Photo-a-day: day 31 (outtakes, part 1)

Whoops!  Major fail!  Last day to take a picture, and I forgot!  Busy weekend again.  So I thought I'd post all my favorite outtakes from the month in three posts.

Today I'll show some of Nathan:

He loves his little window to look out the front door.  It's a just the right height for him.

Playing with is cars.  Usually one in each hand - just like Caleb used to do.

He decided this month he would have his own chair and feed himself with a spoon. 
Big boy. 

He giggles every time on the downswing.  Must give him butterflies.

Who wants to play with toys when you can play with dirt and water from the gutter drain pipe?

Cute.  I love each one of this little features!

He likes to play pretend in the kitchen.  He'll make me food and pour drinks.  :)

He has the most pathetic cry when things aren't going his way.  The broom wouldn't go over the floor transition.  Tough life.  He's also started to do this little feet stomping thing when he's not getting what he wants.

But he also has the best smile and jolly face.

Photo-a-day: day 30

Whew!  It's warming up out there!  After our park time today, Caleb was all flushed and sweaty...what are we going to do when it hits the 100s??  Thankfully some of the pools around here are opening on the weekends starting April 1st.  Can't wait to take the boys!

Nathan was pretty proud of himself when he climbed up here.  It's so fun to take him to the park because he knows what he's able to do.  I really don't have to hover around him much.  He's adventurous, yet cautious.  And he's content doing the things he's able to do even though Caleb is running and climbing all around.

Photo-a-day: day 29

Caleb loves to do search-and-finds.  He has a big book with images that are labeled at the top for him to find inside the big picture.  He's so good at it!  I'm amazed at his patience to look for them, and also that he can actually find them in the crazy busy picture.  He finds them faster than I do sometimes!  And I love his little interjections, like, "Hmmm, this is a hard one."  Or, "Do you see it??  I see it!"  Might have to break out my old Where's Waldo books when we go to my parent's house!

Photo-a-day: day 28

I haven't been really on the ball with pictures this week.  Kind of a last minute kind of thing.  Caleb just walked in from Wednesday night church where he traced his body for their art project.  :)  He was really proud of it.  I love when he runs in and tells me all the fun things he did.

Photo-a-day: day 27

"Hello?  Oh, it's for you..."

Photo-a-day: day 26

Today's photo isn't too exciting, but I went to grab my camera to take the picture because the story is cute.  Caleb was perched on the window sill, and Nathan wanted to get up there too.  He insisted.  He's pretty feisty.  I may have a tough next couple years.  But I digress.  :)  So, I put him up next to Caleb, and he had to curl his legs and grip the wall to stay on because the ledge is pretty narrow.  So clearly, he wasn't very comfortable, but he wanted to do it just like Caleb.  There has been lots of imitating Caleb lately. 

And I have to point out Caleb's new Crocs.  He LOVES them!  He really liked his old blue ones, and I was a little worried he wouldn't like the bright green, but he was so excited.  Yesterday, out of the blue, he ran inside the house and threw his arms around me and gave me a kiss and said, "Thank you Mommy for my new Crocs!  I love them!"  Then ran back out and kept playing.  Sweet!

Oh, and I have to add this in.  Nathan was picked as a "Katy Cutie" for the spring issue of Katy Magazine!  They pick a few kids to feature, and my cute little Nate was one of them!

Photo-a-day: day 25

Whoops!  I missed a day!  Sorry!  We were busy running errands around town yesterday - I forgot to take a picture.  So I'll do a couple extra pictures today to make up for it.  :)

Yesterday we bought a shelf with cubbies for the boys playroom upstairs.  (Before and after pictures of rooms coming soon as we try to decorate.)  David put it together, and the boys "helped."

 Actually, this is what they did most of the time:

Cuties.

I noticed all the boys had their muscle shirts on.  So I asked Caleb to show me his muscles.  

Daddy tried to get Nathan to do it too, but he just grinned.  

Photo-a-day: day 23

Thankful for:

1. a kiddie-sized picnic bench
2. eating under the trees
3. a cute little 17-month-old, able to sit on the bench and eat by himself
4. a sweet 3-year-old, remembering his please and thank yous and sharing with his brother
5. little mouths gobbling up beef stew without bribery
6. a quiet bowl of soup to myself while watching out the window
7. seeing and hearing little babbles and laughs, in a world of their own

Photo-a-day: day 22

The curse of being the older sibling - you always get the lame ride.  I remember growing up with our snowy Ohio winters, I could give my sister a pretty awesome (in my opinion) ride on the sled.  But when it was my turn, I was too heavy, and she was too little...I barely got a couple scoots through the snow.  -sigh- 

But as it turns out, Nathan might be our bigger kid, so in a year or two things may even out.  But right now, Caleb's rides aren't very exciting.  :)

Photo-a-day: day 21

Tug of war!

Photo-a-day: day 20

We've been saving up the perfect rainy day activity.  Caleb got a cardboard house from Uncle Danny and Aunt Sarah for his birthday.  We all know kids love playing in a cardboard box, but this one already has windows and a door!  :)  And you can color it.  So we put it together today.  It would have been pretty easy because it is just two big pieces that you fold and attach together.  But it's slightly more difficult when your kids are trying to go in and out of the doors WHILE you are putting it together.  :)

And here is a video from today.  We put Nathan in a booster seat this week.  He started refusing to eat in his high chair, and would want to go back and eat in Caleb's chair after dinner.  He wants to be a big boy just like Caleb.  You can tell they enjoy sitting across from each other at the table.  You might need to turn down the volume because they get a little loud screaming.  I might be encouraging bad behavior, but they're so funny together.

Photo-a-day: day 19

Taking a little cartoon break.  :)  Caleb has a few favorite shows, but Nathan still isn't interested in watching tv much.  He'll usually sit with Caleb for a couple minutes, and then jump down to come find me.

Photo-a-day: day 18

One of the sweetest sights I get to see - Daddy reading his boys a bedtime Bible story.

Photo-a-day: day 17

"I think this is how I saw Caleb do it..."

Photo-a-day: day 16

Swing and a hit! 
Practicing his ball game with Grandpa.  You shoulda seen him run the bases!  :)

Photo-a-day: day 15

Whoops!  Forgot to take a picture today!  Had to use a cell phone pic from the carousel at the mall.  They had fun!

Photo-a-day: day 14

Splish Splash!  Nathan got him good.  :)

Photo-a-day: day 13

This kid has the best bedhead.  It's usually even crazier than this!

Photo-a-day: day 12

Cinders and ashes!!  Looks like trouble on the tracks!

And it looks like I dressed them for St. Patty's Day a little early.  :)

Photo-a-day: day 11

Ok, so this is a really weird looking picture.  I was playing around with my shutter speed, hoping I could get a cool action shot of the boys running around.  (We may as well never get any furniture for our front two rooms because it is a big open space that they love to run around and kick balls in now.)  Well, this pic is the best I got.  It looks like Caleb only has one leg, but I promise he still has two.  Here he is going all matrix on you.

Photo-a-day: day 10

David caught a few pics of the boys wrestling all over the floor this morning.  They love it!  Nathan had Caleb pinned.  :)

Photo-a-day: day 9

Photo-a-day: day 8

Hi.  My name is Caleb.  And I'm part monkey.

Photo-a-day: day 7

When we first moved to Cinco Ranch, I noticed most - if not all - of the playgrounds have sand as the base.  Usually I see dirt, or mulch, or pebbles, or pads, but I've never seen sand before.  When I first saw it, I didn't really like it.  It seemed messy and hard to walk on.  But I guess someone smarter than me picked it out for a reason.  We love it now!  We go to the one at the end of our street almost every day.  It's not as messy as I thought it would be.  It dries pretty quickly after a rain.  And it provides extra entertainment - I like to bring plastic spoons and bowls to let them play in it.  They never get dirty, because the sand brushes right off.  I worried about sand tracking into the house, but I just smack their shoes outside before coming in, and we're good to go.  A lot of times I'll just let them go barefoot for a nice exfoliating effect.  hehe.  I am worried a little that it'll be really hot during the summer, but we'll see.  But by that time, I'm sure we'll be at the pool everyday anyway.

As I was sitting there watching them play and thinking how lovely this sand idea was and how you don't get messy, Caleb decided to try to prove me wrong:

But I'm happy to report, no mess!  If I find sand in his underwear later, I'll update this post.  :)

Photo-a-day: day 6

I realized I need to get in more pictures.  Not because I need to see pictures of myself, but I want my boys to see pictures of me with them!  I'm usually the one behind the camera.  So I got the remote out.  I let the boys push the button in order to get them to sit and smile for me.

No matter that Nathan had a really stinky diaper at that moment, or that half of Caleb's lunch ended up on the floor and I'll be cleaning that up in a minute, or that I had to say "no" about a hundred times already today - when I see this picture, I realize I'm the most blessed person in the world and I have my arms full of love every day.

Photo-a-day: day 5

This crazy Houston weather!  It's 43 degrees in the morning, and 75 in the afternoon!  I'm not complaining though, I love it!  But the boys were too hot in their pants and long-sleeved shirts from this morning, so they stripped down.

Caleb was very proud of himself when he came up with the idea to pull the wagon while driving his 4-wheeler.  Nathan is taking mental notes.  I know they'll be conspiring together soon.

And I have to add in some funny Caleb sayings.  When he's telling me something, he'll say, "Did you know that??!!"  If it's something really crazy and exciting, he'll say, "Can you believe that??!!"  And if it's something we did together and he's retelling the story for me, he'll say, "Remember that??!!"

He also has no concept of time.  Everything is "last night."  Whether he's telling us something that happened a week ago or something that happened this morning, he'll say it happened last night.

Photo-a-day: day 4

Life can't get much better than soaking in the beautiful sun and enjoying the company of fun friends.  Very thankful!

Photo-a-day: day 3

We got word of a free classic car show in town.  With a free bbq cookoff, perfect outdoor weather, and 10 minutes from our house - what more could three boys ask for??

Checkin' out the 1954 Corvette

Oh, and here is a video from their guy time last weekend.  I went and got a haircut, and they had a jam session in the car:

Photo-a-day: day 2

My Mr. Potato Head.  Buckets of fun for everyone!  This boy always knows how to make his momma laugh!

Today has been better than yesterday.  TGIF!  Lots of outdoor fun soaking in this beautiful weather.  I hope it stays like this for awhile! 

I also realized that keeping it to one picture a day is going to be hard.  With these busy boys on the move, there are so many more moments to capture these days.

Photo-a-day: day 1

Woohoo!  Photo-a-day is back!  I decided I would do it every March.  Kind of random, I know.  But we always have a lot going on in January coming off of the holidays, and February is busy with birthdays and other things.  So March it is.  Plus, this is when the weather starts getting really nice, so it's more fun to follow the boys around with a camera when we're not stuck indoors.

Well, it's fitting that today is the day I start - because it is the day I least feel like it!  A terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day of sorts.  Everyone is in a crumby mood, me included.  But in a way it's good to start on a day like today, because the photo-a-day is like a picture gratitude journal for me - little fleeting life moments I'm thankful for that I can capture forever.  So I'm looking forward to the next 31 days, and documenting the precious times (and some not-so-precious times! hehe) I have at home with my boys.

So here is the first one.  Mr. Nathan fell asleep on our walk today - which he never does.  One of the many things that irked me today because I figured it would ruin his nap later.  Sigh - but isn't he so cute?  Kind of what I wish I looked like right now!  :)  Thankfully, I pushed his nap back later, and it sounds like he's sleeping...I think...or maybe he's just sitting in there.  Oh well, everyone is quiet, and I'll take it!