single blades

just when you had your skating legs all figured out, he threw you for a loop.  santa brought you single blade skates, you asked for them anyway....  a little less sturdy than those double blades you learned on.

watching you two move slowly around the ice was one of the most heart warming things i have seen.

your daddy's strong arms, patience and steady legs helped you to get around.

you are so lucky to have him as your daddy and in no time you will be floating around on the ice with grace and speed while both of us watch proudly from the bleachers.

Ahoy Matey!

today we were in need of an adventure.  so with a little imagination we built our own little pirate ship.  thank goodness we had a hockey stick, packing tape and left over material from a sewing project.  we built our sail, tied on our pirate bandannas got our swords and set sail on the sea.  we are in search of our treasure.  now we just need to agree on where to sail first.

we got another pet or two....

logan made a pet rock at school today.  i am unable to even post a picture of it here because he is currently napping with his new little friend.  as we drove home this afternoon i hear logan say, "mommy brady is not being my friend."  i respond, "brady why aren't you logan's friend?"  i hear a quiet quivering voice in the back seat respond, "because logan did not bring me a pet rock."  sniff, sniff, sniff.........

i then suggest as any mother would, "brady can we find the perfect rock when we get home and make you a pet rock just like logan's?"  he responds, " that would be nice mommy."

once home we find the perfect rock, some sharpies in our drawer, a piece of felt for blankie and an old small gift bag for our pet carrier.

i wish all of life's problems were solved this easily.  for now i have two new pet's in my house and thank goodness they don't require water or food because we already have our fair share of those.  more importantly i have two little boys with smiles on their faces.  sometimes the simplest of things in life are just enough.

hoist the sails!

grandma and grandpa treated us to a pirate dinner show in anaheim.  it was quite the event.  the boys to my surprise sat through the whole thing and watched with amazement. while they were serving dinner they came around and handed out paper pirate hats to a select few little pirates.  brady got one and logan did not.  i didn't even think twice about it at the time.

as the show progressed they asked those with the paper hats to come up on stage.  we were team purple and our team purple pirate that we had been rooting for the whole show came by and snagged brady to go on stage.  they sang a song and took a pirate oath.  i was so proud of brady for going up on the stage with out a parent and with a lot of strangers.  he is so brave as a little pirate should be. then they dismissed all the little pirates off stage except for one.

my sweet little brady was asked to stay.  he was asked by the captain of the ship you see.  they asked him if he would go back to his parents and take all of their jewelry and return to the ship and give it to the captain.  in his sweet little voice i heard, "yes."

say hello to pirate brady!

the happiest place on earth

a day spent at disneyland.

at the end of the day in the words of logey j, "this is the best day ever."

amen little man!

yellowstone

we had a great time in yellowstone catching up with family from washington.  we got to meet our cousin jaron for the first time.  cousin chris was nice enough to crawl into this mock wolf den with us at the bear and wolf rescue in west yellowstone.

we had a great time climbing all over fallen trees and exploring in nature.  this is when we had a lot of energy at the top of the great falls.

then our little legs climbed down 300+ stairs on uncle toms trail so we could see the beauty of the falls. we were especially excited about the rainbow we saw coming down. we went about 3/4 of the way down and then turned around to start our long journey up.  brady made it the whole way up and down on his own and cousin chris only carried logan about 100 steps up.  so proud of both of you for doing so much up and down on your own. (by the way the boys napped awesome this day!)

we waited patiently for old faithful and were less than excited when it erupted.  brady said, "it looks like a cannon mommy."  then we were off to explore the pools and other geysers.

we referred to many as baby pools and mama pools and were told that it did not smell so good around here but overall enjoyed our adventure.

our favorite part of this day was ice cream.  by the way meg.  i am a BIG fan of huckleberry ice cream.   YUM!

grandma and grandpas

there is nothing like hanging with grandma and grandpa for a week.  lots of sweets, a really cool pool that the boys eventually liked towards the end of the week and the ability to see santa in july!

mommy and daddy love all of the good food and watching the boys play with the grandparents they miss soooo much.  we wish you guys lived closer!  thanks for a fun filled vacation and all the love you gave the boys.

i can't believe it finally fits

this outfit was a gift from brady's great uncle stan.  i remember opening it shortly after he was born and thinking to myself, this will never fit my precious little boy.  today i cleaned out the boy's closet and reminisced about every outfit that no longer fits.  this outfit hung in the back of the closet.  i pulled it out and checked the size.  sure enough brady was ready to wear it and it fits beautifully.  where has the time gone?  i certainly was not prepared for the everyday frustration of raising two boys eighteen months apart.  my lack of preparation has also become evident in the feeling of sadness in how quickly time seems to be going by.  yet another reminder to just roll with the punches, find more patience, laugh with them and love every minute we have for time is flying by quickly.

Happy 4th Birthday Brady!

happy birthday brady boy!  another fun filled year of "bradyisms".  my personal favorite was the "indoor side pool" instead of indoor pool.  your fun loving carefree attitude is exactly that of your daddy's.  you have been fine tuning your big brother skills this year and to my surprise you have become quite the protector of him, don't get me wrong you still have your moments of picking on him too.  you love to sleep in like your mommy and trains and cars are still your most favorite toys. you developed a few crushes this year.  need i say lilly lake? you overcome each challenge with a smile on your face.  you are still one of the best car singers i know, next to mommy of course.  your independence is definitely becoming known and while it makes me sad because you are no longer my baby, i am so proud of the person you are becoming.  your daddy and i are so blessed to have you in our lives and look forward to each new day ahead with you and all that they hold.  we love you.

the easter bunny hopped in

the easter bunny hopped in and left us buckets full of goodies.  candy and games and lip balm of course.

then we started looking around and realized that there were eggs all over our house.  we had fun hunting and snacking as we went along.  it should be a fun day of kids hopped up sugar.  happy easter!

today a little voice spoke with pure honesty

today these little legs and i walked into a field littered with colored plastic easter eggs.  today was the easter party at school complete with a pizza lunch.  you see all the parents were invited.  today i had to work, an appointment that i could not move.  i hurried as quick as i could so i could get to the party with full realization that i would be late.  but, he wouldn't notice.  it won't be a big deal.  i walked into the school with much on my mind and a cell phone attached to my head. secretly wondering how i was going to get it all done.  i got to class just in time to do the easter egg hunt.  my little man clinging tightly to my hand as we walked down the hall together.  his easter basket swaying back and forth.  we got outside and he was so excited. we held hands and walked through the field looking for eggs and that is when he spoke in a quiet hushed voice. "mommy where were you? all the mommies came and you didn't, you were late."  my heart sank.  i know i cannot be there all the time.  things are going to come up. right? at the same time if felt a lot of love.  he does notice, he does want me to be around and share in his experiences with him.  i should relish in this moment for i know someday this will not be the case.  i love these little guys, all the ups and downs and in betweens and will cherish our little egg walk today for the rest of my life.  i am so blessed.

a little of just being who you are

i wish i had the confidence to walk out the door looking like this.  to just be me and create my own art.  no worries of what others think.

always a smile and a laugh.  a pure joy for life and all that it encompasses.

with the ability to be silly but courageous enough to take that silly shot.  it might just turn out to be the award winning piece.

ipad generation

i hate to admit this but these boys show me a thing or two on how to use the i pad.  yes i repeat a three year old and two year old are showing their mommy how to work this little pad of magic.  we like watching movies on here and playing games.  the newest obsession is scrolling through the you tube videos and watching random clips of kids or little animated unicorns.  you name it they can do it and they have the finger swipe down better than most of you i pad junkies out there.

what's next?

today we....

hung out in our pj's this morning a little longer than normal....

we played a zoo game we really, really love.

we jumped like kangaroos when it told us to and sang happy birthday to panda in tune.

we acted like monkeys and walked like bears.

it was so nice to just hang around and play this morning with these two adorable boys.

christmas musical at pre-school 2010

today was the annual kingdom kritters christmas program. i always admire how all the teachers and staff here manage to get all these kiddos ages 12 months to 5 years to stand in the same area and sing for a short period of time.  we started out with jingle bells and as you can imagine, brady knew all the words and motions.

we then went on to away in the manger.  all the kiddos were so cute, especially doing the hand signs along with the music.

then they brought out the little guys 2 and under.  you can see logan in the front row six kids over from the left of the picture.  he looked stunned seeing all these people looking at him and for the most part sat there.  i was proud of him he didn't cry and i thought for sure he would.  note what is going on with brady 2nd row right hand side of the picture.  he had a little friend of whom i don't know i don't even think the kid is in his class.  however this little boy was very lovey and kept touching brady and trying to hold his hand even hugging him.  every once in a while when the music got quiet you would hear brady yelling... stop it!  it was pretty funny to watch and it continued on throughout the whole program.

at the end of the program they wheeled out the little guys back to their class.  i love that they take logans class everywhere in wagons.  how else would you get a bunch of 18 to 24 month olds from one place to another?

sorry no video this year to my family.  but brady would probably do a private concert for you if you just ask.

merry christmas!

visit with santa and grammy's birthday

yesterday we visited santa.  brady sat on his lap and told him all that he wanted for christmas.  logan is noticeably absent.  he wanted nothing to do with santa and i mean nothing.

we then went to white fence farm for grammy's big 6-0!  happy birthday grammy!

brady fed the goat by hand and when the goat was done he said, "good job lamb!"  we will have to work on our animals.

this little guy peered through the fence, never said much but "wow" and waived goodbye as we left.

the start of the season

this weekend we set up the christmas tree and daddy strung up the lights outside. We went to dinner with dear friends and then bundled up and headed out to watch the lighting of the lights and santa driving down main street in littleton.  the boys waived and cheered while we sipped on our tasty hot cocoa.  creating more memories for years to come with the boys.  it was priceless.

the words from my back seat driving home from school

this moment was almost surreal to me yesterday.  was i really having a conversation with my son about a girl on the way home from school?  isn't it a little early for this kind of talk?

brady: mommy, so there was this grill (girl in brady talk) at school today.

mommy: oh yeah brady?

brady: yeah mommy.  the grill asked me how old i was.  i told her i was free (three in brady language).

mommy: did you ask her how old she was?

brady: (he chuckles a little) yeah mommy she was free and a half. (he chuckles a little more and then it is quiet for a minute.) mommy she asked me to sit by her for snack.  (then a little more silence).  i told her no and then i sat by sammy.

mommy: why did you sit by sammy instead of sitting next to the grill?

brady: yeah because i can.

i smiled and laughed the rest of the way home.  i forgot that we will have the grills are yucky stage for a few years before we really get into the swing of things.  this mommy feels a little relief.

happy tuesday!

how to cook a turkey by brady smith

brady made this at school.  the teachers asked each kid how to cook a turkey and they each had different responses.  this was brady's.  i think it is so cute.  just a little more thanksgiving fun for you.

cma's

last night we watched the cma's down in the theatre.  we rocked out to our favorite country singers and even performed a few numbers ourselves.  my personal favorite was twinkle twinkle little star.  it amazes me how many songs brady knows almost all the words too and even when he can't remember the words he still keeps the melody and just makes them up. one talented boy.  logan is just debuting in the singing arena.  he did a great job keeping up with big brother.  as for the actual cma's i have to say i was quite shocked at some of the award winners.  quite a few under dogs stole an award or two.  one of our family's favorite bands won though (lady a).  we were so happy.  rock on smith boys!