Brody at 17 months.....
(the picture is of him feeding Teddy and Elmo his lunch....I know it looks very dark outside... it is raining)

Well I have not done a post about everything that Brody is doing now at the age of 17 months..... I want to try to blog about it so that I can remember it later when I get to that point in my scrapbook. And because some of the things he is doing now are so cute!!

1. He used to really love trains, and although he still loves them he has found a new love for tractors!! Every time we drive pass a tractor in the car he will spot it and say "tractor,tractor" out loud because he wants us to know that he saw one. He got some new tractors for Easter and he loves to play with them!!

2. He loves to sleep with 4 of his favorite stuffed animals! Um yeah..... I know that is a lot in his bed! I used to take them out when he would fall asleep. However he would wake up crying and saying the name of the animal that was not in his bed, once we would put it back in his bed he would go back to sleep. :) So they all sleep in there now! :) Sometimes I hear him in there "talking" to them .... it is very cute!

3. Elmo is his favorite thing right now! We started watching a little bit of Sesame Street in the morning when we are home and ever since then he has loved Elmo! He has a tickle me Elmo that he got for Christmas. He was not very interested in it at the time... but now we read to it, sit with it in the car, feed it ... yes I said feed it, and give it many hugs and kisses! One day I was trying to get him to eat dinner and I said ... Oh look Elmo likes it and started feeding it to Elmo, and ever since then he wants to feed it. :) Very cute!!

4. He is becoming a picky eater!! AHHH this is a big frustration for us as I am sure it is for a lot of parents! I cook a meal that I think he will just love and what does he do.... refuses to eat it! So what have I resorted to to get him to eat his food????? Ketchup! Yes that is right.. Ketchup! If you know me at all you know that I eat Ketchup on everything so it is always at our kitchen table when we eat. And Brody now enjoys it and most of the time Ketchup helps him eat whatever it is that he does not want to eat. :)

5. He is now sitting in time out when he gets in trouble! I saw my friend Julia do this with Jasmine and it really works.... I did not really even think about doing time out with him because I really thought he was to young for it. However I saw that it worked and Brody was at the point where he needed some kind of discipline. So we started it and although at first I had to hold him there..... he is now sitting on the "time out rug" and will face the wall until we come over and talk to him. I am really glad I started doing it.

6. He still loves to play hide and seek and loves for you to find him. That is one of my favorite things to do with him! He is also into climbing on things.

He is growing up way to fast and is becoming a little boy more and more each day. :)

Lillian Andersen is here!!!

Yeah our little Niece is here!!!! After a long time waiting at the hospital we finally got to hear that we were an Aunt, Uncle, and cousin to Lillian Andersen!! We did not know if she was a boy or a girl before she was born so that was very exciting to wait and find out what she was! It was fun to watch her proud daddy come out and tell us that she was a girl and what her name was!

This is a picture of us waiting in the hospital

Brody was a little tired but overall he was a big trooper! He would not go to sleep even though it was past his bed time.... I guess he wanted to wait up and see if he had a girl or boy cousin to play with! (We want to give a great big THANKS to all the family that helped keep Brody entertained while we waited for Lilly to arrive!!)

Here she is in her proud mamma's arms! She is so cute!!

Daddy holding his baby girl!

Here we are introducing Brody to his cousin! Little does he know that she is going to be a great play mate one day!!! I am so glad that we a have a niece so that I can play Barbies and have tea parties with! I remember my Aunt Karen would always have fun playing Barbies with us and my sister and I would always love getting dressed up and having tea parties! One day Lilly, you and I are going to have some fun tea parties!! Maybe Brody can be the waiter! :)

Jason holding his little niece!

Me the proud Aunt with Lilly!

We are so happy for you Holly and Ryan! You have a beautiful baby girl and we can't wait to see what kind of person she becomes! We pray that she is a woman who has a passion for God and that she has many fun life experiences!

Happy Easter!!

We had a great Easter weekend!! My sister was able to come in town on her spring break and stay a little longer then usual so that was a lot of fun and I know that Brody really enjoyed having her around! We did a lot of fun stuff and were very busy while she was here.

We had a cook out at my parents house and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs over the fire pit! It was a lot of fun and a good day to do it. In the picture above Brody is helping Marmee feed the birds!! He loves doing this and will always grab her hand and say "tweet tweet"...... like he is saying lets go feed the birds Marmee. It is very cute to watch him help her! Suprisingly he does not run off, but stays there until they are all done putting the bird seed in the bird feeder. It is very cute to watch.

Brody is pushing Amy on his fire tuck...... Amy had been pushing him. :)

Roasting hotdogs with Marmee... He did not last very long at this. :)

Looking at what the easter bunny brought him in his easter basket. He got some tractors which he has loved playing with!! Lately he has been a little obsessed with tractors so he loved these!

Family picture...

Brody playing with Aunt Amy

We went to one of Brody's favorite play areas with Amy. It was fun for him to play there and show Amy all the different things to do there. I love this picture of him and Amy.... like he is saying here I am hanging out and having a good time!

We had a good time while Amy was here and I know that Brody really enjoyed playing with her and following her around the house!! Thanks for coming and staying with us Amy we had a great time with you!!

Let the hunt begin!!

On Sunday our church had an easter egg hunt for all the kids! It was so much fun for Brody to be able to be a part of it this year! We have been hiding eggs at home and letting him find them so that he knows what we mean when we tell him to find the eggs and put them in his basket. Brody hunted eggs with his classmates (only 1 year olds were in this play room hunting eggs-- with their parents) which made it really good so that there were not a bunch of big kids running around pushing all the little kids out of the way. :) It was fun to see him get into it and he did a great job finding the eggs, opening them to see if there were any "golden tickets" inside, and then putting them in his basket.

Let the hunt begin!
Yeah there was a golden ticket in this egg.... we get to go to Chucky Cheese and get a free pizza and tokens!! Good job Brody!!

Look at all the eggs!

Me telling him that the hunt was over.

We will hunt more ester eggs at our families house next weekend! :)

It is an outside day!

Trying to teach a 16 month old how to use a spoon is quite the task and a very big patience builder for me! He is doing better and will always grab the spoon and put it in his mouth it is getting the food on the spoon that is the problem. :) Every time he had some apple sauce on the spoon, when he would bring the spoon to his mouth the apple sauce would go flying either on the table, his bib, or the newly mopped floor. :-) I know he was having a lot of fun and was trying his hardest to scoop it out of the bowl. I am not sure how much actually got into his mouth. :-)

Today we went outside to play in the yard!!!!!!!! As I opened the back door I praised the Lord for what a beautiful day it is outside!! It is a great day to be outside and play! We spent some time sliding down our slide, and swinging on our swing set. (Funny because when we moved into this house I wanted to get rid of the "older" swing set that was in the yard...obviously I did not have kids yet and I am VERY glad we did not get rid of it!!!) We also painted the fence. We got out some paint brushes and started going to town getting the fence painted with water! It was kind of fun to see his reaction to this since he has never painted before. :-) The paint brush did not hold his interest very long though.... he found the water and started playing in it!! I think tomorrow's project is for him to learn what a weed looks like and to learn how to pull it!!! hahah j/k

This is a picture of him when I said it was time to go inside! :-)

Just playing around!

Even though our swim lessons are over this week has still been eventful and full of fun! We were able to get some fun "new" toys from a big consignment sale going on now. I was able to get lots of trucks, tractors, books, puzzles, and a fun 4 wheeler that is battery powered and moves at the push of a button. I got all of them so cheap that I could not believe it! We were in need of some new outside toys for him and boy howdy we got some good ones! As any good mother would do I have put some back and will pull them out through out the summer.

His cool new 4 wheeler!! He did not know what to think about this at first but after he figured out how to start it he really enjoyed it! I can see many a summer day outside playing with this toy!!!

Brody is "learning" the proper way of hitting a golf ball. :) I think he would rather pick the ball up and throw it!! :)

We had some friends from out of town come over and play. (This toy is another great find from the sale and Brody has been playing with it every day!!) Ayan was adopted not to long ago by some friends that we have grown up with. It was fun being able to see him and his momma!

He is all boy just like Brody! He was a lot of fun and I know Brody had a good time sharing all of his toys with him!

We are so excited for you guys and think you have a great boy!! It was fun getting to see you all and catch up on things.

*We also want to say a big congratulations to our friends Scott and Julie! Addison Grace was born this morning and we are so excited for them! She is a little cutie with a full head of hair!! Congratulations!