Snow!

I know a lot of people up here think snow is the worst thing ever and I'm sure this feeling won't last long, but because I grew up in the valley and had it snow at my house 2 times in my entire life, all this snow is quite exciting to me!  So far we have a little over 2 feet and it's still coming down!  It is so much fun!  But, it will not be so exciting waiting for it to all melt.

We've been getting lots of critters visiting us lately.  Mostly birds, but we've also seen squirrels and a fox that is a frequent visitor.  Last night though, we saw a new friend!

A ringtailed cat!  How cool is that!?  These little guys are rarely seen, so we feel pretty lucky.  He was just hanging out on our roof and would come down to eat the dog food off the porch.

Here's what it looked like this morning as Bo was leaving for work...

I have to say I was quite impressed with Bo's truck!  That vehicle has been one great investment!  I really didn't think he was going to get out, but he did and without chains!  I am a little nervous about him getting back in though...

This is what my car looked like...

Bo told me not to let Brodie play with knives and other sharp objects because there's no way we would be able to drive to the hospital... ya know, because I usually let Brodie play with knives and sharp objects when the weather is nice.

We won't be picnicking today...

22 inches!

Brodie thought he might want to go outside...

After all, it was only 17 inches on the back porch...

But he soon found out he had a hard time being mobile!

Moving on to a completely different topic... I've been having a hard time mothering lately.  It really hasn't been that bad and I really feel so lucky, thankful, and blessed to have the kids I have, but this has been the first time that it's been a little challenging for me.  Mostly it's just sleep deprivation that I think is getting to me the most.  You may recollect my previous post of Battle of the Beds with Brodie.  I posted that segment on January 24th, so it has been exactly one month and it has been a tough battle!  We got a visit from Brodie every single night in the early morning hours and on the nights that I wasn't too tired to go put him back in his bed and sit there for an hour and wait for him to go back to sleep, he would end up finding his way back to our bed shortly after he fell asleep again.  I don't know how many times Bo slept on Brodie's hard floor just to make sure that he wouldn't get out of bed again.  That on top of Ryker's sleep schedule - which is not a good one... has made for days of impatience.  To add to that, I have also been seriously potty training Brodie.  He's always been good at going potty when I go which I can thank my pregnancy with Ryker as a good potty training base for him, but we weren't really trying to potty train.  The time has come though.  He does great when he needs to go potty and when he's naked from the waist down, but poo poo has been tough for him.  He always just waited until I put a diaper back on him for naptime or bedtime.  And he's so happy to tell me that he went poo poo in his diaper because then we would go and put it in the potty (I was trying to show him that's where it goes.)  Anyways - the point is it has been a tough month!!!

A few days ago I decided it just wasn't worth it right now and gave up.  I put the crib back together and I left the diaper on.  Brodie however didn't want to give up.  He only wanted to sleep in his toddler bed and when I would go to change his diaper he would tell me not to put a new one on. 

Well I guess the stars aligned last night, because Brodie slept in his toddler bed through the night and slept in until 8:00!!  Then this afternoon, Brodie had his diaper off and actually came up to me, pointed at his bum and said poo poo.  We went and sat on the potty and he actually went!  And it was a lot so it wasn't a fluke deal!  I was so excited!  (Funny how excited moms get about that kind of stuff.) And Brodie was happy because he got one of Mommy's special Lindt Truffles as a reward!  Oh happy day!

Workin' Man.

Brodie got a chance to get out and use his chainsaw today!  I can just picture him when he's older doing this to earn money for his mission.  What a good little worker!

And Ryker worked on staying warm and looking cute!

And here's some random pictures of all the snow we got from the last storm

Exercise

Ryker is officially old enough to play in an exersaucer - how in the world is that possible!?

Some Brotherly Love.

Smug Smile.

And Brodie's been getting his exercise in all this snow we've been getting!  It has been dumping snow!  We've had over 1 foot so far and it's still coming down in big flakes!

Brodie's 2!

This little boy turned 2 today!  How did that happen so fast?

Brodie is an amazing little boy.  He reminds me a lot of his father - very stubborn and independent, but always willing to lend a helping hand, makes me laugh, and gives lots of love.

At this point in his life, Brodie's likes include building fires, blowing out matches/candles, ducks, airplanes, birds, coloring, guns/hunting, doing yard work, anything that has to do with the outdoors, vaccuming, baseball, football, soccer, playing catch, riding his cars/quad, playing with and eating ice, macaroni and cheese, breakfast foods, his binky, mommy's wallet, cooking, 

(making grilled cheese for lunch)

, crawling into mommy and daddy's bed in the middle of the night, throwing rocks, fishing, brushing his teeth, taking pictures, talking on the phone/skyping, wrestling, balloons, shopping, balls, music, dancing, baths, bubbles, pretzels with cheese, and the list goes on and on!

The Schwans Guy gave Brodie an ice cream for his birthday - lucky duck!

And since we've been eating so much junk lately we decided to just have a mini musketeers bar.  Brodie was thrilled!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Birthday Party!

Yesterday we celebrated Brodie's birthday and had so much fun!  We decided to do a day full of all his favorite things.  First we played with bubbles:
                             

Then Brodie's friends came over and we smacked around the ducky pinata Brodie and I made!

Brodie taking a second whack at it after all the candy fell out.

We also ate yucky pizza... ok that's not a favorite thing, but it should have been!  I ordered a Gourmet Vegetarian (with bacon and chicken) and a 1/2 and 1/2 pepperoni and Hawaiian from Papa Murphy's.  I called in the pizzas and had my mom pick them up... but once they arrived at my house, we realized they gave us the wrong pizzas!  And they were yucky!  Happy ending though - I called Papa Murphy's and I'll get 2 free family sized pizzas the next time we're down there!

One of Brodie's favorite things to do is color, so I had my mom bring up a big piece of butcher paper and tacked it up to the wall.  I love the pictures that the kids drew.  There were flowers, ducks, cars, a castle, fire, and so much more!  Here's a picture of Brodie adding a dog to the masterpiece:

Then of course there wouldn't have been a party without presents...

and Brodie got spoiled!

Testing out his chainsaw...

Safety First!

And lastly... CAKE!

Since we love Ellaina and she and Brodie share the same Birthday, we made her a cake too.

What a great day!  And Brodie had so much fun and got so worn out, that he acted like this all day...

At least Ryker was a cutie pie!  I love these little boys!

Bouncing!

I pulled out the bouncer for my little Ryker baby to play around in.

He really enjoyed it... but somone else had even more fun....

Don't mind Brodie's jelly mustache and beard... he just got done eating breakfast.

Here's a video of Ryker in it:

And Brodie: