Brett's Birthday at Schnepf Farms

We made our annual trip to Schnepf Farms Pumpkin & Chili Party this year on Brett's Birthday.  We checked out the big pumpkins, enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches, and then had fun doing all the activities there: pig races, BMX bike show, giant jumpy thing, rides, mini golf, kettle corn, and a hay ride.  We all had a great time, like we do every year.

Super excited to fly! 

Our boys were selected to cheer for the pig races.  The "farmer" was kind enough to have everyone sing Happy Birthday to Brett.

Grant's pig won the race.  His prize?  This adorable pig nose!

Watching Grant get his pig nose.  Looks like Brett may have wanted one too.

Wearing his new nose with pride.  Seriously, this is probably the only age he'd actually really wear it around the rest of the time.  Ha!  So cute!

Oceanside

Last Wednesday we headed over to Oceanside, CA.  Our purpose was simple, relax and enjoy time at the beach.  We knew we must be on the right path when we ran across this sign with our name on it:

We got to stay with Keith's Uncle and his family.  Their cute house is just a 15 minute drive from the beach.  They were so great to let us stay with them.  Brett even got his own room, which made for a great night sleep for all.  Grant LOVED playing with their dog, Shasta.  He keeps talking about her.

Day one at the beach started out with pouring rain and temperatures as low as 57 degrees!  We were so bummed.  It really looked like that storm was going to be around all day.  So we suggested to Grant that we say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help the storm clear up and make it warmer outside.  So Grant prayed for us.  We had waited in the car for about a half hour when the rain stopped. We decided to just get out and at least walk on the beach.  Then the sun came out and it got warm and we enjoyed a few hours of great time on the beach.  Isn't prayer great!?

That night we walked to the end of the pier and enjoyed dinner at Ruby's diner.  The night before we walked on the pier and saw a guy catch a big lobster and other's who caught fish and star fish.  Grant was so eager to find out what they caught.

There were lots of surfers waiting to catch a good wave near the pier:

We thought it was pretty funny that their menu had this burger contest.  Keith ordered the Romney burger.  It was really yummy:

The next day we head to the beach in the morning and spent a few more hours playing and having lunch.  Grant added to his shell collection from the day before.  Brett had a blast playing around in the sand.  I found that it's kind of tricky going to the beach with a baby who sucks his thumb.  He made many disappointed faces when his sandy thumb went in!  It was funny.  Keith caught a few good waves on the boogie board both days.  I played it a little more low key and stayed mostly on the sand.

After cleaning up at Keith's uncle's house we started our drive home and arrived late that night.  We had sand on everything!  I've nick-named it "magnet sand."  We had so much fun and look forward to going again soon!

Happy Birthday Dear Brett

Not to take attention away from Brett, but isn't it so cool how this picture turned out?  I so did not plan it.

He loves being a BABY

He has curly hair

He eats with a fork

He's learning how to drink from a sippy cup

He doesn't hide his feelings...not at all

He gets into EVERYTHING.  Of course.  But really, did Grant get into everything so much?  Oh how soon we forget!

He likes to drink the water from the faucet in the tub

He loves bath time and must leave the tub holding a tub toy or he'll be mad

He deals with his older brother getting in his face ALL THE TIME

He cherishes his time alone while Grant is at school

He loves to play with his brother...and his brother's toys

He goes into a room, closes the door, and then screams as if someone else just locked him in

He has always made his own sleep and eat schedule and holds to it firmly

He just took himself down to one nap a day (Wait!  Grant did 2 naps for a lot longer than this!)

He loves standing up to chairs and pushing them across the room or down the hall

He is in no rush to walk though

He will sprawl out on the floor, face down, when he wants me to come pick him up.  And he'll take little peeks to make sure I'm coming.

He loves his Mommy and Daddy

He will make dog barking sounds when he hears a dog or you say, "Doggy!"

He has always refused to wear a bib

He dances to music and loves to have dance parties with Mommy

He can get down from the couch by himself now

He likes to push the buttons on my printer, especially the off button

He gives the hand to anything he doesn't want and shoves it aways

He drops food off the side of his highchair just to watch it fall

He also drops food when he's done with it

He likes to look out the window in his room

He has always slept like a dream at night

He takes advantage of any opportunity to pull all of Mommy's shoes off their shelves

He loves playing with the streams of light that come in through our windows

He loves getting blown by the hair dryer

He was born on his Great Grandma's Birthday

He eats a banana and Cheerios every morning for breakfast

He love cars and balls just like a true boy

He has such a sweet smile

He is just so sweet and fun and adorable!

We are so so so blessed to have you, Brett!  Happy Birthday!  We LOVE you!

The night Keith played baseball

Keith was invited to pitch for a friend's baseball team on Monday night.  So we made it our family activity.  Our parents all came too.  It was so fun for Grant to see his dad play.  Keith was like a little kid waiting for that game.  He was so excited to play!  I wish he could be on a regular team and play more often, but then we'd never have him here at home where we need him most.  :)  

His team approved of his mad skills:

Brett was really tired.  He NEVER falls asleep outside of his crib.  Well, almost never.  Every now and then he'll fall asleep in the car.  But if there's something going on, he wants in on it and he's not about to let sleep get in the way.  He spent time playing with the grandparents and a lot of time doing this:

Grant just loved the whole thing.  Time with dad:

And pretending to play baseball with Grandma Jackson:

Fun times!

Brett's Mustache Bash

Hold on tight, this post is a long one.  

We had a great birthday party for Brett last weekend.  He turns one this Friday.  I found this great invitation on Etsy from LemonadeMoments.  I also purchased the banner and water bottle wrapper PDF from this Etsy site.  Stacey did a great job designing these and was speedy in getting me my digital copies.

Here's the spread: Ham sandwiches (roll with ham, swiss cheese, and a brown sugar & butter mixture.  Baked for 5 minutes. YUM!), sun chips, root beer & orange soda, fruit salad, veggies, cotton candy, bear cake, and lemon filled cupcakes.

I got this bear cake mold from Williams Sonoma a few Christmases ago.  It's so fun to make.  I made Grant a bear for his 1st birthday too.  I should have looked at the pictures of Grant's cake (below) before I painted the face on Brett's cake because I got a little carried away with the mouth.

As you can see from Brett's cake (below) I should have held off on the mouth.  Oh well, it's still pretty cute.  The mustache is a little crazy too, but this bear HAD to have a mustache at this bash.

Brett wore the same shirt that Grant wore for his 1st Birthday:

Keith got Brett up from a great nap just before his party  :  Brett kept making this "ooooooh" face.  It think he was in awe.  :)

Keith's dad shared his super magic tricks with us.  It was great!  Everyone was amazed!

Pin the mustache on Brett:

Oh the mustaches!  This was the funniest part of the party.  We were all laughing so hard.  Especially by adorable nephew with the great bald head and bold eyebrows and mustache!

Brett getting ready to stare at his cake.  In true one year old form, he just stared at the candle.  And then the candle magically blew out when an older cousin snuck up behind me.  :)

Yum yum yum!

Opening fun presents:

Brett playing with the trucks  :  Grandma with cousin Brody  :  Cousin Stewart sipping his soda

Bashing at the pinata:

Most of us at the party:

It was so much fun.  Thanks to everyone who came and also to those that I know wanted to be there.

First Day of Fall Dinner 2012

I'm not sure if this is the 4th or 5th year for our Annual First Day of Fall Dinner, but we have been doing this for several years with my family and I love it!  I thought I had more pictures, but I guess I was busy having fun and didn't take as many as I thought.  :)

Here's the pretty fall table before dinner.  On the menu this year was Chili Rellano Casserole, Cowboy Caviar, Chips, Fruit Salad, Green Chili & Cheese Corn Bread, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, and Vanilla Ice Cream.  On each mini pumpkin was written each persons name with gold glitter glue and then used as place markers.

We lined the walkway up to our front door with luminarias.

Everyone came wearing a "fabulous fall hat."  I wish I'd taken pictures of them all, but here are the three I got.  My mom, me, and my cute niece.  All of the other hats were quite cute too.