"Fake" preschool

My friend Bea and I have been getting our kids together to do some preschoolish type activities about once a week or so. Kids getting sick and such has put a damper on our little school every once in a while, but it's been pretty enjoyable. We've done cooking together, crafts, science experiments, color theory and even had a couple "field trips" to the zoo! Brady (and Kellen) love having Makayla (and Juby) come over.

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I think I deserve an award or something. I really have thought about writing a blog entry many times really, I just haven't done it. In over 3 months. Impressive, if I do say so myself. So, I'm writing about a few of the things we have been doing over the last few months. And maybe my New Year's resolution should be to blog more consistently. You know, if I actually made resolutions. :)

We went to the Puyallup Fair. The boys got their faces painted- Brady picked out a dragon and chose pink and yellow as his colors all by himself. Kellen's red ladybug was chosen by Grandma.


Kellen was much more interested in looking at the animal barns than Brady. But when we got to the petting zoo area, he wasn't so sure about the goats. By about the third goat, he was in love!





Brady went on rides for the first time. He, of course, was an instant fan. His favorite was the roller coaster, although he did request (and was promptly denied) to go on the human slingshot AND the extreme scream. My little daredevil.


Pumpkin carving! Kellen seemed to like the pumpkin guts, while Brady didn't like the "slimey-ness" on his hands. (For being all boy, he sure does hate getting dirty!) Brady even helped me make a few cuts on our pumpkin face and loved it!



Lindsay and I combined creative forces again this year for our Halloween costumes and decked our families out as the crew from Alice in Wonderland featuring the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the March Hare, Alice, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit. Brady had his role down pat on the night of Halloween, running from house to house, while repeating "I'm late, I'm late!" over and over.


We also travelled to Blaine for Thanksgiving this year. We were able to rent a park model unit at this place called Beachwood and it worked out quite well to have space for all of us. The boys and I even went into the pool for a little bit. We all enjoyed being able to stay for the weekend.

Laundry

I confess, I'm not the best about getting the laundry folded right when it comes out of the dryer, oh, about 99.9% of the time. But the fact that the basket of clean clothes provides so many "hats" for Kellen (his favorite are Brady's underwear....hey, they're CLEAN!) to keep him entertained for hours (okay, minutes, and that's only if the phone doesn't ring. ha ha) doesn't help motivate me to change my ways.

G-L-A-M- oh, never mind....

I often joke about how being a mom has to be one of the most glamorous jobs one could have and this last week I was reminding of why that is. Sit back and enjoy my tale......

It was bath night and Brady had gotten out of the tub to go to bed and I was finishing up with Kellen when he peed in the tub. I got him out quickly and decided that he could have some "naked time". I am usually wary to trust my child without a diaper on, but I figured it was pretty safe because I knew he had just peed. So, we went downstairs and joined Hannah in the living room, where she was watching Project Runway. I was watching Kellen pretty closely because, well, he was naked! (or at least, I thought I was watching closely, I really did!) Hannah was also keeping an eye on him. Everyone knows you can't trust a naked baby. After about five minutes, I made Kellen come over and put him in his diaper and pajamas for bed. At this point, I shifted my focus away from Kellen and onto Project Runway. He was in a diaper now and needed much less supervision. A few minutes passed and Kellen came over to me like he had something to give to me, so, naturally, I held out my hand. You can imagine my surprise when he placed a fresh, warm log of poo in my upturned palm! POO!! I grabbed his hand that had had the poop in it with my empty hand and then was stuck. I cried out "Hannah, help!". Hannah sprang into action, while questioning what in the world happened and dying laughing. (she's quite the multi-tasker) Everything was swiftly cleaned up and taken care of, but we still don't know when/where he did his business. It had to have been the fastest poop ever! I am still getting over the shock of my little "present", but there are so many much, much worse ways this could have gone, I have to say I'm thankful that he just brought it to me! And that is a glimpse into my life- thankfulness for poop in my hand....and a lot of laughing!

Mariner's game

So, it's taken me a while to actually blog about it, but a week and a half or so ago, we were able to attend our first Mariner's game as a family. We had free tickets and invited some friends to join us. We had a lot of fun, I got garlic fries and the Mariner's even won!! Plus, we got special tickets to the All-Star Club in the suite level (only two, but still AWESOME!), so the ladies (and Kellen) were able to go check out the "suite" life for a little while. I definitely say that is the way to watch a baseball game. :)

Airshow!

We went to the airshow this last weekend and it was fun. Although, I have to admit, the boys excitement level at the actual flying demonstrations was a little disappointing. When we took Brady two years ago, he was enthralled. This year, he seemed like he could care less, even though he insured me that he thought it was cool every time I asked. He was much more interested in the parked planes you could go/look inside. The ones you have to wait in line to get in, and then wait in line again to be able to go into the cockpit. The ones that were warm and slightly smelly inside, crammed full of people. I could handle two. ha ha

Brady and Kellen being cute on the way to the airshow.

Jump seats are the coolest.

Piloting planes is a very serious business.

And Brady is a very serious child.

Telling dad all about flying the plane.

Late night musings

Kellen has really been struggling with sleeping at night lately. I have no idea what's up. Or how to fix it. But being pregnant and nauseous and wanting to go to sleep but not being able to because I have to deal with my little man who refuses to obey when I tell him it's time for sleeping is NOT my idea of fun. In case you were wondering. I'm just glad that Brady is such a trooper.
In other news, there hasn't been a whole heck of a lot of news. ha ha We're enjoying the sunshine when we can. Alex and I were able to join our friends Drew and Lindsay for a Sounders game in Seattle about a week and a half ago. It was perfect weather and an awesome game- just right for my first official Sounders experience! Kellen has started singing part of "Row, row, row your boat" and it's pretty stinking cute. Brady is turning more and more into a little boy and less of my baby each day. It's kinda crazy. He is doing great at his letters and can pretty much write the alphabet on his own. I know I'm pretty impressed. I just went up at his rest time one day a while back and he was just writing random letters on a piece of paper like he did it every day. And I could tell what the letters were. He's also starting to draw people instead of random scribble drawings. He was also pretty thrilled that Alex and I deemed it warm enough this last weekend to bring out the pool.

Brady having fun at the zoo. (thanks to a membership from Grandma and Grandpa!)

One of my favorite pics I've taken!

Numbers and letters and rooms, oh my!

I have so many thoughts running through my head, so many things I know I should be updating on here. I feel like there is something new to share about the boys almost every day right now. So, I should really step up my game. (but realistically, that's probably not going to happen now, is it?)
We have officially moved the boys into the same room after a successful test run. Brady is doing so well at going to bed and being quiet so he doesn't wake up Kellen (who goes to bed earlier). We've had to change up rest time for Brady since Kellen is usually napping. He works on some worksheets and mazes for 30 min., then reads in our bed for 3o min. I think this is a HUGE improvement since he's actually being quiet and resting. (before he was playing "quietly" in his room and then "reading") Which brings me to the fact that Brady has started working on his letters and numbers. He loves tracing the letters and working on his writing. It's pretty awesome.



Of course, Kellen wants to do everything Brady does, so here's a shot of him "working" too. (Also, he is no longer happy with pretend writing and pleads with us to take the cap off for him to draw several times a day.)



And for those of you that are curious about the clothes strewn around our kitchen- we got some hand-me-down clothes and instead of putting them away right away, I let the boys play with them. They kept Brady entertained for hours! ha ha Okay, it wasn't that long but it was wonderful!

Rainy day art

I can't believe it's almost been a month already since my last post. I have no idea how those people who blog multiple times a week do it!
Anywho, I have been trying to do more art projects with Brady now that he's older and has a little bit longer of an attention span. :) One of the most recent things we have tried is "rain painting". You draw a picture with washable markers, then set it outside in the rain for however long you would like and then bring it in to dry. The rain makes all the marker run and make a crazy painting. Brady and I both made one and he insisted that mine go up on the fridge with his. I'm not sure when the last time was that I had artwork hanging on the fridge. ha ha

Brady's picture started out as a monster, but in the end, he decided it was a bad guy.




I drew a picture of a tree, grass and the sun. Enjoy!

Catch up

I have been horrible about loading video on to my blog. So, I figured I'd play a little catch up and give you a glimpse into our lives over the past few months.

Brady singing his abc's.....in case you haven't heard it 10 million times already. :)




Brady singing "happy birthday" to Kellen. Make sure your volume is up- it's quiet, but awfully cute.




I tried to be sneaky and capture one of the dinner conversations between Brady and Alex.




And lastly, some kitchen dance party documentation. Kellen is a multi-talented perfomer. :)

I SO fail.

I really do think of posting a blog on here a lot. I think to myself "Self, you haven't posted anything in a very long time.". I have even sat down to do it once or twice and found myself distracted by one thing or another. And it's not always because I have two small children screaming (most often literally) for my attention. I am pretty sure the real reason is that I have no tangible proof that anyone reads this. No comments. So there is no motivation. I really do know this is lame. Forgive me. I will try to be better.
So, to give a quick recap of our last month or so.....hmmmm....
Kellen finally has another tooth! You can kind of see it in this picture, on the bottom.



He is talking up a storm. He's been saying "Brady (how cute is that?!), doggie, hi and bye and he attempts many others. It's so crazy! He's favorite books right now are Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Doggies (a counting book by Sandra Boynton). He's a little obsessed with doggies. We went to the park when Oma and GG were visiting and Kellen had a blast walking around meeting and petting doggies. I even heard Alex say *gasp* he might be a little more motivated to get a dog if he keeps this up. He pretty much loves all animals and was super ecstatic last time we were at the zoo. It's so fun to watch him!Brady has been having a lot of fun lately getting out of the house to have playdates instead of just going on errands. One of the moms in our community has been awesome and is organizing these Monday playdates around Tacoma. We've ridden the Link lightrail and explored downtown,


gone to the super sweet Ft. Steilacoom park,



visited the zoo


and played at a playground in Pt. Defiance



-all in the last month! What a feat! (at least for me.)
I have been trying to be more consistent in being physically active and have been running fairly regularly with Krista and sometimes Lindsay, and even my new friend Beatrice joined us once. I've made it to running 2 miles non-stop and am quite proud of myself. I have also been really enjoying taking and editing pictures. Hopefully you have enjoyed the fruits of my labor. Most recently, I was treated to an amazing night of dancing and fun with some great girlfriends for my birthday. It was an amazing treat and a big surprise. I am definitely loved!

Our latest adventures

While I have no photographic evidence of it, we enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas at home with Alex's mom and grandma and my mom and step-dad. Spending Christmas at our own house was wonderful! We got the boys a play kitchen set for Christmas and it is set up in the kitchen so they can "cook" while mommy does. I'm very pleased that it has been a hit with both boys. Brady definitely enjoys playing chef and is always treating us to his special creations. My favorite treat has been his "happy juice" mixed with "yummy juice". (I get where the yummy juice could have come from, but the happy juice cracks me up!)


Kellen's latest favorite activity is to climb into the bottom drawer of the built-in desk in the kitchen and hang out. He came up with this idea all on his own. He thinks it's funny to stand up when I am telling him to sit. He'll crouch down like he's going to sit, then stand right back up. This is a game he likes to play in all sorts of places. Luckily, the bathtub isn't one of them. :)


We had a New Year's Eve party at our house. It was super fun and the boys slept through everything!! Double sweet action! We played Rock Band, Alex's new arcade hoops game and generally just hung out and had fun. I still can't believe Brady went to bed without any problems and stayed there. And went to sleep. And stayed that way. It was awesome.


We also went to Zoolights (the zoo with a bunch of Christmas light displays) with our missional community. Our missional community is a small group of people from our church that generally live in the same neighborhood and try to live life together and be the church in our communities (as opposed to the idea of church being something you go to on Sundays). We had a lot of fun and Brady asks about going to zoolights each time we are out after dark.