Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Summer was busy in the White house! The boys turned two at the start of September, and boy, they are living up to the whole "terrible twos" reputation. It's not a matter of whether or not there will be a meltdown in our house, but rather just how many meltdowns will take place each day. Still, the boys (all of them) keep me laughing every day. Here are some recent pictures.

The Three Amigos (Joel, Luke, Evan)




Your eyes do not decieve you. Those are pacifiers in the twins' mouths. Again. We had rid them of the habit, but as Luke increased his use of it, suddenly the twins' interest was again renewed. They are now more attached than ever. Originally, I was able to take them away just by snipping the tips; the boys' got annoyed with the "broken" pacis and threw them away themselves (clever, right?) But now, I've tried snipping a few again, and they have decided that throwing them away was the wrong move last time. We are now having to deal with new ways of ridding them of the darn things.

Can you say PRECIOUS?!!

We went to our local fall festival this weekend. It was so much fun; the twins had their first pony rides (Joel was scared at first, but then relaxed and enjoyed himself. Evan loved it a little too much, and had a major tantrum once he realized the ride was over and the pony wasn't coming home with us.)

Here are the boys riding in their stroller. It was a bit chilly out, but the wind cover provided nice protection, especially for Luke. I tried to get them to look at the camera, but cool things were happening that were much more interesting than Mommy.

I love this picture of Evan! He was just relaxing by himself on a rock wall when I took it.

Daddy and the twins visited the fire truck. Notice Joel's excitement? He's jumping up and down!

The boys learned the hard way that if you try and steal the fire truck, you will be arrested. (Kidding.)

Evan says hi.

Luke says hi, too.

The twins enjoyed storytime with Daddy,

and then were given their very own pumpkins.

Time for pumpkin bowling!

It was a great time!

On another note, I recently had surgery on my gallbladder (technically, two surgeries, since it seems I always like to do things the hard way,) and my mom and stepmom spent a lot of time up here helping out around the house. (By helping out, I mean doing virtually everything, since I was confined to the recliner for two weeks.) They were incredible and a total blessing to us.

Here's Grammy (my mom) and the boys.

As tiring as it was for them, it was a great bonding experience for everyone. Nevertheless, I'm hoping to avoid any more surgeries for a long while!

In case you are wondering, the adorable pumpkin hats were made by a great work-at-home mom (she and I went to middle and high school together.) The boys LOVE them, and I highly recommend her products! You can find the pumpkin and other hats at her etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6235246 Danyel, you are awesome. Thanks again!

August According to Todd

The month of August was a quiet one. Most of the month was filled with Sarah fullfilling her daycare duties with Conlan and very little else. The twins are growing up fast, but their limited language skills are preventing them from resolving issues with words. This has lead to regular biting incidents. Yes, the normally super sweet twins have resigned to biting each other when they get really mad. Even worse, they often get mad at Conlan and bite him as well. We are working through it with time outs and doing what we can, yet all of the boys are friends and are giggling and laughing shortly after it happens. We did find the time to take a trip to Alton to visit Todd's family and did a weekend trip to visit Sarah's family before her brothers left for college (Alex and Scott.) Both trips were a great success with the trio of boys riding well and no tears or screaming! Yay!

We took the boys to a new park that just opened up. Evan has just finished his slide while Joel is preparing to launch.

Joel is working on getting a better view of the action.

Joel thinks that climbing through the tunnels is fun even though mommy needs to reach and help him along.


A clever Ice Cream Truck rolled around just in time for our playing to be over. Sticky fun followed.

The boys found a bay window at Nonnie and Poppi's house to be very fun. They were able to see Daddy helping their Uncle Alex load up for college.

The trip to Alton was very fun for the White boy trio. Lukas was held almost every minute of the weekend; Great-Grandma Juanita is seen here doing her part.

Pround Grandpa Adrian followed his mother's lead and took his turn at holding Luke.

While we were in Alton we stayed at a hotel, which worked out perfectly for napping. Just after naptime Joel or Evan ( this is really bad that I can't tell which child this is. I think it is actually Joel, but with the sunglasses I just can't be sure. What I do know is that when he is ready to head out, cell phone, keys, and sunglasses are an important part of looking like an adult!)

(Sarah's edit: This is Joel!)

Grandma Linda made up for lost time quickly and established a great bond with little Luke.

Meanwhile, Joel and Evan had a great time just sitting in the chair. I believe we asked them where their ears are. Joel got it right, while Evan thinks his flew across the room and is showing us where they landed.

One big picture of the White Family.

Our friend Drew did a photo shoot of the trio and sent us a couple of proofs. This is baby Luke showing off that great smile of his.

Joel and Evan look very suave in their outfits from the Gap!

Birthday Wish List

For those who are asking, here are some ideas of what the boys are into nowadays:

Dinosaurs: They love them, though they don't have any dino toys.
Trains: They'd like Thomas Take-along stuff

Music: They love musical instruments, currently all we have is stuff that we have made. They'd also like their own music players (like toy cd players.)

Clothing: Size 2T for cool weather clothing; 3T for next year

Art: Art supplies are always a hit with the kids (not so much with the dad)

Imaginative Play: Puppets and costumes

Outdoor Toys: We play outside all the time, and plan to bring toys into the basement when the weather cools down. If it can't be used this year, there is always next summer!


Hopefully that is a good variety of ideas!

Daily Life at the White House

Not to be completely outdone by my marvelous husband (round of applause for the great update he gave!), I thought I'd go ahead and post a few pictures taken in the past couple of days.

As Todd mentioned, I'm back to babysitting, up from three days a week to five. These two weeks have been extra busy, as I've had not one, but two additional toddlers running around. (Think about it... that's five little people; four of them between 16-22 months, and one not quite three months old. And you wonder why I don't have time to write or call?)


Evan has discovered a new love (and talent, I think!). Put a bat in his hand and he's all smiles!

I said, "Let's go play outside." They interepreted, "Let's go swimming!" So, fully clothed, they hopped right in (and yes, I consider my kids fully clothed even without shorts. It's summer and cloth diapers are cute!)

Silly Joel!

Toddlers find pleasure in the simple things.

I think this is a cute picture (of the kids, not myself!) "Storytime" is each morning; we always sit on this blanket. This is what they did as soon as I got it out.

We made paper bag puppets yesterday. Mikayla chewed hers apart, which is why she doesn't have one. She took Evan's when he wasn't looking, though...

And he now realizes she has chewed his apart as well!


I thought this was adorable. It's a good example of why I don't get nicer curtains!

Buddies hanging out together in the twins' room.

Where's Luke, you ask? Honestly, he doesn't do a whole lot right now, so while I take plenty of pictures of him, I decided to wait to share until I get a really cute one. (Just scroll down to Todd's post showing Luke pics. Looking at those pretty much tells you what my pictures look like as well.)

So there you go, a bit of our daily life!

July 25th - Todd's Post

Well, it seems like everytime I talk to a relative on the phone they ask about the blog, and inquire about an update. We have been ultra busy with the arrival of Luke, and Sarah seems to have even less time than me ( Todd). So I decided that I would update this month being the super husband and father that I am :). I am not used to updating this, so I wanted to have it start with the beginning of the month and end with today, but instead it is the opposite, so bear with me.
This was from this past week, the twins love to use their kiddie pool and never miss an opportunity to get in, even if they are fully dressed! Their hair is getting lighter too!

Even though the house and yard are small it is a big world to Joel and Evan, and they are true explorers and investigate everything together ( including our neighbor Mr. Bart and his flowering hostas).

Luke is becoming an absolute doll. He has begun to smile and laugh, and lately he likes to babble an awful lot. But he is a good baby and sleeps much better than Joel and Evan ever did.

Joel was having a bad hair day.

Sarah took this picture of my three sons.

This Luke on vacation in Florida.

I still try to have the boys come to school and wear them out in the gym. On this day, they brought their friend George ( Blue ).

Sarah had taken Luke out with her, and the boys and I were all able to fall asleep in the recliner holding the big dog stuft animal.

Grandpa Wayne playing with Joel in the pool in Florida.

We went to the Tampa Zoo and as you can see Joel and Evan were able to feed a Giraffe, several times.

Luke got excited when he saw his older brothers in the pool, but doesn't enjoy it as much as they do. Grammy Margie is holding him.

Even though Luke is crying I still smile when I see this, he is just so cute.

Uncle Scott was fantastic with Joel and Evan, really banding with each of them and playing all the time.

Joel is still under the impression that Luke is his baby, he absolutley adores him.

Joel in the pool.

Evan in the pool.

Joel on the left, Evan on the right.

Joel and Evan were able to pet stingrays in the Tarpon Springs Aquarium.

Sarah was able to meet up with a friend ( Stephanie) she has in Florida.

This is Joel and Evan on July 4th waiting for Fireworks in Tampa. As it turned out, they were unable to make it and were too tired so we went back to the rental.

This is Luke in the beginning of July just relaxing in his bumbo seat.

Updates;

Sarah : She has started watching another toddler who is about 17 months old 5 days a week now. Amazingly enough, she had been able to handle it very well and schedules her day with lessons and a curriculum. At heart she is a teacher and she doesn't even know how talented she is. Her leaving the classroom impacted the students she worked with, but benefited our family.

Todd: I enjoyed the vacation to Florida, but it made me miss traveling. I have a fire burning inside me to start up again and visit Cambodia and Thailand, or head to Russia. I realize that won't happen for some time but I also look forward to taking the boys to visit destinations around the globe. School is going well, always busy. Sarah and I have frequent discussions about when I will be ready to job search for my own principalship, but for now I am still learning.

Joel : Ever the attention getter, he will mostly go against what you say with a smile on his face. It is a great game to him, but does cause us a couple headaches. He is very happy go lucky, and has a best friend in Evan. As I mentioned before, he adores Luke and cries when he is not allowed to have him on his lap ( monitored of course ).

Evan : He is starting to show a few signs of jealousy towards Luke and sometimes Conlin ( the boy that Sarah watches). He is going through the beginning of the terrible twos along with Joel, and tries to be independant. He is wanting to things his way, like after bath time he wants naked time to last forever and fights with all his will against the diaper and clothes. At the same time, is is also a lover and is always giving kisses and hugs.

Luke : Although Danger is his middle name, he has yet to live up to it. He sleeps well at night getting up once or twice. He stays awake a majority of the day, always looking forward to nursing. He is more of a momma's boy, but that has started to change with Daddy being around more lately. He likes his brothers and on several ocassions has laughed while they were trying to get him to. He is getting bigger all the time, wearing size 3 diapers and is already wearing 3-6 months clothing, but no girl friends yet.

In closing I will say that we will try harder to update the blog, but I am making no promises. :)