New Photos and a Video too!

Finally, after about a year, I updated the photo slideshow on our blog! Over on the right side of this text are my most favorite pictures from 2009. Granted, there are about 400 pictures, so it might take a while to play through all of them - enjoy!

Sunday night we were just enjoying a 'quiet & peaceful' night at home playing with the boys. We were laughing so hard, I had to pull out the camera to share a bit of it with all of you. The video below is just a sample of what our typical evenings are like - lots of laughing and screaming and playing. It is a bit long at about 3.5 minutes! Might want to make sure your volume isn't turned up too loud!

Christmas Cards

We tried to get the boys' pictures taken for their 2nd birthday. I figured we'd at least be able to get one shot of each boy and maybe a group shot and if we were super lucky, a family picture. Yeah, well, that didn't work so well. It might have been the timing - we went the day before Thanksgiving and the studio was crazy busy. I'm sure it had a little to do with the gal taking the pictures - she should not have been left alone as she was totally overwhelmed by us. It could have had a little bit to do with the craziness of the boys. They did not want to have their pictures taken. They would sit on the chair, but only if it was behind the camera - not in front! No matter how we held them, posed them, coaxed them - we ended up walking out of the store without any good pictures - not 1! Oh, and that was after we lost (and found) Logan. He kept sneaking out of the room so we kept putting something bigger in front of the door to keep him in. At one point, we looked around and only found 2 boys in the room. So while 1 adult stayed with the boys and the crappy photographer in the room, 2 adults went around the store trying to find Logan. Everyone kept saying that they just saw him 'over there'. We eventually found him looking at some brightly colored backpacks.

So after the disaster that was our 2 year old photo shoot, I decided to just try and get a couple of pictures for the Christmas cards myself. Let's just say that the boys really didn't want to get their pictures taken. For a while, this is almost the picture I used on our cards...

Eventually, I got some individual shots of the boys. Not all in one 'sitting' but at least the pictures were done! Let's just say - thank goodness for digital cameras! You'll notice that both Alex and Logan are trying to bounce up at the camera. Once again, no one really wanted to stay seated for a picture!

I know it's late, but I hope everyone had a great holiday season and has a wonderful 2010!!!

Just Blog It!

So, here goes... It's been so long since I've written a decent post. I've started many times, but never finished. So today I'm going to do something a little different. I've seen a couple of other blogs do this and I thought it was a great idea - Stream of Consciousness blogging. First I'm going to just post the old ones I started. Then, I'm just going to type. So much happens around here every day. If I don't just write it down, I'll forget. Memory isn't my strongest asset (seems a bit genetic - but whatever). So, here goes...

Here's the post I started back in October...

Alex talks a lot - mainly English even. He's a take charge kind of guy, although he is the most people shy - at least it takes him the longest to warm up to new people. He loves to jump, either like tigger (bounce, bounce, bounce) or off of any object - no matter how high or what's underneath. Sometimes he'll give you a warning that he's about to jump by counting to 3 ("three, three, three, three"). He loves to "talk" on a phone (or anything he can hold to his ear and pretend is a phone). He is great a mimicing us and repeating what we say. The best way to find out what you say a lot... say it a lot around Alex. Seems I say "Hi guys" or "how's it going" a lot! He is also good at reciting the ABCs and counting. He can count up to 14 easily and I've heard him go higher when prompted. He can even "read" his first book. They have a froggy book that he can practically read to you, almost word for word. It's awesome!

He runs crazy fast and non stop! He doesn't walk anywhere - it's always running or bouncing or whatever!

Wrestling - they all go at it! Especially Nick and Alex. They will drop onto each other or accidentally/intentionally run into each other (bowling the other over). I've seen some moves that I haven't seen since watching pro-wrestling in the 80s with Grandma Williams!

Logan:

Loves to climb under things. He loves tunnels made with pillows or couch cushions or even just your legs. Can you find the Logan in this picture?!

He is our pickiest eater by far.  I understand picky eating, but this kid takes the cake. Okay, so maybe not - he'd probably pass on cake anyway! But if he were to ask for cake, it would be more like 'cah'. He has a habit of only using 2 letters or so of a word. That makes it very hard to understand what he wants! Of course, that's when he talks at all. Don't get me wrong - I'm going to wish for quiet and less talking soon, but for now - I'd love to know what he wants!

Nick:
Nick loves to take a couple of animals or cars or whatever and sit by himself and pretend play (see pic above). It is awesome to see him have such long conversations with his toys as they play. He talks more now, although some pronunciations are not so great. For example - Nemo vs. Elmo. He will not say Nemo no matter how hard we try. It's always Elmo - both the little orange fish and the red Seaseme Street monster. We work with him to say 'Nick, Nick, Nick' (stressing the N) and he'll repeat it. Then we say 'Nemo, Nemo, Nemo' and he says 'Elmo, Elmo, Elmo'. Oh well. He'll eventually get it.

Here's the post I started in November...
It continually amazes me what these little guys do and learn daily! Here are just some random things they've been doing lately...

I am amazed that Nick's legs and knees aren't constantly black and blue from bruising! I know mine would be if I constantly dropped onto them like he does. He loves to sit in what looks like a very awkward/painful position with is knees forward and his feet pointed behind him - his legs look kinda like VV. He will drop from a standing position to this sitting position instantly. You know it has to hurt his knees and his bottom! He also loves to run and slide - 1 leg straight out forward and one leg bent back behind him. Again, dropping straight down.

I am amazed at how much Logan laughs! He giggles and belly laughs and loves to be tickled. Such a happy little guy - unless he isn't. Then he loves to cuddle and be comforted by mom or dad. And his bottom lip can stick out so very far which is so very cute!

I am amazed at how Alex remembers things! It started with him reading back a book (Let's Go Froggy) to us. He had heard it so many times, he could read it back to us - almost word for word! Then one night he surprised me by singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to me - the whole song! He's also known for predicting/quoting a line from a movie right before it happens. Last night, he even recited the entire reprise of "One Jump Ahead" from Aladdin. All day he had been saying "Street Rat" randomly. It seems he had the song stuck in his head. I started singing part of it and when I couldn't remember the end, he finished it for me. So I started again, singing just the first line and he finished the whole thing! I'm trying to get him to do it on camera, but the "ambient noise" (aka his brothers) doesn't help.

And some more recent thoughts...
Three 2 year olds makes for a very busy, crazy, loud, giggly, rough-housing and exhausting day! Their vocabulary has increased so much lately and they are talking all the time. Granted, it still isn't always 'English', but we do understand a bit more of it than before. Alex is the most talkative (English). He likes to recite the ABCs to himself - even at night when trying to go to sleep. Better than counting sheep anyway. He can count up to about 16, although he usually starts at 6.  Logan is our little ninja. He doesn't talk much and is very good at sneaking out of whatever area you've confined them in. His brothers often ask "where's Logan". We're not sure if it's out of concern for their smaller brother or if it's more like - is he about to jump out at me?! - type of thing. Nick is also rather talkative and big on repeating us lately. Be careful what you say! Thankfully, he doesn't usually remember the words he shouldn't really say beyond the conversation he repeated them in... for now.

Nick loves to get 2 or 3 objects (cars, animals, etc.) and sit and play with them for a while. While the animals give each other a lot of love/hugs, the cars tend to violently crash into each other. Guess there's a balance there somewhere. Speaking of cars - we love playing with cars. We don't love sharing them however. We started getting duplicates of some of them, just to stop the arguing and screaming. Somehow, they still know the difference though. Maybe it's just that they always want what's in their brother's hand vs. the one that is sitting right in front of them.

It is so awesome to hear them say 'Thank You' and 'Love You' Mommy/Daddy. They are pretty good at saying 'Bless You' when someone sneezes (or coughs). Alex is also good at saying 'Excuse Me' after he burps. So cute!

Alright - long enough for tonight. More to come soon! I even plan to update the picture show on the side bar soon too!

Playing in the snow

I know I owe a lot of posts between the last one and this... I promise I'm working on them this week! But until then, here are some pics from our first trip out in the snow this winter.

Grandma's 80th Birthday

Last Sunday (November 22nd) we went to Grandma K's 80th birthday party/open house. Everyone did a great job with all the food and decorations. We showed up towards the end and there were still a lot of people there to celebrate with her. Someone did get a picture of all of us with Grandma. The boys were rather shy when we first got there (and did not want to pose for a picture) but quickly warmed up once we let them down to run around. And run (and run and run) they did! They ran all over inside - cousin Chloe helped us keep them corralled and out of the kitchen at least. Thanks Chloe! They even made a few breaks out the door, but were quickly brought back in. We took them for walks around the building when they got a little too bored with inside.

I think their favorite part about it was the chocolate cake. Nick and Alex talked about chocolate cake for days after that. Thankfully, we took home a few chocolate cup cakes for them to have later. Logan didn't really care for the chocolate - he was fine without cake. It's no wonder he's smaller than his brothers!

Happy Birthday Grandma (even if this is a little belated!)! 80 years, 9 kids, 19 grandkids, 23 great-grandkids and still a smile to show for it!

Happy Thanksgiving - Family Style

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We actually celebrated with two different meals - on different days thankfully! We started by going to the Kreher Thanksgiving last Saturday. Grandma hosted this year at her new apartment complex's recreation room. It was just the right size for all of our family (with quite a good turn out) and the boys still had room to run around the room. Alex found Grandma's walker and had a blast pushing it around. The boys even did great sitting at a big table without booster seats or anything! After dinner was over, we packed up the boys and took them to the Christmas parade. They were very calm for the whole thing. Logan would wave if we told him to. Otherwise, they just sat and took everything in - but at least they seemed to enjoy it!

On Thanksgiving day we went to Grandpa Brandy's house and the whole family was there - including a surprise appearance from Angela, Sydney and Halas! They drove up from Alabama on Tuesday night after work to surprise us all. The boys were so excited to play with their cousins. Halas has grown so much since we saw him last! He and Alex hit it off quite well. They both were sharing and everything!

A great time was had by all. I am very thankful for all of my family! And speaking of family... stay tuned for more posts coming shortly about all our other adventures this past week. Too much to fit into one post!!

Stickers

Tonight the boys found some VHS tape labels and discovered some creative uses for them...
Nick liked to direct where they should go. Logan enjoyed putting them on Adam and taking them off. Alex (in this case) enjoyed attacking Logan with the gator.


This one is my favorite :-)
Everyone was having a blast. The boys all tried the stickers on too, but it was way more fun to put them on Dad!

We had a very busy week with family visits, Grandma K's 80th birthday party, Thanksgiving and Barry & Judy's 50h wedding anniversary celebration. More blog posts to come!