Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Spoon Full Of Sugar

What can I say... The kid LOVES Mary Poppins...



Spoon Full of Sugar & Step In Time are frequent songs in our house.



He also loves Willy Wonka...


Tuesday, June 30, 2009

June Fun

June was jam packed with lots of summer fun! It FINALLY got warm outside and we have been gifted with a few nice weekends. There's still more rain than I appreciate lately, but we managed to squeeze in some fun times despite the rainy weather. Between swimming, camping, boating, and hanging out with family, we had much to smile about in June.

Chad wanted to do a Sox game for Father's Day, but they weren't in town that weekend. Instead he and I went up to Milwaukee the weekend before Father's Day to see the Sox play the Brewers. After the game we met up with our good friend Dan who lives up there. It was fun catching up with him. As we made our way back, we stopped at Chad's parents house and met up with the rest of the Maz clan for an early Father's Day lunch. While Bradyn was at Grammy and Poppy's he got to spend some time with cousin Zachary. It's so fun to watch them play and interact. I can already tell they are gonna be little partners in crime. This time they got to ride the little motorized 4 wheeler. Thank goodness we figured out how to put it on SNAIL speed. They also got a huge kick out of watching Poppy set of some old fireworks that were in the garage. "Do it Again Poppy!! Fireworks!! Another one!!"

For Father's Day weekend, we went camping with my dad. He brought his boat with him, so we spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoon on the lake. It was a fun time! Bradyn was a little hesitant at first, not really knowing how to react, he was so quiet that he fell asleep on the boat. Granted we went out about naptime so that didn't surprise me too much, but it allowed us to shade him with a towel and enjoy ourselves while he slept. By the end of the weekend he became super comfortable and was even jumping in the water off the back of the boat ladder!



Monday, June 15, 2009

Kyleah Nicole is 1

Again, my how time flies! My neice Kyleah turned 1 year old on June 4th. Her party was that following weekend. It was a little bit rainy for part of the party, but overall it turned out to be a nice day. The kids swam in the kiddy pool and busted open a monkey pinata. Kyleah opened lots of fun presents and had a fun party. Now that Kyleah is getting bigger and more mobile, Bradyn is starting to become more and more fond of her. I really think they are gonna be close little buds as they continue to grow.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

May Travels






We went camping with my mom for Mother’s Day this year. Bradyn loves the outdoors rain or shine! It rained the first day we got there, but once it stopped we went around the campground and jumped in every single puddle we could find. He loved that! He kept running through them over and over again. He also liked throwing rocks in the water and watching them splash!



The highlight of this camping trip was how extatic Bradyn got over all of the boats at the marina! He saw one boat at the campground and got excited, so we thought we would take him to the marina to see LOTS of boats. Oh my!! I wish you could have see the excited look on his face when he initially saw them, then we got out and walked along the boardwalk and he kept saying, “Another one! Another one! Oooooooooh a BIG one! It’s MOOVING! I’m Excited!!” Tons of fun!


I also found myself at Huntington Beach, California for a week long work trip. It was an offsite Finance & Control meeting. It was a pretty good mix of business & pleasure. There were speakers, presentations, etc, but the evenings were filled with good food and free beer! We even had a little downtime to enjoy the beach and the pool. One of the days was a community service event day. There were about 300 of us that partnered up with an organization called KABOOM! and we spent 5 hours one day building an entire playground for an underpriviledged community center in California.. The space started out as a blank slate of dirt. By the end of the day we had transformed it into an amazing playspace complete with swings, slide, climbing wall, benches, shade shelter, and planted a vegetable garden for them as well. It was a very rewarding experience and it was nice to get to know some of our co-workers a little better that we used to just know over the phone.

Watch the playground transform here: PLAYGROUND

See more pictures here: PLAYGROUND PICS


Since I was already out in California and it just happened to be the week before Memorial Day, Chad and Bradyn met me out there and we took Bradyn to San Diego! We took Bradyn to the San Diego Zoo & to Sea World. Yeah Yeah, I know, the kid seems to be spoiled already… getting to go to San Diego for his second birthday. LOL Really though, it just worked out that way. Family vacation with one flight paid for by Nestle and it just happened to be over Bradyn’s birthday! Bradyn loved the zoo, but more so enjoyed Sea World. He had a blast watching the Shamu Show and watching the crowd get splashed! He even puts his hands in the air, makes a triangle with his fingers, and moves his arms up and down chanting “Shamu, Shamu, Shamu”. That’s what we were told to do to make Shamu splash!

Bradyn is 2!!


Can you believe it!? Bradyn is 2 now! Where has time gone? Seems like just yesterday he was our little tiny baby. Not so little anymore my friends. At his 2 year appt he was off the charts (still). He’s literally the size of a 3 year old. He measured 38 inches tall and weighed 34lbs. He’s talking up a storm now and is in the “kids say the darndest things” stage. It’s so fun to hear some of the things he comes up with. He likes to sing songs (especially ones from the movies, Mary Poppins, Wizard of Oz, or Charlie & the Chocolate Factory). His favorite right now is “Step In Time” from Mary Poppins, and apparently it is 8 ½ Step in Times from our house to Bradyn’s Daycare! LOL

We finally broke down and took Bradyn to get his first barbershop haircut. We took him to a kids place called Cookie Cutters where the kids can sit in a tractor, car, etc and watch a movie on their own little personal tv while they get their hair cut. After initially being indecisive as to whether he wanted to sit in the airplane, tractor, or pink car, he finally settled on the tractor.

Bradyn’s party this year was a “Things that Go” theme. He loves cars, trucks, busses, trains, and the bigger the better. He also has this infatuation with stop signs. We had a great party and celebrated with lots of friends and family.





Thursday, April 30, 2009

Kyla Rae

On April 15th we welcomed a new neice into the family. Chad’s youngest brother Kyle & sister-in-law Laura had Kyla Rae Mazanowski. Kyla is the first female Mazanowski in something like 80+ years! Chad’s grandparents had two boys, and Chad’s parents had three boys, then Dustin & Kristin had Zach, and we have Bradyn. LOTS OF BOYS!!! Little Kyla brings extra special joy to the family as she breaks the streak of the Mazanowski Men.

March Madness & Easter Eggs

This year, ISU had a pretty decent shot at getting into the NCAA tournament, so my mom, Chad, Bradyn and I decided to go down to St. Louis for the MVC tournament and watch our Redbirds for the weekend.

It was a fun, basketball filled weekend. We also took Bradyn down to see the Arch and let him run around the park a little bit. Standing next to the arch really dwarfed him. Man, I forgot just how big it is. ISU ended up losing and didn’t make it into the tournament, but that didn’t stop us from watching the rest of the teams battle it out.

As usual, we filled out our brackets (even Bradyn filled one out), took a couple days off work to watch the first round, and even made our way to Vegas for the Final Four! That just so happened to be because Chad was out there for a business trip & I decided as long as one ticket was paid for, I’d meet him out there for the weekend. While we were out there we stumbled upon some Country Music Awards and saw all the country stars go through their red carpet walk before the show. We aren’t really country music fans, and didn’t know all of them, but I did end up getting Taylor Swift’s autograph. I ended up giving it to a couple behind us who had a 7 year old daughter. I knew she would appreciate it much more than I did. It was a gift for her birthday and they emailed me and thanked me again and said she absolutely loved it and they were very grateful. Always fun to make someone smile!

Easter was tons of fun this year! This was our first year of actually playing Easter Bunny. Bradyn LOVED coloring Easter Eggs and counting them when he was done. My favorite memory from this easter was when we were coloring Easter Eggs. Bradyn had the little wire thingie in his hand waiting to pull the eggs out of the dye and he said, “Stop Sign!”. It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about, but sure enough, the little wire thingie was an octogon and he was calling it a stop sign! That’s our little smarty pants! How he knew that I don’t know. We also had an Easter Egg Hunt outside at my mom’s and he had a blast with cousin Kyleah trying to find the plastic eggs. “Another one, and Another one!” Can’t wait to continue the Easter Traditions for years to come.