"Best Christmas present ever!"

Santa did a good job this morning. Nate has already pronounced this the best Christmas ever. 

Kindle Fires for the two big boys, and a Batman train for Novak. 

Sorry for the blurry pics!  It was still dark out when I was trying to catch these moments!  

But what Novak wanted to do most this morning was to watch a show in his new chair from Becky and Josh. 

Merry Christmas to loved ones near and far...

Shadow?

Someone is a bit attached to his mom this morning. When I realized he hadn't strayed more than three feet from my side, I decided to grab my phone and prove it. 

(He also loves the Rudolph Golden Book.)

Bookworm

This is a pretty common sight in our house, even at 6:15 am. 

Contortionist

Apparently this is a comfortable position for watching PBS Kids videos on the iPad. 

Playdoh, the greatest toy ever?

It's not often that we see all three boys playing together. 

Halloween part two

This is a picture from when Tom took the boys over to our friends' house. I wanted to capture Nile actually wearing his mask. :)

Halloween "fun"

Yes, the "fun" is supposed to be in quotes. 

We had a fairly good Halloween. The two older boys were feeling fine and enjoyed trick-or-treating. Nile wouldn't wear his mask, so unfortunately his "shadow" costume became a kid in a black sweatsuit. But luckily people are pretty forgiving. Nate avoided looking like a priest (or a member of a certain racist group) when he finally was able to overcome the itchy beard and wig. Welcome Gandalf!

Novak wasn't very into Halloween this year. After wearing his Green Lantern mask all morning last Friday, he hadn't wanted to wear it since. Plus, he wasn't feeling well this week. So after three or four houses he was done and ready to go home. 

We had been invited to.a party at our friends' house, but we decided Novak wasn't up for it, and so I stayed home with him while Tom took the older two to the party. 

Later on I realized that trick or treating was still going on, and that Tom had left the candy outside. So I didn't even get to see any of the neighborhood kids. They just came by, picked up some candy, and left. Oops. 

So Halloween was fun this year for the older two boys.  For me it was kind of a drag. But there are plenty more years of Halloween to come, so I am not too worried about missing this one. 

Personalization?

When we saw this shirt at Old Navy this fall, we just had to buy it. 

"Mom!  It has my name on it!"

With a name like Nile, this is probably one of the few times that will happen. 

Morning joe

As Nate was making me a cup of coffee this morning, he paused for a second before dropping the pod into the Keurig.

"But mom, it's not 8:00 yet!"

Green Lantern in pjs

Today Novak gets to wear his costume to Gumdrops. I had been holding these back because I wanted to make sure they were still around for Halloween. So this morning I finally opened his mask and light up ring. I don't know if he will ever take them off...

Birthday photo follies

"Okay guys, before we cut mom's birthday cake, let's get a picture."

"Nile, look at Dad. Novak, look at Dad."

"Nile and Novak, look at Dad."

"Novak, look at Dad!"

"Nile!  Fine. That's enough. Mom can just pick one of those."

Snuggling by the fire

Someone isn't feeling quite right today. But he still is trying to enjoy a fire with the family. 

Painting

Rainy Sunday Morning

Back in mid-September, as we (finally) got a bit of rain, Novak snuggled in with me under a blanket in our recliner to read. 

45 minutes later...this is the pile of books we read. 

He loves books!

Fire Trucks!

Today at Gumdrops, the group went to the fire station for a tour. Novak was so excited for this today. I have never seen him so engaged with something. 

With the fire truck, before the firefighter arrived. 

He was up in front the whole time, and was constantly going up to talk to the firefighter. He asked to try on the mask:

He got up close when the firefighter put on all the gear:

And he even got to spray water from the fire hose:

He was officially in love with the fire truck:

When I asked him what the best part of the tour was, he answered, "spraying the water!"

Super blue morning

Batman mask, cape, and undies. 

Yeah, that's how we roll.

Quiet Friday evening

Someday I will look back at this photo and wonder how my boys were ever so small. 

They do love their superheroes. This is the beginning of the Justice League cartoon. 

Toothless

Look what Nile did this morning!

Yep, that's his first one. Looks an awful lot like Nate's first. 

Snubbed

This is not the response I am used to when asking Novak for a "morning hug."

Household helper?

"Mommy, I am helping with laundry!"

Spectacles

We reached the beginning of a new era today. Nate now needs glasses so we went shopping to pick out the frames. 

He was less than thrilled to stop trying on glasses for me to take his picture. But these are the frames we picked out. We also decided to opt for a second pair of sports frames so that these don't get broken in soccer. 

Doesn't he look older?  I can't get over how old he looks in this photo. 

Rip Van Novak

Look who just woke up from a three hour nap!

John Deere Harvester night at the ballpark

I woefully need to catch up on blog posts. Especially our vacation. But tonight I took the two older boys to a baseball game. 

John Deere Harvester Works offered free tickets to employees as a celebration of recent success. They also provided a free dinner. And...it was bobble head giveaway night!

Bye bye crib...hello big boy bed!

I'm so far behind on things this summer that I'll probably be posting in September about Nate's DNA experiment that we did in June...but I had to get this milestone up today.

Novak has a big boy bed!

My new bed!

Checking out the new bed.

Doesn't he look excited?

He slept in this bed all night last night without any trouble.  He didn't get up, didn't wake in the middle of the night crying, and didn't ask for his "binky" (his pacifier, which he has needed almost every night for his entire life).  

I'm a bit sad about this.  My baby is growing up, and although I know it's inevitable (and life continues to be much better the older and more mature he gets), it's still bittersweet.  There was a part of me last night that was hoping he would wake up crying for his binky - so that he wouldn't cross two milestones in the same night.  But this was just my mom instinct kicking in, the one that wants to cuddle my babies until they are 21.

And almost as if he could sense it, Novak just came in and crawled into my lap to give me a huge hug.  

"Mommy, I just need you."  

Okay, so I still have that....

And speaking of Popsicles...

You can't see how red his shorts and legs were...

Summer is...

Summer is...

Skinned knees

Popsicles

Dirty feet

Sticky fingers 

Stained shorts

Ice cream cones

Sandals

Baseball games

And it's only the second week of summer vacation!

Two wheels!

Tom just sent me this video. I actually cried a bit when I saw it...I'm so excited for him!

Color the Quads 2013

It seems like ages ago that I signed up Nate and I to run the first Color the Quads color run.  Finally today was the day.

I had signed Nate up for the 1 mile race, which was at 9 am.  I went with him, ready to run.  He had asked me before we left if I would run with him.  It turns out that he asked me because Tom told him to, when in reality, he wanted to run alone.

So Nate ran the mile run alone, and he did great!  He ended up running his fastest mile yet, in just over 9 minutes.  I was pretty proud of him, considering the tough hills and the unfamiliar neighborhood.

We ran into a few classmates before the race.

Coming into the finish.  

Some color splatters (it doesn't look nearly as colorful in the photos)

Colorful arms.  They were quite blue.

Before and After

After the race the two of us went to Brueggers to eat bagels.  He had to wash his hands here because when he touched the bagel, it turned blue!

Bagels afterwards 

My race didn't start until 4 pm, so we went home and I headed back to the race later with some friends.

Pre-race.  We got a little punchy with the color packets, so there's no picture of us all clean.

The adults got a lot more colorful.  I blame the sweat - it was a lot warmer at 4 pm, and the sun was out.  When the powder hits moisture, it turns into food coloring/dye, and my arms and face were bright blue.  I have a totally awful self portrait - I won't post it here because it just looks horrible.  Kelley got this photo of a few of us, and you can see how much color we "picked up."

Somehow I got a lot more yellow.

It was a lot of fun, I was a bit apprehensive about a 4 pm start, but it turned out okay.  And all the color came off with a bit of extra exfoliation, so I don't even look like I took a dive in a food coloring factory.