He's 3!

Thats right. The little man turned three. I have a love hate relationship with birthdays. I love how excited and happy my kids are. I love how I get to spoil them and make a big deal over them. I HATE that they are growing up. And growing up is exactly what this boy is doing.
He smart but very reserved about letting people know how smart he is. He is very inquisitive and always wants to know how things work. He will pull anything and everything apart just to se how it works. He is a little OCD at times and things have to be a certain way or it drives him crazy! All drawers, doors, and cupboards have to be shut, completely at all times. His train has to be set up in a certain order and his hands can most definitely never stay dirty or sticky for longer than 10 seconds. If he ever eats anything that drips or gets on his hands I have to give him his own washrag to clean himself off with or else we suffer the wrath of his OCD meltdowns.
He has the best poker face ever which makes him an impeccable tease. I can't believe how well he can hold a straight face.
He can be quite bossy and has some grumpy moments but for the most part he is just pleasant and enjoyable and  just too cute and fun for words.
Currently his absolute favorite show is Tom and Jerry (aka: cat and mouse) and he loves to sing Frozen songs with his sister and even humors her by playing Prince Hans or Christof sometimes.
He is an excellent big brother and plays and plays with Isaac. I love secretly listening to them playing. There is lots of chasing and growly and giggling and I love it even if growling is technically against the rules in our house.
His obsession with trains is only growing so naturally he got trains upon trains for his birthday as well as a trip to the Midwest Train Show and a train cake.

We even got him his very first real life model train! ...Actually we got two because he had to have a stream engine as well as a diesel engine of course.

 Spoiled.
Cant believe my little buddy is 3! Time just needs to slow down a little. I can't keep up.

Happiness Day 21

Yesterday was a very fun, very happy, very tiring day. We decided that since the weather was nice and we didn't have anything else planned we would take a bike trip with the kids. So with two bikes and two bike trailers loaded up we went on an adventure. We peddled almost 20 miles through 3 cities with a  break for a picnic on the river side along the way. It was scary at times (Like when we were trying to cross 6 lanes of traffic without a crosswalk) and I wanted to just give up and quit peddling on multiple occasions  (like when the side walk disappeared and I was pulling a bike trailer up grassy hills) but it felt so good to accomplish and it was just fun to experience with my little family. However.. Im still recovering. Tired. So tired. But it feels so good. I love being physically exhausted like that.
The kids were apparently pretty tired too...

Happiness Day 20

This morning we finally went out and let Buggy pick out a bike for reading all of her books. She was too excited to get home and try it out. It came with training wheels so at first she set out on those and I thought she would be content... which she was... for about 5 min (literally) She has never actually tried to ride a bike before so Andrew and I were hesitant to take the training wheels off but she was very persistent (and persuasive) and convinced her dad to take them off. I did the old hold-on-to-the-seat trick for a couple of tries but she was frustrated and so I thought we were taking a break. I sat down but she kept at it. About 10 minutes later the girl was riding up and down the sidewalk on her own! She never ceases to amaze me with not only how physically capable she is but also with how determined she is. I was ready to give up within seconds but she stuck with it and it paid off!

We had a pretty awesome moment last night too. We have be watching The Life of Jesus Christ videos every night for the last little while in preparation for Easter. If you haven't seen these movies I HIGHLY recommend watching them. They have brought a spirit and understanding to our home that I can't even explain. It has been SO awesome to share this with my little ones but it has also been so awesome for my own testimony as well. The man that plays Christ was truly inspired. These videos have touched me in a way that is beyond words. I know it shouldn't take a movie to do this for me and really it doesn't because I had a testimony of Christ long before I ever watched them but being able to hear someone speak those words from Christ point of view is touching to say the least.
Last night we watched the video of Christ's crucifixion. This. Broke. AnDee's. Heart. She cried and cried and was so upset that people could be so awful to Jesus. If Im being honest we kind of had a family cry session. We talked about how it was really awful what Christ went through but that He knew what was going to happen and He chose to do it anyway. That it was His choice because he knew that it was worth it. We also talked about how important it is for us to understand that He died for us and for us to remember that but that is not what we should dwell on. We should dwell on Christ's life and on the fact that he was resurrected and that He did it all so that we could be resurrected too and so that we could live with Him and our Father for eternity. It was so special to watch her start to understand. The spirit that has been in our home since then has been more than amazing and Im going to be sad when all the movies have been watched... maybe Ill find an excuse to just keep watching them. The way our home feels after we watch these movies and have these discussion is the way I want our home to always feel.

Happiness Days 18 and 19

I know the point of me writing these happy moments down every day is so that I can relive them and appreciate the little things in the here and now but some days Im just too busy to sit at the computer and write them down. That being said. I do spend time, multiple times a day thinking about what I will write about, even if I don't get around to writing it until the next day. Its actually been a really good thing for me because I spend most of the day thinking things like "Oh that was fun! I will write about that!" Its helped me to just stop and recognize  the little things that make me smile and feel good about life.
Yesterdays happy moment was this.. I was having a mean mom day. I was being totally grumpy and yelling... a lot.  In a pathetic attempt to reboot I turned on the tv and told my kids I just needed a few minutes by myself. I slipped away (With the baby of course)  up to my room and just sat... quietly and tried to get a hold of my frustration and stop feeling bad for myself.
My kids don't watch a ton of tv (although if we are being honest they have had more than their fair share since we have been in Illinois.) So they treasure their tv time. While I was sitting in my room fighting a battle with myself my kids were downstairs watching Tom and Jerry (which is hands down their favorite right now) and I heard it... the best noise in the world. Full on belly laughs from my two oldest children. That noise is like magic. I don't know a person that can hear that kind of a laugh from a little kid and not smile or laugh themselves. Im so grateful my kids are resilient and forgiving of me and my mean mom days.
Later that night I gave up on all the things I "needed" to do and just sat on the couch and watched them as they played the classic drag-each-other-around-on-a-blanket game. They giggled and giggled and got a little out of control but I was able to just enjoy it and revel in the magic that is children's laughter.

 The fact that we were all hopped up on chocolate might have helped me relax a little too :)

Todays moment was this... I guess it wasn't actually today but in the last 24 hours... We signed on our house in Payson! Woot Woot! That in and of itself is a very happy thing. We no longer have to pay a mortgage on top of rent. But in order to get all the papers signed and notarized and then sent back in time, I had to drive out to Andrews work to do the signing. This was great because we got to see dad, go to lunch with him AND there was a train on the tracks that are literally feet from Dads office. We got very up-close and very personal with a real life train. And we even found our own rail road spikes or "Spikey tracks" as Pep would say and the kids got to bring them home as souvenirs. The fact that I made the trip on the crazy freeways and didn't die was also a happy moment!

Happiness Day 17

So I have one more happy moment relating to Pep's birthday. We wanted to get him a toy train for his birthday, like one of the legit toy trains that old men collect. But since his birthday was on a sunday we had to wait to take him to pick it out. So last night after Andrew got home we packed up and headed out (in the snow. YUCK!) and he got to pick out not only 1 but 2 toy trains! He chose a classic black steam engine and a yellow diesel engine and yes... he really does know the difference between the two and can pick them out just by looking at them. When we got home we had a bunch of things we were "supposed" to do but of course we all got distracted by the new trains and spent some good time just hanging out as a family, playing with trains.

Happiness Day 14, 15 and 16

I know this is cheating but Ill be honest. Im real tired and writing out 3 posts seems like too much right now.
The last few days have been super fun. It was Peps birthday weekend (which will gets its own post at a later time) So we had a weekend filled with trains! We went out to eat at his favorite train themed restaurant and took him to the train show. Ive never been to a train show before but it was pretty cool. I have never in my life seen so many toy trains. Like if you took all the toy trains I have seen in my entire life and put them together... they still wouldn't add up to what they had at this show. Pep had a ball. Watching the pure joy and fascination on his face is pretty much the best thing ever.

I also turned this...

In to this...

Which was not easy cause marshmallow frosting is hard to work with.

Todays happy moment happened just minutes ago. I was laying Isaac down for his nap and he apparently thought it was much too early to sleep. His solution to this was giggling. And it worked. I mean how do you get upset with a giggling baby? So we sat and giggled together until he fell asleep. I think thats how going to sleep should always be. Just giggling until you can't keep your eyes open anymore.

This picture obviously isn't of his nap today but look how darn cute he is when he sleeps!

Happiness Day 13

This morning was magic. Its warm. Like really warm. Like we didn't even have to wear jackets. The kids even ran around barefoot. We took a walk to a park down the road and played and played and played. On the way home we were busy spotting all the spring time things. Birds and the ducks on the pond and flowers! Real life daffodils are blooming! This makes me so hopeful! I am so excited for summer. I hear that the "Chicago land" area is AMAZING during the summer months. Im pretty anxious to so what all the hype is about!