas 2009

So far the holidays are going very well. The boys had their Christmas concert on Thursday night 12/17. It was interesting to see that Tim behaved much like Matt did last year (more interested in everything around him than singing) and Matt paid a lot more attention and sang. Both Grandma's were there and the boys put on a nice concert. Saturday I celebrated my birthday by watching all the TV I wanted! Then my boys took me out to dinner at my favorite resturaunt. It was an awesome day!

The boys have already been sledding and love playing on the snow pile in our court. Hopefully that will get a little bigger the next couple of days. Today is their last day of school until 1/4/10.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Last year at this time I was scared to take the boys to the park. If they decided they didn't want to come home, I was stuck. I certainly couldn't chase them through the tunnels (even if I didn't have Lola with me - which I usually did). Fortunately Brian and I got the whole "discipline" thing down. The boys would go for weeks without goint to the park because they didn't listen to me. Now - I say "It's time to go" and all they say is "One more thing?" I say yes and then we leave. I also don't have little girls coming up to me saying "Matt pushed Me!" The boys are so well behaved!

We finally went on our first vacation. We have family that goes up to a lake in Minnisota every year and we decided to join them this year. What a nice week. By the end the boys understood how to handle a fishing pole. Matt spent hours hanging off the end of the pier scooping up fish with the fishing net! I got to kick back and read a book.

Right now Brian's laying the foundation for our backyard pool. We learned a few things last year and will hopefully get a "level" pool this year. This summer we're keeping the boys busy during the mornings but we'll have afternoons open for fun stuff. Monday and Wednesday evenings Matt's doing baseball and on Wednesday nights (after Matt) Tim has soccer. The boys are learning to ride a bike and we got them a scooter.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Settling in as a Homemaker

Life has really changed for us. I'm cooking daily and even baking sometimes (from scratch). The boys are loving school and I enjoy seeing them grow. Matt's doing wonderful with his english and is even writing words. He knows the letters and their sounds and spells by sounding out the word. For Valentine's day he wanted to give a card to our neighbor, Jean. He spelled it "JEN".

Tim has almost given up his Russian. He still uses a word or two every so often, but he's learning. He's even been writing his name. He's counting to 14 without help. He knows most of his letters. Our biggest problem is getting him to TRY things. He prefers to just say "I can't do it" because that's the easiest way to get things done. We keep encouraging him to try. We tell him it's OK if he can't do something but he needs to try first. Sometimes he surprises himself.

Christmas was SO much fun this year. The boys were amazing! Christmas morning Matt woke us up and told us we HAD to go downstairs and see if Santa had come. He was so excited when he saw all the gifts. He sorted them into piles (his, Tim's, Mom & Pop). Then the boys took turns opening. After each gift they would pick up the paper and put it in the garbage.