Every morning James and William check the playroom to see if there's "a fight."  What they're hoping to see is somthing like this:

What's better than waking up to an epic battle staged in your very own playroom?

Alexander the Great

 looking out the window and wishing he was outside camping with his brothers

Alexander is such a pleasant baby--very quiet and very happy.  He takes great naps and usually sleeps through the night.  I honestly couldn't ask for a better boy.

His brothers just adore him.  They can't wait for him to wake up from naps so they can go blast their "rock 'n' roll" and have a dance party.  Which is another thing about Alex... he loves music!  He's always boppin' his head when he hears a good beat.

Alexander loves to try new foods and wants to try what everyone else is having.  If you want to keep him happy, give him a tray full of Cheerios.  He stuffs Cheerios in his mouth like there's no tomorrow... probably because James is always coming over to steal them!

And in the past month or so he decided to pull himself up on everything!  And now he's getting to the point of taking steps as he holds on to something.

I just can't believe how fast my baby is growing up!  It seems that each child grows up faster than the last one.  As a young girl I can remember wanting to know what my youngest sister would be like and look like when she was older. And I can also remember my mom telling us that it would happen soon enough and not to wish for her to grow up too fast.  Now I understand.  I just love my babies.  It seems that only yesterday it was William pulling himself up on things--and now he's off to school and birthday parties and primary activities!

Seeing them grow so fast reminds me of the poem that hung in our home growing up:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow

For babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow

So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep. 

So... if you stop by and my house is a mess just know that it's because I'm enjoying my babies before they grow up! 

Happy Birthday Rich!  

I love you!

birthday celebration

While the boys were on their camp out Thursday night, I was inside getting ready for James' birthday celebration--decorations, cake, etc.  We were supposed to be out of town Saturday so we thought we'd celebrate a day early.  William had to be told that we were going to trick James otherwise there would have been a major fit thrown that James was not three yet.

We had a special breakfast (french toast bread pudding) and dinner (James' choice: chicken nuggets with ketchup and grapes).  We opened presents... he was so excited for every one.  However, after opening the green light saber everything was put on hold while he tested it out.

This year James requested a Wolverine cake.  I'm not quite artistic enough to frost a Wolverine.  So I put our superhero toys to good use.

James is such a sweet boy and we're glad that he's part of our family.  He is ready to be 3.  His current goal?  Stop sucking his thumb.  I still think it's cute... but it won't be cute when he's 4 and still doing it. I tell him that 3-year-olds don't need their thumb--so sometimes he sticks it in there on purpose and gives me a mischievous grin.  Stinker.

We love you James!

an interview with James

 James loves to be upside down... a trait he inherited from his dad.  I need to find some pictures of Rich standing on his head as a kid.

In honor of James' birthday I conducted a little interview with him yesterday.  Happy Birthday my big 3 year old!

What is your favorite...
color?  Orange  (then William asked if he liked yellow... he said "No, red and orange.")
food?  grapes
toy?  Obi Wan Kenobi
show? Star Wars... with Dad
animal?  crocodile
comic book? Spiderman
song?  Sunbeams (Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam)
What do you like to do?  Have campouts with Dad
Who is your best friend?  Dad  (and after William asked "and me?"  James added, "William and Mom and Alex and Mom")
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Two.  (Then William suggested "police" and James stuck with that.)
Do you have a girlfriend?  Anna  (his cousin just one year younger than him)

**I tried asking the same questions later in the day while Rich was around.  Every single answer was different.  Silly boy! 

***When James sees this picture of himself he tells me that he is Spiderman.  When he's upside down he likes to ask for an "upside down kiss"... just like Spiderman and Mary Jane.

spring break campout

William has been on Spring Break this week.  We were sick for the first part of the week but Wednesday night James and William spent the night at Grandma's and last night Rich took them camping in the back yard.  

James, William, and Alex in the tent

They roasted some hot dogs, ran around outside playing "Star Wars" (I tell you, these boys are obsessed!), and slept out in the tent.  The boys were beyond excited for a camp out!  Rich said that they had a fun time even though it was cold outside.  Both boys said that the best part of the camp out was playing with the light sabers outside (and watching Spiderman).  William told me about the purple clouds at sunset and James just can't stop talking about sleeping in the tent at night.  

These boys are so lucky to have such a great dad!

let the madness begin!

I have been a horrible blogger lately.  We've been sick and I've been trying to be more productive... which equals less computer time.  But today is the beginning of March Madness!  BYU is playing (and winning) as I type.  Go Cougars!  Hopefully they pull through for me.  I'm a little bummed that I'm not at the game (they're in OKC!)  Some of my young women went to watch them practice yesterday and a few are even at the game right now.  

So without further ado... here are the predictions Rich and I have this year!

a few snippets from our life

**Rich and I went out for dinner on Friday night.  We left the boys with Rich's parents and when we got back we found this.

James showing off his beautiful fingernails.

James excitedly showed us his "wolverine" fingers that Aunt Catie graciously painted for him.  I don't know why but I think it's really hilarious.

**We went up to the high school to play around on the track and to play on the playground at the elementary (they back up to each other).  There were three hurdles set up on the field.  I couldn't resist.  I ran them a few times.  Fun.  Really, really fun.

**Rich found the relay baton lying around so James, William and I ran a little relay.  That was fun too... except that William was upset that we didn't have anyone to race against.

**When we were playing at the playground James crawled in the big round pipe thing (don't you remember those from your elementary days?) and said he was Moroni.  I think it's because I called it a cave and in our Book of Mormon stories it shows Moroni in a cave with all the records.  Maybe he is actually getting something from our nightly scripture study!

**Alexander thinks that he's a big kid now.  He loves to play with his brothers.  As long as they are in the room he's generally happy.  He wants to play with all their action figures and even their lightsabers (it's a good thing that we have three of them!)  When he wakes up from his naps the boys will go in, turn on some "rock 'n' roll" and have a dance party with Alex.  He loves it... and love peaking in the room to watch them all dance!  Sometimes they'll climb into the crib with him and play.

 Alex playing with an ewok and the batman castle.

**Speaking of the crib.  Alexander is always pulling himself up on things.  Everytime I hear him cry in his room I'm just certain that he's thrown himself over the rail... so this weekend I lowered the mattress.  I feel much better now.

Alex standing in the crib... before it was lowered.

daily sunshine--post edit

You gotta love that face.

Just had to share this story.  The other night James woke at 3 am to ask me for some more milk.  I was tired, took the cup, and then stayed in bed.  Twenty minutes later he was back wanting that milk.  I'm assuming he was up the entire time because he was pretty alert.  He kept telling me that there was a kitty in his bed.  I tried explaining to him in my that there was no cat.  When he kept insisting and pointing to his bed my half-awake self started to think that maybe somehow a cat had gotten in the house.  Upon closer inspection I realized that it was only a blanket that had gotten balled up against the wall.  Once I threw the blanket on the floor he was content, got in bed, and went back to sleep.

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.

Dr. Seuss

Today was Dr. Seuss's birthday... so we did a little celebrating.  We read tons of Dr. Seuss books... and we didn't even make a dent into the ones we had on hand!  

The boys have been really into their legos and duplos lately so I took advantage of it.  I showed them all the crazy buildings that Dr. Seuss has in his books and then we got to building a "Dr. Seuss house" of our own.  William did most of the building: 

 

Very Seuss-like don't you think?

Then for dinner we had a "Cat-in-the-Hat" pizza.

It looked much better before I put it in the oven... the cheese was white and the pepperoni's were bigger and redder.  Plus, I didn't hear the timer ring so it got a little brown.  But you get the point... it's supposed to be the cat's hat.

I had a million other activities that we could have done floating around in my mind... but this was all we got to today... we'll save some for next year!