Almost 2 years ... and almost 2 months

Yep that is right. The boys are ALMOST 2 years old (will be 2 in one more month - Oct 30th), and Evie is ALMOST 2 months old (will be in a matter of days). We have Evie's 2 month check up this coming Friday - NOT looking forward to her first round of immunizations. The boys get theirs on their 2nd birthday too - not a very good birthday present if you ask me.

All is going well around the Hoglund household..... including (drum roll) the addition going onto our house. To date (Tuesday 9/29) we have the footings, foundation, floors (floor board and cement poured in garage), walls, sheeting and trusses done...and today they are putting on the roof. We're hoping to be weather/air tight by end of week - Yipee. Soon they will be busting through our dining room to tie into the addition and wall in our new master bath (which will come into our current dining room just a few feet). I cannot wait to see how this all looks. It is amazing how much they have gotten done and how fast they are working. Will have to take some pictures and post them once I get the chance. We're hard at work picking flooring (carpet and tile), doors, paint etc. So many decisions and I hate to make them in a rush.... but such is our life.

The boys are doing well. We've started up another session (fall/winter) of ECFE and they made a lot of new friends. Shawna and her twin boys (Jackson and Wyatt) were able to get into the same class so that made it extra fun.... AND imagine our surprise when yet ANOTHER set of twins was in that class. What are the odds - three sets of twins in one class of 8. :) MacKay and Oscar did pretty well considering they haven't been to ECFE in months (summer break)... MacKay had a bit of separation anxiety when I left to go drop Evie off at sibling care (which she did excellent at) but then quickly became his old adventurous self. Oscar didn't even notice I was gone and was in his own world playing with all the new toys. What WAS a challenge though was getting three children under the age of 2 into the building..... add to that the fact that the entire parking lot was jam packed and I had to park super far away. They did pretty well staying close to me, though they liked to lag behind (thankfully it wasn't the opposite and go running ahead) and needed a lot of prodding. I think next time I might need to use the baby bjorn on Evie so I can hold both of their hands... OR might need to just give in and bring the double stroller along and figure out how to push it with one hand (while I carry Evie in her infant seat). What a dilema, I tell ya. I broke a sweat just getting them into the classroom :)

The boys have been doing so much lately too. A lot of the same from before..... but learning new things as well. They both can now crawl into their cribs (thank god they aren't crawling out) at bedtimes, and actually are excited to do so. They love books (major change from before) but are SO hard on them. If there is a flap or even the slightest lip up from something glued down, they rip it off. We should invest in the companies that make book tape. :) They are getting good with identifying animals and their sounds --> cow = moo, duck = dub dub (huh?), monkey = oooh oooh oooh, gorilla = pounding on chest, fish = doing fishy face, dog = woof woof etc. It's a lot of fun around here as I usually now understand what they want and what they are trying to tell me. They are so smart... the other day MacKay even pointed to the word "ELMO" on the TV (opening credits/title for a movie) and said "Elmo". They are completely obsessed with Elmo by the way... even to the point of DEMANDING to hold their diapers during changes cuz they have pictures of Elmo on them. They love saying "On" - telling me to turn on the music or TV or movies for them. They say "Please" (peez) when they want their milk at dinner time. And they are still so much help to us with Evie... loving her up, putting her empty bottles (and sometimes wrapped up dirty diapers) on the counter for us, bringing us things (diapers, wipes, bibs, bottles) etc. They really are such good big brothers. And they are doing so well at eating lately too..... MUCH better with spoon control with cereal for breakfast and other meals. Same with forks. MacKay still eats quite a bit more (he must have such high metabolism) and the other day ate more pizza than both Chris or I. He just kept pounding it away and asking for "Mo mo mo" (more more more). We thought he surely was going to throw up from how much he ate but it just turns out he LOVES pizza and can really shovel it in. MacKay and Oscar also got some fine new haircuts (tho MacKay looks like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber as always after a hair cut). Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean came up to stay for a couple days last week to help me out while Chris was in California for work, and they offered to take the boys into town (and out of my hair) for some MUCH needed haircuts. Apparently they did really well in the chairs and as always were super stoked about the balloons they got afterwards. BTW, I should mention that MacKay and Oscar say Gma Bonnie, Gpa Dean's and Gpa Gary's (even Terri's too) names VERY clearly .... I still am working on "Chris" (Doooo) and "Diane" with them but they don't seem as easy for them. We'll keep at it though.

Evie is porking out and I am not sure how I feel about it :) I loved it when the boys got all chubby... but I just love her being this little peanut. Regardless, she is getting chubby cheeks and filling out everywhere. She's a good little eater (not as lazy as she was before) and a GREAT sleeper. She now consistently is sleeping 9+ hours between her last bottle of the night and waking in the morning. Now if only I could sleep like that :) I had JUST gotten to the point where I was only checking on the boys periodically throughout the night (vs going in there multiple times like I was when they were younger) via their monitor before Evie arrived....... and now I am back to getting up every hour or so just to check her. Unnnghhh. :) She is a smiling machine lately too. Very giggly and loves to look around at her surroundings and take it all in. She smiles when the boys come over and kiss her - so I think she knows who they are... very cute. She's graduated to size 1 diapers, 3 month (0-3) clothing .... and is chugging down 6-7 4oz bottles daily. She really is a good baby. Very laid back for the most part (when she isn't screaming impatiently for a bottle). Even the teachers at sibling care (ECFE) said she was a breeze to watch.

Well, enough said..... here are some picture's (out of the hundreds) I've taken in the past couple weeks since the last post. In all fairness, I have cut down from taking ~1000 pictures every month to about 400 monthly. .... I know I know.... still pretty sick. But if I wasn't doing that, how could I end up with all these fabulous pictures I post out here?

Now isn't this lovely? My boys have found their nasal orifices .... I couldn't get them to take their fingers out no matter what I tried, so instead I figured I might as well capture it on film. (They also love to stick their fingers in their ears and test out how muffled things sound when they do that).

Some cute pictures of Evie. Love the (big) last one .... I think it is the one we'll use on her birth announcement. Something so cute about how they look when they are doing tummy time and propped up like that.

My good little eaters ... the first few are showing off their prowess with utensils (specifically a spoon with cereal here).... and then a couple pictures Gma Chris took of the boys during their first successful bout with ketchup

MacKay and Oscar with Evie: They are so good with consoling her when she cries or needs some hugs and kisses.

Some fun (and some goofy) pictures of MacKay and Oscar in my Gpa Skitch's (MacKay) old recliner chair. They love to sit in there together.... lately they love to pile all their toys on there and bury themselves in them.

Just a couple pictures catching Evie smiling. She smiles all the time but it is so hard to catch them on film.

Evie with Daddy and MacKay. Evie loves to just "hang" with Daddy in the crook of his arm like this. I try to do it with her and she won't have it - go figure. And EVERY time I bring out the play mat for Evie, MacKay just HAS to crawl in there with her. Lately he just LOVES being by her and loves to lie next to her like this.

Lastly a few more goofy pictures of the boys. One is of Oscar wearing his Melissa and Doug plush tool set holder on his head like it is a hat. They both love running around like this. And the other is of the boys sitting in Angus's kennel amidst a ton of torn up tissue paper that went with a gift we got for Evie from the Ledweins. (Thank you Tim, Denise, and Taylor for the adorable outfit for Evie... and as you can see, the wonderful "distraction" for the boys) :)