Thanksgiving Tree

This was our Family Home Evening last night. I actually stole the idea from another blog (thanks Jenny!), but I thought it looked so cute, so I did it too. I probably should've cute some more leaves, but I was happy with the turnout.

Is it too late for Halloween pictures?

Yep, that's right. We're really backtracking here. And we have a lot of ground to cover. We have way back to Halloween and on up from there. Including, a trip to the park, visiting the museum, our temple trip, and Brayden's first birthday present!

We've had a lot of fun that I haven't blogged about. First off, Halloween was fun. Brayden and I went trunk or treating at our ward party Friday night while Preston was in Charleston SC for a conference. He got back at about 3 am on Halloween and after church we just spent the day together playing games and handing out candy. It was fun! I posted pictures earlier about our costumes (The lion, witch and wardrobe). Preston presented some research at the conference. It was his first one and he didn't know what to expect, so he definitely didn't expect to win (he didn't even know there were winners), but when they announced the top poster (mix of presentation, poster and content I think) he was tied for his section! YAY! So, he brought home a little spending cash for himself :D That's my honey!

Then there's some pictures of Brayden just being cute. He's started "talking on the phone" when he gets it and he holds it almost behind his head and listens very intently. In this picture he has two phones and he couldn't decide which one he wanted to talk on, so he just switched between the two. So cute. He also likes to sit with his feet either crossed or propped up on a tray or something. He's a lounger, what can I say? So, I had to get a picture of those cute crossed feet with his big toe sticking up. Classic Brayden, ya know?

Then we have the temple trip. We were FINALLY able to make it to the temple! The Orlando temple is really beautiful!! We loved it! We wish it were closer, but it's worth the 4 hour drive and hotel cost. We were able to go with some friends who watched Brayden for us and then we watched their 3 boys for them. Haha. . . we may or may not have lent them our car with an empty tank. . . Pretty sure they ran out of gas in our car that we didn't fill up because we wanted to hurry and let them make it to the temple. Next time we're getting gas. How embarrassing! Luckily, they just laughed about it and we were able to take care of it with minimal setbacks. Then we all went to the BIGGEST McDonalds that I have ever seen for lunch before we hit the road back home.

Haha, so I wasn't going to mention, but I think it's really funny. I forgot to pack my skirt because I had Brayden grabbing my legs and wanting attention while I packed. Luckily, I took a swimsuit and cover up for the hotel pool. So. . . the cover up became my skirt for our temple outing. Haha. I was so grateful I had something!

Last Sunday Brayden got to open his first birthday gift from his Grandy. She wanted him to have it now and she was leaving for Malaysia the next day, so we did a little google chat so she could see him open it. It was pretty fun. The pictures say it all.

look at that grin!

We also discovered that Brayden likes the massage chair. He was laughing his head off!! SO CUTE!!!

Brayden and I visited the Florida History Museum, which was actually a lot of fun. We kinda ended up there because we went to the wrong library and decided to take a look while we were there. They had a big cannon replica with a small 6lb cannon ball that you could lift a little to see how heavy it was and Brayden thought it was so fun to watch it go up and down. Yeah, we stayed at the cannon for like 5 minutes :) And he would laugh EVERY time I lifted it up or put it down. Anyway, they also had "grandma's attic" which was full of the fun stuff that they would've had for kids back in the day and Brayden found himself some oldie trucks to drive around. His favorite. Then he got to captain a big ship and spin the steering wheel. . . haha, is that what it's called on a boat? I'm having a serious mind blanking. It was pretty good times and I have no pictures. I actually took one on my phone and uploaded it on facebook if you really want to check it out :)


 Finally, we went to the park. It was a lot of fun and we stayed for quite a while. We went on a short walk with Sadie and then Brayden and I played while Sadie waited in the car. The only pictures I got were at the very end when Brayden's hand got stepped on accidentally by a little girl in the ward so he has red teary eyes in all the pictures but the first one. Still cute though.

A perfect day for . . .

Sidewalk Chalk!! 

You can't read this one very well, but it says we <3 our Daddy.

Chalk boodie

Isn't he just the cutest?!

I also made Sadie a new doggie bed today. I was pretty proud since I'm really no seamstress. It turned out pretty good! Although, I folded one edge of the patterned fabric over so that it could fit around the bed and hold it closed, but it wasn't folded over quite enough :) It works though. You can't really tell. I put her old doggie bed (which was chewed up a bit) inside to hold in all the stuffing.

Back to Blogging

We got internet installed on Tuesday! Yay! For those of you who hadn't heard yet, we were just mooching off our neighbor's great strong signal until it vanished a couple weeks ago. It's just gone. Not password protected. Just gone. It came back up for a couple hours the first two nights but we finally had to embrace the fact that it was time to make room in the budget for internet. And now it's here and I'm SO happy!! Preston of course got to use the internet at school all day, but I tell ya, it is tough living in the house with no internet. How did people do it back in the day?? People still do it now, and I have a new respect for them. But, I am used to being able to walk by and see if I have any new e-mails, or look up "how-to's" when I have a question during the day, and go blog hopping when I have time to sit and relax. So, I feel relieved to have my freedom to roam the internet whenever I wish. Yay.

Garden, Brayden, Halloween Birthday Party & More

So, as the title suggests, this is about a few things.

THE GARDEN:
As previously mentioned, the garden had been dug up before. Sadly, the lettuce was gone. I never found any of them. So, I FINALLY fixed it and planted some broccoli to replace the lettuce. It looked awesome and I was going to get a picture, but waiting a day meant it was already dug and trodden on again. So, the pictures aren't great. I was very upset and obviously wasn't getting through to my very loved Sadie, so I stuck her in our compost box (which doesn't have much more than some grass clippings in it) and closed the door. I told her she was in her "bad box" and left her there while I fixed the garden. I was very upset and that was the first solution that came to mind. Sad.

On a happier note, I also got some hibiscus, aloe plants and snap dragons for our front yard.

BRAYDEN:
Mostly there are just some cute random pictures of him. As always.

HALLOWEEN BIRTHDAY PARTY:
We got to go to Brinley's 1st birthday party and it was costumes because she was born on Halloween. Brayden has an adorable little lion costume, so we came up with matching costumes for Preston & I. After several options and much though, we decided I would be a witch and Preston would be a wardrobe. It was pretty cool. We made Preston's costume that day and I think it turned out quite nice. I have some pictures of B and Brin playing at her party too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIN!!

MORE:
Yesterday we finally put together our haunted gingerbread house and it's pretty good!

We went on our first date night without Brayden since moving! The Fun Station has a special Thursday night family deal where the large cheese pizza is $3.99 and if you buy the pizza you can get 2 rounds of mini golf free. Duh. Of course we went for that!!  Oh, and it just happens to be right next to the discount movie theatre, so we stopped there after :) We saw Nanny McPhee, which was about as expected. Kind of hokey, but I thought it was pretty cute and it was entertaining. I don't need to see it again though. That kind of movie.

So, that's the update. Here's the pics:

The before and after (but still trodden on and dug again. . . so really, they're both kinda before pictures)

The digging culprit. . . she may look innocent, but don't be deceived!

Tomatoes! We have TONS! growing, but this is the first one turning red.

Our banana tree. . . if you look closely, you can see two little banana buds (coming off of the stem)

Brayden when we got home. He was pooped.

Brayden being busy while we made the house.

wanting to get out of his pack n play. . .

. . . just to decide it was more fun in there.