Fun in Lima

This weekend we headed north to Lima to spend some time with Mike's side of the family. We had a great time spending quality time with Brayden's grandma and grandpa Dee especially at his cousin Garrett's baseball tournament. After Saturday's game we all went to Sheila and Gary's. Everyone came over and we showed Brayden all of Aunt Sheila and Uncle Gary's animals. Let's see...they have 2 dogs, a bunny, 3 horses, a pony, a lot of chickens and 3 fainting goats. It was a lot of fun and we all really enjoyed hanging out outside.

Happy Memorial Day

We had a wonderful and very event filled weekend.

Saturday morning Brayden and I went to the Polar Bear Plunge at our neighborhood pool. At 10am they open the pool...which is very cold and all the neighborhood children jump in and play games. It is a lot of fun and Brayden had a good time dipping his toes and watching all the fun everyone was having. The rest of the day we spent some time just hanging out and having fun.

Sunday we woke up and headed to church and ran a few errands while Brayden took a nap and when he woke up we went to the Taste of Cincinnati. Mike and I enjoyed a lot of new foods and some old favorites. One of the best was getting to be official taste testers for Graeter's Ice Cream. They are looking at going all natural and they are experimenting with a white mint chocolate chip flavor. Here are a couple pictures of us trying the green and white ice cream...we both thought there was a slight difference in the two and did think the green was a bit more minty...but not enough to not buy the white.

Monday we enjoyed having an extra day together and decided to head over to Newtown for an hour for their Memorial Day parade. Here is Brayden all decked out in Red, White and Blue in celebration of all of America's heros!

Giggles

Brayden...we really wish we could bottle up your giggles and share them with the world...this world would be a better place if only we could all take some time to laugh and play just like you!

Friendship Bread

One of my co-workers gave me a starter and a recipe for Amish Friendship Bread on May 6th. It comes in a plastic bag and directions on how to "take care" of the contents each day for 10 days. So after I read over the directions I decided that this is definitly something that Brayden could help with as well.

So for the 1st through 4th days you are supposed to "MASH" the bag...

Then on the 5th day you add some basic ingredients, milk, flour and sugar to the bag...

After those ingrediates have been added you go back to "MASHING" the bag...

On the 10th day you add the rest of the receipe and bake the delicious bread! Here is a picture of Brayden (a bit more interested in the kitchen tools) with the Friendship Bread he helped me prepare!

May 11, 2002...ah the memories

Today Michael and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary!! It is really hard to believe that it has already been 7 wonderful years. We decided to take a little time out of the day for just the two of us. We had my mom and brother Jonathan come over to play with Brayden. Of course they had a blast together...

Here is a picture of Brayden and my mom having a good ol' time with just them and a t-shirt...the picture really doesn't do it justice!

Michael and I started our date off with massages at Pure Concept Salon followed with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was really nice to relax and rejuvenate!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was my first (official) Mother's Day (last year I got to celebrate becoming a mommy). Brayden and Michael started the day by giving me a very nice card and a great present. I received (a much needed) whole new golf club set and pink golf balls too! I can't wait to strap Brayden in his carseat attached to the golf cart...(just kidding...I've thought about it though!) Then we went to breakfast and headed to the Cincinnati Zoo. We had so much fun. The Cincinnati Zoo has been updated and they were also celebrating the Zoo Babies too. Here are a couple of pictures of us enjoying the zoo together.

First Run!

Michael has really enjoyed running for a long time. He has accomplished 2 full marathons a few half marathons a triathalon and countless other races...needless to say he couldn't wait to add another running buddy to his runs (Brecken has been there through all of this training). Today Brayden went with his daddy on their first run together. Brayden got all ready and buckled in snug in the jogger first thing in the morning.

Mike put together some fun running music for his Ipod and hooked up the jogger Ipod dock and they were off...

It was a beautiful morning and they both really enjoyed the run.

Little Red Wagon

If you scroll back a few months...5 to be exact...you'll see Brayden with his new Wagon he got from Santa. Well today we took it out for a spin. Oh boy did he love riding and relaxing. He would slip down and kick up his feet over the rail and wave as we rolled down the street. He loves it so much and screeches in delight. The weather here has been so great and we are having so much fun just riding up and down the side walk with Brayden and Brecken. Now if only we could get the dog to pull the wagon...he doesn't quite understand it yet when we yell "mush...mush"!