4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year. We started off the day by driving to Hood Park and spent all of the morning and most of the afternoon playing in the water, riding on the boat and enjoying the sun.

My parents joined us and it was so fun to have them and the help was awesome too!

Di Di and her youngest grandson.

Case is not afraid of anything, we made sure to put his life jacket on when we got there and never let him take it off. He loved playing in the water and throwing rocks.

Dave helping Jax swim, the water was surprisingly not too cold.

Getting ready to go do some tubing in the boat.

Case and Mommy.

Colt and I getting ready to tube. The sun was in his eyes but he was really excited to go.

Papa, Colt and Jax in the boat.

Colt and I on the tube, Dave pulled us for awhile but Colt was not loving it. He was so excited for it but it ended up being a little tougher than he thought it would be. He did fine on it and never came close to falling off but he said it hurt his neck:).

We ended up coming back to the beach and letting the kids just play on the innertube in the water. They loved that and it worked out well.

Di Di and Colt enjoying a snack.

 We stayed out at the river until about 3 and then came home, the kids all fell asleep on the way home and took a short nap. Later that night we went to the Walla Walla Sweets baseball game. The boys loved Sweet Lou the mascot (he is an onion) and went up to him multiple times during the game. Well Colt loved him, Jax was a little unsure close up but yelled for him from afar.

 After the game we came home and let the kids do some sparklers and lit off a few fireworks.

 Jax had fun with the sparkler until he burned his hand. Dave had just told him to make sure he did not touch the end of the sparkler because its hot and 10 seconds later Jax touches it and starts crying. Maybe next time he will listen, it was not a bad burn just a small one.

It was a fantastic day! We all had so much fun and are more than ready for bed tonight.

 (Thanks Memah for the flags and glasses!).

Happy Independence Day!

Pictures from the week

 Riding in style.

 We took away Case's binky and just like his brothers he now is comforted by his lovie.

 A nightly summer time activity.

 All three boys looking at the camera!

Farmer's Market with Papa.

Happy 5th Birthday Colt!

My oldest little boy turned 5 today, it is still hard for me to put into words what a difference this guy has made in our lives. I can't believe that just 5 years ago I became a mom for the first time, every birthday my boys have I always think back to the day they were born and the memory of their birth.
 Each child has their own birth story and each of their stories are very different. Colt's story is special to me because he was my first, I had nothing to compare it to and in my mind it was perfect! These last 5 years have seemed to fly by but I can still remember meeting him for the first time, his huge blue eyes looking up at me and falling instantly in love.

 Colt started off the morning at 5:50 in our room asking if he could go downstairs yet. I had him crawl in bed with me until Jax came in at 6:30 and we finally went downstairs. Both the boys were so excited!

 They immediately wanted to open presents, even though Jax already had a birthday Colt was so nice to let Jax open his gifts as well.

 Colt got a few fun toys that he has been wanting as well as a huge bag full of clothes from his Aunt Marni.

 Hulk gloves.  Jax REALLY loved these, we should have gotten  him a pair for his birthday.

 Jax got a Thor hammer for his birthday and when Colt saw it he asked for one as well and we got him that for his birthday. Maybe now they will stop fighting over it! Jax also picked out the Avenger sunglasses for Colt and a pair for himself.

For being a boy he really likes to try on clothes. He immediately started going through the clothes Marni got him and trying them on.

After presents we had bread dough pudding and peaches for breakfast. Dave left for work and Colt was begging me to take him to the movie Brave (Papa and DiDi gave him a movie gift card for his birthday).

 Colt called DiDi and asked if she would watch Case so we could go to the movie. The boys are so fun to take to the movie. They love to eat popcorn and sit on my lap. I love it!

 Later that evening we had a small family birthday dinner for him. My parents and Dave's parents came as well as Randee. We had pizza and fruit and sat outside enjoying the nice weather. The boys played with their new water guns, opened presents and had fun!

 Colt and his birthday box that my mom made him. Each boy got a birthday box for their birthday's this year. It was such a hit because she would decorate it with baby pictures of them, after Colt saw both Jax and Case's box he couldn't wait to get one of his own.

 Poppee and Case.

 My boys eating dinner.

 Colt wanted a DQ oreo blizzard cake this year.

 He always gets embarrassed when people sing to him. I love his facial expression.

 He let Jax help him pull the candles out (both boys insisted they wear their swim outfits that Aunt Amy got them because they were playing with the water guns).

 After all the fun Colt wanted to shoot arrows so everyone pulled their chairs out on the lawn and Colt, Jax and Dave got out the targets and started shooting. This is easily one of Colt's very favorite activities, I think he asks almost every night.

 He is a pretty good shot too!

 Case walked around, played on the teetor-totter and was a good sport. He is getting so much better about going to other people now.

 Colt on his new bike. Next up, he needs to learn to ride with no training wheels!

 Poppee and Jax on Daddy's bike.

 Happy Birthday Colt!!!

What a fun day, he was so tired by the end of the day he was begging me to put him to bed. Love you Colters, please let this year go slow. I want you to be 5 forever!!

Staycation

Dave took Colt fishing for the past couple days so I decided to make it a little staycation for the three of us. I planned some fun activities for the boys and tried to spend some extra quality time with Jax when Case was napping. We had fun and the kids were great, Jax has been wanting to see Madagascar 3 so I got a babysitter for Case and took him to a matinee Tuesday afternoon. He wanted popcorn and rootbeer (I brought a small cup of rootbeer from home, no way did I want to spend $5 for a soda that he would hardly drink) and we got popcorn at the theater. He ate the entire small popcorn by himself, he is so much like his dad! We spent some time outside playing on the slip-n-slide and enjoying the nice weather (it is so hot here right now and our air conditioner has not been working), went to the library for storytime, walked around downtown and had a coffee and treat at Starbucks, went out to my parents and watered  the flowers and fed their cat (they have been out of town for the last 2 weeks), I swam laps at the Y Wednesday night and they went and played in kids care (both of them really like playing at the Y), went to DQ for a blizzard, lots of walks and a nice long run one morning, a couple trips to the park and played lots of games around the house. Jax ended up sleeping with me every night, he is such a fun little kiddo!

 Enjoying a scone at Starbucks after library story-time.

 Feeding Papa and DiDi's kitty.

 Enjoying the water outside.

 Cookie dough blizzard time.

 Sharing with his little brother.

Playing outside before bedtime. 

It was such a fun couple of days, I basically took time off from housework and outside distractions and just spent time with my boys. It was a nice break from the daily chores/schedule that we normally have around here. Dave and Colt are having a great time fishing, I will post some pictures of their trip when they get back today.

Potty-training

I am so proud of this little guy, for some reason everything seems to come a little bit harder and slower for him. I have been  frustrated these last 6 months with trying to potty train him and I felt so bad for feeling that way but I just was having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that he just was not ready. Colt was potty-trained by 2.5 and it was a fairly painless process, so when Jax turned 3 and was still showing no signs of even being close to potty trained I turned to Dave and told him it was his turn to try. Dave and Jax have a pretty special little relationship. For some reason Dave is the only one that truly gets Jax, if you know Jax then you know what I am talking about. He is the funniest, silliest and sweetest little guy but he can get in some whiny, rotten moods and it is near impossible to pull him out of them. Unless you are Dave, for some reason daddy is almost always able to turn his bad moods around. So about a week ago Dave put Jax on the toilet, grabbed his phone and turned on the wolverine cartoon for him. I walk into the bathroom and see Jax sitting on the potty and Dave and Colt on the floor all watching the movie together.

 Dave continued doing this throughout the day even though he still was not peeing yet, then later that day I put Jax on the toilet and he peed for the first time ever! It was a celebration for all of us, even Colt was excited and was jumping around giving Jax high-fives. Once he hit that breakthrough there was no turning back, since then he has been awesome about using the bathroom. Almost immediately he started telling me when he had to go and though he had a few accidents they all happened to be outside so it was not too big of a deal. The pooping thing was harder, we are still putting a diaper on him at night and most nights he would just wait until the diaper went on and then poop in it (he's smart like that). I finally took away his favorite shirt in the world (he would literally wear this shirt everyday all day if we would let him) after he pooped in his pull-up and the poop got all over this shirt. I told him he could not have it back until he pooped in the potty. The next day we were in Kennewick staying the night at Dave's parents house and he came running out of the bathroom excitedly yelling "I pooped, I pooped" followed by "can I wear my Avenger shirt now". Sure enough he had done it and could hardly wait to get home to put his shirt on. As of right now we are on day 5 of full time underwear (except at night, he almost always wakes up dry but I'm going to wait a couple more weeks before I test that out) and he has not had any accidents. He really loves peeing outside and even if we are in the house he will take his clothes off and run outside to pee rather than ask me to help him on the toilet.