Where Did March Go?

Wow! March is almost over and I haven't really blogged once. So I thought I would do a quick little (probably long) update.

This month I have been going over to my mom's house to help her start cleaning out her basement. My mom is a saver!! I've been weirdly enjoying it, probably because I LOVE to organize things!! Plus, it's been nice spending time with her. Hopefully she won't mind the next picture I post. But I am proud of her for throwing/recycling/donating/giving a lot of stuff away. We got rid of this HUGE bag of plastic bags. This big bag went up above my waist. It was a crazy amount of plastic bags!!
I have also been finding some fun treasures from my childhood! Like this birthday card from our then next door neighbors! I am guessing it was for my 6 or 7 birthday.

And on the inside Todd (who I babysat for years and love like a brother) signed it! He was probably 2 or 3. It totally made me smile and warm my heart!!

I also found a box of all my stuff from when I went to Russia- 20 years ago!! I found these awesome socks that were made for me.

All I needed was a balalaika and a bottle of vodka! It was awesome!! I cant wait to see what we find next time.

We also had a sleepover here with the neighbors. It was a great time!! They all get along so great! We will really miss them when they move!!

Our friends Joe and Kassie were in town and we got to spend an afternoon with them. We ate at Tommy Collinas. And I have to say if you haven't eaten there yet- Go. There. Now!! It's so yummy!!

And you get to sign their wall!! How can you resist that?

I threw in the next picture cause it makes me laugh every time I see it!! The boys were posing and Grant (our friend and owner) popped into the picture too! :)

The boys also got their first convertible ride- thanks to Joe and Kassie! And they LOVED it!!
As did I! Convertibles are just fun!!

This past weekend the boys got to have a cooking "lesson" from my mom. Josh is into cooking right now and I am ALL for that!! We have done several cooking classes at local grocery stores.
I think that about does it for now. :) Now I am off to enjoy this weather!! This year the weather has been SO AWESOME!!

Let It Snow?!

Friday Zach's teacher read them a story that had something to do with if you flush ice cubes down the toilet it would snow. So all weekend my boys have flushed ice cubes down our toilet. And wouldn't you know it- it snowed last night. They are CONVINCED that they caused it. They are very proud of themselves. On the way to school this morning they were bragging it up and whatnot and I hear Alex say "Yeah, but whatever you do DON'T eat it! It came from our toilet!"

Oh, my boys make me laugh every day! I'm so lucky!!


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Hip Hip Hooray!

I have a pretty tree!



It's a little pathetic I know, but I have always wanted a pretty tree and yea for me I now have one! Add it to the long list of reasons that I LOVE our new house!




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Bug Catching

The boys latest obsession has been bug catching......
They have spent numerous hours out back catching all types of bugs....and may have brought the "cool" ones inside to show me...which most likely led to me screaming "NO BUGS IN THE HOUSE!"

They have had tons of fun doing this....they have caught bees, moths, spiders, praying mantis, wasps, lady bugs, grass hoppers and a few others that we have been unable to identify.
Alex has been catching bugs too....but not as much as Josh and Zach.

Here is what Alex has been up to:


Lots of fun stuff going on around here! Never a dull moment- and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Reason One Gazillion and Forty ThreeThat I LOVE My Boys!!

So yesterday was a really rough day for me. I found out that I no longer have a job. And for those of you who know me well- know how much I LOVED LOVED LOVED this job. It was absolutely perfect in every way. Seriously- the staff was awesome, the students I had were perfect, I had creative freedom, it was part time, paid well, AND I HAD MY OWN OFFICE!!! I really looked forward to going to work every day. It was hands down my most favorite job I have ever had in my entire life. Anyway, funding fell through, blah blah blah, and the school has officially closed. Talk about lots of tears in that meeting- and really the rest of the day. That school was fantastic! There was no other place like it ANYWHERE and it is sad that it closed due to lack of funding.

Anyway, I told the boys yesterday- possibly through a few tears- that I would no longer be teaching because the school closed. They were all sympathetic. Josh said "Don't worry, mommy. You can teach us now!" Which made me smile a little, until Zach yells out "NO YOU CAN'T!" I said, "Why not?" And in all seriousness Zach said "Cause then we would have to pay you!" That made me laugh. Something that I needed yesterday! Just add it to the list why I love my boys!!

Rats and New Doos!

The boys have been asking for a pet for awhile now. Anything from a pet dog to a gold fish to ants. Now that they are almost 7 we thought that they were ready for it. It's a great opportunity for the boys to learn some more responsibility. Matt and I had long discussions about what type of pet would be best for our family. We weren't ready for a dog- too much work. Too many of our friends are allergic to cats. Alex wanted a turtle but after googling them, they don't make the best of pets. Josh wanted a "orange fish" but Matt and I wanted a pet with a tad more interaction. So we thought about a gerbil or hamster or guinea pig. We took the boys to the pet store to look at them and to see if the boys would want one. They of course did. And after talking to the pet store person, she suggested rats. I was all ewww NO! So we left. The more I thought about it, googled it, and discussed it with Matt- it did make sense. They are smart, trainable, clean, and of the rodents bite the least. Oh, and they have personalities. They are also social so we needed more than one. Hmmm....need to let the idea of having rats in the house sink in. It did and I am ok with it so GROSS OUT ALERT- we have 2 pet girl rats!

Meet Ginger- a dumbo eared rat:

and Steve- normal pet rat:
Note: Most of these pictures are blurry because rats don't sit still and are speedy little critters and don't seem to care that I am trying to get a cute picture of them. :)
And yes you read that right Steve and Ginger are girls. The boys named them. It makes me laugh. And to answer your other question- no the cage is not kept in the kitchen! It is still safe to come over for dinner! :)
I have to admit- they are pretty cute. I like them. I had gerbils and hamsters as a kid- so rodents never bothered me. My only rule was NO RED EYES (CREEPY!) and it had to have fur. No naked rats. EWE! And yes they do have them. They are as gross looking as the hairless cats!
Steve seems to be a snuggler. She likes to be around people and sit with us. She will wait at the cage door waiting for someone to come play with her.
Ginger is a mover and a shaker. She likes to explore and play. She will come out of her cage if there isn't a ton of people around. And once she is out she like to be on the go.

Our only problem now is not letting the boys love them TOO much. If you know what I mean. Like that cartoon of "And I will love him and squeeze him" Yeah, its a little like that. But we are working on it and it gets better each day. Perfect pet for our family!!

In other news- the boys got new haircuts- which really isn't news. Other than the fact that we let them choose their doos this time. Zach went first:

Then Alex. He chose a mohawk:

He was PUMPED! -as you can see. Once Josh saw Alex he was all about the mohawk too! Here is Josh:
They think they are pretty cool- which they are! :)


I asked Zach if he wished he would have gotten a mohawk too and he said "Um NO! They are crazy!!" So good news for all you out there- another way to tell Josh and Zach apart- Josh has the mohawk.

Who Am I?

So Josh and Zach have discovered that they are identical and are now fully taking advantage of that.

The other morning they came down looking like this:
Then started giggling and asking "Mom, guess who I am!?!?"

They would then run to the other room, switch around and come back giggling and again asking "MOM! Guess who is who!"

99% of the time I do know who is who. They look different to me. The other 1% of the time I am either exhausted, sick, overwhelmed or all three. Do you know who is who? I'll give you a hint. Josh is in blue and Zach has plaid shorts on. :)
Just kidding. In each picture Zach is on the left and Josh is on the right!

Be warned! They are going to have FUN with this!! :)

Awesome February Weather!!

What do you do on a really awesome day in February??

You have a neighborhood parade of course!!

The neighbor across the street set up some music for the kids to march/ride along to. After they "practiced" a few times...the parents were invited to watch the Jones Circle Parade. And it was awesome!!

I love our neighborhood!!

My New Love

I may have mentioned my new love before- but if you have forgotten-it's my new washer and drier. One may even call me a little obsessed.....I never knew you could love an appliance like this. I consider them part of the family now. They are the clean and quiet members. :)

And my love seems to be a little contagious! The other day I walked past the laundry room to see Alex just staring at the drier, watching the clothes go round and round. It made me laugh out loud- so I snapped a picture. He cracks me up!

Room Signs

So I think that the boys are loving their new rooms!! :) This completely cracked me up this morning! I walked down the hallway and saw this sign on Zach's door:

It says "Nobody come in"

And this sign was on Josh's door:

It says "Nobody comes in my room, but if you ask maybe I'll let you come in my room"

They crack me up!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!

My kids started writing today!!!!

Well, technically they have been writing for awhile now but they started to write SENTENCES today!! And by kids I mean Josh and Zach. Alex was busy playing with the neighbor kids across the street.

But my heart is happy and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the beginning stages of writing. It is so impressive and amazing to me. When kids start to get it and it just clicks with them. Ahhh, it does my teacher heart good. I actually teach kid writing in my preschool class. It's amazing to see the growth. Anyway....today is another gorgeous day so Zach, Josh, Alex and I were out front and Zach decided to do sidewalk chalk. Instead of his super creative drawing pictures he usually creates he decided to write sentences.

Can you read these???!?!?! Huh? Can you?!?! Can you?!?! Totally impressed right!?!

A Lion- of course.

An octopus-as if you needed me to tell you that one! :) The whole sentence reads I see a lion. I see a octopus. He also wrote I see a woman. I see a tree. I see a bumblebee. He was a writing fool I tell you.

When Josh saw how excited I was getting (high fiveing and whooping it up and grabbing my camera) he started writing too.

Josh wrote a I see a boy. I was impressed.

This still isn't Alex's thing. He isn't a pencil to paper type of kid. And that is ok. He is still making huge strides. He is starting to read certain words and when he is in the right mood he will draw awesome pictures or practicing writing words. But that is the thing- he has to be in the right mood.

On another note-this morning we also had a playdate with a friend from Josh's class. He is a cute kid. Josh is always talking about Aidan and how they are best friends. So after much begging :) we finally had him over. It was fun. They played star wars wii a little bit and then we made pizzas.

I have to give the credit to Matt for that awesome idea! Much more fun than the sandwich idea I was going to make. :) And fun it was, although no one but Matt and I actually ate the pizzas. The boys had fun making them but they were eating the toppings while making them so by the time the pizzas were done they were no longer hungry. Plus they wanted to play more than eat.

After lunch they played star wars (not the wii game- role played) and other made up games. I can see why those two are good friends. Boys sure seem to make weird noises at each other when they play. Lots of grunting and stuff. Girls don't play that way. But who am I to judge? It was humorous. I was just happy that things were going so well. Last year when we had kids over for a playdate there were jealousy issues amongst my boys. None of that today though! YEA!

I forget people don't always know we have triplets. When Aidan's dad came to pick him up, Josh and Aidan were upstairs and Zach was at the door. He started talking to Zach like he was Josh. A moment later Zach zoomed off and Josh and Aidan came down. You could tell he was a tad confused. Then the next moment all three of my kids were in the same room as Aidan and it must have clicked. About 10-15 minutes later the mom called to get the scoop. It was funny. I guess how would they know? The boys aren't in the same class.

So far it's been an awesome day!! This weather needs to last!! I love the windows open with a breeze coming it!! And I know this day is only going to get better because tonight I/we get to babysit Sarah!! (Wade and Allison's little girl) It will be fun to have a baby around again and a baby GIRL none the less!! :) That is exactly what this house needs sometimes- another girl!