Baking Cookies

Brayden loves to do anything that we do, which includes baking!  So for Christmas I decided to take the easy way out for time purposes and we bought some prepared dough so all we would have to do was line them up on the pan.  Brayden thought that should be his job so he carefully counted all the way to 8 before losing track and starting over again.  He put them on the pan and then stood by the oven door as they baked.  When we took out the baked cookies he jumped up and down.  Next came the fun part frosting and sprinkles.  I did the frosting and let Brayden sprinkle the cookies.  Before starting we talked about how you would shake a little bit to decorate the cookie.  Brayden thought he needed to turn it upside down and then shake as hard as he could so he ended up covering the cookies in sprinkles.  Hopefully Santa likes cookies with extra sprinkles.

Arranging the sugar cookies on the pan.

Hi Mommy!  This is fun.

Brayden was so proud that he was doing this all by himself. 

Almost done.  Ready for the oven.

Checking on the cookies since the oven buzzer went off.

Let the sprinkle fun begin!  Half a bottle per cookie sounds good to Brayden.

We got through almost all of the cookies and then Brayden got concerned because he saw we didn't have many left so as I put them in a container Brayden picked one up took a bite and then giggled when I turned around.  He knew he wasn't supposed to have one and that he was sneaking a bite. 

Swimming

The other day I had swimming lessons and I asked Andrew if he would bring Brayden and when I was done with lessons I would take Brayden swimming.  Andrew and Brayden got there and I was sitting in the office and when Brayden saw the pool he got very excited.   I asked if he wanted to go swimming and he said "yeah".  We went swimming while Andrew went down to the gym to play basketball.  We swam for about 30 minutes and had so much fun.  Brayden was starting to get cold to we decided to get out.  We were getting dressed and this is the conversation I had with Brayden.

Me:  Brayden, I had a lot of fun swimming with you today. 

Brayden:  I had fun swimming with you too Mommy!

I love how quickly Brayden's vocabulary is growing and how he is able to communicate and have a conversation with us.  Brayden didn't want to leave the pool but when I said we were going to go downstairs to the gym to find Daddy it was suddenly ok.  As we were walking out the door Brayden said, "Bye pool I'll see you later". 

I didn't take any pictures of us swimming but I will add a picture just for fun.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

After a couple takes and a little editing...

Hi Santa Claus

We took Brayden to go see Santa Claus and all the way Brayden was talking about going to see him.  When we got there they said he was on his cookie break so we had to wait 45 minutes.  Fortunately we were at Bass Pro Shops so we went and explored the store.  Brayden enjoyed the large fresh water fish tank although when the fish came closer he usually moved back from the tank.  They also had some fun activities set up like a big monster truck with a remote control and a train.  We played until it was time to get in line.  While we were waiting we saw Santa sneak out from his workshop and Brayden exclaimed " I see Santa Claus.  There he is right there."  His excitement was cute but it quickly wore off as we were standing in line.  He told us he wanted to go play with the train.  We had to tell Brayden that we would go play with the train after we saw Santa.  We watched as the kids in front of us took their turns and then it was our turn.  Andrew put Brayden down curious as to what he would do.  He walked right over to Santa Claus climbed up on his little foot stool and said "Hi Santa Claus".  It was so cute.  Santa asked if Brayden had been a good boy and his response was "yeah".  We were then able to get a couple of cute pictures of Brayden with Santa.  Santa talked to Brayden for a couple of minutes and told him to be a good helper and pick up his toys when he was done playing with them, listen to his mommy and daddy, and to also give mommy and daddy lots of big hugs.  Here are a couple of pictures of our visit.

 Ready for my picture!

 Yes Santa I have been a good boy this year!

Singing ABCD's

I can sing my ABC's, or as I like to call them ABCD's, all by myself now! 

Night Eyes

At the zoo every year they have an event called Night Eyes and since Brayden was a little older this year we decided we would go.  We went with our friends Steph, Kenzie and Caitlin.  Businesses around town have set up booths and you walk through and collect candy.  Brayden was funny because he didn't really care about the animals but he was excited to see the lions and the monkeys.  There were a lot of new people there so he got a little shy.  One of his favorite activities were the jugglers outside of the zoo.  Brayden informed me "I juggle.  Daddy juggle." and that was followed by him moving his hands as if he were juggling something.  He is right as Andrew is a pretty good juggler.  Brayden wore his race car driver costume and I went as a football player.

Brayden and Mommy ready to go to Night Eyes.

We were trying to show off the back of our costumes.  Brayden decided to turn all the way around.

At the Zoo with Caitlin and Steph.  Caitlin was a very cute Ladybug.

This is one of Brayden and Caitlin's favorite poses, or maybe you could say Steph and I enjoy putting their heads in these picture cut-outs :) Thanks Kenzie for taking the picture!

See the lion over there Caitlin.

So cute.

Grandma Becky gave Brayden a Clifford Halloween book and it has become one of Brayden's favorite books so when we saw Clifford Brayden was so excited.  He liked Clifford until we got up close.

On a funny side note, the last time we posed with Clifford was at the State Fair when I lost my camera.  Thank goodness we got our picture and I still left with my camera!

Halloween

Happy Halloween!  As Brayden would say "trick treat".   We had gorgeous weather for Beggars night so we were very excited to take Brayden trick or treating around our neighborhood.  I knew we had lots of kids in our neighborhood but I didn't realize how many.   I had bought 6 bags of candy and we almost ran out.  Andrew took Brayden and did one side of our street and then they came home and warmed up for a bit and Brayden and I went and did the other side of the street.  Brayden was so cute in his "race driver" costume.  He loves cars so this was a great costume for him. 

When we went up to our neighbors doors Brayden was very excited to ring the bell but then when the people would answer the door he would sometimes get shy.  At almost every house though Brayden did say "trick treat".  When people gave him the option to pick one he would usually just look at the bowl as he was trying to decide what his best choice would be.  He was also very good about using his manners and saying thank you.  One of the best parts of our experience was the animals we saw.  One of our neighbors had a cat that came right up to the door and Brayden was most excited about petting the cat.  Another neighbor had a dog that Brayden got to pet.  As we were leaving Brayden said "Where's Zoey?"  Zoey would be our daycare providers dog.  So when I asked Brayden where Zoe was he said "At Jodi's house". 

Here are some pictures of Brayden dressed up in his costume.

No Mommy I am not going to eat these.  I will help pass them out to other trick-or-treaters of course.

 I got my bag and I am all ready to go!

 Taking a break after doing a few of our neighbors.  We have a big hill to walk and that is a long ways for such little legs!

 Dumping out what is left of the candy.

Being silly with Daddy.  Brayden and Daddy had the same hat.