Snowed In

So a huge winter storm blew in, brought some snow with it, and caused church to get canceled. I told Kyler to look out the window when he woke up, and he got so excited. He wanted to go play outside immediately!  After getting all of us ready, we ventured outside in the cold.  The boys LOVED the snow.  I was really surprised because it was cold, and they don't have very good gloves, especially for snow.  The snow wasn't wet enough to make snowballs, but that didn't stop the boys from throwing the snow at one another and me!!  Kyler had so much fun.  Damon liked it for a little while, but he once again refused to put on a real coat, so he got wet and cold.  Imagine that?!?  I am so excited to have a yard!!  Have I mentioned that before?!?

He was so excited!

See that cute little smirk on his face?  He had fun too!

We can't go outside without at least 2 balls.

If you look close, you can see the snow he is throwing in the air.

1,2,3 throw the snow!

Then the throwing snow AT each other begins.

And Damon is no longer having fun, but Kyler is not ready to stop yet!

This picture explains perfectly why I tried to get Damon into a 'real' coat.  However, Damon does not see my logic!

We got a good couple inches.

This is Kyler trying and trying to build a snowman.  He is convinced Daddy can build one.  I don't know if our Daddy is quite that good, but I'm glad Kyler thinks he is!

Kyler wanted to make sure I got a picture of the icicles.

This is what Radley and Daddy were doing while we played in the snow.

Look who is starting to sit up all by himself!!  He doesn't last very long right now, but he is getting better.  He is much better than the other two boys at this age.  I think it's because he has a much  more solid base!!

This little guy at least found a warm hat!

The boys decided to head back outside with Daddy after Damon's nap.  They wanted to make a snowman, and this is what they came up with at first.

I wasn't lying when I said that the snow was really dry.  Even Daddy had some problems.

And this is what it looked like when Damon was left unattended for no more than 30 seconds.  Really, 30 seconds tops!

However, Daddy was successful in getting Damon's coat on before he went outside!

This is what we call the Iceman!  Kenney said there was no way he could make a snowman with snow, but Kyler wanted one really bad.  So Daddy was nice and made one out of ice.  We tried to add eyes and a nose, but we didn't have much,in the way of coal.  So we attempted to use Legos, but those didn't work, so we went with what we know best in our house, superheros!!

We knew Damon was being far too quiet!

This is one of Damon's attempts to climb the fridge. It is not his best, but it gives you an idea of what I am dealing with everyday!

Feeling Loved & Some Cold Weather

I had such an amazing birthday this year. I was not expecting anything but an ordinary day with a few extra phone calls. However, I was pleasantly surprised by so many people.  Kenney went with me to the gym in the morning which is such a huge help and then let me take a shower when we got home.  It might not seem like a big deal, but getting the kids in and out of the gym is no small task and taking a shower right when I get home without leaving 3 kids unattended is a small miracle in my life these days!  When all of us were ready for the day, Kenney left to go study and the boys and I went to a friend's house to play.  My friends took me out for some awesome frozen yogurt at a place called Red Mango (it's really good, you should try it).  One of them even insisted that we take the boys to her house later so that Kenney and I could go out!  I got phone calls and text messages all day long from so many people, most of whom I had no idea knew it was my birthday.  Kenney then let me go shopping all by myself (another miracle).  I even had $10 from Kohl's that I got in the mail to spend!  On my way home from the store, Kenney said that his parents called and said that they were in town and would watch the boys while we went out to dinner.  Two people randomly volunteering to watch our kids so we could go on a date, another miracle!!  So we went out to dinner at a Mexican place and ate with ZERO interruptions.  It was fantastic!!  After the boys went to bed, Kenney went to get a Redbox movie and brought home some of my favorite ice cream (Blue Bell chocolate chip; you should try it too!)  I had such a good day!  I didn't realized I was so loved, so thank you to everyone who made my day feel so special.

Flowers my dad and stepmom sent me (she is always good about this stuff)

We also got a new dishwasher the day before my birthday.  We had been washing all of our dishes by hand for over two months!

Today, all of a sudden, winter decided to show up!  The boys found some sidewalk chalk and wanteded to use it.  I told them to open the door and find out how cold it was outside and then decide if they still waned to go out.  Of course they said yes!  So I thought why not teach them with natural consequences that you don't draw with sidewalk chalk when it is 25 degrees outside?  So not only was it cold, but it was windy and sleeting.  It took me 10 minutes just to convince Damon to put on a jacket, so I didn't think it would last very long.  I was actually right this time; they only lasted about 5 minutes!  Thank goodness.  I was freezing too. 

Damon didn't like the wind or sleet

Kyler didn't either!

He also decided to draw on the wet sidewalk, so his chalk didn't last too long either.

Kenney thought this video was pretty funny.  He was not surprised that the boys wanted to go outside!

Never a Dull Moment

Everyday holds a new adventure in our house. My boys constantly keep me on my toes and to be honest, entertained.  I am in constant awe at the amount of energy they have and I lack.  They never stop, and I always feel like I can't keep going.  I am also amazed that I can love these three, crazy, active, messy, needy boys so much!!

This is how we have been eating dinner lately.  Don't we have the cutest centerpiece?  Radley likes to be part of the action too. 

These boys do love each other, and I love it when they are sweet to one another.

Kyler and Damon have been really good about trying to help Radley when he gets upset.  The bring him toys and talk to him, if they are in the mood. 

I just love this little face!!

I'm not sure if you can see it, but there is toothpaste floating around in this water.  I have been trying to hide the toothpaste from the boys because they make a huge mess with it and try to eat it (Damon).  They can reach everywhere in the bathroom so I put it inside of a cup, on a towel rack that is hung really high in the shower.  So what do they do?  They throw a toy at the cup, knock it down, get the toothpaste and empty it in the bathtub?  Nice, huh?  So where do I put the toothpaste now?

Like brother, like brother!  Damon 'thinks' he can do everything Kyler does, and he tries to do it too!  Damon thinks that he is ready to be potty trained, but I don't think he is yet.  He constantly takes his diapers off (no matter what is inside), sits on the potty when Kyler does, and wants to wear underwear.  However, I am not ready to tackle that mountain yet.  He did just turn 2, 3 months ago.

Damon likes to try our shoes on, and he looks so funny because the shoes are as long as his legs!

Also, Damon doesn't like help to get dressed, and this day in particular he had his shirt on backwards and his shorts inside out and backwards!  Sometimes his is too independent, and it frustrates us both!

The Three Musketeers

Have I mentioned that my mom is AWESOME?!?! She made the boys costumes again this year and did amazing!!  We took them to the church Halloween party and to the Science Spectrum for trick-or-treating and they had an absolute blast!! I think Halloween is slowly becoming their favorite holiday!  It took a little candy bribing to get Damon into his costume, but it was totally worth it.  They got attention everywhere they went.  The hats just topped it all off! 

The first night we put them in their costumes, we went to the church.  They had some carnival games for the kids to play and trick-or-treating.  Every time they played a game, they got candy.  For the first 6 or 7 times, they would both eat the candy right away rather than putting it in their candy bags.  It was fun for them to just run around and play games with all the kids.  The cake walk was pretty funny too because they happened to win every time!  After the trick-or-treating, we came back inside to help clean everything up, and the boys noticed that the left over candy from the games had been left unattended.  Kyler came and grabbed a bag; put two big handfuls of candy in it; showed me all that he got; I told him that was enough, and he replied, "Mom, my bag isn't full yet."  So he proceeded to fill it up.  Much to my dismay, the people in charge insisted that he take it home.  Thanks!

All For One & One For All

They even got light-up swords!

The hats were more difficult for these two to keep on, but they were so cute!

I love the look on his face.  "What is she doing to me?"

Look who stole one of the swords!

The boys were really excited to put their costumes back on to go to the Science Spectrum.  No bribing needed this time.  Damon knew the costumes meant more candy!  It was pretty crowded, and Radley got so much attention from people of all ages everywhere we went.  They were having a costume contest, and I was really hesitant to enter (mostly because they had a snake exhibit in the same room and people were holding and touching live snakes).  Kenney insisted, and I am so glad we did because the boys WON!!!  I knew they were cute, but it was nice to see that everyone else thought they were adorable too!!  They won a Lego game, Omni tickets, and a year pass to the museum!  (My mom got them a pass last Christmas and was going to get them another pass this year, but her sewing efforts literally paid off!!)  We were really excited!  They also had huge blowup slides and jumping things, which Kyler loved.  Overall, our family had an absolute BLAST this Halloween!

How cute is that?!?

Playing some games at the Science Spectrum.  I think the boys' throwing abilities surprised most people.  They both refused to get close and throw things!

They had a lot of fun running around and jumping. 

Kyler is so much more adventurous than I ever was as a kid.  He just jumped right up and got in with all the other kids to go down the slides.  I would have never done that on my own.  I am so glad he will go have fun and not worry about anything else!

Coming out of the maze.  He had a little help (thank goodness Kenney and I could see over the maze!)

I don't think I ever want to know how much candy these boys consumed!!  Damon even ate through wrappers.

The big WINNERS!!  So this is not the best picture, but they really did win!

The cutest little Halloween Spook!