Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Fall fun in the winter

I raked up as many leaves as I could find for Brenna to play in.  I was literally sweating and had to go change into shorts and a tank top while doing this. 

Ready...Set....GO!
 
Getting used to the leaves

 
Of course we had to stop and smell the leaves

 
One of my all time favorite pictures of the Bean

Jace.  Kind of a cool back drop :)


Helping Jace enjoy the leaves.  It was a horrible task of trying to get the crushed leaves out of his hands before they made it to his mouth. 


Brenna Monster and Jace

Brenna being a monster with daddy's gloves.
 
 
 
 
Jace has become an expert at ringing the tiger around the bar.  Of course I couldn't catch it on video, but he's still cute, just the same.
 

Brenna 94 weeks

So my little cutie is finally getting the idea to smile for the camera.  She can be just the softness, sweetest thing, cuddling, kissing, hugging, batting her little eye lashes at you. 


 
And then she turns into a monster roooaaaaaaarrrrrrr!  Hehe.  She had so much fun putting on Nick's winter gloves and 'scaring' us.  She would just sit and look at her hands in the gloves.  She wanted to try on every hat. 

 
touch down!!!

 
Her Forrest Gump look

 
So darn cute!

 
She's putting together words with some encouragement now.  She LOVES to sing along with all the songs she knows, ABCs, twinkle twinkle, Eensy Weensy, skip to my lou (lou lou) and Miss Mary Mack (ugh ugh ugh).  I tried teaching her the chicken dance today.  We have a way to go on that one.  :)

Jace 14 weeks

Everything and anything is going into this kids mouth.  He is also quite the drooler.  He can soak a shirt in slimy baby spit in a matter of minutes.  It's just incredible!  Nick commented that he can't believe he's not dehydrated from all the drooling.  :)  I don't feel any teeth yet, and I remember Brenna going through a similar phase, but not to this degree.  She never chewed the ring or the ball, even when she was teething.  And she never soaked a shirt. 


Jace is just getting used to the exersaucer.  The first time I couldn't even keep him from face planting in the seat.  The next he tried to eat the elephant.  This time he was just enjoying the view :)  His feet don't quite touch yet, but I'm sure they will in no time. 
 
 
Daddy came home from lunch and got a little laugh from Jace. 

 
Even though we include Jace in our meal time by putting him in the bouncer seat on the table, sometimes it just isn't close enough.  He's figured out that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and is very vocal when he wants some attention.  I can't blame the poor guy, when you have a drama queen like Miss B as a sister...

 
Sometimes we get some good snuggle time when Brenna is napping.  He's been sleeping through the night more often than not.  However, last night he was up at 10, 11 and 2 am.   Thankfully he slept until 8 after that.  I was not so lucky.  That darn 2 am feeding got the better of me and I was wide awake until 6.  Figures....


Monday, November 18, 2013

Rambo Brenna

Our little Rambo!
 
Brenna put her head band (it has flowers on it and is cute) on and so we left it how she had it.  Plus she has her lady bug backpack. 
 
She looks like such a little outdoors-girl :)

 
We were on an AstroTurf field, Brenna had her ball and was ready to play, play, play!

 
Daddy took her to do some pull ups

 
She ended up being able to hang for a bit and loved it.


She wanted to do it over and over again!  haha. 
 
Daddy was so proud :)


Fall Fun

 This Texas weather is crazy.  Our leaves are just changing colors and falling off the trees.  The weather is so nice that we were actually all sweating in our cute fall clothes :)
 
Brenna got a kick out of picking a leaf off the tree and smelling it (our alternative to tasting) and Jace loves watching her. 



 
Brenna really tries to include Jace in everything and ran right over to let him smell the leaf too. 
 
 
Ofcourse in true Brenna fashion, she threw a tantrum when she couldn't put the leaf back ON the tree! 

Fat suit

Nick made Brenna a little fat suit.  He said she was walking around stiff and every time she bent over to pick something up she would grunt.  hehe


 
This was what her suit was made of....plastic packaging bags filled with air.  hehe


3 months and mama's birthday.

 
Just had a late addition for Jace....His 3 month picture.  I had a really hard time keeping his hands away from his little sign.  He had that thing crumpled up and nearly in his mouth by the time I stood up to take the picture!
 
 
 
Here are Brenna and Jace on my birthday.  They were dressed up so cute because we went to see Nick at work.  These were taken in one minute, but their faces are just so funny!




Brenna is wondering if we're done yet.  Jace is having a ball!

Friday, November 8, 2013

Our talk

Mama, we need to talk.

 
I like milk.
 
 
When I want it, I'll let you know.  Of course you could just offer it every hour.  I'd be ok with that. 
 

But don't forget to change my diaper first.  I like a clean diaper when I eat.

 
Good talk.

21 months and 12 weeks

Jace has the best smile.  Of course I was delighted that he was just smiling when I picked up my camera to take a picture.  I couldn't believe my luck.  Then I picked him up...he had pooped and blew his diaper out.  ON my glider!  Oddly enough, it makes this picture a little cuter when I think about it and that great smile.
 
 
Anyway, Jace is now 12 weeks old.  I feel like he is HUGE but he's still got a lot of fattening up to do.  He's just getting some butt cheeks finally.  He's a good eater and a pretty good sleeper.  Although he only let me sleep through the night once this week.  He still rarely cries but is starting to get more vocal.  He has a nice strong voice and likes to get loud.  He hasn't laughed yet, but I think we're getting close.  He's got a nice grip and likes to latch onto his blanket or burp rag and shove it into his mouth.  He's kinda so-so on his pacifier.  He mostly only takes it right before he goes to bed and occasionally during naps.  He does get his fingers, thumbs and hands in his mouth quite often.  Maybe he'll be a thumb sucker? 
 
 
Brenna is now 21 months old.  Just think, in 3 more months her life will be measured in years.  Amazing.  Brenna has really started building her vocabulary.  We were in the grocery store yesterday and it was awesome to hear her point out and say 'apple'  'onion'  and teaching her new words. She has become very affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She also likes to hold our hands and lead us places around the house.  She can draw a straight line and circle (sorta) and even put her own boot on the other day!  She is a very determined little girl and if things don't go her way or if not enough attention is paid, she screams.  Right in your face.  Again and again.  We're working on it but sheesh.  Nick and I decided to just remove ourselves one evening from the dinner table while she screamed.  We asked her to stop, then let her know we would clean her up once she was done screaming.  She sat in her high chair for nearly 10 minutes.  Now, this is not an 'I'm upset' scream/cry.  This is a horror movie scream.  Wait until December, you'll all hear it, I'm sure. 
 
She also needs to let her frustration out before cuddling or talking about things.  If she trips and falls or bumps herself, she needs to go let off a little rage by screaming and crying at the wall.  Then she'll come to us for a hug or to talk about what happened.  This is all her doing.  I'd just as soon get the discussion over and start playing again.  But, whatever works for her, I guess.... 
 
 
She loves to run around and explore everything.  She can almost gallop.  She LOVES shoes and hats and most all accessories.  She's still a great eater and even if we're all eating the same thing, apparently it tastes MUCH better off daddy's plate.  While she only naps about 50% of  the time, she still sleeps well at night.  She loves her milk and drinks a lot of water.  She is such a little helper, too.  Always willing to lend a hand to take the trash out, put things on the table, put things in the hamper and throw things away.  She is just starting to climb on the furniture and managed to split her little chin.  Nick taught her to slide off the couches, so at least she doesn't try to walk off them anymore.  I think she's developing more of a sense of humor too, I catch her giggling if we do something funny.  She loves music and dancing.  Nick taught her to bob her head to the beat.  sooooo cute!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Jace is 11 weeks old!

Jace is just growing so fast!  He is becoming more alert and while he is still pretty quiet he loves to kick his long legs.  He's starting to coo louder and we've even heard a few squawks from him.  Thankfully he is still not much of a crier.  I've started giving him one bottle a day with a little formula, just to get him used to it so when I start back to school it won't be a last minute thing.  He was NOT happy the first couple times, but yesterday he took the bottle with no tears.  He also slept through the night 3 nights in a row.  That made mama VERY happy!
 
He likes to munch on his little car seat buddies.  Those ears seem to be in just the perfect place for him to get in his mouth.
 
He loves sitting in his bouncy seat at the table.  He swats at his little toys and kicks his legs while we enjoy (haha, if Brenna lets us) our dinner.  He's started to really blow bubbles and has soaked the front of his shirt a few times.

 
He doesn't seem to want his tummy time as much as he used to.  He still tolerates it really well but doesn't nap like this much anymore.  He fell asleep holding my fingers....I had a hard time letting go :)



Halloween

This Halloween, since we had 2 outfits for each kid, we did two photo shoots.  We did the outside pumpkin with Jace as a skeleton and Brenna as our little witch.  She loves cackling like a witch when she sees the witches hat.

We also had Nick's reenlistment today and so we decided to dress the kids up for all of Nick's coworkers and students to enjoy.  They were soooo cute!  Brenna was a sunflower and Jace was a giraffe.  I thought Brenna would get a kick out of Jace's outfit, but she really didn't care.  She was more interested in her headband and all the people to look at.