My baby is 3!!!!!!!

Braxton got to start his birthday celebrations the day we bought the balloon candles. I let him choose his own candles at the store and it was a complete tragedy when I informed him that he couldn't have them until his birthday party. So He got to light this purple candle once a day on the meal of his choice each day until his actual party.

Happy Birthday Braxton!!!

We started out his birthday with a present he asks for every time we are at the store. So we took him to actually get one for him. 

A FISHY!!!

We were fortunate enough to be able to have all of his friends over for his party on Monday night (the day before his birthday) for a party and his presents. We celebrated it that night cause 3 of his friends were mostly likely not be able to make on Tuesday. He loved his cake and I let him choose a theme out of three choices. Buzz, Diego, or Footballs. First it was Diego, then Buzz, then Football and Buzz. So that was the plan for the cake but some itty bitty man lost the buzz lightyear figurine that was to go on top next to the football. So he ended up having a Football theme cake. He didn't care though he was just to darn excited that he had friends, presents and cake!

Then it was time to open his presents! 

you can ignore the enthusiasm on his face in this picture, he was actually thrilled that he got a DIEGO BACKPACK!!!! He has been wearing it around filled with his color books and toys.

 Next he got to open his present for Brandon's family, he was so excited when he opened it as you can tell by his face. He kept yelling at me "DRAGON! DRAGON!"

  

Then he got to open his present from his friends Lauren, Brailynn and Mason, whom he plays with all the time.

 "Colors!" and even better "Pooh!" which is what he calls any character from Winnie the Pooh!

Next it was his other friends MiKayla, Kyler, Taylen, Clay, Cody and Kendall or in another term "The Bloomfield family" present and his response"ooh, A Snake!! icky ouse color" in other words another fun coloring/sticker book and crayons.

His last present was "Bubbles!!!!" which were his exact words in this picture.                                       

After all his friends left I had one more present hidden for him so Dad and him got to open it up together.

What is it! What is it!

Movies!!! Ice Age 2 and How to Train Your Dragon

We played for a little bit with all his new toys together.

  

  Stuffing his backpack with his color books and crayons

Flying Snake!! 

 Teasing the dogs with the snake!

  

I'm pretty sure we played this game about 6 times.

After a long night of playing and no eating for this birthday boy he finally sat down to eat his cake and not his dinner, just like last year. :)

The next morning on his actual Birthday he played with his balloons and I got him ready to try and take some cute pics.

 He also got his last present!

Golf Clubs!!!!

He requested pancakes for breakfast with eggs. So I continued the candles on the food thing with his pancakes and put 3 candles on and that started the day off great!

We attempted to go golfing as a family but it turns out the guy we talked to wasn't very clear and it is only free on Mondays in January. So we will be going tomorrow.

Instead we took him to the park to play

       

and then to his favorite place to eat...Sonic!

He will down a whole cheeseburger and ice cream there.

We also went for a fun little walk on the hill next to our house and he had a wonderful day and happy one too! It was even happier for me since I've been bargain shopping for his Christmas and birthday for both of them it cost me a total of $40. :))) 

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!!!

Malachi 3:3

Brandon's mom sent me this in an email and I loved it so much I wanted to put it on here so I will always have it.

Malachi 3:3 says: 

'He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.'

  This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God  ...  

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.      

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.  

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:  ' He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.'

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time.  

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know  when the silver is fully refined?'

He smiled at her and answered, ' Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it.'  

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you. 

Finally home with some extras

Braxton loved my mom's giant stuffed dog and her puppies. It was all he wanted to really play with on our last day at her house.

They were so happy to be with us again after spending two weeks at my moms.

Trouble on the way home!!

Our trip went quit well until we were about 20 miles away from Payson, AZ and a chunk of ice jumped under our car and bounced its way through. Wedidn't think anything was wrong so we continued, until we came to a stop light in Payson and smelled gasoline. We pulled over and looked under the car to see THIS, gas pouring out of our tank from an inch wide hole. I'm so glad I wasn't driving or I might have gotten an earful on driving over the ice chunk. :)

Braxton, not understanding any of what had happened was super happy to be out of his seat.

Brandon came up with a pretty good patch for the car, Luckily we were close to a town that actually had a wal-mart. So Brandon went in and bought some JB Quick Weld, Clear waterproof adhesive, Gorilla Tape, and strong automotive paper towels. This incident caused a two hour stop at a very busy little town which had been snowed in for the passed 3 days and it seemed like everyone and their dog was at wal-mart that day. Luckily Brandon's patch held up and is still holding up a week later.

We put him to work holding the towels for dad

and we used Braxton's puke bucket for a container to catch all the gas pouring out.

He wanted to show us that he was a big kid and wanted to hold Lucky who is by far the strongest of the two. So I let him, but I laced Coopers leash ( which I had) through Lucky's body collar to hold onto both of them.

Finally we got back on the road and Brax was in heaven with his personal "ecstasy" powdered doughnuts. He passed out shortly after this picture was taken with half the bag devoured.

Now safe at home, Brandon got into one of his "try something new" stages and was online searching for a new recipe to try and found Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich. They are amazing and so yummy! We made a giant one and split it into four.

Brax finally decided that he likes his toothpaste. So much that he brushed his teeth with lots of toothpaste and got it on the sink, his hands, face and shirt.

last week Braxton spilled 7up on my bed so after I stripped off the sheets I told him that he couldn't be on our bed to watch TV and that he had to lay on his bed in his room and watch his TV. 

Well, after about 30 minutes of no sign of him I wandered into his room to find an empty room. I opened my bedroom door and he had snuck into our room turned on our TV  watched his movie and fell asleep on our pillows on the floor. I felt bad after I had found him realizing how much he wanted to sleep on our bed, but also happy that he had obeyed me and not jumped onto our bed.