The Magic House

In all the years that Brandon and I have been together, I have heard him say how awesome the Magic House is.... but in the almost 3 years of having kids we have never even thought about taking the boys there until last week!

We weren't sure at first how much they would be able to enjoy- but all 3 loved every minute of it! I am glad I was able to sit them a snap a quick picture before the craziness began!

We can't wait to go back, when we have longer to play. The Magic House is massive! It is definitely an all day trip!

Too Cute

There isn't a point to this one... I just loved the pics! They are seriously best friends..we'll get to the potty training posts later!

Lincoln

I thought I would do a post about each boy. Afterall this is what the purpose of this whole blog is!

How do I describe my Lincoln?
Lincoln was the first born. Lincoln Grant Howard ( we call him our presidential baby)was born at 4:32pm on May 9, 2007. As soon as we saw the first ultrasound pics of our boys, Lincoln was always the bigger of the two. He was always the more "aggressive" of the two in utero. He was always kicking Daniel in the face, stretching out and taking up all of the attention on the ultrasounds. He was "Baby A".

Weighing 5lbs 12oz, Lincoln was the heavier of the two. He was the one to go into the full term nursery, come into my roomn whenever he wanted, and the dr's just ranted and raved over him. He was the big boy. And still is to this day!

Lincoln has always done things first. Even if just by a day, he's usually the first one to accomplish the goal. Even though he is only 5 minutes older than Daniel, he has the oldest child attitude. Lincoln is my snuggler, my helper, and the one that wants to make everything okay. If you say "ouch" he drops what he is doing, and runs over to ask,'' are you okay momma?" Lincoln has a heart that is 10 times bigger than his body. He says his "Thank you God"(night prayers) every night, and thanks God for his Baby Brooke (his cousin) and every night while tucking him in, he refuses to let Brandon or I leave the room, without asking for a second helping of momma hugs and kisses and dadda hugs and kisses. When you ask for a hug or when he just randomly comes up and give you one, he'll pat you on the back, just as a extra way of saying love you!
Lincoln loves football and dancing. He has just this week learned how to shake his bottom, and loves to show you how. His favorite toys are his choo choo trains, firetrucks, and hot wheels cars. He favorite store in the world is Target! He asks to go there every other day. And when we do go, he knows exactly where the toys are- no matter which location we go to! ( and I think we have been to almost every single Target in the greater St Louis region!) Lincoln's favorite food is BBQ baked lays and pizza, and he loves chocolate milk.

I don't know why, but when I look into Lincy's eyes everynight, it's like he melt's my heart. There are nights where I just don't want to stop giving him hugs. I've tried to create a speical thing between each boy and myself; and for Lincoln, we kiss each other as fast as we can about 10 times, and then give each other noseies. (wierd, I know, but he started doing it and requests it!)

New Years

Brandon and I did a first this year. We spent New Years with another couple. Since moving to St Louis, I have made a dear friend through my local twins club. We don't get to spend nearly enough time together since she has 4 kids I have 3, she works full time crazy hours, and lives 35 miles away! So we decided early on in December that we would spend NYE together.. with 6 of our 7 kids. Did I mention that all of the kids in the house were 5 and under?! Yep, we are just that crazy folks!

We just cooked Sam's Brand pizza's (so yummy!) and ate some super delicious queso her hubby made. The girls gabbed, the men watched tv, and the kids ran around her house like it was Chuck E' Cheese.

Eily(her little girl that is 3 weeks younger than L&D) passed out on the couch with her ginormous Minnie Mouse that she got for Christmas. Seriously, this Minnie has to be at least 3 feet tall. Anyway, she passed out and Daniel played trains on the floor beneath her.Okay, two things: is that not the most adorable thing you've ever seen? and second I told you Minnie was Ginormous.

While Carrie's kids pass out and stay asleep, we attempted to put the boys down in Eily's room. That resulted in Greyson crawling into bed with Eily snuggling with her, and the twins whispering, " Eily seeping. Trey move!" ( They call Greyson Trey) So after about 15 trips upstairs they finally passed out. About 30 minutes later Eily woke up, and then the boys woke up! So we got loaded up and headed back home. All 5 of us made it til midnight!
On the 30 minute drive home we remembered that we had no milk at the house, so we thought we would be smart and stop at a WalGreen on the way home. I mean we live in St Louis, so they should all be open all night, right? WRONG! So then we headed to Schnucks across the street, thinking that it would be open... once again, WRONG! We had to drive to the Wal Greens past our house to pick up a gallon of milk. But this time it was well into the 1 am hour, and the boys were still awake!
Luckily, as soon as we got home, we put the boys down they passed out and slept until 9 the next morning! Thank goodness we all were able to recover a little!

Traditions

It seemed like everywhere I turned this year, I kept hearing about traditions. And I started thinking about the fact that Brandon and I don't really have any. So we made a point to start doing things with the boys to see what would possibly work in the future! That's right folks... we tried things out before decided whether or not to consider making it into a tradition. When you have 3 kids under the age of 3, nothing is easy. Some things we have gotten down to a science. But just the normal everyday things, are so difficult. So we had to try things out, plus we all three boys are sometimes so different in what they like to do.

We started off the Holiday Season with making a Gingerbread train. I bought the kit at Target. I mean really.. am I supposed to have the time, engery, or baking pans to make a gingerbread train on my own?! I think not! I decided that I would be super smart and go ahead and glue the train together while the boys were down for a nap, and it would have time to set before we put all the decorations on after dinner. (Smart thinking, right?) Well, it only took me about 15 minutes to do.. and it only took Bentley, our genious beagle about 2 minutes to eat. That's right... our dog ate it.

Somehow it got knocked off the counter ( I actually know exactly how it happened, but I don't want to hurt anyones feelings!), and before I could get to it, the dog had attacked it. So I immediately called Brandon and had him pick another one up on the way home. I am so glad he did. Lincoln and Greyson LOVED putting the candy on the train. Daniel on the other hand, just loved to eat the candy. Lincoln had to have every piece perfect on the engine, while Greyson just put whatever wherever on the backend. Brandon and I did very little helping, once they figured out that it was okay to touch the icing! It may not be the most beautiful train, but it was perfect in our eyes!

The second "craft" we did was making gumdrop Christmas Trees. Okay, so maybe we ate more gumdrops than we put on the tree.. but they were a blast!

Lastly we made cookies... okay well, really we made them the night before the Gum drop Christmas trees.. but it stressed me so much, that we are saying it was last! Why in the world would I think it was a good idea to let three toddlers and Brandon into the kitchen at the same time?! While it was crazy, we all had a good time, and Poppa (Brandon's dad) even got in on the cookie decorating action. Every time he came to "check-in" on what was going on, Grey never had a cookie or the one he had wasn't decorated. So he said he needed to come and help Grey.. little did he know, that Greyson had already eaten 4 cookies! Everytime I would lay one down infront of him, and turn around to get the icing he would shove the whole thing in his mouth! He was on such a sugar high!

So maybe next year we won't try so many new things. But we all had a blast this year, doing new things as a family!

Christmas Day and the Day After

We spent Christmas at my parents this year. Not knowing what the weather will do, we ended up spending an entire week. We all had a blast!

Christmas is a little stressful for us. Okay well every major holiday is a little stressful for us! But this year seemed a little more relaxed.. which made it all the more enjoyable!
The first Christmas Brandon and I were married, we were living in Springfield and couldn't really figure out what to do about the holidays. He was working retail so he had to be there the day after, but we didn't really think it was right for us to spend actual Christmas day with one family and not the other. And knowing the huge committment of law school was ahead of us for the next 3 years, we decided to spend Christmas Day alone. Just the two of us. That year we started a tradition. Feliz Navidad Howard Style. That's right. For our first Christmas Dinner we made Enchiladas, refried beans, and mexican rice! All while singing Feliz Navidad. It was a blast, and something that we've continued every year since. We might not have them on Christmas, but within a couple of days.

Since we were at mom and dad's this year, we knew we were going to be having the normal Christmas feast, so we celebrated on Christmas Eve! We even made chicken wraps for the boys, so they too could be in on it! It was so yummy!

Anyway the boys opened their new Christmas Eve pjs (another new tradition) and got a bath so they would smell all yummy the next morning plus look good for pics!

We had them open their stocking first while we waited for Mimi and pappaw to finish getting ready. And then all chaos broke out! We could have had the best assemly line in town. I sorted the presents out into 3 different stacks, and Brandon postioned a child infront of each stack. We thought this would actually work! HA!

Greyson wanted to open each one. As he would finish he would pass the open toy to Lincoln who would then look at it and sit it down, to continue opening his present. Daniel was at the end, and would yell out each toy, " OOO a WOO TRUCK", or " OOO MELMO!" It was too funny! Greyson flew through opening his toys in about 10 minutes. Lincoln finished behind him in about 15 minutes, and Daniel had to be helped.. he didn't want to rip the paper. It wasn't until Grey had to be held back, that we really started to push Daniel along in the opening process. It was too funny.

After a delicious lunch all prepared by MiMi, we all sat down to watch Polar Express ( The Ho Ho Man Train ) I thought the boys would sit quietly and watch, and they did for about 10 minutes.

They were so excited about all of their new toys that they didn't nap nor did they fall asleep until 10:30. Even then they were still giddy.

The day after we had my Aunt, Uncle and their 3 boys, and my brother and sister in law over. We had another yummy lunch of potato soup and other finger foods and played games. Once again the boys were in heaven. They love it when they get to hang out with Taylor, Ethan, and Noah. And they all play so well together. By the end of the night, my boys were so worn out.. and that equals a happy momma and daddy!

So all in all we had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too!

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree!

Christmas is my most favorite time of year. I have always been that way. I love the music, Christmas musicals, the decorations. I just love how the atmosphere completely changes at Christmas time. I usually have my tree up a week before Thanksgiving, and my house decorated top to bottom in matching decor. Since having kids, and such a small space, I've scaled back on the decorations. So much that all I really put out is the tree and stockings! Brandon gets a little aggravated because I always want a "pretty" tree. That means all white lights, the ornaments match the living room, and are hung perfectly. No "fun" ornaments as he calls them. Well last year on a trip to Wal-Mart, I found the perfect balance to make us both happy. They were the unbreakable and kinda retro looking. They were so cute! So we got them before Christmas and were able to use them on our full sized tree.

Something just wasn't quite right with it though. So this year I decided to use the same ornaments, but with our skinny tree. Brandon wasn't very happy at first. He says a skinny tree just isn't the same as a big fat tree. And I politely told him, that when he started spending the 3 hours it takes to put up and take down the fat tree.. we would go back to using it. But until then we're using the skinny one that takes a half hour! And so he agreed!

The boys had a blast helping to put up the tree. Lincoln (the older of the twins) definately let his "first born" nature come out. He turned into Martha Stewart! It was so cute. He saw me moving around branches, and so he started to move them around, would take a step back and look at it, and then go back into to move more around! Greyson, had no clue what was going on, so he just stared at the tree, and Daniel played with the ornaments until it was time to put them up. The ornaments are candycane spirals, big poofy balls in four different colors, and normal round ornaments with regular candy canes mixed in. Since this would be the first year that the boys kinda understood what was going on, I let them do most of the decorating. And I didn't move the clusters of ornaments until 2 days later! That's right.. they hung every single ornament on about 5 branches at the bottom of the tree... and I didn't let it bother me! I was so proud of the boys and of myself.

Now, I will admitt that as they hung the ornaments, I did try to move them into a normal arrangement, but they wouldn't have any of it. They had so much fun, and so did Brandon and I. Every morning they would run out of their room and race to see who got to turn on the "ho ho tree" first. I was kinda sad to have to take the tree down. I didn't want them to get upset about it. Seriously, they loved the Christmas tree that much. But we told them that it was at the "ho ho guy's" house, and would come back next year. I seriously doubt that they understood, but it kept them from getting upset!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year was a first for Brandon and I. Since we(mainly the boys and I) had been traveling so much, we decided to stay in St Louis for Thanksgiving this year. In 4 years of marriage, this is only the second holiday we've ever spent alone. Since our families live 3 hours away from each other, we rotate every holiday. This year was Brandon's parents turn for Turkey day and my families turn for Christmas. With Brandon's sister living so far away,her husband deploying in March, and his neice turning 1 two days before Thanksgiving, they headed to Alaska on Thanksgiving Day. So we had the whole house to ourselves for a week! At first I was kinda bummed about not being around family. But as the day approached, I became more excited.

I didn't have to wake up early to cook. We weren't in a rush! Brandon got up and drove his parent's to the airport, and I made the boys Monkey bread. Like I said.. no rush!
We were able to start a new tradition. In the last few minutes before lunch was ready we had the boys trace their hands, and color their "turkey"! They had a blast and Brandon and I got in on the action too. I decided that next year we'd do it a little earlier, so I could put contact paper on them and make Thanksgiving Placemats.

This year has been a rough one for us.... not 3 kids in one year rough, but a difficult one to say the least. Having time to ourselves, was much needed, and helped B and I to remember what we are so thankful for. There was a down side to doing Thanksgiving alone though... I didn't get to go Black Friday shopping. I have gone every year.. for as long as I can remember. Last year we were in Louisiana for Thanksgiving, and I still managed to hit a WalMart in the afternoon. Even since moving to STL, I have drug Brandon's mom out. And I am not any sort of morning person! So I didn't even tempt myself with the paper. No sales ads.. no computer shopping , Nothing. ( I Can't wait til Black friday next year.)

This was our delicious feast. It didn't matter that there were only 2 adults eating.. I still made everything! Turkey, 3 casseroles, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, and of course my mama's sweet tea! And 2 desserts!