House for Sale

Our home is for sale!!! We would love to move to the country so we thought we would try to sell our home on our own. It is a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home with a full basement. All the rooms have been repainted except for the main bathroom. The beautiful staircase leads to the newly carpeted big bedrooms. The back yard includes a newly roofed garage, shed, and fire pit with big mature trees. It is a older home with lots of charm. If you know anyone interested have them give us a call or e-mail us.

Just Play'n

We have been getting some great weather so we have been able to spend some much needed time outside. Gavin is getting really good at riding his bike. In time we will be ready to take off the training wheels yet but for now he likes to practice. As always, Gavin and Griffin are into racing their "dirt bikes". One taking off on two big wheelers pedaling while the other pushes his 4 small wheel "dirt bike" around the beautiful chalked up race track made especially by Gavin.

Guess who won? I bet you can't predict it either.

After racing for a while they rested on the teeter totter where they get to push and pull each other. We are so thankful for their swing set because they get so much use out of it. They play on it every chance they are outside either on the swings, slide, or climbing. It receives a lot of attention.

We are also big fans of basketball, T-ball, playing catch with Murphy, and anything else they can dream of.... Just look below.

Yes you see this right, they are playing with the sled. I have tried to convince them that it isn't winter anymore and there is no snow to sled on but they apparently know something I don't. It is hilarious to watch them laugh and find the most interesting things to do with it....

Gavin is pulling Griffin with his "4 wheeler". You are looking at two amazing, creative minds.

Gavin's Hearing

Yesterday I had Gavin retested for his hearing. When he was at the Preschool screening, the health department came in and tested his eyes and hearing. He passed his eyes and his left ear test but not the right ear hearing test. So they asked me to come back in two to three weeks to have it retested in case he had a cold or something. To the health department we went to get it retested. The lady tested both ears again and he passed the left ear test but not the right ear. I was told to call his doctor's office to find out the next step so I did. We will have to wait to see what step is next. The guess is he has fluid behind his ear but soon enough we will know.

Happy 6th Anniversary, Kerry

Six years ago yesterday, Kerry and I were married!! Man time flies when you are having fun... Although we were both sick with bad bad colds, we celebrated by going to one of Clinton Sunset Inn's theme rooms and dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I could eat their dinner rolls with their amazing butter for every meal. We picked the Cave room which had a sauna, hot tub, and steam shower which was really cool. It was nice to be without the boys for a night but I did miss them. They had a great time at Mama Dolphin and Papa Steeler's. It was hard to leave the boys but I'm so glad that we got away together for the night... I highly recommend it to all couples.

Kerry-I love you more as the days goes by. Thank you for being you and always there for us!!! I thank God for you everday. Here's to many, many, many more years......

Amazing Mother Story

This is an amazing birth/mother story I thought was worth sharing with EVERYONE.

http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html

Hopefully you fall in love with them as much as I did!!

P.S. I don't know this woman, they are from Florida, but I would love to meet her and her family. Such a powerful message....

T-Ball

Last night we signed Gavin up for T-Ball at the Boys and Girl's Club of Prairie Central. He will start sometime in May. We don't know his teammates or who he plays for just yet but we will be sure to let you all know. Gavin is so excited!!

Bubbles

For the last couple of days, the boys have had colds, so when we went to Wal-Mart, we picked up some vapor soothing bath to help clear out the colds. I just put a little in the bath since I didn't want to knock them out by it. There was a very strong smell of Vick's in the bathroom. The bathtub had the regular amount of bubbles but then I started the jets. Wow! Did it ever fill up the bathtub quick?

As you can tell the boys thought it was hilarious....

They started cleaning so you know that you were starting to feel better. LOL!!! Bubbles are so fun.

Spring Fever

I had a half day today, the boys and I played outside the ENTIRE day. I think they drug out every possible toy we had in the shed. With an addition to playing with all the toys possible, they also wore out the swing set. They both love to swing, climb, and go down the slide. Griffin is a little leary about going down the slide without a hand but in no time he will be doing on his own.

They practiced their basketball skills a lot of the afternoon too. Griffin got really good at making baskets. Next time all three of us will have to play P-I-G.

Gavin did a little dance after every basket he made. This would be a picture of part of it. He sang too. It is a must see event....

He shoots and SCORES!! Gavin's got the Michael Jordan tongue hanging out look going on.

We also played baseball. He is getting better the more times he plays. Griffin just likes to wack the tee.

Griffin discovered the go-kart from when Gavin was his age. Last year Griffin couldn't quite figured out how to keep the button down in order to keep it moving but THIS YEAR he can do that and steer. Man, what a year makes.

Here is Gavin practicing his baseball skills...

We are so ready for spring to come and stay!!! We love to be outside. Hopefully they can enjoy a couple of days this week outside after work before it snows this weekend (or so the weatherman says it is suppose to snow). Come on spring!!!

Legos

The boys love to play with Legos. A couple of Fridays ago this is what they built with a little help.

Can you image it is a barn with animals in it? They fed them and gave them something to drink.

They played with this for about an hour together and thought it was the coolest thing. There was no fighting the entire time either. Gavin was the head farmer and Griffin was the helping hand.

Screening

Both Gavin and Griffin's screenings were today. Gavin was screened for Pre-School and Griffin was screened to find out if he is on target according to his age. The boys both passed with flying colors!! They both have above average fine and gross motor skills. Griffin just needs to work on stuff like, "What flies in the air?" and be able to point to a picture of of a bird. So I plan on working with him on that. Gavin's screening was a little different than Griffin's. Griffin's was one on one where Gavin interacted with other children his age for at least 45 minutes. The teachers walked around, asked questions, and played with all the children. Gavin was thrilled and really loved it. There are twenty slots to fill for the Pre-School program so the children with the most needs will fill the slots first and then the other children fill in the rest of the slots. Since Gavin passed all areas, he is not an automatic in which is really great but he really wants to go to schoool. So we will find out in May if he gets into the program. I was a very proud Mommy of my boys today!!

Our Awesome Woodstock Trip

The boys and I took off on Saturday afternoon to visit my cousin, Stephanie, and her two boys, Connor and Collin. The trip took a little bit longer to get there than I thought. Gavin seemed to have to go to the bathroom several times but we made it up there after a three hours just fine. Once we got there as you can imagine, the boys were ready to get out of the van and play. It was so nice out that they got a good hour or so outside before we took off again to Pump It Up. Talk about a place that releases a ton of extra energy for kids and gives their parents a great work out. This place has several inflatables in two rooms, you stay in one room for 45 minutes and then move to the next room for the last 45 minutes. I think Bloomington/Normal needs a place like this. My boys had a blast and it was so much fun for me as well. Griffin was a little unsure of it at first but once he realized what to do and you could bounce off everything he was fine.

This is the biggest inflatable they had where they bounce around the bottom and then there was a huge blossom in the middle where you jump off of it to the lower level but you just kept bouncing off of everything.

Griffin at the lower level. We couldn't stop laughing...

Griffin running around the bottom.

Gavin loved to be on the middle thing because he just simples loves to jump off of stuff.

Then they discovered the boxing inflatable. They put on ALL of the huge gear with the gloves and all which Gavin couldn't hold up for one he wasn't big enough and for two he couldn't stop laughing. As you can see in the picture below...

Connor and Gavin just went all out. It was hilarious. They would barely hit each other and couldn't hold their balance and fall down, they barely could get up again from laughing so hard.

Too Funny! Of course, Griffin had to take his turn. Gavin always had a helper with Griffin around. They would both one arm-it hitting on Connor and then turn on each other. I'm pretty sure we need one of these at home.

Once Gavin and Connor were done, Griffin wanted to play with Mommy. How could I resist? Look at us...

The gear fit me a lot better than the boys', imagine that. In the first room there was also an obstacle course. Gavin loved it and at the end there was this huge, fast slide. Griffin had a little difficulty with some parts of it but with my help we got'r done!!! It was exhausting at times though, Griffin isn't light by any means especially after jumping. Great work out for Mommy though.

We moved to the second room after a while. Griffin really enjoyed playing basketball.

And Gavin loved this slide. It too was awesome.

Gavin going in for the dunk.

He made it! Several times the ball went out of the inflatable but Gavin was all too excited to go get it. Griffin decided to take a break for a short while. He was getting tired.

After this amazing place, we headed to eat. The boys were exhausted and hungry. It was a good combination. We filled their bellies and then took them to bed shortly after. I thought for sure Gavin would fall asleep during the ride home especially since he didn't have a nap but he talked most of the way home. I know you are surprised, NOT!!! Oh how I love my boys and that they have their own bits of Me and Kerry in them.

After a little girl time, I found them fast asleep for the night. By the way, do you see Griffin's baby under his arm? He sleeps with it now and he or her name is "Baby". The next day our plan was to stay around the house and play inside and out. Gavin got ready by himself and we discovered Connor had the same shirt so they were twins for part of the day.

This is a picture of all of the boys. Left to right Collin (18 mo), Connor (4 yrs), Gavin (4 yrs), and Griffin (2 yrs)


We played outside for a little while before we started to get rained on so we headed in to paint. This would be the first time my boys have really painted on paper (I know I'm a bad mom, I should have sooner) and they loved it. We couldn't bring their pictures home because they were just way too wet. Next we ate lunch and then we headed home. Of course the boys didn't want to leave and we would have liked to stay longer but we had to go. It was an absolute blast and I love spending time with Steph and her boys. We are thrilled for the next time.

Dress Up

Kerry and Uncle Matt Matt are going to be so upset that I even thought to post this, let alone actually post it but oh well, they will get over it. On Sunday we went over to Papa Steeler and Mama Dolphin's house to eat supper. After an awesome supper, I went looking for some dresses to borrow and the boys decided that they would try them first. It was hilarious. Oh course we called Uncle Matt Matt up to see because we knew that he would be so proud. LOL Both the boys even tried on the HIGH HEELS that went with the dress. See look on Griffin's feet.... AW so pretty.

Gavin added his own accessories of red beads.

When it was my turn to try on the dress, they wanted me to take it off so they could try it on again. I guess they thought the dress looked better on them than me. See Kerry and Matt Matt they had so much fun!! Look ALL SMILES.... I love their GINORMOUS smiles in both pictures.