18 month

How old?  18 Months.

Our weights?  H: 24lbs 5oz. N: 21lbs 1oz. G: 21lbs 13oz
Heights: H: 30in N:30.5in. G: 30in. 

They are wearing 18 months clothes right now.  Still some 12 month pants because we have some shorties... but all in all everything else is 18 months!

Our sleeping patterns? We are down to 1 nap a day. roughly from 12:45-3:45.... still good nappers.... and bedtime is around 7:30pm... and they wake up between 7-8am!

Every now and again, one or two will squawk in the middle of the night, but they usually can put themselves back to sleep. 

 Our eating schedule?  Breakfast-8:30, lunch-noon, snack when they wake up from nap, and dinner around 5:15.

 Our favorite foods?  We LOVE crackers, Pirates booty is our favorite snack, noodles, raspberries, green beans, cantaloupe, nilla wafers, avocados, and cheese.

Our likes? The Wiggles DVD, running back and forth in the living room, playing in diaper boxes, dancing, getting our hands on mama's phone, jumping on the bed, climbing on everything, giving hugs and kisses to each other, watching the cars go by outside, car rides, bath time!

 Our dislikes?  the vacuum, timeouts when they are naughty (the other two want to come be in timeout with the naughty one at the time...), getting faces cleaned after meals, when they take toys from each other... but they are getting better at sharing.

Our favorite games/toys?  boxes, tupperware drawer, spoons, peek-a-boo, blocks, cars/ramp, animal books.

Our milestones?  They all have animal sounds down... Graham is starting to repeat words all the time, Nolan can follow tasks very well, and H is very good and motor skills. They can do all the actions to head, shoulders, knees, and toes, if your happy and you know it, twinkle twinkle little star. We are amazed at how quickly they are picking up words and phrases.
Things we do to make Mom and Dad smile?  Saying baby when they see their new cousin on facetime, babbling conversations with each other, their precious giggles, giving us hugs and kisses, saying buh bye when we leave or hi mama or dada when they see us, snuggle time when they slow down for it, and watching them with both sets of grandparents is just a joy!

Our pictures

Thanksgiving-2014

Thanksgiving was a bit chaotic this year... shocking I know.
We were excited to hear that Dave's aunt and uncle who lived close by to us were hosting this year, so we knew we could probably make that work with the boys nap schedule.

Since the plan was to eat at 1... and the boys usually go down for nap around that time, we headed over there a little earlier to get our time well spent there.... the boys of course started getting into everything, new territory, new stuff to touch and explore, but all in all, handled pretty well.
We fed them around 11:45 with whatever food was ready, along with some of their staple favorites in case Thanksgiving fare would not go over well....
they didnt eat too well because of all the stimulation... but oh well.

We decided, I would take them home to nap, and when they woke up, I would head back with them, and my sister Taylor (my side was not celebrating Thanksgiving till the Sunday after, which was nice!)
Well... sadly the boys didnt nap well... or at all.... and for whatever reason, I was so frustrated with it... and on top of that, it was the first thanksgiving, I felt alone... the boys were "napping", and everyone else was together, eating, and enjoying each others company.... I got emotional... but threw it together, got the boys ready again and we headed back to Dave's aunt and uncles for games, snacks, and hang out...
Dave took the boys in the basement to play so I could finally eat some Thanksgiving food.

We fed the boys again... this time down in the basement... giving them bites as they ran around and tired themselves out...

We headed home for baths and bed.... it was quite the day... but Thankful to have family to celebrate it with.

The Sunday following Thanksgiving, we headed to my parents around 4 for dinner and to celebrate my sister Taylor's birthday. This evening went  A LOT smoother... plenty of people to help with the boys, lot of toys at grandma and grandpas to play with, dinner was awesome, and everything went really well.
When we got in the car to come home, Dave and I looked at each other and shared how smooth that all went... we got to eat with the family at the table... (first time in a long time), they boys ate well, played well, and were ready for bed when we got home!

Another thanksgiving for the books... although stressful, we have so much to be thankful for!

Fall photo update

MyHere are some photos to catch everyone up on what we have been up to these last few months.

Chilly days but cute hats!

I think this one will be framed! 

Graham

Henry

Nolan

Bath time with their pal Lucas kern!

Papa Dave time!!

Dave and I got to go to Garth Brooks on Nov. 14th! He was amazing... 11pm show, we didn't get home until 3:30am... It was an early morning but it was totally worth it! 

 

The first snow... They boys are watching daddy snow blow!

I am amazed how well they still take pics.... It takes a few minutes but I get so lucky!!

Cute Graham 

My Henry 

Oh Nolan! 

Cute "rocker" shirts 

My sister Stephanie had her second baby.... Tyler Green... 6 weeks early but he is a rockstar...only 2.5 weeks in the NICU! We are thrilled he is here and doing so well!! 

Matching outfits doesn't happen very often, but when it does.... Oh man... So adorable! 

It is in this month of November we reflect all we are thankful for..... And man am I ever grateful! 

Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was so fun! We got the boys all dressed up as little monkeys and headed to my sisters for some trick or treating.

I had put the boys in their costumes a few times earlier in the week so they could get used to them... and surprisingly, they loved being in them! No problems!

Before we went to my sisters, we headed over to our photographers house who took my maternity and new born shots.... he wanted to get some of the boys and our family now that they are older...
They did so well and we got some amazing shots.... we will probably use them as our Christmas card photos... stay tuned...

Anyway, we headed to my sisters house in Robbinsdale, fed the boys, and got them in their costumes and in their choo choo train. My 3 sisters, our niece Ally, and the boys headed out, while Dave, and my parents stayed behind to hand out candy.

The boys just sat, enjoyed all the chaos around them, while I fed them M&M's here and there. Their picture was taken about 8 times by other trick or treaters (or their parents).... but we are used to that by now.

The boys got quite a haul of candy!!! We couldnt believe how generous people were!

We made it back in time, to get into jammies, have our bedtime bottle, pack up the car and head home.
It was a successful Halloween... and I cant wait till next year when they will be more into it!

Minnesota Zoo

A couple of weekends ago Dave and I wanted to cash in the Minnesota zoo tickets the boys got for their birthday (thank you Imbodens)

So Saturday morning after a great family breakfast, we got everyone ready and were out the door for the drive to Eagan. 

We got to the Zoo around 10am, and pulled the boys around in the choo choo wagon ( it's the only way we can really go places....) 

The pointing, staring, whispering, and people approaching us starting immediately in the parking lot and proceeded throughout the entire day... ( we should have charged admission for as much attention as we got that day). After a quick look at the monkeys (and running into an old friend and her son)....

We headed toward the conservatory first to walk the path and see the animals. 

The path was a bit crowded so we didn't stop much... But the boys loved the look and all the busyness regardless. 

We headed into the aquarium underwater area... Where they feeding show had just begun. We took the boys out to watch up against the glass.... They LOVED IT! 

We then headed to the MN trail and saw the turkey's, racoons, bald eagle, just to name a few...... 

The boys did great... Pointing and watching the animals! 

A little run around time on the turkey deck! 

We even stopped and got a family photo by the fire place! 

We stopped and had lunch in their cafeteria. We brought a couple snacks but bought fries and hotdog for the boys to eat! Again they did so well! We got there just before it got busy... Everyone starting filling in around us, not eating their food, but just watched us eat ours! Lol

We packed up, gave out the three high chairs to surrounding families in need, and we were off once again! 

We ended with a trip to the sharks and under water animals. 

This was not as fun since it is more interactive and the boys are a bit too young still, but some new things to look at regardless! 

(Someone was taking a picture of me, taking this picture)

We decided it was time to head home around 12:45 (not bad for our first visit!)

We got some family pics of us taken outside before we headed to our car. 

I think we will be buying a membership soon. Lots to do.... Inside and outside... I just wish it was a bit closer.... ;-) 

Another successful Dvorak family outing in the books!! 

Twin cities corn maze

Apparently this is the year of fall family outings! We went to twin cities corn maze in Champlain last weekend. 

The weather was beautiful, so after I got home from church, we packed the boys up and away we went. Once we got there, and paid with our half price tickets ( thank you Nicole Guimont for the code), we were in, after a few stops in line of course from the basic comments and whispers/points. 

When we did arrive we noticed the wind was really strong.... I started to feel a little guilt that the boys were not in their jackets... But onesies and long sleeve button ups.... But we pressed on thinking the sun would shine down and warm us up....

We did a loop looking at the animals- this time Graham was not about it... So we didn't last long in the tent (it was also packed in there so maneuvering through crowds with the choo choo wagon was quite difficult)

We sat and listened to the live music while Dave went and bought a couple tickets for the boys to jump in this little toddler blow up area. 

Henry loved it...

Nolan was head over heels for it!

Graham was a bit uncertain...

Grandpa Dave and grandma Lynda met us there... We started to wait in line for a hayride but it was just too cold and windy in the shade of the corn so we decided against it. We got some funnel cakes, French fries and burgers and snacked on those before my mama guilt really set in with the weather and we had to leave because it was just too cold... (I always have hoodies in the car for all now)

We only were there a couple hours... But I assume in the years to come we will make up that time! We are still glad we went! The boys Love to people watch...