A Visit

My parents came up the weekend of Jeff's birthday and I'm just getting around to writing about it.  Chase and Owen had been talking about them for weeks and were so excited to see Nana and Papa Bobette. :) They brought C & O these adorable Iowa State sweatshirts.  The boys already have a love for ISU so they were thrilled.

 Owen and my mom.  We had a nice dinner for Jeff and then he and I went to a movie. 

 Chase shows Papa something.

 Papa and Chase

 Papa is trying to put on Chase's pants.  Not going so well, huh Dad?

This was the scene on Sunday when Jeff an I came home from church.  They had buried my Dad under all those toys.  You can kind of see his legs sticking out.  We love you Nana and Papa!

Sunscreen

As I continue to navigate the world of "safe" products for our bodies I came across this website.  I really like this site and look to it often for information.  As we begin to buy sunscreens for summer I'd recommend you look at the link below to find a safe product for your little ones and yourself.  Just because the products at Target etc. say "baby" on them does not mean they are safe at all.  The list of toxic chemicals in them are just as bad as the regular sunscreens.

http://safemama.com/cheatsheets/sunscreen/

One of my favorite sunscreens is Blue Lizard.  It has a very low rating by the EWG and works great. I've used it the past couple summers and found it at most CVS stores.

Hard Work

The boys worked so hard on the Happy Birthday Banner for Daddy.  We were home sick with pneumonia and it was a perfect time to create.  I was proud of their efforts and creativity.

Owen loves glue.  He doesn't necessarily like to glue things on to paper, just likes to glue.  This time he did glue pictures on the banner though.

Owen's picture collage.

Chase drew this picture of Daddy.  He wanted some help with the eyes, nose and buttons.  He also glued on the night cut outs.  What a great job!

I found some monkey, tree and banana stickers and Chase worked very hard, all by himelf, to peel the backing off.

Proud Chase and his work.

Proud boys. Owen, on the left, wanted to make "brown" for Daddy. So he took all the colors, mixed them together and made brown on the left under Happy.  He also drew a balloon around the "B", and made the "I".  Chase made the "T H". 

Daddy's Birthday

We had fun celebrating Jeff's birthday on Saturday.  The boys were especially excited and thought each day this past week was his birthday.  I bought a little gift on Saturday and showed it to Owen, asking him to not tell Daddy.  Sure enough the minute I walked away he told him.  Jeff couldn't understand him, but later in the week at bedtime Owen told him again.  "We got you golf balls."  So funny.  Chase and Owen were excited to have a "big cake", which is what they wanted and thought of when they heard it was Daddy's birthday.  When we were home sick on Thursday they spent a lot of time working on the birthday banner for him.

And Again!

Pneumonia, take 3.  Chase has it again.  Man it's been a long 15 hours.  I was up 5 times in the night with him so neither of us slept.  Been at the Dr./Pharmacy for the last 2 hours with one super energetic boy and one coughing/crying boy.  I'm about ready for the funny farm.

Pneumonia Take Two

Saturday Owen started coughing and I knew, from the sound of it, that he had pneumonia too.  Sunday we headed to the Dr. and got the diagnosis.  He's doing better now and did so great with the nebulizer!

Story Telling at Dinner Time

Lately at dinner Chase and Owen have enjoyed it when Daddy tells them stories.  Sometimes, actually most of the time, they want a "spooky" story.  I love the way Chase looks at Jeff in these pictures-in anticipation of his next word and with such interest.  Owen was sitting by me and didn't get in on the picture taking action, but he was just as enthralled. 

I think he's actually coughing in this one.

Sick Day

A couple weeks ago on Friday we had a sick day.  Chase had been up the entire night coughing non stop.  It was really hard to listen to and know I could do nothing to help.  Even though he did not have a fever and had not had the cough very long we stayed home and I took him to the Dr.  Turns out he had pneumonia!  Good thing I took him in, he was pretty sick.  

Prior to going to the Dr. we had a chance to try out our new umbrellas in the light rain.  We even took a little walk down the street, until it got too windy.

Walking around the flower bed.

Chasey still isn't feeling so great.

Owen's not so sure about things.

Chase is still not feeling the best.

Owen peers up

Our First Ever Soccer Practice!

Soccer on Wednesday was great!  The boys loved it and were sooooo cute!.  Jeff and I stood there and were just so amazed that we were already at our kids' first sports event!  They had great ball dribbling skills.  They got a little tired at the end-it was 45 minutes.  C and O are the youngest and smallest.  There is 1 other boy and 3 girls.  One girl wouldn't even go on the field so was so shy.  It's going to be very very funny.  There were hundreds of kids and hundreds of balls being dribbled all over the place. It's amazing the kids kept track of their balls!

 When we arrived at practice we had to search for our coach. We asked about 3 different guys in red hats if they were out coach before finding ours.  The uniforms were laid out for each player and we found Chase and Owen's with their names on the back!  So cute!   Chase and Owen wanted to put the uniforms on right away-over all their clothes.  Then we had to put on their shin guards under their huge socks, the looked very professional and they loved it!

 Two proud boys and a proud Daddy

 The coach got everyone in a circle.  They shared their name, how old they were, etc.  The boys did well, although Owen was shy and put his head down while talking.  The coach asked the next boy in line if he was ready to have fun and the boy said, yes and then Owen yelled, "Me too!"

 Chase takes off and dribbles around the field.

 Owen and Chase watch a teammate

 Chase was learning how to put his foot on the ball like the other kids in the group.

 Now all the boys try.

 Of course there was some silliness on the field by Owen

 Owen dribbles the ball toward the goal.

 Chase gets ready to kick.

 After making a goal of course you must go into the net to get the ball out!

 We had a little scrimmage and the boys were the blue jersies.  They stood there so cute!  We told them to block the goal so no balls could go in.  After saying that, all 3, a the same time, went and stood right in front of the goal.  All the parents laughed and laughed.

Team huddle at the end of practice.

Little Boys Big Beds

Owen is such a cute little boy in his big bed!

He LOVES to read books at night to himself.  This night he was reading "Little Quack" to himself. I could hear him "reading" and then he was laughing hysterically.  I laughed outside his room until he heard me! :)  Every night Owen has to take one of the books we read that night into his room.  He looks at it and sleeps with it in his bed.  Owen loves to have all his "amals" in his bed in a "pile".

This is Chase all cuddled up in his room.  He sleeps in such a tight little ball.  He loves all his animals and many blankets in his bed, too.

Now he knows I'm taking pictures and he's trying to act like he's sleeping.  He must have his "pecial anmals" by him-giraffe, fish and frog, and of course 2 blankeys.  He doesn't like the covers on him most nights and now prefers to wear socks.