The birthday continues....

Since Braeden didn't have a party, we just had a family get together at my parent's house and ate hamburgers and cake and ice cream.

Aunt Kara was so sweet. She couldn't make it to the party so she dropped of a present for him. He loves Bionicles and surprisingly, he doesn't have all of them yet. Thanks Kara & Drake for getting him some!!

He got a sonic gift card. These days he has a fetish with Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic fast food. Don't really know where it came from, but it's just another stage that he's going through.

This present was kind of for me for him present. I got it because I haven't played this game forever and I loved it growing up. So he got it for his birthday!! Lucky him! (he actually loved it and we played a little bit before bed tonight!)

This is the perfect picture of how excited he was for this. We were at Target a couple weeks ago and I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he looked around and found this Nerf Machine Gun. He hasn't stopped thinking about since then and he kept asking if I could give him hints of what I got him for his bday. He knew if I gave him hints, he would know what it was. He was so excited for it.

Since Braeden has a fetish with Sonic, he wanted a Sonic cake. Well, no one sells anything Sonic at the stores and I looked on eBay and nothing reasonably priced was on there. BUT, when Grandma Harper took Braeden bday shopping, they had a few Sonic characters. Of course Braeden bought that and we then put it on the cake and it was a Sonic cake (or cupcakes). This was my attempt at a nice cake.

And Brownie Pops. These were pretty yummy!!

All the crazy ones who ran in the picture when they noticed a camera!!

The boys trying to figure out how to put together the gun! They couldn't figure it out, but then realized after about an hour that the battery that came with it was dead. Although on the box it said, "Fresh battery included" So now I have been given an ultimatum from Braeden that I must go buy a D battery tomorrow.

Amongst the chaos of the boys putting together the gun, the girls still found time to pamper themselves. They were fixing hair and putting on make-up.

Braeden had a great day! Thanks to everyone who called, sent cards and came today for the little family party!! He said it was a fun birthday this year.

Happy BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday to the cutest 7 year old I KNOW!!! My little guy is now 7!! How could this be?? But he is the most energetic, happy, smart, funny, talented, fun, loving and adorable little person there is. Even with all the energy he has, he keeps life interesting and we couldn't live without him. We love you bud and hope today is a fabulous day for you!!!

We took him to dinner to one of his favorite restaurants and he chose Red Robin.... yum!

(He obviously was excited to eat a corn dog because he kept showing it in the pictures.)

They even sang to him. This was him while they sang. He immediately dug into his ice cream. It was so funny!!

First Day Of School

So Braeden started school today. I miss the days of being excited for the first day of school. He came into our room at 6:30 asking me where his shorts were that he wanted to wear. I was so tired because I got up at 4:30 to do a girl's hair for her wedding pictures today, but went back to sleep when I was done with that. But I finally drug myself out of bed at 7:00 to get him ready and make his lunch. We got breakfast in, clothes on, teeth brushed, hair done and we were ready. We took our first day of school picture and then I took him to school.

He absolutely loved his backpack. He picked it out and decided that was the one he wanted.

Elli felt left out so we took a picture of her. She doesn't start preschool for another couple weeks.

Walking to his classroom. I can't believe we have a first grader. Where does time go?? He was in Kindergarten for 2 years and now it seems weird to have a first grader. But he has an awesome teacher and fun kids in his class so I am excited for him. He couldn't wait to have his own desk. The last 2 years, he only shared tables with the other students. So it was exciting for him to get his own desk. Oh the little things that make kids happy. What a cute kid!!

1st Time for Braeden

Braeden got to do something so cool earlier this month. His cousin's birthday and baptism was the 10th and 11th in California and his sweet Aunt Stacy wanted Braeden there so she flew him to California. Last time we were there, Braeden was so sad to leave, he loves visiting his cousin Austin. I told Braeden that he was going to fly on an airplane ALL BY HIMSELF and he was VERY EXCITED!!! He had some concerns, but he got over them and couldn't wait!! The whole day before his flight, he couldn't stop talking about it. Well, Mark got off work and we were heading to the airport and things seemed OK. I was talking to him about being good and listening to Stacy and as soon as we got to the parking garage, Braeden froze and wouldn't get out of the car. If we opened the door on one side, he would go to the other side. But we told him we needed to at least go inside and talk to the people in the airport. Mark grabbed his hand and wouldn't let go of it. Mark talked to him the whole time and comforted him. We got to the gate, bought him some food, and then they called the pre-boarders. I could have sworn we got there in plenty of time, but everything took so long to do when we got there and we hardly had anytime to sit with him or even take pictures. I am kind of bummed about that. But as soon as we told him it was time to get on, he grabbed his bag and said, "Bye Mom and Dad!'' No questions asked, he went right on the plane and sat there and watched movies on his ipod. He got there OK and Stacy picked him up and he LOVED FLYING IN A PLANE ALONE!! Thanks Stacy!!

Well, I got to thinking and really wanted to go to Cali too. My other sister in law was driving there for the weekend the next day, so I got everything together and drove up with her. Braeden is a home body and I knew he would get homesick, so I'm glad I went. He was excited to see me and it was a really fun weekend. Mark stayed back because he needed to work. I left Caleb at home and my new sister in law watched him while Mark worked. I took Elli with me and we had fun!

Austin had a really fun birthday party at Mountasia. Goofy golfing, bumper boats, rock climbing and race carts. The kids had fun!!

Elli eating the cake and ice cream!

On Saturday, Austin got baptized. It is so fun for my kids to watch their cousins get baptized. It gets them excited to be baptized. I love it!

Braeden is quite the Baptism Singer. He has sang in 3 baptisms recently (once with Elli) and in sacrament with me a couple months back. He finally told me, "Mom, I'm not singing anymore at baptisms, just with you." But then Stacy asked if we would sing "A Child's Prayer" at Austin's baptism and Braeden did agree to do it. (He does need some bribing though) So my mother in law took this lovely picture of Braeden and I singing. It's not a very cute picture of me, but it works. I love when Braeden sings, it's the cutest thing for me.

Grandma Dianna with Haley and Elli.

Elli wanted to hold baby Sarah the whole time. And she got her turn and just sat there rubbing her arm and playing with her ear. Elli loves babies. Logan and Bryce love their little sister too (obviously) because they couldn't leave her alone either.

Braeden enjoyed playing with Austin's toys he got for his birthday. He loves anything Lego, Bionicle, etc.

We had so much fun. Thanks Camille for letting us tag along and Stacy for letting Braeden fly. We had a great time!

Snaggle-Tooth

Braeden has lost his 2 front teeth. On June 20th, this is what his tooth looked like. It dangled quite a bit. It looked very awkward for a couple days.

On June 21st, he looked like this. And the Tooth Fairy was notified and she visited.

(He wanted to make a funny face with his tooth because he thought it was funny. I think he looks like he's wearing one of the mouth pieces you buy for Halloween costumes.)

And this is what it looked like June 27th. He's toothless up front and soooo dang cute!! He has tiny lisp. He does pretty well pronouncing his words. But now his tooth is starting to grow back in and I'm kind of bummed because they'll probably be 2 big chicklets like they most always are. I remember Braeden thinking of ways he could get this tooth out. He and his cousin Cade both lost a tooth on the same day. Luckily the Tooth Fairy found both of them!

Bishop's Swim Parté

Our bishop had his annual swim party last month and it was a lot of fun. Braeden was counting down the days until this big event. We rode our bikes there and played on the big blow up waterslide. Braeden kept doing flips off at the top. Crazy kid...

Look at her smile. She almost always has a smile on her face.

Those freckles are DANG CUTE!!

These goggles make me laugh every time.

Throwing a fit because we took him out of the pool. Awww, we feel bad Chubs, we really do!!

We couldn't find Braeden for a little bit and when we did, he was getting as many icees as he could before they were gone AND talking to this girl.

Mark and Braeden were going through these tubes for the fun of it and I got the perfect shot of him going right through one.

That's WICKED

I FINALLY saw Wicked!! I have recently heard about it and when we bought our tickets (exactly one year ago,) I thought it should be fun, but I hoped it was good. And YES, I ABSOLUTELY fell in love with Wicked. It is my FAVORITE Broadway show so far. It surpasses Les Miserable, Phantom, Mama Mia. And that's pretty much all I have seen. Mark couldn't believe me that it was better than Les Mis, but it was for me. Don't get me wrong, I love all those shows, but Wicked was so different, funny, touching and overall FANTASTIC. I went with my 3 sisters and Mom. We ate dinner before and spent 3 hours watching it. Now I want to take Mark to see it. He wants to see it just to see what the hype is and to prove me wrong that it's not better than Les Mis. But we'll see. Anyway, that's my take on it!! Have you seen it and what did you think???

(Yes, my eyes are big in this picture, I have been told that, but whacha gonna do??)

PS, Toss Toss!

The rest of 4th of July...

On the day of the 4th, we didn't do much. Mark took the kids swimming and then we went to Mark's brother's house for BBQ and more swimming. The kids had a blast with their cousins. We didn't end up going anywhere to watch fireworks. We did our own version of them and our kids were fine with that.

Caleb loved those sparklers. Braeden and Elli would not get close to them. That's why I have no pictures of them. But Caleb showed them up and even tried holding them.

On the way home, the kids were exhausted. Elli LOVES holding Caleb's hand in the car. He sometimes likes to hold hers. We left our cousins' house just in time to see 5 different firework shows.

Braeden swam so much that day without his goggles and his eyes were killing him. He wouldn't open his eyes. He did this until he fell asleep.

Both Elli and Braeden fell asleep, but Caleb was wide awake the way home.