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

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!!!!

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

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!

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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.