motorcycle and other random fun

The kids are having a great time with the motorcycle. It does work, but goes very, very slow. Perfect for kids in drivers ed ;) It's just so funny to watch Jace give his 'thumbs up' (first finger) and honk the horn as he is gonna his a flattened can. 

Brenna was telling us her door was scary and requested the girl volcano for her room. So, mama got creative... Brenna was watching the progress and told me "It's a good start, mama. But I think she needs...(water, sky, eyelashes, etc)" I was just done with this project.  Luckily, she's been happy with it and i haven't needed to add anything. However, now she wants the boy volcano. Unless she's drawing it, it's not gonna happen!!

If you aren't familiar with the lava song.... here's a link.  Or you can google "lava song"

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=B211US550D20140802&p=lava+song

Brenna was trying to plant a weed she pulled....she had the tiniest little mound of sand that she was trying to stand it in. And of course, she fancies herself quite the ballerina.  

 A little sibling love

Jace's new bed

He saw it in the garage, disassembled.....

Love at first sight!

Before bed.....

Pretty excited!

The next morning.....

reading his Big Truck book ;)

He was so excited and proud to be in his new Lightening McQueen bed.

potty training.....

Soooo, this has been our next big goal since returning to Texas.....

Jace has done surprisingly well with potty training. I've heard all about boys being more difficult, but (thus far) he has been even a little easier than Brenna was. The first week was a little tricky, mostly because we weren't able to stay home all day and really go for it...but by the end of the first week, he was consistently going in the potty with only about 1 accident a day! Completely to my surprise this has continued and has gone days without an accident.... We are so proud of him!  Bonus was that we were able to use the Halloween candy and 'rewards' :) 

All the bragging done now.... today was not an accident free day. In fact, he ran into Brenna's bed while I was helping Brenna on the potty.....and I hear 'I go poo-poo!'  (he calls both pee and poo 'poo-poo) So, I ran to grab him and put him on the potty....but I was too late. There was a lake in her bed. yuck. Of course it was nap time, so I put him on the potty and went to strip Brenna's bed. When I walked past the potty....there was Jace, sitting on the potty with the air freshener can in his mouth. Seriously. 

Anyway, this kid.... amazingly brilliant and amazingly big trouble all wrapped up into one very cute little man...

Wildlife Ranch (Jace's Birthday part 2)

Instead of a party, we decided to do the Wild Animal park...African Safari-Texas style. (that's the advertisement for it anyway. Basically, you drive through with a bag of animal food  and the animals come to your car. We went early in the morning and it was awesome!

There were deer, antelope, goats, bison, zebras, giraffes, ostriches, emus, llamas...and others. Super friendly, some put their heads right into the car window and ate out of our hands. The kids were a little tentative about those over friendly animals, but Jace let a deer eat from his hand. Brenna wasn't having any of that, but she had a great time throwing the food out the window.

They also had a petting zoo. It had goats. very fat, lazy goats. The kids were pretty brave and were petting one when another rammed the one they were petting into them. They were so upset at that goat! Brenna is still talking about the naughty goat....

Anyway, here are the pics...

Jace's birthday (part 1)

Jace is 2!!  I can't believe it! Just had his doctor visit today and he is just under 3 ft (35 inches tall) which is 52% and 28lbs, which was 57%.  Of course his head was 82%....what's new? But he's growing well and impresses everyone with his speech and his movement.

Each year I get a cute pic of Brenna on her birthday morning, however, Jace wasn't in the mood ;)

But once he was up and saw the Lightening McQueen 'Happy Birthday' sign....he was into having a birthday.

Sandra came over after breakfast and gave Jace his first gift of the day, which was his (now beloved red car) and a snake (that Brenna immediately claimed). The only way we could get him to put the car down was to tell him it was the car's nap time.  So, he put the car on the bench, got a blanket for it, and gave it a kiss night-night. This kid....

Then we went to the Wildlife Ranch, which was amazing. It's a post unto itself.... After nap time (for all of us), we had a minion party and skyped while opening gifts. 

Jace loved all his gifts (which must be on Nick's phone b/c mine was full of pics from earlier in the day). Tractors, trains, legos, books with tractors and trains.....He had a very happy birthday thanks to all the special people in his life. He's gonna have a great time 'meeting' everyone in Michigan next week!

Our big boy showing us his muscles

Jace's last day as a 1 year old

Since we didn't have a party for Jace, we decided to make it an adventuresome weekend. The day before his birthday, we took them to the splash pad on Ft Sam. It was a perfectly overcast day. Only 2 other kids at the park.....lots of fun and laughter!