Thanksgiving!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year! After being sick for the first half of the week, it was so nice to have a relaxed day!  The boys had hats that they made (Brayden made on at his library class so Tucker wanted one too), which I of course left at home when we went to my parents to eat Thanksgiving dinner...oops!

The holidays are never quite the same without my sister at home, but there was still plenty of chaos with the kids:) This is what the table looked like before all the food made it out...and as usual, WAYYYYYY too much! Good for leftovers!

I'm glad I didn't buy them special outfits for this year because within 1 minute of getting to my parents' house, they both insisted on taking off they button-down shirts!

As usual, Brayden refused to sit at the table for more than 5 minutes and maxed out at about 3 bites! The boys both loved dessert and for some reason my grandfather thought Tucker would enjoy some whipped cream, without the actual dessert....he was right!  

Friday was a busy morning followed by a fun afternoon visiting with friends:) 

And who knew that Santa would be at Home Depot?! The boys have never had their picture with him before, and I don't know if Brayden has ever met Santa...maybe when he was just a couple months old.  Tucker was not wanting to sit with him Santa so Santa came to the boys.

We are so thankful for our family and so many gifts that we've been given this year!  We shared what we were thankful for at dinner, and it's pretty aparent Tucker's been reading too much Pete the Cat, Thanksgiving.  He answered, "the original pilgrims," just like Pete does at the end. We talk about what we're thankful for every day and pilgrims have never come up:) 

And now comes my favorite time of the year....the Christmas season!!! We are off to cut down our tree TOMORROW!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Brayden!

Somehow Brayden has turned 2!! We had a fun day celebrating with his friends at Tumble Jungle and later with our family at our house. He had a blast and it was so cute to see him interacting with everyone and really enjoying himself. Tucker was such a good big brother/helper and was so excited for Brayden. Brayden was trained to answer who's birthday is it (Me) and how old are you (2)! He started answering the first question with: Me, 2:)

He wanted a Dusty Crophopper (Planes-the movie) birthday party:)

He was so into opening all of the presents! And he had lots of helpers:)

He is really into Duplo block right now so the Planes Duplo sets he got were some of his faves! Those and his helicopters...kid loves planes and helicopters!

On his actual birthday he woke up to streamers and balloons on his door and down the hallway. They lasted a lot less time than Tucker's have...I guess two boys wreaking havoc does this! That and Brayden LOVES to pop balloons!

His present from us was this roller coaster that our neighbors have that he loves. It's fun in the house, but it's been moved outside to the backyard! Anyways, Tucker was so excited to show him his present and card!

Tucker was so cute and wanted to get Brayden a present for his birthday! He really wanted to give him the same lizard light toy that he has. He decorated construction paper and drew a picture of Brayden and we wrapped the lizard up in it. He was so proud to give it to him! I can still remember my little brother giving me a bouncy ball when we were little. I love the sibling gifts!

It has been a LOOOOOONNNGGG time since Brayden has gotten a monthly update! It's hard to cover everything that's happened in the past year/6 months, but here's some main ones:

Brayden loves everything Tucker does! He is into trucks for sure, but he also LOVES planes and helicopters a little more:) He has always loved to climb things and jump on anything and jump off of things. He loves to draw with chalk on the driveway and ride the Plasma Car. He always wants to wear his helmet...even if he's not riding anything:) He's a great running partner, as long as he has a snack to eat. He is also a lover of the swings. He likes when you hold his hand to go down the slide, but lately has been getting braver and going by himself:) He tries really hard to ride his tricycle but his legs just aren't quite long enough to make it around the pedals yet. He is also mildly obsessed with his lawnmower! He likes to "help" us cook, rake, mow, sweep, and vacuum. 

He loves milk, will tolerate water a lot better than Tucker ever did. He can be a finicky eater. He's not so much picky about what he eats, but he's more picky about whether he's going to eat or not. He's definitely too busy and active sometimes. We've had to feed him on the go sometimes just so he'll get a meal. He likes snacks, but isn't a huge snacker. When he does get snacks, he likes Bunny Snacks and pirates booty as his faves. He also LOVES ice cream-especially froyo:) And candy...he was probably the most pumped about the excessive candy haul from Halloween.

He is just starting to string 3-4 words together. He says enough words to get by, but is definitely more of a gross/fine motor fan at this point. Although he has no problem saying, No, (especially No, Tucker), and most recently, Move! He's been able to feed himself with a spoon and fork for at least the last 5-6 months. He can also sip out of a cup very well, although he usually just drinks out of his water bottle and Nalgene. He counts like this: 1, 6, 8! His favorite color seems to be blue...and it's what he defaults to when guessing a color.

He's a great sleeper! He sleeps from 8:00pm until 7-8:30am and he naps from 1-3:30/4. When he wakes up he is very content to hang out in his crib...sometimes he even says he doesn't want to get out! Sometimes he'll yell "Mama, Mama!"

He is a super sweet little guy that also lives up to his fiery red-headed stereotype! He is very very active and outgoing. He sometimes gets shy, and he'll snuggle into my shoulder and even say, "Me Shy," which makes it that much cuter:)  When he cries, he gets SO blotchy...to the point where he looks like he's having an allergic reaction...and the tears, oh the tears! Good thing I'm not too easy of a push-over because he'd get his way every time!

He likes Jake and Thomas and George, and pretty much any show that Tucker will watch.  His favorite book is his Bible and he loves to read the Pookie books too. Tucker has started to pray before dinner and so Brayden has started to as well.  It's the cutest thing! He puts his head down on the table and arm in front, and it's barely audible, but he thanks God for mommy, daddy, tucker, brayden and then he always throws his buddy William in, and most of the time includes "Sesha" (sarah) and Matt too:) And he says Amen like Ahhmen:)

It has been so fun to see Brayden grow into the little boy that he's becoming.  He's certainly going to be an energy and force to contend with. He, like Tucker is really a great kid with so much energy and love to give.  We love you Brayden (or as he FINALLY says-he called himself ME for so long- "Baynen")! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Pumpkins and Firetrucks!

Yesterday we went with Matt & Sarah and William to get some pumpkins and go on a hayride! The boys had a blast checking out all of the different gourds, etc. and riding the tractor.  They really liked trying to find the perfect pumpkin, and trying to lift them up!

The fire station had an open house today. The boys had a blast sitting in the trucks and seeing the the firemen and getting free pumpkins and free hats and going down the giant fire truck blow up slide!!  Such a fun trip:)

This was the time MAX (of all three) pushed the RED button on the oxygen backpack thing, initiating a piercing alarm sound...aparently it's the "help, I'm trapped somewhere, please come save me" button. Oops!

The gear was so heavy the fireman had to hold Tucker up to keep him from toppling forwards!

Coming Soon...

 Baby Zietz #3!

Our new addition is due to arrive late March/early April 2015! Max and I are so excited! The boys on the other hand, are just getting used to it...

Fall

Max and I had a day free a couple of weeks ago so we headed up to UCONN to relive our glory days...maybe his...not mine:)  It was really cool to see how different the campus looks since I've been there! And it was a beautiful fall day-the colors were gorgeous!

We took the kids apple picking...they probably would have picked everything there if we let them!

Meet our new fish, Shi-Shu...sometimes called Shu-Shu.

These two are just some super cute boys!

Out for a morning run with Brayden on the trail near our house...it was so pretty!

We are big fans of boxes and stickers in this house...these boxes have already served as leaf collectors, drums, personal crafts, and then monster masks!

Last weekend on a COLD, VERY RAINY Saturday morning I ran my third half marathon in a year.  It was freezing but it was a great course and fun run through Hartford.  I'm on a break for probably another year from these, but I'm glad I got these few in this last year:)

Somehow the boys enjoy being put to work! They love collecting and checking out the different leaves.

The boys got some cupcakes from our neighbors...safe to say they enjoyed them a TON!

Tucker's team picture for soccer

September...

So much for updating this thing in the last month!  We've had a very busy end of August/September: finishing out summer with friends, starting new schools, celebrating birthdays, playing with friends, playing with family, and trying to enjoy every day!

our last baby play-date of the summer..there's not too many babies anymore!

Tucker is "exploring his creativity" with many of his choices lately...this was when we put every pair of shorts on that he owns after his nap one day.

This was another morning...where he put all of his stuffed animals and a bunch of stuff from the guest room at the top of the stairs..while he waited for the rest of the family to wake up.

On our last day off for the summer, I took Tucker on a special fun day with me since we aren't going to get to spend as much time together for awhile. He has school three days a week now and some other things so we only get to hang one or two mornings now. So we spent the day at the Maritime Aquarium!

He had fun touching the jellyfish.

Feeding the birds...

...this happened..to me...a lot!

He loved all of the different snakes!

And the sharks!

And he had earned a prize for something so we got an extra special treat, a baby shark!

 We capped our day off with his first IMAX... on sharks!

We became slightly obsessed with the Black Rock Farmer's Market and the donuts that Whisk & Brush sells...delish!

Celebrating McKenna's birthday with a Frozen party. One of Tucker's favorite summer movies!

We also celebrated Max's birthday with none other than a watermelon roll!

The end of an era...or at least half a century...my grandparents sold their house:(

Tucker has become a pro at riding his bike! So proud of him for not giving up when it was hard.

Tucker had his first day of school at his new pre-school! It's safe to say he LOVES it! He barely says bye to us now (just goes right in and puts his backpack in his cubby and sits on his name-square). On the first day parents had to stay and half way through he turns to me and says, "Mom, can you go away from me please? Like can you go back to home?" I'm really feeling the love buddy, thanks!

This guy loves to play outside...he tries to keep up with Tucker on his bike:)

 These two can wrestle and fight with the best of them (thankfully not too often), but they love each other deeply and have blast playing with each other now too. We are so thankful:)

Enjoying every last minute of summer...with popsicles and some of our best buds:)

Neighborhood puddle jumping/mud fights in the rain

I finally discovered how easy it is to pop popcorn on the stove! And the kids have discovered how much they like it this way.

Entertaining ourselves while Daddy was away for the weekend...thousands of motorcycles riding for the Freedom Ride, in honor of September 11th.

With Tucker at school on Mondays while I'm home, I've been getting to spend some quality time with B...we've mostly been going to My Gym:)

Our church had this really fun food truck festival with a bunch of bands, a bounce house, a candy table, and this awesome Photo Booth:)

 A rare moment of calm, attentive sensory play. Lasted at least 30 min! A small miracle.

Our fave kind of Friday nights...dinner with the Gombos's!

Tucker started U-4 Soccer...it's cute. Mostly just fun skill games, but cute:)

We celebrated Annie's birthday last weekend! The boys had fun playing with their cousins.

We also did the Walk to End Alzheimers with our dear friends and neighbors. It was a very cool event to be a part of in honor of their mom/grandma.

And we will end with this...Max has been off all week so the boys have enjoyed many-a-ridiculous-mornings...with cornholio dance parties and the like:)

Hopefully more frequent updates to come...