Memorial Day weekend

We had a very nice, and busy Memorial Day weekend this year. We kicked off the weekend by going to the library in the morning, then out to lunch with Curt at McDonald's. They enjoyed playing in the Playplace for a while! Friday night, I got the evening off to go scrapbooking at a scrapbook store with a friend. Saturday, the kids had a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa Niebuhr. We heard that they played in the sprinkler and did lots of outside things. Brian and I had a great day Saturday, too. We went to Omaha to see Wicked at the Orpheum theater, then out for dinner at one of our faves, PF Chang's. It was all good! The kids did spend the night at the Niebuhrs on Saturday, but came home early in the morning, because we packed up the car and went to Superior for the day. We hadn't been to Superior since Christmastime. So, it was a nice trip. We ate lunch with my grandparents, then played at the park. It was the first time I had been at the park in a LONG time and let me tell you, not much had changed! There was still almost all the same equipment there that I logged a lot of hours on as a kid. Crazy to see my kids playing on it now. They did have fun, though. After a quick nap, we got swimming suits on and went to my parents' cabin on Lovewell Lake in Kansas. The kids got to swim and play on the "beach" (a little rocky cove a couple of cabins down) and the best part was the motorboat ride. Grandpa let them each drive for a while, and Xander was VERY angry he didn't get to drive more than once. He pouted for several hours, then said all the way home "I only got to drive once, but I needed to drive twice." Crazy kid. We got home late Sunday night, around 11. Luckily, the kids did sleep in the car a little. Monday morning was spent at aunt Lisa and uncle Chad's house helping finish their new swingset. The kids (and I) took LONG naps on Monday, then we had pizza and movie night Monday evening. Everyone slept really well that night.

Part of the reason I was so tired on Monday is that I went to a healthclub down the street, Madonna ProActive, at 5 am (that's right folks, 5 AM!) to sign up the kids for swimming lessons. I have a couple of friends that work there and apparently there is always a mad rush to sign up kids for lessons early on the first day. And, since there are only a couple of classes at our level and there are only 4 kids to a class, I decided I needed to go sign up right away. And luckily, I was one of the first ones to sign up. So, the kids are good for swimming lessons starting on June 9th. Jessi went with me and we actually ended up working out right then, so I was home, showered and had breakfast all before 7 a.m. Wouldn't you know that it would be the day the kids would sleep until 8 am!?!

We haven't really slowed down the pace once the workweek started. Tuesday we went to the Children's museum in the morning. It was a cool rainy day, with no chance for outside play. Then we headed to the mall for more playing and lunch with Emalea, Hannah and Haylea. Wednesday, they went to Grandma's a little earlier than usual in the morning, because I took my car in to get serviced. So, maybe we'll take it easy Thursday and Friday. It is supposed to get warm this weekend, so I think we may be heading to Madonna for some swimming in their awesome outdoor pool. Fun!

A funny thing about Grace. We have to be really careful about the conversations we have with her around now. As we were driving to Superior, we were listening to a Veggie Tales CD. I commented to Brian that one person did two very distinctive voices, an angel and Junior Asparagus, on the CD and how interesting I thought it was that she could make her voice sound so different. Well, the next day, the same song came back around on the CD and Grace announced to me that the angel's voice was Junior Asparagus' voice. She listened to our entire conversation and repeated it back to me. She is definitely paying attention to everything around her. I did hear her call someone a "poopy head" the other day. (They heard a big boy at McDonald's on Friday say it.) Xander announced to me that she called him a poopy head and that the boy from McDonald's taught it to her. Luckily, I only heard her do it once. Brian dropped the f-bomb with Grace sitting right beside him last week, so let's hope she doesn't repeat that! Naughty daddy!

Will is still logging many hours a day as a cat, and Xander is still being very stubborn and slow moving lately. That pretty much sums up the boys this last week. We were doing better with Will about waking up dry or nearly dry, so I thought we were moving in the right direction. But he's had a bit of a intestinal virus this week, and we've had some trouble with diarrhea and now we're going a little backwards in that department. So, I'm going to really work on him in the month of June. My goal is to have both boys dry all night by the time school starts in August!

I guess that's all for now. Sorry this got so long! We have big plans next week. It's our first family vacation! We're either very brave or very crazy for taking 3 3-year-olds on a vacation, but we are. I'll give you pics and details when we get back next weekend. Take care!

Helping

Here are some pictures of the kids "helping" me clean over the weekend. They were super excited to dust. Xander and Grace went all over the house dusting. They did dust tables and shelves, but they also dusted things that didn't need dusting like their pillows and the carpet and walls. But, it kept them occupied for about a half an hour that that is great for me. Will actually did a good job cleaning the bottom part of the windows. Incidentally the bottom part of the windows are the only dirty part, so he did do some good. Will also enjoys helping Brian mow the lawn, and will literally follow him all around the yard with his little lawn mower. He will choose to stay at home with Brian and "mow" the lawn instead of going to run errands with me on Saturday mornings. The last 3 Saturdays, it's been only Xander, Grace and I running errands. How nice it is to have one less to drag around. So much easier! Will also enjoys vacuuming the house with me. He'll run and find his Elmo vacuum all the while yelling "Don't do it without me!" So, I wait until he comes back with his vacuum before I turn mine on. He's so funny!

Speaking of funny Will, he now spends about half of every day being a cat. He crawls around on the floor meowing. Xander and Grace love this and give him bowls of milk and lots of tuna and salmon that they take out of their shirts and pockets (because "cats love fish" and those are the only two fish they know.) Will carries things around in his mouth, which is more like a dog, but it is funny. They love to pet him and tell him to take naps in the beds they make for him. The funniest part was Monday, though. Will was walking, but he was meowing and Xander said to him "No kitty, use your paws." Will immediately dropped down on all fours and started crawling. Xander then said "Yeah, that's a good idea. Use your paws." So funny. I'll have to get the kitty on video. By the way, Will is much better on the asthma front, back to regular!

Funniest quote of the week:

Xander talking on a play telephone in a fake phone booth at the indoor playground.

Xander: Daddy? Hi. Uh-huh. Yep. OK. OK. Goodbye.

Grace: Who did you talk to?

Xander: Daddy.

Grace: What did he say?

Xander: He didn't say anything! Oh well.

That's all for now. Have a great long weekend everyone! Thanks for looking.

Ready to view

Our pictures from last Wednesday are ready to be viewed. We're really pleased with how they turned out! Go to www.kabloomstudios.com and enter "hoefs" under client name (not Niebuhr.) It will show you a slide show, which goes kind of fast and doesn't show all the pictures. You can see them at your own pace if you click on gallery. Enjoy!

No pictures, but plenty of little stories

Sorry I don't have any pictures this week. We did get our professional family pictures taken on Wednesday, though. When those are up online and ready to see, I'll let you all know. I think they will be very cute. We went out on the golf course and shot pictures for around an hour.

So, nothing really huge and newsworthy happened this week, but the kids have been doing some funny things that are worth sharing lately.

The funniest thing they are doing is thinking about directions, right, left and around town. They have known their right and left hands/feet for a while, but now they have started talking about directions around town, and turning right and left on streets. We were driving east on Pine Lake road the other day, and at 56th Street, Will said "This is where you turn to get to Grandma Ellen's house." (which was correct, by the way.) At 70th Street, Grace said "Church is just that way," (which was also correct). We kept going straight, to my mom's house and Xander said "This is the way to Grandma Pam's house. We're going to turn right at the stop sign." (also correct). Apparently last week, Grandpa Dale took a different route back to our house and it really distressed Will. He asked "Grandpa, why are you going this way?" The type A child prefers going the same way every time! They are very interested in the town. They point out every building along a route that they have been in. We have to drive by Backyard Burgers to get to my mom's house. EVERY time we drive by it, I get a run down of the last time we ate there, what everyone ate, and what we did before and after. We've also started teaching them our address. They know what town we live in, but don't always remember 37th Street. We'll keep working.

We visited preschool on Thursday morning. I think they are going to enjoy it and they are definitely ready. They loved all the toys, they also sat for circle time and even participated a little bit. They were quite a bit smaller than the kids that were there, but that's to be expected. It is going to be great for them to be around a classful of other kids. Will cried when we had to leave! I don't think we'll have any tears when I leave them the first day.

Speaking of Will, he visited the asthma doctor on Monday afternoon. He's off the oral steroids, and had a rough Tuesday and Wednesday coming off of them. However, the doc upped the inhaled steroids for a short time, then we'll reevaluate. He doesn't think we'll be able to drop down the inhaled steroids for the summer like we were able to last year. His asthma isn't getting better as he gets older, it's getting more severe. Poor kid! I do hope that he can get a break from the sickness this summer, though.

That's all for this week. When the pictures are up on the kabloom studios website, I'll let you know. Until then, have a good weekend.

Art

You're seen the triplets' singing, so now here's a taste of the artist within them. Brian didn't believe me, but I did NOT help them in any way, except to suggest what parts of the face they could draw when they asked. In fact, Grace did her entirely on her own, I wasn't even in the room. She also added that much hair all on her own. Fitting, since every female in her family, including herself, has a ton of hair!

Just an update on poor Will. He's back on steroids, for the second time within a week. The coughing still hasn't gone away. We got this prescription from the asthma doctor, and we are going in Monday for a follow-up with him. The steroids are just a short burst, 3 days. Hopefully this will clear it up. He was up coughing for a while last night. He was coughing so hard! Poor guy. I hope this is the last cold for a while. He deserves a break.

Best quote of the week:

Will: Daddy, what cereal are you eating?

Daddy doesn't answer.

Mommy: He has cheerios.

Will: Daddy, what cereal are you eating?
Daddy doesn't answer again.

Mommy: He has cheerios, Will.

Will: Mommy, I'm talking to daddy! Daddy, what cereal do you have?

Daddy: Cheerios.

Will: Oh, ok.

End of conversation. What a stinker!

By the way, don't ever tell Will a secret you want him to keep. A couple of weeks ago, they helped me wrap Brian's birthday presents. Well, the next day, Will spilled the beans and told him what was in his present. Then, Wednesday, they came home from the Niebuhrs and Will said "Mommy, I colored you a picture." I asked him if I could see it. He went and asked grandma for it and I heard her say "No, remember Will. It's a surprise. We'll give it to her on Mother's Day." He's a very bad secret keeper. No Christmas present wrapping for him!

Have a great weekend everyone. Happy Mother's Day.

New toothbrushes

The kids got these electric Spin Brushes for Christmas from my mom and dad. But, I didn't get them out until now. They love them and they will willingly brush their teeth. I sometimes help them a little bit to get all the back teeth, but otherwise they're on their own. Grace got a Barbie one, Will's is a firetruck with lights that actually work and Xander's is a soccer ball. There is one other small but noticeable change in our house. I took away the small potty chairs. I was getting tired of hearing "Mommy, I'm done!" from all over the house. So, now they have to use a step stool and use the big potty. It is so much nicer not to have to clean out potties and the bathroom has more room in it now.

Will has been pretty sick this week. We went to the doctor on Friday, which was only day 2 of the cold, but his cough was really bad, much worse than usual. The doc gave him steroids, and even with 5 days of the steroids, he's still coughing a lot. For some reason, this cold is hitting him harder than usual. So, because he's been so sick, we haven't gone anywhere or done much of anything. We skipped church on Sunday, because going to the nursery was a bad idea. We did go to the library on Tuesday, but that's all. I hope he starts to get better soon, poor guy!

Funniest comment of the week:

Xander: I ate so much. My tummy is so full it's going to pop.

Xander looking down to his tummy through his shirt: Daddy, it's not popping!

It all happened pretty fast, but everything is set for me going back to work next fall. We met with the home daycare provider on Sunday and she is going to be good. We are making it official with her this week, signing papers and such. The kids will start with her in August when I go back to meetings and the regular schedule will start on Aug 19th. So, that's about it. Sorry for the short post (you're welcome, Chad) but there's not much new and interesting. Hopefully we'll have more stories next week......Thanks for checking up!