Zoo

We went to the zoo on April 10 and to our pleasant surprise when we were walking in, my best friend Erin and her family were headed to the zoo too.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed spending time with the Wilkins family.  Here are some pics from the day.

Swim Lessons

Cale and Aiden recently finished swimming lessons.  We did private lessons with Cale this time and it was awesome to see him improve in swimming.  By the end of his lessons he went fully underwater and could swim a short distance by himself.  We were so proud of him and to see the confidence and excitement in his face with his accomplishments was cool to watch!  Aiden did his first swim lesson and it was basically a group lesson where they just familiarized themselves with the water and did fun activities.  Aiden is going to be our little daredevil!  That's for sure.  He is all about splashing, putting his face in the water, jumping into the water and being wild!

Gymboree

Aiden has been doing gym classes at Gymboree for over a year now.  It's been super fun because it's on Friday's and it's just been me and Aiden.  I have enjoyed the time just being able to hang 1 on 1 with my little man.  We ended our class in March and the last time we went to class he was the only kiddo there which has never happened!  It was a structured class, but the kiddos could do whatever they wanted.  Aiden really got into all the stuff they did weekly-there was always bubble time or parachute time and he loved both!  Here are some fun pictures.

Long winter

For some reason this winter has seemed extremely long.  I long for warm days when the kiddos can just get outside and play!  Looking forward to when that happens, and know that it's coming, I just need to be patient a little longer.  I think the kids are starting to go a little stir crazy too just with being inside so much.  I know I am.  We have had lots of really cold (negative windshields) temps and it seems more snow than usual, or at least than St. Louis is used too! 

Try, try again

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  I've heard that saying so many times in my life, but it's so neat to watch your kiddos do this as they learn more and more about life.  For example-watching Cale develop more and more at pre-school is really cool.  Last year, he couldn't write his letters the correct way for his name or color in the lines when coloring.  This year, he writes his name amazingly and it is so cool to see how far he has come with coloring.  He not only can color in the lines well, but just to see him actually make shapes and objects better is neat to watch.  His people look more like people and not just a single circle.  Pretty cool to see as a parent.  We started him in swimming lessons 2 weeks ago with both kiddos.  We are doing private lessons with Cale to get him more used to and comfortable with swimming by himself in anticipation of swimming this summer and Aiden is in a class with other kiddos his age.  We are doing it at the Y and are loving our membership there!  So this week, the teacher took the little floatie off of Cale's back and he actually swam a little distance by himself.  Now, it wasn't far, but he did it.  Even from just starting last week I have seen him grow in his confidence of just being in the water and taking more risks.

Now Aiden on the other hand is our little risk taker who wants to just do everything himself.  Sometimes Cale takes a little time to get used to an idea, but once he does he's great.  Aiden, just kind of goes for it.  If he could I am sure he would take his floatie off and try to swim on his own.

It's neat to see their different personalities and what they do, what they don't want to do and how they approach trying new things!  I often wonder what they will be interested in and do when they grow up!

Cale's 5th birthday

Cale turned 5 December 2.  This coming school year he will be going to Kindergarten.  Hard to believe that registration is coming up in the next few weeks!  What is he up to-well mostly he is very intuitive, he keeps asking more and more about the world around him!  We are talking about having a third child and he is super excited about that.  He wanted to know what little baby's look like inside their mommy's tummy so Jeff showed him tonight and he was just so amazed.  He asks sometimes the hardest questions and Jeff and I don't always know how to answer them!  He is a caring boy, is emotional, yet strong willed.  He loves legos, playing video games with daddy, wrestling with daddy and reading chapter books with us.  We adore him that's for sure!  For his 5th birthday party we went to  Abra Kid Abra.  The kids got to bounce in a bounce house, then there was a magic show which everyone loved, and finally cake.  Cale really enjoyed himself and got called up multiple times to participate in the magic show!  At the end he got to go into a money tank thing and collect money that was blowing around and at the end he got a prize!

Christmas

Cale and Aiden really enjoyed Christmas this year.  Aiden really got into it, much more than last year.  It was so fun watching the excitement in their eyes with all the wonders of the season.  We got to do a Advent Calendar somewhat this season and that was something they looked forward to every night (well the nights that we actually did it-we didn't get to it every night, that's for sure).  It was fun to keep Jesus as part of the season and have a reminder of him and his birth with the calendar.  We got to go to Carbondale and see Grandma and Grandpa Cauble and Grandma Benz.  We spend lots of time with Aunts, Uncles, and cousins at my parents house.  Kristi and Mal were in town and Stefani got engaged to a great guy named Chris in December.  Then we had Christmas day with the 4 of us before we went to Mike and Jen's house to celebrate Christmas with the Koziatek's.  Ray and Diane came over afterwards to hang out.  

 
 

Singing happy birthday to Jesus at Gaga's and Paa Paa's

Dinner with the Koziatek's

Christmas morning at the condo