the one about Brycen and costumes

It was my sweet little nephew Brycen's 1st Birthday on the 10th. We went over to his house and had a fun little party! We had pizza, cake, presents and lots of laughs! Here he is getting his cake. Isn't he adorable???
Now this might be one of my favorite pictures of all times. It was taken at the party and I think it is darling!!! Quayd and Talia. ahhhhhhhh.....

Now, on to the "costumes" part of my post. Two years ago, I bought Quayd a bunch of Halloween costumes at the after-Halloween sales. He has LOVED having them for dress up stuff. He and Brennen (and sometimes Brayden) wear them all of the time. Quayd's other friends love them too!!! (Quayd and Kasen)
Brennen, Zoey and Quayd
Quayd and Brennen go trick-or-treating at my mom and grandma's houses all year long!

They have also come in handy for different dress up activities at school. (Kindergarten-Fairy Tale day) Ha Ha, that reminded me that Shae was having a Superhero assembly on the first day of school and needed something to wear, so she came and hit the costume bin.

Here is a picture from early this October. Quayd, Brayden and Brennen had a 4H activity where they had to go trick-or-treating for canned foods to donate to the food pantry. Danette and I didn't have their costumes ready, so we just let them rummage through the costume bin. Brayden even found some things to use. I have started to notice the costumes are getting super small. They don't button up anymore and they are all high-waters. I went to "the marts" (Wal and K) on Tuesday and hit the JACK POT! Costumes were 90% off! I got so many costumes for them and the most expensive one was $1.99 and the cheapest was $.49. I got home before they got off the bus so I laid them all out on my couch. I intercepted them in the driveway and told them I had a big surprise in the front room. They took off RUNNING! You would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were THRILLED! They were tearing into them and trying them on before I even made it back in the house. It was so awesome that I was able to get them so many new ones. And I only spent about $20.00. Here they are in some of the new costumes. Brayden and I are OBSESSED with aliens, so he snatched this one right up! The only rule is that they have to stay at my house and they have to keep them picked up. Otherwise, it is a free for all! The best $20.00 I have spent in a long time! :)

the one about Quayd's 6th Birthday

I feel like the most terrible mother in the world because I haven't blogged about Quayd's Birthday yet. It was a great day, but I have just been super busy lately. Oh, who am I kidding. It was a terrible day, but we made the best of it. Quayd's Birthday happened to be the same day as my Great-Grandma's funeral. Luckily, I had planned his Birthday party for the day before. But unluckily, the party was a total fiasco! Allow me to explain...

So, I had made arrangements for Quayd's party to be a swimming party at the Rec. Center. He loves swimming there and that is what he wanted to do. I booked and paid for the thing clear back in June. Well about two weeks before the party, I was making the invitations (which turned out ADORABLE, by the way) and decided I better double check on the time and make sure everything was still good to go.


They assured me that everything was fine. I finished up the invites and we delivered them. Quayd and I worked so hard creating, finding addresses, delivering and spreading the word to all of his friends. So, as I mentioned before, my Great Grandma passed away the day before the party, and her funeral was the day after the party and on his actual Birthday. Not only that, but the day of the party was the one year anniversary of the passing of Brett's dad. I was working EXTRA hard to make his party be NORMAL and to focus only on Quayd! It wasn't hard, because he is such a great kid and he was SO UNDERSTANDING, considering the circumstances. Anyway, we got to the Rec. Center about 25 minutes early. Brayden, Brennen, Amelia, and Kasen rode with us. They were so excited! They helped me get everything inside and we got everything loaded in the party room. Kids were starting to arrive and I noticed that nobody was in the pool. I asked our "party consultant" if we got the pool to ourselves or what. She was like, "I'm not sure. I will go check." Well, I walked back outside, leaving the kids in the room, and the lady stopped me at the front desk. She said, "Ummmm.... You do know that the pool is closed, right?" I just stared at her. I said, "Well, no. This is a swimming party and I booked it months ago, so no. Obviously I was not aware that the pool was closed." Well, our conversation goes on and basically, they changed the hours of the pool and nobody noticed that I had a party booked at that time. I even brought up how irritating it was that I had double checked just about 2 weeks earlier. She was very apologetic and they offered to do this big inflatable obstacle course in the gym, free of charge. (Yah, no duh. Free of charge!) They ended up refunding part of the cost and they did what they could to make it right. Even as MAD as I was at the time, I have to admit now that they handled it all pretty well. It was sucky and frustrating, but oh well. The kids LOVED the obstacle course. I even asked Quayd later what he thought of his party, and he thought it was wonderful. My biggest gripe is that I worked so hard making the invitations, cupcakes and party favors, which were fish themed. So it seemed stupid that they didn't go with the party. Yes, I know. I am a freak. But this is the hell that I live in. If you know me at all, you know how freaked out I get when things don't go exactly as planned. I try to be accommodating and relaxed, but I am just not. I notice that I get better with age, but I am still not perfect. I have to say this though. Thank goodness for Holly. She decided to come with her boys to the party and she stayed with me the whole time. I couldn't have made it without her. She visited with me and it totally calmed my nerves so I didn't have a complete meltdown during the ordeal. Let me share a few pictures.







When the party was over, and the parents were picking the kids up, Brett challenged GJ to a race on the obstacle course. It was so funny, and the kids LOVED watching.


Ok, enough of the party. Moving on.... So of course, we had a funeral on the morning of Quayd's Birthday, but for that night, I had made arrangements with my boss for us to be able to stay at the hotel. I thought it would be cool for Quayd to be able to invite a friend to stay, and of course, he wanted Brennen. Well, Brayden felt bad, so I let him come too. I went to the room early and decorated it. I put Quayd's gift in there and bought tons of treats.

We ordered Pizza for dinner, swam in the pool and watched movies. Quayd and Brayd slept in one bed, Brett and I in the other, and we made Brennen a bed on the floor.

They have a yummy breakfast every morning so we ate, showered and came home. Quayd and Brennen showered together and they had so much fun!!! We could hear them giggling clear down the hall!



It was really a pretty good Birthday, all things considered. I just can't believe that my baby is 6. I usually get so emotional around his Birthday. It brings back so many memories of the whole event. Getting him here was so difficult and I am reminded of the miracle every August 30th. He is such an amazing kid and I love him so much. I often wonder why I was chosen to be his mother. I can see so much potential in him and I know he will grow up to be AMAZING! I just hope I don't totally screw him up before he reaches his goals. He told Brett and I just today that when he gets a little bigger, he would like to play soccer in the Olympics. I hope he can. And I hope he never quits dreaming about it. I love you my little Quayd-er-ade!! Happy Birthday!!!

the one about the end of summer

I just can't believe that summer is coming to an end. It went by way to fast. It doesn't even really feel like there was a break from school. We had fun all summer though. I can't complain. It was very busy though, and I have to say that I am glad school is starting. Not because I want Quayd to be gone!!! But because I am ready for the routine. Anyway, we will talk about that stuff later. Lets talk about a few things that we did to wrap up our summer.

Last Friday, Holly called Kandice and I to invite us to go to lunch and to the local Showcase of Homes. We had a great time! We drove around and looked in some of the nicest newest homes in our area.
We had a yummy lunch at Arby's too. Sweet little Alison was a good sport to watch Quayd for me while we played all afternoon. Kandice had to leave before me, so Holly and I ran around town, planned a BBQ and went to the grocery store. That evening, I had to go to a Jewelry Party at Aunt Debbie's house and Holly came too. Then we came back to my house and had a swimming/BBQ at my brother's pool. Brandon and his family were on vacation and we were pool sitting. It was fun having the Olsen's over.
We don't get to do much with them because we are all so busy all of the time, so it worked out perfectly. The kids had a blast swimming and the grown ups had a blast eating the GREAT food! Brett cooked chicken on the grill, Holly made a salad and root beer floats, Lavell provided the corn from his garden, I did fresh fruit and veggies and it was just the PERFECT summer meal. It's always yummy when Holly is involved, but I believe this meal was exceptionally delish! Thanks to the Olsen's for coming over and playing with us!



As I was loading the pictures from my camera to my computer, I remembered these pictures. Remember when I was telling you about the crazy things Quayd was saying at the Doctor's office? Well we found out that he needed two more shots! He had all of his Kindergarten shots last year, but they changed it and added a shot. Plus, they told me that he didn't have a Hep A shot last summer. (Which was wrong, I came home and found the record of it. Errrrrrrr!) He also had a strange thing on his back. we weren't sure if it was a skin tag or what. It turned out to be a wart, so they froze it off. OUCH! I felt so bad for him, but it needed to go away. It was super big and it got caught on lots of things. It irritated him a lot too. It was super ugly. Here are some before pictures.
It is still kinda blistered, so I will post after pictures later. Besides, he is still a little apprehensive about anyone getting close to it. He was so brave, by the way, but he did cry and I had to comfort him, so I wasn't able to take pictures at the Doctor's office.

Quayd had Kasen over the other day to play and we went swimming. Kasen looked so funny, but he wouldn't take these goggles off the whole time!!
Really, I just feel like summer has flown by. I am sad and happy at the same time. The end of summer always means a new school year, and a Birthday! Only 4 more days, Quayd!!!