Goodbye apartment

Nine months ago when we signed our apartment lease I wouldn't have guessed that we would be moving into a home when our time was up. Today we closed on a home, so over the next couple of days we will say goodbye to our 2 bedroom apartment and move into our 4 bedroom home. I am so excited to have room. Here are few pictures of the house.
Here is the kitchen.
There is a bonus room off the kitchen.
This is looking into the family room from the kitchen.
This is from the family room looking towards the entry way. I am very excited to have a fireplace. We thought we had one in our apartment, but didn't. I can't wait for next winter when I can sip hot chocolate in front of a fire. The stairs lead up to all the bedrooms.
This is the front door. The open door is the office and on the far left is a bathroom and the stairs to the basement.We have to be out of our apartment by Thursday, so we have several busy days ahead.

1 year appointment

We went to the doctor today to have Brayden's 1 year check up. Brayden is very healthy and I think too active. Since Brayden's last check up at 9 months he has gained less than a pound. Brayden is a very good eater and should be gaining weight, but he hasn't gained much. Around 9 1/2 months of age Brayden started walking and he is on the go more than ever. I think he is burning too many calories causing him to not gain much weight. I wish I had that problem. Brayden received 5 shots at his appointment, which is very hard for a parent to watch. Brayden brought a smile to my face about 1 hour after we got home. I needed to change his diaper and after I took his pants off I realized there weren't any diapers left in the basket. So I went into the other room to get some. I heard a noise that I had not heard before and went out to see what it was. Well, it was Brayden pulling off his band-aids.

Brayden is 1 year old

It has gone by so fast, I can't believe that Brayden is 1 year old. He is such a wonderful blessing in our lives. We have so much fun with him and celebrating his birthday was fun as well. He didn't realize what it meant to be a birthday boy, he did have fun opening up his gifts. Here are all the gifts that he received. Jared and I bought him a his first hoop, big ball, and a toy where he hammers balls down a hole and then it rolls down the maze. He had fun with the hammer, but you have to watch out cause if your finger gets in the way he doesn't stop hammering. Grandma & Grandpa Taylor got him a beach towel, book, and some primary activities and a CD with lullabies. He liked the wrapping paper and tissue paper with his gifts and we picked up shredded pieces everywhere.Here is Brayden's cake. We decided to have a family party with the three of us. There was too much going on for just the two of us. I had the camera, Jared had the video camera and the cake...bad idea. Jared put the camera on the counter with it pointed on Brayden in his chair. It was a really bad video, because Jared insists that the lights must be out when the candles are lit, but it did record the following events. Jared grabs the cake with the lit candle and puts it down in front of Brayden. Brayden sees the candle, and of course, grabs the flame with his hand. He started crying immediately and I ran over and got him out of his chair to remove all the hot wax and see how bad he had been burnt. We have it all on video to show him one day. I just hope it didn't traumatize him too much.
After we calmed him down we tried it again, without the candle. At first he didn't know what to think. Brayden has had very little sugar, but it didn't take long for him to decide that it was good.
Things got a bit messy, but it was very worth it.
Brayden has such good manners he even tried to use his fork at one point. At least his first birthday will be memorable.

End of Spring ball

Jared has been busy with Spring Football and looking for a house, so it was really nice to spend some time with him before the spring game. The university put together a Healthy Kids Day prior to the Spring Game, there were kids everywhere. Brayden had a fun time watching all the kids and trying out a few stations of his own.

The field was covered with different stations, we thought it would be good for Brayden to try out the conditioning station first. I think Jared might have been a little dissappointed that Brayden took a few steps on the ladder and then sat down and started destroying the ladder.Uncle Logan came to visit and watch the Spring game. Brayden had a blast with him. They even shared a room. On Sunday Coach Hawkins and his wife invited the staff and their families over for a BBQ. We had great food and had fun playing Bingo. We were big winners of a night at the movies with a free baby sitter and Brayden won a bottle of bubbles. We are grateful to be apart of the Colorado staff and proud to be Buffs.

House hunting

We have been spending a lot of time lately trying to find a house. Our apartment lease is up in May and we are more than ready to get back into a house. Many of the houses we looked at had community parks and pools. Brayden had fun taking some time to try out the parks.

He loves being outside and exploring new things.
So I think we found a house. Jared and I both really like it. While we were checking out the house Jared turned his back on Brayden for a second and we hear THUD THUD THUD. I turned around to see Brayden doing front flips down the stairs, I was able to catch him before he landed at the bottom. I am glad to say that Brayden is okay, I think I am more traumatized than he is by the whole experience. Every time I close my eyes I see his little limp body falling down the stairs. If we buy that house their will be a gate on those stairs for sure.

Who did it?

For most toddlers exploring the bathroom is like no other. I often hear the flush of the toilet and hurry into the bathroom to find a mess like this. Brayden unrolls the toilet paper and than shreds the paper into tiny little pieces.



Busted!

Show me your...

Brayden has been learning so much lately. It has been so fun to watch him learn new tricks, as we call them. The other day we were eating and we noticed that Brayden had his tongue out. So we started saying show me your tongue and out it came. Brayden thinks it is so funny when we ask him. After he sticks out his tongue he gives us a fake laugh which causes us to laugh even more.

I know this isn't the best thing to teach your child, but we are teaching him other things too.