Always carry your camera in your car....

Because you never know when you're going to pass by a digger that says your kid's name on it! :)

Prayer before dinner

Noah's prayer at dinner last night:
Dear Jesus,

Thank you for this day. Thank you for the food, for our beds, and toys, and our house.

Please help people not to shoot or smoke.

Dear Jesus, Amen.

Leftovers

I bought the Family Life's Resurrection Eggs to use this year. As we were opening them, we came across the cup from Passover. Noah took it out of the egg and said, "This is from when Jesus and the disciples had leftovers."

Vacation!

We went to Captiva Island, Florida for vacation this past week. Scott earned a trip through his job, and we took the kids for their first "real" vacation. Had a great time. The boys loved the sand and could have dug to China had they stuck with the same hole all week. (We stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way in to the resort and I bought a bunch of sand toys. Best 10 bucks spent on plastic thus far in my motherhood! :) ) Here's some pics...

All three kids with hats! The weather was beautiful - in the 70's and mostly sunny. It was so nice NOT to see snow for a few days.

Sweet girl on the beach. She wasn't thrilled with the sand, but at the end of the week, gave it a taste by licking one finger at a time.

Tyler really got into the sand - we definitely found it in every possible place on his body...

Cute boys at the pool. Noah had a blast swimming with his arm floaties. Another 2 bucks well spent on plastic. :)

Dig, dig, dig. We built sandcastles, moats, tunnels, towers... it was also a great shelling beach. Noah was more interested in the quantity of shells than the quality at first. I seriously thought we were going to have to buy another suitcase to bring home all the shells he found!

We took a boat ride - actually, a "Dolphin Cruise." 98% of the cruises see dolphins that swim up to the boat, play in the wake, etc. We were on the 2% that didn't. Bummer. The boat ride lost it's novelty for the boys within 15 minutes. Rachel was mad because it was windy and she was tired.

Finally, the boys gave up and took a nap. It was a pretty expensive nap. :)

"Hey," you say, "there's a dolphin!" We had an AWESOME room at the resort - maybe they felt bad for us because we had the most kids 4 years old and under, but whatever the reason, we were very thankful. It was right on the corner by the entrance to the marina. So, besides all the boats going in and out, which the boys loved, we saw dolphins and manatees right outside our balcony!

The sunrise out our window the day we left.

All ready for the pool! Check out her fangs on top. She loves to wrinkle up her nose - when she does, we get a great view of our little Dracula.

There was a trolley that ran around the resort (it was HUGE.) Tyler will tell you that the "trahwee" was his favorite part of vacation. Usually, he wanted his own bench to ride on. But, for some reason, he allowed Noah to come and sit with him. I love Noah's arm around Tyler, and I promise, I didn't tell him to put it there! :)

Strike a pose....

This is Rachel's favorite way to lounge. Looks like she's posing for a photo shoot. She's at a full fledged crawl now, and even though it's the third time around, it still amazes me that less than 8 months ago she was a helpless little blob that couldn't do anything for herself. Sweet girl.

Noah, the theologian

Noah is 4 1/2 and is at such a fun age for questions and answers. I love seeing his mind and heart grab hold of concepts that I hope stick with him for the rest of his life. We were talking yesterday about Jesus, and how He protects us, and loves us. I asked Noah what else he knew about Jesus. He said, "He loves us so much and he will never do mean things to our hearts. He washes all our germs away." One for the baby book. :)

Is it possible?

Is it possible that we have kids this old? Scott and I ask each other this question once in awhile. Yes, I know they're all under the age of 5, but it still amazes me that we've kept them alive this long and they seem to be thriving. :)

Noah has been really interested in reading lately, and has come up to me with statements like, "C-A-T spells cat, right, Mom?" "C-H makes a chuh sound, right, Mom?" It's pretty amazing. I know that being 4 1/2, he's doing exactly what other 4 1/2 year olds are doing, but somehow when someone you've known from infancy starts doing more and more independently, it's a miracle.

We're so proud of him, and I delight to see his face light up when I tell him that. Don't know how we lived life without our little buddy.

Over the river and through the ice storm, to Great Grandparents' house we go...

So last weekend, we drove to Nebraska for Scott's grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary celebration. Now, Wisconsin to Nebraska is about a 12 hour drive. Long, right? Oh no, not for the Howards. We think anything less than the 16 hours it takes us to get to Texas is a breeze. We do worry about the kids' IQ's, though, as we can almost visibly see them drop as they watch DVD after DVD. But, they seem okay now, except for a few twitches here and there, which our doctor said would go away after a few years. :)

Anyway, we had a WONDERFUL time seeing Scott's grandparents, cousins and kids... it was a quick trip, but totally worth it. We left early early early on Sunday morning to get back, because we heard there was a storm that was supposed to go through Iowa and Illinois... basically, the exact route that we were going to take to get back home. We somehow thought that if we left early enough, the snow/ice that was supposed to fall for the whole day would hold off for us. (Minor problem, the weather doesn't revolve around the Howards....) We got about halfway and decided that after seeing a few dozen cars in the ditch later, we should probably stop. Some friends of Scott's from college live in Iowa and were gracious enough to take us in for the afternoon/night. We finally made it home, and we think there were at least 200+ cars in the ditch or median. We lost count. Very grateful that we stopped, and will probably take weather.com a little more seriously next time. :)

Three kids in a hotel bed!

Rachel didn't smile until she was OUT of the hotel pool. Unfortunately, her hands and arms are covering up her leg/thigh rolls. How long can you call a little girl chubby for? 4, 5 years? :)

Scott and the boys. We hadn't taken them swimming in a long time, so we weren't sure how the cautiousness would play out... Noah loved it, and paddled around happily with the water wings on his arms. Tyler wasn't so sure, and I heard, "Daddy hode me" about a dozen times from the water.

Rachel was very entertained by the mirror at the hotel.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Howard.

We all gathered in a clubhouse/party room for the celebration dinner. Lawrence Welk was on, which, if I had time, would get a blog all of it's own. :) Grandpa and Grandma Howard loved one of the songs, and decided to dance to it, much to the enjoyment of everyone else. I can't remember a time when I've seen more cameras and video cameras being whipped out and used. It was a sweet moment, and fun for us all to see them still dancing after 65 years!

A view from the middle row of the Sienna. This was the HIGHWAY - right before we decided that maybe we should stop and not drive anymore.

I could have taken hundreds of pictures like this. It was like a scene out of a movie. So thankful we weren't one of them!

What DO the Howards do all day when it's snowing and cold outside?

So, I bet most of you are wondering, just what DO you do with the kids for the 11 months out of the year when it's snowing and sub-zero weather? Glad you asked. Here at the Howard household, we have a MYRIAD of things to keep us busy. One of the boys' favorite games is simply "Jump off the stairs until someone gets hurt." Basically, they take turns (Tyler usually goes first) jumping off the highest number of stairs that they are allowed. For Tyler, it's two stairs; Noah, it's three. (I vetoed the idea of letting them jump off the number of stairs that corresponds to their age...) So, Tyler jumps off his two stairs, followed by Noah, who jumps very close (but thankfully not ON) Tyler. They wrestle around for a second, and then do it again. The fact that we haven't had a broken bone or even gotten close to needing stitches is a miracle. Here are some action shots ...

No, Tyler doesn't have pants on. Yes, he's wearing underwear. We decided to go cold turkey on the whole potty training with Tyler. He's been poopin' in the potty for a few months, but we told him that diapers were only for nighttime a few days ago, and he's done great. I'm looking forward to going to Target tomorrow and NOT walking out with big purple boxes that say Luvs on them.

Pictures...

So here are a few pictures from the last week or so. ...

You're never too young for a mohawk..... :)

The best part about all the snow is the huge pile the snow plow pushes in front of our house. We're on a cul-de-sac, and our house gets the biggest pile every winter. Bragging rights for Noah and Tyler in a few years, I'm sure. Scott and Noah dug this double tunnel with a skylight.

Noah could (and often does) stay outside for insane amounts of time. Hours. Seriously.

Hard to believe all three kids in this picture belong to us! I remember buying the crib when Noah was on the way, picking out the bedding (which all 3 have used), and painting the crib/changing table. Now there's two little boys peeking in at their sister in the mornings.... I love watching the three of them interact.

Three generations! Rachel is 7 months old. My middle name is Rachel, as is my mom's. I'm thankful to have a daughter for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is the hope of a friendship with her someday as I have with my mom.