HAPPY BIRTHDAY Brian!!

Today Brian turned 28, YEAH for getting older!

Brian asked for a coconut cream pie...since i have never made one of these I consulted by favorite dessert cookbook and got started. It turned out pretty good! Brian's long day of school is on Tuesday and that is when his birthday fell this year so we squeezed in celebrating around his classes.

I met him for lunch during a break, had dinner ready for him by 5pm so he could leave again by 5:45pm, then pie and presents at 9pm when he got home from class...whew that was a busy day!

Braden got daddy a new hat...the one in the photo... Braden liked blowing candles out with dad and as you can se he also enjoyed eating some pie.

We love you Daddy! Thank you for being the best husband and father for our family...you are the best!

Red Robin comes to Idaho Falls

A new Red Robin just opened in Idaho
Falls.... YEAH!!! This is the place we all went after football games back in Puyallup, or any other celebration. And for the past 7 years I have had serious Red Robin withdrawals. Their fabulous strawberry lemonade, onion rings, and giant fries and ranch! Oh yeah and the burgers are bad either... ;)
We invited all of Brian's family to come enjoy my favorite place for our family birthday party. Aside from our 1.5 hour wait to get seated it was really fun. Hey we got free appetizers out of it. I guess when you bring a group of 12 you should expect to wait. Not to mention new place so it was busy. But still fun. Braden enjoyed it and loved the red robin that was wondering around. And of course they gave us the Red Robin birthday treatment. VERY loud singing and free ice cream....except they added a new feature, a goofy balloon get up, see photos (not sure what to call it). I have to say though not the same as Puyallup's Red Robin, but it came close.

I can CLIMB

Just as I was blogging today Braden climbed onto the couch, after the lap top. Since we missed that on camera we tried to have him do that again. And he did!

I can WALK

On January 30th Braden took his first real steps. Over this past week he had gotten better and better. Last night (Feb. 6) while we were bowling he was all over the place walking. And today he climbed up onto the couch for the first time while I am creating this blog. WOW!

SuperBowl Sunday

So I am not usually a fan of Super Bowl Sunday and we never watch football on Sunday. But Brian loves it and since this year I had two guys (Brian and David) who were anxious to watch the game it gave me an excuse to start cooking. I had nothing planned until right before we left for church. When we got back I just got a little into it. So I made the following:
BBQ Meatballs (made with ground turkey, much better for you and VERY tasty)
Egg rolls (pulled pork, cabbage, carrots, celery, and fresh ginger) YUM
Chicken Quesadillas
Veggies with Chiz's ranch
Lemon Strawberry cake with cream cheese and whipped topping (i made it up)

So I guess I went a little overboard for three people and a baby! But it was fun!!! And the boys didn't mind eating all that food, thank goodness.

My favorite hat

So this is the cutest hat and keeps his ears warm in our 8 degree weather. He usually pulls it off as soon as we put it on, but not today. Today he starting posing in it and pretty much I just think he is super cute in it. So here ya go....

Oh yeah and I stand all the time now...I take tiny steps...not quite walking yet, but working on it.

Meal time....always fun time!

I always find myself taking photos during meal time...when he is covered in food. But he is always so happy when he is eating and makes the greatest faces. In the top right one he was copying what I was doing, stretching out his neck. He really likes to watch me make dinner while he snacks on graham crackers. Below was during dinner one night when daddy and him where eating. He likes posing for the camera too....he really is such a ham. As soon as the camera comes out he starts making faces or grinning ear to ear. Where does he come up with these faces, probably from his Uncle Dav. :)

Grease is the word...

Brian and I went to dinner at the Farmer's Merchant Banquet hosted by the city of Rexburg. The theme was "Grease" or 50's. I was a little behind in getting costumes or I would have done better at sticking to the Grease theme; however, I was excited to dress up so day of I was able to rent some costumes from the college for both of us. We enjoyed an evening out, while Uncle David kindly watched Braden for us!

Shoulder rides...

One of our favorite things to do with Braden is give him shoulder rides. He just laughs and laughs and when he is done I just let's himself fall backwards which always makes me a little nervous because I am not usually prepared for him to go flying backwards. Both Brian (daddy) and Uncle Dav have fun running between the kitchen and living room with him.

A recap of the past month..........

So the past month has been a little hectic and I have not made ANY time to blog. So I will do a brief recap of the last month. There have been some fun milestones with Braden and I know my family and friends have been begging for me to post these things

We have been bowling a couple times recently, once in mid January and then again last night. These photos are from a couple weeks ago. Braden has fun with the lights and seeing all the people. We have really got to go bowling more often, as my score is significantly suffering from lack of practice! Last night I only bowled in the 80-90s...I can do better than that! It may be due to my attempt to perfect my technique in not "flipping" my wrist when I bowl, not dropping the bowl when I throw it but allowing it to gently roll, and finally my attempt to one day step with my left foot while I bowl right handed. I always end of taking my last step with my right foot and doing this lunging action. PS i have no ideas why it underlined the above...i can't get it to go away.

I am going to recap in several posts, so I don't have to keep moving the photos back to where i want them. If someone could tell me how to fix that I would greatly appreciate it!