Mr. Athletic

Braydon played football this spring in Cedar Rapids.  Check out the athlete below:

Team Picture

Yes, he's the one wearing football gloves.

Ready to go!

Braydon LOVES sports- of any kind really.  I'm sure I couldn't pay him to play with toys, wait- maybe I could.  BUT he has no interest in playing with any sort of toy.  He would much rather, and does, only play with baseballs, soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, etc.  You get the drift.  

Anyway, he's quite the athlete- he's quick and puts his heart into it.  Hopefully it continues to be a source of happiness for him in years to come!  GO B!

Dr. Ward (And our trip to Omaha)

I bought myself an IPAD for  my birthday last year.  Any teacher  who applied for an IPAD in our school also received one in May.  This makes 2 IPAD II for the Foster's.  They are fun- and a nice way to keep the kiddos entertained.  (At home AND in the classroom :)).  Braydon and Elise are obviously having a great time on our drive to Omaha.

We are notorious for hitting birds.  Anywhere we go- we hit a bird.  We hardly made it out of Des Moines on our way to Omaha and SMACK- another bird.  We think he just wanted a free ride- he made it all the way to Omaha without falling out.  In fact, my brother ended up digging it out with a stick!  Yuck!

Elise thought she could watch a movie with Braydon- but really- she is more entertained with wearing the headphones- she thinks it's great!

My nephew- Hendrix- after his t-ball game.

Hendrix, Cash, and Braydon

We were celebrating Kim's graduation at a brewery in Omaha.  We put them up on the ledge so they couldn't run away!

Cash, Hendrix, and Braydon playing with water guns.

Elise trying to join the fun.

She found Harper's mower instead.

The real reason for this post:  My sister-in-law Kim graduated with her Master's Degree- She is now a licensed Nurse Practitioner- Dr. Kimberly Ward! 

We headed down to help her celebrate for the weekend.  We didn't make it in time to go to the graduation ceremony, but we made it to help her celebrate with lunch and spend the evening/next day with her.  All of my siblings (minus Alex) made the trek- along with all of Kim's family.  The kids had a blast playing together.

Next stop in Omaha- HENDRY DOORLY ZOO!

Summer

It's nearly time to close up June. I can't believe I have been on summer vacation for almost a month. We have been busy trying to keep busy. Braydon and Elise are enjoying each other SO MUCH. It's good thing they have each other- it allows me a FEW free minutes. (I use the word few, lightly). Braydon has been participating in t-ball and basketball this summer. When that is all done, he will start swimming lessons- his second set. He loves both activities. And not to be biased, but he's a good little athlete. He is doing the Kernels Reading Program this summer. His goal is to read 1,000 minutes by the end of the summer. He is 50 minutes away from 500! He reads at least 25 minutes per day- we are trying to keep him 'ahead of the game' in school. Hopefully this helps his transition to 1st grade go smoothly. So far this summer we have visited the splash pad in town, gone to the Cedar Rapids Pool, gone to parks, Palo Beach, the library, Hansen's Dairy Farm in Hudson, had Cash over for a week, and of course played outside for countless hours. Anything to avoid being 'bored.' I think our favorite activity so far was going to the pool and to the dairy farm. Elise loved seeing the cows. Elise is growing like a weed. I can't believe she will be 2 at the end of the summer. She loves to read books, eat, sit at the table like a big girl, run, push her stroller for a walk, and whatever Braydon is doing- she wants to do it too! We attempted to get rid of the 'binky' this last weekend. (Key word- ATTEMTPED). We were unsuccessful. When I picked her up for her last day of daycare on May 30th, her teachers told me they stopped giving her the binky when she started in that room (in January). Ha! Boy had she fooled us. She is like a bink-aholic around here. Not only does she need 1 bink, but 2!! One for her mouth and one for her hand. Anyway, after letting her scream for 20+ minutes last Sunday night, my heart broke, and I was forced to give it back to her. I realized as long as she only has it when she's sleeping, what is it hurting? Right? After witnessing a 2+ year old at the pool today (in the water) with a bink in her mouth, I figured Elise is doing great! The rest of the summer we plan to visit the Omaha Zoo as well as the Ward's, celebrate Cash's birthday in DesMoines and B's at Planet X in Cedar Rapids, attend a wedding in Okoboji, and enjoy some relaxation! Oh, and if you're reading this and wondering why it is all one paragraph (as the preview shows me)- I did actually use correct structure; however, it must be because I am using my IPAD and it won't allow it to format correctly. Annoying! Happy Summer!

It's already September...

Birthday sign from her friends at school!

Round 2: finger painting with frosting!
Round 1: Not really enjoying her first cupcake!

Loving her new horse. Thanks Nicole and Lauren!

Elise had a great first birthday. I am proud to say she did NOT like her birthday cake. For her party we had on Saturday I just got her a white cupcake with white frosting. She took about 2 tastes and threw it. So I was thinking 'maybe this is a fluke..' so for her real birthday on Tuesday I got her a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting thinking that maybe she just didn't like white cake. Nope, that wasn't the case either. She took one bite, cringed, and started finger painting with the frosting. I finished the 9 inch cake for her.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELISE! :)
Her gift opening was fun. She got 3 new babies with a stroller and their very own pack-n-play. She puts everything in her stroller to push around.. Clifford, her water bottle, cell phones.. anything she can find. She walks all around the house pushing that thing around. She was also pretty excited about her piggy bank she got. She points at it every morning she wakes up and says 'Ooooo.' This girl is ready to make money..;)

As a 1 year update Elise can do the following: walk, sign language for more, eat, all done, and please. She also can say "momma, dadda, ba-ba (for Braydon), woof woof for puppy, bath, yea, hi, and bye." People of my past will tell you, I was a motor mouth as a child... but I don't know what they're talking about. At this point, she gets her love for talking from her DAD! :) Her favorite food: broccoli!

We had family pictures taken the first week of August by Tim Dodd- the same guy that did our wedding photos. He got a few good ones... I can't help but share a lot- there are too many goodies. Elise hated every minute of family photos. She did not want to sit still: she was fussy, puked once, and wanted to grab the photographers camera at any chance. We also took some in a field across from the studio. Elise managed to touch a thistle and was bleeding on her shirt- thankful for photoshop. It was also very hot, so we are lucky he got any good ones considering the circumstances. I'll share more over SNAPFISH when I get a chance..

Braydon seems to be doing well in Kindergarten. We have conferences for him the first week of October, so we will know more then. He doesn't get much of a nap, so I think that has been his biggest adjustment. He has matured so much over the last couple of months and is suddenly a 'big kid' now. It's scary, but so exciting at the same time.

We took him to the Iowa vs. Tennessee Tech game over Labor Day weekend. I signed him up for the Junior Hawk Club, so he gets a free football ticket for the first home game, along with other perks. With that, we can order up to 3 extra tickets, so Kassey, Adam, and I all took him together. It was a great time.. and we had awesome seats- Row 6 near the end zone. It rained for all but 20 minutes.. long enough for us to take a couple of pictures and eat some food. We ended up leaving at the beginning of the third quarter due to the torrential down pour of rain. I think we will make that an annual trip- we had a blast!

We are BACK!

I realize it has been 10 months since my last post. Halloween seems ages ago. I have since then been inspired by an old friend to blog again. But, I am back at blogging and have a goal to update at least twice a month.

When I first started blogging, I intended it to be about my little girl and life as a new mommy, but I plan to make it our family blog.. because Braydon and Adam have a tendency to be exciting too!

Elise will be 1 year old in 23 days. Every one always told me, "times goes by so fast, blah blah"... but it TRULY does. This time last year I was hoping to be in labor at any minute. Here we are almost a year later and she is walking, talking, dancing, barking like a dog ;), among other fabulous things. Her favorite person in the entire world is Braydon. There isn't a day she isn't completely thrilled when she sees him or even a picture of him. Let's hope it stays this way... 10 years from now! :)

We are trying to decide on final birthday plans for her. With family so far away, it may end up just being me, Braydon, and Adam. We will see. It will be monumental regardless- her FIRST sweet treat, EVER. (Well, besides those gummy bears she snuck out of her diaper and bag and into her mouth last week). But still, the first taste of anything that's not healthy given to her on purpose!

I have been very good about feeding her the right things. This is the only time in a child's life where they can't be corrupted by all the nasty, terrible foods out there. I know, I know, I ate them as a kid and "I am fine," but I'm giving her a shot at learning how to eat well and be a healthy kid. We will see how that goes- Grandmas feel differently. :)

I am currently working on switching her over to whole milk from formula. She has other plans. She gets one taste of whole milk and chucks her bottle across the room. She.is.not.having.it. There goes 3.89 down the drain. I plan to continue to sneak little bits at a time into her formula... hopefully she will come around.

As for Braydon, he starts KINDERGARTEN in less than 2 weeks. Holy smokes. It's hard to believe when I met this little guy he was almost 2 years old and now he is starting school. He is so big and such a great kid. Elise really couldn't ask for a better big brother. Last Spring I started bringing home Kindergarten Sight Words from my classroom. He mastered all 50 of those in no time at all, so we give him new word lists every 2 weeks or so... depending on how well he does with them. There always seems to be 1 or 2 words out of the list that get him every time. Regardless, we are proud and confident that he is academically ready to take on fellow Kindergarteners.

Braydon participated in soccer and blastball (tee-ball) this summer. He absolutely LOVES it. His age group is 3-5 year olds. Wide range right? I will admit, sometimes it's like watching paint dry. Braydon runs circles around most of the other kids, as some 3 year olds are watching birds or eating grass (seriously). Braydon is there to score some goals, he takes it pretty seriously.

That has been our life this summer: Braydon and Elise.. it's not too bad :)

Thanks for reading... stay tuned for Elise's birthday bash.. or as Adam would say, "Elise's 1st Kegger" :)

<3

Halloween

Elise loungin with her boyfriend, Bennett- the monkey!

Spiderman and his little tiger!

Happy Halloween :)

This was our first Halloween with Elise and BRAYDON, so we were so excited! Elise enjoyed her first Halloween as a baby tiger. I figured it would be perfectly warm and snuggly for a cold evening. Braydon went as the notorious SPIDERMAN! He was originally planning on being Batman, but when we took him costume shopping he just couldn't pass up the Spiderman costume. We bought it about 4-5 weeks prior to Halloween-- I'm thinkin it was a bit too soon because as he squeezed into it before trick-or-treating he tore it a bit. Lifting too many weights, I'm sure. :)

Braydon had asked me a few weeks before Halloween if he could go trick-or-treating like the big kids do. (This means from door to door in a neighborhood). He has been with his mom the last couple years and she has taken him downtown Cedar Falls to the businesses as he just wasn't quite old enough to really enjoy trick-or-treating "like the big kids." So you can imagine how excited he was to go trick-or-treating. We left Elise at our neighbors house to play with her boyfriend, Bennett, who is 5 months old and we headed out with Braydon's girlfriend Jessye (who was a ref) and her brother Grant (who was a Vikings football player). Braydon has since then decided he loves the Vikings.

We made it out for about an hour and by then we were all a little cold. Braydon had filled his bucket and was ready to go inside and play with friends and get sugared up for the ONE time during the year Adam will allow him to eat that much candy! ;) When he got home from Jessye's house he called his mom and told her about each individual piece of candy he got and who it was for (he was sharing with his Dad, me, and his mom)---and was excited because Ironman came to her door trick-or-treating! :) Oh, to be a kid again!

8 week Baby

Elise had her 8 week check up this last Wednesday. She weighed in at 9 lbs 12 oz and 22 in long. She has gained 3.7 lbs since leaving the hospital, and I believe it. She has filled out so much in the last few weeks. Her little cheeks are getting chubbier, so much more fun to smooch :)

The doctor told us she is just tall and slender. I told her she better not get used to it, her genes are against her :). She is in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height. The doctor said she needs to start showing some rolls on her arms. I pointed out to him she was showing them on her legs and he said, "Well we really like to see her calves fill out a little more, too." She is a peanut, what's wrong w/ that??? :)

Because it was her 8 week check up, Elise received her vaccinations. 2 on her left leg, 1 on her right. As the nurse got her tools ready, Adam held her legs down and I stood next to her head as she smiled and cooed at me-- up until she felt the needle-- then her poor little face just dropped. She was instantly screaming and in tears. It was the saddest thing I've experienced; I had to shed a few tears with her. Poor baby girl. The nurse was nice enough to give her a Barbie band-aid though, so her owies looked cute covered up. She slept the entire rest of the day- owies can sure wear a baby out.