Happy Birthday Brett!

Brett turned 2 today!  He started his birthday celebrations a few days early with Keith's parents coming over to give him a gift.

Airplanes from the Planes movie.  They were a hit...with both boys.  Brett is being a good sharer with his older brother.  :)

This morning was so fun.  Keith and I blew up a bunch of balloons and had them covering the family room floor.  I'd put up streamers and had his wrapped gifts out for him.  Here's Brett looking at the cute card that Grant painted for him.  Grant is showing him that he needs to put it up on the mantel with the other cards.

Brett thought that was a great idea so here he is trying to reach up there.  Side note: We finished our fireplace!  :)

First gift of the day.  Grant had to try really hard to not open it for Brett.  He did a good job at holding back.

I made Brett a super hero shirt and "power bands."  Grant has his Super Why costume that I made last year and Brett always loves to wear it, so now he has his own.  Grant put the bow from the present onto Brett's shirt for him.

We also gave him a fire truck.  He loves it!  

My handsome boys.

Super hero breakfast.

The cake.  Brett loves monster trucks.  He has to wear his monster truck almost every day.  So, since I'd made Grant a monster truck cake for his birthday, and I still had the frame for it, I made another one for Brett.

The party room.  I think one of the best things I ever made was that birthday bunting.

I made each of my boys names, including Keith, and I just switch out the names for each birthday.  

My parents came over for a BBQ lunch and cake.  The weather was nice enough to eat outside!

The cake is lit.

He was pretty excited about it.

Yum!  What a fun day!  Brett took a good bath after this and then a really good nap.  Both boys went to bed tonight in record time.  They were so tired!  And now I am too.  Happy Birthday Brett!  Goodnight!

Fun at Grandma's

Brett has a terrible cold and so we're sticking around home today.  Grant doesn't have school on Fridays and after his favorite playmate went down for a nap around 11:30, and I started my neglected list of things to get done, Grant got really bored really fast.  Thankfully we have a Grandma one minute away who came and rescued this boy and now he's roasting marshmallows in her family room.  Why didn't I think of that?!  There are just some things that Grandma's do better, and Grandma Jackson knows how to help a kid have a great time.  Thank you Grandma Jackson!

Our family

Grant has recently started drawing people.  I love how all kids have their own way of drawing people and I was excited for the day when I got to see how Grant would draw his people.  So here's our family.

GRANT:

BRETT:

BABY SISTER:

KEITH & I ON OUR WEDDING DAY:

Apparently the girls in our family are tall.  And Grant is the only one with two legs.  I love it!

Resourceful

Someone's learning to be mighty resourceful around here.  He knows where the goodies are, and he knows how to get them.

This picture is from last week.  You can see some of the pesky mosquito bites on his legs.  :(

Labor Day Weekend at the Cabin

For Labor Day weekend we got out of the heat and headed through the rain to Keith's parent's cabin up north.  Soon after our arrival we went with Grandpa Jackson to play at the local school.

Later that night, my parents arrived at the cabin also.  The next morning they presented our boys with official frontiersmen hats.  Grant loved his hat and wore it as he led my mom and I on a little hike.  

 We saw lots of beautiful things along the way.

 The wild flowers were out in force.  It was so pretty.

On Sunday afternoon we went for a drive to Forest Lakes to have a look around.  The boys all skipped rocks in the lake.  Grant "fished" with his walking stick.  On this outing he wore his "cowboy" hat.

On our way back to our car we met some people who where looking at something high up in the trees. It was a bald eagle.  I don't know if I've ever seen one in real life, but there it was.  It was so neat to see.

That night we had a fire and took turns telling "scary" stories.  I could listen to Grant's stories all night. They are so clever and funny.  Brett told us about some cows.

Our trip was a success.  We were bummed to leave, but it was sure nice to get away.

Some random things

Part of the area where we're putting pavers is done enough to put our table on now.  Last weekend we suddenly realized that the weather was kind of pleasant in the evening, so we barbecued some chicken and had a yummy summer dinner outside.  It felt like such a treat to be out and not dying from the heat...until the mosquitos came out.  Poor little Brett must be the sweetest thing around because his cute legs are covered in bites.  

Monday morning brought another treat...RAIN!  Oh it was lovely.  Keith even took the day off just because and stayed home with us.  We took advantage of the rain softened grass and picked a bunch of weeds.  While we worked, the boys had fun in the mud.  They were covered!  

This beautiful flower popped open on a new hibiscus plant Keith surprised me with.  Oh, I just love these things!