Our St. Patty's weekend

This is the only picture I have of Joseph from this St. Patty's weekend. Getting so big!

 Having St. Patrick's Day on a Sunday makes for a whole weekend holiday. 

On Friday, the kids and I set up the leprechaun trap with lots and lots of drawings. Emma colored this picture of the leprechaun with rainbow and pot of gold.

 Emma wrote the Leprechaun a note saying, 

"Share this gold with your friends. And one for you." :)

She left the note inside of the trap.

 Emma made a hop scotch drawing for the leprechaun to try out as he goes toward the trap :) Very clever Emma dear.

 Thomas' drawing of a rainbow, pot of gold, and sun! :)

 Saturday morning, the kids were so excited to see that the Leprechaun had come. He did manage to leave a big mess but some gold coins as a peace offering :) 

 Little stinker left some mustaches on some of our photos.

 Daddy made some rainbow waffles.

 Leprechaun's foot prints all over our sink and toilet and dining room table and left our shoes all over the house in random places.

 Saturday, we went and celebrated Thomas filling up another potty chart. :) For his reward, he chose to go running at the Rec Center. I'm totally serious. It was all him. Here we are doing our stretches before the run.

 Emma showing her big muscles from all her exercising.

 Thomas showing his muscles too.

 After running we used some yoga mats to do some stretches. In this picture, Thomas arranged himself and said, "Look, we're a letter T!" hahahaha.

Our cute little Leprechauns after church today.

 The Leprechaun left streamers in kids door way of their bedroom. Yes, Thomas decided to smile BIG enough for you too see his soul. :)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Look who is potty training now!

 He's doing it, he's REALLY doing it. Our Thomas boy is going on the big boy potty.

How, you may ask? Well, it all started last Tuesday (March 5th) morning when I was up at the butt crack of dawn signing Thomas up for Preschool at our local rec center Preschool. I will tell you what. Moms' (including this one) were in line at 5 am to wait and get numbered wristbands at 7am. Then go back at 6pm to register in order. Good grief, it was like black Friday. The things we do for our children :)

ANYWAY, one of the requirements of course is that your child MUST be fully potty trained with no pull ups or anything. Thomas has been no where close to having a desire to sit on that potty. We bought him underpants that he picked out months ago and would wear them for fun just to get used to the idea. Baby steps. He would play super hero with his sister and they run around in their super hero capes and underpants. Hilarious. But he wanted nothing to do with sitting on the throne.

Then we would have some mornings where we would have him just wear his underpants at home in the morning to get a feel for it. That so did not roll, considering how inconsistent we were.

Well, it all changed that March 5th morning. I got home, we put those underpants on him and he's been in them ever since. Of course there were quite a few accidents for the first couple of days.

Daddy brought the little man outside by his later to be designated pee tree. Derek put Thomas' hand in warm water while in position and he finally went on March 7th! WOOHOO! 

 Look at him sitting in his underpants and plugging his ears while watching our contractor. So cute!

 Here he is again in his underpants and favorite pajama shirt. He just received a new pair of much needed rain boots. Of course they were Spider-Man :)

 These pictures remind me, this is what child hood is all about. The simple pleasures. He loved observing and inspecting bits of nature.

Sometimes you wonder, "What is going through their minds?" He climbed onto his "Thinking" electrical box.

 I love this picture of him running with tongue sticking out. Typical. :)

 For filling out his potty sticker chart he got a reward. He could choose any place he would like to go and of course he chose "Chuckee Cheese."

 Playing basketball game with Daddy.

That's our boy! Yesterday I had him running around spraying water on all the trees, grass, chicken, you know. I looked out the kitchen window and faced this site. I must say that tush is squeezable :) That is Thomas' designated tree.

He went poopoo in the potty for the first time yesterday. Way to go Thomas boy! 

By the way, you may be wondering why he has the same sweatshirt on in every picture? Well, he insists on wearing his Mickey Mouse shirt every day. :) Love it. Love you sweet boy. We are so proud of you. Now you will be ready for Preschool in the fall. :)

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

 On Friday, Emma wore her Dr. Seuss shirt I made her, thinking they were going to celebrate his birthday at school. It turns out they didn't even talk about him. Oh well. :) She still had fun wearing her shirt and digging into our stash of his books all week. Thomas loved reading them too. His favorite has been "one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish."

The kids woke up Saturday morning and on the dining room table was a "Cat in the Hat" book with a plush of him. Kind of fun. Emma read Derek the book that morning and did a great job. She just keeps getting better and better with reading. Later that morning they got their Dr. Seuss shirts on and went about our day. Thomas was very excited to wear his shirt since he had to wait until Saturday to wear his (didn't finish it until Friday night :). We were supposed to have Green Eggs that night but instead the older kids went to be with Oma that evening. When Emma was reminded we didn't have the green eggs that night because she was at Oma's she was SO upset. So we had green eggs today after church for lunch and it was yummy as usual.

Here are some snap shots of the cute little munchkins. 

Happy 109th Birthday Dr. Seuss!

4 months, double digits, and smiling :)

 Look how big he is getting! I call him my little Squishy. Our Joseph boy turned 4 months old last week on February 23rd. He is smiling, cooing and loves being talked to. I think he likes his swing less and less during the day because it takes him away from everyone (it's up in his room). He is pretty social. :)

Yesterday, Derek took him for his Synagis shot and a little check up. He weighed at a whopping 10 pounds, 10 oz., and 22 inches long. He is in the double digits now, WOOHOO!

He continues sleeping through the night pretty well. He is still in his swing most nights. We hope we can transition him to crib soon, but when he is sleeping through the night so well and has had a cold it's just been easier to keep him in the swing. 

We are just in love with him more and more each day and are so thankful for him.

 I love to nibble on these little toesies.

 Look at that smile.

Our day today...

It was a pretty good day today. Emma came home from Preschool and was extra playful with Thomas which is always so wonderful. :) She was extra kind and patient with him and they played so well most of the afternoon and evening. First thing she wanted to do was have a tea party with him and their "friends." Repunzel, Care Bear, Pluto, Unicorn, Thomas' doggy, Tigger and of course the hosts Thomas and Emma.  After about 45 minutes of preparations it maybe lasted about 3 to 5 minutes. HA!

Here is Emma's checklist of preparations for the Tea Party. Adorable.

Later I told the kids to go play outside while the sun was out. Emma had the idea of making paper airplanes. I don't have much skill with putting these babies together but they worked alright. The had fun together.

It was a good day!

Emma'isms..

The other day, Emma was watching me play and talk with Joseph. She kept commenting on how he is the cutest baby ever. :) She later said she wanted to marry Joseph. I asked her "why do you want to marry Joseph?" She said, "Because he is just SO cute."

The other day while driving to dance class Emma told me, "Mom, in the middle of the night I was thinking I wanted to go over to Emma Scott's house (our cute little 3 year old neighbor who Emma ADORES) and take one of her toys(probably a unicorn), but then I forgot about jail."
What in the world. Yes, we had a talk about that one.

She is SUCH a great big sister. I know I mention this a lot but Derek and I are always so proud of her in how well she treats Joseph and Thomas. (Well Thomas, most of the time:)