Allee Family

Its About Time

2011-02-28T09:38:00.002-06:00

It is official - the Allee family will be Florida bound again come this August. We have decided to do the Disney trip again for Braden's 9th birthday, but we have to celebrate it a smidgen early (darn the bad luck!) since his birthday falls during the first full week of school next year. We are super excited to have another family vacation planned! We are going to broaden our horizons this trip since Braden is a couple years older than the last time we went, and we are going to go to Universal Studios as well...so it will be a big week packed with Disney's Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, as well as Universal Studios, a day at the beach, and some family time enjoying a visit with a new arrival on the Allee side! We will be exhausted when we return home...sort of like needing a vacation from our vacation, but isn't that what vacations are all about sometimes! This Disney trip is going to be extra special this year, because we get to take Diana with us...Josh's cousin (my Jr. Bride from our wedding), who is turning 15 years old today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DI!). I cannot wait to update the blog with awesome pics of me and my favorite mouse - oh, I mean of Braden enjoying his birthday celebration at Disney (who is this vacation for anyway - ha!)!

I have to admit, I am a bit bummed out by the countdown that is provided at the top of the daily e-mails which are jam packed with vacation information, notice in the above pic...seeing 161 days until my vacation stinks because is seem SO FAR AWAY, but I guess the silver lining is that we are going on a vacation this year so it gives us something to look forward too!

We have a great summer planned between camping, spending time with family, Braden's sports, and now we get to end it with this wonderful family vacation!

I Should Be Grounded!

2011-01-13T13:12:00.010-06:00

I cannot believe that I have let momentous occasions such as Halloween,Thanksgiving, and Christmas pass without a blog update! Here we are half way into the introductory month of a new year, and NOTHING! I have grounded myself from Facebook or other online browsing until I let you all know how the Allee fam has been doing - which is now, so that means I am only going to be grounded for about 30 minutes - yay! I know that saying simply "life is busy" sounds like an excuse, but seriously it IS busy! Busy with work, home, boy scouts, guitar, sports, family, holidays, you name it we are busy participating in it! But I totally wouldn't have it any other way, I love this life that my husband and I have created together, we have the best kiddo, best family, and best friends in the world - we are truly lucky! Right now we busy planning how we are going to spend Spring Break 2011. I am pretty sure it is going to be a simple trip to St. Louis this year for us. Braden is DYING to go up into the Arch, and that is basically why we are planning a whole trip to go there. We have tossed around ideas like going to D.C., or doing a driving camping trip to like Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone...but we just aren't sure if that is something we want to do over Spring Break. Nothing fancy this year, but I am sure it will be a blast - how could it not be when I will be spending my days with my favorite two guys in the whole wide world! There seems to be plenty to keep us busy for a good few days there! I know no one wants to read me babble, they want to see pics! Here are some pics to bring you all up to date since my last post!

We have a new addition to the Allee Clan...his name is Brutus, and he is Josh's new dog. He is an Olde English Bulldog, and is as sweet at can be...even if it does look like he needs a doggy dentist! What a cuddler this one!

Braden had his very first guitar recital this past November, and he did awesome! He had quite the entourage show up to support my little rock star! He played "Had a Bad Day" by Daniel Powter and was the star of the show as far as I am concerned - hehehehe!

Our beautiful Christmas tree of 2010!

Braden's sheer excitement of opening up his Special Edition DSi XL - love this facial expression!

Boys and their TOYS! Both daddy and Braden got their much wanted remote control helicopters, and they both have played with them nonstop - like father like son! Josh and I at my work Holiday Gala - it was held down on the plaza and it is a pretty fancy event. I love still having a reason to get all fancied up and going out on a date with my hubby!

My two favorite guys - at Grandma Allee's house on Christmas evening.

Me and my boy at Grandpa Jack's house on Christmas Eve. I cannot believe how grown up he looks in this pic!

I have been whining for two years for Josh to light a fire in our beautiful fireplace...this year I finally was able to whine long enough for it to have an effect on him! I think it is beautiful, I sat in front of it all evening!

The snow storm that had school out of session for three days here! Braden loves the snow and was out playing in it as soon as I said he could go!

Well, that should do it. We are all caught up! Not alot going on, just alot of happy smiling faces in the Allee household! Hopefully I won't wait another four months for my next post! Happy New Year, cheers to you all and I hope that 2011 finds you in the best year yet!!!!

Grandparents Day 2010

2010-09-13T14:43:00.007-05:00

I know that Hallmark created this day just to make more money off of the world, but I truly do have some great people in my life that deserve this special day dubbed just for them. Not only for me, but for my son as well. Braden is a very blessed little boy, not many kiddos can say that they have as many grandparents as he has to shower him with love; he has 5 great grandma's, 3 great grandpa's, 4 grandma's, and 4 grandpa's still alive and with us and all of them love him dearly! Now, not all of them celebrate this day quite like the Shelledy's do, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve their props at being just as awesome. We started off the day by heading out of town to my Granny's house where we celebrate with the Shelledy crew. My mom, stepdad, aunts, uncles, and cousins all piled in her place for a fantastic meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, mac-n-cheese, salad, rolls, and hot apple pie with ice cream. It was an All-American meal and we loved every morsel of it! Just as a little thank you for being such great special grandparents, we get my mom (from Braden) and Granny (from me & Braden) a special little gift. This year we bought mums for their fall flower planting :) We enjoyed the afternoon playing outside with all of the kids - we played ping-pong, basketball, keep away, kid-style washers, Frisbee, and Steph & Nick even ganged up on me...I believe we heard "quit wrestling" a few times...but hey, at least we took it outside and weren't doing it in middle of the living room floor - ha! ;) After a great afternoon of spending time with the Shelledy clan, we headed out to meet Grandmother & Granddaddy Walker (Braden's great-grandparents) for a small dinner. We had a great visit with them...though I did have to arm wrestle granddaddy to pay for the tab, I kept saying it was grandparents day, and kept saying that there was no way I was paying. The sweet little girl at the cash register was kind enough to take my card instead - heheheheehe! I love that they want to take care of us, but it was our day to treat them! We had a great visit, and then headed home for the evening. What a great day! What awesome grandparents we have in our lives, and even though it is a "commercial" holiday, I still love and want to honor these special people in our lives. So, (Great) Granny, (Great) Grandpa Jack & Nancy, (Great) Grandpa Burton & Pat, (Great) Grandma Allee, (Great) Grandmother & Granddaddy Walker, (Great) Mema Millie, Grandma Jancey & Papa John, Grandma Paula, Grandpa Steve & Grammy Mellody, and Grandpa Mark & Grandma Julie - we love each and every one of you and cherish you and want to say thanks for all you do all year long for our family, you are all truly treasures in our lives!

Grandma giving Braden her "thank you so much, I love you bunches and bunches" kiss!

The beautiful mums up close and personal! Some of the grandkids (Kaylea, Alyssa, Braden, Austin, and Emma)

Me & Braden enjoying some family time - and NO he isn't too big to sit on my lap yet! ;)

Me and my beautiful Granny on Grandparents day, she is the most awesome lady in the world, we have learned from the best right here how to love, treasure, and treat your family!

Me and my awesome mom! She learned the ways of family from the fabulous woman pictured above and has passed along those lessons to me, I just hope to be half the mom as both of these women are!

Me about to bite Nick because he is picking on me - ha! I just had to throw one of these in there!

Weekend Full of Fun

2010-08-22T21:21:00.008-05:00

This past weekend we had planned on going to Jefferson City to visit out of town family, and to visit friends and enjoy the one year birthday celebration of a very special boy...but we ended up being home bound yet another weekend. Earlier in the week Braden received an invitation to a birthday party for his best friend since preschool...but it was scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 p.m., and although I had already prepared the family for not coming to town this weekend, I was considering the trip anyway. Then, Thursday I got an e-mail from Braden's coach saying that a last minute planned practice had been scheduled for Saturday morning from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. I have to admit that I was really irritated about the practice, I was like "these are 2nd grade boys, what the hell, are we suppose to just live and breathe football?!?" Josh quickly responded with "Yes, as much as he enjoys this game, I am sure that is exactly what we are going to be doing for the next 12 years." Then we had decided that since we were going to be in town this weekend, then we really wanted to go see Diana race in her Soap Box Derby race. We had never had the opportunity to see her race, so this was perfect timing for us. I took Braden to practice and Josh headed over to the race track to help Diana with her car for the races. Braden and I headed that way as soon as practice was over...well I made him go home and shower first after practice - he was a VERY stinky boy! Next on our list of things to do this weekend was going to the Royal's vs. Chicago White Sox baseball game. Originally we were suppose to go to the Friday night game...but it was rained out and rescheduled for Saturday night as a double header night. Unfortunately, we didn't get our front row behind the dugout seats from Friday night, but we were on the front row of first level which were really good seats too! Braden had a blast, and Diana came with us too. Whew, so Saturday consisted of football practice, the soap box derby, and the Royals game! Then Sunday finally arrived and it was the big b-day party, the whole reason we stayed home this weekend to begin with - ha!!!!
1. Football Practice
The morning started early that day with getting up at 7:00 a.m. to have breakfast and then get the boy off to the fields for practice. This is the first practice I have attended...typically this is dad's job, but not this weekend since he was headed off to the race track for Diana. So, I get there, with my bottle of water and my book to read to bide my time while I waited for practice to get over. I never once cracked open that book of mine. It was soooo interesting watching them practice, I learned so much about the sport. For starters, I had NO idea that all those numbers the player calls out before hiking the ball actually mean something! I totally learned what those numbers mean, at least for Braden's team, Saturday morning. All of those drills that they have to do and then the scrimmage game was SO interesting, I couldn't take my eyes off of them. I have to admit that I was also SHOCKED that they run the drills they do for such a young group, I thought this would just be a easy let them enjoy the sport sort of thing....Nope, this is serious stuff ya'll! But oh so entertaining to watch, and when Braden does a good play he is soooo proud of himself! I am super psyched for a real game!!!

2. Soap Box Derby
Diana raced in two double elimination races on Saturday as well. She did a totally AWESOME job. Her first race she placed third, and her second race she placed second - way to go Diana, we are so proud of you! Dave was doing a documentary on a gentleman that builds soap box cars and finds kids to race them for him, so he wasn't available to help Diana out with the moving of her car for the races, and Debby had hurt her back and wasn't feeling up to par, so Josh stepped in and offered his assistance for the day. Between you and me...and everyone else reading this post....I think he really enjoyed being that close to the action and knowing what was going on the tracks and with the other racers ;) Braden was TOTALLY hooked, and wanted to race a car too. Unfortunately that wasn't possible, but he did indicate to us that he would like to start doing that too - WHAT, like he doesn't do enough already! Anyway, Diana raced her little heart out, drove nice and straight down the track (most of the time) and had an awesome finish. She even beat out a girl this time around that she hasn't beaten before in their past races, very exciting stuff! I enjoyed watching her kick some butt on the track too. We are very proud of her achievements!

I love this picture, mostly because do you see Braden bending down checking it all out behind Aunt Debby. He was so cute and so interested in Diana's racing and her car. :)

Waiting in the shade for Diana's next heat. He was so cute, I cannot tell you how many times he asked me if he could race down the hill ;)
3. Royals vs. White Sox
Originally we were scheduled to go to the game on Friday night, we had our firm tickets, which are front row seats 1-4 right behind the dug out box. Saying that they were AWESOME seats doesn't even begin to describe how great they were. After the first couple of pitches of the game, the sky ripped open and a down pour proceeded to follow along with a horrible thunderstorm for several hours. The was postponed to Saturday night, making it a double header night for the Royals and White Sox. The only problem with that is...we didn't get our same seats, because the people who received our firm tickets to Saturday night's game had precedents over our seats. So we were reissued seats on the next level, row A, so they were still good seats, just not near as awesome. Braden could have cared less if we were in the nosebleed section, he cheered, and jumped, and danced, and had such a blast the whole game! The game turned out to be a fabulous one! It was the top of the 7th inning, and the Royals were losing 1-5, things weren't looking good. Then the next thing you know, the bases were loaded and Yuniesky Betancourt came up to bat. Ladies and gentlemen, we witnessed a Royal's Grand Slam, and Braden was stoked...as was every other Royal's fan in the stadium. The crowd was pumped, the Royals were pumped, and the game was now 5-5. It went on for 5 more innings, that is right - 12 inning overtime game for the Royal's to fight hard and win it! Such a great game, one Braden will definitely remember for a long time - he was so proud of the Royal's! :)

Josh and Diana enjoying the Saturday night Royals Game.

Scoreboard showing the four runs from the grand slam in the top of the 7th inning

Victory! Look at the happiness in that little face, I just love it!

So it was a great weekend, full of doing fun stuff with the kiddo and family. Sorry that we didn't make it to JC this past weekend, but one day, our lives will slow down and we will make it there like we use too...one day, like after Braden graduates high school - ha!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

2010-08-19T17:32:00.003-05:00

Okay, now this is more like it...a normal "what is going on in the world of the Allee's" type of post - hehehehe! Yesterday Braden started school for his third year...yep, he started 2nd Grade! We had the meet your teacher night last week, and that is when we found out that Braden will only have one kiddo in his class this year from his class last year...and it is a girl. I guess that is what you get when you go to a large school that has seven second grade classrooms and 16 elementary schools in the district, but I was totally bummed that none of his buddies from the previous year were in his same class. After talking to the other mom's it turns out...they are all split up! Anywho, it appears that it upset us mom's WAY more than it did the kids because Braden was chatting up a storm to his new friends, he made in like seconds, at Meet the Teacher night and they were all like, "It's okay mom, we will see each other at lunch and at recess and stuff." Kids are so resilient! Back to the task at hand though. Braden is back in school and I just had to snap a few shots of him waiting for the school bus yesterday morning...he looks thrilled that I have the camera in his face doesn't he - ha! I wonder when I will stop taking pictures of him going off to school?

Purdy, Purdy Flowers!

2010-08-19T17:15:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I know this isn't a typical "Allee Family" type post, nothing going on with the family...but I do have to say, I am SUPER proud of my flowers! Yep, that is right, I said F-L-O-W-E-R-S! Let me preface this with a little story.

Two days ago I had a lunch meeting here at work with several other gals in the office. Business was done but we were still sitting there chatting not wanting to get back to our offices. We were talking about the normal things: family, vacations, weather...which lead to talking about it raining. I had no idea it was raining here Tuesday, and when I expressed my excitement on the rain so I didn't have to go home and water my flowers the ladies were astonished that I had flowers to go home to at all. I was hearing, "Oh my gosh, you have flowers left to water!" and "Wow, my flowers died weeks ago when the heat index rose to over like 115 degrees!" and "I just have some green leaves and twigs left to water!" "How on earth do you have anything left this season to water?!" You get my point. HELLO, I have gorgeous flowers to go home too. Granted, when the heat index was CRAZY for those several weeks, I didn't just water my flowers every day (yep, they were astonished that I watered every single day), I watered them twice a day; once in the morning before heading off to work, and then when I got home in the evening after dinner was done and cleaned up.

Call me Corny, I know I am totally ate up because I love my flowers so much, but that is why I have these...and everyone else's seem to be dead or on a downhill slope heading that way. So this means only one thing, I have to show off my beloved blooms!

My Impatience growing like crazy! Terri says she gets to take credit for their beauty as well, she helped me pot them at the end of Spring and has been my stand-in "waterer" when I am away on weekends. They look gorgeous!

Pretty Hibiscus bloom...so pretty!

Another Hibiscus bloom, just a different color. I actually took my kiddo off the background on my computer desktop and replaced it with this pic of my flowers - ha! :)

My Wandering Jew I searched high and low for to no avail...this one my mama picked up for me and brought up to KC when she visited earlier this summer. It is huge and absolutely fabulous if you ask me! :)

A Boy and his Dog

2010-08-09T22:48:00.003-05:00

I just had to share this with everyone because I thought it was just too stinkin' cute! This week we are starting the whole "going to bed early to get ready for school" thing. So, at 9:00 p.m. I sent Braden off to bed, which is about 2 hours before what he has been going to bed this summer. I thought that I would go and check up on him to make sure that he was laying down and attempting sleep. He was obviously more tired that I figured he would be, and that goes for Patch too, because when I went in there to make sure he was laying down, I found my boy and his dog all snoozed out and looking absolutely adorable! I love the bond they have, and it just makes me smile ear to ear to see them all comfy and down for the count! I just love my boys and they love each other - absolutely adorable!!!

I just love that they are both covered up and laying on pillows! Two peas in a pod!

Boy Scouts Camp 2010

2010-07-14T09:02:00.005-05:00

Braden attended Boy Scouts camp the last week of June, and boy did he come home with some stories of all the things they did...shooting bows, rifles, sling shots; making memory stones, tie-dye tshirts; learning to walk a monkey bridge; and many other "working together" activities to learn the skills of being a good and patient boy scout. Braden just loves boy scouts, and the camp was a great ending for this years round of scouting. One of the Scout leaders took along a camera and shared some pics with us that were taken of Braden...here are some pics of his good time being a boy scout.

Monkey Bridge - I am not familiar with this, but apparently it is WAY awesome! Those two "railing" ropes are attached to a single rope on the bottom which they have to walk across without falling off.

Listening intently at the shooting range before handed a rifle, I am loving the eye protection there, but he didn't seem to mind, he just wanted to shoot that target. He says that he wants to go hunting with daddy this season - WHOOOAAAH, too soon for that, but I didn't burst his bubble just yet, ha!

The results of shooting...not bad really for a 7 year old!

Aren't they adorable - so proud of their shooting abilities. By the way, all the boys had the camo hats...it was part of the boys scouts deal, but Braden choose to wear his bright orange Browning hat (just like his dads) that he got for Christmas this past year. Made him easy to spot in the pics - hehehehehe! See what I mean by easy to spot? He is in the background doing his own thing...but I spotted him right away with that orange hat on. This is mostly posted because my little Scout has his hat on backwards and reminds me so much of his dad in this picture, posture and all! Making their "Memory Stones"...I haven't seen Braden's in final form yet, it is still with the Scout leaders and will get them at the next meeting - but he is super proud of it. He had a fishing lure that he put in it, but he only put its tail in and the head sticking out so that it wiggles, he thought that was hilarious and cannot wait to show us - ha! All in all, I think it was a success!

Blue Doo

2010-06-10T21:13:00.004-05:00

We went in tonight for a take two of getting Braden's hair dyed blue. The first time around it washed out in just a couple of days. Ashlee said it probably had something to do with him having "virgin" hair, so she used a different technique this time around rather than the cap, this time she "shoe-shined it"! Before it was just a small portion of the tips, and this time around it is more of an all over color on the portion of hair he wanted dyed. It is REALLY blue this time y'all - but it is way cute if you ask me :) I am so glad he is choosing ways to express himself in a completely harmless manner! Now all I need to do is get a pic of him rocking out on his guitar with that new blue doo!

Boys Scouts at the K

2010-04-26T09:46:00.003-05:00

This past Friday night, Braden's boy scouts den went to a Royal's baseball game. It was so cute seeing how excited these little 7 year old boys were about seeing a "real live pro baseball game"....even though NONE of them knew any of the names of any of the players - hehehe! It was just the coolness of it all, not to mention the peanuts, nachos, ices, lemonade, chocolate malts, and souvenirs. The Royals lost, which we could have guessed before the game even began, but these boys could have cared less. They were just having fun smashing peanuts (which were $6 a bag for them to waste...but it was too cute watching them have fun), chatting it up, and singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". Every now and then they would pay attention, like when the Royals hit a home run (they did that only once) and the fireworks went off, or when the video cam was scanning the crowd, because those boys of ours really wanted to see their cute little faces up on that big marquee. They would cheer and chant when prompted by music, but mostly they just had a blast smashing peanuts. We went on a Friday night to get the full Firework Friday experience of a Royals game. I must admit, they put on a really good display of fireworks for the Royals crowd, I was very impressed. As we were walking out Josh says to me "That was pretty neat, the fireworks were the best part." Braden shot back saying that "the whole game was the best part" - so there dad! ;)

Braden posing with his mini Royals baseball bat he just HAD to have ;)

The boys singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", they were swaying and all, it was so fun watching them!

Fireworks Friday

Just a neat experience all around with our little man and his friends!

Ninja Soccer - Game #1

2010-04-12T17:13:00.005-05:00

WOW! That sums up my feelings towards the first soccer game of this spring season. First, it was a GORGEOUS day; second, Terri came to help cheer Braden along with Josh and I; and third, this age group is so awesome to watch play soccer! Last year, the boys had the fundamentals of the game down pat, but not the attention span to actually play for the entire game. This year, it was all business. Braden was very into the game, no shame, no fear, no-holds-barred! It was great watching him play both on the offense and the defense, and he did an awesome job! I was very proud of him, and the game went by so fast. I cannot wait for this weekend, we have two games to watch, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, GO NINJAS! Here are some pics from the game.

Braden getting in there to get the ball!

Defense, blocking that goal from a free kick - look at all those blond haired boys!

Going in for a goal! And in case you cannot see what name is on his shirt it says "Lightning", Braden chose this to be his nickname on the team, and that is what they all call him, it is rather cute actually listening to them all cheer for him calling him Lightning! hehehe ...and yes friends, Braden's soccer is #9, and no we didn't chose it, it was assigned to him -ha!

Watch out, he is getting ready to kick it!

Run buddy, run!

This is my all time favorite pic though, look at that tongue sticking out, my only guess is that it is totally helping him concentrate more on the game and his role in it - ha!

Boy Scouts Space Derby

2010-03-11T21:28:00.003-06:00

Last weekend we spend Saturday in Sedalia so that Braden, Dad, and Grandpa Steve could build Braden's Rocket for the Boy Scouts Space Derby that took place tonight. If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, Braden told his dad and grandpa how he wanted his rocket to look, and what color he wanted it to be and then they built it...too tedious for Braden at this point in the scouting ranks...but I am not sure if dad or grandpa would have given up the control to Braden anyway - ha! Well, the results are in and Dad and Grandpa did a FABULOUS job of building their very first Rocket for the derby. This derby is alot more laid back than the pine wood derby, there are no speed timers, official check and weigh in's, or any of the likes...nor are there trophies given to the winners of the derby. The boys race by and continue by process of elimination, the winners continue on racing. Braden's rocket won every race he was in, and he earned a bead for every race (five beads total). He was dubbed the overall winner of the derby, and earned another pen for his shirt like from the derby, that is the only pen handed out though for this derby, so it is very special to receive it. Way to go Braden, Dad, and Grandpa Steve!

...and they are off, Braden was very into setting his Rocket off, but look at it go!

Showing off his winning rocket...he had a blast!

Winding up the propeller, that was a very important part of how fast the rocket would go down the zip line.

VICTORIOUS! (I think Dad looks a little happy in this pic too - hehehe!)

1st Guitar Lesson

2010-03-11T21:17:00.003-06:00

I thought Braden's guitar teacher would think I was a fruit loop because I showed up with my camera in hand to capture the first moments of him learning how to strum that awesome guitar is great grandparents got him, but he actually thought it was pretty cool to capture the moment on film :) Braden's first lesson was pretty simple. They went over the "anatomy" of the guitar and the lingo necessary for Braden to know in order to understand what Mr. Nathan was teaching him. Then they went over the strings and all the names of the chords, and lastly he taught him a short song to learn for his his lesson next week. Braden is to practice every evening for 15 minutes a night at the least. Mr. Nathan says that it is important that Braden doesn't get frustrated with the guitar and practicing, so it is best to just "make" him sit with it for 15 minutes a night, and if Braden wants more than to support him being on it as long as he wants too. Braden's favorite part of the "homework" given by Mr. Nathan...memorizing all the parts of the guitar, and the song he taught him...is his assignment to "rock OUT and play all sorts of silly stuff on the guitar to find sounds he likes." I told Mr. Nathan that I thought we (mom and dad) need to invest in some headphones for that electric guitar - ha! Braden practiced for about an hour tonight, but that is all the time we had with our busy Thursday night with Boy Scouts. He just loves it, and I hope that he continues to think it is as awesome as he does right now! If all else fails, I think Josh would take over the lessons...last night he learned the song on Braden's homework list, and played on the guitar for about 45 minutes himself - ha!

Its Beginning to Feel Like Spring!!!

2010-03-11T21:07:00.002-06:00

This past Sunday while I was inside cleaning up the house, Braden and Dana decided to go outside and enjoy the sunshine and 60 plus degree weather. They each took out their hula hoops along with some music and started hulaing away...it was just so cute seeing them out there enjoying each other and the sun that I just had to stop my cleaning and grab the camera for a couple of quick shots, I just love how much fun they have together. Braden really enjoys having his Aunt Dana around to play with!

Grandparents & Special Friends Day Evening at School

2010-03-04T22:17:00.004-06:00

Tonight was Grandparents and Special Friends night at Braden's school. This is the night that Braden gets to show off his classroom and school to his family members that are able to attend. Braden had quite the crowd for this years event. Grammy Mellody and Grandpa Steve, Grandma Paula, Great Grandmother and Granddaddy Walker, and Aunt Debby, Uncle Dave and Diana all came to join in on the fun. We first met at our house, then headed out to dinner at the Hickory Pit. The food was great and the company was even better! Then we headed over to the school for Braden to show off his skills. He took us to his classroom, where he was able to introduce his family to Mrs. Cohen...who was shocked to see all the family there for Braden, she even said that he wins the award for the most family attended for the evening ;) Braden was very proud of his artwork in the hallway, a picture he painted along with his self portrait. I have to say, and I am sure we are biased, but we were (and still are) very proud of him too :) While in the classroom, Braden read a book to his grandparents that he wrote, he is very much into writing his own series of epic novels, and they are very very interesting books...it is a talent he definitely has. Then he showed off his mad skills on the SmartBoard...he is a whiz at counting money, adding, reading, and many other things. After that we went to the cafeteria for dessert and coffee/tea/water. His grandparents were very proud to spend the evening with Braden and to share in the evening. It was great seeing everyone beaming...including Braden :)

Dinner time, we were all starving, and it was good eats too :)

Braden is pointing out his drawing to his grandparents

He is telling me about how he made his butterfly out of nothing but hearts, way cute!

This is the self portrait, it looks just like him obviously :)

Braden reading his new epic novel to Grandma Paula & Grandpa Steve

Look how proud they look, I just love that beaming shine in their faces and smiles!

All of the grandparents sitting at the desks while Braden talked to them about his school, WAY cute!

Left to right: Aunt Debby, Diana, Uncle Dave, Grandpa Steve, Grammy Mellody, Braden, Grandma Paula, Great Grandmother & Granddaddy Walker...quite the crowd for a very loved little boy!

Blue & Gold Boy Scouts Banquet

2010-03-04T22:02:00.003-06:00

This past weekend the Boy Scouts celebrated 100 years of scouting at their annual Blue and Gold Banquet. We had a couple of speakers talk to the boys about the honors of boy scouts and hype them up for moving forward in the group. It is that time of the year that they start to prepare the boys for their crossing-over into the next level, which is a ceremony of its own next month. Braden was very into listening to the leaders speak, who went all the way through the scouting experience and still remain active to this day. Braden earned more beads that evening. It was a great evening for him. He truly loves Boy Scouts.

Braden listening attentively to the speaker talk about what it takes to become an Eagle Scout

Four of the boys in Braden Den

Braden getting his beads presented by his den leader

Spring 2010 Program - A Day in the Country

2010-02-18T22:55:00.004-06:00

Braden had his Spring program this evening. It was all seven first grade classes together singing their little hearts out for all the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, and everyone else that came to cheer them on. They were suppose to be dressed in "cowboy" attire, but we were limited to t-shirts and jeans, so I bought a red bandanna and called it good. By the looks of the other kiddos, their parents pretty much did the same thing :) Braden enjoyed himself, there were lots of smiles, and a bit of goofing around with his friends. It stinks that he is in the back row so we just get head shots, but I am pretty sure we will just need to get use to him being on the back row with the height of our little man ;) My camera did AWFUL taking pictures in that gymnasium, and we have an awesome camera, but the photographer forgot to change the setting (ahemmmm, I was the photographer tonight, so I cannot blame the crappy pics on my hubby this time - whooops!). Even though the quality of the pics are bad, Josh and I enjoyed watching our little man have so much fun!

The kids are so proud to be Prairie View Bulldogs - Braden loves to wear his spiritwear to school!

The kids made the banner in art class - way cute! ;)

They are shouting "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" - cute song for them to sing :)

I thought it was cute seeing the kids point out their families to each other :)

Here he is just enjoying himself singing right along - I am so glad I don't have a shy timid little man.

This is a video clip of the program when they sang, Take Me Out to the Ball Game. It is adorable, and watching Braden sway back and forth and be goofy just makes me laugh out loud - I just love my little guy and watching him!

The Many Places of Christmas

2010-01-12T21:03:00.014-06:00

I am WAY behind on posting for the Christmas holiday. I started off good by getting up our Christmas celebration with the Ham's (see below), but then it all went to poop. I will defend myself in saying, I have been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks, and, in fact, haven't even been to work in the last two weeks until the start of this week :) So, we had a total of seven Christmas holiday celebrations...1) Ham's, 2) the Ives' at Uncle Troy & Aunt Debbie's, 3) the Shelledy's at Grandpa Jack's, 4) Christmas at home, 5) the Shelledy's at Granny Janet's, 6) the Allee's at Elsie's, and 7) the Walker's at Lahvie & Paul's. I have pictures from them all except the Christmas Eve celebration at Grandpa Jack's...I have no idea how I got out of my house without the camera, but I did! Some of you may say "Whew, that is too much to cram into a couple of days", and use to, I would agree with you...but these days I just say to myself (and my husband, over and over and over and over again - ha!) that it just means that we have lots of people who love us and want to spend the holiday with us, because one of these days, we will be sitting at home wondering how life got away from us and how Braden grew up so fast and isn't at home anymore for Christmas morning. As you can see by the smiles on the below faces, we all got just what we wanted for Christmas and that is was a great holiday! I hope that the new year brings just as much joy to all these faces :)

THE IVES's

Dad, my stepbrother Dallas, and Josh

My stepmom Julie, my little sister Dana, and Dad

Josh, doing what he does best at family functions...he is always the guy that falls asleep where ever he sits after the meal - what a bum! Oh, and he looks like a tree because he had spent the entire day in the woods hunting before the Christmas Holiday celebration that evening!

CHRISTMAS MORNING AT HOME

There is actually a little story that goes along with opening presents this year in the Allee house. After we got back home from Grandpa Jack's on Christmas Eve we had lots left to do in order to be ready for Santa to arrive at the Allee house. So, as soon as we got home, Braden got ready for bed and the rest of us got to work...well, Josh and I wrapped lots of presents while mom and John supervised...mostly mom did this behind closed eyes due to her consumption of her Ambien. It was close to eleven o'clock at night on Christmas eve...and Santa had eaten his cookies, drank his milk, and dropped off Braden's presents! It was time for all of the adults to move upstairs and go to bed as well. However, we hit a snag, just as we were shutting the lights out....Braden woke up to go to the bathroom. I saw him sneak around the corner and peak down the banister...then he turns to me (because I am in the hallway by now watching him) and says "Santa has already drank his milk and ate his cookies!" Then his eyes widen even more when he notices that Santa has dropped off his gifts as well! He is torn, and so am I...we both know technically you are suppose to wake up on Christmas morning and see all the presents and have the excitement of opening presents, BUT here we were at 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve...Braden had been asleep for the past 2 1/2 hours...and now here stands my 7 year old wide-eyed and super excited to open his presents. So, what do I do...do I make him wait - HECK NO! I go and wake up (by the way, I don't even think they had time to fall asleep) my Ambien drugged mom, papa John, and grabbed Josh from smoking his goodnight cigarette in the garage. We were opening presents!!!! It was a win/win situation really...we didn't have to wake up super early to open presents and then get ready to run out the door to the next Christmas celebration...we were able to do it leisurely, which was nice for all involved ;)

Tell me, honestly, does this look like I only have ONE child to buy Christmas for?!?!

Grandma and Papa John got him some rumble tumble remote control truck which was a big hit with Braden!

Santa brought Braden the much anticipated Wii...he has wanted one for a while now...so we finally broke down and let him ask Santa for one this year ;) It has definitely seen some play time, Aunt Terri watched Braden a few days ago here at the house, and that evening when we checked the history for the day it reveled that they had played for over 6 hours in ONE day!

The mess after all the Christmas had been opened, good thing I have a decent sized living room!

It is tough to see if you don't look closely...but on black Friday one of the gifts I was hell bent on getting for Braden was a remote control helicopter from JC Penney's...Josh is flying said helicopter and studying it closely! I have been informed that next year I need to buy TWO of those -ha!

THE SHELLEDY's (at Granny's)

That big mess ='s a very GOOD time with family! :)

Mom & John, Aunt Jenien & Uncle Steve, & Uncle Jackie & Lisa all went in and bought Granny a new stove/oven for Christmas...she was starting to tear up because she has the most fabulous kids in the whole world (well, I think that I am a pretty good kid, but her's are pretty good ones too -ha!) Nick was teasing her and telling her to "let the water works flow!"

Braden and his cousins Kaylea & Khloe getting ready for the presents to be passed out

THE ALLEE's

Dinner time...we made it simple, soup and sandwiches for dinner!

The Snuggie - what a popular gift this year for Christmas!!!

Bakugan's - he has like 50 of these little things now!

He just couldn't get enough of the ripping open presents - and he had a TON of gifts to open over the holiday season!

I just love this picture of Diana and I!

THE WALKER's

Grandaddy was a VERY good boy this year - ha! Just kidding, those aren't ALL his presents, but I am sure he was a good boy ;)

Braden and I posing for the camera together - one of my favorites!!!

Braden had been so disappointed that he hadn't gotten this mega bakugan set from Santa...after all, it was on his list! Poor guy had to wait until the VERY last Christmas celebration on the Sunday after Christmas before he finally got it!

I hope everyone had a great 2009, and I look forward to sharing with you all how 2010 unfolds for the Allee household!

Christmas Time - Cookies and Presents!!!

2009-12-22T09:08:00.006-06:00

This past Friday evening, we celebrated Christmas with Terri, Olivia & Ethan. We did this by eating pizza, making and decorating cookies, and opening presents - what could be better really! Terri and I have the best kids ever, they had a blast, and Terri and I had a blast watching them! What a great thing to do with your kids, the kitchen may be a mess, but look at the smiles on those faces - how precious and priceless!!! Here are some pics of the kids enjoying their time together to bring in the holiday!

Just what he wanted- BIONICLES!!! Such a boy ;)

I got to buy a pretty glittery pink Barbie pony for Olivia - she is just too darn cute, and I loved buying the girly stuff!!!

Give a boy a GI Joe and a smile will appear on the face, too cute!!!

Cute faces and smiles...the mess was SO worth it!!!

Ethan was so adorable, he was too little to roll out his dough by himself, so instead he decided to take his hunk-o-dough, break it in cookie size pieces and just eat it raw - mmmmm, mmmm good! We ended up throwing away his dough rather than rolling it out...he had a blast while it lasted though -ha!

Braden got into using the cookie cutters and doing his ALL by himself! He was insistent that he roll out his own dough - which eventually needed a bit of help from mom, but other than that, he did it all himself and I just had the duty of snapping pics!

Decorating time - he is SO proud of this gingerbread man he decorated! Aunt Dana was very proud of it too, she thought he did a fabulous job of decorating his cookies.

Olivia passing off her cookie as complete, who could ask for more than icing and a blob of red and green mixed on top ;)

The kiddos hard at work - so much fun!

Again...kiddos hard at work! Dana had to work Friday evening, but as soon as she got home, she and Braden sat down to decorate MORE cookies!

I know they are hard to see because of the crazy tablecloth, but here are three of Braden's masterpieces! He did such a great job!

Ethan and Olivia's masterpieces!

Terri showing off her Christmas presents...the pink star jammies and her pretty argyle socks!

Me showing off my reindeer antlers - yes I did wear them ALL night! :)

He is a Bobcat!

2009-12-22T08:51:00.003-06:00

As many of you know, Braden has begged and begged Josh and I to let him join boy scouts. He hadn't been able to join until he entered first grade, by boy scout rules, so he couldn't do it until this year. Braden hadn't been able to be active until this past month due to his football schedule and other commitments, but now he is going strong with the organization. He LOVES it! As does Josh really ;) In one weeks time, Braden was able to earn his Bobcat badge...I am not sure what that all entails really since this is something Braden and daddy do together, I just know that it is a big honor, and that Braden was recognized at last Thursdays Pack meeting. He received his badge along with me being presented with the mother pins for his achievement. This is big stuff boys and girls, I had no idea it was so involved, and that it included the mom's participation as well, I almost didn't go to the pack meeting until anther mom of one of Braden's friends who happens to be in the same Den as Braden mentioned it to me her a couple of days ago. His Den was presented to the whole Pack and then Braden and I were presented with his honors - because lets face it, I might have the pin, but Braden definitely earned it. Josh and Braden have been working very hard the last couple of weeks on getting Braden caught up, and in fact he surpassed several other boys who have been doing this boy scout thing for four months now. Josh says that it helps that we are such an active outdoorsy family, and that Braden is just whizzing through with flying colors! Braden's Den also earned the Spirit Stick for the month. They won the "Decorate Your Den Leader" competition, and they were so proud! Last but not least, he received the Pine Derby wood kit last Thursday...Braden and Josh are super stoked to start carving that silly thing and putting it together, they have high hopes of making it far in the Derby competition...stay tuned for January's boy scout update...that will have the Pine Wood Derby results!

Braden and I getting his honors at the Pack meeting

Braden's achievements were aplenty, his had to be presented in a baggie!

Decorating his Den leader...see the shinny red bulb near the toes!

Braden's pack with their Den leaders after winning the Spirit Stick competition...such a great job!

2009-12-15T09:24:00.004-06:00

Braden composed the above letter for me to send to Santa today. I was so proud of him, he worked very hard on this letter for the last couple of days. I thought it was just WAY too cute not to post on our blog before mailing it off to the North Pole ;) If you have a tough time reading it, I have reprinted it below:

Dear Santa

I would like a guitar, toy air plane, a picture of you and your reindeer, mega dragonoid Bakugan, Level 2 Bionicle, and a Wii with Mario Cart.

Please bring Patch some toys.

♥ Braden Allee

Short and to the point, not a lot of detail just yet, but writing is still a LONG process. None-the-less, Josh and I were very proud of him sitting down and writing his very own letter to Santa Claus this year.

Merry Christmas to all from the Allee Family!

The Gingerbread Train Creation

2009-12-12T20:50:00.004-06:00

On Thanksgiving Grandmother and Granddaddy Walker gave Braden a Gingerbread Train to make for our house. He finally talked me into letting him venture onto the project a few nights ago. He loved the detail work and poured his heart and soul into making it the best Gingerbread Train ever created. He is a perfectionist as well, I have no idea where he gets that from...hehehehe, so he cannot just decorate the train however he wants too, he has to stare at the box the whole time and make it exactly like it looks on there. Dana took a little break from school work to come down and help him, they had a great time getting into the decorating. I loved watching him have fun and concentrating on it creation so much. I am not sure how, but I got distracted during the picture process, and did not get a final picture snapped quick enough of the finished product and its creators...I guess it just looked too good to just sit there and look at...so as you can see in the last picture, the caboose is no longer in one piece, Braden said the cookie was very delicious - ha!!!

Hard at work, so much concentration!

NOTE TO SELF: Get a Christmas table cloth for holiday projects...the spider web one was nice for carving pumpkins, but not so much for Christmas activities - ha!

Dana and Braden comparing their display to the box picture

Notice that the caboose doesn't have a front or back side any longer...as well as the fact that the candy balls that were trimming the top of the caboose on the icing are missing as well ;) As long as he thought it was tasty though - ha!

Christmas in the Park

2009-12-12T20:33:00.003-06:00

Every year Longview Lake has a huge Christmas light display called Christmas in the Park. Josh, Braden and I pile in the car and head out at some point during the holiday season. We decided to venture out last weekend at around 10:00 p.m., thinking that we would be able to breeze through the display since we decided to go out so late...we were wrong. There were cars bumper to bumper for miles ahead and behind us. But it is so much fun listing to Christmas music and watching Braden in the anticipation of seeing all the lights...not to mention seeing his face light up when we have finally made it to the display itself! I had Josh take some picks of our favorite parts of the display. The pictures don't do it justice at all, but hopefully you get the idea of how grand of a display it is. We had such a great family night looking at the lights in Christmas in the Park!

This is the face of..."Mom hurry up and take my picture so that i can look at the lights again!" I tried to capture on film the look of excitement, but what i got was the look of irritation because I was interrupting his light gazing time.

Here are some of the cars in front of us...and we aren't even close to the entrance of the display!

This was my favorite display at the park, it was new this year.

I also LOVE the holy arch too...one of my favorites every year to see!

Braden had to have dad get a shot of Santa Claus, this was his favorite display...I love all of the other lights around him in the background throughout the park.

We all thought the gingerbread house and kids on the trampoline was adorable too. :)

Deck the Halls!

2009-12-12T20:20:00.005-06:00

We were able to get lights out on the house this year. Last year we closed on the house on November 22nd, which didn't allow us much time to get decorations up and around the house other than a tree. But this year, has been a different story. Josh hung all the lights on the house mid November, when we had a couple of really awesome 70 degree days, and Braden and I decorated the inside of the house one weekend when Josh was in the woods deer hunting. Braden was so much help with the tree, he helped carry up every single box from the basement...including the really heavy box the tree was packed away in. He helped sort all the branches, put the tree together, and also helped with every aspect of decorating the tree. It was so awesome decorating our house and tree with my little man. This year, I felt that I needed a Christmas wreath like I have for fall...but obviously with all xmas colors ;) When mom and I went shopping for the wreath and all the materials, I was BLOWN away by the price of an empty wreath! Mom saw this candy cane shaped evergreen, and we decided it would be perfect in place of a wreath,and a third of the cost! On Thanksgiving weekend mom helped me make my candy cane shaped wreath decoration. I love the way it turned out! I love the way all of our home decorations came out this year - tis the season!!!

Thanksgiving 2009 Recap for the Allee Clan

2009-12-06T11:32:00.008-06:00

We spent our Thanksgiving with almost everybody this year. I always believe that the Thanksgiving holiday always begins when you start preparing the dishes you are to take to the celebrations...so for us it started Wednesday night, the day before Thanksgiving. Josh was so much help in the kitchen cutting up fruits and veggies for the fruit salad and the veggie tray. It was so nice having help in the kitchen this year...this was the first year he blessed me with his help in the preparation. Early Thursday, Thanksgiving morning, we were up, loading the Mountaineer and headed to Sedalia to go to the Walker Thanksgiving. We spent the morning and afternoon at Grandmother and Granddaddy Walker's, along with the rest of the Walker crew. Then we headed over to Steve & Mellody's to bring in the holiday with the whole Allee bunch for the evening. There I was able to go through all of my circulars for the whole Black Friday shopping extravaganza...which YES I did participate in :) By about 9:30 p.m., it was time to pack up and head to Jefferson City to get to my mom and John's house where we would be staying for the entire Thanksgiving weekend. When we arrived, Mom, Josh, and I were going through the Black Friday circulars again just to make sure we had our route planned and ready to go for the next morning...which was set to start at 3:00 a.m. Black Friday came and went, and we got everything we were after to get. Too much fun for one morning! Saturday would bring on more Thanksgiving celebration. This time we went out to Aunt Pam & Uncle Doug's house in Centertown to bringing in the holiday season with the Ives'. After a great visit with the Ives crew, we headed back to mom's house. When I called to tell her we were on our way, I was surprised with a visit from Aunt Jenein and Stephanie. So, as soon as we arrived back at mom's us girls headed out for a late afternoon on the town. It was great being able to spend time shopping with them for the holidays! Later that evening when we arrived back at mom's house, we had more visitors come over for the evening. Kelsey, Ryan and Cash came to collect their cookie dough which they bought from Braden's fundraiser. It was a nice visit. It is always awesome to be able to spend your holidays...even though it lasts an entire weekend long to get everyone in ;) ....with family and friends!

Aunt Belinda had a craft project for Braden at the Walker Thanksgiving, this is them making paper snowmen....it was so cute watching them interact with each other and brainstorm the best way to make a snowman ;)

Josh, Braden and I at the Walker Thanksgiving.

I love this picture, Braden and Josh were playing with the camera taking picutes of themselves while at the dinner table, they were so funny to watch!

2009-12-04T17:46:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Annual Family Photos

2009-11-17T12:06:00.004-06:00

It is that time of year again, yep, picture time. I am pretty adamant about getting the Allee family pics taken each year. Our lives are always changing, and Braden is growing up so fast that I just cannot imagine not having a family photo for each year of our lives together. My problem is that I cannot bear to cover up the last years pictures..or the year before that, or the year before that, or, well, you get the picture (ha!)...because they are just so darn good (thanks Connie!) So I actually end up with pictures all over the place, and in my office! Well, this years pics are no different, Connie Martin (http://www.conniemartinphotography.com/ - go check her out, she is great) did a fantastic job capturing great smiles and smirks (that is for Braden) of our crew. I had been wanting pics of Braden with his Grandma and Papa John, so we drug them out for the occasion too. Actually we had a really good time taking the pics, so no dragging necessary - ha! Which leads me to a new problem....since we had such a blast, and the pics are so good (hard to take a bad pic of such a good looking crew - really!) I am now going to have to narrow it down and decide between all of the fabulous shots Connie took. What is a girl to do!?!

Awww, I just love this picture, Braden and his Grandma, they are such awesome buddies!!!

This is the "smirk" I was referring to above...doesn't he just look like he is about to do something he probably shouldn't?

Awww, I just love this picture, me and my mom, were are just such awesome buddies (wait didn't I just say that above about Braden and his Grandma - hehehehe!)

Halloween 2009

2009-11-17T11:12:00.004-06:00

Okay, okay, I am so behind on posting here on the blog that I almost feel like it is pointless to post pics from Halloween evening trick-or-treating...but then there are those of you who don't have Facebook so you haven't seen the absolutely adorable pictures of Braden and Diana going out Halloween night dressed up as an adorable Lady Bug (LOVE IT!) and the awesomeness of the Black Ninja! So, without further adoo, here are a couple of pictures of the kiddos from that fun evening!

Look how cute they are, I had to talk Diana into putting her tentacles on...they were so cute and totally made the costume complete! Oh, and we cannot forget my ninja fighting machine - how adorable is he :)

Let the candy begging begin...or tick-or-treating I guess it is called - hehehehe!

I do believe my son is sticking his tongue out at me here - boo on him - ha!

We just knocked on the last door of the evening, the kiddos weren't ready to be done, but Deb and I sure were :)

Candy Candy Candy Candy Cannnnnndyyyyyy!!!!

P.S. Diana, I promise you I will get you full copies of ALL pictures I took that evening!!!!

Fall Pictures - Sports & School

2009-10-28T16:14:00.003-05:00

I just had to scan in and show off my cute little Braden...okay okay, so he isn't so little anymore :( But he sure is CUTE! Here is his Fall 2008-2009 school picture, and his Lees Summit Football Association Flag Football 2009 picture. He is just getting so big so fast, I cannot believe he is already seven years old! I just love the picture, it is the perfect 1st grade shots with those missing and half grown in teeth! Anyway, enough of me going on and on about how absolutely adorable my boy is...I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I do :)

Pumpkin Carving - I love Fall!!!

2009-10-27T22:13:00.008-05:00

I was hoping he would hold off a couple more days, but Braden just couldn't stand it...he just HAD to carve his pumpkin tonight. Not that I don't enjoy pumpkin carving, I am just not so sure it is going to hold up to last until this Saturday. Whether or not it does was irrelevant, I just couldn't tell my excited little boy "no" when he asked if he could as soon as his foot hit the inside of the house this evening. Aunt Dana was home tonight and available to help out in this crafty project. --side note here, for those who didn't know, my little sister, Dana, moved in with us last weekend :) After the intense process of picking out the perfect pattern, the kids got to work. Braden was hesitant at first to stick his hands into the pumpkin, but soon he was an old pro at it, and they both got their hands dirty making sure the pumpkin was spic-and-span to start the carving process. It was too funny watching them have so much fun! See the pics below of their gooey good time!

The fun has began - cleaning out the guts of the pumpkin

I just love Dana's facial expression in this picture - ha!

Braden's turn!

Time to set the pattern, this is the tedious part, and Braden does such a great job with it, so patient!

Pattern is on, now it is carving time. He was getting tired of me taking pictures...that is what this facial expression was for - if you need translation, it is basically saying "really mom, ANOTHER picture!?!" hehehehehe!!!!!

Ohhhh, spooky! The final product, and a VERY proud creator!!!!

Okay, so Braden was feeling very Halloween festive this evening, and wanted to hang up our orange Halloween lights (which are for the camper when we go on our fall camping trip - gotta decorate for the seasons!) in his room. I caved because I didn't want to smoother his individuality. We grabbed some tacks and made him the happiest boy in the world this evening! He wouldn't let me unplug them when he went to bed tonight...they served as a night light this evening, too funny!

Lights up and plugged in...hard to see with the bedroom light on....

Lights up and plugged in...hard to see Braden with the lights out, but I am pretty sure you can tell by the body language how proud he is of his Halloween decorations! :)

Cousin Time!

2009-10-27T21:15:00.009-05:00

Last weekend my sister, Angie, and my nephew, Kyle, came to Missouri to visit the Allee clan. We had a blast playing and visiting. When they got into town Friday night, the boys played all over the house, while Angie, Terri, and I drank a bottle of wine and played Yahtzee...one of our favorite past times I might add here ;) On Saturday we had a fun filled day. The boys were just begging to go to ChuckECheese for lunch...I am pretty sure it WASN'T the lunch part they were after. Anywho, we loaded up Braden and Kyle and drove to ChuckECheese, after all...their wish is our command, right - or something like that - ha! We ordered our pizza, got both of the boys to eat a single slice before they took off with the bucket of tokens in hand. The played for a couple of hours and just had a blast, sometimes together and sometimes we would find them on complete opposite sides of the game room. Angie and I enjoyed each other's company as well as watching the boys play and interact, it is so awesome to see them together since they haven't seen each other for two years. I was able to snap a couple pictures of them playing away at the arcade at ChuckECheese.

Look at those smiles, I love putting them there on their faces!!!!

Fun times!

Braden and Kyle are less than a day apart in age...you would never know that by the difference in their sizes - ha!

Next we were off to the Halloween store. The boys were going to go together to pick out their costumes for this year. Braden kept telling me he wanted to be something scary this year for Halloween, but he couldn't decide what it was exactly he wanted to be, he said he needed to scope out the store to figure it out. We didn't end up with anything scary...cool won over scary in his book...but we sure had fun with all the hats and sunglasses while looking for a costume! This is my all time favorite picture of Braden so far too date I think...he thinks he is so cool and suave, such a lady-killer -hehehehehe! They both loved the hats, and were right at home posing for their pics...it was like a fashion show! He was willing to put on whatever I handed him - too funny!

Now he picked out all of his sunglasses he tried on, these were his favorite ones! Another pair of MUST try on sunglasses - too cute! Fun with all the creatures in the store, these two kiddos have such great imaginations! Nothing scary about this costume, but it was super SWEET according to Braden :)

Kyle loved his costume, and Braden loved his! Kyle is going to be a tooth fairy and Braden is going to be a black ninja - we had a blast with them in this store while trying to find the perfect costume for the two of them!

Caroline Cousin's Pumpkin Patch 2009

2009-10-27T20:53:00.004-05:00

I am very behind on updating the blog with posts, but better late than never, aye! :) A couple of weeks ago Terri and I piled up the kiddos and headed North to Caroline Cousin's Pumpkin Patch. Diana joined Braden and I, and Terri and her two sweetie pies joined along in the fun as well. We filled our tummies with warm soup and grilled cheese and then off we went to find fabulous pumpkins for this Halloween season. It was a COLD day...cold is saying it mildly really, it was FREEZING, especially when you figure it was the beginning of October and last year we went in shorts and t-shirts (definitely not the case this year, as you will see below in the pics). The kids had a blast playing on all of the playsets, tricycles, feeding the animals, playing in the maze, going on a train ride, and getting to pick their very own pumpkin. We did have to take a break in all that fun to go inside and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate and a pumpkin donut for a snack - yummo! We had a blast, and this day ended as most days do when we take Braden out for a day full of fun - he was asleep before we even made it to our drive way - that is how I know that we had a great day out! I hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed the day, even if we were a tad-bit cold!

Braden, Terri, Ethan, Olivia & Diana posing for a fun picture while enjoying the afternoon at the pumpkin patch, look at all of those smiles. It is true...you can still have fun outside, even when it is cold!

I had to go potty really bad, and they had this little picture spot set up right beside the port-a-potties...Braden thought it would be hilarious if he made me pose in the photo-op location before I got to use the real deal...so to please him I complied...he thinks this picture is as funny as he thought it would be - little snot - ha! Getting ready for our train ride...do they look frost bit at all? ;) Braden and I on the train ride, we snuggled up together to stay warm. On to the pumpkin patch, they are excited to go and see all the pumpkins and pick their very own!

They each have the pumpkin of their choice. The rule was, you pick it, you carry it! This eliminated them picking out a 40 pound pumpkin expecting their moms to carry it around the pumpkin patch the rest of the day! Braden is very proud of his pumpkins...even cold he still beams with pride ;) On our way back to the park portion of the pumpkin patch, the day is almost over :( One last activity...Braden wanted to give it a whirl to rope a calf...he wasn't all that great with actually roping the calf, but he sure looked good twirling that rope :) CRASHED OUT - he got warmed up, and then he was out like a light!

Iowa Visit

2009-09-28T10:45:00.006-05:00

This past weekend I made a solo trip to Iowa to visit my sister Angie, her daughter Sara, and my new-found brother Gordon, and his kiddos: Courtney, Drew, and Kade. It was an awesome visit. I arrive late Friday evening just in time to join Angie and some co-workers for dinner and drinks, then we headed back to her place where I met her significant other...who happens to be named Josh...and we managed to "throw dice" (pretty much played Yahtzee) and managed to down three bottles of wine between us. We had a blast! Then Saturday the three of us met Gordon and his kiddos at a park in Des Moines for our first meeting. We had a blast! The kids are great, and Gordon is such a great guy. We all got along wonderfully, and it was such a comfortable environment. It didn't take long for us all to be joking and teasing around just like brothers and sisters...the way family does :) We played games and just hung out. We all had separate dinner plans, we we parted by around 5:00 p.m. That is when Angie, Josh, and I went to Shoe Carnival to harass Sara while she was working ;) She is such a good kid...I say kid, but she is now a whopping 20 years old! I cannot believe I have a niece who is the big 2-0! We went out to a fab dinner and enjoyed each others company. We got up Sunday, did breakfast at IHOP and then was on the road again to come home to my boys. It was a great visit, but I was ready to be at home with my favorite two men :)

Me, Gordon, Courtney, Kade, Drew & Angie

Sara...at dinner :)

Me, Gordon, & Angie - three siblings

Me, Courtney (my niece), and Angie

Gordon & his two boys - Kade & Drew

Angie and I being silly :)

Courtney and I with Angie's nasty feet ;)

Circus comes to Town!

2009-09-21T16:22:00.008-05:00

This past weekend we went to the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus. WOW, what a show that was. I had done some search online for reviews, and had heard some very unpleasant reviews, so I was very skeptical of what we were going to get…but then again, A LOT of the skepticism was from PETA and the likes, so I should have know that it would live up to its GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH title! It was definitely a fabulous show. We were able to join in on the preshow festivities down on the floor. Braden was able to see all of the clowns and performers up close and personal to get autographs, and to assist in a juggling act. It was so cute to see him get chosen as a volunteer for one of the floor preshow activities. He got to join one of the jugglers in the ring as they stood in the middle of two other jugglers throwing bowling pins back and forth in their juggling act. He was nervous he said, because he “didn’t want to get hit by one of those pins”. We got popcorn, and cotton candy, and warm soft pretzels, and lemonade, and soda…all to enjoy while we watched the show. It was a two and a half hour show, but it was full of fun and packed with color and excitement…we just kept saying to each other “How do they do that!”, and Braden’s face would light up each time he saw something amazing, which was a constant thing the whole two and a half hours. So much fun, we had a blast, I love our family outings!

Braden and Daddy down in the middle of the preshow...Braden wasn't tall enough to see everything, so daddy made sure he didn't miss a thing! :)

Here is Braden standing in between the jugglers throwing pins...hard to see since I was so close, but I didn't have time to scoot back, and if I did there would have been way too many people in the way to get a decent shot...so this is what I ended up with.

Braden and Josh's favorite part is when they put 7 motorcycles in this steel ball, and then they started going crazy driving all over the place in it...WAY cool they thought! :)

Here is a shot of the motorcycles in action...hard to keep up with the camera!

I love the tigers...could you imaging THIS massive beast jumping at you?!?

Ahhhh, I loved the elephants too :)

This was a "HOW DO THEY DO THAT" shot, can you tell :)

G-O LS Titans!!!!

2009-09-18T20:01:00.003-05:00

For the past several weeks, the Allee's have been spending our Saturday mornings at the football fields. Braden loves it, and we enjoying spending our time watching him run the ball down the field, or run his butt off to get to the flag of the opponents. Terri and her kiddos joined us for the game...she is such a great Aunt, she has made it to every one of his games and plans on coming to tomorrow's game too :) I am quite the cheerleader, it is in my blood, so I wasn't really getting too many good shots with the camera, I didn't want to miss anything by looking at the screen on the camera...which I think was bothering Terri because eventually she took the camera away from me and took the pictures for us :) It was a beautiful morning, and the Titans played a great game :). I hope you enjoy some new pics of our little man playing football!

Hard to tell because I didn't zoom in, but this is a picture of Braden running the ball down the field - GO BRADEN!

Our favorite spectators...the Ham's with all their game day gear :)

Back To School Bash Fun

2009-09-18T19:52:00.003-05:00

Last Friday, Braden has his Back-to-School Bash at Prairie View. He was stoked to go and play with all of his friends! I was a good mom, and did my duty of parent volunteer and ran one of the activities while Josh performed his fatherly duty by following Braden from one bouncy house to the next, and to the games and so forth...all with camera in hand :) He had a blast, played until the whole bash shut down. I love this age, we have so much fun together and operate so well as a family - LOVE IT! Here are some pictures Josh snapped of Braden while trying to keep up with him!

A Girl for the Allee's

2009-09-01T16:05:00.003-05:00

Now before you go and get excited thinking Josh and I are having another baby or something crazy like that, keep reading!!! I follow a blog that has all these cute little blurbs about motherhood and funny stories about being a mom and whatnot. The other day she did a post about this "make me babies" website and posted pics of what the site proposed her children would look like with certain celebrities she had chosen. I don't want to know what my kiddo would look like if I had one with Brad Pitt or with Tom Cruise or anyone like that, I was curious to see what it said a little girl would look like conceived by my hubby and I. So, I went to the site (www.makemebabies.com) and followed the directions...and this is the result. So, for all you people out there thinking that Josh and I should have a little girl, low-and-behold I present to you: McKenzie Michelle Allee (our girl's name if we would have had one instead of the fabulous boy we were given), see below ;)

...sort of cute, but WOW what a forehead!

Laser Tag Fun!

2009-08-28T14:43:00.004-05:00

On Sunday the 23rd of August, we held Braden's "friends" birthday party where 15 of his closest friends from football, baseball, Kids Country camp, and school, as well as Uncle Brett, Diana, Olivia, and Ethan, all came together for some fun playing Laser Tag. Braden had a blast seeing all of his friends from Kids Country and baseball since he doesn't really get to see and play with them much anymore. Diana stayed all night with us Saturday night and headed over to the arena with us Saturday early afternoon, where everyone else met us at. We had special ordered a Spongbob Squarepants cupcake cake (picked out by Mr. Braden himself), as well as served pizza and soda to all those in attendance. Here are some pictures from the event, I think they speak for themselves for all the fun had at the party!

Presents and the Spongebob Squarepants cupcakes

Blowing out the candles...the boys were ALL waiting for one of those cupcakes!

Cheese! This is before we all took off to the laser tag arena...they were SUPER excited!

Poor guy, this is the instructor trying to get ALL of these boys under control to tell them the rules and how to play the game...notice that my dad is in teh back there with a vest on! :)

Grandpa Mark wasn't the only grown up with a vest on...I think that somehow the grown men were enjoying this game with all the 7 year old boys, just as much as the kiddos were -ha!

Braden and Daddy are after each other...then compared scores when the game was over to see who ranked higher! I love watching them have their father/son moments!

Olivia and Ethan weren't into the whole laser tag thing...but they sure had fun running around the arena creating yet another obsitcal for all the boys playing laser tag :)

Present time...this picture just made me laugh because the boys got closer and closer to Braden each present he opened, it was so funny watching all their excitment of opening presents when Braden opened the one they picked out and brough

Once we got them home it was time for my boys to tear into them. Uncle Brett got Braden a nurf gun...and he has a few others already, so he had to go and grab another one while daddy was putting together this one so they could have a nurf gun fight...

Too bad daddy was quicker and got both guns...he looks like he is having WAY too much fun playing with Braden's toys!!!

Braden hiding from Daddy shotting all those nurf things at him...I think he was having just as much fun being the target as Daddy was at trying to hit the target! They have so much fun playing together.

Scrimmage Football Games

2009-08-26T11:16:00.006-05:00

This past Saturday Braden's football season was kicked off with a day full of scrimmage games...four to be exact. Turns out, four football games in one day, one right after the other is WAY too much for a bunch of 6 year old boys. In fact, I am pretty sure it was WAY too much for all of the parents sitting on the sidelines. Game One was fabulous, they did awesome, Braden captured lots of flags and ran the ball down the field a couple of times...Game Two (which started 10 minutes after game one ended), not as great as game one but the boys did good and were eager to get out on the field...Game Three (which started 10 minutes after game two) was a little messier, the boys were running into each other (Braden got quite the knot on his face from one impact...they are starting to think that our boys need helmets for flag football -ha!), and starting before "HIKE" was bellowed by the quarterback resulting in LOTS of penalties for each team. Game four, was a disaster...the coach was begging boys (and one girl) to go out on the field and play, they were exhausted and didn't want any part of the running or throwing of a football. They just wanted to go and eat and sit in the a/c. The parents were feeling pretty much the same by the end of the day. All in all, we have a good team, the coach and all the parents were very proud of our boys (and girl) and I think it is going to be a great season - thanks goodness we only have one game per Saturday from here on out!

My little football player making sure he waves to me while gearing up for the play...yes Braden, I see you! :)

Sort of hard to tell, Braden is capturing the flag in this pic, all you can see is the backside of him...but notice, he is the only boy in grey and black around...where are his teammates?

This play the ball was passed off to him and he carried it down the field for a TD! :)

His team congratulating him after his TD, they were all so excited, the other team just wanted to touch the ball -ha!

Getting ready to run the field, he was so cute out there, his daddy was proud ;)

The throw was good, his teammate caught the ball and ran down and got a TD too, he had such a good game (well the first game anyway - ha!)

First Grade has Arrived!

2009-08-18T14:10:00.005-05:00

Oh my gosh! I couldn't believe it when my alarm went off this morning...the first day of first grade has finally arrived for my baby. Now, I wasn't as bad this year as I was last year when he began kindergarten...by that I mean I didn't follow the bus to school and beat the kids getting off so I could snap more pictures of my little man arriving at school for his first day...but I did break out the camera and take some pictures of my little man heading to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, and then getting on the bus this morning. He was excited and nervous all at the same time...typical first of school jitters I believe...ahhh, remember the days! I cannot wait to get home this evening to hear all about his fabulous first day of school, I will keep you all posted :)

Eating his breakfast before his first day of school...Lucky Charms, yum!

Heading down to the corner of the street to the bus stop

Waiting for the bus, by now he was tired of the camera -ha!

Look at the little man, he looks and dresses just like his daddy! Braden tried to hurry up and get on the bus and sit down, but the bus driver saw my camera in hand and quickly stopped my speeding Braden for a snapshot - Thanks Mr. Bus Driver Man!

Ahhh, there he goes, off to his first day of first grade - tear in my eye!

Dentist Time

2009-08-18T14:04:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Braden has a six month cleaning appointment at the dentist, he is so funny to watch while getting his teeth cleaned. He HATES it, he actually begged me to just go home and take a nap rather than going to the dentist -ha! What kid ASKS for a nap...well, mine especially when the dentist is involved. I have to admit, I too HATE going to the dentist, it is my least favorite place to go and I would rather go home and take a nap too - but that is pretty much over anything, I am missing those nap days! Here are a couple of pictures I snapped of Braden at the dentist office. The quality isn't too hot because they were taken with my phone. Just look at those pearly whites -ha!

Rinsing his mouth after getting the fluoride pasted onto his teeth...he said it was NASTY!

Showing off his cleaned grill when the appointment was all said and done...Mary just kept laughing at him!

1st Birthday Celebration with the Shelledy Clan

2009-08-18T09:56:00.013-05:00

This past Sunday we had Braden's first 7th birthday party celebration. August is a big month for birthdays with the Shelledy clan, and we got together on Sunday at Aunt Jenein & Uncle Steve's house to celebrate Braden, Kaylea, & Uncle Steve. Each had their own cake, and their own pile of presents to open. Braden was excited to get another Webkinz for his Webkinz house (online of course), clothes, DS game, transformer, money, "credit card", and FROGS (yep, that is what I said F-R-O-G-S!). It was so funny when he opened his card from Jake, Priscilla, Khloe, and Emma. They got him a Wal-Mart gift card for his birthday, and as soon as Braden opened the card and the gift card fell out he was so excited and said "MOM, I got a credit card for my birthday!" I just shook my head, too funny! With that credit card, and the other cash he got in his cards, we made a trip to Wal-Mart (money was burning a hole in his pocket...that is more like his mom than his dad -ha!) to pick out some fancy new toys! He is in heaven with his new stuff! We have two more birthday celebrations scheduled, on this Sunday at Lazer Runner with his friends and then another one with the Allee clan on his actual birthday next Tuesday, the 25th. So much celebrating!

Aunt Jenein made a fabulous speghetti lunch for the crew, it was a BIG hit with the kiddos!

The present table...you see which "KID" made it there first :)

The "kids" and their cakes. Braden was the one to notice and ask how come Uncle Steve's cake was bigger - he is such a boy, everything is a competition to him!

Again, such a boy...there is no grace in opening up presents, let the paper rip!

Mario Cart, Mario Cart, Mario Cart...he has been asking for this game for his DS for what seems like an eternity! Grandma Jancey and Papa John hooked him up though.

Josh, Braden, and I bought this shirt for Uncle Steve for his birthday. I was literally laughing out loud in Bass Pro when I saw it, so I had to have it (this is the back of the shirt).

Braden opening his "credit card"

Kaylea & Braden waiting for their gift from Aunt Jenein & Uncle Steve

What is it, what is it!?!

FROGS - I cannot believe I have two frogs in my house - they are actually pretty cute :)

Daddy tearing into the toys...what grown man doesn't want to put together Transformers?!?

Braden playing Mario Cart! What a big hit that game has been :)

Football Season!

2009-08-11T22:09:00.003-05:00

It is football season, and it is Braden's first year playing. In his age group, he is only able to play flag football, but that is to teach them the fundamentals of the game without having them all jumping on top of each other and tackling when they shouldn't be -ha! Braden says that all it seems like they do is exercise at practice, and he is right, there is lots of running, and blocking, and running, and jumping jacks, and running - ugh! He seems to enjoy it, he says that he likes it because the practices are shorter than when he played baseball or soccer. Actually, the practice for football is a half hour LONGER, but he doesn't notice at all, so that must mean he is enjoying it! When we went and registered him for football, alot of the coaches kept trying to get me to bypass the flag league and they would push him through to tackle due to his size. I was not crazy about that idea because Braden doesn't know the fundamentals of the game, after watching one practice I am REALLY glad we chose to stick with tackle for a season, he is very rough as it is already. He likes it, and the coach is great with the boys, very tough on the, lots of consequences for not listening and doing the exercises right, but it is good for them...Josh says the coach doesn't have anything on Pete Atkins - ha! Here are some pics of Braden at practice this evening.

Playing catch at the beginning of practice

Good throw buddy!

Here is a sample of some of that running!

...and there was a little goofing off going on too...which I am surprised didn't lead to more running!!

Learning to block, they have lots left to learn...good thing this is only practice number three for the season!

Ethan Ham Turns 2

2009-08-11T21:50:00.006-05:00

When we returned from camping that last weekend in July, we unloaded, showered, and then headed straight over to Terri's for Ethan's second birthday celebration...which means eating MORE great food - one of my favorite pastimes -ha! The theme was none other than Sesame Street, and Grandma Judy did an awesome job making Ethan's school bus Sesame Street cake. The kiddos had a great time playing together, as always. I got some great shots of our wonderful kiddos, and that awesome cake!

Ethan's b-day cake, hand decorated and made by Grandma Judy

Look at that mess of toys, Ethan and the other boys are in heaven on that floor!

Terri, enjoying her little one's 2nd birthday party

Braden and Olivia, I just love this shot of the two of them looking at each other :)

Olivia attempting to climb the tree like the big boys...with baby brother not far behind Braden and Olivia posing by the tree...it was a popular spot to play

Look at the princess, she is just too adorable!

What an adorable young man as well, LOVE his cute little face!

My favorite picture of my little man from the evening!

End of July Family Camping Trip

2009-08-11T21:33:00.003-05:00

I am several weeks behind, but the Allee's along with our family...Nick, Tara, Kaylea, Aunt Jenein, Uncle Steve, Stephanie, mom, and John...went camping the last weekend of July. We spent our camping weekend doing what we love and what we do best...eating, swimming, boating, fishing, and eating - wait did I already say that. For the first time in camping history we had an overnight bag catastrophe! Here is the story...I pack ALL of our necessary items for camping, which means food (coolers and totes), towels, tv, movies, Braden's bag, my bag, the dogs stuff (pillow, house, leash), basically EVERYTHING except Joshua's bag. After it is all packed up, I place it behind the love seat on the main floor so when Josh comes upstairs it is all right there. I go upstairs to double check that nothing is getting left behind. I round up the kid and the dog while Josh loads the back of the Explorer with all of our camping necessities. We pull out of the drive and head straight for the campground. When we get there we unload, and everything that was placed behind the love seat gets emptied onto the picnic table and then into the camper it goes. Well, when we got everything out of the back of the Explorer it was all there, EXCEPT my overnight bag! I was furious, so I had to spend the morning Saturday making a trip to Hermitage and to Warsaw to rebuild my camping wardrobe...new jammies, shorts, undies, etc. I was ticked, but it is now humourous, I guess! Other than that little snag, it was a great weekend...take a look for yourself and see what fun we had!

Braden getting ready to go tubing behind Steph's wave runner, for some reason we didn't tube behind the boat that weekend.

Josh acting like he is cool...this is after I restocked up on my wardrobe!

Steph and Braden enjoying some boat time Saturday afternoon

Look at that sexy boat blown hair, my favorite! Doesn't he look like he is about to do something he shouldn't be!?!

Braden and Kaylea at the campground Saturday evening, those darn DS games! :)

4th of July Camping

2009-07-07T14:28:00.011-05:00

I have lots of pics for this post! We had a blast, needless to say, celebrating the 4th of July in 2009! Our family all got together for some traditional camping fun in the sun...or rain, whichever was happening at the time :) We headed out and set up camp on Thursday and packed up and headed home Sunday afternoon. The rain didn't stop us though - we were out there on the Niangua River floating downstream on Friday, and then out in the boat all day and night on Saturday, as well as throwing a suprise 50th (yep, I said 50th) birthday party for Aunt Jenein Saturday morning. I think the pictures speak for themselves, look at all the fun had by all!

~Saturday's Float~

Nick playing with Braden in the tube...it was tied to a rope and Nick would loosen the slack and let Braden float down stream, and then pull him back up...Braden thought it was hilarious!

Braden enjoying his ride in the tube...man that water was COLD on the river!

He also enjoyed his time in the canoe too :)

Braden and Steph enjoying themselves floating down river, broken foot and all, she still got out there on that tube in that cold water!

The Allee's on the float Friday morning

~Aunt Jenein's 50th B-day Celebration~ It is backwards, but Grandpa Jack is holding up the BIG 5-0....to us it looks like 05, but we know what he is trying to say :)

Aunt Jenein and her "over the hill" decorations Saturday morning when she woke up, we suprised her with a little shin-dig

She is so special, that she gets TWO cakes...one that says she is "older than dirt" and the other one so that we had enough cake to go around (and it was a yummo carrot cake!)

Aunt Jenein and her favorite three people in the whole world...okay, maybe not she loves all ofus, but they sure are special to her...Kaylea, Alyssa, & Braden

~Saturday Boating Fun~ This is Alyssa, Braden and Kaylea playing in the water before the big fireworks display Saturday night

Kaylea being a pro on her wake board...look at her, one handed and all!

Kaylea mid-air swimming off the boat Saturday evening

Diana didn't feel like swimming, the water was a bit too cold for her, but that didn't stop her from enjoying herself out on the boat Braden jumping in the water Saturday, he doesn't look at graceful as Kaylea above ;)

Alyssa isn't as graceful either, I got a shot of her falling off the back of the boat too...that one is blurry though, this is a better shot of her acting goofy!

Alyssa tubing, this is right before she wiped out...I love this shot!

He loves boat riding! I cannot say I blame him, it is one of my favorite things to do as well when we go camping!

Braden, Kaylea, & Diana enjoying the boat time out on the water, they look like they are having a blast :)

More swimming time for Kaylea and Braden...they are like fish, I don't think they can ever get tired of that water!

Braden anxiously waiting for the fireworks to start!

Baseball Pic

2009-07-07T14:16:00.003-05:00

As promised here is Braden's baseball pic for the summer of 2009. Baseball is over, but we didn't get the pictures until last week, the day before the final game. I just thought I would show off his cute little smile :)

Firework Fun at Home

2009-07-01T23:13:00.004-05:00

This evening was Braden's final baseball game of the season, and I told him if he had a good game, that we would stop off at a firework stand and buy a couple of fireworks for him to let off in the driveway at home this evening since we won't be home on the fourth or able to buy and set of fireworks this year (we will be camping - no fireworks allowed in the grounds). He had an awesome game, he hit two home runs and was loving it! So, on our way home, we stopped by Sonic, and then to the fireworks stand. He picked out his array of approved fireworks and we headed home. He ate faster than I have seen him eat in quite some time...for some reason they don't think about the fact that they have to wait until the parents are done eating too, but oh well :) After our bellies were full we headed outside for him to be able to have a bit of fourth of July firework fun. We pretty much got things he could light and do himself, so that means NO big BOOM type fireworks, but he just loved doing what we did get. Here are some shots of him lighting and playing with the fireworks this evening:

Look at my big boy, give him a punk and he can light all of his own fireworks!

Again, lighting his own fireworks - look at the smoke!

There was lots of smoke bomb fun going on, my driveway is scared ;)

...and more smoke bombs

...and yet again more smoke bombs, why do boys think these are so cool?

Daddy got into the sparklers - isn't he cute - hehehehe!

He is so tired, but dead set on lighting up the driveway!

Wildcats Baseball Banquet

2009-07-01T23:02:00.003-05:00

Last night Braden's baseball team had its end of the year banquet. The boys all received their trophies and pictures, as well as ate pizza and then played games in the arcade room. The boys were in heaven, the arcade room was equipped with four to five flat screens hooked up to Wiis, X-box 360s, and Playstation 3s; plus there was ski ball and basket ball and stuff like that. They had a blast playing together...generally when the boys are all together like that they are either practicing ball or actually playing ball, they don't really get to goof around like that together, so it was nice for them to just be able to play with one another. It was a nice evening for the boys. I will scan in Braden's baseball pic soon and add it to the blog. All in all, it was a great night, here are some cute pics from the evening.

Braden getting his trophy and pictures

Braden and the boys were playing a racing game on the Wii, I just love Braden's face in this pic :)

Ski Ball - this is my favorite thing to play in an arcade!

Daddy even got in on some Ski Ball fun :)

Braden and coach Mike before we left for the evening. He is such a patient coach!

Father's Day 2009

2009-07-01T10:36:00.005-05:00

I know, I know. I am a bit late on this post, but I have been a busy girl! I just thought I should get this one up before we went camping for the fourth of July and it got lost in the midst of all of the camping pics I will post next week -ha! Josh and I decided to hold the first Father's Day celebration at our house this year. We have never really had the space or ability to put on a bar-b-que for family before, but this year we decided to get all the dads together and have a celebration at our place. Josh's dad and Stepmom, my dad and stepmom, little sister Dana, little brother Brett, and Aunt Debby and Uncle Dave all came over to celebrate the great guys in our lives and enjoy good company and good food. We barely saw Brett and Braden, they were off playing the entire time...we did manage to get them rounded up for dinner, but other than that they were off playing! It was a great afternoon, and an end to a fabulous weekend. We love all of you fabulous dads out there...that includes my hubby too :)

Dad and I

Josh and Steve (his dad)

Braden and Brett, this is when they disappeared downstairs to play on the X-Box

Dana and Dad, she painted him that awesome pic Dad is holding

Uncle Dave and Aunt Debby, aren't they cute :)

Steve & Mellody (Josh's s-mom and dad)

Dana (my little sister) and Julie (my stepmom)

2009 Annual Friends Camping

2009-06-22T22:38:00.007-05:00

I cannot believe that the weekend has already come and gone! As many of you know, the Allee's go on many camping trips all year long (thanks to heat and a/c), but this camping trip is always a bit different. This trip is the only one with a big group of friends - and NO kiddo! It is the get crazy weekend of camping for us. Now this year the camping trip was very mild compared to last years, but it was still tons of fun! I didn't start packing up, including grocery shopping, for the weekend until around 10:30 p.m. on Thursday night...which means I didn't get done until around 3:30 a.m. - and it was that early because Terri stayed all night at our place to help get ready for the camping weekend. We were up and heading out at 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning, Josh wanted to be on the road at 8:00 a.m., but Terri and didn't feel like getting out of bed until 9:00 a.m. To be fair, Josh didn't get out of bed until then either...which is ALL my fault of course. We were in the Explorer and headed to Nemo Landing in time to get there right at noon, and the only other friends to beat us there were the Stokes', and they had just gotten there. We set up camp and everyone started arriving and were all there by 2:00 p.m. We were ready for great fun with great company and had a fabulous Friday! We had the Allee's, Stokes', Luebbert's, Christian's, and Terri there for the weekend of fun on the friends sites, and then I had some family come down as well. We had quite the crew. Friday we spent lots of time hanging out playing washers, hillbilly golf, swimming, eating, and drinking. Friday night was suppose to be Josh, John (step dad), and I's birthday celebration with the friends and family...but before all of the presents could be opened, a tornado siren started going off - but it wasn't a typical siren, it was horrible, and very annoying. We had to pack up the campsites, and tuck away presents (even ones that were unopened) to get everything locked down, as well as we could anyway. Pretty much the entire campgrounds headed up to the bathrooms for cover...but most us stayed at our campsite hoovered under the canopy sitting on the picnic table. We had a late night zombie visit us...at least that is what I thought was heading our way, until I realized it was my cousin Stephanie in a picnic table cloth and sun visor for protection from the rain - boy do I wish I had a picture of that. The Luebbert's, Allee's, Terri, & Stephanie played a never ending game of slap jack (while we were tossing pistachio shells down Terri's cleavage), and then on to a game of Asshole when the Stokes' and Christian's emerged from their camper. It was a fun night full of drinking and laughing!

Saturday we woke up late, ate breakfast and got ready for a day in the sun. We piled in Nick & Tara's boat, and Aunt Jenein and Uncle Steve's boat, along with mom and John in their GC, and Josh and Jim on wave runners, and headed out to a cove for some swimming, boating, wake boarding, and tubing. On our way to the cove, I felt like we were a gang getting ready to go bust up some party there were so many of us on the lake - ha! Beth and Amanda got up on the wake board (GO GIRLS), Ryan got to enjoy some wake board time as well (poor guy only gets to do it once a year, but always does great when he does), and Beth and Terri enjoyed some tubing - well enjoyed really isn't the right word since Terri ended up black and blue and it was her first time ever tubing...no Terri, it doesn't feel like that for everyone - tubing shouldn't hurt ;) We made a fabulous grub and hung out some more...less drinking for Saturday night, but we made yummy smores. We all packed up early on Sunday since it was Father's day and headed home to celebrate our hubby's and special dad's in our lives. Here are some pics of the weekend:

Grandpa Jack's Father's Day BBQ

2009-06-14T21:22:00.005-05:00

This past Saturday we had a bbq at our house in honor of Grandpa Jack for Father's Day. Mom and Aunt Jenein were the actual "hosts", Josh and I just provided the house in which to hold the family function. We had great food, and great company - mom and Aunt Jenein brought all of the food and Josh grilled the hamburgers and hot dogs. It was the as first time that several of them had been to the new house, so it was exciting having the family event at our house. We had quite the clan show up for the celebration. The kids had a great time playing outside on the swing set and then in the hot tub, and we had a great time watching them and visiting with each other. I love when our family gets together, there isn't any better company!

kiddos having fun eating an playing...there was more playing than eating going on :)

The grown kids eating and playing...there is more eating going on here - hehehe!

Kaylea, Emma (outside the hot tub), Braden, & Khloe enjoying a relaxing afternoon in the hot tub (even though it was like 80-something degrees outside - they didn't seem to mind)

Steph and I sportin' our fancy-shmancy new boot - well, I have had mine going on six weeks now, Steph was stubborn and didn't get hers as soon as she should have - aren't we a cute pair!?!

The whole crew - what a great looking bunch!

Braden has lost his first...and second tooth!!!

2009-05-26T23:11:00.004-05:00

Saturday, while at Pomme de Terre camping over Memorial weekend, Braden lost his first two teeth - the bottom front two! He has been talking about having loose teeth for several weeks now, and hasn't eaten corn on the cob for at least the last month, but I never stuck my fingers in his mouth to feel for myself just how loose they are (or were I guess). I was out on a boat ride when he lost his first tooth. He must have mentioned it being loose to Stephanie and she couldn't wait to get her hands on it! I was surprised to find out that he let her pull it - and it is on video! When I get that I will so add it to this post! The first tooth seemed to be the brace for the second, because it was quickly apparent that the second on was just as ready as the first one. I was there for the second pulling, and Braden was so calm when Steph did her thing. Once she got it pulled out Braden just simply said "And now, its gone!" He was so matter-of-fact about it too - very cute! He was so proud of loosing his teeth, and would get so frustrated with Nick because Nick kept telling him how he needed to glue them back in - too funny! He was quick to show everyone, as was I... it was another milestone for the little guy. The next step was to make sure that the Tooth Fairy could make HIS (according to Braden, the tooth fairy is a boy - he says, "just watch the movie The Santa Clause" with Tim Allen) way to Nemo Landing Campground, and HE did! There was ALOT of discussion on what was appropriate for the tooth fairy to bring this day and age, and I was quick to find out that I am a cheap-skate. I though it was appropriate for Braden to get $5 total from the Tooth Fairy, it turns out I was wrong and was quickly set straight by the adults in attendance for the weekend...so my little brat ended up with $5 PER TOOTH! Which I thought was crazy, but hey, I only have one kiddo, gotta do it up right -ha! Take a look at my toothless little boy!

The second tooth just being pulled, blood and all - yuck!

One tooth gone - look how proud!

Two teeth gone - still so proud!

Braden showing Grandma Jancey his teeth, look at the surprise on her face, I thought she was going to cry because this just means that her baby is growing up!

Braden showing off his money left by the Tooth Fairy...we had to have a picture, and it had to be right then, which makes me laugh because of the puffy morning eyes :)

It's CAMPING season!!!!

2009-05-26T22:44:00.006-05:00

This is one of my favorite weekends of the year, it is the kick off to summer and camping with family and friends! We went down Friday afternoon and came home on Monday, so it is a long weekend, but it is fabulous! We do all of the traditional camping things: boating, tubing, swimming, smores making, hot dog grilling, you name it we did it! Well, I guess I should clarify, the kids went swimming and tubing - CRAZY kids - but they had a blast! We had a full campground with all of the family and friends we had join us. Naturally we had the normal crew with Josh, Braden and I; Nick, Tara & Kaylea; Mom & John; and Aunt Jenein, Uncle Steve, Steph and Alyssa...but this weekend we had lots of surprise extras show up including Granny, Justin and his crew, Jake and Priscilla and their crew along with our friends Kelsey and Ryan. We had so much fun opening up the camping season with so much family, friends and fun - see for yourself below, there are lots of smiles :)

This is part of the whole crew who came camping

Ryan, Josh, Kelsey & Patch - we were watching the kiddos enjoy the water

A soaked Patch - he HATED the water, poor baby :(

Braden & Kaylea playing with the camping walkie-talkies

My favorite two fellas! Aren't they adorable, I love the father/son shots :)

Finally a picture of me - this rarely happens on the family blog :)

Alyssa, Kaylea and Braden playing between the campsites, their doodles were so cute, I kept saying I was going to take a picture of it, but I never got around to getting a shot of the finished product Kaylea and Braden out for a boat ride with Stephanie and Tim

Stephanie and I made a trip to Hermitage to go to Dollar General (which takes place at least once a camping trip) and picked up these cool flip flops that came with fabric markers for Braden and Kaylea to design their own flip flops, they turned out great!

Two peas in a pod enjoying their hot dogs and chips :)

Braden enjoying a boat ride on Nick and Tara's boat

and camping pics wouldn't be camping pics without a pic of them tubing, look at those smiles!!!

Braden's Kindergarten Graduation

2009-05-26T22:14:00.004-05:00

I am a bit behind in my posting, this should have come before the holiday weekend, but I wasn't able to get to it, so it is coming now. Last Thursday afternoon, Braden had his kindergarten graduation from Westview Elementary. He loves going to school, and in fact never missed a day the entire school year this year :) It was absolutely adorable, as most kindergarten graduations are, but this one was extra cute because of Braden's outfit. Granny wanted to buy Braden his special clothes for the occasion, and we had spent time getting just the right shirt and pants along with sizes which consisted of breaking out the measuring tape and getting exact measurements for the dress clothes. In the end, Granny did awesome, even picking out a blue button-up shirt with a yellow tie since blue and yellow are the school colors - THANKS AGAIN GRANNY! Braden looked very snazzy in his "sweet" (as he called them) clothes. He really liked the tie. Since the graduation was at 11:15 a.m., and he had school that morning, he had to be dressed and ready to go for the graduation when he left the house that morning. We got all dressed up and I put the tie in Braden's book bag for him to put on before the graduation so he didn't have to wear it through school. But when he came out to go up in front of the audience with his shirt untucked and his tie put on two buttons down it was PRICELESS! See for yourself below. I took several pictures and a few clips and have posted them below. We had lots of visitors come up for the graduation, we were joined by Aunt Jenein, Granny, Grandma Jancey, Tara, Kaylea, Grandpa Steve, Terri, Olivia, and Ethan, and of course Josh and I. Afterwards we went to IHop for a late breakfast and present opening time, it was such a great milestone for Braden and he had lots of friends and family there to cheer him on!

Braden and Mrs. Merle, his Kindergarten Teacher

Olivia, Braden & Ethan

Kaylea and Braden

Grandma Jancey and Papa John got Braden his cool new elbow, knee, and hand pads for skateboarding - Braden loves them!

Granny Janet got Braden a new Webkinz that is a Boston Terrier, very adorable!

Josh and I went with a new DS game, he is into Star Wars these days, and it was a huge hit, the only game he has played since then :)

Aunt Jenein and Uncle Steve got him a savings bond, we love these things!

Soccer isn't over Yet!

2009-05-03T19:48:00.004-05:00

This weekend was full of spending time at the ball parks! We had two soccer games, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, along with the baseball game he had on Saturday. I love spending days on the fields with my boy, I enjoy watching him just as much as he enjoys playing. Today we had extra spectators at the game: Aunt Debby, Great Grandma Allee, and Diana joined Josh and I on the sidelines. Braden loves having extra people there cheering him on :) Next Saturday is the very last game of the season for Spring Soccer...he will have to wait until fall to start playing again. Although, he is torn for this fall. He is wanting to play flag football, but I am not sure if he is going to be able to play both...I guess I am going to have to start doing my research to see what the kiddo is going to be able to do, but soon he is going to have to start choosing what he likes otherwise Josh and I aren't going to be able to keep up with him! Here are some pictures from the game this afternoon.

Dribbling the ball down the field towards their goal, Braden scored two goals this afternoon - neither of which I caught on film.

Look at that face!

Braden is the sideline kicker...when their team gets to kick in the ball, the coach always has him kick it in because he is the boy who can sock-it and kick it down to the other end of the field, his coach yells at him to give it his "big kick" :)

The boys running down the field to score more goals, they did fabulous today, I lost count of how many goals they scored!

Good pass baby boy!

Another one of those sideline kicks!

Yay, Its Baseball Season!!!

2009-05-03T19:34:00.005-05:00

Braden has been practicing baseball for several weeks now, but yesterday, the 2nd of May, was the first game of the season. It was so cute seeing all of the boys out there on the field. I do not attend the practices, I leave that up to Josh and Braden, and they take care of it quite well, so I hadn't seen Braden play at all since last year. The other team was up to bat first, and so our boys were piling out on the field taking their posts and I kept trying to see where Braden was...but Diana and I couldn't find him (Josh was busy assisting coaching so I couldn't just ask him). A few minutes later, Braden came out on the field all dressed in catcher's garb...figures right - ha! He made the cutest little catcher :) It isn't a competitive team at all, just recreational, so that means everyone bats, but it is still a great experience for the kids and Braden just loves it. He is definitely a little sporty boy. Here are some pics of the game I thought were cute to share:

This goose joined Diana in I in the cheering section, it was so funny because he would just stand there and chat away with us and then when we would cheer he would quack - I think he is a Lees Summit Baseball Association lifer - ha!

My little catcher, way too cute!!!

Swing batter batter, swing!

During the third inning he was switched to the outfield, which he seemed to enjoy as well...who does he look like in this picture?!?

It just cracks me up that these boys think they need to slide into home plate...the ball was nowhere in sight and there was no way he was going to be thrown out, but by golly he had to slide on in to home plate ;)

My little ball player, I think it is going to be a good season!

Kindergarten Spring Program

2009-04-22T09:15:00.006-05:00

Last Thursday the Kindergarten & 1st Grader's at Braden's elementary school put on a spring program called Children, Rhythm and Rhyme! The Kindergarten class went first, and our little man was the "leader" for two of the songs...below is the program from the evening :) The Kindergartner's went first, and the program only lasted a total of 40 minutes - short and sweet, just the way I like them! It was absolutely adorable, and Braden loved being in the spot light twice. Some family came and joined Josh and I in the audience to enjoy the cuteness and then we all went out to dinner afterwards. Here are some cute pics from the evening!

The entire Kindergarten Class at Westview Elementary, this includes two a.m. classes and two p.m. classes, Braden is in Mrs. Merle's a.m. class.

They had the cutest little hand motions that went along with all of the songs, some of the kids were too embarrassed to do them, or to even sing, but not my kiddo, he was loud, proud, and dancing right along :)

This is just one of my favorite pictures because before the program got started Braden was flirting with all of the girls around him, and I thought that this picture of them all talking and laughing was so adorable!

Okay, and I just had to scan in the program as well and post it here. Not because I am a proud mom...even though I absolutely am...but because I am curious how the person who typed up this program was able to miss his/her mistake. There isn't a lot of text on this sheet to review prior to printing it out and making hundreds of copies of it...a quick glance should tell you that there is a mistake, especially since his name is a whole six lines down again. Yep, if you looked at it you will see, the fabulous program designer misspelled Braden's name...but only once, she got it right the second time. Those office gals need to pay attention to detail ;)

Here is a cute little snip-it from a part of the program, where Braden was the "leader" of the song. The leader pretty much entails getting in front of the class and directing them. Which was cute, as you can see, the kids are paying close attention to Braden to make sure that they get their motions right with the song - too cute! Oh, and Braden's quick little bow at the end of the song is adorable as well, such a cutie pie!

Too Much Easter

2009-04-13T22:03:00.002-05:00

Okay, so is this a spoiled kiddo or what! Look at this stash of goodies, he has lots of people who love him I guess - ha! It is going to take all year to polish off all of this candy!

Shelledy Easter 2009

2009-04-13T21:45:00.004-05:00

Sunday brought Easter Day, which we started with a scavenger hunt left by the Easter Bunny himself which lead Braden straight to his basket once he was able to decipher the clues. Braden loves this tradition, which his Grandma Jancey started by the way :) That is okay though, we have lots of fun with it, and Braden LOVES it! We quickly got ready for the day after the goodies were discovered to head to Sedalia again for the Shelledy Easter celebration this time which we had at Aunt Jenein and Uncle Steve's house. There were lots of kiddos, lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of fun! We always have a great time when we get together! Here are some pics from the Shelledy Easter celebration.

Justin and Braden playing Easter morning

Granny, Aunt Jenein, and mom - look at these gals, no wonder we are such a good looking crew - ha!

The kiddos eating their lunch - they had to eat a decent lunch in order to participate in the Easter Egg hunt - right, no matter what they ate they would be able to hunt!

The EGGS!

The annual Easter pose of the kiddos! This is just before they get to cut loose and hunt, do they look excited or what - the energy is rising!!!

...and they are off!!!

I found one, I found one!

Some of the eggs had money in them, and each time one that had money in it the kids would announce it to the whole house and everyone would cheer like crazy - such a good time! This is Braden opening up one of his eggs with a dollar in it - he is so proud :)

Walker Easter 2009

2009-04-13T21:24:00.003-05:00

We had tons of fun celebrating Easter with our families. Friday night we kicked off the festivities with the egg coloring...as previously posted :) Then Saturday morning we woke up and were on the road to Sedalia for Easter with the Walkers by 10:30 a.m. We all met up at Grandmother and Granddaddy Walkers and then went out to eat for lunch. It was decided that we didn't want to make a big Easter lunch, this way we didn't have a handful of people spending most of the time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning instead of being able to enjoy the quality family time. On the Walker side, Braden is the only grandson/great grandson, nephew/great nephew...so he is SPOILED rotten with the Walker clan. The Walkers had their infamous Easter egg hunt consisting of 1392 plastic eggs filled with candy. Now EVERYONE hunts in this egg hunt, but guess who takes a HUGE portion of the candy home regardless of who actually gathered the eggs...so we now have a ginormous portion of Easter candy sitting on our kitchen table. Aunt Belinda also gave him a basket full of goodies - see spoiled :) Here are some pics from Saturday's Easter with the Walkers.

Braden and Grandma Paula hunting eggs in the 1392 egg hunt (crazy, I know!)

Aunt Jana, Braden, and I running like crazy to get lots of eggs...like there weren't enough for everyone to have -ha!

Counting and emptying the eggs...what chaos right!

In the basket Aunt Belinda gave Braden were these cute little bunny ears...we all actually received a set of those ears...thus the picture below!

What a crew! It was a fabulous Easter celebration.

Easter Eggs

2009-04-13T20:20:00.002-05:00

This past Friday evening, after a long week at work and school, Braden and I thought it was time to get Easter festive and dye some eggs. I have no pictures of the process, but I do have a single pic of his proud moment posing with his eggs...isn't he adorable! Again, he is so proud, I just love watching him grow!

Hey Mickey Your So Fine!

2009-04-13T20:00:00.004-05:00

My kitchen is coming right along...it still has a few final touches that need to be added, but it is coming right along. While at Disney in Florida, we bought the plates for above the cabinets in our kitchen, along with the pictures that are hanging in the walls - those were taken in Disney anyway :) It is tough to get a good picture of the entire room, but I tried to get pics so you can get a good idea of what it looks like. If you still can't...well then I guess you will have to come and visit us and see for yourself :)

Lets Go Fly A Kite!

2009-04-13T13:00:00.005-05:00

I just love the look on Braden face because it holds all of the childhood excitement in flying a kite and being a kid! My soon to be sis-in-law took this picture yesterday at Aunt Jenein's house. I have MUCH more to post about Easter, but Jodi just e-mailed me this picture because of how happy and proud Braden looks and I just had to share it with everyone else. Every year for Easter, Aunt Jenein gets all of the kiddos a kite and after lunch and the big Easter egg hunt, they go outside and fly their kites...generally with the dads of the crew. As you can see, Josh is busy filming the excitement, and I will upload that video tonight when I get home, it is just too darn cute!

Sleep Over!!!

2009-04-06T18:08:00.005-05:00

This past Saturday night Terri and decided it would be a good night to have a sleep over/slumber party with the kiddos. Josh was having a bunch of guys over to the house to play poker, so Braden and I took advantage of the situation and used it as an excuse to get out of the house...so we headed over to the Ham's with our bags packed! Braden is really into this funfusion bead craft (actually Terri is too -ha!) So we brought those with us so that the kiddos (and yes, Terri and I) could make cute little colorful creatures as a fun event for the evening. I will have to take a picture of these things (I currently have 25 of them on my refrigerator right now) so you can all see them :) Anyway, the kiddos had a blast playing together and Terri and I were able to chat. Here are some pictures of the kiddos from the evening.
Let the fun begin, I always love how Ethan is in the background generally oblivious to what is going on while Olivia and Braden and playing away. Okay, so I have to say it, Olivia looks a little "Linda Blairish" in this picture to me - ha!
Look, aren't they sweet! Little buddies :)
...and Ethan, oblivious again to what what going on around him, he is in a zone though!
We made a big pallet on Olivia's bedroom floor for her and Braden to sleep on. We put on a movie for them to go to bed to. Aren't they adorable watching their movie :)
Crash city! When they finally went to sleep they were out cold...I took several pictures of them, and the flash never caused a stir...oh, and I am not sure how Olivia ended up where she is since her princess bed is right next to Braden there - hehehe!
The morning after...Braden is now on Olivia's bed, Olivia is on the floor with Braden's barney blanket, and Ethan is just glad he is part of the crew again :)

Soccer Time - Game #2

2009-04-06T17:54:00.004-05:00

Okay, so you never saw a post from game number one...it was freezing, and I was not excited about the fact that despite the 30 degree temperature the Lees Summit Soccer Associate wouldn't cancel the game just for me -ha! So, basically, I was a bad mom and forgot my camera for the first soccer game of the season...but game number two was sunny and warm...though VERY windy. It was a good game, Braden scored two goals...I now owe him two dollars he keeps reminding me. He was sort of not into the game, and running behind the kids on the field, and so from the sideline I yell to him "I will give you a dollar for every goal you make!" He took me serious...the score was 4-4...so he scored half of his teams goals and now says I need to "pay up!" Oh, I guess the swing set and the Disney trip mean nothing compared to cold hard cash -ha! Here are some pictures of the little guy running around, playing against the wind, and having a good time!
I love him being in the older league, now he isn't towering over all of the kiddos

Run, Score!

He takes the coach seriously when he tells them to dribble the ball to the goal and then shoot to score -ha!

Vacation Recap - You Ready for a Long Post!

2009-03-30T22:29:00.037-05:00

Since this will be a long post due to the pictures we are adding, I will try to keep the text to a minimum to eliminate so much reading and allow you just to enjoy the pictures. First off...I am still not sure who the Disney vacation was for, Braden or myself, because we BOTH enjoyed ourselves immensely - as you will see in the pictures below (Josh was our photographer, so there are not many shots with him in them)! We spent five nights and six days in Florida, and we LOVED every minute of it...okay okay, so Braden did manage to have a HUGE melt down at one point, and NO ONE was lovin' that I can assure you, but the "Cast Members" soon defused that one and Braden was all smiles again...they do not allow unhappy children and will do whatever it takes to keep a smile on their faces, yep even give away free stuff from the gift shops. Why you ask....because he was at Disney World and that is the Happiest Place on Earth!!! Seriously, those were their words exactly. All in all, we had a blast, and we will definitely be making another trip to Disney in our future!!!

Monday we spent all day at Animal Kingdom, and when it closed down we trekked on down to Downtown Disney to see what all it had to offer - which includes a 55,000 (WOW, right! I KNOW!!!!) square foot Disney store, and I just so happened to find a few things I needed there - yep, I said needed (you will see when my kitchen is finished). Along with the Disney Store, there was a big Lego Land area which fascinated Josh and Braden both, it was great fun to see them smile so much! We didn't arrive back at our hotel until well after midnight - such and awesome first day at Disney! Animal Kingdom is full of awesome animals - go figure, right! Josh took this picture on the Safari ride and I love it, it looks like a postcard picture to me!
Here is one of the carvings on the Tree of Life, the tree is absolutely breathtaking and full of all sorts of animals in the circle of life
The best part of Animal Kingdom for all of us was the Finding Nemo Musical, it was absolutely fabulous...here is a picture from the performance. However, Josh was not suppose to be shooting pictures, they do the whole "No pictures of any kind including flash photography. No video taping of the performance...blah blah blah. Josh obviously does not obliged by the rules.
Josh and Braden with the Lego Dragon at Downtown Disney. It was actually pretty cool to see. We are standing on a bridge and the Dragon is actually in the water, along many humps from its tail, it seemed to go on and on. It was amazing to see what all they had built out of Legos.

Just when we thought we had had the day of our lives, Tuesday was our day spent at Magic Kingdom, and it is truly magical. We got up bright and early and headed for the park. At 5:00 p.m. we took a break from the park to go to our dinner reservations...which happened to be dinner with Pluto and Goofy at Garden Grover restaurant at the Swan Resort. It was such a great experience, and I highly recommend a character dinner with your kiddo if you ever plan to take a trip to Disney. The look on their faces when they get sit down with the characters and have one on one time with them without having to share them with 20,000 kids standing in a line is a fabulous thing! Then after dinner we returned to Magic Kingdom in time to see the night time parade, a fabulous sight to see, and the firework celebration Wishes - which is the most fabulous display of fireworks any of us have EVER seen! Fireworks ended at around 10:00 p.m. and then we were off to ride more rides and enjoy the park. Again, we didn't arrive back to our hotel until well after midnight - actually I believe it was after 1:00 a.m. when we returned this day! A Disney post wouldn't be a post without this picture, besides the castle, this is the epidomy of Walt Disney World!

Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor was one of Braden's favorite rides in Magic Kingdom. I have to admit, it was a hilarious show!

Mickey and Minnie were the headliners of the Daytime parade. It was a fabulous display of characters and floats, it is amazing how much work they put into making this the "Happiest Place on Earth"

Here is Braden and Pluto at the dinner, see the other kids admiring Braden with the lovable pooch :) Look at that smile on his face (I am talking about Braden's) you cannot ever replicate that kind of pure joy and happiness on a child's face - this was a once in a lifetime experience for him.

Braden, Goofy, and Josh at dinner at the Garden Grove. I am not sure if Josh knew how to interact with characters who mime everything and don't say a word...otherwise the kids would know they are fake (hello, their mouths wouldn't move - never mind their big plastic heads)

Mickey Mouse ice cream cones, need I say more?

Wow right! Wishes was undoubtably the most fabulous firework display I have ever seen, these pictures don't even do it justice, but Josh did a great job of getting shots of the show!
End of the day, and we are headed out of the park and back to the hotel...do we look tired? Well, we were -ha! Here is a short video clip of the night time parade, it is a sight to see people of all ages were enthralled with this parade.

Wednesday has finally come, and we needed a break from all of the walking and all of the lines inside the Disney parks and resorts, so we decided to rent a car and drive to Daytona Beach - what an awesome idea that was! I think this was Josh's favorite day. He spent a long time going deep out into the ocean jumping into the waves and playing with Braden. That image will forever be embedded into my mind to see my son and his dad play and laugh together without a care in the world! I was surprised that Braden wasn't intimidated by the massive waves and the huge ocean, but he got right in and started swimming away!

I didn't get much further into water than this, that stuff was COLD!

Braden was searching for sea shells, can you see one he found in his hand on display for the camera while dad is in the background fixing Braden's goggles so he can deep sea dive for more of those beauties :)

We thought it only fitting that we stop by the local Orlando Wal-Mart and buy some beach toys to build sand castles during our day on the beach. You be the judge, who is the winner?

This poor guy was pooped by sun down in Daytona. The beach patrol closes down the beach at sundown, and all patrons are made to hit the road. There weren't any arguments come closing time since everyone was so tired from the sun and fun!

Thursday was our family day...by that I mean we spent it with family that lived in Florida. Josh's Aunt Cindi, Uncle David, and cousins Marc, and Jill - along with their spouses live in Sanford which is about 45 minutes from Orlando. We kept our rental car from the day before and headed their direction to spend the day with them. Before we headed their way though, Braden and I snuck off to Downtown Disney to do some additional shopping before we headed to Sanford ;) We drove to Marc and Ashley's house to meet their new addition..little Ms. Adelynn. She was such a treat to met and hold. Josh, Braden, and I all spent time holding her and talking to her - what a sweetie! Aunt Cindi and Uncle David, and Jill and Jason arrived a little bit after we did and we had a great time catching up then went out to dinner as well. Everyone seems to be doing really well, and it was such a joy catching up with loved ones we don't get to see all that often.
Marc and Josh admiring the bundle of joy, what a sweetie :)
It was so fun talking to her and seeing her reach up to me, Ms. Adelynn was so wide eyed and alert to what was going on around her
Jill, Josh, & Marc...Josh doesn't get to see his cousin that often, and loved spending time with them
Jill and her husband Jason
Grandma Cindi and Grandpa David admiring their granddaughter, you can just see the love in their eyes, what a precious moment!
Uncle David, Marc, & Josh - what a crew!
Braden & I with sweet Adelynn

Friday arrived and that was our big day at Epcot Center - WOW what a day that was! We spent alot of time meeting characters and getting their autographs. Braden was definitely into meeting characters, which I didn't mind at all :) We were able to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale, Genie, Princess Jasmine, Aladdin, Tigger, Pooh, Eyeore, and Snow White at Epcot. The only thing that I HAD to do while I was at Disney was ride Soarin'...it is a fabulous 4-D coast to coast parasailing ride - it is AWESOME and a must ride! I loved it, Josh loved it, Braden loved it...words do the ride no justice, you have to experience it to get it - so you have to go!!! We were at the park at 10:00 a.m., and didn't leave until midnight, but it barely seemed like we were there time just flew by. We loved Epcot and will definitely be visiting there again in the future.

The Family - aren't we cute :) I just love the topiary throughout the park. They had just added this part to Epcot on Wednesday, which is why we waited to go to Epcot until Friday...I really wanted to see all of the Character Gardens they were putting up...they are very neat to see!
Ahhh, my favorite :) Notice that I have a GAP shirt on...Aladdin made a point to tell me that he could tell that I was their biggest fan because I had their shirt on...Genie, Aladdin, Princess Jasmine!
Donald Duck and Braden had SO much fun together, he just kept playing with Braden and interacting with him, the characters have so much personality and are so awesome with the kids. It amazed me how excited they could be about hugging another kid - ha!!!
Chip and Dale were also awesome with Braden. We actually played around with them for quite a while and Braden just laughed and laughed...
At one point when we were with Chip and Dale, after Chip signed Braden's autograph book, he handed it to Dale but then put the pen between Dale's ears where he couldn't get it to sign Braden's book too - you know, that sibling rivalry stuff. It was so cute and I told Braden that they were NUTS. Well, that isn't a word you say around two chipmunks without them going crazy. It was so funny watching them run around looking for nuts, lifting Braden up and looking underneith him and stuff. Chip came running over to me asking for the nuts, and this is me shrugging and telling him that I didn't have them and that Braden ate them all - then they went running to Braden again looking for nuts - so cute, and so much energy!
Okay, so Snow White was the only Princess that Braden actually asked to stand in line and meet...I mean he met Jasmine and got her autograph, but she was with Aladdin and the Genie as well. He must have a thing for dark haired girls. He was actually the only boy in line to meet Snow White, and she LOVED having a boy...or should I say Prince... who was excited to meet her :) She called him her Prince, and he just blushed when she said "Oh it is my handsome prince here to save me...are you going to kiss me my prince...that is what led to the blushing ;)
Braden just loved trying on hats in the gift shop. He begged me and begged me for this hat, but I wouldn't buy it...I have to admit it is cute, but not worth the money to have to carry around the rest of the afternoon after his head got hot 15 minutes after we walked out of the store -ha!
Okay, okay...so maybe this is my favorite! I made Braden even get out of the shot so I could take my picture alone with Mickey...I actually had to "shoo" Braden away - ha!
More of the gardens, I just loved them!
The end of the night, we are walking back to the hotel...we were beat, and ready for bed!!! Notice the matching sweatshirts ;)
Saturday was our "return back to reality day". We were sad to go, but ready to be home at the same time, if that make sense. We woke up, did a little shopping and then headed back to the airport to come back to Missouri :(
Sorry this is such a long post, it is tough to put 700 pictures into a short and sweet paragraph :)

Braden Finally Has a Swing Set

2009-03-30T22:04:00.009-05:00

Better late than never..this post should have gone up right before we took our trip to Florida, but that didn't seem to happen :) Thursday, March 12th, Josh and I spent many hours in the garage sorting through mounds of wood pieces and nuts/bolts/screws/washer blah blah blah...and then on Friday the 13th, the fun began with assembling of the monstrosity the Allee household calls a swing set (other's call it a playset, indicating that it is WAY more than a simple swing set). Grandma Jancey, Papa John, and Uncle Quintin came up Friday to join in on the fun, or the work, whichever way you look at it - ha! Then Saturday we had additional visitors/helpers when Aunt Jenein and Uncle Steve showed up, as did Great Grandma Allee and Aunt Debby. It took SEVERAL man hours to get it all put up and the landscaping and leveling completed, but since its completion, it has provided many hours of entertainment for Braden...and some others :) Here are pics of all of the hard work put in by everyone involved in the process!

Josh working hard on getting the clubhouse done - which is the core of the swingset

Uncle Steve and Uncle Quintin are working hard on the landscaping of Braden's swingset area

Papa John went straight to work on the rock wall when they arrived for the party Friday afternoon

Braden thought he needed to help since it was him the reason everyone was working so hard :)

Uncle Quintin got to use the power tools when cutting the timbers for the outline of the play area

Ummm one word - SUPERVISORS - need I say more. By the way, this is the category I fit under as well :)

Progress, the monkey bars are up, and here the rock wall is being added as well - thanks for putting that together Papa John! It is late Saturday night...and up go the finishing touches, Braden is beside himself waiting to be able to climb on and cut loose on his new swing set!

Whooo hooooo, swing time!

Daytime shot of the swing set early Sunday morning, let the fun begin!!!!

Disney PhotoPass

2009-03-24T14:24:00.003-05:00

As we have already shared with a few people, Disney provides a service called PhotoPass to its visitors. They took 72 pictures of us while we were enjoying our Disney time in Florida, and they took a few good pics that I really like. I have linked up this post to the PhotoPass website, so if you want to see all 72 of them, just click on the title of this post and it shall take you there :) I have posted a few of our favorites to share with everyone else who hops on and views our blog...here they are:

My turn to hold Tinkerbell in the palm of my hands...I love Braden's facial expression. The photographer told him to point to my hand and look surprised, and this is what we got - TOO CUTE!

We finally made it to the "Happiest Place On Earth"...or so they kept telling us all week anyway -ha! In all seriousness it was a blast! Josh loved the little Stitch in the corner of the picture, so we had to add him in and ordered one of these for the house :)

This is just a cool picture because it is at night and the castle is all lit up...and I do love my kisses :)

Our last day at the Disney theme parks was spent at Epcot, and it was a blast there too! Not a dull moment on this vacation.

Okay with this one, Josh and I just had to laugh when we saw it. We said the only thing missing was us sticking our tongues out licking the photo as Stitch was in the above picture - the photographer pretty much took a picture of the park and stuck us in the corner - ha!

Update No. 2 - Allee Family Vacation

2009-03-19T22:56:00.008-05:00

So we have taken a two day break from walking the Disney parks and it was great! Don't get me wrong, I love my Disney, but the beach and catching up with family was fabulous as well. Wednesday we rented a car and headed out to Daytona...and the boys LOVED the ocean and the beach. It was great watching them swim and play in the waves together, a great moment for a mom and wife! Then today, Thursday, we took the rental out to Sanford, Florida to visit with the Schnelle family...Josh's Aunt and Uncle and cousins and their spouses. Mark and Ashley welcomed a new baby girl into their family on January 15th, and so we were able to visit and see the sweet baby girl. Here are some pictures to give you a snip-it of all of the fun we are having on our family vacation!
Look at my cutie, he wasn't scared of the cold water or the big waves!
Here are our three sand castles we built...okay okay, we aren't very good at it, but we had a blast doing it :)
Braden loved it, I thought it was a little cold ;)
Daddy and Braden building away!

Marc, Ashley and their bundle of joy - Adelynn

Look at her, so wide eyed, what a cutie!

Yep, Josh even held her ;)

Allee Family Vacation Update!!

2009-03-17T23:57:00.005-05:00

Okay, so here we are in sunny Florida on our first ever Official Allee Family Vacation and it is totally AWESOME! Yesterday we flew in and landed at 10:45 a.m., jumped a shuttle to our hotel, checked in, and then headed off to Animal Kingdom at around 1:00 p.m., we stayed until close at 7:00 p.m. and then headed to Downtown Disney and we were there until after midnight - WOW, it was a BIG first day in Florida! Day two arrived this morning, and we found ourselves headed to the Magic Kingdom. Braden LOVED it, and I too shared in his excitement...Josh, well Josh is Josh and doesn't get too excited about anything, but you could tell he was very much enjoying himself as well as watching Braden just run from one thing to the next, I was having a tough time sometimes just keeping up with him. Enough of the details, a much later post will come with all of the nity-grity details of our fabulous vacation. Here are a couple of pics though I thought I would share for all those who are dying to see us living it up :)

Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Braden and Stitch after we rode Stitch's Great Escape at Magic Kingdom

The Family at Magic Kingdom

The Castle right before the fireworks show "Wishes" at Magic Kingdom

Zoo Trip - Yayyyy a Nice Day!!!

2009-03-10T21:38:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday was a gorgeous day at 81 degrees and the Ham's and Allee's decide to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and take the kiddos to the zoo. It was a discount day, only five dollars a person to enter over the age of 3, so we got outside, entertained the kids, had great family and friend fun, and all for a VERY cheap price. I loved basking in the sun and the kids loved running around looking at all of the animals and talking to them. With it being a week day and so early in the season, the zoo wasn't very busy so the kids could run ahead a little without loosing site of them and worrying too much, every now and then the little legs would get to going a little fast for their bodies and we would worry about getting skinned up knees, and in fact, I believe, both Olivia and Ethan fell...but only Ethan had some tears. It was a great day to take the kids out and I am ready for many more of those!

Braden wanted to pose in front of the dragon in a funky pose...we have no idea what he is doing, but he thinks this is an AWESOME picture :)

Braden, Olivia, & Ethan - this is a duplicate picture that is on Terri's blog as well, but it is a good one of all three kids so I had to add it too :)

The carousel ride was closed, but the gentlemen working on it were kind enough to give the kids a free quick ride. They loved it, and so did us mom's because it turned into a free ride rather than two bucks a head - ha!

We were pooped by the time we got to the bench...as we should have been, the zoo closed at 4:00 p.m. and we didn't even leave until after 4:30 p.m. So we got our walking in!

Happy Birthday to you, dear Quintin!

2009-03-09T22:24:00.005-05:00

Today, March 9th, is my baby brother's 29th birthday :) I use to say "little brother", but he isn't so little anymore, and in fact probably hasn't been "littler" than me for MANY MANY years :) Anyway, focus Lori focus, today is his birthday and we spent this past Saturday afternoon celebrating his oldness at my mom's house in Jefferson City. I forgot my camera, can you believe it that sucker is usually attached to me when it comes to family events, so all of the pictures here were taken with mom's camera...she was kind enough to share :) Quintin's all time favorite meal is Hawaiian meatballs...and I admit they are very yummy! So we gathered for family, food, presents, cake, and fun. Here are some pictures from the day.

He still reminds me of a little kid opening up his presents, his little face lights up, so cute :)

Quintin and my soon-to-be sister-in-law, aren't they sweet :)

Mom, Quintin, and I - the best looking picture taken that day - ha!

Wouldn't be a family gathering without some video game and Nintendo DS time, I think our boys are addicted!!!!

Ham Visit

2009-03-09T22:15:00.003-05:00

I do not recall what the occasion was, or even if there was one, but we had a visit from the Ham clan here last week sometime and I snapped some pictures of the kiddos. Here are a couple of pictures of our cuties! :) Braden is so cute when he finds out that the kids are coming over to play. The last couple of times he has overheard me saying that Terri was coming over he asks me "Just Aunt Terri?" Once I responded with "Yes, just Aunt Terri." And he seemed so bummed...but tonight when he asked the same question, the Ham Clan came over for dinner tonight, I responded with "Olivia and Ethan are coming too." Then he did the cutest little dance in the kitchen because he was so excited for the kiddos to be coming too, I just love how excited he is to see Olivia and Ethan :)

SpeedRacer, Spongbob, and Kit Cars, OH MY!

2009-03-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

Weekend before last was the World of Wheels Car Show at Bartle Hall here in the city. I happened to be watching t.v. and a commercial for the car show came ..once I heard that Speedracer's car was going to be there, I knew we HAD to go. It snowed 7 inches that day, but we made it nonetheless :) I am not sure what the best part of the car show was, but I do know that Braden had a blast and ran all over the place with both him and Josh pointing to cars and trucks and motorcycles saying look at this dad/Braden. It was cute, and we all enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures of our fabulous Saturday visit.

The Infamous Speed Racer! You should have seen his face light up when he spotted the car!

Kit Car - then and now. We walked ALL over the place to look for the "talking cars". I had given up, but luckily the cars were spotted before we left the show :)

Who could resist a picture with Patrick and Spongebob -ha!

There was a "favorite kids" category in the judging of the cars there on show. Braden voted for the hot wheels car for his vote, I have no idea what car won, but I imagine that the hot wheel car was a popular pic...

...as was the Pirates of the Caribbean van.

Spring Soccer - It Begins!

2009-03-09T21:49:00.003-05:00

Doesn't look like spring does it!?! Braden had his first spring season soccer practice on Thursday, February 19th, and it was only 34 degrees outside. It was FREEZING cold! Josh generally takes the wheel when it comes to soccer practice, but that was the week he was in Florida (butthead) and so I was in charge of getting the little man to soccer practice. I had my fingers crossed all day long that the coach would call or e-mail and cancel practice - NO SUCH LUCK! So, we suited up and off we went to practice. Braden had a great time even if it was cold outside. As a side note, it would figure that it was 72 degrees out for the practice Josh returned home for - ha! Here are some pics of the cold practice! :)

What a Butthead!!!

2009-02-26T13:47:00.004-06:00

As some of you know, Josh is in Florida this week on a "business trip". He left early Monday morning and is scheduled to come home tomorrow evening. He has been traveling between Orlando, Daytona, and Miami. Poor guy, right - WRONG! So I am working away this morning and afternoon and then I get an e-mail from him, the subject line is "It's a Hard Day at Work" and then there is just THIS picture attached to it. He is such an a@@! HA! I cannot post the picture of my middle finger, which I sent back to him in response to his photo - that wouldn't have been very "family friendly" now would it have?!? I think I would be more ticked about his beach time if we weren't going to Florida on our family vacation in a few short weeks :)

Spring Photo's - ALREADY

2009-02-24T10:06:00.005-06:00

It is that time again, school pictures. When I was in grade school, we only had pictures taken once a year, and you got them whether you liked them or not -ha! Now-a-days the school takes pictures twice a year, the fall pics and the spring pics, to rope the parents into buying two sets a year now. Well, we did -ha! The only thing I don't really care for is that you have to pay for them when the kiddo gets their picture taken without seeing how they turned out first. Below is Braden's Spring 2008-2009 photo for his Kindergarten year...and even with his goofy little smile he is still as handsome as ever!

Is it Time Yet!!!!

2009-02-19T10:14:00.005-06:00

Okay so I get into work this morning, and Nick has sent me pictures of the Weber Family Vacation they just got back from. Where did the go you ask...as if you couldn't tell by the picture posted above...FLORIDA, DISNEY WORLD! So, I look through all of the cute pictures of little Ms. Kaylea having fun with all of the princesses and other characters and I open this picture last of all. I LOVE IT! I am so excited and cannot wait to get out of this cold weather and into the sunny days of Florida! Anyway, I am so jealous that they have already gone, and I am really counting down the days until we leave...it is only like what 24 days :)

Okay, so I couldn't resist in adding this picture to the post. I just love how girly Kaylea is wearing her princess dress to Disney World, and then with Cinderella's castle behind her and Tinkerbell in her hands, it is just the perfect picture of the All American Girly-Girl :)

The Stokes' Visit

2009-02-12T21:33:00.006-06:00

We had visitors at the house this past weekend: Beth, Jim, and Gavin joined the Allee's at our house Friday night and we started off with a dinner at Zio's...the dinner was good, the service was HORRIBLE...but all in all it was an uneventful evening. Well, uneventful that is until we got back home. Braden had decided that he wanted to show Beth and I this dance he knows, so he ran to his room got his little CD player and started up his song of choice. When "Cha Cha Slide" came out of the speakers Beth and I got a chuckle right away...then the dancing started and OH MY GOSH, it was so cute (and hilarious!). I did not have my video camera out for the first performance, which was by far the best one, but I was able to capture it on video a little later in the evening. I have not laughed that long in a LONG time. His "cha cha" is so funny, as are the "hands on your knees" and him takin' it down to the floor! The clip is long, and there is a little bit Gavin bouncing his booty as well, but mostly it is Braden dancing his heart out for us.

Saturday morning we got up and I made fried potatoes and biscuits and gravy for breakfast. While Beth and I were still sitting at the table Braden comes up to me and says "Mom, don't worry, I will clean it up, all of it, all by myslef!" and he is just as serious as he can be when he tells me this, using hand gestures and all to convince me that he will clean his room spic and span all by himself and not to stress over it when I see it. I just blow it off thinking "how bad can it be", I mean my kiddo knows the rules and doesn't trash his room, so I am thinking he has a few toys strung here and there and didn't make his bed for the day. WRONG, take a look at this photo, I about had a heart attack when I went past his door to my room after cleaning up the dishes. After I was able to get over the shock, Beth and I got a good laugh out of that one too. Take a look for yourself, it is something to see!

Beth and I had decided to go to Babies-R-Us and do a bit of shopping and the guys decided to go to the Bass Pro Shoppes. Braden has finally gotten to the age where hanging out with mom and her friends is nowhere near as cool as hanging out with dad and his friends, needless to say he joined Jim and Josh at Bass Pro. Before walking out the door I came down the stairs and saw this sight...all four of our boys sitting on the couch with their heads in the tv. I just had to snap a picture of it. Just before snapping the shot Gavin turned to look at me, but the picture is still cute.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids playing, I thought they were cute :)

And here is my favorite picutre of Gavin that I took during their visit :)

Patch's Early Valentine

2009-02-12T21:28:00.002-06:00

Okay, so Braden thought it was important to give Patch a Valentine's Day present, so we went to Wal-Mart this past Sunday afternoon and he picked up a new toy for our canine family member. He isn't very patient and instead of waiting until actual Valentine's Day, he gave it to him as soon as we got home. I don't have to tell you by the picture below that it was a BIG hit! Patch even went to bed with it that night. It was just too cute not to snap a picture of :)