Happy Birthday Braxten!!! And Tyler

My little man had his First Birthday on Friday, so we had a party for him yesterday. We celebrated on Tyler's birthday so it was a little bit of a twofer (TWO-for-ONE) :) We had a lot of fun and I went a little overboard, but it was more for me anyway, right?! He isn't going to remember what was going on, just that he got cake :)  We did a Utah Jazz Basketball theme birthday, so it was a lot of fun with some great friends.Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the food table with the cupcakes and cookies.

Braxten Thomas: 20 1/2 pounds, 30 inches, Brown hair, dark eyes
He is walking all over ther place and climbing up and down everything from the stairs to furniture. He waves, gives high fives, and blows kisses. He can say mama, dada, daddy, hi, hey, nana (as in banana) and bottle. He can sign all done, more, milk, food, and hits his bottom when he needs a bum change. He is a very calm child most of the time and loves to sit back and watch people, unless we are at church. They all he wants is freedom and will do everything he can to get it.

 Braxten's smash cake

 He kept trying to "high-five" me and the camera

I just love this expression on his face. That mixed with the Wolverine hair and you just can't help but smile and laugh at the little sweetie :)

Happy first birthday little man! I love you more and more each day! I can't believe you are already a one year old. The time has gone by so quickly. Please slow down! Love Mommy!

Build a Bear

This year since we were in Colorado, my Grandma Dickson sent us some money to get something for the kids and us. We decided that it would be fun to take the kids to Build a Bear and have them build an animal just for them. It was a lot of fun to watch them and the kids had a blast. Here are the pictures. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Dickson and Lori! We love you and miss you!

 Braelyn picked a pink bear

 Braxten picked a puppy

 Waiting to stuff the animals

 Making a wish and giving her bear a heart

 Braxten picked a Jedi costume and a light saber--Really we held up the Jedi and some superheros and that is what he grabbed.

 His puppy all dressed up. His name is Pup Skywalker

 He decided he was more interested in the light saber than the puppy...

 Braelyn dressing up her bear

We first named her Rosey, but then Braelyn decided she needed a Rapunzel name after we got home so we changed it to Bear-punzel.

That was our fun trip to Build a Bear. Braelyn already wants to go back for her birthday. :)

Christmas in Colorado

So it has been awhile since my last post, but things have been super crazy. After Tyler finished finals, we were on to Christmas break. because he was going to be home a lot more, I started working more. I have been working 30+ hour weeks since December 14th. Now that school has started back up, I have told my manager I need to my hours to be a little more child friendly so I don't have to worry about babysitters or daycare. Here are pictures from Christmas; sorry they are a month late.

 Decorating Christmas Cookies. Braelyn had a lot of fun.

 Meeting Santa at the Boulder Ward Christmas Party

 No crying here :)

 Opening Christmas presents

 Braelyn showing off her Christmas jammies

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Once again sorry this post is so late!

11 Months and Christmas Time

So it's been a little while, but things have been crazy around here. Normally I talk about the kids first but I just wanted to explain why it has been crazy. We had Thanksgiving which was a ball. Matsons came to town so it was a lot of fun having family here with us. We were able to go to the CU-Utah football game. 

After thanksgiving break, Tyler headed back to school and I was back to work. I work 3 out of 4 nights Monday thru Thursday usually and a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and Tyler works Friday-Sunday night from 4-2 or later. Last week was the final week of the semester and this week is finals so Tyler is going a little nuts getting ready. So now that that's done, onto the fun part-the kids :)

Braxten: He Is such a boy. He's getting bigger and bigger everyday. He weighs about 23 lbs and his feet are only an inch shorter than Braelyn's feet. He is walking all over the place, but his problem is  once he figured out how to walk he was running and when he runs he falls down. The benefit of that is after he falls he plays peek-a-boo through his legs like downward dog. He is 11 months this week and it makes me sad because it means my baby is growing up. He's almost always happy and loves everyone. At our ward party a few people held him while I was taking Braelyn to the bathroom. They were surprised at how happy and comfortable he was with them. No crying Santa pictures here for this family ;)

Braelyn: she is getting so smart and learning more with letters and their sounds. She is getting very artistic and loves drawing and coloring. She is doing better at listening and cleaning her room thanks to the "cleaning fairy" who cleans and takes toys after she's gone to bed if they get left on her floor. 

Braelyn has such a big heart. She is always concerned about others and their feelings. She gives me foot rubs just out of the blue and when Braxten is hurt or crying, she runs to make sure he is ok and tells him she loves him and gives him a big hug. She loves to FaceTime and Googly hangout with family. Most of the time she can't keep still, but if Zippy is there (my parents Scotty dog) she holds so still and just talks to the puppy and tells her how much she misses playing with her. She misses her aunts and uncles so much. She loves getting mail jut for her and has been writing letters that we need to get sent. So to Kenzie, Nick, Amy, Kelby: Braelyn would love a letter or Christmas card or something like that. You would brighten her whole day!!

Here are just a few pictures from the past month of the kids:

He was climbing on the couch and fell and hit the bookshelf poor guy.

This boy LOVES yogurt

Making Christmas sugar cookies

My canvas pictures came. I LOVE THEM!

They were so happy he was home! We got to see him for an hour while he had a layover in the Denver airport.

Braelyn loves Chip the Buffalo and gets super excited every time she sees him.

The Christmas photos will have to wait til next blog. They are on the sd card so in order to put them on I need the computer and Tyler has been crazy with finals so I haven't had access to the computer since they were taken...

Halloween

Here are just a couple pictures from Halloween. It was just me and the kids since Tyler had to work, so it didn't turn out how I wanted and expected. I was behind the camera the whole time so all you'll see is the kids.

Here are my little Rapunzel and Pascal. It turned out really cute and Braelyn had a blast trick or treating. We participated in the munchkin March on Pearl street then went to bishops house. He got some great pictures of the kids so hopefully I can get those up soon.