Happy Birthday Braxton!! The Big 7

It seem as if it were just yesterday that we were struggling to make our family
until finally Braxton came into our lives. We can't believe that was seven years ago. Our Heavenly Father truly blessed us and knew the perfect child for us. He was meant be be in our lives and we are so greatful to his birth parents who had faith in us to raise this little blessing. He is an amazing boy who is so loving and caring of others. He is our little peace maker and wants others to be happy. we can't imagine our lives without him in it. Happy Birthday Big guy.



A Dinosaur nest


Dino birthday cake


Digging Up Dinos


Treasures Found


Learning about Volcanos




Don't wake up Dinosaur!


The Good Stuff


Make a Wish Then Blow

A Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas morning (kind of). Braxton woke up at 11 p.m. to see if Santa had arrived yet. Then both came into our bedroom at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and then finally at 7:15 a.m. we had to wake the boys up. They were so excited to see what Santa had brought them. Braxton asked for night vision binoculars and Isaiah asked for anything Scooby Doo. Both were happy and Santa spoiled us all. Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had a fun Christmas Eve dinner with our neighbor and her daughter who's husband is deployed and Brandon cooked the ham.

Building and Constructing!

The weather is getting cooler here so we aren't going outside as often as we were before, and Brandon has reserves this weekend so the boys and I stayed home and built gingerbread houses. They were so quite for about an hour and a half. Yea!!!! They both had a great time. More frosting and chocolate chips made it in the mouth than did on the houses, but all in all they had a blast, and the houses turned out great!

Grandpa and Grandma's Visit

We were so excited about Grandma and Grandpa'd visit. They came out for Thanksgiving and we had a blast! The boys were so excited to have them here. They both were up very early and were asking if they could get out of bed yet. Braxton even had his clothes on before 5:30 a.m. ready to go. We struggled every day with getting a chance to sit at dinner with either one of them because the boys had a seating arrangement all planned out. We feel very blessed this Thanksgiving to be near part of our family and miss everyone who we haven't seen for a while. We took Charlie and Cheryl around town and also out of town to many different places that we have never been to before. We are going to miss them.

Airborne & Special Ops Museum

On Wednesday we took Grandpa & Grandma to the Airborne & special Ops Museum at Fort Bragg and then in Fayetteville. Everyone had a good time! The Fayetteville museum was set up in a way that the kids could get involved, or maybe it was just our kids who would interact with the soldier dummies all around the museum. We learned quite a bit about all of the different wars who used the Airborne soldiers and what they do. Braxton was proud to find out about the Triple Nickles who were the first all black airborne soldiers. Inside the museum they even had a soldiers cot all made up and how it looks and the next day Braxton made his bed without being asked and what do you know it looked just like to the cot at the museum. We love having Grandma and Grandpa here.

Colonial Williamsburg

What a fun Saturday! We woke up very early to travel to Williamsburg in Virginia. The boys were loving arguing over who would sit by who and weather or not they were getting their fair share of time with Grandma and Grandpa. We toured the Colonial town and some of the homes there. We were able to see how the colonial people lived day to day. The boys were even invited to help in one of the kitchens in the village by cleaning up one of the chefs messes and they were on cloud nine. They learned how to play a few colonial games and sewing. They also had a little bit too much fun in the stocks. We were tempted to leave them there for a little while (maybe just for a minute. We ten went back to the hotel to rest from our long day.

Virginia Beach

What a wonderful Sunday afternoon! We were able to go to a Naval Base close by and look at the large ships. It was wonderful to be so close to such massive vessels. We then drove down to Virginia Beach and let the boys get their wiggles out just before lunch and the long drive back to North Carolina. We were planning on just letting them get their feet wet, but they couldn't resist and pushed their instructions to the limits. We were also amazed that there were still insects out this late int eh season, but with the weather being 70 degrees it's to be expected.

OUCH!

Isaiah and Braxton both take turns as to who gets to get the mail each day. Today was Isaiah's and he was traveling down our driveway a little too fast and fell. He got a few scrapes including the small area of skin underneath his nose. He proceeded to tell me that he needed a band aid on it. I told him that he didn't and the next thing that I noticed was he was putting his own on. He left it this way for a few hours. Half way through dinner he decided that he just couldn't breathe. I couldn't help myself from laughing at him. He had to tell me a few times to stop laughing.

Happy Halloween

What a fun few days! Our ward had a Trunk-OR-Treat party last night. The boys had a blast. Isaiah buddied up with one of the missionaries and stuck to him like glue. He pushed his chair so close to him that he didn't give him any breathing room. If the missionary would stand up so would he and then he would stand right up next to him. Braxton was the first to line up into the haunted house that the young men and women made in our Relief Society room, and Isaiah was the first to go again. Isaiah kept telling all of the scary people to not scare him, it was a crack up. Isaiah is getting to be so fun to watch around the holidays. He was eating up trick or treating and also went to a few cars twice. He can't wait to go to the few houses on our street tonight. We carved pumpkins this morning and the boys were able to design their own pumpkin. They are so proud of the creations. We are going to have a creepy dinner made by mom and pretty much stay home and watch a scary movie. Scooby Doo here we come. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Camporee

We took the boys this past weekend to Braxton's Boy Scout Camporee. There were a total of 1200 boy scouts. The boys were so excited to be able to go camping. They were able to go fishing and caught a bunch of leaves and weeds. They made tin art and learned about the solar system, bees, rocks and volcanos, fire safety, they were able to plant flowers and bring them home, and Braxton learned about Native American culture and dance. By the end of the day everyone was wiped out.

Hey Mom!!! Can I Keep it?

Last night when I was making dinner I let the boys go into the backyard to play with their friends. They were having so much fun! They were looking for bugs and other things to play with. They also notice that our backyard neighbor had a tepee type fire pit thing going on and they attempted to find all of the fallen tree limbs that they could to make their own (notice the girl in the background rolling a chopped tree trunk to put underneath the fire to get it started. They even went so far as to get the driest pine needles to put all over the tepee to get the fire started a little better. They attempted this three times at three different locations which I was laughing at until I later found out that Isaiah was trying to help too and each time he would place his log down it would be just a little too hard and the whole thing would fall down. The kids also scuffed around the dirt with their shoes so that the dust would fly so that I would think that it was smoke. Braxton at one point came in and asked me if he needed to let his nice friend go. I promptly told him that he wasn't going to be coming in the house. We have quite a few different types of lizards here. We find them climbing up the bricks of our house and running around in the yard. This is just the first one that we have caught. The boys are having a blast here and needless to say so are we!

Big boy bed!

Isaiah has never had a big boy themed room because we wanted to wait until we were back in a house. He told us that he wanted a dinosaur room. So I went online and found dinosaur bedding that I could live with. He loves his new room! And needless to say so does the family.