Welcome to Brennen's Clubhouse!

Brennen's 2nd birthday party was Saturday and it was amazing! Everything turned out great and my little man had a blast! Thank you everyone who made it to celebrate with us!

A special thank you to my wonderful parents and my brother Chris for all their help the days leading up to the party and the day of the party. It wouldn't have happened without you guys...I love you!  Also, a big thank you to my wonderful friend Crystal for taking most of the pics for me. You're the best and I am so grateful to have such great memories of this special day!  Thank you also to my wonderful husband who thinks I am crazy, but was also a huge help and can finally appreciate all the hard work (and $$$) I put into the party ;)

My brother Chris made this adorable sign!

Grandma & Grandpa

Nana & Papa

Nana & Landen

Brennen & Landen

Shane & Avery

Shane & Sheila

The "Hot Diggity Dog Bar"

Heading outside to play!

Landen

Emorie

Opening his gifts!

Cake time!

I made chocolate & strawberry cupcakes and birthday popcorn!

Singing Happy Birthday! (Notice the smile...all the practice paid off!)

Mommy even got in the bounce house to play :)

The sun finally came out so we spent the whole afternoon outside!

So excited about all his gifts...one lucky boy!

It was such a perfect day!  Brennen didn't fall asleep until we were driving home around 4:40pm!  He was exhausted, but I know he had so much fun.  I still can't believe he is 2 years old.  He has really grown into such an amazing boy and I look forward to each and everyday with him :)

Brennen - 24 Months - TWO Years Old

My baby is TWO years old today. I really cannot believe it.  It has been such an amazing two years. It is hard to believe how much joy, excitement, happiness and love one little person can bring into your life! I cherish everyday with my little man and I look forward to watching him grow and change!

Tomorrow is Brennen's birthday party, so we were very busy today getting everything ready.  I am really looking forward to celebrating our special boy with all our family and friends! 

Opening gifts from Mommy & Daddy!

- Grandma taught you when your birthday is and you say “April 19^th”.  You know you are going to be 2 years old and that you are having a Mickey Mouse themed party.

- Your two year molars have finally come through so you have been chewing on your hands and blankets and drooling like crazy this month.

- You have not been napping very well lately. You will wake up after about an hour or hour and a half and think it is time to get up.  This has led to some meltdowns and we all hope you realize you need more sleep soon!

Excited about his basketball goal!

- Thankfully you do really well going to bed. We are trying to get you down for bed earlier since your naps keep getting shorter. You sleep great at night usually from 8:30pm-7:30am most nights.

- We celebrated Easter this month and you were so much fun! We spent time with both Mommy & Daddy’s families and you had a blast hunting for eggs and playing with your cousins!

- You are getting a little more adventurous with eating and trying new things.  I can usually convince you to at least try something new but you are very sensitive to textures.  For example, you didn’t like peeps for Easter because of the sugar coating but you love marshmallows.  You tried tacos and bacon for the first time this month and loved them!

Helping Mommy make birthday waffles

- You loved all the Easter candy and would ask to have candy for breakfast every morning. 

- You are still talking so well and almost putting complete sentences together. People are always telling us how well you talk for being so young.

- You started singing songs this month. You sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Happy Birthday, No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, and a few others.

- You are working on learning the days of the week with Grandma and you say them all so cute!   

- You repeat almost everything we say so we have to watch what we say around you!

- You went through a stage of being very clingy to Mommy and you got very stingy with giving kisses. I’m not sure if it had to do with teething or what, but no one liked not getting their hugs and kisses from you!

Daddy surprised us with dinner at Fritz's

- We spend as much time as we can outside when the weather allows us to. You LOVE to be outside and love to play in the backyard. Your current favorite things are playing fetch with the dogs and digging in the rocks.

- I have decided to wait until after your birthday party to start potty training.  We opened your last box of diapers the other day and I told you that after they are gone, we aren’t buying anymore!  I think once we buy underwear and start a reward system you will be much more into it.

- You are in 24 month clothes, size 5 diapers, size 6/7 shoes. You go to the doctor next week for your checkup and I am anxious to see how much you weigh.  

Mommy & Daddy had such a fun day celebrating with you!  You are truely a blessing to us and we love you more than words can say! 

Already Monday...

Last week was a long week and it's already Monday again. We were gone almost every night and the days seemed to drag on. I worked all 5 days (not full days of course) but that made my week seem like it lasted forever!   It made me even more grateful for my day off each week :)  The weather was pretty cold and cloudy almost all week, so I am sure that contributed to the feeling of a slow week too. 

I got off early on Friday and the sun came out, so I was able to take Brennen outside to play for a little while before Ryan got home. He asked to play outside everyday during the week, so we were finally able to enjoy a little sunshine!

We had a very enjoyable weekend and tried to take it easy since our week was so long.  Friday night we met up with our friends for an early dinner at Oklahoma Joe's and then went home and made it an early night.  When we got home that night we were telling B how his birthday party was next week and asked him who he wanted to have come to his party.  He sat down, crossed his legs and arms and was thinking about who would make the list...it was so cute!

Saturday we had planned to head to the farmer's market, but it was only about 40 degrees so we decided to stay home and relax instead. 

Brennen & Daddy arm wrestling

Later in the day it warmed up so we met Crystal, Tristan and Landen at the park.  It was a gorgeous afternoon!

Playing in the rocks before we headed to the park

Landen decided he didn't need a nap that day...so he almost fell asleep in the swing. Poor guy!

My little muscle man!

Sunday we spent the majority of the day working on the house. We had a call that someone might want to see it in the afternoon so my parents came over to help us finish a few things. Unfortunately, the showing fell through but I am keeping my fingers crossed something will happen eventually with our house! It was another beautiful afternoon, so Brennen and I enjoyed some more playtime outside before the rain came in.

Just relaxing!

I have a three day work week then get to celebrate my baby this weekend!  Do I have to stop calling him my baby when he turns 2!?! I sure hope not :)

Enjoying Springtime!

It was a good week last week!  I went to dinner Monday night with my girl friends from high school, and it is always so great to get together and catch up.  I forgot to take a picture of all of us this time, but hopefully we will do it again sooner rather than later! Ryan and Brennen took the dogs to the park and went and enjoyed a daddy/son dinner and a trip to the "Jayhawk store" as Brennen calls it. 

Tuesday night when Ryan picked up B, the first thing he asked to do was go to the park again.  So when I got home we loaded up the dogs and all headed to the park. It was a little chilly, but still wonderful to get out.

Enjoying a wagon ride and Daddy taking all the boys down to the woods!

My cousin Sheila gave Brennen a huge chocolate bunny for Easter, so I told him if he made a happy plate he could have some. Sure enough, he ate all his food so I had to stick to my word!

I had Wednesday off and spent the day cleaning the house and getting some things done for B's birthday party.  I can't believe it is only 2 weeks away! My wonderful mom came over to run errands and help with everything.  I am so thankful to have such an amazing mom!  We did a trial run on B's birthday cake and I am so excited to make it for his birthday :)  My mom made most of our birthday cakes growing up, so it is so much fun for me to be able to do the same for my own child!

After dinner that night, we actually put candles in the cake, lit them and sang happy birthday to Brennen and let him blow out his candles.  Last year he cried when we all sang to him and wouldn't even touch his cake.  Then in February we were celebrating my cousin's birthday and he cried when we sang to her.  So, we figured we would practice a few times leading up to his party so hopefully he will be okay with it by then :)  What we do for our kids!  He actually loved us singing to him since he now tries to sing with us, then he blew out the candles and ate a piece of cake with no problem.  I just hope he doesn't get scared with all the people at his party.  I guess we'll see when the time comes :)

Ryan's mom and sister got B a big Mickey Mouse painting book for Easter. He was very excited to try it out, so we let him paint a picture that night before shower time!

Thursday night we just stayed home and relaxed. When I got home Ryan was outside doing some work in the yard and here is what B did for about 20 mins while I got dinner ready...

He scooped and dumped the rocks and couldn't have been happier!

B had tacos for the first time and LOVED them!

Then on Friday night we headed over to our friends Crystal and Tristan's for dinner.  It was so beautiful out that the boys played and we enjoyed our dinner outside! 

Landen & Brennen enjoying dessert at their table!

I didn't get a picture of it, but in the above picture you can see the little trampoline in the background.  Brennen & Landen had a blast jumping and tackling each other in there!


Saturday we ran some errands and then Ryan put the smoker to good use and we had some friends over for dinner.  It was another beautiful evening so we were able to enjoy being outside and even used the fire pit!

Sunday we played outside some more before going to watch Ryan play some indoor soccer.  Brennen's new favorite activity outside is playing fetch with the dogs. 

The weekend seemed to absolutely fly by and luckily yesterday seemed to do the same. I hope the rest of the week continues to go by fast and then it can slow down for next weekend!

Easter 2013

We had a very busy but wonderful Easter!  Brennen woke up and immediately started saying the Easter bunny had come. Ryan was changing his diaper and asked him if he saw the Easter bunny and Brennen said "no". Then Ryan asked him if he heard the Easter bunny and B said "yes!".  Kind of shocked, Ryan said "well what time was the Easter bunny here?"  Brennen said "ummm 2".  He cracks us up!  He proceeded to find his Easter eggs and basket that were left for him and ate some candy before I made him have some breakfast.

We then headed over to Ryan's parent's house to find eggs with our nephews.

After the egg hunt, we headed to Ryan's Auntie Kay's place for lunch. It was a great lunch and the boys even got to swim a little in the rooftop pool. The water was pretty cold, so they didn't stay in for too long.

Luckily, we were able to leave early enough to put Brennen down for a nap at home for about an hour and a half.  Then it was off to my parent's house for Easter #2! Brennen had so much fun playing with Carson and Avery!  My mom got the boys foam swords in their Easter baskets, so they fought and ran around tackling each other.  It was hilarious!

Couldn't resist including this pic :) 

All the babies!

Brennen, Avery & Carson

Baby Shane loving the swing!

It was a very exhausting day, but it was wonderful to get to spend time with both our families!