One of my finer parental moments!

Last Friday we went to Grant's Farm.  The boys fell asleep on the way home and my brother and I put them into bed.  I guess they decided that the 10 minutes they slept in the car was good enough and they refused to go back to sleep.  I brought them downstairs and gave them a snack.  They were bouncing off the walls so I crazily decided that we were all going to take a shower since we were sweaty and had animal germs all over us.  That amazingly went well.  So we head back downstairs in diapers since their clothes were in the laundry room.  I realize Huck needed to go outside to potty.  I take him outside as I do several times a day every single day.  Huck does his business and we come back to the door, but it won't open!  The boys locked me out!  I have no keys, no phone, and since we were gone all day the laundry room door had been locked as well.  I ran to my in-laws to call Dale (they don't have a spare key because we just switched locks and hadn't got a chance to make them a new one yet).  He didn't answer so now I am in complete panic mode.  I come back up and our neighbor Rex is knocking on our door.  I tell him that they locked me out.  We are looking at the boys through the window and there is Max completely naked running around the living room.  As if I am not embarrassed enough, Levi and Will see Max and decided they wanted to be naked as well.  They were all dancing and running around naked in front of the window as if they were laughing at me.  Luckily Rex discovered the window in our office was unlocked and hoisted me through the 2 ft. by 1.5 ft. opening!  I go unlock the door and let Rex in.  I decide that I am putting the diapers back on the kids as to spare Rex from any more of their naked antics, but as soon as I would get one kids diaper on the next kid took theirs off again.  Needless to say Rex came back later when Dale was home!
The funny thing is just a few days earlier Dale noticed the boys could lock the dead bolt.  So why in the heck would I take the dog out that same door?  I'll tell you why, because that's what I do every day and in the midst of the utter chaos that was already going on, the poor dog just needed to potty!  This was not one of my finer moments, but the best thing about making mistakes is that you learn a few lessons.  Here are the lessons I learned:
1.  We need to get my in-laws a new spare key,
2.  We need a fence,
3.  Kids that refuse to nap have more energy than kids that take a nap,
4.  God invented fruit snacks so parents could bribe their kids to listen, and finally
5. Mommy needs to make sure her liquor cabinet is always stocked! (Ha-ha!)

Here is a picture of the boys after I was able to round them up on the couch by bribing them with fruit snacks.  They were naked, wild, and thought they were hilarious!  After I gave them their fruit snacks I was finally able to get their diapers and clothes on!

Grant's Farm

The boys and I joined Uncle Josh, Baylen Colton, Ashley, Kyle, Nicki, and Caiden for a trip to Grant's Farm last Friday.  The weather was awesome and everyone had a great time!  Levi was scared of the goats at first, but all the other boys like it.  We rode the Carousel, checked out the rest of the animals, fed the Llama's and then the adults enjoyed a nice cold beer compliments of Anheuser Busch!  What an awesome morning (the afternoon became terrible, but I'll make a separate post for that)! 

Josh, Colton and Baylen 

Will, Max, me and Levi 

Nicki, Caiden and Kyle 

On the "train" ride, Will, Levi and Max 

Ashley helping scared Levi try to feed the goats. 

Max of course was fearless of the goats!  He loves animals! 

Will..he's not sure what the think, but did it anyway! 

Colton and Baylen loved feeding the goats! 

Crammed in a stroller, Max, Levi and Will 

Max 

Levi and Ashley...Levi was scared of the Carousel at first also, but once it started he liked it! 

Will, he wasn't scared and then when it started he became scared and Ashley had to put her arms around him!

Checking out the Elephant!  Levi, Will and Max 

Max feeding the Llama! 

Will and Levi waiting for the "train"! 

Max, Levi and Will waiting for the "train"!

Fun in the Sun!

Since it was very warm this afternoon, Dale and I decided to turn on the sprinkler and see what the boys would do.  Max loved it at first sight, Will loved it after investigating it for a minute or two, Levi was very skeptical and once he touched it stayed far, far away!  Will and Max played in the sprinkler forever.  They ran under it, ran their hands through it, sat on it and even drank it!  Meanwhile Levi was off in his own little dry and comfortable world playing with trucks and swinging.  They then all played in the sandbox while Daddy grilled dinner.  It was a great afternoon outside in the hot sun!

Max, Will and Levi

Max

Will

Levi

Max

Will

Levi

Will

Max

Levi

Max

Will

Levi

Max and Will

Max and Will

Levi, Max and Will

A Mother's Day Surprise!

First I will share my real Mother's Day Surprise!  The boys each gave me a card, some flowers for the Barn, and a Magnolia Tree for the Barn.  The boys helped Dale plant the flowers and the tree and I look forward to watching my tree bloom year after year!  Ok, now to my other surprise!

I know this is quite disgusting, but I wanted to post a picture of my Mother’s Day surprise. I want the boys to remember the stories of their childhood! In a perfect world I would want them to look back and say “You are so wonderful to put up with us, you’re the best mom in the world”, but I know better. They’ll see this and just laugh, but that’s okay I am actually laughing too! You can’t have kids without a good poop story or two!


Anyway, I go in the boys room Sunday morning looking forward to the “mornin’” greetings I usually get, but instead when I open the door Will is completely naked and there are turds scattered around the room. Some were smeared into the carpet, there were smears on their sheets and of course there were smears on all of the boy’s hands and feet! As we are cleaning up I see a toy nail on the floor when I picked it up I realized that it must have been the tool of choice to do the smearing. Ahhhh…the joys of motherhood!

A Mother's Day Project!

Friday we took advantage of the nice weather and did a Mother’s Day project outside.  We painted vases for all of their grandma’s.  They painted with brushes, sponges and their hands.  Of course paint landed on much more than just the vases, but they had fun and made their grandma’s beautiful vases!  We later went to the store where they picked out bright pink and white roses to fill the vases.

Levi, Will and Max 

Will 

Max 

Levi 

Levi, Will and Max 

Max 

Will 

Levi 

Levi 

Max 

Will 

The finished project (without the roses we added later that day)! 

Two Year Stats!

The boys had their 2 year check-up today.  They are all doing well and it is just amazing how far they have come since they were born and weren't even on the growth chart.  Here are their 2 year stats!

Will
Height  36"  90%                       
Weight  25 lb. 6 oz.   25%

Max
Height  35.5"  75%
Weight  28lb.   50%

Levi
Height  35"   Between 50-75%
Weight  23lb. 6 oz.    Between 5-10%

Planting a Vegtable Garden!

We planted our first vegetable garden yesterday.  It was so much fun!  We planted sweet corn, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and peppers.  We hope to add eggplant and green beans in the next few weeks.  The boys helped plant the onions and tomatoes.  They had fun, but our onion row may be crooked as they were just kind of sticking them where they wanted.  Max picked the tomato plants as we were planing them, but we finally got them all planted as they should be.  Hopefully we will get lots of home grown vegetables this summer!

Dale using his new tractor and disc to get the garden ready! 

Dale 

Dale planting sweet corn. 

Me, Levi and Will planting onions. 

Max planting onions. 

Levi workin'! 

Will showing Dale his onion! 

Max "helping" Dale plant tomatoes! 

The finished garden!  hopefully in a few weeks we will start to see some progress!