Bye Bye Pathfinder

After talking about it for about 3+ years, we finally said goodbye to our 1998 Nissan Pathfinder otherwise known at our house as 'Daddy's car'. A little bittersweet - as Travis said his life changed pretty significantly while owning that car. He bought it a few days before he moved up here to Minneapolis. He went from being right out of college and broke to 5 years later being a married man with two kids and a house. Crazy how much your life can change in 5 years.

On to the next vehicle. What will it be?!

Another month....

So I know that I am long overdue for this update as it’s been over a month. Here are some of the highlights of our February and first part of March –

(1) Sunday trip to the zoo with the Tetzlaff clan. Of course Eli and Jack HAD to find the water. They seem to find it wherever they go.
Colin and Lauren were SO much easier – they just hung out in their strollers. They’ll be in the water soon enough!

(2) Welcome Cole William McCarthy on February 19th. He was long awaited by the McCarthy family and all their family and friends. He is absolutely precious and we are so glad that he is here. Unfortunately he is already causing his parents more grief than they deserve – but he is quite the little fighter and it going to be one tough cookie. Kristie- I stole a pic from Facebook of the little guy b/c I HAD to have a picture of the newest addition on the blog and I didn’t get one when I was at your house! Isn't he sweet :)

(3) Saturday evening trip to Chuckie Cheese. So MUCH fun! Eli loved all the rides and Colin enjoyed watching all the activity. Here are a few pics of “Yucky cheese” as Eli thinks its called…

Colin - oh so tired, but riding the merry go round anyway.

(4) We made a long awaited trip to Iowa for a weekend so that we could meet baby Cole (see #2), see family and friends, and help Dad (Grandpa Mark) celebrate his birthday. Travis and I hadn’t been there since Christmas (which is a long time for us) so it was great to get back.

Eli and Maria got to play for a couple hours and had a LOT of fun. This is what we found them doing in Maria’s room….a couple of little monkeys.

We made a visit to play with Zoey too, but unfortunately the boys were both starting to get sick so it wasn’t quite as crazy. Eli and Zoey still had fun playing the my mommy, my mommy game….

(5) On March 14th we FINALLY got to play outside! Yay! Eli finally knows how to drive the tractor grandma and grandpa gave him ALL by himself. He needs to work on the steering still, but it’s progress from last year. I’m picturing Colin to be riding in the wagon by the end of the summer (could be scary!). The boys were thrilled to be outside and of course we had a tantrum when it was time to go inside and eat dinner. Love the warm weather!

I think that’s the longest Colin has sat without wanting to be held for a LONG time (We hope spring is here to stay!)

(6) Thought for the day – This morning I was in major need of some caffeine so I treated myself to some Caribou Coffee on my way to work (my fav). They started this new thing where when you’re in the store you can write down thoughts and “what you stay awake for” and then they put them on their cups. One of the ones on my cup today was “Spend time with your kids, tomorrow they’re a day older”. I thought that was a good one so I decided after work all I was going to do was make a quick dinner and then play with my kids. Well turns out they both had grumble soup for lunch – that combined with going to bed to late last night = NOT fun playtime. They got baths and were in bed around 7:30. I still spent time with them I guess – just that somedays that time is more enjoyable than others. Maybe tomorrow night will go better?

January what?!

I realize that it is now February 6th and I have not had an update in over a month. Where did January go!?! Well...I would say it went to work as it is that time of year...my favorite time of year. NOT! Busy season is in full swing and Travis is equally as busy so the whole month was kind of a blur. Below are the "highlights" of our January.

1) Lauren Kathryn Tetzlaff was born on the 12th. She is a perfect little baby girl and we are so happy that she is here. It's gonna be fun having a little girl around here with all these boys ;) Congrats to the Tetzlaffs!

Eli really likes to hold her. He seems to be a little more gentle with her than he was when Colin was born - well...he is still really rough with Colin so who knows what's gotten into him with her

2) Grandpa Scott and Grandma Jayne came to visit with some friends for the Vikings vs. Cowboys game. We went to Champps to cheer on the Vikes! (minus Chuck) Eli was really into it actually - it was fun. Unfortunately we won't be cheering them on tomorrow in the Super Bowl

3) The boys got to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's. Travis and I really missed the boys but did enjoy a weekend of without responsibilities. We went out for two nice dinners and decided that in my in fact actually be cheaper to have kids! The boys had fun, but unfortuneately both of them ended up getting sick so they weren't quite themselves. Mom (Grandma Cathy) got a flashback to what it was like to have little ones and had to get up in the middle of the night a couple of times - it reaffirmed to her why you should have kids when your young! Even though they weren't feeling the greatest they still got to go visit Aunt Kayla in Iowa City for a day. She spoiled them of course. Eli got to do a Build-A-Bear and go to the Children's Museum. He LOVES his new teddy bear. Teddy Bear has been added to the "stuff" that Eli HAS to have in his bed when he sleeps and I would say that Teddy Bear (yes - so far that is his name) is a second to the beloved "ducky". We even have to take his shoes off every night because nobody can sleep with tennis shoes on (even stuffed animals!) :) Thank you Aunt Kayla!

4) After the week in Iowa Mom and Dad brought the boys home and spent the weekend. The boys seemed glad to be home and I think Grandma Cathy was equally glad to bring them home (see #3). It was great having them here and we (especially Eli) were sad to see them go home.

5) Eli and I found some time to play outside last weekend in all the snow. He's not quite sure about the sled (such a wimp sometimes)....

But he found his tractor in the garage and wanted to ride it in the worst way and he wanted to paly with his basketball hoop. I think we're ready for spring for SO many reasons.

After writing this I realize that I have no pictures of Colin in here. Sorry Colin....we think you're adorable and we love you. I'll do better next time.

Ending 2009

The last week of 2009 was a good week at our house. I only had to work about a day and half total which meant I got to spend a lot of time with my boys. We decided to stay in on New Year's Eve so we ordered dinner from the Olive Garden and watched The Hangover (after the boys were in bed of course), which is just as funny, if not funnier the second time around. I saw New York ring in the new year and then fell asleep. I guess that's what having two kids does to you :)

Where else would we rather be than with these two? Nice expression Eli...

Then on New Year's Day after I got all the Christmas decorations put away Allison and I decided to take the boys to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. Thought it would be a fun thing to do with the boys before Baby T. arrives anytime here. That place is too much fun. The boys (Eli and Jack) had such a riot - it was just one fun thing after another for them and they were completely exhausted on the way home. Colin just enjoyed the view from his stroller. Here are a few pics from the big outing.

Cooking it up in the kitchen Grocery cart races!!

Oh great - they found the water! Of course we found our way to the music, instruments AND a stage?!

The end - too tired to stand up and acting completely silly

We picked up carry-out from Red Savoy on our way home and our day was complete. Yum-Yum!

Otherwise, it was a week of progress at our house for both Colin and Elijah.

Colin is getting noticeably stronger and is doing SO much better at sitting up and seems to be really enjoying the new view of the world instead of being on his back all the time. Here he is showing off his skills in his special t-shirt from his Godfather :)

And...Elijah is officially without his paci. After all that wondering about how we were EVER going to get that thing away from him - he took care of it himself. He somehow bit a hole in it and from then on couldn't suck on it very well and pretty much just got sick of it. We still have the "ducky's" though -I'm sure those will be around for a while!

What a great year 2009 was. Can't wait to see what 2010 brings -especially all these babies that we're going to get to meet and Kayla & Bobby's wedding!

Another Christmas Come and Gone

It's so hard to believe that another Christmas has come and gone already. We spent 5+ days in Cascade for Christmas, which was great! Everyone was able to make it home (including Danny all the way from Boulder), even with the questionable weather so we were really lucky to get to spend Christmas with our entire family. Eli got very good at opening gifts by the end and woke up Saturday morning and said "open presents?" - as if he didn't get enough already!! Colin turned eight months old while we were back which is SO hard to believe. He was a very happy boy all week - he loves all the attention and the holding so he was a perfect angel.

Colin and Great Grandma Jeannette

Eli helping Bobby open his presents - and wearing Bobby's new Bears hat ONLY to make Bobby happy :)

Ryan and his footy pajamas - Fanastic! Only would've been better if he put them on for us!

Eli's new guitar from Santa- he takes it very seriously! He must really like it because he had to sleep with it.

A video of Eli dancing. He put on a couple of different dance party shows throughout the week, but this is the only one I could get uploaded. He is quite the multi-tasker.

We ended our Christmas holiday by coming home to 1 1/2 feet of snow which was extra special :P. However, thanks to our great neighbors and our our snowblower it wasn't so bad. Thanks Bob and Jodi!

new Clothes and new Habits

Travis and I went out to finish up our Christmas shopping Sat. night and got Eli a little jacket (sport jacket type -not a warm coat in any respect) to wear for Christmas and a new winter hat. When I showed them to him he was SO excited he wanted to put them on immediately. At the time he was just wearing a diaper so I put the jacket and hat on him and he went and found his snow boots and put them on. What next...time to go outside?!

We did make him come in after about a minute of course- but it wasn't easy. Apparently he thought he was dressed plenty warm!

This week Eli started taking his plate into the kitchen after he is done eating. He throws his plate and fork in the sink and says "I did it!" - so proud. Well apparently he think that translates into putting everything into the sink because I came into the kitchen after not checking on him for a few minutes to find every single pair of shoes/boots that was sitting on the rug in the kitchen in the kitchen sink. Also included was a target bag, a toothbrush and a couple other things that definitely do NOT belong in the kitchen sink.

Finally, here are a couple of my favorite recent pics of the boys. So sweet! I enjoy them loving to be around each other so much. I wonder how long it will last?!?

Only 5 days til Christmas a 1 day til we head down to Iowa. We can't wait!

Music Class

Me and the boys have been going to music class this fall. This woman, Sarah, comes into my neighbor's aunt's house and sings songs with the kids and reads to them. It's so much fun! The kids LOVE it - it even keeps Eli's attention for just a few minutes until he decides he's hungry :). We had our last class this past Wednesday before we take a break for the holidays so we attempted to get a picture of Sarah with all the kids. Here is what we got (pretty typical!)




Funny Eli story of the week (at least I thought it was funny). On Wednesday morning it was bitterly cold. I was loading the kids up in the car before work/daycare. I was putting Colin in the car first and Elijah was standing next to the car (on his side), snow boots and all, waiting for me to put him in the car. When I was walking around the car I met him coming around the side of the car and when he saw me he looked up with the most stern look on his face and said "Mommy....I AM COLD!". The way I took it was Mommy...hurry the heck up!