Easter Images

Sorry for the delay today! Earlier it looked like rain might be about to hit, so I herded the boys outside for some play time (of course now the clouds are gone and it's gorgeous). Then after I put them down for their nap I started having some fun with Photoshop. Whoops!

As promised, here are some of my favorite shots from Easter. We took the boys to the city egg hunt on Saturday and it was a total bust. I doubt we'll go back next year. Instead of having a 2 and under division like was advertised they clumped all kids 5 and under together. And the "older" kids in that division had greedy parents helping them (I can say greedy because many were also grabbing eggs left and right and shoving them in their kid's basket). Do you see where this is going? The ropes were dropped, "Go!" was yelled and it was a mad stampede down the field to get the eggs. I had Tyler by the hand and Nick was behind me with Jackson and Chase. By the time Ty and I got to the end of the field every single egg had been picked up and Tyler had nothing in his basket. His lower lip popped out and started to quiver and I felt so badly! Nick and I had been pumping the boys up all morning about picking eggs up off the ground and putting them into their baskets.

A couple of moms took pitty on our eggless children and made their kids drop an egg into one of the boys' baskets. That really didn't help though, because the boys didn't get to pick the egg up off the ground. *sigh* We finally distracted them with fun on the nearby playground. Nick and I also promised them we'd do our very own egg hunt at home, and that's exactly what we did Sunday afternoon...

Tyler

 Chase

 Jackson

 Tyler checking out Jackson's eggs

Yes, that would be a golf ball in Tyler's hand

And yes, that would be duct tape on Jackson's basket.

Checking out the fountain at church

On Sunday morning I got the boys all dressed up and tried to take some pictures. I got a couple of funny ones, but nothing that I loved. Then in the afternoon, before we went to church, we switched them into shorts and managed to take a couple of pictures on the porch when we got home.

I think this one is kinda fun with Ty in the foreground and his brothers in the background.

L-R: Chase, Jackson & Tyler

This is my "I can't believe Nick just picked up my camera and is going to try taking close-ups of me again, I better try to not look annoyed..." face. Sitting with Jackson

Tyler is definitely about to have his sugar crash - you can see it in his face!

I snapped probably 15 pics of Nick and the boys and wouldn't you know on the ONE picture where all three boys are looking, my super mature husband decided to cross his eyes? ARGH!

Oh well, that's what Photoshop is for, right? A little head swapping never hurt anyone!

I haven't heard from either of my giveaway winners yet! You ladies have until tomorrow night to get in touch with me before I draw alternate winners!

Winners!

I had the fullest of intentions of writing all the entries on little slips of paper and having the boys draw the winners yesterday. However, I was distracted by the sight of Peeps and Reese's Eggs, so instead this morning I used the random number generator at Random.org to select the winner.

Winner of the Pull Ups - Comment #14 The Lane Family

Winner of treats from my Etsy Shop - Comment #56 Renee and Agua Family

Congrats ladies! Just send me an e-mail to threetimesthegiggles (at) gmail.com and we'll coordinate getting prizes to you! If I don't hear from you by Wednesday night I will pick an alternate winner.

Tomorrow I'll show you some pictures from Easter! I may have to do some head swapping in some group pictures... wouldn't it figure in the one picture where all three boys are looking at the camera my husband decided to cross his eyes? Here's a little picture to hold you over until tomorrow though...

Jackson

For now, I wanted to comment on some of the potty training questions that we asked in the Pull Ups giveaway!

1. What do you think is better: a potty chair or a potty ring that goes on the seat? Nick and I opted for the toilet ring, simply for selfish reasons... We didn't want to be emptying a potty chair (or 3) 100 times a day! The ring worked great at first but then I started having the boys sit backwards on the toilet (no ring) once in a while so that we'd have a way to use public bathrooms with them feeling comfortable. Before we knew it, the boys all preferred just sitting backwards!

2. In hind's sight, would I potty train the boys all at once or one at a time? Definitely one at a time! It was stressful enough watching one child for signs of an impending accident that I can't imagine trying to watch 3 at a time! Staggering them a week apart really was the best move for our family.

3. What are the signs of readiness? Are we talking in our children or the parents? ;) In all seriousness though, I've seen long lists of signs of readiness and if I waited until my kids showed each and every one of those I probably wouldn't have tried to PT the boys until they were 4! Here's what we looked for in the boys: telling us when they needed their diaper changed, increased curiosity of when Nick or I were going to the bathroom, ability to wake up dry from a nap and asking to sit on the potty. Chase exhibited those items most often so we chose him to go first, then the peer pressure took over for the other two!

4. On whether or not to wait to PT after a week long vacation next month or just do it now if he's ready... I say now! If he's ready and excited about it the process should go fairly quickly and I'm willing to be he'll have a pretty good handle on it by next month.

Now, as for the regression question I have no clue because we haven't gone through that. Questions like that and other questions you may have about PTing can be asked on the Pull Ups fan page on Facebook! Each week they have a Potty Training Expert look through the questions posted on the wall and they answer them. To join the Huggies Pull Ups Fan Page, click HERE!

Easter Video Greetings!

(What they're saying for those that don't speak toddler - Jesus is risen, Jesus is Alive! - their memory verse from church!)

Happy Easter from us to you!

Wiggle Worms

I love when Nick has an extra day off! Due to the Easter chaos at church this weekend (something like 15 different Easter services for the 20,000 people they were expecting) all staff gets today off. A day off for Nick means a day off for ME! I got to sleep in until 9:40 this morning. Ahhh!

Yesterday was a fun filled day for us. We let the boys "hunt" for plastic eggs in the living room. The eggs each had a couple of animal crackers in them, which excited the boys a great deal!


Then we let the boys each try a Peep. I love Peeps and I'm happy to report the boys thought they were pretty cool too! That's all the candy the boys got, which is just as well probably because they had plenty of energy on their own...


We attended church together last night and were kinda mean to the nursery staff... we dressed the boys alike! After the service we just let the boys run through the Narthax for about 20 minutes and they LOVED it. At one point we tried to have my sister take a picture of us and that didn't go well...


When will these boys stop being wiggle worms long enough to take a decent family picture?! Seriously!