Birthday Boy! 1 year old!

Brayden turned one on Saturday!!! It's hard to believe that our little boy is 1! To think of how much he has changed the past 12 months - it's truly amazing. Each day he just boggles our minds with the new things he does. He is not walking yet but wants to so bad. Ryan and I have to hold his arms and walk around the house with him all day. He got a Tonka truck/walker for his birthday and I spent this evening going back and forth with him down the hallway. Soon he will be taking his first steps by himself. We now will roll a ball to him and he will grab it and throw it to us. He also likes to hand us objects and then wants us to hand them right back to him. Pretty fun game.

We had a small get together for his birthday over the weekend with family and close friends. It seemed that he had a fun time. He didn't like birthday cake very much which I was surprised about however it may have been the group staring at him rather than the icing making him messy. Here are some pics of his birthday and a few more of the past month or so --- enjoy!!

Aunt Jenn, the birthday boy and Mommy

Nana with Brayden

Me and my sweet little man

Cousin Cooper, Aunt Kamilia, Mommy and Brayden

Instructing Uncle Ryan on somewhere he wanted to go...

Always wanting to walk around...

Pappy and Mimi giving him some water

Caketime with Mommy and Daddy (initially we thought he would go for it!)

Looking to Daddy for some help

Not so fun...this icing stuff is sticky.

I will try it though.

This was his big cake! It turned out really cute.

A birthday present from Pappy and Mimi... a buggy to ride in. FUN!

Mom - seriously quit taking pictures of me, please.

I was singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider to get him to look at me and smile.

This past week was also Ryan's Dad's 65th birthday! A pic from his party.

Pappy and Brayden hanging out a few Sundays ago.

Before bathtime playing with Daddy.

Cuddling with Daddy.

Post-bathtime.

Daddy reading him his favorite book of the moment - a Halloween book. I love that he likes for us to read to him.

Brayden with his buddy Grady.

Alan and Alissa trying to help out the wanna-be walkers. Grady is four months younger than Brayden but you would never know it looking at these two together! They are the same size.

A trip to the fair! Not a great pic - but the big Texas wheel is in the background.

This is one of my favorite pics of him.

Wheeeeee!

Playing under the kitchen table.

Being a sweetheart before dinner.

Friday Night at the Pumpkin Patch

We took Brayden to his first pumpkin patch last night. Ryan's parents came too. He wasn't too interested in the pumpkins but had fun riding in a wagon. I am enjoying my new camera - I thought I would post a few (okay, a lot) of the pics we took :) Happy Fall!

A Few More Pics...

Ryan got me a new camera for my birthday last weekend --- one of those fancy digital SLR cameras. Thank you honey! So I have been trying it out all week (it's fantastic!) and thought I would post some of the photos. The clarity of the image is amazing. Clearly I am excited about it :)

11 Months Old!

Brayden is 11 months old today! One more month until his first birthday. I was thinking today that this time last year we were moving into our new house and I was VERY pregnant. We were frantically trying to make a home for our son who was coming in less than a month. Now our home is filled with a busy crawling child and we are constantly hearing his laughter and babbles throughout the house. I can't imagine a life without him.

I started a job at the Dallas Museum of Art working on the Tutankhamun exhibition that starts October 3rd. I am loving it so far. It's so fun to walk into a museum everyday for work. (The show is going to be great - so everyone please come see it!) Brayden has started going to child care and is doing great. After all of the fretting I did the past few months about how he would do - I am more at ease and so glad that he is adjusting. The woman that is watching him said that he is the best baby - so calm and happy and friendly with the other kids there. She said that we should be thrilled that we have such a great kid. Made me think that Ryan and I must be doing something right so far ;)

Brayden is still just growing and growing each day. He is constantly on the move. He wants to walk very badly but is still crawling. He walks around furniture and pulls up on us but no steps on his own yet. I have caught him a few times let go and stand for a second but then he drops down. He also has started saying "oh" a lot - he just crawls around and mutters "oh" with everyday thing he comes in contact with. It's pretty cute. He babbles "dada" all of the time. It used to be "mama" but no more!

Here are some recent pics of him:

Playing in the sheets while I was making the bed.

I was in the kitchen and he was playing on the floor below me. Next thing I know I find him standing in the fridge. Guess he wanted a snack.

Such a sweet boy.

He loves going outside and crawling in the grass. He finds the texture of the grass fascinating.

It was approaching bedtime and he was tired of Mommy taking photos.

Wanting me to read him one of his favorite books "Big Red Barn". He loves it when we make the animal noises.

Ryan got him some new Nike kicks. They even have the little shocks in the heels.

Stretching for a walk :)

Ready for his workout. He's having trouble wearing shoes. I don't know what we are going to do when it gets cooler outside and he has to wear them. When we put them on him he just wants to pull them off.

Got to meet the Chick-fil-A cow - what a treat! Eat mor chick'n! :)

He got a new train toy from Pappy and Mimi - he loves it!

Cuddling with Daddy before a nap.