a second 2nd birthday party

Brody got to celebrate his 2nd birthday with the Bible's right before Christmas.

Great Aunt Jody made him a fabulous cake, which Brody devoured.

 Quincy and Quade were both on hand to help celebrate too!

Thanks for coming up!

the children are nestled, all snug in their beds.

Santa's plate is out, complete with mini oreos (leftover from Halloween) and apples for the reindeer.  Too bad we left the homemade cookies at Grammy and Grampy's house.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Cohen

This dude, who Brody still refers to as BeBe, was in a posing mood Saturday night. 

He calls me Aunt Gen. 

Two of my favorite things about Cohen:

1) instead of having a meltdown when he needs help, he will say, "Need Help, Aunt Gen!"

2) he mastered saying Your Welcome, so I got several 'Your Welcome Aunt Gen' this weekend.

Brody

He is preparing himself for shipment to somewhere that the word NO doesn't exist and all you eat are M&M's, marshmallows, and cookies!

Somehow he can crawl into this at Grammy's house!  If Riley and Eli can play in it, I guess he thinks he can too.  He can't get out on his own, so it's kind of nice to keep him contained there for just a few minutes.

He likes to take showers.  He found an ice cream bucket and some glasses to be his shower entertainment. 

And again, he found his way into a baby swing...hated it when he was little, but loves it now!  It's going to disappear soon though because Riley doesn't really love swinging either.

A couple other things about Brody:

1) LOVES PB & J!

2) Transitioned from whole milk to skim milk like a pro. 

3) loves to HELP me do dishes - the minute i start running water in the kitchen, he hops on his train and drives it to the sink.  Basically he loves to play in the bubbles and dump water out of cups in the sink.

4) Figured out how to open our safety gates on the stairs.  So much for safety gates being kid proof! 

Eli

Mr. Eli is the master of crawling and has now moved onto pulling up to anything and everything. I think Monday's at Grammy's are going to get more and more crazy with Brody running everywhere, Eli not far from walking and Riley rolling! 

Riley

That big belly eventually pulls him forward when sitting up, but he can sit unassisted for a wee bit now.

those cheeks make it hard to get to his neck, thus he had some chin rot going on over the weekend.  note to self, make sure his neck is dried out thoroughly after bathing him or you will end up with one stinky neck! 

Riley still wakes up around 2:00 a.m. to dine.  I thought he was working towards dropping his midnight snack, but no such luck.  Trying to hold him off for awhile isn't working either thanks to a cry that can wake the whole house.  Someday I will win this battle...someday!

89

Today Grandma Yakey, or to Brody 'Ama Akey' is celebrating her 89th Birthday!  We helped her celebrate Saturday evening and she had lots of help blowing out the candles.  Happy Birthday Grandma!

Choo-Choo Brody is TWO!

Today at 3:36 pm, Brody turned TWO!  He celebrated this weekend with a little party, complete with a Thomas the Tank Engine cake. 

A few things about Brody:
1)  He can flash the biggest smile
2)  He can give the best hugs and kisses if the mood strikes him.
3)  He can throw the most spectacular tantrum.
4)  He wakes up every morning asking for his mommy, daddy and Riley. 
5)  He has to go see Daddy's deer every night before bedtime to tell them 'night, night!'
6)  He still likes to be rocked to sleep on occassion.
7)  He LOVES to read books - his top favorites right now, I am Bunny, Dr. Seuss ABC's and Secret Santa.
8)  He LOVES tractors, trains, and legos.
9)  M & M's are one of his favorite treats and are what he wants Santa to bring him!
10) He still wants his paci at night, to be exact his blue paci.  Kurt and I said until the age of two he could have it, but we are becoming 'those' parents and letting him still use it.  Mostly because we don't think we can afford to lose anymore sleep.  Yep, we are pathetic like that.

Happy Birthday Brody!! 

Meeting Santa Claus

Brody didn't love meeting Santa, hence the bottom lip sticking out.  He has a couple books about Santa that we have been reading a lot lately, but Santa in person isn't like Santa in the books I guess.  Needless to say,  he didn't ask Santa to bring him "emy's" either! 

(Emy's = m&m's) 

the flu

Brody started in on Wednesday with a fever, followed by the rest of fun flu symptoms on Thursday.  Riley started on Thursday into Friday morning with **nasty** diapers!  Because we couldn't be left out, I had the joy of the flu Friday night thru early Saturday morning just in time for Kurt to start in Saturday morning.  My mom caught the bug as well, but my dad stayed healthy and entertained Brody part of Saturday while I was trying to get over the achey part of the flu.  Thank You Grampy John!  We are all on the road to healthy now though, or at least we think so.  The flu bug is not welcome back into our home.
The End.

And we have a cereal eater!

 It took about three bites for Riley to get the hang out of it.  Maybe a full cereal and milk belly will keep him content all night?  I have my doubts!

Master Brody Bible didn't really appreciate Riley getting to eat his cereal before he got to eat his dinner, so he did try to dip himself a bite out.  I am almost positive that would have been a nasty shock to his system when he figured out it wasn't Special K or Cheerios! 

 Some young boy found a temporary place to hang out!

This guy got all his creases washed out!

2010 Winter Hats

Stock the Freezer!

That is a picture of what you can do during nap time!  After naps were over, progress slowed to a snails pace, but in the end Michelle and I managed to make the following for our freezers:

1. Chicken Enchiladas - 9 pans

2. Chicken Pot Pie - 5 pies

3. Shepherd's Pie - 9 pies

4. Chicken Spaghetti Casserole - 6 pans

5. Meatballs - lots of these.

We still have the goods to make lasagna too!

I won't kid you, it was a lot of work for a weekend when our husband's were consumed with hunting and Riley didn't nap well.  However, definitely worth it! 

Brothers

21 pounds 4 ounces worth of cheeks!

I happened to love the little cardigan he had on today for church. 

It made his blue eyes pop!

Riley

Four month stats:

21 pounds 4 ounces
26 inches long
These stats make him off the charts!  Carry him for very long and you will realize this!

Riley doesn't love tummy time, but does love to pass toys from hand to hand and has started to reach for things that dangle over him in his gym.  He is so close to rolling over, but like our pedetrician said, that's a lot of body to get to roll over! 

He still doesn't sleep through the night...might be why I haven't taken many pictures lately or shared any pictures. Kurt and I are just pooped out. 

On a Brody side not:  He is excited about Santa this year...he doesn't grasp the concept of Santa yet, but wants him to come home!

they didn't really cooperate!

We are back...

Sorry for the short hiatus, but Kurt abandoned us went hunting.  The Sunday before he left, the washing machine quit working.  So, for eleven days I without a washing machine.  He offered me a wash board to do my laundry by hand or a roll of quarters before he left.  I opted to out source instead.  We have to thank Grammy, MaMa Merna, Aunt Helen and Grandpa & Grandma Yakey for the use of their machines!  

Meet my new best friends:

Laundry has never been so much fun

Anyway, while was Kurt was in Missouri, the boys and I were in survival mode.  I didn't take any pictures, I didn't cook much and somehow I didn't sleep much either.  Thank goodness Brody LOVES PB & J now.  Another thank you goes out to Allison and Gabrielle, who offered to take Brody with them to get groceries.  They ended up feeding us spaghetti that night as well!  THANK YOU! 

An even bigger thanks goes out to Aunt Helen and David - they watched the boys while I spoke at a DAR event.  For any Gilmore Girl fans, I was definitely channeling my inner Emily Gilmore!  Hopefully the boys didn't wear you out too much!

Oh and finally, Brody started to ask to go potty while Kurt was gone.  He doesn't always remember, but at this point, we are just testing the waters and will continue to wear diapers.  He gets M & M's as a reward for going and doesn't let you forget it!

Kurt is at least home this weekend hunting and shows up for lunch, dinner, bedtime, and of course overnight.  That overnight thing is pretty important some nights!

Little Boys in Striped Sleepers!

Rolls!

 In the last two days, all I have heard is I need to update the blog. So instead of going to bed, here I sit updating the blog, specifically for Courtney Ann, Allison and Sarah G.  I expect comments of some sort from you girls!  I also expect a wedding date, Corky!

Saturday Morning...

Pumpkin Carving 2010

 It was all innocent fun until Kurt got ahold of Mr. Pumpkin!  Could this be a sign that I should pay more attention to my hubby?