BALLS!

Braxton has a ball pit here at Grammy and Poppy's place. It is apparently multi-functional. It can be used as a weapon, place to play, something to hide under, and affords me many great photo opportunities. This was Braxton attacking my mom. His aim was a little off and I had to duck instead. Great action shot of the balls though.

His facial expressions throught "assault on precinct grammy" were priceless.

I have many more shots of this, but these were the only ones with balls. I had a hard time getting the timing right. I need to work with the shutter speed and whatnot... I'm working on it.

This is what I meant by hiding under. He dumped out all the balls and then laid under it. I don't know what runs through his head most of the time. I figure I'll take pictures then ask him later.

This picture is just so B-rox I can't get over it.

I think he was getting tired of me taking pictures. (This is VERY rare.) But again - makes a great shot.

Oh, his shirt was off because his "neck was itchy". Just FYI.

Boys will be boys

My dad, brother, and son had quite the ruckous weekend, here is the photo documentation. They're swinging Braxton on a couple of eggshell mattress pads. He only fell once. I about had a heart attack.

Braxton decided it was poppy's turn.

I've never seen a fire truck do a wheelie, but apparently this one can.

Speaking of boys. My mother ordered my brother and I a pizza today, I'm assuming because she didn't feel like cooking dinner. (I am fully capable of doing it for her, but I appreciate the pizza none the less!) Well my brother and I differ on what tastes good on a pizza, I love pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms. My brother (gack) loves canadian bacon and olives. So my mom ordered one half of the pizza in each. Well, my brother didn't eat right away, so I ate about half of my side and decided to save the rest for breakfast. (yes, I said breakfast.) Well I went in about an hour later thinking that maybe I could do yogurt for breakfast and eat a little more of my pizza. I look in the box and what do I see? NONE of my pizza is left. ALL of chad's pizza is still there. I go in search of chad, knowing he's the only person besides me that could have eaten it. I find him, and all the toppings to my pizza on a plate. At this point I'm speechless. I don't even know how to respond. I don't know whether he was being a jerk, or just dumb. Either way it pisses me off.

WWE, LaPine style

The experts always say "get down on the floor and play with your children". I suppose that means your grandchildren too. My mom and Braxton had a pre-nap brawl smackdown style.
Braxton 1 - Grammy 0

Progress

Alright folks, The tally is in and LaPine is a whole whompin 1585 people strong. Holy crap, I didn't realize it had gotten so freakin big! We also have a stoplight now, and they're considering another one! Progress folks, its like the big Wheel of Progress in Disney World - only there are more trees. This is the view from the "outskirts" of town.
This is a picture taken from one end of the town, looking at the other end. Yes, I said the END.

New Do

Today I had some of the best three hours I've had in a long time! I got my hair dyed, highlighted and cut by a good friend from Highschool. Tawndy, You're a genius! She made me feel pretty, and we got to chat about all our old high school alum. Anyway, here are a few pics of my new do. Please ignore the brother tumor in the background. He was being a pest as is the usual.
Not the greatest pics, but they'll do for now. Hopefully you get the idea.

Just for you mom.

Well, after my mom freaked out about the last post featuring a picture of her in her robe I thought I would devote an entire post to my mom. This should make her oh-so-ecstatic.

Mom with the boys.

Kieran has this odd habit of crying whenever he is with my mom. Odd... He'll get over it mom, don' t worry.

This is my mom eating breakfast and reading the paper. What you may be wondering is why this was a noteworthy picture. Well if you look at the plate you'll see that she has a big giant steak on her plate. No eggs, hashbrowns or even fruit. (She claims there was a banana earlier that morning) Just a big huge steak. What a woman.

I thought I would put a slightly better picture of my mom in her robe on this one. Lookin' good mom!

I love you very much mom.

Photogenic...

My children seem to have inherited a certain photogenic quality that they didn't inherit from me. I think it comes from my side of the family after seeing for many years how photogenic my sister is. (Burt, you could email/call me too ya know...) What spurred this revelation on was an email my sister sent my mom with a picture of her and her boyfriend George in it. Gorgeous. And I'm way jealous. So to offset that I'm going to post pictures of my two very handsome children. What else did you expect?????I love LOVE his smile. He always has a special one just for me. Melts my heart. (woo, that was sappy)

Braxton helping my mom vacuum the other day. I'm not sure what the face was expressing, but it was expressing quite a bit.

He's so expressive. My fingers don't click the camera button quick enough to capture it all either. This is just a smidgen of what he actually does.
Kieran is most definitely my chunky monkey boy. He weighs almost as much at three months as Braxton did at 9 months. Buddha Buddha.

Endless opportunities

Ok, so the photo opportunities seem to be endless here at Grammy and Poppy's house. So, here are a few more. This is my mom. This is my mom asleep - with the dog. I think she's preparing for empty nest syndrome seeing as my little brother and her last kid is just a couple years from leaving the nest. Somewhere Braxton decided that my heels are "dancing shoes". Last night he pranced around the house in them telling everybody he was going dancing. Where he got this I'm not sure. The last thing I think of when wearing heels is dancing.

Head Shots

I took a few shots of the boys yesterday. I think they show their personality quite well.

Kieran always has his hands behind his head and is sucking on his lower lip. The lip thing has replaced his paci. He's a very laid back baby. Its great, especially in contrast to my other child who, though he doesn't mean to, makes me crazy. Its the two year old in him I guess.

This is what I mean by making me crazy. I told him to smile for the camera and he opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out. Then he laughed maniacally.

The other night I put Braxton to bed and about half an hour after I put him down he started crying. Since he had been quiet up until then I thought it best to check on him. I went in and asked him what was wrong. He looked up and said "oh, I was just crying". I told him, ok well stop crying and go nighnight. He lays down and is quiet for about 15 minutes whe he starts crying again. I go in and ask, whats wrong? He looks up again and says "Oh, I was just crying again. Goodnight mommy". I told him no more crying, go to sleep. "Oh ok". He did fall asleep. But what a weirdo. Apparently he has my number. Cry and mommy comes in. I suppose I'll have to work on that.

Brotherly Love

Last night I got some pretty good pics of the boys together. Brotherly love at its best...I only got one shot of this. I was afraid of internal injuries. Braxton is small, but still twice the size of Kieran. However, when I told him to sit with his brother this is what I got. Cracks me up.

After Braxton sat on top of Kieran I put Kieran on top of Braxton. Braxton thought it was the coolest thing ever.

When Kieran decided the fun was over Braxton tried to keep it going by saying "its ok kenny, I hug you now" Then proceeded to hug him. So sweet. For a minute.

The fun just don't stop.

Here are a few of other fun moments here in good ol' LaPine. This is Braxton talking to my dad on the phone. My dad works in Portland during the week, so he calls nightly to say howdy to my mom and do all of that marital chit-chat. Braxton gets in on the fun now if he's awake. He also feels its necessary to wave when he says "hello" on the phone.

I love getting pictures of the boys together. Braxton always seems to enjoy it more than his little brother. I suppose thats the story of siblings. Braxton "had his dad on the phone" and said it was Kieran's turn to talk.

He's in there. Its like those "cross your eyes and then you can see the hidden pictures" pictures.

This is Kieran in his "Jungle" gym play mat thing. He always has his hands behind his head. Very laid back.

'Til next time folks.

Grammy and Poppy Time!

Well, we've been at my parents for a week now. Of course there have been and will be many memorable moments. Here are a few of my favorites so far. Grammy and Poppy have an incredibly deep tub. Braxton can splash the day away with minimal cleanup outside the tub. Its a great time. This was his version of "look cute for the camera"

This is just a reference as to how deep the tub is. If we were to completely fill it the water would be about 4 inches above his head.

I just love this picture. And its G-rated. Thats always nice.

My little chef. Notice all the bath toys are kitchen utensils????

I posted pics of Braxton in the tub at G&P's house, so I thought it only fair to post some of Kieran's first sink bath at thier house.

I love that through the whole bath his face was void of any emotion. Except maybe contempt. Kieran: "Jeez guys, give a guy a break and let him be naked in peace!"

This is just the first of the posts for today. I'll prolly put a couple on at a time, once a week.

Moving Sidewalks and Boscoff Cookies.

As you all know, the boys and I headed to LaPine to spend the 6 weeks that Mark is in training with my parents. Well here are some tales from our adventures on the plane.

Saturday morning we woke up (at the butt crack of dawn) and headed to the Pittsburgh International Airport. Once we got there and got through security, we had a little bit of time to kill. Our gate was right outside of the moving sidewalk entrance/exit. So in true Braxton style we rode them over and over again. However Braxton didn't ride them on his feet. He sat on them like a parade queen waving at people we passed. Once we'd get to the end I'd lift him up and transfer him to the one moving the opposite direction. We did this until it was time to say goodbye to Mark and board the plane. (I stupidly didn't pack the camera in the carry on. So I don't have any pictures of this)

Has anybody ever had to change a diaper on the plane? This was a dilemma that plagued me for weeks before we actually got on. Then I felt a little relief seeing that there was a changing table in the lavatory. Little did I know what an adventure that table, Braxton and I would have. So on our flight to Portland from Cincinatti (five hour flight) Braxton did what every child in diapers will inevitably do. He had a code brown. So thinking that I'm good to go because there is a changing table I confidently walk into the lavatory with the diaper and wipes ready to go to war. What I wasn't ready for was the fact that the table had the tactical advantage. The table was only about as long as Braxtons body. So I lay him down with his head up against one wall - and his butt about an inch away from the other. His legs went straight up the mirror. Then we hit turbulence. Thank god for solid poops. Other wise the &@$%^ would have literally hit the fan.
(This happened three times while we were on the plane.)

You know how they give you little cookies or what not on the plane? Well Delta hands out what they call Boscoff cookies in packs of two. Braxton ate about 5 of these packs. With a vengence too. Just one after the other. (These are probably the reason for all the code browns.) It was all Braxton would eat all day. Until we got to McDonalds. Of course. Healthy just wasn't in the cards I guess.

I have to give a shout out real quick to my father in law, without him this trip would have been impossible. This crazy man flew to Pittsburgh on Friday, then Saturday accompanied me and my two children back to the other side of the states. Somehow he managed not to look exhausted. Amazing.

Fat Tuesday

So, today is happens to be Fat Tuesday. This day is the last day before forty days and forty nights not including Sundays that good Catholics and Christians give up and indulgence or sin of sorts. For me this decision is always an agonizing one. I never want to sacrifice something inconsequential, but I also want to make sure that I don't renege on my sacrifice. The year I gave up caffiene was tricky for the first week, but turned out to be a great thing as I am mostly caffiene free 5 years later. The year I tried to give up sarcasm and saying negative things lasted all of about 2 weeks. Finding the happy medium between those two is something I spend most of the month of January doing. Then Fat Tuesday rolls around and usually it becomes a last minute decision. This year has been no exception. I picked Mark up from Starbucks this afternoon and he got in the car and said "happy Fat Tuesday". This was an "Oh crap" moment for me. I thought about giving up Starbucks for this years sacrifice, but then quickly realized I would be in podunk Oregon and the nearest establishment is about an hour away. So since that wasn't really a sacrifice it was quickly rejected. I thought about trying for that whole sarcasm thing again, but then quickly realized that while I have a two year old and a nine week old I probably shouldn't try that one as it requires too much brain power for this sleep deprived mommy. So I thought for a little while longer wondering what do I indulge myself in often enough to be considered a sacrifice? (Long hot showers came to mind, but I like to smell good so that went out the window quickly.) Then I realized that I eat something that is non-nutritious almost everyday to give myself a treat for eating well (ironic... I know) and I knew I had my answer. Desserts. All of them. No cookies, brownies, ice cream, cake, candy, chocolate or popsicles for the next 6 weeksish. I'll let ya know how it goes...

Super bowl

Last night was the superbowl. I sent Mark and Braxton to go hang with the "guys" and Kieran and I chilled around the house. I took a bajillion pictures of Kieran because I'm determined not to fall into the second child trap. Plus he's getting SO huge I want to remember my tiny baby when he's a giant boy. Here are a few from our "exciting evening of superbowl funness". When I say exciting, I mean we sat on the couch and he slept..Lets get this party started!!!!!!!!!!
THE GIANTS WON?????????????????????????