Guess Who Is On The Pole For The Daytona 500?!

None other than the clean-cut Dale Earnhardt, Jr...great photo op Dale! Hopefully we will see you a lot of you throughout the season.  Now go get'em next Sunday!

Iowa Energy Game

A couple of weeks ago Daddy got some tickets to the Iowa Energy game so we invited Steph, Kenzie, Caitlin, and Uncle Dustin to come with us.    Brayden and Caitlin had a great time clapping and cheering on the Energy during the game.  It was 70's night at the game and Caitlin really liked some guy dressed in bell bottoms and crazy hair.   Every time she would see him walk by she would point and start talking.  It was so funny.  You know how you always remember the 1st time things happen.  I remember the first time we took Brayden to an Iowa Energy game because we had court side seats right behind the bench and every time the buzzer went off, Brayden would cry.  Well we had another first in Brayden's life this year at the game.   Brayden was having a blast with Caitlin and all of a sudden within a few minutes he started to get red in the cheeks like he was getting hot.  Andrew decided to have him sit on his lap for a bit and we took his top shirt off.  The next thing we know Brayden threw up all over Andrew and the seat.  Not only was the 1st time Brayden had got the flu, but he also got it in a public place.  Poor guy.  We tried to quickly clean up and get home.  So even though our game was cut short we still had a great time.  Here are some pictures to prove it. 

Kenzie, Steph, and Caitlin.   Caitlin is at that age where she is not always interested in pictures just like Brayden.

Group picture, well sorta.   We will take what we can get.  I think Caitlin is looking for her boyfriend with the bell bottoms!

Good shot!

Brayden loves hanging out with Kenzie.  He sat on her lap for part of the game.   She is a teacher so she is  a natural.

Brayden had so much fun.

Some of those basketball players are tall!

Today is Oma's birthday!

Happy Birthday Oma!  Since Oma's birthday is today we all meet in Des Moines on Saturday to celebrate.  We met at the mall because Oma and Papa were going to buy new tv.  Cousins Grace, Brady, and Ashleigh all came out to celebrate.  We met for supper at The Cheesecake Factory.  We had a lot of fun.  After The Cheesecake Factory we all went back to our house for cake and ice cream.  I was excited to have Ashleigh and Brady come over to play.  We enjoyed the chocolate cake my Daddy made.   Here are a few pictures from our day. 

 Happy Birthday Oma from the grandkids!

 Oma had to sit at the kids table.

Oma had 3 candles on her birthday cake.   She was so nice to let us blow them out with her.

Sadly I didn't get a picture of just Oma and Brayden so instead here is one of me and Mommy while we were waiting for everyone else to finish eating.

I love to paint

Santa and Cousin Caroline must have talked this Christmas because Brayden received two awesome presents and they go perfect together.  When we woke up Christmas morning we found that Santa had brought Brayden an easel.  It has a handy tray to put his crayons or paints on.  He immediately wanted to put paper on there to color.  So we did and he loved it.  Well when Brayden opened a gift from Cousin Caroline he got even more excited because his easel had more then one purpose.  Cousin Caroline got Brayden paint supplies.  He was beyond thrilled when we said it was paint.  He has finger painted before so he knew what we were talking about but he had never painted at an easel before. 

One day when I was home with Brayden we decided to set up the easel with the paint.   I made sure to protect the floor because I can only imagine what could happen with a 2 year old painting.  While I was getting things ready Brayden was busy getting the paint out and then proceeding to put them in order on the floor and try to count them...one, two, tree, one, two... Some days he counts to ten perfectly and the next day he says one through three and back again.  The joys of living with  2 year old!

We got everything ready and Brayden decided what color he wanted to paint with.  Cousin Caroline got Brayden a paint smock for Christmas so I told Brayden he needed to put it on before we started to paint and he said, " No, I don't want it".  I told him if he was going to paint he needed to wear a paint smock.  After giving him a logical explanation he agreed to wear it. 

Once we got everything set up we painted for almost an hour the first day.  I was able to paint with Brayden, put his clothes away, clean up the toys in his room, and snap pictures/videos while he painted.  It was a productive hour to say the least.   Here are some of the pictures I took.

 Waiting is always the hardest part.  I told him we needed to shake the paint so here he is with his first color selection of blue.  He got to pick the colors he uses to paint and what a great way to reinforce colors!

 I didn't put very much paint in the containers because I didn't want to waste any so I told Brayden he had to put the paint brush all the way down to the bottom of the container to get more paint on his brush. 

So impressed with his painting for the first time.  Don't worry the first time mommy in me made sure to keep his first pieces of artwork! Or maybe even 2nd and 3rd time Mommys do that too?

 I love this picture of Brayden painting.  That smile on his face is unforgettable.  I am pretty sure he had that look most of the time he was painting.   Well that face and his look of determination as he was so focused during his painting.

Look at that masterpiece!