What is this Thingamajigger?!?!?!

For a few months now, I have been watching this plant/tree/weed/bush/shrub....whatever you would like to call it. I have no idea what it is. It is a thingamajigger....thats what it is. Today I was once again weedeating around this thing. For those of you who know our home, it is right before the big grass mound as you come down the driveway towards. We have had conversations about it before on how peculiar it is. This thingamajigger looks like a small tree. The ends have some red, but it looks like it is just the color that the new leaves first appear (doesnt looke like a flower). It is about 4 ft tall I would guess. But what is odd is that it has massive thorns all over the branches. Not like a blackberry bush or such, but thick sharp thorns more like you would see on a rose bush but maybe even sharper looking. But it really isnt one thingamajigger...it is 3. The closer I looked today I noticed that there are 3 of these things. You can tell in the first picture. No way connected but close together. I was going to weed wack it down, but it is a very interesting piece. So I decided to just weed eat around it and try to figure out what it is. Take a look at the pics. I think you can click on them to enlarge them. Up close, this thing is pretty cool looking. So, I need some help. take a look at the pics. Do you have any idea what this thing is?!?!?! Help me figure out what it is!! It really is quite neat looking in person.