Our first camping trip

Dinner by the fire, cooked on the fire!

We had some guests on our camping trip.

They just wanted to know what we had for dinner.

They always want to know what we have for dinner because they get the scrappings off of our plates.

Jack's first black eye, courtesy of big brother.

Who he calls "brodder".  Then "buddy"

"Brodder?  Buddy?  Where are you?"

Too cool, dude, too cool with your shades on!

I cannot resist a sleeping baby picture.  Aww.

Brayden's new favorite snack.

Whole, complete, entire carrots.

Love, love, love this kid.

I never would have eaten that when I was his age!

Jack thought sleeping in the tent was an amazing, wonderful, crazy thing.

He thought is was so wonderful that sleeping was a little impossible.

Look at all this stuff I can see!

So. much. FUN!

Even after a few stories, it was still impossible.

So at 10:00 he and I headed inside.

So glad our first attempt at family style camping was in our backyard.  :)

The Purcell's gave us this great idea for when it is hot.

A sprinkler under the trampoline.

Best GIFT EVER!

Jumping Jacks on our camping trip.  :)

Poop in the Paddock

I am so proud of Brayden.  In spite of his puzzle hating parents, he has figured out how to put this puzzle together, with only teeny amounts of help.  This time was the first time he did it completely with his own two hands.  Yay Brayden!

When I ask B. what he wants for a snack, without thinking he says "peanuts and cashews and cranberries". For lunch he wants "cheese and ham".  Nothing is ever different, so I shouldn't have been surprised when I asked Jack what he wanted for lunch and he said "shees and am".

This day, during lunch, he was so tired, he was an adorable mush pile of struggling-to-stay-awake.  He tried really hard to get comfy and eat at the same time, so he turned his little self to the side and leaned his exhausted noggin back in the chair.

 But from that position, he couldn't really find his plate...

Oop, got it.  Back to eating.

He went to bed shortly after that.  :)

Recently, Jeremiah and I considered making a huge, huge purchase (well, to us anyway).  It was this Blendtech.  I have gone through several blenders around here, so we needed a powerful one (something that had some muscle and could work like the Kitchen Aide).  So here we are in our fourth week with the thing and we hit a landmark number.  50 uses so far.  I guess it was worth it!  Anyone want a spinach and apple smoothie?  They are delicious!  Just ask Brayden and Jack.  Or do you need some garbanzo bean flour?  We could make you some of that too, if you did.  :)    

Speaking of making things,  Jeremiah made this beautiful table.

It is a farmhouse table and he did such a fantastic job.  You just have to see it in person to believe it.  Next up, re-stain the other three chairs and build a bench to go with it.  Yay!

One day during the nice weather, we took out the hammock (it has been in storage around here for years...).  It was hilarious watching the boys try to figure it out.  They thought it would be easy because they saw me lay down in it.  And for Jack, it was pretty easy.  But you can tell Brayden had a bit of a time with it though.  I had a bit of a laugh!  Then I showed him how to do it (butt first, then back, then feet little buddy). Now Jack points to it and asks for it before we even get out of the garage.

It is a great place to watch the kids entertain the horses.

Yep, they are back!!

Everyone is ecstatic.  Except for the kitten brothers.  Matter ran away for a day or so.  Rowdy watched them from the top of the barn.  Can you see him up there?

Jack finally figured out how to wrestle.  

Brayden thinks it is the best thing in the world to have someone to

wrestle with!

He just has to lay down on the floor first though so Jack can get him!

This big, giant, HOLLOW oak is a super fun place to investigate.  

Speaking of nature, when the weather was rainy, we watched the movie Bambi.

Brayden thought his name was BandAid.  

It took me a while to tell him it was Bambi.

It was just too funny to hear him talk about Bandaid when his daddy came home from work!

I was reading that little ones Jack's age should be saying about three words.

I have no idea how many words that kid is up to, but I do know that he says three word

SENTENCES.  

Like "No!  I don't!"  With his belly out and a bit of a shriek.

He also says "'Et go!"...you know, turn me loose!  let me go!

"Woook out!" is another one.

"Bwayden sweep?"  Followed quickly by "Ake uuuup!" at Brayden's side of the bed.

(Is brayden sleeping? Wake up Brayden!  I am waiting for you!  The day has started!) 

One day when the neighbors were over, Jack was following our little gaggle of baby ducks.

She pointed out that he wasn't just following him...he was waddling like them!

Jack also has super monkey legs.  When you pick him up, he hugs you with his arms and his little monkey legs, wrapped around you as far as they will go.  Just like his big brother used to do.  It is the sweetest hug. Then he taps his fingers on your arms, just so show exactly how happy he is.

This little stinker...I was listening to him at the park when he was making new friends.

He totally introduces himself Dinosaur Train style. If you know the show, you KNOW what I am talking about  (Hi!  My name is Tiny Pteranadon.  and this is....)

Brayden says "Hi!  My name is Brayden!  and this is Jack.  And this is my mom, Mom!

Oh my gosh, it was so cute! 

But the other kid just kind of looked at him.

Clearly he doesn't watch D.T.!

The other day we got locked into Target during a severe storm.

The sirens were going off while we were going inside.

I had to run to the bathroom to change a stinky so we could actually be in the store with other humans.

Then they called everyone back to the dressing room.

Which was great b/c the power went off.

Don't worry, both boys were in my reach.

When they moved us into fitting rooms, a little girl decided she wanted to play with us.

Jack was pushing her around and shoving her, like I have never seen.

I was glad both she and her dad thought it was funny...I just couldn't seem to get him to understand that was not okay....

It seems like the horses are happy to be home.

This peony was our first bloom of the season.  Now the front garden is full of them.  :)

You know how when you get everything right, all at the same time, you just feel like you had a total victory?

I made home made, grainless pizza

with home made ice cream shakes

for dinner.

Oh, it was mint ice cream...with home made mint extract!

And everyone ate it.

And loved it.

YAHOO!

Here is a couple of bath pictures to wrap it all up.

I am such a proud mama.

My boys have finally mastered the fine art...

of synchronized swimming in the bathtub.

A few photos

The rest of this month has been pretty busy too.  We have been having a lot of fun outside, watching the world burst back to life, getting the gardens and pasture ready for the summer to come.  

 Jack took a few moments to explore my locked away make up bag.  I guess he didn't understand why it was locked away.  Yes, that is mascara that he was eating.  GROSS.  Another day I found him eating some of the dried up soil from one of the seeds that didn't sprout.  I couldn't help it...I sighed  "What is wrong with you????".  I swear I feed him.  He just experiences the world through his mouth, no matter how disgusting I think that is.  Just a natural way to introduce bacteria I guess.  But I have stopped running him into the house to rinse his mouth out after a big bite of sand.  Maybe if he is uncomfortable he will remember it and STOP it!

WAAAAHHHH!  My baby is getting so big!

When he stretches out and his little head is at the top of the pack and play his little toes are only about 4 inches away from the bottom of the pack and play.

WAAAHHHH!

He is a total comedian though.

Everything is funny, hahaha, laugh, laugh, laugh.

He is a total crack up and makes the day so fun.

He responds to "the look of death" much better than any yelling or holllering or spanking that I could hand out.  He always looks right into my face when he is confused or wants to make us laugh, even if that means he has to bend over or kneel down to see my eyes (he gives pretty dang good looks too!).  It shocks me how fast he has learned to talk.  He can put together 3 words at a time.  Brayden loves to have Jack repeat after him.  Jack loves to do it to, proving that he really is one of us (he says YEE Ha! and cracks us up).

 Once a week we take care of Sawyer.  These trucks have been such a hit that they even ride them double when there isn't enough trucks to go around.

 Daddy has been hard at work on his table.  It is so gorgeous.  There will be a bench next, but I have a long  honey-do list waiting for him (including mowing the jungle grass around here and finishing the blue paint in our bedroom), so that might have to wait a little bit.

 We got a box in the mail the other day.

 Aren't boxes are the best!

Big News!

Jack jack has been wanting to be like his big brother lately.  Meaning, he wants to use the potty.  Since he tells me when he poops (I poop!) or when he has to go (like when he is in the bathtub), I totally indulge him and set him on the potty.

Today, he went!  Wahoo for Jack Jack!!! What a big boy!  I don't know if he was more surprised by the going potty or the singing and dancing that Brayden, Daddy and I erupted into (Peepee in the Pot-teh!  Peepee in the Pot-teh!...you get the idea).  What a big guy!  Pictures coming soon.  :)

The things I forgot...

I want to remember to tell this to Brayden and Jack some day (courtesy of Taylor Swift):
"Don't you worry your pretty little mind,
People throw rocks at things that shine"
It happens to the best of it, little ones.  It happened to your daddy, and it happened to me.  We'll get through it, shiny little love.  Now tell me who it is so I can go all mama bear on his/her mother's ass.

Just kidding on that last part...sort of.


And...
Brayden told me this morning while I was trying to extricate Jack from the bathroom while Brayden was using it "I just need some space, guys".  That cracked me up.

And a question...
Does it make me a bad mom if I hide behind corners and squirt my boys with a little squirt bottle?  It makes them laugh their little butts off and is totally unexpected.  Then we run around the house laughing and squirting each other after it turns into their turn with the bottle  (I took the day off of everything today, and we are just having a fun, putzy day).  :)  Oh, well, I think it's funny anyway!

March and April

Boy it has been busy around here!

Brayden seems to be out of his funk (no, he did not stay grounded that whole time) and now he is just a big boy, refusing to be called little anything and yelling "I am a BIG GUY" when we make that mistake.  Otherwise he is back to his sweet little self.  Except for the whole he bit through his lip last night jumping on his bed when he was supposed to be sleeping.  Jeremiah and I recovered quickly from the blood...Brayden has a fat lip the size of Texas.  Maybe his moody little blues had something to do with him growing straight out of all of his clothes again.  It's a good thing I keep a box of clothes in the basement of the next size up (and that his great-aunties have filled it!!)

We've been having a lot of dance parties in the kitchen lately.  Whenever a particular song comes on Brayden will yell "It's your song mom!" and we will stop what we are doing to turn up the volume and shake it  (sometimes the boys dance and sing on their own, to their own tune and melody...it is especially funny when Jack is singing and shaking his little hips to his own 16 month old tune).    

One day we were at church planting some of our overgrown day lilies on the new church site during a mother daughter tea that I forgot about (I might me a mother, but I don't have a daughter, so I put it in the back of my mind).  We were dressed for gardening and mud... and everyone else for a garden party (sheesh!) so when the boys ran inside to play in the nursery they got quite a surprise.  When one of the 13 year olds who works in the nursery with Jack came over to say hi, Brayden just stared at her.  When she was walking away he said "She's beautiful mama."  And she was.  It was so sweet.  He is such a little love.  Sorry I mean BIG GUY love.

Jack is still full of his happy silly laugh.  And so, so many new words.  He calls Rowdy, a barn cat, in at night.  "Rowy!  ROOOWWy!  ROOOWWWY!"

He answers his own little phone like a little Brit:  "Ewwo?  Ewwo!"

When I lay him down to change his diaper he says "I poop!"  Not me or Jack.  I.

He sings the themes song to Dinasour Train..."Ride, ride, ride!"

When he knocks on the bathroom door he accompanies it with "onk, onk"...you know, knock knock!

And when he is feeling particularly sweet or wants out of his bed he calls me "Ommy". Not mommy.  Just the last part-Ommy.

Every time he says cookie, it sounds like a big surprise:  "cooookie?"  with an excited squeal at the end.  And he usually tells us it is "nummy!" unless he throws it on the floor.  Then he says "uh oh" and just looks at us like...how did that happen?  He also says "icky!" and spits out any fowl tasting nastiness that he puts in his mouth.  Like the time he ate rabbit poop from the pasture.  Yes, I was watching him, thankyouverymuch.

He runs to the bathroom to brush his "teesh!"

He is very good with his pwees and ta-tus (please and thank you's) and he still loves his Gi-Gi (Grizzly).

 During the nice weather, Jeremiah went to Top Gun Lawn Mower Riding School.   Just kidding, but he looks handsome doesn't he?  And the boys both go crazy over that lawn mower.  Hope they still go crazy for it when they start mowing on their own!

 The weather has been a bit confusing here, just like in every other part of the country.  The lawnmower is out one minute, snow the next, rain soaked driveway for weeks.  Might as well take advantage of the mud puddles, right?

These two together, boy, I just don't know.  One night I was doing the dishes and didn't hear anything.  Nothing at all.  So I started creeping around the house looking for those two trouble makers (that usually means they are hiding in the bottom of our closet, sitting on my shoes).  After I found them, I ran back to grab the camera.  They were reading books to each other.  Sometimes at night, if neither of them is sleepy, Brayden will get each of them a book to read and then head back to his bed to read by the light of his fishy lamp.  They are so sweet together (most days)! 

The other day, Brayden told me "When I grow up, I gonna have cwaws wike a kitty and cwimb twees with Rowdy!"  That's Rowdy in that tree.  He lives up to his name every day.

I do need some new projects to work on with Brayden though.  He is now beyond my creativity and everything we do, his little brother wants to eat.  So I am on the look out for a book a good friend recommended.  It is called Teach Your Child to read in 100 easy lessons, if you happen to find it in a thrift store.  It might put him a bit ahead in school, but we can cross that bridge when we get there (with some Spanish or something).

We don't have any Easter pictures...because I didn't take any.  I don't know why  I keep doing that! But Auntie Danielle and Grammie and Auntie Meg have some I am sure.  Hopefully I can squeeze some from them.