So innocent?

It never ceases to amaze me that something so cute and cuddley, so peaceful and quiet,

so calm, little and innocent.......

Could cause so much havoc and destruction!!

This was our crock pot lid. The crock pot that was sitting on the shelf in the pantry. He pulled it down. It shattered. Braden screamed and cried a lot. Allen quickly got him out of the kitchen and gave him to the older kids as he figured out a way to block the kitchen off. The older children started screaming...."Braden is bleeding!" Allen cleans him up. We hope there is no glass stuck in his foot. We decided to wait it out until the morning to see how it looked.

I went in and picked him up in the morning and I look down at his foot. It is all purple - like almost a black kind of a purple. Allen and I freak out a little. Then Allen reminded me that I was holding him. He has some sort of a circulation problem and you hold him for a second and he turns purple. All is well. He can walk and climb on it still. It hasn't seem to slowed him down at all.

Don't mind the messy floor of the first picture. I had actually just scrubbed the floors this day, and by that night, had to do it all again. This is the glass all swept up into a couple of piles, and it is a deceiving picture. It had shattered and their were glass slivers all over the entire floor. I had to sweep and mop a couple of times, trying to get the glass up. Hopefully nobody finds any little pieces. I think Allen and I are ready to get a lock for our pantry. The older ones keep leaving the door open and that is how Braden is getting in. We have come to realize, just another typical day at our house lately!

Braden's One!

For Braden's first birthday, we started by trading out his old car seat for a new one. He barely fits into it, but he was so happy to have it. He absolutely loved feeling "older" and looking out the window the normal way. We took a drive, just for fun so he could experience it. He promptly fell asleep on the way home!

It was actually a pretty low key kind of a day. Later that night, when Allen got home from work, my parents came over for a little celebration. Previously, my older children (McKenna, Kylie and Tyler) had picked out party hats for the occassion and of course we all had to get a picture of everyone in their party hats.

McKenna and Kylie

Grandma and Grandpa Blake!

Crazy Daddy

Tyler (who admittedly we had to persuade)

Even Elmo was pretty excited about the festivities!

We ate pizza and breadsticks for dinner.

We had cake. We actually got the cake that says Happy Birthday Braden for free at Albertsons. It was a little cake, but how cool is it that we got it for free? We really liked the elmo cake. Kind of different and fun. A side note, it came to light the candle on the cake and we soon found out that Braden has a fear of fire. He didn't like it whatsoever and so we had to quickly distinguish the candles. The older kids of course were more than happy to blow them out.

We cut the cake and gave Braden a good share of it. He enjoyed a little bit of it. Tried to put it in his mouth, but he was not liking the frosting and cake that was sticking to his hand. He kept trying to shake it off. That became more important to him than eating the cake. At that point we decided to throw him in the tub and clean him up. In the tub is where we learned he has a slight allergy to something in the frosting or cake. He had some welts that looked like hives on his face where the frosting was. Poor kid. I think we got it quickly enough that after awhile it cleared up. Thank goodness.

After a quick bath we opened a few presents. He got a little tent that he absolutely loves! He loves to hide his treasures in there. The things that he goes around the house and collects. Of course he got a few toys that make a lot of noise, and those are pretty fun for him too.

It was a great day. We love having Braden in our family and the happiness he brings us. As a side note, he had his well child check up and he is now 21 pounds 8 ounces and 28 inches long. He is in the 30th percentile for weight and only the 16th percentile for height. I told the doctor to stretch him out somehow, but he didn't seem to keen on the idea. Hopefully one day he will grow a little taller!

He loves his older siblings and gets so excited when they come home from school to play. He is a very curious little kid and gets into EVERYTHING! Absolutely nothing is safe. He is constantly testing his boundaries and we have learned we really need to be on top of our game all of the time. Anyway, we love Braden!