I will update this later. We sold our house. We are buying a new
house in our new state. Moving again. FUN! Life is crazy, as you can
imagine. We're in a short term rental until our new home loan closes in
January.
Pics of the boys 3rd birthday, halloween, my
sister's wedding, our empty house, multiple home made sold signs caused
by a relentlessly unhelpful real estate agent refusing to bring me a
real one... it's been tons of fun. Cody started his new job a few
months ago now. He is enjoying it.
I'll add captions and a few videos later.
This one is pretty old. The boys rolling down the hill.
Playing in the living room. One holding a leash. To be fair, I did not have the boy ON a leash, Ben was just holding the leash and running with Alex chasing.
Driving down the hill in their foot push cars. They really got some speed here.
Dancing at my sister's wedding
Ben tried to make a friend with a good dancer, but then he chickened out and ran for cover.
My cousin was great, GREAT, with them. Here was one trying to get him to dance.
Ben saying "Halloween is AWESOME." They still ask to go trick or treating and tell me how great Halloween is.
Their birthday gift was this ride on car from a black friday deal. I gave it to them early since we would be moving and would lose our awesome yard. Our new house is not on the smallest lot ever, but it is definitely not as awesome as our Nebraska house. It is new construction with zero trees. NO TREES AT ALL. And smaller. A little smaller. Around other houses with smaller lots, so everyone is a bit closer together.
Finding what Santa left them on Christmas. Well it was a couple of things that Parents Santa brought and almost all things my grandparents sent. Our rental house is really small and not a lot of storage. We are already very VERY VERRRRYYY overrun with toys. We bought way too many toys and were afraid to introduce them to our rental. It was for the best really. My grandparents sent them some good stuff. Small stuff with no pieces. They were way smarter about it than I was. Alex is topless Ben has a shirt.
Opening their first gift. It seemed the most exciting because it was the biggest, but it was a jacket. Mommy was way more excited than they were. They liked them, but they were expecting a toy. They like them more now that they aren't expecting toys.
Here they are opening the next package. A dog and a bear that are interactive and read along with a story. They were a lot more excited about that. You can hear Alex say, "A bear not a jacket." We spent a lot of time with those toys already.
I went a little overboard buying wood toys. Not sure why. Here they are playing with a magnetic car loader. They loved it. I bought one for their cousin's birthday in June. He really enjoyed it, but the boys didn't get to play with it. I figured they would like it. They did.
They are doing a great job playing together now. They will play games with rules that they make up. They will play imagination games where they are in the same "world" interacting with the same elements. An example is their raining game. One will yell, "Oh no, come inside! It's raining!" Then the other will play along and they will get under the cabinet together. They will do their thing talking about raining and rain clouds. One will check and decide it is all clear. Then they get out. Stuff like that.
For their birthday, We got ice cream cones for the first time. It was a big hit. Alex
The videos and pictures are not in order. The videos are not with the pictures. I don't think I'll bother fixing it. SOrry. Anyway, Ben on a leash running from Alex. Not ON a leash, holding a leash.
Alex holding a cup on the couch
Taking the tub out for one last spin. Alex pink pacifier Ben green pacifier. They off the pacifiers now by the way. BIG changes at our house. That may be the biggest!
At my sister's wedding on the dance floor.
Alex in orange running around. Most of the dancing was running and flopping around on the floor. They enjoyed it.
Cody and Ben
My cousin holding Ben. He did GREAT with them also. He is 8ish and also a twin.
One last hurrah with our neighbor buddies. They also moved since the last update. They closed on their house about 2 weeks before we closed on ours. Alex sitting Ben standing.
Playground- Ben
Ben
Alex
Ben standing - Alex with pacifier in all these pics
Ben
Getting a little big to ride in their cars together. They still try occasionally.
Ben
Using scissors. I actually bought them kiddie scissors after this.
Riding in style on Halloween. We went with our neighbor friends and their daughter. They also were rocking a riding wagon.
Alex on the left with pumpkin bucket. Ben on right with cat bucket
The boys were "the most interesting toddler in the world". Like the most interesting man from the beer commercials. Nobody got it. Really the boys refused to wear any of the costumes I bought, but I did manage to get them in to their tuxes from the wedding. So yeah.
Alex
Checking out their haul. Ben closer Alex behind.
Alex
Ben
We had many weeks of Cody living in hotels before we got our rental house and then a rental house before we joined him. This meant a lot of time loading up the car for trips. I can't believe it was so long ago that the boys could still hang out outside in diapers. It's been a long road.
Speaking of life at the rental, one of the first things Alex did was try to burn it down. The first day he stuck 2 hot wheels cars in the microwave and turned it on. I was across the room watching him do it. I ran over there quickly, but in my head it was slow motion like in a cartoon. "NOooooooOOooooooOOooo." I stopped it within a few seconds, but that was enough time to cause some sparks and melt the cars together. Our old microwave was hung over the stove. At the rental it is on the counter. It was something I never thought about baby proofing. Yeah, now we unplug it when not in use. Occasionally they will talk about microwaves and fire. They did create a super awesome helicopter motorcycle hybrid.
Park in the new state. Ben.
Alex
Our rental is furnished. We got so lucky and are eternally grateful to our landlords by the way. Anyway, the boys had never slept on twin beds with no rail. I stuck their cots next to the bed with an exposed edge. Alex discovered he likes sleeping in it half folded up like a baby cocoon. I thought it was hilarious. He only did this once, but when he is awake he will lay like this on it.
Cody grew out a mustache. The boys LOVED it. They started using gummy worms on their lips and calling it a "Moose-tash". HILARIOUS.
Ben got himself dressed one day in this. It was still like 75 degrees btw.
Then he moved over a chair
Gathering his money
Looked for cash on the counter. Trying to run away, I assume.
Alex shirt Ben no shirt
Ben driving
Alex
Ben. Their 3rd birthday. They got their first ice cream cone. They liked it very much.
Alex
Alex eating his birthday cupcake. Our home appraiser came over about here, so he got to enjoy a cupcake as well.
Alex
Ben
Also got cheeseburgers with their ice cream. I tried to get them to dip French fries in their ice cream, but they were overwhelmed with options already.
Alex
Ben
Packing up! Cody's company paid for packers and movers, so luckily we didn't have to stress over that. They told us the packers would be there on Friday. Instead they showed up right at 8 am on Thursday. I was completely not ready and hadn't separated out all of my things to keep. It wasn't a disaster, but I was not super happy about it. Luckily we had been slowly moving stuff to our rental, so most of the treasures were out of there anyway. It did keep me from stressing about it the extra night, though. It was like ripping off a band aid.
Our real estate agent refused to bring me a sold sign. He made jokes about how he refused to bring me a sold sign. So I took care of it myself. Suck it, agent.
Ben and his moose-tash.
Ben
Alex. Back to birthday cupcakes? Sorry, I have no interest in juggling positions of these pics. Sorry!
All packed up. :(
Moving day arrives. We are seriously going to miss this house/lot/neighborhood/neighbors.
We miss you already, neighbors.
Bye, belongings. See you in February. :(
The other side of my makeshift sign. I used the back side of the packaging of a frozen pizza. Suck it, agent. I have to say, this really made them look like a professional outlet. Pizza packaging and packaging tape.
On the way out. We miss you already, house. Okay so apparently Cody has completely cut this house out of his brain, but still. The boys and I miss you already, house.
I taped this up right before we pulled out for the last time. All of my materials were out of the house. I used a pen and a piece of packing paper to make a sign to my neighbors. "SOLD. Goodbye everyone!" Suck it, agent. I hope that tape was really annoying to get off his sign.
Our Christmas tree. I didn't bother with ornaments because I have 2 3 year olds in a tiny rental house already over run with crap. We didn't put presents out until they were asleep the night before. It turned out well. Almost all of this was from my grandma and grandpa. A handful of things from us.
The boys managed to spot the books and refused to even open them. To be fair, they like books... but not as much as new toys apparently. They did eventually open them, and LOVE them, when they got bored with the new toys.
Their new "thing" is tow trucks getting cars that are stuck in the mud out of the mud. (I realize it is oddly specific. I hear about it about 900 times a day, you don't have to tell me it is a weird thing to get stuck on.) I got a book that is EXACTLY that. My Truck is Stuck! Perfect.
Alex
Ben
