Zoo Train

Some friends and I took the kiddos to ride the zoo train last week and they had such a good time!  Brayden was such a big boy and sat down next to me instead of on my lap.  He didn't really show very much expression, he was just being observant and taking it all in.  After the train ride we had a picnic lunch.  Most of the boys including Brayden were much more interested in chasing the ducks and birds than eating their lunch!  Brayden had such a good time and was super hot and tired when we got in the car he slept the whole way home.  Can't wait to go back!  Wish I had taken more pictures but here are a few:

Got a pic of most of the kids, even the babies!  Just missing a couple I think!

Bird catcher!

Brayden at 13 months/May 2012

This sweet baby is changing so much everyday and I want to make sure I document it all so we don't forget a thing!!!  Brian and I both agree that Brayden is getting more and more fun everyday, he is able to do more and now that he is walking he is a very happy baby!  Here is a little of what Brayden is up to at 13 months+:
*We are down to one nap a day now.  I was dreading going from two naps down to one but now it is so much easier.  Brayden generally goes to bed about 7:30 and wakes up between 6:30-7:30 and he takes about a three hour nap right after lunch around 12:30.  It is so much nicer now because we are able to spend longer periods of time away from the house so we are able to do more!
*This boy is  a GOOD eater!  He will eat pretty much anything you put in front of him and eat and eat and eat!  He has also done great switching over from the bottle to the sippy, we are down to one bottle a day now (before he goes to bed at night) but that will soon be gone as well.
*His favorite thing to do these days is WALK!  All he wants to do is walk around the house, pick up toys or other household objects and walk around holding them or hitting things with them.  He will make circles through our house, stopping along the way to empty out a drawer or laundry basket.  The other day he came walking into the living room carrying my body wash which was indeed open and being held upside down, he definitely made a little trail as he went-totally my fault I know!
*Brayden loves to play in any water, whether it be the dog bowl, the bathtub, a puddle, or the swimming pool he loves to splash splash!  When he is in the swimming pool half the time he spends trying to drink the water and in return lots of coughing and sneezing!
*He is still in LOVE with his sister (our dog) Mia!  He deliberately picks up her bone and walks around the house with it because he knows that she will chase him barking.  He also loves to pet her and lay his head on her (when she allows it which is pretty rare!)  We think that Mia secretly likes it when Brayden "plays" with her because she will put her bone or ball right in front of him to grab and then barks her tail off!
*He loves his car (which we call the "crazy coupe" round here!) and love, loves his chair which he climbs all over!  He also really likes to play with his plastic golf set, he even hits the ball sometimes (whether its by accident or not, we aren't sure!)
*He babbles all the time but we really don't have any idea what he is saying!  He isn't saying any new words that we know of and his favorite word is ball.
*Brayden loves to climb things especially up stairs, his chair, and up on the fire place

Here are some pictures of our sweet Brayden from this month :)

Pure sweetness 

pushing around the crazy coupe!

This was the day he started walking

Daredevil!

LOVES his own chair

Loves his Aunt Sarah and Cousin Choe

After digging in and proceeding to eat dirt

What?

Oh!  And he figured out how to take off his diaper-uh oh!!!

Nothin cuter, naked baby booty!

Our little fish, look at that SMILE!!:)

There's that cheese face :)

Brayden is walking part 2

This video was taken last night.  It is absolutely amazing to me how quickly Brayden has picked up walking!  My friends tell me that he will be running soon, and I don't doubt it!!!  We have definitely noticed that Brayden walks better when he is holding on to something-maybe to distract him?  His object of choice most of the time has been one of these golf clubs that he swings around as he walks.  He is getting REALLY really good!!!  Be patient, this video is slightly over a minute but once he falls a time or two and really gets going his walking is impressive :)

Brayden is walking!!!

Brayden has been walking for about a week now!  He started out with several days of taking 2-3 steps, then a couple of days taking 5-6 steps and he has progressed more and more each day!  It was so adorable for the first couple of days, Brayden would take a couple of steps, fall down and look at us, smile and clap his little hands. Every time he took some steps, he would look at us expectantly waiting for a round of applause which we eagerly gave!  I have spent most of the afternoon with trial and error trying to figure out how to download videos and have FINALLY figured it out-yay!!!  Here is a video from late last week and some of Brayden's first steps.  Watch the whole thing so you don't miss him clapping for himself at the end!!! Enjoy :)

Brayden's first haircut!!!

I have been told twice in the past week how beautiful my baby girl is and how much she looks like me... After the second time mama realized our baby BOY was ready for his first haircut!!!  It was pretty quick and painless, he cried, I didn't and I now have a ziplock bag filled with some of Brayden's original hair that I'm not sure what to do with!  Just to give you an idea of exactly how long Brayden's hair was, here is a picture of him this morning:

See all the curls flipping out in the back?  His hair is moved to the side because it had gotten so long it hung in his eyes!

 Got to sit in a cool car, the weird robe is okay...

What in the world is going on???

And now I want out!

And he pretty much cried the rest of the time!  All I gotta say is thank goodness for cheerios-they are the only thing that calmed him down!!!

We made it!

Little boy haircut, makes him look SO different to me but I am sure I'll get used to it!

So, 10 minutes and $19 dollars later we are done with a big milestone :)  Maybe I should learn to cut hair!

Brayden's one year well check/immunizations

Mama got a new computer (thank you Brian, Eddie, and Debbie Barron :)) so uploading pics and blogging is now a breeze! It is so much faster and easier to jot out a quick post than it was on our ancient computer which I may or may not have spilt a smoothie on several years ago...

Anyway, I didn't include Brayden's one year stats on his 12 month post and since I don't want to forget how much our sweet boy has grown in one short year here we go!  

At birth Brayden was 6lb. 11 oz and at 1 year he is 22lb. and 10 oz *he is in the 48% for weight
Brayden was born 19 7/8 inches long and at 1 year is 29 1/4 inches long *he is no Shaquille Oneal at 33% for length!
Well we know this baby has a big brain with a head circumference at 84%
Everything looks good, Brayden is a healthy, growing boy and we are so blessed!:)

Brayden's birthday April 18, 2011

At 1 year April 19, 2012-Isn't it just amazing?!!

Poor Brayden, he was having so much fun at the doctor exploring and playing with no idea what was coming next, 3 shots and a toe prick-ouch!!!  Buddy had a rough time but was calmed down by the time we got in the car and headed home.  Here are some pics of Brayden at his 1 year appt. the day after his birthday on April 19:

Being the needle-phobe that I am, I used to have a tough time watching Brayden get his shots.  I must say that I have gotten much better and can pin him down like a professional now!  We go back again in 3 months for MORE SHOTS-yuck!  I can't wait till he is old enough to take him to get an ice-cream after going to the doctor :)

Braydens 1st Birthday part 2/Dr. Suess Party

Okay so I am going to go ahead and apologize right now for the amount of pictures that I included in this post!  The sad thing is this isn't even a tiny fraction of the total amount of pictures that we took that day!!! We knew that Brayden's very first birthday was something to celebrate and that we wanted to invite all of our family and friends.  We decided to have a backyard bbq at our house the weekend after Brayden's birthday and it could not have gone any better!  My friend Kim Potter with modern bebe designs helped with our Dr. Suess theme.  I just loved the color scheme and thought all of her designs for this party were adorable!   Here are a couple pics of the decor we took before the party got started:

This table was set up as soon as you walk in the front door, it has the Dr. Suess book "Happy Birthday to You" for people to write Brayden messages throughout.  I thought this was such a neat idea and it will be so much fun to read what people wrote to Brayden on his first birthday for many birthday's to come!  On the floor  are the party favors that I completely forgot to give to most of the kiddos at the party!  They are a wrapped Suess book and some bubbles :)

The cake table! We ordered cupcakes from the same lady who did our gender reveal cupcakes because they were SO delicious!  Patty Young with "Cakes By Patty" here in San Antonio did them and a smash cake for Brayden as well.  I was so happy with the cupcakes also because they came out the perfect colors to match the rest of our decor!

More cake for little B!

There were some other sweets at the table along with some of Brayden's smash cake pictures and some Dr. Suess quotes spread out here and all throughout the party

This was my FAVORITE decoration!  It is a banner with a picture of Brayden for each month of his life. It is amazing and bittersweet to look at and I just can't believe how much this baby has changed in his first year!   I seriously just took it down today and would have left it up forever if Brian would let me!!!

Okay, so now for some pics of the party in full swing!  I tried to get pictures of everybody that came out by I am afraid that I did not!  I apologize if you were there and I am not giving you credit by including your picture!  I must say that Brian and I feel blessed beyond belief to have such amazing family and friends that love us and our sweet Brayden so much.  We were amazed at the generosity and all of the people that came to the party to celebrate with us!  

Brayden's great grandparents, Mamer and Papa Barron

Sandbox fun with friends

Aunt Sarah, Cousin Chloe, and Uncle Tom

Brayden's friends and mommy's friends :)

Me and Brayden, Mari and Sebastian
Sebastian and Brayden are only 5 days apart!

The Papes with their newest addition sweet baby Wyatt

Family pic with the birthday boy

Brayden adores his Aunt Sarah, she is so much fun!

Our sweetest neighbors Colten and Cooper

Grandparents and Great Grandparents!  

Uncle Rusty and Aunt Renese, Uncle Keithy and /aunt Christi
Uncle Keithy came down all the way from Denver!!!

Brayden giving his Grandma and Grandpa some cuddles!  He was so glad they came all the way down from Dallas!

Cutie Sebastian :)

My dear friend Tave drove down from Austin

He was so good and had such a fun time!

Okay cake time... again!!!  I know there are some of you who are probably sick of seeing our son with cake all over his face!  I swear this is the last time until next year :)

Stripped down and ready for some cake!

Singing Happy Birthday

Papparazi please!

Daddy was hungry too!

I could get used to this!

Most everyone left and we came inside to let Brayden open a few presents which was about a weeklong process!

2 of Brayden's Grandpa's 

Aunt Kathy reading Brayden a book that he loves because it makes all kinds of animal noises

Brayden and his Grandma Barron, you can't see in this picture but Brayden was having fun sitting in Grandma's lap and playing with balloons

Brayden LOVES his new car, thanks to our sweet playgroup friends ;)

And there you have it, we had one tired baby!!!

All three of us were exhausted!!!  We were definitely in a party coma for the next couple of days!

Thanks to all that came over to celebrate Brayden's first year of life, we are so glad to know you all and have you in our lives :)  Until next year!!!