The Bormann Twins

Today

2012-02-09T19:23:00.000-06:00

8 AM 5 PM

Mom to the rescue!!!

2012-02-08T20:46:00.000-06:00

And not this mom, my mom! We haven't been in this bad of shape since Pukagedden, otherwise known as Thanksgiving 2009 or some may remember it as our last trip to Arby's. I must say that was worse!!!!

Monday morning Dylan came to our room with a horrible hack and a bit of a fever and saying his tummy hurt. He seemed pretty good with a dose of Tylenol. Then later that night he looked a bit miserable. So I went ahead and took him to Urgent Care to get ahead of it! After a fun 2 1/2 hours, we made it home. They gave him a children's z-pack - which I was delighted for some medicine opposed to a 2+ hour wait for a...it's a virus! That night he ended up coming to our room and basically slept on top of me. That may be the point where things went down hill! I was a bit surprised he was sick. Almost every weekend we go to a germ infested place liked the mall playground or McDonalds and I didn't even take them to Target this weekend!

I felt awful all day yesterday and got worse as the night came, then Keith started feeling bad too. All we could do to get the boys bathed and in bed (or all Keith could do- I was glued to the couch). We did our best to parent from the couch. Thank you Thomas!

We were hurting all night, Keith was supposed to go to Mpls today for work, but he decided 6 hours in the car would not be in his best interest. I don't really have any sick/vaca time yet so I had to go to work. I decided to go to urgent care at 7 - which was great b/c I was the only one there! To my surprise my lungs were clear (perhaps they are no longer functioning), but he said i had the same as Dylan -bronchitis. They gave me a Z pack too. I wasn't sure about taking but the doctor said it was OK, the pharmacist said it was OK and I called my OB GYN too. It was a LONG day at work!! It took a 10 minute nap in my car at lunch (this may be a new low for me). I was doing OK at times. Then we had a steak seasoning cutting at work - normally a tasting I would look forward to, but 8 bites of steak about did me in!

Keith was lucky to stay home and sleep today. He did go to a different urgent care, they diagnosed him with the same and gave him a Z pack and cough syrup with codeine - LUCKY! I'm hoping we both wake up feeling like a million bucks tomorrow and I really hope Carter doesn't get it.

My mom came up tonight - thank goodness!!! She made dinner for the boys and cleaned everything with Lysol and washed our sheets and did some laundry! Much more than she needed, I was just happy to have help with dinner!!! THANK YOU MOM!

Keith was so kind to surprise me with flowers - early for Valentines Day. Unfortunately, I have a sales meeting in Memphis and will be there for Vday and will be celebrating the dirty thirty absolutely sober there. The good news is our flight home is on my bday, but I won't get back until after 10.

Thanks for stocking us up mom!

Jitter Bugs

2012-02-02T22:59:00.000-06:00

I wanted to get the boys into swimming lessons, but they were all booked up, so I started looking into other activities. I found this Jitter Bugs class. I guess you could say it's gymnastics, but really just playing around on the equipment.

Tonight was our first class. I was a little nervous that the boys wouldn't participate because they can get really shy, but they were SO EXCITED!!! That is why the picture is blurry, they were jumping up and down. Then they got into line and then basically made their way to the front of the line.

We sat up above and watched - very entertaining!!! I wish you could have seen the first 10 minutes and this poor little teacher. IT was really too many kids at this age for her to handle - her face screamed panic! About 10 minutes in, next thing I know Dylan and Carter are both on the circle trampoline and kids everywhere. Eventually things settled down a bit (outside of one boy who made Dylan and Carter look like angels! - that kid did not listen at all or sit still for two seconds) They had a blast and didn't want to leave. They said they wanted to come back and I told them next week, then Carter got sad and started to cry because he wanted to come back sooner. So I would say SUCCESS!

My sweet little Dylan

2012-02-01T22:57:00.000-06:00

Sometimes Dylan can be quite challenging, but other times he can be so sweet! A couple weeks ago we were at my parents and the boys made a cake with my mom. They don’t have cake too often and it is usually at a birthday party. So Dylan asked who’s birthday it was and we landed on my was the closest. Well then he turned into mommy’s birthday mode. He kept telling mom she needed to go to Target to get me a birthday present. (we may need to consider scaling back on Target trips) Then later we were getting a puzzle out of the closet and Dylan saw a roll of wrapping paper – so he got it out and brought it to mom to wrap my present and was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a present to wrap. Of course, being as persistent as he is, he got that darn (or damn if he was telling this story) roll of wrapping paper out three times, he was determined to wrap a birthday present for me!

Tonight I was going to dinner with Aunt Sarah, so I asked them if they were going birthday shopping with mommy, then asked Dylan what he was getting mom. And randomly he told me, a big, little necklace for you for work. But I got to find the right one. How sweet is that! Totally made my night. Then I was giving them bye kisses and he stood up in his chair, put his hands on my shoulders and said you better go to dinner with Sarah – how did my little boy get so old.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T09:56:00.000-06:00

The good thing about twins...at least for now

2012-01-31T21:43:00.000-06:00

I guess today at school while the boys were playing outside another boy had jumped on top of Dylan (I'm guessing by the bruise he knocked him down) and I guess Carter came sprinting across the playground and knocked the kid off Dylan - or as Carter put it, he rolled him off. Not sure what that exactly means. But it's good to know they look out for each other.

I did have a talk with them one day that if mommy and daddy aren't there and one of them gets hurt they need to give each other hugs/kisses to make sure the other is OK and feels better. They seemed very interested in this idea!

Monday Monday!

2012-01-30T23:11:00.002-06:00

Carter rocking the original Kate Gosselin or I could throw some skinny jeans on him and he could be a little rockstar.

The weekends go by too fast! I was doing better at blogging and here I am behind again! So here is a bit of this and that...

I forgot to mention in my baby update - but the baby just reminded me - I have been feeling some movement for a couple weeks now. Started with a, I think that is just what I felt, to more frequent. Still not big huge movements, but still fun to feel the baby move.

We took the boys and Cade bowling this weekend. This was our second time, at least this time we were smart enough not to attempt to bowl too. Still quite chaotic, I told Keith if I bring up bowling in the next six months, tell me it is a bad idea! I wanted to take the boys roller skating (which may have been a bad idea as well) but Keith's back hasn't been doing so well this past week. Maybe next weekend.

Big news at our house today - we decided to try out a house cleaner and she came today. I think we are going to try and have her come every 2-3 weeks. Keith met with her at our house today and he said he was hit with a stereotype question - she asked where Jessica keeps the bathroom cleaner. Keith told her where "HE" he keeps it. It's no secret that I don't get too excited about cleaning the bathroom, Keith has owned that job for years! Sadly, I'm pretty certain I have not cleaned our bathroom shower once. I'll do the rest of the bathroom sometimes, but Keith usually manages the bathrooms! No complaints here.

It's been puzzle mania at our house lately. The boys can now do the actual floor puzzles now, so we have been busy doing all kinds of them! Seems like they get a little better at them every night. I enjoy them too, I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to doing puzzles. Or it could be my addictive personality, I purposely never get out puzzles, because I CAN'T STOP!!!

I'm having a bit of a swearing problem with Dylan. He uses the word damnit - ALL THE TIME! At first I tried to completely ignore it and not give it any attention. If he was older I think I would be washing his mouth out with soap or something, but not sure he would get that right now. The strange part of it, he seems to use it in the right context. So we will keep working on that, but I definitely hear damnit mommy more than I ever thought I would.

I would like to say my boys were sweethearts all weekend, but far from it! The two have been quite sassy and demanding lately. So we have been working on that and trying to get a please and thank you here and there. It's been a bit much of get me this mom, I want candy!!!!

17 weeks all ready!

2012-01-26T22:32:00.000-06:00

{15 weeks}

{16 weeks}

{17 weeks and yes, Carter is holding his belly too}

I had my 16 week appointment last Thursday. Nothing too eventful. When the nurse checked the heartbeat with the doppler she said, do you hear all that noise? The baby must have been moving around like crazy, she had a hard time getting a read. Then she said "they are really moving around." Both Keith and I were thinking "they" - but we think she just meant "they" as in babies at this stage. So then I thought, oh boy, we have another Dylan on our hands! When I was pregnant with the boys, Dylan was always on the go making so much more movement than Carter. True to this day, that kid just has more energy!

Only big complaints for me at this stage are headaches and some back pain, I'm going to give a chiropractor a try next week. We'll see if that helps. Otherwise, not feeling too bad and growing plenty!
Our next appointment will be Feb 9th and this is the big ultrasound appointment! With the boys it was so much fun having all the ultrasounds, this time they just do them early and then this one as long as all is good. You would think they would want to check in sooner to make sure all is growing / developing right, but what do I know:) So I have decided for right now I will have them right down the sex and put it in an envelope for us and then we can decide how we want to find out. I actually did this before with the boys, but I gave that to my brother, so he was the only one who knew we were having boys the entire time.

Otherwise, I would say I'm not too prepared this round! I'll probably give it a month or two before I start digging out all the baby gear and going through all the totes.

We also found out last week that we are going to a gap between when I go back to work and there is an opening at our daycare, so I'm on the hunt for a solution there. I started to explore the nanny route and would love that for a few months actually, but I think it will just be way too expensive. If we had the boys home too it would be OK, but I don't want to pull them out of school. So I would prefer a home in Polk City or I could do Ankeny too. If you have any suggestions, I would take them.

Mickey's Castle

2012-01-26T21:06:00.000-06:00

In March we will be going on our first big family vacation! My parents, Jennifer, Cory, Alec, Cade, Morgan and all of us will be heading to Disney World!!! Though Disney isn't necessarily a dream vacation for me, I am super excited to take the boys there. First of all because we haven't really been on a vacation with them before and it will be a nice family getaway before the baby arrives. Second, these two are so darn excited to actually fly on an airplane! They have been fascinated with planes since they were really little they watching them fly over our house in Minnesota. And right now they are so into Mickey, I imagine they will be a little starstruck when they see all the big characters in real life!

So they talk about going to Mickey's castle probably at least 10x a day! Here is a video of them talking about it. They generally seem to repeat the same events. Most commonly I hear the three little boys need to be really good at Mickey's castle because naughty boys aren't allowed at Mickey's castle because there are a lot of people there. Dylan came up with this one on his own, so we are going with it! They also talk a lot about there being fireworks there and flying on the plane of course.

Hopefully sleeping in the hotel goes OK, I imagine they will be exhausted, I know I will be. I get tired after a couple hours at the mall, Keith might have to give me a push in the stroller. Last time we went I was pregnant then too! So I guess no fun roller coasters for me. But that's OK, I'm more excited to see the boys have fun. I think they will love the rides too, they got really into them this summer at Adventureland and the state fair.

Five things you may not know about me…or maybe you do!

2012-01-25T18:56:00.000-06:00

1) If you have seen me the past few weeks or for the next couple weeks and if I’m not wearing jeans or sweat pants – but I was probably wearing sweat pants –my pants were or are probably not buttoned. I’ve been holding off on the maternity pants as long as possible!

2) This one may set some of you off, but Glee – don’t like it! And Taylor Swift, don’t like her either!

3) I have recently noticed that I have turned into a Google snob. My computer had been set on Bing for a while and my phone somehow got set on yahoo –neither compare to Google! Maybe I should try an altavista search sometime, remember that!

4) I only get my hair cut about 2x a year. Probably because I NEVER do it in the morning – where would I be without rubberbands? I wish I did do my hair, it would look so much nicer, but it is really thick and coarse, so it takes FOREVER to dry / straighten and I would much rather sleep! Sometimes I do it curly, but then I have to shower in the morning – again, sleep wins! Many people are surprised to know that I have never had it dyed. Outside of a little Sun In phase I went through in high school, these locks have been their natural color. At times I do think it would be fun to do some highlights, but then I would have to keep up and I don’t think 2x a year would hack it! Though, sad to say, within my last 30 days before 30, I pulled out a gray!

5) Thanks to Phil Dunphy, my husband likes to pull the line on me, “what do you know, you got a marketing degree from a party school”. Ahhhh, what do you do!

2012-01-23T22:24:00.000-06:00

Keith’s been here….

We have been here…..

Last Thursday Keith was so lucky to leave the tundra for a trip to Hawaii for work. He had a long day of travel, starting the day at the Des Moines airport at 5 am, arriving in Kauai around 10:30ish pm. Yesterday he went back to Honolulu but wasn’t doing very well as he must have ate something that didn’t agree with him. He was still able to visit Kelly and the boys but super bummed to miss Eric. He gets back home next week. He heads back home Tuesday and should arrive sometime Wednesday morning. We’ll be happy to have him back.

We have been keeping pretty busy. The boys have been pretty good for me. I just started a new job a few weeks ago so my biggest challenge is getting everyone awake, dressed, fed and out the door and at daycare on-time for me to get to daycare. I realize this shouldn’t be such a “process” but some days….it can be a nightmare and one time it took me an hour and forty-five minutes. So far we have been doing really well making it out the door on-time.

Friday night we went to Baxter for the weekend, I thought it would be good for the boys to be in a different environment for a couple days. Friday night we had a movie night and watched Finding Nemo, which they really liked! Saturday I met my friends Angie and Sara at McDonalds in Marshalltown to play in the playhouse for a couple hours. The boys had a great time until a bunch of big kids came, then they weren’t loving it.

Later Saturday night we went to dinner at Chips (the boys FAVORITE restaurant) with my mom and dad, Cory, Alec and Cade. Jennifer had to go to Houston for work, so we definitely got a lot of looks with four boys under four. We ate in the bar area to sit down sooner, it didn’t take long for all four tables around us to clear and surprisingly, though there were a few lookers, nobody opted to sit by usJ Keith thought it was funny because one night this was flipped, it was Keith, Jennifer, mom, dad and all the boys. I thought at least it was good that I’m not showing too much more!

Carter fell asleep on the way home – I should say I think Dylan put him to sleep. The kid did NOT STOP TALKING all the way home!! Sometimes I think they just like to say everything they know and repeat it! I got Carter into bed and Dylan was STILL TALKING, so mom asked him if he wanted to sleep with them. This was a bit of a treat for him b/c they always sleep in their beds and grandmas, I think he thought he was a pretty big deal. I told mom, good luck falling asleep with jabber box – I went back there a little bit later and I could hear him, “the ocean is blue, the sky is blue……..”.

Sunday we stayed at mom and dad’s house until 1ish to wait until the ice melted, went to Target and then played at home until Grandma Susie arrived.

Is it possible to break a sweat at Target?

2012-01-23T10:11:00.001-06:00

Yep – it’s possible!

The boys are having a Valentine’s Day party at school and I thought they would enjoy picking out their own to do and also thought we could pick up a few items and kill some time. It was raining out, so I assumed cart selection may be minimal, but was happy to see ONE of the large obnoxious carts with the two seats on the back, so I was rushing the boys to snag it and…..bam a lady grabs it from me about 5 feet away. Her girls looked 5-6ish, I imagine them walking through the store maybe wouldn’t have been too rough. But that’s the luck. So two carts it was. Keith doesn’t mind pulling two carts, but it’s not my favorite, especially on a busy Sunday. So then we made a stop at the bathroom (luckily I convinced them to go to the girls, generally they will only go to the boys- which I don’t always mind, but Keith gets tired of). OK – 10 minutes later, with extra clean hands, drinks at the water fountain, we are off for some shopping. Managed to get most our groceries and on our way to the puzzles and Carter says he has to go number 2:( Grrr.... this is tough, sometimes they are serious, sometimes they aren’t. He had tried earlier, no luck. I convinced him to hold it a bit, thinking he may forget, then he said he really had to go so I got a bit nervous. So we rushed to the front of the store, parked our carts by a register hoping nobody would take them, and we were back at the bathroom. And another 10 minutes in the bathroom and false alarm- “all empty,” as Carter puts it. And we are back to our carts happy to find all items were still in our carts, which was great, as I really didn’t want to tackle the busy food aisles for a second round. Picked out two new puzzles and then attempted to find Valentines. Either we were looking in the wrong spot or they aren’t out yet! I can’t imagine that they aren’t out, but we will be heading back to find some next week. We weren’t able to get by the sticker aisle without a purchase. Then off to check-out. Overall, the boys were really good, I just got a bit overheated with my winter gear and all the bathroom business.

He LOVES it!

2012-01-18T22:27:00.000-06:00

All year at school they have a different letter each week for the "letter can". Finally this week was Dylan's turn of the letter S. I can't even explain how excited Dylan has been about this. He came home right away and put a bunch of stuff in it (which we later had to convince him to take out because they didn't start with S). We have loaded it with everything s we could think of - a straw, spoon, star, shark, string, sugar, square, toy strawberry, slinky, sunglasses, a sock, a letter s, a six, a snowman and a picture of Stella. I will give him a few things and he gets so excited to put them into the can, but then he keeps wanting more. This morning we had to tell him we had to call grandma and grandpa for a few more s things to get the kid out of the house. Then of course because those fibs don't work so well anymore when Keith got home he wanted to go to grandma and grandpas for his s things, so right away when I got home Keith was like grandma is shopping and papa is at work:) He even slept with it by his bed last night.

Anyway, I LOVE seeing him so excited about a project. It also reminds me that the boys might need more "individual" things like this. I could tell that he liked that it was "his thing". Next week is Carter's turn with the letter T. I know he will like this one because we will be able to include two of his favorite t's, Thomas the Train!

Oh, and don't accidentally call it the s can, IT'S A LETTER CAN MOMMY!!!! Heard that about five times.

Loving this right now....

2012-01-17T09:48:00.001-06:00

Almost every night that I get home, Dylan runs up to me and says, Mom, I made a picture for you! With much enthusiasm, he will pull out a piece of paper out of his pocket that has been folded about 10 times (they are always folded) and give me a picture.

Tonight he gave me this one and told me I had to take it to work and then told me all about the purple and the red. Then he told me he was going to hang it on the fridge so I wouldn't get lost. Keith said when he got to daycare he was working VERY hard on this one and would not leave until he was done!

My picky eaters...

2012-01-16T21:33:00.000-06:00

I must say the boys seem to be getting pickier by the month. At least they used to eat about any piece of meat or fruit we put in front of them; unfortunately, that is no longer the case! In general they like almost all of the same things – there are a few things that differ:

Carter likes bread – this is big! Forever they didn’t like bread, so that eliminated any sort of sandwich. Of course you have to be careful – no butter! He has even been eating hot dogs on a bun! Dylan – he won’t touch it!

With a Christmas miracle Carter ate a deviled egg! I am still shocked by this one – they helped me make them, so he ended up tasting it and liking it. However, now he says he just likes the white part. I’ll take it!

Dylan will eat applesauce and I don’t think Carter will unless he does at school.

For a couple weeks Carter was eating carrots – because they are crunchy and because papa likes carrots! Last night he wasn’t having it.

So if you have a kid who will eat anything you set in front of they ENJOY!!! I’m not sure how we got to this point – I swear they loved vegetables when they were babies and I tried really hard to keep them trying new “healthy” foods – but the things they would eat just kept shrinking. It’s not really something I feel as though I can force on them outside of trying to offer them healthy options with each meal. So here is the big list… you can imagine how hard it is to feed these two some days:

-Absolutely no on yogurt – how I wish they liked this fresh, healthy snack. Even tried the frozen ones like popsicles, yogurt milk shakes and got them excited about “pink milk” – FAIL – mom that tastes like yogurt!

-Cheese – now they do eat cheese on pizza, mostly because I don’t think they realize that it’s cheese when it’s melted. I wish they liked cheese so I could give them string cheese for snacks.

-Almost any vegetables

-This breaks my dad’s heart, but they don’t like ice cream, about the only sweet they pass up!

-They LOVE mac and cheese – Dylan says it’s his favorite, but generally it has to be Kraft. I have given them the Annie’s a couple times and passed it off like kraft and it worked. Sometimes they will eat the homemade kinds like in restaurants – but that is about a 10% success rate

-Pasta is generally a success –unless you make it fun with corkscrew pasta….. FAIL!

-Yes – even if the veggies are small in soup, they pick them out (I’m afraid they get that one from me!)

-Dylan is starting to get particular about pizza, not eating the crust and one day we had some at the restaurant that was just cheese and he wouldn’t eat it because it didn’t have pepperoni

-They like to order corn dogs, but the peel the hot dog out of the breading

-They used to eat rice with about every meal (because it was all they would eat) and I think they had enough – so now they barely eat it.

-They won’t touch any sort of dip or dressing – they do LOVE ketchup and have that at about every meal.

Generally they say everything is yucky, even if they like it. I’ve learned to take yucky as compliment.

They sure do LOVE cookies – they are always saying, I ate a good dinner, now I can have a cookie – HA. A good dinner by like three bites. You know how to get your kids to stop asking for cookies…..give them a Fig newton. Keith thought they would be a “healthier” alternative and it was because they wouldn’t put them anywhere near their mouths and didn’t ask for cookies for about three days!

2012 House Goals

2012-01-16T10:01:00.001-06:00

Who knew a new house would come with as many house projects as an older house - just different projects!!! I'll call this our "2012 goal house projects", starting the year ambitious, but the odds of us knocking all these out are probably not great!

WINDOW TREATMENTS

I'll put this on top of the least because we have lived here for six months and most the windows are bare and many still have temporary blinds (completely worth the $5 we spent on them!). I'm making some slow progress here. Does anyone else hate window treatments as much as I do? They just come full of issues, I'm seriously considering having a budget blind person come to my house. If you have a recommendation, let me know! So a few priority windows - my bathroom! I would really like to get something for our living room too. It gets really bright in here during the day, generally we don't notice since we aren't home during the day, but I imagine it is aging our couch. I almost have our bedroom windows done - I need to have somebody hem them, then I had bought a double bar and the white sheer panels I bought didn't work out, got new ones, they sent me the wrong ones - now off to find something else. Most of our windows need 95" panels too, so that generally results in shopping online and curtains look really different online versus in person.

Our poor house is still looking a little bare!

I've certainly not been in a rush to decorate as I am pretty picky in this area and don't want to buy a bunch of stuff, just to replace. It was so nice having the Christmas decorations up to add a bit more to the place! So I would love to get more things hung on the wall and add some accessories throughout.

I've been thinking about buying these bar stools from West Elm. I like the ones we currently have, I bought them for our first apartment in New Jersey and got an amazing deal on them. However, the boys keep just destroying the seat cushions. We had the same cushions the entire time we lived in Minnesota and we are on our third set here. I even had towels on them for a while and they still look awful. So I like these wood ones because I could wipe them down or I have been keeping an eye out for some leather ones or leather cushions. I'm hesitant to buy them without testing them out. The one thing I like most about ours is they are extremely sturdy, with as wild the boys are I feel much more comfortable with them sitting on these. So many bar stools tip really easy.

I've also been itching to add a chair to the corner of our living room. I have been eying this one for months now. And this one is from West Elm too - I sure wish they had one in Iowa! I ordered color samples and there is a light brownish color that i like - I would just like to see it in person and sit in it before buying it. Maybe one day I will be brave and just order it!!! If they have a sale I may be sold!

OUTDOOR FUN

YEAH RIGHT - the boys won't be getting this!!! But we do need to do a swing set for them! There are a lot of fun parks near us, but none in our development. I wish there was one so we walk or ride bikes to it. Keith and I heard a rumor that they are building one.

I wanted to build one of these crooked houses this summer, I think the boys would love it!!! Have any of you ever seen a plan online? I looked for a while once - Keith seems to think he needs a plan to build this kind of thing:) Maybe if I built it on my own without directions, it would turnout crooked just how I want it!

This project is on my March agenda. Since the day I saw this on Pinterest, I have wanted to build it. We built a stone patio and fire pit at our house in Minnesota - this is a bit fancier, but I think we can do it! I really missed our fire pit this summer (and of course our neighbors who sat around it with us!) We already know the worst part is digging and hauling the dirt - we will be visiting Mark for a Bobcat this time! So I think the hardest part will be getting the arch right on the bench and making sure it is built solid.

We also want to keep working on some landscaping. We were able to get three trees in at the end of fall - a little bit each year!!! This year I would like to focus on getting a few shrubs under the front windows, I would also like to do a few planters. I usually enjoy planting flowers every summer and only did one pot this past summer.

CLOSET REMODELS

Well, my closet will never look like this unless we squeeze our bed into our closet and turn our bedroom into this (tempting)! I'm a little crazy about maximizing every inch of space in closets and right now our closets are no anywhere near 100% efficiency. I also HATE most our closets because they are the wire racks - which isn't too bad in our bedrooms, but I hate it in our pantry and bathroom closet. You put one can or towel onto a shelf and it dips down about three inches and it seems like everything is about ready to fall off - drives me nuts!!! So the big thing I want to do is replace most the shelves with wood shelves and reorganize them a bit to better utilize the space. Our bathroom closet will be an easy fix, but I've been doing a lot of looking online for plans and ideas for our pantry and our closet. We also have a coat closet by our kitchen that I would like to add shelves to one side - still thinking about the best use of space there. Keith is absolutely NOT excited about these closet projects. I bet when we are done he will love all the extra crap we will be able to fit in them!

I also have some shelving / organizing in mind for the garage - I don't think Keith likes when I get too involved in that arena. I'm always looking in people's garages when we walk by for storage ideas. I've been looking at Craig's list for some old cabinets, I think we should build a work bench with some shelves / cabinets - I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

AND BECAUSE...

It's time for a....

I have a few FULL boxes in the basement ready for a garage sale!! So sometime this summer - it is happening!!! And if this baby is a girl, I will have A LOT of little boy clothes for sale! Plus a bunch of other sweet stuff, so you won't want to miss it!!

I should probably add finish unpacking and organize the basement to this list!!

As I review this list - I'm guess we will lucky to hit 50% of these projects. I read the list to Keith and he said, you know we are having a baby this summer! Hopefully baby number three will be an easy one, that might make the difference. Or we better get cranking!

Christmas Part 3 - Bormann Christmas

2012-01-15T20:50:00.000-06:00

We spent Thursday – Sunday celebrating the holidays with the Bormann’s.

My mom got the boys these cute little suitcases for Christmas – they are totally into them. So they got to “pack” for grandma’s house and they like to pull them their selves.

Our first stop was to visit Keith’s Grandma Ludwig. She got a new computer for Christmas, so Keith spent most of our visit helping his grandma with pictures on her computer. We arrived in Sibley sometime before dinner. Adam, Sarah and Oliver joined everyone the next day so it was a full house!

We got so many nice gifts. Keith got one of those flip cameras, so hopefully we will be taking more videos. Our old camcorder was last seen at the Bormann Christmas a year ago – I think it is safe to say it is gone for good. It must have been thrown away with wrapping paper. I think we would have found it when we moved – but no sign of it.

Keith’s mom found the boys all kinds of cool toys from a children’s store – most were ones you don’t see just everywhere, so I think they are enjoying them. They also got new bike helmets and a bunch of animals to have around the farm. The boys were really into opening their presents here and kept asking, can I open another present? I think they had the most fun playing with a couple old trucks and tractors that Keith used to play with – I think a couple might have even been Karl's when he was a kid.

We also rang in the 2012 while there – not too crazy of a night for this pregnant girl, but I did make up past midnight.

I also attempted to complete year one of my Blurb book. I made it past 100 pages, but still have many pages to go. I think working on it gave me a headache because I had a headache for three straight days – so I haven’t gone back to it since! I WILL finish it though!

Sunday we stopped to see Keith’s grandpa and grandma Bormann on the way home. It’s always good to see them and the boys LOVE to see their “stinky pigs” as they call it. It was pretty cold out so we had to just look at them from the car. They gave the boys a couple of books and one of them, they just love – we have been reading about every night!

It took us a while to get all the decorations down, I think we managed have most of them down by the 6^thJ Too bad Christmas always goes by so fast!

These pictures weren't going so well, Dylan wasn't having it.

Reviewing the instruction book! This is a total Bormann trait. I've seen both Keith and Karl reading through the instruction books - me, I don't do directions!

This is Dylan's "Favorite Present". It is a Mickey photo album, he kept saying it was his favorite. He has it on his night stand.

Sarah and Adam got the boys these cute little aprons. Now they can be handsome little cooks.

A Year Ago...

2012-01-15T13:45:00.001-06:00

I can hardly believe it was a year ago we moved back to Iowa! At the same time, it feels like we have been away from Minnesota for a long time now. I sure wish we could get back there more often. Sometimes when I go to mom and dad’s house t reminds me of how much the boys have grown up in one short year. When we moved they were all about taking their little stools to the light switch and turning the lights on and off. They are so much taller, they can see into the drawers. When I see them in their little toddler beds, they look like giants barely fitting in them anymore. Sometimes when I hear “Hey there, it’s Mickey….” From the beginning of Mickey Mouse it reminds me of when we first moved because that is when we first started watching that show. Dylan is still obsessed! I sure don’t miss our commute or our daycare in Ankeny. I have no idea how we managed to get out of the house by 6:45 every day! I got to have a taste of being a stay home mom for two months. I can’t say it went really well – I always wonder if the circumstances were different if I would have enjoyed it more. I was still adjusting to be back in Iowa, we weren’t in our own home, it was the dead of winter and some days we didn’t even consider going outside, I was a bit stressed with trying to sell our house, finding a new home and a job. So of course I would love to have that extra time with the boys again – just maybe in a different scenario.

Last Saturday...

2012-01-15T13:25:00.000-06:00

We stayed at my parent’s house on Friday night, then Saturday morning I meant my girlfriends at Kaylan’s house. Kaylan lives in Indiana and Kristy lives in Omaha, so it’s rare they are both in the state at the same time. (At least we don’t have to add my travel schedule to that mix anymore since we no longer live in MN)

It was fun to catch up with the girls. I had the boys there for about 20 minutes and Dylan was just not having it so Keith brought back to my parent’s house.

Later that afternoon we went to Norwalk to celebrate Oliver’s 2^nd birthday. Sarah did a fun theme with flashlights. The boys loved it! She had a bunch of sheets draped downstairs with the lights all off so they could hide in the forts with their flashlights. Carter quickly became buddies with Sarah’s niece Madison (or Morgan as Carter said) and played lots of hide and go seek. You should see Oliver’s sweet tepee that his grandma made him. I think Keith wants to make one now, he thought he might be able to handle sewing it. (We’ll see when it happens!) Plus, I’m not sure where we would put it! All the kids got their own flashlights. The boys have been having a blast with theirs. One day they were eating grapes out of a bowl and they would shine their light on one and tell the other to eat that one. I forgot to bring my camera, but here are some pics on Sarah’s blog.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T22:14:00.000-06:00

my boys

2012-01-09T22:32:00.000-06:00

Dylan is really into making a little snack bag. He will get out two baggies (3 if Cade is around) and put crackers and marshmallows in them. It's nice though that he always gets one for Carter too.

Not sure about where you live, but we having an unusual January with many days in the 50's. Now that the holidays have passed I could easily go without snow - or the cold! The boys have been getting in lots of extra bike riding time. They are starting the get pretty good and quite fast! Keith took them on an actual bike ride this weekend, I think they had a pretty good time. They get a bit tipsy going up and down driveways, especially when they go fast- but I guess they have to learn at some point (good thing we have helmets).

I don't know if it was the crazy moon or what, but the boys were exceptionally GREAT tonight. So of course you feel bad when it is time to send them to bed, so they got a few extra books tonight. They have been LOVING books lately, which is great.

I'm afraid we must go to Target too often. On Sunday I asked them what we should do today and Dylan said go to Target, Carter completely agreed. Dylan is really into going grocery shopping and is actually a pretty good help. He can be picky at times about what goes into the cart, for some reason he didn't want TP in his cart. He also thinks we need to put produce bags on half the things that go into the cart, the check out people must think we are crazy. The funny thing is when we are Target sometimes we cruise by the toys and Dylan will just keep saying go to the food. The best part is, he basically puts all the groceries away! This week he even took the fruit snacks out of the box and put them into the box we keep snacks in. We'll see how long that lasts, but I'll keep going with it until he is bored of it.

I've said before that Carter has not been a big mom fan lately - on Saturday and Sunday he was SOOO nice to me and snuggled with me lots, it was so nice. I had really missed that. Hopefully he keeps being nice to me.

I was laughing listening to a conversation between the two or maybe I should say debate. Dylan was singing rain, rain go away, come back a different day. Carter would say NO DYLAN, it's not rain, rain go away come back a different day, it's rain rain, go away, come back another day. This went on for a while.

Lately Carter has been saying, I'll like green beans when I get older. I'll like cherries when I grow. We have the pickiest eaters!!! Unfortunately, they come by it naturally. I guess it's payback.

Today I asked the boys if they had fun at school, Carter said he had a little bit of a good time, Dylan said he had a lot of fun.

To avoid going to bed one night they told me they were stinky and needed baths. (didn't work!)

I guess that is it for tonight!

Christmas Part II - Bucklin Christmas

2012-01-09T10:40:00.000-06:00

We spent the majority of Christmas day at my parents. The boys got into their stockings right away.

The post-its have been a hit! Sad to report I did not hit jackpot with my lotto tickets this year, I think I was the big winner last year so I guess I will have to wait another 10+ years for my turn.

Alec looking good in stripes

All the cousins
Cade, Logan, Morgan, Alec, Nick, Dylan and Carter
(that's a lot of BOYS)

The boys were good helpers this year moving the presents.

This year we tried to change up present opening and just grab a present from the pile one at a time. This did not go well, so after about three presents we had to pass them all out and open going around the room.

The boys helped me quite a bit with wrapping this year (so many bows didn't match, and lots had a lot of presents had a bit of extra tape). So every time my mom opened one that I wrapped, Dylan would go up to my mom and tell her that "my mommy wrapped that".

The boys big presents were these ships. They are really into them and have been cruising all around the house with them. They are a bit much on the realistic slide, they came with a slave with a chain around it's neck. So that was a bit random. I got a new purse and boots along with lots of other great things, so I am set!! We also got a bigger sized crockpot with a timer so I can make more of my Pinterest recipes. Keith got Apple TV and I really don't remember what else. He is pretty into this Apple TV, which I have been impressed with as well.

I love Christmas time, too bad it goes by so fast!

Hello 2nd Trimester

2012-01-08T22:31:00.000-06:00

13 wks

14 wks

So happy to be in the second trimester!! I thought it would be great if I woke up with a burst of energy:) However, it is getting better, I have been staying up past 10:00! Nothing exciting to report. Keith thought I might be having some cravings since I just finished an Eggo waffle at 10:00. I have been eating a lot of cherries too! They were OUT at Target, Dylan didn't think that it was very nice that they were all gone either:) I was planning on buying two jars!

Another decision that has been top-of-mind lately is finding out if this will be a boy or girl. Like I said before we waited with the boys and I was so happy we did, it was really exciting being surprised that day. It made decorating a bit of a challenge, but I would definitely recommend everyone be surprised with one of your babies. But Keith definitely wants to find out and I wouldn't mind knowing either. So we will have to think about it.

Just curious to any of you who found out with one child and not with another - which experience did you prefer? Did you regret finding out? If you were to have a third or had a third, did you or would you find out?

Smile Mission Complete!

2012-01-07T23:15:00.001-06:00

While we were off work for a week, we made the toy delivery to Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines. Even though I lost sight of this project for a month or two, we ended up with lots of great toys for the kids. A big thanks to my brother - he decided to go about Christmas shopping different this year, so instead of getting presents, everyone selected a charity to donate to. We opted to put our gifts towards toys for the kids. Thanks to Angie and Kellie for donating too!!! Keith and I both agreed it would have been really fun to actually give the gifts straight to the kids and see them play with them, but they keep them aside until they need them.

THANK YOU AGAIN to all who contributed!!!

Carter Update

2012-01-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

Magazines to educate your kids.

Carter looked pretty cute in his scrubs. He was a big fan of the wheel chair.

I’m a little late on this one! We have been doing some investigation on Carter for a while now because his voice got very hoarse about a year ago. The doctor thought it could be reflux. So we had been on a reflux medicine, which helped but the doctor didn’t want him on it long term. So we went down the road with the ENT, Allergist and GI specialist. ENT continued the reflux medicine, Allergist came out great and the GI specialist chose to do a couple additional procedures. One was quite harmless, he had to drink this juice (and thankfully he drank it!!) and they took xrays of his stomach. All of these tests came back great. The next was to put a scope down and see if the reflux was damaging him internally, they also wanted to do a biopsy at this time.

Of course for this procedure, they would have to put him under. Keith and I were a little bit frustrated with this. You never really want to put your child under – it is very safe, but you are always putting them at risk! When we did their tubes and tear ducts, it was easy to justify because we knew it was to solve a problem, ultimately keeping them healthier and in the end they would feel much better. This was more on the exploratory side – so we struggled a little bit with putting him through the procedure.

He was really nervous about it, but did great. They tricked him into going right into the operating room with some bubbles and we were back with him within 25 minutes. He came out of it much better than the previous two surgeries, so that helped. Just out of it for a while. Of course since he is a COMPLETE daddy’s boy right now, he really just wanted Keith. This was hard for me because I really just wanted to hold him!

Fortunately, all tests looked great! The downside is we still don’t have a solution. We have decided to take him off the medicine for a period of time to see what happens. After just a little over a week we can tell his voice is already weakening a bit, so we will continue to monitor. I have also been trying to connect if certain foods cause him to clear his throat more often, but not seeing a lot of consistency. We have been trying to scale back on juice and I think that does help some.

I’ll keep you posted if we do more or learn more or if any of you have had similar experiences and have recommendations, we would love to hear them.