Hopefully The Last

This past Saturday we woke up to a good 6 inches of snow. 

We have had snow into May before so having snow in April is not too surprising, but it was a lot of snow for a random Spring snow fall.

Nathan was SUPER excited to break out the snow gear for one last fling.  On his "Must Do" list: snowballs, snowman, snow angel.

Bracken was timid about walking out in the snow, which is strange because he usually can't wait to keep up with Nathan, but this time he was content to observe.  Unfortunately several snow bombs dropped from the pergola onto his head.  He didn't like it.

This is what Nathan gave me when I asked him to smile for the camera.

Bracken trying to avoid snow bombs and one of the dump trucks full of snow.

Nathan gave his best effort trying to sled on a flat surface, he would get a running start and belly flop on the snow boogie.

You can see our grass peeking through!  Luckily for Nathan the grass held onto the snow a lot longer than anything else in the yard and no mud!

Before snow bomb....

After snow bomb.  You can see some snow in his hood.

By the afternoon all the snow was gone.  Good thing we made the most of it while it lasted!

Ladder Ball

We have been speinding a lot of time in the yard lately. Bracken would live outside if he could so he is extremely content to explore and play while we work.

Here he is perfecting his ladder ball skills.

 

 Showing Mom the balls.

And just being silly!

The Battle Begins

Today Bracken is officially a nursery boy! 

He was so excited to "Go, bye" to church, armed with his "acks" and walking across the street all by himself.  Unfortunately he was not interested in entering the nursery room unless one of his parents was with him.   

He is great when one of us is in the room.  He plays and mingles with the other kids.  When we see an opportunity we slip out and 1 mintue later, he SCREAMS!  And 15 minutes later one of the nursery leaders is hunting us down begging for backup.

We have some moves up our sleeves, because we have fought this battle before.  We learned a thing or two with Nathan. 

So, next Sunday Curtis will stay with him for a little while and then slip out when all seems well.  But he will leave the sweet nursery leader armed and ready with the secret weapons.  Blankey, chupi and a laminated family picture.  If all goes as planned each week Braken will recover quicker and quicker until eventually he is walking into his Nursery class with his head held high, and his family picture clutched firmly in his chubby little fist.

Nathan - The one who paved the way.

The first of many.

The 2 stakes in our area are joining forces for a youth Pioneer Trek this summer.  I went on a trek when I was a youth and it was a wonderful experience.  Curtis and I were excited when we were asked to be Ma's and Pa's for our own Stake's trek.  Curtis is especially looking forward to it because he hasn't had the chance to enjoy one yet.  Our ward has planned several practice hikes to help prepare the youth for all the walking they have ahead of them this summer.  Yesterday we joined them on their first hike on a local trail.

We took the boys with us and they did pretty good but in the end the hike took us 3 hours, a bit longer than we had planned on.  The boys were hungry (the snacks I took were long gone) tired and grumpy!  We stopped at the dells for our halfway point to let the kids run around, climb boulders and rejuvenate their energy.  Nathan did not want to leave and go back down the trail, and he had a major screaming tantrum.  Later that night Curtis mentioned it was the first time he was embarassed by Nathan, and I thought to myself "It's not the first time for me!". 

When we got home we bathed the boys, fed them dinner and put them swiftly to bed.  Poor little guys, we pushed them hard and they endured it the best they could.  It was great to be out in the gorgeous weather soaking up the evening sun and breathing the sweet spring air. Next time we will be better prepared to bring the kids or we will leave them with Grandma.  At least we were smiling in the picture!

Hot Wheelin'

Nathan was given 2 hot wheels tracks for Christmas, and he has been having a blast with them. I love watching him set them up. He tries all kinds of crazy things like turning the track on its side so the car drives sideways. I tried to explain about gravitiy and physics but he just wasn't getting it. Maybe in a few more years.

His favorite racing car is his his yellow ferrari, you can see it jumping the book hill.  It amazes me how Nathan manages to adjust the track just right so the cars always land their jumps.  A few days after I took these pictures he set up the track so that the cars landed perfectly in a little container of water every time. 

Bracken gets a kick from watching the cars zoom, jump and crash.  Older brothers are the best entertainment!



Delivery!

Today is an exciting day for our family, our GRASS came today!!!!!!

It came a day early, so we were not very prepared to deal with the 500+ pounds of artificial turf we ordered last week.  Luckily our sweet little truck exceeded our expectations and pulled the gigantic roll off the semi truck.  Curtis was very proud of his truck!  Then we just had to get it out of the road.

 Nathan was so excited, and he thought since we had the grass we would have it installed and ready to play on within a few hours.  I wish!  we still have 2 weeks worth of work to do before it is ready to run on.  The plan was to have it installed this week (Spring Break) but we had to rethink our plans because the curbing guy can't come till next Monday, a set back of another week but we can live with that.  What's one more week when we have been waiting 2 years to get grass. 

 At first we tried pulling it more into our yard but the delivery guy took his handy rope system with him and our little nylon strand wasn't making the cut.  Luckily Mark, our neighbor across the street whom Nathan adores, had the idea to move it Egyptian style rolling it across a series of logs.  Before we knew it we had it out of the road and moved to our side yard where it will wait to get cut.  I didn't get pictures of the rolling action because I was busy rotating logs back to the front and keeping little feet and fingers out of the way.  But it was aweseom, Thanks Mark!

Bracken Tidbits

Bracken is almost 18 months old!

He has always been a fun baby, and he is turning into a really fun toddler. He is still my snuggle baby.  Since he was a few months old he has done what we affectionately call the "Snuggle Wiggle" where he wiggles his little body to get as close to you as he can. I love that he hasn't grown out of it!

He is at the stage where everyday he learns something new whether it be a new word or other discovery, usually involving something Nathan does that he wants to do as well.  His current vocabulary used on a regular basis:

Baby

NeNe

Mom, Mommy, Mama

Dad, Papi

Num Num (food)

Ack (snack)

Yeah

No

Guck (stuck)

Where go?

Bye

Up

Foot, Feet (with an accented "F")

Out-ide (outside)

BALL

More

Wee

Poo Poo

Pee Pee

Yuck

Bracken has several favorites that he takes turns obsessing over.

Fishies - He'll sit and fish for 30 minutes at a time.  This little boy has patience, with some things and this is one of them.  When he first discovered Go Fishin' back in December he played it non-stop for 2 weeks.  Like I said obsessed.

Nathan likes to get in on the Fishies action too.

And of course there is the always present, shoe infatuation.

Braken has a thing for rubber bands.  We have a stash of rubber bands and it is not uncommon to see them out and about.  Bracken will plop down with his pile of rubber bands and patiently put them all on his chubby wrists.  I have to watch him because some of the bands are a little small and could easily cut off his circulation if left on too long.

 

Bracken believes that books belong on the floor.  He hasn't completely emptied the book shelves in a couple of weeks so I am hoping he is over this one.

 

This little boy likes to brush his teeth, actually he likes to suck the paste and water off the brush more than he likes to clean his teeth.  If I turn the faucet on to the smallest trickle I can manage he will stand on his little stool and suck water off his brush for 20 minutes.

But his most favorite of all favorites, are his MOTOS!  He enjoys anything motorized, planes, moster trucks, trains, cars and such but he LOVES his motos.  He usually has one in each hand, though it's not rare to see him toting around 3 motos.  He drives them all over the house, any surface he can reach.  And sometimes he insists on sleeping with them.

Notice he has 3 motos?

He is sleeping with a moto in each hand.