behind

Sorry loyal fans. We've had family visiting so I haven't been on the blog much recently. Prepare yourselves for the onslaught of blogs coming your way this week! Lots of pictures to post. :)
N's sister Annie came back out a couple weeks ago, and quickly got sick. Then my mom came out to join the party last week... and she got sick too. Sorry visitors! I think we still had fun. Not sure how much they enjoyed it. ;) You can hear Annie's awesome laryngitis voice on this clip she filmed of Cameron.

William turns FOUR

Even my own birthday doesn't make me feel as old as my kid's birthdays do. How does that work?? My sweet William turned Four a week ago! He's as stubborn as all get out (that phrase seems to work better spoken than typed... oh well.), but also incredibly sweet and very sensitive. Happy birthday, baby boy. We love you more than you'll ever realize (until you have your own child, anyway).

William's favorites:

Best Friend: Purple....um, Spencer (aww... Spencer, we miss you!!)
Food: Green.. um, um... pizza
Color: Red
Brother: Red
Movie: Yellow.... WonderPets!
Song: Dancing
Toy: Car
Dinosaur: T-Rex
Shoes: Yellow

Hmm. We'll have to work on Q&A with him. ;)

See the resemblance?

Baby Felicity

Baby Andrew

Weekend Update

Seriously, how CUTE is this kid? Even if he's been a pill all day everyday this past week. Teething is no fun for anyone! He's also been running a fever at night. Poor little prince!

The supermoon last night was so cool! This is the farthest my lens would zoom, but I was still impressed. :)

Daddy & sad baby. He wants to be held all day. Occasionally he'll forget himself and lean forward to be put down...only to remember as soon as his bum or toes touch the floor and then cries like we're abandoning him. Little love, that stupid tooth will cut through soon!

A rare moment of distraction. Look who's moved into the biped category! It won't be long now before he's climbing all over the couch with these monkeys:

My little goofballs. They posed like this on purpose! haha.

Spring Cleaning

It was such a gorgeous day today! So beautiful, I couldn't be bothered to clean my house at all. Instead we went out to play for a couple hours at a park. Hopefully the boys will sleep past 5 tomorrow morning....
The first thing to go from the long list of things to de-clutter for spring was the blog! It was just too busy. If there are links you'd like for people you used to blogstalk via me, let me know. ;)

William dressed himself today-- backwards pullup and pants. Awesome, buddy.

Andrew kept picking the little daisies and putting them in his mouth. Ahh, this stage! I'm constantly having to fish out whatever bit of paper (his favorite) or other junk he's put in his mouth.

German playgrounds are the *coolest*. This thing sort of acts like a trampoline in that if you're on one side with both kids at the other side and you jump! your kids will bounce a couple feet in the air. Love it.

When I was first pregnant with William my friend Mendy told me how great boys are because they love and adore their moms. True and true. :) Today Cameron kept picking little daisies too-- but instead of eating the ones he found he brought them to me as my 'presents'. Having three little boys can feel endlessly INSANE, but it's also incredibly amazing. I wouldn't trade it for anything (so long as I have some ice cream in the freezer to keep me sane)...

Hanging Out

We haven't had anything too eventful going on lately, which has been good. Three active little boys can be eventful enough! Andrew is quickly making progress towards walking. I love it. It's always SO amazing to me to watch kids master new things....

... like William's art skills. ;) Isn't he gorgeous? Really though, his art skills are taking off. I love it, even if it means hundreds of scraps of paper with various creations drawn/glued on that I am constantly having to keep from my paper-eating baby.

We got William this funny little wig for his school carnival. He has a bike helmet that is too big so he wore it over his wig on the way to school. I was laughing OUT LOUD (like a fool) the entire walk to school. I was kicking myself for not having my camera-- next time I'll get it...

Check out his 'castle' (he built several layers on top after this, but took off the wig)! Built on a triangle foundation. Probably wouldn't pass code in California.

Just an evening at the Hancock house... making silly faces,

learning to walk, eating chips and salsa,

and pulling out ALL the baking goods as usual.

*The next day, he did the same thing while I was putting on a movie for Cameron. I came back to an OIL SPILL. UGH. Still dealing with the effects of that one. Dang, as I type I hear the tupperware falling... Time to go!

Patiently waiting for Spring.....

The sun has been out quite a bit this week. Temptress! She makes it look so sunny and inviting... It's 45 degrees! What better time to go to the park for sand castles? SO. COLD. I'm ready for SPRING weather. I'm missing my flip flops and my floor is missing being coat/gloves/hat-free. Even if the sun isn't fabulously warm-- it still makes for some gorgeous light on my gorgeous boys.

Yelling "Cam-Riiin!"

For my records: This is my view most days of the stroller... plus or minus a bottle.

Dear Disney, Please make a movie centered around a PRINCE. xoxo, Mom of a boy "princess"

Verdun, France

Last weekend we took advantage of Monday off work and went out of town! We wanted to meet up with family staying in Paris so we met 1/2 way in Verdun. Quick historical recap on Verdun: WWI battle site where 800,000 Germans and French died over 11 months. The Germans charged in there to show their might military prowess and both sides locked horns in the city for 11 deadly months, and then off and on for the remainder of the war. Coincidentally, battle started on the exact day we visited 95 years earlier.

It was breathtaking-- less in the good way, more in the holycrapwhathappenedhere way. It was a great trip though. Kids were good and all the grownups had a greater insight into and appreciation of a piece of history.

Some of my favorite photos: (the entire trips worth can be seen HERE ).

William was adorable and must have been inspired by his poser Aunts Annie and Abby (xoxo girls!) to have suddenly laid down and pose. Love the innocence-- immediately to the viewers right was a huge gun that could rise out of the ground and all around him are craters from gun/canon fire 95 years ago.

It was truly shocking how much of the land and hills that surround the current city looks like this.

Inside Fort Dououmont they had various shells/pieces of shells displaed. William walked up to this and said, "Mom! Look at this one! It's broken.... Cameron broke it." Riiight.

...While Cameron walked up to this piece and said "It's a Kiss mom!" (as in Hershey's kiss). Love these sweet innocent boys. Made me ache for all the mothers of the boys who were holed up there fighting.

We travel in style. See W's hat over on the right? I sat in between the captains seats. haha

The boys were so good even though they were so tired!

Birthday Baby

"Wicked" Addicted

Hello, Fans! Prepare to be amazed by my boys' singing abilities .... or ... entertained, at the very least. My sister's friend, Heidi Jo, is amazing though. She sketch animated a scene of 'Wicked' and my boys are now her #1 fans. I think they've watched this about 100 times. Watch it. It is incredible!

Enjoy the fruits of the boys addiction:

William is holding my calendar as his song book. haha!

I can't help it. I laugh out loud every time I watch them. Love these boys!

week in review

Last week was a lot of just hanging out around the house because Daddy was sick (ahem.. again..). The boys and I did manage to get out to visit a friend and her boys to feed some ducks and enjoy dinner.

unfortunately-- the ducks had recently been fed and weren't really interested. We threw all our bread in anyway.

The older they get, the more entertaining they are! (Andrew is the accompanist you hear in the background).

three boy three ring circus

You never know what you're gonna find when you walk into a room that the boy have been in...

I rescued poor Woody several times, but every time I walked by W's bike he was strung back up there.

Salad spinner remains the most popular toy in the house. Buzz and Woody salad, anyone?

My friend Steph gave William this awesome pilot outfit. He LOVES it (though it took him a while to realize I was saying PiLot not PiRate). He spent good amount of time pretending to fly around the toyroom... most of it with a pirate patch on too. Pirate Pilot. Love this kid.
Lately he's been getting nightmares at night. Last night when I asked him what was the matter he said "I didn't listen". Oh man. I must be pretty scary for him to have a nightmare about that!

"Take my pit-sure, mom!"
Cameron has been saying his L sounds for a while now and just a couple says ago he said "mom, look at this sharrrrk." I love how they overemphasize it when they first figure it out! He's recently added "huh" to his favorite words. "I made a mess, huh?" Oh gosh. It's so cute how he says it. I'll try to get it on camera for the fans. :)

Baby boy seems to know that his birthday is fast approaching and has banished baby food for the occasion. I fear that walking is not far away... Then our circus will really be in full swing. Just this week he's finally started babbling too. I adore that little ba-ba-ba-ba song that he sings.

"eating" with a fork

little pilot in action

catch up.

When family is in town, I always get a bit behind... here's an entirely random photo collection of what we've been up to! The top picture is at the chocolate factory in Köln. Aren't we cute?

A couple weeks ago Andrew got very sick and required a midnight visit to the hospital. My boys and their lungs! Because we brought him in there soon after the onset they didn't need to keep him there. We were so grateful. He recovered quickly, and we're equipped for the next time- to stop it before it starts.

Nanstein castle = awesome. I didn't even get to see the inside, but it was amazing. Like that combo of redrock and castle wall?? Not to rub it in for you all you stateside dwellers, but it's pretty dang cool to live so close to these things!

Annie striking a pose and trying her hand at mother-to-3-boys (she did awesome. she left yesterday and the boys and I are missing her dreadfully!).

70's was the goal, but we came off more like a Mexican mobster and his chica... That or a couple from Jersey. ;)

Annie and I took the boys down to an aquarium in Speyer. It was a FREEZING day but a fun city. I plan to visit again when the sun decides to return to this part of the Earth. Come on Spring!

Belly of a baby ray. Smile!

Am I a moron for not knowing that these were baby sharks?? (no need to really answer that question...). So cool and a bit x-files-ish at the same time to see them wiggling around in there.

Cologne. Amazing.

sunrise near our house.