Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Thanksgiving Adventures

We were all so excited for the week of Thanksgiving to come along because it meant that my parents were coming out for a visit!!!  We had a lot of fun things planned and we were super excited to about them and of course then spending Thanksgiving and then an early Christmas together.  :)  When we get to combine the family we love with our new home that we love...life is fantastic!!! :D
 One of the first planned events was taking Grandma and Pa to the Science Museum!  This is one of the new stops that the kids love and they really wanted to show it off to their Grandma and Pa!
 Jake riding a Segway for the first time
 Now this is a decent sized kitchen table!
When we all went into the space area I turned the corner and no Jake.  My dad pointed to a monitor where I could see Jake's face and then at this vehicle which Jake had climbed into :) 
 Jake had a blast simulating a trip and mission into space!!!
Our successful astronaut 
 Then of course AJ had to do it....even though he was not sure what it was :)
 Cute little face looking on...he was a little surprised when the entire thing tipped back but aside from that he had a good time!
 Pa trying to dock with the space station...with copilots of course :)
Jet Pilot AJ 
 Pilot Jake
 Calmest looking kid about to punch out :)
 We got lucky again to be in the perfect area when the Science Museum mascot Otto came out!  Jake got a great picture with him!
 AJ did not want to take a picture with him (mascot) but he was brave enough to give him a big high 5 :)
 This was one of AJ's favorite parts!  A great big sand area that has big bones underneath, he was SO excited to "find his first bone!"  :)
Is that a second hand on the giant clock?  No its AJ on a really cool swing :) 
 Jake and Pa were super proud of what they built here.  It was a cool mixture of hoses and track on a magnetic board that was all hooked up to a vacuum.  They were able to set it up so that when the dropped a ball into their little course it went around forever and did not stop.  Not sure which one of them had more fun :)
Showing it off to the family 
 The boys had a lot of fun building these little cars and then racing them around on this cool ramp.
 Grandma reading AJ one of his favorite books "Pout Pout Fish Learns to Read."
After Thanksgiving we were super lucky to score one of those big boxes of Legos for a really good deal.  So of course they had to dive into it right away.
 Grandma and AJ built this really cute gecko!
 Pa and Jake built this amazing tractor!
Then there was the morning that we woke up to no power and lots of ice!  :)  Luckily we got our power back on a couple of hours after the kids woke up (after about 8 hours of it off) and so we got to get our house nice and warm again.
Which meant it was time to get the tree up and decorated!!!!  The boys had been wanting to do this for weeks!!!
Decorating the tree :)
Last year the boys really wanted to have a tree of their own, so after Christmas we bought a super deal tree and put it away for this year.  They were super excited to have their own tree in the playroom to decorate with their own ornaments!
Great looking tree and some really cute elves!
Gotta love cuddle time with Pa and a movie!  The boys were super excited to introduce Grandma and Pa to The Ninja Turtles and Home movies while they were here.
One of the days Jake was in school and we went out to run some errands.  As something special we decided to get holiday drinks at Starbucks.  AJ had never been and so we bought him a special Vanilla Drink (pretty much a shake) that he loved!  Although I will mention that those things have a LOT of sugar...you can guess what happened next.  :)
Pa thought the sugar high AJ was pretty funny
Twins!
We all had a wonderful visit with my parents and the boys will always treasure their little Otto buddies that my parents bought them at the Science Museum.  Just like we will treasure all of the wonderful memories!!!


Monday, December 28, 2015

OKC Comic Con

Right before Thanksgiving we surprised the boys and brought them to the Oklahoma City Comic Con on Kids Day.  We had know they would love this kind of thing for a while since they are crazy for super heroes...but most of them are so crazy that we were concerned it would scare them.  This one seemed really small and so a perfect Con to bring the boys to.  They really enjoyed it and it was a fun Sunday activity to do with them.
Walking into the Hall the boys really enjoyed looking at all of the pictures, drawings, and painting of all their favorite heroes.
Jake was super excited to take a picture with a few of the Ninja Turtles! 
Our boys LOVE Pops and so they had a blast looking at all the different and new ones they had never seen before.
AJ thought seeing R2D2 was really cool...but this is about as close as he would get to him.  It seems as though mascots and universally known robots are still too scary for him. :)
This R2 was amazing and moved and sounded just like the real deal.
Jake and I got to take a picture with him :)
AJ came away with a really cute little Flash buddy.  Flash continues to be one of the favorites in our family. 
After this our family enjoyed a really tasty lunch at Old Chicago and then went home to start getting ready for Grandma and Pa (Loretz) to come and visit for Thanksgiving.  We were all very excited!!!!


Sports and Fun

November brought us the end of the winter season of sports and with the strange winter we were having the weather was still really nice!  So we had a lot of fun watching them both play and have fun with their friends.
Daddy was practicing with Jake before the game
Batting is always the kids favorite part
At the same time AJ was at the field right next to them playing his soccer game!  He was really getting into it by this time.
Especially since AJ had an amazing game and scored 4 goals in this game!  He was living on a cloud the whole rest of the day!
Big Brother watching his game.
Luckily they saved some energy for their buddy's birthday party afterward.  Silly string on a trampoline is always fun!
This was a huge night for Jake!  At Cub Scouts they had a special guest come to help them with earning a patch...oh and he just happens to be a professional baseball player.  :D  This is AAA Giants pitcher Clayton Blackburn who just happens to be from Edmond Oklahoma!  The boys had an amazing night with him asking him questions and getting pictures taken.  Jake was super hyper and excited late into the night.  Really cool because he was the Giants pitcher that we saw play when we went to the Dodgers Giants game here in May.  A night Jake will not forget!
That Saturday we were back at it for the last games of the season.
Jake at bat
Jake happily running home
Tball Trophy!!!
A very happy AJ with his first soccer trophy
AJ and some of his teammates
My crazy goofy boys and their trophies
Jake was so excited for this day!  On Veterans Day his Scout Pack was able to take part in the Veterans Day assembly at school and so he got to go to school in his whole uniform.  He was so excited to show it off to his friends and honestly thought he was "all that" the entire day.  :)
AJ was excited to because I pulled him out of school a little early so that he could see his brother's assembly.  Any time he can take part in something at the big kids school he gets pretty excited.  AJ's teacher told me that he talked about it the entire day.
Jake (with the hat) as a part of the color guard
My sweet boys!  They fight like crazy but they also truly love each other and enjoy being together.  I love these moments!!!