Happy Birthday Mama!

We celebrated my mom's birthday at the lake on Saturday and since I don't get service at the lake, this post is a few days late.

The Wednesday before her birthday we went to dinner with my family at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then came back to our house for cookie cake!

My mom is the most amazing woman in the world and I really am so grateful to have such a wonderful mom!  Becoming a mother myself has only made my love and appreciation for her grow stronger and deeper.

She is the most giving and caring person and I love learning from her and striving to be more and more like her everyday. 

She is the most amazing Grandma to Brennen!  She is always there for us no matter what and I can count on her for anything that we need. I only hope I can become half the mother to my children that she is to me. 

She truley is my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without her! 

Happy Birthday Mama! I hope it was great and I look forward to spending another amazing year together. Love you more than anything! 

My Little Man

For the first 18 months of Brennen's life I wrote him a letter each month to remember what that time was like and I have made him photo books incorporating these letters that I will give to him when he is older.  From 18-24 months I did a short blog post about some of the highlights from the month so I could remember some of my favorite things about my little man at that time.  I have missed doing those each month and I feel like time is going too fast and I am going to forget all of these wonderful times he is bringing to our lives. 

I am going to start putting posts together every now and then so I can look back and remember some of the adorable, funny and crazy things a 2-year-old says! 

Lately I just can't get enough of this face. I am trying so hard to remember every little detail about him at this age. He wants to help us do everything! He is also getting to the stage of saying "me do it myself" and not wanting our help with certain things.  It can get pretty interesting! 

B is obsessed with Toy Story right now.  We have all three and have probably seen each one about 100 times. (Unfortunately, it's probably not as much of an exaggeration as you're thinking!)  He is always asking to watch a movie and 9 out of 10 times he picks one of the Toy Story movies.  He still enjoys Mickey Mouse every now and then, but definitely has a new favorite. He will even "shush" us if we interfere with his movie. If I vacuum or if we are talking too loud, he puts his little finger over his lips and says "shhhh".

When he walks into a room he always says "hey everybody" or "hey guys, whatcha doing".  It makes me laugh every time. Even if we are just at home and it's just Ryan and I he will do it. 

I am pretty sure I've told B to "be careful" one too many times. I just can't help it, it's my motherly instincts.  While we were at the lake, Grandma & Grandpa were going out on the paddle boat and B says "be real careful".  It was the cutest thing ever!

He loves to have "picnics" at every meal.  I know it is just his way of not wanting to sit in his booster seat anymore, but it's so adorable. He will drag out a blanket and try to spread it out and wants us to sit with him on the floor to have a picnic. We have put him up to the table instead of using the tray on his booster seat to help with this as so far he loves eating at the table with Mommy & Daddy. He looks like such a big boy!

When we are getting ready to do something that B knows he's going to like, he'll start saying "I'm so excited". It is awesome!

Just the other day he grabbed a bag of chips out of the cupboard and asked to have some.  He said "please mom, they're my favorite".  He always cracks me up! He is into everything that he wants being his favorite.

Brennen spent the night with my parents this past weekend and my mom asked him a question and his response was "you betcha"! I really don't know where he picks all this stuff up.

We were in the car listening to his toddler tunes the other day when one of the songs ended and all of a sudden B said "hey, give me my song back"!  My mom and I busted out laughing which made him think he was just hilarious :)

Although most of the time he is a wonderful boy, he definitely has his moments of tantrums.  Right now he is having a hard time when he wants something and we tell him "no".  We are all learning how to deal with this situation. We usually have him go to his bed to throw his fit and then come in and talk to him once he has calmed down. Most of the time this works great. Brennen is really good at saying sorry.  He will say "sorry, Mommy for hitting" or whatever it is that he did.

He is at such a wonderful age right now and I just want time to slow down so I can enjoy every moment I can with him.  This little man is my world!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a wonderful 4th of July this year.  The weather was gorgeous, we spent lots of time with family and had some delicious food! 

I took the day off Wednesday to get ready for the lake.

Start of my pasta salad...so colorful!

Ready to celebrate America!

Wednesday night my cousin Sheila and her husband Kevin had their annual 4th of July party.  It was a blast. Brennen had so much fun with all the activities they had to do out there.  There was a bounce house, a swimming pool, a 4-wheeler just his size and a wonderful fireworks display. Brennen loved all the fireworks this year up until he got tired. It was nice that he wasn't afraid, but it kind of scares me for the future. Once he was tired, he wanted to lay his head on my shoulder and would put my hands over his ears. Silly boy! 

My cousins Sheila, Shannon & I

Thursday morning we got up nice and early and headed down to the lake.  We spent a wonderful 4 days down at the lake and had so much fun.  We got some much needed sun and relaxation!

Lisa, Mallory & Ryan

Boat Captain

The Poopy Puppy firework! A big black snake came out of you know where. It was hilarious!

B couldn't get enough of the poppers

The boys took lots of breaks from the sun and you could always find them watching a movie!

We love the lake so much and I am so happy B will get the chance to grow up around the water.  Can't wait until our next trip down there!

This + That

I have been a huge slacker in the blogging department lately, but here is a little bit of this and a little bit of that from the end of June.

- Father's Day Weekend

Modeling Mommy's sunglasses...silly boy!

My sweet nephew Landen turned 2!  Saturday afternoon we headed to Deanna Rose Farmstead for his birthday party. It was quite steamy, but we had a blast!

Landen with the ship we got him!

B got a new hat...such a stud!

He wasn't too sure about this big goat getting in his face :)

We left just before a big storm came through.  We unfortunately had to drive home in probably 50-60 mph winds and torrential down pours, but we made it safely!

B was so excited to give Ryan his Father's Day gifts. He helped him open them and was sure to point out the picture he drew him on this card. We also made Daddy a picture collage and B was so cute looking at it.  He would point to one of the pictures and say "look at that" then point to another one and say "aww look at that one daddy".  It was really sweet!




Sunday night we had both of our families over for dinner. I planned to have Mexican food so made salsa chicken in the crockpot and tried this new recipe for carnitas. They turned out AMAZING!  Everyone absolutely loved them. I was hoping to have quite a bit of leftovers, but that was definitely not the case.

It was one of the best family dinners that I have hosted.  Everything was prepped in advance so I could actually relax and enjoy the company.  The only bummer part was Ryan's dad ended up having to go down to their lake house on Sunday so he didn't make it for dinner. He got a call from one of their neighbors telling him a tree had fallen on their house from the bad storms that we had on Saturday.  Ryan's aunt also couldn't make it because she was in a car accident on Saturday on the way to Landen's birthday party which dislocated and broke her elbow :(  Ryan's poor family did not have a good weekend! Thank goodness she is going to be okay!

- 5 Year Anniversary

Ryan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on June 20th.  He secretly planned for me to get off work early and for my mom to keep Brennen over night.  We went to dinner and rented a movie. It was a wonderful evening to just be able to enjoy each other!

- My mom stayed with B and I while Ryan was at a basketball camp for the weekend. B loves spending time with his Grandma!

- We have been spending quite a bit of time outside.

B loves to swing...even just in his underwear!

B and Daddy flying his kite!

- We spent the most relaxing weekend at the lake.  It was perfect!

- And the most exciting news...my baby brother got engaged!! I am so happy for him and can't wait to have my future sister-in-law officially part of the family :)

I have a 5 day weekend coming up and am looking forward to relaxing and enjoying being with the family.  Hope you all have a safe and wonderful 4th!