March!? How is it March!?

We are loving March Madness! Boys can't get enough basketball. Last night the boys finally completed their brackets. They picked purely on the name or the mascot! Finnean has ISU winning it all and Hutchinson picked Wichita State because of the name SHOCKERS! "I yike the Shockers!"

Finnnean said he would cook us dinner last night, so we had PB and Js. The boys proceeded to eat at the counter. It was so darn sweet. Check out Hutchinson's little leg - such a cool guy!

DATE NIGHT! On Friday, Michael and I headed to Woodbine for their annual meeting. Michael did a little work and then we got to enjoy the ISU victory at a fun little brewery! I love checking out the towns that he works with. Always nice to see what they actually look like!

I have no idea how I got so darn lucky! Look at these two sweet boys! So thankful that I am "boymom!"

Yougurt and George. Life is good.

I love that it is getting warmer and we can spend a little time outside. It is still pretty chilly but we are getting there!

Oh my. Hutchinson's hair just kills me. We love it long, so we are just going to rock the hippy kid look for a while! He loves when I flip him upside down and between the ridiculous giggles, he says AGAIN! AGAIN!

SPRING BREAK! We have spent most of our time relaxing and spending time with friends. We made sure that we took time make some homemade pancakes! Love that this boys love to help in the kitchen!

This kid. Oh my, he is getting so old. He is getting better at regulating his emotions but still throws one heck of a fit. Usually it is over him not wanting to go to the bathroom. WHY IS THAT SO HARD?! For real. Maybe I should just let him pee his pants! :) He is still rocking it at preschool and seems to be loved by his little friends. He works hard to be a good friend and is smart as a whip. He loves spending time playing Legos, building forts and trying to get his brother to play with him. He has almost stopped naps completely, maybe twice a month he falls asleep. He loves to watch Wild Kratts on tv and soaks up all the random information that they tell about animals. He talks and talks and talks. All the time. It is trying on some days but I love listening to watch he has to say and how much he is really thinking all the time. He loves to make up things that he could build for me to make my job easier. I think he is going to be some sort of engineer. He is into trains right now, or really anything that goes. He is sounding out words and seems to be able to read some words around him. We ask him how he knows that and he just says, because that is what it says! It is so fun to watch him grow up. He is getting older and acting older. He still loves to snuggle his momma and loves everything about his dad. He thinks his little bro is pretty cool too! 

Friday night usually lend themselves to family dates. The SCI is open late on the second Friday and it was a perfect outing! Love this moment of the boys playing so well together at the train table.

Shelby and I have a lot of fun together! We love exploring our city...as you can see :)

Ahhh, scary dinos!

This was one of our rare but beautiful, sunny days! We just left the park, I think his smile says how much he is excited about spring!

PEEK-A-BOO!

Just striking a pose after a fun play date with Lucas and Claire!

Superhero identity crisis.

Oh my goodness. These boys just crack me up. They have so many similarities, I just love it. This is a classic Michael and Finnean face!

Hutchinson loves to library. He loves to read and falls asleep every night reading books. This kid is growing up. He is funny and using his words. He blows us away with the sentences that he comes up with. He often asks a question and then says, "that right?" Like am I right? It is SO cute! My absolute favorite thing he says or more so what he doesn't say...the letter L. It's yibrary not library. It's yike instead of like. It's yemon instead of lemon. It just melts my heart. I yike it, Mom! He loves building Legos and really loves tagging along with his big brother. He is not quite sure how to be the big kid at play dates and is learning how to do that. He is so sweet to Finnean and often is the first to share a toy with him. He doesn't eat for 2 days and then eats for one and then not again for two days. It drives me crazy. He is still a tiny little peanut but his tiny little voice fits him perfectly. I can't get enough of his little voice. His imagination is coming to life. He loves to YELL! He can be so darn loud. He is a momma's boy but loves to play with dad. He can't get enough of little Jerry dog!

This boy is obsessed with HyVee and then they have these little carts. He asks me all the time if we need to "go HyVee?" He was checking out all the Easter candy here :)

Being a worker guy is serious business.

ICE CREAM!

This was a Friday lunch date. Just love spending time together as a family. I can't believe how much they look alike!

I have been told that Hutchinson looks like me...I think I agree with that!

Sweet cheeks!

This was a social media campaign to support other mommas. We are just trying to do the best we can. Love more. Judge Less. Such an amazing (and sometimes hard) way to live!

Some mornings after we drop Fi-Fi off at school, we come home and snuggle. Just because we can :)

Finnean designed and made his own lunch. Peanut butter pizza sauce. Bananas for the cheese and strawberries for the pepperonis! Love how his little brain works!

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I told you that Hutchinson loves to read :)

Cooking dinner with Dad.

Mary and I got to do a painting class at Pinot's Palette! Check it out for fun night in DSM! We laughed, we sang and we had SO MUCH FUN!

That is a lot of cuteness around our table!

These boys. We were so glad to have the Kruse kids over for a play date. The boys went straight for the superhero gear.

Fire!!!

These boys love them some pancakes and pancakes cooked by fire fighters are even better!  They even put chocolate chips in them! It was fun to take Grandma Lisa to our fire station and show her around!

Our friend, Carson or Car-Car as Hutchinson calls him, had his 2nd birthday and it was fire truck themed!  It was SO cool because the fire truck came TO THE PARTY!  WHAT!? It was crazy and so cool.  They even had a little bounce house.  The party was PERFECT!  I absolutely love the bottom picture here!

The other event we went to at the fire house was their Annual Open House.  The boys got to play games and explore the fire house.  Finnean even got to put out "fire" with a real fire hose!  It was pretty cool and little boys don't get much cuter than they do with fire hats on! 

  

Finnean is FIVE!

Being a mom is so weird.  You are never prepared for the emotions that come along with it.  I am happy and so thankful for our sweet Finnean, so thankful for all he brings to our house.  On the other hand, my heart is sad, I don't want him to be so old.  His hands seems bigger, the way he says things is older, he face, look at it...he looks older.  Sweet boy.  He is just an amazing kid.  Obviously, I am a bit biased but I can't get enough of his fun, loving, kind heart.  He tells jokes (that don't really make sense), he laughs from the tips of his toes, his eyes twinkle.  I swear they do!  They are still an indescribable color.  His hair is usually messy.  He hates washing his hands.  He is smart as a whip.  He loves school and church school.  His little brother thinks he is the coolest thing, ever.  He is the pickiest eater ever but still loves PB and Js.  He is quick to make a friend and from what he teacher says, is a super sweet friend.  He loves to draw and write, make maps and put on puppet shows.  His imagination is over the top.  He loves his brother but sometimes it is hard having a brother :) He told me he wants one more baby (not happening, buddy!).  He gets excited when his family is coming to see him.  He loves old buildings, just like his Dad.  Speaking of his Dad, he is head over heels for Michael.  I love watching them interact.  They love building Legos, watching This Old House or doing "work" together.  The cutest is when they fall asleep on the couch together during "rest" time.  He is challenging to me.  He makes me a better person, he makes me work hard to be patient but for the most part we see eye to eye.  We are a lot a like, which can make it interesting, to say the least!  He loves going on adventures but also loves just having a "mom day" at home.  He likes to help around the house and still loves Curious George.  He loves to read and hates going to bed.  He just doesn't want to sleep, he says.  He is fast, the boy can run and his form is killer.  I am hoping that will take him to "Ames" someday-that is where he wants to go to college BUT he says he is going to play football there :/ He loves the Cyclones and the Packers (most days-sometimes he tries to razz me and says he likes the Vikings, no way, Aunt Vicki, it isn't happening).  Did I mention he loves to read and look at magazines, he just examines things.  His attention to detail is over the top.  Except with his clothes, he often has to be reminded to put his shirt on the right way, it is always on backwards in the morning.  He is excited to be five.  He is excited for Kindergarten.  He is just a happy little boy.  I love that I get to do life with him everyday.  So thankful for the day we had together, the weekend really.  I will post more on that soon (HOPEFULLY!).  For now, enjoy the pictures from Finnean's actual birthday day, it was a great one!

This is Finnean's last picture as four year old!!!

We put balloons with messages and pictures outside Finnean's door in the middle of the night, so he could have a surprise when he woke up.  When he came upstairs this morning he said something along the lines of...Did you know there are balloons outside my door? I got up in the middle of the night and they kinda scared me, so I went back to bed, thought they were balloons and then got up again.  They weren't scary, I just didn't know what they were!  HE CRACKS ME UP.  So rational (sometimes)! He brought all 15 upstairs and read them all.  The boys had a blast kicking them around this morning before school. 

We batted around tons of ideas for a party for Finnean's birthday but couldn't come up with a good plan.  He wanted to have about 15 kids to OUR HOUSE-no way that was happening.  So we decided on lunch with a friend.  He picked Camden.  A little gal in his class that he has been friends with since last year.  They have the sweetest little friendship and they were SO CUTE!  They just giggled and giggled most of the time we were at lunch.  He picked Buffalo Wild Wings and we had a great lunch!  Can I just say again how stinking cute these two are!?

Camden brought Finnean a little gift.  He thought that was pretty neat.  It was this remote control monster truck that he declared was THE BEST TOY EVER!  I think he would still be playing with it if he wasn't sleeping!  

I asked Finnean what he wanted for Birthday Dinner and he said pancakes and eggs and bacon.  That is easy enough, so that's what we had.  He requested peanut butter and syrup on the cakes and I added the chocolate chip 5, he thought they were pretty darn good!  My friend Shelby captioned this picture perfectly, "he looks so happy, like he just had the best day!"  He really did.  It was such a fun day.  I can't get enough of that smile and today it was on his face all day! 

He worked on his thank you notes today too.  Oh my, he just blows me away.  I wrote out THANK YOU on a separate sheet of paper, so he knew how to spell it but he did the rest.  I just said, write Grandma and Poppa a thank you and he did this.  He got "Dusty" from Planes.  Love his art work :)

Finnean's teacher just sent me these from today.  She said that he had a lot of fun.  He looks kind of terrified here!  He requested chocolate chip cookies, so that is what I made.  I thought for sure he would want chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting but that was not the case!

He is just something else! 


I always love to look back on pictures on their birthdays.  Here is the post from Finnean's first few days in this beautiful world.  Oh my.  He was so tiny.  It seems so blurry but so real and clear-like it was yesterday.  Again, motherhood has the craziest emotions!






 

Wagler Weekend at the Lake!

In September we headed to Lake Okoboji to hang with the Kelcee's family.  It was SO much fun!  Her parents are so good to the boys and the boys just love going.  We spent our time relaxing and enjoying some good food.  We hunted for frogs and we even caught one, thanks to Matt and Molly.  The boys loved watching our little frog friend.  We are not sure how he got out of his bucket, a bird snatched him?  He jumped to his death?  We were just glad that Finnean didn't ask to many questions and didn't mind he was gone! We adventured to Arnold's Park but it was closed for the season, so we toured the maritime museum.  It was full of really cool boats and history-all of my boys enjoyed themselves.  The adults hit up the tap room of the local brew house, West O Beer.  We laughed and laughed as we played life sized Jenga and a few games of FARKEL!  The boys hung with Mark and Molly-everyone had a blast!  We lost power that evening for a few hours, so that made for some excitement.  The boys enjoyed playing by candlelit and watching for the worker guys to come down the road.  :)  We are already looking forward to next year's Wagler Weekend at the lake!

I am so thankful that we get to do life with the Murphy's.  Not sure how we got so lucky to have such amazing friends!

Frog hunting and watching!

Finnean said his favorite part was when we left and he got to hang out with Mark and Molly! :)

When the kids are away, the adults will play!

 

Soaking them up...

This little boy just kills me.  I love everything about him but especially his messy hair and his grumpy faces.

You can't forget his dreamy eyes and cute little toothy smile.

Both boys are infatuated with Bare Root.  They love to help and usually want to help a little to much! :)  The weather has been A-MA-ZING here and we" needed" to be outside and I needed to work, so I just moved my office right outside!  It was great, even with my little helpers tiny hands helping me.

We went to the fire station for their open house on Wednesday night.  Hutchinson kept saying "fireman truck" and we would ask if he wanted to go see it and he would shake his head yes.  When we got up to the trucks he didn't want to go close to it.  Finally, we found one that had it's light on and he walked right up to it and all he said was "whoa."  He was mesmerized!

I could hardly believe my eyes when he laid down like this.  He just makes my heart burst with love and happiness.  He looks so dreamy here.  I had a flash forward (is that a thing?) of him laying in the grass with his college sweetheart, working on homework on the campus of his choice.  Can' t you just see him...probably won't be doing any studying but looking all googley eyed his date!

So Hutchinson is into screaming before he falls asleep at naptime.  Thankfully the time that he does it has decreased but on this particular day he just did NOT want to give it up.  He cried and cried and then finally fell asleep like this!

I just love this shot.  No one in my family would get up on the log to stand on it to get this picture.  I had to really talk Finnean into it but I am so glad he did it!  I just can't get enough of him or those Iowa sunsets. 

Sooooo...if you run into the trash can with the back of the car, your tail light will get busted up.  Note to self.
#drivingfail

On Tuesday night we headed down to the Blanchard's for a little bit of crazy fun!  The boys had fun running and playing and man is it crazy with 5 boys under five!