Fire Larry's

Some kids spend their summer evenings catching fireflies in glass jars. This evening Brian was catching "Larry's"! We purchased our RSV (red sport vehicle) a couple years ago from a Larry Rosche car dealership. Since it was December, they had Christmas trees all over that were decorated with little Larry Rosche dolls. Seeing that we had a baby, our salesman gave us a couple of the dolls.

As he was getting shoved into this jar tonight, Brian may not have been showing a great deal of respect to the memory of ol' Larry, but it sure was cute to watch!

Tool of the Day!

Today's tool of the day isn't in Brian's personal collection but he wanted to give you some information on it anyway. This is a tree chipper and you should only use it if you are a trained professional. Even someone with a vast knowledge of tools (like Brian), acknowledges that he wouldn't even think of trying to operate this bad boy tool since he hasn't been properly trained to use it. In fact, this tool is so powerful that Brian was standing a safe distance away from it while this picture was being taken.

The tree in the front yard of our new house is dying so the Village Public Works Department came over to cut it down today. We missed the initial prep work they did but we got here just in time to see the main event! After the Arborist (aka: the tree guy) had put a big rope around it and cut a large wedge out of the bottom, he gave the word for the tractor to back up and.......

......TIMBER!!!!! Down it came! It was amazing watching how quickly the tree chipper could mulch up what started out to be a huge tree!

No Nap

Since both Mommy and Daddy had the opportunity to work at the new house today, the boys got to spend another fun day playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house! In fact, Brian was having so much fun playing that he opted against taking a nap this afternoon. This is unusual for him. Normally once Brian has played for awhile, he goes over to Grandma and tells her that he is ready to take a nap. I'm not making this up folks, he REALLY says that! Granted, he usually only says this when he is at Grandma's house but the fact remains, he says it! Since his little body really does still need a nap every day, by the time we were ready to load up and head for home tonight - he was done. This is the face that Mommy took home. A layer of dirt (hey, he's a boy - playing in the dirt is pretty much his job) smeared together with all the tears he shed when he found out that we really did have to go home. It probably goes without saying that Brian was asleep almost before his head his his bed tonight!

A Mess!

Mommy and the boys all have a tie-dyed shirt that Mommy made for us during Vacation Bible School last month. Any time that Mommy wears her shirt Brian looks it over before announcing "Mommy, your a mess!" When Mommy pulled his shirt out of the dresser this morning and suggested that he wear it, he giggled the whole time she was slipping it on him while he confirmed that he was a mess!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We had the party yesterday, but today is Grandma's actual birthday. Brian gave her a call today to wish her a very happy birthday and he did it in song.

He sang "Happy birthday to you......happy birthday to you.....happy birthday dear Grandma.....happy birthday to you!" It was absolutely adorable!!!!

Pool Party!

Tomorrow is Grandma's birthday and since nearly everyone was available today, we celebrated the occasion a little early. Uncle Kevin, Aunt June, Krista, Erika, Uncle Colin, Aunt Karyn, Haley joined us in taking Grandma and Grandpa out to lunch today. When we got back to their house, it was a race between Haley and the boys as to who could get into their swimsuits the fastest! (Krista and Erika couldn't come back to Grandma and Grandpa's today). Everyone started out being fully outfitted in floaties.

By the time they were ready to get out of the pool, Brian decided he was ready to loose one floatie and just use his swim muscles! He was so proud of the fact that he could kick his feet to move himself around in the water without having to have someone push him!

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Brian and Spencer brought their "road map rugs" out into the living room today where we gave them a good work out. Spencer is normally into playing with trucks and cars more than Brian but today they played very nicely side by side. (Side by side rugs that is!) Brian has quite a vocabulary when it comes to the various kinds of vehicles he sees when we are out and about. He calls school bus's and ambulances by their correct names. Fire engines are "Fire Fighters". Today Mommy pointed out a patrol car as a Police Man, Brian immediately corrected her that is was a Police Officer. Mommy stands corrected!

Airport!!!!

Grandma has a computer game that each of the grand kids have played and loved. It's Brian's turn now and he is a HUGE fan of the Airport computer game! Since Spencer was still napping upstairs this afternoon, Grandma and Brian headed down to the basement to do some "computer work".

On a separate note - Mommy harvested her first tomatoes of the season today! Grandma and Grandpa (aka: our new neighbors) were kind enough to plant a couple tomato plants in what is now Mommy's new garden. What is it about the taste of homegrown tomatoes that just can not be beat?????

Tool of the Day!

The boys have a Fisher Price yard rake, hoe and shovel that they play with out in the back yard. They have temporarily lost their shovel privileges for a while since they were taking turns pouring shovel fulls of mulch over each other's heads. Spencer took the blunt of this and required 3 hair washes in the tub that night to get it all out! That being said.......Brian has been eyeing this Ridgid Model 12 Extra Thick Aluminum 16" Scoop Shovel! If he could cover his brother in mulch using a TOY shovel.......imagine the damage he could do with THIS bad boy!!!!

Random Cute Picture!

Brian is usually so busy doing - whatever it is he is doing at the moment that he can't always be bothered to look at the camera when a picture is being taken. When we do catch one of these random cute photos - we feel obligated to share them with all of you too!

Caged Animal

We have mentioned before that Brian is our little climber. He doesn't limit himself to just climbing things IN the house.

He is an "equal opportunity climber" which means, the back yard is fair game for climbing too!

On The Rocks

This is a picture that Uncle Corey took of Brian while we were visiting Great Grandma in Clear Lake Iowa a few weeks ago. We had gone for a short walk down the block to check out the lake. Uncle Corey always manages to take the best pictures with his trusty little cell phone camera. Mommy and Daddy don't have near the luck with ours.

Mystery Solved!

When Grandma and Grandpa got the boys home from the pool yesterday, Brian's pants were wet. Since he was at a swimming pool, that doesn't sound too unusual but his wet pants were diaper related. His wet pants were diaper related because.......he didn't have a diaper on! Now the mystery began. Did Mommy forget to put one on him when she got him dressed this morning? Anything is possible, but she was sure he left the house fully dressed this morning.

When Mommy and Daddy got home last night, Diane had solved the mystery. As Brian was getting ready for bed tonight he put his dirty clothes into the clothes hamper. He pointed out to Diane that his pants where lumpy. When Diane investigated, sure enough - the pants that he had been wearing at the pool earlier that day were on the top of the hamper and they were lumpy. The "lump" was a diaper! Apparently, at some point during the day, he reached down into his overalls and undid his diaper. Mystery solved!

Go Krista!!!!

Mommy, Daddy and our good friend Uncle Ralph had a full day of painting lined up at the new house so the boys were in for a full day of adventure! The morning started out by Grandma and Grandpa picking them up and heading over to the Villa Park pool. Everyone was ready to cheer on Krista as she participating in a swim meet at the pool today. After having some lunch and coming home to take a nap, the boys woke up to another surprise.





Grandma and Grandpa needed to get back home so our fabulous friend Aunt Diane came over to spend the rest of the day with the boys. When Brian woke up, he didn't seem the slightest bit surprised to see a new "babysitter" in place. When Diane said "Hey Brian, when your brother wakes up, how would you like to go to the park?".........he was putty in her hands!

Move Over!

Brian's internal alarm clock goes off a little earlier than Mommy and Daddy would prefer. No matter what time he goes to sleep, by about 5:30am he is wide awake and ready to start his day! He has been pretty respectful of everyone else in the family and now that he knows how to log onto his computer by himself - he plays some PBSkids.org for awhile before coming in to check on Mommy and Daddy. We didn't want to get into the situation that if he couldn't fall asleep in his room - he would just come sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed. Since he is not at all interested in sleeping, we don't have a problem with him getting some snuggle time in before all three of us start our day! By 6:30am or so - there are two little boys in Mommy and Daddy's bed!

Tool of the Day!

Here Brian Thomas is displaying his Quick - Grip Mini 12" bar clamp. Brian say's this is very useful if you want to clamp your brother to a tree or some other stationary object.

But you didn't hear it from him.

Brian Knows Best!

Brian is quite the little actor when it comes to having a boo-boo. The other day when we were leaving Grandma and Grandpa's house, he tripped in the driveway and scuffed both of his knees. He was upset until Mommy assured him that when we got home, we could probably get a band aid. Later than night he commented "Mommy, my body hurts." He would whimper and point to his knee continually pointing out that this is where his boo boo was. Eventually Mommy caved and we got a band aid. After it was in place Brian looked up and said "Thank you Mommy, the band aid makes me comfortable."

This picture has nothing to do with today's post - it's just a cute picture of our guard cat on duty.

Smarty-Pants!

The boys spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpas house while Mommy did more painting today. As we started getting organized to go back home, Mommy put the boy's blankets in this bag. While Mommy and Grandma talked, Brian looked right at the bag and said "Oh, Walmart!" Grandma and Mommy looked at each other not having any idea how he knew that!

And The Name Is.......

Last November, Uncle Corey mailed the boy's a Thanksgiving treat. They each received a stuffed turkey. Although Brian has been favoring his stuffed buffalo (aka: 54) lately, today he latched back onto his turkey again. We had a conversation Brian that went something like this:

Mommy: "So Brian, does your turkey have a name?"

Brian: "Yes"

Mommy: "What's his name?"

Brian: "54"

Mommy: "I thought your buffalo was named 54."

Brian: "Oh yeah"

Mommy: "So what's your turkey's name?"

Brian: (thinking for a second before answering) "55!"

***Potty update: This morning before Daddy changed Brian's diaper he asked him if he needed to go potty. Brian said that he did - got onto the potty and.......went!!!!! Throughout the day, Mommy asked him if he needed to go but he said no so we left it at that.

Big Boy Brian!

Continuing in our Sunday tradition - the boys hung out with Grandma and Grandpa today while Mommy and Daddy did some work at our new house. After awhile Grandma and Brian came over to share some very exciting news. He had to deliver it twice because Daddy was working in the garage and Mommy was painting upstairs. The news that Mommy got went like this:

Grandma: "Tell Mommy what you did."

Brian: "I went potty in the toilet!"

Mommy: (clapping and cheering loudly) "Yeahhhhhh!!!!

Occasionally Brian will ask about the potty or want to sit on it. We always make it available to him when he asks, but up to this point we have been pretty low key about the whole subject. Since we know that we will be moving soon, we also know that things will be hectic and crazy for awhile. Because of that we have been hesitant to really charge forward into the official potty training process until we get a little more settled. However, at this point, we are letting Brian take the lead on when he feels he is ready.

Congratulations Chris & Bill!

Last Wednesday night Mommy and Daddy attended the wedding of our good friend Chris as she married her sweetheart Bill. Today the boys got to come along as we went to their back yard pool party/BBQ/reception. The boys didn't go into the pool but they had lots of fun playing. When the cake was served - Brian talked our dear friend Diane into getting him a nice big slice!

I See China!

Brian put his eye to hand coordination to good use while we were at the park yesterday. When we got to the sandbox area, he went straight to the sand scoop digger and figuring out how to make it work in no time!

Tool of the Day!

In honor of Mommy, today's tool of the day is the paint roller. When it comes to painting, Mommy likes to go old school and not use any specific brand names or model numbers - she just uses a plain ol' paint roller.

She will be posting some pictures of the work she and Daddy are doing at our new house soon. Brian took a peek at how his bedroom is coming along and he said he really likes it!

Haircut Time!

Brian has been a little over due in getting a hair cut to we decided that today was the day! This is the little boy who left the house.......

......and this is the little boy who returned! There is a cute story behind the stuffed buffalo Brian is holding. This has been his favorite toy for the past couple days. He has to take it everywhere he goes as well as to bed at night. This morning he got into bed with Mommy and Daddy for a few minutes of snuggle time before we all had to get up. He asked if we could turn on the tv - which we did - and Mommy reminded Daddy that the Disney channel is 54. We watched Mickey Mouse and chatted for a while. A little while later we were asking Brian what the name of his buffalo was. He very matter of fact answered....."Fifty-four". Some kids have a "Spot" or "Fluffy" or "Fidy".......we live with 54!

Best Buddies!

I saw a picture frame a while back that said "Brothers by chance.......Friends by choice". That pretty much sums up these little boys. Sure they don't always see eye to eye, but when it comes right down to it - they really are the best of buddies!

PBSkids.org

Brian is turning into quite the computer operator! Mommy and Daddy are amazed to watch the mind of an almost 3 year old as he plays the various games. SproutOnline.com and PBSkids.org are the two websites that he frequents but he is a pro at navigating them. He can find games that he has never played before and figure out how to play them and move from screen to screen without asking for any help. Some of the games are actually quite complicated but you would never know from watching him!

Showings!

Since we put our house on the market, we have been fortunate to have quite a few showings. Sundays have been popular showing days so our normal routine lately has been to go to church, grab a bite of breakfast and then head over to Grandma and Grandpa's. Before we go though, we have to make sure that the house is ship shape and in good showing condition. The boys have been a big help in this area!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

It was a rainy day off and on all afternoon but Grandma and Grandpa's annual 4th of July back yard party still went off without a hitch! Thanks to a big tent in the back yard everyone was able to stay warm and dry while we chatted the day away with each other. The kids weren't about to let a little drizzle stop them from swimming and thanks to Brian's best girl Elizabeth, he was able to get into the pool too!

The villages fireworks display is visible from Grandma and Grandpa's back yard so at dusk we all faced our lawn chairs in that direction and enjoyed the show. Brian was exhausted but somehow he willed himself to stay awake for the show!

Bring on the Sitters!

Now that we have closed on our new house, Mommy and Daddy have lots to do before we can start moving in. Thanks to our wonderful family and friends helping by pitching in with babysitting, Mommy and Daddy have had the luxury of getting some work done. Yesterday our great friends Aunt Karen and her daughter Jamie were here and today Uncle Guy (aka: Uncle Kevin) came over to play with the boys. As you can see from the picture.....good times were had by all!

Tool of the Day!

Grandpa has been very busy getting ready for their annual 4th of July back yard extravaganza party. When you need some help, who better to call than our very own..........Brian Thomas of course!!! Brian got right to work with the lawn mowing. Grandpa has a Snapper model 4200, 10 horse power 42" cut mulching mower.

Sucking on a lollipop while mowing - optional.

Go Sox's Go!!!

Grandma found a baseball cap at her house that Haley must have outgrown. It's actually a little too small for Brian but he wanted to wear it for the day before handing it over to Spencer. He sure is awful cute in it though!