October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

We enjoyed a fun Halloween together this year! Brian finds it hard to believe that he has been home for the past 4 Halloweens. Before that he was either in the field training or deployed for almost every single Halloween since he joined the Army!

This year Brayden was Clifford the Big Red Dog. McKenna was a snowman. She did also have a skeleton outfit she wore to a party! We thought the snowman outfit would be too warm for the party!

Brayden really got into his costume. He kept wanting us to say "Come on Clifford, Let's go".
One day we were getting ready to take Blizzard on a walk to the baseball field so she could play ball. Brayden told us that Clifford wanted to go on a walk too and insisted on putting on his costume. So, being the nice parents we are, we let him. He even wanted Clifford to fetch balls with Blizzard at the ball field. He even barked while wearing his Clifford costume! So much fun!

McKenna did a great job being a snowman. She was quiet and sat very still. She did almost melt, being that we are in California and it was quite warm for the end of October! A few people even gave Brayden candy for McKenna and told him he could eat it for her! Thanks!






The community where we live held a Halloween party for the kids this weekend. There were crafts, games, food, costume contests, pumpkin decorating, etc. Brayden make a halloween craft with foam stickers, Brian decorated a pumpkin (for Brayden!), we ate, and enjoyed the company of our neighbors!


Traditions are important...so here are a few of ours....

Pumpkin carving-We went to Safeway and let Brayden pick out some pumpkins.
Then we decided to let Brayden decide what kind of faces he wanted...the kid is an overachiever! He chose Lightning McQueen, Clifford, and Elmo. We talked him out of Elmo and into a plain jack o lantern because Brian didn't want that much work. Turns out we should have talked him out of Lightning McQueen and let him have Elmo! Brayden loved the pumpkins and in the end that was what mattered! We told Brayden he could help carve by cleaning out the gunk from inside the pumpkins! He started to clean the first pumpkin and after two scoops told us "Too hard for Brayden, Mommy do it"







Pizza for dinner-this was a new tradition this year. We went to Papa Murphy's and got one of their Jack o Lantern pizzas. So simple, yet so impressive to a 2 year old!




Trick or Treating-After a long day of playing, Brayden was tired out. He fell asleep watching the World Series! I think he was just warming of for Trick or Treating, he needed some extra energy. After his power nap, he got all transformed into Clifford. Once dressed in his costume, he saw no need to wait and thought we should go now...he had a hard time waiting for mom, dad, and sister to get ready! Brayden loved trick or treating (except at the "loud" houses..those would be the ones that were playing scary music and had lots of scary decorations). He was very polite and told everyone thank you and goodnight! When he got home, we let him have a couple pieces of his candy and then it was time to say goodbye to daddy because he had to leave to go to Reno for the next week for work. After daddy left, we headed to the bath and to bed!






Now we are excited to have YaYa come visit on Thursday!!!

Happy Halloween to everyone!


Meet McKenna Shower

My dear friend, Amanda, threw a shower for me so that everyone could meet McKenna and shower her with girlie clothes!
We had a great time, chatting, eating, & passing McKenna around. Everyone commented on how little she was! Funny, I don't think she is little at all. Then again, I am the one carrying her everywhere!! You think 12 pounds is light until you carry it around all day! Guess it is just a matter of what you are used to!!

Brian was in the field the weekend of the shower so Amanda's husband was kind of enough to take Brayden with him and Savannah (Amanda & Ryan's daughter & Brayden's good friend) to the pumpkin patch and the fire station. I'm not sure if the girls had more fun or if Ryan and the kids did??? Brayden had a wonderful time!

THANK YOU Amanda for organizing and hosting! THANK YOU Ryan for entertaining the kids! and THANK YOU to all of the ladies who attended! We were blessed by the clothes, prayers, and good wishes!





October 20, 2010

Welcome McKenna!!

Sorry it has been so long since we updated this! We have been busy adjusting to our newest addition!!

McKenna Eleanor Rasmussen
was born September 14, 2010 at 7:36am
She was 9 lbs 2oz and 21 inches long



Brayden loves his new sister and is a good helper most of the time!!
We are starting to settle into a new schedule/routine! We are working on getting McKenna to sleep through the night.
We think that she has acid reflux. The doctor has her starting a medicine today, so we will see if it helps!





We will try to be more consistent in updating this!!!

August 16, 2010

2 Year Photos

Here are a few of the photos from Brayden's 2 year pictures session! He was having a great time until we changed him out of his Army clothes! But, overall, we love his pictures!!! Enjoy!





Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

Another day while Grandpa was visiting, we went into the city (San Francisco) to go see Fisherman's Wharf. It was a cold, cloudy day (very normal for summer in San Francisco). We walked around the wharf, saw lots of boats, saw the famous sea lions at pier 39, ate lunch, and Brayden went on a carousel ride. After all that, we headed to Ghirardelli Square to get some of their delicious ice cream sundaes! Unfortunately, Brayden fell asleep on the walk there and missed the ice cream! After ice cream, we decided to head home....should have just stayed and did more sightseeing with Grandpa because it took us 2 1/2 hours to get home (only should have taken 45 minutes to an hour! But, oh well.....it was a great day anyway!!




You can barely see the Golden Gate Bridge with all the clouds!


Black Eye

Brayden got his first black eye 3 days after his birthday! He was outside playing ball with Blizzard, when they both went after the ball and neither were paying attention to where they were running and they bonked heads! Blizzard's both hit Brayden right on his cheekbone! Here are some pictures as it progressed! It was mostly gone when we had Brayden's 2 year old pictures taken this weekend!!



Muir Woods with Grandpa

Muir Woods is one of our favorite places to visit! It is located right along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is just north of the Golden Gate Bridge and is an amazing forest of redwood trees. We highly recommend you visit if you are ever in San Francisco! This was our third visit to Muir Woods and hopefully we will go again before we move! I mean sister has to see Muir Woods, right??





Brayden turns 2!!!!!

We celebrated Brayden's 2nd Birthday with a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA. We are fortunate to live only 1 1/2 hours away, so we took advantage of that and took Brayden to see the fish and sharks!! He really enjoyed touching the "fish".
Grandpa came to visit for Brayden's birthday and Brayden just loved going everywhere with "Pa". I think Brayden had a great birthday....his last in California! He will celebrate number 3 in Washington! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRAYDEN!!!