Sam's so cool that he has an umbrella named after him!

Happy birthday Sammy!

Sam is one of my FAVORITE brothers - I'd definitely put him in the top three. His absolute hilarity is one of the best things about him; he's really, REALLY funny. He's also very good at making people around him feel at ease, he's a very hard worker (especially this summer!) and he's very smart. I've idolized him since I was little, for these reasons and more. Sam is very wise (is anyone else counting how many times I've used 'very' in this paragraph?) and I seek his advice regularly. I'm delighted that after some rocky teenage years, we're now really close - I love hanging out with him, which isn't possible as much as I'd like, although I DO get to see him (and just as excitingly, Terri!) on Friday when they get here from Portland. And then I get to see them on Saturday too! And then for a little bit on Sunday until they leave! Yay! Now for a couple cute pictures of my brother:

This poor little red polo shirt had to last him from toddler-age through elementary school :(

So, it's late and I'm tired so this post is not as fun and photo-filled as I would like it to be, but the important thing is that I love my brother Sam and I'm glad that he was born 26 years ago.

Parts Two and Three

That's right, the virtual tour of our not-so-new-anymore house continues, due to high/non-existent demand (well, it's one or the other . . . ) For those of you just joining us, Part One: the Playroom can be seen here. We continue now with Part Two: the Frog Bathroom and Part Three: the Guest Quarters!

Here it is, the frog bathroom. Pretty self-explanatory, eh?
Here's a CUTE little boy modeling the tub in the frog bathroom
In anticipation to your question, I got that frog rug at Target in their 'dollar days' area - and yes, we have the matching hand towels. I LOVE TARGET! I also bought little frog tread-things there for the bottom of the tub, but some ingenius person designed these tubs WITH tread - no more worrying that Clyde will slip and slide to disaster. So I might just attach the frogs around in the shower, like they're climbing around. Cute or creepy?
Fun froggy pictures
And one final shot of the cleanest boy around!

We now travel across the house (not a super long trip, mind you) to the 'bonus room' turned guest quarters. This room has already been host to a number of traveling relatives, but this fall it will be a semi-permanent home for our new live-in (two nights a week) nanny! My mum will be staying with the little boys two evenings a week (alternating Mon-Tues and Wed-Thurs) while I'm at class and Chuck is at work, and then she'll just sleep over and go to school in the morning. And get this - she considers that time with the little boys her payment! Sucker :)

Anyways, here's the beautiful bed (thank you, Craig's List!) and bedding (thank you Fred Meyer clearance!)
The room also houses our borderline ridiculous movie collection.

I'm considering finishing Clyde's and Will's rooms for blog-tour purposes, we'll see. . . I think I'll wait on the living room until after this weekend so that our fantasy football draft posters will be prominently displayed on the walls, yay I.I.F.F.F.L. 2008!

Random-nimity

Things (both important and not) I feel compelled to share with YOU:

*Clyde is in bed for the night - YEE-HAW! After two nights of staying up ridiculously late (the important thing is we got my mom's classroom ready for the first day of school!), he just needed a nap-free day to get back on schedule. And since Chuck was home and could play with him, it wasn't even a horrible nap-free day, yay!

*My sister-in-law Melissa is officially launching her photography; check it out at http://wingsofblue.blogspot.com or e-mail her at wingsofblue.melissa@gmail.com

*I just tried to put Will down for the night but I could hear him fussing so I went back in (I'm a sucker and can't do the "cry-it-out" thing) and found him sucking pretty hardcore on his big toe . . . so I kindly decided to feed him some more

*Our talks on Sunday went FABULOUSLY well, thank you for inquiring (Jared and/or Jen, a comment backing me up on this would be appreciated so that it doesn't just seem like I'm bragging, thanks!). My mom took a couple of pictures of Chuck and me before we left for church, and I'm considering posting one, especially since I wore the red shirt from ShopKo, but my hair is still damp-ish in the pictures (I think it was dry by the time I spoke) and I'm feeling vain. . . anyways, we felt good that we got our messages across (I spoke about daily spiritual habits such as scripture study, prayer, and treating other people in a Christlike manner, and Chuck spoke about fortifying families through Family Home Evening) and if nothing else, we got a lot out of preparing the talks!

*My classes start on Monday. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK! Plus I'm frustrated trying to understand my degree progress report and I can't get in to see the Comm department's Peer Advisor OR a general, all-around advisor until next week

*Mmm, that may be all for now. There's a cute boy in the living room waiting to watch an episode of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" with me, and I'm pretty sure I can connive him into getting me a bowl of chocolate ice cream with marshmallows . . .

Tag sale!

JOYS
1. Chuck cleaning the kitchen
2. Clyde signing 'more' after I say "I . . . love . . . YOU!"
3. Will being roly-poly all day and then sleeping through the night!

FEARS
1. Losing loved ones - I'm (still) in that post-partum hormonal phase where when I can't get a hold of someone, I am immediately SURE they've met an untimely death. It's HORRIBLE, I cried the other morning planning out my mom's funeral in my head because she wasn't answering her cell phone! *
2. Spiders - they stop me in my tracks and I shriek! Interestingly, I can totally man-up and handle them if I am the 'strongest' person around, like if I'm just with the little boys or any of my brothers, but if Chuck's there, I pull the damsel in (genuine) distress card.
3. That Pam and Jim won't live 'happily ever after' on The Office - they are the cutest, funniest couple on TV (unless Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert count).

CURRENT OBSESSIONS
1. Procrastinating finishing my talk for church on Sunday
2. Chocolate ice cream + mini marshmallows + microwave for 45 seconds
3. Planning Clyde's little Elmo birthday party for his upcoming 2nd birthday

RANDOM/SURPRISING FACTS
1. If Chuck and I have a daughter, we have to name her something ending in 'a' because it's an (accidental) six-generation tradition: Jana, Pamela, Carma, Leila, Ida, Philomela (and no, none of those names are up for consideration, although Quinn intends to use 'Carma')
2. I'm not a huge fan of how I looked on my wedding day - I love my dress, but detest my hair and make-up (or lack thereof). Next spring/summer, I'm going to celebrate our fifth anniversary by having Melissa take bridal portraits of me (pray that I've finished losing the baby weight by then so my dress fits!). I'm seriously considering recruiting Jayna and/or Christy to make me look like their long-lost sister (or as close to that as they can get me).
3. As much as Chuck is NOT looking forward to us speaking in church on Sunday, I AM looking forward to it - I love the attention :)

Thanks for tagging me, Jayna! I tag Melissa, Leslie, Emily Johnston and Terri Braden (see, you HAVE to start a blog now, Terri!)



*Please be reassured that I am mostly sane and rational and you don't need to worry about my mental health :)

Way to stay alive, Mommy!

Today, August 13th, is my mommy's 54th birthday (she was actually born on a Friday the 13th so she thinks it's lucky)! I only have a minute, because we're going to get manicures (yay for the beauty school!) but I just wanted to share one of the biggest reasons I love my mommy so much: Her courage! Last summer she traveled (completely alone) to England and Scotland for three weeks. She saved and saved to finance this trip and she had an amazing time - in this picture she's posing with a "Braveheart" street performer in Scotland. Everywhere she went she took a bear named Clyde Bear and took pictures of him scaling castle walls and sitting in English countrysides to make a book for Clyde about her adventures! My mom was also able to spend time at two temples there - the London Temple and the Preston Temple and she came home with a renewed love of service to the Lord in His holy temples. Since then she's made an amazing commitment to regular (for the most part weekly) temple attendance.

She's also an incredible mom and grandma and our family would be lost without her! Happy birthday Mommy!

Our sweet Gus-Gus

'Baby' Will is a wee bit over four months now, and today was his check-up with the pediatrician. My child weighs 16 lbs, 14.5 oz (90th percentile!) and measures 27 inches long (97th percentile!!). Hence my term of endearment: Gus-Gus like the chubby mouse from Cinderella :) Will is such a darling baby who puts up with SO much love (in the form of bear hugs/tackles) from Clyde. We think this may be why God blessed him with a stockier build, survival of the fittest, you know? We love baby Will buckets and buckets!

Sam made us sisters. . .

um, we made us friends?

Happy birthday Terri!

Today is my fabulous sister-in-law Terri's birthday, and since I couldn't get her what she REALLY wanted, I figured a blog post devoted to her awesomeness would suffice. Because I avoid being photographed next to people who are much better looking than I am, the above pic from her wedding to my goofy brother is the best one I could find of us together. Now, I would like to share some of the reasons that Terri is super cool:

The first time I met Terri was when I was seven months pregnant with Clyde, and RIDICULOUSLY hormonal. Let's just say it was not one of my finest days (I had been fighting with my mostly darling husband), but did she let this scare her off? Nope, she bravely came to Boise with Sam when Clyde was born and graciously allowed me to make a better first impression.

A month later, Terri joined us in Utah for the Smith-Braden Semi-annual General Conference Extravaganza and showed off her amazing sense of adventure and gracefulness:

Aren't those pictures cute?

No story, I just liked this picture!

Due to her work schedule, Terri was unable to spend that Christmas holiday with her family in Southern California (although she traveled there a few days afterwards). We lured her to Boise instead and were delighted when she fit right in with family celebrations. My mom even tempted fate a bit and made her a stocking :)

No story here, either, just a cute picture of Sam and Terri on Mother's Day. Oh, cancel that, here's a story: at this point they weren't actually 'officially' engaged, but the temple had been scheduled, and more importantly, I had been asked to be a bridesmaid (kind of my life long dream). They had come to Boise for the weekend for Chuck's graduation, and all signs pointed to this being the weekend that Sam was going to propose. Poor Terri, however was strung along all weekend until Monday morning she was awakened to a text message instructing her to begin a scavenger hunt of sorts, eventually leading her to the airport and a trip to . . .

SEATTLE, where Sam proposed and (luckily) Terri said YES!

Which led to this beautiful day: June 23, 2007

Terri is such a good aunt that she even took time out of the Open House in Boise to read with Clyde!

She wields a mean horseshoe :)

Terri is a fabulous hostess and cook - her French toast is my personal favorite

Clyde loves their state-of-the-art laundry appliances, and standing on Terri's knees makes him just tall enough to reach the buttons!

Terri has adapted very well to being an aunt of two, Will likes her very much!

Terri was a doll and helped Quinn a lot with the adjustment to going to college and living away from home; she fed him frequently (especially from her candy stashes!) and let him do laundry at their place and such.

Terri is VERY generous - check out the dollar bill she gave Clyde for his piggy bank! :) Now we're that much closer to Disneyland (we're saving up to go down there to pick Quinn up in June 2010). Of course, we don't have to save as much since Terri's wonderful family lives right outside L.A. and we're taking them up on their (hopefully serious) offer to let us stay with them any time we're in the area!

I'm glad I put up with Sam growing up so that I could have Terri as a sister-in-law now! She's smart and caring and sweet and stylish and kind and forgiving and puts up with my silly brother (as Chuck says, "You Bradens can be hard to live with") and I love her lots!

Part One: the Playroom

I've been wanting to post pictures of our new place for a while now, but since I've given up on having my entire house photograph-ready at one time, I've decided to present a blog tour room by room! We've been here a little over two months now, and we love all the space - the house is a little bit shy of 1500 square feet, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a bonus room.

We'll start with Clyde's and my favorite (and someday Will's, too, I'm sure): the playroom! Located right off the living room, it's technically a bedroom (since it has a closet) but we use it for a way more fun purpose. (Clyde and I made this lovely sign one night)
The window seat is very handy for all the stuffed animals,

Clyde enjoys throwing them off one by one.

On the walls, we have a lovely United States map and the alphabet in sign language
Here's how the room looks in the morning, before Clyde has dumped everything out for the day.
Clyde LOVES his kitchen. It's hands-down his favorite toy ever, which is fine with me since I plan on him cooking our family meals in a couple of years!
Mommy's part of the playroom! Scrapbooking table on the left (it is now covered with all my paper and stickers, yay!) and computer desk on the right
Our favorite (and most expensive!) wall adornment- Chuck's diploma! Someday, mine will go right above it . . .

An absolute SLEW of fun

(that came to an abrupt end this morning with my wisdom teeth extraction! But more about that later . . . )

We took advantage of Chuck's weekend off to hit up dinner at his sista's house (where we ate salad for which she had GROWN the lettuce!) on Friday, and then Saturday Chuck and Clyde went to my mom's house and finished painting her front door - her whole house was recently painted by her EXCELLENT church ward and the front door was the last thing to be done, it looks very nicely put together now! That evening we had my mum, Leslie, Matt, and their darling kids, 7 year old Keyan and 4 year old Jazlyn over for a barbeque and games, good times were had by all, especially Clyde (who loves older kids and got to play catch with Keyan) and Will (who was doted on very well by Jazlyn).

Our next adventure was Monday, when we took advantage of Chuck's day off (he took Monday and Tuesday off for my wisdom teeth Tuesday morning - again, stay tuned for more. . . ) by driving to Jerome, Idaho to see our good friends Will and Kari and their darling kids, 5 year old Ryan and 2 year old Nathan. Chuck and Will were good friends in high school and roomed together in the dorms at Boise State - where Will met Kari! The three of them later lived off-campus together, also. We only get to see Will and Kari a couple times a year, so we were all very excited!

The BFF's (hmm, do guys use that term?)
Cute pregnant Kari holding baby Will - she got him to sleep so I could eat the yummy lunch she made us! They're expecting baby number three on October 1st and aren't finding out the gender. Kari and I share a lot of parenting/living philosophies, another reason we wish they lived closer!
Clyde, Nathan, and Ryan - once they all warmed up, they had loads of fun

Our next adventure was visiting the Twin Falls LDS temple. When our church builds temples (there are currently 128 around the world) they open it to the public for an Open House for a few weeks before it's dedicated and becomes only available to recommend-holding members of the church. We were excited to see the beautiful workmanship and for Clyde especially to see the amazing pictures of Jesus Christ that adorn the inside walls. Originally, they were asking that people coming reserve free tickets online, but they've moved to more of a first-come, first-serve system each day. We waited (sitting inside the church building right next to the temple) for maybe fifteen minutes before we started the tour, which lasted a little more than an hour, maybe - and yummy cookies were provided afterwards! The tour continues Wednesday through Saturday, it's open to EVERYONE and it's definitely worth the drive!Chuck and Clyde
Baby Will and me

And now, for the highlight of our week: I got my wisdom teeth out this morning! All four, yay! Luckily, it went very well and I'm feeling excellently - but everyone should STILL feel very sorry for me, of course! Chuck gave me a nice blessing last night, and my mom spent the night so that we could leave both boys here with her this morning while we drove to Fruitland for the surgery. Yeah, thanks Blue Cross for only contracting with ONE oral surgeon who is based forty minutes from where I live! Oh, well, Dr. Hillam did a very good job and after sleeping most of the day and taking my Hydrocordone pills, I'm healthy enough to blog, so that's all I ask for :). My mom took Clyde with her today and he's sleeping over at her house tonight. This is only the fifth night in his whole little life that we've been apart - the first four being when baby Will was born in March. I'm such a sucker for my boys, I'm pretty psyched that I still have eleven years before I'll have to send him to away for longer than two days - darn that Scout Camp! Chuck has taken terrific care of both me and Will all day long, thanks honey! I played the charming role of milk cow the last few days, so Will's gotten the real deal in bottles today. Oh, and his four month check-up is Friday, so I'll make sure and post his sure-to-be record breaking stats then!

Check out Will's grip on the bottle - the kid loves to eat!
Here's me! Oh, funny story: the receptionist at the oral surgeon was checking me in this morning, and she starts to pull out the liability waiver paper. She pauses, looks at my chart, and says, "Oh, you're 23, you CAN sign this yourself. You just look really young." I must have given her one of my infamous looks, because as I was walking to sit down, she followed up with "You'll love looking young someday!" Thanks, lady - I was coming to have SURGERY, I had to wake up at six-thirty after going to bed just before midnight, I was wearing Quinn's old tie-dye t-shirt, and your dumb pre-operative instruction page said not to wear make-up! Sheesh, she probably thought Chuck was my older brother - yuck! Oh, well :)