Thursday, September 12, 2013

AJ's 2nd Birthday

For AJ's birthday this year we decided to spread out the celebration since his birthday hit on a Thursday.  So we had a lot of good fun, and then a trip to Chuck E Cheese during the weekend (a first for both boys...and yes, they are in love) and time spent with family.  It seemed our little 2 year old had a really great time!  :)  His actual birthday included a chocolate cheerio breakfast, a trip to the park, a McDonald's happy meal lunch, lots of fun with his brother and then his favorite dinner.  More fun was had over the whole extended celebration that you can see in these pictures.
A very happy boy with his breakfast 
During AJ's nap time Big Brother Jake and Grandma Peg made special cookies (Jake still LOVES to bake) 
 What does our two year old like to eat, macaroni and cheese with basil pesto tilapia  :)  Refined tastes for this one.
Then some light reading before bedtime. :) 
Of course we had to include swimming in the pool with their super hero toys! 
 And snuggles with Daddy
AJ was very excited about his cake this year.  A chocolate chip cookie cake with Mickey Mouse on it!   
 The boy loves his Mouse
"Hmmmm...this cake looks pretty tasty..." 
 Happy Cookie Boy
Jake seemed to enjoy it too :) 
Then off to Chuck E Cheese...Jake checking out his driving skills 
 AJ driving...look out!!!
 But then he discovered that riding a horse is more his speed :)
 Best of all...a game with a ball!!!  He did pretty well too and sunk his share of baskets.
 "This is fun mommy"
Family Skeeball 
 Jake showing off his own skills
 "Woooo...did you see that!!!"
 Aunt B teaching AJ the fine art of Skeeball...note it does not include throwing the balls overhand!
 Its a Race!
 Then it was present time.  I love this picture, AJ's face looks fierce..."Hulk Smash!!!"
 "More color pages??!?!?....yes!!!!"
 Of course big brother Jake had to help with the opening of gifts
A Dusty plane! 
 Piano!!!  Yes Mommy and Daddy gave AJ musical toys because he loves them..it may be noisy, but he loves it.  :D
A thank you hug for Pa Wayne
Cool Airplane coming through
Little Hulk Smash
Big Hulk Smash
My little Rockstar
And of course we need to enjoy some cake and ice cream on Mickey Plates to finish out the celebration :)
Wish I had gotten a better pic of this but AJ also got some new shoes...his Superman shoes which he calls his "Soup Man Shoes."  He loves to wear them and run into a dark bathroom to watch them light up.  So much fun and happiness for our little birthday boy which made this mommy very happy.  Now onto our future adventures in Oklahoma!!!  Will try and get posts up as soon as I can once we have moved. :)
 


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

To AJ on His 2nd Birthday

Little AJ, I cannot believe that my baby boy is already 2 years old.  It seems like I was just discovering that we were pregnant with you.  But you are such a wonderful little guy and a great joy to be around.  Its been so much fun to watch you grow up with your big brother and watch how your personality is different, the same, what you like, what you do, and the little things you say.  The first time you said "I wuv you" at the top of the stairs before I was about to tuck you in for the night melted my heart.  How you say "Hug you" when you want to be cuddled.  Missing your brother so badly when he is at school, and how you will start yelling "Coming Broder" when we are still driving to pick him up, and then while running to his classroom.  Its how when you give a hug you throw your whole body into it and cling onto us as hard as you can...we can just feel your love.  :)  You are a little character of a boy, like the time I gave a toy a rest because you were about to burn it out or worse and I told you that the truck was "sleeping"...then a couple hours later when you broke up a basketball game with your brother and put the balls away only to tell big brother "shhhhhhhh balls sleeping."  lol  You love balls, being outside, musical instruments, books, coloring, and following any love or interest that your brother has.  Mickey Mouse is by far your favorite character and show, but you also like Cars, Man (until just recently you called every super hero Man), Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and there seems to be a budding interest in Elmo.  You have always been my little eater and you love to eat Blue Berries, Strawberries, Mac N Cheese, Basil Pesto Talapia (yes advanced tastes here which I learned the hard way when you are half my dinner the first time we had it), grapes, yogurt, hot dogs, and tacos.  You started swim lessons this year and you seem to be a natural fish!  You loved it and quickly were blowing bubbles, flailing your arms, and kicking...you really seem to love the water.  Get you around the playground and your inner monkey comes out.  I really think you can climb anything as can be shown by the fact I have twice found you sitting on top of your changing table.  You love to smile and laugh, you are a natural flirt, you care for others and bring them toys and buddies when they are sad and you so quickly bring smiles and laughter to all those around you.   I love you my little buddy, I love every "squeeze", every smile, every new sentence, and now they way you say "I wuv you mommy."  I am the luckiest mom in the world to have been blessed with you and your brother and I cannot wait to see what your future holds.  Happy 2nd Birthday AJ, we love you very much!



Catching Up

Many would think that when you stop working you have more time to keep up on things such as blogging, completing projects, picking new recipes for dinner...but alas that has not been the case for me.  And its for good reason.  In my first week off as a stay at home mom Ryan had a job interview and a week later we were hearing that he was getting an offer that would move our family to the Oklahoma City area.  Quite the change.  Long story short we are moving in a couple of weeks, well we will be in our new house two weeks from today.  So we have been busy.  Right after AJ's birthday Ryan and I went on a house hunting trip out there and found the perfect house for our family.  Nice open kitchen and great room, nice big rooms for the boys, a great guest room, an office and a big open grassy backyard for us to have a lot of fun in.  So we will be having many more adventures to share in these chronicles.  :)  But before we went to far in the future I wanted to catch up on some fun times and events that we have enjoyed.  These are some from before AJ's birthday.
AJ adores the "Little People" toys and sometimes he even gets his big brother to play along.  They have great fun and its really entertaining to watch them play and talk together.
My adorable little bug :)
Goof Ball :D
Gotta get comfortable when you are watching your toons ;)
Spiderman himself....Jake really loves his heroes
And of course his little brother adores him...
....and does everything his big brother does.  :)
Some fun morning chasing...these boys don't always understand what it means to stay still
In July Jake also got to take part in VBS at our church for the first time.  Almost like it was made for him the theme was superheroes.  He adored it and was really bummed when the week was over.  Good thing AWANA was soon to follow.
"Do I get any more cute?"
One of the newest interests in the family is puzzles, the boys love them.
And Jake is getting really good at them, this was the first time that he put his puzzle together all by himself.  As you can see, he was very proud of himself.  :)
AJ is very serious about his coloring
I know AJ is wearing Dodger clothes but still...is he cute or what?!?
The boys have really become the best of friends.  Although they do fight and have major sharing issues, they really do love each other and always want to be together.  I love watching this strong bond form and pray it will always be this way!
After an employee day at work the boys were enjoying their souvenir hats.
Jake building a gear structure on his own...he loves to build.
One afternoon Jake decided he needed to get comfy on the couch....
...and guess who decided to do the exact same thing.  :)
AJ has graduated!!!!  No more high chair for this big boy, he is a booster seat kid now!!!
And here was a GIANT milestone.  Jake's first day of preschool.  He was soooooooooooo excited to go to school and be a big kid, even ate his breakfast with his new backpack on....
Ninja Turtle backpack of course.  :)  I think part of the reason he was excited about school was because he got to wear his cool new backpack!  :)  But he loved it and did great.  When I went to pick him up afterwards he asked if he could come to school again.  :)  It all comes too fast for this mommy but it warms my heart to see him so happy.
About a week before AJ's birthday weekend his Grandma Peg and Pa Wayne were able to come out for a visit and Grandma got to stay with us during the week when Pa had a business trip.  We had a lot of fun together, and got some good house organizing and garage sale prep done.  :)  But here are the kids just having a great time hanging out with their grandparents :)
This picture is fun for me because this toy used to be at my grandparents house when I was growing up.  It as old hot wheels set with a flexible track that you can do anything with.  The boys love playing with it and seeing who can race their cars the fastest.  :)
The boys enjoying their grandparent's technology and face-timing with Pa Wayne while he was on his trip.  They thought it was pretty cool. :D
 
Well onto birthday stuff.....