The Walters Family

100

2012-01-26T20:48:00.002-06:00

Today was Owen's 100th day of school celebration. The kids were supposed to dress up like they were 100 years old for a Best Old Man & Best Old Woman costume contest. How exactly do you make a 7 year old look 100 years old without extensive makeup or a mask (and without spending a ton of money)? We did the best we could with accessories, and Owen perfected his old man impression by hunching over & saying things like "I've thrown out my back", "young-ins" and "whippersnapper". He was so excited when he got home this afternoon and had won a medal for 3rd place in the costume contest!

Another exciting part of his day was getting to lead the Pledge of Allegiance over the speaker for the entire school this morning. He reported that he did a very good job and "spoke loud and clear". Good thing he doesn't have his daddy's nerves when it comes to public speaking! :-)

Celebrating Christmas

2011-12-27T15:29:00.003-06:00

Amazingly enough, Christmas 2011 has already come & gone. It's been a busy few weeks, and while I'm sad all the anticipation & excitement are over, we're looking forward to relaxing for the next 2 weeks before school starts back.

Here's a peek at what we've been up to.

Jacob & Cole's preschool class has a cookie decorating party.
Here are a few photos from their preschool Christmas program.
As usual, we spent Christmas Eve goofing off before bedtime. This year the boys decided to stay awake to listen for Santa. That made for a long night for all of us!
And a few shots from Christmas morning. As you can see, Star Wars is still all the rage with the Walters boys.

Birthday fun!

2011-12-14T20:30:00.010-06:00

Last weekend was Jacob & Cole's 5th birthday party! This was their first "friend party" and they chose to have it at the martial arts school. It was so much fun!! They played taekwondo games, broke boards, and burned lots of energy with their friends. There were several kids there who do not take taekwondo, but it was really fun for everyone.

On Tuesday we celebrated their actual birthday. The day started with the kids waking up to find that our mischievous elf, Luke, had hung streamers from their bedroom door during the night. What a fun way to start the day! Per their request, they celebrated with cupcakes for a snack at school and red velvet cake at home in the evening.

Just for fun I dug out these photos from the day they were born. Goodness how things have changed in the last 5 years!

Moving on (before I need to break out the tissues)...

Owen walked in the door after school a couple of weeks ago with this mustache on. His teacher gave them to all the kids to go along with a book they're reading in class. I think the mustache really suits him! ;-)

And finally, a rare photo of Lucky 2. She is getting so big and has become much more social over the past couple of months. We're planning to get her a friend pretty soon, but in the meantime she & Diego have become quite fond of each other. At least twice a day I find them sniffing each other through the slats of her cage.

Halloween 2011

2011-12-03T11:19:00.006-06:00

I won't lie. October almost did me in. Marshall, too, I think. Our work schedules were hectic (the busiest month all year for both of us), there were baseball games, taekwondo classes, teacher conferences, field trips, school parties, birthday parties for friends...you get the idea. It was chaos at times, but we survived and had lots of fun in the process.

State Police Troop A Day:

Jacob & Cole's school party:
Trick or Treat!!

Owen {Luke Skywalker as an x-wing fighter pilot}

Cole {Luke Skywalker from Episode IV}

Jacob {Snake Eyes from GI Joe}

Mike the Tiny Tiger

2011-09-13T21:23:00.003-05:00

Meet Mike the Tiny Tiger. Jacob & Cole's Taekwondo class is the Tiny Tigers, and Mike is a new incentive for kids to do well in class. Each week the "best" student is chosen to take Mike home and watch over him until the following week. Sure enough, Jacob & Cole quickly figured out that only one of them would need to do well enough to be chosen in order for them both to have a weekend with Mike. One of the many perks of being a twin I suppose!

Jacob was chosen last week, which means that Mike joined our family for a few days. The kids had a blast with him. He ate a hearty breakfast of "imaginary meat oatmeal", watched Owen's baseball practice, took a little tour of the LSU campus, did arts & crafts, and made a new friend (the boys put a white belt on one of our teddy bears so Mike wouldn't be lonely). Now he is back at the martial arts school, and the boys are already looking forward to getting him back soon.

Breaking boards for a good cause

2011-08-11T20:56:00.004-05:00

Here are some snapshots from a taekwondo board break-a-thon the boys participated in last month. They helped raise money for a local scholarship fund by committing to break a certain number of boards. Needless to say, they LOVED it!

(And because I know some of you will ask, yes, that's real wood they're breaking!)

Backing up a bit

2011-06-09T13:28:00.007-05:00

Things around here have been beyond busy the past few months. We have been juggling end-of-the-year school activities, taekwondo, baseball and tee ball. Plus spring is one of my busiest times of year for business, and Marshall had a lot going on at work, too. Now that we've slowed down a bit I wanted to take time to blog some of the things we've been up to.

Here are a few photos from Jacob & Cole's preschool Easter egg hunt. They were less than enthusiastic about hunting eggs, and Jacob flat out refused to pick up any that were not the ones he picked out to bring to the hunt. Thankfully they loosened up & had some fun playing on the playground.

We spent Easter in Tallulah with family:

And since it's been a while since I've shared any sleeping photos...

Jacob:

Cole:

Lately

2011-05-31T15:51:00.005-05:00

You may want to grab a cup of coffee & get comfortable...this is probably going to be a looooooong post as I try to catch you up on our May happenings. :-)

It's hard to believe it's the last day of May. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas, yet here we are filling our days with swimming, playdates & outdoor projects around the house. As the kids get older we find ourselves wishing time would slow down a bit, but it seems to pass quicker than ever.

School ended early last week, and while the boys all love school they are excited to have some down time this summer. Thankfully they're already learning about the joys of sleeping late (well, if you consider 8:30am late).

Jacob at the end of school party:

Cole at the same party (they refused to take a photo together or with their teacher):

Recently Jacob & Cole have starting playing games on my old laptop. They love the Disney Junior website, and it amazes me that they can already navigate to the website and remember the password to log into the computer. I grew up using computers from the time I was a toddler (thanks, Dad!!), so while we do limit their screen time every day, it thrills me to think of all the information they will be able to discover (supervised, of course!) as they grow.

Here is our big guy on his 7th birthday:

That's right, I said 7th birthday! How did this happen??? Our adorable, happy, squishy baby boy has turned into a caring, bright, amazing big boy. He's lost almost all of his baby features over the last year or so, but I can always depend on my good friend Michele to remind me how his laugh is still that same chuckle he's had since babyhood. Thank goodness for that!!

Owen really, really, really wanted an iPod Touch for his birthday. We teased him for weeks that we were going to get him a Barbie Dreamhouse instead. Don't all good parents torment their children about their birthday gifts? We went so far as to wrap his gift in a giant box, and when he opened it he did indeed find a Barbie Dreamhouse. In the form of a picture. On his new iPod Touch.

As you can see, he wasn't amused:

Finally, after years of not having any patio furniture (thanks to a hurricane that destroyed our last set), we've started building some. As a family of 5 with who occasionally likes to have company over, we struggled to find anything ready-made that would seat enough people that wouldn't also break the bank. Then one day I was browsing a website and inspiration struck. Poor Marshall. He ends up doing most of the work on these kinds of projects, and he won't admit it but he's really good at it. We've had to build around work, baseball & taekwondo schedules, so we're only halfway done, but it looks great so far!

A few shots from day 1 of the project:

I'll be sure to update with photos of the completed project very soon!

First grade awards

2011-05-21T20:10:00.003-05:00

Friday morning we gathered in the Northwestern Elementary cafeteria for the first grade honors program. Owen has had an amazing year with a wonderful teacher, and he's worked hard & flourished all year. Over the course of this school year he discovered a love of reading, a strong curiosity for science & math, and that just maybe girls aren't so bad after all.

His awards: Citizenship/Courtesy Award, Athletic Award, Straight A's all year, Perfect Attendance, Reading Award, Champion of Conduct Award.

Cole wanted to be in a shot with his big brother:

At the beginning of the year Owen set a goal for himself to not get any check marks for conduct. Students can get an A in conduct for each day even if they get a few check marks (the number varies as the year progresses), so this was a pretty ambitious goal. He was so proud to accomplish this (despite one substitute's effort to derail him by announcing that the entire class got a check mark one day), and this was his reaction when we told him we'd get him a guinea pig for his reward. He's been asking for one for months, and I LOVE the pure joy on his face here:

And here is Cole again, hamming it up for the camera. Jacob, as usual, had no interest in being photographed.

Baseball

2011-05-03T14:09:00.004-05:00

We've been spending lots of time at the ball park lately. Here are a few highlights from last night's games.

Bike-a-thon and baseball

2011-04-09T11:03:00.004-05:00

Last week we put the training wheels back on so Jacob & Cole could participate in their school's bike-a-thon. It was such a fun day for them!

All 3 boys are playing baseball this spring, and Owen had his first game Thursday night. Unfortunately Jacob & Cole had t-ball practice at the same time, so the 3 of us raced over to the ball park to catch the very end of the game (which they won 7-6). With 3 boys participating in baseball and Taekwondo, we foresee lots of racing around in our near future!

Big day!

2011-03-14T14:50:00.003-05:00

Look what Jacob can do! That's right - no training wheels!!

And I'm happy to announce that, after 4 months of wiggling, Owen has lost his first top tooth! It fell out right before he went to bed last night, and remembering to look under his pillow for cash quickly turned his grumpy mood around this morning!

Here's a photo of me with Jacob & Cole from last week. My friend Michele is taking a photography workshop and she used us for practice. Even though I've already plastered this on Facebook, I'm sharing it here too because it will be fun to look back through our blog archives in a few years and stumble upon this.

Note to self: be in more photos with your children!!!

Tuesday

2011-02-09T14:42:00.006-06:00

Here are a few snapshots from our Tuesday afternoon.

I made these for a snack yesterday afternoon. The recipe is from the Super Healthy Kids blog, and they were a hit at our house! Owen asked me to put 100 of them in his lunchbox. :-)

1 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups oats
1/2 cup ground flax seed
chocolate chips

mix, spoon into balls (I put them in mini silicone baking cups), chill

And this isn't from yesterday, but I thought you'd enjoy seeing where Diego has started sleeping while I'm working at my desk.

Stitches

2011-01-07T22:02:00.006-06:00

Last week Cole fell & had to have stitches. Marshall rushed him to urgent care & Cole was very brave the entire time. He didn't cry at all! He returned home with a stuffed lion (which he's slept with every night since) and a certificate of bravery. He's since had the stitches removed (he was equally as brave) and is doing just fine. Believe it or not that was our first trip to urgent care for any of our boys!

I couldn't resist sharing this iPhone pic of him right after he got the stitches.

When I was importing the stitches photo from my phone it occurred to me that we have quite a few memories stored on my phone which most of you rarely get to see. Of course a few of you get text messages with some of our random happenings & sometimes I think to put some of my iPhone pics on Facebook, but I thought it was about time to pull them off the phone and share them with everyone.

Celebrating

2010-12-24T10:17:00.008-06:00

It's Christmas Eve, and as we're gearing up to celebrate Jesus' birthday and open lots of gifts, I thought it would be a good time to update our family blog. On Thanksgiving our elf, Luke, returned to help Santa keep an eye on the kids' behavior. In the first picture he's wearing a party hat - he returned from the North Pole with it just in time for Jacob & Cole's 4th birthday party.

Jacob & Cole each requested very specific birthday cakes, which meant mommy had to bake (and I am NOT a baker or cake decorator!).

These next few are from Jacob & Cole's preschool Christmas program. We were a little nervous they would get stage fright, but they sang their little hearts out the entire time. We're so proud!

This year we tried something new for decorating cookies. We had the kids help paint them with a mixture of egg whites & food coloring. They LOVED it & it was so much less messy (and more sanitary) than having them help with icing.
They did pitch in & help decorate their own "person cookie" with icing last night. Can you guess why we only want them to use icing for their own cookies & not the ones we leave out for Santa?

Here are Cole & Jacob singing one of the songs from their Christmas program.

September already?

2010-09-02T09:32:00.006-05:00

Without fail September sneaks up on us every year. The entire summer seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, which is saying a lot considering all the kids were home full time and I was trying to maintain some sort of sanity while being a full time mommy and running a business from home. Thanks to a trip to the beach, lots of time in the pool & several weekend trips to visit my mom we survived & had a great summer. Now that the boys have all been in school for a few weeks we're settling into a routine - it's good for all of us!

Of course the approach of fall means facing the always-stressful task of finding pants that will fit our tall & skinny boys. Jacob & Cole have always been so hard to fit. They need a 12-18 month size for the waist, but a 3t or 4t for the length. Last year we tried on about 20 pairs before finding some that worked, and even those weren't great. This year, our search is already over. Gap now has a "Mini Skinny" jean that fits them perfectly! They're a little long, but the cuffed look is in style right now and this way they'll last through spring. If you have tall, skinny boys I highly recommend them! Here's the link: Gap Mini Skinny Jeans

And here are Jacob & Cole modeling their new jeans (& shirts!) after the package arrived yesterday:

Jacob wanted to spin to show his off:

Aside from the thrill of getting stylish, well-fitting jeans for our little guys, yesterday was also exciting because it was Marshall's birthday!

Signing his card:

Here's a shot of the birthday boy (aka the best daddy & hubby anyone could ever imagine)! We had a fun, low-key celebration complete with cookie cake & burritos. :-)

After dinner the kids were on a mission to save some bugs & return them safely to their mommies, so we all ended up outside. It was a gorgeous, breezy evening...not quite cool enough for jeans & long sleeves, but Cole was not going to take his new clothes off.

Owen's newest obsession is with anything Army. His shirt was a souvenir from PawPaw-Mar & Maw-Gala's recent trip to France, and he wears it almost every single day after school. He'll probably wear it to school tomorrow since it's free dress day (I better go start some laundry!).

This may be my all-time favorite photo of Jacob. Laying on the grass for a picture was completely his idea. Look at those gorgeous eyes!

After a few minutes the kids were bored rescuing bugs & decided they wanted to play photographer. Owen had been watching some photography videos with me earlier in the afternoon, and he was determined to recreate some of the posing suggestions given by "the man in the video". He set up this entire "sniper" shot, complete with the gun prop. Then he proceeded to take a tack-sharp photo of Jacob at f2 with my 85mm on my 5D completely unassisted...impressive!

Then Cole decided to be the photographer and snapped this of Owen. I was nervously hovering beside him ready to dive & catch my camera, but he did great!

Jacob took this shot of me. Excuse the lack of makeup (and that's a pink camisole you see...not my bra). :-)

First Day of School 2010

2010-08-12T13:59:00.004-05:00

After what seems like a whirlwind summer, school started this morning. It's hard to believe we have a first-grader and 2 preschoolers. The kids were all very excited and we had a fairly uneventful morning getting everyone to school.

The kids remembered taking these pictures in 2009 & insisted we recreate the moment this year.

Our big first-grader:

Cole, who insisted on tucking his shirt into his "soft shorts" (the only kind he'll wear these days) so he could be like Owen:

Jacob, demonstrating that Owen is starting first grade:

Our handsome preschoolers:

Vacation 2010

2010-07-16T10:27:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday!!! It's been a busy week for us with an even busier weekend to come. Nevertheless, this morning I finally got around to putting together a slideshow of our vacation pictures. I was planning to do separate blog posts about some of the activities we did, but there are just too many photos to sort through. Here are a view of my favorites.

Buried on the beach.

Self-portrait by Jacob.

Cole.

Here is the link to our slideshow:

Vacation 2010 Photos

The kids took quite a few of the photos in the slideshow. Every photo of me was taken by one of the kids, and they took a lot of each other and other random things around the condo. Enjoy!

Deeders

2010-07-09T13:44:00.004-05:00

This afternoon I found myself slightly bored for the first time in years. Seriously, the house is picked up, the floors have been vacuumed & mopped, I'm caught up on editing & placing orders for clients, and the kids are watching a movie. What an odd feeling for someone who is usually juggling at least 3 tasks at any given time! I took the opportunity to take a few photos of Diego since he hasn't been tortured with my camera in a while. He tried hiding, but I dragged him from his favorite spot and plopped him on our bed.

Reluctantly posing.

Are we done yet?

I'll sit here but I'm not going to look at you.

Don't feel too badly for him - he was on the bed for less than 30 seconds. We have terrible light in our bedroom (& I was too lazy to go find my flash), so there wasn't much point in continuing with the animal torture any longer.

I've titled this post "Deeders" because that's what the kids have started calling Diego when they speak to him. They are so helpful when it comes to caring for him. They all know how to put his special collar on him to go outside, they can each get him food & water and take it upon themselves to make sure his bowls are full each time we eat a meal. It's a great thing to see them going out of their way to make sure he's cared for!

Big News for Big O!

2010-06-20T19:32:00.002-05:00

After about 6 weeks of wiggling, Owen's first tooth fell out this afternoon!! He's been worried for weeks that it would fall out at night & he wouldn't be able to find it. Thankfully it popped right out while we were sitting in the living room chatting with Uncle Todd. Of course Owen's immediate reaction was "I'm going to get more money!!!". :-)

We're back!

2010-06-15T17:34:00.005-05:00

Last week we spent 7 days in Gulf Shores. We originally planned to stay only 5 days, but the beaches were beautiful, our condo was great, and the people coming after us canceled out of concern about the oil so we decided to stay a little longer. As expected, we have hundreds of photos from the trip...so many that most haven't even been downloaded off the cards! I'll be sharing more from the trip as I find time, but here are a few taken around our condo. It was located adjacent to a wildlife reservation, so we had beautiful scenery & wildlife right outside our door. (I'm sure Marshall would rather forget about the snake!)

Here's Cole hamming it up for the camera. Yes, he's outside in his boxer shorts.

Owen being his goofy self.

His serious face. Doesn't he look like Dub here????

And now for my favorite part of the whole trip. The first night the kids were out on the deck and we overheard someone say "look at all the hot dogs growing out there". They all got really excited (although Owen denies he did) at this. Curious, we walked out to find them all looking excitedly at the field of cattails next to our condo. Priceless!!

And yes, Jacob was on the trip with us, but he outright refused to be photographed much of the time. You'll see some shots of him as I share some of our adventures. :-)

The world according to Cole

2010-06-02T18:27:00.003-05:00

This afternoon Cole had lots of fun playing with our point & shoot camera. There were a few gems mixed in with several shots of the floor. To see this bigger just click on the photo.

Happy birthday big O!!!!

2010-05-03T08:39:00.003-05:00

Happy birthday to Owen! Today he is 6 years old. It seems like just last week we brought our chubby, happy baby home from the hospital, but now he's a big kid who reads, can do addition & subtraction, rides a bike without training wheels, and is a fantastic big brother.

Here's a quick snap of him this morning:

Saturday he had his 3rd annual Star Wars birthday party, and all his best buddies came to help celebrate.

Winter Fun

2010-02-18T18:53:00.004-06:00

Well hello there! I knew our poor blog has been neglected as of late, but I was shocked to log on here tonight and see that I haven't updated since before Christmas. Shame!

Here are a few shots of our kids playing in the recent snow. They were beyond excited to have yet another snow day this winter, and Jacob was ready to pull all the Christmas decorations back out! (Sorry if you've seen these on Facebook already. We didn't get many shots since the kids were much more interested in running around than being photographed and I didn't want to get the camera out in the snow to get more shots.)

Owen catching snowflakes:

Cole:
Jacob:

Snowball fight!

And here's a little quip from tonight's dinner conversation:

Owen: Who lives in your heart?
Me: Jesus
Owen: But what does your heart do?
Me: Well, it pumps blood through your body.
Owen: Does God have workers?
Me: (wondering where this is going...) I suppose the angels are his workers.
Owen: So if God lives in your heart and your heart pumps blood, God must have worker angels living inside us to pump the blood in our bodies.

Smart boy.

Our new invention

2009-12-12T19:28:00.003-06:00

The double toddler bed:

I have no idea if this is really a new creation or if one already exists on some obscure website somewhere, but out of desperation and sleep-deprivation Marshall merged Jacob & Cole's separate toddler beds into one. Ever since they transitioned to toddler beds from the cribs they've insisted on sleeping together. While it's very sweet to see, they're really too big to share a small toddler bed and they wake each other throughout the night - which of course leads to sleepless nights for us. We tried separating them and putting their beds right next to each other, but they wouldn't have it. Thankfully their beds were really easy to merge - all it took was a cheap trip to Home Depot for some support beams and a little carpentry work. Tonight will be their first night in their new "king size toddler bed" and we're all hoping it goes well.

And tomorrow they turn 3...party pics to come!

Meet Luke! {and other winter fun}

2009-12-08T19:33:00.006-06:00

Meet Luke, our Elf on a Shelf. Our boys named him, so yes, he's Luke as in Luke Skywalker. He's been around for a few weeks already, and each night while we're sleeping he makes his way back to the North Pole to give Santa an update on the kids' behavior. The kids adore him and have so much fun searching for him in his new location each morning. This morning we woke to find him riding one of our reindeer stocking holders...silly Luke!

And of course the obligatory shot of Diego...world's most tolerant and cooperative dog. :-)

Last Friday night we took the kids to see Santa. The same evening we got a good bit of snow - such perfect timing! This was the view from our front door that night. The kids stayed out playing until almost 10pm.

They were back out by 7:15 the next morning. It's not much compared to the snow we got last year, but they were happy and anxious to build a snowman.

Working on the snowman:

And here he is: the most pathetic snowman ever. Notice they used most of the snow from the front yard to build this little guy. They were happy with him, and that's all that matters. Cole insisted he have a carrot nose "like the song".

This morning was Owen's kindergarten Christmas program. The boys were wooden soldiers. They all looked adorable and did a fantastic job!

Halloween Eve

2009-10-30T21:01:00.005-05:00

Tonight we went to a Halloween party at our friends' house - thanks for a fun time Lisa & Jay! Marshall will be working tomorrow and will miss trick-or-treat, so I wanted to get some photos tonight just in case things are too hectic tomorrow night.

Owen as Wolverine

Jacob as Batman

Cole as Superman

Marshall as Les Miles

And a rare photo of yours truly as a glamorous witch.

The other day I realized that it's been 15 years (almost to the day) since Marshall and I became enamored with each other at the 1994 Tallulah Academy Halloween Carnival. That's over half my lifetime! I had gray hair at the time (that box of temporary black hair dye lied!!), which he loves to remind me about each year as Halloween approaches. Anyway, we started dating soon after and, as they say, the rest is history. :-)

The little things

2009-10-24T17:14:00.004-05:00

I am constantly amazed at how fast time goes by and how quickly the kids grow & change. To think that Owen was younger than Jacob & Cole are now when they were born, yet it feels like they arrived yesterday! Today while they were napping I grabbed my macro lens to try to capture some of the little things that I love about them.

Each of our boys has a lone freckle on the left side of his body. Jacob's is on his toe:

They all inherited Marshall's lashes:

Look at those eyes!

We've had some sleep issues lately and I came up with a reward system involving pirate coins and a treasure box to encourage them to stay in their own beds all night. While we still aren't getting as much sleep as we should, the coins & prizes are definitely good motivation for them. Today was a prize day and they chose temporary tattoos. Of course they all wanted them on their arms "like Daddy". They're so proud of them - I dread their reaction when they realize they have to come off!

Jacob with his fish tattoos:

Cole the rock star...very fitting!

Owen sporting 2 tattoos on each arm - pirate skulls and octopuses:

We had Owen's parent/teacher conference last week. He's doing excellent in school and had all S's on his report card (that's the best grade they can get right now). He loves learning and it looks like he may turn out to be a bookworm like his mom since he's reading anything he can get it hands on.

Jacob & Cole are still attending mother's day out twice a week. They love going to "school" and have really started to pick up on numbers & letters since Owen is pointing them out constantly.

Decorations

2009-10-24T11:43:00.004-05:00

The kids are so excited about Halloween this year. Their costumes are ready, the pumpkins carved, but Owen insisted we aren't ready until we have decorations. Today we made spiders and ghosts to hang around the house.

Cole working on his spider:

Jacob showing off his spider. He used an entire glue stick on this one:

Jacob working hard on a ghost:

Owen and his spider "Sammy":

Cole:

Jacob:
Our finished decorations:

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-18T19:53:00.002-05:00

This weekend we carved our pumpkins for Halloween. Marshall cleaned & prepped, and I carved. That's a fair trade, right? The kids were so excited to finally get them done...they've been waiting for weeks and of course we went with a Star Wars theme.

Owen helping Marshall clean out the first pumpkin.

Jacob's reaction to seeing the "slime"

Cole:

Our Yoda, Anakin & Captain Rex pumpkins:

Vote for Owen!

2009-10-14T21:09:00.003-05:00

The other day I asked Owen if he'd like me to enter him in the Gap casting call. He was reluctant until I told him about the prizes. This morning he dressed and posed himself and demanded I take his picture for the contest. :-)

Please go vote for him. You can vote once a day for the next few weeks. :-)

Vote Here!

Here is the photo he wanted to enter:

More of the every day

2009-10-05T08:42:00.002-05:00

Here are a few pictures from Owen's soccer game Saturday. He loves playing soccer and watching them play is very entertaining.

After Owen's soccer game we had 2 birthday parties to attend, and then of course the LSU vs. Georgia game was on. Even Diego showed his team spirit:

This morning Jacob & Cole had some "homework" to do after breakfast. Jacob sticks his crayons behind his ear for safe-keeping:

Owen is home today because he was sick throughout the night. As you can see he's fine now, but we have to follow the 24-hour rule for returning to school after fever or vomiting.

And here is Cole, posing for the camera after asking me to take his picture:

The Everyday

2009-09-17T17:31:00.002-05:00

These are just a few snapshots from earlier today...trying to capture the everyday stuff before they change completely. Some of you have probably seen these on Facebook, but I thought I'd share for those of you who aren't on there.

I just had to throw this one in. He loves lounging on this rug & he blends right in!

Watching Airplanes

2009-09-09T19:34:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago Marshall and the kids were playing around on You Tube and watched this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC5uSKLdRCI

Now I hear this nonstop. Be sure to watch all 3 to hear the different versions, and definitely watch until the very end of Cole's...he's hilarious!

Oh, and if you're visiting the actual blog (instead of e-mail or Google Reader) you'll want to pause the music to the right.

Owen

Jacob

Cole

Swimming

2009-09-09T18:42:00.002-05:00

We've all been enjoying the pool this summer, and even though we're looking forward to cooler weather we're going to miss our afternoon swims. Here are some videos I took last week of the kids swimming. They're all so comfortable in the water. We still put the swimming vests on Jacob & Cole for safety reasons when we're just playing in the pool, but they both love to practice without them and it amazes me how much they remember from swimming lessons back in June.

Owen's dive

Jacob swimming

Cole snorkeling

Owen Swimming

Cole's dive

Not what you think

2009-09-07T21:56:00.003-05:00

This afternoon Cole appeared with 2 foam tiger claws on his hands. When I asked him if he was a tiger fan he emphatically replied "No, I'm a rancor!". For those of you who don't know, a rancor is a big, scary animal in the Star Wars movies.

Soon after I was called to Owen's room to watch a movie and this is what I saw:

Jacob was the audience while Owen and Cole acted out an elaborate (made-up) scene from Star Wars where Captain Rex battles a rancor.

It was a vicious fight, but in the end the rancor was defeated:

How cute are they?!?!?!

And if you can stand any more cuteness hop on over to my blog to see some new photos of Anne Marie & Catherine. Those girls are so sweet & adorable they almost make me want another baby...almost.

Confession

2009-09-07T11:19:00.004-05:00

Check out Owen's enthusiasm as we continue our tradition of photographing our kids in their LSU gear at the start of each football season:

In June the only picture I took that I didn't get paid for was of my steam cleane r. Sad. Since then I've been much better about documenting the day-to-day stuff in our lives, hence all the blog posts. It's always a bit of a struggle for me to balance capturing these memories with just making memories with my boys. I think both are important for all of us.

These are from this morning. Owen spelled his name to help him identify his castle in the city they were constructing.

And for the record, our kids do own clothes...lots of them actually. They just prefer to be nearly-naked and will strip them off as soon as they get the chance. :-)

Happy Birthday Marshall!

2009-09-01T22:15:00.002-05:00

Happy birthday Marshall...we love you!!!

making Daddy's cake:

notice Jacob licking his lips here:

Fun in the sprinkler

2009-08-28T13:28:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the kind - no naps, cranky kids, cranky parents, bedtime can't come soon enough. Going outside always helps everyone cheer up, so out we went. Marshall set up the sprinkler to water the grass and the kids instantly migrated to it.

Jacob played for a few minutes & then spent the rest of the evening like this:

Cole and Owen played until we had to force them inside to eat & bathe.

Randomness

2009-08-27T13:17:00.004-05:00

We attended Family Day for LSUPD last weekend. They did a great job making it fun for the whole family - good food, bounce houses, a water slide, lots of games, and they also had a clown come in to paint faces. Owen stood in line very patiently so he could have his face painted like Spiderman. He wore his new look out to dinner that evening and was not happy that he had to wash it off before bed.

The kids have been spending a lot of time outside this week. We're all enjoying the weather...93 degrees is much better than 103 degrees! They love digging for treasure and building castles in the sandbox.

Diego is enjoying the backyard a lot, too. He sneaks through the fence to play with Izzy and loves that he can escape right through the slats of the iron gate when he gets tired.

Every night (almost) Marshall and I have a "date" to watch Scrubs &/or CSI Miami reruns before bed. Diego takes the opportunity to nap under the couch. Oddly enough he doesn't get under there at all during the day - only when we're watching tv. He usually starts off laying like this:

Then a few minutes later he'll disappear almost completely:

Lookie what I made! I just love it...a collection of words that describe life with our 3 fabulous boys. I'd originally designed it to coordinate with Jacob & Cole's room since they have some old photos on their wall that need to be replaced, but for now it sits in our playroom. It's mounted on beveled wood so it's like a sign, not a picture. It looks small here but it's actually 15x30 inches. I wish I'd thought of doing this when they were babies...it'd have been so cool to hang over their cribs!

King of the Jungle!

2009-08-21T16:38:00.002-05:00

Owen finished his first full week of kindergarten today and got off the bus with big news - he was voted King of the Jungle! Each week the kids nominate and vote based on good behavior. The king or queen gets to spend the weekend with the class monkey, Zoe, and write about their adventures in a journal. That's right folks...their good behavior is rewarded with weekend homework! Luckily Owen doesn't see it that way and is excited about hanging out with his new orange friend. :-)

First Day of Kindergarten

2009-08-11T08:49:00.003-05:00

At 6:45 this morning I heard the beep Owen's alarm clock, and no more than .2 seconds later he was bounding down the hall yelling "Wake up guys. It's the day I go to kindergarten!!" Talk about excitement! We all headed out to the bus stop, which lucky for us is just next door. Owen knew his best buddy Tyler would be waiting on the bus for him, so he was very anxious for it to arrive. When we finally saw the "butterfly bus" pull up he bounded on it so quickly I didn't even get to snap a picture. Now I'm already waiting for 4:13pm when he will get off the bus so I can hear all about his day.

Here are a few shots of his before school this morning.

Owen is reading!

2009-08-06T09:27:00.005-05:00

Owen read his first book yesterday! I ordered the Bob books for him after seeing them recommended in several places, including our pediatrician's office. The first set arrived last night and Owen was anxious to get started. We spent about 10 minutes reviewing the letter sounds introduced in the first book, and within 20 minutes he'd read the whole book aloud to me & Marshall all by himself! I can't remember ever seeing him look so proud.

These photos are from this morning when he read the book to Cole and Jacob. We didn't review at all this morning and he read it perfectly.

Also, last night Marshall & I went to kindergarten parent orientation. There are 19 different kindergarten classes and Owen was lucky enough to be assigned to a class with 2 of his best friends from preschool. His teacher seems really nice and he's anxious to start riding the bus with his buddy Tyler. Tuesday will be his first day & I anticipate it will be a great year for him.

It's hard to believe how much he's grown! Some days it feels like these were taken last week.

Boys will be boys

2009-08-04T11:32:00.003-05:00

This morning the boys decided they wanted to paint. For some reason I didn't pull out the mess-free Color Wonder paints and used the real stuff instead. About 30 minutes into his masterpiece Cole decided he wanted to paint a costume on himself. We had a good laugh, took a quick photo, then headed to the tub.

Jacob wasn't really messy but wanted to bathe anyway.

Of course Diego followed us into the bathroom...he follows us everywhere. :-)

Still Obsessed

2009-07-28T20:20:00.004-05:00

It's no secret I am obsessed with the cute, funny & awkward ways my children sleep. Last night I went in Jacob & Cole's room to turn off their light & check on them before I went to bed. This is what I saw:

When I walked over to fix his leg I got a peek at this:

It always amazes me how wild, rambunctious boys look so sweet and peaceful when they're sleeping. I love it.

Superheroes

2009-07-27T14:27:00.004-05:00

These 3 would wear costumes all day if they could. We have a costume box that is overflowing with capes, masks, and superhero attire of all kinds. They take their roles as heroes very seriously, flying through the air from the chair to the couch, chasing the furry villain (the poor dog), and anything else they can dream up.

And here's the gist of the conversation that took place on the way to Lee & Carey's Saturday. It's no secret that Owen loves babies, and he was really looking forward to seeing Anne Marie & Catherine.

Owen: When are we going to have our baby girl?

Me: What? Why do you want a baby girl?

Owen: I want a baby to hold all the time. We need a sister.

Me: Well what would you think if we had another boy?

Owen: That would be fine, I just want a baby to hold all the time. I don't want to have to come to Uncle Lee's every time I want to hold a baby.

Marshall: Well, I don't know...we might have 2 babies again.

Owen: Then I'll just have to hold 2 babies all the time. That'd be fine.

Yes, he brought that up completely out of the blue, and no, we are not having a baby any time soon. But it makes me so happy that he loves being a big brother so much. :-)

Meet Diego

2009-07-21T11:42:00.003-05:00

Meet Diego, our new puppy. Here he is sitting in his favorite spot - under my desk chair. I was a bit nervous about getting a puppy right now, but he fits into our family perfectly. He's great with the kids and is very laid back.

For those of you who are curious, he is a Havanese. They are fantastic family pets and the best part is they don't shed! We plan to keep his hair short in the "puppy cut".

And here are a couple of the kids from this morning. I'm going to miss these lazy days when school stars in a few weeks!

Puppysitting

2009-07-05T09:40:00.003-05:00

Bourbon has been staying with us for a few days while Lee & Carey are out of town. All 3 boys (and Izzy) have been enjoying him so much. Marshall & I have enjoyed him, too. He's given us lots of laughs and entertainment, including rooting around in the toy boxes to find tennis balls (he LOVES to play fetch) and roaming the house giving us kisses at night. Oh, and he claimed the white couch as his bed - thankfully it's slipcovered so we can just wash it.

Here are a few photos of the boys helping bathe him.

All clean!

Bendaroos and Coffee

2009-07-02T17:49:00.005-05:00

Owen spotted the Bendaroos on top of the fridge this morning & the kids have been playing with them most of the day. It got interesting when Marshall got home and started getting requests to make butterflies, insects, and hippos (which he understood to be "hairbows" and promptly refused to make). He was doing pretty well until Owen requested a scary mask. Well, that turned into glasses and of course they all had to have a pair.

Owen
Cole
Jacob
Jacob again

This afternoon we were in Baton Rouge making a quick delivery. Since Jacob & Cole were sleeping I decided to introduce Owen to the fabulous world of Starbucks. As soon as I rolled down the window he asked what that yummy smell was. :-) He got a Frappucino (DECAF!!) and loved it! All our kids love coffee - they're constantly trying to steal sips of my morning coffee. Some days they'll even demand their own, which consists of mostly milk with a splash of coffee and Coffee Mate French Vanilla creamer. So here are a few shots of them sipping away on some Starbucks.

Oh, and we've finally gotten around to changing the music on our blog to something other than Star Wars. Now you can hear some of our favorite Jack Johnson songs if you click through to the actual blog from your e-mail or Google Reader.

Today

2009-07-02T17:31:00.003-05:00

Owen has officially taken over the use of my small point & shoot camera. I think he caught the photography bug while tagging along on a photo session with me yesterday. He did a great job making the baby smile and he got some cute shots, too! This morning he decided to get some photos of Jacob & Cole playing around the house. He was not happy at all when the batteries died and it took a few hours to recharge them!

Cole. He wears the cape everywhere, even to the movies. :-)

Jacob trying to hide from Owen.

Cole in the laundry basket.

Notice the underwear??? That's right - we're potty training! Normally they might actually have clothes on during the day (or maybe not) but it's much easier to make those quick trips to the potty when we don't have to fuss with pants. They've both been completely clean & dry all day today!

My new best friend

2009-06-05T13:37:00.002-05:00

I've been wanting a steam cleaner for a while now, but Selena's post on her Hill Family of 4 blog convinced me to break down and order one. In case you're wondering, steam cleaners allow you to clean & sanitize without the use of chemicals and can be used for 1001 different things. Let me tell you, I'm impressed!!! It arrived last night as we were walking out the door to swim lessons so I didn't really get to play with it much. I did use it on our shower before bed and was completely disgusted. I'd scrubbed the shower per my usual routine yesterday morning, and last night with minimal work with the steamer dirt & grime just dripped everywhere. Ick!

Needless to say I was steaming first thing this morning. My victim today: the kitchen floor. The grout in our kitchen has been black since we moved in 4 years ago. Several times over the years I've spent hours on my hands & knees with a grout brush & grout cleaner trying to revive it with no luck at all. As soon as the steam hit the grout this morning dirt starting pouring out of the grout lines. Again, ICK!!! The process is a little time consuming, but it's definitely not hard & it requires very little elbow grease. I've managed to clean most of the grout in our kitchen before lunch today, including taking several breaks to play with the kids, make snacks & refill the steamer. Here's photo proof:

See the difference in the color of the grout in the back of the photo?!?! Obviously that's the section I haven't cleaned yet. Yeah, gross. It's making me regret that we ever allowed the 5-second rule w/ all that dirt, food and other disgustingness ground into the grout.

So there you have it. I'm now madly in love with my steam cleaner, and replacing the kitchen floor is not quite as high on the priority list anymore!

Swim time!

2009-05-31T17:14:00.005-05:00

Here are a few short videos of Owen & Jacob showing off the skills they've been learning at swimming lessons. Cole opted out of swimming today, but he does a great job, too!

Please excuse my commentary in these. ;-)

(the random streaks in this one are sun flare that I just couldn't get rid of and still get the video.)

They don't wear any type of floaties or life vests at swimming lessons, but we put them on Jacob & Cole at home for our own peace of mind. With 2 adults & 3 kids we just can't be too safe!

Oh, and here's a shot of all 3 boys in their swim goggles. They love these things!

Just a few

2009-05-31T08:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning we took Owen out to get some pictures of him. Five is a big year for kiddos, so we wanted to capture him at this age before he starts to look even more like a "big kid". You know, with missing teeth & bored expressions.

And here's one of all 3 kids (kind of).

As usual if you visit the actual blog & click the photos you can see them bigger and clearer. Obviously the effects of Blogger's photo compression drives me crazy. ;-)

Summer Vacation | Part 1

2009-05-29T14:18:00.007-05:00

I'm finally starting to sort through the photos from our vacation to Savannah. We had so much fun and the car ride wasn't nearly as bad as we expected. We rented a cabin instead of staying in a hotel. It was fantastic since we had a lot more space and Dub, Megan & Harleigh were in the cabin next door. Our plans for a campfire & s'mores were rained out, but we figured out a way to make s'mores in the microwave (have you ever seen how big a marshmallow will swell when heated in the microwave????) and keep ourselves busy with other activities.

This is probably one of my favorite photos from the trip. We pushed the 2 double beds together in the kids' room so they could all sleep together without us worring about someone falling off. Y'all know how much I love photos of my kids sleeping, but I love them even more when they're all sleeping together.We spent one day touring downtown Savannah. After a carriage ride and some yummy food we ended the day at a train museum. Of course we drove across the country and the most exciting thing for our kids was playing with the Thomas the Tank Engine toys in the gift shop.

Here's Harleigh hanging out in the train shed.

Doesn't Owen look thrilled to be taking photos with us??

Here are the boys checking out the model trains:

Unfortunately Katelyn & Landon had school that day so they couldn't come along. :-(

More to come soon!!

Oh, and if you're reading this via e-mail or Google Reader you may want to click through to the actual blog so you can click on the photos to see them bigger.

Jackson Pollock watch out!

2009-05-25T12:35:00.005-05:00

The kids needed a project and our wall needed some art, so Saturday we got some canvases, paint & brushes and let them have some fun.

The aftermath:
The finished paintings:

We just love them & they're the perfect addition to our playroom. And they're all so proud to see their work on the wall. :-)

A big day for our big guy!

2009-05-22T14:33:00.003-05:00

This morning was Owen's preschool graduation! I cannot believe it's already time for summer vacation. This is our first summer to really experience that since he went to his school's summer camp last year and Jacob & Cole were still pretty small. We have some fun things planned for this summer...swimming lessons for all 3 boys, playdates, the zoo, Bible School, museums, another trip (or 2) to the beach. I'm just so thankful that we've worked things out so our kids can look forward to that each summer. I remember the excitement that came with those last few weeks of school every year, knowing we had 3 months to sleep late, watch too much tv, have sleepovers with friends during the week & just let our brains rot until August.

So back to today. This morning before school Owen's good buddy Tyler stopped by so we could get a picture of them together. These 2 are like 2 peas in a pod. They can play together all day & never get sick of each other. They can also each tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Star Wars.

Here is Owen receiving his diploma. He did great & looked so proud of himself. Check out the cute little guy eating his tassel in the background!

This is Tyler using his diploma as a telescope & Owen trying to decide if he should do it, too.

This is Owen's other good friend Hayden. I'm sure most of you have heard a few stories from Owen where his name came up a time or 2.

And I promise to sort through the pics from our recent vacation & share some soon!!

The Party

2009-05-18T15:04:00.003-05:00

Owen turned 5 on May 3rd & we celebrated with a Star Wars party. When the kids arrived they each received a Jedi tunic and lightsaber, and Owen (with a little help from Marshall) had set up a Jedi training obstacle course that kept them all busy and entertained. We had to force them to come inside for cake & presents! Here are a few snapshots from the day.

Here they are fighting a Sith Lord (aka Tyler's dad):

A Jedi is defeated:

Time for cake! One of his friends brought him the Spongebob birthday cake, so the lucky boy had 2!

Jacob licking his finger after sneaking some icing:

Gearing Up

2009-04-24T19:59:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day. We've had lots of excitement and a little stress as we get ready for O's party. Here's a pic of his invitation. Yep, we're doing Star Wars again this year. It won't surprise me if we have at least 1 Star Wars party per year for the next 16 years. What can I say...they love it!

More pics to come after the party. Oh, and if you're reading this through e-mail or Google reader you may want to visit the actual blog to hear a little music to set the mood for the party (or not). It was all selected by our resident Star Wars expert. :-)

Fun times!

2009-04-06T17:32:00.004-05:00

We took the kids to a little outdoor museum in Baker last weekend. We've seen it a hundred times but have never stopped. I'm so glad we did because all the kids had a blast. Of course they love anything train-related so they were happy as soon as we drove up. One of their favorite things was the little wooden dog house. These are some of my favorite recent pictures of them. Dog houses apparently provide very beautiful lighting!

Jacob (panting like a dog)

Owen
Cole (barking like a dog)
goofing off
Simultaneous "choo-choo!!!"

And a funny little story from today:

Owen came home from school showing us his paper about the letter U.
Jacob: "what's that?"
Me: "that's the letter U"
Jacob: "the letter me?"
Me: "no, the letter U"
Jacob: "me?"
Me: "yes Jacob, the letter you."

How did I forget to post these???

2009-04-03T16:09:00.004-05:00

These are from February I meant to post them but forgot...oops!

On a different note, Jacob & Cole wore big boy underpants all morning with no accidents! We even braved the trips to take Owen to school & pick him up in them. Maybe, just maybe, we're on the way to a diaper-free house (for now anyway).

Cole napping on the couch.

A typical lazy afternoon around our house.

Cousins

2009-04-02T19:42:00.004-05:00

Owen, Jacob & Cole have been looking forward to meeting Anne Marie & Catherine all week. Thanks to some runny noses the introductions were delayed a few days, but it was worth the wait. Jacob & Cole loved "petting" their baby cousins and kissing their heads. Jacob was quite obsessed with Catherine's little toes and Cole was amazed that there are "2 of 'em". Owen was sweet and caring, of course. And you know we took some pictures. :-)

This is my favorite...I just adore everything about it. The way Jacob is peeking over Marshall's arm, the way Owen & Cole are looking at Marshall, the way Owen is holding Anne Marie & Catherine, the way Lee & Marshall are situating the babies. Everything.

And one from the hospital last week.

Obsessed much?

2009-03-31T21:59:00.004-05:00

In case any of you guys were wondering, Owen's obsession with Star Wars has not diminished at all. It's still his favorite movies/toys/tv show by far, and we'll be having the 2nd Star Wars birthday party in a row in a few weeks. This is how I found him tonight...sleeping with Clone Trooper Rex (yes, he knows their names), a headless Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi on his chest tucked safely under his sheet. We're gearing up for a future of Star Wars Conventions around here.

smarty pants

2009-03-24T18:43:00.002-05:00

dinner conversation is never dull at our house. tonight Owen asked me why it's daylight while we're eating now when it used to be dark. that prompted a discussion about daylight savings time & how our solar system works (complete with cups & water bottles for examples).

a few minutes later he asked to go outside, to which I replied "we can't. the sun is going down & it's going to be dark soon."

he promptly responded "the sun isn't going down. our world is turning."

lucky me

2009-03-24T11:44:00.003-05:00

I get to look at these beautiful faces all day. :-)

You'll probably want to click on these to view them bigger.

Jacob

Cole

Owen

This morning I took Owen to register him for Kindergarten. I can't believe it's time for that already. Where in the world has the time gone? We went with his best buddy & got a tour of the school. They were so excited and just walked around wide-eyed taking it all in.

lunch with Jacob

2009-03-20T11:01:00.002-05:00

Jacob has been avoiding the camera like crazy lately, but yesterday he asked me to take pictures of him eating lunch. Seriously, he really did ask!

We had tuna in a whole wheat pita pocket, veggies with hummus and salad (because I know you're all wondering). :-)

This last one is of Cole. Owen was there but opted out of having his lunch photographed.

Brotherly love

2009-03-06T14:59:00.002-06:00

Jacob & Cole truly love each other(and Owen) so much...it's really amazing to see. They sit so closely on the couch to watch tv, they play together and share quite well for 2 year olds. If one wakes before the other in the morning he won't leave the room alone. I'm constantly amazed and in awe of how close they are. That being said they are also quick to throw each other under the bus so to speak. At Dr's appointments they're happy to volunteer the other to go first. When I pick Cole up to change him he immediately starts trying to convince me that Jacob is in fact the one who pooped. And Cole always gets the blame for toys in the floor.

Here is how I found them last night. I just love how their hands are so close. And yep, they were sleeping with underwear over their monster pajamas.

And a rare sighting...moi! I resisted the urge to prettify myself in photoshop, so here I am in all my no makeup, end of the day glory. Just me & my boys. Don't they look enthused?

A big milestone...

2009-02-27T20:44:00.002-06:00

Tonight before bath Cole peed in the potty standing up! He was so proud of himself. In case you couldn't tell, we like to celebrate the small things. :-)

These are from this afternoon. This was was moments before Jacob was tackled by Owen (he didn't get hurt).

Here is Cole saying "Hi Daddy!".

And finally here is Jacob playing dead. Yes, you read that right. He likes to fall over at random times and pretend to be dead.

If you click the pictures to view them larger I think they look a little better. The blog seems to compress them and make them a bit pixellated, which drives me nuts.

Hip hip hooray!!!

2009-02-25T09:59:00.002-06:00

Did I just say that?

Jacob & Cole started mother's day out today. They were so excited. They started yelling "our school!" when we pulled into the parking lot and went to their classroom without looking back. We signed them up to go 1 or 2 mornings a week after months of hearing them scream about wanting to go to school with Owen. They are going to a small preschool at the Methodist Church and when they turn 3 we will transition them to the preschool program where they can go every morning if they want to.

Individuals

2009-02-24T19:29:00.003-06:00

Time is just passing too quickly. All our boys are getting so big. They jumped out of the shower the other night asking me to take their pictures & of course I happily obliged. I love these shots because you can really see their personalities shine through.

Today we had a playdate with some friends of Owen's. He was telling me how he has trouble telling Cooper & Caleb apart because they look the same. We talked about how they're twins and they look alike like Jacob & Cole do. Owen looked at me a bit puzzled & said emphatically "Cole & Jacob don't look the same". I agree, but you'd be surprised how many times a week we get asked how we can possibly tell them apart. Then again the cashiers at Wal Mart also ask us if they're twins every single time we go there...

Jesus and King Cake?

2009-02-21T17:54:00.004-06:00

Owen came home from his Mardi Gras party at school and announced that he had found Baby Jesus in the King Cake. :-)

Here's a pic of him at his parade. I couldn't get many shots because I was trying to keep Jacob & Cole contained and Owen's class was the last to come through.

This is from this evening...just hanging around with my boys while Marshall is at work. Funny how they will smile for the camera if I'm in the picture with them, but as soon as I try to take a good picture of them they run the other way.

Remember you can click on the pictures to see them bigger. :-)

So proud!

2009-02-19T09:02:00.003-06:00

Owen is getting so big these days...it's hard to believe he's almost 5. He's still enjoying learning to read and is up to 10 sight words. It's so cute to see him point them out in different places (like the intro to the Star Wars movies). Yesterday his teacher told me something that made me prouder than ever, though. The kids wore superhero costumes to school for their mardi gras parade. Owen's best friend forgot to wear his & was really upset. Apparently Owen comforted him by telling him that he was still a superhero because Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) wears real clothes sometimes and he's still a superhero even when he's not wearing his Spiderman costume. How cute is that?!?!?!? His friend's mom brought a costume in time for the parade, but I just love that Owen was trying to make him feel better and from what I understand was pretty successful at it. He even let all the kids wear his Batman mask & cape on the playground. Oh, and I don't know if it's a cooincidence or not, but Owen was dressed as Batman and the little girl who keeps trying to kiss him was dressed as Batgirl. :-)

Jacob & Cole are as big & fun as ever. Here are a few recent pics of the kids. These are just of Owen & Cole. Jacob is going through a phase of not wanting his picture taken so I'm trying to oblige him as much as possible.

I just found a recent one of Jacob being his silly self.

These boys...

2009-02-03T08:23:00.003-06:00

are so stinkin' cute. We're running out the door to preschool but I had to share this before I forget. Cole peed in the potty & ran out to tell Jacob this morning. Jacob immediately said "good job Cole" and they gave each other a high five.

On another note, Owen is becoming quite the little genius. We're working on reading skills & sight words and he's doing fantastic! The best part is that he loves it, always asks to practice reading, and gets a huge sense of pride when he sees words in his books that he knows.

Here are a few more sleeping pics. Owen likes to nap under piles of clean laundry and Jacob & Cole are still sleeping together at night. Love that!

Big Boys

2009-01-22T10:30:00.003-06:00

This week we switched Jacob & Cole to toddler beds. They love them...but getting them to stop laughing & playing to go to sleep is proving to be quite difficult. Last night they finally got quiet around 9pm & this is how we found them. Moments like this make all the sleep deprivation and long, loud days completely worth it.

I threw in a couple of shots of all 3 boys, too...the best I have of the 3 of them together. You can click on the pics to see them bigger if you want. :-)

Hilarious!

2009-01-05T19:32:00.004-06:00

They started doing this at breakfast today.

Warning: picture overload.

2008-12-24T22:21:00.005-06:00

Just as we suspected, this was our most exciting Christmas Eve yet. All 3 kids are super excited to see what Santa brings them. We spent the evening reading, watching home videos (wow how they've grown!!), and putting cookies & carrots out for Santa & his reindeer. I don't know how many photos we'll get tomorrow with all the excitement, so here are some from this evening.

Hopefully I can figure out how to add video to the blog soon so you guys can all see the kiddos in action. :-)

Cole

Jacob, Owen, Cole

Owen

Cole

Jacob

Merry Christmas Eve!

2008-12-24T11:42:00.003-06:00

The boys & I spent the morning baking cookies for Santa. We haven't ventured into the world of icing yet...maybe this afternoon. ;-)

Happy Birthday!

2008-12-22T16:52:00.003-06:00

Jacob & Cole turned 2 on Dec. 13th. I can't believe how quickly the past 2 years have gone by...it seems like just a few days ago that we brought our little peanuts home from the hospital. Here are a few snapshots from the party.

Jacob with Uncle Lee
Diego cake
Daddy helping Jacob & Cole open a gift

Christmas Spirit

2008-12-16T08:58:00.002-06:00

Christmas spirit is in full force around our house. We went to the mall to see Santa yesterday. All 3 kids told him what they want: Jacob & Cole both want choo-choo trains; Owen wants a death star that transforms into Darth Vader. Santa said they are all on the nice list this year so I suspect they'll get what they want. Owen & Cole both took a photo with Santa, but Jacob preferred to just talk to him from a few feet away. ;-)

More snow fun

2008-12-11T12:55:00.001-06:00

Here are a few more shots from a little later in the morning.

Snow!!

2008-12-11T09:02:00.003-06:00

Marshall woke us up bright & early this morning to see the snow. This was the view out our front door at around 6:30am. Owen is beyond excited to *finally* see snow. Jacob & Cole like it but don't like feeling cold & wet. They still threw a few snow balls, though. :-)

Sleep

2008-12-09T11:20:00.001-06:00

Every night before bed I go check on the kids. While they're all very cute & peaceful when they're asleep, I never quite know what to expect when I check on Owen. That little guy sleeps in some strange positions!

Fun at the Rural Life Museum

2008-12-04T10:55:00.003-06:00

We went to the Rural Life museum last week. Juliet was with us since she was out of school for the week. Our boys LOVE having her around...they like pretending she's their sister. :-) Don't you just love Owen's poses??

Oh, and you can click on the photos to see them a little bigger.

Pirates!!

2008-12-04T10:37:00.002-06:00

Marshall played hooky Tuesday (a well-deserved and much-needed day off) and we took the kids to see the Tall Ship Bounty which is docked in Baton Rouge near the USS Kidd. All the boys loved exploring the pirate ship & we even got to walk the plank!

Bowling

2008-12-01T21:47:00.001-06:00

Marshall & Owen went bowling today. It was O's first time & he did great!! Marshall said he was a bit confused about why he couldn't bowl on the lane with 100 pins or around obstacles like he does on the Wii, but for the most part he was impressed with real-life bowling. Here are a couple of pics Marshall took with his phone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T13:05:00.004-06:00

Wow...this blog has been seriously neglected! I promise to get better about updating it now that things are starting to slow down for us. Marshall is working today & the kids have been helping me prepare our Thanksgiving dinner (or "Thanksgiver Feast" as Owen calls it). Yes, Owen is really using the mixer to whip the sweet potatoes. And yes, the little guys are wearing my tank tops as aprons.

Helping others & having fun

2008-09-26T14:50:00.005-05:00

Owen participated in his school's Trike-a-thon benefitting St. Jude's this morning. One of his classmate's younger brother is a patient at St. Jude's right now so it was held in his honor. Owen did great & had lots of fun while the rest of us enjoyed watching them ride. Here are a couple of pictures of him riding. The others are just some random fun things from the past couple of days.

This is how I found them at snacktime this morning...sitting on the window sill watching tv.

Cole playing peek-a-boo under the easel.

Cole's "cheese" face...LOVE it!!!

A classic Jacob expression.

Just because

2008-09-18T19:40:00.003-05:00

Jacob happily eating orange slices...

Moments later when a certain brother ate the orange slice he'd planned to eat next...
I don't remember Batman being this cute...
Running to greet Daddy after work. The sound of his motorcycle always brings lots of excitement.

A couple of milestones...

2008-09-12T22:20:00.004-05:00

Owen got his first pair of boxer shorts today. Notice the rocket launcher & Power Ranger's toy in his hand...those aren't baby toys. He's a real big boy now I guess. :-)

He spent a good portion of the day trying to convince me that we need to purchase space bags. For those who don't know, space bags allow you to store things like out of season clothes, comforters, etc. in much smaller spaces because you suction the air out of the bag to shrink it down. In Owen's words we need them because "You won't even have to use the washing machine. Everything comes out just as clean & fresh as when you put it in." This evening he moved on to convincing me to buy an album of love songs that is advertised on TV about 12 times per hour. The songs are actually pretty good. Owen says "You need them because they're lu-uv songs, you know - like you lu-uv daddy. It's hard to keep up because the songs go by really fast. There's a lot of them...they're a collection. You need to save up a whole lotta money because it's six ninety-nine." If you've been around Owen recently you know he's developed these hilarious and exaggerated facial expressions and gestures...they're hard to say no to. That's why we have 2 packages of space bags and a love song CD on order. Just kidding Marsh...

Also, Jacob has learned how to do his own laundry which will give me a much-needed break on occasion. Seriously, he & Cole love to help me put the clothes into the washer & switch them to the dryer...if only they could fold them!

Feel free to post a comment telling me how stinking cute the kids are or just to say Hi! :-)

What we've been up to

2008-09-10T14:08:00.004-05:00

We made it through hurricane Gustav with minimal damage. I hope all of you did, too. The kids & I evacuated to Marla's since Marshall was working nearly 20-hours a day & the thought of being alone with 3 kids and no electricity wasn't very appealing. We enjoyed spending time with everyone but it was great to come home. Thanks for having us guys!

These pictures pretty much sum up how we've been spending the summer. Enjoy!

I can take pictures again

2008-08-22T09:28:00.003-05:00

So most of you have probably heard my whining about my camera being at the "hospital" for the past 2 weeks. I got it back yesterday & of course it was raining, but here's a shot I grabbed of Cole watching Blue's Clues. He's singing the song with Joe "sit down in your thinking chair & think...think...think..."

Danger, danger, danger!

2008-08-14T09:29:00.002-05:00

The Summer Olympics are proving to be quite dangerous around our house. The ottoman has been converted into a gymnastics vault, the rug is a mat for floor routines & back flips, and blue scarves have become water for the synchronized high dive. :-0 We may end up with a trip (or 2) to the emergency room before the final ceremony.

Needless to say the kids are very much into the games. They chant "Go America!!!" whenever they see any competitors on tv. I remember watching the Olympics when I was Owen's age & getting an American flag leotard "signed" by Mary Lou Retton. I'm so happy to see the same enthusiasm from Owen, Jacob & Cole. Owen has proclaimed that one day we'll watch him in the Olympics on tv. He said we can't go in person because we might be late. :-)

Leave us a comment

2008-08-08T07:53:00.000-05:00

Feel free to leave comments when you check our blog. We love hearing from you guys!

I got what I deserved...

2008-08-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

Earlier today I was getting things ready for lunch (frozen Kashi roasted veggie pizza if anyone cares) when Jacob came into the kitchen asking to use the potty. I completely brushed him off…after all he’s only 19 months so we aren’t really forcing the potty issue yet. He immediately turned around, pulled his Diego Pull-up down in front & peed on the kitchen floor. Nice.

Silly boys

2008-07-30T22:41:00.000-05:00

These are on my photo blog but I thought I'd share them here, too. We were just playing around with my studio stuff & I got these that I really like. Owen has asked for the one of him to be printed "as big as the mirror over the couch". He gets his vanity from Marshall. :-)

Summer fun & stinky feet

2008-07-08T21:00:00.001-05:00

All 3 boys LOVE playing in the sprinkler and there's no better way to end sprinkler time than with a popsicle from the ice cream truck. Oh, and I'm throwing in a dose of stinky feet just because. Enjoy!

Fun

2008-06-27T10:26:00.000-05:00

We went to the Rural Life Museum the other day. The kids had so much fun roaming around the gardens we didn't even make it to the museum part.

When Daddy's away...

2008-06-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

Mommy traps us in the cribs. :-)

This was actually our way of passing the day since Marshall didn't get home until bedtime today. Needless to say they all had fun jumping in their beds.

One year ago

2008-06-18T20:30:00.001-05:00

Here is a picture of Cole & Jacob that was taken a year ago. I can't believe how much they've changed!! Cole is on the left in this picture (as usual - we never plan it that way but somehow it always ends up w/ Jacob on the right, Cole on the left).

Cole pooped in the potty...

2008-06-16T19:46:00.000-05:00

and then finished in our bedroom floor. Fun stuff!

The guilty party:

Just because...

2008-06-15T21:57:00.000-05:00

Just sharing a couple of recent pics that make me smile. :-)

Owen took this. The camera is bigger than his head but he held it like a pro & every picture he took was in focus!

He was watching the sky change colors before bed. We don't have a great view of the sunset but we do get some pretty pink skies over our yard in the evening.