A Bit Under the Weather

We've not been well at our house.  I only worked 1.5 days of last week due to illness.  We had Monday off for President's Day, which was fortunate.  Chase has a sinus infection, I had a cold and Owen has a bad cold, which could not be prescribed medication despite the cough, high fever (102.7) and runny nose.  Saturday was rough.  We had 3 movie parties in the bathroom while the shower ran and steamed up the room.  He has not slept well and has had high fevers in the night.  It's been tough to see him like this.  It also delayed a trip we were going to take to see my parents.  :(

Despite the illness we have had a really fun February.  At the beginning of the month we had nice warm weather and were able to play outside quite a bit.

 

We had a nice day-I think it was in the 30s-at the beginning of the month.  Chase played on the deck and wore my ISU hat. 

 

Since there was nice weather at the beginning of the month we spent some days outside after we got home for the day.  The boys love to drive their cars up and down the narrow space between snow drifts.  In the summer we call this space a side walk.

 

We've also had time to be construction workers.  All involved must wear a construction hat.  I believe I was wearing one as I took these pictures.

 

After being outside Owen's cheeks get a perfect red circle on them.

 

Chase likes to play with the baby's pacifier.

 

Mommy goofs off with Owen

 

Chase wore a bucket on his head while playing play doh

 

Mommy and Chase hang out while making cookies

 

On Monday we had a big art project time.  It took place in our bathtub to contain the mess.  The boys put shaving cream mixed with glue on the hearts and then sprinkled them with glitter.  They had tons of fun and every part of the bathtub was covered in shaving cream.  

Little Touches

I just love when the boys want to be with me, want to sit on my lap, hold my hand, play with my hair and cuddle gently.  Just the other day Owen was having fun with my cheeks.  He was smooshing them together between his chubby little hands to see my lips pucker and he would laugh.  He laughed and laughed and then planted a small little kiss right on my lips.  Then he pulled back and looked and laughed.  Then he rubbed his nose on mine.  I loved it!

Two days ago I picked the boys up from daycare. Chase was the first to reach me.  I bent down to give him a kiss and he saw a small mark on my face.  He touched it gently and said, "Oh, Mommy owie," and leaned in and gently gave the owie a kiss. 

What sweet boys I have.

Chase loves to rub his nose on mine and will do it over and over while looking right into my eyes.  I make funny faces and make my eyes real wide, which only intensifies the rubbing.  For Chase it doesn't hurt, his nose is still soft, but my nose hurts after awhile!  Ouch.

Valentine's Day

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day!  Chase and Owen got so many special packages in the mail.  It was like Christmas!  We had dinner and I made pink heart pancakes with our favorite additive-chocolate chips!  We put the boys down for bed and then Jeff prepared crab legs and steak.  It was delicious!  Thanks Honey!

Chase shows off all his stickers from Auntie Kate.  (His pants are off because they got wet when he played outside)

Chase and Owen's pancakes made by Mommy with love.

Chase got a new shirt from Nana and Papa Anderson.  Can you tell he loves it?!

Owen also got a new shirt from Nana and Papa Anderson.  He wasn't so into looking at the camera.  His Lightening McQueen socks are from Mommy and Daddy.

Owen and Chase dig into the chocolates Nana and Papa Berger sent.  Do you see Owen eyeing another piece?

Happy

The boys learned a new word over the weekend.  Happy.  I love it that this word is one they have picked up on. 

Chase loves to stand right in front of me as I'm crouched in front of him.  He puts his hands on my shoulders and jumps up and down over and over while singing, "Happy Happy Happy."  It fills my heart with joy.

Owen smiles up at me with his big brown eyes and says, "Happy," and knows he is happy and loved.

One of Owen's "Happy" faces.

I know they know the meaning because they will show me "sad" with their faces, too.  It's always funny to see them go from a happy face to a sad face because they can't quite wipe the happy off.  It's more of a happy/sad face.  Very cute and very funny.

Saturday Art Time

I have a friend who loves to do art with her kids as much as I do.  She's even more daring and way more creative than I am!  We went to their house for Art Time on Saturday.  It was so much fun!  Alli read  "It Looked Like Spilt Milk", to the kids and then we painted a picture based on the book.  The kids determined what they thought their "spilt milk" looked like.  Here are Owen and Chase cleaning up in the bathroom.

Next they got to paint with shaving cream, something we have not done at our house yet.  Alli is so much fun, she even let them put food coloring in the shaving cream!

Chase spreads his shaving cream around.

Chase, Bennett and Clare play with chaving cream.

Owen gets his hands dirty with yellow shaving cream.

All the kids sit and make a wonderful mess, drive their cars in the shaving cream and get dirty.

Everyone smiles and has fun at art day!

Thanks Alli!

Sledding

Owen getting ready to brave the elements

We were finally able to take the boys sledding because it warmed up (35 degrees!) and we are having a little thaw here in the frozen land of MN.  On Saturday we loaded up the boys, I wore my first pair of snow pants since elementary school, and we drove over to the sledding hill.  There is an actual hill just for sledding here and its great.

When we got to the hill I don't think the boys really understood what we were going to do.  They wanted to run down the hill rather than go on the sleds.  When I looked down the hill I was reminded of my high school days of playing a game, which will remain nameless due to the political incorrectness of it.  Basically, the game was played by throwing a ball to the bottom of the snow hill, sledding down to be the first person to get the ball to be named the winner.  I can not tell you how many bruises I had from that game, the boys in my class were brutal. 

Owen tries to stand on his sled.  Do you see the pink boots?  We only had 3 boots so we borrowed a neighbor girl's pink boots. Cute huh?

Daddy fastens Chase's hat.

                                                          Daddy and Chase get ready to go!

Daddy and Owen get ready to sled!

Getting ready . . . Chase is running down the hill instead of sledding.

Mommy and her boys. Man they look alike in this picture!

Chase and Daddy went first.  They had a great time and when they got to the top Jeff informed me that there were jumps!  I couldn't see them from where I was and was a bit scared.  Owen and I sat on the round saucer and took off.  I was out of control.  We were going so fast and I was laughing and screaming.  We avoided the big bumps but did hit a few.  Jeff said he was worried about us and was thinking that he was going to have to rescue Owen.  Luckily we made it to the bottom and Owen was laughing and smiling.

I took Chase the next time and used my feet to brake, which sent a spray of snow up into our faces.  This was the beginning of the end for Chase.  He smiled and had fun, but was more interested in playing by the tree at the bottom of the hill.  He didn't understand that he had to go to the top of the hill in order to slide.  He thought he could just sit on the sled and go.

Daddy wiped out at the bottom near the tree Chase was obsessed with.

Daddy and Owen get ready for another run.  Can you see Chase in the orange coat at the bottom?

Chase and Owen take time to roll in the snow.

Chase

Chase had fun crawling in the snow.

Daddy pushes Chasey up the hill

Chase sits by the tree while Owen gets his sled to take another run.

Owen pulls his sled all by himself

Jeff and I decided we were out of shape after hauling 2 boys up the big hill.  We started only going up half way because of the distance.  Then we started pushing the boys up the hill while they laid on the sleds. They thought this was great fun.

Jeff started holding Owen up in his arms instead of sitting him on the sled.  Owen's face was just priceless. He was beaming from ear to ear and giggling as he went down the hill with Jeff.

Owen was laying down on his tummy and Jeff gave him a little push and Owen went down all by himself !  It was the cutest thing ever!  His little hat clad head was all smiles as he giggled and landed in my arms.  He got right off his sled, grabbed it and started up the hill.  He drug his sled all the way up the hill and went down 3 more times!  It was precious.  We have a future snow lover on our hand.

Owen is such a big boy!  He pulled his sled up the hill by himself!

Still going up the hill.

Here comes Owey.

This picture is not zoomed in well, but the big black blob at the top is Jeff and the cute little guy on the sled is Owen sledding all by himself!

a closer look at Owen.

All this time Chase is at the bottom of the hill hanging out with the tree whining about wanting to go home.  Ahhhh, such different personalities. :)

We had so much fun!

This is Owen and the small red blob in the middle of the page is his sled. He learned what happens when you let go of the sled.

At the sledding hill.

Owen's pink cheeks after sledding.  Oh he had so much fun!