Halloween 2007

I love Halloween! It feels like the official kick off to the holiday season. The days just seem to speed by between Halloween and Christmas. When I was little our Halloween tradition was to eat chili and rice, dress up and all of my cousins would come over to trick or treat. When Brad and I bought our first house we started doing this, but then it was only to dress Avery and my cousin's dog Cobi up for Halloween. Now that 2 of my cousins and myself have kids of our own we are back at the old tradition of chili and rice (& we added hotdogs for Brad since he's so darn picky!) and we are dressing our children up and taking them trick or treating. Last year was so much fun and everyone seemed so little. I can't wait unti this year when we can trick or treat with our "big" boys and my cousin Shane is bringing a trailer filled with hay so that we can have a hay ride through the neighborhood.

Here are some pictures of last Halloween. Braden was so little!

No No.....

Just a cute Braden story....I moved all of Braden's snacks to the bottom shelf of our pantry (thanks for the idea mom) so that he could choose what he wanted to snack on. Tonight while he was getting a snack the Vagetable Oil on the shelf above his fell off. Of course he said "uh-oh", but the funny part was that when he put it back up there it wobbled a little and he poked it back up and said , "No No". It was so funny!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we took Braden to Southern Belle, a pumpkin patch in McDonough, GA. It was so nice. The weather was cool so it actually felt like fall and there were so many fun things to do. Braden's favorite activity was going down the slide that they had in the "kiddie corral". We took a ride on the "cow train", visited farm animals (Braden kept "mooing" at the cow and it was so funny, Brad shot pumpkins, and we picked out a pumpkin to bring home and carve. Braden decided to take a lillte spill in the mud while he was hunting for his very own little pumpkin. It was a great day and full of lots of fun memories!

OOPS

I hacked up my son's hair tonight! It is bad....really bad! He was starting to grow a mullet again and I thought that I could give it a quick trim while he was in the bathtub like I did one other time, but now Brad has banned me from ever using scissors around Braden again. The worst part is that every time I look at him I can't help but laugh because he has no idea how incredibly funny it looks. Am I the only one who finds this funny? Even Brad giggled a little bit when he got finshed fussing at me! I don't want to cut the rest of his hair any shorter and his hair grows pretty fast so I am thinking about not doing anything and just letting it grow out. Any suggestions?

HeeHeeHee......OOPS

Finally.......

I am a planner. I cannot help it. It is ingrained deep within me. I like to make a plan for everything and I like for it to be executed. If you are making plans with me don't tell me you will be at my house sometime in the afternoon....tell me the exact time and then stick to it as closely as possible. I cannot help it this is just the way I am. My favorite part of being a planner is that I love to plan for holidays, birthdays, etc. For example I knew that Braden was going to have a John Deere birthday party for his 1st birthday before he was 3 months old. This gave me plenty of time to research and come up with my idea of a great 1st birthday party. I am already trying to plan our Christmas Eve menu with my mom, but she just wants to get through Halloween and Thanksgiving first. I can't help it. I am a planner.
The one thing I have not been able to plan out and it bugs the crap out of me is that I can never decide on Braden's Halloween costume ( I didn't decide on his pirate outfit last year until 2 weeks before and I just saw it and knew that he would be so precious). I never put things off until the last minute, especially something as exciting as dressing him up, but I just couldn't decide on costumes. I didn't want him to be an animal (it seems too babyish now) and I don't like the character costumes ( he'll want to wear that stuff soon enough). First I wanted him to be a UPS guy, but the costume was too big and really not that impressive. Then I wanted him to be a golfer, complete with golf clubs. Once again I wasn't really into it. I was even as desperate as to suggest a baby pimp outfit ( I know it sounds horrible but the costume was HILARIOUS). Brad and my mom thought that I was nuts and they were both ready to kill me if I ordered that costume. I finally found a cute Fisher man costume, but i just never could commit. Over Fall Break my parents went to Cherokee, NC and they brought Braden back a drum, tomahawk, stick horse and Indian headdress. I didn't really think anything about it until Saturday night when he started beating his drum and I put the headdress on him and he started running around in circles yelling and beating the drum. He was so cute and at that moment I knew that he had to be an Indian. I ordered the costume and it is on it's way! I can't wait to post my Halloween pictures of my adorable little Indian! Here is a sneak peak and waht gave me the idea!

UGLY- You Ain't Got No Alibi.......

I have been looking for Braden a wooden table and chairs set for months now. They are VERY hard to find. At least to find one that I liked and that wasn't $100 (OUTRAGEOUS!). On Thursday Brad and I started Christmas shopping early (this should be a whole other blog- I don't think that it is a good idea for me to start early b/c I am sure that I will continue shopping right up until Christmas Eve and just spend even more!) Anyway.......we saw this really cute blue wooden table with red chairs and it was great until I saw the price tag. $50 for the table and $27 for EACH chair and I knew that I was going to have to spend money painting it to match Braden's room also. I started thinking about this insanely UGLY green and gray wooden table that I have seen on Tuesday when I worked the drop off for the consignment sale. I made up my mind then that if this ugly table was still around when I shopped on Friday I would buy it. Well THANK YOU Ashley for saving it for me though it was so ugly that I'm not sure anyone would have bought it! However I got it for .....drum roll please.......$18!!!!!!!! After some sanding, 4 coats of white paint and over 8 hours I am happy to say that both Braden and I LOVE his BEAUTIFUL table. I painted polka dots and stripes to match the pictures that I painted for his playroom this summer and I painted part of the top of the table with chalkboard paint so that he can draw on the table chalk (or callk). Brad put up a cork board to hang his work and I added some tins over his board to store his chalk and crayons.

My inspiration for painting his table

Imagine It!

Today Brad and I took Braden to Imagine It!, the children's museum in downtown Atlanta. It was awesome and Braden had SO much fun! Brad and I had a great time also. Braden took off as soon as we got there. We are really beginning to realize how much of a big boy he is now. He is so independent and such a go getter. He just took off and started playing.

The museum is set up into "centers" and the current "theme" is Bob the Builder. They have a water center, moon sand and art center, simple machine center, dramatic play (dress up and housekeeping), a complete center that shows growing vegetable all the way to delivering them to the grocery store, and then a huge Bob the Builder center. Bob the Builder is also worked into most of the other centers. Braden's favorite activity was playing on the delivery truck that looked like a giant van. Braden kept calling it a bus (which is his favorite vehicle). Every time we would move to anew center he somehow "found" his way back to the "bus". He was actually sitting in the driver seat when it was time for us to leave. Of course when we told him we needed to go bye-bye he said in his very sweet Braden voice, "no....oh no...no". I told him to blow the bus a kiss and the whole way out of the museum he kept blowing kisses saying "mmmmmwwwww" (what he says when he blows a kiss). It was so cute.

We had such a great time and we are definitely going to take Braden back soon. I just wish that we lived closer.

Update.....The kitchen is finished!

The new kitchen floor is FINALLY finished! And they look great! Here are some pics.

Feeding the Ducks

Saturday we went to a birthday party at Lenora Park for my cousin Justin's son, Cohen. We had a great time. Braden loved playing on the playground and he especially loved feeding the ducks. Or as he says, "Ducky, quack, quack".

Justin & Cohen

Happy 2nd Birthday Cohen!

Not the best picture, but I love this face!

Ace, Braden & Gage feeding the ducks

Update......new kitchen floors coming soon!

Our old vinyl flooring has been trashed and our new ceramic tile is being put into our kitchen as I write this. Brad and Chad are working very hard! Hopefully I will have th kitchen cleaned up and ready for pics by Tuesday! Stay tuned!

Goodbye Carpet

Yes! Yes! Yes! We no longer have filthy, disgusting, stained, ugly carpet in our living room and dining room. I am so excited! Saturday Brad stayed at home with the installers while Braden and I spent Friday night and Saturday getting spoiled by my Momma (let me just say that I have the BEST Mom in the world- Thanks for letting us stay!). I cannot believe how quickly they removed the old carpet and tile and installed the new flooring. They started around 9:30 and finished before 4:30. I told Brad that I am so glad that i was not home when they puled the disgusting carpet back- I would have been grossed out and mortified by our own filth! I just love the new floor! Ok, I could go on and on, but I will just let you see for yourself!

BEFORE

AFTER

The first week of October we are FINALLY putting in the tile that we bought a year ago! By the way when I say we, I don't mean me....I mean Brad and our good friend Chad. I want to make sure that I give them credit for all of their hard work. So that means more exciting pictures to come! (Exciting for me anyways!)

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

I wanted to post these Sunday evening, but I guess I was being LAZY! Anyway I love Sunday afternoons because after church Braden is always so tired so while he is napping I try to nap also. It doesn't usually happen......however, this Sunday I did get an hour and half nap. Ahh......Sigh.......I love lazy Sunday afternoons. After our nap Braden and I went outside to play! His favorite thing in the world. We took his beloved pop-pop (he absolutely refuses to go outside without him) and we took out his new truck and of course sidewalk chalk. While we were out I got soem really cute pictures of him that I thought I would share.

Don't you just love the big misquito bite on his head?!

He's just the cutest little thing I 've ever seen!

Never Leave a Toddler Unattended for Even a Second!

Well I thought that Brad and I were both smart enough to know that, but apparently this weekend we were pretty clueless parents.

Friday afternoon I met my dad at the doctor's office because Braden had been running a fever the night before. Come to find out he has strep throat. I took him to Kroger to drop off his prescription and then I swung by Dairy Cream to get us both a slushy. One for his throat and one for me just because I knew that I would want to drink his and I did not want to catch strep throat. So...this may be too much information for some of you, but for those of you who know me very well you this is not news to you: I hate public restrooms, so I pee in the morning when I wake up and I don't pee again until I get home from work....no matter what time it is. Well, since I had not peed since earlier that morning when we got home I REALLY had to pee! I am blaming it on the slushy! So I go to the bathroom and not even 10 seconds later in comes Braden with a handful of Kali's cat food saying "Avey, Avey". In my head I am thinking "where the heck did he get the cat food? the pantry door should be closed". But to him I say, "Avery isn't here. Remember Mommy had to leave her at Grandmother and Palpaw's because I couldn't leave her in the hot car at the doctor's office?" So he walks out and comes back with another handful so I tell him that we can take them outside and feed Kali. So we head to the foyer to go outside to feed Kali, but as soon as I round the corner to the foyer I see the WHOLE bag of cat food in the middle of the floor! I gasped! AHHHH! And Braden looked up at me, grinned and in his sweet voice said, "Mommy." Why does he have to be so darn cute? I started laughing and I got a measuring cup to scoop all of the food up and being the little helper that he is he started picking it up also, but there was so much food on the tile floor that he was slipping aand sliding as he was putting it tinto the bag. It was very funny! He even tried to help sweep the rest of the food up!

Well, on Saturday I headed to the grocery store before the Georgia game at 3:30. I try to go grocery shopping after Braden takes his nap, but lately his nap schedule has been all carzy and he wouldn't take a nap. So ther I am in the grocery store and I get a phone call from Brad and this is what our conversation was like:
Brad: Bring home a new jar of vaseline
Me: Why?
Brad: Braden played in the vaseline jar and it is all over him and the carpet.
Me: What?
Brad: It's really bad. It's a good thing that we are getting new florring in 2 weeks.
Me: How did he get in the vaseline?
Brad: I don't know. I was watching football and he got real quiet. Just bring home some more vaseline, I 'm about to give him a bath.
Ok.....so let me tell you how big our vaseline jar is. It is not a small jar it is the HUGE economy size jar of Baby Vaseline that we bought when Braden was an infant anf we still have only used about 1/8th of the jar. When I got home I found out more about the story. Brad said that Braden had been fussy the whole time that I was gone. He tried playing with him in his playroom, but he kept on fussing. So Brad was going back and forth to watch football and he said that Braden got really quiet. Well...that is usually our first sign that he is into something. But you know how you don't even realize that they're quiet for a couple of minutes and then you're like "oh crap...what is he doing?". Brad said that he saw Braden's head pop out from around the couch and he was holding the jar of vaseline and Brad said, "Braden put that down...Oh no!" It was covering his clothes, in huge gobs all over his arms and legs and even smeared all over his hair. He was literally covered from head to toe! When Brad looked behind th couch it was in a huge pile on the carpet. Brad called me and gave Braden a bath, but his hair had so much vaseline in it that even after washing and rinsing several times it was still standing straight up. When Brad walked into Braden's room he found another surprise, an even bigger pile of vaseline in front of Braden's dresser. We are still trying to get the vaseline up off of the carpet in Braden's room. I even pulled out our steam vaccum this morning. Anyone have any ideas? We're not as cocnerned about the living room carpet because we are getting it removed in a few weeks anyways.

And guess what? I think that they are both my fault. I forgot to put Kali's food up Friday morning after I fed her and I left the jar of vaseline on Bradens' floor Saturday morning after I put it on his nose where we had been wiping it so much. So...this taught me a good lesson to be extra careful and extra cautious about what I am leaving out.

This is his hair after washing it several times!