Christmas in Boise

Sunday Jared was schedule to fly back to Colorado and my dad had planned to come pick Brayden and I up in Utah and drive us back to Boise to stay for a week. With the snow it took my dad a full day of driving to arrive in Utah. I appreciated that he was so willing to take the time to come pick us up. We had decent roads and Brayden was a great traveler. When we arrived Kira and Brayden were excited to see each other. We spent the evening having our Christmas as my parents. We have a tradition where we write about our favorite memory from the year and share it with the family. Jared joined us on the webcam and when Brayden saw his dad he got really sad and started to tear up. He was missing his daddy and he was really saddened that he wasn't with us. Of course, we started playing with Kira and was distracted in no time. Kira and Brayden still love to play their night, night game. They only stay down for a second and then they pop right up.
While we were in Boise we didn't have great weather so we spent a lot of time entertaining the kids inside. We made sugar cookies one day.

And decorated them the next. The kids were both really into cooking, stirring, and helping in the kitchen. Which is great, but they are not always the biggest helpers.

Brayden also enjoyed giving Kira hugs, if that is what you can call them. His hugs can be somewhat aggressive as he squeezes her neck .

The hug is always followed by a kiss. They always have a really good time and even with some of Brayden's abuse, Kira still likes to be around Brayden.

Christmas in Utah

We decided a few weeks before Christmas that it would be really fun to surprise Jared's family by being there for Christmas. With the help of his sister we had everything arranged and we were very excited to pull off the surprise. However, the weekend before our scheduled flight Brayden came down with a cold. He spent most of the weekend feeling pretty miserable, and I was really worried about how deep his cough was. We were scheduled to fly to Salt Lake City Monday night, and Monday morning we were at the doctor, hoping that they wouldn't tell me we shouldn't go. They were able to prescribe him some medicine and went by the drug store to pick up the prescription on our way home. Our flight was delayed and Brayden was exhausted by all the travel so the first night didn't help him in his recovery. We got in really late so the next morning we sent Brayden into Grandma Sandy's room for a very special wake up call. She was shocked and it took her a minute to realize that she wasn't dreaming. It was a long day waiting until Grandpa Jerry got home from work for his big surprise. Even though Brayden wasn't in true character for most of the trip I am glad that we were able to spend Christmas with Jared's family. Jared's family renewed an old family tradition; booby trapping each other Christmas presents. Jared spent several hours on the project and is already talking about next time. Brayden was too tired to experience the party, but we kept him up long enough so he could tell everyone he was going to be a big brother. We went over to see Jared's Grandma and you can tell Brayden wasn't very happy and still feeling pretty sick. By Christmas day he had enough energy to get through opening a few presents and playing with some of his gifts. The big hit was his tractors that Santa brought. He opened them first and we had a hard time getting him to open his other presents.

He also liked his piano, I think he thought he was a big boy and could play like his Uncle Adam and cousin Chase. I sure he was a little confused that we were letting him pound away, because while we were staying at Jared's parents Brayden ended up in our bed most nights. Early one morning Brayden had crawled out of the bed without us know and turned on Uncle Adam's keyboard that was in the room and started pounding on they keys. It was about 5 in the morning when we were abruptly awakened by the beautiful sounds.

I was excited that why we were there a snow storm came through, and Brayden was in heaven when he got to ride in Grandpa's tractor to remove the snow. While he was in the tractor Jared's sister came by on their four wheeler and Grandpa turned the blower on them and they got covered with snow. We also took Brayden sledding, he went down about three times and only fell off the sled once.

I think the walking wore him out, because he hung out with me in the car after about 10 minutes.

Thanksgiving

This past month we have been staying real close to home; I am have been experiencing much morning sickness. We try to make it to the library twice a week for story time and other than the weekly errand to the grocery store we are pretty much home bound. Which can make Brayden a little stir crazy. For the most part he is really good about sitting with me on the couch and watching his favorite movie The Incredibles, while I catch a few minutes of sleep in between commercials. The movie has saved me on several occasions when I just had to close my eyes for a minute. However, there are times when Brayden will be playing in his play room and I'll hear him yell out, "stuck, stuck" and have gone in to see him on top of his cubbies or even inside them at times. You can also see that his play has also been to just dump all the toys bins out of the cubbies so he can climb on up. I was a little sad that Jared was going to be away for Thanksgiving this year; CU played at Nebraska that Friday after Thanksgiving. So we celebrated a little early and had leftovers for Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice because Jared was home the rest of the weekend and we received our first snowfall of the season. So of course we had to dress Brayden up in his boots and snow bibs and coat for the outing.
He wasn't the efficient walking with everything on so he spent a lot of time just watching Jared shovel from the step. After Jared finished shoveling they headed to the back yard to build a snowman. Brayden helped for about 2 minutes and was ready to come inside. So he joined me and we watched Jared from the window. We had to get a picture of Brayden by the snowman...that he kinda helped build. You can see we just went out for the picture cause Brayden doesn't even have shoes or a coat on.

Halloween

On Halloween we dressed the kids up and took them to a children's museum. They only lasted in the costumes long enough to get them in for half price. The museum was a lot of fun, they colored, explored, and spent most of the time in this room. Brayden loved going down the climbing on everything. This boat and the play kitchen were also favorites that day.That night we found a neighborhood for the kids to trick or treat door to door. I told Brayden to go to the door and knock, so he did. When the lady opened the door he walked right in. I grabbed him and told him to say trick or treat, but he was so confused why we weren't going in. It took a few houses for him to realize he just had to knock on the door and he would get a treat in his basket. We went to several houses and Brayden scored lots of yummy candy. Kira and Brayden were a big hit, they were both so cute in their costumes.

Brayden was very proud of all his treats in his bag! I had to get a few pictures of him in good light, he was so cute. My favorite part was his puffy cow bum. We had a great visit with Hailey, Cale and Kira. It was so much fun watching Kira and Brayden play together. They would have some much fun doing the most random things, like hiding behind the pack and play. It was also fun having them sleep in the same room and hearing Kira say, "Brayden" over and over and Brayden say, "nigh, nigh" to hear.

October trip to California

Before we left our first trip to California in July we had already decided we would be coming back. It was so fun having Brayden and Kira play together that another trip would be well worth it. We planned to come back in October while Jared had two road trips back to back. It worked our perfectly, and before we knew it my parents, Libby, and Teresa were all going to be able to make the trip as well. The timing worked out that BSU was playing San Jose State; which is about a 2 hour drive from Hailey. We arrived and Kira and Brayden reunited and had a blast. Some of their favorite times together were in the bath tub, making very big splashes. We had to have a beach day so we drove up to Goat Rock Beach and had a lunch and let the kids play. It took Brayden a few minutes to get comfortable in the sand, he wasn't so sure about it.
Before long we headed down to the water where there real fun was about to take place. At first Brayden was pretty freaked out by the water, I think because it was a little cold and the crashing waves were rather loud. He had fun making footprints in the sand and running away from the water.
This picture was taken right before he realized it was okay to get wet from the water.

He got pretty dirty so we had to shed his shorts and diaper and let him roam free, like only a little boy can do. It took a little time cleaning him up, but we still managed to go to Doran Beach where this mess was put to shame. He was so messy that no one had clean hands to get to the camera, so no pictures. Let me just say that he took a spill and had sand on one whole side of his face.
Our drive to San Jose was pretty tight, we picked up Cale from the airport and we had one too many people in the minivan. Teresa was able to book some hotel rooms for us to stay at so that made the trip even better. We got to San Jose and before we knew it we needed to be heading towards the stadium. Traffic was a nightmare and we ended up being a little late to the game; which doesn't happen very often. The game was a typical BSU win. We felt bad that the San Jose team kept playing the clip from the Spartans movie about how they were going to stop them; which didn't ever happen so every third down we saw the clip again and again. The next day we headed down to Monteray Bay. It was a fun little town, Brayden liked to see all the birds and boats near and on the water. We also made a way through the Monteray Bay Aquarium which was a good time. Brayden was really into the fish and seeing all the water.He even got to touch a few star fish and other sea creatures in the touch tank.After the aquarium we headed down to the other end of the beach to see the sea lions. There were everywhere. It was so funny because they were all barking and all of the sudden Brayden started making the same sound. It is so funny what they pick up on.On our drive home to Hailey's on Sunday we stopped at Golden Gate Park in San Fransisco. It was a pretty cold day, but Brayden still managed to enjoy the climbing rock and slides. Jared would be so proud that his son always wants to climb around. I was glad to have Uncle Cale there to help him.The rest of the week we had fun letting the kids do their thing. We played at the park across the street, which is a great park.

Monday we filled our day with a visit to the Jelly Belly factory. It was rather interesting, at least the parts I heard. Brayden always makes those tours a little difficult. He did enjoy the free samples they handed out when we were finished. We spent the rest of the day shopping, the kids were troopers!

The morning that my parents and Libby were scheduled to leave we went to the State Park; which is really close to Hailey's place. We walked around the lake and had a snacks on the grass. Brayden thought it was so funny to play in the leaves.
It was way more fun than sitting and taking a picture.
I am glad all my family was able to get together and have such a fun time. I was glad because I was going to be able to stay for 6 more days.

Brayden is allergic

After several allergic reactions in one week, the allergy doctor was able to get Brayden in to be tested. It was a rough day on Brayden as he was poked, scraped, and scared for about 2 1/2 hours. We were able to find out that he is for sure allergic to peanuts. The bad news is that there are probably other things he is allergic to that they were unable to test for. I am grateful we know how to treat Brayden when he starts to have one, so he doesn't have to look like this.

Cottonwood Farm

Brayden and I joined our friends Crosby and Hilary for a day at the Pumpkin Patch. We went to Cottonwood Farms and the kids had a blast. Brayden enjoyed all the tractors, trucks, animals, and even the pumpkins.After checking out the tractor by the entrance Brayden spotted the cow, and he took off running. He tried talking to them, he said "moo, moo" over and over.
The goats were also a big hit. For some reason Brayden always enjoys the goat getting his finger. One of these days he is not going to enjoy having a goat try to nibble his finger off, but for now he is still laughing.

I don't know why this is so funny, but Brayden sure did.Of course, he had to climb on everything that he could. I was waiting for someone from the farm to come tell me to get control of my child.
I told Brayden to look at all the pumpkins. I guess he wanted to go have a private moment with them. He walked over to the end of the patch, sat down and stayed there for several minutes. I got his attention and instead of getting up he just scooted his body around so he could see me.
Brayden thought it was so much fun to run through the mini hay maze. At first he chased me, but then he had me chasing him; which is the story of my life.

He thought it was so funny, he had this crazy smile on his face the whole time.
Once I had been wore out from all the chasing we decided to go pick out our pumpkin. The farm had cute little wagons for the kids to put the pumpkins in. It was a little walk so I thought it would be good to put Brayden in the wagon to save a little of his energy and time. We got past the animals and he stood up in the wagon, I felt the weight change so I stopped and out came Brayden. He took a pretty bad fall, but no tears.
He decided he wanted to pull the wagon instead.
There were so many pumpkins to choose from. Brayden kept trying to pick up pumpkins that were so big.

He ended up with a pumpkin just the right size.