Brayden is now 4!!

What a DAY!!! Three years old is a great age! I really like three year old's. I'm always apprehensive that as they turn four they are slipping away and growing up TOOOOOO fast.

This is Brayden the night before his birthday.


It was his last picture as a three year old. See how cute!!


This is one of the things that we did after he went to sleep. So when he woke up in the morning he would be surprised!


He was. He thought it was great!!


Grandma and Grandpa Dance send birthday clothes. Knowing this I had him open that present before he got dressed so he could wear his new outfit. Great video. Brayden is always so pleased with what someone gives him that it is fun to watch.






Here he is playing with the balloons in his new birthday clothes.




During the day he watched a movie I had rented for him. We waited for Evan to get home, then went and picked up Josh and went to the mall's bounce house play area. He's always wanted to go and this was a good day to do it. He and Evan played for an hour and there are no pictures because half way to the mall I remembered I had forgotten my camera. Just picture Brayden running and jumping and laughing and that should cover it!!

Once we got home he finally got to open his presents.

This is from Grandma and Grandpa Dance. They send a toy too. BTW, he liked the wrapping paper.






This present was "from" Evan. He got to wrap it up at least!! It has a really great and classic Brayden reaction. Especially since the package contained something he had been asking for - flying frogs.






This is a turtle that projects stars on the ceiling. Lately he's really been into having some source of light in his room while he goes to sleep. This was a big hit as you will see in the last couple of pictures.


A game we haven't played yet but he's sure to love.


This card is from Grandpa and Grandma Cobb. He had just opened another card with four one dollar bills in it from my parents (video operator malfunction on that video), and this one was next. (p.s. Thanks for remembering his birthday with all the other things you guys have going on. We are praying for you guys.)






This is the picture of the card he got from Grandma and Grandpa Dance. He liked the Dinosaur.


Especially since this was his big present for this year. A remote control T-Rex. It's pretty cool. Slow (so they say), but cool. He loves it.


This is what he requested for dinner. He LOVES chicken legs. He can eat and eat and eat them. He really loves just eating chicken off the bone. So funny.


This is the cake he requested. A frog cake. He also got a John Deere party hat and cake plates. Pretty happy boy.


Closer picture of the cake. Another thing I finished when he was in bed the night before.


Last but not least (video's anyway), his cake reveal and blowing out of candles. He chose to eat a leg - is there a theme here?? :)







Some friends came over to have cake and ice cream with us and they brought Brayden this present. Thanks Elmer's.


This picture was actually taken in the dark. Way impressive flash!! That's his turtle.


This is what it looked like with the flash off. Cool turtle. He was happy to be going to bed.


Now my Brayden is four. . . he still gives really good hugs and still is a pretty good helper. We'll see what the next year brings!! Happy Birthday Brayden. We love you!!!

FHE Service race

Evan had the lesson last night. I asked him what he wanted to teach on and he couldn't think of anything so I had him think of something he heard in Conference. He remembered they talked about service, so he wanted to do something for service. We had just finished, about two weeks ago, a game called "the biggest looser" which involves service, pennies and prizes. So he was worried that we had already done service. So we talked about it and came up with this service race. We picked four tasks, one for each member participating, and each person would work on that task for two minutes then we would yell "SWITCH" and the family would rotate tasks. It was pretty fun and we learned a couple of valuable lessons: 1. Service doesn't have to take a long time, and 2. when we work together as a family we are AWESOME!! We got the dishes done, the floor swept and mopped, the laundry put away, and pictures of it all!! It only took us 8 minutes!!
Here are some pictures of the "race".


Josh on dishes


Brayden's first time mopping - ever!


Evan putting away baby laundry,


Evan mopping - he's an old pro now!


Brayden on dishes


Andrew "helping". Addison was upstairs "helping".


Brayden taking care of kids clothes.


Me on dishes.


Josh sweeping.


It was fun and so nice to have all those chores done!!!

Stitches, stitches, stitches

WARNING!!!! IMAGES MAY BE TO GROSS FOR SOME OF YOU! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!





So, Sunday our internet wasn't working. Did I want to get upset that I was missing part of conference, or did I just want to re-arrange my living room and hope it was back up by the time I was done? So, I picked the later. This led to a new way to get in and out of our living room. We have to move our little couch in order to enter or leave unless you are tall enough to step over. We have babies we need to keep trapped in, so this is what we did. Anyway, there came a point later in the day when Evan was not happy with a decision that was made so he shared his opinion in an inappropriate way which led to his being sent to time out. He never made it. Next thing I hear is a crying boy. As he got up he was bleeding bad and I had to figure out where it was coming from. I found a gaping cut in the bottom of his chin and we walked straight out the door to the car and proceeded to drive the twenty-five minutes it takes to the hospital where he walked away with three stitches inside the wound, and seven outside to close it up. We were only in the ER for an hour and a half, impressive really, but he was a really good boy and was very brave. Hopefully this trend doesn't continue. . . He had stitches in his eyebrow just before he turned three, now again at age six. Will it be the end? Hopefully, but probably not.

Braydenism #1

So Brayden is always coming up with the funniest things. We laugh at them for days between Josh and myself but some are just too funny not to share. So before I forget here is one we just loved.

Brayden was running circles in the living room the other day. Josh walked in and Brayden declared, "It sure is hard to run with one leg and walk with the other". He still hasn't got it mastered!! :)

and then their were three. . . gone that is!!

So, it all started with this:




Then it turned into this:

One tooth gone!!

He lost this tooth at about 8:30 in the morning while at school. The nurse gave him that cute tooth shaped container to keep his tooth in. We put them both under his pillow for the tooth fairy. She left him two dollars.


Then sometime around 3am (middle of the night) this happened. I didn't find out about it until about 6 or 7am as Evan just took it out and put it under his pillow.

The first top one to finally go. The tooth fairy didn't come until the next night for this tooth.


She left him two dollars again.


Finally we end up here. Three days later that last hanging tooth came out!! It was just hanging there for SO LONG we could wait for it to go.

Unfortunately, it came out while he was eating. The possibility is high that he swallowed that third tooth (we couldn't find it anywhere!!). So we left the tooth fairy a note, she wrote one back and still left Evan two dollars.

What did Evan do with his two dollars every day? Shared one with his brother. He figured since he had two Brayden might as well get one also!! I ended up putting most the money in his bank, but the thought was very nice, so the tooth fairy was pleased and didn't really care that two dollars might have been too much.

Now, we have to listen a little harder to understand the whistling sounds of our six year old. He loves having them gone.

Now onto number four. . .

10 months old!!!

The twins are now 10 months old!!! Look how big. Look how cute. We love them and can't believe so many months have already gone by!


This is Andrew in his Woody towel.



Addison in her opposite of Woody cowgirl towel.


This was the only way I could get her to hold still for this picture. . . with Evan's help. We absolutely LOVE this dress, I actually paid more than 10 dollars for it (which is way to high for a small item of clothing, but when it's so cute you bend the rule once in awhile!!).


Andrew is great at taking pictures. . . ok, great for about one pose then it's time to try to get the camera.


This is another really cute outfit on my daughter. Most things are cute on her, but this one is another favorite!


Another cute Andrew picture. He doesn't have that many "favorite" outfits, so I can't comment on his clothes as much. :)

Last but not least in the cute outfit catagory. This actually looks better with her brown shirt under, but it is still such a cute dress. It was on clearance on the summer rack, but with those fall colors and a long sleeve shirt it just became perfect for fall! Another one we love (and actually got cheap!!)


Andrew went to the garden with Dad to get a pepper for me to cook with. He decided it was for eating and gnawed on it for awhile. He has seven teeth now, and Addison still only has two. I did cut off some to cook with and gave him the rest. He ate some of it but mostly just liked something to gnaw on.


This is everyday traffic problems. I don't think they care if the other one is sitting on them or not, or crawling over them, or anything of the sort. They seem to not even react to it happening. It's really funny. They only get upset if there is no room for both of them on my lap. . . always room!

Can't believe they are growing so fast, but so happy at the same time! They feed themselves always and I always make sure it's food they can feed themselves. They love playing with their brothers, and love going places. They are really fun! Evan always says "thank you for our twins" in his prayers. They are really loved a lot!!! Happy 10 months!!

Ellis Hollow Fair

We went to our local Ellis Hollow Fair a couple of weeks back. They have cotton candy there, so we go. The kids like the little games they have to play, and they even got their faces painted. It was a fun time.


Twins got corn on the cob.



Our little tiger got cotton candy.



Brayden was pretty pleased with the result of his tiger. He thought he looked pretty cool.



He did a great job not moving and letting the girl paint on his face. I told him to just close his eyes and he did and it worked great!



Evan chose a pirate face paint. . . the girl wasn't as talented in art, but Evan liked it.



He was good and let her paint it on. I'm not sure if he would have liked the full face painting better or not as he is pretty timid about things he has no control over. He liked his and that was all that mattered.