Having A Blast Tubing

This is Trey on his very first tube ride! He thought he was the coolest! Our neighbors have been taking us boating nearly everyday and this last time we got to go tubing. Trey was so pumped up. They taught him all the signals for faster, slower, and stop. He did great, his smile got bigger the faster we went. He was comfortable enough to wave at the ladies (Mrs. Janet and Mrs. Deb our neighbors) on their decks when he passed by them. Dad and I were filled with pride to see how well Trey handled himself on the tube. He had great self-control and followed all the rules. We are amazed to watch a moment like this and see how much he has grown and our confidence in him can began to grow too.
Here are all 3 boys on the big tube. Dad had them both between his arms and did receive a few bumps to the jaw when the tube went over the wakes:) Taatjes was yelling "faster" the whole time! This tube is not going as fast as it looks in the picture. Just fast enough for the boys to feel like they are crazy strong boys for holding on the entire ride. Dad had to pry apart Taatjes hands from the handles when they stopped he had such a tight grip on them. Again, what a blast...yes I did get a ride all by myself:)

trey's video

Enjoy the new video functions.....

Swimming

These boys are wild. Its all belly flops and cannon balls into our little pool.

6 Months Old and 7 Teeth

Yes, he has 4 up top and 3 on the bottom with one on the way. Yes, it is June and he is wearing a hat with a sweatshirt. (60 degrees with no sun)

Teaching Little Brother

Taatjes couldn't be happier in moments like this. Having his big brother giving him a ride on his bike was both a surprise and a pleasure. Taatjes has his own tricycle and is reminded daily that the tricycle is his bike and Trey has a big bike now. But, "when you turn 4 you can have a big bike like mine". So to go outside and have Trey offer him a ride on the big bike was great! They both had a blast pushing and getting pushed all around the drive way. A rare sight that I had to record so I can prove to them during the rougher times of the teenage years how much they loved each other:)

A little 4 letter word

Our home has a little four letter word floating around. When it is said it is followed by squeals of joy and laughter. No matter what the punishment for saying it our boys cannot seem to keep it inside their little mouths. One of their favorite places to use this word is in the car when they have a captive audience. Spelling this word repeatedly will bring instant craziness to any 2 year old boys countenance. They feed off each other and I fear it will never go away. So what is this four letter word that comes with wild eyes of excitement whenever it is uttered...POOP! Yes, they are even saying it right now as they dance around me at the computer, aaaahhhh. Taatjes does not know how to spell any word except p-o-o-p. Trey was so proud of himself when he taught his brother how to spell this fun little word. "Mommy aren't I being a responsible big brother and teaching Taatjes how to spell." Yes and No. I know this is only the beginning of such battles to teach them that this is not a kind word when directed at someone or shouted for the fun of it. I fear what kind of words will be coming out of Teagues mouth when he starts to talk:( This is what stay at home parents are referring to when they say they have no adult conversation.

No More Naps

Trey is so excited that he does not have to nap anymore. He is signed up for school in the afternoons next year and we are seeing how he does without his afternoon naps. Here is a good picture of what has happened a few times now. Dad discovered him yesterday when he came home from work:) He was running around banging into everything and everyone. I sent him into his room to calm down and wait for Dad to come home and deal with him (I was done). Well at least he calmed down.

The Swingset is Full

It has been great to be able to play outside again. My arms are getting a good workout from pushing all 3 on the swings at one time.

Tip

Yes, peanut butter does work to remove gum from your child's hair! Trey decided to roll his gum through his hair and it got stuck right on the front of his hair. I did not have time to take a picture because he kept rolling it to try to get it out and he said it was hurting his head. So... I got out the peanut butter, slapped it on his head and eventually worked it out of his hair. He thought it was awesome that he got to have peanut butter in his hair! Let's just hope he doesn't remember this clever trick for himself. I was picturing my future; walking into the kitchen to find Taatjes covered in peanut butter, as Trey giggled while I gooped the peanut butter through his hair.

"Kids Say The Darndest Things"

I just had to share some of the little funny things that Trey comes up with.
Trey: "Mommy you should give Taatjes and me a treat today." Me: "Why is that?"
Trey: "Because today Taatjes and I love each other and we should really get a treat for doing that."
Trey: "Why are you and Daddy married." Dad: "Because mommy and daddy love each other." Trey: "I want to get married some day." Dad: "Who are you going to get married to?"
Trey: "Mommy" Dad: "You can't marry mommy, I am married to her."
Trey: "Ok, I want to grow up and get married to Taatjes!!!"

"A sign of the times." Trey has a little notepad that he carries around and calls it his blog. When he does something like ride his bike or come home from school he says; "I am going to go write that in my blog." He is always listening and paying attention to everything going on in our home. Taatjes also has his magna doodle that he refers to as his blog and then scribbles all over it.
One more...If I am not outgoing enough Trey will ensure that I step it up. When we are outside playing in the drive way we have to say "Hi" to every neighbor who comes outside and any person who happens to walk by our house. This frequently gets me into long conversations while he heads off to ride his bike and play. We often get into it out front because I won't let him walk around door to door and see how our neighbors are doing for that day:)

Preschool Castle

I love Trey's preschool! They learned about recycling last week; of which I am constantly being informed to recycle all our trash. ("Mom make sure you put that milk bottle in the recycling bin not the trash can." It's great.) All the kids brought in 3 boxes from home to make a castle at school. They taped all their boxes into a giant castle that they could play in. It was awesome. When I went in Trey's room to pick him up all the kids where so proud of the castle they made. They kept it up for the week and played non-stop in it. It took up the entire back half of the class room. Trey is all about building castles at home now. Every Costco Huggies box I have has been turned into parts of his castle. Taatjes is digging it too. Again, I just love his school. This week they are learning about insects and all day yesterday we had to hunt for bugs. Trey learned that an ant can carry 100 times his weight. He asked me if I would pretend to be an ant and carry our car instead of drive it:)

5 months

Teague is such an awesome baby! We all just love him to peices. He doesn't do much but he does love to laugh at his brothers crazy little voices that they come up with to entertain him. He roles around all over the house to get closer to where they are playing. He loves to eat his baby food when his brothers are eating. Most of it ends up drooling out while he smiles and laughs at them. And of course, his brothers are crazy about him and have to know why he does every little thing he does. If Teague starts to get upset you will find Trey and Taatjes running to his side to comfort him and tell him, "its ok your mommy is coming". Life is good for Teague and I think he will soon be trying to crawl and keep up with his big brothers. He has no problem matching the intensity of their shouting already. It is such fun having yet another personality enter in to our lives.

Good...Good...Done:(

New Bike

Trey is so proud of his new bike. He earned it all himself by doing everything on his list. It took him 2 weeks to fill in every smiley face on this chart but he completed it. He loved dusting, I was the one who had a hard time watching him move vases and books around to get all the dust behind them. The sharing toys was a hard column to fill, it took the entire 2 weeks and a little reminding that he did not have so many smiley faces filled in to get it done. But...here he is all smiles after we brought the bike home that he picked out. He told the cashier that he did lots of hard work to earn his bike:)

Let Me Help Myself

This is at Nana B's house over Easter. Dad found him in the kitchen all by himself eating his second helping of breakfast. Taatjes being a second child has learned from big brother how to help himself to all sorts of things he desires. While at times it can make for this kind of mess; other times it is great to have a self sufficient toddler. (He gets himself dressed and can put his own coat on. He refuses to let me help him.) Yes, that is snow you see through the window on the ground Easter morning.

Piece:"Its Raining Sugar" By:Trey

More of FL

Here are a few more pics from Florida. We stayed with our friends from TU the Wolgemuths! We all loved swimming in their pool, hunting lizards, and eating fresh grapefruit from their grapefruit tree. It was a good to get down to the sun a relax.

Disney

We had great time at Disney. Our boys were overwhelmed with the fun that awaited them around every corner. They went on a Safari, saw the Nemo musical (a favorite of the day), watched a parade, and were in awe of amazing fireworks. Trey tells everyone that Pluto came up to him during the parade to say "hi". Taatjes loves to tell everyone he touched Mickeys nose. To no ones surprise Trey hid in the corner when we meet Mickey. We waited in line all that time because he said he wanted to meet him and when his moment came he refused to leave his new found safe heaven...the corner of the room far away from Mickey. We all loved it. We went with our friends the Waters and the Cubba's. This made it all the more fun and allowed us grown-ups to ride Everest multiple times!!! I am already a huge fireworks fan and Disney's were truly magical. My favorite part for sure.

The Sights

The Rides

Safari, Triceratops, Racing, and Dinosaur...

Turkey Leg...Yum!

There is nothing like watching a friend bite into a big ol' turkey leg while enjoying a beautiful Disney parade. Really its a paradox of worlds. (Ha Ha) This is one of our friends we went to Disney with, Cubba. Cubba and his wife Chelsey are Disney experts and made our time at Disney a blast. We did Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. The boys are still asking if we can go back to Mickey's house. More pics to come. (Chris Cubba can be made available if you would enjoy your own personal Disney outing with him. )