A New Favorite...HOT CHOCOLATE

I've never really given the boys Hot Chocolate (mostly because I was afraid of the giant mess), but Andrew had some in pre-school last week and thinks it is so amazing. He calls it Kids Coffee. We made some together a couple days ago and they even got to drink it out of daddy's special Starbucks mugs. They both ate about ten punds of marshmallows off the top and then graciously left the rest of their hot chocolate for daddy to drink when he got home from work. They both required clean outfits after the fact, but enjoyed every sip of their Kids Coffee.

Girl's Night

We had a fun Friday night of the Girl's going out to dinner to celebrate a couple of our birthdays. The daddy's all stayed home with the kiddos and we had a nice relaxing and LONG dinner at BJ's Pizza. We planned to take more pictures, but I guess we got caught up in chatting and only managed to come out with one. Love you girls and thanks for the great time.

Luke Leaves His Skin on the Cement..

As you can see Luke took a face plant on the street Saturday morning. He managed to make himself look pretty beat up. He is very proud of his owie though and always says, "it's all better." At least he thinks he looks all better. Hopefully the tube of neosporin will keep us scar free.

Rainy Day Fun and Creativity

It's only 10:30a.m. and the boys and I have had a funfilled morning. It is raining and wet out AGAIN, my boys have runny noses and coughs AGAIN (which prevents us from going to the gym or to friend's houses) and so we are having yet another lazy day at home (as Andrew calls it). The boys have been really good about playing together and keeping themselves busy with doing silly things. They have a playroom full of toys, but they seem to find many other creative things to do. Luke's room was the room of choice this morning. They made pregnant bellies like mommy has, had a dance party, and took an airplane ride in Luke's crib. I enjoyed the whole thing from the rocking chair in Luke's room with my camera in hand. We are now onto Lego creations, running around the house with their play shopping cart, and playing in the fort we constructed yesterday. As I'm writing this I'm laughing out loud at my Andrew. Luke is supposedly playing with his digger tractor instead of his own and Andrew's says, "Luke I am just not proud of you and I am not very happy about this." Of course Luke could care less and continues on with his activity. I love these fun times with my boys, but we are anxious for the sun to start shining and noses to stop running. Enjoy the couple sets of pictures below.

A Country Music Dance Party

Our boys love to dance, especially Andrew. Our second activity of the morning (not planned by mom of course) was blairing country music on Luke's radio and having a dance party in our PJs. Andrew's little body never stops moving. I tried capturing some of his best moves, but it was difficult. The best part is that he beathes so heavily because he is working so hard, but that doesn't slow him down.

The Fun Continues

The boys spent a good 45 minutes filling up Luke's crib with blankets, stuffed animals, and books. Andrew was pretending to be the airplane pilot and they were taking a trip together. They must have crawled in and out of the crib 20 times, hopefully it stays in one piece for their sister.

Snow Day Saturday

We headed up to the snow this morning with a couple friends and their kiddos. It was beautiful fresh new snow and the older kids had a blast sledding, wiping out on their sleds, and building a snowman. Luke and his friend Jacob aren't quite sure yet if they like the snow, so they stuck pretty close to their mommies. The snow was pretty deep, so we were quite a sight trying to all get across to the sledding hill. We finally realized that crawling was a much better way to get across than walking. Andrew and his friends Spencer and Lauren had one pretty crazy wipeout when they were all trying to ride the sled together. Andrew ended up with a bloody nose, but thankfully we had a fireman/paramedic and a nurse with us, so he was covered. He was up the hill again and ready for more as soon as they got the bleeding to slow down. Thankfully we live so close to the snow because by the time we were done sledding and heading to In and Out for lunch the sledding hill was full of people. Enjoy the slide show below. Luke chose the song, it's their favorite.

Check out my Slide Show!

Love this Kid!!!

Luke likes to wear Andrew's big boy undies over his diaper after his bath at night time. He roams around the house like this until he gets too cold and then finaly asks for his PJs. He is so proud of himself, as you can tell, and he's the most squeezable and kissable little guy when he's running around the house in his undies.

New Year's Eve

After our fun filled week of Christmas and Andy and Luke's Birthday we were pretty pooped out by New Year's Eve. The boys had both not been feeling great and daddy and mommy were trying to recover from all the festivities as well. We decided with a couple of our neighbors to just stay close to home and hang out. We had a successful dinner at the glamorous Red Robin with 7 kiddos and 6 adults (we're quickly getting out numbered) and then we headed back to our house so the kids could play and the adults could attempt to play a game. At about 9:30 our neighbors Mike and Christina stopped by to show us all their new mini van. We all checked it out and oohed and ahhed at all it's fancy features. This is when you know you're getting older and you're parents of young kids, when you get all excited about checking out your neighbors new mini van on New Year's Eve. The adults never made it through our game, but the kids had fun playing and attempting to have a slumber party in Andrew's room. As they said, "We're not sleeping, we're just messing around." We finally called it quits at 10:30 and everyone went home to their own beds. One year we'll try to stay up until midnight, but as far as we were concerned it was already 2008 somewhere.

It's a.....

We are very excited to announce that the Vanden Akker family will be joined by a little GIRL this May. We had our ultrasound today and everything went good. The boys joined us in the room to see the baby on the screen. They were a little confused about how the baby looked and Andrew was most concerned about where the eyes were. When the lady told us it was a girl Andrew responded by saying "BOY, BOY." He is a little sad that he isn't going to have a brother, but the good news is that we have 4 1/2 months to prepare him for his sister. His cousin Ben is also having a sister a couple weeks before us, so hopefully that will help him get excited. So far he has told everyone that we are having a BOY.