One more thing...

Please join us in praying for a very special family who is in the process of adopting from Haiti. They have been in this process now for about 2 years, and hopefully are in the last stage before they can go get their sweet boy Stevenson. There have been so many obstacles along the way but it is possible he could be home by Mother's Day. Please keep them in your prayers. If you would like to read up on this amazing family you can go to http://www.onecrowdedhouse.blogspot.com

Blogging break...

Marcus

Carson...messy face and all
Cole being shy

We've been busy packing and getting ready to leave for Levi's clinical rotation next week. We're looking forward to a change of pace and seeing family and friends in Kirksville. The boys have been a "handful", to say the least, this week so I'm praying that doing different stuff and seeing other people they know will kind of help with the behavior. We're doing ok, but it's really been a very trying time this working on discipline thing... Every time I feel my patience wearing thin I just have to stop and pray.

Levi's finals all went well, he has one more in the morning before we leave. We are so thankful that the semester ended up going well despite lots of sickness with the kids and a short stay in the hospital. God has shown so much mercy toward us and allowed Levi to stay very focused.

Picnic's and Parks

Carson swinging
Cole enjoying the nice day
Marcus
Cool dude enjoying his picnic on the patio
Carson
Cole and Carson
Marcus

Levi spent the morning studying for his Physiology final that is on Monday. Then we spent the rest of the day doing fun things. We had some really great weather today, so much so that when I came back from the gym around noon Levi and Marcus were out on the patio soaking in some sun! Actually they had been playing pretty hard in the backyard and were hot. Marcus decided he'd have his lunch out there like a picnic. After the boys naps we ran some errands and then took the kids to the park. It was pretty crowded, but most of the parks were today. The boys had a lot of fun and then Daddy took us all out to dinner afterwards.

Everyone's feet are growing fast and furious, so we went through the closets today to see what was needed. With shoes being shifted from Marcus closet to the boys, it seemed like the twins were ok on shoes for now. Marcus however needed a new pair of tennis shoes, so we got those today at Kohls. We have several pair of shoes the twins have outgrown now to take down to Kirksville next week for Ryan. (or baby Ryan as Marcus still calls him)

Taking Turns

Well last week it was Cole who was running fevers. This week it's Carson's turn. I think in both cases it's just teething as their doesn't seem to be anything else really going on. It was a long night last night with Carson. Hopefully he'll be back to his cheery little self before too long! We're working hard to keep him extra hydrated since he seems to go from good to bad really quickly.

Levi has class the rest of this week and then all of next week, then he will be done with the spring semester! Yeah!! With Carson being in the hospital in February and about a month of sickness including the other two boys it has been a "trying time" to say the least. It was amazing to see Levi's diligence to study and try to stay on top of things, all the while being there every moment for his family. God has been so gracious to get him through these tough times. Yesterday he and Tom finished their first two chapters of their thesis. He's been spending every extra moment working on that, the first two chapters due next week, but the whole thesis isn't due until just before graduation. (the good thing about that is he still has two years to get it done...the bad thing about it is that he still has two years to get it done!) :()

At the end of next week we'll be heading to Kirksville for another week long clinical before the summer semester starts the first full week in May. I can't believe how fast time has flown by here! The summer will be here and gone before we know it!

Get that out of your mouth young man!

So, we took the boys to the zoo yesterday...  It was a really nice day out and they  (we) really needed to get out of the house! We kind of had a "weekend of discipline" shall we say...  I think we all needed a break and needed to get out and enjoy the nice weather while we had it.  It was fun watching the twins enjoy the animals.  Last summer when we would go they would just sit in their stroller and not really care where we were or what was going on.  Now that they are older they are recognizing some of the animals and like to look at them, and occasionally get out of their stroller and run around.  Marcus was VERY excited to go to the kids petting zoo and feed the horses and goats.   Levi got some food out of the machine and gave some to each boy.  Marcus did fine, and Carson laughed and giggled the whole time.  Cole however, was getting ready to feed a goat then decided "why should I give him this food when I can eat it myself?"  YUCK!!!!  That's right, he pushed that goats face to the side and popped it in his own mouth!  I was mortified!  Levi did a quick finger sweep to get it out and laughed uncontrollably about it.  It wasn't long after that ordeal that we decided if Cole was hungry enough to eat goat food we better get them all home and feed them dinner.  Around the house right now, he's known as "goat boy".

It's kind of funny.  I have always noticed when we are out in public that people will say things like "oh look at those twins" or  actually come up to us and ask us questions about them.  Well lately since the twins have grown quite a bit taller I have had people ask if they are triplets (seeing them with Marcus)!!  Or, they will come up and ask, "now how much age difference is there between the boys?"  I think it's hilarious, and when they were all running around through the zoo yesterday with their hoodies on (not the same hoodies but still hoodies) I had to agree, they did look like triplets.

It was a fun afternoon, and we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves which was kind of neat too!

Growing and Getting MORE Ornery

When the snow started yesterday

Loves to play with cars
Smiles!
Being boys, jumping off everything in sight
Watching WordWorld
Cheese!
GOTCHA!!! I scared them to death when I came around the corner to find their latest plan. Cole

Marcus
Having fun with Dad!
Carson
Big boy pants and shoes!

Ok, so I was wrong about not getting anymore snow...we were under a Blizzard Advisory from yesterday until tonight at 7pm!!! I think it's so crazy to get snow in mid April, let alone blizzard white out conditions...but the bright side, which I usually tend to look at, is that it will be in the 60's next week!

I got a phone call from my Mom last night and she sounded kind of sad and missing her boys! SO, Mom here are a bunch of pic's of the past week...the week flew by so I kind of got behind on blogging. I had big plans of getting my house spotless and the laundry all caught up. I did get the laundry all done, but not so much the house clean. I'll work on that today. Cole has had fevers most of the week, no other symptoms or problems, so he has wanted to be held ALOT. I feel sometimes like I have a growth on me...and then I look and it's a little boy. He has stuck to me like glue this week. I don't mind though! :) Anyway, the fevers seem to be subsiding, I think it's teething since he just crys when we brush his teeth this week. Now that he's feeling better he and his partner in crime are back at their mischievous ways...ornery as ever! This morning I caught them dragging their high chairs over to the refrigerator to play with magnets...not such a bad thing, but next I can see them climbing on the counter tops! Oh, well, that's good incentive for me to keep my counter tops cleaned off.

My weekly story on Marcus is that he's become my personal trainer of sorts...One day this week when I got back from the gym I was doing sit ups in the family room. I finished my first set and let out a groan. He rushed over to me and said, "Mommy, that's not how Daddy doos it!" He proceeded to tell me that I should put one leg out straight and do the sit ups to my side...That kid is a wealth of knowledge...because that hurt too! :)

On Sunday we woke up and Cole apparently grew overnight. None of his pants fit him, nor shoes...luckily he has an older brother so we went into Marcus closet and got out some shoes (which fit Cole perfectly) and I dug out some 2T pants! (Carson is still in his 12 month pants) At this rate, I figure Cole will out grow Marcus in shoe size within 6 months. It hurts to see my babies not look like babies anymore...

Beautiful weather!!!

Both Friday and Saturday we had beautiful weather here...FINALLY!!! :) We're hoping the snow storm we had on Tuesday was the last one for the season, but you never know. Although it's windy out here on the little prairie, it was warm enough to break out of the house and get some playtime in! The boys LOVED running around in our backyard and kicking the ball around. Here are a some pic's of the action.

Spaghetti-O's and 1yr olds...

Ok, so I'm embarrassed to admit this, but the twins (20 months) are just now learning to eat with a spoon by themselves...I feared that my lack of wanting to clean up messes was probably getting in the way of some pretty serious milestones they should be reaching! SO, for the past few days we have been working on using a spoon. Surprisingly they are fairly neat little eaters. Today we tackled spaghetti-O's. Yes there were a few messes, but that's just something this Mommy needs to get used to...it's either that or I can still be feeding them when they are 15 because I made them miss that "window" of opportunity. Here's a few pic's of todays "opportunity".