Big Three!

Three years ago I became a mom because of this guy! I can't believe I have a three year-old, I remember being three, and it wasn't that long ago, so I know this kid will be a grown-up before we know it; so I better enjoy him when he is still little!

Thomas was excited about his birthday, he knew birthdays were a big deal because we just celebrated Dustin's and he has seen his cousins' birthdays so when I told him his was coming up he was very excited! He even helped me bake the cake the day before and was pretty excited to see it finish this morning, he kept asking when he could eat his batman cake. 

We started the morning by letting him open his presents from Dustin and I. We got him some Harry Potter glasses, a Batman LEGO book, and the Bat cave, and Dustin drew him a cute caricature of him as batman. 

O and before I forget, when he first woke up I said "Happy Birthday Thomas!" and he responded, "Happy Birthday mommy!" what a sweet boy, but we had to explain to him that it was his birthday ha ha. He figured out pretty quick that it was kinda his day, that when we were at the Doctor's today for his and Oliver's check up he kept telling the nurses that it was his birthday.

Later that night, we had Dustin's parents, Grandpa, and his sister with her family come over  for pizza and cake. Thomas got to open more presents, this time he had a better idea about this whole present unwrapping thing and had a great time!

Than the cake, he was excited to blow out the candles and finally to eat the cake!

I'm so glad this little boy is in our lives, he is fun, sweet, and my little helper.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS!

I love being a Mom

One of the greatest things about being a mom, I sometimes feel like I can be a kid again! Most days I think how lucky I am to be home with these two adorable boys, but about time Dustin gets home I'm usually going crazy so he probably doesn't think I feel that way. But I honestly have a lot of fun with these kids and I love doing things that I used to do as kid, and it makes the day that much more fun.

More and more Oliver and Thomas are playing together and it's so fun to watch, and it makes my days a little easier and I have been able to get more house work done in the day, but sometimes they need some source of entertainment so we have done a few forts and they love it! Also since the weather has been nice we go to park near the schools before we pick up Dustin and we've been having a great time. 

I feel like motherhood keeps getting better.... and harder of course. Children are seriously the best thing, I feel like they keep you young. I get excited about the little things again, and everything is that much more exciting. Holidays have that magic again, I love hearing Thomas talk about trick-or-treating still and he's getting excited about Christmas!

So what I am saying is, I love being a mom!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween! 

Thomas loved trick-or-treating and thought it was great! And he went a lot faster than last year but it still took us a long time he would talk to everyone at the door about his batman costume and anything else on his mind. I love the neighborhood that Dustin's parents and grandparents live, Everyone is festive and are super nice, some people were passing big candy bars, back of candy, and some were even passing out hot dogs and had a condiments bar!

After trick-or-treating, Dustin's mom made a fun Halloween dinner and we all hung out at the porch to pass out the candy. Thomas LOVED that too, he loved seeing all the kids dressed up especially all the super heroes and was a chatter box and Oliver just cuddled with me. It was a fun night!

My little Trick-or-Treaters

BEHIND THE SCENES:

So these pictures were kinda a pain, and I may-or-may not got angry at my kids during the photo shoot, and now I feel really bad... I have really good kids who will listen to their mom and let her take pictures of them ALL THE TIME!

So I saw something like this on good-old-pinterest where you could purchase the digital format for this backdrop for $5, and you could print it out, which was a good deal, but I decided to make it myself and save $5, so I drew the spider webs on paper, scan it, opened photoshop and made it look like it was on a chalkboard and order a large print from Staples because they were the cheapest so far and everyone one pinterest said go to them. Well, to make a long story short, they ran out of the paper so I had to wait longer and I ended up picking it up right before I had to pick Dustin and I was trying to beat rush hour that when they showed me the print and I saw that it was messed up with lines across it, I wanted to tell them that it was unacceptable and how was I going to use that? Well, I always feel guilty if I complain, maybe because I have worked retail so long and have been complained to so much, and I was really tired and didn't feel like waiting any longer with my kids that I took the print the way it was, I knew they knew it was bad because they asked, "Does that look ok to you?"

Anyway, than today I was trying to get it set up when Oliver was trying get to the backdrop and ripping it, than messing with my fake wood floor, I was getting pretty angry, and bribing poor Thomas to sit for pictures, and he fought it but I think he saw how tired and angry I was and said "Ok mommy." and was really good, but than Oliver was trying to wrestle with him and take his mask off so Thomas started getting mad, that I finally just threw candy and them and said they could have whatever they wanted and turned on a movie, and I finally got some pictures even with the messed up background.

So the moral of the story, don't set high expectations for a perfect picture, and you should be great!

Halloween Festivities

This week we did some fun things.

We went to the pumpkin patch again but this time with Grandma Lisa, Grandma Hayden, and my SIL Emily and cute, baby Carter.

 

Than Friday the library had trick-or-treating and some games, and now I have 2 kids I get double the candy.... well sorta, Thomas is starting to like the candy too, but I do get Oliver's!

 

Than Saturday was pumpkin carving with my brother and his family, and Jenny and Tony. The kids painted the pumpkins and we got to eat yummy pumpkin empandas(sp)!

Later that night we headed to Dustin's aunt and uncle's for their ward party but it started raining right as we got there so we were lucky to get this shot and grabbed some chili and ended up hanging out at Dustin's parents house so we still had a fun night!

Oliver @ Nine Months

My little Oliver turned nine months this past week!

A little bit about Oliver...

He loves "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"

He just started clapping his hands

His two top teeth are coming in

He is starting to cruise on the furniture but he still needs some assistance

He likes to wrestle and growl at you

He loves playing with Thomas

He gets into EVERYTHING and he eats EVERYTHING, he ate a dead bug today, so gross... I made Dustin get it out.

He is still a light-sleeper

He loves going outside

He loves to swing

He likes to follow me where ever I go

When he wants to do something he will no matter how many times I try to stop him

He's still a momma's boy but he likes his daddy time too

And I can't imagine life without him!

I look tired in this picture, O wait I am tired, but it's a good tired.

Having Fun with Pumpkins

Now that we are all feeling better, we are catching up on all the fall festivities! And this week we did a lot of pumpkin themed activities!  

On Friday I took the kids to the cutest pumpkin patch, it was adorable. They had so many fun activities for the kids, there was a hayride (we just didn't stay long enough to go), a station to decorate your pumpkin, a little straw maze, Checkers, and they also had cute little set ups for great picture taking, but to get my kids to work with me to get a nice picture.... well, that's another story. Thomas  lately won't look at the camera at all and gives me a cheesy smile and looks away so I ended up letting them do whatever they wanted and they had a lot of fun.

Than this picture, I couldn't help but put a conversation bubble because I'm pretty sure that was what my kids were thinking the whole time.

Than today we went to the Arboretum with my brother, Michael and his family to check out the pumpkins there; it was super crowded there and the sun was pretty bright out so it was hard to get some good pictures but luckily we got a few. I love the Arboretum in the fall it's one of my favorite things, and Thomas always loves hanging out with his cousins.

Than this week has been cold and raining a lot {and I have loved every minute of it} so I got a pumpkin for Thomas to paint one day to keep him entertained, and he loved it. He did a cool face but than kept painting until the whole thing was covered.

 Than later this week I cooked the pumpkin and made some delicious pumpkin muffins, so like I said, this week has been full of pumpkin activities!