3 Year Pictures Are Here!

I have posted the kids 3 year pictures on our website if anyone wants to take a look. The website address is www.holstine.com. Enjoy!

What have we been up to?

I haven't talked to many of you in a while so I thought I would catch you up on some things we've been doing lately. We are getting our former guest room set for painting. It will now become the babies room. We moved the guest bed out of the room and put it in Brandon's room and he has been sleeping on it successfully for a few days now. I think he likes having a "big big boy bed". Natalie, however, likes to remind us that Brandon's bed is bigger than hers. We may end up getting them twin beds, but this was a fast fix so that we could get into the guest room to paint it. I need to wipe down the walls and tape up the room so that Brent can start the painting. The plan is to paint on Saturday. Then I will be able to start putting the room together. I'm so excited since I didn't really have the opportunity to put a room together for the twins. They came so quickly after we moved into the house.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday. It was just a routine checkup, meaning no ultrasound. I took the kids with me because the doctor and nurses were asking to see them again. They hadn't seen them since they were probably 6 weeks old. The kids were able to hear the babies heartbeat and they really enjoyed that. They kept asking the nurse and the doctor what they were doing to mommy. It was pretty funny to hear their questions. Everything checked out fine and the doctor says we're moving right along. I can't believe how fast the time is flying this pregnancy, but I guess the kids keep me pretty busy!

Yesterday the kids had their 3 year checkup. They did really well for the doctor and the nurse. This was the first time they had their blood pressure taken. The nurse said that the cuff was going to give their arm a big hug. They thought that was fun and sat there really still while she took their blood pressure. I had to change them into "robes" for their checkup, which the doctor let us take home so we could play doctor at home. They were just going to throw them away she said, so the kids are having fun with those. The checkups went really well. Natalie is 3ft .5inch tall and weighed in just under 30 lbs. Brandon was .5 inch under 3 ft. tall and weighed just under 29 lbs. The doctor said that everything looked great and that their language and development were very good. We don't have to go back until 4 years (barring any sicknesses). They didn't even have any vaccinations so things went pretty smoothly.

One other update....Natalie is getting pretty adept at using the potty. Sometimes she gets a little too busy playing to tell us she has to go, but otherwise she goes most of the time. She even discovered that with the help of a step stool she can go all by herself. Or as she says it "I don't need you momma!". What a relief it is to change nearly 50% less diapers. Now if we can get Brandon interested. He has no interest at all.

Well this is what we've been doing lately. I'll try to keep everyone updated better!

Happy Birthday Natalie & Brandon!

Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their birthday at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. It was so jam packed with people we had to wait in line to play the games, but the kids didn't seem to mind as much as the parents did. :-)

Here's a picture of baby #3!

We had a good appointment at the doctor's yesterday. He told us that everything was looking great with the baby. I've labeled it to help identify what you're looking at better.

Pump It Up

We took the kids to Pump It Up on New Years Eve to let them run around and jump a little. Pump It Up is an indoor playground with inflatable slides and bounce houses. They had a lot of fun with Daddy (Mommy couldn't do a lot of jumping)!

The Kids Enjoying Their New Keyboard

Here's a video of the kids performing for us on their new keyboard (at Grandma's house). It's a little long so I hope you are all able to download and watch it without too much trouble. Enjoy!

The Snowman

Daddy helped the kids build a snowman on Saturday. Here's how he turned out.

The Polar Express

The kids had a great time on the Polar Express last night. We started off in Akron where the kids received some "elf dust" to help the train move along quickly along the long trip to the North Pole. On the way to the North Pole the elves read excerpts of The Polar Express book while we enjoyed hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. When we drew closer to the North Pole the conductor turned out all the lights on the train and all the children moved over to the right side windows where they could get a good glimpse of the North Pole. We were greeted by many elves holding toys they made as well as a snowman and finally Santa came by on his sleigh. After stopping for a few moments to let Santa on we were on our way back to Akron. Santa came to each of our seats so that the kids could sit on his lap and tell them what they want for Christmas. He then gave each child a bell (just like in the book). On the trip back to Akron the elves led us in many Christmas carols. The kids really had a great time! They are already asking to go again! Here are some pictures. I took LOTS and LOTS of pictures. Here are a few of the best ones.

Trick or Treat!

We took the kids out trick or treating before church services last night. They ended up with so much candy that Natalie was asking us to hold her basket before we got back to the house. We only went out for an hour, but most of the houses were handing candy out so we didn't have to go far to get a huge amount of candy. Now, what to do with it all! :-)


Aren't they cute?????

The Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. They had been looking forward to this for several weeks and they were so excited to finally get to go. We took a hayride back to the pumpkin patch and then the kids were able to pick out their own pumpkins. We also did the junior corn maze, which I thought would be a little too confusing for the kids, but they really seemed to enjoy deciding which paths to take. Here are some pictures!