All About Chase

 I really do not remember this happening but I'm glad a have a picture b/c it's so cute and I have proof that he does, eventually, get worn out.

 Chase is ALL about superheros. Kaleb was watching Wiggles and Thomas the train at his age and Chase wants to play superhero and tackle and wrestle. Oh, the innocence is already gone...

And by the way that is a sucker not a cigarette in his mouth...Candy is another thing that Chase gets to benefit from as a second child that Kaleb never got as a first.

 He loves riding his big wheel around. He can't reach the pedals but runs it around with his feet.

 He's pointing at his cool new spiderman shirt. He called spiderman "BaBa" for the longest time and we have no idea why, but we call him baba too and have a special place for "BaBa" in our hearts now.

 Breakfast is the only meal he eats well (unless it involves hot dogs).

 He's practicing up on his light saber skills since he's going to be Yoda for halloween.

 Batman to the rescue...

 On vacation we went to this diner and they brought Chase this huge hotdog off the kid's menu (notice the size of the plate and let's talk about childhood obesity). He looooves hot dogs and ate every bite of it. We couldn't believe it.

Chase throwing sand at the camera

 Chase has this weird hobby of taking the dish towels off the stove and playing with them. He likes to cover himself up with them, play peek-a-boo, run around the house dragging them on the floor, drooling on them...you know, everything possible to make sure I can't use them again.

Peek-a-boo!

Many Faces of Kaleb

This one's kind of funnier of Chase, but anyway, these are my two little piggies out on the porch in their pj's.

 We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch on Jason's birthday and they brought out this big sombrero and sang to him and stuck his nose in whipped cream. The kids got a kick out of that.

 Picasso at a young age...

 Charlie Chapman at a young age...

 McGuiver at a young age... Jason and him spent an afternoon at the creek doing I'm not sure what with the potting utensils...

 Crazy hat day at school. I bought that hat at Target in the dollar section one day, knowing that Kaleb hates hats but I thought it was too cute. Little did I know he would wear it to school and keep it on the entire day a year later.

 Rock Star Day at school...

Move over Bono...

 Crazy Hair Day at school...Did I mention, we looove their new school!! Not only are they learning but they do fun things to get the kids involved.

 Kaleb is obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog. He's posing to run fast like Sonic in this picture.

Kaleb had so much fun in soccer this year. Not only was Jason the co-coach but 4 of the boys on the team all go to church together and know each other well.  They were the "Orange Sonics" (guess who picked that name out).  They liked to all color their hair orange before each game. Kaleb's was always 10x brighter than everyone elses b/c his is naturally orange. When Chase and I drove separately we could always spot him from a mile away. All the boys skills improved through the season and we are so proud of them!

Summer 2012

 We spent a lot of time at the lake on the weekends. Chase didn't like to get in the water so we had to force him in for a few minutes at a time to get him cooled off. We have just found out that Chase is going to need tubes in his ears and are VERY disappointed that he can not go in lake water for a couple years...Poor guy, he'll be left alone at home with a babysitter while we all go enjoy the lake...j/k...well, maybe...

We did some artwork inside. Chase loves to draw, color and paint. It's fun to see him do something he enjoys. They are so proud of their new creations.

 This summer was SOOOO hot! We tried to find as many indoor activities as possible. Circus world is always a hit for Kaleb. He started doing back flips on this jumpy trampoline thing one day and then did 10 straight in a row. This boy never gets dizzy.

 We had fun in the ball pit and I reminisced about my old Chuck E Cheese days when I was a kid...yuck!

 I wouldn't want to mess with these guys. I think they're from the Hunger games.

Both the boys enjoy the zoo. We love having a membership so we can go often and not have to stay too long if its hot. I failed to blog all summer long and now I have forgotten most of the events.

We also went to 9 birthday parties in a matter of 8 weeks. Now is that fun or what. It seems like all of Kaleb's friends have birthdays at the same time.  He had a blast and Chase got to tag along for most.

We spent a lot of afternoons at the pool where we were the only ones there most of the time. Kaleb learned to swim underwater with his goggles, which is good b/c he decided he didn't want to wear his floaties this summer so it was nice to know he could at least get to the side of the pool if he needed to. Chase like to play on the step and not get his head near the water. He got a little braver as the summer progressed.  We didn't have a vacation this summer (we had one in spring and fall) so it made it a little longer than normal.

Spring time fun

 We recently visited my grandmother this spring. We hadn't been in a while b/c I was leary about my rambunctious little ones being too loud and crazy. When they got that way we just went into the hall of her facility and just let them run up and down with her dog Toby and they had a blast.

 So, since we got back from punta cana Chase has been pulling out his hair.  He mostly does this when he is tired and sucking (on his paci or sippy cup). We can not get him to stop and cannot monitor him when he is sleeping and he has managed to pull out all the hair on the back of his bead and has started on the top. Arrh! we were planning to take away his paci, but he has had ear infections, stomach virus, visit to knoxville and grandparents in town that have prevented a normal routine and we want him to get back to a normal sleeping pattern before we do, which I wonder if it will ever happen.  Lately, Chase has been refusing to take naps at home and is also refusing to eat. He ate 4 green beans and a strawberry for dinner tonight.

 When we were in Knoxville visiting family, Granddad treated us to a rainforest zoo in pigeon forge. Kaleb was super excited to get to pet a hedge hog named Sonic.

 "Luk!, Luk!" says Chase. The kids had a blast watching the lemurs. It was fun watching Chase chase around his brother and cousin.

 After the zoo, we had a picnic in the park and the kids got some tree climbing time.

 The boys have been playing with each other more at home. Unfortunately anything that one has, the other wants.  Not to fear with laundry baskets! I have plenty of them.

 Chase loves to dig his fingers into our bellybuttons. He just laughs and laughs.  He also loves to tell us he has a dirty diaper by sticking it in our faces (literally) when we are sitting or lying in the floor.

 They actually passed the car back and forth for several moments together the other day.  Long enough for me to find the camera and take a picture.

 Chase has been looking so cute in his lion towel lately and we realized we didn't have many bath pictures of him so we planted the camera in the bathroom the night before so we could remember to snap a few.

 Daddy and Chase enjoying a book...

 We have been spending a large amount of time outside lately. I pick the boys up from school and as soon as we get home they both run to the deep freezer in the garage and pull out the package of icy pops and sit in our camping chairs and enjoy. Then they run around in the driveway b/c there is a nice shadow from the house to decrease the temperature a bit. Kaleb enjoys riding his bike and knocking the snot out of balls with his golf clubs.

 Jason has been good at planting flowers.

 How nice!  We also have a vegetable garden in the back which has already yielded some good cucumbers. Can't wait for the tomatoes to turn red!

 Chase is fishing for rocks I guess.  He likes to be pulled around in the wagon.

 His favorite toy lately is his bubble blower mower.  He likes to flip it up and look under it like Daddy does to his.

 Kaleb is a speed demon on his bike. He runs up and down the sidewalk and them slams on his brakes to make skid marks, usually in front of our neighbors house that is for sale. I'm sure they love us.  We also like to do sidewalk chalk and recently Kaleb had read a book about how big God's throne is. He likes to draw with the chalk and ask "Is this as big as God's throne?" and when I say no, he says "whoaah!" and keeps drawing. I noticed he had drawn in front of our house and both neighbors on each side of us.

 Chase likes playing peek-a-boo with Papa.

 Getting rides on Daddy.

We have had a great spring hanging out outside. One day it was raining and Kaleb asked "If it goes drippity droppity, can we go to hippity hoppity?" (a inside bounce house in town) I was impressed with his rhyming skills. We have been on the boat a few times this year but we are still trying to work around Chase's nap schedule (which has been non-existant the last 2 weeks). We have been going to the pool a lot and have made quite a progression. When we first started going Chase would scream and cry the whole time b/c he didn't want to get in the water. Now he is comfortable in the baby and big pool.  He won't wear floaties yet so we stay right with him. Kaleb has gone from wearing floaties to swimming underwater with his goggles on.  We just recently got him goggles and are amazed at how big a difference they make with the quality of Kaleb's strokes.  He may actually be able to swim by the end of the summer! Whoohoo!

Mother's and Father's Day recaps

 My Mother's day started with breakfast in bed, a recent tradition that I really love! I just have to eat fast so the my food doesn't disappear by little hands.

 My coolest mother's gift ever is the Superhero woman's T-shirt. I just make sure I have my boys with me when I am wearing it in public.

 Another Bruns' mother's day tradition is strawberry picking. This year it rained on mother's day but we managed to get up there the next weekend.  We picked 10 lbs of strawberries and ate them all in about a week. We thought Chase would have a blast b/c he loves strawberries but he only ate one on the farm.  The first year we went with Kaleb he ate some much he threw up.

 For father's day this year my parents were in town so it was great to celebrate father's day with my very own father! Also, without my mother I would not have been able to pull off breakfast in bed for Jason (I don't know how to make eggs...that is Jason's specialty)

 Dad enjoyed his breakfast at the table.

 Kaleb made Papa a card and enjoyed having him around.

 Jason got an "I've got Ninja Skills" shirt b/c it has been our joke for years that he calls himself a ninja and he is anything but when he is trying to be quiet around the house.  The worse is when he tries to "sneak" into bed when i'm already asleep and he rolls over and pulls ALL the covers off me and turns over about 4 different times trying to get comfortable.

 We went (with my parents) to a hibachi grill that night. The kids love to watch the huge fire and entertaining cook.