Boys At Play

Playing with train tracks (we have to put them on the table so Reid doesn't destroy them)...

Playing with playdoh (playdough, play-do?).  I forgot how easy this is to make and it lasts forever.  The boys loved driving their cars over the mounds they made.  And, yes, I did give them plastic knives to use.  They loved cutting pieces off, too!

Playing in the pantry. This is one of Reid's favorite things.  But I try to keep him out of there because he makes such a mess.  And he strews the recycling items all over the house.  And throws things from the bottom pantry shelf into the trash and recycling bin.  He almost threw away THREE Trader Joe's truffle brownie mixes that I had stocked up on the last time we were in Bend.  Luckily I noticed they were gone before the recycling truck came and Phil was sweet and went out and rescued them from the bin outside.  Phew!  I would have been really grumpy about that... I sure do love brownies and those are the very best from a box, in my opinion.  Anyway, now we check the bin before we throw things away.  And I try to keep the pantry door shut.  :)

Playing in the bathtub (after eating an Oreo)...

Playing with the food on the high chair tray (another favorite of Reid's!)...

And, here's Mommy at play.  Not sure if I should post this, but it's too cute!  I only ever did this this one time and will never do it again... I promise!  Reid soaked his clothes at my friend Michelle's house the other night, and since she only has girls we had to put him in girl clothes for a little bit until we went home.  She picked out these leopard pajamas that her girls have outgrown and I almost died!  Then I just had to throw a headband on him really quick!  J and E were downstairs so they didn't see this and we only left the headband on for a second to take a quick picture.  But isn't he adorable???  :)  Michelle and her girls and I were laughing so hard!  It was really fun!  Sorry, Reid!  I love you so much just the way you are but I couldn't resist just for a second... you are too adorable!  :)

Here are Michelle's sweet girls enjoying the Reid show...  :)

 And, finally... boys at rest.  On the way to "town" the other day.  My heart just wants to burst looking at this picture... they are so precious and we are so blessed.

These Last Two Weeks

Phil has been gone to Hawaii for 2-1/2 weeks and that's the main reason for no blog updates lately.  We had a rough first two days with the power going out for 7 hours the first evening and Emmett adjusting to no Daddy around (aka lots of tantrums, testing limits, etc.), but we quickly got into a routine and the time has gone by pretty fast.  Here are some pictures from these past few weeks...

Big boys playing puzzles together...

I love Emmett's sweet smile...

I also love happy baby crazy hair...

Reid is getting so big.  I love seeing him toddle around with his sippy cup.  When he puts his fat little fingers around the cup and chugs I just want to eat him up!  He loves his milk.  With all three boys drinking it now, we go through a gallon of milk every two days.  Sheesh!

He is so sugary sweet!  Except when he's teething (understandably, I guess).  Two more teeth on the top are just poking through and he's been kind of miserable today.  Poor baby.

I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I decided to sign J and E up for swim lessons on Thursday afternoons while Phil was gone.  Ummmm... that was insane.  I know that now.  The lessons are at the YMCA and since the boys absolutely love swimming I thought that they would love having a chance to get in the water twice a week.  I also thought it would be a good excuse to get us out of the house on Tues and Thurs afternoons and make time go by faster.  Well, J has not gotten in the water at all, and Emmett did the first lesson but then once he saw that Jackson didn't want to swim, he didn't want to either.  Ugh.  So it has ended up just creating stress for all of us.  I'm trying to hold squirmy, screamy Reid and keep the boys behind the "if you're not swimming don't go past this line" line, or keep Emmett sitting on his bottom on the side of the pool, or trying to convince J to just try it (which I don't do anymore), etc.  All while at least 10 other parents are sitting there calmly watching their perfect children do exactly as the teacher says and enjoying my circus act show that goes on every day.  I was pretty upset after the first week but now I'm calmer and just go there and let the boys do as much or as little as they want.  Last Tuesday they both actually sat on the edge of the pool the whole time, even if they didn't go into the water with the teacher at all.  And last Thursday they sat on the edge again and Emmett actually did some things with the teacher in the water.  So hooray for that!

Here are the boys eating lunch with their buddy, Ava the other day.  And you can see a glimpse of Reid's fat foot again!  That scrumptious big toe is peeking out...

Reid looooooves toilet paper and getting into cabinets.  I have to keep all cabinets locked and the doors to my bathroom closed at all times, or else this happens...

And it really happens FAST!  It's not like I leave him alone for a long time or anything!  This was super fun to clean up.

Oh, man, we actually had some gorgeous weather at the end of last week!  Like high in the low 60s/upper 50s and sunny!  The boys and I got Subway to go on Thursday and went to the park to play.  They had a blast and I enjoyed sitting in the sun.

Right before we left two junky cars pulled up really fast and I knew we were in for something interesting.  Two younger women got out with three kids and they left heavy metal music blaring from one of the cars.  Then... and I am not making this up... one of the mothers pulled a black hula hoop out of her trunk and proceeded to practice what I am assuming was some sort of an adult entertainment act with the hula hoop.  It was very suggestive hula-hooping.  I was trying not to look, but how do you not look at that?  Reid started to toddle up that way and I heard one of the kids say, "Mom, the baby likes your hula hoop!" and I thought, "Oh, HECK no!" and we were out of there.  They also had a big wild puppy running loose who ran over to J and E while we were on the way to the car and knocked E to the ground and wouldn't stop jumping up on J and almost scratched him in the face.  So ended our gorgeous day at the park... dirty hula-hooping and two crying boys with dirty dog paws all over them.  I was NOT happy!  But it's kinda funny to think back on now, I guess.  Only in our town!

This is not a good picture of me, but I love looking at Reid in the mirror when I get him out of the tub.  He's all rosy and chubby and clean and smiley and I just love it!  I took this picture to send to Phil.

Here are the big boys watching a new favorite show after baths one evening.  As much as they pick at each other and bicker over toys, they can also be so sweet to each other.  They were putting their arms around each other and giving hugs and kisses.  So cute.

The next day we were building with blocks for a while and I heard Emmett talking to himself saying, "This will be a good tower.  Daddy will love it!  He gone be so poud of me!  He gone see the tower I build!"  So I texted these pics to Phil, too.

Here he is in the middle of saying "cheese"...  :)

Well, we had gorgeous weather last weekend but yesterday we had crazy cold wind (like 40 mile an hour gusts or something... and our power was out again for 4 hours in the afternoon) and this morning we had this...

Yucko! C'mon Spring!  And c'mon Sunday so Daddy can get home!  :)

This and That

Some things we've been up to lately...

1.  Nana and Papa Swoop sent a package from Hawaii with Valentine's Day goodies for the boys.  Emmett immediately got to work coloring with his new crayons with his new hat on.  :)

Jackson is in love with the two t-shirts Nana sent.  He had to try them on as soon as he opened them.  One has Lightning McQueen on it, and the other has Buzz and Woody from Toy Story.  He especially loves wearing them to sleep in.

The next day he insisted on wearing his new shirt to school.  Don't worry... he didn't sleep in this one.  It was clean.  :)

And E insisted on having his picture taken, too.  :)

2.  The boys and I made red velvet cupcakes for V Day and I had to take a picture of them because this is probably the first batch of cupcakes that I've made here at high altitude that have turned out almost perfectly.  No craters or explosions at all.  I didn't do anything special to them, but I did use a new recipe so I guess it's a keeper.  I couldn't believe how well they turned out.

Emmett loves to eat just the tops of the cupcakes.  He buries his face in the icing and then eats the top off and then he's done.  :)

3.  We read Blueberries for Sal the other evening and then the boys wanted to eat blueberries.  And eat blueberries.  And eat blueberries.  They ate a TON!

4.  Here are J and E eating a yummy breakfast Daddy made a few weekends ago.  This was right after the table was finished and I wanted to document the first breakfast on it.  :)  Don't you love Reid's fat foot at the bottom of the picture?  I think that's the only part of Reid you'll see in this post!

5.  Later that morning we drove out to a golf course community near our house to ride bikes and walk.  It was gorgeous outside.

At one point the boys got a little far ahead and Emmett took a spill.  He was wearing his helmet but still got a cut on his forehead and chin and was bleeding everywhere.  Of course we didn't have a band aid or anything and weren't close to the car, so we just had to mop up the blood with Kleenex.  We were preparing to go back, but then E said he wanted to keep riding so we went a little further.  He was a trooper!

Then when we were almost to the car he pooped out and wanted to get in the stroller.  His bike fits perfectly on top.

Here he is with his boo-boos... sweet little tough guy!

We stopped along the way to visit with some friendly horsies.  They walked over to us when they saw us coming on the trail and J and E and I gave them some pets.

6.  I know my recent posts have been very video-heavy, but it is almost easier to take videos of the boys than pictures lately!  And I just love watching these little videos.  I took this one the other day to send to my mom and sister over the phone.  It is one of my very favorites.