3 crazy boys.

All too often I get the urge to get a good picture of all 3 boys together.  It really is quite the task to get them all to sit still long enough to get the picture taken and of course it's very difficult to get them all looking and smiling at the same time, but here was a fun attempt from one day in February.  The camera really liked the light blue color in Isaiah and Levi's room.  It really isn't so bright, but it makes for a good background I think :)

scooters in the winter ... yep!

My parents gave the big boys each a scooter for Christmas.  It didn't take them too long to convince us that we needed to get them out even if it was winter.  So we spent lots of time bundled up outside riding scooters in the driveway.  Titus loved to watch and I know he really, really wanted to join in...Next year, buddy!

Look at these sweet little cold faces.  (and yes, we did sidewalk chalk in the dead of winter too :) )

winter walks

We went on several winter walks this winter...even though it was cold we still had lots of energy to burn!  Sometimes it seemed like a lot of work to get everyone bundled, but it was always worth it!  We usually went to the local reserve to walk the trails.  

 It's much easier to pull a baby sled along than try to carry him, use a stroller or let him walk.  The boys loved to pull him too.  It only got a little tricky on the big hills full of stairs. 

 We love to stop at all the extra little things that are out on the trails to explore.  I'm sad to say the dolphin is now gone, but we sure had fun looking at it the few times we made it while it was up!

 Isaiah took this picture - what a sweet memory of me pulling one boy and holding the hand of another.  As hard as these little years can be, they really are the best.  I love these sweet little ones.

Valentine's Day.

In preparation for Valentine's Day the boys worked hard to make Valentines for each of their classmates.  Isaiah picked out Power Ranger Valentines and Life Saver suckers for each friend.  He was very careful to make sure each of his girl classmates got a girl ranger and the boys a boy.  Levi picked out Lego Ninjago with mechanical pencils.  We also made hand print Valentine's cards for a few people -- it was my idea to make several to send to lots of family, but surprisingly the boys didn't want to make them :).  I think we only ended up making 3 cards.  Isaiah did a great job signing them for us.  I also made snack bags for each of Isaiah's class filled with cereal, pretzels, raisins and Twizzlers pieces.  (I saw a super cute idea to make this only with red, pink and white M&Ms but M&Ms are not allowed in Isaiah's classroom due to peanut allergies, bummer!)

 After dropping Isaiah off at school, Levi, Titus and I headed to the Rec Center for indoor playgym to meet up with our friends Andrea, Ava and Ashlyn.  It's always a great time with so much to do!

 When we picked Isaiah up from school he couldn't wait to get home to go through his Valentine's mailbox to check out all the Valentines he had received from his friends.  Levi is such a go with the flow kid (most of the time) that he watched Isaiah and was excited for him and all of his treats even though he had to wait until the next day to have his Valentine's party with his class. I'm pretty sure we won't have to buy pencils for a long time after all the pencils Isaiah received from his friends.  (That is if I can convince him to use the hearts, princess and pink/purple pencils :)

 You may have noticed that Levi has gloves and shorts on in the pictures above.  He likes to wear these little gloves around all the time :)  I just go with it.

Later that night I tried to get a cute picture of the boys...

Gotta love these boys.

The next day all three boys and I got to go to Levi's preschool Valentine's Day party.  Mark was signed up to go but had to be out of town so I got to go in his place.  It happened to be a day when Isaiah didn't have school and I was unable to find someone to watch the boys.  Levi's teacher was excited to see Isaiah and didn't mind having a baby in the room.  It did end up to being a crazy morning as of course Titus really, really wanted to nurse in the 20 minutes that we were doing tables that I was to help at, but it all worked out. Levi loved having us all there and Isaiah had a fun time being back in preschool.

Levi's field trip

Levi's preschool class got to go to a special play for young children at the university theater.  I was able to go along and it was such a fun experience to share with him.  I'm pretty sure his favorite part of the whole trip was the school bus ride, but he thought the play was pretty cool too.  Before it was time to go the kids got to play together and it was fun to watch Levi interact with his friends.  Pictured below is also our sweet little friend Bennett who we get to take to and from school sitting by Isaiah's teacher from last year Mrs. Williams.  

The play was made of huge puppets acting out the stories "Guess How Much I Love You" and "I Love My Little Story Book."   I had never seen anything like this and I thought it was very cool.

 The kids did too - at least for the first play, but as they got into the second book Levi (and many around us) were getting pretty restless.  

 After the show, Levi was super excited to get back on the school bus!  What a fun class trip, I'm so thankful I'm able to attend these events with my boys!

monkey

Well, we knew the day would come that Titus would be able to climb up the bunk bed too, but we sure didn't think it would be when he was 14 months old.  As cute as it is, it's really very dangerous and makes both Mark and me very nervous!  He love, love, loves to climb up to the top and play with his big brothers.  I'm just afraid he's going to try to come down on his own.  I always thought it was weird that the boys' door had a baby gate attached to it when we bought the house-- but I now completely understand why.     

 If it wasn't hard enough to get things done around the house with these crazy boys - having a toddler who is fearless with no understanding of consequences - it is now even harder.  But as I like to say, the mess just proves that we are making memories :)

oh and all the while Titus was climbing up the bunk bet, Isaiah was rocking out playing the guitar.  :)

straw lover.

Titus pretty much refused to drink out of a sippy cup whenever I would give him one, but he was done drinking out of a bottle for Mark at about about 10 months old.  It made life difficult for daddy when mommy was at work! :)  He had no trouble drinking out of a straw and we finally realized that they make straw sippys so we were in luck!  Titus loves his straw sippys and has no trouble drinking out of them!  We switched him to whole milk at a few weeks over a year old, but he still nurses several times a day.  He's growing up way too fast!!

Fort Fun.

The boys love to build forts - we have a Cranium brand set that is a lot of fun to build with - but the parts can easily turn into swords so we don't get them out very often :)  One winter day we desperately needed a fun activity so I brought them out as a fun surprise.  We had lots of fun building several different forts.

What a fun way to end the day!  

by the way - notice Levi in shorts on a freezing cold winter day. :)

Ice Day.

One January day we had freezing rain that made our driveway pure ice.  Everything in town was closing and of course there was no school, but we were on "Flash Duty" as my parents were out of down and their dog Flash needed out and to be fed. It wasn't a big deal because we only live a few blocks from them....the boys were amazed with the ice.

 Obviously ice isn't dangerous at all so it's completely safe to let your three little boys play on it.

 And slide around all over the driveway.

We did have quite some trouble getting the van out of our neighborhood as we have quite a few hills, but with a good start on the bridge the van did it.  Luckily I remembered that we have a parking break that I could use before we slide off the road and over the cliff - yikes!

oh the joys of Iowa winter.