Celebrations

I wanted to take this picture to show how cute my kids looked on the 4th but Kaleb pretty much completely blocks Brayden. So here's a picture of just her.

We all got dressed in red, white, and blue. And I painted Brayden's and my toenails.

We made a little dessert to take for our friends that we were meeting to watch fireworks with. We went up to Boerne and met up with friends from our ward. There were a lot of people there, but you would never know because there was so much space for everybody. Lots of grass for the kids to run around and a playground area. We practically had front row seats for the show. We brought hot dogs to barbecue and had a good time.

As you can see Brayden spent some time in her stroller. If I didn't keep my eye on her she would have been a mile away. There were enough friends and toys to play with...bats, balls, Frisbees, and other toy stuff, but she wanted what the other group had about fifty yards away. She just kept going and going and it didn't even phase her if I was nearby or not. I followed her the whole time trying to catch her while holding Kaleb (so I couldn't move very fast). I brought her back and told her to play with one of her friends close by. Not five minutes had passed and she was off again. She got put in her stroller for most the night because of that.

As you can see, she still enjoyed herself even in the stroller.

After we were done eating Brandon got her out and took some time to play with the kids and they all had fun playing Velcro catch, hitting the balls, and chasing after the Frisbees.

Right before the fireworks we were waiting in line for a snow cone. The line was kind of long so I took Brayden and Kaleb back to our blanket to wait. On our way back the fireworks started. Brayden was startled a little but still intrigued to watch. As I was approaching our blanket I ran into a hysterical little girl who kept saying "where's my dad?" (probably 7 yrs old). I stayed with her and in the process of trying to calm her down (with little luck) Brayden freaks out. Seeing the girl scared made Brayden scared as well. Luckily the little girl's mom showed up right then. I had Kaleb in the bjorn and Brayden was hysterical and wanted me to carry her. You know how it gets when the fireworks start? Everyone gets really quiet. Well it was really quiet with Brayden screaming. I picked her up while still holding Kaleb, made it to our blanket and tried to put her down so I could at least put Kaleb down. She clung to me so tight and screamed even louder if I tried to put her down. So I held them both. Kaleb was loving the fireworks the whole time. It didn't even phase him. Some girls that walked by told me he was smiling while he was watching them.

Finally Brandon came back with the snow cones and he took her. She buried her head in his shoulder the whole time and wouldn't budge. She was terrified. I think she would've been totally fine if we never ran into the lost girl. The rest of the night we talked about the girl and how scared she was and how that's what happens when we can't find our mommy and daddy emphasizing the point of how she needs to stay close by and not run away.

Kaleb eventually fell asleep apparently lulled by the big bangs and booms. We made this fun fruit pizza in the image of the flag for dessert on Sunday.

Here we are in our Sunday blue.

Brayden and I had similar dresses on.

The Ants

Well, we finally got some rain around here. But with the rain comes the fire ants. While we were at playgroup the kids were swimming and Brayden stepped out of the little backyard pool and right into a fire ant hill that none of us knew was there. She started screaming and stomping her feet and that's when we saw all the nasty mean ants all over her poor tiny little feet biting her. I was holding Kaleb and couldn't act fast enough, but one of the other moms had a water bottle and poured it over her feet to get rid of them.

I felt so bad for her.

This is what those stinkin' little creatures did.

We had some anti-itch Benedryl cream that seemed to take away the sting and she's been doing much better ever since.

The Big 3-0

So yesterday was my birthday and I woke up to 30 of these lovely roses... ...a great big homemade banner that Brayden helped decorate...

... and this balloon in Brayden's room.

I heard her on the monitor saying,

"Please, I want to hold it."

When I walked into her room she was standing there and gave me the biggest

"Happy Birthday Mommy!"

I couldn't have asked for anything sweeter.

Brandon put her up to that and was surprised that she remembered.

It was too bad that Brandon had to be at school but Brayden helped me make my cheesecake.

I figured now that I'm 30 it's about time that I give up licking the bowl and let my 2 yr old do it. It was hard for me but I made the sacrifice.

30 lit candles creates a lot of heat!

This was the first birthday that came with it a little "sting." When we're young, for some reason we think we are going to be young forever...and then we turn 30...

Like my friend told me though, I'm just 29 for the second time.