We'll Start with These from this summer

Our cutie patootie Braden (now 2 years old) He looks ENORMOUS in this picture, but I promise he's just BIG--LOL! Chocolate pudding anyone??? :)

Ben is very into counting money right now and he likes to get it all out and arrange it. He is very excited about spending his money more than saving it though--imagine that!

Yes, I started potty training Braden just about a few days before I had a garage sale in August. I stuck with it for a good solid week and he was soooooo easy to potty train. I've learned since then why--The boy HATES being wet. If he gets one drop of water on him, no matter HOW big or small, he wants his clothes changed. I think he may be slightly OCD.....but, hey, when it comes to potty training, I am THANKFUL for it! I'm convinced that is why he was so easy to potty train! That, and I just stuck with it and did not put ANY diapers on him except for bedtime. After a couple weeks, he even started making it through the night without wetting the bed. He'd wake us up crying, we'd take him and he'd go back to bed. I was AMAZED!!! I blog not to brag, but to remember when it comes to scrapbook time. :) But the moral of the story is--if you're child is ready for it and you stick with it, maybe it IS possible to potty train them in a week! Who knows???

Back from the Blogspot Grave

Ok, yep, I'm a loser! I said I was going to get caught up, and what happened? I disappear for 6 months!?! UGH!!! Now I really have my work cut out for me don't I! Well, I'll give it a try! No promises this time, but one of my New Year's Resolutions is to keep up with this and Myspace in 2009. So, hold me to it ya'all! :) I love anyone who reads my ramblings!

I am trying to get caught up on my posting. I've been slacking off this summer and figured it was time to post some pics. I've lost my camera, so now is a good time to get caught up--lol!

Mother's Day

Ben in the church fellowship hall after service on Sunday morning. Braden and Ben love to play ball "together" Mother's Day photos with the boys. This was one of the last days before we cut Ben's hair off that he'd taken so long to grow. He didn't want to get it cut, but I told him at Christmas that he could grow it until school was out. The sweet cards Ben made me for Mother's Day

Nah, he's not a bit ornery--ha!

Flowers for Grandma

Flowers for great Grandma

Ben made me a t-shirt for Mother's Day that said, "Happy Mother's Day.....this is the best Mom ever" (not in that exact order)~Absolutely priceless!

Day Out with Thomas (The tank engine)

Well, the time for Day out with Thomas came around again this year and we knew that we had to take our little "choo-choo" fanatic to see the real Thomas. We thought he would absolutely love seeing him in person. When we got there, we first went to the big train tent where you can watch and play with all the trains they have on display. Braden especially liked this one! Ben, who said he didn't care a thing about going to see Thomas this year, was actually a little more impressed than he thought he'd be once we got there.

We decided to take Braden around the front of the station house to let him see Thomas up close. Well, we were just fine walking around the corner, he got a glimpse of him and about that time, the real train blew his whistle--nice and LOUD!!!!!!!!! Braden, being a boy that LOATHES noise, needless to say, was DONE with the whole excitement of seeing Thomas. He began to go into a panic attack and began crying and running in the opposite direction of me and Andy and was saying "That way!" and trying to get in any door of the shops on the left that he could. I have never seen such a panic attack out of a 2 year old before. We were hollering and hollering at him to come to us, and he was just insistent that we needed to get away from the train in the opposite direction. (it was actually hilarious how histerical he got) We just had to laugh--I mean, what else can you do? Finally I got a hold of him and picked him up and tried to comfort him and show him Thomas, but for nearly an hour, he refused to look in the direction of where Thomas was, no matter what we tried. In the meantime, Ben went over and checked out the firetruck...

Day Out with Thomas cont...

Then we went over and let Ben slide on the big slide, which he did about 20 times. Turns out, he had more fun that day than Braden did. Here Braden is in line with Ben, but he didn't actually ever make it all the way up to slide down. He kept falling and having trouble getting up the ladder. We did, however get him to smile at least for a little while while he jumped in this bouncing thing (forgot what they're called) He LOVED that!!!! It was a very hot day and we were all very ready to go after spending about 3 hours there. Braden was pooped! Before we left, Ben went over to wave bye to Thomas. Pretty cute for someone who didn't want to go in the first place--huh! When we got in the car, Braden was still refusing to look in the direction of Thomas. He didn't want ANY part of it!!! Ben was trying and trying to pursuade him to look at Thomas and tell him goodbye, but Braden refused vehemently! The perfect topper of a hilarious performance by our stubborn 2nd born came though when we pulled away from the station and headed down the block to go home, we got about 2 blocks away and Braden said in a very quiet voice, "b bye choo-choo." Andy, Ben and I burst into laughter! Braden didn't crack a smile and was asleep within 60 seconds. What a day!

Summer Fun

Last year I picked up this little pool on clearance. I thought it would be a great sized pool for Braden when this summer rolled around. Well, since I hadn't put our big pool up yet, the older kids decided to play in it. It was hilarious b/c they begged me for a week to put it up b/c it looked about 3 times this big on the box. They were all saying "Is that IT????" over and over after we got it blown up. When they realized that was all they were getting until the weather got nicer, they all began to enjoy it, surprise, surprise! One of the cutest of my boys this year! Agua!

Awana Ceremony

This past year, Braden got to be involved in Awanas in a new class we started called--Puggles. It is for 3 year olds. He absolutely loved it! I don't think I got any pics of him in his classroom, but this is of the ceremony when they got their certificates. Braden was not too whoopy about being up on stage, so he sat in Miss Lori's lap the whole time. When Braden gets nervous, he chews on his hands (ie. above--lol) Braden learned some very cute things while in Puggles. He came home one night in Jan. or Feb and was picking up a Bible and saying "BIBLE." And then every book he picked up he thought was a bible and would proclaim it to be. He would get so excited to go to church so he could see his friends in Puggles. And never threw cried when I'd leave him in there. This is Ben and his crew saying a memory verse that they had learned. I opted to work in Sparks this year b/c of Ben going off to Kindergarten. I felt like I didn't get to see him that much, so I began working in his class so I could see him interact with other kids his own age. Even though I wasn't a leader at his table, we enjoyed being in the same classroom together. He worked his way all the way through his book this year and even got through the review. We were so proud of him! He is very good at memorizing and puts Mommy to shame. He can say all the books of the Bible in less than 15 seconds. He learned songs that had them all on there, and he can go through them so fast that you can hardly understand him. We had about 25 kids in Sparks, so gametime was quite chaos.

Our last lunch date of Kindergarten

The last week of school, I went for one last lunch date with my Kindergartener. It had been a few weeks since I'd been there and he had a couple new tricks to show me. One was that he can do chin-ups now. This was a rarity that Ben would play with Braden at recess b/c Braden was usually swamped with a ton of little girls wanting to carry him around or "help him" do everything (which Braden hated and would constantly yell at them--"STOP!" He's SO independent!) But this day, Ben played with his little brother and wanted to help him on the slide. And Braden actually let him help--surprising! Ben's other trick is skipping every other bar on the monkey bars. Strong little guy! :)

"Flowers" for Mommy

These pictures were taken a while back, but I just had to blog them. Ben's love language is "gifts." He loves to get them, but I think he likes to GIVE them just as much. Nearly everywhere we go he brings me a rock. And he picks dandelions for me all the time. This particular day, I took him and his buddy Zach to the park and sat and watched them play from the car. When they got done playing, Ben went over and started picking "flowers" for me. I noticed what he was doing and grabbed my camera out of my purse.

This pic is of him picking them... Here comes my scraggly haired sweetie with "flower" in tote... This was the first one of many he brought me that day. I told him (as we'd talked about before) I needed a LONGER stem so I could put it in water. .. :) So off he went and brought me another...and another... and another. For such a rowdy, ornery kid, he sure knows how to make Mommy's heart smile!

May Misc...

I often go to eat lunch with Ben at school. After lunch, I go to recess with Ben and a lot of the kids LOVE having a Mom and a 2 year old at recess with them. I get "hey, watch this" about 50 times during recess. And I'm usually taking pictures, so they all want their picture taken too. This one was just a lot of the kids from various classes. From left to right: Bella, Joshua, Ben, Anthony, Garrett, Joseph, Brinley, and Efren.Ben's very favorite thing to do at recess ALL YEAR has been the monkey bars. He has progressed to being able to skip every other bar when he does them now and it quite proud of himself!!! My sister-in-law Sheila have been taking turns having "me days." I watch her kids one day and then she'll watch mine another. It's been WONDERFUL!!! I held up my camera and pointed it towards the back seat and took this one of the kids. They were eating up the attention and all saying "CHEESE" about the time I took the 3rd picture. :) Yum--Lunch!

Fun pics--Braden and Mommy

Braden and I having fun in the bathroom.

Ben's Last Field Trip for Kindergarten

I thought this was neat.

I captured this photo at Deana Rose Farmstead on Ben's Kindergarten Field trip....

And this one was taken of ME on MY Kindergarten fieldtrip 30 years ago!

Just had to share that. :)