Christmas at the Patton's...

...totally stunk this year!!!!!! Let me tell you why...

We put the kids to bed on Christmas Eve like normal, and we went about our "business" to get things ready for Christmas morning. After we were done with that, Patrick and I were laying in bed watching our new flat screen TV (thank you Chrysalis Christmas party!!!) and we hear Brayden start to cry. I go into his room and he is burning up with a fever (totally came out of nowhere, I hate it when that happens!!) and he was complaining that his ear hurt. So I gave him some Tylenol and told him to go back to sleep. Long story short, it was a very long night of him crying because his ear hurt so bad, and none of us got much sleep. We did manage to sleep long enough for Santa to come. Poor Brayden barely lasted through opening presents before he wanted to go back to bed. You can kinda tell by his face here that he just doesn't feel well at all.

However, Conner felt GREAT!! He was super happy about his new Power Ranger scooter, and rode it around the house all day!

Brayden did try his out, but he only made it down the hall once, then was done. He really wasn't feeling good.

My sweet Conner enjoying some of his presents from the grandparents!

By about noon, we had decided we have tried everything we could think of to help Brayden feel better, but nothing helped, he was just getting worse. His ear started to hurt just to touch it, and he could hardly hear out of it anymore. So after trying really hard to find an Urgent Care open on Christmas Day (yeah right, no such luck) we decided it would be best to take him to the ER. So off to Centennial Hill Hospital we went. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be in the ER, I thought we would be there all day, but we were in and out fairly quickly, for an ER at least. Then the bigger challenge I faced was to find a stupid pharmacy that was open on Christmas Day. After several failed attempts, and many phone call, I finally found one open over in Summerlin, about 30 minutes away. So I got back in the car and went to get his meds so he could start feeling better soon. (after all, we were leaving to fly to TX in one more day!) They were pretty busy, so I had to wait for 45 min to get his prescription. By now, I was starving, I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it was about 6pm. So how convenient, there was a Jack in the Box across the street from the pharmacy that had it's drive though open. It was pretty crowded too. So I ate Christmas dinner from Jack in the Box... by myself... in  my car. Oh, and I failed to mention also that this whole time Patrick was not feeling well and was starting to get an abscessed tooth. PERFECT!!! Dentist's aren't open on Christmas either!! Patrick however suffered through until the next day and even though his dentist was still closed, we called her and she called in some meds to help Patrick last until we got back from TX. Merry Christmas Patrick... you get a root canal and we all get medical bills!!! YAY!

The good news, we got to Texas and had a great time with all my family. Everyone was feeling better by the time we left for Texas.

More about that trip to come later....

Brayden's birthday!

Why, yes... I realize that I'm very behind on blogging, but we have been gone, and life has been hectic, so here we go....

On Christmas Eve we celebrated Brayden's 6th birthday. He was very excited all day and it was almost torture for him to wait to open up his presents until his dad woke up.

He got a lot of cool thing, at least he thought so. He was very happy to get a Nerf Gun as you can see...

His Iron Man toy was also a huge hit!

After opening his presents we were off to lunch at Chili's, one of Brayden's favorite places to eat. We even let him have a Dr. Pepper with his lunch as a special birthday treat. He thought that was awesome since we never let him do that.

Then we went to Blockbuster and let him pick out a game for the Wii to rent and we all came home and played it together for a while. Then it was cake time! He was very specific in wanting not just any Batman cake, but a Dark Knight Batman cake. So this was as creative as I got. He thought it was cool though, so that is what matters.

He's not excited or anything.....

He had a great day!

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!

Man we were livin'......

Sorry I know this is a serious/spiritual post, but I've had an Ah-Ha moment, so I wanted to share.....

So it is not any surprise to any of you who have talked to us in the past several months (or year and a half since we moved) we have been faced with many trials and struggles in all shapes, sizes, and varieties. We have had many good times (as you have seen in previous posts), but what seems like so many hard times too. It is so easy to get caught up in the misery that trials can bring, and all too often we only focus on the bad things happening around us and don't see the little things that make life so good. 

Lately Patrick and I have been kinda caught in this, and wishing we would have what we call a "man we were livin' moment". Then yesterday at church we got the gentle reminder... ok... kick in the butt, that we are in control of our own happiness and to just find joy in the journey because there are so many little things all around us everyday that are "man we were livin' moments". 

This is one of those..... so I ran to get my camera so we could remember it....

Conner is jammin out while listening to Patrick's IPod. This is one of his favorite songs because it's from the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter. He bobs his head and sings mostly the wrong words every time he hears it and it is just HILARIOUS!!!!!  I'm kinda bummed the quality of the video isn't as good once I loaded it onto Blogger, but its still funny and I laugh every time I watch it!

So since this is the week of Thanksgiving, I am taking the time to remember that I am really truly so incredibly blessed! I have an amazing husband who loves me unconditionally, 2 wonderful boys that bring such joy and laughter to our lives, awesome friends who I can count on, and an incredible family! And for all those things, I can't even put into words how grateful I am!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!

Going to Grandma's House....

Since Brayden is on track break for all of November, and Patrick was going to be working a bunch to get ready for his audit, I decided that would be a great time to go and visit my family in Prescott. So me and the boys loaded up and went to go and play. My boys absolutely LOVE their cousins, and they always have fun when they are with them, and this time was no exception. My parents have a big backyard, and it happened to be full of leaves, so what else do you and your cousins do but gather them up to jump into them. I don't think that my kids have ever done this before, so they thought it was just about the coolest thing ever!

They all carefully helped get the leaves into a pile, even sweet little Ainslee was in on the fun, just because she is the youngest, she wasn't going to get left out! 
 

Get ready.....

Get set... GO!

Then do it all over again.....

Then Uncle Russ made sure all the leaves were off the kids before going inside grandma's house by shaking them upside down. Brayden thought this was just hilarious! Uncle Russ is always fun to play with!

The kids also got to get in on the action packed family movie night at my brother's house. Russ also invited the boys to spend the night at their house. My boys have never slept over at someone's house before (mostly because Patrick and I don't allow it) but since this is my big brother we were talking about, I jumped at the chance to let my kids have fun with their cousin's and for me to get a chance to sleep in!! Ok, so it was partially for selfish reasons, but before we left AZ, I returned the favor, and had all my brother's kids over at my mom's house for a sleepover too. We watched movies, made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and had lots of fun.
I think it's so cute how Brayden is laying on Sierra's lap. He sure loves his cousins, and thinks they are the coolest thing ever.

My mom, me, and my sister in law even got a chance to stamp and make some cute cards, and a very cute pumpkin! I even got a little scrapbooking done while I was there. I borrowed on of my mom's Cricut cartridges and have made some way cute christmas ornaments with them this past weekend when our great friends, the Grigg's came to visit. Melis and I love to craft together, so thanks mom for letting me borrow your stuff!!  :)

Here are all the cousins that got together. The rest are all in Texas, and we can't wait to get together with all of them. It's always fun to be with my family!!!!
Here's Jeffrey, Brayden, Sierra, Ainslee, Conner, and Kenzie!

We had a fun time!

Field trip!

Yesterday Conner got to go on his first field trip with his Preschool. Since Brayden is on track break, he got to go too. We all had fun. We went to Anderson Dairy and saw how they put milk in the jugs, the machines that make ice cream (my fav!), and a cute little show that taught the kids all about the dairy. The highlight of the trip for us all, we got to sample some of their ice cream at the end. As you can see, Conner thought that was awesome! He was so excited that it had cookies in it!

Here are the boys enjoying ice cream with their little friend Brenden. 
This is the little area where the kids got to hear from Calci Yum the Cow and a talking rooster (he had some clever name, but I don't remember it). Calci Yum  told the kids about the dairy and things that they do there. The kids thought that was great.
Conner smuggled in some pennies on his field trip, and was very protective of them in his pockets. That kids loves money!
Watching the milk getting put into the jugs...... very interesting......
We all had a good time at the Dairy. 

8 Things.....

I have been tagged with this a few times, so I'm finally getting around to doing it, so here it goes.....

8 favorite TV show...

1. Grey's Anatomy

2. Heros

3. The Office

4. Survivor

5. Life

6. The Amazing Race

7. Oprah (most of the time)

8. Brother's and Sisters

8 Favorite restaurants...

1. Cafe Rio 

2. Chilis

3. Mon Ami Gabi (inside Paris hotel)

4. Wendy's

5. Macayo's

6. Golden Phoenix (chinese place by my house, but we usually just get take out!)

7. Subway

8. Olive Garden

8 things I did yesterday...

1. got gas in my car so we could get home and was excited that is was only $2.27/gallon

2. drove 4 hours home from my parents house in AZ

3. talked on the phone with my sister for like an hour while I drove 

4. used my hands free headset for my cell phone, I finally pulled it out to use.

5. Got super excited to see Patrick after being away from him for 5 days!!!!!

6. Watched my kids play with their cousins. 

7. Held my niece Ainslee down while my brother dug slivers out of her hand, she's not a fan of me now!!

8. Watched some of my fav shows on DVR that I missed while being gone.

8 things I look forward to...

1. Christmas time!

2. going to TX for my new niece's baby blessing, and hanging out with my entire family!

3. Patrick's birthday later this month!

4. getting out of debt

5. see my friends in UT, hopefully next month... (here's hoping!!!)

6. christmas shopping (I love it!)

7. a wonderful drug-induced sleep

8. TWILIGHT MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8 things I love about fall...

1. it's not so friggin hot!!!

2. Thanksgiving

3. Halloween

4. Fun fall decor for my home

5. fall colors

6. getting to think of christmas shopping

7. Patrick's birthday!!!

8. my power bill doesn't make me cry!

8 things on  my wishlist...

1. things to not be so complicated with Patrick's job (wouldn't that be nice Kym?!?)

2. new clothes (I always want those)

3. a very cute pair of Sketchers that my sister has, and I have wanted to buy forever!

4. a new couch for our family room

5. new washer and dryer (I hate mine that came with our house, and they are smaller then any I have every had! Annoying!!)

6. a maid so I don't have to clean and do laundry all the time

7. to travel with Patrick

8. my backyard to be landscaped and awesome!

8 people I tag...

1. Kym (maybe then you'll blog)  :) luv ya!!!

2. Suzie

3. April and Rob

4. Ashley

5. Janette (maybe you'll blog again too!)

6. Lisa K.

7. Rhia

8. Annie

LOL!!!

This morning after Brayden got home from school, I had to run some things to Patrick at his office. While in the car, I asked Brayden how his day at school was, what he learned, all that kind of stuff all mom's ask their kids after school. He gave me the usual answers, then told me that tomorrow was Reflection Day. I said, "what?? Do you mean track break?" (he goes off track this week) He said no, so we were talking and I was trying to figure out what in the world Reflection Day was. Then finally he said "it's where you get to go and vote." I said "Oh, you mean Election Day?"  He said "OOOOO yeah, ELECTION Day! Who are you going to vote for mom? Obama or McCain?" 

Geez, for being one of the worst school districts in the country we have here in Vegas, he sure is learning things I would never think to teach him..... I didn't even know he knew who Obama and McCain were. But he told me they are trying to be president. I was pretty impressed! It gave me a good laugh!  

Halloween...

A few weeks ago was our ward's Trunk or Treat. Yes, it was way too early for a Halloween party, but we had a good time anyways. The boys had so much fun dressing up in their costumes. I did end up finding the ones they wanted, and it didn't break the bank either.

Why yes, it is a little big, but I kinda did that on purpose, so he could wear it next year maybe, or at least Conner can someday.

Conner showing off his Spidy muscles... He's so cute!!!

Since our Trunk or treat was so early this year, I don't really know what to do with the kids. We have never taken them trick or treating, we've always just done the ward party thing and called it good. Maybe we'll let them go up and down our street or to some people's houses we know, I think they will think that is so cool.

Also, last week while Patrick's mom was in town, we went out to dinner at Big Dog's, hence, the big dog.....

The boys love that place partly because of that huge dog. It does have pretty good food too. They think it's awesome that they get 2 Oreo's for dessert with their dinner there.  I personally love to go out to eat anywhere, then I don't have to be on the one who cooks and cleans up..... always a good thing!

Makes you think...

Yesterday I found out that a co-worker/friend of ours was involved in a pretty serious car accident with his family late Wed. night. His son (13 or 14 I think) was killed. I didn't know his son, but I have known the father of this family for years, and Patrick has worked very closely with him. Hearing this heartbreaking news stopped me in my tracks. I suddenly found myself wanting to do nothing but to just hold my kids on my lap and thanking my Heavenly Father for them. Patrick came home and just had the boys climb up on his lap and sit there as we all watched cartoons together. 

Usually I think we get so caught up on the stress of keeping the house clean, making dinner, stresses with work,  and all of those kind of things that we forget about all the little things that are even more important then those seemingly important tasks. I have been very humbled by this. I hate that it has to take something so tragic to make you realign your priorities. I have found myself making a conscience effort not to yell at my kids just because I'm frustrated (which I do all too much!) I cannot imagine the heartbreak this family is going through, but they are in our constant prayers. And Patrick and I are hugging our sweet boys a little tighter, and thanking Heavenly Father a little more for them. And the blessing we have of the knowledge of an Eternal Family is suddenly a little more meaningful.