Grateful for Boys!

Over the last couple weeks my gratitude for having two wonderful boys has increased. They get along so well with each other and with their little friends that come in the afternoons. They all play so cute together. Bradley has especially been good to share things with Daniel, or to do the same thing as Daniel. That way they both feel included!

This is Zander and Daniel working together to pull all the movies off the shelf. Is that a deer in the head-light look or what?

I know this picture is a little bit smaller than the others, but it was slightly blurry. It doesn't look too bad this size. Daniel was being so cute and posing! (Brissa is in the back ground.) For some reason my camera wasn't focusing right so most of the pictures are even more burry than this one.
This is Polaris. She and her sister Brissa come play a couple afternoons a week. The first couple times she came she didn't hardly talk at all. Now she and Bradley run ALL over the apartment chasing or running from monsters. Bradley has never worried about monsters or even talked about them until Polaris started running from them, so I kept telling him they were the Cookie Monster and the Tickle Monster. That way hopefully he won't be scarred of monsters in the night. :) Here Polaris is helping Bradley talk on the phone. She kept telling him what to say. It was so cute!
Another of Daniel's poses. He is such a flirt!
Daniel just got a cold and is fevering a little so he thinks he needs me to hold him all the time. After his nap I gave him some juice to help keep him hydrated, but didn't want to hold him while he drank his bottle. I layed him on the floor with the pillow and the next thing I knew Bradley was laying next to him drinking his water. Daniel was whining a little so Bradley was trying to make him feel better.

After looking at these pictures I think Bradley might be getting it too! I suppose it was inevitable since he likes to share all kinds of things with Daniel. It is really cute to see him swim little gold fish through the air and into Daniel's mouth. Then he licks his fingers after they have been in Daniel's mouth. Yuck! I know, I shouldn't let him do it, but I have worked too hard to get him to share to let a little cold sharing stop it. This round of colds hasn't been too bad yet. I am still very grateful to have such great boys! I know part of the reason they are so good is because they have a wonderful Father to take after. They both light up when Dad comes home. I guess I should revise my earlier statement, I am grateful for three boys!

Special Moments

Moments like this make being a mom worth it! This morning I was cleaning my bathroom; I have been putting it off for about a week and really needed to get it done. I was done with everything but the toilet, no pun intended, when Daniel woke up from his morning nap. I could hear him fussing and knew if I quit before I completely finished I wouldn't get the toilet cleaned. I chose to ignore him and finish the bathroom. Soon I could hear giggling coming from the boys' room and knew Bradley was in there entertaining Daniel. (Bradley has been a very big help recently. He will entertain Daniel until I am able to come and get him.) As I walked past the open bedroom door this is what I saw. It was so cute I had to run and grab the camera.

Happy as two peas in a pod!
Bradley had climbed in and was kicking his legs up and down everytime Daniel kicked his. Daniel thought this was a marvelous game! They were laying there looking and each other and laughing. It was so sweet it makes me a little teary eyed to think about it. I am so grateful to have such good boys. I am also so grateful that they love each other so much!

President's Day

Ever since we first heard about the little train down by the zoo we have wanted to take our Dad on it. It has taken us about 3 years to get this accomplished. The first time we went on the train was in May '06, when Bradley was little younger than Daniel is now. As you can see in the picture below we were joined by our Aunt Laura and our favorite twin cousins, Anna & Ethan. The weather was a little bit warm, but we enjoyed the ride anyway.

This time the weather was about 60 degrees with a slight breeze and we brought our Dad! We were glad we had our Mom to bring us a jacket. Too bad our Grandma wasn't there to make sure Mom and Dad had jackets. They got chilled a little bit a time or two, but we still had fun. Here is our most recent train ride.

Waiting for the train. "Is it comin' Mom?"

"I see it Mom!"

Bradley was in awe at his first remembered sighting of the little train.

"This is one cool little train!"

Getting ready to take off.

"All a board!"

After our adventure downtown we came home to rest and get ready for dinner. We invited some friends over and had to have time to cook the fabulous pork roast our Dad picked out. (For more details on what happened to the roast mom picked out give me a call.) We also had mashed potatoes and Dad made gravy from the roast drippings! He did a wonderful job. Anyway, we decided to take advangage of the 70 degree weather, and play outside. I am not sure who had the most fun!

Bradley, Daniel and Dad resting from playing a wild game of ball.

Daniel is very excited to start walking!

Here we are taking turns riding Bradley's tricycle.

Daniel got so excited I had to remind him not to run over Bradley.

The sidewalk makes a square in front of our apartment, with the stairs to the second floor in the middle, makeing the perfect race track! Bradley is continually running around it. Of course Daniel really enjoyed chasing him on the tricycle.

"Go faster Mommy!"

We did let Bradley ride his tricycle for a little while. He really likes to ride, but needs a little help and encouragement to use the pedals.

All said and done we had a great President's Day! Mostly because we got to spend the whole day with our Dad!! We really love him and enjoy all the time he spends with us. There isn't a better Dad in the whole wide world!

We love you the mostest Dad!!!

Another Photo Shoot & Bass Pro

Bradley is definately into photography! He seems to find the camera no matter how hard I try to hide it. Recentlly he has gotten the "Say cheese" down to a fine art. Every once in a while I have to remind him to move his fingers, but for the most part he is getting pretty good at taking pictures. I like to look at the pictures he takes to see if I can figure out what he is thinking, or why he picks the objects he picks.

This me trying my best to be pleasant for a couple picture before I herd Bradly out the door for church. (I know why he picked me, I am his favorite MOM!)
Later I was checked friends blogs and Bradley grabbed the camera. He really wanted to get pictures of his best buds. He kept saying, "Caleb say cheese."
"Nathan, Nathan, say cheese!" I thought if was so cute that he wanted pictures of his buddies. He loves to see their pictures on their blogs. :)

Here we have Dad posing as he tries to talk on the phone. "Say cheese Dad!"

Next we have different views of the keyboard. Not sure what the attraction is to that.

Now we have pictures of me as I was trying to talk to my Dad on the phone. I could tell the camera was aimed low so I was doing my best to get into the picture. Bradley was having so much fun he took about 15-20 pictures on Sunday.

************************************************************************************

We love going to Bass Pro! I know a lot of people think I am strange, but I love to go look around. Bradley also loves to go. His favorite is to go see the fish and the waterfall first, then we make our way over to the boats, four wheelers and gator utility vehicles. We can spend hours!

Bradley & Andy shooting. (Bradley is the little one in the white shirt!)

We went last Saturday with our Dad. Since Dad was there we had to try out the shooting game. We each got to play. Bradley and I tied points wise. We were higher than Andy. I think you are supposed to have a low score though because Andy hit more things than Bradley and I did. Then we went and checked out the boats. We love to dream about what kind of boat we would want to get some day. Bradley's favorite was a mix between a skii boat and a pontoon boat. They are called deck boats. There is even a little compartment to put a toilet in. Bradley loved going in and out of the 'bathroom'. Good thing the toilet isn't installed on show models! I should have gotten a picture of him in there, but I didn't because our batteries were almost dead. I guess we will just have to go back again.

So CUTE!

Bradley has been such a delight to have around the last couple weeks. He has been so pleasant and helpful! He has done a couple of mischievous things, but he was soo cute about it that I couldn't be angry. On Sunday he helped Andy tie his tie and then wanted to wear it, so we got one of his ties out. Usually he won't leave them alond long enough to wear.

This picture is so cute of Bradley in his tie. (He picked the one he wanted.)
Since the first one wasn't very good of Andy I decided to post the one that is good as well.
The other day Bradley kept asking for a snack, but I had already given him one so I told him no. A little while later he was being very quiet. He found a fruit snack in the diaper bag and retreated to the porch to eat it. He was so cute out there! He has been loving the nice weather so he can play on the porch.

Sunday Dinner

Last sunday was our Stake Conference so Andy didn't have any meetings ALL day. It was great to have him home. We were having company over for lunch and Andy decided we couldn't have plain pork chops for lunch, so we looked up some recips on line. We found a great coutry-fried-pork chop recipe and Andy gave it a try. They turned out really good. Dipping them in an egg-milk mixture
Putting them in bread crums and frying them
Ready for the oven and then to EAT!!
Cooking makes him tired!! He had to take a power nap on the kitchen floor while the chops finished cooking in the oven. Doesn't he look great in an apron!?

I really appreciate Andy being so willing to help cook on the weekends. I think he has fun doing it too! We love our Dad!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day! It started out with our dad making us breakfast and showering the boys. Then he had a great surprise at school. We made a heart banner and gave it to a friend to hang up at school before Andy got there. All Andy saw was the bag it had been in and assumed that I had stolen his ID badge and broken into the school to hang it up in the middle of the night. He told everyone at school that. It made me laugh!

We were planning on going to find him at school with some balloons and then taking him to lunch, but he came home early! We did enjoyed having him home for lunch. After he went back to school we desided we would take balloons to him after naptime. Once the boys both woke up we ran to the store to get some balloons. On the way we realized we left the camera at home, so we ran home to get it. Guess who was home early AGAIN! Our Dad! He was vacuuming the whole house when we got here. I was very glad to see him vacuuming, but we felt bad we weren't able to surprise him at school.

Since we didn't make it to see him as school on Valentine's Day we went first thing this morning! He was very surprised to see us. Everyone at school was excited to see the boys too. Here are some pictures of our Valentine's Day adventures.

Daniel with his Valentine's card from Grandma & Grandpa Kenison

(As you can see his head is looking a lot better!)

Bradley was very proud of his Valentine's card!
Daniel with the 12 long stemmed, velvet red, roses Andy got me for Valentine's Day!
Bradley & Daniel with the balloons we would have taken to our Dad at school.
This is Andy's cubicle at school. (I think Jantzen did a good job hangin the heart banner in the doorway. Thanks! It looks great!!)

This is the front of the Dental Clinic at the school.

Bradley thought the flowers were so pretty. He had to take a minute and smell them. It was really cute. We hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. We Love You!!

First Big Bump!

Today was Daniel's first big bump and he did a dewsy of a job! He has been standing next to things so well laterly and occasionally walking next to them that I wasn't really worried about him. Then this morning as I was getting ready to run and pick a few things up for enrichment tonight, I put Daniel next to his little table about three feet from the door of the bathroom. He pushed the table a little bit forward and then took a couple of steps, then pushed a little bit more until he was in the doorway with the table. I looked back at him and told him how big he was getting; then turned to spray my hair with hairspray. No sooner had I turned around then I heard a crash...and a WAAAAAAAAAAH!! I turned to find him face down on the floor. It was so sad. His head immediately swelled up and bruised. Poor kid!

He still acts like he really likes me so I guess it isn't too bad!

GREAT Big Helper!

Over the last week Bradley has really been a GREAT big helper!! He is acting all grown up! He has been so pleasant to be around too. I think he is fianlly coming out of the terrible twos! (I know he hasn't been as bad as some kids, but I am not the mother of those other kids!)

The other day I was feeding Daniel dinner and Andy asked me to come look at the project he had been working on. I sat the food down for a second and quickly went to see. Bradley could see that Daniel was still hungry so he started feeding him. I thought it was so sweet of him that I had catch it on video. I hope you enjoy!

Bradley need a little help getting the food on the spoon since he is a little bit short. Daniel loves it when Bradley feeds him. I love how close they are getting. I am so grateful for such good healthy little boys!

Spring Cleaning!

I know those of you NOT living in San Antonio are thinking "Spring cleaning already?!" The answer is YES! The last couple of weeks has been perfect spring weather. I must admit I am a little bit jealous of those in Utah! I haven't seen snow since we moved here. I wish I could trade you weather for a week or two. Well, back to the post. Today Bradley was playing under the stairs outside our apartment and kicked dirt all over the side walk. I told him he needed to geta broom and sweep the dirt off. He went inside and found his broom and started sweeping. It was so CUTE! When he finished the sidewalk he got the door mat from in front of our apartment and took it out the beat it. (He has seen me do this many times and thinks it is hysterical!) I had to hold my breath so I wouldn't laugh out loud. He is getting so big. He has also started helping a LOT this last week. (The good kind of helping!)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Don't Fence Me IN!

Or in this case out! Daniel has been very clingy the last couple of weeks. He wants to be touching me at ALL times! Not only that, but he wants to be standing while touching me at all times. The other night I had had enough and retreated to the kitchen to fix dinner. Daniel of course was devastated that I had gone without him. The only way to get him to quit crying was to stand him next to the fence in the doorway. The look on his little face as he peeked through the fence was too cute. I had to ge the camera and take some pictures. Here are a couple that show his wide range of emotion at being fenced out!Whenever Bradley is around things are always entertaining!
"Let me in Mom, please!"
"I am really cute! Please Mom."
"This isn't working!""I can be a little pig too!"