getting ready for Christmas

This photo was taken over Thankgiving weekend as we started to get ready for Christmas and pulled out all the decorations. Brendan is also wearing one of his favorite outfits - he loves anything red especially sweatsuits. He wants to wear this outfit everyday but I have to tell him that it needs to go in the laundry. I also bought his some more red clothes so he can "the red guy" more often (red power ranger).

Construction worker

When Brendan grows up he wants to be a construction worker. Everyday on the way to school we drive through a construction zone and he asks if he can be a construction worker. He loves all the trucks and really wants to use the jackhammer. He also loves to help Rob around the house with projects. Recently Rob bought Brendan some more tools and a tool belt.

Thanksgiving at preschool

Brendan's class cooked a Thanksgiving meal (the kids prepared all the side dishes, the teachers cooked the turkeys at home) and they had a huge celebration. They also made placemats and headpieces (his hat has feathers on the back).

For Thanksgiving this year we celebrated Thanksgiving brunch wiht Rob's cousin Audra. Brendan has a blast playing with his cousins especially "big Brendan" (Audra's stepson). Brendan spent the rest of the afternoon with Grandma Brown and we went to see a movie. We cooked our own Thankgiving meal on Friday because we needed our fix of stuffing!

wax lips

more Halloween photos

pumpkin decorating

Brendan painted his pumpkin (I gave him fingerpaints but he wanted a paintbrush...guess they don't do fingerpainting at montessori) and Rob carved his.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

The week before Halloween we made a trip to the local pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins.

Happy Halloween

more photos to come soon...

September update

Brendan moved up to the primary class at school so now he's with the big kids and he loves it. He's the youngest in the class which ranges up to age 6 as it is a preschool and kindergarten class. He's glad to be back in class with his friend Hayden and other friends from the toddler class. He's already learning new things from the older boys and the feedback we've gotten from his teachers are that "he talks alot".

(more later)

Trip to Ocean City, NJ

This summer Brendan and I traveled to Ocean City New Jersey to Grandma and Grandpa Vollmer and Aunt Allison. Aunt Jessica had to stay in New Orleans for classes so she couldn't join us. Brendan was so good on the plane as we had a 3 hour flight delay which including boarding the plane 3 times before taking off. View Master, Wikki sticks and Buzz Light Year DVD kept him entertained.

This year the weather was better and Brendan loved the sand.

(pictures to be posted later)

July update - What I did on my summer vacation

Brendan was off from school for most of July. Grandma Pat came to stay with us during the week while we worked. Brendan's 2 favorite things were to play with bubbles outside and to have a marching band throughout the house - he even tried to get Jackson (the dog) to particpate in the parade.

(photos to come later)

Rob took Brendan to his first movie in a theater, Wall-E, and Brendan sat through the entire movie. They also went to a Diamond Backs game with one of Rob's coworkers.

some photos from June

Doing some catching up and found some that I thought I had posted. Brendan just being a toddler hanging out in his room with his fireman's hat and drum sticks. You can see that his crib has been converted to a toddler bed - we made the change around April and its gone pretty well but we're still getting used to having him getting up on his own (which can be as early as 6 sometimes). He also occassionally wanders into our room to sleep on the floor or sometimes we find him sleeping in the hallway.

Rob's latest project was installing crown molding to our master bedroom.

Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day spending the day hanging out around the house, doing a project, and enjoying a nice meal - Croce's Restaurant's recipe for Seared Ahi. And of course, some Simply Sweets Father's Day cupcakes. I had an early morning Father's Day delivery to Brendan joined me so that Rob could sleep in.

Our Father's Day gift to Rob was a stepping stone project - they worked on it together and put their handprints on it. I'll update with a photo of the finished stone later.

Grandpa Brown and Grandma Betsy visit

Grandpa Brown and Grandma Betsy came for a visit - unfortunately, Grandpa Brown ended up having more of a tour of our local hospitals than the local sites. He's all better now and they're safely back home. They ended having to extend their visit a few weeks and Brendan liked getting some extra time to spend with his grandparents from Michigan.

bubbles

Brendan loves to play with bubbles

This last picture is of Brendan and his Aunt Kirsten - they had a great time playing bubbles.

Water Baby

Sorry for the long time between posts - I'll try to do better next month.

Brendan LOVES the water. He has no fear of the water and loves to jump, dunk himself, blow bubbles and lay on his back. We try to go in the pool every night after school and work to cool off and help Brendan to burn off some of that toddler energy (with it being so hot, they don't go outside as much at school). These are some photos from the beginnning of June.

Daddy's little helper

Brendan is a Daddy's boy and LOVES to be his helper

cutting the grass:

pulling weeds:

some photos from April and May