Halloween Toddler Style

Halloween this year was pretty fun. David and Don remembered the concept of saying "trick or treat" and getting candy. So that was pretty fun. We went to a little carnival Big Piney had. Definitely less elaborate than when I was a kid....or that magical childhood memory thing just made it seem like it was really fancy. But regardless, the boys enjoyed dressing up for halloween and getting cool little toys. Daniel was a pretty good sport about the whole thing too. I think we was just wondering why he had to get so many pictures taken. I did make him this little pumpkin hat. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Donald really wanted to be Robin hood. So, using the limited materials I had (thanks mom for letting me browse your craft cupboard) I made a little robin hood shirt and hat, and thanks to my wonderful family in Rexburg, they mailed me some little leggings for his robin hood pants (we'll wait until he's older to tell him they came from the girls' section). It turned out pretty well, and Don wore the costume for three days straight.

I'm not sure if the boys understood the concept of "dressing up for halloween" Because David dresses like this everyday. He loves being a cowboy. Well, Cowboy small, from his favorite book of the same name. (it is a great book, and i'd recommend it) This is the same costume David wore last year, so if you look back, you can see how much he's grown in a year.

Here's Daniel with his 'complete' costume. Isn't he such a cutie? and so photogenic. He didn't get that from me. He is now three months old and I'm sure he is super anxious to be able to start moving on his own. Hope y'all had a happy halloween.

Fall update

We have been quite busy the last little while. But we did take time to spend with our family. Daniel had his baby blessing at the end of September, so a lot of our family came down to spend the weekend with us. We spent Saturday by going up to the hills and had a picnic at Middle Piney Lake. This picture is of the kids collecting firewood for lunch. They were quite the dedicated crew.
Of course the best part of the picnic was playing at the lake. It was too cold, and smelly to want to swim in, but we had a lot of fun wading, fishing and skipping rocks.

Here is David and Donald wading in the water, they kept bending down to pick things up and ended up getting their bottoms really wet.

Shortly after the baby blessing, David and Donald turned three years old! We started the day out by making Birthday crowns. (which they helped decorate themselves) Then that evening, some family came over and we had cake and ice cream.

Even Daniel joined the celebration. This is his excited face. . . or the I just found my hands, and they taste good, face.

Is it possible to be busy and lazy at the same time? I propose that it is. There have been a lot of changes in the Marshall House since my last post. The most important of which is the addition of the newest member. Daniel Steel Marshall joined our family July 18, 2011. He weighed 7lb 12oz. Which is almost double what his brothers weighed. Everything went well, and we both came home on the 19th. Shortly after Daniel was born we moved! I don't recommend moving with a newborn, it isn't really fun for anyone. Now that I'm all settled, I've decided it was time to stop being lazy and update the blog. This is Daniel as a newborn (1 day old) A picture of all my boys. David (cowboy hat) loves his brother, my biggest challenge is to make sure that he doesn' t love him to death. Don loves Daniel too, but only shows affection when he's sure no one is watching. (I'm setting myself up for some fun times in the future with all the d names)

Daniel is just about a month old in this picture. Already he sees what his brothers are doing, and you can just tell that he wants to be doing what they're doing.

"What's up, homey?"

Daniel is the smiliest baby I have ever seen, He started smiling while we were still in the hospital and he hasn't stopped since. I feel blessed to have such a happy baby. It was quite an adjustment learning how to be a parent to toddlers and and a new born, but we're slowly figuring it out.

(stay tuned, hopefully we'll have some pictures and new adventures to share about our new town (Big Piney Wyoming) and our new house.

Lately, the boys have been learning all kinds of new skills. Kayaking, biking, and horseback riding) The kayaking hasn't progressed beyond sitting in their uncle's boats on the grass, but there is high hope that one day they'll be able to hold the paddle.

We saw some awesome bikes during our 4th of july parade. They're actually called prebikes. They're awesome! They help kids learn to ride bikes without the training wheels. They don't have any pedals, but they learn balance and such. Here is David 'fixing' his bike. Aaron says that they've spent too much time at the Marshall Ranch. They ride for a few minutes, then they spend the next half hour 'fixing' things.

Don especially loved that his bike was orange. He has just finished fixing his bike and is waiting for his brother to be done too.

Here they are riding their bikes.

All that hard work deserves a break. Dave and don here are just enjoying the lazy days of summer.

And for their final skill, it is horseback riding. David is wearing his full "cowboy small" personna outfit. Crazy thing, these chaps look like capris on them now, when at halloween they were too big. Oh how kids will grow.

A Good Day

We had one day last week that was really nice and hot! So we did what anybody who lives in Rexburg would do. We went to the Splash Park! Dave and Don loved it. Well, they didn't brave the stairs or the spraying water on the slides, but they enjoyed all the fountains on the outskirts of the park.

I don't think Dave walked once the whole time we were there.

Oh, what a happy boy. . .now if only the water was warm.

"Hey brother, watch this."

We saved the best part of the day for last. . . .otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get the boys away from the water without a major meltdown. Rexburg also has a carousel. It is one of those old fashioned ones that has been restored. Dave and Don love horses, so this was a great way to end the day.

Although they don't look too happy in these pictures, they loved the ride, they spent the whole time yelling things like "giddyap horsey" and such.

Summer? in rexburg

So, lately I've been getting things ready for the new baby. One thing I wish I had with the twins were these car chair canopies. So, I made one. . . actually two. I made the traditional one out of flannel. But then I thought covering the baby with flannel in the middle of the summer would be too hot. So I made a second one using toule (sp?) It made a bug screen and a little bit of protection for the sun. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

We've had a few days of great weather here in Rexburg. So we've taken advantage of that and we've gone to the nature park, and other outdoor activities. David loves his Cowboy hat. He wears it pretty much everywhere we go.

Playing at the park is something the boys ask to do pretty much every day.

Don loves playing in the park and climbing everything possible there. Look at this happy boy!

My how you've grown

So, lately Aaron and I (well, mostly me) have been going through our baby stuff. Getting rid of things we didn't need anymore, and organizing the things we wan to keep. I just got a new stroller that will hopefully fit three, and decided to sell my old stroller and the old car seats. Anyway. I brought the old car seats out today and David and Don immediately jumped in them and pretended to be babies. As you can see, they did finally outgrow these. I didn't think it would ever happen. Anyway, they played in these all afternoon. Then I took a video to show you what they were playing.

As you can see, David is perfecting some of his big brother skills to use on his new little brother. . .Lucky little boy.