Winter & a 4yr old!

We had our first snow of the year 2 weekends ago. Both boys wanted to be outside playing in the snow ALL day. We were out playing quite a bit.

Here is chase relaxing in the snow. Unfortunately, for all the time Carter was outside, I did not get a picture of him!

Daddy and Chase admiring Carter and I's snowman.

The weekend after the snow we had Carter's 4th birthday party. We had a super hero theme since he likes spiderman lately.

Here is Carter opening his presents. He has a blanket wrapped as a cape on himself and his stuffed dog Berkley. He is super-Carter when he has the cape on!

The cousins all were excited about the presents too. They all kept getting closer and closer. They were all almost sitting under the tree by the end.

Checking out the new target practice game from Uncle Mark and Auntie Elizabeth.

New Spiderman action figure (not a doll ;)) from Uncle Darin and Auntie April. And he's 4!!!

Chase and Afton with their matching pink pacis. Chase's paci glows in the dark and there were no blue or green ones left at the store. So that is his bedtime paci!

Hiatus, and Chase's 2nd birthday!

Once again, forgot about (didnt make time for) this blog. Sorry about that...
So here is an overdue snapshot of my baby's 2nd birthday.

Birthday pancakes!!

Being goofy!

Right now Chase LOVES Buzz Lightyear. He wanted a Buzz birthday, so we had a Toy Story birthday for him.

The cakes

Inside of the cake

Presents! And Chase's gift "helpers"

Cousins Landon and Afton and the boys having lunch

Next up...Carter turns 4!

Thanks to The Lord of the harvest

Well, it has been a while again. Life got crazy with volleyball season and harvest going on around here. I am so thankful to live close to amazing family who help with the boys so often!

The boys love harvest! They have been playing with their tractors, grain carts, combines and other farm equipment trying to be like daddy. They also love riding in the tractor or combine with daddy (and grandma). Here are a few pictures of the boys "driving" combine with daddy.

Carter concentrating hard on driving a straight line.

Now its Chase's turn!

chase wasn't a very good driver. He kept grabbing the wheel and trying to turn it back and forth really quickly. He was pretty strong too, which made it a little difficult for Ted to keep it straight.

Everything went fairly smoothly with harvest and all Taatjes' crop is out. There is a sign right outside of town that one of the farmers put by his corn field that says, "look what the Lord has done!" on one side, and "thank you Jesus" on the other side. We are so thankful for the safe and bountiful harvest thus far!

Wisconsin dells

A few weeks ago we headed to wisconsin dells for a pork conference. While ted was at meetings the boys and i got to play in the pool all day. The weather was beautiful the whole time, our hotel was gret, and the boys had a blast. Here are a few pics from the time there:

Chase, cousin landon, and carter at the outdoor waterpark. Loving the water slides!

Carter loves cheetahs right now, so of course he picks to ride it at the carousel.

Running wild in the big climb house!

At moose jaw restaurant for dinner one night.

Mini golf! Look at that swing for mini golf! Not sure where the ball went...Carter was actually pretty good!

Ready to head home after a fun trip!

Michiganers, how bout a wisconsin dell trip next summer together? Its right in the middle!
Lets get planning!

Fishermen

One thing Carter has been very excited to do this summer is go fishing with daddy. So a week or two ago we took the boys out fishing. Carter caught a few fish and had a great time!

Chase wanted to fish too, so we let him try Carter's rod. However, it was short lived since he almost through it overboard while "casting".

Happy Mother's Day!!

For Mother's day this year I wanted time to work on my crafts...scrapbook for Chase and the quiet books I am currently making for the boys (pictures of that later). I sat inside all afternoon while the boys went on a ranger ride and played outside in the beautiful weather. They had a great time playing baseball, which has been their favorite thing to do lately.
Here are some pictures of baseball and a few from earlier in the week. We had a pool day and Addie came over to play. Carter LOVES to play with Addie! They are two peas in a pod.

May day! May day!

It's may! Yeah! Looking forward to more warm weather and getting out the sprinkler and kiddy pool for the boys.
Monday we had Carter's preschool screening! Crazy he is that age already, although some days I feel like he just came home from kindergarten with what he says.
He did really well. Usually he doesn't let me out of his sight in new situations. So I was planning on having to go in to each station with him, but at the first one he went right with the screener and didn't even look back! Each one after that was the same way. He did everything they asked, except drawing a "plus" sign. He also didn't pass the hearing screen, but he seemed a little confused about what he was supposed to do. I guess I might have a preschooler starting in January 3013!
I didn't have any pictures of preschool screening, but did take some pictures of the boys cuddling on the couch this morning before breakfast...and yes, Carter is wearing gardening gloves which I'm pretty sure he wore to bed last night. He is very excited to help me plant the garden, so has been wearing his gloves in preparation :)

A doctor and a dentist

Well last week we had two checkups for the boys. First we had Chase's 18 month check up, he was just under 25 lbs. He was 75th percentile for height and 25th for weight. So the doctor told me we needed to add fats to Chase's diet to add some lbs. He said they like most kids to be around the 30th percentile and since Chase is usually 50th or above, he'd like us to try whole milk again and add fats to bulk him up. That is the first time I have ever been told one of the boys was on the low side for weight!! They both are always on the go, playing outside non-stop since it has been nice out (and even when it's not so nice), so adding weight now might be difficult.
Carter was my big helper at the doctor for Chase. Chase hates the paper on the scale and exam table so just screamed through anything involving sitting or laying on the paper. Carter tried to give him toys to help and stood by Chase and said, "it's ok Chase, it's ok" over and over to try to help...it didn't stop Chase's crying, but it was pretty cute to watch.
The day after Chase's appt Carter had his first dentist appt. We went to a dentist where the hygenist is someone Carter knows because she coaches with me. I was hoping that would ease his apprehension, it did for the first 5 minutes. However, when she tried to put his chair back to clean his teeth he got scared and wouldn't let her do it. Do all we got done was the dentist counting his teeth and taking a quick look. Carter has a crazy cracked and chipped tooth in the front that I was kinda worried about, but he says it should fall out like normal when he is about 6, and hopefully the new one will come in as it should.
I was planning in taking pictures of both boys at these appointments...I had the camera with for Chase's but forgot to take the picture until after he was dressed again following the appointment. I guess it's still better than Carter's appointment, since I forgot to even take the camera to his! So the few pictures of Chase is all I got.

Easter bunnies

So I had written an entire blog post and didn't finish it, so it disappeared. So this one will likely be much shorter.
I know I am a bit late with my Easter post, considering it is two weeks past Easter, but I wanted to post a few pics of the boys doing their 1st annual Easter egg hunt around the house. They woke up with their Easter baskets outside their bedroom door and had to search around the house for their eggs full of treats and money.
After the hunt they put their earnings into their piggy banks and headed to church. The last picture is of the boys in their Easter outfits courtesy of grandma VW. Ted was doing his best to get the boys to smile, and I would say he did a pretty good job!
Amongst all the candy and treats of Easter, we did try to explain to Carter the real reason Easter is important. It is a concept that was a little difficult for him to grasp at this stage, but we're working on it. At least he knows Jesus has risen! Although we're still working on the concept of heaven. We pray for all our family every night!
(I guess this wasn't so short after all)