Booty Camp

Okay folks, brace yourself...Ethan has officially joined the ranks of the big boys!! Ethan is now enrolled in "booty-camp"! I call it booty-camp because all we have been doing for the last 7 days is talking about using the potty in our house. We started potty training three days before his 3rd birthday and it's going great! He has now informed us that he wears big boy underpants and diapers are for babies, not big boys. Many of you may be able to relate to the joy I experienced when he used the potty for the first time. It's crazy that I would allow myself to feel so euphoric when we said goodbye to Huggies and hello to underwear. For a split second I felt a bit of sadness and then I snapped back into reality. Only two kids in diapers now! This is an early Christmas gift to our garbage men! Hallelujah!

Hopefully Ethan won't hold this picture against us when he's 16 and he has brought his first girlfriend home to meet us and I can't resist breaking out the scrapbook. I just had to take this picture of him in these absurdly large nighttime undies. He just barely meets the minimum weight for these disposable disasters. He either needs to start eating 5 happy meals a day to fill these out or we need to find a different product! Any of you experienced moms out there - I welcome any advice!! I'm just thrilled that a couple of M&M's can make him feel like a superstar after going to the potty. Way to go Ethan!

Summer Fun

There is no big theme to this post. Just some fun photos I took on a lazy and extremely hot afternoon with the boys. We finally got our yard fixed and it is now officially kid friendly! I'll include more pictures of the new yard in the next few posts. We got the giant hump of rocks removed and I can relax a little more when the twins are out there playing.

What a silly boy!

Nothing says summer like Capri-Sun and a bubble machine. Thanks to the hubby and Jason for the awesome misters outside. It's actually pleasant to sit in the 110 degree weather!

I'm loving this ridiculously huge smile on Mason's face. If you look closely, you can see that he finally has a top tooth. Hooray!

Carson looks like such a little boy here. He now has 8 teeth with more coming in at the moment. What a cutie!

Ethan Turns 3!

This weekend we celebrated Ethan's 3rd birthday at Esselmont park. We love this park, not only because it's right around the corner, but also because it has a great water feature to keep the kids cool during the scorching summer. We had so much fun watching the kids splash and bounce around.

Eric is really looking forward to teaching Ethan how to golf. It helps that we have turf in our backyard. It's almost as if he has his very own putting green!

Ethan and Daddy sharing a cupcake at the party.

Yes there is supposed to be an E candle on this cake. However, the party setup didn't go as I had planned and I was a bit frazzled when I was trying to assemble the candles. So...I accidentally broke the E off and it became "Three-than" instead of Ethan. Not exactly how I envisioned it to look but it made us smile nonetheless. "Happy Birthday Three-than!"

Ethan and his friend Andrew being silly in the bouncehouse.

Curious George Party

We had a Curious George party so I decorated the gift bags with monkey faces and tales. It was actually a lot of fun to do this little project.

Blowing out the candles!

Mason had no trouble finishing off a cupcake with tons of green icing!

Uncle Jason bought Ethan a child size guitar since Ethan is obsessed with Jason's guitar. He absolutely loves to play it! I'm thinking he may have a music career in his future. :)

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Three years ago on July 19th, we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. We could have never imagined just how much he would change our lives. The past three years have been some of the most joyous times of our lives. We are so excited to watch him grow up! Happy 3rd Birthday Ethan!

3 weeks old

Facts about Ethan
Born: July 19, 2005
Time: 11:50 a.m.
Weight: 6 pounds 15 ounces
Length: 19.5 inches
*It was 119 degrees the day he was born. A record high for that day in Vegas!

1 year old - San Diego Zoo

2 years old - San Diego beach

3 years old - Curious George birthday party

Likes:
The Wiggles
Curious George
Books
Getting dirty
Icing (can you tell?)
Music and dancing
Art
Cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes
Popsicles

Dislikes:
Macaroni and cheese
Timeout

Birthday Parties and Rainstorms

We had a great weekend filled with birthday parties and rainstorms. It was so nice to have rain so we could actually get out to take the dogs for a walk and not melt from the heat! It was nice to just relax since the next couple of weekends will be pretty full with Ethan's third birthday and our long awaited trip to San Diego.

It's so interesting to see how Ethan plays differently with each twin. He tends to be more playful and at times aggresive with Carson, and a bit more gentle with Mason. Here they are sharing a sweet moment.

My sister sent Ethan a scooter for his 3rd birthday and the twins loved playing inside the box and with mommy's shoes. This was a good thing since Ethan still has a hard time sharing his toys!

Ethan was invited to his friend Parker's birthday party this weekend. It actually turned out to be a nice morning since it rained the night before. They had so much fun splashing and playing at the park.

Cupcakes with lots of icing...Ethan's favorite food group!

Summer Trip to Texas

This is an extremely long post from our summer Texas trip so readers beware! We had a weekend filled with birthday parties and baptisms. Although the flight to Texas was a disaster (posted below) it was worth every second. Every moment with our family was a cherished one and it's getting more and more special with the new additions to our families. The twins and Kaitlyn are only 3.5 months apart so it was really neat to see them interact. Kaitlyn even reached the milestone of pulling up to standing when we were there. Peer pressure I guess. As always the time went by way too fast and we can't wait for our next visit.

Eric rented a Toyota Sienna minivan and had to constantly slip in little tidbits of information on how economical they were in hopes that we would convert...yet again. Although it was spacious, I am still not crossing over to the dark side! I think it worked against him when he tried to sell me on the fact that he could put all three boys in the same row. This put Ethan at an advantage where he could easily taunt the twins. I think I'll stick with the "Beast".

Ryan and Ethan posing in front of the fountain where they held the baptism.

What a sweetie! All dressed up for her baptism.

The Roup family on baptism day.

Family Fun in Texas

Mimi and baby Kaitlyn

Me and Papa hanging with the boys. I was so glad my grandparents and my mom made it to Round Rock for the party.

The boys: Mason, Ethan, Ryan and Carson

Me and my sis Kim

Pool Time and Texas Heat

Ryan does his scary pose before jumping off the ledge. I think he learned that in his Little Ninjas class!

Eric with the boys.

I just had to post this to show how completely drenched I was running in the lovely Texas humidity. Gross! I think my body forgot what it was like to sweat!

My sister did a fantastic job picking out the birthday cake for the boys. It was so delicious and decorated perfectly I might add.

More Time in Texas

Uncle Eric and baby Kaitlyn enjoyed some one on one time during our trip. We really enjoyed spending time with her. Girls are so different!

This shot cracks me up! Notice how perfectly posed my sister's kids are. The fact that our kiddoes are all in diapers is an accomplishment!

Ethan was an absolute water rat! We got in the pool everyday except the last day we were there. He has definitely overcome his fear of the water!

There's nothing better than snacks after swimming!

We made it!! The flight to Austin was a complete nightmare. Ethan decided to headbutt Mason and all three kiddoes screamed the last 30 minutes of the flight which seemed like an eternity. Carson finally crashed when we landed the plane of course. Eric decided that a vasectomy didn't seem like such a scary thing after all...

Ryan is a pro at telling the twins apart. It was great for him to be able to get to know them better. They love their cousins!

The queen of the castle. Could she be any cuter??

Dinner for two? Carson and Kaitlyn bonded over peas and anything else they could share.