He's a natural!!!

So we were FINALLY able to go out for a weekend on our first camping trip!  The weather this year has been so crappy but a couple of weekends ago we saw some decent weather and headed out.  Right before we left we got Brantley his first motorcycle!  He was so excited and I've got to say he looks pretty darn cute in all of his gear and riding around like daddy.  I was a little nervous on how he was going to do but I shouldn't have worried and figured that he would be a natural on it just like he is on his pedal bike.  He fell over a few times but would get right back up and go for it again.  By the end of the weekend he was riding so good!  He was even getting his triangle stance right!! Way to go Brantley!  Now I can only hope that he wants to just ride for fun with dad and not want to start the racing thing.  I'm not sure if I could handle that! 

The rest of us were there this weekend and had an ok time.  Poor Lilley was sick the whole weekend and when I got home I took her in and come to find out it was pneumonia!  Poor girl!  She was so good for having pneumonia!  We only went out on one ride and played a little but it didn't last to long since she was just miserable.  But it was nice to get outside and relax for a bit!  The start of a hopefully great camping year!

Dad giving instructions on what to do

And he's off!!

Riding around like he has been riding for a long time

I know you can't see Brantley that well, but it was a great shot of his Triangle Stance! 

One of the few times that Lilley was kind of smiling

Playing on the side hills and rolling down them

Don't mind the baby (toddler) in a diaper.  I had changed her just before we left and since she had been drinking so much water to keep hydrated (since she wouldn't eat anything) she was soaking wet when we stopped and I didn't have another pair of pants for her.  So diaper it is!



Best Friends

It is so fun to see these two kids of mine growing up.  They can be the best of friends and the worst enemies.  When they are best friends I just can't help but snap some pictures.  I just LOVE IT!!!  Here are a few of them being best friends. 

Brantley loves to "read" to Lilley.  It's too cute!

They were pretending that they were asleep to "trick" me when I came into the room to check on them. 

Easter

It has been a long time since I've had a post and I have a lot of catching up to do. First off the list is Easter!!  We had the typical Easter celebrations.  We went to the Syracuse Easter Egg Hunt, dyed eggs, had our own Easter egg hunt Easter morning and Easter baskets.  It was a blast!!  The kids are getting so big and having so much fun on holidays.  They actually get excited for them and know what is going on.  I love it!!!  The only bad thing that went on this weekend was at the cities egg hunt.  There were so many people and not a lot of candy that it wasn't even worth it.  Brantley especially had a bad time.  They told all of the adults in his age group that they parents could not go out and help the kids get the eggs but of coarse when it was time for the kids to get the eggs all of the adults went in grabing away.  Brantley ran in grabbed one egg looked up and then saw all of these "strangers" and not dad and freaked out.  By the time that Justin was able to get Brantley calmed down all of the eggs were gone and he didn't get any.  I felt so bad for him.  So Justin and I decided that we are going to do our own egg hunt with a bunch of friends instead of going to the city ones.  Other then that, it was a great weekend! 

Got to love Landin's cheese!  And Lilley looking so happy!

Lilley just did not know what to think of it all

The only smile I could get out of her was when she saw candy

Lilley's 2!!

The cute cupcake tower!

I couldn't get her to look at me and smile but how amazing are this girls eyelashes!! 

Brantley had to get in on the picture taking and he definitely cheesed it for me!  Love this kid!

The best pic I got.  I had to wake her up from her nap and she was still trying to wake up

she loves her sunglasses!!

Riding her scooter with Jennae.  She loves it!

Landin and Lilley are so cute together!!  They just love to play!

She Lilley's birthday has once again come and gone.  I can't believe that my baby is already 2.  I know people always say time flies but it really does!!!  She is getting so big and has such a great personality.  She is so funny and opinionated.  When she woke up Brantley and I walked into her room singing happy birthday to her and she was so cute.  She got all coy and shy about it covering up her face and all and then a little more then half way through the song she started telling me NO!!  It's not my birthday day!  Stop singing!!  I then told her that it was her birthday and that her friends and family are going to be coming over for a party and she will be getting presents she then told me "presents?  IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!"  Such a funny girl!  She was so excited when everyone started showing up even though I couldn't get a pic with her smiling.  She was just taking it all in in good old Lilley fashion.  Once everyone left she played outside with all of her new toys tell Aunt Candace picked her up to go to build a bear.  I didn't get any pics of it since It was just Candace and her but Candace said that she was pretty funny about it.  She said that when they got there Lilley just saying no to everything except for the stroller.  So Candace chose everything out.  Lilley then was so excited to push her new monkey around in the monkeys stroller around the gateway.  She loves her monkey and monkey stroller!   Thanks everyone who came to her party to celebrate her birthday with us.  We all love you all so much!!!  Thanks again for make it such a great day for her!!!!

Like Father Like Son

This was to cute not to share.  Brantley loves his dad and looks up to him so much that he wants to be just like him.  It really is kind of scary in a way on how much they are alike.  This is just one of the times that I was able to get on camera and show how much they are alike.  Here's the story.

Justin was out in the garage working on things and like always Brantley goes along with him and helps Justin out.  It really is cute and Brantley is starting to kind of help and not just be in the way.  Justin loves the time that he gets to spend with him out there.  Just father and son.  Well this time Brantley decided that he wanted to work on his "car" instead of helping Justin and without Justin knowing really what he was doing Brantley was off working on his car.  Brantley came into the house a few times asking for little things that I thought were for Justin.  For instance he asked for a zip lock bag to put parts in so that they don't get lost.  That's one of the things that Justin does frequently so I got one for him without a problem and he went on his happy way working on his car.  Well the night was getting late and they called it a night and went to bed.  The next day right when Justin got home from work they were out in the garage at it again.  About 1 hour into it Brantley comes running in telling me that his car is already and that we need to just go to Walmart to get the rest of the parts he needed.  At that time I started questioning what he was doing.  He then proceded to tell me that he wanted lights on his car so he has been taking it apart so that he can install working lights.  I went out there and sure enough the headlights were out and everything was ready for working ones to be installed.  He had figured out were he wanted the switch to turn the lights on and off and were on the headlights the light bulbs would go.  All he needed were the lights and he was good to go.  I should have known he was up to something.  Justin and I were just astounded that he would think of something that he wanted and then start working for it without asking for help.  He even got the zip lock bag so that he could put his parts in it so that they would not get lost.  He does listen!  After all of his hard work how could we tell him that he couldn't do it?  It would break his little heart.  So Justin figured out how to wire up lights to the battery and ordered LED light bulbs and helped him wire it up and install everything.  Once they were done Brantley was so excited!!  We did though have to burst a little bubble of his.  He thought that once he had lights he would be able to drive his car at night all of the time since cars would be able to see him so we had to explain that he didn't have tail lights and that if a car was behind him they wouldn't be able to see him.  So he can drive it a little later when it is starting to get dark, but then we have to call it a day.  He was a little disappointed but got over it quick when he saw them working.  He said that it was so cool!!!  

So, Brantley has modified his first car.  Isn't he to young for that?  He truly is his fathers son.  Always thinking of ways to make things better.  Way to go Brantley!  We love this little guy so much!  He is so smart.  Keep up the good work and keep those wheels turning in that brain.

Working together...(I just love this picture!)

All of the screws in the baggy.. LOVE IT!

Installing the switch right were Brantley wanted it which was the perfect place

CHEESE!!!

So excited to be driving his car at night!!  (sorry you can't really see that the lights are on cause the flash was on and when I went to fix it Lilley started crying and I didn't get a chance to get a good pic.  But once I do we will defiantly post it!)

Island Park Again....

Lilley just wanted to eat the snow

Throwing snow at Brantley

So we headed back up to Island Park again last weekend for the last trip this winter and had a great time!!!  The snow plow pushed all of this snow up in a big pile and it made this great little sledding hill for the kids.  It was taller then the roof of the cabin.  The kids (and adults) had a great time with this.  Lilley just wanted to eat snow non stop instead of sledding so that is what she spent her time doing.  Silly girl!  It was a lot warmer this time too so the kids could go outside a lot more which made it better.