14 months....

Hello from Midvale, UT! I know it's been a while but things have been crazy busy at home and at work these past few months. I just wanted to send out a few pictures so you can see some more pictures of Braydon. He' starting to actually run now which makes him difficult to keep in one spot. He says "tickle, tickle" and "ma" "da" and he's also started saying "bye". I think we are going to need to get a helmet for this kid, he is constantly hitting his head.

Playing outside for the first time this year, before his haircut.

He likes to do this a lot and he'll just smile at you hoping that you will play peek-a-boo.
Our little Nacho Libre wrestler

Playing at the park on the swings

Taking a nap with his friend Perry the Platypus

This is his Easter outfit, we couldn't find one that was in his size so we bought a 3T, the shirt fit fine but the vest and pants are huge.


He makes me laugh, he started smiling at the camera but when he smiles like that he kind of closes his eyes.


Well I better go help Jason get Braydon's dinner ready. Talk soon

Braydon's 1st Birthday

I can't believe that Braydon is a 1 year old. It's crazy to think how fast it went by. He is the most adorable little boy. We had a little birthday party for him on Saturday Feb. 4 and here are some pictures.
Thank you pinterest for giving me the idea for the banner. I think it turned out pretty awesome for someone who is not crafty.

We bought some helium balloons to help decorate and Braydon loved them, as soon as I brought them in the door he'd track down a string and hold on to it and carry it through the house.

You can see some of the food in this picture but we made cupcakes rather than a big cake that I knew Braydon wouldn't eat. I'll have to post the video of him eating the cupcake later. He really didn't know what to do with it. He'd eat it if we put a piece in his mouth but he didn't want to touch it.

Opening his presents that he got. He became a little too distracted with the wrapping paper so I helped him open them.


We bought him a tunnel for his Birthday and when we first opened it up he wouldn't go near it. His cousin Maeli crawled inside to show him how it was done but he still didn't want to go in. I crawled inside and had him chase me into it and after that he goes in and out with no problem. He likes to play hide 'n seek and peek-a-boo while in there. He also got the phone you can see in the picture, you can record little saying on it so when he pushes a button it plays it. He also got a twilight turtle that lights up his room at night with stars. Some trucks from Grandma and Grandpa P, clothes, a puzzle and a teething ring.

And I am happy to say that he fell asleep without any ill effect from all the sugar.

It starts...

Well, I knew this would happen someday. There have been moments when it looked like he was ready to take off at any moment. He’s been standing by the couch and holding on to it while he walks along the edge for a few months but he was always afraid to let go. On Sunday afternoon it happened. He let go and took 2 steps out into the middle of the living room. Jason and I got so excited that we started clapping which distracted him so he fell down. I’ve been trying to capture it on camera but every time I tried he would go back to the couch. However, I noticed last night that he was being more adventurous and taking a few steps here and there so I decided to grab the camera unnoticed (he realizes the noise it makes when it comes on and immediately stares at it and squints his eyes, ready for the picture). I got it this time, he was determined to take a few more steps than normal, which was great. He doesn’t really bend his legs when he takes his steps but I’m sure that will come in time. So here you go, our baby walking around.



This other video is Braydon watching a show on Sprout TV called The Pajanimals. Now, for some reason he found this frog hilarious. It played the first time and he was laughing up a storm. Then when it came on a second time I decided to record it so that I could show Jason when he came home from work. And it’s only the frog, he doesn’t laugh at anything else. So I thought you might get a kick out of watching him, I know I do.

Oh the places we will go...

Things have been crazy these past few months. Not crazy like I’m insane but crazy busy. Our internet connection in our apartment isn’t that great so when I try to download or upload anything it takes a few extra hours to get it on the blog so I usually give up and try to find something else to do.
Braydon’s very needy when I come home from work so if I’m not paying attention to him or holding him he gets upset. However, I think he likes to trick me into thinking he’s upset because as soon as I sit down with him on my lap he sometimes turns around and goes after any electronics he can get his hands on. He started crawling back in September and he got 4 of his teeth, he won’t let me get close enough to see if anymore are coming in. He’s also been standing against the furniture for quite a while. In October, we went searching through a pumpkin patch and found the perfect pumpkin. Then we dressed him up as a monkey and took him to “Boo at the Zoo”, I didn’t want to take him around for the candy it was just so that he could see the animals. I don’t think he really cared about them too much though. November, he stood by himself without holding on to anything. It usually lasts about 20 seconds before I get excited and start clapping for him and he can’t clap and stand at the same time. He’s taken a few steps to get to a toy that he really wants or to get to Jason or I. Every night when we bless the food Jason and I will kiss each other and then we’ll go over and give him a kiss. He’s gotten used to it so no matter what he is doing he will crawl over to the corner of the couch and wait for us to finish praying so he can get his kiss from mommy and daddy. In November, we went to California for Thanksgiving to be with Jason’s family and Braydon opened his first Christmas presents. He’s been playing around with them ever since. He got a ride or walk truck, at first when Jason put it together he was afraid of it but now that he’s gotten used to it he loves it. He likes to ride it and even more if you can push him really fast. If no one will push him he’ll sit on it and move his feet so he’s going in a forward direction. He’s started to stand up behind it and push it along with a stuffed animal behind the wheel. He’s a great clapper and gives high-5’s. He giggles at the most random things, he’s also started watching tv which sometimes makes him giggle. He also started waving when I’m leaving in the morning or when I’m going back to work after lunch. He hasn’t started blowing kisses yet but that’s alright. He’s a super smart boy, he’ll start stacking things on the floor so he can stand on them in order to reach a remote or the laptop. We bought a fence to keep him in the living room which has been helpful. When Jason is sitting on the floor, Braydon will try to crawl behind him or underneath his legs so we’re thinking that we will get him a tunnel for his birthday. As far as food goes he still doesn’t like anything with puffed rice, so he hasn’t started using finger foods yet. He’s also hesitant when it comes to anything with texture or beef. He’s so cute!
Jason had 2 classes he was taking this semester that he needed in order to get his associates degree. And we found out last week that he passed both of them. Woo-hoo! He wants to go to Utah Valley University to get his Bachelor’s degree but won’t be able to start attending until Fall 2012 semester. He’s been watching Braydon during the day and then drops him off at my work when he’s headed to work or class and then I watch him for the rest of the night. I like to think that we have a good system going. Jason’s been excited since the NBA lockout ended, so now he can watch the Utah Jazz play again.
And me, I’ve just been working nothing too exciting. I love watching Braydon play around and just learn new things. I also love watching Braydon and Jason interact with one another. I’ve been called to be a Relief Society teacher in our ward but I only have to teach every 2 months so I have to prepare for January 8th.
We had a great Christmas, and since we’ve already bought so many things we needed this year we weren’t going to give each other gifts. So I made Jason some gifts and ornaments for the tree and he surprised me by getting me a Kindle. He said that he already got his Christmas present when he upgraded his memory for his playstation 3. Braydon got a stuffed Perry the Platypus and Phineas and measuring cups and spoons and I think he’s enjoyed the kitchen supplies more than anything else. It’s been a crazy busy year and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Here’s to a great 2012!

Braydon on the swings in California


Playing on his new toy


I was folding laundry last week and he did this to himself, I thought it was funny


Thanksgiving in California

Playing with his measuring spoons, if I would have known he'd enjoy these the most I would have skipped the other presents.

He's Crawling....Everywhere

I know, I know. It's been a while and I haven't had much of an opportunity to update you on what has been going on in our lives since the end of July. We moved out of our old apartment at the end of July and couldn't move into the new one until August 5th. So with the help of my Brittany and Clay we were able to stay at their home for a week so we didn't have to pay for another month of rent. I got to see what it would be like if I had ever had a long commute to work, and I'd prefer not to have to leave an hour before to make it on time. That Friday we got to move it and did the walk through and started moving things in. I was going to take a picture before we started moving everything in but I forgot because I was just so excited. Our apartment is quite spacious 1000 sq ft. There isn't a storage shed or anything so we have some stuff stored behind the couch, under the bed and on the back porch which so far seems to be working out fine.

We've gotten back into our regular routines which is good. Jason is enjoying being at home during the day with Braydon and then going to work at 5pm or school. We're glad that my work allows him to drop Braydon off with me at 4:30pm. Jason started school again at the end of August, his last semester at SLCC. He'll graduate with his associates and hopefully he'll remember that he needs to finish his application for UVU today. He just had 2 classes this semester but they are a little more time consuming than the past few semesters. From what I've gathered it's also more difficult to do homework when there is a baby in the house who seems to crave constant attention.

Braydon is doing fantastic, he's a very happy baby. He's been eating solids since we moved into the new apartment. He likes applesauce, peaches, pears, carrots and he wasn't a fan of the rice cereal, green beans, peas, squash or bananas. He's grown accustomed to some of them but he's still not eating as much of them as he does his favorites. He got his first tooth at the beginning of September which was accompanied by a cold. His second tooth came in about a week later. At the beginning of September he also started pulling himself up to stand next the couch or using us as his anchor. In church I noticed that he likes to pull himself using the chair in front of us, which is usually occupied by a sister in the ward and he'll touch their bottoms in order to get the grip that he needs. It's pretty funny but I always apologize to the sister only to come to find out that she is fine with it. Hopefully that doesn't teach him that just because he's cute that it's OK to grab girls butts. He also started crawling which caused us to go out and buy some electrical outlet covers and create a fence out of various things in the living room. We have to keep him out the fireplace and away from the entertainment center and in order to keep him contained in one place so we aren't running all over the house after him we just block that area off completely. I also went to Kid to Kid and bought him some pajamas since it's starting to get cooler at night.

We had a family reunion with my side of the family at the end of August which Braydon seemed to enjoy seeing all of his cousins, even dressing up in Noah's Jack Sparrow hat complete with hair. I think he really enjoyed seeing Ty who is only a few months younger than he is. We had fun playing around with the kids and playing on the playground. He enjoyed the swings which made me happy, he went down on a slide with Daddy and he seemed to like it. Our new apartment has a swimming pool and we went out and bought some Little Swimmers for him and an outfit to wear in the pool and we never got the chance to take him in the pool. Either Jason or I were working most of the time and rarely had time off together to take him in the pool, which is now closed for the winter. There is a hot tub still but I don't know if he can go in there. The week after my family left, Jason's parents came out to visit. Braydon liked showing off for Grandma and Grandpa P and enjoyed all of the attention.

Here are some pictures of our last month:

His first experience with Rice Cereal, he seemed more interested in the spoon than the food.

Cute smile!


Future BYU cougar fan!Sorry Dad I had to post it, I thought it was funny.

Braydon as Jack Sparrow

Take me out to the ballgame....

On Saturday my work had a party at the Salt Lake Bee's game. We had a suite and lots of treats and even got a visit by the mascot. He was in a hurry so we didn't get to have him hold Braydon but that's ok.

Our baby sucking on his fingers...his favorite.

I made certain that he was wearing this outfit for the game. I think it's so cute!

In the suite before the game began, Braydon getting ready to root for the team.

And one of Daddy being animated but Braydon not so much.

The baseball diamond, I'm always impressed with the way they cut their grass.

Braydon praticing his windup. I'm sorry that it's sideways.

This morning Braydon was very intense while playing in his toy, I thought I better take a video of it.

Summer

I think I do this every summer, I forget about the blog and just update when Jason goes back to school. I figured I would get a head start and just skip over one month rather than all three. Braydon is such an amazing baby, he's growing up so fast. He had his 4 month check up in June and the doctor said that he is very healthy. He is now 5 months and getting so heavy I have a hard time carrying him in his car seat, especially up three flights of stairs. He rolls everywhere and he is getting so fast at it now. Every time I lay him on the ground on his back he'll immediately roll over onto his stomach and then just keep going. I'll find him all over the living room floor so laying a blanket on the floor no longer works. He's been drooling a lot which makes us believe that he is teething. You can see his gums on the bottom that there are little white nubs there but they haven't broken through yet. He grabs onto everything with his hands and his toes, yes, his toes. He has little monkey toes that catch on everything. He also likes to yell, it's rather funny. Jason likes to call it his dinosaur roar as you can see below. We try taking regular picture of him, but as soon as we get him to smile we bring out the camera and he just stares at it looking a little confused. This is the best smile I've caught on camera.

We took Braydon to see the fireworks on the 4th of July and he was attentive, he looked in awe but he didn't really make any noise or anything. We strapped him to Jason's front and covered him in a blanket seeing that it was starting to drizzle. He looked like a Jedi.

In other news we are finally moving into another apartment. We have to be out by the end of the month but we can't move into our new place until August 5th. So our plans are that we will pack everything up and little by little drop stuff off at Daniel and Kali's who are nice enough to allow us to use their garage. And then we'll stay at my sister Brittany's in Provo for a few days until we are able to move in. It's so exciting to finally get rid of a lot of stuff and finally get organized and know that we only have a few more weeks left until the big day. Our new apartment is in a nicer area where it would be easy to actually take a walk and Jason is within walking distance to where he works so that's great. It's also a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartments 1,000 sq ft and washer and dryer hook ups. We went out on the 4th of July weekend to find one and after several hours we found some that were at a good price. I think that is one thing we are most excited about is having our own laundry. And now Braydon is ready to go to sleep so I better go put him to bed. I'll update soon...I hope.