January/February/March

Well, I am not even sure how so much time has passed since I last updated our blog. I sometimes forget about the blog completely. March has been a very busy month for us with tons of birthdays and even more cake. This weekend we will celebrate Mom's birthday (Happy Birthday MOM!!!), and it will be the fifth weekend in a row that we have had cake.

We celebrated Ben's birthday a few weeks ago, and I cannot believe that we have a four year old. If it is possible, I think our love for him grows more every single day. He is such a happy boy and a wonderful big brother.

Here is the latest on Ben...

He hasn't had his four year doctor check because we combine it with Maggie's wellness check to make it easier. However, I can tell you that we are at least a good eight pounds away from getting to move to a booster seat in the car. Lucky for him he is built like daddy and got the skinny gene. Academically he knows all of his basic phonics (letter sounds) and can sound out most three letter words. He is up to reading eight site word cards. He can count to 50 without any help and to 100 with a bit of help on his tens. He has memorized his days of the week and can say them in order. He knows all about three coins (penny, nickel, and dime). He can write his name and quite a few other letters. I am probably forgetting a ton of things, but that is a decent summary. He still loves to play with tractors, trains, and trucks and is particularly interested in fish and ocean animals right now. Every book that has anything to do with the ocean is currently in his stack of books to read. Ben still loves to draw and paint and play with play dough, and he is constantly wanting to do science experiments (thank you Sid the Science Kid). Ben will attend preschool in the fall at a local church preschool, and he is getting sooooo excited. I on the other hand am struggling with it, but I know it will be good for him.

We are also waiting for spring to show her pretty face around here. We had one week that the temp was in the seventies and have been back in the thirties and forties for some time now. Almost daily Maggie stands at our back door and pounds on the glass yelling, "Outside mommy, Maggie want go outside." It was cute at first, but now I just really want spring to get here. Anyway, here are a few pics from the past few months.

Here is our big four year old birthday boy with Grandpa and Grandma Gaerte

and Grandma and Grandpa Keefer. Check out his new wheels.

Enjoying some birthday cake and ice cream with Grandpa Cormany.

Our big boy blowing out the candles.

Please disregard the fact that I put too many candles on the cake.

I have already heard about it from several people. Let's just say that if they

had made all those cupcakes

they might be scatterbrained too. Such a handsome birthday boy! Checking out his new ride. Wow, what is this!!!

Oh the excitement of birthday gifts.

A few preparty shots of Ben with his "Cars" cake and cupcakes.

Ben got a new lizard backpack with his name on

it to use for preschool next fall.

We also celebrated Bob, Uncle Joe, and Grandma Keefer's

birthdays in March. Would you ever guess that Bob and Joe

are twins. :)

Here are the kiddos on the evening of Bob's B-Day.

He got a new level, and we went out to his favorite

restaurant, Cebollas.

Random cute shot of Ben.

Here are Bob and Maggie enjoying the last of the snow before it

melted. I think she might be asleep in that shot.

Here is Ben enjoying the last of the snow.

During February we got to spend a fun weekend

in Brown County with Bob's family. This mini water park

was a huge hit with the kids.

In January Grandpa and Grandma Keefer came and spent

the night at our house. The kiddos loved getting to spend so much

one on one time with them.

We also did a special Grandma breakfast with Grandma Gaerte in

January. We are so spoiled that mom doesn't have to be to work until

mid morning. We love it when she gets to come over. She also came over

and read to the kids on Dr. Seuss birthday.

Here is one more pic of the kids all bundled up

and ready to play in the snow. Hopefully we won't have

to put that many clothes on them again for quite a while. :)