What did you do with your tax refund?

On Monday night we had some guys come over to look at the room we've been working on upstairs. It's a little bigger job than we expected and we decided we needed some professional help. They started working on Tuesday morning and they just told me they'd be painting tomorrow. Even though my house is in shambles, there is plastic taped down everywhere and Colin tracked mud (the kind they put on the walls) all through the house I can see in my mind what it will all look like when it's done. It will be so nice to have the boys all upstairs in their own rooms, to have a door we can close when Logan takes a nap, to have an organized closet in Colin and Trevor's room so they don't have to have too much furniture in there and to have everything looking like it was that way in the first place. So thank goodness for our tax refund this year....what did you do with yours?

Lucky

I have been wanting to work on some family scrapbooks so I've been looking through our pictures of the boys the last few days. I was amazed at how much Colin has changed from just a year ago and when I look at pictures of Trevor from when he was 2 or 3 I can't believe how little he used to be. I was watching Logan the other day and I said to Dave, "I remember Trevor at that age, but not Colin." I wondered if I was too busy with a toddler, potty training, babysitting my nieces and nephew and a one year old to remember much of that time. Colin and I sat at the computer yesterday and looked through his baby pictures. He was so cute and in his pictures I can see that Colin was always Colin. I worry about him sometimes because he'll often run off when we're at the store and I won't be able to find him. It's so true that you turn around and a second later they are gone. But every time I tell him not to run off because I don't know where he is, he'll look at me with those big eyes and say in all innocence, "But I knew where you were, Mommy." They grow up so fast, they change from one day to the next. Logan looks so big in his crib now when I check on him at night before I go to sleep. He's starting to say more words, starting to play with toys and his brothers better, starting to throw fits when he does not get his way. These pictures are of each boy at about the same age...they're all around 12-15 months in these pictures. Trevor is the first one in his dad's shoes, Colin is next with the bear (who he is sleeping with right now) and Logan the last with the sweet smile. They do all look alike, but they're so different - SO different. I always wonder what they'll be when they grow up. I hope Dave and I are raising them right so that when they do grow up they'll know who they are, where they came from and where they are going. I think I'm pretty lucky to have gotten the three of them. I hope they feel the same being stuck with me.

Zion weekend

My parents took us to Zion this weekend for a little trip. It turned out to be so nice and everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect, the surroundings so beautiful. The boys enjoyed hiking and being able to watch TV from their bed in the hotel while they ate snacks. It was the perfect little get-away weekend. I'd love to go back, but we have to wait until the boys get over the "can you carry me" phase.

Trevor kept making hand signals in every pictures we took. The boys loved climbing on the rocks and finding "caves".

This is what was right out the back door of our hotel room. There was a large grassy area where we played, had a picnic and enjoyed the sun.

The lookout point after our hike. It was such a great day with perfect weather. We even saw some deer and big horn sheep on our hikes and walks around the park.

Out of little mouths

Here are a few things the boys have been saying this week that have been a little funny:

Colin: "She has bootiful eyes" (about the woman on the cooking show I was watching)
Trevor: "Well, you don't know as much as I do because I go to school and you don't" (to me when I was trying to help him with his homework)
Colin: "There are no more bootifuls outside" (he calles Dandelions "beautifuls". I think it's because they will pick them for me and I will say "Oh how beautiful")
Trevor: "Don't talk to him like that. He's a baby and he doesn't understand." (to me after I told Logan "no" for getting onto the kitchen table.)
Colin and Trevor: "I don't have three arms. I can't do all of that!" (to me after I told them to get dressed, make their beds, and brush their teeth).
Trevor: "Oh! I think my wishes are coming true." (he thinks he found a four leaf clover the other day and said he made a wish. He said this today after I told him he was having a friend come over to play today, we were leaving to go to Zion tomorrow and he gets to go play at his cousin's house next week.)

Logan's new trick

Logan has just discovered how to climb onto a chair and then onto the table. He usually does this when he sees that his brothers are finished eating and left a plate or bowl with food still on the table. He gets right up and starts to eat what was left and then makes a mess on the floor by spilling everything. In the last few days he's also learned how fun it is to be on top of the desk in the den. There are usually toys up there, paper, pencils and pens. Today he got up to play with Mac (named after the truck in the movie Cars) and took a moment to draw a little on the paper Colin left. I love when my little ones get old enough to move around on their own and I LOVE when they can finally walk, but now we have this to deal with. Each boy has had something we've had to deal with - Trevor loved to pull all of the DVDs off the shelf when he was this age, Colin would get into cabinets and pull everything out, take all of the toilet paper off the rolls, and now we have Logan. He is just as curious as Colin was but I think he also wants to be a big boy like his brothers so he tries a little harder to do what he sees them doing. Maybe this means he'll grow up a little faster, or maybe he'll always feel a little left behind. But, he is a sweet boy even when he is up to his elbows in toilet water.

Our little artist

Colin loves to draw. He's been drawing since he was 2, maybe younger. He will just sit at the desk, get out a pile of paper and start drawing. He usually draws monsters, robots, spiders and other things like that - things boys like. Some days he will draw all day long, stopping to eat and play a little, then he's back to the desk and his paper and pen. The best is when we call him for dinner or tell him it's time to take a bath and his response is a frustrated, "But I need to draw!" We've saved some of his work to show him when he's older what he did as a child. Dave thinks he has a great talent, partly because of some of the things he's been able to draw at such a young age, but also because of his love for it. When Colin draws he is in his own little world, concentrating and focusing, sometimes making sound effects. Right now I look at his work and smile, amused with the little things he draws and the stories he tells that go along with his pictures. But I know someday Dave and I will see something Colin did and look at it in awe, amazed that our child could create such a thing.

Mother/Son Dance

On Thursday Trevor's school put on a mother/son dance. I was excited to go but I wondered how Trevor would be. He is a really outgoing kid, but there have been times where he's been shy to do things when a lot of people are around or watching. Not the case at the dance! As soon as we got there Trevor ran onto the floor and started dancing. He had asked me before if there would be break dancing, so all night he kept doing some moves (I'm still trying to figure out where he learned how to break dance). At one point he tried to spin on his head but I told him it could be dangerous and not to try it again. I had a good time with him, we danced together and it was so fun seeing him dancing and having fun with his friends. After an hour of being there Trevor fell onto the floor and said, "I'm done with this party" and we came home. When Dave asked how the dance was Trevor said, "It was fun. I was a rock star." That he was.