Just being Bray...

Brayden starts this every time you wipe his face after eating. 

Cookies for Santa!

Bryce had lots of fun decorating the Christmas tree with mom and dad. He got to put the star on the top of the tree and had no problem congratulating himself on what a good job he did :)  He also wanted to make some cookies special for Santa to leave out on Christmas Eve.  He picked out chocolate m & m cookies.  He read the instructions and mixed everything just for Santa.  He is counting down the days until we leave a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa on the fireplace!

Playing catch with great poppop

Bryce had a great time when we visited mommom and poppop.  His favorite part of the weekend was playing catch with his great grandpa!

Playing

Brayden loves anything to do with cars or trucks and recently has really been enjoying books.  He flipped through this board book one night for over an hour laughing every time he got to a certain page. 

BRYCE'S MARIO BIRTHDAY BASH

We had a great time at Bryce's birthday party.  There was a projector with a Wii hooked up for Super Mario Brothers and Mario Kart.  There was a Question Mark Pinata, a Mario cupcake Mural, and even a surprise showing of Baby Mario!

Christmas Elves

Cutest Santas ever.

Bryce at bedtime

We had gotten some glow sticks for Brayden's birthday party and ever since Bryce is insistent that he has a glow stick for bedtime every night.  In the morning we will hear Bryce talking as he comes in our room using a glow stick to guide his way. 

Movie night

Brayden got comfy in the beanbag and enjoyed some apple juice while watching Arthur Christmas with the family....unfortunately once the juice was gone Brayden wasn't interested in movie night anymore :)  He is always on the go!

Bath time!

 Brayden loves, loves, loves his bath!  When he hears the water running for his bath he will crawl to the bathroom and then give us a huge smile.  He can hardly wait to get in to splash and play.

Reading

Bryce loves going to the library to pick out books to take home and read.  He still loves Mercer Mayer's little critter  books and has also started reading the Arthur books by Marc Brown.  I love it when Bryce grabs a pile of books and sits down to read me the whole stack.  He never gets tired of reading.

Just exploring!

Brayden likes to explore every inch of the house and will often stop crawling to sit and look back at you to see if its okay to keep going.  He usually gives you one of these smiles and continues on his way! 

Silly with slogans

Bryce, I believe, knows more slogans than Andrew and I.  There are days when he will just be silly and tell us all these new slogans he knows.  Some of his favorites are Lowes, Olive Garden, and McDonald's.  The other morning at breakfast he looked at me and said, "Burlington, brag about it!"  I laughed so he looked at me again and said, "State farm, discount double-check!"  He knows how to get a good laugh.

So tired...

We have to laugh every time Brayden is tired and sucks his thumb.  He has to fold his hands together while he sucks his thumb and then looks up at you with his big blue eyes.  He has been so tired this week (most likely a growth spurt based on his appetite this week as well) and can't help but suck his thumb in between every bite of food.

Painting

Bryce enjoys picking out a pumpkin every year to paint to celebrate fall.  He was very focused this year and painted letters and a smiley face on his pumpkin.  He is quite the artist!

The Motions

Bryce has most of the songs memorized from the radio and cds we listen to in the car, but his favorite song right now is, "The Motions" by Matthew West.  He always asks to listen to the song that he can sing along to and sings beautifully!  He decided to grab his guitar tonight and sing it for us.

Bray's game

One of Bray's favorite new games is finding something to throw and then chasing after it...wherever it may land.  When the block or toy gets into a spot he can't reach he looks around for something new.  In this case he lost the orange block so he got some magnetic letters off the fridge and started his game over.  He also loves to play catch and has quite a good arm at just over 1 year old!

Best buddies

bryce and bray are great buddies and love playing together.  I found them relaxing in the living room with a carousel that Bray got from papa and gigi for his bday.

Birthday party fun

Bryce had fun playing in the leaf pile with his cousins at Brayden's birthday party!

Party!

Bray loves all of his new gifts from friends and family...and so does Bryce...many thanks to everyone for making Bray's first birthday so special :)

Birthday cake

We still can't believe our little guy is one!  He had two great birthday parties.  Aunt Kristie made his cake and colorful cupcakes.  He didn't particularly care for eating the cake at either party but thought it was fun to play in.  We love our one year old boy!

Sweet boy!

an afternoon of apple picking

bryce really enjoyed our apple picking adventure.  It was quite the haul up the hill with 2 kids but well worth the work.  Bryce was having fun picking an apple and running back to dad asking if it was ok to put in the bag.  he read the map and told us where to go and enjoyed a wagon ride too.  his favorite part was eating a fresh apple and drinking some fresh apple cider when we got home.  He said it was just delicious.

Honeycrisps are here!

bray is all ready for our afternoon of apple picking.  He was quite content to sit and enjoy the ride in his stroller

Bray's smile

He is almost 1 and still as happy as ever...we love his smiles!

Making us laugh...

Bryce is always making us laugh by the things he does or says.  He is quite the character and we never know what he will say or do next!  On one morning shopping trip I told Bryce we were headed to Kohl's to get him some new sneakers.  I got the boys in the van and we pulled in the parking space and Bryce got a worried look on his face and said, "mom, I'm going the bathroom in my pants!"  I said, "no, hold it there is a bathroom in kohls, we will go straight there so you can go"  He said okay and we hurriedly made our way to the back of the store where the restroom is.  He went for a total of 2 seconds and I said "that's it, that was the big emergency"  he said, "that's it!"  We stepped out of the bathrooms and Bryce said, "oh, mom look at that, we're right by the toys now, we might as well stop and look"  I then realized I had been outsmarted by a soon to be 4 year old who has an incredible memory and excellent planning skills :)  If I could only share all the funny bryce stories I have...

The racetrack

This is by far Brayden's favorite toy right now.  As soon as you set him on the floor he takes off towards this racetrack.  As you can see from the video he is pretty pleased with himself for learning how to start the racetrack all on his own!

Baseball game

We all headed to a baseball game at McCoy Stadium while on vacation.  We proudly wore our NY yankee apparel in Red Sox territory.  Bryce had no problem shouting, "Go Yankees, Boooo Red Sox" in the stands for all to hear.  The boys loved the game but Bryce was most thrilled about the ice cream and hot dog he got to eat around the 5th inning.  An usher came to talk to us and Bryce made a buddy.  He came back an inning later with a baseball for Bryce...the only problem was the pawtucket red sox logo...but it made Bryce quite happy.

Bob and Timmy's grilled pizza

We visited Bob and Timmy's grilled pizza which was featured on man vs food nation while on vacation in Rhode Island.  So of course I had to get lots of pictures.  Bray was happy to help and hold up the menu for us and Bryce had no problem looking over the menu.  When the waitress came I said everyone will have water and Bryce chimed in and asked the waitress, "I'll have milk instead".  apparently, he orders for himself now!

The zoo

Bryce and Bray enjoyed visiting the zoo while on Vacation.  Bryce picked this stuffed elephant from the gift shop.  We asked him why and he said, "because he is so cuddly!"  He hugged him the rest of the vacation and told us his name is monkey :)

The hotel

Bryce was thrilled with our choice of hotel for this vacation.  He was quite happy with the belgian waffles for breakfast.  One of his favorite tasks was to run to the elevator and act as the operator.  When we got off the elevator and headed for our room he would always ask, "dad, can I have your credit card?"  He loved getting the room key from dad to open the door for us.  When we headed for home the last day Bryce kept asking what we were going to do when we got back to the hotel.  He even got excited when we passed another Hampton Inn halfway home and thought it was our hotel :( We broke the news to him then...he was disappointed until I told him he could pick a treat from the cupboard when we got home to eat...it doesn't take much to make him happy!

Battleship cove

While on vacation we visited battleship cove and saw the USS Massachusetts and some other WWII ships.  Bryce loved all the tunnels and stairs to climb and explore.  He also got to take a quick snooze on the bunk beds in the bottom of the ship.  All in all...a great adventure for Bryce.