The Hoglund Family Blog: 8 months old.... Easter .... lots of fun outside.

I LOVE being able to get those little boys outside to blow off some steam. It is a good replacement for naps (nap time at least). Very easy to take them outside for a romp while Evie is napping and just bring the monitor out. And they fully understand it is time to go in when they hear Evie crying.... tho trying to get them in any time before that (to be proactive) is a challenge. They absolutely LOVE being outside and won't go in until they absolutely have to (meaning when Evie wakes up). It helps a bit with the nighttime routine too.... we're putting the boys to bed a little earlier these days (around 8pm), and about half of the time they go right to bed. The other half we have to go in every so often to get them back in bed. We even have 2 rules that we remind them about every night: 1.) Don't touch the light (night light) and 2.) Stay in bed. I think they are starting to sink in as they will finish the rules for us - ie Don't touch ___ ______ [the light]. And they have stopped playing with the night light now as well. The staying in bed thing still needs some work though :)

What chatterboxes these little boys are too. Full sentences are coming out of their mouth, and surprisingly understandable ones at that. During car rides they just LOVE to point out semi trucks, school buses, and tractors (any utility vehicle is a tractor). It is just not stop jibber jabber in our house now. And SO fun to watch them talk to each other .... "Come on Ok-ker", "No Hitting 'Kay", "Where's Daddy? Daddy at Work". They can count to 10 and love every chance they get to do it. They love watching "mooo-vees" - specifically the Toy Story movies (Easter gift from Gma/Gpa Hoglund), Up, Snow White, Monsters vs Aliens, Monsters Inc, Madagascar and Chicken Little. They know them all so well that they spout off comments BEFORE the events in the films. And MacKay..... what a sweetie. He gets freaked out during certain parts in Monsters vs Aliens and will go run and hide in the front hall closet until that part of the movie is over. And it is always the same parts. Hoping that this summer when Toy Story 3 comes out we can bring the boys to a matinee showing to see how they do with that - I guess if we have to leave, we have to leave. But I would love to give it a try.

The boys have had a lot of fun lately too. ECFE has been really great for them - I watch them through the glass in the adult room and they do things for those teachers that they would never do for me. In fact we'll get home and I'll sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" or "If You're Happy and You Know It...." like the teachers are with them and MacKay will adamantly put up his hand at me and say "STOP IT MOMMY". Nice..... but it is so great to see them joining in and having fun with this stuff. Their cousins Kelly and Brandon (Ke-yeee and Ban-non) came over one day during their spring break last week and we took the kiddos to Nisswa Park which was probably the highlight of the month for them. They were in their prime there going up and down the apparatuses to get to all the different slides --- sometimes demanding they do it themselves with NO help. They are getting so independent. But they had a blast with their cousins and by the time they left at 5pm both of the boys conked out on the recliner and couch before dinner for a good 30 minutes - and when we woke them MAN were they crabby. Took both of them a good 30 minutes to settle down after their meltdowns about not being able to nap at that time ... and surprisingly they went to bed like champs that night too. Kelly and Brandon do SUCH a great job playing with them.... and additionally in wearing them out :)

Evie is now 8 months old and has TWO teeth. She popped the 2nd one just about a week ago.... AND is moments away from crawling. Just last week she got up on all 4s and was rocking back and forth, now she does it all the time. When she really wants to get somewhere though she rolls and rolls and rolls ..... one minute she is on one side of the room, a minute later she is on the other. :) Not sure I am ready for her to be mobile yet, but it is so fun watching her figure this all out. She won't sit in one place too long before she leans forward over her legs and gets onto her hands and knees.... so it should be any day now. Other than that, she is still our happy, easy going little girl - who just loves to laugh at her silly brothers and egg them on when they are being naughty and goofballs. She too is quite the vocal little lady..... lots of shrieks (REALLY loud and high pitched), and babbling - she even gets out a few ma-mas and da-das. She is enthralled with her tongue lately as well - both sticking it out and twisting it in her mouth (something I cannot do, but her father can).... and also has been sucking her top lip in a lot lately - like she just realized it was there and loves to play with it. And she is growing like a weed.... already wearing a ton of her 18 month clothes (PJs and tops mostly).

For Easter this year we went to Gma Bonnie and Gpa Deans on Saturday. The whole family was there and all the kiddos played together SO nicely. It was such a fun time. Evie got completely spoiled and loved up... as did the boys who again, both conked out within minutes of getting in the car to go home. They got some really nice gifts (clothes, Toy Story movies, toys, treats, candy etc) and even found some of the eggs during the egg hunt in the house. Of course Oscar was solely concerned with going to see "Buppas Traaa-ker"... had been talking about it for DAYS before we went down there. And during the time all the kids were playing outside, he spent the entirety of it either looking at, talking about or riding on Buppa's Traaa-ker. On Easter Sunday we woke the boys up and had them run around and find 1) their Easter baskets and 2) the numerous eggs we had hidden in the living room. I just wish I hadn't been so busy feeding Evie as I would to have loved to get it on film as the boys scurried around finding eggs and excitedly exclaiming things like: "I FIND it",.... "DER it IS", ......"I Did It", .... "Isss a EGG". And when it came time to open up the plastic eggs .... the real humor started. Each of them had eggs that contained quarters and bills. They especially liked the noise of the quarters in most of the eggs, but when Oscar opened up one of the eggs that had bills in it he got this excited look on his face and exclaimed "PAPERS".... like it was the greatest thing in the world to get some pieces of "paper" as a gift. When he opened up the others that had more bills he again kept yelling out "Papers.... More Papers" - still as excited as when he opened the first one. I love moments like that and hated that I didn't get that on film. But all in all Easter was a fun holiday to celebrate with the boys and they seemed to get what they were supposed to do with everything.

Very much looking forward to this weekend. Originally was planning on coming down to the cities with the kiddos as Chris had a company share holder meeting on Thursday in Eden Prairie all day, and then an all day seminar in Golden Valley on Friday. But now, instead my mom is coming up here and Chris is going to stay overnight on Thursday with his friend Steve Wadman and come back up on Friday. During her stay I am hoping we can get the kiddos to the open gym on Friday at the Franklin Arts building, bring the kids to a park or two, take the kiddos shopping for shoes (sandals for summer) ..... and have Gma Chris watch the kiddos on Saturday night while I take my husband out for his birthday and maybe even a few drinks with friends. Doesn't happen very often for us so gotta make the most of it when we can make it work.

Well on to the pictures - which there are a TON of cuz I FINALLY have my camera back. I feel like I haven't a clue what I am doing with it as I wasn't able to put everything I was learning during the classes into effect until now. But I am getting the hang of it again and getting some really fun photos. Enjoy

The boys having fun outside with Daddy. Riding the "tractor" - notice the buss in the background, they were coming back from a ride down to look at it..... and Daddy showing the boys how to use the sprayer on the hose. GREAT Chris, excellent thing to teach them. [For those of you who didn't know, there is a classic story of Chris as a little boy who didn't want to leave his Grandma's house during a visit and was outside spraying the front door with the hose every time his mother would try come out to leave]

Evie and her weird tongue lately.... sticking out her tongue and sucking in her upper lip.

Fun at Nisswa park with Kelly and Brandon. The boys LOVED the slides (especially MacKay) and Oscar got to be reunited with his old friend from last season.... the bouncy frog. [Note: this was prior to a MUCH needed haircut for both of them :)]

The boys playing outside with their tractor. It is somewhat sad cuz MacKay is always pushing Oscar around (he actually enjoys it).... but when I get them to switch it isn't long (seconds) before Oscar wants to switch back. MacKay never seems to mind though. And here Oscar has, instead, decided to sit in the trailer ... vs push his brother around for a ride.

Just a couple cute pictures of the boys working out their "turns" on their tractor.... and Oscar in hog heaven sitting on Daddy's tractor in the garage.

Just a bunch of cute pictures of Evie hamming it up. I know they are all so similar, I had such a hard time paring it down cuz they were all so precious and hilarious at the same time. Love the big one though as it really captures her cute smile. [and note the teeth that you can see in most of them]

MacKay and Oscar having some fun with Daddy. Love the picture of MacKay lovingly resting on Daddy's head.... and Oscar still loves to stand on Daddy and then drop down onto him on his butt making Daddy moan and groan in pain. Only difference now is that Oscar is doing the countdown (vs us) which is fun to see. Also - Oscar loves to play with cars and trains on his playmat - he actually folows the tracks/streets on it.

Evie = mobile? Not quite yet, but any day now. She's getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Even when we sit her on the ground it isn't long before she is trying to get on all fours.

Easter with the Hoglunds/Ledweins. The whole family.... and Gma and Gpa with their prized grandchildren.

Evie got loved up by everyone.... here she is with her aunt Niecey (Denise) and her cousin Sophia. The other picture is of her sitting with uncle Timmy - she was working like mad to get that sock off her foot and it eventually ended up in her mouth.