Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Wordless Wednesday!

Brayden received a bubble machine for his birthday and this is what the box said: "thousands of bubbles in minutes". They weren't kidding!!! Holy smokes this machine ROCKS!! Brayden was a little confused as first and wanted to play with the machine itself but then he would lock onto a particular bubble and chase it around the yard. At one point, he just sat in the middle of the yard and watched all the bubbles around him!
I can definitely say that we will be using this bubble machine for the rest of the summer!!

Linking up with Jenni From the Blog!!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Date Night!!

The hubs and I had a spontaneous date the other night and I think it was one for the books!! Hubby mentioned the OC fair and of course I got super excited! I always forget about those things and I hadn't been to the fair in YEARS!! We called up my dad to see if he would be able to watch Brayden (of course, he was thrilled!) and we were off!
The fair has all sorts of fun stuff and I think we want to go back and take Brayden with us. They had this whole room for little kids that had a gigantic sand pit, little animals to look at and a magic show. I think he would enjoy the fair as much as we did! Since we didn't have Brayden with us, we walked around a bit and looked at all the fried food! They had fried EVERYTHING...I am talking fried smores, White Castle, frog legs, etc. They also had things like a bacon wrapped turkey leg and chocolate covered bacon! Yikes! I wonder if they have ever had someone actually have a heart attack at the fair..I wouldn't be surprised!

Anyways, we stuck with something a little normal, a corndog, and then headed to see all the cute animals!!

Did I mention they had baby goats?!?! So cute!
CUTEST THINGS EVER!!! Piglets...they were
born the day before we saw them!
















Next up was a turkey leg and the "Extreme Rodeo"! These men are NUTS!!
Turkey leg!

Ready for the rodeo!
A rider getting taken out! They had to stand
in the circles...last one standing won!
The bull was ready for more!
Crazy men!! Of course...they were Marines!















Last stop? Back to the cute animals!! They were about to close and we wanted one last look at the animals before they were done for the night!
Aww!
A sheep in camo...not something you
see every day!
Cuddly piggies!
Pigs that would be auctioned off to help
support injured Marines and their families!































Overall, we had a blast! I would definitely suggest anyone in the southern California area make a trip to the fair and bring your kids! It was so fun and we really want to take Brayden next time. I think he would really like seeing all the animals! They also have a petting/feeding zoo...that might be interesting. Anyways, I am so glad that the hubs and I got some time alone together. And we had a date that didn't include dinner and a movie!! Even better since that is usually our go-to date night! It was a great night and much needed :)

1 Year Stats!!

So I mentioned that Brayden was going to his wellness check in his 1 year post and I want to brag about my boy!!! He is perfectly healthy and on track with his developments! I love to hear those words from a doctor! He weighed in at 21 lbs. 9 oz (just 1 lb. 8 oz. more than his 9 month wellness check) but he grew 1.5 inches in height/length! He is now 30.5 inches long! The doctor said that he is getting the toddler body that is long and lean! Whew...we were a little worried when we saw that he had only gained about 2 lbs. So this puts Brayden in the 25th percentile for weight (skinny mini!) and the 75th percentile for length! Long and lean is right!!!

We are so happy to have a healthy little boy that is growing on track! We are still waiting on his first "real" word but for now we are enjoying all the sounds he makes! He loves to mimic us and will say "mamama" or "nanana" or "dadada" so he is getting very close! He is able to point at things he wants and can communicate when he likes or doesn't like something. I LOVE that he is able to communicate better now. It was so hard knowing that he wasn't happy at times and I just had to figure it out...I am glad that stage has passed! We are reading to him and saying the word for every object we come across and hoping that he starts talking soon.

If this isn't the photo of a happy and healthy boy, I don't know what is!!

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Birthday Part 3

I promise that this is the last post about Brayden's birthday!! Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we didn't open Brayden's birthday presents at his party because there were WAY too many and he was definitely getting tired and would not have lasted. So we decided to put off opening his presents until the next morning. We made a trip to the airport to drop off my hubby's family *tear* and then headed to my parents house to open the presents. Holy smokes, Brayden got completely spoiled!!
We opened a few presents on the day of Brayden's party because we had family leaving the next morning!

The Zany Zoo was a total hit!! Thanks Lisa!

And it looks like Christmas morning for 5 children!! Can you say spoiled?!?!

Pushing his lawn mower!!

LOVES his big 4x4 truck from Grandma and Grandpa!!

Very interested in his Cars car.

And then he discovered that he could push it!!

So as you can see, Brayden is definitely loved by family and friends!! It was so great to open all his presents and see all the different gifts! Not one gift was the same! Amazing. Obviously some of the gifts will be put up and brought down later. He can't have this many toys at the same time! It would be overwhelming and then some toys would never get played with. If I put some of them away and bring them out when he is bored with his current toys, it's like the toy is brand new and very exciting. So that is the plan! I can't thank our family and friends enough for coming to Brayden's party! We are so blessed to have so many people that care about Brayden! 

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Birthday Part 2

I didn't include the video of Brayden eating his smash cake for his birthday so it is here for your viewing pleasure. Just to let you know before you watch the video...it's kind of boring! The boy didn't dig into his cake at all! I was kind of hoping he would totally dig his face into it like I did when I turned one but that definitely didn't happen. Brayden was very timid about the cake and didn't eat much of it at all. I guess that is what happens when you don't let your child have ANY sugar until their first birthday! Oh well! Here is the video and the before and after shots of his awesome cake!

Before...

After...not much different!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Brayden's Monster Birthday Party!!

Whelp, it's official. My baby boy is 1 and he had a huge party to celebrate! I am so happy with how everything turned out for the party and I can't believe how many people were able to make it...about 60 people I think! So in case you haven't already heard the story of how Brayden's birthday party came to be, I will give a quick recap.
I began looking at birthday invitations and found a SUPER cute dinosaur invitation and I thought we were set. Well when it came time to order the invitations, I couldn't find them anymore!! Ugh!! I was back to square one. Mind you, I had already been on Pinterest to find massive amounts of dino stuff to make for the party. I didn't like any of the other dino invitations so I began to look at other themes. I came across an adorable monster themed invitation that had a picture on it and I was sold!! I quickly purchased the invites to make sure I didn't run into the same problem as before. This was great thinking on my part however, I didn't really think about the rest of the decorations before ordering. Once the order was complete, I began to look for monster decor and found it pretty difficult to find monsters that were still cute and kid-friendly and also NOT the Monsters Inc. monsters. I had my work cut out for me!! I turned to Pinterest once again and I was able to find some pretty cute monsters but of course it was all DIY. Let the work begin! I luckily had TONS of help from my amazing family and we were able to pull off Brayden's monster party without a hitch! Here are some photos from the party!

This is the monster bean bag toss/ photo op that I made! I found it on Pinterest and just made a few adjustments (size) to make it work for our party. I knew that I would be having some older kids like 4-5 and some even 8 at the party so I wanted to make sure the game was still fun for them. Brayden was the only 1 year old there besides our neighbor and they obviously didn't play the game so it needed to be fun for the kids that would actually be playing. It was also fun to see all the kids poke their heads behind the monster and take a photo with there face in the monster's mouth! This game was probably the best thing we made because it kept the kids busy the WHOLE party! Heck yes!

These were our simple table decorations...nothing fancy! We made the framed monsters buy putting some watery paint on photo paper and then blowing through a straw to make it splatter out. Then we added a crazy mouth and some googly eyes! Done!! The big, rubber monster is actually from the grocery store and it lights up when it is thrown or shaken! Super fun!




This is another Pinterest project!! Pin the Eyes on the Moster! This was pretty fun as well because the kids got to pick out which set of eyes they wanted to pin and then I spun them a couple of times and off they went to try and pin the eyes in the correct spot! I will have the link for all the projects at the bottom of the post just FYI!
I made Brayden's monster shirt using a plain shirt from Target and then gluing the felt that I cut out. It was super easy and it lasted pretty much the whole party. The poor guy lost an eyebrow toward the end but he was a trooper!!
Besides the hubby being silly, we made the silly cups!! They were just simple plastic cups that we put googly eyes on! I bought the eyes that already had adhesive on the back so it made for easy sticking!
We used basic balloons and just taped some eyes, a mouth and some eyebrows to them and then hung them upside down! It was so fun to get creative with the monster faces and they turned out so cute and festive and the best part?!?! They were super cheap to make!
My hubby was adamant about getting all the kids a goody bag to take home (so cute) so I headed to Target! They had the awesome little tins with the chalkboard label already on them so you can bet I picked those up real quick! Then we added the little rubber monsters, cupcake straws, bouncy balls, playdough and a sticky lizard for the boys and then a neon braid hair clip-in for the girls! I wrote the names of each kid attending on the front and they were done! The kids really loved them and they weren't that expensive to make...win,win!
Have I ever mentioned that my mother-in-law makes AMAZING cakes?!?! Well she does! She made Brayden's awesome monster cake with cake pop eyes and everything! It was definitely my favorite part of the party!!
This was Brayden's smash cake...that he barely even smashed...I will show that later!
And these are the ADORABLE cupcakes! They had candy eyes on them and then my mother-in-law used black frosting to make the silly mouths!
As you can tell, the monster bean bag toss was a HUGE hit!!
And it doesn't hurt that Brayden looked adorable as a monster!!
And after a VERY long day, the poor guy came home and passed out in his birthday party outfit!! 

We had to save opening his presents for the following day because he was just way too tired! And there were also enough presents for 5 children and I knew Brayden wasn't going to make it through that. The next morning, we sadly took my hubby's family to the airport for their flight home. Then we went to my parents house to open all of Brayden's presents! My friends and family definitely spoiled Brayden like no other! My hand will be aching from all the Thank Yous I have to write but I could not be more thankful for everything!! I will post a few pictures of the present-opening extravaganza in another post! For now, here are the links to where you can find the DIY projects we made for the party!


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Well the day has finally arrived!! Brayden is officially 1 year old today! I will be posting this as my "Wordless Wednesday" for the week but as you can see, there are many words to this post. I want to start by saying that I wouldn't have made it through this year without the help of my family! When they say "It takes a village to raise a child" they aren't kidding. My family and my husband's family were such big helps throughout the year. It seriously made everything so much easier...I don't know how people do it when they don't live near family! Yikes!
Anyways, Brayden is such a different little boy than the day he came into our lives. He has so much personality (and attitude) and it is so much fun watching him discover the world around him. He can practically run so when he wants to go somewhere, he is sure to get there quickly. And if heaven forbid you don't want him to...say walk away from you into a room full of people he doesn't know and you pick him up...LOOK OUT! The boy will definitely let you know when he does not like what is happening. I know those moments will only get worse when he is older but for now...they are kind of funny! Brayden is also shy around other people which isn't exactly new but it is something we are working on. He makes this face that basically says "who the heck are you and why are you near me?!?!" when someone he doesn't recognize either holds him or is next to him. The look is pretty hysterical and he seems to warm up pretty quickly so it isn't too bad! He does love women though...every time I go to Target, he smiles at all the women and is a total flirt and then gives any man that smiles at him the sam "who the heck are you??!?" look. Awesome!
As of right now, I don't have an update on Brayden's weight or length because his appointment isn't until next week. For the update on things Brayden likes...here is the current list:
-pointing
-Elmo
-food...everything!
-cartoons, especially the Baby Genius  stuff
-the beach or any kind of sand and dirt
-water!
-being tickled
-books
-taking baths
-being chased/chasing someone
-his green blanket
-pacifiers...the boy sleeps with 3!
-climbing in the dishwasher...this makes doing dishes very interesting!

Here is the list of things Brayden doesn't like:
-having his diaper changed
-being held when he wants to walk
-watching other people eat (he always has to eat when we are eating)
-being told "no"
-things being taken away from him
-putting shoes on
-putting clothes on

And that's about all I can think of at the moment! He is seriously such a happy boy 99% of the time. That list of things Brayden doesn't like...those things don't necessarily make him cry (except the things being taken away from him) and he moves on from them very quickly. He is the best thing that has EVER happened to me and Chance! I am so excited that I get to stay home with him now and watch him discover the world even more! So although today is bittersweet, I am so happy that Brayden is happy and healthy and I honestly look forward to many more birthdays for this little monster of mine!
P.S. Brayden's birthday party isn't until this weekend so I will hopefully have the pictures posted on Sunday! For now, you can enjoy some pictures from the past year to see how much Brayden has changed!!

The day he was born!!
He started smiling and that was the
best thing I had ever seen!


First time touching the pool!

Lobster!!!

He loves the swing!

And the water!

First hair cut!
He is so big that he needs his own chair!


Loving the sand!

Doesn't he look like such a big boy here?!!?
So there you have it! Brayden has definitely turned into a little man in the past year! I can't believe it has already been a year and I am sure the next year will come and go just as quickly as this one has! Be prepared for the monster cuteness coming your way!

Linking up with Jenni From the Blog! And be sure to vote for my blog by clicking HERE!


Friday, July 6, 2012

Less Than One Week...One Year Old

I know I have said this many times before but I seriously cannot believe that my little baby boy will be ONE!!! I am kind of in denial about the whole thing and maybe that is why I haven't done anything for his party yet...oops! (I at least sent the invitations!) I am beyond stressed about the party and yet I know that it doesn't actually matter. Brayden will not have any recollection of this event and I am sure I will forget all the things I was worried about by the time the party is over. BUT, I have so much going on right now that I feel like I am just barely above water. Ever feel that way?! Anyways, we are in the process of packing up our apartment to move, have family coming in on Saturday (which means I need to CLEAN like a freak) and I need to finish planning Brayden's party and do all the DIY decorations. Yikes! I am definitely trying to not let all of this get the best of me. I know that Brayden will have a great time even if he just has the cake. To him, this day is just like any other day! However, I know that I have tons of family coming to this party and my family is notorious for having great parties! I can't let everyone down...especially on such a big day! So, for the rest of this week I will be cleaning like a freak, DIYing like it's my job and procrastinating on everything else :) Sounds about right!!
I guess it doesn't help that I practically break down into tears every time I sit and think about Brayden turning one. It's not that I don't want him to grow and learn...I LOVE that he has gotten so smart and has such a big personality, but it just means he is not a baby anymore. *tear, tear* I guess this means I just need to have another one!! HAHAHA!!! Just kidding....not yet!
How can the year have gone by so fast!??! How did Brayden go from this....
to this...
in one SHORT year?! Ugh. Can the years please just slow down?! And if they can't slow down...just let them be filled with days that remind me of how blessed I am to have such an amazing family!! 

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

So this is the new game in our house...fake sleeping! Brayden carries around a blanket and stops all over the house to lay down. I make a snoring sound, rub his back and say "night night" and then he pops his head up, walks to a new location and we play again! (And again and again!!) I don't know where he got this from but it provides about 30 minutes of fun for the little guy and some good laughs for mama. I would say it's a win, win! 

P.S. Happy 4th of July everyone!! I will be posting all about our adventures for the holiday...stay tuned!

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