Braden Is NINE...

It seems like a more than just last week, but just last Tuesday my Braden turned 9! The first request he had prior to his birthday was a 'birthday 9 shirt."  I had been playing with my new Silhouette (more on that in another post) and he asked if I could make him something like that.  So, of course, being a week shy of delivery I honored my first born's request! Rusty made him pancakes before school and he was so excited to have me bring his class Krispie Kreme for his treat.

 Here is is right after school with his birthday balloons.

 Holy cow, looking at this picture I realize he really does look 9!

Yes I know the lighting is horrid in this picture, but I had a friend make a birthday banner (after the one I bought originally was deemed "too girlie" by the tallest of the men in my house. So, she made this just in time for birthday month here.  I love it!

 For dinner he wanted his grandparents and his bestie Stratton to come to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse.  (Berk had soccer practice so he wasn't there)

Here is the gang- Brenner, Rusty and I, Braden and Stratton,  Nana & Grandpa, Noni & Pops.  After dinner we raced back to the house where the rest of the family was waiting to do ice cream cake and presents.

 Ready to get the party started!

 He very thoughtfully opened and read all the cards- until we said he could read them later, it was a school night after all...

His big gift, from us, the Beck's and my parents was a PS3, games and such.

 And, because his other one was 2 years old, and very badly cracked, his sweet Dad got him a new cell phone.  He was equally excited for this as he was the PS3.  Maybe more.

 His Oreo Ice cream cake. It was so good!

The funniest thing to me, they immediately wanted to play with the Transformer figures on top.  Which, just hours before I fished out of the toy box- they were old happy meal toys!

Me and my big guy. Braden.  9 years ago you came into my life and made me a Mother.  I feel like we have grown up together, and clearly we have been through a lot in your short years! I cannot believe you are so old! We may have a hard time getting through your homework but I know you are the smartest 3rd grader I know.  You love watching Netflix (easier now on the PS3), playing capture the flag in the neighborhood and riding bikes and scooters.  Love you buddy!

Maternity Pictures...

I swore I would never actually intentionally have photos taken during my pregnancies, but when a friend from the ward asked for pregnant mom's to be her guinea pig I found myself volunteering.  Needless to say she is an amazing photographer and I am glad I got to help her expand her portfolio.  I was 32 weeks and we went to another friends house to take the pictures.  I am happy to have this memory, since I have gotten massively bigger in the month since then.  Thanks Ashby!

 This is my favorite belly shot...

 Talk about great natural lighting.  This is my favorite of the shoot.

Hip-Hurray! Preschool Started...

Berkley has been patiently (ok not really) waiting for it to be his turn for school to start. This morning was the day.  It was quite nice and uneventful since this is his third year with Miss Christine at the Montessori Learning Center he didn't have any nerves at all.

He walked right in, found a buddy and was off playing before I would snap a picture! Brenner ran straight for the basketball hoops too. I can't believe in just one year he'll be coming there and Berk will be in kindergarten! Brenner was pretty mad at me when we left, he did not want me to leave Berk there, but I think once we got home and he had all the toys to himself he changed his tune.

Happy day, I love preschool! I am very much looking forward to the 12 precious hours a week that I will have with just Brenner before B4 comes to join the party! I've got a lot to do!

Another Birthday Come and Gone...

No one really wants to get older, but we can't stop it can we? I turned the big 32 on Labor Day this year. Sweet Rusty knowing I have been having a hard time again with this pregnancy decided I needed a pool party and bbq for my birthday. It ended up being a great thing since I had a rough day before that fighting a major migraine, that actually lingered for about five days  Yuck.

 I got to sleep in and woke up to some awesome roses.  We were going to get my choice breakfast, but I really had ZERO appetite post migraine. We ran a few errands in the morning and started getting ready for the party.

 My cake, which the wind blew out the candles for me. It's actually a pretty sweet gesture from Mother Nature since I get winded pretty easily these days.

 The gifts. I have the best family and friends. Rusty got me new charms with B4's name on them to add to my other mother's necklaces, a new iPhone case, some decorations for the house, new brown Tom's (which will have to wait until my feet aren't swollen so I can actually enjoy), as well as some cute Roxy slippers for the hospital.  Really those were my pretend gifts, since the Mac Laptop he ordered didn't come in time.  It's good to be Queen, what can I say? My Mom remembered me asking for knitting stuff, and boy did she deliver. I have every size needle, yarn and patterns for the favorite things my mom makes now. My inlaws got me a Silhouette machine. I have been drooling over one for eons. My sis in law Kelcie sent me a new pair of, what I call, give-ups. Best pants ever. I got amazon gift cards and Rod Works gift cards, and a cute Halloween decoration too. My favorite thing is the necklaces I got from my sweet neighbor and from my sister Rhonda's inlaws.  I am sure I forgot something. I am a lucky girl.  I think everyone just felt bad I had to be 9 months prego for another birthday...

 Everyone enjoying the pool- the Beck's pool really is amazing.

And the food... Rusty grilled two different kinds of chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs. There were huge fruit and veggie trays, and of course more chips and dip than I knew what to do with. Oh, and I can't forget the sides everyone brought, beans, corn, potato salad, and yummy desserts!

Thanks to Rusty and the boys, my family, Rhonda's family (who were here for the last night of their vacation before going back to Kuwait), the Solomons, the Becks, Robisons, Tyrons, Whipples, for coming to celebrate with us!

Too Big, Too Fast...

Do you see this? The other day I was in the laundry room (which faces the downstairs bathroom) when I hear the toilet flush. So, I look up and this is what I see- he even got the little potty lid out from under the sink.

What?!? He just turned two (the other boys trained closer to 4). I am 34 weeks pregnant, I am so not ready for the potty training thing! He will take his diaper off and tell us he pooped-which really means pee, and he will strip his clothes and diaper off and bring me a diaper to put back on. He climbs on the pot a couple times a day, but so far it is only after he has already peed in his diaper. But still, he's getting it. So I have a conundrum, do I try to get him potty trained before baby comes, or just not push it and see how he does on his own? I guess I'm afraid if I do get his partially trained he'll regress when B4 comes. But still, it is pretty cute to see his tiny naked buns running around, except that I'm too big to want to chase him!

More Posts to Come...

So our PC died and we bit the bullet and bought a Mac. It is so different but I really like it. Other than I have no idea how to upload photos from the camera now. So as soon as I figure it out I will post again!

Brenner is 2 ???

Oh man, after our trip to Navoo we had a mellow Sunday with church and trying to unpack. So, we didn't do much for the little guy on the actual day, but we did make Mickey Mouse pancakes and sing Happy Birthday with a yummy brownie cupcake!.

(Don't mind the undies- He isn't even potty training yet, but we've been a litte horrible about laundry (me oops) so these bigger brothers' undies were our sub for pj pants!

Monday night the party got started. We went to dinner at Red Robin's. Sorry bout the iPhone picts...

 Do you love the dirty look he gave the folks singing to him?

 But it was all worth it for an ice cream sundae!

Then we had family and the Robisons over to eat cake and ice cream.

 Some of the guests...

 Opening presents with LOTS of help...

 Cake time! He blew the candle out like a pro!

 

 Some of his gifts and the birthday boy with Mom and Dad...

Brenner, you are the spunkiest tyke I know. You talk so much more than any other toddler I know. Your favorite phrases of the moment include "I not want it/ you" "Need Brenner glasses, shoes" "Where's Bayen (B1) and Derkie (B2)?" He loves to FaceTime with his Auntie Kelcie and will knock on the screen and say "Hello? Delsie?" till we call her. He loves to see my belly and blow raspberries and then tell me "put it away" meaning pull my shirt back down.  I am so excited to see how is does with baby. He says B4's name so cute and he points out babies everywhere we go. Happy Birthday Brenner!!!

Nauvoo!!!

The same day that school started for Braden; myself, Brenner and Berk got up at 4 am to head to the airport to fly to St. Louis.  (Braden went to all but 30 minutes of class and he and Rusty got a flight into Peoria, IL to meet us) We all headed to the great state of Illinois for Rusty's cousin Cliff's wedding.

Slap happy at 5 am

The flight over was good. Mostly because Brenner sat on Pops lap the whole time, and Berkley watched a movie. After we landed we had about a three hour drive to Nauvoo. We stopped along the way in Mark Twain's hometown to have lunch. Then we detoured over to Carthage to see the Carthage jail. (Here's a link to the importance of this place in our religion).

 Photos of us from in the Martyrdom room.

It was a very cool experience. The walk in the same rooms where our Prophet walked and ultimately was martyred was surreal.

Then it was just a short jaunt to Nauvoo. Let me pause at the point and mention that there was ZERO cell signal in the Nauvoo area. Thankfully the hotel had wifi, but it was spotty. So trying to communicate between 5 different rooms was uber fun. We ate dinner at the hotel and then while I put Brenner to bed the rest of the gang went to see the Temple at sunset. Rusty and Braden got to the hotel about 10:15pm and we were all ready for a good nights rest!

 The next morning we headed to historic Nauvoo to experience life the way the Saints did.

 We learned about pottery making, candle making. The kids made a rope and we ate homemade bread. We visited a Blacksmith shop. We got the cutest nail rings, They even let me take one for the baby.

We also stopped at Pioneer Pastimes.  We played all kinds of games. The marching band came by and the kids had a fun time leading them around.

That afternoon most of the adults went to the bride Katie's endowment session at the Temple and that night we went to Nauvoo State Park for a BBQ and 'meeting of the families.'  The food was yummy, the park proved to be more fun for the adults than it did for the kids and we enjoyed a very nice evening.

I love this collage- first is a picture of the groom to be Cliff practicing his pose for all the pictures the next day. Then Kelcie proves that she is the MASTER of self portraits, Everyone chasing everyone and a near miss on the swing.  Then we went to the Temple to see it and the Mississippi at sunset.

 The actual wedding was Friday morning. It was a little more humid and rained a little on us as we were finishing taking pictures. The wedding was beautiful. Th Temple was amazing. There is so much church history inside it, literally, like on the walls.  Cool stuff. 

 After we went to another Inn and had a yummy lunch. Brenner got a dollar from Uncle Todd that kept him pretty busy. All you had to do was ask him "Where's your money?" I decided he (and I) needed a nap so we skipped out early and Rusty said we could just walk to the hotel. Yeh, it was so not as close as we thought, but we still made it there.

 Later in the afternoon we had time to go back to Historic Nauvoo and saw the Brickyard, Brigham Young's home and what Rusty and I thought was coolest, the Gunsmith. That night we drove around and across the Mississippi River to see the Temple from the other side. It was a pretty drive. We stopped in Keukuk, Iowa for dinner. Long story short, we left Brenner's new shoes there and didn't realize till the next day when we were packing to leave. (After I got home I FBed the restaurant and they said that they found them, and they drove to 4 local hotels to try to return them to us! So nice huh? I am going to mail them something and have them ship the shoes home)

Saturday morning we packed and headed back to catch our flight. We detoured at Carthage again so Rusty and Braden could see it. Just the three of us did the tour while everyone else waited in the cars or on the grounds. It was an even cooler experience the second time.

Thanks to the Solomon gang, we had a great time at the wedding! Congrats Cliff and Katie!