New Blog

We have finished creating our new family blog, even though it is very much a work in progress, and after this post, will no longer be posting to this blog. We have sent an email out to most of our family and friends letting them know the new website address and password. If you have not received this email and want to be able to check our new blog, please either leave a comment here with your email address so we can send you the url and password, or if you would rather not share your infromation on a public site, please email Laura at kincaidfreebies@yahoo.com and I will give you that information.

Thank you for so faithfully and lovingly keeping up with us on our blog! We look forward to your comments on our new blog!!

Slide Fun

Here's a short video of Brayden and I going down the big slides at the fair! He loved it as you can tell and asked for it "again" as soon as we were done!

County Fair

Mommy and Brayden on the swing

Our fair view from the ferris wheel

Daddy and Brayden on the Ferris Wheel

At the mini circus

Pony Ride

Family Fair Fun

What an awesome Saturday spent together as a family today. We slept in, hung out at home, and then headed out to our church's Country Fair they put on today. Brayden got a temporary tattoo of a monster truck on his arm, got to pet a bunny, shared a snow cone and cotton candy with Mommy and Daddy (25 cents each!) and then rode a pony for the second time in his life. He had so much fun and we were glad we stopped by. Mike got a couple cute shots of me walking with Brayden while he was on the pony (since it didn't have a little holder to keep the kiddos on the pony) and his big ol' grin. He kept saying "Yeehaw" "Giddyup" and talking about "Wooy" aka Woody from Toy Story. Precious.

Then we drove out to Quincy for the Plumas County Fair. I was SO excited that we were able to go this weekend because we really thought we weren't going to be able to make it out to the fair this year. Kudos to my awesomely hard working hubby, who has to make that hour long commute twice a day, on top of the hour from there that he commutes with his coworker. I am sure it wasn't high on his list of stuff he wanted to do this weekend, but he knew how much I wanted to go and made it happen. I love that man :)! We really thought Brayden would be too young and too timid to enjoy the rides but we were very wrong. We ended up buying a small package deal for tickets and used them all up! We went on the Ferris Wheel as a family, and then Brayden and I did most of the rest of the rides while awesome Daddy videotaped and took photos. Brayden and I rode the swings together (that ride went on forever and by the end, my stomach was queasy!), we went on the humongous slides twice in a row (the one where you sit on a long blanket type thing to make you shoot down the ramp, and with the combined weight of Brayden and I together, we shot all the way off the bottom of the ramp we were going so fast!), and Brayden rode the carousel. It was a blast. He truely LOVED all the rides. He kept saying "Wow!" on the ferris wheel, he was grinning ear to ear going down the slide and laughing so hard and Mike got a great video of us sliding together, and he insisted that I didn't need to hold onto him on the carousel and would wave every time around at his Daddy and say "Look Daddy!" I will be posting pictures later.
We also went to a cute little circus show and by the end of the show Brayden was standing with all the other kiddos and dancing, and he got his first balloon animal. Then we went to the kids tractor pull where 4-12 year old kids ride these awesome pedal tractors and race to see who can go the furthest pulling weight. It's a real impromptu event and we look forward to the day Brayden will want to try it! They let the little kiddos get on the tractors after the event to play around and take photos and Brayden was in Heaven! We also enjoyed looking at and saying hi to all the different farm animals, in whatever "moo, quack, cockadoodledoo, oink" language they spoke, I mean how cute is it to see your two year old oinking hello to the pigs?
And Mike and I thoroughly enjoyed our amazing Indian Tacos for dinner, tried on cowboy/girl hats, and had a good laugh at the "Splash Dogs" event they had going on to see whose dog could jump the furthest into a pool and do the coolest tricks.
We got some great pictures from the day and I will be uploading them tomorrow after Mike goes to work and sharing them all with you!

Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday!

Playing the piano and dancing!

This boy has got rhythm!

Garage Sale

Garage sales rock!

We were driving home from renting a movie tonight and came across two garage sales. We've been living pretty darn frugally but couldn't pass up good toys for our favorite little guy at steals for prices! We got everything in this picture for $20 total. You can't see it all that well but there is a working piano with a TON of features, a whole bucket of potato heads with tons of parts, a whole firehouse set with little people, a dress up elmo that talks when you put the different animal parts on him (I love it, its so cute), a couple small toys, and a big stuffed tractor with large tires. Brayden seriously thought it was Christmas in our house, especially after just having a birthday last month!

Recipe

UPDATE: Mike tried the bread and absolutely loved it, and I brought a piece to my co-worker today and she loved it too, so the general consensus is that you should try this recipe!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Banana-Bread-II/Detail.aspx

I had a hankering to bake tonight, as if working a full day, doing two loads of laundry, watering the next door yard, and doing a load of dishes while playing with my awesome 2 year old wasn't enough. Brayden is just such a great helper that those chores become really fun and together we get them done much faster! So, alas, I tried a new recipe for banana bread tonight. Mike had commented that the banana bread recipe I have been using the last few times just seems to be really dry, and I thought I would try to find a recipe to remedy that, since it is one of his favorite desserts (and Brayden and I's as well). So, I tried a recipe on allrecipes.com, chocolate chip banana bread II (really frustrated with my computer right now as it wont let me paste the URL). I didn't realize it made two loaves, otherwise I would have cut the recipe in half. Can I just say that I think it is amazingly delicious? Ignore the calorie content and the super fattening contents and just imagine the warm, moist, banany, chocolately goodness that is this bread. I will tell you for sure tomorrow if Mike equally approves, but I highly suggest you look this recipe up and try it out. We substituted margarine for shortening but kept the mayonaisse (I know, weird right? but it really did make a difference). The only complaint I had is that the bread didnt rise up all the way in the middle which I dont mind because it fully cooked in the middle and I always cut up the bread and put it in ziploc baggies anyways. Ok, enough...now to go eat another piece!!

Sillies

Trying to snap a pic for Mike while he is at work and this is what we got. I'm making that face because brayden is accidentally pulling on my hoop earring. Anyways, I loved how it turned out so I thought I would share it!

Hug?

On the way home from Youth Group tonight, Brayden was sitting in the backseat of the truck just chatting away with me while I drove (and we were talking to Grammy on the phone too, hands-free of course) and started asking me "Hug? Hug? Hug" repeatedly and holding his arms out to me. This went on for the last 10 minutes of our drive, which I wish wasn't for the most part on windy roads that are unlit so I could have pulled straight over and given him a hug. But thankfully, he patiently waited till we were home and as soon as I opened his door to get him out, he said "HUG!" with a huge smile on his face and wrapped his arms around me so tightly. He asked for about 6 more hugs in the 10 minutes we were home before he went to bed too. Precious, precious memories to last a lifetime! Sweet boy, I pray you never stop asking me so sweetly and sincerely for hugs, and that you never cease to give me such tight, love-filled hugs!

And the Deputy....

I know I dont say much about Mike on the blog anymore, as I work to get the other blog set up and privatized you will be able to hear a little bit more about his job and whats new with him.

In the meantime, Mike had a great weekend, his favorite fighter, Matt Hughes, fought in a UFC this weekend and won in the first round, and holy toledo, you should have been there to see Mike jump and yell, and pick me up over his head when it happened. In fact, he scared Brayden pretty good by being so excited. Silly guy.

He has roughly 8 weeks left in his training program, where he is working as a deputy but with different other deputies in each city in our county. He LOVES his job and is really soaking up this time while he is working with another Deputy each night learning as much as he can from each of them to help him when he is on his own.

And, based on a few questions for me about how I feel about his career, if I get worried, what's worse, this or the Navy, etc. Here's some answers. I love that Mike is a man that wants to be out doing something to make a difference. I applaud any and every man that works or has worked to make a living for their family. I love that Mike is so hard working and is so passionate about helping others. I knew this when I married him, one of the many many things that attracted me to him, and I wouldn't change it for a minute. When Mike was deciding to stay in the Navy, to get out, what kind of job he wanted to do and more, we both agreed that whatever Mike did, he needed to LOVE doing it. Because of course you work to live and not live to work, but knowing that he would have to work as a career, he might as well do something he loved doing, especially since he had the world at his fingertips. He made the decision to become a cop and hasn't looked back, and neither have I. It's the most fulfilled I have seen Mike feel since we have been married, doing the job he signed up to do and wanted to do (unlike with the Navy where he didn't get the job he wanted and didn't feel he was being utilized to the best of his ability). It's such a joy to watch him be so passionate about what he does and I am so blessed that he cares and works as hard as he does. I do get worried, what wife wouldn't? In fact, I struggle with trying to make his job seem less dangerous in my mind, while he is away at work, so I don't spend every moment worrying about him. It's a tough balance. But the comfort I have is knowing that God CALLED Mike to this job, shut all other doors and opened every single door for him to do this line of work, and who am I to argue with that or worry about Mike when God is in complete control? Of course I know the danger that is Mike's job, and I do worry, but I entrust Mike to God and know that God is fulfilling Jeremiah 29:11 in Mike's life every day :). And lastly, Cop versus Navy. Well, it's like comparing apples to oranges in some ways. Navy came with deployments which can be compared to nothing in the entire world. But, I also feel like for what Mike's job was in the Navy, versus what Mike's job is now, that as far as worrying goes, Mike's job right now is much much more dangerous on a daily basis. While Mike was home in the U.S. in the Navy, it was like any other day job, and when he was gone, he was pretty safe on the aircraft carrier. There were some exceptions, and of course I worried about terrorism, but dealing with criminals every day/night face to face is to me, much more worrisome. I'm so grateful for both jobs, what the Navy has taught us and what the Policing world now is teaching us. God's using it all for His glory! If you have any more questions about his work I will answer them if I can!

Brayden Happenings...

Let's see, Brayden is still cutting 5 teeth right now. For the past couple of weeks he has given me a little bit of a hard time when it comes to brushing his teeth, and I think it was just that the ones coming in were bothering him, because now he is back to his usual, loves to have his teeth-brushed, self.

He still LOVES to dance. You turn on "ABC" by the Jackson 5, or "All the Single Ladies" by Beyonce', and he's moving, shaking, bouncing up and down, waving his hands, and shaking his booty the instant he hears it. Come to think about it, anything with a beat he will dance to, music on commercials, cartoon music, song-intros to TV shows...He just has the dance bug and Mike and I crack up every time.

We're still working on the beginning stage of potty-training. Learning Brayden like we have so far, he takes time to catch on to things, likes to get used to ideas, and needs plenty of patience. So right now we are sticking with talking to him about bodily functions and encouraging him to talk to us about when he goes potty in his diaper. He is getting much better about telling us when he has already gone #2, but doesnt quite understand yet when he is going #1.

He is a pro at saying his "ABC"s back to me. I have to pronounce each letter first, but Brayden will repeat each one back to me with ease. It's adorable to see him watch my mouth when I say a letter and be so animated when he says it himself. We've already heard a lot of progress with his "w, s, q, and x".

When he says "Buzz" as in Buzz Lightyear, it often comes out "B-ah-zz" which just crackes Mike and I up.

We just chopped his hair again yesterday. One, it was by far, his best haircut to date. He didn't cry once, sat pretty darn still, and was just so well behaved while Mike cut it. He got major kudos for that. And two, everytime we cut his hair, I just can't get over how much he looks like his handsome Daddy.

He's having SO much fun helping pick out his outfits these days too. I hold up two shirts, or two sets of PJs, or two sets of shorts, and let him have a choice. He thinks its just so funny, and has even started putting his index finger on his mouth and dramatically bouncing his head back and forth between each item being held out to him as if it's such an important decision. It makes me laugh every single time.

Distorted Vision

Just seemed like a good title for this short blog. I always find it amusing when life, also known as God, throws us a curve ball. I hear more often than I would like to, that Mike and I always have something different going on in our lives. This is true, some of it we bring upon ourselves, and a lot of it we count as the fact that we are just fortunate to have such colorful and exciting life experiences happen to us. Friday was one of those moments.

As mentioned on my personal thoughts blog, journeying2him.tumblr.com, there's been some stressful stuff going on in my week. Nothing major or worth mentioning individually, just normal life stress. And it was a decision I had to make to not think about those things this weekend, starting as soon as I got off work Friday, so I could fully enjoy my weekend with Mike and Brayden. Maybe just to test my sincerity and devotion to that decision, we got in our Jeep Friday to run an errand in town only to find our windshield cracked from top to bottom, right down the middle. I cried, and then I laughed, and it was a couple hours later that night before I came before God and confessed that I had been just thinking about the "bad luck" of the windshield situation and not sticking to my promise and goal to be stress-free, and didn't think about it again until tonight. And now, I still realize the problem it is, and the financial burden it will be, but thanks to a stress-free weekend, I am not freaking out about it like I was on Friday. It will be awhile before we can afford to get it fixed, but thankfully you can't even feel the crack from the inside of the car, or the outside. It is the weirdest thing because we have no idea how it cracked, especially since the crack seems to be within the glass. Alas, I thought distorted vision was a funny little title for a not-so-funny happening in the always crazy Kincaid lives!

Bear

No, not the dog, a real bear. That's what Mike saw last night on patrol running down the Main street of the town he is patrolling this month at about 2:30 in the morning. Mike said it was a gigantic bear and that it was booking it faster than he knew bears could run. They turned to follow it and the bear dissappeared quickly. Cool huh? I was glad to hear he was safe in his car when he saw it!

Cookie Monster

Brayden has the lady behind the deli counter wrapped around his little finger. I mean, who can resist my curly blonde-haired, blue eyed, "Pease" and "Tane-too" saying little boy? Apparently, she can't, so everytime she is working, which seems to be every time we have been in there lately, she gives Brayden a cookie of his choice. This one happened to be right before dinner time, thankfully he didnt want to eat the whole thing and still ate his entire dinner :)

I can't figure out how to turn videos once I upload them, but at least I am uploading one finally! Learning to post videos from my phone on here. Let me know how it works!

Life with a boy

I often say, I think I was meant to be a "boy-mom." Not that I don't love cute little girls, frilly dresses, and adorable headbands, because I do. I love them. But I just love being the mom to a little boy. I love trains, and bikes, and frogs, and wrestling, and just everything boy...ok...well...maybe not everything. I don't do bugs. Brayden will of course one day take advantage of this knowledge and come into our house dangling creepy crawly things in front of my face, but for the moment, I can enjoy the fact that he hasn't yet realized everything buggy. But aside from bugs, there is only one other thing I can think of about boys that is just so darn hard, and that is their somewhat supernatural, almost like gravity, pull towards danger and injury. My Mom, during my phone call of telling her about tonight's events, quickly reminded me that this was the little boy that just a year ago I was worried about when he was going to be walking. Oh to have such simple worries....

Brayden ran off the couch tonight. Yes, go ahead and re-read that. Brayden RAN off the couch tonight while I was sitting just a couple cushions away from him. Let me now tell you he is completely un-injured and in 100% exact same condition as he was before he attempted his dare-devil adventure (well, not now, read dare-devil adventure #2, but he is still totally ok). I wasn't quite sure that I saw the first run and jump action right since he had never even tried anything close to it before, but gave him a stern warning that we only sit on the couch. One moment later, he did the same thing. Both times, falling to the plush carpet (and on top of large dogs who are always there to break his fall) in complete giggles. He got in trouble again and had to sit on the floor. *Sigh* I digress...I know....you parents of older boys are just shaking your head at me, thinking "You think this is a big deal?" Wait till later." Onto stunt #2....

Brayden likes to be in control of his interaction with water, hence his love for his water table from Grammy Hoefler. He has increased his love for water since his trip to the pool for his birthday, he is much more willing to splash and play, and likes to try to blow bubbles (scares me to death). Well, Brayden wanted to stand in the tub today. Brayden knows he is not allowed to stand in the tub. He fully understands this and does know better. Brayden did take advantage of the fact that I was trying very hard not to get one of my hands wet that I have a cut on that has been bothering me, and was trying to stand regardless of me telling him not too. Long story short (yeah right Laura), I was holding Brayden's hand telling him to sit down when he fell face forward into the waterspout of the bathtub. No blood gushing or anything, don't worry. Just a small dent at first that turned into a small bump that isn't even noticable in a picture. If you could have heard the sound. It wasn't even loud, it was just, my little boy's forehead hitting the spout *shudder*. He cried for all of 2 seconds, and then went back to splashing me. I quickly got him out and dried him off to inspect the "wound." He's fine. I on the otherhand am one incident shy of wrapping the boy in bubble paper with a helmet, wrist guards and shin guards and locking him in a padded room. I mean, with both knees all scabbed up, old bruises covered with fresh brusies on his all-boy legs, I mean geeze! I think little boys do it because they get enjoyment out of seeing their Mommies who love them to pieces get all frazzled over their actions...but how in the heck does a 2 year old understand that already? Given, I know he didn't intentionally ram his head into the water spout, but the couch? C'mon Brayden, give me a break!

Oh to be the Mom of a little boy...

Blog Changes

First change, I have created a new blog for my thoughts and things God is speaking to me about. Feel free to check it out if you are interested and feel free not to if you are not interested :). For those of you who already knew about it, the blog was at blogger, but I made a switch to another blogging site today, and now the address is journeying2him.tumblr.com

Which brings me to my second change; my awesome sister found a website that allows you to make a free private blog as long as you create at least one public blog. Since I have been planning on privatizing our blog for quite some time now, I will be slowly making the switch to creating our Kincaid family blog on the tumblr website, making it private, and creating a password to share with family and friends who want to keep up on our family. This will happen over the next few weeks, and I will keep you all posted on when I will be shutting down this site and opening the other one. I will also be sharing an email address where people I might not know about who would like to keep checking our blog, can email me their address so I can send them the password allowing them to keep checking our blog. I ask as an aside, if you talk to someone who does check our blog, and wasn't invited to our private blog and would like to be, that you would let me know rather than give our password out. After all, a private blog is only as private as it's viewers let it be. I'll post more info on that later! Thanks!

Practicing

his ABCs

Pics from McDonald's Fun

Here's my attempt at emailing pics from my phone here to blogger, YAY!

New Bed

I was doing laundry while getting Brayden ready for bed tonight and he wanted to play with the laundry basket. I threw his Lee Lee in there, his pillow made by Grammy, and his mickey, all things that he sleeps with, told him "night night" kissed his forehead, turned off the light, and walked out. I figured he would immediately come running out, but I came back in after hanging up some clothes in our closet and he was still in the laundry basket, but pretending to snore. So I ran and grabbed the camera, turned the light on and snapped these shots. Not the best but at least to capture the moment :)

Pretending to sleep

Pretending to snore!

Fun Day

Yesterday we went to Chico to run a couple of errands. The main errand was to get our oil changed in our Jeep which turned out to be quite a disaster. Jiffy Lube broke one of our tire caps and we had to take the Jeep to Les Schwab right after, the whole ordeal took us about 3 hours. Needless to say, we will not be taking our Jeep back to that Jiffy Lube, ever.
But the fun part of the trip was that we also went to Chico to take Brayden to Toys R Us, I signed him up for the birthday club sometime last year and he got his card from Geoffrey in the mail with a couple coupons to redeem. The car said to go up to guest services when we got there to check in. There, they adorned Brayden with a birthday crown and balloon, and sent us on our way with our two coupons, one for a FREE wooden train from the Thomas series (Brayden picked outp Percy) which are $12, EACH! And another $3 off any purchase over $3, which we helped Brayden pickout this really cool toy that shoots plastic balls into the air about 25 feet. He's LOVED chasing the dogs with it, and they love trying to catch the balls. But while we were walking around in Toys R Us, they announced him over the loud speakers! Saying that Brayden the birthday boy was in the store, wearing a crown, and if anyone saw him, make sure and wish him a happy birthday! It was so sweet! The store was pretty empty, but Mike and I thought it was cute. What a fun little trip. I have always thought Toys R Us was a bit overpriced, but I have been very happy with their customer service lately and now this! That was just above and beyond :)! We walked out spending only $1 of our own money.
Then we went to lunch at McDonald's, very rare, and got Brayden a happy meal which came with a Spiderman toy, which he loves too. He actually got to play at the play park at McD's, despite Mommy's worst fears of how insanely dirty those things are. I came with a huge pack of wipes and completely sanitized him when we were done playing, haha.
Just overall, some great little memories :)

For Memory's Sake

Brayden has been able to drink out of a cup pretty well for the past few months, just a regular cup with no straw or lid, but in the last month has mastered it. To be on the safe side while we are indoors, he still only gets water in his regular cup to prevent any stains, and will occassionally get a small amount of juice or milk in his big boy cup while he's eating a meal sitting down. He's surprisingly really great at controlling how fast the drink gets to him, how fast he drinks, and when to tip the cup up and put it down. The few spills we have had is when I have filled the cup up too high, or Brayden has accidentally set it down too quickly or not in the right place and it tips. So proud of him :)

All a-what?

Brayden lvoes to say All Aboard, and from what I have heard, always says it at the appropriate times, when he's playing with his train table, when he's "loading" freight onto his trains on his train table, when he's putting people in the trains on the train table, and when he's watching his Thomas cartoons. Always when it has to do with trains, and we hear "all aboard" come out of his mouth multiple times a day.

About a week ago Brayden cracked us up when like any normal day, he went to go sit on Bear's back while Bear was lying down and yelled out "All a-Bear!" Mike and I both looked at each other kind of surprised and I asked Brayden "What?" and he repeated "All a-Bear" with a huge smile on his face like he had discovered this hilarious play on words all by himself, which he did! He says it all the time, at only the right times, when he is playing with or trying to sit on the dogs. So cute to see the way his little mind works!

Pool

Family shot at the pool

I love this picture :)

Bray sitting in Mommy's lap!

Enter Clever Title Here

Family photo!

Uncle Brian and Brayden playing choo-choos....for hours on end!

Last night sleeping as a one year old baby...

About to wake him up (lazy bum slept for forever) for his first morning as a two year old!

Mommy's View

I accidentally took this pic in black and white, but thought it turned out neat :)

Fun cupcakes!

Present Table

Daddy and Bray playing with the water table!

Party Time

I cherish these young birthday parties full of family. I look forward to the fun birthdays we will have in the future with Brayden's friends and doing fun things, but I really soak up these relaxed parties in our backyard :)

I think if you enlarge this picture (click on it) you should be able to see the awesome birthday banner we got for Brayden that is in the background!

Amazed by the dangling Toy Story cut outs!

2nd year in a row that Auntie and I did a "streamer wall decoration" so many laughs while creating this!

"Buzz!"

B-ray

Brayden's present from Mommy and Daddy. Quite the labor of love putting it together!

Tuckered out on the carpet a few days before his birthday

What?!

Yes, I am just blogging these pics from 4th of July. I forgot I had taken them and I just wanted to show off the beautiful lake view we had while watching the fireworks. I took these pictures of course before they started, but isnt it just gorgeous?!

I came home an hour ago, to a completely clean downstairs. When I went back to work after lunch, there was pile of dishes in the sink, dirty kitchen counter, toys strewed everywhere, miscellaneous items out of place, and (even though not downstairs) laundry in the dryer that needed to be folded, laundry in the washer that needed to be transferred, and much more. I came home to clean dishes in the dishwasher, cleaned counter tops, toys put away, everything in its place, and all the laundry that I was doing, done. Sure, Mike was home today with Brayden but did I mention my husband works 12+ hour shifts? Did I mention he's currently going through training that demands 100% of his time, attention and focus? Did I mention he got home after 3 this morning, fell asleep after 4, and got up at 8:30 to take care of Brayden? Did I mention he just found out this week he has to work 8 days straight and is on his 3rd day today of that 8 day spree? Did I mention he switches cities again this weekend and will be patrolling a completely unfamiliar area? Did I mention that since he found out he was switching cities this week and not next he has been feverishly trying to study maps to find out more about his new beat? On top of all of that, and believe me, it is a lot, Mike still finds the time to spend quality time with Brayden, rough house and play with the dogs, and romance me. I give him a lot of "props" on our blog. But just coming home to the cleaned house tonight just made my heart swell and my eyes well up with tears. I hope every wife loves their husbands as much as I am head over heels in love with mine. He is my perfect mate and I am so blessed to call him mine!

Leaving the park

Sarah and I proving that we actually are related! (We actually look alike here!)

Family Slide Fun!

Bye Park! Thanks for the awesome birthday fun!