Flying with Kids... It's ...Easy??

I did it!!   You can too!! There are a few (simple?) things you need to do that will make your trip run smoothly. :)

1.  Have someone (this was Ryan for me) come with you to the airport.  They can get a gate pass ...this way you have an extra adult to get you to the gate.  It is free too! :)

2.  Every passenger needs a seat!  We bought the boys and I each a seat and then put the kids in their car seats.  Essentially it is like driving to the cabin, or ...a long car ride.  Kids are used to sitting in their car seats once buckled in. 

3.  Pack lots of activities.  :)   A no brainer, I know! haha

We had snacks, books, coloring, stickers, flashcards, loveys. and when everything else ran out, I had a Mickey movie to play on my computer. :)

4.  Bring a stroller that can double as a "cart" to help carry luggage. 

I used the latch system to clip both car seats onto the stroller, put gear on-top of the sun-shields, underneath in the carry area, and then rolled the Mickey luggage as I pushed the stroller.

 5. Dress the kids alike.  If you loose one, (hopefully this would never happen) people know that the lost child belongs to you... :)

6. Have someone pick you up! :)  Renting a car would have put me over the edge! HAHA  We had a driver come pick us up, and having them come inside is a bonus! :))

Good luck traveling everyone!!!

**the only time we started unraveling was when we were landing.  John's ears were popping, and he was very confused.  While he was crying, he was saying, "I can't even hear you, mommy.  I can't even hear my mommy."  He was very sad.... and It was sad to watch too.  :'(

Highs and Lows

Well, so far we have had a great trip.  It has been wonderful to be home and not rushing through stores, swiping plastic.  :)
I have a couple lows and a couple highs I would like to share....

1.  The second night we were here, I was making dinner.  Both of the boys were helping me in the kitchen.  We were having a hodge-podge meal of cheese tortillas, grilled green beans, and mango.  The boys were getting a bit goofy in between their "jobs" ... I started explaining that this isn't our house, it is Nana and Papa's and we need to be careful.  They weren't listening.... so I pulled out my big guns and said, if we break anything we all have to go home! That caught their attention very quickly.  And, just as I said it, I dropped the garlic press (which broke-- I will replace that!!) John picked it up and said, time to go home now?  AH! It was a good lesson for me too.... I need to be more careful too! :/

2.  Last night was a hot mess here.  I put Stephen down to bed at about 8pm (9pm MN time) he was super tired, and fell right asleep.  Then I read John books for hours.  He finally fell asleep around 10:30pm.  It was a great time snuggling with him and answering the why questions as we flipped the pages.  As soon as I laid him in his bed, I fell right into mine. :)
At about 11:30pm John woke up and was WIDE awake.  I laid with him, sang songs, read him books, tried the "cry it out" method... which backfired!  Then Stephen woke up at about 3:45am.  I was so tired at this point, and neither boy seemed to be.  By about 6:30am, I finally had everyone back to bed, and I was in mine...thinking about how this day was going to work. 
I rallied and made a pot of coffee, took a shower and put my game face on.  Well, that lasted all of 2 hours. I was exhausted and so were the boys!   At about 10am, I put SJ down for a nap- he fell right asleep. :)  Then I tried to get JR to sleep, he wasn't having it, at all.  So, I told him he could lay with me and watch a Mickey movie in my bed ....hoping he would fall asleep, not wake up SJ and I could "rest" .... I was closing my eyes, not sleeping, but resting.  Suddenly, John rolled over and noticed I was "sleeping" he kissed my nose and said, "Night night momma, dream of apples. Night night, nice mom."  And kissed my nose again.  He was so sweet.  :) 

65 degrees here today.... and not much sun.  We are going to pick up Ryan at the sirport soon- I can't wait!! :)))

Ryan turns 26!

I think this year will be a big year for our family.  Ryan has been working so hard on his Masters and at 3M to provide for his family.  However, I am ready to have him home a bit more this year! :)  We are thrilled to think that on Tuesday (12/13) he took his last final exam until his exams next December! He is taking off this spring and summer semesters and we couldn't be happier!  It is time to have time for swimming, golfing, family dinners every night, walks, park visits, etc.  No more school until 9:30pm 2-3 nights a week and studying through his lunch breaks at work and on the weekends-- now it is family time for a bit!

Jana and John made a pumpkin cake that we had on 12/13 after he finished his final. 
On Ryan's real birthday, he took the little ones and I to the airport and wished us off to AZ.  Followed by dinner with his parents at Mendakota. 

John was SUPER proud of the cake Jana and him made. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

I CAN'T WAIT TO CELEBRATE WITH YOU WHEN YOU GET DOWN TO ARIZONA!!  XXOO

Our little hockey player(s)

John has been listening to his Nana talk about hockey since the day he was born.  She loves hockey, and if it is the last thing she does, she will be sure her grandsons give hockey a fair shake! :)
Nana has been taking John skating once a week for the last few weeks-- I think she would love to take him everyday if schedules allowed!  And, John would be thrilled too!!

Last Sunday evening, her hockey team had an extra sheet of ice that we took full advantage of.  SJ has been watching from the side lines, and he is itching to get on the ice with his big brother and Nana.  So, we all geared up and headed to Minnie-haha for some hockey playing.

Stephen has not had much luck with his jackets this winter!  The zipper has brokn on both of his jackets! I hope he looks at his someday and laughs! :)

John shoots his first puck!!  - with Papa Steve

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Little John the Hockey player! XO

Ryan and John. 

John's 3rd Birthday Party

Can you spell M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E?????  John can! :)  We had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party for him on Saturday 12/10.  We did the party a little early because we will be flying on his real birthday and Jana, Steve, Lauren and Alana will all be in Rome.  This way most of us could be there to celebrate with him!

My bestie's sister-in-law made John's Mickey cake and cake pops, Gama Mitty did the pizza and salad and Party City did the rest! ;) 
The party was at Gama Mitty and Papa Joe's house.  Who attended? Gama, Papa, Kelli, Sara, Mark, Jill, Nana, Papa, Alana, AJ, and Great Grandma Evie.  It was just the right amount of people!
We ate pizza, opened presents and sang happy birthday.  It was sweet!

John's cake and cake pops

THE men!  Ryan and John built this work bench together a couple weeks ago.  I love this daddy-son project!  We will have this forever.  :)

Papa Joe holding John back from diving into his cake!  He wanted to eat it before dinner!

Gama Mitty and Papa Joe holding John.  Notice his (mis-matched) Mickey/Pluto socks??  That was planned out by our (almost) 3 year old!

Family Picture!!

Great Grandma Evie and 2 of her great grandsons.  (SJ was not interested... all he wanted was pizza!)

DINNER

Chow time!  NUM-NUM-NUM!

Evie gave John a book to use on the airplane ride to AZ. 
She was explaining how it came with a special marker only for this book.

SJ got a present too!  :) Thanks Gama Mitty.

Mickey slippers from Uncle Mark and Jill.

A Mickey shirt and hat from Aunt Alana and AJ.

John opening Super Grover from Kelli. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!

Stephen eating his cake pop- Yummy! :)

Sara trying to trade the cake pop for some water... better luck next time Sara! :)

John and Stephen eating John's birthday cake. 

Not much of a sugar high... SJ was pretty tired actually!

Gama Mitty and John putting together his new puzzle that Sara got him.  It was pretty hard... but they got it done!

Thanks everyone for coming!! John had a wonderful day!!  As did the rest of our family- he is a kid to celebrate!
We love you John!!

(Great) Papa John

Last week Great Grandma Jackie had a pacemaker/defibrillator put in.  (everything went really well!!  We are so happy!)  Papa John slept here so he could be closer to the hospital while GGJackie was there recovering. 
The boys (all of them) LOVED their time together!  Papa John played on the rocking horse with them, had breakfast together and he helped get the dressed.  It was a great morning together.  :)

Stephen and Papa John having breakfast together

John and Stephen being silly!

Papa John and John looking at the computer together.

All the boys!

Stevie Joe peaking!

A bit fuzzy! :(  But the three partners in crime!

<3 <3 <3

Papa John was helping get the boys ready so we could go see Great Grandma Kreuser and Gamma Mitty. :)

OUR Santa "Experience"

We have visited with a few Santa's this year already....

Ryan and I took the kids to the Macy's display in Minneapolis a few weeks back.  The Santa was a bit of a bust.  He didn't say much and it was pretty rushed.  None the less, John was pretty excited! He thought Santa did a great job and walked out of there hoping his request for "daddy tools" was heard loud and clear. (Translation: daddy tools = power tools! ...yikes!)   Stephen was not impressed- he scouled the whole time and was happy to leave.  It made for some great photo opps! haha

I have gotten RAVE reviews of the Santa at the MOA! RAVE REVIEWS!  I can't count the number of moms who say he is the only Santa they will take their kids to.  So, last year I decided that Ryan and I should be sure we get the boys in to this Santa.  It was around the 20th of December when I decided this... needless to say, that is when I also learned that you need an appointment to see him!  He was very booked by this time in the season.  So, I promised myself I would get them in this year.

Let's back up a few weeks.  It was a couple days after Thanksgiving.  I rememberd I needed to make an appointment for Santa.  I went online to book it and he was almost booked already!  All of his evenings were taken up but had some time during the days left.  So, I booked him for Thursday, Dec 8 at 11am.  Thinking that my mom has Thursdays off and it would be fun to go see Santa with Gamma! :)
I had no idea where Santa was located, I had just seen pictures of him -- sitting in a tall back green chair.  So, that is was I was looking for.  We found a Santa by the Sear's court that was in the chair I was looking for.  BINGO! I was super excited.  I had typed in the kids info in their appointemt booking so Santa would know everything about John and Stephen .  Game On!  
Well, it was pretty bad.  The Santa really didn't say but 2 words, he wouldn't smile for a picture and the "elves" were duds too. I was so confused!  When we left, my mom said, they never mentioned anything about appointmet times and he was pretty bad... are you sure he was THE Santa?!! We were SURE he wasn't, but we had missed our scheduled appointment time by them.  So, we walked around the mall, looking at toys, browsing the Disney store and then had lunch. 

The next day: My mom called and wanted to know if I would come to the MOA to meet up with my grandma Kreuser so she could see the boys before we leave for AZ.  We were actually on our way out the door to a trampoline park so the boys were in mis-matched outfits and a bit of a mess.  But, I still wanted to go see grandma. 
As we were walking around the mall, I was still thinking about how I still haven't found THE Santa.  I was watching closely...  all of the sudden, a store front caught my eye: THE SANTA EXPERIENCE   BINGO!  We found him!  I really wanted to meet this man I had head all about! ;)  So we went in and explained how we missed our appointment the day before and really want to see him still-- we got in! :D 
This Santa ROCKS!!!  He was so fun!  Asked the boys if they:
1. have been brushing their teeth?
2. are sleeping in their own bed?
3. helping mom around the house and cleaning up toys?
4. eating their vegitables at dinner?
He did loads of high-fives and then when John said he wants daddy tools for Christmas, He broke out into a song about "cool tools" (!!) It was soo cute! He was doing fist pumps and singing, "cool cool tools!"  John's eyes were huge in excitment!  Stephen was a bit reserved at first, but did end up giving him a high-five tward the end and asked for an apple (???) 

At the end of the day, MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR SANTA AT THE MOA!  He IS THE ONLY SANTA TO SEE! :)


Macy's Santa:

Sear's Santa:

THE Santa!