Can you guess the year?

Here's a way to narrow it down: Joe wasn't born yet; Tom, Tim and James have yet to grow out their mullets; and neither John nor Barb have permed, highlighted or processed hair.

Warning: High Levels of Cuteness

Hey, I get that I am completely and utterly biased, but seriously - How adorable are these guys?

What a Difference a Few Months Makes

Check out these little peanuts. There is no way I could hold one in each hand now!

As you can probably tell by the absence of new posts, we have been really busy with all the boys. I am back in full swing at work and Davin is working hard to grow his new business. If you have not seen it already, you can check out his website here. Our Nanny, Ms. Liz, is wonderful and makes going to work and being away from the boys much easier. I purchased a newly released book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins." Ironically, I have been too tired at night to read it. I left it in the living room and Ms. Liz read it and started implementing the recommendations! Lately, we have been getting more sleep at night and even a little down time in the evenings after the boys go to bed. It is amazing to look back at the first 4 months and think about how we survived the chaos and exhaustion!

The babies continue to grow more interactive and fun each day. In the meantime, John is thriving in his role as a big brother. If you ask him he says, "those are my [John's] babies!" John surprised Davin and I the other day by saying "look, I wrote my name, J-O-H-N." Expecting to see some squiggly lines on the paper, I turned to tell him what a good job he had done and saw that he actually had written his name. Time flies when you having fun....we're having a blast!

Playing Favorites

Luke's New Trick

Here is Luke in action. Leo is not far behind.

Two-Timin'

The twins (and John) are lucky to have such wonderful cousins. Here are pictures of the twins with their Anderson cousins (Davin's sister Anne's girls). On the left is Jordan. She came up for a visit on a brief trip back home from college in NYC. She likes the Big Apple so much, she's staying there for the summer, too! On the right is Ryan who is fresh off her first year at Grandma Terrie's high school alma mater, Holy Angels. She will be a Junior there next year.

One for Each Collmann Cousin

I got Davin a new camcorder for his birthday, but I think I am more excited about it than he is. Here's a little clip of Luke and Leo with their cousins Grace and Bailey. They, along with their mom, Davin's sister Molly, came up for a Sunday afternoon BBQ.

Twice as Nice

Happy Birthday Davin!

Luke decided he wanted to have an early birthday breakfast with his dad this morning at about 5:45 a.m. Little did he know, he wasn't the first to wish Davin a happy birthday. Leo had already woke his dad up a few hours earlier to spend some quality time together on the couch watching middle of the night fishing shows.

In the photo: Davin and Leo, or "Leto" as John calls him. John can pronounce Leo just fine, but for some reason he has decided that his little brother should be called Lee-tow. I'm sure this is not the last (or worst) nickname John will have for one of his brothers.

Can you guess which is Luke and which is Leo?

Sunday Afternoon Jam

John was very excited to see "Uncle John's Friend" Toby. John has one of Toby's CD's and he will inform you of this anytime the name Toby gets brought up in any context. My brother John was in the Cities recently and he and some friends stopped by to visit. John and Toby had a little jam session and John learned some new moves from Toby. After a winter hiatus from his music (and an adjustment period getting used to the new brothers), John has been practicing and putting on "shows" almost every day since Toby's visit.

Drummer Boy

Today John and I made a scheduled pit stop on the way Home from a day at Grandma Terrie's. With his little drum sticks in hand, we walked from the parking lot through the front doors of the most magical store in town - Ellis Drum Shop.

As we walk through the door we received a, "Hey little bud" from our friend Connor. Connor is a cool drummer buddy who, along with Tony & Tim, runs the drum shop. After waiting a bit for Connor to finish up with customers, John, with a nudge from dad, asked politely if he could play some drums. As always, Conner said, "absolutely, go for it little dude". John was like a kid in a drum store.

You can check out Ellis drum shop at: http://www.ellisdrumshop.com/ and Connors band at: http://www.theswampkings.com

Our three sons

From Left to right: Leo, John & Luke.

The Laughing Leos

My parents were up for a visit a couple of weeks ago. I don't know who smiled more: Leo Thomas - smiling at Grandpa Leo's laugh; or Grandpa Leo - smiling at Leo Thomas's smile! Either way, it looks like little Leo is going to have his grandpa's fun-loving personality.

Everybody Loves a Baby (or two)

We are a little behind on blogging. (Gee, I have no idea what we are so busy doing.)

Here a some fun pictures to share with you. Aunt Jean and Kelsy have visited us a number of times. They are so much help to us, but I think they are really just practicing their Grandmother skills. (No rush, Amy; but, they I think they are ready).

The other photos are my cousin Kaitlin (with Luke) and my cousin Will (with Leo). We appreciate the visits and the help with the little guys.

Surfs up!

These are shots from April 19th while returning from my steelhead fishing trip on the North Shore. For those readers not up on their geography, Minnesota is pretty much as far away from a salty coast as you can get. The surf pictured here is on the sweet freshwater of Lake Superior! Look at this guy... this is extreme surfing at it's nuttiest! The temp this day was 37f and the wind was 20+ mph. Water temp was around 35f You could say it was colder than a well diggers you know what. This fine Duluthian was joined by 4 other surfin' dudes and caught several waves...made us feel like wimps as we shivered and watched.

DB

Our Little Sweet Peas

Ok. I know this is the real reason you all tune into the blog. Here is a picture of the boys from the "photo shoot" in our living room last weekend - it was actually more like semi-organized chaos. It is much harder than you might think to get a moderately good shot of two babies at the same time (throw in a three-year-old and it gets a little crazy!).

In this photo, Luke is the big guy on the left and Leo is on the right. Although we have not been to the doctor lately to have them weighed, we can tell they are both growing really well. When you eyeball them, they look pretty similar in size, but if you lift them up, you notice a big difference. I suspect Leo is still a couple pounds less than Luke. We are still spending a fair amount of time hanging out with them in the middle of the night - Leo more so than Luke. You can't really tell from their paparazzi flash-induced stares, but they are very interactive and like to smile a lot. I can already tell that Luke has his dad's laid back personality. He usually wakes up in the morning with a smile on his face. (Those of you that know even a little about me know that he certainly does not get that from me!) Leo seems to have this whole thing figured out pretty well. He will cry a little until he gets picked up. Once he's in your arms, he gives a huge toothless grin. He's no dummy.

Monday Quiz

See if you can figure out which VW I drove during the following times in my life:

1: Swingin' single

2: Married and married with child

3: Family of 5

Here are your choices:


........a: Toureg....................b: Routan....................... c: Jetta........

There is no answer key. If you haven't figured it out by now, I have joined the ranks of the suburban moms that drive minivans. (Davin assures me that 10 years from now I can drive something really cool...stay tuned).

Wednesday hooky

This past Wednesday I had a chance to play a little hooky.

I was invited to be the "celebrity guest" on Hrbek Outdoors TV ... naturally I said yes. I am sure most , if not all, know who Kent Hrbek is...#14... Grand Slam game 6, 1987... Minnesota Twins? Anyway, I was contacted though my website: http://www.minnesotasteelheader.com/ and referred by the producer, from the"Cook what you catch" television show which I appeared on last year.

Upon my sweet wife's approval, I headed up to the North shore on Tuesday afternoon for a little scouting for the Wednesday filming. We fished a couple great rivers and caught some nice steelhead. For those that are not aware, many anglers can go a season or three without catching a steelhead, so this was pretty sweet. We also saw a moose and a host of other cool wildlife sure to make the show.

At the end of the day I was invited to have dinner and drinks with the boys, but I was not sure if my better half would go for it. Remember, Angela has been toughing it out with all 3 boys and on top of that had her 1st day back at work! Thinking very cautiously but creatively I made the call home then, handed the phone to Kent. Needless to say, I got the green light to stay in Two Harbors for dinner.

At the end of the day I can truly say I had a complete blast spending the day with Herbie and Gis... thanks guys and thanks to my understanding, loving wife!

Check back for info on broadcast time/date.

DB