Another day in our lives

I told the boys we could go to the park once Finley woke up. They of course ran to his room to get him up. After telling them to wait and to NOT wake up my sleeping baby Myles (of course) went in. He climbed up on the side of the crib, looked in and yelled, "Hey guys! Finley is sleeping!" And shortly there after we were on our way.....

After getting Finley up, changed, fed and car seated I went up to get a diaper for Myles. By the time I came down Kaden was pulling Finley all across the room. "He wanted a ride." 

I do apologize for the terribleness of this photo, but it was a high speed action shot. Very difficult to photograph. Very difficult.

Myles insisted on wearing socks with sandals. What a nerd. He is his father's child.

There was this old man at the park. Doing leg stretches and picking his nose. I did not take his picture. 

Both Kaden and Myles wanted to ride back. I tried to talk Kaden into running, but, "We don't run in sandals." So I piled 'em in. Who needs a triple stroller anyway? 

This thing was a bitch to push uphill. Although my friend who happens to be in labor right now might just think I am being whiney. 

I asked the boys what they wanted for dinner tonight. I was told pizza. With cookies. On top. 

These are their bath toys. They represent our family. 

Kaden Mommy Daddy and Myles

They play make believe with them every day. Today, as Kaden explained to Myles, "Mommy is mad at daddy. Daddy is mad at the kids. The kids are mad at the fishes." I later asked Kaden where Finley was. And after some thought he told me, "Finley in mommy's belly." 

Spring-a-ding-a-ling part 2

After a long week of working (my work schedule is wacky, I work 5 days a week just not always Mon-Fri) I came home yesterday excited to spend time with my boys. 

Finley turned three months old yesterday. He is a chunk. And the size of a 6 month-old. No joke. 

He couldn't believe it either. 

My attempt at getting a picture with me and all three boys. Myles just wanted to eat mom's cereal (Which I tried and failed to use as a bribe). Kaden wanted to see the picture before I could actually take one. And Finley, well... let's just say, he's my good child. To try and keep the focus I said, "Quick! Everyone make a silly face!" and well, here you have it. A picture with mom and her three boys. Something to be proud of.

  

 After dinner we took a family walk.

I love our little neighborhood. I also love spring:)

Myles and Kaden wanted piggies. Kaden instantly started to cry and wanted down. The fearless one lasted... and lasted. At one point I turned around and only saw Kaden and panicked. "Where'd Myles go!" I said. Kaden laughed and Myles said, "I'm up here!" They thought I was kidding. I played along. I wonder if the brain I lost to pregnancy will ever come back? 

Our first tree flower:)

And the prettiest thing in/around our house that is not broken/destroyed. 

Oh joys I mean boys!

giggles

Spring-a-ding-a-ling

Spring has sprung!

Our little tree is surviving and even more impressively it's growing:) The grass on the other hand... Well, it's better than last year. We enjoyed a nice evening in the 80 degree weather:)

Got out the sandbox for the boys. Not sure why they bother to put a divider between the water part and  the sand part, like any kid is actually going to keep the two separated. Especially not these kids. I will let you watch what happened next....

At first I started to get mad. Then I decided to film instead. More fun that way. Boys will be boys, plus did I mention it was 80 degrees out!

Finley and I watched from the steps out back.

Then it was time to get to work. Myles helped put the dead grass in the bucket. He also helped dump the dead grass out of the bucket. Kaden swept the same spot on the driveway over and over. He kept saying, "I'm brushing it!" 

Finley and I watched from the steps out front.

Oh....

... did I mention....

....the water and sand didn't stay separated? 

The Kid Dictionary

I recently happened upon this book: 

And had to have it. I anxiously awaited it's arrival from Amazon and when it came I read through it in one sitting (okay two but only because I was late for work). Eric Ruhalter has created words to describe things kids (and parents) do. Hilarious. Even the stuff my kids haven't done I could relate to. Some because I remember doing it as a kid. I have picked out some of my favorites (I shortened the list considerably, there are so many favorites!) and put some of them with stories from our family.

NEWTON'S EXCEPTION (NOO-tuhn's ek-SEPT-shun) n : The explanation to one's child that a helium balloon lost outside is never coming back.

FULLISH (FUHL-ish) adj : Too full to eat more carrots, yet fully prepared to consume an ice-cream sundae.

INVISIBOOBOO (in-VIZ-uh-boo-boo) n : The site on a child's body where you unnecessarily applied a bandage to appease him when he got hurt, even though no blood ever appeared.

MADDRESS (mad-DRES) v : To refer to a child by his first and middle name in a stern voice, thus denoting that he's about to get in trouble.
When trying to pick a middle name for Finley I gave it the "Maddress Test" (I of course didn't have a name for it then) where I yelled his first and middle name together to make sure it rolled off the tongue with ease.  

FREAK OF NURTURE (FREEK UHV NUR-chuhr) n : A child who, without prompting, wants to eat well-balanced meals and avoid junk food, get enough sleep and exercise, and realizes the value of his education.

WE'LL SEE (WEE-uhl SEE) interj : No.
Yep.

CLANDESDINE (klan-DES-dyne) v : To hide from one's child while eating a cookie so he doesn't ask for one too.
Guilty. I am queen bee of this one. Also when caught I lie. "Mommy, what you eaten'?" "Vegetables." 

GARBOFLAGE (GAHR-boh-flajh) v : To hide a piece of your child's artwork under other trash in the wastebasket so she doesn't catch you throwing it away.
I also got caught here. I threw away his Valentine's Day box from school (with the Valentines still in there) "Mommy, whats this doing in here?" "Oh. It must have fallen from the counter into the trash! Here lets get it out and wipe it off." 3 days later I tried again. This time successful. 

SHTUNKER (SHTUN-kur) n : A child who puts something in the toilet that doesn't belong there.
This may be one of my all time favorite stories. Myles came down stairs and threw his stuffed monkey on Brian's lap. Brian started to say, "Why is your monkey all wet?" At the same time Myles said, "My monkey go potty!" 

FOOFONT (foo-Fahnt) n : A child who still has bed head around dinnertime.
Myles.

WHYARRHEA (WHY-uh-REE-uh) n : An inquisitive toddler's chain of questions rattled off in rapid-fire succession.

YUPPING (YUP-ping) v : To acknowledge what your two-year-old is communicating to you when you have no idea what he's trying to say.
This is yet another one we don't get away with. Myles will keep repeating himself until you say back to him exactly what he said. "mruhcarr owin tup ahuull." "oh yeah? That's neat." "No! mruhcarr owin tup ahuull." "Oh yeah. Cool." "No, mruhcarr owin tup ahuull, MOMMY." "Oh you're looking up the hill?" "mruhcarr owin tup ahuull." "The car is going up the hill?" "Yeeeaaahhh." 

CURDLER (KURD-lur) n : A sippy cup once containing milk that has been lost under a piece or furniture for several weeks.

DISCOOLIFICATION (dis-COOL-i-fuh-KAY-shun) n : A parent's gradual transformation from being his child's hero to his greatest source of embarrassment.
I secretly cannot wait for this to happen. I look forward with great enthusiasm to embarrassing my children. A friend once said she saw a mom taking her kid to high school on a tandem bike. HA! Great idea! I want to try it. We will also pick them up blaring some lame old music we still think is cool such as Black Eyed Peas "My Humps." I welcome other ideas. Teenage years are gonna rock. 

A.M. FREEZE (ay-em FREEZ) n : The early morning hope, upon hearing a stirring infant or toddler, that if you stay perfectly still and quiet he will go back to sleep. (Never in history of parent kind has this worked).
I do this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And, after three babies, I have had one fall back asleep. Once. The day I embraced it, got up and made a bottle. I tell you, my life is ironic. 

RIDICRIMAND (ree-DIK-ruh-mand) v : To make a preposterously emprty threat (e.g., "If you don't stop that right now... no more air!")
My favorite that still comes back to haunt me is, "Fine, if you don't put one your shoes.... you can stay home with the dog." To the point that I have left each one (on separate occasions) inside started the car and backed out of the garage, because they wanted to stay home with the dog. I don't recommend this. It doesn't end pretty.

DEFRAMATION (DE-frum-MAY-shun) n : The sharp decline in photos and videos taken of your second child relative to the amount taken of your first.
Now I have my iPhone. So number 3 has just as many as number 1. Poor Myles.

ASSPLOSION (ass-PLOH-zhuhn) n : When a baby poops with such tremendous force that the diaper cannot contain it and the poop shoots all the way up the back.
I  purposely saved this one for last. If you don't want to read about my child's experience with this, I suggest you stop reading here. We met my  in-laws for lunch downtown. 45 minutes away. In winterish weather. Didn't bother to bring a diaper bag (I hate diaper bags leave them behind whenever possible, don't remember if this trip was intentional or accidental. I assume accidental.). We were finishing up lunch when I smelled it. I went to check and put my hand on Myles's back when it started to bubble up the back of the diaper. I don't know why it bubbled, but it did. I asked for napkins and started wiping but it kept coming! Finally, I grabbed him to take him to the bathroom. No extra diapers. No extra clothes. No wipes. Brian went to our car in search of a spare diaper floating around, his dad went to his car for a blanket they had. My mother-in-law and I took Myles to the bathroom. I carried him on his stomach. A waitress tried to stop me, "Oh! How cute, he's an airplane!" I just pushed past her. There was no warm water in the bathroom so we cleaned him off with cold industrial strength paper towels and wrapped him in a blanket. (Thankfully, we had an extra diaper in the car). There wasn't a piece of his clothing that didn't have poop on it including his shoes. I feel bad for whoever cleaned his highchair. In summary, Myles's assplosion was the rival of all other assplosions.

Rainy Tuesday

I love rain. I'm from Arizona what do you expect. We get excited over weather. 

We stayed in and built a train track. Way better than dealing with laundry any day. Especially when laundry includes that load of towels that never got moved from the washer to the drier. Since Sunday. Speaking of which, I should probably go take care of that.

Myles was being silly, "No take my picture mommy!"

And Finley, well he's just fun to photograph 

Happy terrible twos-day :)

Daddy monster

The boys were downstairs watching a movie when Brian got home tonight. When they heard the garage door open they ran upstairs yelling, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" to join in on the fun I started in with them, "Ahhhhh!!!! Daddy's hooooooommmmmmmeeeee! Ahhhh!!!" Kaden looked at me and said, "he's not a monster, mommy, he's a daddy."

Fin Man

I love the outfit. Kind of fond of the subject as well. So I took some pictures:

Mommy's little g

If his hair stays red will his eyes change to green? Then he can have the look to match his little Irish name

Mommy bragged that all her boys were sleeping at once. Seconds later Kiddie Karma got her back as Finley started to cry. Mommy said, "fine, if you don't want to nap, you can do your exercises." Mommy always wins.

He is going to be a thumb sucker!

Just hasn't found his actual thumb yet:)

Watching the rain

Smiles

Finally! Except now the other two are up. Oh well, at least they're cute.

lunch

I often struggle finding new ideas of what to feed the boys for lunch. A while back my mom gave me this idea.... apparently I used to love it when I was a kid. Spaghetti through hot dogs. Gross. 

Noodle dogs, or is it hot noodles? Not sure. Either way as I was preparing it I was reminded of Pick Up Sticks. And then I was faced with the dilemma, do I serve it with ketchup or spaghetti sauce? I decided on ketchup. Less work.  

I serve it up and what do they do? Start pulling the noodles out of the dogs. Figures.

Holly Shift-Well

"Myles look it's Holly Shit-Well!"
"Look at my Holly Shit-Well!"
"Holly Shit-Well is hiding!"
"Where is my Holly Shit-Well?"
"Holly Shit-Well drives faster."
"Mommy, I love my Holly Shit-Well."

I would like you to meet Kaden, Myles and Finley

I would like to take a moment to introduce you to my kids.

Kaden is 3, will be 4 in June and is my sensitive one. He has emotional highs and lows (like his momma) and will start crying over the most random things. He is also very lovable, he likes to cuddle and if you share the same side of a booth with him he likes to practically sit on top of you, which makes eating with him a whole lot of fun. He loves all things transportation with cars and trains being his favorites. He also likes barbies and princesses. He will sit and watch movies all day long (like his daddy). He is starting to have a good sense of humor and likes to make jokes (obviously gets that from mom:)). If you tell him he is silly, funny, smart (really insert any adjective here) and his response is the same, "I not, I Kaden Michael." He really wants to make those around him happy and likes to say, "mommy you're happy at me." when he does good a deed. And when he is naughty he will ofter say (sometimes a few hours later) he is sorry for fill in the blank.

Myles is 2, and oh man is he ever 2. I've often tried to think of the right words to describe Myles. He is mischievous. He is obstinate. He is... 2. Myles is one tough cookie, he can very easily beat up on Kaden. One day I heard screaming coming from their room, I walked in to find Myles had tackled Kaden. Kaden was on the floor under their big area rug with Myles sitting on top.... smiling. I can't even think what my house will be like once Finley can join in. Oh boy. Myles said something the other day that I feel sums up his personality at the moment. He was being ornery so I asked him, "Myles, how old are you?" and he replied, "I not 2!" haha- obstinate. Someone once told me (about their own child) the naughty is in the curls. Well lets just say that holds true for Myles; but it's also in his eyes. He get this look in his eyes and you just know he is up to something. All that being said and Myles has a sweet side too, which can also be found in his eyes. He is smart and everyday day he amazes me with the words he knows and the sentences he puts together. He is becoming more giving with his 'I love you-s"which I love.

Finley is about 2.5 months and he is a porker. He is in the 94percentile for both weight and height (Kaden and Myles are up there as well but they didn't make it until much later). He already wears size 6-9 months clothes. He is a happy baby and loves watching his family. He smiles and "talks" all day long and I can't get enough. He is currently waking up from a nap and I can hear him talking in his crib. I have a difficult time believing he will ever be naughty like his brothers can be, but I once thought that about Myles and man, was I ever wrong:) Finley snorts a lot which I find terribly cute, he was actually born snorting and I remember thinking they didn't suction his nose enough. But thats just him. I can't wait to see if he will snort when he laughs:)

I love watching my kids grow into their personalities and am excited about who they will become as they get older. My predictions are as follows: Kaden will be a track star and do something in the arts, Myles will be the popular kid who is good at every sport he tries, and Finley will be the tallest brother, and first to get married.

Anniversary

Isn't it funny how after you have kids romantic celebrations take a back seat? Today was our wedding anniversary and we went to a toddler free lunch and then spent the rest of the day at Zorinsky Lake as a family. I think last year we spent our anniversary at the zoo. Here are some photos from today:

Sushi lunch! I can't tell you the last time we had sushi, it was delish. We got a good show from the table next to us who claimed to have gotten the wrong order... 

Guy:"You brought me the wrong order I wanted the Philadelphia Roll!" 

Waitress: "Sir, this is the Philadelphia Roll..." 

Guy: "Don't tell me what I ordered!" 

He then tried to say they didn't put enough rolls on his plate and the waitress goes, "Well didn't you already eat two?" to which his wife said yes... And he still argued it! haha I enjoyed watching it thoroughly:) 

Us at Zorinsky Lake... We took a big walk around the lake. Kaden and Myles had fun playing with sticks and finding short cuts through the trees. They're such boys.

This is my favorite picture from today, don't they just look so sweet:)

I had to carry Myles the entire way back, lets just say it was a good workout. I can't think of a better way to have spent our anniversary it was a good day. (I also bought some new clothes, yay!)

An Interview with Myles

Tonight at dinner the boys were having a tough time remembering to use their utensils, so Brian started quizzing them which foods we eat with our hands and which ones we eat with forks. Myles kept asking, "what else?" and Brian kept asking him questions. I caught the very end on video (wish I had thought to start videoing sooner but oh-well). My favorite was when Brian asked, "what do we put juice in?" and Myles responds, "Um.... Peoples!" 

Target II

My boys have a weird obsession with the doors at Target. When we pull in they always want to know what doors we are going in... The green ones? or the blue ones? Today Kaden's argument was that he wanted to go in the blue doors because they matched his shirt.

Barbies

I forgot to add this picture to my earlier blog. We stopped to get gas and go potty. On our way out of the bathroom, the boys stop to look at this toy rack. Not the car side. But the princess side. Kaden asks Myles, "Which one you want Myles? You want this one." (Kaden is always telling Myles what he does and doesn't want) I say, "we aren't getting any toys here, lets go." Kaden turns to Myles and says, "Which one you want for Christmas? Pick one out for Santa to bring for you." 

what dorks:)

Arizona Vacation

Here are some photos from our trip, I tried to group like ones together so you weren't forced to scroll through a million from the same even. you're welcome.

Sophie got out of the car and into the pool. Not even sure if she stopped to pee first

Hazel checking out the newest member of the crew, Finley's not so sure about it.

Our first outing (besides eating) was to the "choo-choo" park

The boys were excited to see GG and GG-pa and I'm sure GG and GG-pa were equally excited to see them and meet Mr. Fin man.

On Saturday we went to the zoo with our new friends Addie and Ryland (my old friend's kids:)) We had so much fun, even if the only animals we actually looked at were the giraffes. You would have thought our kids we long-time besties the way they played and ran around together. 

Granny built the boys a road out of masking tape. Kaden did not like sharing with Hazel, "Move Hazel! Get off my roooooaaaaaadddd!!!!!" 

On Sunday we got up early, got out the duct tape and fixed the volleyball net. classy. Later that day was our typical family bbq. Our team dominated even though I can't tell if I was playing volleyball or practicing for the ballet.

The boys had fun at the bbq as well, they got to play in the water and with bubbles! They met their second cousin (top right). The three of them played, played, played....

.....and then crashed!

On Monday we started our journey back to Omaha. 

We stopped in Flagstaff for some lunch with my favorite people who still live there:)

This picture was taken at a rest stop on the way back. You can tell they were tired and antsy but these three guys did awesome the whole time! I could't believe it! (The dog was good too)