Braden's Birthday!

Today was an Awesome day! Braden had his first ever birthday party! He invited his entire daycare class, and, counting the siblings of his friends, we had about 15 kids. The nice thing about a party at this age is that the parents stay the entire time, so there were almost as many parents as kids. We bounced on a moon bounce, played with all of our sports equipment, blew lots of bubbles, grilled hot dogs, ate cake, opened presents, and had a great time! We also sweated a bit after the sun came out...

I love that picture of Aaron--he has a mouth full of Cheetos and evidence is all around his mouth. Such pretty red hair! Aaron and Braden stayed with the same babysitter (Maria) when they were little, so whether they know it or not, they have been friends for a long time.

I made Braden's cake. I looked at buying one and thought, "heck, I can make one for a whole lot cheaper." It came out okay. Not quite professional, but Braden loved it, and that's what counts, right? I don't have a great picture of it--my friend Courtney took one, though. When she emails it to me, I'll post it. It has Diego running in the grass next to a river/waterfall. Most importantly, the cake has a big number 4 candle!
Braden received wonderful presents! One of the fun things about having a birthday party is that friends give gifts that we never would have thought of. Zachary W. gave him a huge tub of Tinkertoys that he is playing with right now. Aaron and Bobby gave him a really cool DVD Bingo game--we played it tonight with Papa and Sherri, and Braden won both games. Zachary L. gave him a set of little Tonka trucks (and we all know how much Braden loves trucks!). Skylar gave him a Spiderman hopper that he immediately wanted daddy to inflate. He hopped on it all afternoon! Sophie gave him a pirate board game; we played it this afternoon and laughed hysterically at the word "booty"! Catelyn's parents told me that they spent awhile letting Catelyn pick out the perfect gift for Braden, and she finally settled on a Home Depot step stool full of toy tools. I know he will use that to "help" daddy with all of his projects. Eila gave him a really neat first words book with magnetic letters that he can use to spell the words--perfect because he is so into spelling right now! She also gave him a cute dinosaur t-shirt. Chelsea gave him pajamas (and matching ones for Garrett), bubblebath in the shape of Lightning McQueen, and two Cars books. Jack gave him a set of Matchbox cars which he had opened and was playing with before the party was even over. He also gave him some stickers, a book, and some pencils. Every gift was just perfect!


We rented the Moon bounce from Aggieland Moonwalk(http://aggielandinflatables.com/). They delivered it about 10:30 and picked it up around 8:00, even though we had only paid for a four hour rental--how cool is that? After the party was over, Garrett took a nap and rest of us rested, then our family went out jumped for a good hour or more. If we bought one of these things, we'd all be in great shape!

Yea!! What a day!

Garrett's Birthday!

So, it has been almost a month since my last post. Our satellite internet connection was r-e-a-l-l-y slow, and then Kyle figured out that the trees had leafed out since they last adjusted the satellite tower thingy, so they came out and fixed it. It is so fast now. Not quite as fast as cable internet, but much better than before. (as if I have a clue what I am talking about).

Anyhoo, it has been birthday week at the Stutts house, beginning with Garrett's birthday last Friday. I was in Austin with the high school newspaper staff, but Kyle took Braden and Garrett to Gattiland. On a Friday night! Without me! What a GREAT dad!

Thursday night we had a little family get together with our good friends the Corleys for a celebration of Garrett's birthday.

I made cupcakes, but I used strawberry icing. For some reason, it didn't occur to me that strawberry icing means that the cupcakes would be pink. I figured Garrett would hate me when he was 16 or so if I had pictures in the scrapbook of him blowing out candles on a pink cupcake, so I bought a much more masculine lion cake at Kroger's for him:

Boys will be boys!

How about a bench for that deck?

My husband is SO smart!

Yesterday he built three six foot benches for our new deck, and today he built a kid-sized bench for the boys. Right now, Kyle is hanging the chair-hammock that we bought in Cozumel. It will be in that covered space right outside our bedroom door.

Linsey was here last night and she said, "you realize that you are turning your place into a party house, right?"

Yep, we do!

Kids are expensive!

Aren't they? Sheesh!

I took Braden to my dentist about a month ago because I was concerned about some spots on his front teeth. Those turned out to be just plaque, and the hygienist scraped them away, but the dentist discovered two cavities on his molars. My dentist didn't want to try to fill them because of Braden's age, and referred us to a pediatric dentist.

On Friday, I took Braden to Dr. Badger. He took x-rays, examined his teeth, and discovered three cavities. He also suggested Braden's molars be filled with sealant to help alleviate future problems. Before I knew it, they were asking me to sign an estimate of $511 (but I got a 5% discount for paying in full...whoopee) for that day's treatment (half of his mouth). We'll have to go back in a few weeks to do the other half (the estimate is over $300).

Braden was awesome throughout the entire visit, other than the fact that he refused to answer any questions from the dentist or the hygienist. He pretty much just ignored them, but he did open his mouth when they asked. He had nitrous oxide during the cavity filling, and watched one of his favorite Nickelodeon shows on a TV mounted in the ceiling.

Afterwards, we went to Burger King and he had a chocolate shake. He kept rubbing his gums on the side of his mouth that was numb, as if he couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.

Dr. Badger gave him a stuffed badger and a balloon and he was very proud to take them to daycare to show off to his friends. They were a little over-excited about the balloon, though, so Braden asked me to take it with me back to the car.

In sum, I'm a bad mom because I let Braden have milk in a bottle at night until he was two, and now I'm paying almost a thousand dollars in dental bills to fix his teeth! Good thing I took Garrett off the bottle before he was one! And, we are going to be vigilant about brushing teeth from now on!

And NOW we're done!

Well, we're done with major projects for THIS year, anyway.

Or maybe just this month.

Tom and Kyle built our back deck this weekend! We're not quite done--the deck needs staining, some benches, landscaping, and maybe some furniture, but the structure is all there. Between it and the patio, we have quite the backyard for entertaining!

Happy Easter Day!

"Easter Day!" That is what Braden called it when he was looking at the pictures just now. As in, "Hey! That's Easter Day!" Makes sense...Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, so why not Easter Day?



Here are some pics!