Photo Comparisons

We picked up Quinn's 2 month portraits today.  It is so fun to look back and compare the 3 boys at 2 months.  Quinn has his own look and reminds me of both Ethan and Caden depending on his expression.
The Cute Face:

Ethan - 2008

Caden - 2010

Quinn - 2012

Clark (around 1 month?)

Stephanie - 2 months

The Tummy Shot:

Ethan

Caden

Quinn

The Full Body Shot:

Ethan

Caden

Quinn

The Mischievous Grin:  

Ethan

Caden

Quinn

Family Shots:

2008 - We call this one the prairie dog shot

2010

2012

The Brothers:

Quinn's face in this one is so funny, it's my new favorite!

Just Today

Today was just a normal day with me and the boys.  We started out at the library to pick out some new books and movies for the week.  We checked out a CD too.  As we were driving in the car listening to the new music Ethan said, "this song really is dancy, even my bum is dancing."  I glanced back and sure enough, his bum was dancing.
We had to pick up our portraits at Penney's in Fort Collins.  When we got there I decided to feed Quinn in the empty portrait waiting area.  While the boys were waiting they were browsing through a clearance rack and discovered a little pair of dinosaur slippers.  Ethan was thrilled, for the last few weeks every time he wears his Mater slippers he and Caden both get sad that Caden doesn't have any slippers.  They were too small but I convinced them that the zebra slippers in the right size were gender neutral, so we bought them.  It was like Christmas morning all over again.  Caden was so excited for his "flippers."  He said he is going to wear them all night!
When we pulled into the driveway to come home, Caden said, "thank you for my new flippers."  I said, "you are welcome."  He responded, "not you momma, thank you Eshan for my slippers."  Ethan said, "you are welcome, I just love you brother buddy."

IAnd that is why I love spending my days with these little boys that are thrilled by the simplest little things.

What The Mom Has Been Up To

After being pregnant so long, and then taking a few months to recover from a c-section, I am just starting to feel like the normal me again.  So in addition to my usual mom duties I have a few new things going on and it feels good to spice up my life a little.  

This week I'm starting a fit and healthy contest with some other moms (most of whom I do not know yet).  It is a points competition that will go for the next 10 weeks.  Everyday we can earn points for keeping a food journal, exercising, drinking 64 oz. of water, sleeping 7 hours a night, keeping a personal and a group goal, etc.  At the end of the 10 weeks we also report the number of pounds and inches lost and then earn more points.  The top 3 winners get a cash prize!  And by golly, I am going to work my tail off to get all of the points possible each day (not sure how the 7 hours of sleep will work...but wouldn't that be nice)!  I'm hoping to win a little money to buy a plane ticket to visit my girls in Texas!  So wish me luck!

On Saturday I signed up with a friend for a Zumba gym near our houses.  There was a great promotion for the first 25 people to sign up.  I've been twice and my abs are screaming (the last time I did Zumba I was about 3 months pregnant and got sick half way through, so its been a long while).  Since there is usually at least one late class every evening I'm hoping to be able to shake my groove thing regularly after Clark gets home from work.

I got released from my primary calling at church, and now get to teach Relief Society, I love preparing and teaching those lessons, the preparation is good for me.

I started buying the Bountiful Baskets.  Basically it is a produce co-op, and it is awesome!  For $15 we get a laundry basket full of fresh fruits and veggies.  You never know what is going to be in the basket so I'm trying new recipes and being a little more creative in the kitchen.  The roasted brussels sprouts were not a huge fan favorite, but the kale chips were delicioso!

And I've been a little more crafty than usual the last few weeks...

A lovely Valentines wreath that ended up too big for my front door, I used deco mesh found in the Christmas clearance, cheap and cute!

The boys like to help craft too.  They insisted on wearing these "painting hats."

James and Erica gave us this family home evening board for Christmas, so I needed to make some little hearts with our names on them.  It was fun to use the new Cricut my mom gave me for Christmas...and Modge Podge.

The majority of my time is definitely spent feeding and cuddling this cute little Quinn!  This cute little series of pictures were taken Sunday in the mother's lounge at his cousin Jacob's mission farewell (which was amazing)!

So yay for a few new adventures!

Their Little Minds

I wish I could know what is going on in these cute little heads!  I catch glimpses of it in our conversations and it is usually pretty entertaining!

Eating snow cones, made from the snow in our front yard (the dirty look is from our flavoring).

Ethan is always making friends, especially with the employees of where ever we are.  At JCPenney the other day I overheard this conversation:
Ethan:  Do you work here?
Employee:  Yes.
Ethan:  Oh, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?
Employee:  No.
Ethan:  I want to be a haircut person (he had just had his hair cut).
Employee:  Oh.
Then Caden who has not wanted to be left out of anything lately runs up and says, "And when I grow up I want to be an elephant!"
The employee gave me a weird look and started laughing.  Hey, Caden is dreaming BIG!

The other night as Ethan was saying his prayers before bed he said, "please bless mom to be good."  After his prayer I said, "thank you for praying for me, is that so I can feel better after my surgery?"  He replied, "no, it is so you can be good mom, so next year Santa will bring you something better than a keyboard."  After further discussion I discovered that Ethan felt bad for me that my only gift from Santa was my new piano keyboard (which I love), he figured I was on the naughty list for sure.

For some reason Ethan made a comment the other day that only boys can be awesome and girls can be pretty.  Always listening and repeating his older brother, yesterday morning Caden said, "you are pretty mom, but you aren't cool.  I is awesome."

Of course Quinn spit up right when Caden smiled.

Ethan is always thinking, he rarely takes no for an answer, no is a challenge to him to think of a way around it.  The other day I bought a box of Skinny Cow ice cream bars (for when I just need a little ice cream, but not so many calories).  Ethan asked if he could have one, I said, "no, you can have one of the normal ice cream bars, they are cheaper, these ones are just for moms that are counting calories."  Ethan asked, "so you mean those ice cream bars make you lose weight?"  I replied, "something like that."  Then he said, "well I need to lose weight because my dinosaur pajamas are getting too small."  I reassured him that he did not need to lose weight, it was good to be a growing boy and that he just needed new pajamas.  He said, "well, I really think I need one of those ice cream bars so we can save money and go to Disneyland, if I lose weight we won't have to spend money on new pajamas and then we can go to Disneyland."  I was impressed with all of his thinking, but my answer was still no.

I love when they are sweet.  They have started calling each other best brother buddies, and love to wrestle each other to the ground as they hug.  After a fun family night on Monday Ethan said, "You are the prettiest Mom in the world, and you are the funnest Dad in the world."  And then Caden said in a high pitched little voice, "ewww, I love you guys."

I love their smart little minds!  

2 Month Old Quinn

He has stolen our hearts!!!  Seriously, look at this little Quinn Grin, how could he not?

At his 2 month appointment today he weighed 12 lbs. 8 oz. and is 23.5 inches tall.  He's a growing boy!  The doctor kept commenting on how old he was acting.  I want him to slow down a little.  I'm loving every minute of this cute little baby.  At 7 weeks I felt like overnight he went from a newborn to a baby.  He grins more, and is definitely more interested in what his brothers are doing.  He lets me put him down for a few minutes these days if he has someone to watch.  He still loves to snuggle with him momma at night...he will sleep for 6 hours next to me, 1 hour at most when he is in his own bed.  Our schedule is still pretty crazy, his fussy time starts at 10 pm and usually goes to 1 am, he will sleep for a few minutes and then wake up with a belly ache.  Hoping to move this up a few hours sooner than later.    

He grew eye lashes this month that are too pretty for a little boy.  And his head is out growing his baby hair...no new hair yet.

The look he gave me right before his shots today...not amused!

We LOVE LOVE LOVE this sweet little Quinn!

Littles

Little kids are a lot of work!  Little things like getting all of us into the car to run a quick errand can turn into an event.  The messes are constant, and there are those overwhelming moments everyday (when 2 poopy diapers need changed at the same time all while a 4 year old is yelling from the bathroom, "I need wiped!"  Most days leave me wishing I had a few extra sets of hands.

But even with the extra work they really are also quite fun!  Everyday I have those little moments when I smile to myself because they do something that is just so cute because of their littleness.

I had a lot of those little moments today as we took down our Christmas decorations.  I thought Caden was darling as he pulled with all his might large cardboard boxes to the Jeep to help his Dad get them to the recycling center.  I especially loved that he put on his "work boots" with his little jammie shorts to help!

I love that he very sincerely told our Christmas tree "goo-bye, I will mish you," several times.  I love how sometimes he talks like such a polite little adult, after I opened the door for him he said, "thank you so much for helping me."  I love how a broken branch from the Christmas tree and Brown Dog provided Ethan an hour of entertainment in one of his many imaginary lands.  

When they are little every little thing can be fun! 

On Saturday we took the boys to the dollar movie to see Monsters Inc.  Watching movies with Ethan is pretty entertaining.  He gets so engrossed in the plot and cannot sit still, especially the parts that have any conflict at all.  At the theater I kept having to remind him to sit down and he looked at me every time so surprised that he wasn't in his seat.  At one point during an intense part of the movie he freaked out, turned around and yelled, "I just don't know!" to the little family sitting behind us.  Caden got scared during another part and yelled, "momma save me!" as he grabbed my arm!  This movie was Disney, rated G...we weren't trying to torture our boys.  Like I said, pretty entertaining.

Quinn enjoyed his first movie theater experience, and was much quieter than his older brothers!
And looking cute matchy matchy with his Dad!

So grateful for my littles!

Our little Cupcake turned into an Owl

When we were in the hospital with Quinn, one of the nurse's took him out one night to do some testing, when he came back he was wearing a tiny little stocking hat that looked like a baby booty to me.  I took it off, and his head looked like a cupcake wrapper from the too small hat!  Needless to say, we didn't put that on him again until...

This week!

And we are glad his head is growing because now he fits in his owl hat from Aunt Erica and Uncle Weston!  And I have to say he is so, so, SO cute in it!

                                    I just can't get enough of this cupcake owl baby!