A Visit with Great Great Grandma Nell

Our boys are so fortunate to have so many living grandparents, including TWO great great grandmothers.  On New Year's Eve we visited Great Great Grandma Nell who is 96 1/2 years old and still lives in her own home!!  She is so sweet and I ALWAYS enjoy visiting with her.  The boys love to visit because we usually have treats when we go to see her! 

At the Dutch Bakery picking up our donuts and goodies!!

Grandma Nell even set up a little table in the kitchen with cushions for the boys!!

Brady and Jackson enjoyed playing a little piano...hopefully someday they will really play!!

Five generations - Bubba, Brady, Bamma Shelley, Jackson, and Grandma Great Nell

(missing the fourth - Brett)

Jackson

Jackson has been SO much fun lately.  He makes us laugh ALL the time and he's learning so many new things.  It's so much fun to watch him discover things and do things just to entertain us. 

This video shows some of the best of Jackson.  It is from a few weeks ago when we were home on a snow day and we called my mom.  He LOVES to talk on the phone, SCREAMS when something happens that he doesn't like, and is learning lots of new words.



We are so blessed with our two boys and I'm so thankful for all the laughter and joy they bring to our lives.  We are so busy with them and I know it will only get busier, but I'm so thankful we have them to keep us busy!!  I can't imagine life without them!

All I want for Christmas....

is a snowboard.  This is all Brady has been asking for when he is asked about what he wants for Christmas and we weren't quite sure if it was a good idea.  We ended up giving in and my mom actually got it for him.  I don't know where he got the idea that he wanted a snowboard since we don't do a lot of winter sports.  My best guess is Diego :) 
We didn't have Christmas with my family until yesterday so Brady was a little disappointed on Christmas after he didn't get a snowboard.  Don't get me wrong, he was still very happy about all of his other gifts, but there was definitely some disappointed when there was no snowboard.  Finally....he got to open THE PRESENT.

Here is video of him opening the snowboard, we saved it for last.



And, today we went out twice for him to try it.  We only got this video as our memory card was full, but I'll try to get a better one in the next few days.



We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and got everything you wanted :)

Christmas and Winter Fun

Hurray for our first snow day!! Now I can catch all of you up on our winter/Christmas activities so far this year!! The boys have both been loving the snow and Christmas activities so far this year and it just makes me enjoy it so much more too. I've always enjoyed Christmas, but having the boys allows me to see Christmas through a child's eyes again and it's SO much fun!

We didn't waste any time in decorating! We got right to work the day after Thanksgiving. Brady helped to hang our stockings with care...I wonder if he'll fill them with goodies too??

Here are a few of our latest activities in photos!!

The day after Thanksgiving Jackson and I had tons of fun baking with my mother-in-law, her sisters, and lots of cousins and kids!!! It was a big group and we made LOTS of cookies!

Jackson getting ready for the first delicious Christmas cookie of the season!! These are the BEST cookies!!! YUM :)

I was excited to learn how to make banket this year. I love EATING it, but I've never made it before. I had my first experience with making it and Jackson wanted to help as well. He had lots of fun rolling the dough for the banket :) Baking can get a little messy!!!

This is the look we get from Jackson now when the camera comes out. He's become a poser for the camera and it is absolutely HILARIOUS!! The boys LOVE the snow. Brady is constantly asking me and Brett, "Don't you just love the snow?" It's really cute and funny!! They can't wait for this snowstorm and all of the snow it will bring!!

I am sure I will have more snow pictures for you after our big storm!!

Great Fun with the Griffins

Wow....I know you're all shocked to see two posts within a few days of eachother after a 2 month silence!! Last night, we went to the Griffins game. I was a little worried we would have to get a sitter for Jackson and leave him home, but he seemed to be doing well yesterday so we decided to include him in our fun. We had such a great time.

Brady loved it and his eyes were so big the whole entire time just taking everything in. He asked lots of questions about how the game worked and even got into explaining to us what was going on :) Jackson really loved the music and enjoyed peeking at the people behind us as well.

We couldn't get many great pictures as it was hard to position the camera since we were pretty close together in the upper bowl. The saddest part about the game was that we did not witness a Griffins goal. Jackson was getting very sleepy halfway through the third period and the Griffins were down 3-0 so we decided to head out a little early and beat traffic. I should know better than to leave a game early!!! The Griffins did score a goal after we left and I was SO dissappointed Brady and Jackson didn't get to see it.

It was a little difficult to explain to Brady why the players were fighting at one point in the game and of course why everyone was cheering them on :) Hopefully that won't be what he tries to do when he plays "hockey" with his brother or other kids at daycare!! The penalty box was a good lesson for him - maybe we should make one of those instead of the time-out chair that we use in the basement :)

Brady was REALLY excited for his special treat of cotton candy and Jackson had to try some out too!!

At the end of the night both boys were VERY tired. Brady was upset because we had to leave the game and he had a meltdown (this ALWAYS happens when he stays up late!!) and Jackson was just SO ready to fall asleep - he almost fell asleep in my arms at the game despite how loud it was!!

All in all it was a GREAT family night :)

Fall Fun and Flu

Wow....I can't believe it's been months since I posted!! It has been very busy since school started back up and we've also had a computer crash in there! Here are some pictures from our fall.

Brady and I joined some friends in Richland and went to Gull Meadow Farms. Brady had lots of fun riding the Pumpkin Lane Train and checking out the corn maze!

Pumpkins....ready for carving!! The boys were SO excited about pumpkins this year and had lots of fun pulling all the guts out!YUM!! Homemade Apple Crisp with ice cream :)Halloween....Brady was a cowboy and Jackson was a turtle. We didn't do too much trick or treating, but we had a busy night! Daycare party, stopped by grandparent's houses and a little trick or treating. It was lots of fun until the end of the night when Brady threw a fit about wanting to wear his candy necklace to bed!!! Playing in the leaves. The boys had so much fun running, jumping, and throwing the leaves!! What great FREE fun :)
We have also been dealing with the flu in our house. I started it out two weeks ago and then Brady was sick last week. Jackson is currently fighting the flu with a pretty bad cough. We took him in to the doctor yesterday and his lungs are clear, but we'll be watching him closely over the next few days. I pray that this can be the last of our sickness for a long while!!

I will try to be better about posting more often!! Sorry for the long silence.

Painful Please

Apparently please is a very difficult, if not painful word for Jackson to learn. Jackson is learning to say a lot more words and he definitely mimics a lot of what we say, but note the reaction to trying to teach please!! And don't miss out on him saying "BUBBA" at the end of the video!!