Joe's party

Joe needed two hands to get the cake in faster.

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Joe is checking out his cake with his new rocket in hand.

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Megan enjoys her cake.
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Little Rachel (Cha Cha) even had icing in her hair!
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Neighbor Allie hamming it up for the camera.

Ryan has a little hole in his smile.
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Rachel's sister Katie.
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Christian sports his icing beard.

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The overall lesson here is that the cake was super messy and we were glad we served it outside!
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Joe plays with his new favorite gift, the rocket launcher.
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Uncle Chris dunks during a pretty vicious game of basketball.
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Is Dave hanging on the rim? Nice action shot, Scott.

Pizza Store, take 2

Patrick (above) and Luke ate and ate

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We took the kids back to the fun "Pizza Store" with Grammie, Granddad, Uncle Chris and Uncle David. The twins really didn't play at all. They began with dinner and an hour and a half later, they were still eating. Between the two of them, they downed at least 20 chicken nuggets along with handfuls of shredded carrots, red peppers and pineaple chunks. I have never seen them eat that much or for that long. We had to keep the extra big diapers on them for a few days.

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Joe spent most of his time with the trains and even worked up the courage to play in the water room once the plastic sharks were removed.
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Luke enjoyed the mini merry-go-round

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Patrick wan't quite sure
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The uncles tried the rock climbing (sorry, Dave) and all of the brothers and Granddad shot baskets until they had enough tickets to buy Joe a cool stuffed Batman. Of course, we don't have any pictures of that, just videos. When we figure out how to convert them, we will try to post it here.

Babycakes

A little girl at Joe's party dropped her cake in the yard. Before we could clean it up, Patrick found it, and, well...

Joe calls this picture "Babycakes." We're not sure where he got that.

Making a new friend

Luke: "Gimme a hug!"

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All of the boys have been afraid of the puppy next door. Zelda is a great dog, but she's so big now that she's a little overwhelming to the little guys. They are starting to figure out that she has an electric fence and won't come too close to them if they stay in a certain spot in her yard.

Giving Zelda a little scratch under the chin.

Joe: "Oops, I ran my car off the road!"
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"Can I get a tow?"

The Pizza Store

We went to a really cool pizza place for Joe's birthday. It's like a more fun Chucky Cheese with much better food. Joe LOVED it. (We only stayed in the little kid area, but there were all sorts of skee ball, mini bowling and video games and rides in the big kid area.) They had these climbing structures, a "construction zone" with big blocks, a kitchen area, train sets, kid movies playing and a water table.

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Luke loved playing with the construction gloves.
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The twins enjoyed their chicken nuggets and green peppers. Another awesome feature of this place was the kid sized handwashing stations all over.
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Joe's nutritious meal of Mac and Cheese, Cheese pizza and a blue slushie. (As I see it, there are three of the four food groups represented there, and the slushy was berry flavor. That has to count for something, right?"
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The twins had so much fun in the middle of the train table together. They had these cute little conductor vests for them to put on, too.
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Joe just wanted to make the longest train that he could. There was one annoying kid that kept trying to get into the middle of the table with the twins. It was a little tight and the twins got very frustrated with him.
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An outside shot of our new favorite place.

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Clearly, Joe was not excited about leaving.

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When we got home, Joe kept asking when we would go back. We told him that we would go when his cousin Kolbe came to visit. He kept saying over and over, "I'm going to the pizza store with my friend Kolbe!"
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Unbeknownst to us, Joe had the camera in his carseat with him. We had several pictures just like this. Note the little boy knees at the bottom of the shot.

Mom's special day

Sorry we're a bit late with the Mother's Day pictures!

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Joe and Daddy made me breakfast in bed. Hello big hair bed head!

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We took a trip to the zoo and rode on the zoomobile tour.
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Patrick's not sure how he feels about the adventure.
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Patrick couldn't take his eyes off the swimming turtle.
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Luke and Patrick were following the fish around and saying "Ooooo!"
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This is what happens when Daddy is in charge of watching the kids. I'm sure that glass was perfectly sanitary.

Playtime

Patrick says "'sup?"

Luke riding in style

Joe was very proud of his new baseball shirt from Uncle Brian and Aunt Kelli

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No, I did not forget that May 16th was Joe's 3rd birthday. His party will be on Saturday when Grammie, Grandad, Chris and David get here. We'll post some pictures of the big event then.

An apple a day

The twins were having a great time sharing this apple. Luke held it mostly, but was happy to let Patrick take a bite as long as he didn't have to give up posession.

Happy Late Mother's Day

To all of our dear mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and godmothers, aunts, cousins, friends and mentors:

We hope you had a wonderful day!

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Scott and Joe made me breakfast in bed, we all went to church together and enjoyed a trip to the zoo. It was a wonderful day of no cooking and togetherness. Oh, yeah, before Scott even had a chance to sign my card, a little boy decided to put his "signature" on it: two bites. Classic. Isn't that just how this year has gone anyway?

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So sad...

When Scott went to the "Haircut Store" with Joe last Saturday, this is what he left behind: Two very sad little brothers. This is something I see quite often, but for those of you that are far away, we thought we'd share these cute sad faces, too, along with the smiling ones.

"Let us out! We want to go, too! We won't eat any of the hair on the floor, we promise! Just let us go!"

Luke can't take the injustice

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Patrick misses Daddy and Joe and is trying to soothe himself with his thumb.

My Pedicure

Today, I got the sweetest pedicure. All three boys were in the tub after a long day of playing outside and eating spaghetti. After scrubbing all of the kids down, Joe told me that he wanted to “scrub” my feet. The little stool I sit on to bathe them was the perfect height for me to throw my legs over the side of the tub. Joe washed my feet with his washcloth (in the totally filthy water, by the way – it looked like my kitchen sink after an Italian feast) and we talked about why my toenails were pink. Then, he gently kissed my little toe for no good reason. It was precious! You can’t get that kind of service at the salon!

Patrick hates getting dressed. Whenever we bring out the clothes, he high-tails it out of there. Luke, on the other hand, usually loves to get dressed because he associates it with our going somewhere, usually outside to play. He will sit right down in my lap and try to help. So, today at dinner, I realized that all of their bibs were in the washing machine, and we were about to eat spaghetti. The best option in this case was for me to just strip them to their diapers. I started with Luke, but once Patrick saw that de-clothing was going on, he practically ran to me. He couldn’t wait to get in on it! That kid just loves being naked. I think it was the best meal of his life because he got to eat it in the buff.

Also today, while playing outside, the twins discovered the radio that daddy had left on the garage floor. They had a ball pushing the buttons and turning the knobs. They were both squatted over, looking so intently and enjoying their little game until they turned the volume knob. All of a sudden, the radio got VERY loud and both boys popped up in fear and scurried away as fast as their little legs could carry them!

Two more little things from Joe: Scott needed a haircut Saturday morning and took Joe along. The whole time, Joe referred to it as the “Haircut store.”

Joe was talking on the phone to his Uncle Dave when Dave asked him where is brothers were. Joe replied, “They’re asleep. Be quiet.”

The Joy of Boys

All of the boys watching for the garbage truck. Such anticipation and excitement!

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Luke actually said "cheese" when he saw that I was going to take his picture!

Patrick and Luke vying for the best view of the action.

Joe tackles Luke.

Patrick makes a goofy face for the camera.