What the boys are up to

Brice William McCollem
Lost his first tooth on June 4, 2016.  The tooth fairy brought him $1.50 and a nice little note.
Is doing extremely well in first grade getting academic achievements in both first and second quarter.
Went on his first field trip in November to the Science Museum I got to chaperone.
In November 2016 but I started writing his bike with no training wheels.
He finished his second season of basketball and has improved a lot.
In March he started  coach pitch and has a pretty good swing but needs to work on his fielding.
He had a Pokémon birthday party for his 6th birthday.
He was Pikachu for Halloween.
Loves playing Pokémon go with Darren.
Loves the iPad.
Wanted for the longest time to be a consultant like pop up when he was older but recently changed his mind to be a paleontologist.
At his six-year physical he still in the 100% for height.

Brice is a sensitive boy. He is still extremely friendly and loves the friends he has. He makes friends easily but can get frustrated when they don't want to play what he wants to play (always wants to be the leader).  He is still very emotional extremely happy or things are the worst. As he gets older he's gotten much better about controlling his emotions. He is starting to become very helpful. He  is very good about including Nathan when they play with friends. He and Nathan already have a strong bond. There's definitely plenty of fighting and a lot of love between them as well.

Nathan Guy McCollem
Loves to sing. Memorize the songs on the radio and sings to them pretty easily.
His favorite song is "Can't stop the feeling" and sings and dances to it  all the time.
Loves the attention and will sing and dance for anyone.
Nathan still takes naps even at 4 1/2 and can fall sleep anywhere.
He will still crawl into bed at night and snuggle with Darren and I.
He loves to dress up as ash from Pokémon he puts on his back pack a pair of gloves with finger holes and his hat and loves to pretend.
Still has a huge imagination and it's great to see you at work.
He loves taking pictures on the iPad and our phones. And has a pretty good eye.
Had A Star Wars birthday party for his 4th birthday.
Was Squirtle for Halloween.
At his four year check up he had to get his kindergarten shots and was very brave.
He started brilliant beginnings again in July 2016 and did much better with classes. We are going to test him in early for kindergarten. We think he is ready and he is so excited to be at the gator school with Brice.
He wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. And loves learning about space.
He still plays with his earlobes when he's tired or thinking.
He never stops talking.

Nathan is my funny kid. He loves to make people laugh and enjoys playing with his brother and friends.  He wants to do whatever his brother is doing.  He's going through a big testing phase but instantly says he's sorry and tries to butter you up with his big blue eyes.  Overall he's pretty easy-going, but definitely holds his own if Brice or someone else tries to get them to do something that he does not want to do.  He is never "wrong" and will try to convince you why he's right.  He does some pretty cute things and I love that he still wants to sing and dance with me.

It's a Girl!!! 💗

 Time to post the exciting news that I am pregnant with a baby girl! I took a pregnancy test on January 4, 2017 and wrapped it up and gave it to Darren as a birthday present.  I told him it was the best birthday present I could get it. I made an appointment with the doctor thinking I was not as far along as I was and when I went in for my ultrasound I was pleasantly surprised to be two weeks later and we got to see arms and legs and everything measured great. Because of my "advanced maternal age" I took a blood test  to test for any genetic defects and it would also tell us the sex of the baby.  But before we had a reveal party we needed to start telling our family. Darren and I knew we cannot tell the boys to early because they would not be able to keep their mouth shut. So one Sunday we made valentines cupcakes and told boys that I was pregnant. I wish I had videoed Nathan's reaction because he just started giggling with excitement. Brice asked about three questions very logically one being "where is the baby going to fit in our room" and then said I'm so excited we're going to have another sister or brother. We then went to my parents house to share the news and put Nathan and his new shirt  that said promoted to big brother and her brothers hand them the alter sound pictures we go. Another great reaction from my parents. We then slowly started telling the rest of the family Darren's parents through Skype his dad ran and got a beer.  When the doctor had the news that everything looked great with the baby she put the sex of the baby in a number lope and I brought to the bakery to have surprise cake made. We invited my parents over and skate with Darren's parents and cut into the cake. Nathan was hoping for a little girl Brice was hoping for a brother to wrestle. Darren and I were very excited to find out we were having a baby girl!

How I'm Feeling
I have been feeling pretty nauseous and my taste buds have completely changed. Sweets are making me sick and I am craving salt.  After 12 weeks I was starting to feel a little better but it still depends on the day depending on what I eat.  I just tell myself baby girl is growing nice and big and healthy.

Growing Family
The boys are very sweet with me.  Nathan  constantly comes up and touches my belly and in a very deep voice  says "chubby little baby". He is always talking to me and the baby and is very excited it's a little girl. Brice will come up and give me a hug every once in while and ask how I'm feeling,  he also tells me all the names I picked he really likes.  They both asked me what size fruit or vegetable the baby is.  It is nice that they are excited and welcoming for our newest family member.

 I am currently 17 weeks pregnant and will have our 20 week ultrasound in just two weeks!

First Grade Humor

Brice came home from school the other  day and said "everybody was laughing at me at lunch."  I asked What they were laughing about and he just shyly smiled and said " nothing, I don't think you can handle it."  I dropped it until later when  he was  doing his homework I said "OK I need you to tell me why they're laughing at you." he said smiling "one of the boys was saying I have a girlfriend."  He quickly looked at me and said "I don't have a girlfriend though mom."  I smiled and asked "who are they saying was your girlfriend?"  He replied "Chloe."  I asked "did Ty (his good friend next door) laugh?" He said "no, he just whispered I have a girlfriend." He had a great attitude about it and brushed it off. I hope he can always have the ability to do that especially when life hits hard.

Self-confidence

The boys do funny things every day and also very naughty things today I want to talk about self-confidence. If you ever need to take a class on this just come to my boys because they are full of it.  Here's a great example of my Nathan self-confidence...

Noah (8) was carrying a square game box in his hands, Nathan (3) went up to him and said "why don't I take that I'm stronger than you"  he proceeded to take the box out of his hands and carried it into the playroom.

Now here's a taste of Brice's self-confidence (again with the muscles.) Darren flexing his muscles said to Brice "this is what muscle looks like." Brice looked at him and said "no let me show you" and then flexed for Darren saying "this is what muscles look like!"

I hope they always have good self-confidence, but also know the importance of being humble and teaching others to know there worth.

Summer Fun In Ca

We decided to do a trip to California for the Fourth of July weekend. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with our friends Steph (Nini) and Brandon. They have a beautiful town home right near the water.  From their roof deck you can see the sunset! We visited Carlabad and met up with the Olsons, Capistrons and Bakers and had full beach day. We took the kids to Belmont Park, Nathan slept through most of it in the wagon which was super cute. Well Brice and I did all sorts of rides together. He even went on an upside down twisting ride with Brandon.  He said  it was a lot scary but also a lot of fun. He went on the roller coaster with me but said it was too fast I thought it was great. It was a good last trip before school had to start!

All Sorts of 2015 Fun

Below is a list of other really fun things we did in 2015.
Santa Ynez half marathon -  we enjoyed a nice trip with the Capistron's and Aunt Lauren in Santa Yenz all of the adults excluding myself ran a half marathon and the kids and I went to cheer them on.

Sports - Karate, Basketball, T-ball

San Fransisco Trip -  I took a girls trip with Marci and Marissa and Jennifer and Bridget up to San Francisco. The weather was nice and cool and it was a beautiful city to visit can't wait for next one! 

Fish's Visit -  we had a great visit from the Fish family. The boys had a lot of fun playing with Laney and we got to show them around Arizona a little. We stayed with them at a resort in Scottsdale. 

Young Trip -  our family took a trip to young Arizona. It was way out in the middle of nowhere it was kind of nice because it was like an old Western town that hasn't been touched. We just relaxed to little horseback riding in a little off routing. 

Emma's born - Emma Murphy Englert was born. Nathan is obsessed with little babies he can't get enough of her.
Steph and Brandon's Wedding -  Darren and  I had a nice little break. We got to go enjoy a wedding in Laguna Nigel  California for a whole weekend  at the Ritz Carlton. It was a beautiful wedding appending  time with great friends we really enjoyed ourselves.

All Sorts of 2015 Fun

Below is a list of other really fun things we did in 2015.
Santa Ynez half marathon -  we enjoyed a nice trip with the Capistron's and Aunt Lauren in Santa Yenz all of the adults excluding myself ran a half marathon and the kids and I went to cheer them on.

Sports - Karate, Basketball, T-ball

San Fransisco Trip -  I took a girls trip with Marci and Marissa and Jennifer and Bridget up to San Francisco. The weather was nice and cool and it was a beautiful city to visit can't wait for next one! 

Fish's Visit -  we had a great visit from the Fish family. The boys had a lot of fun playing with Laney and we got to show them around Arizona a little. We stayed with them at a resort in Scottsdale. 

Young Trip -  our family took a trip to young Arizona. It was way out in the middle of nowhere it was kind of nice because it was like an old Western town that hasn't been touched. We just relaxed to little horseback riding in a little off routing. 

Emma's born - Emma Murphy Englert was born. Nathan is obsessed with little babies he can't get enough of her.
Steph and Brandon's Wedding -  Darren and  I had a nice little break. We got to go enjoy a wedding in Laguna Nigel  California for a whole weekend  at the Ritz Carlton. It was a beautiful wedding appending  time with great friends we really enjoyed ourselves.

Summer's over. Start a New School Year.

My boys started their 2016 school year in July. Brice started first grade with Ms. Newsom and Nathan started preschool for 3 half days with Mrs. C.  The first day of first grade Mrs. Newsom said Brice is very smart and he's going to keep her on her toes. Let's hope he keeps that up! This year Nathan is doing much better and there have been no tears! He seems to enjoy it and is made some new friends.
We got a two week visit from Riley during the rest of her summer break. We  watched the Summer Olympics together in Rio and it was the first time Brice enjoyed watching it. We did a lot of swimming!  Boys are very into American ninja warrior and America's got talent! It is fun to watch something other than cartoons together.  We are looking forward to a little break in California for Labor Day and definitely are looking forward to our beach/Legoland vacation during October break!

Massachusettes 2016

We just came back from a trip to MA (May 2016.) It is so awesome seeing all the cousins together. We went for 10 days and finished it off with Uncle Brett and Auntie Megs wedding! It was such a great time. We got to spend a night/day with the Fish's and went to a farm (the boys loved holding a snake), had family photos taken, had a lobster roll, went to the Star Wars Night Bostons Red Sox game, had junk food all week, toasted marshmallows, went to the park, spent great quality time with family, watched movies, Darren enjoyed a bachelor party and I had a great Mothers Day. Brice kept saying he missed our family and his friends in AZ and wished we all lived near each other and that he wanted to go back to AZ just to warm up :) It was a really great trip and the boys are becoming amazing travelers. Can't wait to plan the next trip!

Cute Sayings and What They Like

Nathan Terms
ca-dults (adults)
ca-vengers (avengers)
You want more? I'll give you more (Hulk)

Nathan Likes
Star Wars (Luke Skywalker and Ezra Bridger)
Avengers
Ninja Turtles
Lightsaber fights

Brice Terms
sprout (sprite)

Brice Likes
Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars
Lightsaber fights
Turns anything into a pumer (gun)

They play well together most the time. Nathan follows Brice and the neighbor Ty around playing and holding his own with the older boys. Its nice that they have such big imaginations. They push each others buttons and tattle, But I love when I catch them laughing together (usually over poop jokes,) or helping each other out. Nathan always gives Brice whatever he wants. He will switch his popsicle color so Brice can have it or switch swings if Brice wants a certain one. Brice will always help him with a level on the iPad or put Nathans legos together if they break. They are sweet boys and I know they will be good friends as the grow up together,