Uh oh - Cole is a teenager!

In a move that freaked Joe out quite a bit, Cole turned 13 on February 17th. While Joe is still trying to figure out how his first son could possibly be that old, we celebrated the milestone birthday that day with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob.

The highlight of the day was a surprise for Cole that had him laughing so hard he cried. You see, a few weeks earlier while we celebrated Z & A's birthday, we asked Cole what kind of cake he wanted. He didn't have much of an opinion, so a Barbie cake was suggested. Cole said yes, never dreaming we'd actually get one. He now knows that he must be careful about what he wishes for - he just might get it!

Check out the great pics in the "Cole Turns 13" photo album.

On separate note, new pics have also been added to the Jan - Feb 2008 album, including a couple craft projects, fun at a local pool, and making brownies with Daddy.

Zach and Alex are Two!

I still can't believe it, but on Jan 29, Zach and Alex turned 2! They did really well at their two-year check-up. They're still skinny, of course - Zach almost made it on the charts at 23 lb, but is still in the 0 percentile, while Alex at a "beefy" 23 lb 10 oz is actually in the 6th percentile for the first time. For height, Zach was measured at 34" (44th percentile) and Alex was measured at 34.5" (60th percentile). The great news is, they are very healthy and are developing quite well. They were so excited to see the doctor, having seen some in books and TV, and went running down the hall looking for her: "Doctor! Doctor!"

For their birthday, we had a little celebration on the actual day with some special treats and some fun, but we really celebrated that weekend with the help of Cole, Grandma Pat and Papa Bob, opening presents and enjoying a special cake. Check out the pictures in the Z & A Birthday album.

There are also lots of new pictures in the Jan-Feb 2008 family album, including a peak at Cole after his band concert, a day at the Children's Museum, and a glimpse at Zach and Alex as they play and explore.

New album for 2008

It's hard to believe we're this far into the new year already to have enough pictures to start the 2008 Family album, but here we are.

The first batch of pictures include little glimpses at just how much Zach and Alex have grown in the last year. They are able to feed themselves with forks and spoons - and doing it quite well most of the time. They'll sit down with a book on their own and look at all the pictures, naming the objects and colors they know (which grows by the day, it seems). And they love to do art projects - coloring, painting and more. It's amazing how much they can do now!

Some favorite pictures, though, are from just a couple days ago where the boys were hanging out in their Halloween costumes, dressed as Pooh Bear and Eeyore. They loved wearing them and looked so darn cute! Particularly funny was the fact that Zach absolutely HAD to have the hood up - any time it slipped off, he came running to ask for help putting it back on.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year to all! We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas.

Lots of new pictures have been added to the Photo Gallery. Finishing out the 2007 Family album are some new photos in the Nov-Dec 2007 album, including a few in early December that were hiding on one of our digital cameras of Z & A enjoying an early Christmas present from Papa and Grandma Pat - a new play table. Also included are a gift of Buzz and Woody from Debbie and fun for the whole family with wooden blocks from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn.

Debbie and I took the boys to visit Santa. They were really excited about Santa - right up until it was time to actually meet him. Alex had a death grip on me, while Zach was wary of this strange man and found that exploring the area was more interesting. Debbie captured a picture of a struggle to keep the boys still enough to get that split-second portrait. Once we left, they got excited about Santa again. What can you do? :-)

In the Christmas 2007 album, we have pictures from our mid-December trip to celebrate Christmas with family and friends in Chicago - we had such a great time visiting everyone! For Christmas, we opened all our family gifts on the 23rd so we could take our time and enjoy everything with Cole. On Christmas Eve, we made the trek up to Grandma Pat and Papa's house and spent the day with them; we also were invited to invade the Aberle's holiday celebration to spend a little time with them.

Christmas Day brought a visit from Santa (fortunately for the boys, while they were still sleeping) and a fantastic meal with some dishes that have become holiday traditions for us - a roast duck with apple and prune stuffing that is to die for, the Vandermark traditional Green Death (lime Jello salad with cream cheese and pears - yum!), and a new butternut squash risotto that was a lot of work but was wonderful with the duck.

New photos for November and December

We've got some great new pictures in the new Nov - Dec 2007 Family photo album, including a trip to Underwater World at the Mall of America, playing in class at ECFE (Early Childhood and Family Ed), preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and getting out during the first big snowfall of the season.

We also went to Joe's company Holiday Party on December 1 at the fabulous Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. It was a 70's disco theme party, complete with a great, well-known local cover band called Boogie Wonderland, and it was a ton of fun. Most of the crowd, including Joe and me, dressed the part in all its cheesy glory, and everyone got out on the dance floor - or even on stage (yep, that is me on stage with Heather, the wife of one of Joe's coworkers). The pictures are a bit grainy/fuzzy given the lighting in the room, but the Dow Jones Holiday Party album will give you an idea of the fun that was had by all.

Back to the crib

After about a week of letting the boys run like manics and a week of sitting in the room for up to an hour at a time to get them to fall asleep, we decided the boys just aren't ready for beds yet and put the crib fronts back on. Now we're having fun playing the "put the baby back in the bed" game, complete with the "let's hide from Mommy to see if she can find us" bonus game. It's taken as much as 2+ hours to get them to go to sleep, but I think in the long run, this is the right thing. We sure can't wait until they get the idea that they're supposed to stay in though!

Some new pics in the Sept-Oct 2007 album include another example of the mess the boys made when they should have been napping, a special breakfast made by Debbie and Cole, and dressing up as Pooh (Zach) and Eeyore (Alex, of course!) for Halloween.

Yikes, that didn't take long...

Just four days after Zach started to figure out how to get out of the crib, we had to take the front of the cribs off to turn them into toddler beds. We just couldn't get Zach to stay in, and Alex was quickly catching on too.

With that, all of their good sleeping habits seem to have gone right out the window. They've been having a blast running around (and running into things until we put their nightlight back on), climbing, and pulling everything out of every drawer possible. After they broke a dresser drawer and pulled down a radio and some books from the top of the dresser, we've put locks on the drawers and moved a bunch of things out of the room.

When they finally do fall asleep, it tends to be on the floor where they happen to pass out from exhaustion from all the fun.

Pictures of the toddler bed milestone and the following day's naptime have been added to the Sept - Oct 2007 album. Enjoy! :-)

They're having a ton of fun, but we can't wait until the novelty wears off and they start to actually sleep again...