Colten Turns 3!

Today, I am posting a quick picture of the new 3 year old in our family!!! It doesn't really seem that long ago that I was in a warm hospital, snuggling my brand new baby while it iced the heck out of Northwest Arkansas! Poor big brother was stuck in the "cold house" when the power went out and Bobo and Yaya got to keep him warm and occupied! Yep, Colten's appearance is something we will never forget for several reasons!

Colten is a fearless, smart, caring, loving, active boy. Even at a young age he had places to go and people to see! He pulled up and started cruising before 6 months and walked at 8. This made for many bumps and bruises, but that's where fearlessness came in! He may not be as big as his older brother, but he will sure try to keep up with him!

For every ounce of energy, he has twice as much love. I have never seen a 19 month old be as careful with a baby as Colten was when Aiden was born. From the very beginning, he made sure to live up to being that new baby's big brother! He loves on Aiden and is his protector. He guides Aiden when he feels his little brother needs it. Sure, he is showing Aiden how to rumble, but he will make sure that only he and Austin can tackle him!!!

That love doesn't stop with Aiden. While he has gotten a little more leery of strangers than he used to be (thanks goodness!) he will still talk to people when I say it's ok and warms up to people very easily. He is still a Mama's boy, but he's happy to have his Daddy back to love on as well!

The last year, Colten has grown do much with his speech. He has worked really hard on it and while he may not be ip to age appropriate just yet, I am sure he will be soon! He definitely understands more than what he can verbalize right now! It's amazing what you can tell him to do and he'll go and do it.

Colten's 2s may have been a little easier than Austin's, but I think we will see a lot more testing come through in the next year. We have already gotten a taste of it for the past month and if that's any indication, we are in for a challenging year! It will also be fun and surely full of laughter just as the last year has been!

Happy Birthday, Colten! Daddy and Mommy and your brothers love you very much!!!

Picking Back Up

So, our fun and exhausting trip had me skipping some days (a week!!!) on my blogging, but I'm back and now ready to start back up again. I'll catch up on Disney pictures when I get done going through them.

For today, I am posting a picture of our weims, Abby and Koa. Abby is the one looking at me and the one begging for food from Aiden (who is out of the picture and throwing food) is Koa.

Abby was once our only baby. Now she's 4th in line! She's going to be 10 in August. Can't believe that! She has issues with weight gain, but looks really good right now!

Koa is our over-priced dog from Hawaii. His name means "warrior or soldier" and he'll be 4 in May. He's definitely not the brightest dog, but he loves us...sometimes a little too much!

They don't get much attention on here, but we do love them. Very much!

Sneak Peek at Sea World

The first thing we did when getting to Sea World was get in line to feed the dolphins.  It was an awesome experience and was something I am so glad I got on "film."  I hope the kids look back on this and think it was really cool even when they are teenagers!

 

The shows were fantastic and I have a ton of pictures from those as well as other things we did!  It was a GREAT day with great weather and some pretty great kids who were just great!  :-)  See a theme here?

Tomorrow, we go to Animal Kingdom.  I know it will be equally great!

One from Hollywood studios

Just a peak of Day One at Disney World!

We Are Here!

The boys have been WIRED. Seriously, it has been almost unbearable, but I think tomorrow will be better.

We got to the resort right around 4pm, got checked in and went to our room. Walk in and get hit in the face with a stale, stagnant smell that was not good. Brian and I discussed it and both of us were getting headaches, so we called to the front desk and got moved to a different building. MUCH better!

The move set us back on dinnertime, but we got the kids fed, got a few breakfast items for a couple of mornings and headed back to our room. The boys climbed into our HUGE whirlpool tub and "swam" for a while. Then it was time for a surprise from Daddy and Mommy! New Disney pajamas. An unnoticed clue to what tomorrow holds. ;-)

It took a while to get them settled and to sleep, but after rearranging a kid and allowing for separate sleeping room (at least until they fell asleep), they were finally down for the count.

Tomorrow we gave an "owners breakfast" and then we are off to our first park - Disney's Hollywood Studios. We are Westgate timeshare owners, so that's why we are going to the breakfast...plus, it's free! :-D Can't beat that!

Hot Tub Fun

On the way to Florida, we stopped in Georgia to visit a good friend who is a military friend from Hawaii. Unfortunately, her husband is away while we are here, but we still had some fun with the kids making s'mores and then talked and laughed and had some wine in the hot tub.

It was almost like our "wine table" in Hawaii, but we were missing some people!

Heather, we had a blast and are so thankful for your friendship and hospitality! Jerry, wish you were here!

Packed and Ready!

The boys bag...all ready to go!

They have no clue where we are going and we haven't given any indicators as to our destination.  Although, it has been HARD to not let it slip.  I've had some close calls, but have been able to fix what I was saying just in time.  :-)

Our first day at the park will be Sunday...I'm hoping I can post pictures at least from my phone to keep up the photo every day.  We'll see.  I have to look for another app since the one I have stopped working. 

The Boys

I think Brian has been thinking about these kinds of nights for a year.  Laying on the couch with his boys and some pizza and a movie playing.  Well, 2 of his 3 boys.  Aiden is still too messy to eat on the couch, even with the towels I put down.  

Aiden got to sit in his chair and watch the movie.  The boys all ate really well though...especially Austin who had FIVE pieces of pizza.  Sure, not the healthiest, but sometimes it's fun to have a pizza and movie night.  Even more fun when it's on a school night.  :-)  Homework went fast and Kung Fu Panda 2 had just come on, so it was perfect.

The boys still got to bed on time and it was a fun night for everyone!  Yep, I think Brian is glad to be back with his boys and looks forward to many more nights like this!  And Mom is happy to see it all as well.  REALLY HAPPY!

Homework Time

Tonight we went over to Aunt Paula's house to bring her dinner and hang with the cousins.  We left for her house as soon as Austin came home, so he had to do his homework there after dinner.  Do you know how much better it is to have someone else be available for homework time?  Brian's been helping him the majority of the time for homework while I deal with the Littles and get dinner started.  Tonight was no different other than the fact that dinner was already done.  :-)

Sidenote:  It looks like we still have Austin on a sippy cup, but that's Colten's for the car.  ;-)  Austin was using the Gatorade bottle.  Didn't want anyone to wonder if he had ever learned to use a real cup!  LOL

That Kind of Day

Brian watching the Championship Game tonight.  Yeah, this about sums up the excitement in the Steele House today.  :-)

Today was just the kind of day where not a lot got done and it may not have been exciting, but it was good.  We did our workout, played with the kids, had a good dinner, Austin got to go to Cub Scouts and then we put the boys to bed so Brian could watch the game and I could surf the internet looking at all sorts of stuff.  :-) 

The next few nights will be busy while we get ready for our trip south and figure out our plans for our vacation!  Can't wait!

Cheesy Eater

Tonight, Aiden was so funny while he ate his soup.  He was reaching and reaching for his food while Brian took a bite of HIS soup and then sat there with his mouth open wide like a little bird waiting for Brian to give him a bite. 

After each bite, he would smack his lips and make all these "mmmm" noises.  Then, the process would start all over again!  He was really enjoying his dinner tonight!

Real Men Do the Dishes

Does your husband do the dishes?  Mine does and although he doesn't look happy about it in this picture, he really doesn't look this way the entire time he does them!  Plus, I am not sure anyone looks happy doing the dishes!  :-)

I told him what I had put as the caption to this picture on Instagram.  "Real men do dishes for their wives."  He said that he doesn't do it for me...he does it for himself.  It really doesn't matter WHY he does it or who he does it for.  The important thing is that he does them and that makes me happy.  Sure, I can do them and did do them for the time that he was gone.  But I didn't like it and missed the help.  He doesn't usually hand wash the dishes that can't or won't fit into the dishwasher.  Those wait for me. He unloads and then reloads the dishwasher.  He also puts the dishes away that are drying in the dish rack at times. 

He may not realize it, but he's doing it for our sons as well.  It's good that they see him doing things that may be seen as more of a "wife job."  I think it's important that our sons know that men can clean or do laundry or whatever else needs to be done.  Someday, their wives will thank us...especially their Daddy for showing them that it's not just HER place in the kitchen, but there's room for HIM to be in there as well!

Jan 6 - Skateboarding...or something like that!

It was such a nice day today that quite a few kids in the neighborhood were outside, including our 3!  The older boys were out with their skateboards, at least until they all went into one house to play video games.  They left those skateboards outside and the little kids took over.  ;-)

 The top photo is my photo of the day.  I love this picture!  This is so Colten.  He usually has no fear and just goes head first into everything he does.  I love his passion!

 He had so much fun and it was funny to watch him work those legs and arms to get himself moving. 

Not the sharpest picture, but a picture of a sharp boy!  I love this boy!

Some Love for the Doggie

 Today, I am sharing a couple of pictures.  Aiden was in a loving mood and decided to show that love to Abby.  Abby is 9 years old and is so laid back with our kids.  She just let him climb right up on her and hug her for several minutes.  When Aiden was done, he got off and just walked off.  She stayed there and fell asleep.  I love that she is so good with our kids and that our kids love her so much!  

Abby has been an awesome dog.  We love her so much and as she gets older, it makes me sad to see the lumps get bigger and her slow down.  She was our first "kid!"  Of course, I wish she would show our other furry kid how to calm down!  :-)  I do have to say that Koa has had this same exact treatment recently and has reacted the same way Abby did. 

Indoor Picnic

Tonight, we ate dinner in the living room, picnic style.  The kids love doing this.  We watched America's Funniest Home Videos while eating and even pulled Aiden's chair in.  Of course, he threw food on the floor, but I knew those crumbs would be cleaned up as soon as we let the dogs downstairs. 

Ok, yeah, the kids like to do it, but that's not the real reason.  If you look closely, you'll see the embroidery machine still on the table in the background.  Yep, I didn't want to clean it all up and move it to another spot, so we ate in the living room.  Hehehehe. 

Hey, it doesn't matter WHY we did it, just that we did!  :-D

Jan 2 - Learning Something New

Tonight, I am up later than I wanted because of this machine.  People, let's just say that when you gasp at the price that people charge to embroider, know that they deserve EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY just by learning how to use the damn machine.  Yes, and I totally cursed on here.  That is just how frustrating it can be!

You'll be happy to know, or either you don't care and you thought I'd actually post interesting pictures on here, that I did get it working.  No, you can't see because it's not the best and I am still working out the kinks.  (Read: it looks crappy and I'm too embarrassed to show it off after hours of trying to figure the thing out!)

So, tomorrow, this will again be on and I will waste yet another old t-shirt.  :-) 

Jen, my friend, you will have your machine figured out soon.  I promise!  Oh, but I will be borrowing it anytime I want!  LOL

Yep! I'm gonna do it! DAY 1 of 365

This is the year!  I'm going to try, no strike that, I am DOING IT!  I am going to post a picture each and every day of 2012.  Yes, I know that it's been more than 3 months since I posted anything on here.  However, I am determined to document our lives by posting at least one picture a day!  Maybe at the end of 2012, I'll make a book and turn it into a tradition.  We'll see. 

Already, 2012 is starting out much better than 2011.  Last year, we were facing Brian's 3rd year long deployment to Iraq.  He spent almost all of 2011 away from us and it was pretty tough in so many ways.  However, we made it and now 2012 will be a year of staying put!  Well, staying put in Army terms...which means he may be gone here or there for training or something, but he won't be deployed.

So, for the first picture, I wanted to post the very first picture of us together in 2012.  Ok, there MAY have been a couple of outtakes, but those don't count.  hehehe

Here's to a deployment-free year, a year of family and a year of fun. 

Oh, and I have two other resolutions...
1.  lose weight and get back into shape.  The last year has not been good to my body.  Stress and stress-eating has taken it's toll.  Brian and I are starting P90X again tomorrow (we want our "off day" to be on Sundays).  I also have my gym membership, so I'll do my cardio there on the days that I can with the kids' schedule.  This will be the year of fitness!

2.  pay off debt.  Brian and I saved a lot of his deployment money over the year and addition to a trip to Disney World (which the kids know nothing about until we pull through those Mickey Gates!) we are paying off my van and stacking payments on other debts.  This would be the reason Brian didn't get his motorcycle and he is excited to see the light at the end of our debt tunnel.  It's not big when compared to some people, but it's more than we should have. 

So, there it is, people.  Our New Year written out.  2012 will be awesome!