Happy Birthday Corbin!

You are such a sweet little boy and you give us so much entertainment.

I Love you so much!!!

What to do on a cold winters day...

The past week or so we've been hanging around getting ready for Christmas. We got our tree and decorated it. Now Lily says "its Christmas time!" repeatedly throughout the day. It's cute and very enthusiastic. She wants shoes for Christmas (of course) and now Legos because the boys have big boy Leogs.
The boys are still very much into trains, diggers and now Legos since we got them some a few weeks ago. We got Rowen an Transformers tank to see if it would interest him. He liked it until he lost the missile and couldn't shoot it anymore.

We shall see what Santa brings them this year in just a few days!

Lily having fun painting.

Playing in the first snow of the season.

Snow ball fight!!!

We of course have to make Christmas cookies. The boys really love to help cook and bake.

Lily getting some painting tips from the best artist, her daddy.

Gotta love the dry winter air. Wahoo, static time!

Playing, ring around the rosy.

I believe we have a new tradition at the Ford household!

We made a Gingerbread train/digger over the weekend. It came out really good. Trains are of course part of the holiday season which is great for Rowen, but we also did a mini digger for Corbin to decorate.
The frosting was like cement and the pieces all stayed together no problem. They all helped with cutting pieces out. I put them together and they decorated them. They had a lot of fun. I think it will be a new tradition to make a gingerbread house, train, digger and whatever else we can think of. An Igloo would be cool.

This is what Corbin looked like most of the time.

Rowen was very into decorating and was totally focused when he was doing it.

Lily helping to cut wheels.

Two on the potty, one to go!

Corbin decided on Tuesday that he was done wearing diapers! I asked him that morning if he wanted to try to pee on the potty. I knew he had to go because his diaper was dry. He has been waking up dry lately so we knew that it was close to time to being potty trained. Luckily he woke up in a good and said "yep". Then when he was done he said, "I don't want to wear a diaper anymore". And since, he hasn't except for at night. I was able to find him digger underwear which I think helped. He had a couple accidents, mainly number two. But has done great the last couple days! None at all, even when he has a diaper on before bed he still says he needs to go potty and holds it until we get there.

Lately we've been having some one on one time when Rowen is at school and Lily is napping and we bake. We made some yummy Banana Oat Fummins (Lily's word for muffin) a couple weeks ago and Pumpkin Cacao ones yesterday. They like to have a "snack" in the morning before breakfast. Its usally blueberries, a clementine, or a mini fummin. They are fast things I can give them to hold them off while I make coffee and get breakfast ready.

Here he is making Banana Oat Fummins

Corbin when he wakes up, haha.

Jungle Junction Cake

Rowen wanted a Jungle Junction cake for his birthday. Its a new series on the Disney channel that follows a group of fun-loving animals on wheels as they explore a unique jungle. The episodes follow one of the key characters as they overcome a problem by working with their friends. It takes place in the idyllic and lush riverside town of Jungle Junction, which is surrounded by an unending desert. Much care and consideration is needed to ensure the survival of the jungle, which is a core theme of the show.

I thought it would be pretty easy given the characters are pretty simple shapes and colors. It was more than I thought it was going to be. But it was fun figuring out how to make them and then seeing his face when they were done. He would be so excited to wake up and see the progress of the cake. Brandon even helped out with this one! I think he just wanted to see how it was sculpting with fondant. He wasn't too amused as he thought he was doing a horrible job (which he didn't). He did the elephant (ellyvan) and pig (zooter) and helped with the trees. Rowen and Corbin were so happy when they were finally able to eat a Beetle Bug (who are the tiny"playful kids" of the jungle and eager to learn).

I couldn't find a good picture online, so I took one of the TV.

Here it is! We didn't do all the characters. There are a few episodes that have mud puddles in them so we put Zooter in mud (melted chocolate) cause we figured the kids would get a kick out it, which they did. The whole thing is edible too.

Family before destroying the hard work.

Watching me lay fondant.

Lily looking at all the piecesRowen also got a 'Splosion Man t-shirt for his birthday that we had specially made for him. As you know it is one of the games that Twisted Pixel (company Brandon works for) did. And Rowen loves the game! His excitement when it came in the mail.

He wears is about every other day now (hey I can only do so much laundry in a day).

My baby boy is growing up too fast

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY ROWEN!!! I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH! YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME SO MUCH JOY AND LOVE.

Happy 4th Birthday Rowen!

I decided last minute yesterday that I was going to make cupcakes for Rowen to bring to school. I felt bad because he isn't going to have his actual cake until next weekend. This way he could celebrate with his friends at school.

He woke up to a surprise of a special 'Slposion Man cupcake (from the game that Twisted Pixel made where Brandon works) just for him. He is kind of obsessed with the game and actually really great at it, like scary good at playing it.

All of them looking at yummy robots.

I took Rowen to the toy store after school to get a present. He is still very much into trains but as lost interest in his Geo Trax ones. He spent over 2 years loving them though. I think he is just too big now. So he picked out a big boy train. I've never seen him so happy. It made my day! It kept saying how happy and excited he was and that it was the best birthday day ever!

You go Corbin!

Corbin is well on his way to being potty trained. He's gone pee on the potty on occasion but today he pooped and peed! He also went on the the potty the other day.

Wahoooooooo, only one kid in diapers soon! Now we just need to get him doing it all the time. I don't know how we did it when all 3 were in diapers, my word.

Pumpkins and Halloween

We've had a fun couple weeks with getting ready for Halloween. We gutted and cut out our pumpkins. This time Lily got to help. She wasn't too thrilled at first with touching it but eventually loved playing in the goo.

It took Corbin a few minutes too but once we told him to pretend he was an excavator he was right in there!

Lily's face before she liked it.

Rowen was right in it ready to get out the goo!

Candy, candy, here we come! This Lion costume sure got its run. Not only did they each wear it but it was originally from Cousin Dylan who wore it first. Corbin was Iron Man and Rowen was Batman. He said he wanted to be a bat, thus Batman it is. We had done a lot of home decoration making with cutting out bats and ghosts and stuff to put on the windows, so he has become a fan of bats since. The boys LOVE cutting out stuff with scissors.

Lily went to a few houses but mostly sat and ate lollipops (3 to be exact) the whole time we were out. It kept her happy as you can see.

Rowen had a Halloween at school and I volunteered to help out. I made cookies for the kids to decorate.

Tis' the season for Pomegranates! Lily's (and the boys) favorite new snack.

Having fun watching cars zoom around the track.