Back to the Blog.

Well here we are again. I kind of gave up on blogging because I simply did not have time to blog I told myself, which is pretty sad considering it really only takes a few seconds to upload pictures to a blog. But alas, even seconds are hard to come by with these 4 crazy rugrats running all over the place.

But...I have decided to start it up again, because, like my sister  in-law Nicole, I want to have some record of the craziness that is my life, and I guess here is as good a place as any.

 

So on to the first post....

 

A few days ago Austin was having a really tough day. (Let's face it, it's actually more days than not that he's having a tough day.) But this day was worse than usual. He had been creating problems and destroying pretty much anything he could for the better part of an afternoon. So after he completely unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper in the bathroom, Ryan promptly sent him to "Time Out."

After quite some time we hadn't heard anything from him, I realized that it was way to quiet upstairs. Fearing the worst....(there's a lot more toilet paper to be had upstairs) I sent Ryan to go check on him.

And he found him like this.......

Poor little guys was simply all tuckered out. He had fallen right to sleep in the middle of his floor.



 Here he is, Mr. Personality.

This Halloween the boys got quite a bit of Candy and some of it was new to them. When they encountered a piece of candy they had never eaten before, they would often come and ask me "mom, do you chew this, or suck?" And I would tell them.

 A few weeks later, Mr. Austin and I were down at the Honda center waiting for our minivan...(on a side note, we got a new minivan) (yeah! now I am the ultimate super cool soccer mom.)

Anyhow... there we are waiting and Austin finds my purse and inside is some leftover Halloween candy. He asks if he can have some, I say yes, so he pulls out some gobstoppers, holds them out to me and gets right up close to me and in a very loud animated voice says......'You Suck, Mom!'......"You Suck!"

Can't imagine what all the other people around us waiting were thinking!

Here is what we all dress up as in case anyone was wondering

Some pics of little Lincoln... just because he's the cutest kid ever. 

Thanksgiving

 

For Thanksgiving we had my sister Amelia come with her girls. Yeah cousins! It was so fun. Growing up, us girls would always slide down our stairs in sleeping bags for fun. I had completely forgotten this, and my boys have never done it. So it was so fun to be reminded! They had so much fun together.

Carter

Decided I should probably get Carter on here too.

Yesterday Carter and Brandon were in the bath and I went up to check on them and the water was still running and getting way to high. I turned it off and Carter said that he wanted it higher, so I explained to him that there was a drain up towards the top of the tub that drained water out once it reached a certain level, in order to prevent the tub from overflowing.....so no. the water could not go higher.

So today we are having a pleasant evening, doing some coloring... and I think I hear water running somewhere.....yes,, there is water running,,,, hmmm, not in the kitchen......I go to the bathroom, the door is closed and the light is off, but yes, there is definitely a sound of water running from the bathroom. I open the door........Oh my.

The bathroom sink is on at full blast and the drain lever is pulled up so that the drain is closed. The sink is full to overflowing and water is spilling out everywhere all over the floor. As I am screaming and demanding an explanation for this, it becomes apparent that Carter is the culprit here. Upon further questioning he admitts that he did this because apparently he assumed there would be absolutely no harm in it. Because he noticed here too, there is a drain up high in the sink. That drains water when it gets too high. Guess he thought he was going to have to test that.

kids.

Cancun!

Finally A Post!! Ryan and I went to Cancun a few weeks ago and had a blast! We were able to go on vacation for the first time without kids, (whoo hooo!) thanks to my wonderful sisters Katie and Falycia, who flew in from across the country to take care of our three boys for a whole week. Thanks Guys! We got to stay in an allinclusive resort for most of the time and then for the last few days we stayed at the Westin in the Cancun Hotel zone which was beautiful. We spent most of our time just relaxing and soaking in the sun. We did take a day trip to a place called Xel-Ha, that had some awesome snorkling, and we also took a ferry to Isla Mujeres one day. A little island not far from Cancun that had some fun sightseeing. We had a great time. Here are a few of the pics in no real particular order.

 Ryan on the dock

 This is a cool picture that Ryan took at night. It is the few from our westin Hotel room. Looking out over the pool and then the ocean.

 Same view during the day. It really was beautiful.

 The pool went right up to the beach.

 One of the many little cabanas on the beach that we spent time relaxing/napping in. Ahh life without kids...we hardly knew what to do with ourselves!

just chillin' on the dock

The pelicans were all over the place. It was fun to watched them soar over the ocean and then dive down to try to catch their lunch from the water. This one was struttin his stuff for us. He really seemed like he was enjoying being photographed. We were able to get right up close to him and he just watched us and spread his wings out as if saying "here look at me!"

On the beach in February. Couldn't be happier.

I have come to realize that all Hastings have this amazing jumping ability. Ryan, just like his sisters, can get some serious air! It is so fun to capture with our new camera. This only took one take. He's a natural!

So pretty much the funnest part of the whole trip for Ryan was building Sand castles in the rain. It did rain quite a bit in the afternoons while we were there, and one day during a pretty good downpour, when most of the tourist were running for cover and the beach was quickly being deserted, we Seattleites decided it was the perfect time for sand caste building. Ryan was pretty proud of how his masterpiece withstood the floods. fun fun! (and why didn't we bring our kids you ask....... I'm sure anyone who saw us was wondering that same thing.

Chillin' in the cabana

Here is the Snorkling place we went too, unfortunately I don't have a great picture of the actual park, but here is Ryan signing "The Hastings were here" in Spanish. It was really fun being in Mexico and being able to talk and joke around with everyone seeing as how we both speak Spanish.

This is our room at the resort.

Some random pics of the resort.

The "all inclusive" part was pretty cool. We definitely never went hungry! They had 6 different restaurants there at the resort and they were all pretty good. This was one of the appetizers at the Italian place that Ryan really liked. It was Cantalope with Ham and bacon and some other crazy stuff. Sounds weird (and looked weird) but I guess it tasted pretty good!

This was the litte moped we rented when we went to Isla Mujeres. It was a really fun way to get around the Island!

Snorkling. We saw Sting rays, turtles, and tons of really beautiful fish. So fun!

Choose the RIght

Ryan's parents got the boys some cute CTR shirts for christmas which I have finally managed to snap a few pictures of. The boys were excited to all be matching.

Yeah for CTR!

Austin doesn't cooperate too well with pictures but even he has one.

Here he is. Whats that he's eating you ask? Is it Saltine cracker? or dirt? I think the correct answer is a little of both.

Sweatshirts too!

"Brandon.. look at the camera.. Say cheese"

There you go. too bad no one else is looking now.

Love the shirts and sweatshirts. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Best Buds

Carter and Brandon have been playing so great together lately, it has really been awesome. I just had to post these pictures of them telling each other "secrets." All day they were whispering things in each others' ears and then they would laugh and laugh. They haven't always played together this way, so I am so grateful for the stage they are at right now, and I am going to enjoy it while it lasts! It makes me think that through all the really tough things that come along with having young kids so close together, moments like this make it all worth it! I love that they will always have each other as friends!

Just had to post this cute one of Austin. This one is nothing but trouble! He does love being outside though.

Weekend Getaway!

Last month I was lucky enough to escape for the weekend with my mother and three sister in-laws. We had a great time hanging out in San Franscisco for the weekend and got to do all sorts of fun stuff like bike the golden gate bridge, tour Sanfrancisco in GO-carts, eat at all sorts of delicious restraunts, and just plain relax and have fun! Here are some of the highlights

Biking the Golden Gate Bridge

Eating ice cream at ghirardelli chocolate factory. (can't get much better than that!)

We even did a little gardening. :)

My Sisters!