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!

Rex is Walking!

Well, I now have three walking children! What a wonderful thing, plus it saves their pants. It's amazing how dirty their pants get crawling around the floor everywhere we go. I love walking babies! It is always fun to watch how proud they get of themselves as they take steps. Myla is walking everywhere and Rex takes a good 5 or 6 steps and is beginning to favor walking too.

Daddy and Myla getting some good cuddle time in!
We spent another gorgeous morning at the park today. We walked and met our friends Jill, Hannah and Josiah at the park near our house. We packed a lunch and spent over two and a half hours playing. Quinn enjoyed Hannah and they had fun eating outside and running around. I told Dan this morning that I am convinced that Quinn is going to be a cross country runner.
HE RUNS EVERYWHERE!!!
I'm not kidding, he ran around the deck back into our house and around the loop in our house over twenty times before going to the park! He is constantly asking "wanna race mommy/daddy." He is so much fun. He loves being active. I'm very thankful for his passion for running. He must get it from Dan. Dan has become an amazing runner running over 20 miles every week. He really enjoys it. He wakes up really early every morning to run before his day begins. This morning he asked when Quinn could start running with him... anyone have any ideas??

Another example of Rex putting something in his mouth... He puts the biggest things in his mouth. Funny boy!

I took this almost a week ago now and Rex has gotten even most stable walking.
I love watching my children grow up!
You will notice that at the end of the video Quinn says, "I'm ready for Christmas" the reason is that we keep talking about how we get to go and see Nana and Papa at Christmas. He is anticipating all the fun things he will get to do at Christmas and regularly asks if tomorrow is Christmas.


Henry #1 died.... not sure how. Dan and Quinn went down to fill up his water over a week ago and he was dead... so on Tuesday we got Henry #2. He is just as loved by my kids (even Myla) as Henry #1, I'm not sure that Quinn even really understands. He is just happy to have a frog again. My kids sure to love him and love playing with him.
Enjoy watching Henry

I love this weather.
I'm not prepared for the snow... I dread it every year. Oh the joys of living in Iowa.
I hope you enjoy the videos of my most precious children.