Brayden turns the Big 4!!!

Well today my sweet middle child you turn 4!!! How can it be that you have been apart of our family now for 4 years? I was talking to you last night about how today was your birthday and that you were turning 4! You got so sad and said, "but mommy I want to just stay little forever and not get big, I just want to stay free(how you say three). Well mommy often tells you boys to just please stay little and your brother Bennett always says, "but mommy we have to grow up and get big!" So it is today that you are now officially FOUR. Things you do:

• You are now in pre-school M,W,F

Go to Busy Bodies on Fridays(this is where you are having your party on Saturday)

Swimming lessons

Love all sorts of video games: Nintendo DS, XBOX, Wii

Love to color, draw, play doh, really any sort of art

Love the special interest classes at the community center that mommy has you signed up for

Favorite cartoon is Arthur

Favorite color is blue

Love praise music(so cute the other day you were in the basement playing the guitar and singing songs about your sweet Jesus)

Loves to say prayers

Loves to give hugs and kisses which totally melt this mommy

Loves to wrestle with your Big brother and daddy and love on baby Baylor(you are so sweet and gentle with him)

Like to ride your bike

You still do your fair share of fussing and being down right difficult, but we are still working on that.

All in all you are a real joy and we love having you as a part of our family. We are looking forward to a year of being four and seeing all that you will learn and accomplish this up coming year. Happy Birthday Brayden, we love you!!! Update:

Today at your 4 yr. well check, you were 43" tall 90% and weighed 44lbs. 95%

Baylor's One Year Pictures

Baylor had his One Year photos taken on Thursday of this past week. He did awesome once again, charming everyone who stopped to watch him through the window. I really can not believe my baby is now a full year old. Aunt Robin, Uncle Bill, Harrison and Sterling bought Baylor his cute little outfit for him for his Birthday. The little party hat was Brayden's party hat that he wore when he turned one. Baylor also had his 1 yr. check up and weighed in at 25 lbs.even~75% and was 31 inches long~90%. His head circumference was 19 inches~90%. He still has just the two bottom teeth, but I think the top right tooth will make its appearance soon. Still just crawling and pulling up everywhere. You are now eating mostly all table foods and trying regular milk(not to crazy about it yet, but you'll get the hang of it soon).

The little rocking horse Baylor is on, was a gift given to Baylor from Bruce's manager Brent when Baylor was born.

These last two are of course Baylor in his little Halloween costume. I think he makes the most adorable pirate around.

Baylor turns #1

Happy First Birthday Baylor!!!

Happy 1st Birthday my sweet one! Today at 10:30am MST you turn 1!

I cannot believe it has already been one year since we welcomed you into our family, it's going so fast. We are blessed beyond measure and have enjoyed every minute of having you in our lives. Yesterday we celebrated your 1st Birthday with a little party, and you sure enjoyed all the attention and sweet dear friends that helped us celebrate you! We are looking forward to all this next year holds for you.

Here is a slide show since there were too many pictures to choose from. (There is music to it, so to enjoy turn your sound if you have it up, and some of the pictures have captions. Put your cursor over the picture to pause it and see the caption)

What your up to these days:

You have been crawling since 11 months 9 days and began pulling up about 1 week ago. You have your 2 bottom teeth, and have started trying all sorts of table foods and love everything you try :o). You typically sleep from between 6:30-7:00pm to around 7:00am(sometimes later), you still like to take 2 naps a day when our busy schedule permits. You still love your passy when you sleep as well as you favorite gauze blankets. (mommy went back a few weeks ago and bought the last two they had which were on sale so we would have several back ups) You wear size 18 months clothes and a size 5W shoe. Mommy loves to put an adorable little curl hawk on the top of your sweet little head and you get lots of attention from all the ladies when we are out(even a few of the men comment on your way cool hair). Tomorrow we go for your 1 yr. check up to get your current weight and a few more shots, sorry about those sweet boy, but they help to protect you from illness and disease so they are for your own good.

Oh yeah and you totally adore all Baby Einstein videos, you just laugh and giggle the whole time. Your favorite books are any type of touch feel books. You just run your little finger all over the page and explore all of it fully before going to the next page.

As far as words go you pretty much just say mama, dada, baba(for bottle), babble, and you love to clap for yourself! We think you are pretty awesome and last night Brayden asked us if you would just stay little forever? He began crying a sweet little sob when we said no he would get big just like him and Bennett. WE LOVE YOU BABY BAYLOR!!!

On the move!!!

Here is a quick little video clip of Baylor crawling this week Tuesday. He was 11 months 9 days old, when he finally started moving. I guess all the talk of Physical Therapy and the Orthopedic appointment got him going :o). He is already trying to pull himself up, although I don't see walking for a few months down the road! I'm happy to have him all over the floor and just into stuff. The medical professionals all just keep complementing him on how chill and laid back he is, I guess I'm just used to all the busyness with my other 2 energetic little ones and having a relaxed one gets me worried more than it should. It really is nice to have a very relaxed and mild mannered little one. Yeah Baylor!!!!

A New School Year

This morning the boys started back to school for 2008-2009. Bennett starts Kindergarten and will wear a uniform. I tell you they make life so easy. You set out a shirt and shorts and there is no arguing over what to wear, because there is no choice in the matter. I LOVE uniforms. Bennett posing for his official first day of school photo.

Brayden is finally old enough for pre-school. In AZ they have to be 3 by Aug. 1st and fully potty trained. Here is Brayden posing for his official 1st day of 3 yr. old pre-school. He also happens to have the same 3 yr. old teacher Bennett had. He was super excited to finally have a class of his own.

Both of my big boys together just before heading out to school.

Bennett outside his new classroom. His little friend Mason peaking out the door. He has at least 3 kids that he knows in his class, that he has been in pre-school with.

Bennett sitting at his table with Paulina and Mackenzie.

Brayden's class starts 15 minutes after Bennett's class, so guess what? Brayden will never be late for school unlike poor Bennett who was also the last one to skate in :o). His class is just across the hall form Bennett's, so they are looking forward to saying "Hi" to one another throughout the morning.

Brayden sitting at his table playing with toys until the teacher calls the class to order.

Well it's time to go back and get my boys.(they start with a half day today and Brayden will only go M,W,F) I did manage to hit the gym and grocery store, got back and got a quick shower and did a blog post all in 2 hrs. time. Now I tell you is that making good of my time or what?

Baylor's newest trick

Here is a little clip of Baylor and his newest trick. He loves to clap for himself all the time. You say," Yeah Baylor" and he starts clapping, so cute!

Water Fun

Getting some air! One of our boys daily activities is swimming in the pool. They look forward to getting in and cooling off. They have fun doing cannon balls, and trying to see how far they can splash the water when jumping in. Brayden's turn! Baylor enjoying his little water melon float. Your one in a melon baby!!! He loves the pool splashing and kicking around.

Over the July 4th weekend we went to Family Camp with our church in Bison Ranch located in Payson, AZ. It is only about 3 hours north, but the temperatures are about a good 20 degrees cooler. We enjoyed cool weather, daily rain showers, fishing, fellowship, good food, and great company. This will definitely be a yearly event for us from now on. We had such a wonderful time and hated to come home.

Baylor watching the boys fish.

On this trip Bennett and Brayden both caught their first fish! They loved going each day to the little pond on the property and fishing with the boys.

Bennett actually reeled his fish in by himself.

Bennett holding his fish up. He was so proud of his catch. Bruce had actually caught a fish just prior to Bennett on this little Pirates of the Caribbean fishing pole. After he caught his fish, Bennett wanted to catch one, but we had no worms left except what was left on the hook. Bennett caught his fish within about five minutes of Bruce with the left over worm.

Look at Brayden's facial expression in the picture. He was so sad, because he wanted to catch one now.

So......

With the piece of worm that was left from Bennett's, Brayden caught another fish just a few minutes later. Talking about stretching a worm!!!! Look at the smile on that little boy's face. He was so happy to have caught a fish just like his daddy and brother.

He had a little help from daddy reeling his fish in.

Brayden's first fish.

About this time everyone else around the pond was seeing the boys real in fish after fish and came over to see how they were doing it. Bruce gave a few tips to some of the boys and fixed a few fishing rods and some of the other boys caught a fish or two themselves. Talk about some good fishing stories at dinner that night :o).

ASKA Karate Tournament

Saturday June 28, 2008 Bennett had another tournament for the Arizona State Karate Alliance(ASKA) held at Phoenix First Assembly's gym. All the competitors for the age bracket 5 and under lined up and ready to perform their Kata's.

Bennett recently learned a very difficult kata Naihanchi. He did very well and one of the judges even said after he completed his kata, wow that was a difficult kata. He was so proud of himself for learning this kata and said, "I'm going to do Naihanchi because I'll earn lots of points since it's hard." :o)

Waiting to get his score for his Kata

He took third place which he was pleased as a peach with! Yeah baby!

Getting a pep talk from one of the judges just before they began kumite(sparring).

This judge also happens to be Bennett's Sensei Jasmine's brother Niko Fernandez

His first match was with Sebastian the same boy he fought against in the National Championship match in Albuquerque, NM in March of this year where Bennett one first place.

Nice Roundhouse kick! He won this match 3-2. It was very good competition for both of the boys.

Next Bennett fought a boy from his own dojo named Zachary who had won his match with another boy. Bennett and Zach were fighting here for first and second place positions. He won this match getting first place.

Bennett and his first place trophy!

Zachary and Bennett with their trophies, way to go boys, good job!

Our latest dental visit

We are very pleased to announce that the boys had great dental exams last week! As you can see by their great smiles they are pleased as well. On a more serious note, Bennett had several areas that the dentist was concerned about possibly becoming cavities, so he advised putting sealers on. He also had two fairly deep pits in 2 other teeth that he recommended filling before a cavity develops. I guess we pretty much see that his mouth will be a money pit. He will more than likely need all of his teeth pulled since they just don't seem to loosen up and the adult teeth grow in behind the baby teeth. He has already had 4 pulled with the prospect of the top 4 to likely be pulled in the next several months. His dentist also said we would need to get him in with an orthodontist around age 6 as there is not much room for all his new teeth. The 2 new adult teeth take up all the room from the 4 baby teeth on the bottom. Sigh...

Just call me Uncle Buck!!! Brayden got this as his reward for being such a big boy. Dr. Brenke thought this was hilarious. He had a great exam and so far nothing to worry about for Brayden, other than we would watch his frenulum between his front teeth. It is fairly prominent and after his baby teeth come out he may need it clipped to prevent his adult teeth from having a gap between them.

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Baylor also has the first little sign of his first tooth coming in on the bottom left side. You can see a slight little white line :o). I guess I can now blame his crankiness and bad diapers on a new tooth!

It's Getting Hot In Here

Do you remember the song by Nelly It's Getting Hot in Herre? I thought it was appropriate for this post :o). I fact I just downloaded it to my phone for the ring tone HaHa! Yes folks you are reading that thermometer correctly. We have an indoor/outdoor thermometer and the outdoor part resides on our back patio. I took this picture the other day when the temperature on our patio was 121.6 degrees. It was 122 but dropped a bit by the time I got my camera out. Now mind you the sensor for this is in the shade. Well I guess we can officially fry and egg on the asphalt. I also saw this article today on MSNBC about Phoenix: It may be "dry heat" out there, but Phoenix leads a list of America's sweatiest cities, according to an annual ranking from deodorant maker Old Spice. The desert city's average high temperature was 95.1 degrees in June, July and August 2007, the company said. As a result, the average Phoenix resident pumped out 26.4 ounces of sweat per hour. That's the equivalent of more than two cans of soda. Las Vegas is America's second-drippiest city, followed by Tallahassee, Fla. San Francisco, with an average summer temperature of just 63.5 degrees, is the nation's least sweaty city, coming in at No. 100 on the list. Oh well I can assure you that we will not be moving to San Francisco to escape our sweating. Really it is not as bad as many make it sound. Sure it's hot, but when most places are having dark, dreary, cold winters we are still enjoying the sun. I'll continue to take stock in the deodorant companies. I remember our first summer here, we would literally take 3 showers a day to cool off. I guess we have adjusted to the heat now :o). Our pastor says really it's the perfect time of the year to convert folks over to Christianity, because when you tell them that Hell is a lot Hotter than Phoenix summers they want no part of it. Just thought I'd share anyone ready for a visit?