BB the Prankster

Brayden finds great joy in trying to play little jokes on us. He came over to me today cracking up at what he just did with all those race cars Guy picked up for him last week. He could hardly even tell me what he did because he was SO excited about it.

"I just hid almost all of my cars in all of Dad's stuff.  I put some in ALL his shoes, his work bag, TONS in his pillow AND even in his bike helmet! And he doesn't even know!"

He thinks doing this is the funniest trick in the world and I have to admit it did make me laugh when Guy put on his running shoes tonight and found a few. And then again when he laid on the bed and found like 20 in his pillow. And I'm sure it will still be funny when he wakes up tomorrow and puts on his work shoes in the morning and finds some more.  Nice work Brayden....I'm sure next time Guy will think twice about buying SO many cars! :)

Brayden's 5th Birthday!

Brayden had a great 5th Birthday! It was on a Friday so Guy was able to take a half day off so we could play all afternoon. Brayden was so excited to finally be 5 and we were excited to party all weekend.  We actually did cake and presents the night before on Thursday night so we could head to Disney on his actual birthday. Brayden could not wait to open his presents, which we actually had been saving in the closet since black friday of last year when we went crazy with all the sales :) It was nice to have everything already and just wrap it up, especially since toys are not on sale in May! This is also Christmas cars wrapping paper we bought after Christmas...again, the kids could care less that it says "Happy Holidays on it." They just liked that it was cars!

 Opening presents with the help of Tyler

 Brayden wanted a castle cake so we came up with this idea. It looks harder then it was to make.  We just decorated it with lots of candy and ice cream cones.  Brayden and I had a lot of fun making it together and it was all worth it for how excited the boys were about it!

 Tyler would just sit and stare at it! He loved it!

Brayden was a pro at blowing out 5 candles this year! 

On Friday we headed down to Disney for some birthday fun. Tyler fell asleep on the way to Orlando like this and I thought it was cute. That boy and his blanket!

 For my birthday, my parents gave me a character dinner at Disney and I saved it to use on Brayden's birthday. We were really excited about it. The place we chose to eat was in Epcot called the Garden Grille. It was a rotating restaurant so the views were always changing and for half of it we got to watch part of a ride, which was fun.

 Brayden was so excited about it and all the characters made such a big deal about his birthday.  It was pretty cute.  Our dinner had Mickey, Pluto, and Chip and Dale.

 We were most excited to see Farmer Mickey :)

 Except Tyler was kind of freaked out. Mickey did get him to give him a high 5 and a quick little smile, after sitting at our table and playing games with him for awhile. But Tyler mostly wanted to be as far away from the characters as possible. He likes them from a distance!

 All our yummy food!

 Pluto was so funny and spent a lot of time hanging out with Brayden.

 Mickey brought Brayden a little birthday cake to blow out and we all sang him "Happy Birthday." He LOVED it!

Thanks mom and dad for such a fun present. Brayden keeps telling us that this was the best part of his birthday :)

How did this happen???

Truly I have no idea how my little baby Brayden turned 5 years old! It is a mystery to both Guy and I.  He is getting big way too fast. In fact, just a few weeks ago we took him into to the elementary school a few blocks away and registered him for Kindergarten. Kindergarten!!! He is SO ready, but I'm not sure I am quite ready yet. I know that's how all mom's feel about their kids, but it really is true. He's going to grow up whether I like it or not so I'm just trying to enjoy the ride and cherish all the little moments.

 Some pictures of when he was a little guy....

There are sooo many things we love about Brayden. He makes our home a happier place and I am grateful every day to be his mommy!  These are a few things about Brayden right now at the big kid age of 5:

-He's such a good big brother to Tyler. Yes, they have their moments, but he really looks out for him like a brother should and Tyler adores him for that.

-He's at that age where he loves to help. Yard work is fun, cleaning the cars is fun, vacuuming is fun...he just wants to be included and doing whatever mom and dad are doing.  Hope that one sticks around!

-He is obsessed with apps on the ipad. Definitely addicted to angry birds!

-He will always try every kind of food at least once. And he'll always claim he likes it even if he doesn't. But we know if he really does or not by telling him to eat another bite.  He'll never come out and say he doesn't like something but he'll just claim his tummy is full or he'll try more later. It's pretty funny. A good quality to have for a foreign mission someday maybe?? :)

-He is very determined and takes things very seriously, like his 1 mile race he ran recently. He refused to walk!

-He brings so much love into our home.  He tells all of us he loves us constantly throughout the day.  I'll be working in kitchen and I'll randomly hear him yelling "I love you Mom" from his playroom. And it's contagious because Tyler will hear him do it and then he'll do it too. It makes us happy!

-He loves to talk on the phone with grandparents and family and when he does he paces around the room in circles while he's talking. Guy and I just sit there and laugh.....and get dizzy watching him!

-He loves to color and do art projects. When we took the tour of his school he got so excited and jumped up and down when he saw the art room.  He will love it!

-We love watching all of his shows, magic tricks, and creations he comes up with. He's got a great imagination

Such a big 5 year old now!

I could go on forever, but we are so lucky to have you in our family Brayden. Thanks for being such a great kiddo and for making life so fun. WE LOVE YOU!

Brayden's 5 year Interview

• Favorite color- "Black"
• Favorite food/snack- "Mac and Cheese and cookies"
• Favorite toy- "hot wheels and legos"
• Favorite movie/TV show- "Cars and Dinosaur train"
• Best Friend- "Ty Ty cause he's fun"
• Favorite thing to do with Dad- "Riding bikes and baseball"
• Favorite thing to with Mom- "Doing art with her and reading books"
• Favorite thing to do with Ty- "Play with him and build castle forts"
• What do you want to be when you grow up?- "a race car driver"
• Favorite animal- "alligators because they are cool. I've seen 3
  in Florida so far"
• Favorite book- "The Belly Button book and We're Going on a
  Bear Hunt"
• Favorite sport- "baseball right now because I got a new bat for
  my birthday and I have all the things for it"
• Favorite song- "Do as I'm doing"
• If you could have a magic power, what would it be? "I would be      lightning fast so nobody could even see me cause I would be                 running super fast, like this....."

• What is your favorite holiday?- Christmas
• If you had a million dollars, what would you buy?- A big                     giant hot wheels track that I could ride on
• How old do you have to be to drive a car- "Maybe like 10 or
  something. But I think like 6 for those little cars." (He's talking
  about the smart cars. Every time we see one he tells me it's
  a car that's his size to drive!)
• What is your goal for this year?- "to ride my bike without
  training wheels and reading scriptures every night. Dad is
  helping me do them, you know."
• How many kids should we have in our family?- "10" (um,
  yikes)
• What is something that you think you are good at?- "Oh,
  definitely baseball batting"
• Tell me your best joke- "What is 300 + 2 million equal? Answer:
  one. Because one is scared of 1000." (LOL, yes all of his jokes
  are like this. Apparently we need to work on a numbers with him....
  and jokes!)

Nothing makes me Happier.....

then Tyler's smile these days.

He scrunches up his eyes and gives us that cheesy grin.

He's a big goof and we love it!

I also love it when I find Brayden asleep in random places. It makes my day :)

Brayden's Animal Kingdom Race

On May 7, Brayden signed up to run another little race.  It just so happened that it was back to back with his other one, but he loved every second of it. This one was at Disney's Animal Kingdom so it was so much fun! I love that whenever they have adult races at Disney they always do some kid ones too. And I love that they are always $10.  Such a deal for something so fun. Here are the boys at the expo before which was at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

He signed his name on the wall of all the kids running

All ready to run. This race was just a short 100m and then it had an obstacle course after.  Animal Kingdom was having a similar 5K race for adults that consisted of a 5K, obstacles, and a scavenger hunt all through animal kingdom park. It sounded like so much fun.

Lining up with all the kids in his group

And they're off....can you see Brayden in the middle?

The obstacle course in the end was hilarious to watch. They had to jump over hay bales......

run through tires.....

And climb over army walls :) He did so well!!!!

In the very end they had a little challenge of having to dig through the sand boxes to find the character on their piece of paper. He had to search for a little Mickey figurine. They let him grab a Donald Duck one for Tyler too.

Getting his medal after the race

And he did it :)

It was so cute and I am grateful we live so close to Disney that we can sign him up for these things. I'm also grateful that Disney keeps them so cheap, because they could charge a lot more like everything else there! It was a fun little atmosphere and the kids loved they got to take home a little mickey and donald after. Very cute!

 Great job Brayden! We are so proud of you