You're not my friend anymore!

a) My feelings towards Mother Nature b) Blake's reaction after a round of his little brother's mischief c) all of the above!

We are SO over winter. Seriously, how could Mother Nature grant us a week of 40-50 degree temps that melted 99% of the remainder of the 80+ inches of snow we have gotten this winter and then send us 6 more inches of heavy, wet, icy snow? The phrase "adding insult to injury" pretty much sums it up. Because we now have an hour of so of sunshine in the evening now, the boys did take advantage of what will hopefully be our last sledding opportunity this winter. But, like always, we have plenty of things to keep us busy and laughing... Kurt and I have deemed this year our "country concert tour". There have been so many great acts coming to MSP this winter/spring that we did not want to miss. We kicked it off with Kurt's Christmas present to me, which was a January Rascal Flatts concert...they are my FAVORITE band!! It was an awesome concert - we've seen them 3 times and they just keep getting better. Then this Friday was my birthday present...Kenny Chesney. Best.Concert.Ever. Seriously, even if you loathe country music, you cannot deny that this guy can put on a show. We were so lucky that it happened to be his birthday the next day, so at about 10:45 he says to the crowd "the playlist is pretty much done but let's keep this party going to ring in my birthday" (or something like that). So he played until midnight! No one sat down for 3 straight hours...so much fun! For Kurt's birthday we are going to see Sugarland and then the next show stopper (I guess we could say this one is my Mother's Day present) is 14th row floor to see TIM MCGRAW!!!!

Enough about us...the boys. Oh, the boys. Silly, sassy, smart, lovable, the absolute apples of our eyes. Blake has had a big month - kindergarten orientation (including a bus ride - aka very big deal), swim lessons starting up (no floatie swimming), summer soccer sign up (he's dying to buy knee pads), Disney on Ice, his first sleep over (Aleksandra's house) and so on. He's so funny, last night he got mad at us about something and exclaimed "I'm not living in this house anymore!" Kurt told him he could go sleep outside then. Blake quickly changed his mind. Later he got mad about being disciplined for kicking his brother and told us he "hates living in this house." That was hard to hear and he started crying when he said it, so we calmed down and when I asked him why he would say that he said he really "hates living in this house with Luke." Ahhh mystery solved. They are night and day, water and oil, fire and ice...you name it, but we talked about why Luke wants to always be around him and why they are both so special. And I told him he could sleep in our bed for the night...now he likes living here again. :) He's such a little sweetie, always dancing, hopping, singing, imagining all sorts of wild adventures with pirates/knights/princes. He has discovered Scooby Doo, loves Peeps Yellow Bunnies (he's a Grady through and through), and is built just like his mama when I was little.

Luke - our sweet little stinker. That pretty much sums it up. He can be such a little lovey one minute and then such a stinker the next. He has totally got us figured out! He has started this "No I want Mommy, you go away" thing with Kurt that really pushes buttons! I remember Blake going through a stage where he only wanted Daddy, but Luke adds so much attitude to it. He knows every single button there is to push with Blake and he pushes them CONSTANTLY! He is rough and tumble...he loves to play tackle, hide & seek, chase, wrestling, etc. Still loves to play with cars and trains and most notably - my princess Barbie. He carries her around and sleeps with her too. He will also tell you his favorite color is pink! He talks non-stop and like Blake, unfortunately only has one volume - really loud! He will do just about the opposite of every you say to him so reverse psychology works pretty well. He's still a good sleeper (though read the previous post to learn about his new bedtime ritual) and a fantastic eater. I love hearing him say "You play with me, Mommy?" He loves one on one time with us and we are trying to do a better job of giving it to him. He does not have quite the same sweet tooth that his brother does, BUT he made my day when I discovered that he loves chocolate covered marshmallow eggs as much as I do (Mammaw & Pappaw - take note of that one)!! That's it for now! Hopefully the next post will be of lovely spring flowers blooming in my yard! I won't hold my breath...

"I do it ALL by MYself"

In an effort to express his budding independence, Luke has started taking his diaper off at bedtime to show us that he indeed can do it ALL by himself! Every night for the last few months, within the first 1/2 hour or so of being left to his own devices in his crib...the diaper comes off. You can't go in right away and put it back on or it will come right back off. So you have to be strategic about the timing. We learned (yes, the hard way) that we have about 45 minutes to an hour to get the diaper back on before he pees the bed. So here are a few embarassing shots of my sweet little man so that we (and I mean "he) will always remember this phase!

Spontaneous Combustion

Well had we spent ANOTHER cold, snowy, winter weekend indoors we probably would have spontaneously combusted...BUT instead we decided last Friday night to head to Duluth on Saturday morning and spend the night. Our little spontaneous adventure! It was quite chilly, but sunny and made for a pretty 2 1/2 hour drive up north - yes, further north. It was pretty neat to see Lake Superior frozen over. We went to the Aquarium there, out to a nice lunch and then back to the hotel for some swimming. The hotel had a heated indoor pool, a hot tub and an outdoor rooftop pool that is heated quite nicely. We hit up all 3! The run between the door and the pool was enough to make you catch your breath, but the pool itself was the perfect temperature! Sunday morning we hit all 3 pools again and this time we wisened up and had the boys wear their hats in the outdoor pool to keep them warmer. We had a great time...even Molly came with us and enjoyed her little adventure.