Brayden's 1st Birthday Party!!

I decided to do Bray's party on the actual day of his birthday.  Friday the 13th!!  No scary theme this year maybe when he's older. Since at one they don't remember a ton figured I could get by with a simple party.  The theme was #1!!  We once again got a cake from the Queen of Cake lady.  Once again it was great. I went with a marble cake with cookies n cream filling. The other food on the menu was from our new favorite pizza place that opened up down the road from us Pizza Luce!!  My parents made the trip from TRF along with my sister and nephew Bridger.  Than of course Grandma Char, SLP Bjorgaard's, and the Rislov's made it for the party.
Brayden enjoyed his pizza and smiled when everyone sang happy birthday to him (Chase had cried).  He didn't know what to think of the cake.  He pretty much just moved the frosting around. He did taste some but wasn't crazy about it.  I cut a little cake up for him and he went back to playing in the frosting.  He didn't get to open one gift.  His brother, cousin, and Addy made sure of that.  This year I let it slide.  He wasn't very interested in opening them anyway.  That would mean he would have to sit still for more than a minute.  These days not something he likes to do.  He got great gifts and Thank you to all that came and got the little guy something.  I know it's hard to come up with something for the 2nd boy in a household but everyone did well.  It's always nice to get new clothes rather than Chase's old stuff. He loves any toy that makes noise and lights up. He now has a bunch to call his own.  Though Chase doesn't see it that way.  I'm sure I never took my little sisters new stuff? And Eric being the 4th kid I'm not sure he ever got new stuff. Except we all know he got some Voltron toy that he still calls "the best birthday gift ever".

Brayden is 1!!!

Friday, May 13th Brayden turned the big 1!!  I took the day off to spend with the boys and get ready for his birthday party.  I made one of his favorites for breakfast pancakes & muffins.  The day once again was rainy but I decided to find something for the boys to do for fun indoors. Russ and I took the boys to Edinboroughs indoor park in Edina.  I love this place because it's so kid friendly.  Of course Chase took to the gym to play hoops.  I only got one picture of them in the playground area but they spent a little time in there.  They had a great little play area for kids 1-4 that is all padded.  So Brayden could play, fall, climb with out any worries of a bump or bruise. I had to talk Chase into getting into the big play area.  It's really tall and he told me "it's dangerous in there."  There is netting and padding all around the tubes, tunnels, and slides so there is no real danger.  I'm not sure if it's the 40 kids in there yelling that turns him off or if he was scared because it does go pretty high.  I finally went in there with him and played around.  I think I enjoyed it more than him.  We didn't have anything like this in TRF growing up. Uncle Russ says he can see himself going to this place more once Brayden is a little older.  Since most of the parents sit on their phones, laptops, and tablets doing their own thing.

Blogging-Where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been a couple weeks again since I've been on here to update the "The Bjorgaard Bunch". Some days next thing I know its 11:30 and I'm forcing myself to go to bed. Everyone said it but of course I had to experience it for myself "Life is very busy with 2 kids".

Like tonight, I found a simple task of vacuuming taking me over 50 mins to do. This is something that by myself would take 20 mins top (to do both the kitchen/living room/furniture) but with 2 kids not helping I was happy it wasn't over an hour. First- Brayden tangled himself up in the hose. Than he had one step in front of the vacuum while I did the kitchen floor. I would mostly sweep and be done with it but thanks to two storms over the weekend we now have little green leafy things all over the place. Next the dog had planted himself under the table and won't move even when I threaten to vacuum up his paws. I would normally just go around him but thanks to Chase's auntie Lindsay who got him the ice cream play-doh machine there are play-doh pieces covering the floor. After I broke out a treat for the dog and threw it into the other room for him to retrieve I was finally able to finish the kitchen. Next onto the living room where I had 20 mins prior picked up all the toys off the floor but Chase has now decided to play with the kitchen set so there is play food everywhere. Not a problem a quick pick up and I'm back to vacuuming. Than Chase says mom I have to poop so I put down the hose and get that job taken care of. All well fighting to keep Brayden out of the bathroom as all he wants to do in there is play with the toilet bowl scrubber, toilet paper roll, plunger, or tries to puts his hands in the toilet (while Chase is on it). If you shut him out of the bathroom he stands outside the door screaming. Finally back to vacuuming and after all of this I'm totally covered in sweat and hoping I'm losing some of the 10 pounds I still carrying from being prego with these two.

I finally finish vacuuming and look at Chase and say "I need a drink." He asks a drink of o.j. because I would like one too. I say "No something stronger like daddy drinks." He replies "oh beer".

And with that comment I laugh off the extra 30 plus mins it took me to do this simple task and think to myself maybe I can have another kid? I swear these little buggers have me brainwashed.

So with that all said I hope it explains why I don't blog as much anymore. I love sharing our stories and pictures for our family/friends that we don't get to see often but somewhere my time is being vacuumed up (ha ha).

Mini Golfing with cousins

For Easter weekend Auntie Cheri & the girls came down to visit.  Russ decided to take the nieces and nephews mini golfing at the Mall of America-Moose Mountain.  Below are some shots from the golf course high atop of the MOA. Of course Brayden just walked around the course looking for something to climb. 

Brayden's new pain in the butt habit

Brayden's new fav thing is to play in Fonzie's water dish.  He likes to splash with his hands, feet, pour it on himself and than carry the bowls around.  Last Sunday he managed to drop one and it broke into a hundred pieces (none hit him thank god).  That is 2 bowls in one month that he has broken.  He broke Grandma Char's doggy Muffin's dish too last time we had Sunday lunch there. Below are some shots of him at play.  He's so proud of his naughtiness!

Hard to see in this pic but he gets it all over the walls too.

Fonzie being the great dog he is still lets the little man relax against him for Brayden's bottle time even though he's probably thirsty himself.

Chase 3 year old stats

I figured I should get this out there before Brayden's 1st Birthday comes around next week. 
Chase had an excellent 3 year old doctor visit.  He's healthy and right on track as other 3 year olds.  We enrolled him in a summer school program starting in June for 8 weeks.  He will go twice a week for a couple hours each time.  We are doing this so he can get use to not always being at home and gets some social interaction with kids his age.  He's doing great at that now though.  He always finds friends at the park or at turf tots.  We hope all goes well with the summer program because we signed him up for a fall preschool class too.  That is also 2 days a week for a couple hours. 

His 3 year old well exam stats:
Weight: 39lbs (95%)
Height: 40 inches (95%)
BMI-17.4 (87%)
For the first time they took his blood pressure and that was right on track too.  He did get a shot for measles since there have been a couple cases in Hennepin County.  I guess he would have gotten this shot at 4 anyways so now no shot needed at his 4 year well visit.

The cutest part of the visit was they asked Chase to put on a gown so she could exam him.  When the nurse told him that he started to cry a little but with Eric's help he put the gown on and went back to drawing on the chalk board.  He looked so darn cute in the gown I made Eric take pictures.

Almost 8 years later the dinning room gets shades

This was a big moment for our household.  Having been at our place for almost 8 years we had never put shades on the dinning room windows or patio door.  We are the last people in our development so the alley ends with us except for the occasional kid hanging around back there not many people to be looking in the patio door.  There is older houses next door and on the rest of the block so they can see in the windows.  We figured they probably are getting sick of our late night Saturday poker/board game nights (a couple have gotten out of control).  So I finally broke down and figured out something to hang back there.  So far I really like it!  The curtain on the patio doors opens easy enough and I got the wood look without having to hang blinds.  I was worried it would close the room in too much but it actually turned out to look/feel more homey. 

Now you ask what the next project is. I really want to paint the great room and get new shades for those windows.  But I think that will wait another year and we will see how much more the boys can scrape up the current paint job.