Oh Brothers...

I don't know how many times I've done posts entitled something along the lines of "Brothers" or "Brotherly Love" or something like that, but what can I say, I have three boys and they sure love each other and I have endless supplies of cute "brother" pictures. So there really won't be an end to these. Anyway...

This picture was actually quite a feat to attain as Mikey and Luke are both smiling. For most of this time it was either Mikey smiling and holding Joey while Luke cried or Luke smiling while holding Joey and Mikey crying. It's a common fight: who gets to hold Joey.

Yes, at this point Luke has his head down crying. But cute picture of Mikey, right?

In spite of all the constant fighting, they are actually crazy about each other. In fact, whenever Mikey is at school or just in another room, Luke immediately starts in, "Where's my Mike? I miss my Mike! Where's my Mike!" It's so cute. And yes, he just randomly started calling him "Mike."

I had put Joey on the floor while I moved laundry along and starting hearing this full on laughing coming from him. I look out and there is Mikey just smiling at him. That in turn caused Joey to just laugh and laugh. This a common occurrence. It's like Joey just came out loving Mikey.

There is nothing the kids love more than being able to match PJs. (Never can get these pictures to flip right.)

See? So excited about matching. (Plus, they are just so cute when they do. Come on, how long am I going to be able to get them to dress alike? My days are numbered!)

On very, very special occasions (aka, when we're desperate to get the kids into the bath quickly and they are resisting) we allow them to bathe in our bath. Nothing makes bubbles like a jetted tub :) Needless to say, they love it.

The Year of the Superhero

Okay, to be fair, it probably won't be the only "Year of the Superhero." But it is definitely all Superhero around here for Halloween. Of course there will be pictures later, but Mikey is Superman and Luke is Spiderman. In case you haven't seen before, Lance does some pretty good pumpkin work. Under Mikey's instruction, Lance did Iron Man for Mikey and did Wolverine for his own. Not bad, eh?

From the Mouth of Luke - The New Saga

And so it begins... Now Mikey, who would probably suffer some kind of horrific allergic reaction if exposed to more than five seconds of silence, has probably already said more words in his life than Luke will during the rest of his, but Luke still drops a gem every now and then.

We were driving in the car the other day, and Luke asked for his headphones (for the car's dvd player) as soon as we pulled out of the garage. Kristy reached around, pulling them from the pocket that he can't quite reach, and handed them to him. However, she was in the middle of saying something to me, and didn't hear his cute little thank you. After he tried a few times, I finally responded, telling him he was welcome. I got this reply:

"I was talking to Mom, Dad."

Well, there goes my cute, innocent little two-year-old.

Full Circle

Yesterday morning Lance and I were still in bed and trying to savor the last few moments of sleep. We had actually been in and out a few times to get Mikey and Luke settled with breakfast and watching shows, but we were back in bed and they were both mostly just watching a show.

Luke suddenly came in and asked if he could have the banana that was up on the kitchen counter. We said yes. Luke then said, "Daddy reach it....?" "Mama reach it...?" Still tucked away in our heated-by-mattress-pad bed, Lance said "Luke, go ask Mikey to reach it" as Mikey was in the family room just watching a show.

So Luke walked out. A few moments passed. Then suddenly we heard Mikey: "Fine, Luke! I'll get it for you if you'll Just. Stop. Whining!"

I have no idea where he's ever heard that before...

Mikey's Recent Gun Fetish

So, Mikey has been playing with legos a lot lately, but he pretty much uses them exclusively to make guns. Upon walking in and having him demonstrate his most recent huge and ridiculously intricate creation, the following conversation ensued:

Lance: What's with this gun fetish? Why do you keep making all these guns?
Mikey: I love guns.
Lance: Mama doesn't love guns (anyone who knows Kristy knows how much of an understatement this is).
Mikey: That's because Mom's a girl. You have to be a boy to love guns.

For all those female gun enthusiasts out there, he didn't get such primaevil and sexist ideas from me. Cute kid, though.

Awesome Shoes

Mikey just got a new pair of "awesome" shoes. He was so excited to wear them to school for the first time and told me how he was going to show his teacher and friends. So after he returned home we were talking. I asked him if he showed his teacher. He paused...then:

Mikey: "Oh no. I forgot."
Me: "That's okay, you can show her next time. Did you show Zach?"
Mikey (with a bit of attitude): "Uh. Yeah!"
Me: "Did he like them?"
He stopped and just looked at me for a second. Then...
Mikey (with even more attitude): "Mom. Why would Zach NOT like AWESOME shoes?"

I really couldn't think of a good reason.
I don't know where he gets this stuff.

Pictures we missed

Here are a few random pictures that I love, but that I never got around to blogging about individually. I'm too tired. So here they all are.

Lance was laying down under this blanket so the boys jumped in. He was trying to get them all to pretend to be asleep so I could take a picture. It was not easy. But that's okay, because this first picture is one of my FAVORITES! I have cute boys. What can I say.

Still not cooperating.

This is as close as we got. Luke is actually rather convincing!

I can't get over how grown up Luke is looking! :( He's my baby!

So lucky, I am.

Summertime Popsicles

That would be peanut butter all over his face. Sandwiches are great because they keep hands all nice and clean and away from the sticky insides...just so long as one doesn't pull it apart.

Luke is still trying to be the baby :)

My Angels

Funny Guys

Lessons on Jealousy

Yesterday Snow White was on. Mikey has never seen it before (not too many princess movies in this house of boys.) So Mikey was kind of watching it on and off. At one point he suddenly turned to ask me a question.

Mikey: What does the mean lady want to do to Snow White?
Me: She wants to kill her.
Mikey: Why?
Me: Because Snow White is prettier and she wants to be the prettiest.

He stopped and thought for a minute. Finally he said,

Mikey: Well that's dumb. Just because someone dies it won't make her any prettier.

No duh! (Yes, I just said, "no duh.") Such a simple concept! Why is it so hard for mankind to understand that?

So proud of that little logical brain of his :)

I took this picture...

...because I thought I would think it was funny later. I still don't think it's funny. You see, that isn't flour. That is powdered sugar. Do you know how I feel about powdered sugar? I hate it. Yep, I hate it. Products made with it? Fine. But powdered sugar in it's unaltered state? I hate. Why? Well, have you ever noticed that when you use flour it's almost impossible to stop it from getting on unintended things? It's so fine and light that it floats everywhere. That actually doesn't really bother me. Powdered sugar, on the other hand, does the same thing...BUT IT'S STICKY! I know, I'm a little unstable about this, but I just really don't like sticky. (Some other time I'll have to tell you about my 15-year syrup hiatus all because of sticky.)

Back to powdered sugar--it gets everywhere and it's SO annoying to clean up. It especially gets everywhere when your 2-year-old dumps it everywhere. I was actually only like 4 feet away from him, sitting on the floor arranging my pantry, but I had the door open and it blocked him from my view. Ugh. This was the worst. I think I still have some powdered sugar down between the planks of my beautiful hardwood floors. But doesn't every child need a picture of themselves sitting in the middle of something they have dumped all over? Alright Luke, you've had your shot--no more of this, okay?

Still love that kid, though

3 Months of Joe

It's been a while since I've put up pictures of Joey. He just turned 3 months a week ago. I can't even explain how crazy I am over him. When I'm stressed about work and other things, I stop and sit down with him and cuddle with him and it calms me down. Seriously. So here's like a million pictures of him. I'm too tried to go through and tell you all about each one and there probably isn't much to say about each one anyway. Let's just say, "Look how cute!" above every one and call it good :) Love my Joe!

I will say that the one below is one of my favs! He just looks like such a little munchkin! I love it!

Why these last three are turned sideways, I don't know. If anyone knows how to stop blogger from doing this, please share. Until then, tilt your head.

Important things are kept in the wallet

Lance's wallet was old. It was falling apart. So for his birthday I got him a new wallet! After cleaning out the old one Mikey immediately asked if he could have it. Lance gave it to him and Mikey carried it around all day. He knows that you put important things in there. Finally later in the day he set it down on the counter and I realized that there was something in it. I saw this:

I was thinking, "what IS that?!"

So I opened it a little more...

Voila! His favorite car!

Sleeping Hard

Luke plays hard. (He's kind of a little spaz, actually.) So Luke sleeps hard. I love watching him sleep. I'm always somewhere between laughing my head off and shedding tears about how cute and little he is.

I can't get these pictures to rotate right, but tilt you head and look. They will for sure make you laugh. Yes, he's hanging off the bed, suspended by the sheet.

Luke was taking a nap. He woke up in a great mood and jumped around his bed a bit while laughing at dad. Dad was on the phone so didn't pick him up right away. Suddenly he turned around and saw this. Luke was asleep.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

Mikey just started soccer. He did a little soccer workshop type thing last year as a 3-year-old, but there were no real games. This year he's doing real soccer. So we just went to his first game. And as the mother of three boys (with the potential of more to come) all that went through my mind was, "this is the first day of the rest of my life." I can only imagine how many games of varying sports I will be attending in my lifetime. I officially became a soccer mom. But that's okay, I love it! Mikey sure was good at running up and down the field :) But now he's been going to practices, so we think there will be some improvement in the coming weeks.

One thing's for sure, Mikey LOVES his uniform. It was all we could do to keep him from wearing it all day for the first week.