Happy Valentine's Day - 5 Years Ago

Five years ago today we brought home our first born son, Braedon, from the hospital. He was born on February 10th. I had a C-Section and frankly was scared to death to leave the hospital with a baby. I was having trouble nursing and in a lot of pain so when the doctor said we could stay another day we did. When we were getting ready to go home I didn't even realize it was Valentine's Day because of new baby fog. I am so thankful to have this special memory of Valentine's day!
This picture is from Christmas and I am sad to say it is the best, most recent photo I have of him. Note to self: I really need to take more pictures.

Braedon's Party

We celebrated Braedon's 5th birthday this weekend. We decided kind of last minute that we would have a party. I left it up to hubby since he had a L-O-N-G week at work. He said, "Let's Party!" So, partying is what we did on the one evening free in between 4 evenings of hubby having to work.

Here is the birthday boy with a somewhat bashful look on his face as everyone is singing Happy Birthday day to him.

We had pizza, salad, fruit, cupcakes and ice cream (that I forgot to get out of the freezer until it was too late). Besides the normal singing, cake and presents the kids just played. After the crowd calmed a little we fired up the Xbox so the kids and adults could both play!
We handed out these party favors as our guests left:

Our hearts are overjoyed that so many people came out to celebrate with us.

In Jesus Name, Bye!

Our kids have come to love praying. Something that used to be new and a little awkward for our family has recently become like second nature and we are all pretty comfortable with it. I try to have prayer time with the kids once a day in the mornings. I also try to pray with them throughout the day as situations come up. Then, of course, there is mealtime and bedtime prayers. I thank God that we have started to have so much prayer in our house because we didn't used to. I wholeheartedly believe in the power of prayer and am so glad that it has become a larger part of our lives.
Braedon recently wanted to add his little twist on his prayers and of course Kaley followed suit. They have started saying, "In Jesus name, Bye" at the end of a prayer instead of the usual "In Jesus name, amen." I am quite confident that this little detail doesn't really concern God and that He loves to hear children pray no matter how they end it as long as they are praying in Jesus name. I think it is pretty cute that they wanted to make their prayer's unique

Stick and Glue Easter Egg

My kids love to glue things so I taped a big egg on the wall and gave them tissue paper and easter themed stickers to decorate it. It was fun for a while and Kaley kept coming back to it to stick a few more peices every now and then.
This activity is so versatile too and could be slightly changed for pretty much any theme.
I wish I could remember what they are looking at so excited like but...

Here they are decorating it:

The finished project:

A Few of Braedon's Favorite Things

We went to a fast food restaurant recently and on the kids meal box was a cute fill in the blank story. I wanted to memorialize it here since at this point in time it indicates some of Braedon's favorite things. And, it is a pretty cute story. The words in bold are the blanks that had to be filled in. The rest of the story was pre-printed.

This morning, Braedon and Jax went upstairs to make the craziest fish the world had ever seen! It was made of play dough and colored blue. It was so great that it won a prize in the Christmas day parade.

key:
Braedon-name
Jax-pet's name
upstairs-favorite place to play
fish-anything you want
play dough-most favorite thing ever!
blue-favorite color
Christmas-favorite holiday

Braedon's Haircut

We have been taking Braedon to get his hair cut and although it is not too expensive it does add up pretty quickly when he needs to go every 4 or 5 weeks. Additionally, now that we have another boy in the family it would be getting very expensive when they both started having to go. After the last time we took Braedon to get his haircut, I asked him if I could cut his hair next time he needed it. Amazingly, he said yes. We both enjoyed it. No, it is not perfect but it is good enough for the amount of money we will be saving. And, it is not too bad for someone who has NEVER cut hair with a comb and scissors before. He's my little handsome man!

Happy Birthday

My sweet first born turned four years old today. We celebrated his birthday this morning with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and singing. We are having cupcakes and presents on Saturday. It has been my joy to be his mommy for these past four years and it will be my joy to be his mommy forever! I love you and thank God so much for you, Braedon.
This picture was taken in September 2010.

Cousin Fun

We had my brother and his daughters over last week. Little Caeser's Pizza has become our dinner of choice when we have little ones for company or just whenever we need something easy for dinner. We crammed four of the kids around this children's table to eat. It was super-cute.

Play Hut

We had some great friends give us a princess play hut a while ago. I have to keep it put up and just break it out every now and then because our wild man (i.e. Braedon) will unintentionally destroy it. I broke it out the other day and it was the best thing in the world for about an hour. Here are some cute pics.



I had hoped that maybe it could stay out and be Kaley's "space" because lately Braedon seems to have been wanting his own space and has adopted this corner behind the living room chair.

Decorated Boxes

I saw this cute little craft from Publix Preschool Pals. I got all excited about Braedon being able to keep some of his smaller, favorite toys in it. He made it but hasn't touched it yet. It was fun to make and there is always hoping that he will use it one of these days. Kaley couldn't really make her own so I glued the sides on for her expecting her to want to decorate it with stickers. She didn't want to decorate it or keep any of her small things in it either.


An arrow was the doodad in Lil K a few weeks ago and he is still infatuated with arrows. So, we used his arrow craft that he made that Sunday and glued it on the side of the box. I think it looks pretty neat.

Jug-O-Lantern

This is a cute little halloween craft I saw at Publix Preschool Pals. It was fun but very messy. We drew the faces together and I cut them out. Then I turned Braedon and Kaley loose with paint and they used LOTS of it. Pumpkins are usually orange but Braedon made his blue, pink, purple, brown, and every other color of paint we had. I had a little more control over Kaley's paint options so her's turned out mostly orange. It was fun but then the paint started chipping off of the jugs and leaving a mess on the floor so they had to go bye bye pretty soon after we were finished looking at the finished product.



Once we put the flashlight inside the jug and put it in our dark bathroom it actually looked a little creepy, which wasn't really what I was going for. There is another reason they went bye bye.

Random & Goofiness at the Hospital

This is a picture of the sun reflecting off of one of the buildings downtown:

Braedon was being totally goofy sitting on daddy's lap the other day. We don't really know what he was doing but he sure was having fun.



Here is Kaley carrying around mommy's purse.

Fun With Cousins

Kaley got a new book and was sitting at this cute little child's table looking at it. Then, her cousin leaned in for a picture with her.


Then, three of the four kids sat down in a circle to roll a ball back and forth to each other.


Meanwhile, the other cousin was sitting in a baby doll carseat...you can't really tell because her dress is covering it up but it was too cute. Kaley was doing it earlier but I didn't have the camera out in time to get pictures of her doing it.

Outside Cuteness

Just some cute pics I took of the kids outside.
They sure do love their popsicles.
A close up of Kaley:

I was trying to get them to stand next to each other and hold hands or something but that didn't really work out as planned.
Braedon is actually holding her hand but Kaley is running from him here:

He is trying to get her to hold his hand here but she doesn't realize it:

So, then he ends up just looking at her like he is not sure what to do:

(Un)Forgetful Friday (cute things the kids are doing)

-With popsicle in his hand Braedon comes up to me and says what sounds like "screwed it up, mommy." After careful interpretation I figured out he was saying "scoot it up, mommy" because his popsicle was below the top of the stick.
-Kaley is trying to talk in sentances but it comes out more like just a series of different sounds that don't really resemble words. Though the tone sometimes sounds like she is asking a question. Then, Braedon says, "I don't know, Kaley" in a really cute, sweet voice.
-Unfortunately, I have had to say more than once, "Kaley, get your head out of the toilet."
-Braedon is so proud of himself for using the potty and runs out of the bathroom exclaiming "I did it, mommy"...every time he goes. Then he goes back in the bathroom to flush the toilet and says "bye, bye pee pee, thanks for coming." It is really pretty cute!
-Braedon has memorized his favorite book, Curious George at the Aquarium. When we are reading it, I will read a line or two and then stop so he can say the next line.
-Kaley rides the toy firetruck (yes, the infamous firetruck), while Braedon rides the tricylce around the living room, kitchen, dining room.
-They love to dance...to whatever toy happens to be playing music or whatever music we have on the radio. Sometimes, I walk into their bedroom to check on them and Braedon says, "mommy, we're dancing" in his cute little three year old voice while they are both hopping and swaying.
-Braedon is learning how to water the grass and loves being outside and looking at all of the pretty flowers in our garden. He says, "their beautiful." But, it comes out more like "their beaueeful" or "their so pretty."
-Braedon has memorized one bible verse so far and If I say to him, Braedon, tell me your bible verse, he sort of gets all bashful looking and says, "keep me as the apple of your eye, psalm 17,18,19,20." Though it is supposed to be Psalm 17:8a...close enough! :-)

(Un)Forgetful Friday (diapers)

This was a few months ago when my oldest (now a little over 3) was still full-time in diapers because potty training had not been successful yet. I also have another one in diapers (16 months old at the time). So, needless to say, there are LOTS of diapers at our house. Braedon has been trying to drop his nap for about the past six or eight months. However, it is painfully obvious that he can't handle not having an afternoon nap. So, I have continued to try to enforce it. One day while he was supposed to be taking his nap, I heard him in there playing around. This is what I walk into (I had just finished stocking the diaper hanger full of diapers). Braedon turns around to look at me and says, "mommy, I want to sleep right here." That's my boy! As frusterating as it is sometimes, I wouldn't want him any other way. :-)

Yellow River Game Ranch

We visited a game ranch with Chris, Anna, and Zen recently. The kids loved it. Kaley kept thinking the crackers that we were trying to feed the animals were for her. It was pretty funny when we tried to get her to give an animal a cracker, she would start to hold the cracker out but then take it back and put it in her mouth! To see more pictures from our fun day, click here.

Easter 2010

We had the neatest Easter this year. All through resurrection week we played a game with resurrection eggs where each plastic egg had a prop inside of it to symbolize part of the resurrection story. You can read more about it here. Braedon LOVED playing the "egg game" and after a couple times could almost tell us the entire story. We also had daily bible readings (but we did miss a couple of days). On the Saturday before Easter, we colored eggs and had a little egg hunt in the backyard. On Easter Sunday, after a wonderful service at church, we had a great visit and great lunch/dinner with Anna's family. To see pictures from various events surrounding Easter, check out our Easter Flickr set.

Braedon's 3rd Birthday

We had a little party for Braedon's 3rd birthday. We had a really nice gathering of closest family and friends, great food, and "birthday party cake"! To see more pictures from Braedon's special day, check out the Flickr set.

Hiking

Wanting to take advantage of the awesome weather outside today we found ourselves hiking a trail at a part of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. It was a fairly smooth trail and Braedon did great not wanting to be carried at all. There were large open fields before the entrance into the more dense wooded area of the trail. Lots of photo opportunities!