Dare Devil

 Charlie is already climbing up on things to look out the window!! 

 This is Henry and Cara - Henry was about 11 months in this picture! (New format of the blog isn't allowing me to turn pics????  I'll keep working on it . . . )

Brotherly Love

 Henry and Charlie are becoming good buds (as long as Charlie does exactly what Henry wants him to do!).  I haven't bought them matching outfits until I found the shirts in the above picture that say "Awesome Brother".  They were too cute to resist! :)

Here are the boys playing kitchen.

Berry Delicious!

Fruit smoothies are a recent favorite at our house!  Henry giggles the entire time he's drinking his "smoovie."

Sweet boy

 I love watching my babies sleep . . . for more than one reason!! :)

Henry's not going to let me live this one down . . .

 Neither will Tom . . . but I can't resist!

Pretty, pretty princesses . . . and prince????

Charlie turns 8 months!

I don't know what we did to deserve such a sweet baby but we'll take it! Ever since Charlie has been on the move, he has become a much happier little guy! As of Easter Saturday, Charlie has become an official crawler (and hasn't stopped since!). During Charlie's awake hours, you can find him crawling from place to place and standing. Period. He will play by himself for a good hour or more at a time as long as he has room to move about and objects to pull himself up on. He can also get himself down from a standing position which has helped with the number of bruises on his noggin! He is taking two great naps during the day (morning from 9-9:30ish to 10:30ish and afternoon from 1-1:30ish to 3:30ish). He is also (knock on wood) sleeping from about 7:30 at night until between 5 and 6 in the morning!!!! WAHOO!!! AND he is now eating like a champ! He'll eat both lunch and dinner. So far he has had avocado, sweet potato, banana, pear, peach, peas, prune, and apple. He is also able to eat oatmeal without it completely backing him up (he does dine on prunes once a day to help the process along). Meal time has become so much more pleasant now that Charlie can join us! :)

Big brother couldn't resist a photo shoot starring himself!

Buns

Charlie and I have similar buns and thighs . . . why don't mine look as cute as his?!?!

It's lawn mowing season!

Tom has a very good helper for mowing the lawn! Henry will trail behind him while he mows our entire lawn . . . and it's not a small lawn!! Needless to say, he sleeps well afterwards! :)

Charlie gazes longingly out the window wishing he could also help out . . . someday all too soon he will be able to!

Just when I think Charlie can't get any cuter . . .

Smartie Pants

Henry was eating fruit and cubed cheese on a toothpick at lunch today. Completley unprompted by me, he said, "Wook, mom, I made a H!"
Sure enough, he constructed an H using his toothpicks!

Good buddies!

Henry had Charlie just giggling the other day while he was eating! When Henry isn't attempting to torture his little brother, he sure can be sweet to him! :)

Mmmmm, this teething biscuit is yummy!

Snow in April

Yesterday morning, while eating breakfast, Henry spotted snowflakes falling! He insisted on playing outside- so we put on his rain gear and he meandered on the deck for a bit!

Call the zoo . . .

. . . I found as escaped tiger in our backyard!

(Tom found these pants on clearance at Baby Gap . . . sometimes there is a reason why things are on clearance!!!)

WEEEEE!

We got our swing hung up under the deck this weekend! As you can tell, it was a hit! :)
Gosh, he's one cute boy!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours! We hope you had a fun weekend! We sure did! It started out on Saturday evening with the Mullenbach family Easter at my sister's.

The kiddos all enjoyed the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Henry was delighted to discover jelly beans in some of the eggs he found!
Side note: notice Pooh bear in Henry's hand? He has this thing about holding on to a particular object (usually a stuffed animal) that he finds at different people's houses. At Auntie Jennie's it is Pooh bear. They keep Pooh bear in the basement and every time we are over there, he heads right downstairs and up he comes with the bear. He's such a funny fellow!

Instead of hunting for eggs, Charlie hunted for objects he could grab on to in order to pull himself into a standing position! Charlie also became an official crawler during the hunt!!! He made his way across the living room floor on all fours! :)

The kids patiently waited to decorate the bunny cake (the before picture).

Let the decorating begin!

Look at that concentration! (Henry was most likely concentrating on how he could sneak the licorice into his mouth without anyone noticing!)

Busted!

And the finished product! Delicious! We had a great time celebrating with all my family! :)

Here are our sweet boys on Easter morning after discovering their Easter baskets.

We never found the time to dye eggs until Easter morning. So here we are, quickly getting it done!!! And just so you know, Angie, brown eggs actually dye quite nicely!!!

Henry kept saying, "Wook at my eggs, mom!"

Grandma Mary and Aunt Anne came to celebrate Easter with us on Sunday afternoon. Anne brought her singing bunnies- they had the boys mesmerized!

After dinner with grandma and Anne, we went outside to test out the new bubble blower that the Easter Bunny brought Charlie. It was a big hit with both the boys! :)
Holidays are so much fun (yet exhausting!!!) with little ones!

Buffalo Cousins!

We were lucky enough to have cousins Nolan and Emry spend the afternoon and evening with us tonight! I need to take some parenting tips from Dylan and Angie because their kids are the sweetest! I'm not saying my kids aren't sweet (although Henry, being 2, can be a bit of a pickle sometimes!!) but both Nolan and Emry were good as gold the entire time they were with us! We'll watch them again anytime! :)
We packed up the kids and walked over to the school to fly airplanes and launch rockets. The babies sat quietly in the stroller while the big boys expended lots of energy running around after the airplane and rocket!

Henry and Nolan running after the airplane

The boys prepping the rocket

Imagination

Henry's imagination is out of control these days!!! For example, we can be playing with something and he'll want, say, his bird. I'll hand him air and say, "Here's your birdie." He'll take my "air" and thank me for it! :) In the picture above, he was first using the swiffer to "paint", then it was a roof and the flat part was the shingles, then it was a "willwee, willwee tall tree", and finally a crane. All this in a matter of minutes. It is so fun to watch his wheels just a-turning!

Charlie thought the ladder was cool because a) his big brother was playing with it and b) he could use it as a prop for standing.

Books

When Henry was a baby, I read several books to him, several times a day. My poor second child doesn't get read to . . . ever! (Now, that is an exaggeration, but it certainly isn't near as much as I read to Henry). Charlie doesn't seem to really like listening to books and this has me VERY WORRIED!!! The only time he is remotely interested is when his big bro is "reading" to him! Hopefully Charlie will follow in Henry's footsteps when it comes to reading.

Charlie does, however, love to use the book case as a prop for standing!

I'm always worried about Henry when I'm putting Charlie down for his two naps and at bedtime as he roams the house freely. However, most days I find him in his room reading books. He's such a good boy! :)

Christmas in April

In early December, our neighbor, Mr. Greg, stopped by to ask what he could get Henry for Christmas (Henry and Mr. Greg have a "thing" for each other!). We told him that Henry does not need a thing BUT would love a ride on his riding lawn mower in the spring. Tom was busy dethatching our lawn on Sunday when Mr. Greg stopped by to offer his mower for Tom to bag all the dead grass. Much to Henry's delight, Tom took him up on the offer! :)

Tom told me at about half way through the yard Henry said, "I want to wide by myself, Dad. Get off." Maybe for Christmas when your 13!

Car Painting

Henry got a wooden car in a birthday favor bag from Logan's birthday party (that we didn't attend but got the bag anyway! Thanks, Kristen!) last fall. He decided it was time to paint it . . . six months later. I feel like I always have to post painting pictures proving what a creative and fun mom I am . . . because . . . it really isn't any fun to paint with a toddler. It's messy. There is a lot of set up and clean up. And it lasts about two minutes. So here's proof that, at times, I am a little creative and a little fun! :)

Birthday trip to A-town!

I took the boys down to Austin to celebrate my mom's birthday! We had lots of fun playing outside and visiting with grandma, grandpa, great grandma, Tammy, Carmen, Derek, and Aubrey!
The pink and purple Barbie jeep was a hit with Henry! Although, at times, Aubrey had her hand on the pedal and Henry was steering. Yikes!

Henry and Aubrey both brought their balance bikes to grandma and grandpa's. We took several spins around the block!

Grandpa helped Henry practice pedaling a "real" two-wheeler!

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of Charlie or the birthday girl. But I assure you, they were hanging out with us as well! :)