Love the Fair!

We made the annual pilgrimage to the State Fair of Texas and as always, it was a super fun time. Lots of yummy food you wait to eat all year and lots of things to see and do. Nanny and Aunt T (Kaylee) went along as well which made it even more of a good time. Brayden enjoyed the fair even more this year - especially the petting zoo and a few of the rides. Here are some pics!

First the petting zoo:

A giraffe!

The funny thing is Brayden really thought this was Melman from Madagascar. They had a few zebras as well and he kept calling them Martys. :)

He wanted to hold the feed cup until a goat went for it and then he wanted me to feed the animals and he helped from afar.

Donkey and her sweet baby

These are by far the strangest animals I have ever seen! I couldn't tell you what the names are, I have forgotten. But bizarre!

His favorite was the pig and her babies. I couldn't take a photo of it. I felt too bad for the momma pig - they were crawling all over her and nursing - she looked miserable.

A butterfly landed on Kaylee's arm. I told her that had to mean good luck was headed her way.

Showing off her new good luck charm to B.

The Midway!

A corny dog lover, like his Daddy and Mommy. Yay for Fletcher's!

The iconic Texas Star

Midway alley of games

So last year Brayden wasn't really big enough for rides: tall enough or brave enough. This year however was a different story, he was game for them all. We just rode a few. I took a pic showing he had hit the 36" mark!

Plane ride with Daddy.

Race car ride

He decided he would rather have T go with him.

We saved the best for last. The log ride with Nanny and Mommy.

The thing about this ride I didn't realize until I was already on it with my almost 3 year old is there are no safety harnesses. I thought oh geez, and just held onto Brayden for dear life. It was really actually quite fun and the next few photos show us coming down the grande finale. :) Thanks to Ryan for capturing it all. When you zoom in on one of them you can see Brayden looks terrified - but afterwards he asked if he could go again. So I guess he liked it! I laugh everytime I see these.

In front of Big Tex...

Brayden went home saying "Howdy Folks this is Big Tex!"

I take this photo every year of Ryan and Brayden - in front of the car buildings - by the lagoon. With Brayden on Ryan's shoulders. It has become a tradition and each year I put the new photo in a frame on my vanity in my bathroom so I can look at the two of them when I get ready in the morning. Its fun to see the changes in Brayden each year. This is year 3!

See ya next year State Fair!

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

It was my birthday yesterday! This past weekend Ryan had talked to our families and friends without me knowing and planned a small get together to celebrate my birthday Sunday night at our house. It was such a fun night to have all my favorite people together, with the kids playing, getting to catch up with friends, etc. It was super sweet of my husband to get it all together and I feel like it was the best birthday I have had in a long time! I am a lucky girl that is for sure. I feel very blessed for all in my life and hope this year is a great one. Here are some pics from the night:


Cake time!

Make a wish! Brayden helped.

Brayden and Travis trying to get some cake. Love all of these boys.

Brayden and daddy

Me and my sweet momma

What a good looking family. :) What a great day!

Our future soccer star :)

Ryan took Brayden this week to Soccer Corner to get him a Manchester United soccer kit (jersey). In a week they are having jersey day at Brayden's school so, of course, Ryan wants him to wear nothing but his favorite team. They ended up coming home with a whole outfit: shirt, shorts and socks. We immediately put the outfit on him and he looked adorable. :) Daddy was quite proud, as was I. We are ready for it to get cooler so Ryan can start taking him outside and kicking the ball around with him. It's just too dang hot to do anything right now!

My boys :)

Beat the Heat

This summer has been a scorcher. We are talking several days in a row of over 100 degrees! Shocker for Texas, right? We have been trying to cool off by taking advantage of the pool and going swimming as much as we can. Brayden has also been in swimming lessons for the first time this summer so the more exposure to the water the more comfortable he is getting. He is still a bit nervous about "going under" (his words) but he is much better than he was at the beginning of the summer. He loves swimming with Daddy - so here are a few photos I took:

4th of July

Enjoyed the long weekend....didn't really do much which was really nice. This was the first weekend Ryan had been in town in 3 weeks so he really wanted to just relax and enjoy being home so that is what we did. We went to a 4th of July parade on Saturday. Monday we took Brayden to his very first movie - Toy Story 3. He did really great! Watched the whole movie and stayed pretty quiet throughout. He got in Ryan's lap the last bit and asked to go potty twice (which I should not complain about!), but other than that he loved it. I took a few pics at the parade and some of him playing with sparklers in our backyard. (with parental supervision, of course!) Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Brayden's buddy Mr. Grady kicking the soccer ball.

Grady getting tangled in the net. :)

Nanny came along with us to the parade. Here they are watching...

SPARKLERS!!!! This was the extent of our fireworks this year. We were to lazy to go out and watch them this year.