Fashion Diva!

Girls are way more fun to dress than boys!

Myla now owns a pair of Jeggings!
I LOVE my jeggings and my friend Anna Judd found some for her little girls so now Myla has a pair too! We looked very cute together in our jeggings and boots the other day.
I am excited for her hair to keep growing so I can add more bows, pig tails, braids, although I have heard from friends that doing little girls hair can be a difficult task! I am up for it!!

She is pretty cute with her pink head band and dimples.

Ruffles and skirts are fun too.
She had a cute ruffle zippy the other day and a ruffled skirt, cute tights and boots.
Such a Fashion Diva!

Boys are fun too!!
It's funny how now I just move things right from Quinn's closet to Rex' closet. It was just last year that Quinn wore this shirt.

Difficult to see in this picture, but Quinton's sweater is a very cute zip up.

Fashionable twins enjoying some bread at church

Rex' new favorite place to go, underneath Quinn's highchair.

He is such a goof ball.

And of course, the best head of hair I've ever seen on anyone!

Dressing my children in such fashionable clothes is so fun.
It will be interesting to look back when they are all grown up and laugh at the jeggings and the different fashions that are totally out of style. Oh well, for now they are looking very stylish.

Time Flies...

Time Flies is a very true statement.
Sometimes I look at my children and I think, I was just bringing you home from the hospital, how are you walking and talking and making jokes. I love each one of the stages in life I just wish they went a little slower.

I was asked the other day if my life has calmed down from a year ago. It definitely is different than a year ago. A year ago Dan and I were still waking up at least two times a night to feed two babies, I was still pumping, we were not leaving the house much, and we were still trying to get life figured out with three. Well, I feel like life with three is a piece of cake, that is NOT implying that we are not busy. I think that we are busier now than a year ago. But I think that we have things pretty much figured out. My life is not hard, I just have to be on my toes. There is no blinking and no rest until the hours of 2-4:30ish and 9:30pm-7:30am. It is different now, I can clean up after lunch while they all play together in the living room and they walk around and come say hi to me. We can read books all together (Rex doesn't have a long attention span). They like to help me vacuum and Quinn loves to help cook. Rex and Myla understand A LOT. They like to help put toys away and they LOVE to put anything, especially diapers, into the garbage. So I don't think that my life is calmer these days but it is very different and it just keeps getting better.

Quinn is still my "drummin man."
I'm not sure any of you can completely understand unless you spend a day at my house how much drumming actually goes on here. He is crazy and he loves it! He now usually gets a few boxes to drum on so now he has a drum set!

Last weekend the Redskins (Dan's team) played the Vikings (My team). My parents got Quinn a Redskins shirt and my sister Kelly got Myla a Vikings shirt so I didn't want Rex to be left out of the football theme so he wore a Razorback shirt. The Vikings ended up winning so my head was held high.

A proud little fan

They are going to be football fans!

Handsome... all his Arkansan fans will be proud

A drumming Vikings fan

Quinn and another drum set

Quinn always thinks it is funny when you are putting on or taking off clothes and whatever color the clothes are he will say he has that color hair and then he wants to look in the mirror. Funny little guy with blue hair!

Myla is my book worm.
She LOVES books. She is SO SO SO funny. She will grab a book and then walk right over to you and turn around and back up into your lap. She is so funny the way she will back into you. One of her favorite things to do is sit in front of the book shelf and read. She also loves to grab a dinosaur or a lion and come growling after you and of course, wants a reactions from you. We always say that she is "gettin you"

After two crawling boys, these jeans are ready for the trash after Rex. The rips in the knees are fine but then on the right he broke all the way through with two big holes. I guess that means they are loved and we got our money out of them!

We had a great Thanksgiving. It feels like ages ago. It was just out family, Tim and Nancy (Dan's parents) and then Dan's younger unmarried siblings, Julia, Jessica, TJ and then the little boys Connor and James. Quinn enjoys the little boys. They played football in the living room and trains and had lots of fun.

They all liked wearing the helmets.

Even Rex joined the big boys.

We got a surprise visit from Aunt Dana and Uncle RyRy the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. They were on their way to Burlington to visit Ry's family and stopped here for lunch. It was wonderful to see them. Ry had never seen our house so it was fun to show him. My kids enjoyed seeing them. It got Quinn VERY excited for Christmas.

My boys enjoyed trying on Uncle Ry's hat!

Rex is super goofy. Again, I wish that every one of you could experience my children. They are so fun and so funny and it is hard to document it all on a blog. One of Rex' funny things is he used to like putting his head down on ground without his hands and do a head stand type thing with his feet still on the ground. Now that move has turned into crawling with his head on the ground. He thinks is it really funny with an occasional bump of the head! Quinn and Myla like to join in. They all think its funny.

I brought out play dough the other night but found that the picnic table in the kitchen was much more entertaining. We flipped it over and made a boat out of it, crawled under it, jumped off it.

Although I don't like that time is flying, we are looking forward to our time in Arkansas. Two weeks from today my whole family will be together! Looking forward to it!

A Cardboard Box!

We LOVE cardboard boxes around our house these days.

Quinn will sit on the stairs for HOURS (no joke) and drum with chopsticks from PF Changs (I'm such a fun mom, I always bring home more drum sticks after a date there). He tells Dan and I that he is a "drummin man!" He has been through many many cardboard boxes because he drums holes in each one, as you can see below. I especially love his facial expression in this picture. We are a singing, guitar playing, drummin family!
I love that he loves music.

Rex sporting Quinton's old Pj's. Quinn has caught on to the trend of Rex wearing all his old clothes and almost daily he says, "I used to wear that when I was a baby like Rexy." He calls him "Rexy" which is so so sweet!

Flashback....
Check out Quinn in these same PJ's.
Man how time flies. I seriously remember him sitting at my parents for Christmas in the middle of a bunch of wrapping paper wearing these. I sure do love these memories.

Another example of our love for cardboard boxes, they become boats and trains, basically anything that moves. It is fun to watch them enjoy playing together.

Quinn has a fun imagination.
He can make anything out of a box. He turns the wash cloths in the bath into sea lions, he is chased around the house by dinosaurs, he tackles alligators and he includes Rex and Myla in it all!

Do you think they look alike?
Some days I think A LOT alike and other days I don't see it at all!

Daddy!

He is the favorite around our house! I'm pretty sure that even if I try I won't ever be as fun as Dan. He jumps, rolls, gives rides, runs, he is ACTION PACKED! Although I attempt all those things, my efforts pale in comparison to his. I am truly thankful for Dan. He is always on his A game at home and has never ending love for me and my kids. He the best daddy and my kids know it!

Another favorite playing spot around our house is the leather chair. EVERYONE gets on it together and climbs and wrestles and giggles.

In the last few weeks I feel like Rex and Myla have begun to understand SO much. They will go pick out books when I ask them, they will find Quinn when he's not in the room, they will look out the window for squirrels if you tell them to look, they love looking out the window for their much loved Daddy. They are really funny and both a little sassy in their own way. Truly such joys in my life. It is really really fun as they get older and start to join in everything.

Quinton is such an amazing little boy, not perfect, but seriously the sweetest two year old I know. He has more energy than I know what to do with, forcing every area in our house to be like a jungle gym. The boy LOVES TO RUN and is not afraid to jump off of everything. One of his older friends jumped backwards off our stairs, well I quickly told him he was too little for that and when he turned three he could jump backwards. Well, I should have said five because the other day he said, "In March when I turn three I can jump off the stairs backwards," oh well, I guess it will be something to look forward to in a few months.

I was reading to Quinton the other night and he asked me for a blanket to make his feet toasty, well I was too comfortable to get up and get him one so I told him I would sit on his feet to make them toasty. He liked that idea a lot and when we were done reading he leaned over and gave me a kiss and said, "thanks for sitting on my feet and making them toasty!" What a sweet boy. He is constantly making us laugh and saying such sweet things to all of us. He is always watching out for Rex and Myla! Hands down my FAVORITE two year old!

He tattooed his hand with marker which them throughout the day made it all over his face,
oh well!

My Goofy Rex

My Funny Girl

With more sickness going around our family, my babies enjoyed a popsicle the other night after dinner. I think they enjoyed it!

I just thought she looked really beautiful in this picture

Don't be deceived by his innocent face, he trouble in the high chair. Let's just say he enjoys putting everything on the floor....

My Favorite twins

Getting in the holiday spirit I let them enjoy little candy canes.
What a sticky mess!

What a goof

We enjoyed a WONDERFUL play date at the mall play place this morning with my friend Tonya and her son Coen. Coen is about 6 months older than Quinn and they are good pals. Quinn loves "his boys" as he calls them. He will come home from a play date or church he always says, "I love playing with my boys." When we were leaving the mall Santa caught the boys attention. They both gave him hugs and high fives but Quinn was more fascinated with the big chair!
I thought this was such a cute picture.

Maybe Quinn will have to ask Santa for some more cardboard drums and chopstick drum sticks!
We are truly blessed, truly thankful, and looking forward to Thankgiving with the Rude Family. We have A LOT to be thankful for!

Another New Favorite Recipe!

I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from the slow cooker chicken taco soup that I decided to share another new favorite and SUPER EASY recipe. If you haven't figured it out, I LOVE easy, quick, very few ingredients recipes. I'm not quite sure what to call this... maybe rice and bean burrito. It is a vegetarian meal, but my husband LOVES IT. I owe the credit to my friend Laurel Larson (who also introduced me to the bbq chicken pizza). We went to her house a few weeks ago and she told me we were having rice and beans in tortillas... hmmm I was not very optimistic about the sound of that but we left her house stuffed and raving about how good it was.

You start with brown rice... I'm a fan of minute brown rice. I made 8 servings of rice.
After boiling the water, add the brown rice and
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of chili pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Follow rice directions until rice is totally cooked. Then add:
1 can of black beans (UNdrained)
1 can of rotelle tomatoes (undrained) you can pick your spice level of rotelle

Cook another 10 minutes on low to warm everything up.

Get some multigrain tortillas add the rice and beans to it. We like to add guacamole, some sour cream, and cheese.

I promise you will love it!

Quick review, brown rice, spices, black beans, rotelle tomatoes. It's even delicious to eat without the tortilla. Good flavor, good for you!
Easy Easy Easy.

Let me know if you like it!

Loving Life!

I love my daughter.

She is so spunky, delightful and a little sassy like her momma I'm told. I've enjoying dressing her too. I like being able to put her in dresses, bows, headbands, earrings. She always looks so cute. I'm always amazed as to how unobservant people are with kids. Myla can be dressed just like the picture below and people will still ask my if I like having all boys even the other day I was asked if Quinn was a boy or a girl. Funny people.

I loved Myla's outfit for church today.

Myla keeps losing earrings so we are now onto a new (my favorite pair) pair of earrings.
PINK!

Rex is still enjoying the outside. Dan and I were discussing the other day how Rex has a smile that kind of taunts you. If you tell him no or to stop something he just looks at you and gives you this silly grin and wrinkles his nose... he is sneaky and such a goof.

Getting close to walking all the time.

Quinton has his daddy's body temperature. He always wants to take his coat off and always seems hot. I forced him to keep his jacket on while riding his motorcycle. He loves our bigger driveway, although we miss our sidewalk.

Our Happy Boy!

Nana spent a weekend in Disney World with her sisters and got Myla a crown and my boys some pirate scarves and patch. Quinn was pretty excited about looking like a pirate.

Check out our cool Pirate!

Rex was too busy to keep his bandanna on his head.
He loves Dinosaurs.

As mentioned many times before, Quinton is quite a musician. He drums on EVERYTHING and ANYONE. He is pretty happy with music and some drum sticks.

My children always make me smile. Each of them has a different personality but they are all such a joy. I am thankful that they all like each other too. Of course we have the daily tears over stolen toys and pulled hair but overall they really enjoy each other.

What a stud

Drumming

My beautiful booger nosed girl

My boys hanging out with their drum sticks

We are back to eating a lot of frozen blueberries these days. We are all missing the fresh delicious fruit of summer. There are just so many sad things about the cold! Quinn gets quite fascinated with the color of his tongue and how quickly his fingers get stained from the blueberries.My children are making a train.
I don't remember why Quinton is only in his diaper but they played for a long time riding in the train and singing the "all aboard the choo choo train" song.

We all got the stomach flu this past week. Rex was the only one that didn't throw up. Quinn and Myla got sick last weekend. I threw up all night Monday leaving Dan in charge Tuesday and then Dan caught it Thursday night. We are officially all done with it and hoping that it never comes back!
While I was sick on Tuesday Dan's friend Josh stopped by with his new puppy. My kids DROOLED over him. They played outside with him for over an hour. I watched for a little while from the window. They really adored him!

What a cute little puppy

We are thankful for the fact that everyone is feeling better and hoping for a healthy winter!