Journey to the Center of ...

Well, last week was a journey on a bunch of different levels. New and exciting stuff everyday! Here are just a few of our journeys ....

Journey to the Center of Kansas - We traveled to Claflin to attend my lovely cousin Laura's baby shower. It was wonderful to visit with all of the family and to see Laura just beaming with joy. She is gonna make such a great mommma! Little baby Charlee Clare is adorable and couldn't be more loved! We also celebrated Corey's Grandmother's Birthday in McPherson. Well, I say "we" but Corey and the boys actually celebrated as I didn't get back from the shower until the end of the party. But, the boys had a great time playing with their cousins and extended cousins as well as entertaining the adults. Riley especially liked cruising around the farm in Marilyn and Vern's golf cart, while Gage apparantly was his comical little self and ate up being the center of attention = ) Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of this since I had the camera with me. Next time!

sweet, sweet baby

some laughs with gwamma and papa soukup

Journey to the Center of the Potty - Riley is now officially in big boy underwear during all waking hours. He is getting to be a pro at making pee in the potty and often does so on his own without a reminder (especially first thing in the morning!) There have been a few wet accidents that typically occur when he is outside playing and doesn't have time to -- or forgets to -- stop playing and go inside to relieve himself. These can be forgiven. However, he is being very stubborn about making #2 in the potty. He will hold it and wait until nap time (when he is in a pull-up) to do his duty. He has also made poo in his big boy pants a couple of times. I'm at a loss. He knows how to make poo on the potty, he is just refusing to do so and it is about snap my fragile, but still hanging on sanity. Wish us both luck with this final potty-training step before I break!

a peek at the big boy pants due to some major saggage

Journey to the Center of Riley's Memory - Before books and bedtime, we usually let the boys pick out a program or video to watch to help them wind down from their jam-packed days. Last night they picked the cartoon "Penguins of Madagascar." Funny show if you've never seen it. We've actually only caught a couple of episodes, with the one that was about to start being one we saw a few weeks ago. Corey surmised this from the title and title page that showed several sets of little red eyes peering out from darkness. Immediately after Corey stated , "This is a rerun." Riley jumped in and said, "Oh yes. This is where they have sticky tongues and go 'slurp, slurp' and pick up all the animals. And have a party!" What? How can he remember such explicit details about a show he's seen only once, several weeks ago and he cannot remember to poop in the potty? I believe selective memory is the correct term. One more trait he has in common with his daddy ; )

father and son

Journey to the Center of the Dogs - I sooo wish I had a before pic to compare with this after pic. Our Golden Retrievers are outdoor dogs and they grow extremely thick, long and heavy undercoats during the cold winter months. One of my favorite parts of Spring is when the weather is finally warm enough on a consistent basis that the girls can get their hair cut. See those tails? Imagine that, plus some, all over their bodies. Yep, they needed a trim. Aren't they just so pretty?

Ahhh, my lovely Gracie and Katie = )

Journey to the Center of the Earth - I had never seen this show before, nor did I have much desire to, but Corey has been wanting to see it for a while -- he's a big Brendan Frazier fan. Anyhow, he turned it on Sunday afternoon and the boys plopped down with him in his recliner and nobody moved for almost the entire 2 hour show! Miracles do happen! The boys loved all of the adventure and action just as much as their daddy did. Too cute - wish I had a pic!

There were many more journeys I'd love to share, but I'm out of time and brain power right now, so those will have to wait for another day. Take care!

2 Year Check-Up

Well, little Gage had his 2 year check-up the other day and guess what? He's perfect! Yeah, like we didn't already know that = ) He's a whopping 35" tall (69th percentile -- give or take, you know this boy can't stand still long enough to get an accurate reading!) and 28.6 pounds (53rd percentile -- the 0.6 pounds may be from all the candy the nurse gave him to bribe him to stay on the scale until it could complete the weighing process.)

I did ask the doctor what she thought about his little turned in, pigeon-toed feet. After a thorough examination of his legs and feet (that little Gager was all too happy to comply with for the cost of a pack of Smarties) she said it didn't appear there is anything to worry about right now. There's some slight bend in his tibias, but nothing that is too out of range for his age. So, hopefully, he will just grow out of this like his big bro did. If they're still this turned in a year from now, she said we may want to look at having an orthopedic doc check him out then.

Gage also put up a little struggle when the doctor wanted to listen to his heart, but nothing like the animalistic lash-out that Riley displayed. Thank heavens! He even did pretty well when he got his shot. There were some very dirty looks and a couple of tears shed, but once the nurse let him pick out his sucker (he took 2, of course,) he was fine. He even told everyone thank you when we were leaving. He is such a sugar baby. Literally and figuratively = )

Our Week in Pictures ...

Well, we started off the week with Riley having his first dentist appointment scheduled on Monday. I went in hoping for the best, but expecting the worst, and ended up with something in between. We've been practicing a lot at home and I even let him be the dentist that Morning and brush my teeth. He seemed so prepared and excited! Here's a picture of him practicing his "ahhhh" in the car right before we go in ....

Here he is in the chair they brought in for me to sit on.

Riley preferred it to the actual examine chair. After all, it did spin in circles!

This is what it looked like when we tried to get him to sit in the exam chair by himself ... he couldn't get out fast enough! Finally, I sat in the chair and he sat in my lap. After much coaxing, he would finally smile for the hygienist, but would not open his mouth. When the dentist came in, he would not even smile. We'll give it another try in a couple of months. Stubborn little boy!

Here's the little squirt in the car after the appointment. Why oh why couldn't he show his pearly whites like this to the dentist? Oh well, it's this kind of smile that keeps me from throwing him in the trash! (just kidding about the trash part! well, kind of = )

Here are the boys having one their picnic suppers in the backyard. We were blessed with several nice days this week, so much to the boys delight, there were plenty of these!

We finally got around to doing some landscaping in this bare spot at the back of our house. The boys had a blast helping out. They did a great job finding new homes for the worms that got dug up and helping me add potting soil to the existing dirt. However, I think their favorite part was helping Corey bring the mulch around the house in the wheelbarrow. For Riley and Gage wheelbarrow = fun!
Gage had had enough of his gardening gloves, so he was off for other duties. Although, he could never stay away long. So, I got the enjoyment of putting his little gloves on at least 4 or 5 times. Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds -- but it's always worth it = )
Hey, who's this guy? Wait! It's Riley with a new haircut!!! Yep, the old 70's shaggy do is gone -- for now. As much as I hated to see it go, Riley was ready for some short hair again, so here it is. With those eyes, he could have no hair and it wouldn't matter to me. But, I might be just a smidge biased there!
Well, Sunday was Gage's birthday proper, so we had yet another celebration with just the four of us.
Yay! We love to party = )

Here's Gage with some watering cans ... they will come in handy for the new landscaping!
Opening a paint with water book. These are great! Although the kids got bored with them much quicker than I did. Oh well, more fun for me = )
The short-haired brothers checking out the new magnetic puzzle.

Here the boys and daddy were being inventive and building a new kind of fort. However, they quickly renamed it "us house." So, now, depending on the set up we have "us fort" and "us house."
Obviously, we are still working on proper pronoun useage at the Huber household.

Our other big news is that Riley spent the entire weekend in big boy undies! Woohoo, we are getting closer! There were a few accidents, but I really feel that he is close to the finish line. Wish us all luck and patience! There were also several other moments that filled our week such as a girl's night out for mom (much deserved and much enjoyed!), some good times bike riding with Riley (with the exception of a crash or two), and let's not forget the tears and tantrums and all out fights! Believe it or not, it's not always sunshine and roses here at Casa Huber. But, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the situation, we do not have pictures of those Kodak moments.

This upcoming week we have Gage's 2 year check-up. Definitely looking forward to seeing how that goes. Pray that it is a much smoother visit than Riley's 3 year. Until next time ... take care!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

What a wonderful Easter! Riley, Gage and I headed back to Mac early Friday to spend the day with my parents. The boys were so excited to see Grandma and Papa they barely squeezed in a short nap. Once we arrived, it was fun, fun, fun! Between the toys, the backyard adventures with Papa and the snuggles with Grandma, the boys were in heaven =) Saturday we headed to Russell to see Great Grandma Galyardt which is always a treat. As usual, she spoiled the boys in much the same fashion as she spoiled my sister and myself on the holidays when we were growing up. The boys of course loved all of the candy and their special Easter stuffed animals!

Riley and his Easter "chick"

Gage and his Easter sheep

Riley gathering Easter eggs.

He had to stop and open each one he found immediately to discover the treat inside.

Gage was a little more into the "sport" of finding the eggs.

His basket was overflowing by the end!

Side-by-side egg hunting. (They are actually picking up eggs that Gage dropped. The overflowing basket combined with his excited running about was bound to result in an accident.)

Gage enjoying the spoils of the hunt

After the egg hunt, Riley and Papa did a little golfing. This mostly consisted of Riley hitting the ball and Papa chasing it. Check out the form in this shot. Making his daddy proud = )

Grandma, Papa, and Gage's feet.

Gage has decided that Papa is basically a human jungle gym -- good times for all!

The boys making Aunt Tracy giggle = )

Riley, Gage, Great Grandma and Tracy enjoying some candy

Pinwheel from Great Grandma. These never get old! The cutest part was probably Gage taking this up to everyone and telling them to "bwow!" Then he would giggle like crazy when the blades would spin. It was so cute to see him so tickled!

As you may have noticed, Corey was absent from our activities this year. This was because he stayed home to complete a very special project for the boys. He is such a good daddy! He worked from 8:00 Saturday morning until 8:00 Saturday night putting this together for the boys. They were totally surprised. In their words, "Thank you daddy for the park!"

Gage discovered that the slide is much faster on your belly.

Riley quickly adapted to the "big boy" swings

All smiles -- fun, fun, fun!

Climbing into the clubhouse

More side by side action

Corey was putting on a few finishing touches when we arrived home early Sunday. The boys cannot pass up a chance to "work" with dad's power tools!

One last slide before the rain came in.

Another successful and fun-packed weekend. We are so thankful to be so blessed with such great family and friends! We hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Eggsellent ...

Well, for some reason, I decided it would be a fun idea to try and color Easter eggs this year with the boys. Thankfully, Wednesday turned out to be a gorgeous day so we embarked on this deliciously messy process outside. Thank you Mother Nature! Aside from me constantly yelling, "No! Don't drink that, that's pooey!" and "No! Don't put your hands in there, it will stain!" and "Please WAIT!" and .... well, you get the point. There were a lot of rules that were just too hard for two very curious and excited little boys to follow. Oh well, I'm pretty sure the boys had a good time anyhow, even though mommy was a stressed out mess. I've also decided this will definitely be a weekend event next year when poor mommy's nerves aren't already frazzled from a day at the office! We did get some cute pics of the boys, regardless. Hard not to do when the photo subjects are this darn cute = )

Gage checking on the dye process

Riley showing his lovely stained fingers and shirt

Gage after not listening to mommy and tasting the dye. Thankfully it's non-toxic! He didn't try this again, either. I guess mommy was right ... it was pooey!

Riley cheesing it up while Gage tries to grab an egg with his bare hands. Ahhhh!

Yay! The finished product! Immediately following this, Gage pulverized the egg in his hand and began eating it shell and all. He deemed it, "Yummy Good!" Geesh, that boy will eat anything!

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!

Party, Party, Party!

Oh my gosh! Well, we arrived late at our own birthday party, but after that we had so much fun! We held the boys' birthday party at Monkey Bizness. This place is the best! They have several inflated climbing structures, obstacle courses, and giant slides. Good times! We have so many great pics -- although many are blurry as the kids (and adults) were almost constantly in motion = ) I'm pretty sure the parents and grandparents had as much fun climbing, swinging and sliding as the kids did. We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful people to celebrate with. Thank you all for playing with us! Here are several pictures from our birthday adventure:

Catherine, Gage & Alex on the giant slide.

Gloria and Riley on the giant slide.
Riley loving the air hockey game.

Alex and Gage getting ready for some sliding fun.

Cooper B playing a little b-ball and Gage demonstrating some mad climbing skills.

Mom and Riley climbing on up.

Part of our party crew.

Gage getting ready to climb the wall in the obstacle course. This is the area that I tried to show the kids how to be super-cool and fly over the wall like GI Joe or something. The result? Me on crutches with a bummed up ankle. Way to be cool mom!

Sara showing off her swing.

Little Cooper K digging the blue rocking dog. This is one of the cool things about Monkey
Bizness, they even have stuff for the little guys to have fun with = )

No fear Ashlyn sliding down the steep slope.

More of the crew enjoying snacks and cake while the boys open presents.

The cupcakes were a hit with the kiddos!

The dinosaur cake. When I was decorating this, Riley kept saying he wanted to "taste that dinosaur." It was everything I could do to keep the cake intact so it could make it to the party in one piece!

Riley opening some gifts. The boys got some cool stuff including games, guns, dinosaurs, balls and gift cards to DQ & McDonald's. The boys are so excited to use their "own credit cards" to buy some treats! We also received a couple of donations to Cooper's Cause in the boys' names. I can't wait to hand these over. What a super gift!

After all this fun we started our journey home. Once there, the boys enjoyed going through all of their loot -- so much so, there weren't even any tears shed when Gwamma and PaPa left. Now that's a miracle! Soon after, the boys were so exhausted they went to bed with no fuss. Ahhh, now that's the perfect way to end a great day = )