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!

Brenna selfies

She sure loves to cheese it up....

Jace- not QUITE 2 years old

Our big boy....just before his 2nd birthday, I thought I'd give a little update on what this guy has been up to...

He loves a good back scratch.  He'll keep pointing and telling you to itch

He loves to swim and tries so hard to keep up with Brenna swimming. He thinks he's pretty cool 'carrying' her around the pool while she floats on her back. 

He is such a good talker. Always asking questions, his favorite phrase is "who's that guy?" He has recently taken an interest in counting (more than just saying the words, but pointing and counting) but he never goes past 2. So, I thought we'd just take it in baby steps and work on 3. Well.... he was walking around pointing to things and just 1,2....1,2....1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. So, apparently he gets it, he was just stuck on 2. Or maybe he was only finding things in 2 to count.

He is also a singer and dancer. He sings along to the radio, which is so cute. He also loves a good version of "let it grow" (not to be confused with Brenna's Let it Go)

He loves tractors and trucks and will tell you that he loves them. "Jacey love kuck" "Jacey love Kacor"

He's still a stubborn guy and really thinks its fun to bug his sister. He also likes to take a swing at her more often than we'd prefer. He's definitely got the hang of timeouts.

And he is still soooooo loud. Although he has no problem telling US when we're being too loud ;)

Dance party!

spaghetti eater

Spaghetti is Brenna's new favorite meal....