Braden Gets Kissed--Look out!!--It's not from a girl! AAAH!

Um, Mommy, this boy is getting awfully lovey with me. Um, hmmm, I wonder what he's gonna do.

Friday night, we had a couples Bible study with some of the couples from our church. And while were eating our dinner, the kids were playing together and one of the little boys there, (Daniel) was being very affectionate with Braden. He was giving him hugs and patting him and then.....he planted a big ol' sloppy kiss on Braden--right on the mouth. It was hilarious and soooo cute!

Um, yeah, Mommy, he seems like a nice guy, but he's kind of, you know, in "my space." Hmmm maybe he wants my seat...or my microphone...or maybe........he's......... um........ GOING TO KISS ME????? Ewwww Man! What'd you do that for. Were there any girls looking? You're going to ruin my reputation! Come on now, go pick on someone who can run from you. I can't even defend myself because they have me trapped in this musical chair. Someone...... help.......can you distract him or something! :)

Enjoying family

After we ate lunch, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to spend some time together. Sarah and Ben worked on a Star Wars puzzle with Grandma almost the entire time we were over there. Aunt Maggie joined in the fun about 1/2 way through.

Braden played with Aunt Maggie giggling at her chewing on his fingers...

..and he played with Grandpa. He showed us how well he can crawl today with the incentive of my keys laying on the floor. He crawled about 8 or 9 forward motions. I think it's official--he can crawl! He did it 4 times, but then decided it was too much work and started rolling around and laying and playing in one spot. He just has so much to lug around :) Sammie and I colored together for a while, and Andy wasn't feeling well, so he just sat and watched a Missouri game on T.V. When Braden had all the excitement he could take, I took him home for his nap.

THEY GOT IT FINISHED! YEA!!!

Grandma Dixon's Birthday Lunch

Today we went out eat for lunch at Longhorn to celebrate Grandma Dixon's birthday. On top of getting to see Grandpa and Grandma, Ben also got to see his cousins, Sammie and Sarah, and Aunt Maggie. Pictured above is Sammie holding Braden.

And this is Sarah holding Braden. I think he's almost as big as she is!

Just kicking back, enjoying our lunch. There's the birthday girl (and the birthday boy too--he just had a birthday also. They both received a birthday song--Longhorn style, and got a free dessert--which the kids enjoyed too)

He're Aunt Maggie flies Braden to Mommy. It's true, the Michelin baby is in town! :) ha-ha!

My boys are a lot alike~here's one example

Ben layed down on Braden one afternoon this week and said, "Wow, you make a nice pillow Braden." (imagine that!) :) After I snapped this photo, I realized that they both had their fingers in their mouth the same way. (Ben wasn't even trying to imitate Braden) ~Thought it was cute and wanted to share it here.

Wednesday-Braden's 9 Month Check-Up (at 10 months) oops!

Look at the size of that belly!!!!! WOW! The michelin baby has attacked earth!

I took Braden for his 9 month check-up Wednesday (he's actually 10 months already but i just got around to doing it.) He weighed in at 25.5 lbs!!! I could understand if he ate a lot but the poor kid can't even eat table food yet! He doesn't even eat as much as the doctor said he should be eating at his age. He just knows how to pack it on. I guess we'll have a line backer on our hands one of these days! :) He is managing to catch up with himself a little now though. At his 6 month check, he was off the charts in weight (105%.) He's now 94% in weight, 85% in height and 91% in head circumference. He's just our little BIG guy!

Tubing at Snow Creek

On Friday night, we took our Sunday School class out to Snow Creek to check out Tornado Tube Alley. It was about 22 degrees, but we bundled up good and had no trouble staying warm. This picture turned out very blurry but it shows the conveyor you ride on to get back up to the top of the hill to tube down. It is wonderful! If you walk up as you're riding, you get there in 1/2 the time! This is what the tubing hill looked like. There were 6 lanes and you could go individually or hanging onto another tube. This particular time, Ben and I chose to race down in separate alleys. We were going so fast that the camera couldn't focus on us in time. We had a lot of fun. Andy had to just watch and take pictures because of his back, but Ben said "it was Daddy's turn to be jealous of all the fun we were having, because last year Mommy was pregnant and couldn't go sledding when he and Daddy did." (it was so cute) We stayed and tubed until 12:30 a.m. and were absolutely exhausted when we got home! Ben fell asleep before

we even left the parking lot!

Happy Birthday Grandma and Grandpa!

Ben found out that his Grandma and Grandpa Dixon were having birthdays so he decided to make them each a Birthday card. He used Mommy's scrapbooking punches to make some decoration for his cards.

He punched out bears, hearts and snowflakes out of different colored construction paper and then Mommy helped him glue them to his "card."

After he got a few bears punched out, he wanted me to take a picture with him and "his bears" he made.

Then he wrote on the cards. We have been practicing his letters lately, and he is getting much better at knowing what the letters look like without asking me. He still gets uppercase and lower case confused, but he is learning. Sometimes he still wraps his words around the page in an odd fashion, but, we're working on that. :)

He was very proud of Grandma and Grandpa's cards when he was finished.

If You Build it~They Will Come

Our train track we built was a success! These are two of Ben's neighbor friends, Adam and Caleb. They loved playing on Ben's Thomas train track we built.

Ben wanted to play bumper trains with the boys, I told him he could either use his imagination better, or he could sit in his room while his friends played. He quickly turned his imagination on. (Imagine that!:)

Braden still does not crawl, he pushes backward while laying on his belly. He looks a little bit like a surfer when he does it, especially when he's on the kitchen floor. Well, Wednesday, our little "surfer" surfed his way across the floor and got stuck under the bar stool. He thought it was pretty exciting. Luckily I got him out just before he almost knocked the stool over!

This is Braden's "toy basket" that we keep his toys in the living room in. He loves to take everything in it out one by one. His "Learning Puppy," (pictured above left) that he got from his Great Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas, is one of his favorite toys right now.

Building a Thomas Train Track

What'cha got there big brother? Who's Thomas the Tank Engine? OHHHHHHH...I see, this looks like fun!

On Sunday night, Ben brought the Thomas the Tank Engine box out from under Braden's crib and said, "Let's build a train track Mommy!" And since the weather has been so yucky, I figured it'd be something that would entertain him and his neighbor buddies this week while we're stuck inside. So he and I set out to cover the living room floor with the "Island of Sodor."

Braden was quite excited about all the hoopla and kicked his feet and squealed when we started getting it all out. He wanted to be right in on the action!

Can I help? I think I'll put this piece here...or in my mouth....wherever it fits best. I like this stuff! I'm going to have great fun with it one of these days! After an hour and a half, we finally got it done!

Braden liked playing in the "train tote" just as well! He was perfectly content just hanging out in there while we put the finishing touches on the track the last 30 minutes.

Big Boy Cup

Braden officially drank from a sippy cup for the first time yesterday! He didn't want any part of regular sippy cups so I took the advice of my sister-in-law and got this sippy cup that has a bottle nipple shaped spout...and guess what~he liked it! He just giggled and giggled like he was doing something he shouldn't be doing while he was drinking water from it.

2 Front Teeth

For the New Year, Braden got his first two teeth~on the same day too! He also started saying "Da-Da" on New Year's Day! What's next....crawling? We're in for it! :)

Happy New Year!

I've been trying to think of a way to keep in touch with those who want to know what's happening in our lives without having to spend all night on the computer or phone. I also thought this would be a good journaling tool for me since I can't seem to find time to fit it in to my day, so those of you who are interested in what's happening in our lives, you can check it out anytime by visiting this blogspot. It'd be fun if everyone would create on of these :). Today is New Years Day and what a way to start off the new year-- Andy woke up sick (bronchitis, we think.) It is just one thing after another for him.... poor guy! ~The boys and I had a lazy day today (for a change) we just hung out and played a lot today. I felt like I owed it to them with how crazy the holiday season has been for Mommy. I feel like there are just not enough hours in the day to keep up! ~Braden is really moving around a lot more the past few days. He scoots backwards and rolls around so much that I cannot leave him alone in the room for fear something will happen to him. He is developing such a personality! I think we might have heard the first indication of him saying "Da-Da" tonight. Ben and Andy both noticed it before I did. ~ We had Andy's family over for our Christmas celebration this past weekend. It was great to get to spend some quality time with them! We so seldom get to do that with all 9 of us together. ~ I have made many resolutions today and one of them is to keep in better touch with my friends. If you are reading this, you are obviously one of them because otherwise you wouldn't care what was happening in our lives or my ramblings. Which, by the way, I hope to make future entries much shorter. :) ~Braden is just about to get his first 2 teeth through. Both of his bottom front teeth are just slightly breaking through his gums (at the same time of course) Poor little guy doesn't chew on much so it has taken forever for them to get through. ~Ben is ready for preschool to be back in session because he is bored. He has to have something going on every second. What a handful! Sweet, thoughtful, creative, fun..... but what a handful my little Benjamin Andrew is! My life would be pretty boring without him though! ~Tomorrow I begin my quest to get caught up on scrapbooking for the past year. ~Signing off for tonight.