11 Month Old Quinn

Seriously. This little guy thinks he owns the place...and he pretty much does.

This past month we've loved his giggle and his 4 tooth grin!  The biggest change this past month is that he became a proficient little walker.  He is also pretty good at the stairs now, we took down the baby gate and he has been more than excited the past few days to have full access to the playroom downstairs.  Our park time has become less relaxing for me since he loves to climb up the structures and go down the slides.

I love how he is beginning to repeat some of the words he hears.  As we are driving if the boys yell, "go," he will repeat it.  He has also repeated "wow," Dadda," "yeah" and "hi."  He gets a cute little serious face when he is trying to tell a big story...he sticks out his lower jaw and opens his eyes really wide.

His favorite toy right now is a ball, any ball.  He loves to pick them up, throw them and chase them.  He loves being in on the action with his brothers and jumps right in the wrestling matches.  This month he also started to be a little nervous when his mom is gone, even if I leave for just a minute he doesn't like it one bit.  He definitely has a shy side, and will turn his head away and give a cute little grin if he feels like someone is giving him too much attention.

This little series was taken last month at the grocery store.  The big brothers were driving the car part of the cart, so I was pushing a little crazier than usual, Quinn thought it was so funny.

While I would stop to look at things, Ethan realized he could keep the cart going with his hands.  He would pull the cart further and further away...Quinn just laughed and laughed at the great trick they were playing on me.

Another joyful month just flew by.  We just love our little Quinn Grin!

Little Boys

Sometimes simple errands or chores seem so much harder than they need to be with little boys in tow.  Last week I had 4 places I had to go, and I wanted to make it quick so Quinn could be home before he needed a nap and melted down.  Of course we had to use the bathroom in Sam's Club...twice.  Then another bathroom stop was needed 20 mins. later at Walmart.  Of course we were in the middle of the store and had to run to find a potty...this rest stop did not go quickly (enough said).  Then I had a "code 1" called on me at Hobby Lobby (the details I would rather not record for my posterity).  The errand afternoon was just frustrating.

But then a few hours later this happened:
Seriously, you need to watch this video...the moves are amazing!



And I realized that although little boys may not be the ideal errand buddies, they sure make our life fun and fill our home with laughter!

A little more fun is when Ethan wears his first Halloween costume (it's a size 12 month).  It takes the phrase "guess what? chicken butt," to a WHOLE new level.

This happens regularly, but I die laughing every single time I see it.

I laugh out loud regularly at the things that come out of their mouths.  A few weeks ago at church during sacrament meeting Caden was quietly coloring when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he loudly says in his low voice, AKWARD!  That was AKWARD!."  We were sitting close enough to the front that I'm pretty sure the speaker could hear.  It cracked us up.

Speaking of akward, when Ethan heard the song Called to Serve, he thought when the choir was singing, "onward ever onward," they were really singing, "akward ever akward."  He asked us later whey they would sing that.

Yesterday we watched one of Ethan's friends because his dad worked the night shift and needed to sleep during the day.  As we explained the situation to Ethan in all seriousness he said, "oh, so his dad is nocturnal."  Cracked me up!

We have to be really careful about what we say around Caden right now.  He hears and repeats everything. Last week Clark was talking to me about his fantasy football game and made a comment about how he was killing his opponent.  Later Caden asked, "Dad, why do you kill people?'  Oh dear.
We never know what will come out of Caden's mouth.  In the last little while I have heard him talk about how his other family lives in Fort Collins.  Not sure where that came from.  When one of our friends asked him if his Dad was at work at the hospital, he said, "no, he's in a fashion show."  Really, really do not know where that one came from.

So happy for the fun these boys bring!

October Activities

October has been busy and fun.

We woke up Friday and found snow on our beautiful fall trees.  The boys were so excited to head out in their jammies and boots and check it out first thing.

Any night that Clark makes it home before bed time is a good night.  Trying to stop wrestling to have family prayer...even Quinn gets in on the action these days.

I get to start volunteering a few times a month at Ethan's school.  I was so glad that he was happy to have his mom in his classroom!  Love my kindergarten boy.

 Clark got to live out his Top Gun dreams in the flight simulator at Extreme Aviation at Flight Over the Rockies museum.

The boys all LOVED the big planes.  I loved watching them set up for the big gala that was taking place that evening.

We hosted a gender reveal party for our friends.  When they cut the cake the inside was blue!

 Our little preschool group enjoyed a field trip to the fire station.

 Enjoyed watching conference and discovering a fun river trail later that afternoon.

One Saturday I had to run an errand in the morning and thought it would be fun to surprise the boys with doughnuts on my way home.  I came home to an empty house.  A few minutes later the boys walked in to surprise me with doughnuts.  Our boys were in heaven!

 Clark set up the tent in the basement for a camp out with the boys.  They loved it!

It's always a party around here.

Pumpkins

A few weeks ago the boys and I ventured to a pumpkin patch.  It was such a fun day!

All loaded in our wagon and ready to head to the patch.

I guess my boys didn't really get the concept of searching and seeking for the perfect pumpkin...instead they just started going crazy, loving every pumpkin they laid eyes on and throwing them into our wagon.

 Next thing we knew there was hardly any room left in the wagon for Quinn.  Ethan and Caden were both pretty ticked when I informed them we were not really in the market to buy 200 lbs. of pumpkins and that they had to pick their favorite and put the rest back.

We painted our pumpkins for family night.  Caden wanted a super hero and Ethan wanted to paint Iron Man.

Here's what we got!  Ethan's Iron Man turned out absolutely terrifying!

Halloween pumpkins and Christmas jammies...perfect combination!

Because They Change So Fast

When I first had Ethan I remember someone telling to take lots of videos, because the cute things they do are constantly changing.  So here are a few things from a month ago, that I just loved that have already changed.

A month ago when the Circus Afro song was played on our i-pod Quinn would go crazy!  It was his favorite.  He is a dancing fool and I thought it was so cute to see him moving his body to the music even before he could walk.  I put together this little video of a few of his dancing clips one afternoon.  I love it, for sure he'll be my future clogger!


In September Ethan transitioned from being walked back to his classroom line to being dropped off in the front of the school.  The drop-off quickly became one of my favorite moments of the day.  The safety patrol 5th grader helps him out of the car and always says, "have a nice day," Ethan usually replies, "I will."  All of the 5th graders usually start giggling and talking about how cute he is and then he always yells, "bye mom, I love you."   It melts my heart (and the heart of the staff member that is supervising the drop-off that day, I always hear a few "awwwws" as I'm driving away.  When I start to pull forward he thinks it is so fun to race the car.  He usually yells another good-by or I love you as he rounds the corner into the playground.  Watching his skinny little legs sprint along with the car and seeing his big mischievous grin and hearing him crack up just makes my day!  I'm glad I got a little video of it, because already the drop-off is just a drop-off, and although he still races the car at times I don't get so many screaming "I love yous" as he rounds the corner.


While Ethan is in school Quinn usually takes a nap and Caden and I enjoy our one on one time.  He is my snuggle buddy.  He is also my tornado.  He is completely independent and helps himself to any and everything he wants to.  He is so into creating projects lately that usually involve permanent markers, rolls of tape, glue sticks, and cutting paper into many tiny pieces and leaving nothing protected in his wake.  The mess is insane, but I'm trying to appreciate his creativity.

This is currently hanging on my wall (it's a robot)

Ethan's Fall Soccer Season

Saturday, Ethan had his final soccer game for the season.  This fall has been so fun, the weather was usually nice, and Ethan really got into the game this year.  There was a girl on his team that was really good, when they would do one-on-one drills at practice she could usually beat him...well, this made him mad...in fact, I'm pretty sure this was the first time we've ever seen a bit of a competitive spirit come out in Ethan.  His first game he came out and scored 8 goals!  We were all a little shocked, last year we referred to Ethan the soccer player as Ferdinand (as in the gentle bull).  When I asked him after the game how it felt to score 8 goals he said, "scary, they were all a little littler than me, I have more skills."

Well, the 3 goals he scored in his next game seemed like a bit of a let down after starting the season with 8, but he really did have fun.  His teammates and coach were awesome!  He seemed a little tall out there on the Mighty Mite field, at his game on Saturday I heard a Dad on the other team say about Ethan, "they need to check that kid for steroids, he's so fast."  I will admit Clark was a little proud to hear that comment.  We are both laughing knowing that he has another season in this league before he will age out.

What could that be in Clark's jacket?

Just a Caden...he was a supportive little brother all season.

 We love our little soccer star!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Preschool Theme

The preschoolers learned about metamorphosis Wednesday.  The favorite part of the day was making caterpillar/butterfly sock puppets.

The caterpillar.

Going into a cocoon.  

Coming out a beautiful butterfly.

 A little poem to go along with the puppet show:

This Mom Thing

In my scrapbook I have a picture that I drew when I was in first grade.  My assignment was to draw a picture of what I wanted to be when I grew up, my picture is a brunette lady wearing a white and red dress with matching red accessories, above the picture it says, "MOM."  I really do feel blessed daily to be living my lifelong dream of being a mom to my 3 little boys...especially when they look like this:

But let's be honest here, most of the time it looks more like this:

And this:

And even this:

Yesterday was one of those days...we had only been going 30 mins. and I had already lost my temper more than once trying to get everyone dressed and Ethan to school on time.  It was one of those days where I just felt exhausted, at 4:00 pm all I wanted to do was go to bed...but we had soccer practice, dinner, babysitting for a friend, bedtime, a messy house to clean, and a preschool lesson to prepare for the next morning.  It was one of those days where I was worried sick for my kindergartner, when he teared up telling me his struggle to make new friends and being mistreated by a peer...I don't like feeling like I can't just solve his problems for him.  It was one of those days where by the end of the day I felt overwhelmed and guilty with all of the many things I'm failing to do.  

And then there was today.  I woke up feeling tired.  I think fatigue is just part of my current life (Quinn has yet to sleep through a night and the sweet kid is almost 11 months old, I suppose this has caught up with me).  But I was determined to be more patient and more kind.  We had preschool at our house, picked up Ethan from school and then went with some friends to the Denver Zoo.  Even though it was a full, tiring day I felt rejuvenated at the end of it.  I had so much fun just enjoying time with my boys.  The weather was perfect and the zoo was empty so my boys could run and explore and tell me more animal facts than I ever needed to know (thank you Wild Kratts).  

The boys loved feeding the "ping-pongs" as Caden called them.

Quinn just loved being outside all day!

Just 2 monkeys watching the orangutans! 

This tiger was going crazy roaring and clawing at his own reflection.

Just a hippo whispering sweet nothings in Ethan's ear.

This little guy finally fell asleep at 5:00, just too exciting for a nap.

Thankful for such a great day to recharge my batteries.  Love livin' the dream!