The Past 2 Months (yes, I am that far behind!!)

As I was adding ALL the pictures, I kept waiting for Blogger to tell me that I had reached my one-post maximum...but that never happened. So here is what the Gardner family has been up to for the last couple of months, in mostly pictures.

My two boys having some serious male-bonding time playing video games

He does not know that his controller isn't plugged in...that will be a sad day for us grown-ups when he wants to play For Real

We play LOTS of Sword-Man around here. Even Grammy gets in on the action.

His awesome bruise/scrape courtesy of the cement at daddy's school!

We've lived hear almost 5 years and I finally got around to buying something to store shoes in by the door. A new favorite game for Trey is to put in/take out the shoes

With his Xmas money Buddy bought his first train set up. More will be added for his birthday!

Trey's FAVORITE thing in the whole world is to wash dishes and he kindly let his sis join him. Kept them busy for nearly an hour (not the "greenest" hour in our house!) and when it was over there was as much water on the floor as in the sink

We had a playdate in January with Rogan and Luca (the twins belonging to my friend/co-worker Ranelle!) and Trey is always excited to have another boy around to do boy things with.

Meanwhile the girls were doing girl things....makeup is always a hit with these two

Is it Abby or a scary pirate clown????

Luca is pretty much a rockstar. She did a fabulous makeup job, including putting on her own mascara. Love this girl!!!

And of course Trey was dying to get in on the action so I let him pretend.

This is how I found the kids one day before we left for the store. They weren't playing or fighting, it was really a sweet moment!

New laundry baskets are awesome play toys. Abby would count to three (hence her weird fingers in the pic) and they would trade baskets.

No high chair, no booster, and using metal utensils....he's growing up!

Her new name is Abby Gardener...she truly loves to work in the garden. She is a great outside helper to both her grammys!

Trey with his "tooly" going to help Abby

He's just cute.

My three babies

So cute!!

The slide was finally added to the play set a few weeks ago, someday the swings will make it on too. Big hit with the kids. Here's buddy playing pre-slide

Rusty is the master digger around here!

Trey was all about the shaving. He likes to imitate everything!

And those dimples??? SO CUTE!

She. Let. Him. Sit. That. Close. WOW

My baking buddy...wonder why she likes to help so much!

Valentine's Day Balloon

Buddy loved his too.

She was so afraid of this hamster at Xmas but had it sitting on her shoulder the other day....what??

I finally got brave enough to let Trey paint.

She's such a little artist

No words for this

or this

Loves to cross his eyes too...hard to get a picture of though. Makes me laugh every time so they do it A LOT

Showing off his messy hands

Trey is doing really well at eating cereal now too. Not so much milk on the table anymore

And who doesn't love a bowl with a straw?!!!

Some not very sticky athletic tape leads to some interesting moments.

His "Death Laser Hand" pose...comes complete with fun noise. And when hit with the laser you are supposed to fall over and play dead. Oh the joys of life with a boy!

And as there have been so many moments unrecorded on the blog the last two months I am doing a general recap of each kid, mostly for my own sake before my memory fails but you all can enjoy reading it as well!

Abby: She has finally started staying in her room quietly (sleeping or not, I don't know) until around 6-6:30. A HUGE improvement from the 5 am business. She informed me today that her best friends are Luca, Grammy Suse, Anicia and she loves Ranelle and Gina too. This week she has eaten all her dinner every night and if asked for a dinner request will say "hash" every single time. It's become a family joke now. She's not any nicer to her cat Izzy. In fact she and Trey were playing hide-and-seek with her in Trey's room the other day. I don't think Izzy was a willing participant. She is a big "reader" still. All the words are from memory but we're starting to work on sounding things out so she can start reading for real. Her memory is ridiculously amazing for information of all kinds. She can now write as well. She writes lots of peoples names and can copy things I write out for her. I really wish that every person out there could spend one entire day with her just to get the full range of her smart, witty, temperamental self. She is one spunky, spitfire of a girl.

Trey: Well big changes have happened with this little guy. As of Monday we no longer have a gate on the stairs, he now sleeps in a bed and we did away with his bottle!!! My baby is no longer a baby...and I couldn't be more excited! The transition to a bed was a piece of cake. I stayed with him until he fell asleep on Monday for his nap and at night. Tuesday I started what is no the routine; brush teeth, read books, snuggle for just a minute or two, hugs, kisses and leave the room. He cried about 15 minutes before falling asleep for both his nap and that night. Since then that time has gone down and now he only fusses for a minute or so. LOVE IT!! I really enjoyed my kids as babies but I enjoy them having some independence more. His language is also exploding. He just decided to start talking one day and it gets more clear and he uses more words almost daily. He loves pointing out all his body parts that he knows: elbows, knees, tummy, toes, fingers, hair, eyes, etc.... I'm also continually amazed at his physical prowess. He can still swing a bat and throw a ball really well but he also can jump quite a distance and climbs everything. He is a big-time wrestler now too and his favorite target is Abby. She's pretty good about going along with it 75% of the time. He has good form and is so strong! I think he may be quite the athlete as he gets older. Big smiles for that!