Another Day at the Park...

Everytime we drive by the park by our house now, the boys either start whining or they just keep repeating "park, park!" So we decided to stop today since it was such a nice day...

The guys had lots of fun on the swings...

Conner insisted that Nick climb up on the ladybug while he rode the bee!

Nick got out one of his old race tracks tonight and the guys had tons of fun...

Another great Wednesday with my guys!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

The boy did a great rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes today!

After the boys ate their own dinner, they climbed up on Nick's lap and finished his too! Vultures...

Ben and Conner are enjoying stacking the big bricks... The most fun thing to do is knock them down though, of course!

The boys are riled up tonight!

Phone Frenzy...

Conner can get a little crazy when it comes to phones! Daddy was trying to text someone (he has somewhat of a problem when it comes to texting... proven by our huge cell phone bills lately) but Conner and Ben decided that they really needed some Daddy attention. So Conner attacked Nick by trying to crawl up his arm and Ben joined in by trying to get at Nick from the back! Smart kids... It was hilarious to watch! They never gave up and eventually Nick put the phone away!

Proof of Hail...

We had some pretty big hail here on Tuesday! Ben and I were at the hospital, but Nick was at home taking care of Conner that afternoon and snapped some pictures of the hail that fell in our yard! When we were released from the hospital on Wednesday, Nick couldn't wait to show me the hail that he had saved in our freezer!!! He said he saved because I wouldn't have believed him otherwise... probably true...

Flashback to the weekend!

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to get something on here from last weekend! We went to Bettendorf to celebrate Nick's birthday with Nana, Gramps, Cari, Curt, and Marley! Since we didn't have very good weather, we needed an indoor activity on Saturday so we decided to go to John Deere to play on the tractors! Very fun...

Ben climbs on up...


Conner drives...


Of course, the birthday boy had lots of fun too!


Marley enjoyed the tractors as well!

Conner wants up...

Had to get a tire picture... Nick and Ben were nice enough to oblige me... after that my camera died...

Happy Birthday Nick!

On the way home on Sunday, Ben decided to undress...

We had a great weekend! We also got to see Uncle Josh and Aunt Jenn on Sunday! We were all tired from partying all weekend, but it was worth it!

From our darkened room...

Well... it has been a while since our last hospital adventure so I guess we're due... Ben was really struggling to breathe well this morning so I took him to our doctor who told us that we needed to get to the hospital! His pulse ox was in the 85-89 range and that's not good. So Ben and I have spent our day here at our favorite hospital... I was hoping that we wouldn't have to spend the night but no such luck. Ben is doing a lot better though and he is sleeping peacefully now! (As is Nick who is currently snoring on the couch next to Ben's bed!) Again, I am touched by all the support we have around us. Thank you Peg and Brian for taking care of our Conner so we could both be with our Ben tonight. Thank you to our moms and dads who were ready to drop everything to come here and help us out. We are truly lucky... I love being able to say that when we are in the middle of a struggle... I feel like nothing can keep us down! Not even the power outage we are experiencing right at this moment at the hospital! Not kidding... power is coming from backup generators that are powering all the monitors and some of the lights! Amazing dumb luck...

So I am sitting here in our darkened room watching my son sleep and thanking God that I am able to watch Ben's tummy move up and down as it should when he breathes. That I can watch the numbers on his monitors stay in the ranges that they're supposed to. That I can listen to Ben take a breath so easily. That despite Ben's sickness, he had no seizures today. And that I can still feel lucky in our darkened hospital room... The great thing about days like this is knowing that there are a lot of better days to come...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy turns 33 today!!! He celebrated by spending his morning fishing, his afternoon napping, and his evening eating! Not too bad! Happy Birthday Honey!!!

When the time came for Nick to open some gifts, I'm not sure he actually got to open any of them... he had lots of help...




I was trying to get the boys to sing Happy Birthday... they loved blowing out the candles!

We had a great time tonight. However, we will think twice before giving the kids chocolate cake and ice cream after 7pm... Wow... crazy little people!

"Bun Bide" (Fun Slide!)

We asked the kids if they wanted to go back to the park today and play on the slides and Ben just kept saying "Bun Bide, Bun Bide!" So we went back to play on the fun slides...

Ben climbed the biggest slide first...


Conner went next...

Conner pushed Daddy and Ben on the merry go round...

One more slide before we leave!

Another very good time had by all!

Love the Park!

Yesterday we got to spend some time at the park and watch the boys play! I was a little nervous because I usually don't let them play on all the "big" equipment, but Dad was with us so we each took a kid and followed him around. Ben and Conner both loved the swings, the merry go round and especially the slides. They LOVED the big slides (which I had never let them go on before!) Nick is a little less nervous than I am about that stuff and wouldn't you know it, the boys survived!!! I see a lot of BIG slides in our future!

The boys started out a bit nervous about sitting on the swings by themselves, so Dad helped them out. Before we left, they were both doing it all by themselves and wanted to go higher!


Ben takes a turn with Daddy...


The merry go round was another new experience...


Conner can climb up on anything!


We are hoping to make another visit to the park this week, maybe even today... The good news is that I think we have our internet issues figured out now! The bad news is that our telephone line is now dead!!! What are the odds...

Painting and Playing...

Nick started vacation on Friday so we took advantage of his day off to get some more painting done and to let the boys get some playtime outside. The golf clubs made a brief appearance (before they got taken away!)



Nick works on some of the high stuff...



Done!



Ben lost the golf ball but found it in a big pile of dirt, which he of course had to play in next...



The boys kept driving their cars up to the other and leaning out the sides to talk to each other... pretty funny to listen them!

Ben wanted to help Dad so much! He didn't quite understand why he couldn't climb the ladder...

I was having flashbacks of Conner climbing out of his crib when he decided to go over the top of the playhouse!

We had a fun day on Friday! On Saturday, Grandma and Papa helped us out by taking the boys so we could have a kids free night on Saturday with some great friends!

We are looking forward to a great week with Daddy home with us! (Even though we are still dealing with the lightning strike we had last week which knocked out our tv and is still messing with our internet...) All of the painting is almost done so hopefully we can just enjoy some downtime all together!!!

Thursday

Conner brought his building into the kitchen and said "for Mommy!" He then grabbed my hand and led me into the living room where he sat down in the midst of all the other blocks and patted the floor beside him so I would build with him. Very sweet!



Ben thought that this little alarm clock would make a great camera so he walked around putting it up to his face and saying "click!"



The blank stares of three year olds as they watch Curious George. It is very hard to get their attention while they watch... this is why we don't watch a lot of tv in our house!

Daddy starts vacation on Friday so we will have very happy boys next week!

Battle of the Blocks...

Conner was having great fun playing with the wooden blocks today...



... until Ben's goal became to knock down everything that Conner built! So after a couple of times, I told Ben that he was not to touch any of the blocks that Conner was building with so what did my oh so intelligent Ben do??? Well he got as close to Conner's building blocks as he could and blew them over... and then Ben just looked at me like "What... I didn't touch them..." I love three year olds!



Conner decided to be a little stinker for naptime so he ended up having to sit in his chair for a while so that Ben could fall asleep... about 5 minutes later this is what I found when I went to see why Conner was so quiet...

Big Boy Cups?

We have been trying to use big boy cups more around here so maybe someday soon we can move away from the sippie cups... The boys really did well with them tonight and it is always very exciting for them! Right after I took a couple of pictures, however, Ben spilled half of his water on the floor, Conner choked and got some water up his nose, and then Ben proceeded to spill the rest of his cup on the floor.... We were done with the big boy cups after that! We'll try again tomorrow...

Painting Progress...

This is the only good picture I have of the before and after colors on our house... the lighter shade will be our new color! We are making progress, slowly but surely! Can't wait until it's all done!!! We have lots of trim to do still but the front of the house and both sides are almost done...

Great Grandparents...

We headed over to Waverly last night for a quick visit with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Hedlund to celebrate Nick's and his dad's birthdays in September. It was very fun to see everyone!

Ben likes the rocking chair... it's just his size!


Conner was giggling for no reason in particular and then began playing peek-a-boo with whoever would play along!


Steve and Nick blow out their candles with the help of the four little ones!

Jennifer, Conner, Great Grandma, Mikayla, Great Grandpa, and Ben!