Merry Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas. It was so fun being here at my parents house already and just being able to wake up and all be together. My brother Trent woke us all up at 7:15 when he called from his mission in Houston Texas, so we had to go wake Braden up in order to get Christmas started, since he had already gone back down for his morning nap. We had a huge surprise for my mom, and it couldnt have gone better. We had zero surprises for each other, but were both thrilled with what we got. :) Braden got a billion presents, and of course enjoyed the ribbons and wrappings the most. We felt the spirit of our Savior and enjoyed this Christmas season.

The Annual Christmas Jammie pic.This yea,r ALL BYU ALL THE TIME

Who needs toys when you can eat the box instead?


Oh never mind my presents because I can play with this ribbon.

Braden gripping his new BYU football in his sweet jammies made by Grammy.

Give Thanks

We got to take a trip down to Fresno for Thanksgiving to Fresno to meet with the Gonzos and the Bairds. We had such a fun time. When Braden met Kalem for the first time it was the funniest thing Chelise has ever seen and Braden could not have been happier with his cousins. Chelisey and I got to go running twice, once without any babies. We went to see NEW MOON!! Chelise and I got all giddy over it in the back seat of the car on the way home, while the boys made fun of all the girls who get all giddy about Jacob and Edward, and in case you were wondering I am not on Team Edward or Team Jacob because I am the #1 fan of TEAM DEVIN!!! oh yeah!! We ate too much delicious food including a thanksgiving feast fit for a king. We played a thousand hilrious games with El Presidente and couldnt get enough of the laughter we have with each other. We decorated the mission home for Christmas. Chelise and I did an awesome craft. We got to do some Black Friday shopping. We did a photo shoot with Braden and Pax. We even got to have a magic show finale!! It was the best thanksgiving money could buy!

Mewwy Chwismas

Our good friends invited us to their annual Christmas party. We were of course honored, and Devin was especially thrilled when he learned that we would have to dress up. We took a trip to DI where Devin found a lovely red womens blazer with matching cumber bun. He looked stunning. As for me, I hot glued about 40 poinsettias onto the front of my shirt. Also stunning. We had a great time and loved laughing at the hilarious things people had showed up wearing. Thanks Dave and Ashley!

The always lovely Janell and I posing in our Holiday garb....mind you her shoes have christmas trees on them and she is wearing parachute pants and if her jacket is pulled down it looks as though she is wearing a one piece suit. FABULOUS!!

From the left: The Henries, The Christensens, The Jones'

Typical

Braden is, unfortunately for us, an early riser. Devin and I are not really morning people. Our mornings usually end up looking like this....

Braden lies in between us, trying to get our attention, pulling our noses, and my hair with his bottle dripping all over our bed because we have both fallen back to sleep. Will we ever get used to our 6:30am wake up call?

So Long, Farewell

Today, we bid farewell to our 2009 Primary class at church. We taught the 10 year olds, and could not have asked for a better class. We loved this group and are going to miss them, especially when we move on to a gigantic class in 2010, which we are also excited for. Today was an emotional day and we all cried, even the tough boys. They asked if we could have a week long sleepover party and were wondering if they will ever see us again, even though we will still be going to church together. One of the girls even told me that she thought of me as her mom. A little strange, but still so sweet. We will miss these kiddos.

Backpacking on Labor Day

So I told Dev that he was supposed to do this post. He did not. I dont know if I will ever get him to blog. I guess its just not his thing. So I will just throw down a few pics because they had a great time. Every labor day, my brothers, Dad, Uncle and Dev go backpacking to cool places like the Ansel Adams Wilderness, and Zions with no girls allowed. Whatever. Anyway......

The Finger We're Wrapped Around

So my boo is 5 months old. Why does the time go so fast? Oh yeah so I will have another one someday. At least I am convinced that is why. But for the next ten years, before #2 comes along, I will just eat up every minute with this kid! He is so much fun and there is so much that we love about him! I have made a list!

1. His smile! Braden always seems to be smiling, and has started picking up on when we are happy. He has started to pick up on when we are laughing even. And I swear his dimples get bigger as time goes on, probably just because his cheeks get fatter and fatter, but still! Love it!

2. He is super ticklish in the funniest places! One night I was trying to give him a little massage, and as I was rubbing his legs, he started laughing his head off and woke right up! His thighs are mega tickle spots! Not to mention his collar bone. Thats right. My baby has ticklish collar bones. Hilarious! And his armpits!

3. He has b.o. Not kidding. His armpits stink like soccer feet. Its gross but hilarious at the same time. Needless to say, he needs one or two baths a day. Since when do babies have b.o.? He is going to be one stinky boy! Great!!

4. He wakes up happy now. Since he eats more food than any baby I know, his tummy is always full still when he wakes up, even after he has slept all night. He just lays in bed talking until he sees someone and then gets this monster grin on his cute little face. Such a cutie!

5. He can lift one eyebrow and lower the other and it is a face he makes frequently.

6. He is a tank. Its pretty awesome that he is 5 months old and is just about ready to get into a new carseat because we love buying new stuff for him every other day when he grows! Oh wait no we dont! The doctor said his growth should slow down at somepoint, but as far as I can see, some point hasnt come yet. There is a 2 year old in our ward who looks just like what Braden is going to look like. Just gigantic and tall and so so cute! Cant wait!

7. He LOVES Devin. Its fun seeing how Devin has a completely different relationship with him than I do, that Braden recognizes the difference between Dad and Mom.

8. For the past few months he has been eyeing whatever we eat and asking for it with his eyes. I just started feeding him stage 1 baby food, because he wasnt really into rice cereal, and he is the funniest eater ever. He loves it all, after a bite or two, and cant eat fast enough!

9. He has started taking naps. I think it is mostly because he plays now, so he gets tired during the day, but whatever the reason, he takes at least one good nap! Hallelujah!

10. He has discovered his teeth and plays with them with his tongue and lips!

Back to the 80's

Saturday night, our ward hosted a radical 80's dance for all of the adults. It was so much fun! Everyone was totally into it and we partied like it was 1985! There was tons of crazy dancing, a bunch of hilarious costumes, and a ton of crazy fun! Devin even busted out his sexy legs to win the best costume. He probably shouldnt have, but he looked so hilarious! And I loved my dress despite the fact that it was hideous, I considered for a brief moment, putting it in my church clothes rotation. I got dared several times to wear it to church, but we had the primary program the next day, and since I would be sitting on the stand, I opted out. We had a great time and were so exhausted by the time it was over. Its been years since I danced like I did that night. Good clean fun at its finest! Two days later, Devin thinks back on the dance and lets out a good laugh. We loved the 80's!

"Cutest Couple" post dance

The Great Pumpkino

Our friends invited us over for a pumpkin carving FHE which we couldnt have been more excited for. We LOVE carving pumpkins. And turns out so does Braden, or at least he loves watching, and trying to fit his baby pumpkin into his mouth. Our pumpkins turned out really cute, way to go Devin, and we had a great time. I was a slacker mom for forgetting my camera on such a monumental moment in Bradens life, but Ali was nice enough to catch some cute ones! Luckily Braden was the cutest baby there, so what if he was the only baby. He is dang cute no matter how many babies are around! And we have more of our Halloween costumes yet to come, but here is a quick preview thanks again to Ali, from our ward Trunk or Treat. I was a fool and decided to make us all costumes without a pattern. I will do it again I am sure, because I will forget how annoying it was, but in the end, I was happy with our Peter Pan get up and especially with how stinking cute Braden looked as Peter, and with how hot Devin looked in a nightgown. We have already had people ask if they can borrow our outfits next year. AWESOME!

My cousin Dennis, as a thug, Devin as John,

Ashley as Wendy, and Braden as Petah

HIKE HIKE HIKE!!!

All the kids once we made it to the falls!

Myles, Cade and Carter

The elementary school kids had some random day off of school, so we packed up and went a hiking! Devin had to work so he missed out, but we had a lot of fun! Dev and I had hiked here last summer on some different trails and were dissapointed when the trails we took got us to nothing but dead grass and lots of dirt. This time, the weather was cool,( a little too cold for Braden, so he ended up wearing Emilys sweatshirt) and we went the right way and ended up at a beautiful waterfall. It took quite a while with all the kids, but they all hiked the entire way by themselves. Emily was a genius and put a movie on the i-phone for Cade and Carter to watch while they walked behind her. Hilarious! Braden loved his first ride in his new backpack and even fell asleep on the way back.

Baking 101

Devin can bake!! Who knew. Certainly not I, but man did I win big with this one. I used to not be able to make anything that involved yeast to save my life, but as my luck would have it, Devin is a regular Bakerella! I have always wanted to be able to make Cinnamon Rolls and with his help, we had our first ever Cinnamon Roll Conference Sunday tradition. It was fantastic and the Cinnamon Rolls were so yummy. I made them twice that week! Yum! Then Devin showed me how to make his moms famous monkey bread, which again was a super success! I cant wait to taste what he will bake us next!!

SCRAPS

So heres the thing. If you are loyal to my blog, you read my last post re: my obsession. Well its getting worse as it has begun to cost me more and more to do these little projects of mine. So I am going to try something new. I am looking for fabric scraps. I dont care where they come from, I dont care if I have to pay a small amount for them. I just want scraps. I emailed some friends who I thought may have had some ideas, but nobody really seems to know so I have now opened up my query to the world. I want fabric scraps. Where do I find them? I am not talking about fat quarters, or remnants either. I am talking left over pieces of fabric from someone elses project. Where can I get them? HELP! Candra, you must know. Right?! Also, I ran into a friend at the fabric store today, go figure, and she made the most adorable Happy Birthday banner. When the latest projects are complete, I will move on to that. SO FUN! Should I start a sewing blog?

HE's A MANIAC

Pre-Haircut: Check out how long this guys hair was!!

Braden is officially a kid. I cant deny it anymore. He has lept beyond the newborn days and is now a full fledged child. I can hardly consider him a baby amidst all these gigantic milestones and tricks that he has so fittingly decided to bust out all at the same time so that I can have an emotional crisis in regards to why he has to grow so dang fast. I took him to his four month check-up yesterday and couldnt help but love him when his response to his first shot was a mere look that said "Hey lady that hurt. What the heck is your problem." And yeah he does have that What the heck is your problem look. It wasnt until the second shot that he cried. So brave. So three weeks ago, Braden weighed 15.7lbs and was 26in long. I wasnt the lease bit surprised but yesterday, I was shocked to hear how much he had grown in that time. 16.8lbs, 27in. What the heck. He is now in the 60% for weight and 90% for height. When will this kid slow down. I am counting on the words of the doc telling me that his growth will slow down as his activity level increases and his food intake stays the same. I cant handle him growing the way he does. Not to mention that he doesnt fit into any of his clothes for more than a week. And all these milestones. I cant even keep up in his journal because too much is going on. First it was his first laugh, then his budding teeth. On Sunday he had his first real roll over onto his belly, Monday his first haircut, which made me cry by the way, then Tuesday he rolled from his back to his tummy to his back to his tummy over and over to the wall. What the heck. Cant we take it slow kid? Wait who am I kidding. This is Braden I am talking about. He isnt interested in the slow lane. So goodbye sweet baby. Hello wild child. I love him to pieces, but really have a hard time dealing with how much he changes and grows up every day.

The coveted mullet; long in the back, short in the front.

He was lucky enough even to be blond on top,

and brown on bottom. Oh YEAH!!

Daddy showing Boo how fun clippers are.

And somehow, he did think it was fun.

I was ready for kicking and screaming,

but this was what we got.

Typical Braden. Love this kid.

My Current Obsession

It all began a few weeks ago at Activity Days. We sewed these darling headbands for the girls and talked about what a great talent sewing can be. It got me thinking of all of the fabric I have sitting around just waiting to be used. I realized that sewing is just another one of those things that I know how to do, but I am not great at. I love sewing, I love creating projects, and have recently come up with some pretty big ideas that may or may not turn out fabulously. I have just had the sewing machine sitting out, just ready for my hours of daily sewing. I made a new blanket for Boo with this adorable cowboy fabric, finally started on his Peter Pan halloween costume, which I wish I had a pattern for because the shoes alone took me 3 hours and 5 tries. It was lame, but I am really happy with how they turned out and I cannot wait to see him in his cute little outfit. So basically all this blog post is saying is that I am obsessed with sewing right now. I spend way too much time at the fabric store, and countless hours searching sewing and fabric blogs. Obsessed much?
COMING SOON ON OUR BLOG:
Bradens 4 Month Milestones and his Wild Life

Apples to Apples

We have decided that instead of sitting around on our Saturdays, we would like to take little Saturday field trips. We began at Apple Hill. Devin and Braden have never been and it is such a part of Autumn in Sacramento, that I didn't want them to miss it. We had such a fabulous time enjoying the beautiful weather and the amazing scenery of Placerville. As always, Braden was a gem, minus the drive home, and he loved being outside and amidst the greenery.

We found out that Braden loves grass as much as Dev does!
Braden hardly wanted to look at us. He was so fascinated by all of the GREEN!!

Since Braden has teeth, he has started to gnaw on everything.

We gave him his first taste of an apple and he loved it. He cried when it was all gone.

The fishing pond

Out of the Woods

About three weeks ago, we took a little trip down to Guatemala to visit Devins parents who are serving a mission there. They got to spend an entire week with Grammy and Grandpa, and we all had a great time together full of late night chats, perfect weather, beautiful surroundings, some great classes at the CCM, and delicious Guatemalan black beans, which I became obsessed with, only to later despise and vow to never eat ever again. The thought even makes me cringe. Anyway, getting there was a bit of a nightmare thanks to our flight being cancelled about twelve hours before we were to depart. Luckily Dev was trooper and figured out how to get us from San Fran to Guatemala and arrive at the exact same time we would have, had things not gone south. Unfortunately we had a 7 hour layover in Mexico City, a destination I will never go to ever again, but got to eat at the delicious McDonalds. A real treat. Braden had a little run in with some crazy lady with no teeth who so graciously kissed him and stuck her dirty ol finger in his mouth. I swore to Devin if Braden ended up with hand foot and mouth, someone would pay. Anyway, Mexico City was a horrific experience, but we made it to Guate and had the time of our lives.

SUNDAY

• Grammy came and took Braden, and Devin and I got to sleep in until almost 11 (we had a 20hr travel day on Saturday, so we deserved a little sleep)


• attended church with the missionaries and felt their sweet spirit, even though Devin had a little bit of a hard time with the translating sometimes


• went to Presidents class where they taught the Latins about their family and about being great missionaries

MONDAY

• Drove to Antigua, an old charming little village, complete with a "Wood Factory", Jade Factory, and plenty of Guatemalan natives


• finally got to get my own wooden apples that are a must have, I cant wait to display them in our new house


• had lunch at a beautiful hotel, the restaurant was basically a covered outdoor-ish place and it poured while we were eating which was so neat
  
  
  

  Notice the cobblestone street, and the colorful buildings. Antigua is a very old city in Guatemala, and the cobblestone is almost everywhere.
  

  

  At the fancy hotel where we had lunch

Braden and his Pal

TUESDAY

• drove to Iximche ruins on our way to Lake Atitlan, enjoyed the history there, and thinking about the way life must have been, the landscapers cut the immense lawn with machetes....really!!



• continued on to Lake Antigua, possible location of the Waters of Mormon; gorgeous, humongous lake

• Devin and I did a sweet zip line course and got to see Monkeys in the wild
  
• enjoyed the beautiful gardens at our quaint hotel where I think maybe 5 rooms were being occupied
  
• took Braden for a little dip in the gigantic pool sized jacuzzi
  
• had precious chat time with Mom and Dad, ate delicious food, and just relaxed
  
  
  

  View of the Iximche Ruins
  Braden sporting his sun blocking turbin, and enjoying his favorite color, GREEN and a rendition of the "tree of life" in the background

Us with our gracious tour guides

I took a quick fall into this pool right at the top of a 20ft waterfall. Dev thought I was a goner.

Atop Lake Atitlan

The view of the lake and one volcano from our hotel room

WEDNESDAY

• traveled across the lake to Santiago Atitlan where we got our first true taste of Guatemalan life


• I fell in love with the people and the simple lives they lead. It made me cry to think of how little they have, but how much they love their lives. I think all of the little Guatemalan ladies in the catholic church where we were thought I was feeling the spirit...


• Met Bradens first little buddy in Guatemala, Juan el Bautista


• ventured into the market place complete with a butcher block full of fresh meat... it was very smelly, thank goodness I was not pregnant


• enjoyed more talk time, more great food, and more R&R

Women in traditional dress selling beans and other food

THURSDAY

• one last look at the beautiful lake during our patio breakfast where Grandpa and Devin lured little birds to eat from their hands
• my tragic illness began

• drove to Chichicastananga on our way home and stopped at one of the largest markets in Guate. I spent a little time in an authentic Guatemalan bathroom. One lady asked us to pay, but since someone was in her bathroom and there was no time to waste, we luckily found the next one and it was free of charge, but not of germs.
• traveled back to Guatemala City and just got to rest from our travels

Beautiful flowers on the steps of a "must-see" cathedral

The many different colors in the markets were incredible

FRIDAY

• went to the giant relief map of Guatemala, we got to see basically a 3-D map of Guatemala that had been created by a man 100+yrs ago who traveled around Guate on horseback, Dad showed us where a bunch of BOM sites were on the map


• went to another market, where I took another bathroom trip, which this time I needed a thorough shower after... I was thinking how gross it was that all of the ladies there were wearing flat jelly shoes, until I realized I was wearing flip flops.... so gross


• attended Dads BOM history class; it was a huge overview of the timeline of the BOM. I couldn't believe Dad had 3hrs worth of BOM history memorized. It was awesome!

Shockingly we didnt find all of Bradens christmas presents at the markets, but we did pick up this sweet little beanie which he has already worn quite proudly.the relief map... can you sort of picture how big it is?

SATURDAY

• Devin became deathly ill thanks to the coughing and wheezing that was going around at the CCM (MTC) and took an extensive nap on the couch


• spent the majority of the afternoon watching the BYU game with Crappa's 80 yr old temple missionary friends.... man those guys can talk


• walked next door to the temple for some photos


• tried to savour our last hours together

Braden enjoying a good BYU victory.

Its best for everyone when the Cougs win!

We had such a fabulous and uplifting time. We enjoyed so much the spirit of the CCM and seeing Presidente and Hermana Christensen in their element. We told them they should ask to be called to Spain for their next mission so that we can all travel and see Europe next. Thanks for letting us come visit Grammy and Grandpa. We love you!