National Free Pancake Day @ I-Hop

After finding out that I-Hop was having free pancakes for National Pancake Day I decided we should take the boys out. I have to admit, it was rather nice to go out to eat for breakfast than it is to stay at home and do all the work and the clean up. 

Z was a little bit mad in this picture, he wanted his short stack!

Tyler and I actually got different dishes, I opted for strawberry french toast and he got the breakfast sampler.

The boys ate pretty much all their pancakes (which were three the size of that plate) and they had some of Zayden's. 

Z preferred his pancakes plain, without syrup. The boys liked trying different flavors-- B had Blueberry syrup and Q had Butter Pecan. 

Zayden trying to help dad pay the bill..... 

Don't mind my hair, I only had time to shower and go since we left around 8:30-- I had just bathed and dressed all three kids. 

My stinker not wanting to smile. 

Quincy trying to get B to smile... 

Hope you got to enjoy pancake too. :) 

Sunday Fundays...

 The last three Sunday's we have attended my parent's ward. I had two different families ask if we had moved into the ward. Actually one Sunday I just brought the older two boys up to stay the night, the next Sunday was the Super Bowl and we came up for that, then this past Sunday we came up for my cousin's farewell talk and open house. 

I'm sure our ward probably thinks we've gone in-active. Though the 9:00AM is much better than 2:00PM time slot that we have.... It's been fun to see them each weekend and I know Tyler loves watching ESPN on my parent's huge TV with my Dad's new Bose Surround Sound System that he just got. 

Sometimes as a parent, bribery is necessary

Recently, Quincy's been very determined to be dry at night... he still wears a pull up to bed. He wants to do it, but I know very well that he's such a sound sleeper that nothing will wake this kid up. His pediatrician has reassured us that he will  grow out of it, and that we will know when he's ready. Thus we try to encourage him, but not pressure him. A few weeks ago he was dry for four nights in a row. On night 2 I told him if he was dry for 5 nights in a row we would go anywhere he wanted for a special treat. He was so excited and had decided on Cold Stone. On night 4 he told me while putting his pull up on that he was going to be dry. I responded with, "Well, that's sounds great, but it's okay if you're not." 

Poor, poor Quincy. In the middle of the night I heard someone in the bathroom and went in to see who it was. It was Q and at first I thought, 'Wow, I can't believe he actually woke up to go the bathroom.' If only that was the whole case.... Unfortunately he had diarrhea. Poor kid. He was upset and I could tell, so I helped him into a new pull up and pajamas and then he went back to bed. A few hours later in the morning he came into our room with his head hung down and said that he had diarrhea again and that he couldn't hold it-- the poor kid sleeps on the top bunk, I never would have expected him to hold it while racing down his ladder. Tyler and I did what any loving parent would do. We comforted him, reassured him that he was doing a good job and that sometimes accidents happen. I wanted him to feel good about all the progress he had made the previous nights before and so we still took him to Cold Stone. 

Little Zee zee loved having the ice cream too. 

Most of the time my boys have fun doing the simplest of things, one day we were out running errands and they found some of these cars in Salvation Army... (I know I probably sound like I ONLY shop here, I promise I don't, but I've been looking for a TV stand... and actually found a great one that I'll post about later). They had fun racing each other up and down the big aisle. They had so much fun they didn't even complain when we said it was time to go. It's the little things. 

I L.O.V.E. when Tyler gets home, but probably just a teensy bit more than how much our boys love when he gets home. Zayden always  speed crawls over to him and pulls to stand up hanging on his legs while begging his daddy to pick him up. Once Tyler does he smiles and snuggles him. It's the sweetest thing ever. 

Sometimes I wish I could leave for work and be welcomed home by all my boys running up to me for affection. 

Braxton does silly things and even says funny things. He wrapped himself up in this blanket and declared that he was 'ready for bed!' Ha 

Lately Quincy has really taken to drawing and writing things. He is quite creative and I'm very impressed with his imagination and skills in spelling. This is a picture he drew one day:

Growing up is hard to do

This little baby... well, I guess he's not so much of a little baby as a bigger baby getting ready to transition into a toddler. I am not willing this process to speed up at all. Zayden is such a happy little guy. His smile is infectious. I can't get enough of it, and it seems no one else can either. Wherever we are and whatever we're doing Z finds someone to smile at and then they spend a good five minutes telling me how adorable he is. And they're right, he is. 

But all bragging aside, Z has been quite the trooper lately while cutting his first two teeth. He has the bottom two and is working on the top front two teeth. It seems they are taking FOREVER to get here. The other boys each got their teeth somewhere in the 6-8 month time frame and Z is way behind in that regard. I don't mind so much, it's keeping me from weening him quicker. Plus I know once the rest of those pearly whites poke through his gums he'll look even that much more grown up. *Sigh* It's inevitable, he WILL grow up, but I just wish he'd wait a little longer.... 

If you look closely in the picture below you can see his bottom two teeth. :) 

Catching up...

I guess it's been a while since I've updated our blog. Sheesh, time is flying. I can't believe it's already February and I haven't even blogged about January! 

Zayden is such a good little baby. There is nothing cuter, in my opinion, than those juicy lips and long eyelashes. 

Sleeping with Daddy. 

These two found this fourwheeler at Salvation Army, and it actually had batteries in it because when Q squeezed the button it moved forward. Can you see how much they are begging for this with their eyes? We didn't get it, I guess we're mean parents. 

Sometimes, I'm pleasantly surprised by how sweet my boys can be. One Sunday morning we were getting ready for church and it was awfully quiet from Braxton's end (this is usually a bad sign)...upon searching for him throughout the house I finally found him in his room sitting quietly on his bed 'reading' a book. He looked so sweet and innocent I had to capture a picture (without him knowing) to remember this moment. I do love him SO much!

It seems Z is in a hurry to get big, like his brothers. He's now wearing 12-18 month clothes and he's not even 1! 

One of my goals for this new year is to be consistent about exercise. This little gem, that Spencer got me for Christmas, is my best friend for my late night runs. I no longer have to hold the ipod or worry about it falling out of my pocket. 

January brought us a random snow fall. I know it looks rather pathetic in comparison to the amount of snow that falls all over, but for here it was a lot... especially since it only fell for a few hours. Quincy insisted that we make a snowman. This is as big as I could manage to help him.... the other 2 boys wanted to go back in after an hour, unlike Q who could be out for several hours at a time. 

It was perfect dry powdery snow too... unlike the wet mushy snow we got the last time. 

My little snow marshmallow. He was all bundled up and could hardly crawl, but had fun just sitting around like this and watching us do things. Quincy even managed to make about 20 snowballs that he, and B and I used in a "snowball fight". Mostly B ended up dropping them or throwing them in the wrong direction, so Q took full advantage of that and was chucking them right at B's face. I made sure to even the score for Braxton. And even let Quincy throw some at me. I'm such a good mom, huh? 

This blue jacket is what Tyler got me for running. It's SO warm and has a great hood for the nights it's raining. I LOVE it! 

It's rare, but every now and them Zayden gets a little grumpy. This particular day he was mad until I put him in the laundry basket and slid him around the house until he was squealing with laughter--The things moms do to keep their kids happy!-- Then when I was tired I piled warm laundry on him and he was content, but look at that little sad face. 

Z loves playing in the big boys room... he's always crawling down there to be part of the action. 

Mostly the older boys tolerate him tearing up there things, but there are moments when they get frustrated that he's taking something they're trying to play with or that he's breaking something they have just made. 

My boys LOVE jerseys. Tyler wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Chewing on plastic tools... perfect for teething? Or choking rather.... 

B got a tool set from Santa and he loves pounding away with that hammer.... 

Look... here he is again, getting into the "no no" stuff. 

And here is another picture that I'm really happy I was able to get. It's rare that all three of my boys are happy and playing nicely, but look at them... all playing nicely together. Wish it was like that all the time. 

 Lastly, here's a picture of the flowers that Tyler brought home to me on a particularly rough day. He's pretty dang sweet, when he wants to be.---AND would you believe that those flowers lasted for a whole month? They did. 

 Note to others: if you want your fresh flowers to last longer change the water daily, or every few days, strip out any leaves that are touching the water or they will get mushy, and re-cut the bottom of the stems when you change the water, oh and if a flower or some petals are wilting a little take em out... these tips will help your flowers look nice all week(s) long!