Mom comes to visit!!

My mom came to visit and was able to stay with us for a WHOLE week. It was pretty awesome. Sometimes you just need your mommy to come and cook for you and make your life just a little bit easier :). It was also a good crash course for her to get used to taking care of the ninos again for when Little E arrives and I'm in major need of help taking care of them. **This has been a huge source of anxiety for me lately. You know how those first few weeks of having a baby is everything you can do to keep yourself and the baby alive? Yeah, I'm basically going to need a full time babysitter to help with the boys so I can concentrate on recuperating and taking care of Elina. And, because I won't be able to lift the boys for six weeks. Ayayayay!**

Waking up the boys before going to my OB appointment. Even though they hadn't seen her in months, they still recognized her and wanted to snuggle right away.

I love this picture. Doesn't my mommy look so pretty? We went to a local pumpkin patch one day (that deserves its own post), but here she is with her little man.

Running after her little man again.

Carter loooves to snuggle with his grandma.

Another wake up snuggle session :)

Brandt loves to steal Carter's pacifier.

Thanks for coming, Mom! Can't wait to see you in a few weeks when Little E comes!

First Happy Meal

A few weeks ago, I had a few errands to run that were going to take us past the boys lunchtime. We were driving home and I was thinking of what I could throw together for a quick lunch. Nothing was coming to mind and then I got an idea...get the boys their first Happy Meal! The boys don't eat fast food often so I thought it would be a special treat (this thinking also made me feel less guilty for feeding them McDonald's instead of planning ahead and having a well rounded, healthy lunch).


The boys had chicken nuggets, apples with caramel dip and their very own jug of milk with a straw. They had so much fun dipping their foods. It was only when I was cleaning up their lunch that I noticed they'd "dipped" their chicken nuggets and apple slices into their milk as well...eew!

eewww...gross!!

Fun in Forts

A few weeks ago, Eric and I made forts for the boys to play in. We had a lot of fun. We would build a fort using the couch and the child gate and then cover it in blankets. Carter had so much fun climbing through the mazes we made. Brandt, on the other hand, didn't really seem to understand what we were doing and would tear each of them down.

Here's Carter climbing through one of the first ones we made.

Brandt climbed in next but found a blanket with fringe. He has this thing with blankets with fringe or anything else he deems cozy and he has to stop and snuggle with it and suck on his two fingers.

Another fort we made.

Eric telling Carter to climb in.

Brandt being a ham in the fort.

Carter in one of the last forts.

Carter and his daddy playing.

Farm and Fleet

A few weeks ago, Eric had a day off so we took the boys and paid a visit to our local Farm and Fleet. Eric's mom described the store as a farmer's Kmart. I'd never heard of this store before we moved here and her description was pretty accurate. Let me just you they had anything you could ever want with a John Deer logo on it! It was a really fun store and was huge! We didn't get a chance to go through half the store.

Oh, and before we went shopping we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings. That is by far our favorite place to eat with the boys (yes, we know it's a sports bar :) ). The Chicago Bears were playing that day, so it was full of fans that would clap every few minutes. This just got the boys so excited. They love to clap so when the people in the restaurant would clap, the boys would stop eating, look around and get excited, and start clapping. And with all the noise in the restaurant, we didn't mind if the boys made noise. It was so much fun!

Brandt really excited people are clapping and joining in on the fun!

Carter enjoying his French fry. I didn't get a good pic of him in the clapping excitement.

At the Farm and Fleet, they had this cute table and chairs set we had to get for the boys. Carter has been going around trying to sit on anything...it was making us kind of sad that he didn't have his own chair. The boys spent the afternoon climbing up on the chairs, getting off of them and moving them to another spot, and then climbing up on them again.

Carter acting cool in his chair.

Brandt figuring out how sitting in the chair works.

What's in a name...Part Deux

Little Girl Groen has a name! It's been over a week and Eric and I still like it, so we think it's going to stick. For a long time, we were going to go with Amelie. We heard of that name from the movie and have liked it, but nevertheless, even though it DID start with an "A," it just wasn't the name we loved enough to name our daughter.

The name we have chosen is:

Elina Marie

We knew we loved it because we could start calling her by the name and it just felt right. Eric likes the name Elin. I've always liked the name Elena, so I guess it's sort of a compromise. Eric still says he may still call her Elin. I may call her Ellie, or Lina, or maybe even Leelee (Eric doesn't like that one one bit). Oh, and Marie is my middle name, so I think it's pretty special to have someone pass my name to. I've always loved my middle name.

Elina is a form of "Helen." I guess the name is Greek, but it's only used in Northern European countries. This makes Eric very glad that his daughter (sort of) has a Scandinavian name.

We can't wait for Elina to make her appearance. She's pretty feisty in the womb, or maybe that's just me comparing her to carrying twins. I guess she does have a lot more room to move around in than the boys did :)

Brotherly Love

Awhile ago, the boys were playing in their room and Brandt started tackling Carter.

Pics of the boys

I've been chastised for not putting up more pics of the boys. It's because I haven't been taking any! I made a cognizant effort to take a few this week when we had some outside play time. We're really trying to make the most of the weather before it gets cold and we're stuck being inside. The boys love going outside and usually wander from the backyard all the way around the house.

Having them go outside has been nice for me, too, because they can't get into much trouble (well, except when they go in opposite directions!).

Coming up from the basement after a morning nap (I'm really going to miss these! I know their days are limited.)

Eating some lunch. The boys love any type of noodle.

Yay for messy lunches!

Carter immediately goes to his favorite car. He climbs in and waits for someone to push him around in it. It has a little radio button and when Carter turns on the music, he starts bopping to the music and acts really cool.

Lil Man Carter walking up the driveway. Oh, for those who haven't seen the latest vehicle addition, there's the minivan! I like to call her the "Mini." Eric likes to call her the "Mega." But anyway, we got a Chrysler Town and Country and LOVE IT. We've had it a few months and I can't believe I drove around twins in an Altima. I can open all the doors with my keyless remote and it even has remote start for the ignition!!! I am so excited for that in the winter. The coolest part (and I should take a pic of it to show how super cool it is) is a panoramic mirror that allows the driver to see all the passengers...so cool! I looked at every SUV under the sun because I didn't want to be a minivan driving mama and as soon as Eric and I test drove one, there was no denying it...we had to have a minivan. It's awesome and makes driving around so much easier.

Brandt's favorite thing to do outside is to open and close the screen door.

The neighbors behind the house have some chickens that come over and visit. We like to feed them bread and the boys loooove to run out to them.