Oh Benjamin . . .

Grandpa Wayne refers to Ben as a budding little attorney. I am pretty sure he is onto something. Ben has an argument for everything and they usually go something like this:

Me: "Ben it is time for bed."
Ben: "I know. I know. I know Mom, but I am just a little and I am curious about lots of things, like shows."
Me: "Ben it is dark and late. Time for bed. No more shows."
Ben: "Here's the deal Mom. One more show and then I go to bed."
Me: "No Ben. Time for bed."
Ben: "Mom! I have a great idea!!! How about I sleep for couple minutes and then I wake up and watch a show?"
Me: "Ben, time for bed. You can watch a show in the morning when the sun comes up, but right now it is time for bed."
Ben: "I know. I know. I know Mom, but I am not tired. See? I have lots of NG (energy)!"

Oh boy. What a kid.

Happy New Year . . . sort of . . .

I wanted to do something fun for New Year's Eve. I thought it would be fun to start a tradition with our little family that we could do together before the boys went to sleep. (There is no way they are staying up until midnight. Everyone will be miserable.) I decided that it would be so fun to do a breakfast dinner! I was so excited to find a package of bacon in the freezer because Scott LOVES bacon so it would make the meal perfect!! I made homemade waffles, yummy cheesy eggs and . . . bacon. Everything was going perfectly. Scott even got home a little early. I checked the timer on the bacon and turned around to pull a waffle out of the waffle iron. When I turned back around to the bacon in microwave, the paper towel covering was on FIRE!!!! So I did what every level headed mother does. PANIC!!!! I started screaming, "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!" Then in my head I thought, "Water. Water puts out fires." I yanked the burning pan out of the microwave, threw it in the sink and turned on the water. A teeny tine thought crossed my mind, "Never put hot glass in water . . ." KA-BOOM!! The glass dish exploded into a million ity bitty tiny pieces all over the kitchen! Awesome. So after I aired out the house and doused the rest of the flames. We sat down and ate our waffles and eggs. No bacon. After we ate and I had recovered a bit I cleaned up all the glass and dishes. I just finished wiping everything down and then ran the disposal to clear everything out and the most horrifying sound came out!! I shut if off and realized, "There is glass in there. Awesome." I fished around in the sludge trying to find the stray pieces of glass. I tried the disposal again. Again, horrible sound. So I dug around some more. Scott came up to my rescue. He kept digging while I put Cole to bed. Right as I came back down the stairs he flipped the switch to try it again and . . . nothing. Great. I killed the disposal and the bacon and a baking dish. But the night didn't end there!! So I then put Ben to bed and miracle of miracles he was asleep by 9:15 pm. I came down ready to party with the hubby to find him fast asleep on the love sac. Sweet.  I tried to watch some the Times Square broadcast to cheer me up, but it only frustrated me. Thirty seconds of Ryan Seacrest telling me what was coming up and then 5 minutes of commercials, and then thirty more seconds of babble, then more commercials. All the while Scott is snoring gangbusters in my ear. I shut off the TV and we were in bed by 10:30 pm. Wahoo!! Aren't we party animals? Don't worry. There is more. Of course the fireworks going off at midnight woke up Ben. He came in our bed for a bit, but I grew tired of his feet in my back so I took him back to his bed. Not an hour later he had weaseled his way back into our bed. I realized I had two choices. 1: carry Ben back to his room a million times or 2: sleep in his bed. I slept in his bed. Happy New Year from us!!

buzz lightyear and his faithful sidekick

Even though being Ben's brother threatens his life daily (Ben gave Cole his first bloody nose yesterday. Awesome). I am pretty sure Cole would still follow him to the ends of the earth. And Ben would most likely let him because he needs someone to boss around. But they do love each other. Because as Ben says, "Dats what fam-a-wees do."

my little bookworm

 Cole LOVES books. Even when he was itty bitty he preferred books to toys. While Ben runs around racing cars like a hooligan, Cole sits in his rocking chair and reads books. He is getting pretty good at animal sounds. He knows: dog, tiger, bear, lion, chicken, cat, donkey, and cow. My favorite are his cat and donkey sounds. His meow is really slow and soft and sounds like, "Mrrrraaoow." He gets so excited to do the donkey sound. I don't know what is so funny about "hee-haw" but he laughs every time. He loves to read his "Jus-Jus" (Jesus) books at night before bedtime.

Cole is super into blocks. He dumps out the blocks in his room at least ten times a day and then knocks them over and then he laughs and laughs and laughs. Balls and trains are other big favorites right now.

Merry Christmas!

 Ben could barely contain his excitement Christmas morning. He ran into our room and pounced on our bed and begged to go downstairs. Unfortunately, he had to wait rather impatiently for us to wake up Cole and change his bum.

 But finally the time came!

Lucky for him Santa came!!

 Looks like Santa and the Reindeer enjoyed their midnight snack!

 Our elf, Eddy, left the boys a special surprise.

 Ben was trying to be such a great older brother and show Cole how Christmas worked: you rip everything open as fast as you possibly can and then ask for more! Sadly, Cole just wanted to lounge in his new man chair and enjoy each gift before moving onto the next.

 Ben is a bit pushy and made sure Cole did it his way.

 Lucky for Cole, Ben eventually went back to his gifts.

So Cole got to just sit and enjoy for a bit. 

 I think Cole's favorite part of the morning was the M&Ms Eddy left for him.

 What is that? A VERY special surprise from Santa. It was carefully wrapped and hidden in the entry.

 TA - DA!! Most exciting Christmas present ever for two little boys! We knew Ben would be stoked because he has been begging for one since April, but we were shocked at Cole's level of excitement. He literally did not want to get out of it. Ever.

 Cole eventually drooled too much M&M all over his shirt and smeared crepes everywhere. So he got stripped down. That little belly is always so full and hanging over his pants. So adorable.

Ben made sure all of Cole's toys worked properly.

The house was trashed. Our bellies were full. The boys were spoiled rotten. What a great day.

Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving!

How can you not be thankful for this spread? Nobody cooks a home-cooked meal quite like my grandmother. Holy Moly. I savored every single bite.

 Cole of course found an old chair that my grandpa made for me and my cousins when we were little. It has seen a lot of love over the years and cracked under the pressure of great grandchildren.

 Really. The reinforced PVC pipe broke. Gramps is a handy man and rushed to the rescue. He glued the chair back together in no time.

Cole found a replacement chair to sit in while the other was under repair.

Ben loves going to grandma and grandpa Richen's house because they have "way cool toys."

They are the same toys I played with when I was little. But they are still awesome!!!

DIY Family Pictures

 I really wanted some cute pictures of the boys that I could send out for Christmas cards this year. So the plan was to get the boys dressed and take them over to Soda Row, but then I thought. Why not do the whole family? Scott and I have clothes to match the boys! But then who to take a photo of all of us? Que my awesome neighbor Tahnie Roska! She came over with only five minutes notice and took some cute ones of all of us which was so lucky because a cute shot of the boys together was SO not happening today!

 This is what the reset of the pictures that I didn't post look like. Seriously.

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween from the Bruderer Bunch!! We had another awesome party this year thanks to all of these great folks. They all pitched in so I didn't have to do it all on my birthday!

 Ghostie treats and monster mouth appetizers. I am finding that I am taking fewer and fewer pictures at this party every year. I think I my hands are a bit full these days!

 Oh  my darling boys . . .

 Ben desperately wanted to be a "ghost wife." No, that is not a typo. He wanted to be the "ghost light" like on the Mater Cartoon Short on the Cars Movie. But he is convinced it is the "ghost wife" and not the "ghost light." The cars in the movie play a trick on Mater and hang a lantern on his tow hook and convince him it is the "ghost light." Lucky for me Ben thinks it looks like a regular ghost. So all I had to do was whip out and old sheet and cut it up!

 Cole was an itsy bitsy spider . . .

 and I was his web!! Aren't we so cute together?

The biggest news is that Cole is officially walking!! Today was the first day that he started to prefer walking to crawling. It's so fun to watch him learn something new, but so sad to know that my baby is growing up!

 Ben did a costume change before his cousins came. He wanted to be a firefighter before he wanted to be a "ghost wife." So he had two costumes!

 Cousins!!

 Calvin and Weston were fearsomely adorable pirates.

 Sally came as Rapunzel. This is the absolute perfect costume for this girl! Check out her frying pan! LOVE IT!

 Watch out Cougars!! Adri is ready to take the field with the next generation of cheerleaders!

From left to right we have April: Halloween Diva, Halloween Marilyn or a wild Aunt Sheryl. The choice is yours. Jason as Wolverine and Amber as the Magic 8 Ball. She was legit. You could ask her questions and she pulled the answers out of her necklace!

 The softer side of Wolverine. Awwww.

 Pirate Daddy Scott Bruderer. When we went trick or treating all of the kids kept getting so excited about seeing the "real" Captain Jack Sparrow. Scott loved every minute of  it.

Farewell Halloween! We are already anxiously awaiting your return!