Valentine's Day and Brady turns 5!

Brady doesn't have school on Valentine's Day so they had his party on Thursday instead.  I went into his class and helped with his class party. 

Balancing cups on straws

Decorating cookies

Playing in the tub of snow

Alligator game-you take turns pushing down teeth and it will randomly chomp down on your finger!  Brady's playing with his friend Aaron

 Since we're waiting for Aaron to get home to have a party for Brady, we had to do something fun on his actual birthday.  He wouldn't have really known the difference because he doesn't know which days are which but we still had a fun night with pizza and cake.

Pepperoni pizza with a 5 in pepperonis

My practice with fondant cake for his robot birthday next weekend
I think I did pretty well for my first time making/working with fondant

I really can't believe my little man is now 5 years old!!  It seems just like yesterday I was at the hospital with him and now he is 5!  He will be in kindergarten next year and it will be so strange to not have him home with me at all during the day.  He has always been such a sweet boy and he has always been my little buddy while Aaron is gone.

When he woke up on his birthday he asked if he was 5 yet and I told him that he was.  He said he didn't feel any bigger than he did yesterday.  But after being up a little while, he said that he felt like he was 5 now!  Such a funny kid!  Love you so much my little Brady boy!

Cold days of winter

On winter days when it is too cold to do anything, we have to find ways to amuse ourselves inside.  This often includes playing, goofing off, baking things and trying to keep me from going crazy!  One afternoon they were taking pictures of each other and this is what they came up with.

His trick-no hands!

We still had some open bounce passes at Bounce U to use up, so we headed over there one afternoon to get out of the house.  As much as we like goofing off at home, I get a little bit of cabin fever with 3 kids in the house all winter! 

This time, Collin finally got to play with us.
He only got a couple steps up before it was too steep for him to do it by himself, so I carried him the rest of the way up to slide.

Brady and Jorie coming down

Look at that electric hair!

This little dare devil wanted to go all by himself!

 They couldn't get the ball to hang in the air over the tee, so they just started having fun with the air blowing out instead! 

Can't wait for some warmer weather so we can get out of the house a little bit more.  We can only play inside and watch movies for so long!

Fun in the sun in AZ

Since Aaron was going to be gone, and it's freezing cold in January in NE (go figure!), we took a little trip to visit Tucson for a week.  Aaron had gone back a couple times without us to fly and we wanted to go with but the timing never worked out quite right.  We have missed our friends since we've moved and it was so fun to get to see everyone again!

When we were flying in that night, it felt just like we were coming home after a long trip.  I guess Tucson will always feel a little like home.  We bought our first house there, we had both of our boys there and we made some of our best friends there.  We were so surprised when we went to get our luggage and saw the Bedonts waiting for us.  They helped us out by helping carrying our luggage and waiting with the kids while I got the rental car.

When all of the kids were playing together, it was like they were picking up right where they left off over a year ago.  Especially with Brady and Tolson.

Riding in the airplane.  Both boys did awesome!  Flying is in their blood! :)

Collin playing in our neighborhood park.
I have so many pictures of Brady at this age playing at this park and it just seemed right that I got some of Collin too!

Brady and Tolson
Best buds re-united!  They added swings to the park since we moved.

My best girls and Oregano's-what could be better?

 We had to go to the zoo while we there so here's some pictures from that.

Brady, Chris, Tolson and Samantha

Mom lion with her cubs playing around

Boys watching the sea otters

I also have a picture of these 4 sitting on this same rock on our last visit to the zoo before we moved.

We have a picture from right before we left of these 3 newborns-Adalee, Collin and Taylor.
Now they are almost 18 months! 

Riding the train

They can still fit in the dump truck and push each other around!

In-N-Out!  Yummy!

Cactus! 
We brought back a couple little yellow fruits from the barrel cactus to show Brady's class and they loved it because they look like little  pineapples.

Collin and Adalee on the swings

Bye Tucson and Mt Lemmon

The weather was beautiful and a much needed break from the winter that I don't care too much for!  I was so glad to see the beautiful sun.  When we returned to Nebraska it was like 10 degrees and blowing some cold, stinging wind.  The kids were freezing while I was unloading the shuttle bus of our luggage and trying to re-buckle in their carseats in the parking lot.  It was a not-so-nice welcome back to the winter!  Thanks a lot Nebraska!

Things I want to remember about our trip that I have no pictures of to remind me:
-sitting in the sun and watching the kids play
-trips to the new QT for free refills
-off-roading in the desert with the kids bumping in the back
-cool mornings, warm afternoons and cool evenings
-late nights, laughter and great conversation
-book club with all my favorite ladies
-seeing everyone's kids older and bigger
-freshly squeezed orange juice from the oranges in the back yard

And the best part about being there....reminding me that we have made lifelong friends that I have missed greatly!  There's a saying I'm thinking of that goes something like "Friends are the family that we choose" and it is so true!  I will always think of you as our Tucson family.  It's fun to keep up on Facebook though, but sometimes I wish I was still there doing the fun things you are doing and just hanging out and talking until 2 in the morning! :)  Miss you all and we hope to come back and visit again!

Rest of Christmastime/New Years festivities

Here's all the rest of the pictures from our trip before heading back to NE after the New Year.

Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington with Grandma and Grandpa Purcell

Looking at the birds in the tropical rain forest

Brady feeding the goats

 Children's Museum with G-ma and G-pa Purcell

Water tornado-the balls went around and through the hole in the middle and came out the bottom into another pool.

Sorry, I'm not home right now I'm walking in a spider web...... :)

One of the coolest things-painting on a window

Then you can spray and squeegee it off and start again

Big mouth!!!
We had just watched Dennis the Menace with Walter Mathau and the part where Dennis does this with his fake teeth and replaces them with chicklets-hilarious!!! 

Brady making pizzas for us

Collin, trying to lick up all the germs in the place! :)

Collin gets his first haircut from Aunt Lauren.  Brady got his first from Aunt Lar Lar so we had to carry out the tradition with Collin too!  I wanted to have it done the couple other times we saw her at his birthday and since but kept forgetting.  Now the baby mullet is gone! :)

 Bowling with the kids in Charleston

Ava excited with her throw as Brady waits for the ball to come back

Grandma keeping the 2 little ones occupied

Sadie got her turn too!

Cousins having fun together!

 For New Years Eve we decided to go out the the casino and do something different for a change.  None of us were going to spend any real money but we had fun dressing up and going out.

All of us ladies!  Erica did all of our makeup.

I think I was trying to make a "I'm sexy and I know it" face but this is what came out instead! :)

"The face"  he he

Happy New Years!  None of us left with any extra money (except Mike) but we had fun anyway playing the cheap slots!

Visit with Great Grandma Purcell (Grandma Birdie) before heading back home

Some of my favorite girls from college!  Baby shower for Kristin with Jess and Ashley.  I never am in IL for any of these things so it was fun for once to get to go!  Now the twins have 2 beautiful new "twin" girls (each had a girl born within a couple weeks of each other)

We had a great time visiting everyone and keeping us busy while Aaron is away!  But sometimes it is good to be home as well! :)