Owen and Brody are THREE

My boys are THREE!

This was as good a pic as they were going to give me of the two of them together.

A little pre-dinner present to tide them over. Owen is totally crazy about Scooby Doo so he opened some characters from the show. Brody opened a Wall-E figure. He has stood by Wall-E for years now.

Poor babies didn't get any presents. Can you see the huge, goofy grins on their faces?

Let the opening begin!! Brody started to be interested in presents at Christmas, but NOW he is totally into it. There is no double-opening for Owen anymore.

A basketball goal from Nana and Papa D. They need to get to practicing. Might have a superstar on my hands?!?!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

Daddy won present of the year! This is a set of all the characters from "Mater's Tall Tales". We had to end the night with this gift.

Great Ma and Great Pa came in town to help us celebrate. They enjoyed watching the boys tear through their presents, but I think they enjoyed Henley's snuggles the most!

Meet Stinky. He is a trash truck that talks, eats toys, and them passes them through the other end. Brody thinks he is the coolest thing ever.

TOTALLY OVERWHELMED!

Must go to sleep!

The boys were practically twitching when we put them to bed. Of course, Owen took an armload of cars to bed with him. Brody had a more difficult time. He couldn't even decide what to take and was practically shaking. I rubbed his back for 2 seconds and he was out!

The Sweetest Things!

It was a HAPPY HAPPY Valentine's Day at the Rogers House this year! Lots of love!

Henley was beyond excited about the big day!

Our three little Valentines. How stinkin' cute are these kiddos????
Owen was all grins and kisses!

Sweet Brody was LOVIN' his Skittles

So LOVE-able!

They even showed Holly the LOVE

Daddy sent his little girl her first Valentine's bouquet. (Her lucky momma received one too! Daddy is soooooo sweet to his girls!)

Brody and I made cupcakes for our sweet friends Valentine morning

He was TOTALLY into this project. So excited I have a cooking assistant in my future!

Owen wanted no part in baking. He was more into modeling his Buzz backpack...

and lunch box. We were heading to the YMCA for a workout and swim lessons (hence the luggage).

Look what Henley's Valentine brought her!!!

I can't wait to see her sweet little tushie in this suit!

Oooooooo! Toy Story Cars!

What?

There's so muchLOVEin this house!

Green Bean Time

It's time to start food!!!!!

Henley's first reaction to green beans!
"Really. You expect me to eat this stuff?"

FLASHBACK!
At least she is a much neater eater than her brothers!

She did enjoy the water from her new sippy cup to wash down those beans!

Look at me! I can hold my bottle ALL by myself!

The first couple of days Henley was not sure about her green beans. My pediatrician told me with the boys to keep feeding them the food until they give in and eat it. It only took Henley about two days. We started green beans on Saturday and by today she was scarfing them down. We have also added oatmeal to her diet. She is a fan! I only gave the boys cereal in a bottle, but this little lady loves to eat her cereal thick and from a spoon. I'm so proud of her!

Blackout & Blizzard 2011

Brrrrrr.....Baby, it's cold outside!

We had our snow for the year and it was a good one! We don't see this much snow very often and while it was beautiful, we were very ready for it to leave. The snow was so fun, but the extreme cold was not! These outside picture were snapped at the chilly temp of 9 degrees!!!

Brody had to take his snow globe into the snow. This became the toy of choice during the snow days. I guess it was the irony?

Owen's main concern was his shoes. They are still rather new and special and he was concerned for snow damage

Brody tried to make a run for it! Thank goodness Grammie was joining us for dinner and she managed to chase him down before he got too far.

Why did mom not chase him down? Poor shoe choice!!!!

I wanted to take the boys outside all day but never got sister to sleep and boys dressed all at the same time.

BLACKOUT!!!!

We started out our morning with screaming little boys. Around 4am Brody and Owen were both awake requesting "jooooooice" (thats juice in case you don't speak toddler). I tossed their juice to them, turned on the Disney channel, told them not to get out of bed until the sun came up and closed the door (mom was pooped from the recent illnesses that have plagued our house). FYI: The boys never sleep with their door open. At 5:30 Todd and I were awoken by screaming, while stumbling to their room I thought they were trying to sneak out of their room and had shut fingers in the door. As I was trying to wake up and figure out where I was, Todd points out the power is out. LOVELY! It's about 2 degrees outside. We get the boys to our bed and light some candles (which they kept blowing out) and give them our iPads to play games while we assess the situation. We find out power will not be restored until at least 8. Hmmmm, that's two and half hours away, it's getting cold, we call Grammie, she's got power...We're outta here! Getting three children dressed and downstairs and out the door to daddy's truck in the dark...so fun!

Owen was not bother at all by any of these obstacles. Brody crashed as soon as we got to Grammies and got warm. Grammie's house was warm and only suffered two short blackouts due to the rolling blackouts they were running to conserve power.

What else can I get into. Glad Grammie has reading glasses so Owen can stay up on his current events

Hello? Anyone out there? Anyone know how to get our power back on?

My wonderful neighbor kept me up to date on our power situation at home. Apparently just our little section of the neighbor was blacked out. Around 11 our power was restored and Todd ran home to crank up the heaters and bring back my car so we would have car seats for the babies. He laughed at me because all the light in the house were on where I had been when he went home. I guess every switch I passed by I flipped on during the blackout. Just habit, I guess.

I did find the boys headlamp to be beneficial during our time of trouble. Since this happened, I have purchased flashlights and dispersed them around the house. Clearly, we will never have another blackout because I am READY!

Our winter wonderland

Family dinner

We had "our best family dinner out in public" ever tonight! We headed up to the club for dinner. This morning we went to the park and Lowes because we were so excited to be out of the house!

Henley was dressed and ready to go! She fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner and slept until my last bite!


Owen workin hard on the Etch-a-Sketch (which has the kid's menu on the back)


Brody enjoying some pre-dinner yogurt covered raisens


What's this enoroumous cracker thing?


What's this red sauce???? Ketchup??? It's oh-so-yummy! I had to explain to Todd this moment is to me like him watching the boys take the field for their first football game. I love ketchup and this is our first taste!


It's so good when it hits the lips!!!! Owen very much likes!!!!! Oh, he really is my child!!


Brody "Cheers!" this man loves to celebrate life!



Look who woke up as we were leaving. She slept so good!


We came home and Owen took off Momma and Dada's shoes and socks! How do we teach him to massage????
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BTW: both boys picked the Steelers when we asked each individually "Packers or Steelers" regaurding tomorrow's Super Bowl.

Happy Half Birthday, Henley!

Oh Yeah! I'm SIX months old! Look at me!

Little Miss Thing is half a year old. She is so much fun and we are loving every minute (and of course, I can't believe she's already 6 months old, tear!).

Here are the official stats from her well check today:
Head: 16.75
Height: 27.5" (90%)
Weight: 17 lbs. 2.5 oz (75%)

Our hair is a tough situation. Right around Christmas we noticed she was looking like she was sporting a toupee. Well, while this pic looks bad, she is getting some new growth. Her hair is coming in blond and she has lots of blond on top too. Needless to say we are wearing lots of large bows, flowers, and hats. I don't care what her hair looks like, she's the cutest little girl I've ever seen!

Here's a lovely side shot! She does have some side-hair growth. I don't know if I should brush it up and curl it into the top of what????

As you can see, she is sitting up great with the help of the beloved Boppy. She can sit pretty well without support but does get distracted and topples over. She is not a big roller. Dr. Nabulsi asked about her rolling abilities at her check-up today and I had to confess she doesn't spend a lot of time on the floor, therefor she has not gotten the opportunity to practice rolling. Plus, she still loves to be swaddled at night so there's no rolling going on there either. We came home and practiced today. It's kinda scary because you have to constantly remind the boys not to step on their sister. They are completely unaware of personal space!

Sleeping: Our little angel sleeps well. I've realized she's not great, as her brothers were, but it's not her fault. Being trapped at home this past week with sick kiddos, I've noticed she takes tons of cat naps. It's not her fault, she just very adaptive. She sleeps so well in the car and normally we are constantly on the go so she gets lots of naps. She also still loves those swing naps.The boys had two solid naps everyday in their beds without fail! Sorry Sweet girl, that's what you get for being the third child. Since she is not a hard-core napper, she is soooo ready for bed at bedtime. She is quickly in bed right behind her brothers. I bathe her while Todd does the boys and once the boys are tucked in at 8:00 she is a quick nursing session behind them. She usually sleeps till 7:00 on a good day, or 6:00 of a bad day. Good baby!

Henley's Buddies!

Henley is totally enamored with her brothers! They are wonderful babysitters and don't even know it. If she's in her jumper (which she loves to jump in) or her Bumbo and they are in the room she is happy. The boys have no idea they are providing her with entertainment. We love to chase the boys with her and hear her wonderful giggle. We are close to saying "Momma" and that's not just me thinking I hear it. Todd has heard it too! She sits on the kitchen table while Todd and I eat dinner usually. Lately she and Owen sit in the high chairs (Brody likes to eat at the kids table so he can grab a bite and run around) and she watch Owen eat so we are having peaceful meals here lately. I am still nursing, but we have introduced cereal. It's not going great, but we are trying. She and I both love the ease of the nursing, but I do realize she needs food. She is getting better at eating, but it's still a mystery at the beginning of each meal. We'll get there! Before long she will be eating better than her picky brothers (I HOPE)!

We love our little girl so much! She is so much fun and we are so blessed to have a happy healthy beautiful baby girl! My favorite time of our day is bedtime. It's my time with just her. I love to feed her, kiss her goodnight, and tuck her in. Todd has the joy of getting her up in the mornings. She is so fun to get out of bed in the morning because she has a sly little grin and giggles when you pick her up. I love when Todd brings her to me in our bed and it's just the three of us for a little bit before our wild day begins. We are so blessed by this sweet little angel!