Our T Man

We took this video of our little man.  It totally shows his personality!!  He cracks us up on a regular basis!

It has been forever!

It has been forever since I last posted anything.  So much has happened in the last 6 months.  T turned 3.  He is such a crazy kid and makes Brett and  I laugh all the time.  We also wonder where he came from a lot of the time!  T loves Spiderman, Superman, and any other super hero at the moment.  We potty trained him a couple of weeks before his birthday.  (It is so nice to be done with diapers!)  We will randomly hear that he needs to go potty.  He says this very loudly and then races to the bathroom.  T comes up with some of the most interesting things.  He can put concepts together in ways that are constantly amazing us.  The other day at preschool, his teacher asked him what he was thankful for and T said he was thankful our house was safe during the storm.  Keep in mind, Hurricane Sandy happened over 3 weeks ago.  He does not forget things or get easily distracted!  He loves M and loves to play with her.  He was sad when school started because M was not around for him to play with.  T is my cuddlebug and will sit for hours with me, especially in the morning.  I am taking advantage of it as much as I can!  T started preschool in the fall and loves it.  He comes home and tells me everything that happened and everything he learned.  Yesterday I was talking to one of his teachers and she told me the kids were making turkeys and T told her that turkeys had feet and he needed feet for his turkey.  She had to make feet for his turkey! Love this little man so much!

New bike helmet

My 3 year old!

Eating birthday cake

Outdoor fun!

Zooming on his bike

First Day of Preschool

Spiderman!

Arg Matey!

M made a noncompeting gymnastics team this summer.  She loves gymnastics and has learned so much since June when she started on team.  She spends 4 hours a week doing gymnastics and then hours doing cartwheels, handstands, bridge kickovers, roundoffs, and as many gymnastics things as she can do in our living room.  She is getting so strong and constantly amazes Brett and me with what she can do.  M loved watching the Olympic gymnasts and told me she wants to be on that team. So watch out Olympics 2024, M might be there!  M was even an Olympic gymnast for Halloween.  A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked if we wanted to go to Philadelphia to see the Olympic gymnasts do a show there.  When I told M we were going, her face lit up with so much joy.  We had so much fun watching the show.  M sat on the edge of her seat with a look of wonder on her face.  It was awesome to see her so excited.  M started 1st grade this year.  She is reading so much and so well.  Her teacher tested her reading and put her on a 2nd grade reading level.  M missed a week of school because of Hurricane Sandy and so we now have to make up those days.  I didn't realize we would be having our spring break during November!  This summer we went to the beach with some friends, and M learned how to boogie board.  She is so excited to try it some more next summer.  My friend took a video so you can all see how good she did.

First day of 1st Grade

Holding Alaina

Future Olympic Gymnast

M and her friend Madison waiting for the Olympic Gymnasts

Having a ball watching the show

Brett had back surgery the end of September.  He is doing very well and it seemed to have fixed all the problems he was having with his back. He hurt his back in January and so we are very glad he is able to start doing normal things without pain.  We were very fortunate during Hurricane Sandy.  We lost a few shingles off our roof.  The nice thing about renting is we didn't have to fix it ourselves!  We had many friends who lost power for days.  We were very thankful and fortunate to be able to help them by letting them stay with us and hang out during the days when their homes were so cold.  We have been very blessed but feel for all those people who are on the shore that lost everything.  Brett and I are glad that we have been able to see so much of the shore since we have been here because it has all changed now.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the last 6 months. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween

Beach fun at Sea Girt

Waiting for the Fireworks to start on July 4th

Castle Valley Pageant

Cousins!

Catching up!!

I know I have been MIA for the last couple of months. We have been busy! Brett got home in February. It has been so nice to have him home. Brett and I got to have a little getaway in NYC. We had so much fun and got to see so much. I think I finally have a lay of the land in NYC!! M turned 6 in March. I can't believe how big she is getting. She can act so grown up. She is such a good big sister. She loves playing with T and cares so much about him. I can always ask her to help him and she gladly does.

For M's birthday, I convinced my mom and mother-in-law to come to NYC with us. (It took a lot of convincing!) We rode the train and subway to Central Park and then walked to a little place called Alice's Tea Shop for lunch. It was so much fun! We took M to play on the piano at FAO Schwartz.

(this picture is taken with the Plaza in the background)

We then walked over to 5th Ave. to the American Girl Store. M got a doll for her birthday. She had so much fun there and took a long time to figure out which one she wanted. She really had to decide between 2 dolls. The girl of the year is a gymnast and M loves gymnastics. She finally decided on Marie-Grace. Marie-Grace sleeps with M every night. It is really so cute. We then walked over to Rockefeller Center and watched the ice skaters. We also walked through Time Square and then hit the train back to NJ. It was so much fun to have a girls day in NYC. I am so lucky and grateful for my mom and mother-in-law for flying out here to make M's birthday so special. It was so nice to have them here for a couple of days.

I am always amazed at how fast time flies. The last 2 months have gone by so fast. Before I know it, it will be summer and T will be 3. Here are some more pictures of my cuties!

Funny Stuff

I was talking to Brett on skype when he heard M say this to T, "What's your name? It can be a number."

We were driving and listening to "When I am Baptized" and M, kind of shocked, said, "Did they just say when I am baptized my arms are washed away?"

Time Sure Flies!!

*****Warning: A very LONG post, but LOTS of pictures!***
It has been awhile. Things have been pretty quiet and low key around here. I know some of you were a little worried about our little family over the holidays with our Daddy being deployed, but everything worked out great. We spent Thanksgiving with about 6 families from our ward. The kids ran around and played and the adults sat around and chatted. It was so nice that I didn't want to go home! Nana (Brett's mom, Peggy) came out to visit us the first part of December. It was so nice to have her come and hang out with us. She went with us to pick our our Christmas tree. I have to say, I think we picked the best one. It was the perfect height and had a very pretty shape. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it all decorated in our house. T has decided that he likes Santa Claus and M is still scared of him. So we have pictures of T with Santa and M is as far away as possible. I also don't have any pictures from Christmas because we were able to skype with Brett while the kids opened their presents. T got a couple of train sets and it was a trial to get him to open any other presents after he saw the trains! The trains are well loved and played with at least once a day, if not more. The trains even go to bed with T most nights!! M got a Leapster Explorer and loves playing with it. Our Christmas day was so low key and relaxing. We have loved spending our Christmases with our extended family, but I must say it was nice to just have our family. I love having Christmas on Sunday. It seems like the perfect way to celebrate our Savior. I did make M and T's Christmas outfits. Unfortunately, T did not cooperate and this was the best picture I could get of him!So far this month, we have not done much. It has been so cold and windy. I am thankful that we have not had hardly any snow this year. I have not been looking forward to all the snow that good ol' NJ can get! We are starting to get into the home stretch of our deployment. It will be good to have Brett home. I have told him that I don't want to know any dates of when he will be home. Too many times, those dates change more than once and I don't want to deal with that. I have some guesstimation of when he will be home. It helps being a key spouse because you are privy to information, like when deployments are leaving!! Brett should be home sometime around the first full week of February. Part of me is excited for him to get home so I can leave and not have to worry about the kids, the house, or be a parent for a little while. I figure he had 5 months of not seeing the kids, I can have a day!

M and T really have been very good. I look at them and see them getting so big. Brett is going to be in for a surprise when he gets home. T was talking, but it was very garbled and you could barely understand what he was saying. Now he is talking so much clearer. He has also gotten so much bigger. T is really a thoughtful kid. He is funny because he can be so particular about things. T has started doing puzzles. I am amazed at how much he can do by himself. He does get frustrated at times because it doesn't go the way he thinks it should. He does crack me up on many occasions. The other night I was putting him to bed for I am sure the 12th time (he is a master of stalling) and had just come downstairs when I hear him calling for me. When I got upstairs, he had his hands behind his head and his eyes closed and said to me "I rest now, mommy. I rest now, Mommy." How can you be mad at that!!

M is doing so well at school. I went to Parent Teacher Conferences a couple of weeks ago and her teachers had all good things to say about her. They told me that she is the child they want every year because she is so helpful and willing to learn. M has been so helpful at home too. She helps out with T so much. They love playing together and can't go to bed without saying good night to each other. I have been reading M "The Tale of Despereaux" She loves it and hates it when we miss a night. There are so many times she sounds just like a teenager. It makes me wonder what she is going to sound like when she really is a teenager. M just lost her first tooth!! She pulled it out all by herself. I was helping clean out our primary closet at church and I got a phone call from M telling me she had pulled out her tooth. I was so proud and relieved I didn't have to pull it out!! M is starting to read more and more. It seems like it wasn't very long ago I was pregnant with her and now she is almost 6. My how time flies!One little thing about me. My friend and I decided to study our scriptures this year and so on Jan 1, we started reading the Book of Mormon. The challenge, to read it in 40 days. I know huh!!! I have to say there are days it has definitely been a challenge to read 5-10 chapters at a time, especially when they are the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi. But it has been really neat too. I have read the Book of Mormon before, but never without a lot of pauses. It has been nice to read and see the stories. I have found a couple of things that have really stood out to me that I had never noticed before. So I am on Day 18 and will read Alma 11-14. It has really been an awesome experience so far!

It decided to snow the other day. I was not thrilled because I had to shovel snow, but the kids had fun playing in it for a little while!