My computer is back!

February is almost over and I will be really very thankful when it is. This month hasn't exactly been what I would call relaxing or stress free. To start the month out, Gage accidentally spilled a can of pop on our computer and we had to have it sent into their dreaded service center. Eek. Well several weeks later and a couple of frustrating conversations with the Geek Squad Manager we have our computer back in less than perfect condition. The main thing is that it is home and working most of the time as I am rolling my eyes over the entire ordeal.

With that said we have been keeping ourselves busy here in the Sanden house trying to combat the Cabin Fever that hits us every February with many trips to different play areas in Rochester and some play dates here and there.

Me and the kids took a cursed trip to South Dakota to visit my sister and the events that transpired led to our decision to buy a Min-Van. Eek! I really should have known that the trip wasn't supposed to happen when the night before we left Gage came up to me and said "Mom, my ear hurts" These are dreaded words that no parent wants to hear the night before leaving the state. So after being up all night with a little boy who was crying and writhing in pain I had decided that we were not going to go. The next morning I woke up to Gage being fully dressed, even wearing his coat and boots, preparing a bowl of cereal. As soon as he saw me he said, I'm ready to go to Amy's house. After seeing this I thought that I couldn't break the little boys heart and tell him that we weren't going so we packed up, stopped at the Express Care, and got some antibiotics and we were on our way. The kids were traveling very well in the car and all was going well until we were almost to the border and the low oil light came on in the car. This isn't completely uncommon with our piece of crap, but it was unexpected because we had just had the oil changed 2 days before. So I call Aaron at home, pull over, add some oil and hit the road again. Not even a half an hour goes by and the low oil light comes on again. So I proceed to call Aaron and tell him my concern of being in the middle of nowhere with a sick little boy and a broken car using choice words of course. I pull over again, buy some more oil and check the oil level and it was okay so we hit the road again and this time we make it to Amy's house.

The next day we try to make the best of things with, now, 2 sick and grumpy kids. Everyone was on edge and HAVING SO MUCH FUN as we went to the Butterfly House and Chuck E Cheese. I'm pretty sure we infected the entire state of South Dakota that night at Chuck E Cheese with the nasty little virus my kids had because I think that the entire state of South Dakota was at Chuck E Cheese that night. We drive home on glare ice that night, everyone in just peachy moods. Also Gage was refusing to take any antibiotic at this point and he was completely miserable. I don't blame him for not wanting the medicine. He is allergic to Penicillin so he gets a Z-Pack which tastes terrible!

We get on the road bright and early the next morning to find terrible road conditions. We drive for about 30 minutes and suddenly the check engine light comes on in the car. I have a breakdown at this point and call Aaron crying. We talk it over and decide that I will just keep driving. So I did and 6 hours later we make it home! I was so happy to see my house. That was when we made the decision to eat the difference on the loan and buy a (gulp) mini-van. Dylann apparently had an ear infection the entire time, but waited until we got home to crash. She never once acted like anything was hurting her, but when we got home she fell asleep and didn't wake up for about 20 hours. She barely woke up to go to the doctor.

Everyone is well now and we have traded our car for a brand new, used, Mini-Van. I am having a hard time dealing with the loss of my awesome, but I will admit that it has been nice having room to spread out a little in our new vehicle. Gage loves the fact that he can open and close the doors by himself and Dylann love to look at the stars "up up sky."

After all of the stress that February has put us through, Aaron and I are very much ready for our trip to Mexico in exactly 7 days! Not like we are counting or anything :)

Some pictures of a few of the things we did this past month.

Dylann telling the driver where to go.

Gage playing Air Hockey at Chuck E Cheese
Dylann being silly in Amy's boots
One of our play dates with Asha and Eli.
Playing at Pipsqueaks

Happy birthday Gage

Well Gage is another year older. I'm feeling a little emotional about Gage becoming a 4 year old little man. Over the past year Gage has turn into a very sweet little man. I must admit, I am going to miss my 3 year old a lot. As I look back to the last year with my special little boy I can see him grow into a great "big kid."

He has found his passion for super heros and shares that passion with his best little friend Owen. It is hilarious to watch those 2 boys talk and act out what they believe super heros do. This includes a lot of flying, jumping, running, and speaking in a foreign language. He was Captain America for Halloween this year, but wore the costume for the greater part of October and actually just had the costume on this week pretending to be him and scaring his sister. He loves to get all of his super hero action figures together and pretend like they are going to jail. It is fun to see how his imagination has grown through this past year and I only hope that it continues to grow and grow.

He also has become able to navigate our computer like a pro. He is often asking to spend time on "nickjr" or "disney." If we would let him he would spend hours on the computer navigating through the different games and watching videos all on his own (with supervision of coarse)

Gage started KoMet Kids preschool this year and it was a great thing for him. It helped him come out of his shell greatly. He started out his year as a slightly reserved little boy who was unsure about trying new things and I think school has help him to be more assertive while still being polite. He LOVES school. He goes 2 times a week and occasionally rides the bus when I'm working. He really enjoys riding the bus and talks about his bus driver Jeremy all of the time. He takes his job of getting on the bus very seriously and doesn't mess around when it comes to bus safety :) Gage absolutely loves his teachers Mrs. Sara and Mrs. Tina. He has a special place in his heart for Mrs. Tina though. He is always so proud to bring his projects home from school and show me what he has done. School has helped him learn how to write his name and gotten him really into coloring and doing little art projects. He didn't really have much patience for any of these before he started school so I am happy for that. Gage also talks a lot about his best little friend at school "Kevin" The funny thing about Kevin is that there isn't a Kevin in his class so I am wondering who Kevin actually is :)

Gage and Dylann are really starting to love to play with each other. He loves to just run around with her. They usually run around and one of them is growling like a monster and the other is screaming in "fear" I absolutely love to sit and watch and listen to them when they are playing together. It is the highlight of my day. Though they do have there fights and usually when they fight someone (Gage) ends up with a bruise because someone else (Dylann) bits him. And some days it just seems like they love to hate each other.

Gage is also very into doing things right. He is so into this that he wants to be a cop when he grows up. We like to call him our little hall monitor. He is always making sure that people are doing things the right way. He will let us know when we say a naughty word or when Dylann is up to no good.

The highlight of Gage's last year was our family trip to the lake where Gage got to fish for 7 days straight. He loved it and still talks about it frequently. He was always out with someone fishing and going of adventures and every night he had to stay up late to get the campfire started. It was his duty to do this no matter how tired he was. He also learned how to ride his bike and made a bike trip riding his bike a mile from our house to down town Kasson and back. He is so proud of that and actually said to me last week when we were driving downtown "do you remember when I rode my bike down town mom? That was fun!" It was a very long ride and Dylann cried the entire time, but it was so worth it to see how proud he was when he actually did it.

As I look back on this year I have decided that I love the 3 year old mind and imagination. I am going to miss having a 3 year old around. They make up their own words and rules and everything they touch turns into fun. I am looking very forward to what kinds of adventures my 4 year old will bring me on. I also look forward to having another 3 year old in the house in a few years when Dylann turns 3.

Here is a picture I took of Gage a few mornings ago when I was on my way to work. Gage had gotten up in the middle of the night and got his birthday crown that he got at preschool. He then fell asleep with it on and this his how I found him. It made my heart melt.

Gage was celebrating with his batman blower.
My little man opening his presents.
Gage and Jaxon checking out the Go-Kart that his Dad and grandparents on the Sanden side got him. Being a nurse all I see with this toy is DANGER. But Aaron sees a lot of fun. I think it might be a little bit of Aaron reliving his childhood and we will be setting the governer for 1 mile per hour and he will be fully padded with helmet, elbow and knee pads, and bubble wrap.

The hulk showed up for Gage's birthday.

Christmas with a Chance of Snow

Well Christmas has come and gone again and once again I'm looking around my house wondering where to put all of these toys. Unfortunately there was a large winter storm that threatened any Christmas travel which hasn't happened around here for years. The good thing was that we didn't get much but rain and a few snow flakes here in Kasson and that meant the Grandma and Grandpa Kilen were able to make it to our house for the Christmas Eve activities. They did decide to spend the night which made for an extra special Christmas morning. The bad thing was that Auntie Amy wasn't able to make it home for Christmas. South Dakota apparently got lots more snow than we did here. We are hoping to make up for this in January when Uncle Gary comes home to visit from Seattle.

While we were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to get here, Gage decided that he needed to arrange the presents a little under the tree.
Gage is playing with the "Gat-tatar" that we got him for Christmas. He is very serious when he plays it. Maybe he will make it big in the next 2-3 years and his Dad and I can retire :)
Dylann LOVED her baby and crib that she got from Grandma and Grandpa! She has to kiss the baby good night every night before she goes to bed now.
Gage and Dylann had to do team work to get the presents from Santa open on Christmas morning.
All tuckered out after opening and playing with all of their new presents.
Even though they have more toys than you could keep in a toy store they still could spend hours playing with things a simple as a paper bag :)

While Aaron and the kids were down in Mabel celebrating Christmas with his family I stayed home to work on a surprise for Dylann. I finished painting her my little pony room and got her big girl bed ready for her. She transitioned to the big girl bed very well. The first night she went straight to sleep (I don't think she realized that anything was different because she was so tired from all of the Christmas celebrations though) The next night we read a book, she gave her baby a kiss and tucked her in and then crawled into her bed. I gave her a kiss and then a hug, and then one last kiss and left her to fall asleep. We only had to go back in there a couple of times and she quickly fell asleep. Then the night after that we didn't have to go in at all after putting her to bed. She just plays with her baby pony for a little bit and then goes straight to sleep. She has proven us wrong and put our fears of her in a big girl bed to rest (for now).

Visiting Santa at the hospital.

We went to Francis 1C today to see santa. My Mom works there and every year they have a Santa visit and a Christmas party for all of the kids. It is a great time. They have lots of great treats and Santa even gives out presents to the kids.

As you can see from the above picture, Dylann was a little frightened of Santa. I am surprised by this because she loves to point out all of the Santa's that she sees and love to go HO HO HO. She was okay with Santa until we got close and asked if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap. She instantly tensed up and started to squirm. The closer we got to more frightened she got until she was all out crying. After she calmed down a bit, we went over and found the food and she was as happy as can be.

Gage was very happy to see Santa. We have been talking a lot about Santa and about how he know when your naughty or nice ;). Gage went right up to Santa, sat on his lap, and told him that he wanted a batman cave, a batman helicopter, and a castle. (I wonder if Gage will get all of these things from Santa?) Gage was very happy to get a hot wheel car from Santa today. He couldn't believe that Santa knew that he liked hot wheels. Gage also gathered lots of treats to bring home after the party.
Gage showing off his cool new hot wheel car that he got from Santa. And believe me he will remember that he got THAT car from Santa for years to come.
Dylann got over her fear of Santa long enough to rip open the present he got for her. She loved her puzzle.
The best picture that I could get of the 2 kids from the night. Gage doesn't look too impressed and Dylann is making the candy cane Rudolph's fight.

Christmas cookies with little friends

We had 8 little ones over today all under the age of 4 to decorate Christmas cookies. It was a ton of fun and a little crazy. My kitchen floors will never be the same after today!
Going around the table we have Dylann (1 1/2), Asha (2 1/2), Elias (1), Jack (1 1/2), Andrew (2), McKenzie (3 1/2), and Gage (3 1/2). Missing from the table is baby Micah who is 6 weeks old. It was such a blast. We had all sorts of cookies, frosting, and all sorts of things to decorate. I'm not sure how many cookies were eaten during the session or how much frosting ended up in little mouths, but we had enough left over to last us until Christmas. All of the kids made a big mess, but Cindy's kids took home the prize for messiest. Asha's hands might be permanently green and Elias was caught drinking frosting out of the bowel.
Gage really took to the Orange colored frosting and made many orange Santas, bears, trees, and stars. He sat and decorated until the last cookie was decorated. I did catch him several times with his finger in his mouth but he refused to eat any of the cookies that he decorated.

Dylann would sit and decorate a cookie, get down and play, eat a cookie, and then decorate some more. She was very particular about her cookies. The would paint them until every last bit was covered with frosting, then she would put on sprinkles and proceed to pick off the sprinkles and eat them. She was very messy when it was all said and done.
When the kids had enough of decorating cookies they decided it was time to burn off some of the energy all of that sugar made. Dylann took the 2 little boys up to her room and they all ran around and giggle for a very long time. I don't think they were playing any game in particular, they were basically just running in circles.
Eventually Dylann had to take a nap, but kids that were still over were still on a sugar high. Gage, Asha, and Elias were running circles around our living room for about an hour while Cindy and I were cleaning up and Cindy was getting ready to go. All in all it was a great day and our goal for making a complete mess and having tons of fun was met.

SNOW!!!

Well it snowed today. A lot! It took an hour to go from our house across Kasson to our daycare and back. It was not very nice out this morning. Me and the kids had lots of fun during our snow day. Playing, making cookies, and lounging around in our comfy cloths.
Gage wanted to read Dylann a story and Dylann thought that she needed to sit on his lap. It was pretty cute to see them so close and not fighting :) She also weighs almost as much as Gage so I'm surprised that she fits on his lap.

We made lots and lots of sugar and gingerbread Christmas cookies after naps. We are having some friends over tomorrow to help frost the cookies and make a lot of mess.
Me and Gage decided to monkey around with the camera while Dylann was sleeping.

Happy holidays

As 2009 wraps up I have thought that it would be a nice thing to start a blog so our family and friends near and far can keep up with the things that are going on in our life. It seems hard sometimes for me to even keep up with everything that is happening. So here it goes.

Gage will be turning 4 soon and I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone. He started preschool this year and absolutely loves it. He comes home with many art projects every Tuesday and Thursday. He has learned how to write and spell his name and is practicing writing the names of things all of the time. He has a tendency to write letters and even entire words backwards, but I can still tell what he is trying to write (I might be the only one though). Gage has turned into a very well behaved little boy. He is always trying to be a "good boy." We call him our little hall monitor because he is always keeping order. It seems fitting that he wants to be a cop when he grows up. He is big into super heros right now and his favorites are Captain America, Wolverine, and Iron Man. He shares this fondness for super heros with his friend at daycare named Owen. Him and Owen are always pretending to be super heros together. Just today they were playing Batman. Gage was the Joker and Owen was Batman.

Dylann is 19 months old now and growing up very fast. She talks in nearly full sentences now and loves to sing Jingle bells and the Mommy Daddy song. This song basically goes "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Gagey, Mommy" She is a very strong willed little girl and she knows exactly how to get what she wants. She loves to play with her babies and pushes them around in her stroller all of the time. She also likes to pretend to feed them and have little "tea parties" with them. She is very good at counting and has even been known to count all the way up to 15. I am completely shocked by this because I can't tell you how she learned this. She loves to do anything that Gage is doing and he loves to have her to play with.

Here is a video of the kiddos dancing to a little 80's tune