Playing Catch-up

Okay, here's the pictures I have from the month of March so far.  We've entered the season of birthdays at our house-February, March, April, May right in a row.  And three birthdays are two weeks apart!  Poor Cameron only has one lonely picture that I could find on my phone.  The rest must be on Ethan's phone (I hope!)  Poor middle child.

I wish my mirror was not always dirty because these pictures would be so cute!  But they are dirty for a good reason, I suppose.  

His Big Hero 6 robot from Grandma White

We're wearing our new shirts from Grandma Cozzens!

The boys were excited to ride on a hay wagon out at the farm. Can't you tell?

The twins were pretending to drive a car-not sure if you can see the big letter "O" that Zane is holding as the steering wheel.

Help, I'm stuck indoors with five crazy kids!

Usually the months of January-March I could just do without all together.  I grew up in the desert, where we didn't have blizzards, and am not a skier, so I am unabashedly a winter hater.  Other than a few meltdowns by me, ready for the cold weather/cabin fever to be done, winter seemed to fly by this year.  I am now embracing the ability to kick my children outside guilt-free, and we're just bracing for the wild spring weather that is sure to come!

I bought a cheapo mirror at Kohls because I was feeling like, geez, I've been living in our house for almost a year, so I should maybe think about hanging at least ONE thing on the walls, right?  Any who, the boys thought it was the funnest toy ever.  

I am ready, ready, ready for the twins to be out of the terrible twos.  I am having hope that we are on the down hill slope because we're starting to have more better days.   BUT, they are discovering their wills.   Usually meltdowns like this are the result of being frustrated with a situation, but I fear we're entering tantrums because they don't want to obey. GEEZ.  Lord help me....

This baby is spoiled rotten!  Because we know for sure, barring a physical miracle, that he will be our last baby, I'm trying to soak up the last few moments of baby-dom which are so quickly fleeting.  

Could you resist those baby blues?  Me neither

Cameron was so pumped that Uncle Stu brought him a remote control car.

The boys latest fun thing to do outdoors is race down the side of our driveway and pretend to be monster trucks.  

We were so excited that it was finally warm enough to eat outside.  It was SO bright, and they were annoyed that I was trying to take their picture.  But they were all together, so I couldn't help it!

So, they sometimes do play together nicely.  I sneaked in on them reading books and jumping on their beds.

Uncle Stu also brought the boys some sleeping bags.  Why would we sleep in our nice cozy comfy beds when we can sleep on the hard floor?  Seriously, I have to fight with them to get them to sleep in their beds now.

Can you spot the dad?

Adventures in Potty Training

Because I needed something fun to do I decided to potty train the twins a few weeks ago.  Anyone who's ever potty trained before can attest to how much fun it is, but when you get to train two kids at a time, it's double the fun!!  I had to keep reminding myself of the end prize of changing (and buying!) only one set of diapers!  I was extremely thankful for wood floors, because there was lots of clean-ups and accidents that first day.  Jaxson, who I thought might be the most difficult just due to his temperament, so far has been the easier of the two.  I think it's because he's so competitive and wanted the prize of a Skittle when he did the deed.  Now to make the transition to the "big potty", and we're golden.  Woo-wee!

Look at those stickers on his face.  What a goofball! Not sure if you can see the Lysol wipes and Resolve on the kitchen counter.  They were essential.  

But aren't they just so cute sitting on their potties?

 Drinking juice to encourage peeing (Sorry if that's TMI!)

We did lots of running around without any pants on those first few days.

This has nothing to do with potty training, but more to do with the fact that I cannot leave those two alone!  I took a shower the other morning, and came out to milk spilled all over the floor.  Once again, I'm very thankful for wood floors!

I can tell that I now live out in the country because of the millions of mice that surround us!  Our window wells are FILLED with dead mice that fall in and can't get out.  The other day we went downstairs and saw four of them that had eaten through the screen and were all piled up on top of one another.  It motivated me to get an outside mouser cat! GROSS

Even though we *never* feed our children McDonald's, they *somehow* found some Happy Meal boxes and were wearing them on their heads.  

Ah, the obligatory naked baby bath picture to embarrass him later.

Merry Merry Christmas

This year Christmas was even more fun because the big boys especially really understood and anticipated the special day.

My mom sent the boys some tractor Christmas lights.  They were pumped!

We have been SOOOOO sick this winter.  Pretty much since Thanksgiving at least one (but usually multiple people) have been sick. We were lucky to catch the flu.  I was the only one who escaped it, thank goodness, but the boys were so puny.  We are worn out and just want everyone to be healthy again. 

The before:

 And after....falling asleep after taking a bath.  Poor kid!

I was fortunate to be able to help with Tiernan's Christmas party at school this year.  It actually really made me miss teaching.  

Look at those cute boys in their new Minion jammies.  They were so excited on Christmas Eve!

Just a few pics of the boys opening up their Christmas presents.

We had a very blessed 2014!

Cozzens Family Pictures

We took pictures out at the farm this year.  It was frickin' freezing outside, and Zane was crabby pants, so I'm impressed we got as many good ones as we did.