Happy Mardi Gras!!

In celebration of Mardi Gras, the boy's school had a parade around the campus. Each child was to wear something green, purple or yellow. Now, the Slade boys have PLENTY of clothes and I mean, "well stocked". Although, none of these colors. So, mommy had to make some outfits with the help of Boo and Gan.

Thank goodness for Boo and Gan. Mommy had busy work and social week and had no time to shop! So, Boo and Gan picked up some supplies and dropped them off along with take out chinese for dinner. Love ya, Boo and Gan!

The boys were dressed up as Saints Fans!!!

Taylor : "Who"

Taylor loved his cape. He ran around the house shaking the bells on it and laughing.

Turner (and Georgia): "Dat"

Who can have a Mardi Gras celebration without beads?

" Who Dat" watching tv ....

" Who Dat" waiting for dogs to come back inside.

Happy birthday, Aunt Micki!!!

In honor of my Aunt Micki's birthday (V-Day), the boys and I thought we'd have a party of our own. Favors (the hearts), blueberry muffins as cakes and a fun happy birthday sign....

Oh no, Taylor spotted the sign!!! Those easy to get shots of both boys sitting by the sign are over.

Turner stole the sign from Taylor. Who hears Taylor's whines in the background??

Sign destroyed. Muffins gone. Chairs upside down. Mommy yelling "No standing. Bottom down."

Turner smiling. Taylor coming to join in on the fun. A fight is about to begin.

Just another day in the life of me.

Happy Valentine's to all and Happy, Happy birthday to Aunt Micki!!!!

XOXO!

It's snowing!!!

We woke up early with the boys to find a wonderful winterland outside. All of a sudden, mommy was ok with it being 6:30, after all, this kind of snow will melt quick in Charleston!!

We think our house has never looked so beautiful!!!

Taylor thinks that nothing has ever been so much fun. He ran around touching everything.

Running through that cold, hard stuff sure is fun!!! Don't you love the rain coat? Who thought that we'd need snow gear for charleston?

Daddy, the boys and Georgia enjoying scooping snow with their favorite rackets!!!

Notice the pure joy in Taylor's eyes!

And the questions running through Turner's mind? Poor child is too bright sometimes!!

Daddy and Turner playing in the yard!

Look carefully at the tiny footprints of Taylor, as he heads to the swingset.

"What's the snow doing on the slide?"

Turner grunting as he sees the horse covered in snow!!

Overnight Visitor

Our neighbors and friends, the Windhams, left their precious pup with us for the weekend. Caroline is like another member of our family. The boys love her. She is full grown, but smaller and as gentle as our older dogs. She and Guinness have a special bond. Funny thing, I noticed her being a little shy in front of the camera. Every time I pulled it out, she ran from me. Notice her tail in this photo.

The boys enjoying the snacks in their snack cups, while Caroline enjoyed the droppings.

Guinness and Caroline had just finished wrestling in the den floor. Both boys stood there, not knowing if they were fighting or just playing.

Caroline and Jackson relaxing on the couch.

Caroline running from me as I tried to get a picture of her.

Charleston Aquarium

We thought we would spend a rainy Saturday at the South Carolina Aquarium. We thought the boys might "like" it, but never knew they would "love" it so much!!!! Here they are running through the parking garage...free entertainment!!!

Turner pointing at the fish.

Taylor fascinated by the big ole tank.

The boys and their school buddy, Madison, climbing the big steps.

Turner announcing to the world, " There are the penquins!!!!" (everyone laughing because he kept grunting, pointing and looking back at me) Meanwhile, daddy chased ADHD Taylor through the aquarium....

Taylor appeared after "breakfast", but in time for the swim lessons.

Taylor: "bye bye fishes"

The tanks were a hit!!!

Buttons galore!!! An even bigger hit.....

Climbing the steps...times 5 times!!!! ( I am getting tired just thinking about it!)

Snacktime outside before the rain....check out the bridges and that view!!!

John 5 and a baby alligator!

Caroline brought Savannah and John to play with us!!!

Taylor enjoying the touch tank. I am sure this was not what they had in mind....he touched a starfish, sea urchin and fiddler crab. But his favorite was getting mommy all wet!!! See the smile...

They even have a kids play area!! Here is Taylor running some other kid over with the rocking horse. Think we should go ahead and invest in Ritalin now!

Turner building a tower!!

Turner showing a tired daddy where the bird is.

All the water made Taylor thirsty!!!

Mommy and Taylor watching the diver as Turner kept running up to steal the presenter's puppets. Whoops. Daddy was red as a beet from embarrassment!!!

Family Photo in front of the otter tank....they were sleeping!!!

16 months

Mommy is very BLOG behind. Here are some updates on their 16 month activities, despite the fact that they will be 17 months in a few days. Turner has become quite the cuddle bug. Taylor has always loved to snuggle, but recently Turner has been backing his bottom up to us to sit on our laps. Usually, he is bringing a favorite book to us. He loves for us to read to him.

Watching videos while sitting in our big boy chairs on our favorite. We have graduated from Baby Einstein, although we still love them. Our hottest videos include Elmo and Sesame street!!

Vacuuming is one of the many chores we enjoy doing. Mommy has taught us to put our dirty clothes in the hamper, vaccum the floor, wipe our hands before meals and wipe our trays after meals. We are still working on putting our "all done" cups in the sink. Currently, we like to put all cups in the sink because it is fun to have mommy swoop us up and throw the cups in the sink!

An adorable Taylor trait is that he likes to sit with his legs crossed at the ankles. ALWAYS.

And drag his dustpan up and down the driveway.

Taylor is always the first one to finish eating because he wants to play. He then comes back to his tray, open mouthed (like a bird) for more food. We are trying to not reinforce this habit but putting him back and forth in the highchair is for the birds...

Turner knows that I take the applesauce containers and throw them away (another lesson from mommy). His latest OCD habit is to put all the food that he doesn't want in the container and grunt at me to throw it away. Hey....better than the previous habit which was chunk it all on the floor. We now wave "bye bye" to any food we do not want.

Mealtimes: Taylor is much less picky than Turner. He will usually try most things...like fruit, yogurt, cheese, breads, meats like turkey pepperoni, turkey with honey mustard and chicken/fish nuggets. Taylor loves to drink water and is lukewarm about his milk. Turner loves his milk, cheese, raisins, fruit, turkey pepperoni and meats. He is much pickier...most of the time he shakes his head "no" and moves his food around. Neither are huge veggie guys, so mommy continues to hide pureed veggies in everything. Pumpkin bread with carrots, pancakes with zucchini and pumpkin, cauliflower in pasta, broccoli and spinach in meatloaf, all of the above in pizza crust!! Although, mommy is happy to report that per the boy's teachers, "they are the best eaters in the class". They reported on Friday that both boys had double helpings of the cauliflower and broccoli. Peer pressure, maybe???

Bathtime continues to be our favorite pastime after reading book and making towers out of legos, blocks, and tupperware!

Taylor loves to run around naked!!

Turner loves to transfer his snacks from his snackcup to other things. I swear he is counting them!!!

See.........

Language wise, they are communicating great. They have some key words like "uh oh"; "mama" and "dada" and talk often, although it is unintelligible to this speech pathologist! They love to point as they grunt/talk and seem to have their own lnaguage. They are great at following directions and can now bring me things from the other room when asked. They love to wave "hey" and "Bye". They help turn the pages when we read books and look/listen attentively as we read to them. Taylor hums a lot....it's real cute. And clapping their hands when they do something good...another mommy favorite! Just the other day, they brought me a dirty cup for the sink. I cheerfully said, " good job, Turner". He then smiled and clapped for himself. Precious boy!!

Here is Turner clapping at Elmo and "class clown", Taylor, standing up in his chair. He knows better, but knows he is about to get my attention. I say "no standing, bottom down" and he'll smile before sitting down. Taylor is always testing the limits.

We love our family!!!