Birthday Party

The theme for Brody's birthday was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These were his invitations.

I made the cake with help from a friend and decorated the house up. We had 2 activities. #1 a bean bag toss onto the food that the caterpillar ate (watermelon, cake, etc). Each time they landed on a food, they got to pick a treat for their goodie bag. #2 Butterflies. We used droppers to put water color onto coffee filters. After they were dry they used piping to make the body and ears. Brody was obviously too young for this, but the older kids LOVED it.

There were tons of little friends here to celebrate with us.

Brody is still too young to get the whole present thing, but Braden sure enjoyed it. Everyone was so gracious in what they gave him. We have great friends here.
We still can't believe out baby is one. I have officially moved all his pictures into a folder entitled FIRST YEAR. It will be interesting to see what this year brings. He's still not walking, but very close. We suspect it will happen within the next month. We love him even though we assume he will eat us out of house and home.

Birthday with Family

I had to work on Thursday, so we celebrated Brody's birthday on Friday. I cooked some hot dogs (his favorite), pasta and green beans. He ate 1 hot dog, 1 hot dog bun (completely separate from the hot dog), several pasta noodles, green beans and a cupcake. What a pig!

He just saw me light the candle on his cupcake.

He couldn't eat the cupcake fast enough. I honestly have never seen a 1 year old eat so fast. I told my mom this and she just said, "See, you said he had problems eating solid foods, but really, you have just been giving him the wrong solid foods." She is so right, as always.

After the cupcakes we opened up presents. Grandma and Grandpa Barnett got him 2 cute Baby Einstein dvd's. I think Braden loves them just as much. We got Brody a ball popper. You know, the one where you push a button and the loud music plays while the balls pop up. We only got them on video, sorry. But he loved it.

Birthday Treat: Ice Cream

For Brody's birthday we went to McDonald's and I let him have his first ice cream cone. The pictures will tell it all. Click to enlarge.

This was the best 22 cents I have spent on him. He loved it.

Happy Birthday Brody

Yes, a year ago today I was feeling very crampy and grumpy and tired. Brody must have sensed this and came that night. For more details, go here. As for now, I would like to write a little letter to my not so new newborn. Happy Birthday Baby Boy! Brody,

I knew from the moment I held you that I loved you and that you would be my special little guy. I like to think it was because I was a second born too (as was your father). Let's be honest, the second born is always the smartest, prettiest (in your case handsome), hardworking and overall successful. Don't let this get to your head. You have an older brother who is amazing and despite hitting you, actually does love you. I can assure you that you will have the responsibility of being an older brother someday and I want you to take it seriously. Continue to grow, continue to learn, but above all, continue to laugh and bring joy into our lives.

I look forward to this next year with you. To hear your words, to see you walk and to feel your embrace will only make my love for you grow stronger. So baby boy of mine (as you were called for the first 3 days of your life), I LOVE YOU, your dad loves you, your brother loves you and your Heavenly Father loves you.

Love,

Your Mom

P.S. Thanks for finally figuring out the whole sleeping thing.

Random Pictures

Just thought I would throw up some random pictures of things that have been going on around here.

Braden helping me pound the chicken.

Boys on the teeter totter at the library.
He is so silly with his food.

Pre-school: Police and Firemen

There are TONS of pictures, so I promise not to write a whole bunch of stuff. This week we learned about police and firemen. You can imagine this was a popular topic. Day 1 we made our own police badges for art time.

Day 2, I was arrested for stealing a car. Braden did take this mug shot.

Of course he had to take my fingerprints to put in the system. (Although, I know they are already in the system because I worked at a police station.)

Tough Cop

I had to take Braden's too.

He also needed some mug shots.

We had a FHE on fire safety and included our fire plan. Braden's still a little young for this, but I figured he needed to know where to go in case of a fire.

On Friday, we took a trip to our local fire department. You can just call your local dept. and I am sure they will do a tour for you. It was fun. A bunch of Braden's friends joined us. The kids watched, while the mother's asked questions. Braden and I have been reading several fire and police books throughout the week, so he was excited to see if his book was correct in what he expected to see.

Sure enough, there was the training room.

The Break Room (sharing a seat with friend Tegan)

The Kitchen (which was also the break room)

All the kids.

The workout room. (With friend Tyler). No pictures of the beds, but it was Braden's favorite to see. I guess he just didn't believe the books.

It's a 1 story fire dept, so no pole, boo! Brody and I were there too.

Braden and Wesley in front of the ambulance. I guess I didn't realize that every fireman was an EMT too.

He spent most of his time in the ambulance.

All the kids listening to the fireman.

Brody even got to enjoy the ambulance. I hope this is their only time in one of these.

Shaylee, Braden and Tyler

Rachel with all the kiddos in the firetruck.

They let them in the back of the firetruck, but Braden kept asking to drive it. They let him. You will notice the keys are still in the ignition. They had just got back from a call when we arrived. It was fun to see them park it in the bay.

And finally. They have discovered that kids are really afraid when they see firemen in their full uniform (there were a couple of kids with us who were). This makes it hard to rescue them when there is a real fire because kids will hide instead of go to them.

They are trying to show every little kid what it looks like to see a fireman in his full uniform.

Final product. There are 2 kids who aren't pictured, they were nervous.

Braden giving the fireman a high five. He wasn't nervous at all. The fireman told the kids to run towards him if they were ever in a fire. I hope Braden got that point. Also, make sure your doors are shut before you open a window. Shut the door and cover the bottom so no air gets to the actual fire. This will give you more time to escape.

The tour was done and just in time. We were there about 45 minutes. Right as we were finishing, they got another call and had to leave quickly. It was fun for the kids to see them rush out.

Overall, this was a fun week. I can't tell you how many times I have been arrested by Braden. We even made pretend handcuffs. He calls me his criminal. I had to explain that it may be fun to pretend to be a criminal, but it's never fun in real life. I don't want him getting any ideas. I was locked in jail most the time and had fun escaping. Next week: Caterpillars.