Happy SUPER(hero) Halloween

I love holidays. Halloween is no different. I love to play dress up my boys! I hope they always let me play dress up with them. ;-)

Tabor was our little Captain America (which of course made his dad so super happy) We were going for a family of Avengers but Ty & I opted out at the last minute...next year though we are ALL dressing up!

Ok the look on Tabor's face is..."cheese...I'm doing this for chocolate."

Titus is in character...being The HULK. Ok and glaring at Cali the dog wondering if she was coming his way.

Oh how I love my little Superheroes. Captain America is trying to smash the Hulk's foot in this picture ha.

We had such a blast dressing up and going to the Campbell's house for Frito Pie, dessert and trick or treating! It was so much fun.

I love my little trick or treaters. Little did we realize that Titus was picking up a piece of glass and sticking it in his mouth. This little guy is sneaky sneaky.

Oh Titus the look of concern is more of fear of being caught than of having glass in your mouth.

This was the first year that Tabor actually understood what was happening. It started off with us telling him to ring the doorbell, instructing him to say "trick or treat", reminding him to take only one piece and then to say thank you for his candy. We then had to explain that we didn't get to eat the candy until the end (what a cruel trick since the parent's then go through the stash and eat all the good stuff ha). By the end of the night he was running to the door, saying trick or treat, asking for extra candy "for my brother" (who has 2 bottom teeth only), then thanking them for being awake and informing them he has to hurry and get more candy at the next house. Ty and I thought it was really funny how quickly he figured out how to work the system. Titus sat in the wagon sucking on his blankie. We should've dressed him up as Linus. All in all - a very fun halloween night! 

Our little Pumpkins

Oh fall. How I love fall time. I love pumpkins. I love to eat them in every and anything. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin spice lattes. Oh I could go on forever I just love it.

I LOVE going to pumpkin patches and I LOVE pictures of my little pumpkins holding even smaller pumpkins. I love that it leads in to my next favorite season CHRISTmas!!!

I love being thankful. I love counting my blessings. Thank you God for these sweet little pumpkins!

Tabor found the perfect pumpkin. He named it "punky" - Punky now sits on our doorstep.

Punky-head - He was so proud of his pumpkin choice. Oh I love this little guy!

How long can I dress them alike!? ha! Ok Ok I'll stop!!! (maybe)

Titus loved the pumpkins. He tried to eat all the stems and sit on top of them all.

Ok there was also an added bonus about going to this Pumpkin Patch...there was a Market Street down the street! We spent just as long shopping and eating lunch there as we did touring the pumpkin patch!

My little pumpkin is ONE. (I figure if I keep saying it I will believe it eventually)

Oh Shelly Belly...we love you so! These boys have such a blast with you. MOVE TO TEXAS! You belong here :-)

Shelly Belly and I went through the corn maze. We were HORRIBLE at it. I hope we are never stranded in a corn maze together without another family to follow. They were eating popcorn and we were hoping they'd drop a trail for us. They were a little annoyed that we followed them out- this was a pic of us pretending not to follow them. ha!

What do you do with cornstalks?? Decorate with them?

Yay for Boo & Kiki being here with us and Shelly Belly too!! We love you guys!

Happy Fall time from our little pumpkins (or as Tabor used to say it "cunkin"

Potty Trained Tabor

Potty training. The words alone sent a shiver down my spine. I was going to wait until next year before I tried to conquer this. I was told boys take longer and it was a nightmare if you tried it before they were ready. So my motto was wait until he's good and ready and I was SURE he just was NOT ready.

Until suddenly he cried that he did not want to wear his diaper because he wanted to use the potty. I don't know what happened. Wait yes I do. I said diapers are for babies and big boys use the potty. That was it. Then he no longer wanted to wear a diaper.

Well... the hard part is the method we decided to try was a 3-day stay at home method and obviously I wanted to do a weekend because how was I going to watch him while I nursed Titus. Our first available weekend was going to be...January. So we sped read, made a trip to Target and stocked up on M&M's and $1 reward stickers and toys and let him pick out big boy undies. Did he choose cartoons...no he chose "the ones like papa". My 2 year old wears boxer briefs and I think it is the cutest thing ever. (dad was happy because they were cheaper and are supposed to last a long time size-wise before he needs to move up a size - oh of course the finance side of him comes out even in buying kid undies)

He refused to nap these 3 days because he was terrified of getting his bed dirty so for the first time in his life he napped on the couch...and one day fell asleep at dinner - we laughed so hard at this one - we just picked him up and put him to bed.

Ok so...we started. In 3 days he had 3 accidents and that is it. DISCLAIMER: By writing this I realize I am sure to face an accident soon and probably a big one. He always wakes up dry and refuses to use the little potty I bought for the house or the car. (Yes Ty you were right. Ugh that was not fun to admit) I am also NOT writing this to brag. I am writing only that he was ready - probably had been ready for a while.

The funny obstacles we did however face were...he could hold it FOREVER!! He would go 18 hours without peeing and days without doing #2. (Hey this is a blog...and I am not going to gross everyone out. I want to keep my 2-3 readers!!!) Then when he did FINALLY go #2 he had to STAND ON the potty to do it. haha He STOOD to poo and SAT to pee - a little backwards. We finally broke him of this and now he does it all by himself. Listening to him is probably the funniest part. "woah that's a lot of pee!" and "see ya later poop" Oh the life of boys.

AND of course we also dealt with pee everywhere. Poor guy shot straight up and to the right. Monica did mention my bathrooms would never be the same again. I thought she meant because I had to add a mini potty. No. She meant clean. I scrub all 3 toilets EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and they still don't feel clean to me. Ty says "those toilets have never been that clean" every time he cleans them...and then one second later in comes Tabor. ha! HOWEVER since Tabor's surgery the walls and floor now remain pee free. You are welcome to come over now and use our potties. :) Well at your own risk...I did not say the potty itself does not get dirty. I do still clean it every day. Multiple times a day. Oh boys.

I am glad I waited until he was ready and I am very grateful that it has been uneventful well other than the having surgery part. Thank you God for making this a smooth transition...next up - out of the crib! Ok...so really how long can they stay in a crib!?! I will let you know! ;-) Titus will have to move into a big boy bed before Tabor does because he is such a climber. Tabor is content in his crib. He loves his sleep and has no reason to change anything yet. Love that one obstacle is behind us now! I am loving every new obstacle and stage that comes up!

Rockstar Tabor's 2nd Birthday Bash

I can't believe our little Rockstar Tabor is 2. 

 Monica made the cutest posters of our little Rockstar. These are going up in his new room!

Taking these pictures weren't as easy as when he was a baby and had no choice but to pose for me ha! His "attitude" added to the shot though! 

 Monica made Backstage pass invitations that I'm in love with!!

 Thanks to Nona we were able to reserve the perfect birthday spot for a rockstar to practice his rockstar moves with his buddies. It was so much fun!

Complete with a Rockstar Photo Booth (more for Ty than Tabor ha! - I think the adults had the most fun with this)

The water bottles turned out super cute too! (again all thanks to Monica's creative talents)

Love how the Rockstar cake turned out and the microphone cupcakes were much harder than Pinterest led on but thanks to A LOT of help they turned out cute too (and delicious which is all Tabor cared about).

The bounce house was such a blast and it was fun to wear matching shirts that day. Shirts were all ordered from RiverImprints on Etsy. They made Tabor & Titus's shirts even. So cute!

The kids all got guitars, tattoos, and some Gorilla Snot (for their rockstar hair-do) so they could look like true Rockstars while they practiced their moves in the bounce house.

We had stars leading the way to the party. (Can you tell I LOVE the details!)

The setup crew - they were all "with the band" None of this could've been possible without them (and Monica). Seriously thank you to everyone that helped make this possible! I dream big and then get in way over my head ha! Ty & Tim call it The Vortex.

At least we all had a blast and got to enjoy the party!!

A little too much...ha

Tabor's buddies even took some super cute Rockstar pics!

McLain (baby sister Aplin sorta) and Matt & Shayna made for some awesome Rockstars!

Ty & Ryan looking good in blonde wigs.

Raiford, Lindsay and Baby Briggs all Rockin out. Love them!

These little Rockstars actually look like little rockstars! Check out these handsome boys and their precious momma! I love you guys! Michele, Noah & Caleb posing for pics!

Girls shot...aren't we a couple of hot blondes!? (ha maybe we should remain brunette!)

Yay! Girls shots!

I told ya the adults had more fun than the kids in the photo booth!

Titus snuck into the girl shot. All he cared about was eating the microphone though.

Oh there's just too much to love about this pic!

Another sneaky boy...Caleb I see you!

The guys had fun in the photobooth too! What a bunch of good lookin rockstars!

Touchstone men in the photobooth.

Best part...cake time! Cute little Rockstar was so ready for some cake!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Blowing out candles. Titus is so confused. ha

Chocolate heaven. This kid has my sweet tooth for sure!

Chocolate covered cuties! Love these kiddos!

Sugar high = hard to photograph

Raiford, Braidy, Cape, Tabor, Noah, Quin, Denham, Caleb and Kendall. (Reese, Titus, Shepherd, McLain, Reteif and Leizl aren't pictured)

Cape...there's a little chocolate on your nose. Just a little though.

More party favors...pop rocks. YUM!

Opening presents was much more fun this year! So blessed with such amazing gifts!

This little Rockstar partied way too hard.

This one had the best day of his entire life. He kept playing and playing.

Family shot. As good as we could get at least. Love my boys!

Tabor our lives have been blessed immensely since the day you were born. I never realized how much more love I could feel and yet everyday my love for you grows. You are such a sweet, fun energetic 2yr old! You play hard and sleep hard. We say you're rechargeable.

You love:
1. to dance and sing - usually in a designed dancing area where people are instructed to join you.
2. eat eggs with cheese and bacon (aka slices of ham) - sometimes I can get you to eat pancakes with honey, muffins or yogurt and bananas but usually it's eggs. every. day.
3. wearing socks - you sleep in socks and then ask to keep them on
4. your abc's - it's your obsession seriously you just can't get enough and lucky for us letters are everywhere and you LOVE to let us know every. time. you see one!
5. stuffed animals - of any shape and size. They sleep with you, eat with you, and play with you. They even go on car rides with you.
6. your aden & anais blankets - it's like your pacifier. You can't sleep without one or three in your bed and you suck the tags.
7. reading - you could read for hours. you do read for hours. or until we can't stay awake reading to you anymore.
8. to repeat us - you always have. you will say anything we ask you to say. It's cute. We love getting you to say big words (redundant is your favorite right now) and we laugh because you can't say stool but you can say longer ones.
9. every letter but the letter s - if it is at the beginning of a word you omit it. always. stick, smoothie, stool - we tell you not to forget the s and you say... "ssssssss tool" or ssssss tick" I know this will be forever gone soon.
10. being outside - and it is hot but being cooped up just isn't an option for you.

We love watching you play make believe with your animals - you feed them or instruct them what things are off limits to touch in the house ha. You also love to tell your baby brother no and explain to him what he is doing wrong. All the time. You love standing on him, covering him in blankets, toys, pillows, etc. and you love kissing him, holding his hand and playing peek a boo. It's so much fun to watch you two together. Exhausting because I want to make sure Titus isn't injured in the process but still it melts my heart.

You also spend a lot of time in time out. Sometimes when you don't want to do what we are wanting you will put yourself in time out. You also like to tell us about the time you were in time out. You tell stories A LOT. When your dad comes home from work he will ask what you've done during the day and many times it's a made up story of playing with Aunt Mon, Quin and Braidy and watching Meet the Robinsons. Which happened 1 time and for 10min.

You are such a joy Tabor Nolan. We love you so much. Your "squeezy hugs" make us melt. Along with your pats on our backs and "mama you're so cute" and "papa you're so strong" comments. We love you more than we ever thought could even be possible. Thank you God for entrusting us with this little life.