I HEART my new mini van!!

So, it's official - I'm a minivan mom - and I LOVE it!! I know some people are very anti minivan but ever since I was a nanny for 3 kids in highschool and got to drive them around in their Astro Van I have been a fan - I know they don't look very cool but they are soooo practical when you have multiple little ones.
We knew we were going to have to get something different as soon as we knew #3 was on the way because my Monterro wouldn't seat 3 car seats so Jeremy started looking. He really wanted to get an extra long SUV and I was fine with that but I had some concerns about how easy it would be for me to get in to the back to help James in to his car seat and also the rising cost of gas was a concern for me with such a large vehicle. I really didn't know anything about minivans except the Honda Odyssey which I knew even if we got a used model would cost us more than we were wanting to spend on a car right now. Having not had a car payment for 3 years now, the idea of getting back in to one was not appealing and if we had to I wanted it to be paid for as quick as possible!! So, on vacation we rented a car and it was a Dodge Grand Caravan and I loved it!! I asked Jeremy if they were good vans and he said yes but that they depreciated terrible - I thought PERFECT!! We knew no matter what we got it would be used so we started looking around. To stay in my set budget I was looking at 5+ year older models with high miles; then Jeremy did what he does and found us a great 2007 model with less than 50,000 miles in our set price! I was so excited. I am not at all high maintenance when it comes to cars - my only requests were that it have 2nd row bucket seats and rear air/heat and preferably not white - but I would take it if the price was right! As you can see I didn't have to get white to get a deal and it even has the new feature of Stow n' go seating which means you can easily lay all the seats flat down in the floor and have tons more room!
Today was my first outing in the van - and I must admit that last night when we were emptying the Monterro I got a little misty eyed because I've had that car since before I met Jeremy, I brought both my babies home in it - and I really thought I would drive it until it just quit on me! But after our trip this morning I'm thinking Monterro who?!? It was so nice and spacious and James loves being able to easily climb up in to it and run around while I was loading up groceries. I had to call Jeremy immediately and tell him how much I LOVE it and how thankful I am that he found it for us. Of course he's not super excited about having a minivan but he's happy that I'm happy!

The boys first ride in their new minivanJames' friend Beau had his 2nd birthday last week and James had a blast at his party - I think he played with his new toys as much as Beau did - above is the bubble lawn mower (how cute is that!) and below is Beau's new tricycle - James hasn't taken a pacifier since he was 3 months old but he loves getting in to this bag of paci's I have and playing with them - John-Mark looks like he got caught doing something he's not supposed to - my silly boys!Ok - this picture absolutly cracks me up for sooo many reasons! Do you see that wooden stick he's carrying? That is part of a wooden rocking horse he has - it is the handle that goes through the head of the horse and on his own he has decided this is his bat. He has multiple plastic bats but I guess he decided this was more realistic - every day he goes in to his room and takes this part off of the horse and calls it his bat. He loves to walk around with it, and his baseballs as you can see. He also loves to put on any one's glasses - we call him Hollywood and he cracks up! I could just eat this kid up!!