Happy 3rd Birthday Brock!!

Brock turned THREE on Thursday! Wow! Three years old!!

Conversation on our way to preschool that morning in the car:
Brock: "I'm so excited Momma!"
Me: "What are you excited about?"
Brock: "Because today is my BIRF-DAY!"
He's so cute. :)

Back up to last Saturday when we celebrated his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese! (He pretty much celebrated his birthday all week!)

He LOVES Chuck E Cheese, so we figured why not let someone else do all the prep-work for a party! ;) Brock had four of his friends come to his party and it was perfect.

Kade was there too!

It really was a great deal - the kids played, stopped for pizza, played some more, sang and danced with Chuck E. Cheese, stopped for ice cream, then cashed in their tickets for a prize (no goodie bags required here!).

My little shy guy doesn't love the attention of everyone singing "Happy Birthday" and we figured why get a huge cake - individual ice creams were perfect for our small party! They give you 30 tokens per child, plus I received 100 extra tokens for booking online...plus extra tokens with adult cups... Because Brock refused to enter the ticket blaster, our host handed him about 300 tickets neatly folded AND two vouchers for 1,000 tickets each. We scored a prize from the top shelf AND have tokens left over for our next visit!!

It was such a nice party and so nice to see some Mommy friends I haven't talked to in awhile! Brent made a Daddy friend too! Yay! :) 

Superhero Chuck E. Cheese Boy!

Finally, it was his official birthday! I stayed up until midnight the night before making cupcakes for Brock's big day and for him to bring some to school! The birthday boy requested vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles inside and blue frosting with circle sprinkles on top. Okay!

After working so hard on the cupcakes, I figured I'd let Amazon do my wrapping.....

I told Brock to hug the present from Aunt Carol & Uncle Jeff!

Because he has grown over 2 1/2 inches in the last SIX MONTHS, Brock needed a new jacket! (We went a little big with the hopes he will wear it next year too!) Thank you Grammy & Grandpa!

We are loving all our presents.... (especially the gift of college education where all the monetary gifts are headed!!) ...and the fact that they are still trickling in... he received a present on Friday and Saturday... then he inquired on Sunday: "Momma, do I get another present today?" Hahaha, NO! ....but, then again, there is another present on its way and will be here Monday....

Tool Belt from Uncle Andrew & Aunt Lauren and new shoes that he has refused to take off from Momma & Daddy

Brock has his 3-year well-check appointment tomorrow, but his unofficial stats are as follows:
Height: 40 inches (90/95th percentile) Weight: 37.5 pounds (75th percentile)

A few last words of Brock at this age.... he is our sensitive, but intense, little boy. He likes things loud (especially saying no) and his favorite activities are playing catch, soccer, or jumping off the couch. He also loves working with play-doh and really focuses on his "crafts" and how things work. He has started working on more complex puzzles and pretend play with his castles of "good guys" and "bad guys". He only wants to wear shorts while he's home and would rather "layer", having his shorts on under his pants when going out in the cold. He gets jealous when I am doting on Kade and needs to work on his frustration - he lashes out by throwing. We have conquered going to the bathroom standing up, but have made no headway with going #2. If he injures himself, it is the end of the world, but he will put the band-aid on ALL BY HIMSELF. He loves reading books and loves when I tell him a story. My sweet boy also loves giving hugs and giving kisses. He will always stop what he's doing and get Kade a toy.

I think this year will be so fun and cannot wait to watch my big boy grow and learn even more. Happy Birthday Brock. We love you so much.

Six month comparison.... take two

I've been meaning to get a comparison picture for awhile now.... I had to pull out the "summer clothes" to put Kade in what Brock wore at six months! But here they are.... Kade, Brock, and Brent at six months. :)

Poor picture quality of Brock's (his hair was NEVER red), but at least you can see similarities at this age! Somewhat (?) better picture below...

Kade's Baptism Weekend

We had a wonderful past weekend with very good friends! Jill, my long-time friend dating back to middle school, and Adam, an MBA cohort friend of Brent's, made their way here from North Carolina to stand as Godparents of Kade Thomas.

The two coordinated so well for us - on the same flight arriving and departing - it made pick-ups from the airport super easy! ;) After a baptism rehearsal on Saturday morning, the two guys needed to release some testosterone and headed for the gym (with Brock). Fine by us - gave us some time to sit on the couch and catch up on life!

Making good use of the maternity jacket from Beck - it still covers both of us!! ;)

Then we were off to Seattle! We toured Pike Place Market first (including, of course, the first ever Starbucks location and the cheese-making corner store Beecher's) before continuing over to Anthony's for dinner. You can't come to Seattle without eating some seafood!! (Sorry Brent, way to take one for the team!)

Finally it was Sunday - Kade's special day!

The outfit and shoes were from Grandma Rosenfeld and it looked darling on him. A gorgeous sweater material (which people commented in the reviews "too hot" - umm.... perfect for January in Seattle!) with a beautiful cross in the center. Really too bad he will only be wearing this once.

I guess we could have moved that dog bed....

Baby Kade was such a good boy for church service - especially sitting in the front row!

Godparents Adam & Jill

Adam discovered another favorite of Kade's - paper - more specifically, the church program. He definitely did a number on that program, sorry Kade - no eating paper!

Kade did great! He did not mind at all having water on his head! His eyes were fixated on his lit baptism candle and everyone laughed. Brock was another story - we thought it would be a great idea to have him come up from the childcare room to stand with us for Kade's baptism.... yeah, not such a great idea. Oh well, at least we can say he was there! (After the baptism, we returned him to the room for the remainder of the service...and for pictures after!)

Such a blessed day to have our dearest friends present and to welcome Kade on his journey with Christ. We know we selected the best two people for the role of Godparents for our second son. :)

As far as the rest of the Sunday - Brent and Adam opted to watch the Seahawks bring home the win and Jill and I (and Baby Kade), headed for the mountains to enjoy some Pacific Northwest beauty. I treated her to the Snoqualmie Falls and it did not disappoint!

Four days later and I still smell the chrism oil on his forehead. :)

By Monday morning, they were both ready for their long flight home and back to their families. I think they both had an exhausted significant other to relieve from children's duties upon their return! (A special thank you to Heather and Scott - without YOUR help on the home front, we could not have had our dear friends here for this special weekend for our family. Thank you!)

What a fun weekend showing off our little Seattle neighborhood and enjoying wonderful quality time with our friends. We'll do it again soon - but in North Carolina next time! ;)

A ride to the Snow!

The weekend of New Year's, we decided to take a trip up the mountain to see some snow! Just the drive itself was beautiful - trees covered in fresh powder and frozen waterfalls lined the rocks along the side of the highway. The road was pretty clear from snow and traffic too.

Unfortunately, once we arrived at our intended destination, we found everyone. The first "Sno-Park" we stopped at was insanely crowded. After parading through a one-way parking lot for twenty minutes with a line of cars and not finding a spot, we opted to drive 5 miles further to another, hopefully less crowded, Sno-Park. Good idea Brent! :)

We made camp (in the Highlander) at Crystal Springs Sno-Park. The entire second-row floorboard was filled with snow gear for the four of us!  This is a whole new system to me... some parks are designed for motorized vehicles (ie. snowmobiles) and others are non-motorized (dog-sledding).... and some are both! :) There's certain trails for each winter activity. 

We were there for walking and sledding.... at least that's what I envisioned - apparently not Brock!

He was all about walking Diesel ALL BY HIMSELF. And if Diesel yanked too hard to pull him down? Well, that was the end of the world, of course.....

Kade and I enjoyed the scenery! It sure was beautiful! Kade finally made use of the snowsuit originally bought for Brock, but never used.

He was quite cozy. Once he got used to the fact he would not be able to move his head, he just went with it and zoned out. ;)

On the way back, Brent and Diesel were nice enough to pull Kade and I in the sled (it also helped slow Diesel from pulling Brock down for the fifth time).

Definitely felt like winter while we played on the 19 degree snowy mountain-side!
Diesel was in heaven playing in the snow too. We will definitely try to return again this season so we can utilize our snow pants to the fullest! :) Maybe next year Brock will be ready for some snowboarding lessons!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!!! We had a great New Year's Eve celebration from the comfort of our own home! :) Of course, as usual, Diesel was an eighty pound shaking mess in our master closet for the majority of the night.... but everyone else loved it! Brock was excited we were having another "party!"

And he knows exactly what happens later in January - a very special little boy's birthday!!

Here's to a happy and healthy 2016 for our family and yours! :)

And I'm going to add this here too.... I don't really "do" resolutions, but I want to do more of this in the coming year..... Mommy & Brock time. I know Brock is still really struggling with sharing his Mommy with his little brother, so more outings with just me will really do him some good!

Brock and I went bowling today! On a Mommy/Brock ONLY outing. It was so much fun - I think he liked it too! ;)

He has been talking about going bowling for the last three months after watching some people bowl at our local Bass Pro Shop (yes, there's a bowling alley in the hunting/fishing store here in Tacoma). He was amazed they gave us special shoes to wear for this too!

Once he got the hang of what to do, he was a PRO! (Just didn't like taking turns with me all the time... but that's a typical 2 year old, right?)

Two cute short videos of his bowling day:

He's sooo cute - carried the ball ALL BY HIMSELF (all six pounds of it)

He was walking soo fast!

Very fun... and I didn't do too bad myself! ;)

Brock vs. Mama