The Actual Cake!

It's three days late but we were able to celebrate Isiaha's birthday in our hotel room in Florida. He's officially 5.

Walt Disney World Here We Come!!

We decided to take that family on a vacation before we leave to Korea this Summer. And so this past week we took the boys down to Florida to see Mickey Mouse. We left on Isaiah's birthday and he was so disappointed because we were spending his birthday away and not having a party this year. But we were celebrating it in a different way with just the family. And 80 degree weather couldn't be beat.






Day 1: Drive down to Orlando. 9 hour drive (not too bad) Celebrate Isaiah's birthday the best we can. We did ding dongs with a candle after a McDonald's lunch and then took Isaiah to any restaurant that he wanted to go out to for his birthday "Olive Garden" and we ordered him a special cake that they were going to be bringing out for him, but he fell asleep after one slice of pizza so his cake had to wait.




Day 2:
We spent the day at Walt Disney world at had a blast. Isaiah was bound a determined that he wasn't going to be going on the Haunted House, or the Log Ride, but we are mean parents and told him that he was going to have to try each ride that he could go on at least once before he was going to decide if he wanted to try it again. He wanted to try Space Mountain from the beginning and so that was the first ride of the day. Needless to say, he didn't want to try that ride again. Haunted House we went on twice and the log ride once. He started crying when we showed him Big Thunder Railroad and after said that he wanted to go again. Favorite ride by far was the cars and Buzz Light year we hit them both about 2-3 times. Braxton still loves anything fast and dangerous looking. So I think his was Space mountain and the Log Ride.










Day 3: We spent the day at Wild Animal Kingdom. Great fun! Our favorite ride was Mont Everest every one but Isaiah. He did ride it once and that was enough. The Yettie didn't scare him, it was the tunnels and he couldn't see where he was going. We also liked Dinosaur, well everyone except Isaiah. He loved the safari and the River raft ride best. We had a great time and love looking at the creative things that Disney puts into everything.

















This is the boys punishment today! They were having a hard time getting along. They had to be best buddies.



















Day 4: We went to Epcot. All of our favorite rides were the Crash Test Dummy Ride and an Astronaut ride. We rode them both twice.














Day 5: We went to Hollywood Studios and had a good time. Isaiah wasn't quite into this place, just a lot to see and not many rides to go on. We felt bad for him and ended up going to Magic Kingdom again and rode a few more rides so he could have some enjoyment in the day didn't get back to the hotel until 12:30 am. Our feet are soar!Not many picture taken here just one Isaiah had to have taken.



Day 6: Feet very soar, but it was free! Sea World. Braxton's favorite and Isaiah's least; getting soaked by Shamu. We sat on the front row. We loved watching the shows and all that there was to see there. We refused to take any more pictures we were just too tired and after five days of walking all day until about 10pm we were just beat! We did however go to the world's largest McDonalds. It was two stories equipped with not just the regular menu items but Italian and Mexican foods. They had an ice cream parlor and a two lane bowling alley. They also had an arcade and a singing moon like Chuck-E-Cheese. Yay!





Day 7: We packed up and headed up for a relaxing day at Daytona Beach. Yes, it was so relaxing! Just what we needed after walking so much before.






Yes, we have our very own Karate kid.

Braxton's Performance

Braxton has been in his school's 2nd grade choir and they performed in an OFF-BROADWAY musical type thing where all the schools in the area performed. He did a great job. No pics of the actual performance because of camera not working well indoors like this. But we got a cute picture of Braxton and a friend of his also in the choir. At the end of the performance they announced that they had also been judging art work from the district in most grades and types and Braxton got second place in acrylic in the second grade division. They will be framed and hung in the district office for a year before we actually get to have it back, but we are so proud of him and his willingness to try new things. Way to go Brax.

Isaiah is almost 5 and just lost a tooth

Isaiah isn't officially 5 until next Friday, but we will be hitting the road, and so I thought that I would post about him a little early. I can't believe that he is almost ready for kindergarten! He has been one constant joy after another. He is one of our favorite loves in our lives and we don't know what we ever did without him (maybe got a little more sleep). He is our early riser. We are still waiting for him to let us sleep in on the weekends past 6:30 a.m. He is constantly on the go and so when it's bed time and his head hits the pillow he is out within about two minutes or less. Yesterday Isaiah decided that it was time for his loose tooth to be out and let Brandon take the floss to it. Within 10 seconds it was out. He has been a little explorer lately everyday we are on watch. Because Braxton was the same way just not all at once like Isaiah.

Lately he has been experimenting like crazy:
~ If any of the soap and shampoo dispensers are remotely low, he experiments what will happen when I put water in here. It will be better right?
~ He has taken my clinique face wash and added water to it. Along with dumping it out onto his hands to see what it's like.
~ He fills the sink up with water and soap and pours cotton balls into it just to see what will happen to the cotton.
~ He has gotten a hold of my powdery makeup and dumped it out. and mixed my eyeshadow with the opposite brushes.
~ He has gotten into my mascara (That was one big mess).
~ He has taken one of our razors and slices his finger then dumped out the shampoo on the bottom of the shower all in one sitting. After which he said to us, "Umm, there kind of was a big problem in here."
~ He gets into the scissors and loves to cut paper (Thank goodness).
~ He claims that he was cleaning out the wooden drawer that holds his toothbrush when we see the one inch of water mess in the drawer right before church for that matter.
~ He has been showing his independence by climbing onto the counter to fill up his bowl with macaroni when I step out of the room. Yikes! Not to mention to get a snack in the cupboard when he thinks that I am going to say no.
~ Last Sunday he told his Primary teacher that he needed to go to the bathroom and so she sent him, but he didn't return. They searched the bathroom, but no sign of Isaiah. The Primary President said that they were in sharing time for Senior primary when they heard some noise in the baptismal font. Well, Isaiah was playing in the font. Thank goodness he didn't start turning on the water. When asked about this he just said that he knew that it wasn't safe and was just checking to see if anyone else was in there so that he could tell them to get out. YEAH Right! The kids is quick on his toes.

But all in all this little independent little boy has learned to do so much this year.

~ He can button the vest on his church outfit. (Yes)
~ He can brush his own teeth.
~ He can clear the dishes off the table after dinner.
~ He can get dressed by himself with the occasional shirt or pants on backwards and shoes on the wrong feet. (Pants? How?)
~ He loves to write his numbers and practices daily without being asked. (We are still working on 3's and 8's).
~ He can ride a bike
~ He can make his bed (Like a five year old would, but it's been made).
~ He is starting to learn how to read words like: sit, hill, cat, fat, the, is, mag, bag, rat, and. (Yes)
~ He is the Netflix master and can add movies to the instant Que which can be a problem. He has added the cartoon Family Guy and another cartoon that he thinks are cartoons that he should be watching. We monitor the Netflix daily if not more. Braxton even has asked him for help with it. What?
~ We are working on shoe tying. Not there yet, but almost.
~ He is a computer and wii expert.
~ He claims that Braxton is the great scientist and reader and he is the great artist. He loves to draw. And makes a little special friend at school a picture quite often. Her name is L-I-L-Y! Sigh And She makes his heart happy he told me one day on the drive home from preschool.
~ He loves preschool and has told us that he can't eat sweets because they talked about that in preschool. He gave the example of sweet potatoes(like we had at Thanksgiving), sweet corn, sweet meat. That type of stuff. When he was told that chocolate cake and chocolate were also sweet he looked at us like we were crazy and said "But they don't have sweet in them".

Is he ready for school? I think the answer is yes! Are we ready for him to be in school all day? The answer is definitely yes!

He is getting to be so big and is taller than quite a lot of the kindergarteners at Braxton's school. He has skinnied up this year and could get away with slim pants now, can you believe it?

All in all, we love this little guy. He keeps us young! We have been so blessed to have him in our lives. We are so proud of him and his willingness to try new things, headaches and all for us. But It's worth It!!!!


Happy Early Birthday Big guy!!!

A Wolf And A Race

Last week Braxton recieved his wolf badge a gold and two silver arrows at the Blue and Gold banquet . We are so proud of his willingness to continue to work in the scouting program. He loves scouting and has had a blast being with the scouting program here in our ward. I have always thought guys are handsome in uniforms. Isn't he just so handsome?




Braxton wasn't too keen on how his pinewood derby turned out for him last year and wasn't too sure that he wanted to have anything to do with it this year. He and Brandon worked hard on getting it sanded and completed. Then race day came and we went. Braxton belly aching the whole way. We were constantly talking to him about positive attitude the entire thirty minute drive to the church. We had gotten a cheap food scale and found out that it haddn't worked very well and had to do some major adjustments to the weight. Let's just say, we were very heavy. When completed we were 4.9 oz and 5.0 oz is allowed. So we stayed where we were and hoped for the best. Isaiah brought his pinewood derby along just in case they would let him race too. And Braxton's Cub Master told Isaiah that they were in need of a Dummy Car and that his could be it. He was totally thrilled. He got to weigh his car in and get an official number, and all the while he was telling everyone that he was the Dummy Car proudly.

When the first race happened, I missed it! Braxton came running back with the biggest grin on his face and asked, "Did you see that? I just won." So race after race he was beaming. There was only once race that he had come in second. And he didn't even let that ruin his fun. There were a few times that Braxton let his ego get the best of him and we had to then talk about pride. Braxton ended up placing first in speed here and now gets to head on down to district in April. Brandon was so excited that the car had worked and we were both just happy that Braxton now wants to think about ideas for a car next year.

The picture of the racing cars is Isaiah and Braxton's cars racing together. Isaiah's is the silver and orange on the right and Braxton's is the one in first!