Funniest Video I Have Ever Seen!

We have been laughing at this video for a couple of weeks at work, so I thought I would share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN1SscP57Dg

Oh The Simple Things

This is just an example of how easily entertained our son is. He had a great time playing in his "tent" - he has been making a tent out of everything ever since we went camping this summer. If you look closely on the last picture, you will see the "Deters" nose sticking out... Sorry boy!

Finally a play date!

Last week Friday, Brayden and I met our wonderful friends Heather and Rachel at the Gardens for an afternoon of fun. The weather was fortunately gorgeous and the kids had a blast. It also gave Heather and I a chance to catch up, at least for a little while. I originally met Heather through my work, but we also ended up in a birthing class together at the hospital when we were pregnant. Rachel was born in June, so she is a month older than Brayden. Rachel was Brayden's very first girlfriend - he likes older women you know! Having children the same age has really helped Heather and I bond and now I absolutely love her!




Heather brought Rachel's wagon for the kids to ride in, but they only lasted about 3 minutes. It was very handy to put the diaper bags and such in though. And it gave the kids something to fight about, because WHO pulls the wagon is a very important job that only one child can do...


The gardens were completely decorated for fall already. They had some HUGE pumpkins set out (which for some reason I didn't get a picture of - maybe Heather did if she ever updates her blog) but the kids loved these little "pumpkins". They played with them forever and probably would have stayed even longer if we had let them.


The Gardens have a fabulous play area for kids with lots of activities that our their size. This is the kids' door to the children's garden. Brayden loved being able to go in and out it.

These trees came up in the middle of the treehouse in the children's area. They were labeled with the type of tree that they were. The kids loved being able to touch all of the different types of bark on the trees.

I just thought that this picture of him was cute. Every time I see a picture of him, it blows my mind how big he is getting!

They have these pools of water set up in the shapes of the Great Lakes for the kids to play in. Brayden loved driving the boat around all the different lakes - maybe he is going to end up being a sailor?

And this is where my child really got into the water - literally. He loved trying to drink out of the fountain - looking back on it probably not the best idea. Luckily Heather had warned me that these fountains were around so I was prepared with a change of clothes.

We had a great time at Frederick Meijer Gardens and probably would have stayed much longer, but the place was closing (at 5:00 on a Friday, seriously) and they started kicking us out. It was a great playdate, until we got to the parking lot. Ms. Grace here had a hard time walking from Heather's van to her car and took a tumble over the parking curb and onto her knees. Almost pulled a Brittany Spears, except I managed to save Brayden completely. Just totally jacked myself up. But hey, that is what I get for being a klutz!

To my husband

Kyle,

I hope that you read this, though I am not sure why you would. You tend to know what is going on in our lives without reading this dumb thing :)

I can not believe that we have already spent four years together as husband and wife. You make me so happy every single day (well, at least most days). I thank God every day that he brought you in to my life. I have no idea where I would be without you.

Thank you for putting up with me for so long, and I hope that you will continue to put up with me for many more years.

I love you!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

Another Singing Video

So, I screwed up and posted a wrong video the other day. Basically one that I wanted on didn't make it - here it is now.

This is his favorite song to sing, which is why I wanted to make sure this video made it on here.

Beautiful Fall Evening

Last night was the absolute perfection of a fall evening. We felt like we had to put life aside and take advantage of it, so outside to play we went as soon as dinner was done.

We are so blessed to have been given two different play sets that we were able to combine into "the greatest swing set on the block." Brayden hasn't had much of a chance to play on it this year, but loves it every chance he has gotten. He is so glad that Papa fixed it so that the slide is no longer "broken" - as it was for quite a while laying in our backyard.

We have noticed that this son of ours gets more and more adventurous every day. He didn't even want any help climbing the ladders.

Brayden loves swinging, higher and higher. I just wished he would learn to make it go by himself - it gets a little old having to keep pushing. :)

One part of his play set has a clubhouse (tower) - just like Mickey Mouse, or the Little Rascals, since Kyle wants to hang a sign that says "No Girls Allowed". Brayden climbed up to be inside it for I think only the second time. It was fun for a couple of minutes, but then he was more than ready to get down.

Last night was the first time that he would voluntarily go down the slide, especially more than once. He all of a sudden decided that the slide was a lot of fun, so we basically just spent a lot of time watching him climb up and then slide down. It was amazing how much more comfortable he got with the slide. He started out dragging his feet the whole way so that he was barely scooting - by the end he was using his hands to make himself go as fast as he could.

By the end of the night, Brayden had even learned that he can climb up the slide itself, and that it was just as much fun going up this way than sliding down.

American Idol or America's Got Talent?

Here is our little star - if only StarSearch was still around. He wasn't being very cooperative, but these should give you an idea of the flair that he likes adding to his songs.

Lazy, Rainy Day

In case you haven't realized it, it has been raining non-stop since FRIDAY. I am beginning to wish that Brayden's toy ark is real, in case we need it.

I was bored and hungry, so I decided that we were going to make chocolate-chip cookies, except that we had no chocolate chips. Off to Meijer Kyle went. By the time he got back, Brayden decided that he didn't want to make cookies with me, but wanted to do it with his dad. You know, since Dad had been gone FOREVER!!! (Meijer is a really long ways away...)

Here are my guys making cookies:







He always will take time to be a ham!



Best part of making cookies is licking the spoon. Like father, like son.





After cookies and dinner, we decided to color. Brayden got some of the Crayola ColorWonder markers for his birthday and they are the best things ever. They will only color on special paper, so there is no mess involved. And he feels like such a big boy being able to use markers.




Here is some of his fabulous art work. We are willing to sell it to the highest bidder, it will even be signed and numbered :)



This picture is completely unrelated, and was taken one day last week, but it so reminds me of my little brother that I had to post it. Kyle doesn't think it looks like Michael at all, let me know what you think.

A fun night

The other night for dinner we had some corn on the cob that we picked up at a local farm stand. Brayden seemed to really love it -

He loved it so much that he ate three whole ears of it!

After dinner we pulled out a puzzle I picked up at a garage sale this past weekend. Brayden has really been into puzzles lately, wanting to do them over and over. Well, this one ended up being one that he isn't quite ready to do by himself.

After being put all together, this puzzle is huge. I know that box says that it is five feet long, but I didn't actually understand what that meant I guess. I do know that already it was well worth the dollar that it cost - especially when Mimi was the one that paid the dollar!

As soon as we spend the time putting it together, which consists of lots of counting, Brayden loves jumping up and down on it to break it up. We then put it back in the box, take care of the box, sit down, go get the box again, open it and dump all the pieces out and start all over...

America's Favorite Pastime

Like all little boys, Brayden loves playing ball. And since his mom's hand-eye coordination sucks, we thought that we would start working on it early :)

Every once in a while, he shocks us all and actually connects, but normally he is still just "almost". We don't normally play with such a big ball, but I think the dog ran away with the other one that night and we were too tired to go and chase.

Big Boy Bed

We converted Brayden's crib to a big boy bed a couple of weeks ago.


He really loves being able to get in and out of it all by himself. He has done a much better job adjusting then we thought he would. We had one bad nap last weekend where he refused to stay in it, but after making him sleep in his baby bed (pack-n-play), we have not had any other problems. All we have to do is threaten the baby bed, and he is all of a sudden pretty content to stay in bed. Once he was settled in his new bed, we decided that it was also time to get rid of the binkies. I told him that we gave them to a baby since he was now a big boy and no longer needed them. He still asks about them occasionally, especially when he is upset or really tired, but again we really lucked out and have not had any major problems.

I am not sure if I had all these big steps so worked up in my head that they just weren't as bad as I had expected or if we are just really lucky, but either way the transition has really been a breeze. And for that I am eternally greatful!

2nd Birthday Party

We had Brayden's 2nd birthday party the weekend after his birthday. The day was blazing hot, but I think everyone had fun all the same.

As a payoff for all the evenings that he has spent away from us while picking up extra work at the hardware store, Kyle was able to get one of the big rental bouncy toys for "the kids" to play with.

I think that the adults had at least as much fun on it as the kids did. In the background you can also see the new swing set that Kyle and I spent many hot evening hours trying to paint. It is such a blessing to have something right in our yard for Brayden to play with.

Anyways, we of course had to have cake for the little guys party, and since we started what seems to now be a tradition of an ice cream cake at his first party, we had the same thing this year.

It is the easiest cake to make and everyone in our family LOVES it, so it wins every time there is an option.

Brayden of course made out like a bandit when it came to presents, even though I tried telling everyone that this poor child is seriously in need of nothing.

I still can't believe that my baby is two years old, actually by this point 2 years and 2 months old. It is amazing how fast time flies, but at the same time we can't imagine life without him and have no recollection of how it was before he arrived.

Fourth of July

We spent the Fourth of July in Harbor Springs with my grandma and my mom's cousin Wendy. The weather was gorgeous and we really had a great time. It was Brayden's first time seeing the wonderful, beautiful area where my mom's family is from.

The day of the Fourth started out with the annual Art Fair in downtown Harbor Springs. We saw some very beautiful pieces, but nothing that had to come home with us.

The parade in Harbor Springs is a very grand event. With all the hub-bub surrounding it, you would have thought that we were in front of Macy's on Thanksgiving Day.




This is us waiting for the parade to start. As you can see, there were tons of people in town. Some actually put their chairs out on the curb the night before, saving their spots. The parade was over an hour long, so by the time it was done, we were all burnt and we had one tired little boy. He actually fell asleep on the walk back to the car.

The fireworks that night were probably some of the most beautiful that we have every seen. They shoot them off over the bay, so the reflection off the water just adds to the appeal.

We had a great family trip and hope to be able to spend lots of summer time in the Great North.

Better Late Than Never

Well, I have a few friends that have been doing a blog to follow their family lives for a while now. I have been thinking about how fun it would be to have one for our family, but never actually got around to making one. Well, here it is.

Brayden is now two years old. He is so much fun for us, but also getting to be very trying. For some reason he seemed to inherit some stubborn genes (not sure where he got those).

Anyways, here are some recent pictures of Brayden: