Our Boys!

It has been a while since I have done a quick update on just the boys! So here it goes!

Ethan: 

I can't believe Ethan will be 9 this summer. He is just looking so grown up it is crazy! He has finally started to get a little bit better with getting his homework done instead of fighting me on it. He is also getting a lot better with his reading. He is still not exactly where he should be but he has improved a lot. His teachers seemed pretty worried about how slow his progress was and we met a few months ago talking about if he needed even more interventions than he is already getting. He is still getting extra literacy help. He is such a smart kid so it was weird to have them mention possible special education help. He just didn't apply himself until this year. After the past couple of months he has gotten so much better at his reading though and I thing with a little more work and some tutoring over the summer he will catch up to his other class mates. Other than reading he does well in school. He was having a hard time in the beginning of the year with math but caught up in that area. He has become obsessed with basketball. That is all he wants to do these days. He plays knock out at school during recess and tells us about it each evening during dinner. That is normally what he mentions is either his good or bad thing for the day. He loves to play pig in the basement with his brothers and Dad. He still does not like to do chores on Saturdays and fights us on it a lot of the time. He will also still hit his brothers sometimes and boss them around. But, for the most part he is a really good big brother. He has also gotten really good at getting himself breakfast in the morning and has helped get Wyatt and Emmett breakfast too. Which is really nice! He is growing up so fast and we sure do love him! 

Wyatt: 

This kid has such a funny little personality. When he gets around his friends at school he has this cool dude persona that he gives off. He definitely likes to be funny and act cool around his friends. He loves basketball but not as much as watching movies still. He is my screen time fanatic. If there is anything on a screen he can't help but watch it. Whether it is watching his brother doing his reading game on the computer, something his Dad has playing on his phone, the nintendo or just TV in general he can't get enough. He still asks me almost everyday if he can watch something as soon as he gets home from school. Lately, he wants to watch something while he is eating lunch. Part of the problem is that I have not cared all that much how much they watch or play because I am tired. So I think I have helped feed the monster. haha Other than that he plays with Emmett and is doing really well in school. He is catching onto reading actually really well and is at or above where he should be with most things in school. Which is really nice to not have to worry about him. He actually wants to learn to read which is nice. He still likes to tell "stories". When we ask him what happened that day or ask him a question about something we have to ask him if it is real or just a story. He has gotten better but he still likes to alter the truth a little bit here and there. He does tell us that it is just a story after he tells it though. Which in the past we would have to ask him. haha He is such a funny kid and I can't believe how fast he is growing up either. 

Emmett: 

This little boys is finally sleeping through the night!!! I think that is the biggest thing I can say about him right now! haha Once we stuck him in the room with his brothers he started sleeping through the night. Maybe he was just getting scared being all by himself at night so he kept waking up and coming into our room so that he knew someone was there? I don't know! All I know is that we are so happy that he is finally sleeping through the night! He loves being in with his brothers. The morning before we moved him in with them he had gotten up super early and climbed into bed on the top bunk with Wyatt. When I made him get back into his own bed he started crying saying that he wanted his brothers. So we decided to try it out and he did great! It has been a miracle! After almost 4 years he is finally sleeping through the night! haha He has also started to actually play with his brothers well. He likes to play pretend with them and play hide and seek. He has also gotten into the nintendo and wii and they like playing that and taking turns together. He has started to buckle himself recently which is nice and likes playing basketball in the basement as well. He has become a little liar though which is not fun. I will ask him if he has washed his hands after he goes to the bathroom and he will tell me yes. Then when I tell him to come over so I can smell his hands he wont let me and will then tell me he didn't. We have had to threaten him with putting soap in his mouth many times. He has only gotten soap in his mouth once and that was for something entirely different. So he knows he doesn't like it and doesn't want it. So as soon as I tell him that he will get soap in his mouth if he is lying he changes his mind and tells the truth. Such a little stinker. He is a pretty timid little guy when it comes to new things and it is so cute when he is being shy. I think he is the most shy out of the 3 of them. He is signed up for preschool for next year so hopefully he enjoys it and isn't too nervous for it! I have started to work with him on his colors because he was messing those up still and he is almost 4. haha He loves doing his colors paper because it is an m&m paper and he gets to eat the m&m's when he is done. haha He still messes up on brown and yellow but he has gotten a lot better with them. Now to expand to other colors. haha We also are starting to work a little bit on his alphabet. We shall see how that goes!  I think that is him in a nutshell! We love our stubborn little Emmett!! 

Fun February

February went pretty well. It was pretty chilly outside but we didn't get much snow. The kids had their class Valentines parties and loved them. They got way too much candy! haha Ethan had his first and probably last pinewood derby for scouts, and the rest of the month we just tried to enjoy life. 

Ethan learned about the Romans at school and made his own toga! He thought it was the coolest thing. I think his was probably the longest out of his classmates. haha That is a huge pillowcase. haha 

With scouts ending after this year I am not sure if they will be doing a pinewood derby anymore. So this was probably Ethan's first and last pinewood derby race. He loved making his car with his Dad. It was the gold one. 

His car didn't win but he sure loved the way it looked.

Emmett took this picture of me! haha 

Then naturally he wanted a picture taken of himself too. 

Ethan's car raced twice and then was out after that. He was a little bit bummed that he didn't win but in the end was ok with it. 

While we finished up at the derby race Brandon took off to meet some friends in Denver at a basketball game. 

They got to sit in some pretty good seats to watch the Nuggets play. Our boys were a little jealous. They like going to the Nuggets games. 

So after 5 years of living in our house we finally decided to change up the boys room a little bit. With the next little brother on his way it was about time to move Emmett in with Ethan and Wyatt. Emmett was super excited about that. He couldn't wait to sleep in the same room as his brothers. So we decided to paint it and add some pictures of them. 

Here is the finished product. I took some new pictures of the boys so we could hang them up. Then we decided to add a vinyl saying onto the wall. I ask the boys every morning what they can do, to which they respond, "I can do hard things!" It has become a really good thing and so we figured it was only fitting to add that to the wall in their room. The vinyl was a pain in the royal behind to do. It took forever to figure out the cricuit cutter that I borrowed from my friend Deanna Ortiz and then once I did I had to get it on the transfer paper and then on the wall. It didn't want to stick onto the wall so it took me probably 20 minutes to slowly get it on the wall and off the transfer paper. Then after that I had to get my blow dryer out and heat up the letters and run a ball over the letters so that they would stick. It was a fiasco and I was beat afterwards. We were originally thinking of putting another quote on the opposite wall but after doing this one quote I decided it wasn't worth it. haha Even though it was a lot of work it turned out really cute and I am happy with the final product. The boys thought it was cool. Especially Emmett! He kept flipping out because there were words on the wall and that is said, "I can do hard things" haha Then we moved Emmett into the room and he was ecstatic about it. 

Sunday family home evening lessons have been so great. After the "come follow me" plan was put in motion by the church and church became 2 hours instead of 3 we have done our FHE lessons on Sunday instead of Monday. We get the kids all ready for church and then have our Family Home Evening. It has been so great!! The lesson manual is great to follow along with and gives us guidance on what to teach the kids. Which is actually really nice because before I was always just trying to think of what we should teach our boys each week for FHE. Having a little bit of structure and a plan is so nice! Brandon and I take turns each week with who gives the lesson and the kids have loved watching videos on the lesson and getting object lessons. I sure hope they remember these little lessons and that they help them throughout their lives. Anyways, so Sunday has become open FHE and have our lesson and then Monday is left for Family Fun Night. We have just loved this change! 

So this year for Wyatt's 100th day of school his class got to dress up as if they were 100 years old. Wyatt was so excited to dress up. 

He is a good looking old man! haha Since it wasn't Halloween time there was not much of a selection at Party City for making him look like an old man. So I found some white body paint and a cane and went with it. I used the body pain on his hair and face and then my eyebrow brush to add texture to his eyebrows and mustache. He loved it!! Then to finish it off I found our dollar store sun glasses and popped out the lenses. He was the best looking 100 year old in his class that is for sure! :-) 

We also officially bought a bean bag chair. Thank you Amazon! haha The kids LOVE it!! They jump on it all the time and when they are playing the Nintendo or wii they can lay on it. It has been a nice addition. Now we can all be up there and have a place to sit. 

Oh the dreaded glucose test. I also hit the point in pregnancy where I had to take the glucose test. I don't think it is super awful, just not the most enjoyable thing. haha I have now officially had all the flavors of this glucose drink. This time it was lemon lime. It tasted like a strong green otterpop. There are quite a few things that I am looking forward to not doing again and this is one of them! haha Thankfully, I past so I don't ever have to do that again! YAY!! 

I love being able to print off my blog and I hadn't printed it out in 2 years. So after getting a 50% off coupon I decided it was time. So I worked hard and got them all ready and ordered! 6 books in all for the 2 years! It is so fun looking through these books. The kids have been having fun looking at them and seeing when they were really little. 

Oh, did I mention that Wyatt broke our window in the basement? Ya.... they were playing basketball and some how he broke the window. Thankfully it was only 1 pane of it but, it was still broken. Brandon and I were upstairs chatting on the computer with family and then we heard a loud noise. Brandon went down to check it out and soon Emmett ran up to tell me to come look and that there was glass everywhere. Thankfully, no one got hurt and Brandon got it all cleaned up. They must have been throwing those balls really hard to break the window. After discussing how much it would probably cost us to replace it Wyatt decided that he would change 200 diapers when the baby arrives. haha DEAL! 😉

This is me at 26 weeks with baby #4! Can't wait to be done!! 

Valentines Day!

On Valentines Day this year I had a doctors appointment to go to in the morning. Emmett had to tag along with me so right after getting my check up I took him to Scheels to ride the ferris wheel. He loves riding the ferris wheel so I figured he would like doing that with just me. So that is exactly what we did. Since it was Valentines Day they gave us a token for free and the old man that was running it let us go around for like 10 minutes. It was really empty at scheels so he told Emmett that if he wanted to go again just to let him know. So by the time it was our time to get off Emmett would say, "Again" and the guy would let us go again. After saying that another time I told Emmett that we needed to be done and that he needed to make sure he said thank you to the nice man. So when we came back around Emmett yelled out to him, "THANK YOU!" haha It was pretty funny!! 

We also grabbed some cinnamon almonds to share and then went to did the mini bowling before heading out to go pick up Wyatt from school. 

Wyatt for some reason wanted a picture of his green tongue from his candy he got at his Valentines party. I guess I should be happy that they like taking pictures so much. They could be the opposite and it would be hard to ever get pictures of them. haha 

That evening after Brandon got home we headed out on a date. We went to Bad Daddy's burgers and then walked around Burlington Coat Factory and Target and bought some clothes for me and the boys. It was nice just to get out just us 2 for the evening. Happy Valentines to us! :-)  

Then the kids had a Monday where there was no school. It was pretty cold outside and I had spent some time getting a few things done in the morning. I decided I should do something fun with them on their day off so I made them get some homework stuff done and then we took off to go swimming at the Windsor Rec Center. I think everyone else thought going swimming was a good idea too because it was a packed house. I was worried a lot of the time that I was going to get kicked in the stomach by some kid. That and the hot tub was always packed and it seemed like every time me and the boys headed over there the life guards would tell everyone that there were too many people in the hot tub and 6 people needed to get out. Finally by the time we were going to leave I told the boys they could have 5 minutes in the hot tub and then we had to go home. As soon as we got in the hot tub the life guard came over and said some people needed to get out. This time I didn't make us get out. I had told the boys they could have 5 minutes and I was going to stand by that. haha So after 5 minutes were up we headed out and headed home. Even though it was super crowded the kids still had fun! 

Ethan also had a performance at school that we got to go see. He was really excited to sing and show us his songs. He is so funny though, he acts all excited telling us about it and then when he is up in front of everyone he keeps his hands in his pockets and barely cracks a smile. This time he couldn't help but smile when Emmett yelled out, "ETHAN!!" haha Emmett was so excited that he could see Ethan up there singing that he couldn't help but yell to him. haha 

Wyatt had a project on an Australian animal this year. He chose a kangaroo. He was so excited to learn about kangaroos and even more excited about how his clay kangaroo turned out. 

These 2 don't always get along the best but they can also be so sweet together. While Ethan was at basketball practice one evening I let Wyatt and Emmett watch a little bit of a show before putting them to bed. Emmett came right over to Wyatt and put his arm around him. It was so cute!! I sure do love these boys! 

Ethan loved basketball this year! It was way more intense this year because they allow the boys to steal the ball in 3rd grade but he loved it. He has gotten a lot better after this season too. 

We also all got our teeth cleaned in February. Brandon let me know that they had an open afternoon so I picked up Ethan early from school and all 4 of us got our teeth cleaned. It was Emmett's first time. He was a little shy and nervous at first but then he was fine and did a great job. He kept talking like a baby to the hygienist which was funny. Wyatt kept telling him to talk normal! haha

He looked so cute laying there keeping his mouth wide open. 

Then he sat and watched me get my teeth cleaned for a little bit. He couldn't watch me get my teeth cleaned without wearing his own mask and gloves. Although the gloves didn't last long before he took those off. haha Wyatt got some x-rays done for the first time too. Brandon wanted to make sure he wasn't missing teeth like Ethan. While I was getting my teeth cleaned I heard them cheer after getting his x-rays done. Yep, thats right no missing teeth for Wyatt! Ethan is only missing those front bottom 2 teeth. Which we are glad it is only those 2. 

All in all it was a good month!