Wild Waters FUN!!!

This last Saturday, we went to our friend's (Greg and Amanda) daughter's birthday party. It was held at Wild Waters, one of Brayden's most favorite places on earth. Last summer Brayden and I had season passes, but we just didn't get them this year and I feel like we really missed out. Brayden is now finally tall enough to ride the bigger rides. He was a little nervous at first to ride them, but that went away fast. After that first time down he was ready to go again and again. He loved the Fire and Ice rides. He screamed like a little girl all the way down. My bigger boy loved the rides also, as you can see in one of the pictures below. Mike and Greg went on most of the rides, and they even got me to go on one. I am always nervous about those types of things because I am afraid that all of the metal in my back is just going to pop right out if I hit something the wrong way. Besides that, we had a great day at the park with our friends and family!

Look out world - Brayden's driving!!!!

Big Pimpin'!

Where my girls at?
Brayden making sure that he runs it over just perfectly!
Notice here that there isn't a single cone left standing!

On Wednesday night I decided to let Brayden go out and drive his truck around the block. To say that Brayden's Ford Truck is his baby would be an understatement. It is his pride and joy. He even takes a towel and wipes of all the dirt on it when he is done driving it. As a little gift for Valentines's day, Nana got Brayden some orange cones for him to drive his truck around. We like to set them up like a course and make him drive in and out of them. Well, this night he had a different idea. He just wanted to run everything over. I do have to remind myself that he is a boy and that they like to destroy things. We then decided to put little pieces of wood on the ground so that he could run them over like they were speed bumps. He did have a blast and he is our little wild and crazy driver!

Our Sierra

I just thought that I would put up a couple of pictures of our dog, Sierra. We got her at the Humane Society in February of this year. She is eight years old and super mellow. She loves to play fetch only indoors, don't ask me why!?!? Sierra is a funny dog. She loves the flash light, of course. If I have something that needs to be done, I just give the flash light to Brayden and not only does it entertain Sierra, but it entertains Brayden as well. The nice thing about her is that Brayden likes to play rough and she just takes it like a man. But I do have to say that it is nice to have another girl in the house. Sierra had just become another part of out little family!

Magic Carpet Golf

My cute boys!
Hacho and Faye - The newlyweds!
Where's Brayden?
Mike looks like he's stoned in this picture! ;-)
Like Father, Like Son!!!

Last weekend, Mike, Brayden and I went out with our friends, Hacho and Faye. We went out to eat at the Olive Garden (Always a great place to eat!) and then we went miniature golfing. Here is a couple for pictures from our night. I found out that Hacho is pretty competitive, Brayden swings like Happy Gilmore and Jared Spoon always calls us when we are at Magic Carpet. He must have a sixth sense and know that we are there. It's just weird. Anyway, this was our last night out with Hacho and Faye because they moved to Colorado this week. We are sad that they left, but are happy to see them start their new lives together as husband and wife.

Naughty Boy!!!

Funny story. Yesterday, Brayden was still not feeling well so I put him in his bed to rest and put on a movie for him. While he was watching his movie, I thought that I might as well get some work done around the house and I started cleaning out our office. I had the music playing and I was just cleaning away. Little did I know that Brayden had got out of bed, traveled down stairs and got my wallet out of my purse. Now, let me go back a little and tell you about the day before. We were watching a movie and Brayden had heard the ice cream man. He asked me if he could buy an ice cream sandwich and I told him that we had ice cream and popsicles and he could have one of those instead. (He really won't eat anything else right now because his mouth hurts so bad. ) I then told him that maybe he could have one tomorrow. Now, back to yesterday. After he got my wallet, he proceeded to go outside where he had heard the ice cream man. During this time I was still in my office working and had no idea that he had gone outside by himself. (We hardly ever let him go out in the front to play because we have a lot of speeders on our street. ) The next thing I know, I heard the front door close. I thought that maybe it was Mike and he was home early, but no. It was my five year old son coming up the stairs with my wallet in one hand, and an ice cream sandwich and a bag of change in the other. I had about $60 in my wallet and Brayden had give the lady a twenty from my wallet and came back with a little plastic baggie with all of the change. I the asked him where he went and he told me that he just went out and got himself an ice cream. I told him that he was in big trouble and that he knew that he wasn't supposed to go outside by himself. He then looked at me and asked, "Am I in time out, Mommy?". I was trying so hard not to laugh and he knew it. I then told him to just go to his room and eat his ice cream sandwich. Then of course I had to call my whole family and let them all know what he had done. What a little stinker!!! Oh, by the way, I did get the right amount in change back. Good thing.

I hate insurance!!!!! (Well, kinda)

So this is what a sick child looks like. Poor little Brayden is so sick right now. A couple of days ago I babysat my cousin's kids so that he and his wife could go to the Reno-Tahoe Open because my uncle Ron was playing in the amature round. Brayden , Leighton and Scarlett played all day and had a good time, but after they left Brayden started to not feel so well. I felt his head and he was on fire. He then told me that his head and throte hurt. The poor kid was just in pain.

Yesterday I took him in to our family doctor. I found out that what he had was a virus and that there was nothing that they could really do and that he would just have to wait it out. To top it all off, our doctor heard a heart murmur on Brayden. He has had it since he was a baby, but it hasn't gone away yet. So now he has to go in for an ecocardiogram to make sure that it is still a functioning heart murmur. Isn't that just dandy?!?!

When I got home, I got right on the phone making appointments for Brayden's heart. Later I got a call back form the cardiologist saying that they called to confirm our insurance and that they had told them that Brayden was not on our plan. I then called the insurance company and they said that they had no record of our son. Mind you, we have had our insurance since we have been married and all of Brayden's appointments have been paid in full everywhere. After that lovely phone call I called Mike and I was balling my eyes out. I was so upset because all I wanted to do was make an appointment for my son. Anyway, to make a long story short, my insurance company is making me fill out an enrolment form for Brayden and also send in his birth certificate. So as of right now I still have no idea how all of Brayden's appointments have been paid for the last five years. It's a mystery! Don't you all just love insurance companies!?!?!

Loon Lake

This last week, Brayden and I went to Washington with my family to go and visit some friends of ours. We did leave Mike behind (poor guy) because he had to work. So, Brayden and I packed up our bathing suits and drove 14 hours, in one day mind you, to a lake just outside Spokane. The lake is called Loon Lake and it is beautiful. The were trees everywhere and the water was warm and calm. We stayed in a cute cabin with our friends, the Pratts. Our families have been close for about twenty years now. Our friendship started when I was five years old. Brandon,who is my age, walked me home from kindergarten. Not to long after that did Brandon's mom become me and my sisters babysitter. It seems like everytime our families get together that we have to hear the story about Brandon and Meagan and how everything got started. But anyway, we stayed for about a week and a half. I can honestly say that we did pretty much did nothing but relax on the beach and play with all of the water toys. We stayed up late playing different games (my favorite being spoons) and we slept in late every morning. It was really nice to not have to do or worry about anything for an entire week. I do have to say that we missed our daddy and husband very much. Its just not the same without him! Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Brayden loved the jet skiis! It was really hard to get him to do anything else. He also loved to tube!My dad, Mitchell and BrittersGrandpa Gary and Brayden - Best Buds! Vogue! Vouge! Vogue!
Brandon and Brayden on the jet ski.
Brayden being burried - say that ten times really fast.
Jack, Brayden and Holly having fun in the sun. You can see the Hobie Cat Sail Boat in the background. It was awesome. At one point on the trip Mitchell and Brandon go it up on one plantoon and then tipped it over.
Here is Brayden and Will. They became good friends on the trip and got to play together almost every day.
Bucket Head! Here is our totally sweet sand castle.
Brayden loved to swim out to the dock and then just run and jump off of it.
Here we all are on our last day there, sad to go, but ready to get back home to our daddy!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

It was my dad's 50Th birthday a couple of weeks ago, so my mom, sister and I decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. We had it on Saturday night and it was a total blast. Here is a picture of me and my sister, Brittney. We posed like this on every single one of my mom's disposable camera's. I hope she gets a kick out of it.
We invited around 75 people to this bash, all consisting of my dad's family and closest friends.
Here we all are waiting for his arrival. I felt like I had butterflies in my stomach while I was waiting for him.
After he arrived, my mom, my sister and I all got up and said a few things about my father. My mom told everyone how my dad has gone to the blood bank every Sunday for the past two years where he donates platelets in my name. He does this because when I was going through treatment I needed a lot of transfusions and I was always in need of platelets. The blood bank has said that my dad has donated 88 bag of platelets which is equivalent to 150 blood donations, which in turn has saved 150 live and/or allowed 150 people to continue their chemo treatment. That brought tears to my eyes and many others when we heard that.
We also had a live bandi called The Recliners. The lead singer is my dad's best friend, Brad, who is actually the one with the guitar. The guy singing is a random person who sang like crap!. The band however was absolutely amazing!

Here are some family and friends cutting loose on the dance floor!
Here is my favorite cousin David! He got up a few times with the band and sang for us. In this picture I think that he is singing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. Rock On Dave!!!!
Me, Mom and Britt! Hey Mom - Love the wide open mouth!!!
This has to be my most favorite picture of all! This is my uncle Kenny wearing his wife's sweater and sunglasses!
Here is my awesome dad at the end of the night opening his gifts. I just want to say how much I love my dad and how grateful I am to have him as my father. He has been there for me in my darkest hours and I couldn't ask for a greater father, friend, and grandpa "Gary"! We love you Dad! Happy 50Th Birthday!

Happy 31st Birthday!!!

This last week was Mike's 31st birthday. We didn't really celebrate to much because the poor guy had to put in a long, hard day at work. Because my dear, sweet husband works so hard for our little family, I am able to stay home with Brayden. So by the time Mike got home Brayden and I had a nice dinner made for him and a little cake (Brayden really did help me with the dinner and the cake. He is quite the little Chef!). I know it wasn't much, but it was a nice evening with just our little family. The rest of the night consisted of relaxation and watching our favorite TV show Scrubs.
The next day we continued our birthday celebration with a day of baseball. We left early in the morning so that we could see the A's play the Mariner's. I love this picture of Brayden. Look at those cute ears!!!
Before the game we were able to watch the Mariner's batting practice and the A's team do their stretches. But the best part of the whole day was Brayden. We were really close to one of the coaches of the Mariner's who was actually fielding balls from batting practice. Brayden yells, "Hey, Coach! Throw me a ball!" The coach heard him and waived his arms at him and told him that he could have the next ball. Well, the ball came and the coach then threw it up to Mike to give to Brayden. Now, for all of those who don't know Brayden really well, let me tell you a little bit about him. He is one active kid who has the energy of about 5 children in 1. He is very fun, loving and gets excited for almost about anything. So at that moment that Brayden gets the ball, he gets super excited and then decides play a game of catch and throw the ball back to the Coach. All of the fans in the stands and the players in the outfield got a kick out of it and were cracking up and cheering. The coach then got another ball and told Brayden not to throw this one back, that it was his to keep. After that the ball stayed in my purse so that there was no way of him throwing it out again. And that is our little boy for ya!!!
Brayden and his Major League Baseball!
Let's Go A's!!!

Awesome Art

A couple of months ago Mike, Brayden and I went to Sacramento and San Francisco for just a fun little weekend away. I decided that I wanted to post these photos because I thought that they were pretty cute and funny of Brayden. I do have to say that any picture of my little man is adorable! During this trip we went to Golden Gate Park where they have this really cool art exhibit. I could have spent the whole day there, but of course when you have a very active 4 year old, your plans change fast. Brayden got bored of course and all he wanted to do is climb on everything. But I did get some really cute pictures out of it. My favorite is the safety pin with my little Bray-Bug inside of it. He is such a ham!!!!!!!!!!!!