Brayden's Birthday Party (a month late)

I know I'm a month behind, but better late than never. I'll admit, I've gotten addicted to Facebook and Blogger has taken a back burner. BUT, now I've linked Facebook to Blogger so maybe that'll get me back to more consistent blogs. Cause I know I have readers...maybe not commenters :)....but readers ;)

We had Brayden's birthday on Feb. 1st at a HUGE indoor jump house warehouse place. It's called Wazoos. It was really fun. Most every picture I took was a blur because from the second the kids peeled their shoes off...they were GONE! It was almost a bit much for Brayden to take in because there were just so many choices!! The big kids even had a great time. And even though it was s very cool day outside, it didn't take long for them to get sweaty and red faced. Here's some (not as blurry) pictures of everyone playing:











The kids are all so pooped I think this is probably the first party we've had were we didn't hear a single "awh man" when we called them to come to the party room. Usually you've got at least a handful of kiddos that are NOT ready to stop playing! Brayden was beside himself when we saw that he had a Thomas cake! Thomas is the BEST!!


Brayden made out really well in the ole gift department. He was so excited that his friends not only came to play with him, but also brought gifts!?!?! WOW! He was on cloud 9 :)


After he opened all his presents, had cake, and cooled down a bit...he headed back out to play. Since they let you stay and play for as long as you like, I figured it would be a good long while before I saw Brayden again. About 20-30 later he came up to me and said he wanted to go home!?!? I was shocked, but sure wasn't gonna argue with him :) Usually you have to leave these places with the little ones kicking and screaming! Not Brayden! He was ready to G-O! He was ready to get home and play with his new toys!!!

It was a good party and I thank everyone who came! It was a very special day for Brayden and we thank all of you that were able to come and share it with us :) And we truly missed all of you who couldn't make it.

Luke's Locker

Here in the metroplex we have a shoe store chain called Luke's Locker. I found this out from the 5Ks that I've run cause they are one of the sponsors (usually). Anyway, I'd been needing a new pair of running shoes and I had some Christmas money to spend...so I decided that a new pair of kick would be what I spent it on. I checked out the selection at Hibbet and Academy, but just wasn't sure exactly what I needed and the people that work there don't know what you need either. Heck, you're lucky if you can ever find them to get a shoe to try one. So I asked Jim to take me to Luke's since they are a running shoe specialty store.

I walk in expecting to do what I always do...look at the selection and pick out the "pretty" one and hope it's practical for my needs :) NOPE! There is a shoe selection on the wall, but they weren't there for me to choose from. The salesman met me almost immediately once I got past the running clothes section. He asked me to have a seat so he could look at my feet!...ok... then he asks me to walk away from him and then back towards him. He's checking out my feet the whole time. And I'm afraid he's looking at my nasty toes that are WAY past need of a pedicure! But he wasn't interested in my nasty toes, he wanted to see how I walked/stood so that would help him grab the correct shoe from the back. Then he asked me how much I ran, intensity, and what I was training for. After he gather all my info, he took off to the back. He came back with a variety of shoes and colors. None were what I asked for, but what he said would be best for my foot and it's needs. I about flipped when I saw that he brought me a 10!! A freakin 10!!! I've wore an 8.5-9 shoe since high school. Now this guys telling me I'm a 10! (At this point to tell me that ANYthing on my body it going up in size is an insult!) He tells me I've been wearing the wrong shoe size for a VERY long time. Well, low and behold he was right...I wear a 10 :( But the shoes he brought me were like wearing clouds! It was hard to narrow down which one I liked, but I was advised to try closing my eyes and NOT look at the shoe but to just determine which felt the best...despite if I thought it was ugly or not.

Well, lucky for me the shoe that felt the best is pretty spiffy. They are Saucony Ride(s). And they are wonderful! Now when I run, if anything ever hurts...it's not my feet anymore!

Anyway, it was a new experience for me and Jim thought I should share it. If you are a runner or thinking of becoming a runner, I urge you to try out a store that specializes in running shoes and make you go thru this process. Cause the right pair of shoes is like having the right pair of tire on your car/truck! And in running, the wrong shoe can make you hate it or hurt you :(

Happy 14th Birthday Natalie!!

On Friday our big girl turned 14!! Most of you already know this from my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?tab=1), but I need to keep my Blogger fans happy too ya know ;)



She got have 4 girls sleepover last Friday night due to how we needed to schedule Brayden's party. So...last Sunday was Brayden's actual b-day, but we had Nat's "celebration"...this was Nat's b-day weekend, but we had Brayden's party... She had a very good time regardless of scheduling. They all went skating and then yapped it up ALL night till Lord knows when :)...but was to be expected.

Friday Jim and I scurried around like mad all day to get Nat's old bed tore down and put back up in Brayden's room. Then to get Nat's new TOTALLY AWESOME bed put up by the time I got her home from school. She was so happy that she asked if she could just get in her PJs and go to bed :)



Grandma and Grandpa Racecar (my Mom and Dad) were so kind to help us with Nat's bed by donating a headboard and rails that Karen had. Mom spiffed up the headboard with a new coat of white paint. I think it turned out GR8!! After Nat had some good snuggle time in her new bed, she and Brayden opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa...and cards from Great Granny Berryman, Great Granny Davidson, and Grandpa James & Phyllis.



Then it was up to Nat where we had supper. She wanted sushi so we went to Shogun in Denton. It's a Japanese steak house. Everyone loved it. Brayden was VERY concerned that the man cooking in front of us was going to burn his sippy cup! The entertainment was great! Then if we weren't stuffed enough....we came home to Nat's multi-cheescake platter...yum! I think our big girl had a very good birthday!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes she received by email, phone, and mail :)

I'll give you all a few days to check this blog out and then I'll do a post on Brayden's b-day party at Wazoo's! Let me just tell you now...most of the pictures are a blurr!!!!

I will now leave you with what can be archived as Matthew Berryman in the early years...cause per his guitar teacher...he WILL be in a band :) ....Enjoy :)
This is House of the Rising Sun by The Animals (I believe). He's just starting on this song, but he's doing really well!


This is Little Red Riding Hood. Not sure who's song it is, but he does really well with this one too!

Happy 4th Birthday Brayden!!

Happy birthday big boy! Not that you'll read this... Today has already been a big day of fun for our big, little man :) He opened birthday cards from both of his Great Granny's. That in itself is a WONDERFUL present that I'm so glad he has the chance to experience!! I never knew my Great Grandparents. And Brayden has gotten to know 3 of his!! Anyway...we got him a new Lego table (which might have been more for me than him :)) and a plasma car. Carrie (Jim's cousin) and Reagan (Jim's little sister by proxy) told me that this plasma car was a MUST have...and they were right. I will attempt to post some of the video...


I'm not sure if I'll be able to post the other videos...so here some godd ole fashioned digital pics for ya :)


Brayden is obviously telling us he's 4...but, as he revealed earlier in the the day...he just wants to be 5! ..what a nut!


Are these some GR8 new glasses?? ...or the steering wheel to his plasma car??


Here was have Ripstick vs. Plasma Car.


Nat was trying to play like she wasn't interested in playing with the car...but she got hooked too :)

Please see the blog below for hopefully more b-day video...

Hope you all have as wonderful day as we are!!

Happy 4th Birthday Brayden...more video!!

Visit my Hubby

I'll post a new blog if you guys will do me a favor.... Please pop on over to Jim's blog and give him a shout. Help keep us bloggers motivated :)

Facebook?

So I've recently travelled outside my Blogger comfort zone and signed up for Facebook. Beth told me that I should try it and that it's fun. I am always leery of sites like this cause I'm always afraid of the content that I DON'T want to see. Like on MySpace... I never signed up for that, but I've looked at a few pages and it doesn't take long before someone is linked up to someone who feels the need to show a boob or butt cheek! I'm not too cool with that!!! I like to talk and find friends/school mates form the past, but I am NOT looking to find soft core porn! No thank you!

Anyway, so I signed up to Face book and it's pretty neat. Seems pretty "safe" too. I have already found a few people I went to high school with.

What's the most funny about all of this is my husband! He sees me signing up the other day and is asking WHY wouldn't you just sign up for MySpace? I told him that I wanted to try Facebook. He was all saying how MySpace was better, Facebook's no different...basically dissing!! :) Then he leaves the room....to go do WHAT???? Sign up on stinking Facebook!!!!!!!!!! I think he's more of an addict than I am now. What a nut!

Here's the link to my page...I think: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?tab=1

Kim - If you read this, could you send me an invite? I can't (for some reason) send you one.

15 mins of my life

I won't be doing a "Day in the Life of Angie"...I'll just give you what happened in just 15 mins of my life. All just random stuff...but funny to me. And you MUST take into consideration, I have NO adult conversation (most days) until Jim gets home...so bear with me and what I think is funny :)

So I'm drying my hair a few minutes ago, turn off the dryer and hear my baby screaming. It's his "I'm hurt/terrified" scream. So I tear out of the bathroom and run into him in the living room. He's screaming "...I get the fire truck off my hair...get it off....get it off...oweee..." My poor little baby has a motorized (GeoTrax) fire truck wound up in his hair :( I'm kissing on him to calm him down and that was NOT what he was wanting. He said "...we gotta go...go get the scissors..." And ANYONE who knows me KNOWS how I feel about getting his hair cut. But I had no other choice. It was wound pretty tight and very close to his head. No way I could work it back out cause the stupid toy was suck and was still winding in and we couldn't turn it off. So I pulled out the trusty scissors and took a precious lock of hair off my baby's head :( Ugh! He checked himself out in the mirror afterwards and told me "...it's ok Mommy, I'm still handsome..." :)

After all the drama we head to his room to get dressed. I pull the shirt over his head and he turns to look at his Buzz Lightyear jacket (that has a pictures of Zurg on it). He said "Buzz Lightyear is on my jacket with his Daddy." (and if you hadn't ever seen the movie...Zurg is evil, Buzz is good...and the story plays out like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Zurg even says the line "...I am you Father...") Brayden then asks me "Why is the Daddy mad?" (cause [of course] Zurg's a bad guy and is making a mad face) I told him that I didn't know. He told me "...maybe it's because he didn't clean his room!" LOL... then proceeds to tell me that Buzz had just ONE racecar and he didn't pick it up... You might have had to be there to laugh at this one. But it was funny!...and so cute.

Have a great day!

Lots of Holiday Happenings!!

We have been busy little bees at our house with lots of fun holiday stuff. I will catch you up with what we've been doing since I blogged about Nat's recital. The post about Jim has been the most recent, but it didn't actually fall in the "fun" catagory :)

On Dec. 6th, Matt ran his first 1 mile and Mom, Dad, and I ran another 5k. It was a long drive, but ended up being well worth it. It was a day of personal achievements for all of us! Matthew won 1st place! He ran a 6.34 mile (I think I have the time right). He didn't just run against kids, he ran against adults also!!


I amazed myself that day also by running my best time ever (to that date) and I won 1st overall woman! Crazee!! It was a hard run, but a great run! The girl I picked to chase was a fighter!!

Dad also ran his best time ever and he won 3rd place in his age group! Dad really kicked butt!!


Nat was Mom's walking buddy for this 5K and the 2 of them did great!...and had a fun time too :) Mom beat her best time ever and won 1st place in her age group!!


The money from this 5k went to this organization: cisnt.org. You can go to this website, scroll down till you see me and click on the link to "more photos" on the right. They have more pics than what we took.

That night we headed to the square for the Christmas light parade and Nat's drill team Christmas show. The girls did really good. I'll attempt to attach the video, but I warn it it's pretty dark.

So far no luck with the video...try again later...

...on to the rest of our events...

Ah, my FAVORITE time...decorating for Christmas. I absolutely love to decorate for Christmas. I love the tree, the lights, the stockings, the excitment in the kids eyes, all of it...





Last Saturday Nat, Matt, and I got up in the windy cold to go run in the Reindeer Romp 1k/5k in Justin. I was so proud of Nat and Matt just for getting up and going with me. The wind was so nasty to us, but the kids stuck it out and ran anyway. VERY proud of them. They didn't have their times posted after we ran, but they are supposed to post them on: fieldhousefitness.net. I haven't seen the results posted yet, but I'll keep checking. I think they were #184 & #185. and If I counted correctly, they were the 10th & 11th placed kids. WAY TO GO GUYS!!!



I ran my best time ever (23.39) on this day, but I don't know how I placed yet. I must say it was a bear of a run and if the lady had told me that my time was a 30.00+, I would have believed it!!!

Now about Brayden...and his LLLOOONNNGGG awaited visit with Santa. This poor baby has heard the term "...you'll have to ask Santa..." EVERY time in the past 2 months (at least) that he's asked for some toy. All the toy magazines in the house have become the "Ask Santa" books :) I joked that I'd have to rent a 30 min. time slot with what ever Santa we went to go see to accomidate his list of wants/needs :) Suprisingly enough, when I took him to have Santa pictures done...he only asked for a race car. I think he was star stuck :) It was so cute, he just stared at him and was just all giddy inside! Here's a scan of the pictures we had made (don't worry Grandparents, you'll get a copy :)).

Then, to top it off...we find out that last night Santa would be coming thru our neighborhood on a lighted fire truck. The only way this could have been any better is if it was Santa, in a fire truck, being pulled by a choo-choo train!! But this was pretty awesome. It was very chilly last night so we waited at the end of our driveway in the suburban. He was to arrive between 5:30-6pm. Brayden was beside himself everytime he saw a set of lights. Then finally at 6:10, we hear the sirens....it was SANTA!!!!!!!! Santa was riding on the back of hte lighted fire truck. The fire truck stopped in front of Brayden's house. Then Santa hopped off the truck and walked acros the street to see Brayden and give him a candy can (no, not a mispell, that's what he calls them :)). This little boy was in HEAVEN! Thank you Santa :)



This weekend we will travel to Midland to have Christmas with James and Phyllis on Saturday. Then we will head to Levelland to have Christmas with the Davidsons on Sunday. It will be a whirlwind weekend, but lots of fun. Alway so good to see everyone! Hope you all have a great weekend!

If you like what you just read, let me know....I spent a good amount of time on this one and it' always rewarding to read your comments...hint-hint ;)~~