Pumpkin Patch

This past week has been awesome! Brad and I have enjoyed being able to spend so much time with Braden and we really wanted to end our week together by taking him to the Pumpkin Patch. Last year we took him to Southern Belle Farms in McDonough, GA and we were so impressed by how much there was to do and how well maintained their farm was that we wanted to take him back this year. This is a super busy week for us and this past Saturday was the only Saturday that we had open and I was a little nervous that it was going to rain, but the weather was beautiful (though much too hot for October).

Our friends, Chad and Lori, and their two children, Ethan and Emma went with us. Braden had a blast looking at all the pumpkins, enjoying the hay ride, watching the pig races, playing in the kiddie corral and corn, and riding the "race cars" with Brad. In the middle of our visit we stopped at the big pavilion that they have and had a picnic lunch. It was a wonderful day and we all had so much fun!

This family picture just makes me giggle!

Braden, Ethan and Emmawating on the pig races

playing in the corn...he had corn everywhere..in his shoes, behind his ear!

Parker's 3d Ultrasound

Tuesday we went for a visit to 3d Baby to get a 3d/4d ultrasound of Parker. We took Braden with us and he was less than impressed and poor Brad spent more time entertaining Braden than looking at Parker, but I enjoyed getting to see my littlest man in action.

We really wanted to do this for Parker since we had done the same thing for Braden when we were pregnant with him. There were A LOT of similarities between our visits with both Braden and Parker, apart from us doing both at 28 weeks. Both Braden and Parker were non cooperative about moving around- we call it just being stubborn and it's a family trait! They both also had their sweet little chubby hand covering their face for a good portion of the time! Braden was breech at 28 weeks and Parker currently is though I am not that concerned about it, since most babies turn by 40 weeks.

It was so special to see Parker and it made me even more excited about meeting him in December. By the way I had my appointment for my 1 hour glucose test on Thursday and it went well. While I was there I talked to Dr. Williams about my biggest fear- being in the hospital and away from Braden on Christmas Day (particularly Christmas morning). My preference is to go into labor after Christmas or be induced on Monday, Dec. 28 (my due date is Dec. 27), but he said that if I am a good candidate for induction (already dilating and thinning of my cervix) then he could induce me at 39 weeks, which would be Dec. 21, which would put me home by Christmas. So I at least feel better about these possibilities!

yawning- sleepy boy!

This picture looks identical to Braden's 3d picture!

Please- no more pictures mom!

Georgia Aquarium

My favorite picture from our visit!

I have been off work this week for Fall Break and Brad took a week of vacation to spend time with us, so we wanted to do something special with Braden. He hadn't been to the Georgia Aquarium yet, so we wanted him to get this experience.

We packed a lunch and ate in the back of the Explorer (I wanted to have a picnic at Centennial Olympic Park, but the rain and 57 degree temps ruined that idea!) before we headed in- Braden thought eating in the back of the car was super exciting! After we got inside we stopped a the tropical fish first and Braden loved looking at the jelly fish and "Nemo". He was content as long as there wasn't a big crowd and he could get pretty close up- he's 2 so we couldn't expect him to be wowed by everything! He also liked sticking his hand in touch pools- especially the touch pool with the sting rays and sharks! Brad stayed away from those after his sting ray "experience" this summer (his scar is just now starting to go away)!

I love Brad's super serious face- check out the size of that sting ray!

After a little over 2 hours we visited everything we wanted to see (except the beluga whales that were put away due to construction) and we headed home. When got to the parking deck to leave, Braden refused to get in the car. We couldn't figure out what the heck had gotten into him, but we finally figured out that he didn't want to leave. He kept asking to go back to the Aquarium. Luckily Brad got tons of footage on his video recorder and we played it for Braden when we got home. I'm really glad he enjoyed his first trip to the Aquarium.

He had just gotten splashed by a sting ray in the touch pool!

Cohen's Birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated my cousin's son's birthday! It is really neat because my Granny had 4 great grandsons born in a 4 month period (Justin had Cohen (Oct.), Derick had Jackson (Nov.), Shane had Ace (Dec.), and I had Braden (Jan.)) and Cohen is the oldest of the 4.

His birthday party was lots of fun! There was a huge jumper, popcorn, a pinata and of course cake! Braden had such a blast!

Happy Birthday Cohen! We love you!

The birthday boy!

Gage & Ace

Braden & Cohen

Cohen getting the upper hand on the pinata!

Braden, Gage & Ace worn out from the bouncer!

Punkinpan

Punkinpan is what Braden calls pumpkins. We're not sure why he calls them this, but he is pumpkin obsessed right now. We have a few pumpkins in different areas of our house, including his bedroom, and we put one outside on our front porch and he is constantly wanting to turn them on and look at them. It is so cute becasue he keeps saying, "I want to look at the punkinpan mommy." Just precious!

When he first saw it lit up on the front porch he sat and stared at it for a little while. How sweet!

Braden likes to make his "silly face just like the punkinpan's silly face"

kissing his punkinpan

Fall Kickoff Picnic

Last night we had our Fall Family Kickoff Picnic at our church. We had TONS of food, BINGO, door prizes, face painting, corn hole, a cakewalk, balloon hats and animals, fall crafts for the kiddies, 12 BAPTISMS, and loads of fun!

Braden's favorite part of the picnic was the cakewalk. Even after he won, he still wanted to keep playing! He loved his balloon hat and a yellow balloon that he carried around the WHOLE time. He wasn't too sure about getting his face painted, at first he said he would, but then he baled out when he got in the chair! It was such a fun time, but we were pooped when we got home!

On the cakewalk

Showing off his cakewalk prizes!

Ready to rest after many rounds on the cakewalk

Bruiser

This is quickly becoming Braden's new nickname. As he is emerging from being a baby boy to a big boy he has become quite the daredevil and it scares me to death. Just a few weeks ago I told Brad that I foresee a trip to the ER in our future. I am praying this is not the case, but Sunday morning I thought that was where we were headed.

Brad leaves early every Sunday morning to go to his Men's bible study and Braden and I stay home and get ready and then meet him at church for the 11:00 service. After Braden had his bath I put his diaper on him and he was in his room while I was getting ready in my bathroom. All of a sudden I heard a crash and I took off running to his room. When I got to the door I saw my baby boy laying face down on the floor in front of his bed crying really hard. Just some background info on Braden- it takes A LOT to make him cry. He takes some pretty hard falls and jumps up calling "I'm alright" and takes off again. So when he is really crying he is really hurt. I swept him up in my arms and I couldn't tell if he was bleeding, but I knew exactly what he had done.....JUMP OFF HIS BED (which is high) OVER THE BED RAIL ONTO THE FLOOR where he had scattered pillows to brace his fall. When I got him comforted enough so that he could talk to me he kept saying, "I love you mommy. My eyes hurt so bad." He said his nose didn't hurt just his eye. I'm still not sure if he hit it on the wooden step stool by his bed or the bed rail (he tells me he hit it on the bed rail), but it left a mark under his eye. He told me that a band-aid would make him feel better so I bandaged him up and we headed to church since he seemed to be doing ok.

When we got home from church, Brad and I were fixing lunch in the kitchen and Braden was playing in the living room. Once again we heard a crash and Braden crying, so we both took off and I grabbed Braden and Brad told me that he was bleeding on me. Brad took him and we looked at his chin. He had cut the bottom of his chin and strawberried the top part of it. Apparently he was "walking" around Brad's table when he fell (maybe he cut his chin on the table, maybe it was the underneath side of the coaster that was under him when I picked him up), but he busted it up pretty bad. To make matters worse, only part of his band-aid would come off his face! I am the dumb mother who gives into her 2 year old wishes and puts a band-aid on their face. PAINFUL!

We are just praying that Braden won't be quite so fearless anymore when it comes to jumping off high objects!

Just Like Daddy

I am happy to say that Braden is becoming quite the Daddy's boy! He is the sweetest little boy and is always saying, "I love you Daddy...Daddy wanna play?" It is so sweet and it makes me so happy to see the relationship that they are building together.

Since Parker will be here in a few VERY short months, we have been VERY busy trying to get everything organized. I finally got Braden's pictures in his playroom hung and his toy bins labeled....I still don't have the pictures that I painted up in his room...someone please NAG me to do this! My mom has been helping organize and clean out my closet. You would not believe the loads of stuff we took to Goodwill and the dump. (I am happy to report that my closet is still nice and clean.) To help organize my shoes I bought a Closet Maid storage compartment thingy and Brad and Braden put it together for me. When Braden saw Daddy's hammer he just had to run to his playroom to get his hammer out of his toolbox. It was the cutest thing!

Brad has been having some back issues lately and he has been to see an orthopedic doctor and they recommended him to try some exercise to alleviate some of his pain. Braden just thinks it is the coolest things to see Daddy in the floor doing "his exercises" and he just has to get in on the action. So Brad and Braden "exercise" together almost every night and it is the funniest thing to watch!

I LOVE THIS BOY!!!!

He just makes me laugh!

Updates Coming Soon....

I promise to update this week...probably Tuesday!

Parker Reed Hoffman

Well the cat is out of the bag....what kind of person would trust a 2 year old to keep top secret information anyway? :)

Yesterday morning while we were getting ready for church, Braden said that he wanted to buy the baby a bedtime bear just like his but white. I talked him out of white (I can't imagine how disgusting it would look after lots of love) and we decided blue was a good color for his baby brother. If you have ever seen Braden's bedtime bear you know why a light color is not a good idea!

So last night my mom came over and Braden tells her he is going to the store to buy a blue bedtime bear for baby Parker. Mine and Brad's eyes got so big. We were hoping he wasn't going to say anything else , but he just kept going about buying baby Parker a bedtime bear to put in his crib to sleep with. My mom kept looking over at us and it was pretty obvious that Parker is the baby's name....so no more secrets....his name is Parker Reed Hoffman.

Parker Reed Hoffman

Parker is my mom's maiden name and Reed is my dad's middle name. Our plan was to use this name regardless of gender, but I think it is more fitting for a baby boy. We have decided it is nice to not have to keep a secret, so a big thank you to Braden!

Today we went shopping to buy Parker's bedtime bear. Braden was so excited about buying Parker a bedtime bear since he loves his so much. When we got home he put "Parker's blue bedtime bear in Parker's baby crib for him". It was so sweet. I hope that Parker will adore his bedtime bear from his big brother as much as Braden loves his bedtime bear.

Parker's bedtime bear waiting for him in his crib.

Braden's bedtime bear. Can you tell it has seen better days?

Back to School

This is really late, but the problem with having pictures on 2 different cameras is that sometimes it takes me twice as long to upload pictures!

Braden started back to school a few weeks ago. This is his second year at Heritage Hill Baptist preschool program and he loves it. He goes each Tuesday and Thursday and I am hoping that he won't get as sick as he did last year. Last year was his first year and Brad and I (& my parents) were a nervous wreck! Here is a link to last year. It was an easier transition for us to let him go two days a week because we see how much he loves it and enjoys playing with his friends.

He is really excited about going each week and he talks about his teachers, Ms. Julie and Ms. Glenda, and his "school friends" all the time. Next week, they are talking about pets so I am going to take Avery over to visit his class. That should be interesting!

Here are some pictures from his first day.

What a big boy! It kinda makes me sad.

Walking down the hallway to class

Hanging up his backpack.

Hmmm...What can I get into?