Bragging on Brennan

I just wanted to take time to brag on my big boy for a minute. He's been such a sweetheart lately and I want to remember these moments. It was a difficult transition at the end of the summer when he stopped napping, but I feel like we've made huge progress since then.

He must tell me, "Mommy, I love you so much!" at least 10 times throughout the day.

He says thank you for almost everything - "Thank you for bringing me here." "Thank you for teaching me how to play this game." "Thank you for playing blanket monster with me."

He always wants to give Bryce a hug if Bryce is crying.

It breaks my heart when he's not sweet, so seeing sweet moments like these make me so happy. And then yesterday when I picked him up from school he was all excited because he had something special in his backpack from his friend, Liam. When I checked it was a note from Liam's mom saying that Liam would like to have playdate with Brennan and that he considers Brennan "his bestest friend in the whole world." It brought tears to my eyes. I know he's so smart at school. He's already reading and loves when they do math games, but I always tell him the most important thing to me is that he is sweet and a good friend.

So very thankful for these sweet moments and this sweet boy!

Throwback Thursday

Here's another Throwback Thursday! These were taking at the end of last October after picking B up from his school picture day. I took these myself, so they aren't any super great. I'm so excited because we are having professional pictures taken on the boys on Saturday at a local park. The fall colors right now are at their peak and absolutely beautiful, so I'm hoping for some gorgeous shots!

Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular

I took the boys to the zoo Tuesday night to see the Jack-o-latern Spectacular. We went last year and had fun, so I really wanted to take the boys again. I decided to head up there on a weeknight to hopefully avoid the crazy crowd that was there last year and that was a great decision. It was still very busy, but way fewer people than on a weekend. And it was a gorgeous fall night; still 70 degrees when we left around 7:45!

It's not always easy taking both boys out by myself, but they were both so well-behaved. They were in awe the whole time. Bryce must've said "pumpkin" 100 times and Brennan kept saying, "This is so super duper uper fun!" The theme this year was A-Z, so there was a category for each letter of the alphabet.

We did have to wait in a line for the trail to open. They don't look too thrilled here.

I let them both hop out of the stroller while we waited by the Red River Hogs.

Workers came through the line with Dum Dums, so both boys were happy.

Then around 6:30 it was time to go in!

Towards the very end there were all kinds of jackolanterns up in this tree. It looked like they were floating. It was probably my favorite part.

Weekend Wrap Up

Here's a little peek at our weekend!

I let Bryce eat a red popsicle on Friday after he woke up from bath. Let's just say he went straight to he tub afterwards. And he was still a light shade of red after that!

I love that both boys are entertained at Target. They are happy to play for a little bit and never ask to get anything. I'm sure that won't last forever!

Brennan's imagination is just exploding right now. He is constantly making up new games for us to play. In this game we toss a die at the checkers. If the die bumps the one checker that is flipped up showing the crown then you win. If you win you get a pick a prize from the Mega Blocks box.

Then he wanted to play, "Let's See How Many Mega Blocks Fit Onto the Lid and When It's Full I'll Dump It Over". His name; not mine.

This is the cutest tubby pic I've gotten of them in a while!

We went to the mall on Saturday and I went into Gymboree because they had jammies on sale for $12. Brennan has outgrown a few pairs of his and when I saw these Math Monster ones, I knew they were perfect for him.

Saturday night we had a little dance party before bed. The boys were laughing and playing so nicely together. It made my heart happy.

On Sunday after church Brennan was back to making up a new game. For this one he lined up the stacking rings and we tossed a coins into the center of each one.

We also worked on his family tree project!

It was such a nice weekend with my two little dudes!

Cuteness Overload

Yesterday was Brennan's picture day at school. Instead of ordering pictures, I thought I'd try to get at least one nice one of him before school. I love the picture I took of him on picture day two years ago and it would be great if I could update that one. His super cheesy face is what I often get right now, so this subtle smile ended up being my favorite picture of the morning.  I think he was still half asleep though!

While he was at school, Bryce and I met some fellow submarine spouses at BF Clyde's Cider Mill. Kyle took both boys there last Saturday while I worked at the Upward game, so I was glad to go. Bryce's blue eyes still amaze me!

These are two of Bryce's good friends, Mary and Ryder.

I think this is such a sweet picture!

I had to add in this throwback from Brennan eating an apple cider doughnut at the same place two years ago!

And if that wasn't enough cuteness for you, check out this video. Brennan and I were playing Playdoh yesterday and said, "I learned a new song at school" and then sang it for me. I was shocked when I asked him if he'd sing it again and let me record it and he said "yes!"

Gymnastics Class

Bryce is taking a little gymnastics class on Tuesday mornings. The very first class was a disaster, but we've back twice since then and it's been much better. He doesn't do very well during the warm-up period when everyone is supposed to be sitting in a circle, but once he's free to explore the gym he has lots of fun.

He likes crawling into this Thomas tent contraption.

And this past Tuesday he had fun crawling through this tunnel.

Ms. Sarah let the kids use these ribbon bracelets this week and Bryce loved them.

These pictures show him cleaning up the ribbons and making sure no pieces are touching the floor. My 2nd OCD child!

His favorite was rolling on this cylinder thing, but I didn't get any pictures. He hate the parachute at the end though. This picture shows us sitting together inside and he was fine then, but refuses to go in alone.

 I like this picture of him at the end waiting so patiently to get his stamps. This is the ONLY time he is still during the class!

This shot shows part of the gym.

I'm not all that impressed with the class, so I don't think we will be signing up again, but it's nice to have something to do on Tuesday mornings.

Throwback Thursday

On Thursdays I'm going to try to post some throwback pictures. These I'm sharing today are from a year ago during our trip to Daytona Beach!

Playground Fun

It had been a couple of weeks since we ventured to our little playground after supper, but Monday night seemed like the perfect night to do it. We had the playground all to ourselves and both boys had fun. The only downside? Bryce walked up to the baby swings and as I got ready to put him in I noticed they were both wet. I wondered why they were wet since it hadn't been raining and then I could smell urine. Yep. Some punk kid peed in the baby swings. Totally gross. We've never had anything like that happen at our little playground before, so I totally bummed.

Brennan noticed the beautiful sunset as we were driving back home that night.