Updates

Wow - It has been so long since I posted anything, I'm just going to leave it at that! I guess moving, starting a new job, not having high speed internet anymore and 3 boys is enough to keep me from sitting at my computer much...but I do miss posting more! Hopefully I can do some catching up and stay up with things...but I'm not going to make any promises!

The boys are great...growing like crazy, wrestling like 3 brothers, fighting over toys and giving lots of hugs and kisses to each other! It's great! We all love our new house and besides some more organizing we need to do, feel pretty settled in here. Living in the country is so peaceful and I'm so glad we made the move!!!

So much I could say, but I'll just post some pictures instead!

For some reason, my text didn't save on this collage, but here is a comparison (just for fun) of the boys at about 22 months. Landon is on the left in January of 2007, then Austin in the middle and Aiden on the right, October 2009. I just like comparing them by age for fun!

Aiden, Landon and Austin for Halloween 2009

Austin, Aiden and Landon with their pumpkins

I just thought this was cute from behind...our little Colts fans! (L-R Aiden, Landon, Austin)

Silly Faces

I have so many things to blog about, so one of these days I'll get caught up. First day of "school" (daycare), visits to Culver, fun at home...but it will come.

Here are some silly faces of the boys...aren't they cute?

One day before leaving for daycare, I snapped these photos. Landon was being especially cheesy and for some reason Austin looked exhausted (darn allergies). And Aiden was just plain silly! Say Cheese!!!


Landon making funny faces at the breakfast table.


Austin being crazy...he can make so many different expressions.


Adorable Aiden...he makes some good ones, too, but they always just look so sweet!

I sure love my boys!!! :-)

New Ride!

Now that we have a new home...we also live on a 1 acre lot. Not huge, but not something we want to push mow! So, we decided it was time to invest in a riding lawn mower. Here are some pictures of the boys watching Dave mow the first time - not the best shot, but it was pretty cute to me. And some shots of the first time they each got to ride on it with Dave. All three boys love it....although Austin REALLY loves it! He is never happy when it's time to get off. Fun times!!!

What is daddy driving? (Note - Austin was NOT happy that he was inside and daddy was outside, riding the tractor!)

I couldn't find a close-up of Austin, but here is Austin taking his turn on the tractor.

Landon, once again with his helmet on, taking a ride!

Aiden's turn - he just sits their zoning out when he rides stuff! Cute!

New Playset

Along with the new house came a new play/swing set! One of the first times we saw this house, we noticed this huge playset out in the yard that was brand new. It was obvious it was built this spring and we had wondered why if their house was on the market would they invest in something that huge knowing they would move and have to move the playset (it was not included in the sale of the house).

At the same time, we had promised Landon that we would get a swing set once we got to the new house. Fast forward to the day of our closing. The owners asked us if we would want to purchase the playset so they didn't have to move it. At first, we thought they were joking. First, the playset was new and secondly - they have 3 boys as well (interestingly enough a 3 year old and 21 month old twins!).

But - lucky for us - Dave decided to ask at the end of our meeting. Sure enough, they were serious. The husband did NOT want to take it down. So, even though it was much, much larger than we ever would have purchased (and more pricey), the boys ended up with a fun playset of their very own, in their new backyard. I can just see many, many years of fun! I can't wait to watch the action!

Here are some pictures from the first day....plus many more! :-)

We went into the house first - somehow Landon didn't see the playset when we pulled in the driveway. Well, the first door he went to was the back sliding glass door where he saw it. His reaction was too cute. He just looked at me like "Mom - are you serious? Look what's out there." It was cute!

Checking out the playset for the very first time!


Landon helping Aiden up.

Austin trying to be like Landon and climb UP the slide.

One day, Landon had been riding his bike but he decided to keep his helmet on just in case he bumped his head! Safety first!


Can you see Landon way up there?

Landon loves the curly slide...wheeeee!

Landon always says "that was fun" when he goes down!

Aiden and Austin say "peek-a-boo!"

Sweet Austin

Austin loves to slide!

And so does Aiden!!!

There goes Aiden again!

New House - first look

We officially moved into our new house the weekend of July 25-26. It was nice to finally get moved in and settled. The boys have adjusted very well and I think just know this is our house. They've been sleeping great since day one and love the space, especially outside.

We have a lot of unpacking still to do, and I have more pictures to share, but here is a start of what we've been up to the past week and a half!!! This was the first look the boys had of their new house.

Here's Landon checking out a load on the U-Haul on moving day.

The boys walking through the garage for the first time.

Aiden and Austin heading upstairs to check out their room.

Landon was excited to see his room (can you tell)? To the right in the picture are two rooms, one for Landon and one for the twins. I love that they are right next to each other. Our room is down the hall, but not too far away.

I love this look on Aiden's face....just like "wow, this is great!"

12 Years!

It's amazing how time just flies by, sometimes without us even realizing it! On July 26, Dave and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We've been together since high school, so really we are going on about 20 years, but who's counting, right?

With most of our stuff being in storage over the summer, I wasn't able to find all of our pictures, but I did find one tub after we moved that had some of our high school prom pictures, along with a snapshot from our honeymoon and some of our wedding pictures. Enjoy!

Gotta love those memories! Good times! :)


Thanks for a great 12 years, Dave...looking forward to many more! I love you!

July 26, 1997...a very, very hot day!!!





My favorite picture!!!


Our wedding party.

Twin Time

With the move the last few weeks, I've been behind in my posting. I'm sure I've got more pictures to put up sometime, too, but I wanted to get a few ones up today so that I can catch up a bit.

As a mom of 3 kids, I always try to make sure I'm showing off all 3 of them in equal (or close to equal) ways. But - I know that over the course of time that happens naturally anyway. Right before we moved, I was looking through pictures and noticed some cute ones of Austin and Aiden together. They still don't play together or interact as much as I thought they would by this age, but each day they are interacting more and more, so I know it's coming.

Here are a few pictures from the summer of the twins together...silly boys!

NOTE: I am always amazed at how LITTLE they look alike, so rarely do we really refer to them as the twins...usually it's just Austin and Aiden, or the boys. But - in the collage above, the picture in the lower left hand corner is one of the first where I seem some resemblence in their expressions! They are definitely brothers, but sometimes I 'forget' they are twins. I can't wait to see how it changes as the grow. Aiden is definitely favoring Landon lately - his looks and mannerisms...down to how he sleeps. Those two are all over their beds, while Austin might roll from side to side, but generally stays in the same area of the crib. Funny!

And here they are getting into trouble (but having fun)!

Water

A few times this summer, we got out our little kiddie pool for the boys to play in. When we were staying at our in-laws place this summer before we moved, we didn't have a bath tub for the boys, so they took showers. I thought they would love the pool because it was kind of like a bath...only a lot colder. :)

Landon has loved it the last two summers and really enjoyed going down our slide into it this year. He would just go up and down the slide each time we had it out. Aiden also loved the water and going down the slide. He loves to splash in it with shovels, especially if he sees Landon doing the same thing. Austin wasn't too sure...he would go down the slide a few times, but as soon as he got down the slide he wanted out of the pool. I think it didn't help because it was usually cold. He perferred to walk around the outside and throw things in the water.

Here are a few shots of the boys on the first day we got out the pool back in June.

Time with Cousins

This past weekend, our nephew Brad turned 4, so we celebrated with a little party! Unfortunately, most of my pictures with Brad and his cupcake were blurry! :-( But here is one of the birthday boy opening his presents!! Fun times!



It had been about a year - actually I think it was Brad's party last year - when we tried to get a shot of all the cousins together. So, it was time for a new one. And as Allison pointed out - this is the first time where no cousins or adults were holding a baby! That hasn't happened in years. Our babies are all growing up - sigh! Just take a look at this crew....10 boys and 1 girl.

After it rained most of the day, the sun finally came out around 5 and we were able to get outside and really have some fun. I thought I had more pictures of our boys and all the kids, but turns out I didn't. Here are some cute ones of the boys on the slip and slide.


Uncle Ryan had fun squirting everyone with the hose and the kids loved running away (or to) the hose. Can't you tell by Landon's face he's having fun??


Here's a shot of the kids running around being crazy, having fun...

And while the big kids were busy running around, here's what Austin and Aiden were up to. Can we say trouble? Cute trouble, but trouble none the less. Fun times for sure!

Water

I am way out of order with my blogging and overwhelmed with all the "cute" pictures I have...but I couldn't resist posting this video! On Saturday we went to cousin Bradley's 4th birthday party. After waiting for the rain to clear, we finally got outside for some fun with water. Uncle Ryan was having fun letting the boys play in the hose...check it out! Too cute! They loved it!!! Thanks Ry! :)

Just for Fun....Blog Hop

I usually see these Blog Hops or other links out there and they seem like a lot of fun, but I've never participated. I've found a ton of neat blogs by clicking on the links...and decided to particpate this time! My biggest problem...picking a picture! Having 3 boys and taking a ton of photos, it was difficult. But for some reason - whenever I see this picture it warms my heart!

***This week, on TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is A FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH.


Aiden....100% completely relaxed! Does it get any better than this?

Background

I don't have a huge blog following...some family, some friends, other bloggers who see comments by me and happen on my blog. I mainly do it, although not always timely enough, as a way of "scrapbooking" what the boys do, etc. But if you've read my blog at all, you may have noticed a few different backgrounds and such. I just can't decide what I want...and I certainly don't want to pay for anything as I'm not a serious blogger yet!!

So I keep searching the free backgrounds and trying different ones out to see what I really like. This newest one is called "Cool Dude" - a fitting description since I have 3 pretty cool little dudes (and 1 cool big dude) at my house. But I'm sometimes torn between wanting the background to look like boys...since I have 3...but I'm also a girly girl mom. So, I'll just keep looking!

What do you think?

Happy 4th of July!

Even though it ended up being a rainy, cool day, we still made it to a 4th of July parade! It was Austin and Aiden's first parade and they did great. They even stayed in thier stroller the whole time...with lots of Goldfish!

It's so hard to get a good picture of the boys these days...so the above shot is our best one. And below is our best attempt at a family picture! Landon, Dave and I were looking and smiling! :)

And here are some "scenes" from the parade. Landon, Makayla and Evan were able to get a lot of candy and had fun. Grant, Brad and Justin all rode in the Colts Fanbulance. A few sprinkles were in the air, but it wasn't bad!

Here are some pictures of the boys during the parade....look at the concentration!!! Too cute!

Grandpa Day and Landon...having fun hanging out!

Even though it was a rainy day, we took the boys out after dinner to work off some energy. All 3 of them had fun getting dirty in the puddles and mud.

All and all, even with the rain, it was a good day! We didn't get a chance to do any sparklers or fireworks, but hopefully we'll get to today. Can't believe the 4th has come and gone!