Procrastinating....just for you!

Well the kiddos are napping & I am supposed to be cleaning the house in preparation for a little party we are having this weekend.  What party?  Well to celebrate our 3 little munchkins turning 2, thats what party!

So what am I doing?  Well, this afternoon I got my hot little hands on a CD.  What CD?  Well, the CD with the pictures of the little munchkins' 2 year pictures!  Woo-hoo!  What a fast turn around time on pictures, awesome!  So cleaning is taking a backseat to sharing a "few" with you.  There are 144 pictures on the CD.  My oh my!  Various edits of things & such.  And she said to just let her know if I wanted a different edit of anything.  {So if all of you with eagle eyes see anything you think would look awesome edited in some other way let me know!  I already know there are a few I just got in black & white that I want to see in color.}  This is why I only do pictures with photographers who sell you the rights to your pictures on CD!  I can't imagine not having the opportunity to print more of whatever, whenever.  Or edit them.  Or share them online!

It was one heck of an afternoon, that picture taking session.  Cool.  WINDY!  And the kiddos were crabby.  {Which you can't tell so much in their faces in the pictures as you can in Jeff & mine.  Next time we'll have a few drinks first ;) }

Thank you Marty Shepard Photography for sharing your time & talent with us!  And for putting up with our energetic, cranky toddlers.  It was a pleasure!  It's always amazing to me how despite tears & tantrums.... there is always so much beauty to be found in a moment, the click of the camera.  They aren't perfect, just like us.  But we successfully captured the little moments in life that make it all worth it.

Without further adieu....this is our life, with three 2 year olds, captured moment by moment.  Enjoy!

{So hard to keep 3 busy bodies sitting still, or looking in the same direction!}

  {Logan pouty face!}

 {They had fun bouncing on this log!}

 {BALLOONS}

{They actually all held hands.  For a split second.  Can't believe she got it.  Look at Jeff ready to run...}

 {Going to ask for this one in color.  And maybe croped to see just the kids?}

 {They love wagons}

 {Hayden Thomas}

 {LOVE.THOSE.EYES!}

 {Olivia Paige!}

 {Giggles!}

 {Logan Daniel}

 {Looks so ornery!}

{6 years ago, Jeff & my engagement pictures were taken at the same location.  Not my favorite of our engagement pictures, but the following picture is taken in the exact same spot!}

{The path life leads us down is amazing.  What an amazing 6 years.  I can't imagine it any other way!}

Thrifty me!

FINALLY got to the consignment store to find our 3rd & final wintercoat & snowpant set for the season.  Its a little big, but hopefully Hayden will grow into it well (& maybe it will even fit Logan next year?  That would be a double score!)

I also stumbled across 3 pair of fuzzy Crocks for the kiddos.  They LOVE them & are trotting around the house in them right now.  Crocks were our FAVORITE shoes over the summer.

All for a grand total of $20! 
Well actually I sold a box of misc. stuff.... and bought a few misc. clothing items.... so really all for a total of basically $3! 

Here is Livi trying on Hayden's new snow pants.  He didn't want to try them on.  And she proceeded to wear them around the house for HOURS!  Mostly though I was taking this picture of her sitting & reading books so you can see her hair fits into a real pony tail!!!

In other thrifty news, I have been LOVING Pinterest as of late.  {Don't know what Pinterest is?  Have you ever torn pages out of magazines?  Recipies you'd like to try?  House decoration ideas you love?  Filed them away for later?  Basically its an online version of filing all those "pages" away.  Fantastic!  Its my newest time-wasting addiction!}  Anyways... got tons of 2 year old Sesame Street birthday party decoration ideas off of there using mostly stuff I had laying around the house. 

Yay for being thrifty!!

She's brilliant!

Sometimes Olivia amazes me.  Things she remembers & knows.

We were sitting around eating lunch.  And I said something about Uncle Alex (who babysat Thursday while I got my hair done.  I had told the kids I was going to get my hair combed... something they understand.)

Livi said... "Alex come play Yaya.  Mommy comb." 

You are kidding me??!!  First of all... that is sentences.  Second of all... how does she remember that so well?!  Go Livi Go!!


On a side note, we took some 2 year pictures today.  I've just come to the conclusion that my kids are so not good at pictures.  Maybe its just that there are 3 of them.  But its exhausting!!  Getting them to sit still for 3 seconds is a joke.  Getting them to smile at a stranger is more of a joke.  They are in such a phase where they say "NO" to everything.  And they don't really understand the bribe thing yet.  They test the waters constantly.  Push our buttons.  For example I say "Logan take your fingers out of your mouth".... and 2 other toddlers proceede to constantly have their fingers in their mouths just to spite me!  We'll see what we got.......

BIG THURSDAY!

It wasn't even noon & we had already had quite a big day!

Olivia correctly said her 5th color. Yellow (added to orange, purple, red & sometimes pink).  On occasion she gets them mixed up, but the majority of the time she gets these right.  I'm pretty amazed with her brilliance!  She also has learned to put on her own socks.  On & off, on & off, all day.  Gets frustrated if she can't get them on & needs help.  But she can do it!

Hayden spent the morning using his huge imagination building "choo choo"s out of empty diaper boxes, toy storage bins & chairs. (Livi joined in to "ride" when he had the choo-choos built!)

They also like to drive their toast around at breakfast & say its a choo-choo.  Or put a few blocks together & fly them around like they are a "bye-pain" {airplane}.

And Logan had his first ever 2 word phrase at breakfast... "more please."   YAY!!!

On a randome note, since I have been making them leave their lovies & "bapet"s {blankets) in their beds, they have been dragging their teddy bears around the house.  Its always something! 

Snacks with our "rar"s {a bear says RAR... so a bear is a "rar"}

 I found them sitting this way......

Then this afternoon Uncle Alex came to visit so mama could get her hair done.  {CAN I GET A HIP-HIP-HOORAY!}  My hair dresser almost died when she saw me.  I'm not lying when I say I haven't been there since January!!  I needed to do something new, I was feeling so blah.  All my life my hair has never grown well & its actually pretty long for me right now.  So I didn't want to cut it off.  So I had to play with color to do something different.  So I guess I joined in a young-mama trend this year & went dark.  It's pretty close to my natural color (since I haven't had my hair done in 10 months we could actually tell what my natural is!). 

I didn't taken an official before picture, but this is a pic of Jeff & I at a wedding about a month ago.

After! 

I think it makes my eyes look really green (among my blue eyed household....)

Its November! Our Birthday Month!!

In just 11 days.... the munchkins turn TWO!! 

Took the almost.2.year.olds out today so we could finally get Liv's glasses fixed, again.

Then I took them (all by myself for the first time) to get the boys' hair cut!  It actually went very well.  After a few initial tears, they each sat nicely in their (as Hayden would say) "vi-ving" chair {Lightning- as in Lightning McQueen from CARS).  And each watched a CARS movie.  Not a peep while the girls cut & styled.  Livi insisted on sitting in a car too.  {One of these days Liv... you'll have enough hair to give it a trim & style.  Its growing though, it really is!}  It was a little tricky getting them out the door however.  There is a train set & train table there.... try pulling my 2 boys away, I dare you!  (I so need to find a way to find room for a train table in our house.  I could probably pack away 90% of our toys & if we had a train table, they wouldn't complain!)  I actually had to have one of the stylists help me get them out the door!  But we all survived.  And thank goodness we got it done, because we're taking 2 year pictures Saturday.  Now I just need to quickly get MY hair done! 

Then a quick trip to Target.... and it was already mid-afternoon.  Things take SOO long to get done, when you're lugging 3 kids along.  Even the fastest errands are a huge chore!

After naps, we're going to get outside & enjoy this weather, before the predicted snow comes.  Crossing my fingers the weather man is oh so wrong!

And just because they were in a cooperative mood when we got home....

Hayden Thomas

 Olivia Paige

 Logan Daniel

Birthday Party #2

Elmo is Red.

Cookie Monster's Blue.

Hayden, Olivia & Logan

are turning TWO!!

This year we are blessed to celebrate on our actual birthday, November 12.  The more the merrier.  If you want to come help us celebrate, just let me know & I'll get you the details!  I still can't believe my itty, bitty babies are turning TWO!!

4 weeks old.

ONE!

Almost TWO!

Colors...

So we've been working on learning colors at our house.  We talk about them always in the bath tub with our bath crayons & the foam letters.  We talk about them relating to our clothes.  Our food.  Everything.  Livi is catching on.  She knows "orn" {orange} & purple pretty well.  Almost always gets those 2 right.  Sometimes "run" {red}.  And one time this week she pointed to her PJs & correctly said "Pink!"  She calls lots of vehicles "white" but I don't think she really gets what white is beyond a word.  Hayden... he says the color words, but doesn't usually match them up correctly.  At least he's learning the words & trying!  And Logan, he calls pink & purple "Yi-ya" {Olivia}.  And blue "nu nen" {Hayden}.  He's got the idea, kind of?!

Add to this practice of colors..... their block stacking skills.  Or their unusually anal block stacking skills where they stack only the same size duplo blocks on the same size duplo blocks......and you get this.  Jeff says Logan's OCD like his mama.  I say he's genius!

{Look how long his hair is!  Its curling above his ears!  Haircuts are on the to-do list, I swear!}

WOW!!  These 3 pictures were taken in just a few minutes.  He did this one after another, after another.  Then he handed out the red ones to Olivia & the blue ones to Hayden.  He might not say the color words, but he's getting the connection of grouping things!!  

And a random picture just for fun.  The kids opening their singing Halloween "meil" {mail} from Grandma Candy & Grandpa Tom.  LOVED!  Ya-ya took her "book meel" {book mail} to bed with her even!