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!