Valentines - Brady Edition

*(Blake's edition was posted earlier today)*

This picture was taken this past weekend on a family outing to the Dallas Children's Theater to see a play of 'Goodnight Moon'.  During intermission Brady put on a show of his own.  Here he is with a pig puppet making *oink oink* noises.  One of the things I love most about Brady is his zest for life and I love how this picture captures it.  All the other kids bee lined to the snack bar, but not my Brady.  I enjoyed the show well enough, but nothing can top how I felt watching the boys reactions to the show, especially Brady's.  He had a smile on his face so wide.  The entire time.  And at any remotely humorous part he cracked up.  I mean, full on belly laugh.  And not one of those forced kids laughs, I mean the real deal.  It was so infectious that the adults sitting around us went, "awww" and started laughing themselves.  Brady spreads joy because of the zest he has for life.  How can you not love that??  

Brady makes me want to squeeze him and attack him with kisses alllll day long.  He's just so ADORABLE.  And I can't get enough of him.  He also has no problem at all dishing out the I love you's.  In fact, he loves telling his loved ones he loves them probably every 60 seconds.  Not even an exaggeration.  He has all the soccer parents cracking up because while we sit watching Blake's game its a constant, "I love you momma."  Can never get sick of hearing that.  

I love that Brady is so full of joy he usually doesn't just walk or run, but he gallops.  He can't help it.  I can't tell you how peeved the stinkin lifeguard got at Brady this past summer because Brady would gallop any time he was going somewhere at the pool.  Lifeguard would blow his whistle and yell, NO RUNNING.  And Brady would stop but then would immediately start galloping again.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  I mean he literally can not help it.  People say they love watching the world through the eyes of their child and I mean I LOVE watching the world through Brady's eyes.  He makes me want to be a more joyful person and live life to its fullest.  I love that about my Brady.  

Valentines - Blake Edition

*There are endless reasons why I love my kiddos, but I thought it would be fun, in the spirit of Valentines to write just a few about each boy.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!*

Oh my goodness I love this kid.  Yes, he tries my patience on the daily, but he also is just so.incredibly.awesome.  I love watching him grow and learn and become more and more of the person he's destined to be in life.  What a gift being his mom is.  One of my favorite things about Blake is his heart.  He's got the biggest one I know.  I witnessed an example of this after school one day the other week.  His teacher was passing out two skittles to each kid as they walked out the door to find their parents.  One of Blake's classmates got some for her little brother too and then he proceeded to drop them on the floor.  Blake having witnessed this exchange, went to his teacher and politely explained the situation and asked if he could have more to give him.  Such a little thing, but such a sweet thing that he did on his own with no prompting from anyone.  He does things like this all the time.  He just is so caring of others and I just absolutely adore this about him.  
Another thing I adore about my Blakers is his passion.  He is passionate about life and in particular he is passionate about soccer.  Seriously its kinda of an obsession maybe?  He knows all the European team names and even the players names and loves watching them on TV.  Its kind of funny hearing him talk about Van Persie or Messie scoring goals or how Chelsea or Arsenal won their games.  Names I NEVER would know if it were not for Blake.  He loves to play FIFA13 on the XBOX and he LOVES playing soccer himself, either at the park or on his team the Strikers.  He said to Brad in the car the other day on our way to a family fun day, "What if I played soccer on TV?" and Brad said, "You mean like professional soccer?" And Blake said yes.  Brad said, "Well, that would be awesome, but those players spend years practicing and playing and putting a lot of time and energy into playing soccer so they can be the best and be good enough to be a professional. It takes lots of practice."  Blake thought about it for a minute and then he asks, "When we get home can I practice soccer so I can become a professional?"  And he's been asking every day since. Passion.  Gotta love it.
And last night as I was tucking Blake into bed he asked me for extra hugs and kisses (a rarity from him) and then asked me to sing him a song...the one I sang to him as a baby.  As I sang "You are My Sunshine", while he closed his eyes to fall asleep, my heart has never felt so full.

Life Lately

We've really been enjoying the month of January.  Its kind of nice to have all the craziness (although it was certainly fun) of the holidays behind us.  To recap, we started the new year off low key.  I had a bad cold and so we decided to just stay in.  The boys went to bed and Brad and I snuggled up by the fire and caught up on our DVR and drank champagne.  Oh so thrilling on new years eve, but it was perfect, for us.

Then we got to enjoy snuggling up by the fire again, but this time in a huge villa suite at the Four Seasons, celebrating our nine years of marriage.  Thanks of course to my parents.  It was an amazing "get away".  

We relaxed by the fire, dined out on a fancy dinner and even worked out?  Yeah, we're trying to stay true to our resolutions!  

 While we enjoyed our time alone, the boys got to have lots of fun with their grands.  They went bowling again and had a blast.  The bowling shoes on Brady just kill me.

We've been enjoying the nice weather in spurts as it comes in between 40 or 50 degree days.  We make sure to take full advantage.

Its hard to see but the next pictures are of the boys doing the "airplane" after they scored against me in soccer.  Every time they scored they ran around the field doing their victory dance.  It was priceless.

As much as we had hoped and prayed the surgery was the solution to my pain, it was not.  So more tests and appointments for me.  Here I am laying on an x-ray table waiting for the barium to get to the right spot.  I dig the new running shoes I got from my MIL as one of my x-mas presents.

Here are the boys enjoying a lollipop after one of my blood tests.  Their reward for me getting stuck! :)

Like I mentioned in my post yesterday Blake is becoming more and more of a big kid.  Its become a Friday tradition to head to McD's by Blake's school (half day on Fridays) with a group of his friends from class.  I snapped this picture because it was the first time Blake has ever sat at a table "eating out" alone with his friends.  It just seemed like such a grown up thing to do!  The girl in the pink jumpsuit sitting next to him, is the girl who told her mom she was going to marry Blake.  

We spent some time one day at Barnes & Nobles thanks to some gift cards we got from Aunt Rhonda and Nana!  The boys were in heaven.  Who knew it was so  much fun there?!

We enjoyed an afternoon with Grandma eating lunch and then browsing at the Gap.  The boys had fun playing on the elephant (?) outside.

Blake finished up another season, this time indoor, of soccer.  Its his absolute PASSION.

Blake also started piano lessons!  (no picture).  It will be interesting to see how long he will stick with it, but so far so good.  He is not only athletic but very musical.  His teacher has done a few "tests" with him, because he had a suspicion, and he is pretty certain Blake has perfect pitch.  He says if Blake commits to practicing he will be incredible at the piano.  Brad's dad could play the piano by ear, so its kind of cool to see the possibility of that "talent" being passed down.  And it means a lot to Brad as well since his dad is no longer with us.  So, we'll see.  He's only four (almost five!) and I hate to push something like that on him.  So letting him kind of dictate if we keep going or not.  Proud of him either way!

Monday the two bigger B's had off work and school so we headed as a family to the new Perot Museum to check it out.  It was a really fun day.  

These next few pictures crack.me.up.  And show what an awesomely amazing daddy the boys have.  In the children's museum part there are different sections, one is set up like a camp ground.  There is a log you can crawl through and has a hole on top.  There was also a raccoon puppet laying on the floor.  Brad crawled in the log, put on the raccoon puppet and put it through the hole and started talking to the boys.  Their reactions were priceless.  Love it.

And Brady has finally reached THIRTY pounds.  Its kind of a big deal.  His little legs look chunkier to me too and I could just eat this boy up.

Where does the time go??

One of the biggest cliches people love to say when you start a family is, "It goes by so fast".  But its one that couldn't be more true.  This "phenomenon" has hit Brad and I like a ton of bricks the last few days.  Especially when we look at Blake.  Yes, there seem to be days that never end.  Those days filled with sleepless nights, wiping noses (among other things), teething and then tantrums. But when you look back on those days, the weeks, gosh...the years, it really is gone in the blink of an eye.  And it kind of makes you want to cry a bit.  The moments are fleeting.  Yesterday it seems I was dancing around the living room with newborn Blake snuggled to my chest singing "You are my sunshine" to help soothe him during a crying fit.  He ended up falling asleep in my arms.  And today, my first born, who of course will always be my baby, is no longer a baby at all.  When Brad and I have looked at Blake the last few days and see this BOY, we are just wondering when it happened.  When did he become a full fledged person??  A person with opinions and a sense humor.  A person that is so bright and considerate.  I look at this boy and my heart just bursts with pride and love.  Today, Brad and I are his world.  We (especially Brad) hung the moon in his eyes.  We are "cool".  He wants to "hang" with us.  He'll even still hold my hand!  But in what will seem like tomorrow he'll be too cool for that. Tomorrow he'll be hanging with his own friends.  So today I will soak it in.  Today I will cherish the moments I get with both my babies.  Even the tantrums.  

Blake baby

Brady Baby

Colorado

A week after my surgery we hit the road to Colorado.  My in laws have moved back there (which is terribly confusing to Blake since he calls them "Florida Grandma and Papa").  Brad and I were pretty psyched when they moved back to Colorado this summer because we'd missed our trips there greatly.  Its a pretty long drive, but the boys were such rock stars this summer on our trip to the beach so we were hopeful and they did not disappoint...they are AWESOME travelers.  

My iphone pic of the sun starting to rise on our ride up.

There are a few different routes you can take, one being very scenic and through the mountains on a two lane (one lane each way) in New Mexico OR one very boring route through Kansas, but all interstate.  We opted for the boring route.  Especially with recent snow on both routes, we felt the major highways were the best way to go with the kiddos.  It worked out really well.  But, it.is.BORING.  We saw a lot of wind farms though, which is kinda interesting?

The first couple days we were in Colorado we stayed with my Aunt Kathy.  She was such a great hostess (and a great sport housing our two rug rats) and we loved getting to visit with her.  We met up with my cousins' twin boys who are a year older than Blake and went ice skating at a great little outdoor skating rink.

Cousins, Zach and Ryan

My fav pic of the day

                                     

The boys had the best time.  They are really getting much more confident on the ice and especially Brady is such a natural.  Soccer is Blake's favorite thing in the world right now, and hockey and skating is Brady's.  We enjoyed it so much we went back later in the trip with Brad's mom!

The boys were lucky in that we had lots of snow during our trip.  Blake LOVED playing soccer and football out in the snow with his daddy.  And they enjoyed some sledding as well.  I chose to stay in the warmth where Brady chose to stay most of the time as well.  And because I wasn't there, no pictures were taken of the fun in the snow.  BOO!!!!!!!!  Next time, I won't let that happen!!  

On Christmas Eve, we got the boys dressed in their adorable sweater outfits my parents had gotten them, and went to the aquarium in downtown Denver.  It was a great aquarium and we had a lot of fun.  

                                     

Christmas morning we woke up and did what all people do.  We went and had breakfast at an amazing Jewish Deli.  My in laws had been before and said it was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and thought we'd enjoy it.  And they were so right.  YUM!  Then we went back to "Florida Grandma and Papa's" house where Santa/Grandma had been busy the night before.  Grandma was so fabulous in getting things ready for the boys before the trip.  She set up the extra room they have downstairs as the boys playroom.  She had a wii hooked up (way to the boys heart) and card games and board games and all sorts of fun.  And she set up all the Christmas loot in there to await the boys.  The boys were SO excited and Santa (Grandma) had gotten everything the boys had marked on their list (and then some).  

                                    

Pizza Playdough Creation

                                                
           After Blake went sledding (and Brady took off his pants?) they played one of their new Wii games

View on Xmas from in laws house

The day before we hit the road to head back to Texas, was both Brad and I's anniversary and Brad's mom and step dad's.  So we decided to go to a place that was special to us all, Estes Park.  Estes Park is where my in laws used to live, where they got married, where Brad and I were engaged and is just a beautiful place in the middle of the Rockies.  So glad we got the chance to spend the day there.  The only unfortunate part was it happened to be really windy, a cold, harsh wind, and so the playing in the mountains we had hoped to do, was very very limited.  Our first stop was to the Stanley Hotel.  Made famous by Steven King writing the Shining there and Dumb and Dumber being filmed there.  Plus, its just a beautiful old hotel and happens to be the location of my engagement!  

                                      

                                      
This is the room Brad proposed in on our midnight tour on X-mas Eve.  It was set up for a wedding at the time, so was way more beautiful.  Right under that archway is where Brad got down on his knee and asked me to be his wife!  Nine years of marriage and I can honestly say our love has grown and grown with each passing year.  Love love love this man!!  Looking forward to a night just for us two to celebrate when my dad gets over the flu.  Poor dad!  

Then we went to the Y camp in the Rockies and had hoped to have some fun playing in the snow but that wind!  Brad did manage to play a game of football with the boys, but not for long.  For some reason there was a little pretend home set up in the main lodge and the boys picked up a pic of a family or something sledding to pose with it?  It cracks me up!!

Brady's version of a snow ball fight was picking up the tiniest amount of snow to throw.  So precious.

The picture of the frozen pond we skated on the day of our engagement.  Next time we visit we hope to skate on it with the boys.

And on the drive home the next day, Brad noticed the temps kept dropping.  He had to snap a picture, because seriously?!

We had the BEST time.  I wish I had gotten more pics of the snow playing and sledding, but there is always next year.  We are so grateful to Brad's mom and step dad for making our trip so special and fun for all of us!!