Braden's Lego Creations

Braden still loves building with Lego every time he gets a free moment.  Here are some of his recent little creations and his captions for them:

lego surfer dude, giant waves Guy: kid Hon Solo

lego ipod touch at home screen or lock screen 

lego guy w/ Ds and stylus ( sorry about the pic.)  :d

lego guy w/ Hero Factory hat

Mini big ben actually tells time! 

um...lego Jedi vs. long neck? 

bad guy team: red pants electronics, black pants smarty, mini guy go thru everything, blue pants master, long legs  super strong

move theater doors actually turns! 

Letters To Santa

Braden's letter this year was a form letter:
 Dear Santa
   My name is Braden
   This year I have been: ( ) very good (x) quite good ( ) a bit naughty
   What I would MOST like for Christmas this year is: Legos, I podtuch, Ds, Desply case.
   because: it is mostly wate I want.
   If your elves are not too busy I would also like:  bord games, big rc car, lowes kits and red tool box kits.
   I promise to leave you some: Ginger Bread house on Christmas Eve.
   Merry Christmas!

Mylie wrote her own letter that was filled with 0.1 repeated.  That is the way she writes everything lately.  Bob calls it her binary language.  I asked her to tell me what it said: "Dear Santa: I would like a zhu zhu dog, a dollie, and a horsie.  I was sick.  Put presents under the tree. Love Mylie"

Christmas 2011 - Braden

Origami Dinosaurs from Grandma Sara 

Despicable Me DVD

Star Wars lunch box with 2 shaped sandwich cutters

Sweater

Think this boy loves Lego?

Build-your-own race car from Grandma Sara

Lego Star Wars movie and Character Encyclopedia

Pretzel M&Ms & car from Grandma Sara

Flannel Pillowcase made by Grandma Sara

DS

Book for the whole family from Aunt Linda & Uncle David

Playdough

Santa brought Mylie this cake-maker playdough set and so she and Braden played with it for a bit after opening gifts on Christmas day.  They are also wearing the cute outfits that they got for Christmas.

Christmas Concert

Braden's school had a K-3rd grade Christmas concert on the 20th of December.  I got there almost an hour early, and still had to sit at the back of the gym, those things are very well attended.  The 3rd grade classes got to sing their songs last, so we got to enjoy all of the songs from the other grades as well.  They were all adorable.  While Braden's class was singing, Bob snuck up to take a few pictures, but this one turned out best.  My sister, Nikki and her husband Steven were also able to come and Braden was very excited to have them there.

Pictures

I took the kids to Kiddie Kandids on Monday to get some pictures taken.  I got this of the 3 of them on CD so I can post it here and make whatever copies I want.  Aren't they cute?!  It took a while to get Clark to warm up to getting them taken so we didn't get many smiles of him.

We also got to go down and see Santa.  The camera stopped working while we were waiting in line, so Santa invited all the kids to come sit while he read them a story.  It was the most adorable thing ever.  Once they got the camera back up and working, we got back in line to get pictures.  Santa was so great with the kids, but Clark immediately started crying.  So our cute photo with Santa includes a screaming Clark.  I wouldn't have it any other way though,  because that is who he is right now - terrified of anyone other than mom and dad.

Glasses

A note came home from the school nurse at the end of October that Braden has failed an eye test at school and needed to be seen by an eye dr.  We went to Boise Vision Care and saw Dr. Cleverly and it was decided that Braden needed some glasses.  He needs them to see distances, so pretty much only takes them off to read.  Such a handsome boy.  If you can't tell, the frames are a dark blue.

3rd Grade

Braden was so excited! (as always)  I was the only one nervous.

3 fingers for 3rd Grade!

Let's go! Let's go Mom!

Braden has Mrs. Moura this year and his good friend, Ryker, is in his class again.  School started on the 22nd of August he is there for almost 7 hours a day.  He got a grown-up (non-character) backpack this year, but chose a Cars themed lunch box.

I thought it would be fun to post his school supply list this year:

$21 activity fee

1/16" plastic ruler (12" standard & metric)

2 assorted pocket only folders

3 spiral comp. notebooks, wide rule (70 count)

1 box of kleenex tissue - 120 count

1 box of 24 count Crayola crayons

1 box 7" 24ct. Crayola colored pencils

3 large (22 gram) Elmer's glue sticks - no purple

1 pair of pointed Fiskars scissors

4 color set chisel tip Expo Dry Erase markers (student use)

1 fluorescent yellow highlighter

2 pink pearl erasers

2 red medium stick pen

36 #2 Made in USA wood pencils

2 50ct Lysol disinfecting wipes

1 8oz waterless hand sanitizer - Boys only

1 Crayola watercolor set

1 box quart Ziploc - Boys only

1 box gallon Ziploc - Girls only

2 ream of white copy paper 20 weight

1 box Band Aids

1 pkg 200 count wide rule paper - Girls only

**note: I sent 9 small purple glue sticks (large non-purple glue sticks were $1.97/ea); I could not find Made in USA pencils anywhere; lysol wipes do not come in 50 count - I sent 35 count; sent an off brand watercolor set 'cause that's what I had**

Great to Be Eight!

Finally got the pictures off of my parents' camera of the big day!  The boys in their white jumpsuits for the baptism, father and son, and my little boy who isn't so little anymore.  I made the blue tie for his special day.

dress-up

Mylie inherited some dress-ups from my niece and will occasionally play with them.  On this day, she convinced Braden to be her dress-up servant.  He helped her pick out her outfits and change into them and then he would introduce the newest 'princess' to me.  What a fun big brother to play with his sister even if it was dress-ups!

Braden's Baptism

Braden turned 8 last month and made the wonderful decision to be baptized on Saturday, August 6th.  There was a short and sweet little program with 2 speakers and a song sung by primary children before the stake baptisms began.  Braden was baptized by his dad and then everyone gathered in another room for the closing prayer.  After the prayer, Braden handed out these little 'thank-you's that we put together. Sugar cookie boys and a "B" for Braden.  The tag says "it's great to be eight! Thanks for coming to my baptism!"  We took a few pictures outside and then headed to our house for dinner.

For dinner we had a homemade macaroni & cheese bar and this jello.  It was all yummy and everyone loved putting toppings of their choosing on their mac n cheese.  The toppings were: mini pepperoni, panko, italian cheese, bacon, salsa, fresh tomato, chulla, and french fried onions.  We had cookies for dessert.

Braden was confirmed (also by his dad) on Sunday, August 7th in our ward's Sacrament meeting.  Braden got to share a bit about his baptism experience in Primary sharing time.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come and participate!  We sure missed those who weren't able to be there!

(more pictures to come)

More swim lesson pics & a video

Video of Braden swimming.  I hoped to get more, but the camera ran out of memory.

 Braden is a little fish when swimming on his back.  Now to work on swimming on his stomach...

 Got both kids in this shot.

 Mylie about to go under the water.

Mylie had another teacher for the first 3 days of class.  He would pull them around the pool on a pool noodle and it was the cutest thing ever.

Swim Lessons

The kids have been taking swim lessons at the Meridian Pool this summer.  They just ended their 1st session.  Here are some fun pics:

 Mylie loves to "jump" off the diving board.  She has a different idea of what jumping is though and always stands there until a teacher throws her off.

 Then she gets in line to it all again.

Braden does not enjoy jumping off of anything into the water.  He also stands there terrified until a teacher gets up to toss him in.

 Unlike Mylie, Braden does NOT want to do it again.

 Swim safety day. Mylie, her teacher, and the other cutie in her class, Maddie.

Thought this was cute.  This is Savanah's (my niece) class.  They made a floating train in the water.

 Last day of class "Fun Friday".  Mylie "jumping" off the diving board again.

Braden got to go down the slide and actually liked it.  The kids are doing one last session of swim lessons starting next week, so hopefully he'll get the opportunity to slide again.