Trains

So back in June we were in Omaha for my cousins wedding, we went to the Omaha Botanical Gardens to see a train exhibit, which was amazing.  They have the same exhibit on display for Christmas at the Botanical Gardens.  The boys loved it and it was so much fun, luckily the line wasn't super long so we didn't have to worry about ancy little boys.

Looking in to see the trains

Trying to get a nice picture of all three

Happy Aaron now

Thomas!!!

Percy

.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  The boys got to enjoy the new space and were spoiled by Santa, their Grandparents, Aunts and Cousins--- oh and we spoiled them too.  Santa brought them exactly what they wanted.. Eli a Rocketship, Owen a battleship and Aaron was just happy with everything - well kinda.  Aaron ended up not feeling so well and getting sick.  He was pretty puny and just not himself.  Besides that, the day was a good day with family and the boys had a blast with all their new toys and for once they didn't fight over their toys!

The boys decorating cookies

Putting out cookies for Santa

Grandpa reading Twas the Night before Christmas

Christmas morning - Aaron not doing so well

Eating the Reindeer Food

A camera - Fun!

Cardinals Hoodie from Gigi!

Eye

December

So I am behind in my postings so I am doing catch up.  :).   We closed on a new house on December 2nd.  We are finally in a larger home and not having 3 little boys share a bedroom.  We spent early December painting and getting the house ready for our move in.  The movers came on December 17th and we worked for the next week to get everything unpacked and put away as we were hosting everyone for Christmas on the 25th.  

Our new place

Potty Training

I think my least favorite thing to do with children is potty training.  The whole process tries my patience, which is not hard to do in general.  Eli has been somewhat challenging and not super interested in the whole thing.  He was not getting the pee pee part for a while and it was super frustrating - he would hold it, hold it and then not tell his teachers.  We would get it at home because we only had to focus on him, his poor teachers focus on a class of 15 little ones.  Miss Sandra decided to see if he would like to stand up.. that was it - he was pee trained.  Now onto getting him to be No 2. trained - I have less patience for this. I HATE cleaning up poppy pants.  It puts me in a horrible mood.  Up until today Eli had not pooped on the potty EVER.  We have been bribing him with an Ice Cream cake and match box car.  Well when I went to pick up Eli today, I got the good news - see his tracking chart.

I was so proud of him.  He gets so upset when he poops in his pants, we all have been stalking him starting around 4:30 as that is when he tends to do his business.  Today the caught him and he finally went! We shall see how long it takes before we are consistent.. hopefully not to long.  

Our Soccer Bug!

Eli is doing indoor soccer for the fall.  He loves playing soccer and his current class is to transition from a parent child class to just by themselves.  Eli got a uniform and he feels like such a big boy.  He is have so much fun playing and follows directions so well.

In my new uni

Watch out

Bouncing the Balloon

Leaves for the "trees"

Our little kicker.

I want to play!

What do you mean I can't play with them?

 

Happy 10 Months Aaron!

So with all the madness around our house, somehow we missed Aaron's 9 month picture.  Poor 3rd child.  Aaron changes so much daily.  He is now cruising around furniture, crawling up the stairs, and pushing anything around that he can.  I think he is going to be an early walker - sigh.  Aaron is also wanting to play and be around his brothers, however they don't want Aaron playing with them as he is the demolisher and wrecks all their set ups. In a few years, I can see it already we are in deep trouble!!! 

Aaron 10 Months

Brothers aka trouble

Happy Halloween

Shockingly I am behind in my posts.  The Fall has gotten away from us, things have been crazy busy - with work being nutty, Andy going to VT football games (at least of one us has a football team to cheer for) and the boys activities. Therefore we were late getting to the pumpkin patch.  Mother nature decided to bring cold weather and snow a little early so we had a little bit of snow to deal with - which made for a muddy pumpkin patch so we just got the boys pumpkins and bypassed the play time in the patch. The boys didn't seem to mind as they had fun carving the pumpkins with Grandpa.

I want to pick one out!

Which one should I get?

 The boys had a good Halloween.  Owen was a fireman for the 3rd year in a row - his choice, Eli was a dragon "roar" -year two, and Aaron was a puppy dog. The costumes are getting their monies worth but the boys are happy with them.  We took the boys trick or treating in Grandpa and Grandma Cather's neighborhood.  They had a lot of fun and got way too much candy.

Our Fireman, Doggie and Dragon!

Proud to show off the pumpkins that they carved with Grandpa.

Off to Trick of Treat

Trick or Treat!

I want to join!

 

Firehouse Open House

The Ashburn Fire Department has two Open Houses a year to thank the area patrons for the support.  It is always a lot of fun, this year we had to wait about 15 min line to get in line just to get in and then another 30 min for the firetruck ride, needless to say it is gain in popularity. The boys love going and enjoy all the activities, this year they really only interested in the Firetruck rides and the slide (Mom and Dad may have influenced things as it was nap time).  

What are we doing now?  Poor Aaron - he is just dragged everywhere.

Fun on the slide, Eli didn't want to go on it.

Weee..

Yum!  Free lunch - we love hot dogs.

Watching the dog demonstration.

See my belly!

Ready to go on a Firetruck ride!

Alternative Route

We were suppose to go to the Outer Banks this year for our annual family vacation.  Well Hurricane Irene had different plans for us.  She decided to hit the banks strait on and keep us from going to Avon - they evacuated the Island and they didn't let residents return until mid-Sept.  So we decided to make way to Salem, IL - where my parents live. It wasn't the beach but it was time away.  

The boys had a ton of fun!  Unfortunately we left our camera at home so we didn't really get to capture all the fun the boys had.  They loved playing outside and running around in the large backyard.  Owen became more passionate about golf, he loves hitting golf balls and putting around - I woudl think that he just likes it because of hte golf cart but he wanted to hit balls all the time.

The last week of August was brutally hot in Salem.  We enjoyed a friends pool as well as the Salem pool.  The Salem pool has greatly improved since I was a kid.  They have revamped it to have a water slide and lots of fun activities for the kids, a bucket that fills up and dumps water every 5 minutes.  Since we were so lucky to be close, we met my friend Jenny half way in Bloomington, IL and we visited the Children's Museum - talk about very cool.  On another day, we also visited the Magic House which was very cool and perfect for a very hot day.  We took the boys to a Cardinals game and we luckily got to see fireworks.

To help kill the heat we also visited the Salem dairy mart, where they served my favorite flavor - lemon, both nights that we went there. 

The road trip was a good test to how Christmas will be driving out.  Aaron got tired of being in the car but overall the boys were so good - thanks to some videos.  For it being an alternative vacation it turned out pretty well.  We enjoyed the time with family and down time, however we are going to the beach for two weeks!

Happy 8 Months Aaron

Aaron turned 8 months on September 10th.  He is almost crawling, his form of transportation right now is hopping on his bottom to get from place to place.  He is starting to pull himself up and he has figured out how to get from laying on his belly to sitting position. Owen and Eli wanted to get their picture taken with Pooh bear, it is crazy i remember when they were so little and leaning up against them.  Time sure does fly!

Happy 8 months!  I am trying to hop!

See how big I am!

Look how big I am!

Did someone say football?

Football season is in full swing. They boys enjoyed the first weekend of college football.  they don't have the patience to sit through a full game, so we went out back to play some football.  I was able to capture some good photos of them playing.

Our two little footballers

How about me? - Maybe I can play?

Here I come!

Touchdown

So we are going to do this

Here I come