All Boy:)

Ryan took home a tractor from work yesterday so that he could bring it to his dad, who had bought it from Hope. The minute he saw it he tried to stand on anything that would get him up high enough to look out the window at it! After some failed attempts at standing on the ball popper, I got him the stool from the bathroom to stand on. I think he stood there staring at the tractor/mower for like 30 minutes:)

B-Ball!

At this point in his life Will is obsessed with sports balls! Any sport that requires a ball to play, he absolutely is captivated by:) This will hopefully make Uncle Josh's (aka "Football") senior season playing football FUN! Anyway, Ryan and I were browsing the toys at Meijer getting some ideas for Will's b-day ( I know we are way ahead of the game, but when you get a night with no kids you need to take advantage of things like the toy aisle). We found a b-ball hoop by Little Tikes and it was like $35, which we felt was a little high. So the next day I got on Craigslist and found one in Coopersville for $7!!!!! My in-laws live in Lamont, so they gladly went and picked it up for us and they actually ended up just giving it to the kids for a late Valentine's gift! Will has been playing with it a ton and even Kailyn has a lot of fun trying to get the ball to go through the hoop!

Taking turns! Good job guys:)
Kailyn is cheering for herself after making a shot!

Counting

Earlier this week Kailyn started to count to ten in spanish out of the blue! Ryan and I just looked at each other with our jaws dropped! The only thing I can say is that Dora has definitely taught Kailyn some spanish:)

Finally...

Last night Will finally figured out how to climb out of his crib:( I feel like I jinxed myself because yesterday I told Daysha that he hadn't done it yet! Anyway, I was letting him cry it out last night because I am sick of getting up in the middle of the night (for those of you who know me well, you know I require a lot of sleep). So, I was standing out in the hall just waiting for him to calm down before I went back to bed. As I was listening his crying got louder and closer to the door and finally I heard the doorknob and there stood my little man! I could hardly believe it:) It was hard to be mad, but now I don't want him to hurt himself when he gets out, so I have been looking for cheap toddler beds today. No luck yet!

Muscles:)

Will is into copying what everyone else does. It never ceases to amaze us the stuff we catch him doing because he saw one of us do it:) Tonight we had to blow-up a second pair of swimmies so that each child had their own. Will is trying to help by watching Ryan and doing what he does! So cute!

A little while later Will came upstairs wearing both pairs of swimmies:) Ryan told him he looked like he had big muscles and he said "yeah."

Camping Out!

Today while the kids took a nap, I set up the basement like a camping trip and the beach (since in my kids' experience those two go together). It took me an hour and a half to remove some items from the playroom and move others to make room and to accommodate for the painting that needs to be done in the near future before we get new carpet:) Anyway, my mom brought over the tent so that I could accomplish this fun dramatic play experience! The kids have been in the basement all afternoon and night and I don't think that Will has taken off his swimmies or his sun hat:)Kailyn and I dug out the rocks for the campfire from the snow this morning!

Both of them put their sun hats on right away and Kailyn wanted the life jacket and the swimmies on! I guess she didn't realize there really wasn't water in the pool:)

We have this fishing pole that is supposed to be a bath toy but leaves the paint on the tub, so I thought the kids might have fun "fishing." Kailyn is singing "I will make you fisher's of men!"

Will enjoyed playing in the pool with some of his toys that he hasn't seen in a while!

Before we went upstairs to have dinner, both the kids were roasting marshmallows (cotton balls) over the fire! Yum!

Amazed..

Kailyn and Will were looking at Ryan's turf and lawn magazines last night after dinner. We were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa Kole to come so that Ryan and I could go out on a date:) They were absolutely amazed and drawn into all the pictures in the magazines. As you can tell by Kailyn's expression she can hardly believe her eyes! Anyway, at one point Kailyn looked at Will and said, "William, how sweet is this?" Ryan and I exchanged the "look" and I went to write it down somewhere before I forgot!

Storytime with Grandpa

Ryan's parents came to church with us on Sunday to hear Ryan play. He has been a long time since they have heard him, so they decided to make a morning of it. They came back to the house with me and mom played with the kids while we waited for Ryan to play for the second service. The kids loved the attention from grandma (but I think she loved it even more)! We were able to eat lunch by around 12:30 (which is pretty late for us) and before they left, grandma handed grandpa a book and told him that she told the kids he would read a story to them before they went:) So he took both kids to the chair and read them "If you take a mouse to school." This book is Will's current favorite because there is a page that has a soccer and basketball on it:) Thanks for spending quality time with us grandma and grandpa!

Boots?

Ryan took Kailyn with him on Saturday morning to run a few errands. Will, however, was in the breezeway while they were getting ready to go (never a good idea). Anyway, sister had her boots on so we weren't about to fight Will about putting his on. He wore them the whole time Ryan and Kailyn were gone, while we vacuumed and played. His piggies had to be super toasty with his footed pj's and boots, but he didn't seem to care!

Haircut!

On Friday night I cut the boys' hair with our new clippers! Will went first and we let him try to sit by himself. He did great for the first three minutes and then I had to fight for the rest of it - but he looks so handsome:)

Preview:)

We got Kailyn's flower girl dress for Uncle Chad and Aunt Libby's wedding today. She didn't even notice it hanging in the kitchen when she got up, but once she saw it she wanted to put it on immediately:) I told her she needed to wait because Daddy would want to see her in it. She was really patient, even after Ryan got home. She would not stand still for the picture, she kept posing and I never even combed her hair today, but here' s a preview at least of the beautiful flower girl she is going to be:)
P.S. She didn't want me to take it off!

Dust Away!

Will and Kailyn love to help me when I dust the living room. Kailyn always has to have "spray" like my furniture polish, so she gets the Renuzit spray from the back of the toilet and makes a "Phssst" sound like my bottle makes. Will even copied her, making the sound when he had the bottle:) Thanks for all your help, mommy loves it when we do it together!!!!

A few of Will's favorite things!

One of Will's favorite things to do is read books. He will bring one after the other to me and anyone else who might read to him:) When I can't find him in the living room or downstairs in the playroom, he is usually in Kailyn's room getting into the books. He loves to dump the books into a pile on the floor (I put the bookshelf in Kailyn's closet thinking "out of sight, out of mind," but that as thus far failed to work) and then he'll either read them on the floor in her closet or take one and climb up in Kailyn's bed and read! The very first time he did this I thought I was going to cry - it kept him occupied for almost 45 minutes! Everyday the kids play in her room and most of the time they are reading books:)

Under the Weather!

Kailyn was able to attend a preschool enrichment class today at Rose Park! The theme was weather and they talked through all four seasons with books, dramatic play, poems, and activities. She came home with so many crafts! When we dropped her off she got to put her stuff in a locker with her name on it and was given a name tag. She got to choose a center to start with, there were raindrops, clouds, and rainbows - she chose to make the rainbow first. When Will and I left the room to hang her stuff in the locker, he started to cry and scream and tried to get out of the stroller. He remained this upset about leaving his sister, all the way to the car, the 4 minute ride home and in the breezeway until I took him to rock with his cup for naptime! However, Kailyn had a great time and we were even able to go grocery shopping just the two of us afterwards. Thanks daddy for coming home and taking care of Will:)

Kailyn was so exhausted, that while I fixed dinner I found her asleep on the couch! I think it was a good experience and it helped her to get a feel for what preschool will be like next year:)

Three-cornered Hat

For President's Day, I read the kids a couple of books about Abe Lincoln and George Washington. We also made this silly-looking three-cornered hats like Washington. The kids had fun sticking stars and making cherries on their hats before I stapled them together. I'm not sure they really understood what I was talking about, but we always have fun making a craft!

The Prince & Me

Kailyn's favorite thing to do is dress-up! She got a trunk of fairy dress-up stuff for her birthday and she wears her old halloween costume when she wants to be a princess. As you can see she puts it all on, the necklace, wings, ring, dress, headband and you can't see her feet, but she's wearing her cinderella light-up heels:) After I took this picture, Will kept saying "cheese" so I took a picture of him too, even though he wasn't dressed up. That usually doesn't matter to Kailyn, though she tries to put bath towels around his shoulders so that he can be her "majesty." She also calls him her "prince charming!" Someday I'm sure Will will need some boy dress-up stuff:)

Grandpa's Boy:)

For those of you who may not know, William is named after both of his grandpa's. William after Ryan's dad and Douglas after my dad. While it took Will a while to grow out of his shyness and mommy's boy stage, he loves his grandpa and I was able to capture just a glimpse of that here in this picture! (He may look more like a Douglas than a William:)

Happy Birthday!

Last night we were able to spend a wonderful night with family celebrating Michael's 5th and Brook's 3rd birthdays. They were born 2 years and 6 days apart, so my sister always combines their birthdays for family parties! The party was held at my mom's because Kristi and Todd were dog-sitting and Kailyn is (for some reason) petrified of dogs. We had a huge pizza (enough to feed 4 kids and 9 adults, including my "little" brother), some yummy cheese salsa dip and chips and some finger jello. Everything tasted so good! It is nights like these that I wish I could stop time and just stay and have them never end. The kids were playing good, both great-grandmas were present and I LOVED the company of my family:) My parents also surprised us by purchasing (at a church auction) a weekend at a cottage for the entire family! I am so excited I can hardly wait until May!!! Anyway, we had a great time and I thank the Lord for times like these that are full of love and laughter:) Happy birthday Michael and Brook!

Brook and Michael opening their gifts from us! Michael loved his football mittens and Brook couldn't wait to wear her sleeping beauty undies:)

William is sitting on Michael's new monster truck while he checks out his other gifts!Brook got these headbands and both the girls wanted to wear them. I love the smile Brook!
Uncle Josh ramming with the boys on the floor. We love you "football":)

Painted!

Sunday morning at 7 am Kailyn asked me to paint her "toenails". I told her I would paint her fingernails if she wanted, so she quickly went with me to pick out a color and decided on a pretty mauve pink. I think the reason she asked was because we were going to be seeing her cousin Brook who usually has her nails painted! Kailyn also commented that her aunt Kristi would love them:)

Valentines and Food:)

We have had a lot of heart-themed fun this month! So to celebrate Valentine's day we baked special cupcakes with sprinkles that were hearts. We also had heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast this morning:) The kids have had a ton of fun helping and getting to eat the special food!
We are planning a low-key Valentine's day with a family date night and running some errands.

Our special Valentine's cupcakes with red specks in the batter and fun frosting with sprinkles!My little chef:)
Our fun heart pancakes!

Sneaky

This is how I found William in the kitchen! He had found the empty clothes hamper, dragged it into the kitchen and turned it upside down. He usually doesn't stand on it, but I guess the refrigerator had him intrigued! So now Will knows how to get water and ice out of the fridge.

Our "little" man

We had Will's 18 month check-up today! He is 25 pounds- 10 ounces and 33 1/4 inches tall (which is taller than Kailyn was at her 18 month appointment!). We were anxious for this appointment because we got to find out whether or not we needed to continue the nebulizer breathing treatments or not. At this point we need to continue:( The Dr. wants to see Will back in May and then we will evaluate again. Fortunately, today he only had to get one vaccination and he was a trooper!

Will playing with the car toy in the waiting area! We only had to wait like 4 minutes before we got called in, so he didn't get to play with it very long.When they weighed him they played Elmo so that he would sit still long enough to get an accurate measurement!
I literally have to change and move everything around in the room when the nurse leaves because my little monkey climbs on everything:)

Kailyn was such a big girl. She just sat and read books and when the dr. came in she sat on my lap and watched the doctor do Will's physical.

Yummy!

Last night I made stromboli for the first time in probably 3 years. I don't know why I haven't made it in so long, but it was a hit with my little pizza lovers:) I am sure it will not be another 3 years before I make it again!

Sit long, talk much.....

You know how when old friends get together, it's like no time has passed at all since you have seen them last? That's exactly how it is with my friend and old teaching buddy, Kristina. Our oldest girls are only 6 weeks apart and the younger two (which were both surprises) are a little over 2 months apart. We were able to have a playdate today, because everyone was finally healthy (except Will who continues to have a runny nose!). Anyway, we were able to play in the basement and talk. We also made valentine's cookies and for lunch we made their PB&J's little hearts:) The kids all ate really well, I guess that's a sign that we played hard. After a little over an hour downstairs the kids were ready to do something different, so we gave them paper, crayons, heart stampers, and stickers and that kept them busy for another 20 minutes while we got lunch together:)

The bouncy balls were a hit for the last few minutes and now I think Kristina is going to have to get one for Erika's birthday - she loved it!

Spring Fever:)

Kailyn got a new bike helmet because Will needs the old one! She loves the butterflies:)

Will loves to put on his bike helmet, but only when he wants to ride the big boy bike!
Kailyn sporting her sunglasses because "the sun is too bright for my eyes."

We have had a severe case of spring fever at our house this past weekend and the beginning of this week. The kids have thoroughly enjoyed riding their bikes on the driveway and swinging! We know that there will probably be more snow, but thank you Lord for this glimpse into the future season to come!

Hunting for Jeans!

We ventured to the mall yesterday in search of some jeans for Kailyn that really fit her good. All of her current jeans are 3T, but they are none to long and have a lot of extra fabric in the front. So we tried on jeans at Children's Place, Old Navy, Kohl's and JCPenney and found a couple of pair at Penney's in a 4 slim (they are pretty long, but fit her waist perfect)! I can't believe that she is in big girl sizes, but she is so tall and slender that it makes sense. She was, needless to say, sick of trying on jeans after the first store, but was a trooper! Will was all into the food and snacks that Mommy packed and it helped to keep him content, as well as his little plastic dino that you see in the picture (which we lost along the way)!After we finally found jeans we went to grab some grub at Olga's, my favorite. We ran into Kristin, Kyle and Megan having lunch there already (even though my sister Kristi thought that 11:20 was way too early to eat lunch). We had a great time disciplining our children and as you can see from the picture, they were full of it. My sister even had an extra child that she was babysitting, but we decided even though he wasn't part of the family, he was ,by far, the best child there:) This was also the first time that we've seen Aunt Kristi and the kids since Kailyn's birthday party and their trip to Florida, so we had a lot to catch up on!