My not so little guys...

My Ty is growing up so fast! I caught him today pulling up on the couch, he fell down pretty quickly, but nonetheless he pulled up. It makes me so sad because he doesn't want me to hold him too much anymore. He just wants to explore. This last week he hit a big milestone for me, he can now sit up in the cart at stores. It is so nice to be able to put him in the front part, the only hard part now is wrangling in my other two. He can also hold his own in the bathtub now with his big brothers. It is nice to be able to put the three of them in together.

The other night I put him in this tupperware and he wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. And check out Maximo's little cheeks peepin through in the background. He can now pull his pants and undies down, but can't get them back on by himself. And to be honest he prefers running around without them on. big

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Maximo has now been paci-free for almost 3 weeks. I am so proud of him. I took him to Target one day while Athen was at school and let him pick out a toy and he had to pay for it with his paci. He said , "bye, bye pah." Later that day at naptime he asked for his paci bucket and I handed him the empty bucket and gave him his toy that he bought with his pacis and he cried for a bit and then went to sleep. I think the anticipation of it was harder for me than him actually getting rid of it. Yesterday we were playing in the boys room and he saw something under Athen's bed. He asked (screamed) for me to help him and I looked under the bed and saw a paci and a Cars map. I pulled both of them out from under the bed and he snatched the map out of my hands as quickly as possible. I was shocked that he didn't want the paci but he didn't seem to care at all. He has also been napping in Athen's bed in the afternoon. He absolutely loves it. I tell him that if he gets up at all then he is going in his crib. He won't even move a muscle. He even waits for me to come and get him when he wakes up. The problem is at night he now wants to sleep in there... Athen has grown into a little boy overnight! He is into so many little boy things: legos, cars, racing, wrestling, burping, tooting, and just being plain silly. I can't believe he is almost 4 1/2, it's just plain crazy to me!

Disney (junior, according to Athen)

I haven't posted in forever! We have been super busy gearing up for Matt's deployment. He leaves a week from today. We are really sad, but we are trying to make the most of our time together. Last week he took the whole week off and it was great!!! We tried to fit in as much fun stuff as we could. Monday we went to the zoo and they had a dinosaur exhibit. Athen held my hand trough the entire exhibit. Maximo ran from dinosaur to dinosaur roaring and having a great time. Tuesday we decided to head to Disney. We went to Magic Kingdom, which Athen calls Disney Junior, because the castle at Magic Kingdom is at the beginning of every Disney Junior show. Magic Kingdom was fun, but it was not our favorite place to visit. The kids were a little too young to understand what we were waiting in line for. We did get to meet the Buzz Lightyear which was the highlight of the day. Tytan was such a trooper while we were there and just munched away on his snacks and watched the boys run around like crazy. Here are some pictures of us having a great time at Magic Kingdom.

The next day we decided to build a fort. I had seen a super easy one to make on Pinterest, so we bought a few things at the hardware store and then stopped by Hobby Lobby and made this in under an hour. The boys love it and it folds up and stores super easily.

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On Wednesday we decided to head back to Disney but try a different park. This time we went to Hollywood Studios and had an absolute blast. This was the perfect place for kids our age. They had all the characters less people and a much less wait period on all the rides. We got to see characters from Monsters Inc, Toy Story, and all the Disney Junior shows they watch. We started the morning by going to a Disney Junior live on stage. The boys sat through the entire show and loved it. Athen talked about it the rest of the day. After that we went to a few playground type rides where the kids could run around and they loved it. Then we happened upon Lightening McQueen and Mater. The boys absolutely loved it! They were so excited and could barely wait in line. Another highlight was eating at Pizza Planet very similar to the Pizza Planet on Toy Story. Here are a few pictures of our day at Hollywood Studios. Waiting for the Disney Junior Show!

Meeting Mater and McQueen.

A lot of the park is setup like movie sets and Athen found this Chevrolet place and he was so excited.

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A Fabulous February Week

The boys and I had a great week! On Monday Athen exchanged valentine's at school and had a small party. He loved it and enjoyed practicing writing his name on everyone's Valentines. On Tuesday my bestie here had a little Valentine's party for the boys. She made super cute lunches for them. She also had a bunch of little crafts for them to put together and color. The boys loved it!!!

On Wednesday, my grandparents came in town from Naples. They are snowbirds so it was a short 3.5 hour drive for them. We absolutely loved having them here and the boys thought they were here solely to play with them. Papaw and Maximo did tons of puzzles and Mamaw Sandy read tons of books and helped build legos.

We already miss them and look forward to seeing them in Ohio when we visit this summer! Today I did some sewing while Athen was at school and Tytan was taking a nap. I got some "new to Maximo" puzzles and he was thoroughly entertained. Much to my surprise he did this huge puzzle all by himself. It took him quite some time but he figured it out. He was so proud of himself!

Today Athen shared his yellow hat with Tytan. He looked so cute I had to get my camera out.

Then I captured some good pics of my three boys.

Look they really can be sweet!

But they are also really silly!

And I will leave you with this cute little guy. I just can't get enough of him. He is so awesome and so fun to be around!

Some firsts for Tytan

This weekend was a big weekend for little T! On Friday, we made a trip over to Orlando to visit my sister. She was in town judging UCA Highschool Nationals and was staying at a fabulous resort. So the boys and I packed up some snacks, sunscreen and our swimsuits and spent a few hours at the pool with her. The weather was perfect, the pool was heated and we all got a bit of sun. This was the first time that little Ty had been swimming. He really liked it. Athen and Maximo had an absolute blast and loved seeing Aunt Brooke. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. Tytan also learned how to sit up all by himself this weekend. At first he would scoot along and push up to a sitting position, but tonight he started to really crawl and push up to sit. He is getting a lot more coordinated and he is so proud of himself. He will crawl over anything and everything to get to cars, trains, and any toys the boys are playing with. He wants to be right in the middle of the action. When Matt and the older boys are wrestling he wants to be involved. It is so sweet.

Ty also went to his first carshow. Our church had a carshow called the "Higher Power" car show and Matt put the big window in it. The boys loved looking around at all the cars! And a first for all of us here in Florida was seeing the temperature in the 30's. It was soooo cold. I even ran on the new treadmill Matt got me because it was too cold and windy to run outside. It is supposed to be in the 80's by the end of the week :) And how awesome is this picture of the boys "scaring" me!

The Altus Effect

So today the boys and I took a trip to Target...They have all been sick this week and we were going stir crazy so I asked A-Man where he wanted to go and he said Target or Warmart, yes warmart, that's how he says it :) So of course I need no excuse to go to Target so off we went! And it got me to thinking about all the things that I appreciate so much after living in Altus (even if it was only 2 years). I still, even after 6-plus months, get giddy when I see a Starbucks, a Target, a mall. I can't even explain to you the excitement of a Super Target with a Starbucks inside. I have to remind myself that I can get a coffee whenever I want now and I don't "have to have it" anymore! Living in that small of a town was a bit of a culture shock, but I learned so many things from those two years. I learned how to really cook. With the lack of restaurant options, Applebees, a few Mexican restaurants, the bar that went from a cantina to a sportsbar, to a half cantina/half sportsbar, back to a cantina all in a year, I learned that if we wanted good food I needed to cook it. I also learned that an hour drive to the nearest Starbucks was worth it especially if you could fit in a trip to Hobby Lobby and Ross before naptime. I learned that our base preferences will always be near a big airport. Driving two hours to the nearest decent airport makes for little to no visitors. I learned that an overnight at a hotel in the city was worth every penny to keep our sanity: Athen loved going to a "Texas!" I learned the art of online shopping, I still have our debit card and credit card numbers memorized. I learned that military hops are the best way to fly. The C-17 is one of the coolest planes ever! I learned that Braums has the best ice cream hands down!!! I learned that people can be baptized in a horse trough. I learned that it's not where you live it is what YOU make of it. Most importantly, I learned that friendships can make any place one of the greatest places you have ever lived!