Pumpkin Patch

One day in October, with a bunch of Mommies from church, we went to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty fun, worth the free admission and getting out of the house at least. Braden forced us to do our own thing half the time, but he is so cool and cute that it was fine with me.We got to play here for about 5 minutes. Braden loved going up all of the stairs. When big kids came it was time to go. I could tell they wanted to run all of the little kids over. Braden loved looking at the animals and especially loved when they made noise.
Not sure if he thought this was a real animal, but he wanted to give this chicken a love.

My little buddy and I.

Dress Ups

I got our dress up box out to see what we had for Halloween and when I walked away, Braden walked in and found a new treasure! This kid loves shoes.

Death by Wiffle Ball

Devin has all these golf size wiffle balls in the trunk. Braden saw them and wouldnt stop grabbing for them. This is what happened next. I think if he had swallowed it he could have breathed through the holes right? (I'm joking! I was terrified and after about the fourth time he put it in his mouth I decided that it needed to be taken away. I am a pretty good mom. I swear!!)And look at Bradens cute friend Zachary in the background. These two are TROUBLE!!!

Halloweekend

We had a fun Halloween. We went to our ward trunk or treat and then to my parents. Braden loved being Nemo. He would say "Memo" every time he saw his costume and would even cry sometimes when I would take it off of him. Of course his favorite part was the suckers. He had never seen so much candy in his life. Trunk or Treating at PaPa's car.
Our cute family. We won second place in the ward costume contest.

Braden and Pax getting their sugar high on!!

Check It Out!!!

My mom pal and I made these for our front door!! I LOVE how mine turned out and it was so easy and cheap!! Yahoo!

Little Braden

This is a double wammy post. I wanted to show a pic of when Braden pulled a tie out of our closet and put it around his neck. It was so cute. Braden loves his Daddy so much, even though most of the time he calls him "Momma". Then I realized that the pictures showerd two classic Braden looks. If you have seen Braden, you have seen him make both of these faces. He is so funny!!

BICYCLE BICYCLE!!

We finally got ourselves some bikes! We'd had them on our wish list for two years and finally took the plunge. After too many dates to REI, and Braden learning the word bike and knowing to walk there on his own when we got there, we finally found two bikes that suited our taste. For me, I just liked the look of mine. It's a beauty!! And Devin did his research for his and got the exact bike he wanted. We have enjoyed many family bike rides when the weather was nice, and before daylight savings. Braden and I have had a great time riding around the neighborhood and on various errands close by. Devin has gone on several biking trips and has enjoyed having two flats in two trips. We have lots of beautiful paved and unpaved trails around and are glad that we finally did it!!

Devin took an amazing bike trip to the Flume trail at Lake Tahoe. Check out that view!!

One rainy weekend, during a break in the rain, we decided to get out and go to the park. While we were at the park of course it started raining so we had to ride the mile and a half home in the pouring rain. Braden didnt make a peep while we were riding home, but he doesnt look to thrilled either.

Guess What?

Did you know..... I wanted to get a second car. Instead devin got this! A non-carseat carrying, bachelor style scooter. His co-workers call it the bumblebee! Braden thinks its the coolest thing in our garage and loves every motorcycle he sees. Wonder why?! The fun lasted from Aug to Nov. Now its too cold and dark most days. Cant wait until April!!

Disneylandia

In October, we got to go to Disneyland with three of Devins siblings and there kiddos. We had such a blast!! Braden and I also got to spend a day in San Diego with the other Christensens, and we had such a fun time with them. They left their little brother Carter with Grandma and Grandpa and since they missed Carter so much, Braden took his place. It was so fun! We had such a fabulous time at Disneyland and loved being there with the fam bam!! Braden loved it this time and we are pretty sure his favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride because he started saying "Buzz" while we were there. Cant wait to go back!!

Braden loves his cousin Pax. They are best buds!!

When we came in August, we brought an umbrella stroller and Braden had a mega friek out around 2pm from being so exhausted. We ended up having to leave the park and missed out on about 4 hrs of Disney time with my family. So this time we brought the BOB and it was the best! Braden fell asleep twice while we were walking and he stayed asleep for a good 45 minutes both times!!!

Braden had a great time on the Dumbo ride. It was pretty crouded while we were there so my arms got really worked holding Braden so much while we were in all the long lines for our favorite rides.

Little Swimmer

I put Braden in swimming lessons over the summer. He was frieking me out by diving head first into the water so I decided he needed to learn to swim. It took 2 twenty minute private lessons and now he can swim like a champ. (with floaties) Next summer the floaties are gone and he will be doing it on his own. This summer he was only kicking hard enough to propel himself forward, not to get his head out of the water so the floaties were perfect! We had a fun summer full of pool time every day.

It Starts!

Yup! We have a toddler. I am learning slowly, and surely how to deal with the new Braden,but its tough man. Braden was such an easy baby. When I say easy, I mean it. He slept through the night from about 3 weeks on, he has never had any trouble eating, obviously, he has been super healthy, I think he has been sick like twice, and has been so delightful. But those days our gone. I have a toddler in my home. He is still delightful. I love spending my days with him. He makes me laugh all day long and is the cutest little guy ever. He is the best and I love having a boy if it means having a little one who does popcorn popping, who sings to me while I change his diaper, who will break out dancing when any beat catches his ear, including at church, who calls himself Baby, who gives the best hugs, who has begun to laugh at himself, who finds any phone and puts it to his ear and says hi, who has the cutest little voice ever, who has turned our world upside down and we wouldnt have it any other way. We love our Braden!!


At 14 months he figured out how to climb onto the kitchen barstool. I was mortified!!

But imagine my horror upon finding "this" inside my toilet. Yeah scary!! This happened in a 2 minute period where I was changing the diaper of the boy whose feet are pictured in the corner.

FINISH!!!

My Partner and I Pre-Race. Can you tell Braden woke up early to come see us off?

I started running in HS. I joined the track team and that gave my Mom a good laugh. I did hurdles. I kind of enjoyed it, and even set a few school records, that got broken the next year by a girl who was really fast. Bummer for me. When I started running again after Braden was born, I set a lofty goal. I wanted to run a half marathon. I started training and run 7mi, but then hurt my foot, and got sick in the same two weeks and then new that I missed the boat for that race. Again, all summer I ran almost 5-6 days a week to keep my body in shape for a race I wanted to do in November. Of course the race was cancelled. It is really hard to find Saturday races around here. Its a bummer. So my options were few. 1) I could run a race out of town, but the cost started to get too lofty. 2) I could run a local trail half marathon, which basically means I can run a 13mi hike. I chose option 2. It was insane. I cant even describe the power I felt after having accomplished that! On every uphill stretch, which was probably about 75% of the course, I kept telling myself "I can do this. I have had a baby. I pushed for four hours." But towards the end, it was not keeping my motivated. By about mile 11, I decided that the race was more exhausting than pushing for four hours and I just had to keep telling myself I needed to finish. It was so killer and I do not ever want to run a trail half ever again, but I look forward to running a street half marathon sometime next year to see how much my time can improve on the street! On a sidenote, my brother and sister at BYU did a half the following weekend and they were so amazing!

My Love and I post-race. Surprised I was standing! I was sore for about 4 days!