We Know How To Host A Murder

Last weekend our home became a quaint little wedding chapel in Grand Cayman...unfortunately the bride was murdered...but no worries, the delightful wedding guests were able to solve the case.

Meet Newton Polyester, famous wedding singer...and Heavenly Meadows, hippie chick from Hemphill.

There were some real characters that showed up to this wedding!

This cake was a disaster!!!  The sad part was that it was our dessert.  As I was attempting to decorate a blue ombre style ocean looking wedding cake, my poor cake literally just fell apart.  To salvage it I just kept sticking flower and sea shells on it and then topped it off with a lovely mermaid my friend found in her car.

Such a fun night!  Peace out!

First Lost Tooth

Ethan has been pretty excited to have a loose tooth the last few weeks.  It started to get really wobbly so Clark decided to pull it out on Monday night...he was leaving town and didn't want to miss the big event.  The tooth fairy came that night and he got to put his name on the tooth chart at school!  So exciting!  He looks pretty cute with his new little gap.  That same night Quinn cut one of his top front teeth, Ethan thought that was a pretty fun coincidence.

A few videos of the actual extraction (pretty sure these will gross my mom out):

Normal Brothers

It's a normal morning for the brothers and 2 stuffed dogs to end up in my bed for a morning snuggle.  

 It's a normal day for these brothers to be covered in dirt and soaking wet while they are playing outside.

When I told Caden to stop sticking his head in the muddy gutter he said, "why mom?"  I really couldn't come up with a good response.

It's a normal day for the big brothers to entertain the little brothers.  I'm pretty sure Quinn has a team of angels surrounding him most of the time to keep him safe.

Stroller Scooter

Stroller Downhill Slalom course.

Stroller races.

It's a normal day for the brothers to end up in the tub.  Happy and clean for at least the next 5 minutes.

So thankful that it's normal for me to spend my day with these cute brothers!

Oh Caden

Caden is at an age right now where I feel like I need to carry a notebook around with me to write down everything he says and keep a record of his crazy antics.  He is so entertaining and funny and drives me crazy all at the same time.  I just had to write down a few things I want to always remember of my cute Caden.

Part of the attitude comes from him being exhausted.  He no longer takes naps, we got home from church at 4:00 last Sunday and he collapsed on the floor asleep.  I thought he looked like a crime scene victim.

After this late afternoon nap he couldn't go to sleep that night, he kept getting out of his bed and coming upstairs.  Clark finally threatened him that if he saw him again he would get a spank.  A few minutes later Caden came walking up the stairs with his pillow case on his head, he said, "you can't see me now Daddy."  It cracked us up.

Asleep under his bed.  I about had a heart attack when I went to check on him and couldn't find him.

On Saturday after being told to get dressed before going outside, Caden snuck in, put on his Dad's scrubs and headed out the door.  Unfortunately, he did not have on underwear and they were hanging a little low in back.  I caught a glimpse of him running around outside and quickly realized he was mooning all the neighbors!

We call him the pack rat.  He picks things up all the time and transports them around the house without even knowing what he is doing.  Last night I found one of Clark's belts and his cowboy boots in his bed.

Wearing his stuffed animal's beanie.

This day he insisted on wearing a bow tie to breakfast...because secret agent's wear bow ties you know.

It's pretty common to see a horse running around our neighborhood.  (Even when it's 90 degrees outside)

Cutest horse on the block.

 He loves to be outside.  He loves to get dirty, play in the dirt and ride his bike or scooter.  His poor little trike has now had to have the wheel taped back together and the other day the whole seat just shattered.  He rides hard!

He loves going to Sam's Club.  While Karen was here Caden and I got to go on 3 Sam's Club dates and he loved it!  The best part of Sam's Club is of course getting a hot dog and a "flushy" as Caden calls the Icees.

 He really wants to be independent right now and do EVERYTHING himself.  He thinks he is a little adult.  The other night at dinner I asked him to pick up the macaroni he had dropped on the floor.  He ran over, got out a Tupperware and put the 4 pieces of dirty macaroni in the bowl, found a lid and then put it in the fridge.  He said, "this will keep it fresh for tomorrow."

So proud doing up his own buttons.

Had to wear the size 12 month chicken suit to watch "Chicken Run."

He is a sweet little boy.  He knows what he wants, he never back down and I love him for it!

Super Hero Preschool

We hosted our first preschool at our house last week and had such a fun time!  Our theme was super heroes and community heroes.  We started with a super hero training obstacle course.

We talked a lot about firefighters.  We finger painted with red and yellow paint to make fires, and then built firetrucks out of shapes.  

The kids favorite part by far was doing a firefighter relay and putting out the chalk fire with spray bottles.

We're in for a fun year!

Back on my Feet

So it's been a week now since my surgery that I've been back to all of my responsibilities since my surgery.  For 6 weeks we had my mom or my mother-in-law, Karen here helping us out so much!  I have never had so much service performed for me in my adult life and I am so appreciative of it.  Sometimes I felt so guilty, but I'm not sure how I could have done it without help.

The first few days after Karen went home felt a little overwhelming.  I was missing an extra set of hands, the boys were missing the attention from their Grandma.  The first day I had a few errands to run including a quick trip to the fabric store.  Well of course the boys had to use the bathroom once we got there, 3 different times!  And of course Caden has to take off his shoes when he uses public restrooms.  So of course after I paid and was loading the boys in the car I realized Caden had no shoes (his socks were black so I didn't notice).  We all headed back into the store and found them in the restroom.  That same day Caden was using his normal excited voice (which is loud) and an old man came around the corner and just shouted "hey" at us.  It scared us all to death, he then said, "if you can holler why can't I?"  Oh my.  I was wishing about then that Karen would turn around and come back!  

Being down for 6 weeks did clip my wings a bit.  I'm a person that likes to be on the go, my mom calls me a bum.  However, having a little slower pace gave me time to read a lot of books to the boys.  We read our first chapter book together, "Charlotte's Web."  They loved it.  We rented the movie from the library and I kept telling them we had to finish the book before we could watch the movie.  We finished at 10:00 a.m. and popped popcorn and started our movie party immediately after!

Then we finished "The Mysterious Journey of Edward Tulane."  The boys loved this one too.  Since Ethan lost his original Brown Dog he could relate to the story and we kept making up little side adventures imagining where his stuffed animal ended up.

We just started "Matilda."  Do any of you have any recommendations for read alouds for ages 5 and 3?

I hope I learned a few things while recovering from surgery.  I hope I can remember that it's okay to slow down a bit and stop and smell the roses.

(Pictures from a fun outing while Grandma Karen was here to Fort Collins to watch Monster's University at the dollar theater and a walk around the campus garden).

10 Month Old Quinn - The Dancer

Oh how I love this sweet little Quinn.  His first year is flying by!  At 10 months old he is standing and walking along furniture most of his waking hours.  He loves when someone will hold his hands and take him walking.  He attempts to take steps on his own regularly, I think his record is about 6 steps, he has a few little bruises on his bottom because of this.

His hair was getting into his eyes so I gave him his first haircut while Clark held him still.  It turned out to be more of a bang trim/mullet maker...after I did the front he was done, so it's still long around the ears and in back.

He gets to go to soccer practice and loves being outside.

He is playful.  He loves reaching out and honking my nose...if I snort he giggles.  He loves to crawl as fast as he can into the bathroom or other forbidden places, he looks over his shoulder to see if we will chase him and then cracks up.  He loves playing with his brothers and just acts like his one of the boys.

My favorite new trick of his are his mad dancing skills!  Lately if he hears music he cannot not dance.  If he is standing he will shake his little hips and drop his booty to the floor.  If he is crawling he head bangs, or sits up and pats his legs.  This little guy feels the music in his bones!  I think because he heard his brothers singing (if you can call it that) while he was in the womb, "Baby You're a Firework," that songs revs him up...he loves it and will sing along and dance.

All 3 Boys Dancing to the Smurfs Dance Game

A few little dancing videos.

Ring Around the Rosie is his favorite!

Love my dancing Quinn!