The Best Christmas Present EVER!

On December 24, 2002 at 11:04 am our lives changed forever when we got the best Christmas present EVER!!! We must have been very good that year, because look what Santa left for us in our stocking....

Brayden was born into our little family weighing in at just 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 inches long. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and the sweet nurses put him in a stocking when they brought him back from his first bath! Too cute!

He was a fairly good baby. I just didn't realize it at the time, since of course I had never been a mom before, but he actually was a pretty laid back baby. He loved his swing from day 1. He loved to sit back and watch his mom and dad, and probably laughed to himself at how clueless his parents were to this whole baby thing. He was (and still is) a small little guy, but he's just so cute! He spent the first week of his life in a billi-bed because he had jaundice pretty bad. But after that cleared up, he was a happy, healthy baby.

Since he was a Christmas baby, how could I not dress him up as Santa for a few pictures....

One of my favorite things about Brayden is that he got his Daddy's incredible dimples! It melts you're heart every time he smiles at you! He has always loved to cuddle with me, and I of course love it too.

This was his blessing outfit that my mom made for him. I loved it!

Such a sweet angel! The poor kid though didn't get hair till after his 1st birthday.

One of his favorite pass times was wearing his dad's hats. He loved that! He has always been a little bit of a daddy's boy, and always wants to do anything and everything his dad does.

Today, Brayden is still a great kid! He is smart, funny, a great big brother, and still our little angel! He loves Power Rangers, Batman, Transformers, and Star Wars. (all things boy!) He is doing great in Kindergarten, and loves to go everyday. He has brought so much happiness to our family, and we couldn't imagine a better Christmas gift!!!!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Brayden!!!

We love you so much!

Getting ready for Christmas!

I have been meaning to post these pictures for a few weeks now, but I keep forgetting. But we did get our tree up a while ago. They boys were of course super excited to put it up.

My cuties!!!

I can't believe my little boy is going to be 6 next week! How is that possible?!?!

This is when the boys got to see Santa at our Ward's Christmas party a few weeks ago. Lucky for us, they asked for all the things Santa already got for them. They were excited to see Santa!

I love that Conner was keeping his hands in his pockets the whole time. He's so funny!

Brayden was thinking hard of what to ask for, can you tell????

And then of course, here is proof that my kids are a little crazy!

What a great helper!

The other night after spending most of the day doing laundry, I asked the boys to go and get their pajamas on. I told them they were probably still in the dryer. So Conner runs up the stairs as as fast as he can, and this is what I find him doing....

Ask and ye shall receive! He was trying so hard to find both his jammies and Brayden's. What a great helper!!! He loves to help me do the laundry, the weirdo!!

Me... Canning.....

Last night I went with some ladies in the ward to the cannery. No, not the casino by my house, but the church cannery. I must admit, I was a cannery virgin, but it was surprisingly easier then I thought it would be, and we all got the stuff we wanted, and filled other ward member's orders, and even looked smokin' hot in our hair caps and plastic aprons! It was a sight to see!   I personally was on label duty, and those labels went on pretty darn straight and perfect if I do say so myself. :)  I got a few cases of canned things, so I am slowly but surely getting our food storage up to par. Maybe one day it will be as big and organized as my BFF Kym's. But it's not yet!

They had a sign on the counter at the cannery that made me chuckle... it said:

300 LBS of Wheat....... $100

25 LBS of Beans....$12

Following the Prophet.... Priceless

Yes, it is true, but it just made me laugh.  

Teeth...

So Brayden, while eating lunch on Saturday says. "my tooth hurts". Patrick takes a look, and sure enough, Brayden has his first loose tooth! I was kinda shocked. I don't know why, a bunch of his friends have lost teeth, I just can't believe he's old enough to start losing teeth. Even though he will be 6 in like 2 weeks, it's things like this that make me realize he's growing up!

As you can see, he is very excited about his loose tooth. All night on Saturday, while at our Ward Christmas party, he was asking if he could eat whatever it was he was eating with his lose tooth. We finally assured him he could eat all the same things with a loose tooth. He wiggles it all the time, so I'm sure very soon, the tooth fairy will have to come and visit our house for the first time!

Silly kid!!

Black Friday....

Yes, I know that it is a bit late, but life is kinda boring, so you get it anyways. Last week Patrick and I braved the incredible crowds and stood in super long lines all for the joy of.......

At midnight, we went with Patrick's brother and our sister in law and stood in a HUGE line (much like this, only not in front of Target)

But in front of Toys R Us. They were opening at midnight with some sales and we wanted in on the action. Now every year, Patrick and I go shopping on black Friday, but it's usually just whenever we wake up in the morning, we'll head out. But this year, there were so many things that we wanted to buy in all the doorbuster sales. So we decided to brave the crowds! And WOW! were there crowds. I have never seen anything like it before. It was total craziness! After spending a while at Toys R Us, we decided we needed to have a new game plan. We ran home, dropped off our purchases and my brother in law who was falling asleep, and decided it was best to divide and conquer. So Patrick went back to Toys R Us to stand in lines for things going on sale at 5 am, and me and my sister in law went to Super Wal-Mart (at 2 am) to wait it out there. We were lucky and found some things we wanted and stashed them in our carts. But most of the things we were in hot pursuit of didn't go on sale till 5 am. Luckily for us, that particular Wal-Mart had a Sonic in it, so we got ourselves a Route 44 Dr. Pepper, and waited for the 5 am sales to start. When that hit, HOLY COW! It was just like you see in the movies where people are grabbing everything like crazy. I have never seen so many people in Wal-Mart before! After finally finding all we set out for, we went to leave. We waited forever in the checkout lines, then the most hilarious part of all was me and my sister in law trying to get the new trampoline I got for the boys for christmas into the back of Patrick's truck. That things was heavy! After a few failed  attempts, a nice man helped up lift in into the truck, but not without laughing a little at us. 

So we literally didn't get one bit of sleep that night. We finally all got home about 7:30 am! I haven't done that since college, but I was so glad we did. We save so much money!!! It was awesome. I probably won't ever do that again, unless I will be able to save a ton like I did this year. 

And I must be getting old, because a week later, I'm still paying for missing that night of sleep!