first snow

We had a pretty great snow day today!

The kids played in the backyard, came in for a cocoa break and then headed out for some street sledding...

I borrowed a hat. : )

my postcard view

p is for pirate

Today's project sparked a little pirate fire in Andrew.

{the project}

Mason has only done the craft with us once before. Usually I do it while he is taking his nap so that I can focus on Andrew and really work with him on whatever it is we're doing. Today was the first time that Mason decided he'd like to do some crafts himself. He specifically asked to do a caterpillar, pirate and ladybug. : )

I just had to include this one because it shows what our hallway looks like right now. I never thought I'd be this mom, but I find it to be very fun to see all his hard work on display. It also reminds me that I have absolutely no desire to home school! : )

dear Andrew & Mason

Bored?

I have been writing letters to my boys since they were born. I did them as separate blogs because, at the time I started doing it, I didn't know how to label the posts to be able to find them again. A few months ago I linked them from my main blog so that I wouldn't lose them, but I was the only one who could actually read them. Tonight I made it so anyone could read them.

I decided to open them up for a few reasons. 1. I had my first friend ask about them, 2. I often think it'd be a bummer if I died and my boys couldn't even access what I wrote them, 3. I love reading other people's letters to their kids and assume I'm not the only one, and 4. if it encourages or gives the idea to someone to do the same for their kids, I'd be happy to play a part in that (thanks to Amy for giving me the idea!).

If nothing else, it's a couple new blogs to read when you get bored! : )

Be warned: they're letters to my boys and I kinda love them, so don't read them if that's not your thing...

Dear Andrew. Dear Mason.

sweet

Rysen came over for a couple hours today so he wouldn't have to go to a doctor appoitment with his mom and sis. Mason did much better sharing this time!

We have two bins filled with random stuff - today they were magic boxes that kept all three boys occupied for quite a while.

These magnets held their attention for a while as well. (Thanks again aunt Sandy!).

Mason loves Haylen. We've seen her a few times and he wants to be close to her every time. He makes sure she has a blanket and pats her gently on the leg. It's extremely sweet and makes me a little sad that he won't get the joy of being a big brother (though not bad enough to have another baby, so don't bother commenting grandmas...). It's just very cute.

And speaking of cute...

Every once in a while the boys like to sit by each other while they have lunch. Today they put three chairs together and I overheard them making a plan for me to sit in the middle. Cute.

We have been having the nicest days lately. I forget though that sun does not equal heat - wow it was cold today! But we had a really fun time at the park, and for the first time that I can think of, Andrew used his imagination to come up with something to play. We usually just run around and climb, etc, but this time the boys were firemen (thanks to his GI Joe fireman that he has all of a sudden decided to love combined with his love for the fireman pole at the park) and I had to keep telling them where the fires were. The climbing structure was a fire truck unless he was going to drive his motorcycle to the fire, then it became the fire station... Andrew was having a blast and Mason was playing right along with him!

sledding

We were invited to play in the snow with the Gamradts this weekend. It was so much fun!!

Anyone else tired of my green hat?! Note to self: get a new hat before the next picture of me in a hat is taken!

Andrew and Addy played together a lot this weekend. They've been playing more and more now that Addy isn't so quiet around him and he's decided it's okay to play with girls again. : )

We also did some night sledding which was pretty great.

And I leave you with a quick picture of Mason loving his brother. Because I think it's cute...

yahoo for the zoo

Stop me if you've heard this...but I love the zoo! It was a beautiful sunny day, I couldn't resist.

I couldn't find one of Mason's gloves, but he was fine with it. Plus, he loves to hold on to our parking ticket (he does it every time) so it was handy to have one free hand...

This was the first trip where Mason actually seemed to care and get excited about the animals. The meerkats were his favorite.

good checkup, annoying day

Mason had his thyroid checkup today - all is good.

Mason all of a sudden grew up. He no longer needs any help with his blood pressure check - he knows how to sit still...

He weighs 32 pounds - perfect.

He's 3' tall - perfect.

And he likes to play air guitar. : )

Here's why it was an annoying day. You don't even need to read it, I'll just feel better getting it out.

It started when I scheduled this appointment. I couldn't schedule it when I called because the doctor's books weren't open for 2012 yet. They weren't open when I called back, or when I called back (on the dates they told me to call). Then when they called me to tell me it was open, I found out my referral had expired. A few hours later when it was updated, her calendar was full through March. I needed an appt in early Jan.

Once they told me I could go to the Everett clinic (boo) I got a date set for today at 10:30, a work day. In fact, my first day back to work since Dec 23. So I went to work for 2 hours with hope to make it back in time to get Mason to school for lunch/nap (didn't happen, but let's not get ahead of ourselves). It would've been best to not go into work since the doctor is north and my office is south of our house, but I didn't want to make Andrew go to the appointment and I figured he'd be ready to head back to school and see his friends. Plus I thought it'd be nice to check in at work. I was in the car for a really long time today.

When I got to the hospital, I was excited to find a parking spot right near the front door. But then I realized it was way too small, so I followed the signs to the parking garage and found a spot. The problem was my spot was exactly on the other end of the crazy hospital. We had to go down the garage elevator, through a building, down an escalator, back outside though another building, along a pathway to another elevator until we finally arrived to the right spot. (For the record - I only had one glitch finding my car after the appointment, so that was fantastic).

Through the whole drive Mason was asking for milk. I didn't want to give him any because he needed to take his medicine and he needs to have an empty stomach. Then I thought I left the medicine at home (not a big deal, it would be on the way back to work) so I let him have some milk. Then I found the medicine. So I decided we'd just have lunch first then wait an hour and do the medicine then (making it so he couldn't go back to school because of the medicine timing and therefore I couldn't go back to work). Of course he fell asleep in the car so I had to wake him up to take it. Added bonus, I found out that I don't need to skip his medicine before these checkups anymore, so all of that wouldn't have mattered if I knew that.

Because we were at the Everett clinic (a small office inside Providence) we couldn't do the blood draw there. Luckily Group Health was fairly close, so we headed over there. But it was annoying. On our way back to the car after the blood draw a spider came down on his web and almost landed on my head. It was not even an inch from my face. A spider in January...really? So unlucky.

Another thing that Everett ruined for me was our lunch date. It's fun to wonder around U Village to find somewhere to eat, not so fun to wonder around downtown Everett. I decided to go to McDonalds to keep it fast and cheap since I was crabby anyway. I messed up here and all of a sudden forgot my own rule - always order chicken nuggets when you're trying to be healthy(er)! I ordered cheeseburgers and almost doubled my points. Not cool when you're in a weight loss competition.

Mason did a great job with his blood draw, but because he has a lot more words now, he kept saying how it hurt. : ( So I thought it'd be fun to treat the boys to a chocolate milkshake at McDonalds - for Mason to cheer up and for Andrew because I was worried he'd be sad that Mason was gone all day. The annoying thing here was that they don't have the regular milkshakes that I was expecting. They were expensive and McCafe style with whip cream and a cherry! Dumb.

Wow, it was worse than I thought. : ) But, the good checkup is what matters, so it's time to stop complaining now.

healthy Dyks

We're in a weight loss competition with some friends - it's boys vs. girls and we're all taking it very serious. It was supposed to start on January first, but we were so fired up that it actually started the day after Christmas. I plan to win, and when I do, I'll be rocking my first pair of designer jeans. If Matt wins, the guys will have a night out with some beer and a zip line at Red Hook.

Anyway, on to the real point of this post... The boys are getting healthy right along with us. If I do a video at home they jump around with me, when Matt gets done with his run they do push ups and sits ups with him. And yesterday they asked to go on a run with him. : )

And just because I took it, here's a picture of Mason playing with his finger flashlights...

the last of our never-ending Christmas celebrations

As we've done the past few years, we celebrated Christmas and New Year's with my family on New Year's Eve. We were all spoiled, ate as if we were never going to see food again and had a great time.

Andrew stayed up until midnight and celebrated the start of the new year with us. It wasn't how we planned it, but he had so much sugar he couldn't get to sleep. : ) Even though he didn't quite get what the big deal was, he had fun being able to stay up and party with us.

random

Cam and Andrew...such good buddies! And cute. And sort of identical...

The boys, ready to go to grandma and grandpa Cain's with their new suitcases from grandma & grandpa Dyk.

I made this for my mom for Christmas (I stole it from a crafty blog I follow - it's a Pottery Barn knock off - booyah!). I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to things I make that I usually just don't make things. That might change now that I know how awesome spray paint is!!