*Jaden's 1st Birthday Party*

Jaden's actual birthday is not till the 18th of this month, however, I wanted family to be there for his birthday party so we celebrated it early in Arizona. Well his 1st birthday party was a perfect success, and it's crazy that my little baby is almost 1 years old. It seems like yesterday I was just holding him in my arms for the first time and now he is almost a toddler. The last year has been the best year and hard at the same time but would not trade it for anything. I am so blessed to have such a little angel sent to me from my Father in Heaven and feel privileged to be his mommy.


Here is Jaden's birthday invitation..simple but cute!


This is Jaden waiting by the front door for everyone to show up to his party...people were late so he was getting discouraged hahaha





This is the whole set up including the delicious cake! I chose a doggy on the cake because that is currently Jaden's favorite animal. Hopefully once we settle into a house we can get him a puppy!







Jaden eating cake was probably what I was looking forward to the most! However, he doesn't really know the concept of eating on his own yet (this is my fault because I baby him and always feed him myself)so he really just smashed the cake around and threw it on the floor haha it was cute!






The Presents! Jaden got so many fun presents that will entertain him for a long time so thank you sooooooooo much to his grandparents and aunty Aubrey it is very much appreciated!

*My Creation*

So I don't consider myself very creative,however, I have to give myself props for this oh so cute diaper cake I made for my sister-in-law's baby shower coming up this weekend. I put alot of effort and research into this and with a little help from my mom (she suggested the green tissue paper all over it) I made "my creation". I think we all know who baby Brityn's favorite aunt is going to be :)

*Lake Powell Trip #2*

We headed back to Lake Powell for our last trip of the summer and it was a blast!! The last trip is always the best because it's a mini family reunion, and it's so great to see all of our extended family. Jaden did so much better this time, mainly because he was not sick, and we were smart and brought his pack n play. Also my sweet hubby joined me on this trip so of course that made it just that much sweeter! So here are tons of pics from our last LP trip of the year, we will also be moving back home to Arizona soon so I'm really excited about that.

*Jaden's 1st Lake Powell Trip*

Jaden has now officially been to Lake Powell for the first time. Things we learned while we were there:

1. He LOVES the boat and usually falls asleep within 5 to 10 minutes
2. Loves the sand and water
3. Hates sleeping on an air mattress
4. Loves all the attention he gets from the extended family
5. Surprisingly likes his life jacket (the nice head support is nice for taking naps)

Camping with a baby is really hard, and I think at least until he gets a little older we will definitely be getting a hotel. Otherwise Jaden loves it and is now in the Lake Powell club! We will be returning again in the next few weeks for our second and last Lake Powell trip of 2011.

My dad wearing Jaden's hat haha very funny!

Driving the boat with Grandpa!

Happy Lake Powell baby!

Too much fun in the sun!

My baby boy and I snuggling on the boat!

*Davidson Family Reunion*

A few weeks after we went to New York it was the Davidson family reunion (my mother in-law's side of the family) in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. We had so much fun river rafting, going to the lava hot springs, and playing at the big water park. Here are a few pics from that adventure!

*3 Year Anniversary*

Happy 3 year anniversary to my sweetheart and best friend. The last 3 years have been amazing and I'm so happy that we are forever!! Love you honey xoxooxox!

*The biggest loser..well almost*

I have been battling to lose weight really ever since after I got married back in 2008. It has been the biggest struggle for me because I LOVE LOVE LOVE to eat and I just like yummy foods in general. So of course I got prego and then really packed on the weight eating whatever I wanted and never working out (although I worked 40 hours a week so that had something to do with it). Anyways, after I had Jaden I vowed to loose the baby weight, and all the extra weight I had put on before getting prego. Well I worked out 5 days a week but only lost maybe 5lbs which was frustrating to me because I was working out so hard. Well my oh so kind brother finally told me that it was time to loose weight for real this time, and that dieting was going to have to be hard core along with working out really really hard. Thus began the battle of seriously loosing weight eating really only chicken, salad, and apples along with working out 5-6 days a week sometimes twice a day. Well my hard work has paid off, which I'm not where I want to be yet but still a work in progress. My brother Jason is a personal trainer and though he is brutal with dieting and working out he has truly helped change my life for the better. I have so much more energy now and just feel better about myself so thank you so much to my awesome brother!! This post is not to brag in any way but hopefully gives inspiration to anyone who just wants to get healthy and in shape.

*Called to serve*

This is important enough news that it deserves it's own post! My wonderful brother in-law Logan received his mission call while I was in Arizona. Which was such an amazing experience to be there for, and am glad I could be a part of it. The mission he will be serving is:

Argentina Buenos Aires West

He will report to the MTC October 19th, the day after Jaden's 1st Birthday. We will miss Logan very much, but know that he is serving the Lord and blessing lives, Congrats Logan WE LOVE YOU!!!!

*Bracken Family Vacation*

Well this summer has been to say the least very eventful so far. Josh's family does a big vacation every year and usually we go to San Diego,However this year they decided to do an East Coast vacation which included the following:

*Hill Cumorah Pageant

So being LDS you would think I would know what this was about but yeah no I didn't haha. I did find out though that it's all about the Book of Mormon and the Hill Cumorah is where the golden plates were burried. I can now proudly say I understand The Book of Mormon. So if anyone doesn't understand go see the pageant cause it does a great job of breaking it down in a way slow people like me can understand lol.



*Church History Sites

We visited the Joseph Smith Farm, the Sacred Grove, and the first Book of Mormon publishing house, all which were amazing to visit.



*Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls was amazing. We took a ride on the Maid of the Myst right up to the falls and of course got SOAKED! It was SOOOO humidly hot that we were all happy to get wet.




*New York City

We finished off this wonderful vacation with fabulous New York City!! We went to the top of the Empire State Building, Ellis Island (toured the immigration building), Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Time Square, Central Park, The store DASH (my sister in-law Aubrey and I are Kardashian fans haha), Chinatown (which we ate at the most AMAZING Chinese food restaurant), took a tour bus all over Manhattan, and into Brooklyn and the Bronx. My amazing father in-law also used his company connections and got Box Suite New York Mets tickets. It was so nice and I don't think I'll ever be able to go to another baseball game in regular seats haha.










This was an amazing vacation and it was made possible by my wonderful in-laws, so thank you so much to them!! From New York, I headed back to Arizona for a week to visit my family, then ended in Idaho for a family reunion. I am now back to reality in Washington, which it feels good to be back into routine, cool weather and to be home with my hubby again!

*Fun with our new camera*

As I mention in a previous post we lost our camera somewhere here in Washington, so we were "forced" haha to buy a new one. Really it was probably time for an upgrade anyways so here are some fun pictures I took. The one I took of Jaden's nursery is just a rough look of what I want to do when we get into a house in Arizona. I hope to have my mom help me make it look better and of course have matching curtains so yeah don't judge on the temporary look haha.

*Sleepless in Seattle*

Hahah I always wanted to use that title for something (although it does not fit this blog post at all). Anyways, this is a picture at Gas Works Park that over looks Union Lake, and also downtown Seattle. Every weekend now we bike ride to new places which is not only tons of fun and cheap but great exercise!

*4th of July Events*

So I thought I would expand a little more on what we did for the holiday. This 4th of July was probably the funnest ever! We started out the day just kind of being lazy and sleeping in, which is always a great to start to a holiday. In the early afternoon we packed up our bikes (which bike riding is now our favorite thing to do) and headed off to downtown Seattle where we rode around all day long, stopped for dinner, then headed over to Lake Union where the big firework show was happening. Jaden loved the fireworks and didn't even mind the loud noise. Of course by the end of night he had enough fun for one day and became very over tired/teething and needless to say it was not a fun end of the night.

*Happy 4th of July*

Jaden's 1st 4th of July (out of my tummy)!!