Edison's Third Birthday Presents

Eddie made out quite well in the presents department this year. Too well, actually; a couple of days after presents were all done he kept asking for another present. His first birthday package came a week early. It was from the Grandma and Grandpa with the silly car (my mom drives a yellow Beetle). It included rain boots. Eddie loves wearing them while splashing in puddles outside and while walking around the house handing out presents like Santa Claus.
If you could mentally put these two pictures together, you would see how cute he looks in his new rain boots.

He also got three airplanes and a helicopter from my parents. Upon unwrapping them, Eddie exclaimed, "I am going to love this!".

Eddie looks so cute flying them around while making flying sounds. He likes to play "flying to Grandma's". He is so obsessed with talking about flying to grandma's, even before he got these planes.

Peter loves flying them, too. I was surprised to see that Eddie is most willing to share his helicopter with Peter. Eddie originally said, "A helicopter! That's going to be my favorite!". For the first day or two, he often told Peter, "These are my present!" and didn't want to share any of them.


That first day Eddie often walked around the house holding all four of these flying devices at the same time. While doing so he said, "I am so lucky!".

Peter loved playing with the package.

We gave Eddie a box of puzzles. He loves it! It helps that the puzzles are of a rocket, an airplane, a firetruck, and a digger.

He insisted on doing all of the puzzles before we moved on with opening presents. The next morning Eddie came into our bedroom with this box of puzzles. We did all four puzzles before breakfast and again after. It was a hit! What I didn't realize, though, is that we were also giving him a lunchbox (the puzzle box), which he was way excited about.

His cousins gave him a zebra squirt gun that he's pretty excited about. He likes to use it in the pool.


We also gave Eddie a trike that we were pretty excited about. I was surprised how well he could pedal right away. He's adorable on it, but he gets tired easily. It's not always the most fun for me to be lugging it home in the heat if I have the stroller and everything. Hopefully it will get more use when it cools down a little.

Peter's pretty cute on it, too.


Eddie received a birthday package from his "Grandma and Grandpa with the castle" (Ben's parents have a toy castle that Eddie loves to play with). Before the package was even opened, Eddie said, "It's going to be a train!". He was right!

He also got this truck. He was so excited about the truck that he honestly didn't notice that it was filled with candy!


Eyeing up the candy.
Not sure he likes the circus peanuts.

We all love the new book he got! It is so sweet!

Edison had a great third birthday!

Eddie's Third Birthday Cake

Both Eddie and Peter helped make Eddie's cake this year. Eddie selected strawberry cake with chocolate frosting, though I made him go with vanilla frosting for dying purposes.


We made a train cake. Cousins, Kyle and Jeremy, were visiting and helped us decorate the train. Eddie chose to decorate the caboose, but only after he put the lights on the engine. Eddie ate more candy than he put on the cake. He didn't think the little Oreos needed to be the wheels, as he thought M&Ms, his favorite candy, worked just as well. Kyle was very meticulous about his decorating, even including wheels on the unfrosted side of the cake. Jeremy's philosophy seemed to be "the more the merrier", and he really piled the candy on.

The finished product! Looks great! Notice Eddie put three candles on each train car.

We had Eddie's favorite icecream, mint chocolate chip. I thought it adorable that Ben purchased Edy's brand!


We let each child select which train car his piece of cake came from. I thought Eddie might pick the caboose since he decorated it. He picked the engine, though. I assume because it was green, Eddie's favorite color. In fact, Michelle tried to get a picture of green-shirted Eddie when he was eating a green piece of licorice while a green slice of cake and green icecream were on his plate. Cake is still a finger food, apparently. Shortly after Peter's picture was taken, he choked on his cake. It tasted so good, he couldn't wait to get it all in his mouth.

Happy third birthday, my sweet, little Eddie! I love you and am so happy I'm your mama!

Sliding

Eddie and Peter love playing at the park. They especially love the slides. Peter loves climbing up the slides and wants to go down by himself, which makes me nervous. This particular day at the park, Peter spent sleeping.

Eddie's Wink

Look, everyone! Eddie can wink! Can't you tell?

Sunglasses Buddies

Peter and Pacifiers

Peter has recently been playing with his pacifiers; he hasn't used a pacifier since he was three months old. He likes to put them in his mouth and crawl around with them. Usually his top lip is curled over the top of the pacifier. He also likes to blow on the pacifier, like a bubble wand (he loves blowing bubbles and can blow them himself).

Popsicles

Eddie actually likes popsicles this summer; he wouldn't eat them last summer. Peter likes them, too, though he doesn't always differentiate between the popsicle and the stick.

Drinking From a Straw

Peter's learned to drink from a straw and loves it. Maybe I will finally be able to get him to drink milk! (I'm not going to hold my breath on that one!)

Conundrum

Some of you may be wondering what I have been up to lately. I have been wondering that myself. My main goal each day is to survive the heat and humidity. I do this mainly by not leaving the house for anything-even just to walk to the car. While at home, we are trying to have some fun to keep from going crazy. It doesn't always work that well, though. Things are better now, but we went through a few weeks where I was convinced that having two children was two too many. My children are almost-three and one, and they are fighting with each other all the time. I feel bad for both of them. Poor Peter has no say over anything because Eddie is the boss, and poor Eddie can't do anything he wants because Peter messes it all up. It's a conundrum. Here are some pictures of the fun we've been having. What you can't tell in the pictures, though, is that each activity also became a fight.

Boxcar races are great fun, but it's kind of hard to wait your turn. And, frankly, they can wear a mom out pretty darn quick!

It's fun to play in the cupboards, but who gets to decide when the cupboard doors will be opened and when they will be closed? And can each child decide for himself when he will crawl out and when he will crawl in?

Coloring on the white erase board is fun, but who gets which color of marker? Who gets to control the eraser? And is there really enough room for two to draw at the same time?

Watching tv is fun, but only if we are sitting really close together, says Peter.
Watching tv is fun, but only if we are sitting far apart, says Eddie.

Playing in boxes is fun (and Peter could happily sit in a box by himself for a half an hour), but pushing a box over with your little brother in it is apparently much more fun.

Good thing I love these two little boys so much!

"A Simple Recipe"

Here's a video of Eddie reciting a poem from the Friend magazine. He loves this poem! Back in March, he could recite practically the whole thing by himself. I have included the poem so you can tell what he is saying (he gets pretty camera-shy when making movies).

Jane Lamb, “A Simple Recipe,” Friend, Mar 2009, 27

I know a simple recipe that anyone can make.
It isn’t for an apple pie; it isn’t for a cake.
You need not stir in sugar. Don’t add a pinch of salt.
It isn’t for a cookie. It isn’t for a malt.
It comes from Heavenly Father, who watches from above.
You start with just your family; add kindness, faith, and love.
Throw in some joy and laughter, and of course a cup of care.
Don’t forget to add the sharing and a generous dose of prayer.
Make sure you stir it really well, so everyone can see
You’ve made a happy, loving home from this simple recipe.

Peter's New Carseat

I finally changed Peter into his forward-facing carseat. He LOVES it! He is so excited every time we get in the car. He points at everything in the car and out the window. He has a lot to say. It's so fun to turn around and see my two little boys looking at me!

Water Bottles

Peter loves to drink out of our water bottles. As you can see, the water just flows down his chin, showering everyone and everything in the way. When he's done, he puts the lid back on.

Thumbs Ups!

Eddie is so stinkin' cute! He gives thumbs up with his pointer fingers and says "Thumbs ups!". We laugh every time but have never gotten a picture until Mark's wedding (and it's blurry). Eddie was "thumbs ups"ing his mac and cheese dinner.

Utah Vacation

We just got back from the best vacation ever. We went to Utah for my brother's wedding. Here are a few pictures highlights.We took Eddie and Peter to the Bountiful Temple to show Eddie where his mom and dad got married. The tulips were lovely. Upon leaving Eddie cried and said, "I don't want to go! The temple is so fun!".
Peter got to experience crawling up stairs and loved every minute of it.
Cousins! Kyle and Jeremy. We met new cousin Rayne, but were so busy holding her that we didn't take any pictures!
My mom became the "grandma with the silly car" because she really drives a yellow Beetle.
Seeing Mark and Trina SOO happy at their wedding. Seriously, if you know Mark, you can see how much happier he is since Trina became part of his life.
I love this picture of my brothers at the wedding (Tom, Brent, Kaleb, and William).
The downtown library! So awesome! Eddie loved it and was disappointed when we had to start going back to the "train library" in Tallahassee.
A very affordable and perfect-sized aquarium. Eddie loved the sharks, and Peter learned to say fish ('sh)!Peter had time to squeeze a few piano lessons in.
Jumping on grandma's tramp.