95 Degrees....

Why is it already 95+ degrees outside? I hate it! :(
That is all.

Thank you.

20 Months!

Big Brother Braden turned 20 months on April 27th. HOORAY!! :) I know that I have said this before but he sure is fun! :) I love this age! :) He is soaking in everything and learning like crazy...and most of the time he is as funny as can be. :) You never know what you are going to get with the terrible twos but it makes being a parent fun when he is a happy camper. :)

Some fun notes on this past month.....
1) Braden still LOVES his little brother to pieces, however, we still have to frequently remind him to "be gentle" b.c he gets a little too excited with his hugs and with wanting to touch Brant. So we play referee A LOT these days! I think he really wants him to grow up so they can play. He constantly asks "Where did Baby Brant go?" if he is not within his viewing area. :)

2) More and more talking everyday. It is really out of control and we LOVE it!! I cannot believe the sentences that he can put together. It is so fun to talk to him, ask him about things, and just laugh about some of the super cute things that he comes up with. :) I love when I ask him who his teachers are and he says "Leslie Teacher", "Angie Teacher", and "Cristina Teacher". :)

3) He has a new obsession with flags. When we drive down the road he literally points out every single flag that he sees, and he counts them. Precious. We will be driving and he will scream out "two flags" or "three flags!!" and then he will show us his super cute surprised face. :)

4) I think we are in the full blown terrible twos at this point b.c he can be known to have a meltdown about the smallest things. Oh my!! I mean he might want something like his toothbrush, and if he does then he needs it that very second!! Or....there we go. :) Lots of crying and fun stuff like that. Honestly it is hard not to laugh b.c it really is so funny to us but I know that he takes it very seriously. ;)

5) We have had a few successes on his potty chair so that is exciting!! :) We were not expecting that so soon!

6) He loves to help with everything!!! From putting lotion on his body for us to taking out the trash with Chris. He is a huge helper! :)

7) I think he is still keeping his teachers in stiches at school b.c they always have a story about something funny that he did that day. When I go and pick him up he gets so excited to see us. Then he says to his friends "my mommy". HA!! Hilarious! :) As if one of them is going to snatch me up or something. :)

8) He LOVES to be out and about doing things. Loves it!! He takes in all of the world around him with this precious innocence that I just adore. I love going places with him b.c it is so fun to see it all through his eyes. :)

9) We still ask him a lot of questions, and he still answers them with such vigor. :) We start with the normal ones that we have been asking for months now like what is your first name, what is your last name, how old are you, how old is mama, how old is dada, how old is Brant, who are your cousins, where do you go to school, where do you live, etc. When you ask him where he lives now it is "Austin, TX"...not just "Austin". :) Now we can ask him where he goes to church and he will say "Grace". We can ask him when his birthday is and he will say "August". :)

10) He is still counting to 15 and doing pretty well on the months and the days of the week. If we work with him just a little bit he can fill in the blanks. :) And he is doing pretty good with his ABC's too. If I start singing them and all of a sudden I stop, he can usually tell me what the next letter is. ;) And he is still very good with "Excuse me" and "Bless You". And 75% of the time he will thank you and say please...so we are getting there. :)

11) He loves to dip his food in ANYTHING-ketchup, salsa, ranch, honey mustard, etc. He gets sooo excited! :)

12) Braden is very into "Cat In The Hat" right now...the show, the books, etc. Between that and "Seasame Street", I am not sure which one wins out. :)

13) We have been trying our best to find the form of discipline that works for him at this age. A time out chair was working well until he decided that it was fun to just sit in it, and it became more of a toy. So we decided to move onto the next tactic. :) When you are talking with him about something he that he has done wrong, he repeats absolutely everything you say. So you will tell him that what he is doing is not nice, and he will literally repeat it all back to you. We try to hold back our smiles sometimes b.c seriously-it is cute. :)

We are very proud of all that he is doing at such a young age. He is a total blast! :) We love you B! :)

Here is his birthday breakfast.. :)

Thinking hard about that breakfast. :) He has been trying out all of his new big boy cups that he got for his 20 month birthday! :) He needed an entire new collection of some of the 18+ month ones, and we needed to replace many of the soft spout cups that he had slowly started to chew through. Gotta love it!: )

Easter Weekend Fun!!

We had a great Easter weekend at our house. :) Chris was off for the Thursday and Friday beforehand, and with me on maternity leave, we got a lot of good family fun in. :) Yay!! :)

We kicked off the fun on Thursday morning at Braden's school Easter Egg Hunt. Then Chris, Brant, and I headed over to Brick House to have some lunch. The food was actually great, however, I could have done without the daisy dukes and halter tops. :) If you can move past that then there is some good food to be had. :) Check out this crazy chili dog!! :) After lunch Chris and I switched off keeping Brant and got some much needed massages. It was soo nice and very relaxing. :)

Friday morning Braden had his swimming lessons and then it was time for a haircut. :) They spiked his hair up so that he could surprise me when he got home. :)Friday afternoon we took Braden to the Arboretum to play outside. He loved it! :)
Braden loved the cows!I need to hug on this one...Looking out over the Texas Hill Country... :)Just taking a walk with Dad...After I played outside I needed to go into Barnes and Noble for a little while and have some fun at the train table. :) Friday evening we headed to Cafe Blue out on the lake for dinner. It was yummy!! We had to park way up on this hill and take the tram down to the restarurant...Braden ate every last morsel...he loved it! :) Pretty views out there!
Saturday morning we headed over to Riverbend Church for their huge Easter Egg Extravaganza. Braden was ready to go!! :)
There was a petting zoo there so Braden got to hang out with goats, ducks, chickens, geese, rabbits, etc.
What are you looking at?
It was time for the Easter Egg Hunt and Braden was ready to go....he had a lot of practice beforehand. :)

Where are all of the eggs? :) Here are some!! :) There are some Starburst in there! :) Saturday afternoon we headed to Locomotion so Braden could play on all of the inflatable fun. :)
And there were balls in there too! Hooray!Wheeee..........I think Chris might have had more fun than Braden!! LOL! Crawling into the house to find Daddy! Here we go!! More fun places to play.....After a good time at Locomotion, we headed to Hopdoddy to have an outstanding burger!! YUM!! :) Sunday morning after church we headed to Easter brunch at The Belmont. Mama...I want to cover your mouth with an egg. :)Just a few more fun photos as we were playing around on the front porch. :)The little boys were not too interested in looking at the camera. :) So happy on Easter Sunday.... :)
Surprised face... :) Sunday afternoon we had a fun time in the backyard. Braden got to try out his new sprinkler from Mimi and he ended up loving it! :) And he was loving up on his fruity popsicle too. :) We also opened Easter presents that afternoon as well. Good times! :)
Brant got some new bags for all of the things I am sure we will lug around for him over the years! :) And some fun summer clothes too! :) Braden got some golf clubs and a baseball set...along with trucks, books, a movie, and some other fun toys. Mimi spoiled the boys rotten and gave them lots of fun loot to dig into! :) Braden just went ahead and played with Brant's too! :) Easter 2011 was a great time...and we are already looking forward to celebrating next Easter when Mr. Brant is a little over a year old! :) Maybe he can go on the egg hunts too! :)