First day of Kindergarten Eve

Tomorrow is the big day. Mike goes off to Kindergarten. I really can't believe it, although I guess in some respects I can.  Time has flown by the past almost 6 years since he was born, but yet it feels like he has been in our lives forever. He is so ready to go tomorrow. We went for his open house last week and he didn't want to leave. He's been begging to go back ever since and endlessly whining that this past week is taking forever. I'm sure we'll look back on this excitement and enthusiasm for school with longing when he gets older. People keep asking if I'm sad or if I'm going to cry. I really don't think so. We've been counting down this day for months and I know he's gonna love it.
I have been thinking about Will a lot lately too and how his life at home is going to change. For a long time I thought that Will was gonna be so lonely without Mike. I still think that sometimes, but now I believe he's going to be just fine. He plays so well by himself and just recently in the past couple weeks him and Mike have been fighting more and more when playing with each other. Mike has been getting really antsy and asking me what he can do with his time, while Will is nicely playing in the other room. I guess it's just time for a change.
Now onto a paragraph about Jack. Hmm....where do I start...oh, that's right, SLEEP. I'm being tortured with a non sleeper. Instead of better, he's been getting worse. Granted, he's got about 5 teeth poking through right now, but come on. The little insomniac wakes up every night screaming bloody murder. Sometimes, it's not even really night yet, it's only an hour after I lay him down. We've let him cry and cry, for hours on end. He is one persistent little guy. Last night, he's cried on and off from 1 am until 3 am. If I remember correctly (which believe me is hard to do these days) I finally caved and gave him a bottle at 3. Obviously, the totally wrong parenting move, rewarding 2 hours of crying with a bottle, but I was desperate for some sleep. And that's where Jack knows my weakness. He knows how much I adore and miss sleep. He just wears me right down until he gets what he wants. Though he is clingy, the good that comes along with that is a snuggle bunny. He really is a big sweetheart and as much as I curse his sleeping habits, he can light up my day with a big toothy smile and a hug.
Time for some pics from this week. First one is of Will's soccer team. Will is now obsessed with the minature trophy he got from Coach Tim. As I write this he is sleeping with it between his legs. This trophy also caused quite a ruckus with Mike who does not yet have a trophy to his name. He cried and cried b/c him and Jack are the only ones in the house that don't have trophies and how unfair that is. The second picture is of Mike, Will and Zach. Mike had his first "friend sleepover" this week on Monday night. Chris treated the boys to a backyard fire and roasting marshmallows. The third and fourth pictures are of earlier this evening. The boys had a great time on the slip n slide. Apparently it looked like so much fun, Jack wanted to get involved too. He crawled himself right over next to it and sat directly in the spray of the water. It didn't bother him one bit. He got drenched, but I think he loved hanging out with his brothers.
Well, that's all for tonight. It is now almost 9:30 and poor Mike is so excited for tomorrow he is having a really hard time falling asleep. I sure hope he doesn't fall asleep in school on his first day. :)

I haven't given up yet

I have not given up on my blog, although Chris thinks I have. I have so little time to myself and sometimes, ok most times, the blog entry is not the priority of my night. But, not to fear, I will do a full fledge post tonight.
So much to update on, but I have to pick and choose so as not to ramble on and on. One biggie is that we bought a boat! Woo hoo! It was a slightly sticky situation as it did not initally run, but now long story short it is running and we are going up to New Holstein (by Chris' mom and her boyfriend, Tom)  to pick it up this weekend. I'm so excited! I just really hope we aren't getting in over our heads with this whole boat thing. I love being out on the water and am looking forward to many summers spent on the lakes around Madison. Chris and I have A LOT to learn about boating and being boat owners so this weekend will be our chance to soak up as much knowledge as we can from Tom.
A couple weekends ago we went up to Pickerel for our now annual trip to Jill (my sister-in-law)'s family's cottage. We meet all of Chris' side of the family up there and spend the weekend fishing, boating, swimming and going for walks. It's definitely enjoyable, a bit stressful at times dealing with all the kids (6 in total with my nieces and nephew), but I always look forward to it.
Yesterday was my birthday. Another year down. 31. I was a little, ok I'm not gonna lie, a lot disappointed that I didn't get to do much of what I wanted to do for my "special day." I had to work and then the boys had a tee ball game. I did get to sneak a dinner at the Nitty Gritty in there so I was able to add to my collection of Gritty birthday mugs. Maybe I'm a little selfish, but I really enjoy it being "my" day. It only comes around once a year and I want to be able to do whatever I want all day long. Alright I'll stop my whining and move on.
My parents were here last weekend. We had a good time going to Governor Nelson beach and the Dane County Fair with them. It's fun to watch the kids look at all the animals, or in Will's case try and touch all the animals. I think the boys liked the chickens the best. They love trying to find as many eggs as they can. After the fair, the boys had their soccer games. I was so fearful that Will would not play because he had refused to even go on the field during practice the week before. In the end it was a great game and Will played awesome. I was so proud! He had 3 goals. Mike played well and also had 3 goals. What a great day to be watching soccer.
I should wrap this up, but one last tid bit. Mike's friend Zach and his mom came over tonight and we discovered that the boys were born 7 minutes apart on the same day in the same hospital. Zach is Mike's friend from daycare and we knew they had the same birthday, but to think that they were born so ridiculously close together is just crazy!
Ok, I'm done going on and on. Now for the pictures.The first couple come from one of our many zoo visits. Next are some of the Jack-eroo. The one where Will is looking extremely excited is when he caught a fish all by himself. He was so pumped! The one following that is of Mike and a dead fish he speared by the pier. He said he was just trying to clean up the water, after spearing at least 3.
One very last thing, I promise this time. Jack is crawling! He started crawling on Monday and is now an old pro. On that note. Good night!

I love summer

Now I already knew I loved summer. But just in the past week or so I realized all over again that I really really love summer. That are so many activities to do, even if it is just playing ball or swimming in the backyard.
We've recently discovered a new favorite spot. Governor Nelson State Park. It's fabulous. We've lived here for so long (going on 13 years for me minus the AZ and CA stints) and never knew it existed. Just in the past couple weeks we now have a WI state parks sticker and have gone to Nelson at least 4 times. What more could you want from a park and to have it only 20 minutes away, so wonderful. I took the boys there today for fishing, lunch and swimming. It was beautiful and high 80s outside. The boys swam in the lake and Jack and I sat in the sand. It wasn't super relaxing with Jack constantly trying to stick sand in his mouth, but fantastic none the less. I could go to the beach every day. There is something about warmth, sand and water that just makes me happy inside.
I want the summer to slow down. It is going way too fast. Last weekend we were back in LaCrosse because my brother and his family was back in town from Texas. It was so nice to see them. The kids got along great right from the start. Then after we came back to Madison on Sunday night Mike was crying in his bed because he missed Livi and Ella so bad already. It was incredibly sweet.

Well the night is getting away from me and I still have seriously, no lie, 7 loads of laundry to fold. I swear laundry is the bane of my existence. I will never be on top of laundry and I don't plan to try. I am throwing in the towel....but just not into the washing machine. :)
Thanks for checking in with us and have a great holiday weekend!

Just some pics

Not much of a blog post tonight. I know it's been a long time since my last one, but all I have time for is some pics. We went to Governor Nelson State Park yesterday for Father's Day. The boys went fishing and swimming and then we went on a mile "hike" in flip flops. As you can tell by the last picture Will was not a happy camper. He was soooo done with the trail.

Will's best day ever

Will told me earlier that "today was the best day ever." Now I've got you curious as to what the heck we did today. It was pretty darn fun, but I think Will is easily pleased regardless. Our adventure today started out with going to A&W in Windsor (not too far out of Madison). I can't remember the last time I've been to A&W. It's fabulous. Root beer floats in glass mugs. Awesome! The boys each got their own kids meal along with a float. They are used to sharing a meal so I think they felt pretty darn lucky.
Then from there we went on to Little Amerricka in Marshall, WI. It's an amusement park made for little kids. Pretty much heaven on earth for Mike and Will. Some of the rides required a "responsible rider" so Chris also got to partake in the fun. Jack and I hung out watching the boys and taking pictures. It was a beautiful, although quite hot, day out so I also worked on getting some shades of red in my skin. We spent 3 hours there and the boys went on roller coasters, a train ride, the ferris wheel, and countless other amusement park attractions. Because the park was pretty empty they almost never had to wait in line to get on anything.
Time well spent on this sunny day! Seeing their smiles and enthusiasm is priceless.
I posted some pics from today as well as pictures from Michael's preschool graduation day last Thursday. Who knew they had a graduation ceremony for preschoolers? They all got to wear hats and then they threw them up in the air at the end. Not too mention they marched into the classic graduation song. Crazy what they are doing so young now.
Thanks for checking in!

Hiatus is over

I guess I was on a blog posting hiatus. Stuff to write about, just no time to sit and do it. We've had some fun outings mixed in with an urgent care visit as well as new Jack sleeping revelations.
Might as well start out with Jack. He is currently taking his anti-reflux med and as of last week is sleeping in the crib, flat on his back for naptime and nighttime. That seems like such a victory at this point, but it doesn't mean he sleeps through the night. Oh no no....far from it. But at least he will sleep at stretches...with only some slight whimpers that just require a Nuk reinsertion for continued slumber. He eats 1-2 times a night and overall just seems better. Either that or I'm just getting accustomed to it and it feels normal to me now. Another thing to note is I have now weaned Jack and he is completely on formula. It was a decision I wrestled with for quite a while. Breastfeeding was going well, but I just didn't know how much he was getting. He still wanted to eat every 2-3 hours through the day and night. Of course I feel the maternal guilt of not giving him the best thing, but I also needed to get some sanity back. I justified it to myself that he got 5 months of breastmilk and that's gotta be good enough at this point. It feels so great to finally have my own body back after over a year of watching what I ate and drank wondering how it was going to effect him. Now I can drink Diet Mt Dew to my hearts content and know that I am only hurting myself with all the caffeine and aspartame and not some little person too.
Onto the Urgent Care visit, since I've left you hanging long enough. It was actually Chris that went. Jack is really grabby and "handsy" these days and gave Chris a nice scratch to the eyeball on Monday. It was a rough couple days around here with Chris being unable to see and also in a great deal of pain. He's doing better and only has slight blurriness in that eye now.
In general, we've had a busy couple weeks. Our time has been littered with daycare Spring Programs, softball games, soccer games, a Sassy Cow Creamery and farm visit, and multiple bbqs. It's enjoyable and I can foresee the summer coming and going in the blink of an eye. We need to try and enjoy every speck of warm weather we possibly can.
The first couple pictures below are at one of Chris' softball games. One is actually a scenery picture not a kid related one. Shocking I know. The middle ones are from our Sassy Cow Creamery visit. So glad the Nacks invited us along on this adventure. The kids were able to "milk" a fake cow, Mike was part of an ice cream eating contest, and Will was allowed to annoy hundreds of cows with his relentless urge to pet them all. The last pic is of Will's soccer team. He was not being cooperative and wouldn't stand by the rest of his team. Instead he was back in the goal, hanging from the net.
Till the next time I find a minute to post...toodles and have a great Memorial Day weekend!

The Rules

Mike and Will keep coming up with really fascinating things to do around the house. Most of them include using "white pieces of paper" to draw maps, books, pictures, etc. Well a couple days ago Mike decided he was going to use the paper to write rules for the house. This included drawing a picture for every rule, showing a stick person doing the rule with an "x" through them. Then he and Will hung them all over the house.  Some rules are reasonable, some are just ridiculous.
I have included the whole list of 16 (as dictated by Mike) so you can add a little humor in your day:
1. No reading books when there is a fire
2. No hitting computers
3. No hitting Zach (Zach is Mike's "pet" pterodactyl)
4. No smelling the flowers because you might tip it over
5. No tieing your feet
6. Never stand on the stools to get on the counter
7. No hitting the cabinets
8. No stuffed animals on the first floor
9. No playing on the first floor
10. No farting on someone  else
11. No standing on the rocking chair
12. No dancing on the first floor
13. Always do your jobs when someone asks you
14. No shooting "blazer" guns in Mater the fish's tank
15. No pooping on the floor
16. No sliding down the stairs cause you might hit your head on the last step

Amazing what little minds can come up with.

The boys both had soccer today. It was windy and not the warmest so Chris took each boy to their respective games. I missed seeing the boys in action, but it was also kind of nice to not have to get Jack all packed up for the games. Speaking of the Jackster. I started the Ranitidine (reflux med) last Tuesday. Apparently I should be able to tell a big difference in a week's time, so far nothing earth shattering has changed. He is back to sleeping 3 hours at a time so I should, at least, be thankful for that.
Katelyn came to visit on Saturday. We always love having her around. Despite the November-like temp we still managed a trip to the zoo.
The pics for this post include the "rule papers"  and pics from the warm weather we had this past week. Hope you had an enjoyable weekend. Thanks for checking in with us!