Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas Past and Present

 I was running out of "Christmassy" outfits for Brailyn this year.  On some other blogs mommas were taking dresses that their babies wore the past year and using them as shirts this year!  That sounds good to me!  So on Sunday Brailyn sported her baby dress from last year as a big girl shirt this year!  Too precious!
11-21-09

12-26-10


Saturday, December 11, 2010

Lights, LIGhts, LIGHTS!

Last night we headed to Hot Springs to take Brailyn to see the lights at Garven Woodland Gardens!  I absolutely love that place!  The lights are gorgeous, and it just holds many special memories for us!  Jody and I went one year while we were dating and had a wonderful evening!  I love Christmastime!  It's so romantic!  Then we went to see them on December 20, 2007! One of the happiest days of my life: The day my honey proposed!  Garven Gardens is so special to me!  We decided it would be fun for Brailyn to go and see all the lights, not to mention we wanted to go for ourselves too!  We got there later than we had planned, and there was a ton of people!  Brailyn really enjoyed herself at first!  She was in her stroller all bundled up just making happy talk!  So precious!  But after walking for forever, trying to get good pictures without holding evreyone up, and not getting great pictures because we didn't know how to work the camera right, mommy was a little stressed!  By the time we left we had a fussy baby on our hands!  We still had a long night ahead of us too!  Last year, Andy and Jennifer gave Jody a giftcard for Christmas and told us that it had to be used in Hot Springs so they could keep Brailyn.  We are just getting around to doing that!  Needless to say, after not leaving Garven until after 7:00 and not getting to their house until 7:40, we had to change plans!  We went to Chili's, which is another tradition of ours!  We went to Chili's on our first date, and we went to eat there after he proposed(we sat in the exact same booth both of those times, but not this one.  Santa Claus was in our booth this time!  I'm not kidding)!  So, our promise to Andy and Jennifer still stands!  We won't wait a whole year next time!  Brailyn had a blast with her aunt, uncle, and cousin though!  I can't wait to do it all again!  Okay, I'll quit babbling and post some pics now(Get ready, there is a bunch!):



Jody proposed to me under that bow!  It used to stand by itself in a different spot!  That night he said he was so nervous!  He carried his jacket around because it was too warm to wear one, but he had to bring it cause it had the ring in it!  He said he kept looking for a spot to propose and he looked up and saw teh bow and thought "Tying the knot!  That works!" 

Daddy and his beautiful girl!

Group shot under a beautiful arch, but it was so tall, you couldn't see us if you tried to get it all in the pic!

Daddy and Brailyn under the big wreath!



They have a ton of Christmas trees, and they are all so pretty!

Mommy and Brailyn in front of the gingerbread house!

Close up!  Impossible to get her to look at the camera!

She would not stand still and look at the camera!  Too many fun things to look at!  She looked so cute in her hat and mittens!

So I know it's blurry, but it was pretty!

It's so nice when people just ask you if you wnat them to take your picture!  We relly appreciate it!


Daddy and Brailyn in front of the tree below!

It just amazes me how they do all these lights!

Just Beautiful!  It was huge!  I love how the star looks so bright!

I have like 15 posts I need to do, but I just had to get this one up!  The others will come soon!

Monday, December 6, 2010

One Cool Cat and Shewoman!





Isn't she cool with her glasses!  She loves sunglasses now! SHe loves to wear mine in the car!  When she gets them on, she just laughs and grins! She brought those to me tonight and she wore them around just grinning for 10 minutes probably!

My little shewoman!  Is the box empty?  I'll never tell!  She has played with that box all day long!  Back and forth to her room she would go! She's too funny!

We love our sweet, precious, cool, strong, baby girl!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Beautiful Weather!

 Yesterday was just gorgeous outside!  We had a photoshoot appointment with Stacy Jester for our Christmas card, and I was afraid it was going to be freezing!  However, the weather was absolutely perfect!  We got some great pictures!  I may wait till I get the Christmas card made up before I post them.  We had a blast though!  Little monkey was loving it!  She went full force the whole time!  When we got home, we changed clothes and headed outside again!  Our plan was to let her play,and we would hang up Christmas lights!  Sadly, we realized we didn't have enough, and being the cheap-o I am, I will wait till after Christmas to buy more!  So it will be another year before we have lights on the outside!  Brailyn had a wonderful time outside though!  She loved running in the yard and playing in all the leaves!  She is a curious little monkey! She even managed to fall in the only mud puddle in our yard!  We finally had to go inside and eat lunch when she started snacking on leaves! HA We had a blast, and she wore herself plum out!  Sh slept for 3.5 hours after that!  Here are some pics from our fun day!

Up high on Daddy's shoulders!

Playing in the ditch! Do't worry, daddy was there!

Trying to go in the neighbor's yard!

Back on our side of the fence!

Leaves!

Who knew they could be so much fun?!?

Throwing leaves in the air!


Friday, December 3, 2010

Christmas Time Is Here!

I love Christmas!  I think I love it even more now that we are a family of three! Now that Brailyn is older, I am really looking forward to this Christmas!  I think she is going to love it!  It's really surreal to think that now is the time that we are starting "our" family traditions!  We decorated the tree and the rest of the house on Tuesday night.  We would have had it up on Saturday but I had to go and get sick!  Oh well, we will begin that tradtion next year.  We had a lot of fun putting up the tree!  Brailyn just stared at it as we put it up!  She helped hang some ornaments, and she handed mommy the ornaments when she got tired of standing up by the tree!  I made sure the whole bottom half of the tree was decorated with plastic ornaments! HA   Brailyn got to hang her very first ornamnet, that we got her last year, on the tree and she helped daddy put the angel on top!  We plan on buying her an ornament every year!  One of her very own!  I already know which one we are getting for her this year!  I'll post pics as soon as we get it!  In my mind we were going to have Christmas music playing in the background while we worked, but we got our new season of JAG in that day so we had it going!  Another tradition we will have to start next year! LOL  We had a very memorable night to say the least!  I know I will always cherish every memory we make no matter if it was what I had envisioned!  Anyway, we got everything up and decorated except for the outside lights which will be going up shortly!  I can't wait till Brailyn sees them!  Let me share some of our precious picture memories with you!

Helping mommy hang the first ornament!


Clapping for herself! HA

Handing mommy the beautiful PLASTIC ornaments!

Hanging her "First Christmas" ornament!  Don't look to close at mommy, I didn't get dressed up for the occasion!

My sweet girl!  Looking at an ornament she got at one of her baby showers!
Putting the angel on with daddy!

My curious girl!  So far, she won't pull them off the tree!

She likes to crawl behind the tree!
We have had a busy little week!  Brailyn also rode in her first parade last night!  Our church always does a float in the Christmas parade, so of course we had to ride!  We got all dressed up as a little cowgirl(because that was the theme) and took a ride!  She was too precious!  She was waving at the people and everything!  Such a little ham!  And to top it all off, our float won 1st place!  Go Shady Grove!


Mommy and Brailyn!  These are the best pics we get nowadays with our little busy, curious girl!

At the end of the parade!  Look at her little boots!  We had a lot of fun!
 We have already had so much fun with Christmas this year and Christmas day is still 22 days away!  I hope Brailyn always remembers and cherishes our Christmases together, but my biggest prayer is that we show her the real meaning of Christmas, Jesus Christ our Lord!  We would have nothing to celebrate if it wasn't for Him!  I pray that every year, we emphasize that more than the secular things that come with Christmas!  They may be fun, but nothing can give us joy like the real meaning of Christmas!

Monday, November 22, 2010

1 Year Check-up and Progress Report

I'm only 2 weeks behind on this post, but that's okay.  We went for Brailyn's 1 year well check-up on the 11th!  Thankfully daddy was off, so he went with us.  He was going to anyway, but this way he didn't have to use one of his days!  She weighed 21.75 lbs(70%) and was 29 in.(50%)!  Jody says she's going to be short and round!  HA!  Just kidding!  The doctor said she is just perfect!  I think my poor baby remebers what happens at the doctors office!  She would cry anytime she had to lay down on the table!  She got 4 shots!  I'm not sure if the shots made her cry because she was already screaming because we laid her down!  Poor baby!  She snubbed all the way back to the car!  The doctor said she is right on track and to just keep doing what we are doing!  Jody was reading the paper that they give us about the age they are in and what to do.  It also tells you what they should be doing by their next check-up at 18 months.  He was reading it and said "She already does all this stuff!"  We are so proud!  Of course we know she is smart, but we may be a little biased!  So here is her progress report for 1 year:
  • She walks everywhere now!  There is no slowing her down!  She is even starting to run a little!
  • She can stand up all by herself!  No hands!  However, most of the time she opts to grab something just for balance!  If she is in the middle of the floor, sometimes she gets up on one knee, plants the other foot on the floor, and scoots like that to something to help her keep her balance!
  • She can climb! She climbs in and out of little chairs with ease!  She likes to climb up on anything, and when she gets there she sits down and looks at you with the proudest little face!
  • She can climb on and off her princess ride-on car all by herself!  She doesn't need our help to ride on it anymore! 
  • She has 11 teeth now!  And they are the cutest things you have ever seen!
  • She is completely weaned!  She drinks her milk fabulously!  She loves it!
  • She follows simple commands!  i.e. "go get your ball", "go get your drink", "put some toys in the tub".  and of course, "No, no" this one she chooses when to obey!
  • She says a few words, mama, dada, duck, dog, no, no, neena-sometimes(thats what it sounds like anyway!),
  • She knows what a monkey and a cow say--ah, ah, and mmmmmmmmm!
  • Her favorite foods now are: cheese, fruit, any of her snacks(teddy grahams, cheerios, puffs), hot dogs, sometimes spaghetti!  She has turned into a very finicky eater in the last 2 weeks!  Drives her momma crazy!
  • She takes one nap a day usually for 2 1/2 hours or longer.  She sleeps form about 8:30 at night to around 7:30 in the morning! 
  • She has a blanket bear that she sleeps with and she loves it!
  • She loves music of anykind!  Even mommy singing!
  • She has started dancing to music!  It is so cute!  She loves to dance to the Hot dog dance on mickey mouse clubhouse!  She can be in a different room and hear it come on and she stops what she is doing, goes to where she can see the TV and just dances up a storm!
  • She loves the outdoors!
  • She blows kisses
  • waves bye-bye, and hi
  • gives the sweetest kisses
  • and has started trying to snap!  Too precious
  • When she sees a picture of her daddy, she just lights up and will start saying da-da!
  • she knows what she wants!  And will let you know in a heartbeat!
  • if we say "Oh sweet girl."  she will lay her head down on anything she is around or just on the floor!
Whew! I may have left some stuff out. I know that is alot and a really long post but I wanted to write it down so I would remeber!  Time goes so fast! 
Eating some corn on the cob!  She's got it down now!

My precious girl!

After church on Sunday!  I just loved her in this dress!

Fanily pic on her actual birthday!


Sunday, November 21, 2010

"Itsy, Bitsy Spider!"

Note:  You may want to hold your ears!  It may not be pretty but she loves her mommy anyway!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Crazy Hair Day!

Brailyn's hair does it's own thing most days.  No, it is not very long yet, but it can get CRAZY!  And it was crazy all day today!  
So you can't see it very well, but when she got up from her nap today, one side, only one side, was flipped out from the tip top of her head to her neck!  It looked like I had taken a teeny, tiny curling iron and flipped layers!  It was adorable!

After her bath!  I usually only wash her hair twice a week, but tonight while eating supper, I looked over and spotted a piece of her porkchop laying nice and neat right in the center of her head.  Then later, I found a piece of potato stuck in the back of her hair!  So she had it washed again!  After we got out of the tub, she looked at her self in the mirror and just laughed and laughed!
My little missy prissy!  Now when I ask her if she is a funny girl, this is what she does!  So silly!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Deer season!

Last year Brailyn was exactly a week old on the opening day of deer season.  Andy and Jennifer bought her this darling camo outfit so she got all dressed up for the occassion and went on her first day trip to Neena and Papa Dale's to cheer her daddy on!  She was absolutely beautiful!

Such a sweet baby!  So tiny!

Brailyn and Her daddy on her first opening day of deer season!


So this year we had to do the same.  She is 1 year and six days old!  Makes me want to cry!  She didn't have a camo outfit, but my sister gave me some carhartt overalls.  They are absolutely adorable!  So we got all dressed up and headed down to Neena and Papa Dale's again!

My sweet baby girl in her overalls!  She has changed so much!
 
Brailyn and her daddy on her second opening day of deer season!  I love these pictures!



We got to play with Madi for a little bit when we got there.  She spent the night with Neena and Papa Dale.  The girls had a big ol' time!  Now that Brailyn is walking everywhere, they can have some fun!  Madi is the funniest little girl around!  She keeps us laughing!

 Around our house we have had some new and exciting things happening.  Tonight, Brailyn stood up all by herself!  I wish I had a picture.  She has always liked to sit up on one knee and have her other foot planted on the floor.  Tonight she got up like that again and just stood up!  No hands or anything!  Now the fun really starts! 
   I have also been weaning her from nursing.  It has been going really well so far!  We cut out our third feeding tonight, the one right before bed.  This leaves just her morning feeding which I will cut out in a week.  It is a little sad, but I'm sure it will be okay, and our schedule will be a little more relaxed!  I have been worried about this one, but tonight we ate our cereal and drank some milk before our bath.  After her bath-time routine, I added in reading a book in place of the feeding.  We read books throughout the day, but we have never fit one in at bedtime.  She was the sweetest little thing.  She just laid back on me and listened beautifully!  She is my little sweetheart!  Daddy got a picture!  Thank you Daddy!

Mommy and Brailyn reading a book!  This book is too cute, and at the end it says "I will kiss you nighty-night."  Perfect bedtime book!


My baby is growing too fast!

Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Daisypath Anniversary tickers