Toilet Tooth

Toilet tooth is different from potty mouth.  Toilet tooth is when you happen to be wiggling a loose tooth around while using the bathroom, and the tooth pops right out of your mouth and falls into the toilet.

Thankfully, I was not home for this incident.  But Clark, aka Dad of the Year, was home and rescued the tooth so it wouldn't have a watery grave and the little 6 year old could put it under his pillow so the tooth fairy can find it.

I'm pretty sure the tooth fairy must be tired of visiting our house, that was the second tooth in 24 hours.

The Best Big Brother

Today the little brothers and I got to attend Ethan's Christmas party at school.  He was very excited to have us there.  Quinn was feeling a little left out when Ethan was playing musical Christmas trees, so Ethan literally picked him up and let him be his partner in the game.  Quinn LOVED it!  I love seeing my boys take care of each other.

 Unfortunately, the time came when they did not find a tree and they were out.  Quinn's heart was broken as you can see from the pictures below:

 This kid can do the best pout face in the world...and all I can do is laugh!

The 1st Graders loved our contribution to the snack table.  String cheese snowmen for the win!

Christmas Partying Preschool Style

On Monday I got to host the preschool party.  Our two girls were gone, so it was a party of little boys.  We played games, decorated stockings, frosted gingerbread cookies, had an indoor snowball fight and a gift exchange.

 

 

 The best part was by far the gift exchange.  After Halloween my mom happened to be at Walmart when the manager marked all of the Halloween items down to a quarter!  So she bought several little boy costumes for 25 cents.  I wrapped one up for each boy, and they were so excited!  They put on their costumes and that was the end of the party, they had super heroes to play!

4 year old boys are wild and wonderful and oh so much fun!

The Johnson Polar Express Rides Again!

The 12 days before Christmas I do a countdown of activities.  On Sunday the card said, "polar express."  So we told the boys we would have a family movie night and watch that movie.  

From this picture you can tell that this movie is actually terrifying to little kids!  They stayed awfully close to their Dad.

After the movie we tucked the boys in bed.  We quickly made some hot chocolate and then snuck down into the boys room with bells jingling.  We asked if they could hear the bells and when they said yes, we shouted, "great, go get on the Polar Express."  They ran up the stairs whooping and cheering and jumped in the Jeep.  We drove around in search of the North Pole finding our favorite Christmas lights in Greeley.  Our "train" was a lot louder than it was last year with Quinn screaming and pointing out EVERY decoration that he saw...and the other 2 boys discussing how Christmas lights are made.

A fun tradition!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This is the season beloved of the year, sing a rhyme, Christmas time soon will be here!  I love this time of year!  I love the traditions and the fun family activities.  I love the excitement and magic I see in my little boys' eyes!  It takes a lot of work to make it all happen, but this is the kind of busy I love.

We kicked off the festivities by trimming the tree!  Caden helped Clark pick out the perfect tree this year from the Home Depot parking lot.  The boys helped put on every ornament.  Quinn decorated the tree like he had been doing it his whole life.  The boys were so enthusiastic I just let them go to town.  The end product showed all of our ornaments on the bottom 2/3 and front of the tree...it was perfect.

That night I made just a few adjustments after the boys went to bed.  Quinn stayed up late to be the artistic director.

We had some new friends over one night to make gingerbread houses.

Quinn's allergies kept him from getting in on the action, but he was pretty happy to eat marshmallows and Skittles and watch.

Yesterday we started our 12 day countdown.  I have a garland hanging up, on the back I've put activities so the boys get to find out each day what Christmas activity we get to do.  It is so fun, and the boys are so excited about everything!  Last night in Ethan's prayers he said he was thankful that we get to do a fun activity with our family everyday, it melted my heart.  Yesterday the activity included a cowboy photo shoot in Estes Park.  It was a fun outing.

We are really good at selfies.

We got there without shoes for Quinn.  So he got to march around town in Caden's that are only about 4 sizes too big.  It was hilarious to see him walk in the clown shoes.

Last night was our ward Christmas party.  Last minute it was decided that the Primary kids would actually act out the Nativity while they sang the Nativity Song.  We pulled costumes together and it was so sweet and perfect!  It was a dream come true for Ethan to be Joseph while Stella was Mary.  He was so excited, he couldn't even talk about it beforehand without giggling and grinning from ear to ear.

I love Ethan's grin in this picture...he was very good at leading the donkey with care.

On our way home last night Ethan said, "Mom, I'm going to write Jesus' birth the musical for me and Stella to star in."  Oh this child!!!

Caden was a cute little shepherd with his candy cane crook.

 Quinn is so excited for everything Christmas this year!  He screams and points out EVERY decoration we see as we drive around town.  He was so excited when Santa came into the party.

Almost his turn!

But as he got closer he wasn't amused!  He kept saying later, "Santa scared me, Santa is just a guy, Santa scared me!"

 After we got Quinn calmed down, we saw Caden with a big lower lip refusing to talk to Santa.

I asked him later what the big deal was.  He then asked me if that was the real Santa.  I told him I didn't think so.  Then he told me,  "I know it wasn't, that's why I was sad and didn't want to talk to him, when I got up close I could just tell he wasn't the real Santa."  Oh my little over analyzer!

Our elf Snowflake made an appearance again this week.  I don't know what she was thinking hanging like this from the fan with 3 boys in the house.  The mischievous looks they had on their faces as soon as they saw it said it all!  Hopefully Snowflake doesn't get motion sickness! 

Healthy Holidays Challenge

Today is the final day of our 12 week challenge.  As of today I'm down 27 lbs., Clark is down 15 lbs.  We've both lost inches and sizes.  We calculate the winners tomorrow...so we'll see!  It's been really fun doing this challenge, and much easier having Clark join in this time.  I'm starting another one mid-January, so if you know anyone interested let me know.  My goal is to lose 30 more.

Here are my before and after pictures:

The boys have had so much fun each Tuesday making our videos to announce the prize winners!
Here are a few of our latest:

Toddler Cam

I really wish there was a way to just have a rolling video of 2 year old Quinn everyday.  He says so many funny little things that I always want to remember.

This morning he woke up throwing up.  I picked him up and put him on his floor so I could clean him up.  He rolled over on the ground face down and said, "judas priest."  I about fell over laughing.

He also loves to sing "Once There Was a Snowman."  The best is that he ends the song by saying "word."  We have an acappella group CD that sings many renditions of that song including a rap version that ends with "word."  So now he just thinks that's part of the primary song.

Anytime he wears something with a zipper he insists on having it done up.  The best part is that he calls it a dripper..."can you do my dripper Mommy?"

He is really into lately being a cowboy.  He puts on a hat and his brother's boots daily.  He runs around saying, "I'm a cowboy, wee-ha, yipee-ki-yo-yo-yo, wee-ha!"