Naked Cowboy

Today was the day I had been dreading for weeks. Cleaning day! I had a busy month of May. I had my friends from work here for dinner one night and then I had the bridal shower a week later so for 2 weeks straight this place was spotless.....and then we kinda let it go. We kept it maintained but it was nothing like it had been. I knew that there was going to come a day where I did nothing but clean from top-to-bottom and the day had arrived. I started first thing this morning and finished about 1:3o! I then went through all of Braxton's new '2T' clothes and washed the ones that can be worn during summer and took some out from last year to make some room (he can still wear a lot of them)! I then made a lasagna, from scratch no less, for dinner tonight. After doing all of that I took a quick shower and went and picked Braxton up from Maw Maw's.

As soon as he walked in my spotless house was no more. He dropped the cup of goldfish he had been eating almost instantly, smeared his hands on my freshly cleaned glass door, and noticed real quick the basket of freshly laundered clothes. He started throwing the clothes, that I had mistankingly decided to put up after I picked him up, onto the floor. But then he started noticing what was on the shirts and realized they were his! He found a fire engine shirt and wanted out of his clothes right then. After I got his clothes off he decided he didn't want to have any on so I let him watch as I hung up his new wardrobe. That's when he saw Uncle Tis' cowboy boots sitting on the floor of his closet and he had to have them on right then! I told him I was going to take his picture and it does look like he posed for both of them!

I have learned in the past 2 years that a spotless house isn't everything. Most days I'm real good about letting most things go. At least until he is in bed. You all would be so proud of me!

He'll be comin' round the mountain...

On Monday we headed up to Blowing Rock for our annual early summer mountain week. Brandon had to work most of the week but he was able to come up after work on Monday so we could take Braxton to Tweetsie Railroad on Tuesday. He came back home early Wednesday so he could get back to work.

We went up to Tweetsie a couple of years ago and we're so disappointed. We weren't sure if it was because we had just grown up or because we remembered it another way but we left a little sad. We were a little sceptical about this trip. Because of the extremely busy month we had had I decided to skip throwing Braxton a "2nd" birthday party and thought we'd celebrate by taking him to see the train while we were in the mountains. He's into "planes, trains, and automobiles" big time. We were so excited with the way the trip turned out. This time it seemed to be similar to the way we all had remembered it. The Indians stormed the train and we thought Braxton was going to jump off! He was a real trooper the whole day pausing for only a 20 minute nap while we sat on the train and waited for one last train ride. The weather held off for us and it wasn't very crowded at all. Braxton even rode a couple of the rides by himself. We stayed all day and just as we climbed in the car the heaven's opened up.

The week overall was very relaxing. It was cool most of the days (this messed me up big time. I had only packed shorts and tank tops!) and every day, except for the last one, we turned on the gas logs for the majority of the day. Braxton had his first taste of Blue Moon ice cream. He loved it. I found myself having to bargain with him to get a bite! We made great memories and hopefully we'll be able to go back up in August!

The new Mr. and Mrs.

This afternoon Matthew and Sarah became the newest Mr. and Mrs. in the family. The weather was beautiful. It was very hot and I have a nice little sun burn on my right side but it was a great day for an outside wedding. The ceremony took place on the front steps of an old house. It was really rustic. I think the professional pictures will be absolutely beautiful. Braxton was a good boy. He didn't see much of the wedding though. Early this morning he went with Paw Paw, Maw-Maw, and Brandon to help set up the chairs and he discovered that there were "chicks" on site walking around. We had to bribe him with all kinds of things to get pictures in BEFORE he saw them. (Gum was the overall winner) When the ceremony actually began, Braxton wandered off and Grandaddy went after. Poor dad didn't get to see the wedding at all! Allyson came too and they were both a huge help. I had an enjoyable afternoon.

The pictures are of the bride and groom, Paw-Paw and Braxton having a heart-to-heart, and mommy and her baby sitting before the ceremony.

It's Summer time!

It is so obvious that Braxton is a summer time baby! Tonight after we ate dinner we went ouside and played on the Taj-ma Swingset and then headed back inside to play. (Only after convincing him that it was too hot to be playing outside!) I took his shoes off and his clothes at the back door because he was not only soaking wet after pouring a whole bottle of water on himself but pretty dirty. All he had on was a diaper. He received a portable DVD player for his birthday to be used for his road trips this summer and Brandon and I decided to get it out and start charging it and seeing how it worked. We put a movie in and next thing we knew Braxton's diaper was off.

We had to get a picture of him lying nude on the living room floor watching A Bee Movie on the miniature DVD player! Enjoy!!

Last Day

So today was the last day of school. I had a really good class this year. Very sweet and they had parents that really cared about them and were supportive of me and my decisions. I was sad when the afternoon rolled around. I

actually had a couple that cried as we were walking out to the buses.

One of the units that we do in writing is on poetry. I had a friend that recommended this really awesome poetry book that had great ideas on how to teach various poems. One of the last poems we did was a "blues poem". We wrote blues poems about different things and because it tied in so close to the end of school they were really were able to get the idea.

This morning above their morning work I wrote "I've got the last day blues!". Can you guess how I really felt?

Happy Birthday, Braxton!

I can not believe that Braxton is 2 years old. It seems like just yesterday he was born. The past 2 years have flown by. I've learned so much and enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. He has brought so much joy to my life.

I had a meeting after work and was unable to make it to Dottie's early enough to be at his little party. I picked up a few things I thought the kids would enjoy eating. But it's what his Great Aunt Cathy did that made the party fantastic! She had 24 balloons delivered to Dottie's today. There were balloons all over the house when I got there and a huge bouquet of them outside tied to the porch. I had to get a picture of Braxton and his little friends in front of them. As you can see, they are all so excited.

After we left, we headed to dad's house where we met up with Brandon, dad, and Allyson. We went out for a lovely dinner at one of our favorite joints; Chick Fil A.