Sara Larva: January 2009

Always Playing

Well, were less than a 100 days out now! How exciting! We can't wait to get home. I have a feeling February is going to go by fast because the first week we have an appointment almost every day.

Here are a few cute pictures of Branden playing. He sure has a lot of energy!!

He loves to put on his Elmo hat and play baseball

very serious

David and Branden riding horses

3 1/2 Months Left!

Not too much new here lately. Branden is getting bigger and bigger each day. Loves wearing his boots because he can put and take them off himself like a big boy. He also is getting really good at counting. He can count to 10 now. Also, he sorta knows some colors and we are working on some shapes.

Here are some pictures of Branden's new drums and Branden with his Nerf gun.

branden and david playing together

david about to shoot me

branden showing off his new gun

freeze!!!

put your hands up mom!

The first video is branden playing and the second video is when we first gave branden the drums!

Drums

We bought Branden a kid sized drum set this past weekend. We weren't too sure when we were going to buy him one because they are pricey, but we knew sooner or later we would. So we have been looking online a little here and there. But when we saw one at the store we thought we should grab it. I wanted to save it for maybe Easter or maybe even Valentine's Day, but David couldn't wait to give it to him. He was so excited!

Branden loves the drums. Right now he just plays on David's Rock Band drums and of course all the pots and pans. And whenever he sees any drums on TV he lets us know right away.

We thought it would be fun to surprise him with the drums, so when he took a nap David set up the drums. When I brought Branden downstairs he noticed them right away and screamed "Drums!" and ran right over and started to play them. He can almost play the foot pedal and drum at the same time. He's pretty good!

Yesterday though he got them taken away for a little bit...

Branden has a small table in our living room he likes to dump over on its side and pretend it is a car, but when he did that he dumped over is bowl of Cheerios. I asked him to clean them up before he starts to play and I would help him. I gave him a bowl and I had one. He didn't want to help. He told me he wanted to "play drums." I told him, "you can play the drums once you get done cleaning these up." So I picked up a few and then gave him the bowl and said, "you can just hold the bowl and I will pick them up." He didn't want to do that either. He just dumped them all out again and ran over to his drums and started to play them. So I put the drum sticks on the table and told him that "if you don't pick up these Cheerios I am going to take your drums away." I went over to the Cheerios to see if he was going to help and he started to play the drums with his hands and I gave him another warning about his drums, he still didn't pick them up. So I grabbed the drum set and carried into the hallway. As soon as I picked it up Branden started crying and screaming "Momma, Momma!" I did feel bad and I sorta wanted to laugh because I could remember at how I felt when my parents took my phone away...like my world was ending. I told Branden once you pick up those Cheerios you can have your drums back. And I have never seen him move so fast. He got those Cheerios picked up in like seconds. Then he said "sorry and gave me a kiss." After he helped carry the drums back into the living room. He was pretty happy and has been very helpful ever since. This was the first time he has ever gotten a toy taken away, so it was alittle hard on the both of us.

Snow!

Sorry I haven't blogged in so long. David had a 4 day weekend and whenever Branden naps now I get a little cleaning done and the rest of my free time goes to organizing my pictures because I am getting back into scrapbooking. Hoping to really get back into it once we are back in Minnesota, so I really want to be ready to spend all day with the girls scrapbooking. I want to get Branden's "First Year" book made before he starts school....haha.

Sunday we went to a Baby Shower for our friend Blue's wife, Jess. This will be there 3rd kid. They are having a girl. It was fun. Branden had so much fun! It was really the first time he really played with kids. Usually he will just play close to us and be sorta shy. Even at playgroup he still doesn't play with the kids, he will just do his own thing and play with me. But there he was running around with the kids and copying what they did. If they ran and slid, he ran and slid. When they crawled, he crawled. Then when they started to run around the room in a circle Branden would jump right in the back of the line. He was so cute. I should of video taped him. David and I had a good time watching him play.

We actually got some snow this year that stayed around for a couple of days. Branden really enjoyed playing in it. But the snow is gone now because we got some rain this weekend and some 40 degree days. Now our yard is full of mud...fun for Branden too.

I only took one picture at the shower, but here is Branden running around!

Family Fun

On Saturday we had to go shopping for a birthday gift for our neighbor and while we were there Branden had grabbed a small Nerf gun off the shelf and was carrying it around the whole time while we were shopping. We decided to get it for him because it was only $7.00 and he was being so good. But really we should have bought 3 of them because they are SO MUCH FUN! David and I are jealous of Branden because he is always playing with it. Branden loves to shoot us. David and I have fun shooting eachother when we don't expect it. So of course on Sunday we spent all day looking for 2 more Nerf guns. We thought if we drove to this huge toy store they would have a better selection of them, but they didn't have any! So now we are order from the Nerf Store. So in about 2 weeks there is going to be a Nerf war!

4 Months Left

Well we only have 4 months left now! We are hoping it goes by fast, instead of each day dragging by. David is the one who really takes care of everything with the move, so he will be busy with work and all that is involved with the move in the up coming months. He is excited to be done with work, because I really don't think it is a secret he would rather be doing some other type of job. If you already didn't know he will be going to work for my dad when he we move back home and David and my dad are both really looking forward to that.

David and I have been looking a little online for houses. We are thinking of buying in maybe the Anoka/Hennipen/Sherburn County area, but who knows. We are just hoping to get a really good deal on a house. Until we find the right house we will be staying at my parent's house.

Here is a video of Branden helping me vacuum with his Elmo vacuum. He is such a good helper! And I almost forgot, Branden can now drink from a cup like a "Big Boy," he doesn't need the sippy cup part anymore! He is getting so big. He loves to run and then jump on David. Time sure has flown by.

Tuesday was my Mom's Birthday....Happy Birthday Mom! We hope you had a nice day!

Christmas Day

Finally, here are the last of the Christmas pictures (I think). Sorry it has taken me so long to get them all posted. These pictures are from Christmas Day when we went over to our friend's house for dinner. They have two girls and they really enjoy playing with Branden, so that is nice for us. Branden now is really comfortable around them and really likes playing with them. He didn't want to go home when we left.

It is snowing here today. It really never snows here. We have probably already gotten 3 inches and it is still snowing! People around here are probably just in shock by all this snow. Branden and I are going to go out and play in it when he wakes up from his nap.