our little reindeer

Christmas 2007- B was not happy about the antlers.

Christmas 2008: Much better!

when a 2 year old helps wrap christmas presents...

... this is what you get. Not exactly Christmas-y, but he was very proud of it. :)

balls in the sky

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Josh and Amy have practice that starts at 4:00. So Amy brings B to practice and I pick him up at school when I get to town. This afternoon, he and I came out of the school and he noticed the moon in the sky. He got very excited and said, "Mommy! Ball up there!" We were walking past trees, and the trees would block the moon. In between trees, he'd say, "Mommy! ANOTHER ONE!" And then again. "Another one!" It was quite funny to see balls in the sky through the eyes of a 2 year old. :)

game one of the tournament

Josh's team played Encampment at the tournament last night and lost. Saratoga was ahead by 10 at halftime, and then Encampment had 15 unanswered points right at the start of 3rd quarter and Saratoga couldn't keep up. They lost by 5. Bummer. Saratoga only had 8 girls last night because one isn't eligible to play varsity because she's moved too many times (New WHSAA rule), one has a broken wrist, and one didn't have enough practices. They only have 11 girls out this year. Two of Saratoga's stars got into foul trouble pretty fast and had fouled out during the 3rd quarter. Oops.

Two games today, against Cokeville and Baggs. B and I will go up later- their first game is at 10:40. Then again at 2:30. Then tonight we will all go to the Christmas Parade and to the community center to see if B wants to see Santa. If not (and I'm betting not), we'll still have hot chocolate and cookies. :)

We got to ride the bus up to Enc. last night. B thought that was incredibly exciting. He sat down on his seat and said, "let's go!!" During the game, every time there was a time out, he'd go, "Over, mommy!" I had to tell him they were just taking a break. :) Then once it really WAS over, he goes, "Over! BUS!" and starts throwing things into the diaper bag so we could go get back on that bus. :) He didn't enjoy it as much on the way home though, because he fell asleep. It was late- we didn't get back to Saratoga until 10:30.

ice teem

Brecken fell in love with peppermint ice cream this weekend. He can't get enough of it. He makes sure every last drop is gone!

eat it

We had a great weekend!  My mom and dad came down after work on Wednesday and were here by B's bedtime.  Thursday we got up and got cooking!  We had a great spread- turkey, mashed potatoes, the most delicious gravy, rolls, jello salad, the works.  

Friday morning, we went up to get a Christmas tree from the mountains.  B was decked out in his snow pants and snowboots and had fun walking in the snow.  He called it "sticky messy".  Hadn't thought of describing snow as sticky....

That afternoon, my sister and her family came over.  Ryan and Brecken had a fantastic time playing together.  They played HARD and very well together!  Josh and I got to go out on a date that night and celebrate my birthday since we had a lot of babysitters.  I had a delicious dinner of steak and crab legs and Josh had a plain ol' hamburger. :) 

Today we spent the morning baking Christmas cookies.  It was Ryan and Brecken's first time doing so and they thought it was great fun to pound out the dough and roll it out, then cut it out and decorate them with sprinkles and colored sugar.  Some of our cookies are covered in lots of sugar!  After a while, Brecken figured out the dough tasted pretty good and spent the rest of the time saying, "eat it."  As you can see, he gave up making cookies and just ate the dough.

Tonight, Jeff and Beth stopped by on their way home from their travels, for a quick stretch and some free dinner.  It was good to see them again.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

bastetball, mommy!

We headed up to my school today so I could do pictures for the middle school boy's basketball team. This team is 12 players strong, made up of 5th-8th graders. B LOVES basketball. (I need to bring my camera to one of Josh's practices some night, because B does the stretches and pushups with the girls. It's hysterical.) He watched as the boys lined up for their pictures and then got in line and got his picture taken, too. Could I love my little boy any more?!

gobble gobble

Look what B made at preschool today!  He's very proud of it.  He painted the feathers himself.  If I do say so, he did a great job!  But when I asked if he'd put it on and let me take his picture, he said, "No pictures, mama."  Because he is 2 years old and it wasn't his idea. :)  

mmm...mmm...mmm!!!!!

That's what B said when he tried the pumpkin muffins he helped me make. And I agreed! You must make them- they are DELICIOUS. Josh ate his with whipped cream- kinda defeated the "healthy" part, but even more delicious, none-the-less. :)

thoroughly enjoyable

Not. This nebulizer thing is pretty terrible.  Brecken hates every minute of it. But he didn't cough all night long last night, so I know it is working!  We had to do the nebulizer last year when he had RSV, and I don't remember him hating it so much back then!  We still have the mask and tubing from last year, so we let B put that on Elmo's face to give him his "medicine" while we do the mask on B's face.  He cries and cries, though- he's terrified of the noise and the mask and the stuff coming out of it.  Hopefully the cough will go away soon and we'll be done with it!  His cough today was super loose, so I hope that means the junk is loose and will come out soon.

If you didn't take the time to thank a veteran today, make sure you do it tomorrow.  What sacrifice they made for us.  If you are a vet and are reading this, THANK YOU.

home sick

Brecken has had a terrible cough for the past couple weeks that got suddenly worse this weekend. He can't sleep because of it. It's a nasty sounding cough. Josh called Dr. Jake yesterday while we were in Lyman and Jake thought it sounded like the strep throat that has been going around lately. So, I stayed home with him today and got him into the clinic.

No strep, thank goodness. His throat is red and irritated but not yucky like strep. No fever, either. Just a lot of junk in his lungs. So we got sent home with a nebulizer machine to give him nebulizer treatments for the next week or so. Hopefully that will get the junk loosened so it will come out and his cough will go away.

We pulled up to the clinic and B goes, "Sucker medicine!!" He knows what you get there, apparently! The whole exam, he kept asking Jake for a sucker. He got one at the end, and had it gone by the time we left. :)

The GREAT news is, he gained a ton of weight in the past 2 months! He was at 22 lbs 10 oz today! He had his jammies on still, but they are lightweight cotton and his diaper was brand new so that didn't weigh anything. That's almost a pound and a half in 2 months- I'll say a little over a pound if you take away the clothes. YAY! That's the most he's gained in that period of time!

my heart has melted

I was sitting on the floor in the living room tonight.  Brecken walked over to me and said, "I love you!" and gave me a huge hug.  That is the first time he has ever said that.  My heart melted into a huge puddle.

Man, I love that little boy!

daddy games

 

thankful

We are currently watching the Noggin channel on TV. Moose A. Moose (for those of you who know what I'm talking about) asked, "What are you thankful for?" I asked Brecken the same question. His answer?


"Eating chicken!"

pumpkins

We carved our pumpkin tonight. Brecken thought that was pretty neat and liked to see it, but didn't want to touch it. :) And when I tried to get a picture of him with it, he grabbed my other camera and tried taking pictures of me. Good thing we're asking Santa for a camera just for Brecken....


He is saying, "Hi, Grandma!"

trit-ereet!

We went trick-or-treating downtown today. B had a really good time! He did very good asking people, "trit-ereet!" He then would pick one piece of candy (I was glad he didn't throw fits because he wanted more than one- he somehow knew to pick the best looking ONE and move on!) and afterwards would tell them "tate-oo!" (thank you) It is WARM today- in the mid 60's, and that is weird because it always snows on Halloween, it seems!

For the first six or so stores, B would take the candy out of his bucket and say, "Here, Daddy!" I never got any. Only daddy. And the high school girl he is love with- he gave her a box of Nerds when he saw her. Shows where I rank. :)

At our realtor's office, they handed out candy, a cookie, and some punch. He told our realtor no when she asked if he wanted candy, because he was so thirsty by that point that he only wanted juice! Coming from my candy monster, this was funny!

Here are a few snapshots of the afternoon:

He said, "Dita, my sucker!"

And this is what we got when we said no more candy because we needed to eat dinner:

hot hot hot

Brecken fell asleep at 6:55 last night!  I was thinking it was great- a whole night to watch TV uninterrupted.... :) Until, that is, he woke up and when Josh went to get him, he was burning up with a fever.  The poor baby.  We brought him downstairs where it's cool, gave him some Tylenol, and cuddled for a while.  I brought him to bed with me at 9:00, and asked if he hurted.  He nodded and pointed to his belly.  He later pointed to his ear too, but then when I asked him a minute later if his ear hurt, he said no.  So I'm not sure if his belly really did hurt or not!  Sometime in the night, his fever broke, so I don't know if he was sick, or if he's getting molars, or what the deal is.  We're going to try daycare today and if he doesn't feel good, Amy can call one of us to come get him.

Trick-or-treat downtown is today.  Brecken has been practicing ("trit-ereet! Nandy!") and loves his monkey costume, so hopefully he feels well enough to go do that this afternoon!  Josh gets to come with us this year, because he doesn't have football practice.  That's one nice thing about not making the playoffs- 3 weeks of him coming home after school before basketball practice starts!!

Speaking of basketball, Josh and Amy had a basketball meeting after school yesterday.  Amy just brought B with her to the meeting so Josh could bring him home with him.  (I got 40 minutes to myself after school!  Yay!) When they came home, B came walking into the house, then saw me and ran to me and goes, "Mommy! Practice!"  He was so excited to have been at basketball "practice".  :)  He loves doing those things- he cried Tuesday when he couldn't go to football practice- he didn't understand that it's all over!!

squirt and nemo

so, so tired

I'm exhausted. It's 6:30 in the morning and I'm getting ready for work, but work is the last thing I want to do today. I had parent-teacher conferences Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week, so I was at work for 12+ hours each of those days. Not getting home until after 8:00 and having left the house a little after 7:00 that morning really, really sucks!! I am super glad we get tomorrow off. B and I will snuggle in bed while Josh goes to his doctor's appointment in Laramie by himself. :)

remember #50?

Here he is again! This guy is one of the nicest boys I've ever met. Easy going, sense of humor, and is nice to his mom!! It's been a pleasure taking his senior photos these past few weeks. We met today up in the Snowy Mountains at Mirror Lake and Lake Marie and had fun laughing at Brecken, who was calling a chipmunk a "kitty". :)