Happy birthday big O!!!!

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

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

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}

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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: