Precious Brothers

The boys finished their 6 weeks of karate on Saturday and they were both so excited to get a trophy. Their teacher mentioned that they might get one during the 1st class and Ryan and Luke have both asked about it several times since then. As soon as we got home, they both declared that they wanted to clean their trophies, so they each got a wet washcloth and went to town.

Art class is still going great for both boys. Greg and I were both very impressed with this last week's project - a clown. Their art teacher told us that the kids seemed to be getting a little bored with what she had been doing, so she brought a 1st grade project that day.

Ryan's clown - his best drawing yet, by far - I love the hair.

Luke's clown - I love his color choice.

Luke also made me this Valentine's card on Monday.

The inside of the card says "Dear Mama Please give me a baby bunny. Love Luke Ryan"

We all stayed home today and the boys entertained themselves by creating a new game with their scooters. Luke's Baby Tiger is on the wheel of Luke's scooter and Baby Tiger's Cousin is on Ryan's scooter - they raced around the house like this for much of the morning.


Videos of songs that they like to sing that they learned from school




We are looking forward to having Greg home this week - he has been gone 3 of the last 4 weeks. We plan on taking the boys somewhere fun tomorrow since we both have the day off - and the boys are anxious to get out of the house.

I discovered this week that Luke can read - I knew that he could recognize several words, but this week he showed us that he can read almost any 3 letter word that we put in front of him. Ryan is really close. He is good at sounding out the letters, but he doesn't quite put them together yet to form a word, instead he tries to guess what the word is based on the what he is sounding out (for example when he starts to read a word like cup, he sounds out each letter, but then guess cuddle). I am so impressed and proud of the both of them - they are now so excited about the idea of reading. As a fairly avid reader myself, I am thrilled.

Sledding and Other Things

After snow earlier this week and frigid cold temperatures last week, we were all anxious to get out of the house today and enjoy the near 60 degree temperatures. We took the boys to a nearby park with a sledding hill and they had an absolute blast.

The boys had fun sledding down the huge hill and didn't mind too much having to carry their sleds back to the top.

I went down a few times while Greg stayed at the top to push them down - except in this picture when Greg slid down to the car. We got the boys little sleds for Christmas that are big enough to sit on only. They don't quite have the hang of those yet because it requires balancing backwards some on your rear-end to make it go. I went down a few times on it - but the last time I hit a little snow jump and flew high enough in the air to come down hard on my tailbone - I am embarrassed to say that I have a sledding injury, but my butt really hurts. The boys have been really concerned about me and I've gotten a lot of "I love you, mama" and "I'm sorry that you hurt yourself" comments from them today, accompanied by a hug and kiss.



Greg is going out of town tomorrow for the week, so we celebrated our Valentine's dinner tonight, complete with a chocolate fondue dessert.

The boys are going to give their first class Valentine's cards tomorrow at school, so they spent some time today writing their name on a card for every student in their class.


Greg was out of town last week and didn't get home until late Friday night. When there is a night that he is out of town that doesn't fall on a school night, the boys and I have a date night. Friday night consisted of ordering pizza, making chocolate covered strawberries, watching a movie (Finding Nemo) and eating popcorn. They love these nights.

We got Ryan these robots for Christmas last year and he and Luke played with it occasionally. But they have recently moved them into the living room and they have had a good time challenging themselves by balancing the robots into different formations.


Luke made these little paper people a few weeks ago - it is his family (I'm the one with hair) and he wanted to frame it like we do with other family photos. He was so excited to go to Michaels a couple of weeks ago to find a frame and mat to fit all 4 of us. After I put it together in the frame I showed Luke and he said, "I love you Mama, you do the best things." He is such a sweet boy.

This is one he painted at school of me and him - it is now in my bedroom.

Ryan painted this on Friday - it is also one of me and him - I need to frame it, too (my favorite part is my big purple head).

I love my sweet boys. They are such great kids.

Snow/Cold Days and a Parade

We have had a great week. School has been canceled for the last 2 days due to cold weather (not snow, but I'll take it). I love snow days - I think of them as little unexpected bonus days when I get to stay home with no prior plans. The boys and I hung out together on Tuesday - we made cookies and I helped them create a fort. Greg took off today and we went to the pool - I think we all had a the best time. We went to a pool in Arvada that turned out to be near where we lived when we first moved to Colorado - I wish I had known about it then. It was such a great place - it had an inner-tube slide and a huge playground area for the boys. They had so much fun and they have told us several times today how much they loved it and can't want to go back - it also wore them out and they both fell asleep in the car on the way home.





The fort was a huge hit. Thank you mom for reminding me of doing this as a kid - it kept the boys occupied and peaceful for a few hours.

We haven't been outside much - the temperature has been well below zero for most of the last 2 days - but Ryan couldn't stand it anymore and this afternoon he headed out to his tractor.


Luke has a tendency of getting crazy schemes in his head that he doesn't let go - we usually let him go with it. His latest one was on Sunday when he decided that he wanted to have a parade. He spent part of Saturday and Sunday morning coming up with the things that he wanted in his parade. He told Greg that he was going to be clown. He found Greg's leather jacket and told him that was his silly clown coat and he also found a ball for his nose and a scarf to wear as a bow tie. He also went down to the basement Sunday morning and found a silly hat for him to wear. Ryan's job was to pull the wagon/float and blow his whistle, my job was to twirl a baton and his job was to lead the parade and play the drum.

After the parade, Luke was disappointed that no one came out to watch the parade - we told him everyone was watching from their windows.



What a great dad!


Video of the boys' karate class on Saturday. Greg was able to go this week - I think he found it pretty entertaining. He especially liked that this was something that the boys seemed to really love doing (unlike soccer in July).