Another kindness tree reward

We finally finished phase 3 of our kindness tree. We decided at the beginning of December to put Christmas lights on the tree. Then the excitement of the tree waned and we had a hard time remembering to do it, so it took us a long time to finish it. But we finally did and we all decided to go to McDonald's for breakfast. The boys thought it was super cool and fun to play at McD's in the morning!

That is Collin climbing up the tube. He would make it to the top but instead of crawling around up there he would come back down. Impressive! The other two didn't climb up there until they were much older than Collin is. But they didn't have fun brothers to follow either!

We had a fun time and I'm trying to get motivated to do another chart soon. I really enjoy acknowledging the kind acts in the house and the charts help us remember to do that.

Ready for summer

Collin found this blow up baby floater thing in my room and he loves it. He carries it around with him and calls it his boat. He's so cute!!

Then he found these goggles and loves wearing them. He is all ready for the pool!

A first

While I was downstairs cooking and eating dinner on our play kitchen with Grant, Collin was upstairs in my room doing this:

This is the first time any of our boys have written on our walls. We're not surprised Collin was the first one to do this. Stinker.

He was remorseful and when I told him he needed to go to time-out, he said "kay" and went to his room. I'm thinking that Miles will need to go to time-out too since he was the one that left the pencil out!

Luckily it was pencil and not marker. Luckily Scotty found him and told him to stop before he did too much damage. And luckily all 3 boys thought it was great fun to help clean the walls.

Weekend project

We have wanted to put in closet organizers for a long time. We put one in one of the bedroom closets when we were getting ready for Collin's arrival and it has been great. But our closet and Scotty's closet need something done. The builders put in one shelf across the top and the clothes rod and that is it. We also wanted to get a desk for Scotty so that he can move all of his "invention" stuff off of the kitchen counter. So we loaded up the kids and hit Ikea. We took a leap of faith that we could fit everything in the van with the kids in there too...

...and it fit! Miles is also a master packer. I'm always amazed at his packing skills!

Our van is awesome!

We got it all home and started moving stuff around and building.

We had great helpers, of course.

Unfortunately, some of the things didn't quite fit, so we have to try again with some different stuff. In the meantime our bedrooms are disaster areas with all the stuff in our closets piled in the room. But it will be so nice when it's done. Hopefully we'll have before and after pictures soon!

Surprising doctor visit

No, it wasn't the ob! We decided to take Grant and Collin to see an allergist. Collin has had issues with dairy since he was born and throws up if he has more than just a little. Grant has had chronic stuffiness for years and we thought it might be from dairy. Our own experiments of taking him off dairy has helped his stuffiness immensely. But I wanted to know for sure and also to get some guidance and advice to handle the allergies. So we took them in and they did a prick test to test for food allergies. Grant hated the prick test and screamed through the whole thing while also trying to get up so we had to hold him down. Collin sat on my lap during his and would turn to try to look occasionally, but didn't cry at all. After the time was up we were so surprised to see that Collin had no reactions at all and Grant had one- to egg. We couldn't believe it! The doctor said that people can have intolerances to dairy but not an allergy and that is obviously what is going on with Collin and probably Grant. We just have to experiment with how much dairy they can have without having issues. And as far as Grant's egg allergy- we had absolutely no idea egg was a possibility because he's never had any reactions to it (that we were aware of). He said that since that is the case Grant is most likely growing out of the allergy and we should continue giving him eggs like normal.

We're surprised but relieved. Now we'll just have to try different things with the dairy to see what their limits are. Collin has been on soy milk since he was one and we'll just keep him on that until he turns two and then see if he can handle skim milk. Grant hates Collin's soy milk, so I'm not sure what we'll do for him!

We sure love these two little dairy sensitive wild boys!

Muffin Tin Monday Tuesday

I didn't have it together to do MTM yesterday, so I did it today. My nephew Logan was here today and he enjoyed a fun lunch with us. The theme this week was muffin cups and liners only. I had bought some Wilton silicone cups to use with Scotty's lunches, so we had lunch in square cups today.

The boys had peas, apples and a star PB&J sandwich.

When Scotty first came to the table he was upset because it wasn't very much food. I explained that it was the same amount of food I would have given them on a plate and after he pictured it in his head on a plate he agreed! The boys also crumpled up the cups with peas in them and experimented with shaking them and seeing if the peas would stay in. They did not.

Be sure to stop by Muffin Tin Mom to see lots of other fun muffin tin meals.

Snow fun

We had a couple good snow storms in December and the boys had a lot of fun going outside to play in the snow.

Collin was so excited to go out that he put Scotty's boot on all by himself!

He wasn't too thrilled with getting bundled up, but he loved it once he got outside.

Daddy is lucky to have such a good helper.

Scotty built a very impressive dam.

Then they decided to build a snow fort.

Scotty's friend from a few houses down came over to help with the fort.

Snow angels.

Happy Birthday Miles!

Today is Miles' birthday! I'm sure that he's going to have a fabulous day! I, again, must tell all of you how wonderful Miles is. He is such an awesome husband. Better than I ever imagined I would have. He is fun, kind, very unselfish and very patient and forgiving with me! He's an awesome Dad and our boys love him so much. Everyone who meets Miles likes him.

I love you Gorgeous! I hope that you have a great birthday!!

Here are some pictures of him from the past year!

It's about time!

For Christmas the boys gave me a new alarm clock. I've had my old one since I was 12. It's been a great alarm clock and I really liked the height. But the knob to turn the radio and alarm on and off, set the alarm time and the clock time broke so I never knew if the alarm was really set and slept in a couple times because it wasn't. So I finally told Miles that I needed a new one. And I don't think the pre-teen look of my old one fits anymore! I mean, pre-teen days weren't that long ago, but still. :-)

Scotty helped me get my new one set up and told me that he picked it out all by himself, so now I love my new just as much as my old one. Good bye old friend. It's been a great ride!