Just in case you haven't heard..............

Baby #3 due 11/10/11.
And, yes, we're sure there's only one this time:). Whew!!

A new place for shoes

We have a new shoe rack, courtesy of Brock and Kyle. I came into the entry way one day last week to find that they had put their shoes away, just like I asked:). I guess they get points for creativity!!

Imaginations run wild!!

The boys' imaginations have been rapidly growing for the past few months, and it is so fun to watch as they play out what they see in their little minds. As you will notice in the remainder of the post, all of these pics are taken with jams on. We like laid back mornings around here and take full advantage of our stay-at-home time:). Here are some of the imagination scenes come to life from the last week or so in our house:

This day was a few weeks ago - I came into the room to investigate when I was hearing choo-choo sounds and found this very long train made with their vehicles.

Here they are - the conductor and the engineer:).

More sweet smiles to share.

I love how they started with the smallest cars and worked their way up to the big ones.

Seriously, Mom?!?! Put the camera away!!

Not sure how train making lead to book reading, but it's all good!!

A better shot of the train.

This series of pics was taken the day after we visited the Cars characters at State Farm. This structure behind them is State Farm, and if you look closely, you can see a loose representation of the 3 characters that we saw sitting in-between Brock and Kyle - made from Mega Blocks, of course:).

I was trying to persuade one of them to move to the other side so the picture would be more even, but neither wanted to move away from the "Cars guys", so this is the shot - still pretty cute!!

An aeriel view of the State Farm complex.

The next day they were in this boat, forging the high seas. Elmo had fallen overboard:(.

This day was yet another State Farm structure. "Get in, Daddy!" was the command when they showed this to Rob:).

This is one of many very large tunnels that they build for their mega Thomas tracks!!

All of that construction was very hard work, so they were "resting" and enjoying the view from the middle.

My hard workers, taking a much needed break!!

All of that imagining and building can leave a couple of guys just worn out!!

CARS!!!

Last Friday, Brock and Kyle got to meet some of their favorite movie characters. Tow-mater, Finn McMissile, and Lightning McQueen were at State Farm promoting their upcoming new movie (of which State Farm is a big sponsor - Thank You State Farm!!), so we went to meet them. Tow-mater and Lightning are definite favorites and Finn McMissile is a new character that we got a sneak peek of. It was so much fun to watch the boys' reactions as they had greatly anticipated meeting these guys. They were slightly disappointed that they didn't talk, but that disappointment was fully erased by getting to ride the escalators all the way up and down all the floors of Daddy's building:).

Tow-Mater. I was impressed with the fact that they were real vehicles, but still looked cartoon-like.

Brock and Kyle w/ Mater.

And another, because I like the cheesy grin!!

And another because it's funny, too!!

The view of Mater's back-side.

Checking out Mater's tow cable, which the boys greatly admire:).

One last shot of the side view.

And this is Finn McMissile. Brock and Kyle were checking out his back-side. Nope, no tow cable. Bummer!!

Love Brock's smile in this one.

And Kyle's in this one. Sorry that I can never post just one shot. The boys like to make sure that they never smile at the same time!!

Finn's other side - looks like the first, right:)??

This pic was so that I could make sure and remember his name. I'm getting old, you know!!

Ahhhhhhhhh, and the beloved Lightning McQueen!!! All the way to South, Kyle kept exclaiming that we were going to see "Lightning McQueen, my favorite race car EVER!!!!!". But when we got there, we rode the escalator down to the level he was on, and this totally distracted his attention the whole visit. "Can we ride back up?? Can we ride back up, now???", was all we heard almost the entire time we were there!! Oh, well. I guess next time we need some cheap entertainment, we'll just go and ride the escalators at State Farm for a couple of hours:).

Lightning's side-view with Brock looking forward......

.............and one with Kyle looking forward:).

Close up, because he's Lightning McQueen after all!!

Checking out his flames. We can't wait for Cars 2 to come out this summer. I think it will probably be Brock and Kyle's first visit to the movie theater - a fun look forward to!!

A fun Sunday afternoon :)

A few weeks back on that really mild and semi-warm Sunday afternoon before the snow melted, we let the boys skip their nap to play outside in the sunshine. There was still plenty of snow left to play in, and they had gotten a new tractor from Grammy and Papa for their birthday that they could hardly wait to try out.

Here's Brock on his first turn with the tractor.

Kyle, my funny guy, waiting for his turn:).

Daddy helping Brock steer. It was kind of good to have the walls of snow left - kind of like bumper pads:). I think it definitely gave them a little challenge with the steering, but taught them a lot about keeping it straight.

Kyle finally gets his turn - he was elated!!! I was impressed at how generous he was feeling that day to let Brock have the first ride:).

Brock again. I think we switched off every 3-5 minutes for a while.

And, Kyle's turn:).

He's such a cheese ball sometimes!!

Then, they took a tractor break to help Daddy clear away some snow in front of the mailbox. They had been dying to get out and shovel, but it had been way too cold, so this was their chance.

More shoveling.

And, on to the snowmen:). Since it was so warm and sunny, the snow was really melting and packing very well so we decided to build a snowman - or 4:). When we started on the first one, he looked kind of lonely so we decided to build him a family. The boys loved it, although they were a little frustrated with trying to move around in the deep snow (it was still over a foot deep where we were building - even with the melting). Once we got a big enough area packed down for them to walk on, they had a great time. Here's Brock with "Mommy Snow-woman" and "Daddy Snowman".

And Kyle with "Brock Snowman" and "Kyle Snowman". Not sure what kind of crazy dance move he's doing here - again, he's a funny guy!!!

Brock and Kyle with the entire "Leman Snow-family".

Another shot of the little snow-dudes:)............

............and the whole crew.

After all of the snowman making, Brock decided to rest while waiting for another turn on the tractor. Good thing we had snow drifts to sit on!!

Kyle crusin' in circles. He's found that if you turn the steering wheel sharply, it will stay that way and you can just ride around in circles forever. This crazy thing even has a radio, so he turns on the tunes, sits back and rides.

Still waiting, and asking me why I have to keep taking pictures of him. "Because you're so cute, that's why!!" - I tell him.

"I'm not looking at you for any more pictures!!" Good thing Daddy will still smile:).

Kyle was the last hold out of the day. Brock finally got cold and asked to go in, but Kyle would have stayed out forever if we would have let him. What a fun afternoon!!