Skating good time

To start off the Holiday week I took the boys ice skating with Ty's preschool a week before Christmas. I was worried about getting Ty there with the other two little ones. Ty went skating last year and I was pretty sure he could manage by himself while I sat on the side with Austin, but what to do about Tanner? A few other moms from school said they would be happy to help with Tanner and after a few failed attempts at getting someone to watch him that morning, it was the only option. I warned the moms it might not be too fun, but everyone said they were good to go, so we went. Tyler was so excited about skating he stayed up until 11pm the night before. Tanner had no idea what he was in for, but he's always up for something new.

We arrived at the ice rink in the morning with everyone bundled up tightly. I had forgotten just how cold it was in there. I know that seems like a no brainer- with it being an ice rink and all, but it was still a little shocking stepping inside, and I'm sure it doesn't help that I prefer not to be in an area that is less than about 65 degrees and 75% is optimal. But regardless of the cold the boys jump into the rink. The rink has these cool walker type things for kids, and adults to grab onto. Ty grabbed one and was off flying with no fear, which is unusual for Ty. He is my cautious boy, always testing the water before diving in. But he proved me wrong and headed straight across the ice to the huge pile of snow they had in the corner. He stopped off there and made a ton of snow balls with his friends.

Tanner wasn't as speedy getting on to the ice. While he was super determined to get out there with his brother and friends, he couldn't figure out how to keep his feet under him. Gratefully my friends jumped in and grabbed him. It took him a little bit to get the hang of it, but not too long after that he was off skating. Actually I was super surprised at his balance. It was incredible considering he is 2.5. About half way into the morning he could grab onto the walker thing and skate across the floor. It was really amazing to watch and I was a proud mama. He also had a great time on the sled the gals rented. I loved this picture of him sitting with the two girls and Erin pushing them all.

By the time I took Tanner off the ice his feet had gotten so cold they were bright red and he was in tears, but after we warmed them up he was all smiles again. Austin did great too. He napped for 85% of the trip and the other half he gladly hung out in other mom's arms. He is such a perfect little baby.

The only bad part about the trip was that now when the kids drive by the rink and they beg to go in. They had so much fun, I can't wait for next year when Tanner gets to go his his preschool class.

I LOVE STOMP

So of course I am way behind on my bloggin' and there was a lot that happened with family and friends in between now and the last blog so I'll try to find some time to catch up on everything before the new year!

But until then this is what happened last night. My family and I went to the show Stomp and I LOVED IT!! Oh my gosh it was amazing. I found this video, but it doesn't do it justice at all.



My parents have exposed me to theater and performances of all types since I was a little girl and I love all of them. But I have never been to something like this. The talent each one of those performers possesses is incredible. My checks hurt after the show because I was smiling the entire time. If you haven't gone and seen the show... you have to next time it's close to you. I am tempted to take at least Ty is not Tanner too next time they are in town. I think the boys would just love it. They use everything from brooms and garbage cans to match boxes and newspapers to make these rhythms and "musical" numbers. It's incredible. The best part was listen to Eric die laughing during one of the parts. It was hysterical. He laughed so hard he cried.

But after the show I stayed up until 2 talking to Dee and then I was up somewhere around 3 to feed the baby and then Anya, my dog, got out of our yard at 5am and it took us almost 2hours to find her, so I'm a little tired and I'm going to jump into bed and hopefully get some sleep. That is if Eric will stop trying to make his own beats on whatever he can find around the house. He hasn't stopped since we got home last night. Tell him to shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :)

How do you like them apples?

A few weekends ago my mom and I went old school and made some apple sauce. Actually it was like 80lbs of apples, so it was a lot of sauce. It tasted so yummy!! Now, I know that it's not really old school to make your own apple sauce, and frankly I know I'll be doing stuff like this more and more often, but it was my first time, but so not my last. We also make some pie filling and froze it so next time we want fresh, well - semi-fresh apple pie we can make a quick crust and pop in the apples and we are good to go. This whole motherhood thing is really turning a new leaf in my life. I am making all sorts of stuff from scratch that I would only buy in the store before and I have this huge desire to be self-sufficient in so many areas like sewing and cooking etc. For many people stuff like this comes so easily and naturally, but it's all new to me and I'm loving it. Next on the list, bread making. The mixer just got ordered today and soon we'll have fresh bread in no time. I'm also looking into a greenhouse for my backyard. How fun would that be?

Friday Foto

I'm not doing what I'm suppose to right now because I should be working and cleaning and twenty million other things and I'm taking a second to blog. I took some pictures this afternoon of the boys and even though Austin wouldn't look at the camera, he wasn't crying either so I thought I'd post it really quick. Three boys.... how fun is my life?

Christmas Tree Hunting

Last Saturday Eric and I took the boys out to find our Christmas Tree this year. It was so stinkin' cold outside, it made me wish there was snow on the ground. The kids had such a good time checking out all the different types of trees and they even found one that was their size. Then Grandma and Grandpa showed up and the fun really began. The boys got to play hide-n-seek in between all the trees and some other games that I didn't understand. I got put in charge of standing guard by a tree my mom maybe wanted while she went to look for a few more. Unfortunately I spent a good part of the trip with that tree because my mom forgot about me as she was half way across the lot choosing another tree. I eventually got tired of being an obedient daughter and found my family picking out their tree. Silly mom. We found the perfect little tree for our family too (pictures of the tree to come soon) and besides being half way frozen and being forgotten, we had a good time.

Austin, Luke and Austin

Saturday night I went to an event in Granite Bay where they had hundreds of Nativity sets from around the world displayed for people to see. I had a chance to photograph the event last year for them and I went this year to see how it was going. They ended up with a lot more participation this year and the rooms and displays were beautiful. I went with my mom and it was fun to see all the variety. It was a nice holiday experience and a reminder of what this holiday is really all about.

While I was there my friend Noel was also there with her husband and her new little baby who's name is also Austin. He was born just two weeks after my little Austin. Then our other friend Diana came with her husband and their new little boy Luke who was born on the 7th of Nov. It was fun to have our three boys together and there were many comments from other guests at the event who knew the three of us girls how fun it was to see the three girls who grew up together all back together with their babies. And it was fun. I've know Diana since I was 12 and Noel and I became good friend in High School. Of course my baby was the biggest, but you all know I just have BIG BABIES! He's still cute. It will be fun to watch the boys grow up together:)
The best picture came when we gave all three boys to Mary and Joseph to hold in the manger.

Three Kids, Two Dogs and a blog

Oh my goodness, where is all the extra time in the world? It obviously has been sucked right out of my house and is being used somewhere else because I'll tell ya.... I don't have a second to spare it seems. And finding time to blog... ha, that's been impossible.

I feel super, super behind so I have a few minutes before I have to pick up Ty, the baby is asleep and Tanner is tearing apart the toy cupboard, so I'll takes these few precious moments to eat my breakfast (at 11:15am) and type out a few things.

Our holidays were very nice this year. I went down to LA to visit my grandma and Aunt and Eric flew down Thanksgiving day to join us. I took off Tuesday with the boys and my parents. It ended up being a 7 hour trip, but they boys did very good considering. I have to thank my dad and feel a little sorry for him too. He had Ty in his car, and Ty didn't nap, or watch his movies, instead he talked THE WHOLE TIME! He is a major chatter box and believe me, he can talk for 7 hours, just ask my dad. It ended up raining while we were there, but the boys had their rain boots and grandpa took them out on several walks. After my dad brought them back from one of their more extensive outside adventures, Tanner literally had a cup of water pour out of his boots. Obviously they had a blast. My grandma got to meet her third greatgrand child, and she loved him. But who wouldn't love little Austin, he's perfect. On Wednesday my Grandma, Aunt and myself went and got our toes done. Oh my goodness, I almost forgot how much I love pedicures. We should all get them every week. Okay, maybe every other week. Austin came too and took a good snooze on my lap while I was pampered. Then that evening we all celebrated my Grandma's 85th birthday. She is such an amazing lady. And she only looks like she's 69 :) When Eric joined us we drove to my dad's cousin's house and had dinner with our extended family. I love getting together with everyone. It's so nice to have family. Our drive home was uneventful and I was so glad to be back in our own world. But we really did have a great time.

Okay, so I know that was super quick on the recap of the holiday, but Tanner gave up on the toys and he's now in my lap typing a letter every other word I write and I think the babies waking up, so until next time that there is a spare minute...

The Three Lawrence Boys

So wow. Three is a lot. In many ways it's easier and then I tried to take all three out in public today. I wont be doing that again any time soon believe you me. It might not of been so bad, except it was the Dr.'s office and that's just too small of a space for all three boys and a parent who's trying to be attentive. But I am loving all the snuggle time I am getting with little Austin, even if it's at 3 and 4 in the morning.

This yucky cold just wont go away and it's really nasty, so that has been a major bummer at the Lawrence house. Unfortunately Eric got a cough really bad with his version of what's going around to the point where he couldn't even run his marathon he's been training for. He was so disappointed. He has another one in March I think, but it's still a bummer.

I have not been a good mom/photographer and taken pictures of my little one like I want to, but here are the few I have and also some fun ones of his older brothers.





Other than that, I think life is getting back on track. I can't believe November is almost over, I feel like I've missed out on a whole month!!! Hopefully December everything will be set and we'll be able to hit the ground running. Here's to hoping.

Austin Robert Lawrence

Sorry I've been gone again, but lots has happened.  October was full of Halloween fun and we loved it!  Unfortunately Halloween day Ty woke up from his nap with a horrible cold.  A cough, a runny nose, the whole 9.  Needless to say the night was not as full of trick-or-treating as we had planned but the boys did get a few houses in and then had a big night sleep.  The rest of the weekend was centered around making sure Ty was okay and had plenty of rest.  Tanner of course followed suit, not nearly as bad but he sure went from a 10 to about a 4 and they moved at about half speed for a few days.  Then Tuesday morning started our big day we had been waiting for for 9 months.  It was 6 am and I was getting ready for my weekly networking meeting when I felt a cramp that was a little stronger than anything I had felt up to that point.  I didn't want to make a big deal about it because you just never know, but as I sat there and felt that same pain in about 5 min. intervals I thought I might mention to Eric to get the kids dressed just in case.  He got right on that, and by the time he was done I suggested he get in the shower and we should probably go to the hospital.  I finished drying my hair and we were off.  We got to the hospital at 7 and they had me check in and then just left me there for about a half hour to make sure I was really in labor.  I know they have to do this, but the whole time I was thinking, if they don't get me my epidural soon, I am going to have the baby o-natural like I did with Ty and that was so not okay with me.  Finally they check and said, "oh yep, you'll be staying with us." Duh!  Into my room I went and I luckily got that wonderful drug at about 9:00.  Relief washed over me almost instantly and I was ready to finish it up.  My amazing Dr. came in shortly after and said I was going to have my baby in about 20 min.  And sure enough, about 10 min. later we were ready to go.  After 3 big pushes the room was full of laughter as my 9 lb 6 oz baby joined us.  The laughter was because of his size.  It really is incredible thinking about something that big being inside of me.  Austin was 20.5 inch long and a cute chunky baby.  We came home 24 hours later and everything was perfect.  He is a wonderful baby and we are so happy that he has come to be apart of our home.  I'll take some better photos soon... as soon as I am done with my turn of this silly cold that we are still sharing.  But until then, here are some pictures from Ausitn's first day with us.

Halloween is in Full Swing

No baby, but that just means that I get to enjoy all the ghoulish festivities with my kids, and they are having so much fun. Last Saturday night we had a trunk-or-treat at my church which was a blast. The best part of the night was when Tanner was trying to get out of the cake walk which he didn't mean to be in in the first place and some kids pushed him out of the way right when the music stopped. The push made Tanner stumble onto a number and when they called the number... it was Tanner's. So he won a cupcake. That's right, my kid is a winner without even trying. Hehe.
So on Monday night we carved our big pumpkin and the boys had a great time.
They only liked the gooey ickyness on the inside so-so and about half way into the project they decided to eat ice cream and watch dad finish the job.
But when all was said and done, tummies full and counter cleaned, we all were very proud of our spider pumpkin.
Tomorrow I think we are painting the rest. You can only scoop and carve so much you know. I'll let you know how that goes.

Saturday Shoot

After the boys woke up from naps I was wrapping up a photoshoot in my living room with a friend and the boys wanted to show off their stuff. Well, Tanner wanted to show off his stuff, Ty had to be talked into it a little. Regardless... I couldn't pass up the chance to get some cute photos of them.