Early Bday Presents..and other stuff

Gma and Great Gma came to babysit today...and brought early bday presents! Woohoo!! The kids had fun opening them!

Colin would rather eat the paper!

Brady too...

My FIRST PAIR OF BOOTS!!! THANKS GRAMMIE!

Rockin the boots!!

The boys got their first shoes too! (A little big but will fit us in a few months!)

Great Gma brought us the Little People Farm! SO FUN!

Our cute bday invites!



And our attempt at a Christmas picture. We got their pictures taken at a studio and I wasn't thrilled. Addie was a GRUMP and the boys weren't great either. We ordered them anyway (they'll be in the mail tomorrow).  Our attempt wasn't so great either!



Sickies...

2 sicks kids and can't believe the 3rd one hasn't gotten it yet. Brady came down with an awful cough and runny nose on Sunday. Addie got it on Monday. Still nothing but a little cough from Colin...maybe we'll luck out and he won't get it?

Took them in yesterday because Addie looked like hell. Tested her for the flu and came back negative. Ears looked perfect. Lungs were great. Just a really red throat. Doesn't help matters that she's getting like 4 teeth all at once. Poor baby girl.  Brady had perfect ears and lungs too...he was a lot better yesterday but thought I'd haul him in too just check.  No prescriptions for us...just Benadryl and Tylenol.

Brady and Colin were going on 12 hours of sleep when I left for work this morning... but Addison hasn't slept so well the last 2 nights. Too hard for her to breath and she coughs all of the time. Hoping today she naps and starts to feel better by tonight! 

Thankful that we made it ALMOST 1 year with nothing worse than this. A fever here and there and some runny noses. That's about it. I guess I'll take it!

Weekend

Enjoyed a nice weekend with Ryan's parents! Spent some time at home just relaxing, went out to eat with the kiddos and headed to the mall! A very nice weekend! Just a few pics to show you what we've been up to!


We love running around in diapers!



Excited for gma and gpa d to get here!

Like my owl shirt?!!

Heading out to eat. Addie loves her cute pink coat!

Sweet socks sister!

Bathtime---Colin the puppy

Addison the ducky!

Brady the froggy!

THANKS FOR THE CUTE TOWELS AUNT KARLA!!!




Just some pics!

Just some pics from the last few weeks!



Addie reading to her pig! She really likes looking at books.

 

Shopping with Auntie and Grannie. I guess Addie was buying tampons.



Peek!!!!! Love playing with Uncle Jake!



My favorite Christmas gift last year!



We've been finding toys in the garbage.......Hmmm..I wonder who's putting them in there?

What's up mom?

Favorite place to play!



Ryan always makes fun of grannie's BATMAN sweatshirt! Grannie bought one for Addie so they could match!



Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! Ryan actually had 4 days off. Spent Thursday in Marcus at my parent's house. Lots of good food. The kids loved the sweet potatoes and green bean casserole and of course, snicker salad!

The kids got their 1 year pictures taken on Friday. Not impressed. It's getting harder and harder to get them all to look. They were too busy running off and getting into things. Addie's tooth popped through on Saturday so Friday pictures weren't so great for her especially. They looked so cute in their outfits too...we'll see how they turn out I guess.

Got to finish my Christmas shopping on Saturday. Couldn't believe how pleasant the mall was. No lines and it wasn't packed at all. Everyone must have been out and about on Friday.

Didn't take any pictures the whole weekend. What kind of mother am I!?

11 months!

We are 11 months old! 1 month until the BIG FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY! We've decided to have their party on their actual birthday---Tuesday, December 21st. Hope the weather is much nicer than the day they were born! If you don't remember, they were born in an awful snowstorm. It snowed and was nasty from the 21st until the 26th. I can't remember how much snow we got but it was a TON.

Nothing exciting going on really....Colin is walking everywhere finally! They are starting to fight with each other. They chase after each other if someone takes a toy that they want to play with. The boys like to pull hair and Brady bites. HARD. Not when he's mad or anything..just all of the time! We started adding Vitamin D milk in with their formula...Can't wait to be done buying formula! Only a few more weeks left of that I hope!!!! Goodbye $24 cans of formula.......hello $3 gallons of milk!!!!

 I put up the Christmas tree and am anxious to see how it goes! They spend a lot of time staring at it. Colin touches the lights and gets mad when we say NO. I wrapped a bunch of presents (almost done Christmas shopping!!) and will put them underneath it soon. We'll see how that goes too!!!!!!!

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately...here are a few new ones. We got new hats and they aren't fond of wearing them.

Brady and his new hat!

Presents from Cousin Krista!

Colin-11 months

Addie--11 months

I could hear Addie cryin...and this is where I found her...

Silly Addie

Brady--11 months

GO COLIN GO!

He's getting it figured out finally! We're up to about 15 steps or so. I think we'll have 3 walkers by Thanksgiving?!? When the other 2 kids were learning to walk...we'd say  (and clap) "GO BRADY GO or GO ADDIE GO" and they would often clap while they were walking. I've caught (and so has my mom) Addie clapping for Colin lately when we say "GO COLIN GO!" She's very encouraging!

Our Family is Growing!!

Our family will be growing by one in September!!!!!!

HA...you didn't really think I was pregnant, did you?!?!

What I mean is...my brother got engaged this week to Sarah!!! The wedding will be in Spencer (1 hr from my hometown) sometime in September most likely!! We are VERY excited!!!!!



My mom is famous for her snowmen...She had them made before Sarah and Jake got here this weekend!




The happy couple!!!



Congratulations Jake and Sarah!! We can't wait for the big day!!!

Shots & Weight Checks..

The kiddos had their 2nd round of flu shots today. I can't believe how well they do with shots. Seriously, Ryan fusses more about getting a flu shot for himself than the kids fuss when they get one. Brady cried for about 4 seconds, Colin for about 2 seconds and Addie just whimpered once! Rockstars! I'm always curious about their weights...I feel like Colin is huge so my guess was that he was pushing like 25 pounds!! HA! I was also curious to see how much the other 2 gained. They walk so much that I assumed they hadn't put on much weight since their 9 month appt.  At 10.5 months, they weighed:

Addison: 19 lbs 13 oz
Brady:  20 lbs. 12 oz
Colin: 22 lbs. 7 oz

And just some pics from grannie's camera!


Check out her pants...these were her Aunt Samantha's from 1990!




This is what gram lets us do when you're at work, mom!!!



Colin is trying to weasel his way onto the chair. Addie's face says it all..."OH NO YOU DON'T COLIN!"



The kiddos with their favorite lady!



I CAN DO IT TOO!!

We have another walker! Addie is walking everywhere! Just in the last day, she has really taken off. I've been home from work for about 4 hours and I haven't even seen her crawl more than a few times!  GO ADDISON!

I'd say Brady walks 80% of the time and crawls 20%. It's so cute to watch him go! I think they both learned to walk so early because they want to get away from Colin. He is such a BULLY! But the second someone does something to him, he cries like a girl!!!!!!

And Colin...well, still not much progress! He'll get it soon! Someone has to be last!

hApPy HaLlOwEeN!!!

Aren't my little monkey, giraffe and lion adorable?!?!



Addie the monkey

                                      

Brady the giraffe

Colin the lion

We started the day by going to Marcus for church and lunch. Made stops at both of my grandparent's houses as well as the Dammann's house to show off our costumes! The kids were so good and everyone thought they were the cutest little animals!

The fam



Trying for a picture of all 3 at great-gma's house

The monkey taking a break...

 We ended the day by trick or treating in Hinton. I was hoping Brady could walk up to a door or 2, but his huge costume wouldn't allow it! We strolled through Hinton and stopped at 5 or 6 houses. It was fun to see the whole town out and about. We of course got stopped a lot because everyone wanted to see the kids! Got a little chilly at the end but the kids were pretty good. The giraffe had to be carried a few blocks but that was the worst of it! Can 't wait for next year when the kids can actually walk and eat the candy!




Ready to go!



The lion pouncing on the giraffe.....

Looking for the monkey...

We caged the animals!!!!

1st Annual Girls Trip...and some other stuff

First--some of the other stuff...
I got home on Friday after work to find Brady walking even more than the night before! I couldn't believe it! Usually he walks about 10-15 steps and then will fall . I went upstairs to get my bags packs and could hear Ryan and my mom getting excited in the living room/kitchen. I went downstairs and watched Brady walk quite a ays! At the ripe old age of 10 months and 1 day...my little pumpkin is toddling all over! Addie is up to about 10 steps as of last night and Colin...well..he isn't too sure about the whole walking idea! Not too many steps for him but I'm sure it won't be long!

The Girls trip part...
After lots of hugs and kisses, Gma and I took off to visit Auntie Samantha. I was a little nervous/very sad to be gone for 2 nights. I've only ever been away for 1 night at a time. Ryan's family came to help Ryan with the kids. Definitley made it a lot easier to get away! I don't think I'll be going anywhere again until our ski trip in March--2 days away is too much!
We spent Friday evening-Sunday morning in Ames and Des Moines. We shopped all day Saturday and met my aunt, uncle and 2 cousins at The Cheesecake Factory!

The shopping was GREAT....and I found my weakness. BABY GAP. My goal was to find them winter coats and hats and outfits for their 1 year pictures. I found all of this at GAP.......and to my surprise...they were having the best sale they've ever had. 45% off of EVERYTHING!!!!! Holy crap! So basically I got about $500 worth of stuff for $250! (I did get myself a few things at GAP too for work!) Doesn't get much better than that! It was so nice to see my sister and her very nice apartment! Such a nice little get-a-way! We've decided that we are going to make it a tradition from now on. October 5th is Samantha's half birthday and the 23rd is my half birthday so we thought that would be a good excuse for a weekend away! Addie will get to join next year!!

NICU Reunion
On Sunday, we took the kids to the NICU reunion. This was for kids that had "graduated" from the NICU. It was so fun to see some of the nurses and a doctor that the kids had! The kids had to wear a nametag that said that number of days spent in the NICU. Our number was very low compared to some others! One boy's number said 99 days........Colin was in for 28 days and Brady and Addie were in for 35 days. Here are a few pictures from our days in the NICU--Look how small they were!!


Addie




Colin




Brady



Little peanuts!

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