Another Family Walk

We went for another family walk last weekend, and captured some more pictures. I love the green grass on Lime Ridge Open Space right now. Soon though, it will be all yellow, so I'm enjoying it while I can. We found a scenic spot and snapped some photos, not of the scenery of course, but of us! :)

I love having Ryan on our walks, then he gets to pull the wagon instead of me.

St. Patrick's Day

I was trying to be a little more like my friend Amber this year on St. Patrick's Day. She's always doing fun and festive food for holidays. So this St. Patrick's day I made a fun little pudding pie with a kiwi clover on it, it was yummy. For dinner I found a great idea, but it didn't work. I was going to do little bagel pizzas with the cross section cut out of a green pepper (would would also look like a clover) but my green pepper ended up being way bigger than my mini bagels. Oh well, it was a cute idea. There's always next year. The boys wouldn't have eaten the green peppers anyway, so we just did the pizza bagels. And a funny little thing...I was talking about leprechauns with my boys and we were headed to the store and when we got out of the car, Trey was totally convinced that he saw a leprechaun funning away! Then he went all around the car searching for him and found a little gold looking piece of medal and thought it was a gold coin that the leprechaun left him. I couldn't have planned it any better!

Trey's Birthday

It seems like I just posted Trey's birthday party from last year, and here we are again already! I was just thinking about how Diana Bullock, my cousin and long time friend, posted some old birthday party pictures of hers on facebook and how fun it was to see everyone and try to remember everyone's names. Some of the people I haven't seen in years and others I have lots of contact with. Someday these pictures will be that same thing for Trey. It's fun to think about.
So Trey had another birthday, March 12! And we actually got to do it on his actual birthday this year, it was great! Usually his birthday is midweek, so we end up celebrating at home on that day and then again when his birthday party happens on the weekend. So only doing it once this year was great! We had it at the church, where there's lots of space and a big gym. We played some games in the gym, you know the good ones that we used to play when we were kids like freeze tag and red light-green light, a balloon relay and a pinata. Then we came in the room we had decorated for pizza, cake and gifts. It was simple and fun. And everyone had a blast.

I made these easy cupcakes that look like ice cream cones. You bake the cup cakes and put the cones on top before you put them in the oven. When it's done and cooled, frost and put some sprinkles on. So easy and cute.

Okay, I forgot, we did do a little bit more celebrating. For several months, ever since we went to Chevy's and Trey saw the hat that you get when it's your birthday, he has asked if we could go there for his birthday dinner. So the next night, we went to Chevy's. He loved it. I don't know how much he loved his food, but he sure loved his sombrero!

Mud Party

I LOVE the time change! I love having longer evenings, especially as it starts to warm up a bit. We went for a late afternoon stroll last Sunday and found ourselves a mud pit! At first we were trying to avoid it, but then Trey rode his bike through it and got his feet all muddy. Then Justin wanted in. Sometimes I just have to let them do it, after all, they're little boys, and that's what they love! So we put Justin in there and then Seth wanted in too, why not!

Seth put his feet in and quickly decided it maybe wasn't for him. The problem was there were little rocks that hurt their feet, but it didn't stop the other two.

This is the picture I love the best. If you can see, Trey is holding Justin and helping him get around. He is so good about that. Justin's balance isn't very good and the terrain was difficult, but Trey was right there to help. Of course Ryan or I couldn't help because we didn't want to get our feet all muddy! :) This picture reminds me of this little statue that my mom gave me that sits on Justin's dressor. It's a little boy carrying his little brother and it says, "He ain't heavy Father, he's my brother!" My mom had it and I actually asked her if I could have it because it reminded me of these two so much. Trey lifts and holds and carries Justin so much without being asked, it's just part of him now. He really watches out for him. It is so sweet.

Justin and the potty

So as I explained in an earlier post, Justin is now potty trained and doing great! Some funny things happen along the way that I want to write so I always remember. The other day we were in the car and Justin told me he had to go "pee pee." We were headed home, so I asked him if he could hold it until we got home. He quickly put both hands over his crotch and held on tight! I realized he only understoond the literal meaning. Another funny happened the other day when Justin was sitting on the potty. We figured out a great way for the pee to actually get into the toilet and not shoot right out and completely miss; he leans way forward and tucks his head down so he can watch everything that's going on, and it makes the pee go down instead of straight forward. Well he did this one particular time and it came out hard and fast this time and because he was watching, he yelled out excitedly, "bubbles!" Most of the time it comes out slow, but this time he had a lot and he was right, there were tons of bubbles! He was super excited about them.

Big Things Happening in the Dickman House!!

Yes! Two great things have happened recently here that we are thrilled about!
#1- Justin got potty trained! Yippeeeee! I am ecstatic about it! Not too long ago he had some doctor visit his preschool that looked at him and said that he probably wouldn't be able to be potty trained until he was about 8 years old! Well we proved her wrong!! Justin's muscles are hypotonic (loose) and this had been difficult for him. We've tried the last year on and off to potty train but with not too much luck. But a few weeks ago I decided that we needed to stick with it, and apparently he was ready too and it worked, in fact pretty easily! We've had less accidents than when Trey was potty training! Anyway, he's doing great and he's only 4, not 8!! Yipee, less diapers!

#2- Seth is walking! We're so excited about this too. It took him until about 16 months, but it's happened, and it's wonderful. So many people say, "oh, now he's going to get into everything!" But I think that's a wonderful thing. I love going out and about or even just in the back yard and he can walk now, instead of crawling everywhere in the filth and dirt.

Valentine's Day

Last week for Family Home Evening we talked about love and Valentine's Day and we each made a little Valentine's box/envelope. Throughout the week we were each supposed to write little notes to each person and put them in their box. So tonight for FHE, we do FHE on Sunday nights instead of Mondays, we took turns reading what each person had written to us. It was really sweet and special. Justin needs help with what to write for each person, but Trey did his all on his own and it was so sweet to read his notes to each person. It brings such a nice feeling into the home when we're focusing on loving each other. I loved it. I think we'll start that as a yearly family Valentine's tradition.

I couldn't ask for a sweeter little family. I feel so blessed to have each of my 4 boys in my life. Each brings so much joy to me. And Ryan if you read this at some point, I love you so much. You are the love of my life and I'm so glad you decided to marry me. Everything we have together is wonderful and good and we have the sweetest 3 little boys in the whole world. I love you, happy Valentine's Day! (You'll probably be reading this in May!)