Cohen turns 3

So most of you know
Cohen's 3rd Birthday was in March



It is now October


But 3 is a big year
and I could not let this pass us by without a blog post

I have major guilt about all the things that slipped past
or were knowingly shoved to the side
while I was pregnant with the twins,
and yeah um...since they have been born.
No Halloween decorations?
Minimal Christmas decorations?
almost no blog posts while preggo or since.
The pictures are there and just begging for face time
and I want to remember the fun
and the awesomeness of everyday life
with my HILARIOUS kids.
So have patience
and pretend like these next several posts happened days ago
instead of months ago.
Deal?


I am a big believer in BIG DEALS for Holidays and Birthdays
and this kid is a big deal.


Hello!
He potty trained himself
(once he learned he could get out of nursery at church to use the potty)
and thinks that he is turning 6 like Caden is instead of 3.


His favorite foods in THE WORLD are macaroni and cheese,
and hot dogs, and avacados, and tomatoes, and strawberries, and watermelon




He is very expressive and makes the best faces.
Definitely the clown at the dinner table
or any other time he thinks it will get a laugh


He is my best sleeper ever
and has been since 7 weeks old
Bed at 8
Lays down and rolls over,
says
"Sweet dreams mommy,
I want Swamp Fire and Chromostone for my "bird day"
and I love you"
then closes his eyes and is out.
Every night.
Don't hate me for that.
He wakes up every morning between 8 and 10 and says
"morning mommy,
I sleep good,
I want pink milk and watch Ben 10."
and then repeats
"pink milk and Ben 10."

He is a great sport when his sister dresses him up in her clothes

He is scared of all kinds of things, but especially bugs
and is constantly saying "You hear dat?" "I heared that."
and uses the excuse that "there is a bug so he can't"
whenever he wants out of something.


He is a huge BYU fan
and claims anything BYU he finds as his own
"That my shirt huh mom? Cause it say BYU cougars on it."



He is constantly challenging me
to see just how far he can go
or just how much he can push it
(i.e.-painting himself with my mascara)
Sometimes he is a little bit stinky and hits other little kids.
It takes a while to get him going, but once provoked,
he does not back down or walk away without a push or a kick.
I cannot seem to break him of this
no matter how many time outs and bedtimes and talks.


He cannot fathom the idea
that he is not just as big, strong, tall, and capable
as all the older kids.
He takes it for granted that he is always invited
and gets himself stuck, or hurt, or mad, all the time.
When I try to tell him he just replies
"But I big mom, I big. Big like Caden."


He loves going places
anyplace
he is always terrified that we are going to leave without him
so he is always running with his shoes in his arms
and half falling down the stairs
in an effort to not be left behind
He takes it very seriously.
"I gotta help Dadda (his name for Ryan) at the store"
"He need me, I gotta go"


My amazing friend Caitlin
said she thought her cousin Jeff might do a party for me.
For the big day
Sure
why not?
8 months pregnant with twins
I was not feeling so into party planning.
But she convinced me that it would be awesome,
and man was she ever right.


He showed up with some of his animals
and put on a great show.


I mostly took pictures of the kids
(who were enthralled)



but I should have been
taking pictures of all of the adults
they were just as fascinated
and entertained as the little ones.


I think that the adults squealed and screamed
more than the toddlers did.

He said that if I would have given him more notice
he could have gotten even more animals.

Are you kidding me?
With all the snakes and lizards and turtles and bugs,
my house did not need one more reptile
or insect
in it.


But like I said,
great show.
Perfect mix of fun and information
He let the kids feed the turtles
and taught them how to tell if a snake is poisonous

Caitlin also knows my history with last minute cakes
and no themes and so on
and it drives her crazy
(and she knew I was not feeling so hot)
so she offered to make the cake for me
for Cohen's big day.

She asked me what I wanted
and I laughed and said go for it
expecting cupcakes with frosting
(I would have been totally thrilled with that)
But of course she goes above and beyond.

She knew the theme of the party
According to Cohen it was a "Nake Party"
So she did some research and came up with this.


Are you kidding me?
One of the coolest cakes I have EVER seen!
She looked up the snake on the internet
and HAND PAINTED this one with food coloring
to look like a (kick me if I'm wrong)
Burmese Python.


I could not believe my eyes
when she walked in with it.

So cool.

Complete with M&M eyes and a licorice toungue
I really didn't even want to cut it up
or let any of the kids touch it.



It looked so real
Cohen was even a little afraid of it
when we set it in front of him.

Seriously Caitlin,
you are thewinner of
the coolest cake ever award.

And it tasted so good.

I hope that it was a really fun party
for my really amazing little man.
Like a said
3 is a big year
and so far it has been really great.

Multitasker

It's not just anyone


that can hold one baby
Feed another baby
watch tv
(Notice the remote tucked near Collin)
and play Plants vs. Zombies on his phone
all at the same time.

The man has skills I tell ya
Skills.

Does it make it more legit if I spell it with a Z?
Not sure
so here
Skillz
Cause he's got them.

Double Decker

One in the arms
One on the lap


Used to be two in the arms
or two in the lap
when I was trying to eat
or help the other kids

They are too big now
(they kick and whack each other in the face)
so we have to go
double decker style.

They are just starting to notice
when they get the second best spot
Trouble.

Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis, Meet Me at the Fair

Meet me in St. Louis, Louis


Scratch that
Meet me in Elkhart Indiana
meet me at the fair.


I don't think the lights are shining
any place but there.


We will dance the hoochy coochy


You will be my tootsie wootsie,
if you will
meet me here in Indiana,



meet me aaaaaaaatttttt the fair.

Just pretend
you hear the song playing in the background
or something
and if you don't know the song,

well

that is just sad
and you should go watch
Meet Me in St. Louis
immediately.
I mean it
Go.

For the rest of you
On with the post.



The twins were four months old
and already so big,
that it was not pleasant for them
to be doubled up in the single stroller



They were pretty vocal with their dislike

Note to mom:
we don't like
being smooshed together in tight places
been there
done that
for nine months
Don't want to go back there

notice the outfit change as well
no we weren't going for high fashion,
we had a double blow out not 20 minutes after arrival



while watching this


We ended up carrying them around like this
and they were much happier
even though I was much sweatier


My dad did twin patrol
while the rest of us went on the ferris wheel

He said twins are girl magnets.
Every woman that passed had a comment
or a coo
and told him how cute they were.

I would have to agree,
they are dang cute
and they do attract a lot of attention.



me and the handsome hubby


at the Lady Antibellum Concert
sans kids
(Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!)

A fun day was had by all,
and dang we slept well that night.

We love the Elkhart County 4-H Fair
And going to see Grandpa Rick and Grandma Becky.

See you next year at The Fair?

The View

The view from the
cheap seat


(my couch)


Never
get tired
of seeing it.



The Princess Movie
never gets old


when it
creates an hour of peace


where every one is quiet
and captivated
and safe
at home.

Shoot,
I would watch 50 princess movies
if it meant
one hour
of this.

Did I say
view from the cheap seat?
When these guys are the view
I'd call it
the best seat in the house.

We didn't go AWOL, We went AMISH

I love going home.


Not to my home,
but, you know,
home.


(No, this was not my house, but I think it is so cute, and familiar
and right around the corner from a good friends childhood home)


Driving familiar roads

Where you grew up,
where your memories of high school are
and most importantly,
where your parents are.

I wish you could add sound clips
because if I could
I would educate you
as I did my oldest son
on the glory of the Jackson 5
singing


I'm going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come, yeah yeah
I'm going back to Indiana
Cause that is where my baby's from.
I'm going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come!
Okay Tito, you got it...


I give full credit to knowing this song
to my best gal and fellow Hoosier
Kristy K
She introduced me to the greatness of it in college
and we now CANNOT
cross the Indiana state line without it blaring.

Well, I can't,
Ryan could probably do without,
but he's with me, so...
He must love it by association.

It works that way when you are married
and/or confined in a car with someone.



We headed out on a Friday morning
disappointed
because we were supposed to head out Thursday
but due to a series of unfortunate events
including a Uhaul and a hitch and a dvd screen
it was Friday.


We drove straight on through
24 hrs
which I thought was pretty dang impressive
with 5 small children.
(Check out the time on the Nav screen)

I say we
I mean Ryan,
he drove 22 of the 24 hrs,
But I was there,
and helping him to stay awake,


and dealing with wiggly babies


So it counts right?

and it was worth it to suprise the parents
by getting there in the morning instead of at night
and catching my dad
in the middle of the lawn mowing.

Mmmm...
Home.

This was just the first day,
We got more comin folks.
Stay tuned.