Tractors

A few weeks ago, we got a package in the mail from my sister, Vera.  She had been to Kohls and they were having a really good sale on kids clothes.  Inside the box, was a shirt with a tractor on it, a pair of pants and very cool tractor silverware sets for each boy.  There was also a church outfit for Keagan.  Needless to say, the boys were in heaven. 
The next morning, we used the silverware the next morning for breakfast.  Here are the boys, playing with their tractor silveware while I made breakfast.

Eating our eggs with the Telehandler forks and Bulldozer Pushers. 

Eating our cereal with the Front End Loader Spoons.

Here are the three boys dressed in their new tractor shirts. 

And of course, doing their silly pose. 

Here is Keagan in his new church suit from Aunt Vera.  He absolutely loves it and wears it every week and talks about it throughout the week. 

Thank you, Vera, for such an amazing package!  There have actually been some times when the kids have had friends over and they have gotten out their silverware to show their friends. 

Book of the Month Club - January

Andrew's brother, David, and his family had our family for Christmas.  They gave us an amazing gift.  It was a "Book of the Month Club" for kids.  There was a bag for each month with a book, list of activities and a few items to go with the activities. 

For January, the book was Dino Train.  When I opened the bag and read the list of activities I was so excited to get started.  One Friday in January, we read the book after naps.  Here is our dinner that night.  Dino Eggs and Dino Chicken Nuggets. 

Here is our Dino Dig that we did after dinner.  I baked the cake mix with the dinosaurs in it.  We then got to eat the cake for Dessert. 

A few days later, we did the snack train.  Andrew cut egg cartons length wise for 6 "train cars".  I set out six different small snacks.  The boys take their trains down the table and fill up each car with their snacks. 

We also made a train tunnel that we could crawl through and played other train games. 

We loved the month of January and can't wait to see what February has in store for us.  Thank you David and Leah for such a wonderful gift!

The Life of a Box

Andrew and I finally bought a new stand for our TV.  We found a really good deal on one online and we were able to get free shipping.  The boxes arrived on a Friday afternoon, while the boys were taking naps.  Since Andrew was gone, they didn't get opened until Sunday.  Here are the ways that we used these particular boxes.

First, we made a "maze" for the boys to have fun with. 

Later we added blankets so that the boxes could be a fort and a tunnel.

Then on Sunday, when Andrew was putting the TV Stand together, the boys brought their tools downstairs to cut the boxes.

The boys had so much fun that it made me wish we could get boxes in the mail every week. 

New Year's Eve, Aquarium & Riding Giraffes?

We decided to stay at home for New Year's Eve this year.  After naps, we all got our sweats/comfy pants on and we got out our party hats and noisemakers.  We had fun playing games and eating snacks.  After we put the kids to bed, Andrew and I watched a movie, attempted to put together a puzzle and then went to bed shortly after midnight.

On Monday since Keagan was out of school and Andrew didn't have to work, we took the kids to the Aquarium that recently opened.  Keagan, of course, was afraid to even put his hand in the water, but he did have fun looking at everything.  Deker LOVED it and would touch everything.  Bauer LOVED it was well, hought it was especially cool and got really wet plaing in the water.

As I mentioned in my Christmas post, the boys got really big, cool Pillow Pets that they absolutely love.  Bauer is funny because he is just barely taller than his pillow pet Giraffe.  He thinks it is fun to hug it, put it on the ground and proceed to sit on it.  It is so funny to watch him.

Christmas Happenings

The week before Christmas and Christmas was very exciting at our house.  The boys were beyond excited and had sooo much energy, it was hard to keep somewhat calm. 
The Monday before Christmas (second to last day of school), the kindergartners got to have a PJ day and watch Polar Express.  All of Keagan's pj's were from last year or handed down and were not really suitable for walking to school/playing outside for recess.  I tried to convince Keagan that he could wear sweats and he insisted that is was Pajama Day and he needed to wear pajamas.  So, the Friday before, we stopped in at Wallyworld, found a pair of warm Pj pants and a long-sleeve black shirt.  That night, we used my Silhouette to cut a rocket shape (Keagan's choice) out of heat transfer.  He was so excited to wear PJ's to school.

We finally got around to making this Gingerbread Train kit that Andrew found and couldn't resist buying.  The boys LOVED the train. 

We started a tradition a few years back to have Christmas Tree french toast on Christmas Eve.  Andrew was at work, so I made them for the boys and they were so excited about eating their Trees. 

After Andrew was gone most of the week, I was so excited to have him home on Saturday about lunch time.  Man it is hard to keep up with three already active boys when they have the excitement of Christmas.  My Parents drove up to spend Christmas with us.  They got here on Christmas Eve afternoon.  For dinner we had Christmas Tree and Candy Cane pizza.  The boys LOVED that as well.

Our tradition of getting new PJ's for Christmas.  We made the pants and used my handy dandy Silhouette to fancy up the shirts.  They Say Dear Santa, Define "Good".

"Santa" made the boys a workbench and gave them tools to go with it.  Santa (courtesy of our friends Marshall and Brogan) also gave the boys each a tractor. 

For Breakfast we had our usual Santa Pancakes. 

All the boys loved their presents.  Some of the highlighs of the presents they each got a construction/hard hat complete with a light, new blankets (because they are huge blanket boys and Keagan and Deker's old ones were wearing out), and possibly one of their favorites Pillow Pets from Grandma & Grandpa Smith and various tractors and cars

We were so grateful on Christmas to have 11:20 church and that we didn't have to rush out the door.  It was nice to be at church on Christmas, even though I had to play about 7 songs on the Organ. 

It was so fun to have my parents here visiting and spending Christmas with them.  They had to leave on Monday because my Dad had to be back to work on Tuesday.  We all had a fantastic time with them here.

The Highlights

I have been a seriously bad blogger.  There were lots of little things that I wanted to put on my blog, but nothing big that drove me to it.  So I am finally just adding the highlights of things we have done so far.
Andrew's sister, Anna and her husband Chris were in town at the end of november for a visit.  We enjoyed having them visit with us for an afternoon/evening.  We even decorated gingerbread houses.

Bauer LOVES to put on Daddy's boots (or any of daddy's  or mommy's shoes for that matter).

When I was preganant with Bauer and Andrew was gone on Wednesday nights every week, I started doing Picnic in the living room/movie nights most Wednesday nights (Here is a post I did about it then).  We would eat dinner in the living room while watching a movie.  About the time that Bauer was born Andrew started being gone two nights a week and with having a new baby, we didn't do that anymore.  With the colder weather, we have since started doing this once in a while.  Here are the boys enjoying dinner and watching their movie. 

Just like his two older brothers, Bauer LOVES tractors and LOVES any book that has any sort of tractor/truck/dump truck in them.  Here is Bauer and I laying on my bed reading a car/truck book.  In fact, Bauer loves tractors so much that one night a couple of weeks ago, Andrew and I went on a double date with some friends of ours.  After being gone for about 45 minutes, the babysitter called and said that Bauer had been crying almost the whole time and he wouldn't calm down.  I told them to get his blanket and find one of our many tractor books and try to read him a book and to call me back if he didn't calm down.  We called 15 minutes later just to make sure that everything was OK and he was just fine.  He calmed down really quickly with the books. 

We went to the mall one evening just to walk around and let the kids play.  The line for Santa was really, really short so we let the kids sit on Santa's lap and talk to him.  Of course, Bauer wasn't a fan.  This year Keagan and Deker are asking for tractors, tools and a workbench.

We made snowman ornaments of the boy's handprints.  I found this idea here. True to their favorite colors, Keagan choose blue, Deker choose yellow and we choose green for Bauer.  I am excited to see what Bauer's favorite color is going to be.

All three boys attempting to take off Daddy's work boots.

Last weekend, we bundled up and went to the Idaho Botanical Gardens for their Winter Garden Aglow.  It is so pretty all light up. 

I made Christmas ties for the boys.  Here they are last Sunday all dressed and ready for Church.  I might be a little biased, but I think I have three of the most handsome boys!

Here are the boys doing their "exercises".  Keagan was showing us something and Deker and Bauer just had to join in.

In other news...We are so excited for Christmas to get here.  We have been counting down with our countdowns.  The first thing Keagan and Deker do every morning is check the countdowns.  They are also are almost loving our Elf on the Shelf that came to us this year.  The boys named him Zippy.  The boys like seeing where he is every morning, but I am not sure that they totally believe it all.  On the second morning, Keagan told me that he doesn't think he is real because "his eyes don't blink".  On another morning, we was sitting holding a biscut.  When I said that he must have been hungry, Keagan said "No, because he didn't take a bite".  So, when we were all gone picking Keagan up from school the elf took a few bites and that satisfied Keagan for the day.  Because of all that and a few other things Keagan has mentioned, we will see if Zippy comes back next year or not. 

Lost Pictures

It has been almost a month since I last blogged.  I haven't even taken pictures of my camera since November 5.  Today I sat down to get all pictures off the camera and maybe even blog about some of the happenings of our household the past month.  When I went to take the pictures off, I realized that one of my boys (I think Bauer) got ahold of the camera and DELETED all the pictures! 

So, now you don't get to see pictures of when Andrew's parents and his sister and family came and visited for a weekend.  Or when we went to the Discovery Center as a family.  Or of the fun Thanksgiving we had.  Or when Deker, Bauer and I got to go take a little tour of Great Harvest for Deker's preschool group.  Or a picture of Bauer and I laying on my bed reading books. 

Oh well.  At least there wasn't a HUGE event that we had happen and now don't have pictures of it.  I can just hope that I get better at taking pictures off the camera and have learned that kids and camera's do NOT go well together.