Here is the video from Easter morning

Honor society induction

This weekend I was inducted into the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau. I also had a poster presentation prior to the ceremony. Only 1 person asked me any questions, so it went really well, I guess. Otherwise, it was a nice resume builder :)

Nick and the kids came and there were really well behaved. Brenna was really excited to 'go to school with mama.' Luckily the auditorium had an atrium area right out side that the kids could run and play in that was relatively contained. It was a little rainy out, so Nick let them play with the umbrella. I loved the pictures!! 

cuties

Brenna being 'mama.' She had to have her purse (and she had to fill it with stuff) before we left. Then she needed sunglasses because it was so bright out. 

Jace has been talking more and started kissing spontaneously. "tiss, tiss" Brenna gets a lot of them, but she's been a good sport and doesn't even complain how slimey they are anymore. 

He's a good little hand-holder and will do it about 95% of the time. Of course the other 5% he's trying to run out in traffic.... He's such a tough little guy. One of our worst nightmares occurred last night and he fell onto a fire ants' mound. I grabbed him up as quickly as I could and checked him over for ants. Thankfully I only found one. He never cried or even whined and I found 2 bites on him.

He's definitely not as sensitive as Brenna. When he's being reprimanded, he rarely cries. Often times we'll see the chin wobble and the eyes fill, but he's pretty stoic. We've started 'time-outs' and while they aren't too effective yet, it gives us some time to cool down. He'll learn that they aren't fun soon enough, I'm sure. 

His speech is getting more clear. If he sees words, he gets really excited and says "Cs! Cs!" for ABCs. He tries to count a little and is better in spanish. He still says "no" when he means yes. I'll be happy when that clears up because it is pretty confusing! He's just started saying 2 word phrases. "Cars bye" Man, he LOVES his cars. We actually went to the end of our road to watch the cars at the intersection. 

Brenna is still a bit taller than he is but his feet are only 1 size smaller and his hands are pretty close to her size too! 

Easter

We started off the night before Easter making an 'Easter Cake.' Nothing special or significant about it, other than some mommy guilt for not buying them any candy. (Although the grandparents did send some)

This was the first time Jace 'helped' me make anything. It was exponentially more difficult with the two of the them 'helping' but other than a premature egg crack and a startle from Jace when the mixer started, it went pretty well.

  

The kids were pretty excited to find eggs. Brenna definitely remembered from last year how it went. Jace just followed her lead. Thankfully they are young enough that we didn't have any fights over who found more eggs.  Next year, no doubt.... Basically, once the eggs were found, Brenna took control of them and 'cracked' them into her bucket for most of the day. Jace just mowed and mowed....

They took a quick break for story time and a little sibling love.

And then came the chocolate bunnies.... Brenna loved hers, of course. Jace had a hard time biting through (these weren't those cheap, hollow bunnies!) and quickly threw his in frustration. 

 After a fun day of play, Brenna finally put the  bunny glasses on and insisted on carrots for a snack.  She even shared with Jace!

Jace, our He lfirst bonfire & other outside fun

Jace is just all boy... He loves his cars, he loves his balls, and he loves to climb. His enthusiasm for all things is so fun and exciting. You mention teeth and he RUNS to the bathroom to brush them. He also is a faithful companion to Brenna. He watches everything she does, and copies whatever she is doing. She sings, he sings. She takes a drink, he takes a drink. If she hurts her knee, he hurts his knee. If she asks for something, he will try to find it for her.  It's so sweet! Sure there are lots of times they fight over things but we're trying to brainwash them into loving each other by telling them every day how much they love each other.  I mean, if you put the idea in their head before they even know what is happening, it's bound to stick, right?

He is really talking and yelling, man the kid is loud. His tantrums are frequent, usually due to frustration over not being carried or not being able to perform a task (like stacking cars on top of each other) he is amazingly good at balancing cars on his head, though. He's getting into books and really likes the tractor book and Polar bear, Polar bear. He's also really into singing 'Wheels on the bus.' He's just waiting on his last 4 molars, which will be coming in around 24 months. He loves hummus and pepper tortillas, apples, and COOKIES! Every meal he asks for 'a bite' from Nick's plate.  He loves to dip his hand (fist) into dips and will show Nick where to put it on his plate. He's really into repeating words and loves to 'say' the ABCs and count. We're teaching Brenna the spanish alphabet and numbers, so he is more likely to say 'uno' than 'one' which is kinda funny. 

And did I mention he loves trains. I mean, just pure joy watching it. He was excited when he heard the horn and then just stood there watching with a huge grin. Watched the entire train go by....just smiling.

We had a beautiful day going to the park. The kids love climbing on the playground equipment and Brenna is getting pretty brave climbing much higher than she is tall. Jace is not far behind her, but thankfully is happy just climbing stairs and going down slides. 

In an effort to exhaust them, we ran the soccer field a few times. 

We bought a little fire pit over a month ago and finally got around to having a fire. We didn't have a lot of fire wood, so it was small and quick. But hopefully we'll have more this summer. It so nice in the evenings, I'm excited to spend some time outside when it's not sweltering!

 Of course we've had some beautiful sunshine with this spring weather. The kids LOVE getting outside and playing in the water (or dirt in Jace's case, he is so happy just having a handful of dirt to walk around with).

Jace showing his muscles!

spring fun

We are loving the spring here in San Antonio. The weather is amazing, blue skies, nice breeze...and the kids are loving that they get to go outside.

Brenna wanted to be Grandma Pirate, so she insisted on wearing her pirate hat and we had to call her grandma... it's from a story we read. So funny though!

Jace is just all about exploring and DOING things. He wants to know what everything feels like, sounds like and tastes like. He spent a good portion of the day finding rocks and hitting them on things to hear the sounds.  He loved the metal picnic tables and would just walk between the seats hitting them with little pebbles. 

Jace 18 Months

Our silly, dirty, wanna-do-everything-my-big-sis-does,little man turned 18 months!  Unbelievable...He had his check up and did great. 34 inches (75%) for height and 26lbs (55%) for weight.  We were too early for shots, so we'll have to do that in the next week or so. He practices giving himself shots with the doctor's kit though ;)

For whatever reason, he's started walking around with his hands down the back of his pants!

His talking has really taken off and he will repeat almost anything (a major difference from Brenna, who refused until after 20 months old). He started off with daddy (daaaeeeeeee!! probably his favorite and most used word) and added mama then went right into phrases (where did it go?) He says 'thank you' consistently now, and 'sorry' (when he hits Brenna) and he's had a couple of time outs. He's started singing songs and will say the major words, usually at the end of a line. 'Let it go' is a favorite ;) He is still a dancer and loves to sway with the music. He just learned 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes' and really gets into that.

He likes to make silly faces and has the brightest smile! 

His eating comes and goes. Last night he ate 3 dinners! The next day, like a bird, and picked at things here and there. He finally drinks mostly water but still loves his milk if offered. 

He's so picky about what he'll put in his mouth and if he doesn't want to eat something. He won't. Of course, he had no problem trying dirt.....

He's still a little bow legged, but really, his legs are pretty skinny. He's mastered the little kids equipment at the play ground and has no problem climbing up the steps to go down the slide on his own.  He's really physical and can handle steps and walking a decent distance. He's really pretty fearless and even went down the slide head first (not really intentionally, but he smiled the whole way down). 

He loves running around outside, shoe or not, muddy, wet, whatever. He even had a couple fire ant bites that he never even cried about! 

Of course, he wants to do everything Brenna does and will follow her around endlessly. For the most part she tolerates him :) She can't stand his 'slimey' kisses though! 

He loves to brush his teeth, take a bath, read a book, play with playdoh...he just loves to DO things. He's still pretty rough and instead of moving the stool in the bathroom to brush his teeth, he throws it. He is kind of a brute, but has a soft side and is very gentle with Bella (thankfully). 

He is still a big climber and has figured out how to move things to get to the light switches. He is a bit of a handful but such a sweet little snuggly guys too. He is still a great sleeper and takes good naps in the afternoon. He also loves to be carried, but he is soooooo heavy!! He gets really upset if you put him down in the morning. 

I can't believe this is how old Brenna was when he was born!!