The Boys' Birthday :)

Bradley's birthday party was several days before their actual birthday last year, which was a good thing because he and Kevin both ended up getting sick right before their birthday - this sickness would be passed on to me and Gracie and stick around our house for over a month - it was miserable!!! I don't know what it was the got ahold of us, or where it came from, but it was terrible - and terrible timing right for their birthday's and Christmas :( I sure hope they still had enjoyable birthdays. The party was fun - sport themed of course :) (We always used to do 'one to grow on' hence the 4 candles - it kind of threw some people off :) )Funny story :) Bradley was still drinking out of sippy cups most of the time, then on his birthday he wanted to drink like a big boy with no lid, so I was taking pictures of him showing his age...Then taking pictures of him drinking like a big boy...With Gracie right underneath him watching (and learning :) ) I wish I had a picture of the aftermath... literally 5 seconds after I took this picture he put the cup down on the table and reached for something and knocked it over - all onto poor Gracie's head! It was pretty funny because I was just making such a big deal about the 'big boy cup' :) And Gracie was so interested and then just got drenched!

Then on their actual birthday we had all these plans that got canceled since they felt crummy, so we stayed home and rested, had dinner and cake and opened presents and went to bed early :)Poor sick boys :(

Proceed with Caution...

Warning - this post is about PEE and POO!!! If this topic is too disturbing and sensitive for you I advise you to move on to the next post...

You've been warned!

Seeing that I pretty much use this blog as an online baby book, I have to document the potty training progress :) Bradley got his first underwear in December. I would put him in the underwear when we were at home and not going anywhere, every now and then just to test the waters. He would be fine for a little bit and was excited about the new cool underwear but it would always end in him peeing and me cleaning up a mess - which I was totally prepared for. This went on for months while I realized that I wanted to get more absorbant underwear for him until he was totally potty trained. I didn't want to do pull-ups because they're exactly like diapers, they feel the same, and they wouldn't make him feel uncomfortable when he peed in them. So I started looking online and those fancy absorbant underwear are very expensive - about $14 a pair!!! So I printed out patterns to make my own, I priced out fabric and all the material and it was going to cost about $6 a pair to make them on my own. On Craigslist one day I happened to find a lady who was selling 9 pair of exactly what I wanted and I got them for $7 a pair. This all didn't happen until March, so I'll come back to that phase later :) I'm getting ahead of myself - stay tuned!!!

Anyway - this is his first pooing in the potty experience :) (just pretending to push :) )

We decided that everytime he went poo-poo in the potty he would get a poo-poo ball!

No matter the size :)

Christmas Tree Shopping

We got our Christmas tree really early this year, and now that we had a high ceiling we ended up getting a HUGE one - from (where else) King Soopers! It's become a tradition to get them there now and I love it! We met Mom, Tammy, Craig, and Bill and all picked out our trees together!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was nice to have family around for a nice meal and spend time together. Also - Gracie started crawling 2 days before Thanksgiving, so she was sure entertaining everyone :)

Swim class

Gracie had her first swim class and she loved it! I unfortunately was not impressed with the teacher at all, she didn't seem to ever know what she was doing, or have any kind of plan. And, let me tell you, my little girl LOVES to kick! She kicks all the time, and of course it's even more fun in the water - so that was her best skill. And yet - the teacher didn't pass at least 4 out of the 7 kids in the class - Gracie included - and on her report card it said that she needed to work on starting to kick !!!!!!! Obviously she had never even paid any attention to Gracie while she was swimming, because I don't think she ever STOPPED kicking. I actually sent in a card complaining because I just don't think she knew what she was doing at all. BUT we still had fun! It's so funny how different she is from Bradley - he was so cautious and scared of the water in his first class and Gracie was just the opposite - crazy little girl!

Bradley the photographer...

Bradley decided that he really likes to take pictures, so we let him have the camera for a while and here's what he did - well SOME of what he did - he probably takes about 15 pictures a minute and he had it for quite a while :) (and no - these photos were not doctored in any way - just pure, raw, talent! :) )

Notice the amazing attention to detail...

The clever, unique angels...

What a pro!!

Nasty Fall

In Nov Bradley was going to go outside with Poppy, and as soon as Poppy opened the door Bradley went to step out and he tripped on the little lip of the sliding door and fell face first down 2 concrete steps and landed on his face. Kevin and I didn't even see it but Bill said that he didn't even have time to get his hands up. I was FREAKING out because that's a good size fall right onto your head. You'd never know it from looking at him - he barely had any cuts and scrapes. Kevin and I are convinced that Carmel was there and broke his fall :) caught him and helped him land safely - because it should have been a lot worse then it ended up being. He really hasn't had hardly any bumps and bruises, he plays very carefully. I find it very funny when little kids get hurt and people always say, "Get used to it, it's the first of many" and "Oh, that'll happen all the time"... Do people really think that is going to make me feel better??? Envisioning my child in pain ALL THE TIME? :) Silly people...And these are just some of my favorite pictures right around that time...