Snow Days

We've had a record number of snow days this year. Today I drove all the way to work on a sheet of ice only to receive a call that school was cancelled just as I was pulling into the parking lot. Although it's been a lot of fun being home more with the boys, I am starting to run out of ideas to do with them when it's cold and snowy outside.  Jordan loves playing outside in the snow, but I am not a cold weather person.  Aiden isn't either which can make it really challenging to play outside.  So I try my hardest to find indoor things for them to do. 

 

Today the boys had fun painting on the easel that Aiden received for Christmas.  Yes, Jordan is just in his underwear.  For some reason that we can't figure out, Jordan hates to wear clothes.  I have decided not to fight that battle and just tell him that he has to wear underwear and can always put more clothes on if he is cold.  But he never puts more clothes on unless people come over.  It makes for some crazy pictures, but oh well.  Hopefully the phase will pass quickly.



 

 Jordan loves posing for the camera!  Here he is beginning his painting.

 Aiden spent most of his time taking off the caps of the do a dots and putting the caps back on.  He did manage to get a little paint on his paper, but not much.

 Here are my boys hard at work.  This is pretty much the extent of the art projects in our house as the boys have not been blessed with a very artistic mommy!

 Here's Jordan with his masterpiece! 

 

 Another thing I sometimes do with the boys when I am out of ideas is give them a baby wipe.  It's amazing how much they love cleaning their toys!  This can keep them busy for a long time.

 All day long Aiden repeats, "Daddy home?" Then I reply and say that Daddy will be home at suppertime.  Then Aiden says, "Kay."  We repeat this little dialogue probably about 20-30 times a day.  On snowy days the conversation becomes a little more complex.  Aiden also says, "Daddy blow, blow?"  Then I reply and say that yes, Daddy will snowblow when he comes home.  Aiden absolutely loves watching Daddy snowblow. 

Jordan loves to go outside with Daddy when he snowblows.  He isn't bothered by the cold at all.  He wears earmuffs while Luke snowblows because he hates the noise.  Then when Luke brings out the shovel, Jordan has to join in.

The boys seem to be enjoying the cold, winter days but I am sure ready for spring!

Just Hanging Out



Once Jordan saw a picture of himself as a baby in Korea with a ponytail in his hair.  He thought that was hilarious and ocassionally asks to have a ponytail put in his hair.  It's much shorter now than it was then, so it can be tricky to get a ponytail to stay.  Of course, whatever Jordan does Aiden has to do too.  But Aiden has a much more difficult time leaving his ponytail alone.  He is constantly pulling it out and then coming up to me to say, "Help me!"  In the short span of a half hour I probably put Aiden's ponytail in about 10 times.  



 The boys love to ride on Luke's back.  Aiden always seems to think that we are a jungle gym and climbs all over as much as he can.  Poor Luke must get pretty tired out by these boys!

 Aiden has hardly slept in his bedroom at all since this past summer.  He sleeps in a pack and play in our bedroom every single night.  I finally took the crib down because let's face it, he is never going to sleep in there again.  I have the toddler bed set up and encourage the boys to play in it in the hopes that Aiden will start to feel comfortable in it.  My goal for this upcoming spring and summer is to get him to sleep in his bedroom again. 

Isn't that smile adorable?  Aiden feels every emotion so strongly.  When he's upset, he's really, really upset.  And when he's excited, he can get extremely silly and hyper.  There's never a doubt in anyone's mind how Aiden is feeling at any moment.

Snow

We've had tons of snow these past few days.  Luke loves the snow because he can use his snowblower.  Jordan loves the snow because he can drive his trucks through it and make tracks.  Aiden loves the snow because he loves to look out the window and watch Daddy snowblow.  I'm the only one who doesn't love it.  It is pretty, but if it doesn't give me a snow day, I don't think there's any point in having it.

 

 

Last Tuesday I was home from school for a day because of a burst pipe at my school that caused a flood.  Aiden came down with a fever that day.  Jordan insisted that he was sick too.  But I can always tell when he is really sick.  He lays on the couch and doesn't play when he is sick.  He wasn't doing that at all on Tuesday.  He just wanted the advantages of being sick- the extra love, cuddles, and attention from Mommy.  But today Jordan is not pretending.  He came down with a fever last night, slept in this morning, and has basically been lying on the couch since he got up.  Hopefully his fever will go away as quickly as Aiden's did.  Then he can go outside and play in all the snow!

A sweet moment

Aiden came down with a fever today.  I always know when my boys have a fever even without feeling their skin.  They both have a lot of energy and are always busy playing.  But when they come down with a fever they both go right to the couch and lie down.  That is literally the only time they lie down unless they are sleeping.

Aiden was lying down on the couch with his fever and I had to leave the room for a moment.  When I left I could hear Jordan say, "Aiden, would you like me to read you a book?"  I came back into the room to see this.  I love seeing them when one is being so compassionate to the other!

Happy New Year!

I started this post almost a month ago and then was not able to upload pictures for some reason.  Finally, I was able to add pictures again.  It's been snowy and cold in Michigan.  This picture is back from early January, but today I braved the cold and took the boys out sledding.  After about 15 minutes outside playing in the snow Jordan took off his hat because he said he was hot.  Yes, the sun was shining, but it was probably only about 15 degrees outside.  Only Jordan would be hot in weather like that!

Aiden continues to grow and seems to add words daily to his vocabulary.  Often we can't understand what he is saying but Jordan always seems to know what he is saying so he translates for us. 

Life with two little boys continues to be quite an adventure.   I had no idea how much damage our house would receive from having two little boys in the house!  But they sure have a lot of fun together.  I have learned that if I don't hear anything, that's probably not a good thing!  Two little boys have a lot of ideas of ways they can get into mischief!

The Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we went to Post Family Farm.  When we woke up in the morning it was sunny, so we thought it would be a perfect day to go.  By the time we arrived, it was raining, but we still managed to have a lot of fun.  The activities were right up the boys' alley as they both love tractors, wagons, big bumpy tires, mud, and everything else that comes with being on a farm.

The first thing the boys did was to paint these little pumpkins.  It really started to rain while they were doing this, so it didn't turn out too well.  Aiden used a couple colors and then he was, "ah done!"  Jordan only wanted to use black on his pumpkin.  Black is his favorite color because it's the color of wheels.

Aiden wanted to ride the little pumpkin train.  For some reason, Jordan had no interest in riding, but just wanted to watch Aiden.  I didn't know how that would go as Aiden gets quite upset when he is separated from us at all.  But he actually did very well and seemed to have a lot of fun.  It helped that the tractor just pulled the kids in a small little path, so we were never out of Aiden's eyesight.

It's so hard to get a good picture of Aiden!  At least one of the boys is looking at the camera.  The boys had a lot of fun searching for pumpkins despite the muddy fields. 

Jordan was pretty pleased with the pumpkin he picked out and couldn't wait to turn it into a jack-o-lantern!  Both boys loved the hayride because they are both obssessed with anything that has wheels!

There was a small little zipline there for young kids to ride.  Jordan was definitely on the younger end of the kids who were riding it, but he had no fear.  Here he is waiting for his turn.

Getting ready to grab on to the bar

Whee!!  Jordan loved the zipline and rode it a few times in a row.  He probably would have kept going except there was a long line and I think he was a little impatient with the wait.

Jordan and Aiden had a lot of fun feeding the goats.

Although Halloween is still several days away, both boys have been eager to try on their costumes.  I have it easy this year as Aiden is going to wear Jordan's old costume, and Jordan wants to wear the same thing he wore last year.

Both boys love to cuddle with Daddy. 

Guess Who's Four!

 To celebrate Jordan's golden birthday we had a fun birthday party for him in our backyard.  Jordan continues to be obsessed with trucks, so it was easy to pick out a cake for him.  But with all the busyness of the beginning of school and planning the party, I decided to let the bakery make his cake this year.

 Aiden loved the freedom of eating dinner out of his high chair.  Here he is sitting nicely on the deck eating, but a few minutes after this picture was taken he picked up his plate and started walking around with it.  He looked so excited to be able to move wherever he wanted to during the meal.

 Jordan received lots of fun presents.  Aiden was pretty excited about Jordan's gifts too!

 Here I am with my favorite 4 year old.  If you look closely you will see a little white frosting on Jordan's lower lip.  He couldn't resist nabbing a little bit of frosting before we cut the cake.

 Aiden has quite the sweet tooth so he was pretty excited to dig into the cake too!

 Here are all my boys!  We wanted a pinata for the party and of course Jordan wanted it to be a truck pinata.  It was huge!

 Jordan took the first swing.

 All the kids had 3 chances to hit the pinata but no one had success.  Finally I had to step in and show them how it's done.  After I broke the pinata Luke threw the cnady all over the yard as kids ran to put as much in the grocery bags as they could find.  This was definitely the highlight of the party!

 I included this picture because I think it's funny how almost all the adults are crossing their arms.  It was the first chilly evening in a long time and we were all freezing by the end of the party.

 Today was Jordan's first day of preschool!  I switched times with my partner so that I could be home this morning to bring him to school.  I tried to take a picture of just Jordan before we left, but Aiden kept running in to get in the picture.

 This picture turned out pretty bad because of the sun, but I think Jordan looks so cute wearing his backpack.

Here's Jordan with one of his teachers.  On the way to preschool he told me he was a little nervous.  But he seemed pretty confident once we got into his classroom.  I thought I would stay for a few minutes on his first day but after only about 2 minutes of me being there he turned to me and said, "Mommy, why are you still here?"  I was so proud of my boy and his excitement about being in school!