Spring Is Here

The blooming of our saucer magnolia always ushers in spring here! We all enjoy it; the beauty, the smells and even the falling if the petals. Here are a few pictures!

 Oak needed a little warming up to the feel of all the flower petals around him.

New Videos!!

Here are a few new videos. The first two are at Tyler Park. The boys like to go here because it has a teeter totter. It also has a really big slide at a second playground. I will have to get a video of that later.


Here Eli shares a bit about his latest drawings.

The boys love to play in the petals from the flowers on our tree. Oak joined in a bit too this year.

Pictures from the past couple weeks

Candles made by Eli and Otto

 The annual cotton candy!

 Lunch at the festival.

We met up with the Scholtens for lunch! Such a great surprise! 

 Otto decided to draw on his face...

 At the park!

 weeeeeee!

 Eli has been drawing all sorts of things lately. Here are some pictures of his drawings! He is really growing up. All of these he drew by himself.

Otto's monster truck he picked out at the store. It was a long and thoughtful process and he decided on the pink one called "heart breaker" - I had to laugh at that. 3 is such a cute age!

Videos!

In this first video Oak is playing in the kitchen. He loves to dig into the cabinets and play with the bowls. I decided to just keep a few out and I hand him a spoon and he is as happy as can be for about 15 minutes as you can see here.

These next three videos are from the Maple Syrup Festival. This first one is the annual candle making! Otto was able to join in this year.

These videos are showing some of the presentation from Crooked Paw on ancient sugar making. :)

Cabin Trip Late February

Here are a few pictures from our last trip to the cabin. It is starting to feel more homey to us now that we have a futon and a table to eat at. 

First picture: frost flowers! This went on for about 10 feet along side the road.

 Eli enjoyed drilling with Papa's drill here. Brian looking rather mountain man.

 In the loft!

Three cozy sleeping children. Had to take a picture. :)

New Videos!

Here are four new videos!
This first one captures Oak and Bird. They are really becoming good friends. Oak is so interested in Bird and is learning how to be careful around him. After a couple of nips though...

Putting the futon together at the cabin!

The boys have decided that the big piece of insulation in the loft's side "passage way" is the "eyeless, mouthless, banana monster"!

I was really trying hard to get Oak to talk here, but he didn't. He is starting to say a couple words. His most common word is "huh?" then "yeah!" then it is "mama" :) then it is "no" - hopefully I can catch him saying one of those soon! He still is cute to just look at so I went ahead and uploaded the video.

The Latest

Here are a few new pictures from the past couple weeks. The first one here is of Eli making a log cabin. Which he then bulldozed over. Some things never change...

 These next couple are of Otto and his cookie making. Otto LOVES to bake; cookies, cakes, anything yummy. He likes to chat about making yummy treats too! Well after a whole afternoon of Otto talking with me about making some gingerbread men we did! He was a very happy boy.

 Oak enjoyed some cookie too!

 Otto carefully icing his cookie. 

 Eli laughing at how funny it is to bite the legs off. Eli is our giggly entertainer, that's for sure.

 Horsey rides!

 Oh no. Oak is so curious about everything these days. I was sitting on the opposite side of the table here and didn't even see him almost take all the wet wipes out!

Playing Around

Here are two videos of just random happenings lately. I love how Eli likes to entertain Oak and make him giggle, too cute!

Where's That Brother! from capture box on Vimeo.

Roast Beef Line Up from capture box on Vimeo.

Harmonic Playing

Here are three short clips of Brian jamming it out on the harmonica for our little people audience.

Picture Update

Here are a few pictures from this past month:

Eli and Otto have so much fun playing games on my phone. I think it is used more for games than anything else....

 The next few pictures are from Art Sparks. It is an interactive playroom at the Speed Art Museum. They have sooo much fun here! It is a great place for us to take the kids to play, draw, paint etc (make a mess) then leave. :) 

This is from the tactile room.

 Watercolors

 Stamps and watercolors

 Dry erase markers on clear plastic

 tickle beard!

 Mama is there too!

 This is a picture of the kids playing with a glow in the dark type board. FUN!

Monster Jam!

This was Eli's highlight of the week for sure!!!! Monster Jam with Papa and some friends! 

More Bath Fun!

Oak is just loving bath time now! Water kind of scared him for a while and I think he is finally strong enough to sit up well and just splash around and enjoy it! I had to capture it to share!

Bath Time Fun

Oh me. Oh my. Bath time is getting a bit busy with three boys in a tub! They have so much fun!

Going Private

Hey friends and family! After much thought we have decided to go private with this blog. I am sure you all understand with the nature of this blog. It is all about the kids! So, I want to invite everyone who wants to continue following us through this blog to PLEASE let me know!

1. Email me or Brian your email address. (I would have included my email address here, but blogger advised me not to since this is a public page, so I hope you have it.)
2. I will email you an invite. 
3. It will require you to make an account with google (SUPER EASY). 
4. After signing in you can view the blog. 


I hope this extra step won't discourage you from keeping up with us! I know with all the miles that separate most of us, this blog is my main way of keeping you up to date. We value our friends and family SO much and hope that you will not only make this extra step for us, but encourage us in guarding the privacy of our family. I will also make sure I am consistent in my updates, they will be weekly, so if you check just once a week you will find the latest!
I will keep this up for about a week, then poof we will appear to be gone! But really we are just a short sign in away!
Thank you so much for understanding!

Brian and Michelle

Videos Gaaalore!

GET that silly bird!

I like this next one because you can here Otto making his eating noises. So cute!

band practice

Happy Birthday Grandpa Dave!

Fireside Family Chat

Slap, Pull, Slap, Pull

Oak is a scooter! Soooo cute!