Okay so I admit, I'm a total blog slacker. It doesn't really help that we still don't have the internet at home... that's my excuse. :) I guess a lot has happened since my last blog. Braden is now 18 months old and talking like crazy. He calls me 'Sarah' instead of 'mom' no matter how much I call myself mom and tell him to call me mom.. I swear he does it just because I don't want him to. We had a fun birthday party for him in December (that's B.J. and little 'B' just before the party started). That's when he had his first piece of cake, and unfortunately it left him with a permanent sweet tooth... like his mommy. This is the birthday cake I made him (with a little help from Grandma Joani), delicious German Chocolate! You can't really tell, but the top says "Happy Birthday Braden" :). He had the best time digging into his piece of cake. He kept making the funniest face. Lucky for us, Grandma Mary Ann got the perfect shot of him doing it! We had lots of family and friends there! Thanks to everyone who was able to show up and make Braden's 1st birthday party a memorable one!

What else is new...? Today is the 1-year anniversary of Braden's surgery. His fingers look great and to tell you the truth, we don't even think about it anymore.

His personality is really starting to bloom (along with the temper tantrums, which include throwing things like lemonade that splattered all over the back of the driver's seat in the car, biting, screaming, etc..). But the good thing is, he does make us laugh every day. His newest favorite thing to say is "Oh cute!" but he says it like "oh cyoo!" He knows how to tell you what a dog, cat, snake, elephant and lion says, and he knows ASL for bird, please, thank you, more and eat. He surprises us at how smart he is... not that we expected otherwise.

We've taken a few trips to Missouri over the past few months. All three of us drove out there the day after Christmas, braving a nasty snow storm and everything. While we were out there, we decided to go see Leon on his mission in Kentucky. He was actually in New Albany, Indiana when we saw him. This was the first time Leon and Braden ever met. Leon left about a month before Braden was born, so this was a really cool thing for Leon.. and us, too, for that matter.

While in MO, we stayed the night up at my parents' property. We went fishing and and had a blast gettin' muddy on the 4-wheelers. B.J. and I even shot clay pigeons... my first time shooting a shotgun! Braden loved riding the 4-wheelers with PawPaw. They are such cute buddies; Braden is really drawn to him and PawPaw is really good to him. We're actually going to drive and meet them halfway next weekend so they can keep Braden for a week or so. Nana misses him too much when he's gone. Plus, it's a good opportunity for B.J. and I to spend some time together too.

In April I went to the Britney Spears concert, from which I'm a little scarred. I walked out feeling like I had just seen a nudey show in Vegas. It was really fun to go out with my Control4 girls though! We had a blast eating at the Dodo and dancing at the concert. We don't get to hang out much since I was laid off in November. But we try to keep in touch and go out to lunch as much as we can. I just love them!!

Since I was laid off, I decided to start training to be a Medical Transcriptionist. That's what I'm doing now, along with working part-time at Bath & Body Works. I can do all the training from home, and when I'm done with the training I'll be able to work from home as well. I really like it... both things that is... working at B&BW and the training.

B.J. is still working at LDS Hospital as a Central Processing Coordinator, and he's glad that school is out for the summer. It's nice to be able to spend time as a family before he goes to work in the afternoons.

Anyway, I'll try to post blogs more often. Love you all!