Warning LOTS And LOTS of Braddoc ahead!!!

So as far as bad mom bloggers go I feel like the worst at the moment. I woke up at 4 this morning and could not stop thinking about how much I loved my family and how I could not imagine life with out them. I thought about the little things that made me love each of them and how different my sweet sleeping angel boys were. When I started thinking about Braddoc I realized that I have not postedd many pictures or things about him in a LONG time and so I figured my goal for today would be to post about him and why we love him so much

* He loves to dance and anytime any kind of music or rythm (such as Landon jumping on the bed) comes on or he hears it he immediately goes into jamming mode. Arms up, bouncing up and down lips pursed in a kissing mode. It does not matter where we are or what it is the rythm always takes him over.

* He idolizes his big brother, he thinks that every thing he does is sooooo cool and will just watch him for hours he always says "Woooooowwww" of "Whhhooooaaaa" when Landon does anything.

* He can now walk after 17 months he is finally walking and he is an old pro at it.

* He is a perfectionist, he does not like to do something till he has perfected it. He will sit forever trying to figure something out and is so patient when it comes to learning he does not get frustrated quickly like Landon does, he will take his time until he has perfected it or figured it out.

*When he really wants love he will either lay his head on your lap or on some piece of furniture or lay down on the floor and be so quiet, he will do this for a few seconds and then look up to see if you are watching and if you are he will do it again until you give him love.

*He loves to do something over and over again once he has learned it. Like going up and down the stairs once he mastered it (two times of trying) he started to go up and come back down over and over for about an hour.

* He does not like messes if he spills his snacks he will sit and maticulously put them all back in his bowl, sticking his tongue out the whole time in consentration. Its very precious to watch.

*He loves baths and LOVES bubbles.

* If he is trying to be silly or is throwing a pretend fit to get your attention he will look straight at you but then move his eyes till he is looking out the corners of them and then get this sly grin and if its a fit then he will do it look back at you and do it again with this fake pout.

*He LOVES to eat and is the last one at the table, he always finishes off Landons left overs (because Landon likes to share) and then as soon as he gets down he is under the table looking for more.

* We found out he is allergic to milk and he has been very good about not getting jealous of what Landon can have and what he cant.

* He loves to play in the toliet and put whole rolls of toliet paper in there and on one very lovely occassion he figured out how to flush is down the toliet along with a bunch of Landons poo, yes that was lovely to stick my hand in and try to pull out so the toliet would not be backed up.... and he always thinks its the greatest to play in the toliets Landon has not flushed..... oh Braddoc why must you do such naughty things. :O)

* He is not a dare devil, he waits to have something down before he tries but once he learns to climb something he is climbing everything. He likes to move the stool around the house and climb on it to reach things and pull food off the counter because obviously my millions of meals and snacks are not enough.

* He loves to talk and will jabber constantly. He will also look at you very seriously point his finger up and tell you something very seriously then nod his head and say "Ahhhh?" He has said many words perfectly like: Juice, Sleep, More, Eat, Snack, bad boy, Play, Go, Milk, binkie, and Sorry, but then has NEVER EVER said them again. The only words we get on a constant basis are: Mommy, Aurie, Landi, Braddy (braddoc), baby, Hi, bye, yeah, and Occasionally Daddy (noah is usually mommy and I am Aurie).

He idolizes his big brother
He loves to rearrange the pantry, its funny to see where he moves things too.
Oh Landon you are soooo cool.

Mom listen to me!!!!!

He LOVES Corn and will bring me cans of corn to eat.

When Landons not around and he can just lounge watch a Baby Einstein and drink juice he is in heaven.

He loves to entertain. When he was first learning to walk he would walk a few steps and then purposely throw himself flat on the floor and lay down and then see if you were watching, standing up take a few more steps and do it again, laughing the whole time.

He loves to be mobile and to run away from you as fast as he can.

Sometimes he loves to cuddle and so at least two or three times a day he will come to cuddle and will cuddle for a long time giving lots of hugs and kisses and just lay on your shoulder but when he is done he is done and you better let him move on to his next "mission".

He LOVES pasta of any kind. He does not like to leave any noodle untouched. I know if I am making pasta to make a ton for left overs because he will eat them like crazy.

He pointing and telling us about something very important im sure.

Dancing and getting down with his dad, Im sure you can see exactly where he gets his moves from.

Just hanging out with the brother. Like how each one has a sock, he will find random socks and bring them to us to put on him.

My handsome loving boys before church. Braddoc loves to give hugs to everyone especially Landon and babies.

He loves to hide in the cabinets, under bins, behind doors anywhere he thinks is funny.

Learning how to work out at a very young age. He is so much more a daddies boy then Landon every was.

Again Landon is just super cool.

He loves trains just as much as his big brother.

He loves to play dress up and always has something crazy and silly on. The front of his shirt is soaking wet because he loves to drink from big boy cups and then when he is done slip it so he can play in it.

Always happy and smiling with those big beautiful eyes.

Discovering a new toy....not mommies favorite might I add.

This one is one in a million and we are so blessed to have him in out life. He was at kind of a developmental road block so to speak until Noah got home when he is 14 months and in the last 3 months he has grown so fast, learning to talk, walk, crawl, run, climb, eat on his own, explore and become such an amazing child with this huge personality. I am so blessed to have such an amazing child and am greatful every day that my Father in Heaven has intrusted me with such an amazing spirit.

May we all remember the true spirit of christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

I cried when I read this. I think its pretty amazing and would love to start this kind of tradition in our house as well.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

THE SIMPLE WHITE ENVELOPE

It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas --oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the
frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma --the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't
think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The
inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended.

Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against another team
sponsored by an inner-city church.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and
sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without
headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't
acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse.

That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree,the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition
--one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas . It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and
our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost
Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the
tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing
around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope.

Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

Apple(s) of my eye

My boys LOVE apples. They cant seem to get enough of them. Almost everytime I turn around one of them has gotten into the fridge and gotten an apple out. Braddoc usually only gets one for himself, (not sure he understands the concept of "sneaking one for his brother" yet) But whenever Landon gets one out he makes sure he gets one for both of them, so good a sharing when he does not really have to share. :O)
They crake me up everyday at the things they know how to do. These first two pictures are the aftermath of me going to answer the door, bring in a box and come right back to the kitchen, they sure are fast little buggers.

This two are birds of a feather. They are so different and at the same time so much alike. They wear me out, but in a good way. Its hard to keep up with them sometimes and they never fail to make me laugh or feel very loved.

This cracked me up. The pantry is OFF limits, besides the fact that they can sneak food out and its filled with food storage items that are NOT edible, they like to play in here and make a mess, so it has been deamed off limits. Does not stop them from sneaking in and so this is what I found the other day walking through the kitchen. Sorry buddy thats not an apple its a potatoe and while very yummy cooked, does not taste so good raw, :O) which he quickly figured out~~

When the moon comes out and the tombstones quake and screaming ghost materialize and begin to vocalize.....

......its time for Halloween!

(song from Landons favorite halloween movie)

Landon was all ready for Halloween from the first second he heard about it in September. He kept asking when it was going to be Halloween day... he loves dressing up and loves ghosts. With the trip to alaska in the middle of the month we had to move all our festivities to the last 2 weeks of the month so its been a crazy 2 weeks full of Halloween. Landon told us he wanted to be batman but kept going back to a pumpkin, who knows why. Then when we finally painted and carved our pumpkin he was fine in the pumpkin area and was wanting to be batman again.

Landons photo skills, I look a bit eerie, I suppose befitting of halloween.

Noah does not like getting his hands dirty so I have no idea why he likes digging the guts out of the pumpkins so much. :O)Eating our own eyeballs....yummy says landon.

Batman decided the mask was too much and that he would reveal his true Identity. :O) And Po the Kung Fu Panda was just too busy doing what he does best....eating!

He wanted to go go go and got a bit mad when there was a line and we had to wait a minute.

Landon and his Friend Mason showing each other their score!!! They had so much fun and were so independent.

Us at a friends halloween party. Noah and I went as Danny and Sandy from Grease and Braddoc was Kung Fu Panda

Batman was too fast to get a good picture and sometimes even appeared in a tiara...strange happenings this halloween.

The whole costume. A couple of people were telling me how brave I was to wear those pants. It was fun to make the costume and fun to wear it. I did wear a leather jacket to the trunk or treat though.

Cutest baby Kung Fu Panda ever.

Me and my man!!! :O) We had a lot of fun! I am so glad we got to go, it was fun making the costumes and fun wearing them. I love Halloween, we have dressed up every year and every year people tell us we have awesome costumes, its fun to come up with the idea and make it a reality. Everyone at the trunk or treat kept telling me how much they loved the costume and how I did such a good job and how it was their favorite movie, or favorite part in the movie. It was funny hearing what some people had to say and how many people from our ward did not know it was me at first. It was just fun to dress up and be "someone else" for a night.

I love halloween and I will miss it till next year but I am so ready for Turkey and Ham, I mean thanksgiving and for Christmas. It however just hit me last night I need to really start christmas shopping.........

Alaska

While our trip to Alaska was not for the funnest reason it was actually a really nice trip. It was nice to go home and be with Noahs family and all our time of need. I saw them in August but Noah had not seen them in almost 2 years so it was nice for him to get to spend time with his family. For Kurts Memorial service we went to a ball field which was were Kurt spent made some of his foundest memories. We all wore sweaters of Kurts because that was his thing. (Keyn noahs younger brother wore pants, suit and tie of kurts, from his younger thinner days. :O) )

Left to right: Top Row. Me, Noah, Braddoc, Michelle (mom), Keyn (brother) bottom. Emma (older sister), Landon, Kala (younger sister)
Emma and Braddoc (she is a wonderful aunt) I cant wait till she gets married and has kids of her own, she is going to be a great mom.

Keyn, me, Noah and Bobby Menace one of Kurts friends from PRESCHOOL. Its insane how many friends Kurt had who really cared about him and who stayed friends for so long. Bob was a great help to all of us while we were there, helping to take care of things and being a father figure to Keyn.

Landon and Noahs Uncle Lee (really Godfather, but we all call him Uncle Lee). He is Michelle and Kurts very best friend and a wonderful guy.

Emma, Lee, Me and Noah. See our "lovely" huge sweatshirts.

Noah and a good friend from high school Jonathon (or JR). We have not seen him in over 5 years and when he heard about the memorial he came and it was a nice reunion, Kurt would have loved it.

Us with the Armstrongs. It was really nice to be able to see them and to have their friendship and support at the memorial.

My sister in law, mother in law and father in laws birthdays were all within a week of each other so we went out to celebrate all of them. (thanks for the ears noah)

Cool guys! So they think! :O)

Michelle and Emma.

Emma and the boys