Jump

What does one do on a Saturday night before bed?

Jump, of course! The kids had a blast!

Stella takes a leap with Carson.

Owen!

Carson flies.

Ike and Owen


Who knew jumping off the fireplace ledge could be so much fun?
Simple pleasures.

Our January day.

What does one do when it's almost 60 degrees on a January day? What if you knew Papa, Mimi, Great Grandma Porter and Great Aunt Kristy are all in town?

Well...

We start the day by gathering sticks in the backyard with Papa. (You will know why that was an important job in just a minute.)

We get to play with our new basketball hoop that Papa and Mimi gave us for Christmas.
.

Great Grandma Porter even got a game in.

What a shot, Carson!

Game on!

Owen

Papa plays, too.

We got to have a weenie roast in the fire pit in our backyard.

Stella, Mimi, Isaac, Papa, Owen and Carson cooking dinner.

Mimi, Isaac, Papa, Owen, Stella and Great Aunt Kristy.

Yum. Yum.

Weenies roasting over an open fire.

Carson eats the hot dog he cooked.

Isaac has one, too.

Stella loves 'ot dogs, as well.

Owen's third hot dog. Mmm, they were good!

And for dessert?

Marshmallows of course!

Owen and Carson roasting marshmallows.

We called Owen the master marshmallow roaster. He was full of advice on how to cook marshmallows over an open fire. He never burned a single one. His marshmallows might be warm by next Christmas. He held his stick so high above the fire that they didn't even get warm. He ate the marshmallows everybody else roasted. Smart boy.

Pop! Pop! Pop, pop!

It's here! It's finally here!

The kids gave daddy a popcorn popper for Christmas. Of course it was on back order, so we patiently waited a month for the popper to arrive. The big boys have been waiting to eat popcorn and watch a movie with daddy.

The popcorn machine came, we plugged it in and it was game on! Much to our surprise it's a pretty cool little machine. It makes great popcorn and is a lot of fun. (We may still be in the honeymoon stage with it, though.) The three minutes it took to warm up the kettle seemed like an hour to Carson and Owen. But, once the kernels became white fluffy popcorn life was good again.

Carson and Owen watched Star Wars with Daddy and ate popcorn. It was a good day.

It's ready.

Owen loving his popcorn.

Carson eats his popcorn.

Carson, Owen and Daddy lovin' life.

Stella's Style

As many of you know Stella is the only girl. She's only got brothers. Stella so badly wants to be big like her brothers Carson and Owen. This makes me a little crazy. I want her to "stay little" for as long as possible. I know that my children grow up way too fast and it happens right before my eyes. In many ways I'm so ready for my "babies" to be older, yet I still long for the days when they were teeny tiny babies and would let me hold and cuddle them for as long as I wanted. I honestly try to enjoy each stage my kids are in and find the positive in it all because I know it's not going to last very long.

This takes me back to Stella. She adores her older brothers and wants to be just like them. She wants to be so much like her brothers that she's started to wear their underwear. Yes, I said their underwear. The second she has the opportunity to take her pants off she does. She will scour the house until she finds a pair of her older brothers' underwear, put them on and will act as if everything is normal. The underwear goes over her diaper and onesie so they stay on the petite 22 pounder fairly well. She will put them on the right way, inside out, backwards or inside out and backwards.

Sometimes I swear she thinks she's one of the boys. (This concerns me when I think of potty training.) Yet, on the other hand, Stella will put on her new sparkle dress-up dress and heels and prance around the house like a pretty girl. One day she had her dress and heels on with her brother's underwear. Stella definitely has a style of her own. If she gets in her mind that she's going to wear something, she does. Yesterday she chose to wear a coat all day long. I mean all day! She wore it from the time she got dressed in the morning, through both naps, lunch, dinner and everything between. Many have worried about Stella being the only girl with three brothers. As of now, don't worry about Stella. She can hold her own! I promise! She's got her brothers right where she wants them and takes full advantage of being the only girl! She's a smart one.

Stella wearing "the" underwear.

Fancy dress. Fancy shoes.

It was a yellow headband and her brother's shoes this day.

Sunglasses all day long.

A girlie girl.

I can't assume they know.

Carson and Owen are really wanting Star Wars pajamas. They have hit a growth spurt and have out grown most of their old pajamas. Every time I go to Target I look to see if they have pajamas of any kind that I know the big boys would like. I have struck out. The other day when the four kids and I were at Target we of course looked for pajamas for Carson and Owen. There was one pair in their size. Not good because I need two pairs of the same pajamas. (Those of you with multiples or who have been around multiples knows getting the same thing is the best thing, especially in the long run.) As we walked away with disappointment I spotted some Star Wars boxer shorts. I showed them to Carson and Owen. They loved them. We bought them.

When we got home Carson and Owen asked if they could wear their new boxing pants. I of course said sure! The boys disappeared for a while. When they came out of hiding they were in nothing but their boxer shorts.

They then began boxing.

I asked what they were doing and why were they doing it.

They looked at me and explained, "we're boxing."

Why?

"Because, that's what boxers do?"
I of course was a little confused. Owen then proceeded to explain to me that they had on their "boxer pants," so they had to box.

And that's what they did. All in fun and nobody got hurt. Nobody ended up in tears.

So here's the lesson I learned. I assumed that because I bought the boys new boxer shorts they would wear them for pajama bottoms. The reality was that they know that boxers wear boxer shorts. I bought them boxer shorts which opened the door for them to fight, I mean "box" anytime they have them on. Good one, mom!

Owen throwing his best punch!

Knock out by Stella!

Stella found some "boxer pants" and had to join in on the action.

The "babies" are two!

Stella and Isaac are two. Their birthday was celebrated in Nebraska at Papa's and Mimi's house. The celebration preparations began on January 01. Due to the snow storm that hit Nebraska over Christmas we had to postpone the Patterson family Christmas until January 01. This worked out great for me! It meant that cousins Luke and Jake (and their friend, Shay) would be able to help Carson and Owen decorate cupcakes the night before the big bash. The kids always do such a good job decorating the cupcakes. The cupcakes tend to be one of my favorite things about my kids' birthday parties. The morning of the birthday party we put hand prints on their birthday tablecloths. Stella was terrified to put her hand in paint. Isaac had a near perfect print this year.
Guests started arriving around noon. Stella and Isaac opened presents after lunch, we sang Happy Birthday, then cut into the birthday cakes and played.

We feel so blessed to have gotten to celebrate Stella's and Isaac's birthday on their actual birthday, and with family. We had grandparents, Great Grandma Porter, a great aunt, siblings, aunts and uncles, and cousins at the party. This year was extra special because our two newest cousins both got to attend the birthday party.

Let the cupcake decorating begin!

Owen after trying one of the cupcakes.

Isaac ready for his hand print.

Isaac sneaks an M&M. He's allowed since it's his birthday, right?

The M&M's had pictures of the birthday kids on them.

Stella making some noise.

Waiting to open gifts.

Opening the birthday presents is a family affair.

Stella blowing out her two candles.

Isaac loved blowing out his candles. He did it a couple of times in fact. He also loved singing and hearing "Happy to You!"

Silly boy!

The birthday girl.

Singing "Happy to You" to themselves.

Reindeer Games

We are in Nebraska and there is a lot of snow here! The big boys have gotten an opportunity to go sledding, something they’ve never done before. They had a blast. Unfortunately, the day they went sledding daddy accidentally drove off with their winter coats in the van. Carson and Owen are wearing Isaac’s winter coats. I’m so glad I threw in an extra snow coat for Isaac. They didn't seem to mind that they were wearing coats that were way too small for them (or that they have on pink and purple scarves.)

Pause the background music to hear the video.