Daddy's Mascots

Supporting our bread and butter! Sadly, we found out today that Sammy has ear infections in both ears! Poor little guy...hope that he starts feeling better tomorrow!

Interior Decorating

Wyatt's idea of decorating involves sticking stickers on the fireplace.

The Ham

Could Sammy be any bigger of a ham?

Child Labor

John is looking for any help he can get...even if it means Wyatt. They were working on some of the yard projects that we have in progress right now and they got a lot done. John is building a paver patio coming off the deck and he had to dig a 14 ft long x 4 ft wide hole that was about 2 feet deep and haul all of the dirt uphill to the top of the yard to dump it. It's a big project, but I am sure that it will look great when he finishes it!

Photo Worthy

This morning we took the cousins all to get their picture taken together. It was tricky but we managed to get at least one good one!

Flowers and Trains

We spent the morning at Phipps Conservatory and Gardens. The butterfly house and the outdoor gardens have opened since we were there last time, but the kids still loved the train set most of all.

Backwards is Better

Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers and Aunt Mari and Triston are visiting for a few days and the kids (and John and I) couldn't be happier! Jonah has adopted Grandpa as his new best friend. New best friend carries him everywhere and has to feed him and can not play with anyone else but him. Jonah is pretending that he is an only child! Both sad and cute at the same time! Wyatt and Triston are loving finding ways to get in trouble together! They are fully invested in their mission! Sammy is as happy as a clam...I am not sure if he notices that we have visitors, but he is still smiling! We all went to the zoo today. I got a little nervous when we pulled into the parking lot and saw 5 school buses parked. I figured that the zoo would be packed with field trips and I was right! We decided to take a short cut and go through the zoo backwards to avoid the crowds and our plan turned out to be brilliant. We got to see the polar bears swimming in the tunnel without another visitor around. We enjoyed the aquarium before it got really packed. But most of all, we did all of the hills at the beginning of the trip and were able to enjoy the zoo going entirely downhill instead of up. It was a great day!

Chillin in the shade

Our deck faces the West, so we get absolutely no sun in the mornings, but full sun from about 1pm until 8 pm. This has been an issue this year because the kids are ready to play outside when they wake up from their naps at 3pm (by the way I finally have them ALL napping at the same time every day for about 2 hours...I will write more about how I accomplished this feat in another post soon) but it is like the Sahara dessert on our deck. I refuse to put sunscreen on them every afternoon because it is so greasy and a pain to keep re-applying but we needed to do something so that the boys didn't develop skin cancer before kindergarten. We went back and forth about an awning, both retractable and non-retractable and there are a lot of pros and cons to both. We finally decided on an 11 foot cantilever umbrella from Costco. We went to buy it from our local Costco and couldn't find it even though it was on display the week earlier, so I went up to the costumer service desk to find out if they were expecting another shipment of umbrellas. The lady behind the desk started looking the umbrella up on her computer and said that she couldn't find any umbrellas in inventory at all. Just then another employee walked by and said "you spelled umbrella wrong...it's u-m not u-n". Then my lady said "U-b????" and the other lady said "No, u-m" My lady said "Where does the "n" go?". The other lady said "I'll just look it up for you...and she found it." Not a former spelling bee winner there!!! We had to drive to another Costco to find one in stock, but we are thrilled with it so far. It covers most of the deck at the peak usage time of 3 pm and can fold down so that our view from the inside isn't obstructed. I am still a little worried about how it will perform once the summer sun gets higher in the sky and the shadows that the umbrella cast get smaller, but we can always return the umbrella if it doesn't work out. For now we have full usage of our deck all day long, so we are all excited!

Choo Choo Store

Toys R US is Wyatt's favorite store. We go there almost once a week so that Wyatt can sit in the display Power Wheel cars and pretend that he can drive!

What a Memory

Tonight as I went to download today's pictures from my camera, I realized that the memory card was missing. I knew immediately that Wyatt had taken it out of the camera so I asked John if Wyatt had brought it to him, but he didn't. So after spending 25 minutes searching the den for the missing memory card, John woke Wyatt up and brought him down to the den. I asked Wyatt where the memory card was and he said "Wyatt taked it out right here...(pointing to the camera) and put it right there (pointing to a little compartment underneath the top of the desk)" and sure enough it was there! I was so impressed by both the memory and speech!

Driving Around

The boys all fight over this coupe car! It is one of their favorite toys.

Reading Machine

Here are some pictures of Jonah enjoying a good book!

Water Fun

It was so hot today that I set up the baby pool for the boys on the back porch. They had a blast and I made dinner while they were playing.

Blisters, Fevers, and Runny Noses

It's been about a week since someone was sick, so we were due. I almost forgot how much fun sick kids were, but not quite! We still managed to enjoy the swing set though today. Wyatt loves "underdogs" when he is swinging, but he calls them "big dogs" or "little dogs" depending on his mood! Funny boy!

My Big Boy

I LOVE this picture of Sammy, it is one of my all-time favorites! But I can't believe how old my baby looks?!?!?!?!?

Eating Out

I gave all three boys haircuts this morning. Jonah's hair only needed to be cut in the back, but Wyatt and Sammy had a big pile of hair to vacuum up! I was pretty pleased with my work. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and ate all of our meals outside today. It was great not having to clean the kitchen floor...I actually had 5 minutes of free time today!

Learning the Colors

Wyatt is pretty good with colors. He can name the colors in the rainbow and loves sorting colors. I came across these little rubber vehicles to practice sorting at the store today and they were a big hit with all of the boys!

More Is Better

What could be better than learning how to push one cart around the house? Obviously, pushing two carts around the house!

Tuckered

I spent most of my day working at our Mothers of Multiples Garage Sale. I am exhausted!

I Spoke Too Soon!

Today everyone can climb....up stairs that is! I took the boys over to my friend Carrie's house so that they could play with her kids Lauren and Patrick early this morning. At one point I was upstairs looking for Wyatt and Carrie said that she would bring all of the kids up, so imagine my surprise when I saw her encouraging Sam and Jonah to climb all the way up the stairs by themselves. She didn't realize that neither of them do stairs...apparently neither did they because they made it all of the way up the stairs without help! I can't believe how much they compete with each other....

Jonah is fake-crying in this picture because I told him that he needed to sit on his buns!!!!

My Little Climber

Jonah learned how to climb some time in the last 2 days. I found him STANDING on one of the little chairs in the playroom yesterday and today he climbed halfway up the stairs before we found him tonight at bath time! Sadly, Sammy thinks that he can climb too, but he isn't there yet! He spent a good part of yesterday and today crying because Jonah and Wyatt sat in the playroom chairs and he couldn't. He is so jealous that he even tried to pull Jonah and Wyatt down off of their chairs so that he could try climbing up himself. These boys are always keeping me on my toes!!!

Swing Set Fun

I was very surprised to find out that Samuel and Jonah love the slide on our swing set. I made the mistake of putting them each down it one time yesterday and then I was stuck there for over an hour. My arms are going to be really muscular by the end of summer!

Fun at the Zoo

We went to the zoo today with my friend Bethany and her little girl Madison. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time. The kids spent another 3 hours outside on the swing set this afternoon and we are all exhausted!

Park Tour

When the weather is nice we hit the parks. Yesterday we went to a park with a nice walking trail and enjoyed the warm weather. Today I packed lunches for everyone, took the kids to a park right near John's office and met him for lunch. The park near John's work had some really neat tire swings that Wyatt enjoyed. Grandpa will appreciate the simple design!