July Happenings Part 1

July has been a pretty busy month.

It started with a

Wedding

 My wonderful brother Brandon and sweet sister-in-law Paulina.
They are such a cute couple!

 

 My great siblings (yep all 8 of us) and my mom (she's the BEST!)

 

My family-they are so awesome!

We were at my mom's about 10 days preparing for the wedding and reception.

We worked hard and we played hard.

It was so much fun!

Here's the cake and everyone involved in making it.

My wonderful grandmother baked the cake, it was so yummy. 

I believe this is at least the 4th wedding cake she's baked for our family.

 

 I'm really happy with how the arch over the refreshment table turned out.

My mom, Paulina and I made it. 

I was worried that it wouldn't stay upright once we put the bottles on it,

but we must have done something right because it ended up being pretty sturdy

with the use of just a little wire.

I wish I had pics of the other decorations we did for the reception,

but somehow they are missing. 

Basically we hung up pictures of the bride and groom 

along with bottles filled with gerber daisies throughout my mom's yard.

It turned out really cute.

We were able to get some long overdue family pics taken.

Brayden wasn't very smiley, but then he had been diagnosed with a double ear infection the day before; and, as the wedding day progressed, it turned into a really nasty eye infection as well. 

Oh, well, I think they turned out really well considering.

Brayden is 2!!!

We had so much fun celebrating.

Brayden chose the cake- a dragon

and the color - green!

(I got the idea and instructions from here.)

 

I have to admit that I was pleased with the outcome.

Because I'm not very artistic or crafty,

the outcome is often iffy,

but I think this attempt was a success.

At least Brayden thought it was great!

 

We also hung balloons from the ceiling.

After dinner we took them down 

and then the real fun began.

 

(Cousin Addy, Caleb and Brayden cheesing it with their balloons.)

Running!

Bouncing them in the air!

 

And then of course,

it's always fun to open presents.

I'm not sure what this expression means,

but he seemed pleased enough once he started playing with them.

It was a wonderful night.

I can't believe that it's been 2 years,

I am truly blessed to be his mother.

The Dangers of Exercising

SOOOO...
you know when you're busy doing something
(in this case exercising)
and you realize that the house is quiet-
TOO QUIET!!
And you go into the back room and see:
HAIR ALL OVER THE FLOOR,
Caleb with Brian's electric razor in his hand
and THIS

AND so there is NOTHING to do but THIS:

(The hair cut, not the chocolate all over his face.
That is the result of some really fun pudding painting.)
Oh, well, he's still SO cute - even bald.

My Boys

I know it's been a LONG time
but I have a few free moments so
here's some cute pics of my boys
and we'll see when this happens again.

Brayden is such a little character!
He loves to climb and hang on EVERYTHING.
I am constantly amazed at how strong he is.

(A side note: November marked the beginning of some minor incidents requiring doctor intervention. Kind of ironic that the first incident occurred because we were following the pediatrician's advice. Because Brayden was climbing out of his crib she suggested we switch him to a toddler bed. So a few days later we went out and bought some bunk beds, although the boys are still in seperate rooms. Well the boys discovered that the crib mattress made a rather fun slide if propped up on the couch. They had a lot of fun UNTIL they decided to prop it up on a small dresser.
Brayden climbed up the mattress which slipped and, unfortunately, he hit his nose on the dresser on the way down. He ended up with 5 stitches.)

A few nights ago we put Brayden down for the night
and I was quite surprized by how quickly he fell to sleep
-Or so I thought.
About 20 minutes later I thought I heard some noises coming from his room.
When I opened the door I found not only the light on, but
THIS wonderful sight.

What you can't see is the other pile of clothes out of sight on the bed.

Now for pics of the other little character
-or should I say PIRATE-
in my life!
Needless to say he now knows what the letter R says.

Ok, now for the other incident.
I wasn't in the room when it occurred but from what Caleb said
he ran into the corner of the couch.
From what the dentist said he must have been running at full speed.
He pretty much shattered his right upper lateral incisor
and chipped his right lower lateral incisor and canine.
Unfortunately, the upper lateral incisor
was damaged enough that it couldn't be saved.
So here's the cute little boy with his gap-toothed smile
and the infamous couch corner.

Hopefully this month will be incident free!