Over the last year Jimmy has become a little artist.  He makes sculptures and buildings of all kinds of things.  He takes color time very seriously.  Here’s a few pictures of some of his recent art.  He did this while I was taking a nap.  It was a cool surprise to wake up to.  The pictures don’t do it justice.

Proudly displaying his masterpiece.

We found a cute little lizard.  We got to hold it for a bit.  The boys had fun.

The other day I actually fixed my hair.  When I came out of the bedroom, James with wide eyes tells me I look beautiful.  He then gets the boys’ attention and says, “isn’t mommy beautiful?”  At first they said, “no, that’s just hair”. But then all the rest of the day they would say, “Mommy so bootaful.”

The other day Peter comes up to me and says, where’s Pablo? (his toy).  So I turn around and see a big bulge in his pajamas.  He had such an innocent look on his face I couldn’t help but laugh.

One morning we were watching the movie Ratatouille.  There’s a big scene where the rat makes soup.  About half way through the move I fell asleep.  When I woke up I found the boys in the kitchen “making soup”.  They had a large bowl full of fruits and veggies covered in yogurt.  They were so proud of their soup it was hard to be mad.  I did make them clean it up though.

Lately Peter says “okay” all the time.  “Mommy, I want a cracker, okay?”, “I want to go to the ocean, okay?”  sometimes he says it all sweet and nice, but when I tell him no he wrinkles up his nose and says it in his “possessed voice”  It’s kinda funny.

We had our first video chat with my family today.  It was a lot of fun!  We mostly just sat around making faces at each other.  It was great to be able to see everyone.

Some silly moments at the Brausch home.

They’re so cute when they’re asleep!

Not much new with us.  There’s a cold that’s being passed around at our house.  So far Peter and I have had it.

The boys are big into “building houses” lately.  Some times with books, but usually with chairs, blankets and the couch cushions.

Here’s a few pictures of some of their houses.

We spend a lot of time in the sun and when your kids are allergic to sun screen it’s important that they eat their veggies to give them the vitamins they need to better deal with the sun.  One thing we do is sneak it into things they like.  ie: jello, smoothies, and popsicle.

Our recent favorite is popsicles.  I make a green drink for my self and also fill up the popsicles(handful of spinach, some fruit like mango, bananas etc and a spoon full of sugar all mixed in the blender).   It’s funny because if I offer them some of my green drink they just wrinkle up their nose and decline.  But they love the “fruit” popsicles.

Another good tip is spinach powder.  It’s really easy to sneak that into anything.  You can get some at a good price on amazon.com

The boys are going through a no pants phase.  I put pants on them every morning but the next time they use the potty they take them off and do not want to put them back on.  Jimmy has even started hiding his pants after he takes them off.

The boys have been monkeys the last few days.  When we go to the park they climb the trees and make monkey noises.

Over the last few months Jimmy has been big on every thing having a name.  Whenever we run into new people at the park, or the store he tells them, “I’m Jimmy, that’s Peter and Mommy, Daddy is at the orange house” (our house is orange).  The hotel we stayed at last week was the “house with the chairs”  Every now and again I’ll hear the boys arguing over what something is called, Peter- it’s a cute doggy, Jimmy-no, it’s a little dog etc.  Or I’ll say something like, thanks sweety and he’ll correct me, “no, I’m Jimmy.”  My favorite is when we’re tickling him or Peter is chasing him he’ll put his hands up and say, “I’m Jimmy” as if we thought he was someone else and we need to stop what we’re doing because he’s Jimmy.

This last week we went to the beach in Nicaragua for our visa requirements (we have to leave Costa Rica for 3 days, every 90 days).  It’s really fun because we’ve done it so many times that we have a bunch of friends there and know where everything is.

The boys LOVE the beach and the ocean.  The week before we left, the boys were constantly asking, “are we going to the ocean today?”  And we would tell them, “no, three more days”.  One morning we woke up to Jimmy opening our door and yelling, “we’re going to the ocean today, let’s go!”  We’re actually thinking of moving near the ocean again.

One thing that the boys got a kick out of was the shower in our hotel room.  They showered at least twice a day because they liked it so much.  It had nice pressure and it was really warm.  There was even a few times that they didn’t even ask me if they could take a shower.  They just quietly took their clothes off and hopped in.

We spent a lot of time at the park and the beach, playing and having fun.  We brought kites with us, the wind changed to much to get them up though.

There’s a few houses there, where, in the evening they pull out their barbecue and fixings and you can buy really yummy grilled chicken (and other meat).  We did that for dinner every night we were there.  Even the boys chowed down on the chicken.

Oddly enough, this was the only picture I took the whole trip.  There was a handful of wagons that went by carrying sugar cane while we were waiting for the bus.  The boys thought it was really cool.

Peter came up to me and was asking for something, but I wasn’t sure what. He had to say it a few times before I realized he wanted his Pablo toy. He said it so cute I had to get it on video:

The other night I asked Jimmy if what he was eating was good.  He looks up at me and in one smooth move winks, nods, clicks his tongue and gives me a thumbs up.

Yesterday I was standing in the kitchen with Peter when the washing machine switched into the spin cycle and was off balance for a second, making a loud noise.  Peter jumps back and points at the laundry room door and yells to me, “Mommy, do something!!”

Watch out for the …bum, bum, bum…clothes pin monsters.

You gotta watch out for the cute innocent look.  The moment you let down your guard…wahpow…you’re hung out to dry.

He’s getting so big!

I’m not sure what this look is about, but I thought it was funny that they both have the same expression.

Jimmy:
42 1/8 inches
42 1/4 pounds

Peter:
39 1/4 inches
38 1/2 pounds

A few weeks ago the boys started playing with clothes pins like they were legos.  So I bought them some of their own pins, just for playing with.  They are really getting into building things and having a lot of fun.

Jimmy made a dinosaur and he went on and on about the two mouths and all the toes, showing us what everything was.  It was really cute.

Of course Peter had to get in on the action a little too. :-)

Peter made a really cool airplane, complete with “pyews” (guns).

Meet Super Snap and The Blue Bird

Jimmy and Peter are so funny.  It’s 85 degrees and they still want to wear their Backyardigans hoodies.

Peter asked me to put him in the tree, but once he was up there he didn’t like it.

We’re doing pretty good.  The boys know their letters but I’ve started teaching them to write their letters now.  They’re actually having a lot of fun with it, especially Jimmy.

James got hit by a car last week.  A kid was showing off and pulled out of his parking space really fast and didn’t see James.  Luckily he just got knocked over and got a few scrapes and bruises.

Today the boys decided to “clean their room”.  They grabbed a bunch of bags and started filling them up with their toys.  But then they put the bags in the walk-way between the kitchen and the family room.  They were having fun so I just let them pile it up for awhile.