He's Our 'Not Such a Baby Anymore' Baby

Our Braden is growing up very quickly!! I love watching his personality change, but still wish he would stay a baby for just a little while longer!! He is a handful to say the least, but he's happy and makes us very happy and that's what matters most!! He's not talking yet surprisingly... but he does say a few words clearly: Mom, Dad and Ball! Everything else he just points and say ahh or eyyyy (very loudly). He does very well at identifying his body parts; he knows where his eyes, ears and nose are and has fun pointing them out on our face too!Braden is very independent; he's perfectly content wandering around the house getting into things. His favorite items right now are his toothbrush (he has several because we have to keep getting him new ones), his Tickle-Me-Elmo doll and his bat (nerf) which he insists on sleeping with! He loves his brother very much but they tend to get on each other's nerves quite easily; maybe just cabin fever. I'm hoping once spring hits they'll be spending much more time outside and less inside our cozy home. For now we enjoy taking the boys snow sledding or even out back to throw snow balls or make snow angels!

Braden will be 23 months old on April 6th, so we will quickly be planning his very special 2nd Birthday party!! How exciting :-)

Male Bonding Time

Phil surprised Parker with a model airplane from the Hobby Lobby for the 2 of them to build last weekend. They really had a lot of fun with it, and every once in a while I would swing by and snap a picture! They were totally into it!

Phil explained to Parker how his Dad taught him how to build model airplanes and now he's teaching Parker so one day Parker can teach his son. Parker said then when his son has a son he can teach him too!! He was thrilled!!

(and yes, I discovered that I have beautiful cobwebs that need to be cleaned up in his room)

Parker J

I can not believe we are already starting to plan Parker's 4th birthday party?!?! The saying 'time flies' has an entirely new meaning to me these days!! He is such a great kid!! I love him to pieces & am so thankful to God for blessing our lives with our Parker J!!

He is a very busy boy! He spends a lot of time out front riding the scooter he got for Christmas! He plays very well with Braden, but understands he's still just a little guy & sometimes will knock down the house he builds with his Lincoln Logs or wreck the train track he just set up! He's always playing pretend and I really get a kick out of pretending that I'm not listening and hearing some of the things he comes up with!

Parker has been sleeping in the top bunk now for quite some time....the funny thing is so does Braden?! We can't get Braden to stay in his bottom bunk bed, so we just gave up and started tucking them both in on top! Go figure :-)

Parker is still a very large kid for his age, but he hasn't had much more growth lately. He's been the same shoe size for almost a year?! Which has been wonderful for very obvious reasons!

I can't believe that he can sit down at the computer and knows how to pull up Safari and get to his favorites sites with out any help. His fav's are: Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba, & Nick Jr.com.

We take the boys to library at least once a week and he picks out the books he wants to check out! He loves Dora books, books that rhyme and we get the board books for Braden since he's got a bad habit of ripping the pages of the normal ones. We always pick at least one movie so usually I've been searching out the Disney classics; so far he's watched Cinderella, Snow White, Toy Story, Great Mouse Detective, Bambi & more!!

He loves going sledding after it snows; he goes down the biggest hills all on his own! He fell off the sled last time, tumbled down & hit his head, but barely cried! He's a toughie....with a huge heart!! He loves to snuggle and tells us how much he loves us all the time! He always says please and thank you & excuse me when it's needed :-) What a guy!!

We love you Parker J! It is so much fun to watch you grow and learn & look forward to each and every new day to see you grow into the great little person you are becoming!

Babe's Birthday Dinner

Phil was surprised with a delivery from Lobster Guy compliments of our great friends Will & Abi; fresh lobster and shell fish in a tin!! Just add water, steam & serve!! It was an incredibly delicious dinner & we had a ton of fun with it too!!

Thank you both SO much!! Such a great gift idea!

Parker and I weren't too sure about picking up the live lobster, but once I did it wasn't so bad! I had to call Abi first and ask her some questions because I'm not a fan of touching critters and I thought it was gonna squirm around when I picked it up and touch me its whisker things....ewwww!!

Parker never did touch them, but he had fun posing for pictures with them!!

Such a funny kid!!

Phil decided to give them names before he cut into them; Dr. & Mrs. Claw :-)

Happy Birthday Babe! Glad you enjoyed your day!!

Happy birthday Daddy!