Birthday Parties & Pictures

We had such a busy weekend - I'm sorry I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Unfortunately I was a very bad photographer this weekend - I really just wanted to enjoy the moments rather than worry about documenting them so this will probably be a boring post.

Saturday we had Tyler's grandfather's birthday party. Brayden got to see his cousins and we got to see some of Tyler's family that we haven't seen in a while. It was a lot of fun celebrating with them. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show for it. :( We had to leave the party a little early to go have our family pictures made. I haven't seen any sneak peeks yet, but I can't wait! Brayden does not know how to smile for pictures. I'm not sure why, but whether you say cheese or smile, you get the same smile. You know the one, you've seen it here on the blog. It will be interesting to see how the pictures turn out, but even if he's smiling a "Brayden" smile, I'm still glad I documented it because that will help me remember how he smiled when he was 3. :)

Sunday we had Stella's birthday party. It was at Treetop, which is one of Brayden's favorite places! He had an absolute blast. They got to climb in the tree house jungle gym thing, go bowling, eat cake & ice cream, and play games in the arcade! Right up Brayden's alley!

Sweet Stella!

After cake & ice cream, I took Bentley out to the tree house thing (think play thing at Chick fil A but a lot bigger) because she was getting restless while Stella opened her gifts. I just let her go on up and told Brayden to stay with her and not let her get lost. Well, a few short minutes later, she freaked out because even though Brayden was still saying "come on Bent" he had totally left her in the dust and she had no idea what to do. So, you guessed it, Big Mama here climbed up in that thing to rescue her. Needless to say, she wanted her momma after that and I gladly let Brooke go up with her. :)

Brayden was so tired from playing so hard he fell asleep on the way home like this. :)

You know what that means, another weekend closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Bentley's First Sleepover!

Bentley spent the night with me for the first time ever on Saturday night! Tyler worked at the fire department Saturday night so I knew it would be the perfect night because Bent & I would have the bed to ourselves. I won't lie, I was a little nervous about it. I was worried Brayden would want to sleep in my bed with us (& I guess I'm not a very nice mom for making him sleep in his own bed) (it's just the he sleeps SO much better in his own bed), I was worried Brayden would come to get in my bed in the wee hours of the morning like he very often does and would not be happy that he couldn't lay right by me, I was worried that Bent would cry or wake up in the middle of the night and want her mom. But, I worried for nothing because NONE of those things happened! Brayden slept all night in his bed until about 6:30 Sunday morning, Bentley slept all night, only waking up 2 times for a paci and a drink. It could not have gone smoother.

We started out the night at Nana's watching the football game.

We headed home at half time and pretty much went straight to bed.

The next morning Brayden came in and joyfully woke us up by saying very loudly "Where's Bent?!!" After that, he climbed up in the bed right by Bentley and started talking to her. I realize they look asleep in this picture, but I promise they were awake and talking. I thought it was so precious!

Even though I didn't get much sleep because Bent was practically on top of me all night and I had to be alert so I didn't roll off the bed, it was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again!

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CBK Pumpkin Patch Trip 2013

Yesterday was our 2nd annual field trip with Brayden's preschool to the pumpkin patch. This year Daddy got to go with us. Even though it was a little chilly, it was still lots of fun. If these pictures look familiar, it's because this is the same pumpkin patch we went to about 2 or 3 weeks prior.

We started out the morning feeding the baby calves with a bottle. The teachers got to feed them and the kids watched. It was so adorable!

Then we went on the hayride out to the patch to pick our pumpkins.

He also got to climb a small hay "mountain" with his buddies and ride the swing.

After the hayride, we ate lunch. Well, actually, Brayden ate lunch. Tyler and I waited until we left to eat. :) After that, we looked at and petted the farm animals. Bray got to pet a chicken, bunny, lamb, and goat. I think I enjoyed petting them more than he did.

Then we did the hay maze. Brayden felt quite victorious after finding his way through that so I took a picture of his victory pose.

Then he picked some cotton. When we went a few weeks ago, he liked picking the cotton, but he was done with it after a little bit. Yesterday, I think he would have stayed out there picking cotton all day. I think it's because it wasn't so crowded and he could really enjoy it. And enjoy it, he did!

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and I loved getting to see him interact with his friends from school.

Happy weekend, friends!

Weekend Fun!

I know I say this every Monday, but we seriously had the best weekend ever! The weather was beautiful and we did so many fun things!

Friday
Friday night we went to Brooke's mother-in-law's house for postponed Halloween trick or treating. She loves all things Halloween and puts on quite a shindig every year. We normally don't get to go since we go to the fall festival at church, but since she had it Friday night we got to go. The only memorable thing to report from that evening is the fact that my child went up and shook a candle holder that was lining the driveway and tons of wax fell down into his hair! I was seriously trying to get candle wax out of his hair all weekend. By the way, that is not an easy feat. Especially when the child screams bloody murder because the wax is on his scalp.

Even though it wasn't our plan, we actually ended up playing tourist in Birmingham this weekend.
Saturday
Saturday Tyler had to work so Mom and I got together and took Brayden to eat lunch and to Aldridge Gardens. It was so pretty! We walked the trail around the lake and just enjoyed taking our time and enjoying the scenery.

 

And thanks to Mom for her pose in the picture above because then we got the next awesome picture of Brayden.

Sunday
Sunday after church, Tyler wanted to do something fun since he worked Saturday. We invited Mom along and headed towards Birmingham. Our original plan was to pick something up and have a picnic at a park. Tyler vetoed that idea though because he just doesn't understand why anyone would want to eat outside, even on a patio or porch. We ended up eating lunch at the same place we ate Saturday (what can I say, I'm a creature of habit). We had decided to go to Moss Rock at the Preserve, but found out they were having a huge art festival so we skipped it. We ended up at Vulcan Park and I'm so glad we did! Brayden loved it! He asked if we could go back to "Vultan" tomorrow. Vulcan is a huge statue in Birmingham that represents our iron history. Even though I'm not much of a museum or history person, I really enjoyed the museum here. I liked learning about the history of Birmingham since I've lived right south of it all my life.

When we went up to the observation deck, the lady taking our tickets said it was good until 10:00 that night and I got a wild hair and mentioned that it would be so fun to come back at night when all the lights of Birmingham were on. I convinced my travel partners to do it when I said since they time had changed, it would be getting dark really early anyway. Ha, I don't really think they needed convincing.

To pass the time, we decided to go to the airport and park along the road beside the runways and watch the planes land and take off. We got there and parked and there were 2 planes sitting at the end of the runway and we could tell they were waiting on the all clear to take off.

Well, we sat there for about 30 minutes and NOTHING happened. We couldn't figure it out. Finally I decided to go to the airport's website and see if any planes were scheduled to land or take off in the next few minutes. When I pulled up the schedule, it said that 3 planes that should have landed while we were there had been diverted. Well, we knew something had to be going on. Sure enough, I pulled up the Birmingham News website and there was a security breach, later learning it was a bomb threat, and the entire airport had been evacuated and planes had been grounded. Seriously!! What are the odds on the one day we go to do that, it would have a bomb threat going on! Needless to say, we had one disappointed little boy but we told him we'd bring him back.

We drove around and looked at the new Regions Park (where the Birmingham Barons play) and drove through this cool tunnel!

By that point, it was dusk so we headed back to Vulcan. Boy was it worth it! Birmingham at night is so beautiful! I'm so glad we stuck around to see it.

And even though this picture is horrible, here is our sweet family!

I mean, seriously, Brayden looks deranged!

We had such a good time, even though we missed our normal traveling cohorts. Brooke & Bent just stayed around the house, so I didn't get to see them the entire weekend! :(

I hope you had a great weekend as well!

 

Halloween 2013

Another Halloween is in the books and it was a great one!

Brayden got to wear his costume to school Wednesday because it was Dress Like A Community Helper day and since he was a firefighter for Halloween, it worked out perfectly!

For Halloween, we planned to go to the church and then visit a couple of people and call it a night. Everything was so busy and rushed, I didn't take hardly any pictures! Shame on me!

You won't believe who was at our Fall Festival at church though! Phil! ;)

I made Bray take a picture even though he has no idea who Phil is! Haha!

 

We stayed at the fall festival for a about an hour and I remembered right in the middle of it that I hadn't gotten a picture of my firefighter yet so while we were just randomly standing there Tyler leaned down and we snapped one. This is why I'm not really cut out for the blogging world!



Brooke, Bentley, and Nana came and Bentley had no interest in the games, all she cared about was the puppets! Brayden also got to see Nate for a little bit so that was a major highlight of the night.

After we left the church we ran by to see baby Claire and then we ran to see Uncle Todd for a little bit.

We ended the night at Nana and Papa's handing out candy to their tricker or treaters and eating their candy. :)

And, because I can't help myself, here is a recap of Halloweens past!

I hope you had a great Halloween! Now, bring on my favorite 2 holidays: Thanksgiving and Christmas!