Little Miss Independent

I have a very strong feeling that Brailyn will be very stubborn and strong willed.  I think she will be a pretty independent person.  Let's face it, she gets it honest!  I know that in most respects this will be a good thing, and that is what I want to focus on.  Anyway, the night before last, I had bought her a new tooth brush and opened it up to use it.  I'm not sure if we are supposed to change hers as often as ours, so I did.  As I was getting her new one ready, she grabbed her old one and just started brushing! Then when I took the old one, she wanted the new one all to herself!  She did a pretty good job.  The dentist told me when I went that we can start teaching her how to spit, so we have been practicing!  She loves it!  Most of the time I can't get her to stop! 

Nothing Like Fresh Air!

What a beautiful day we had today!  It wasn't really sunny, but you could see cracks of bright blue sky behind the fluffy white clouds!  Gorgeous!  Brailyn and I went to town this morning, and it was very dreary outside!  After she got up from her nap this afternoon, it was really pretty outside.  We headed outside, and spent a solid hour!  She ran from one neighbor's house all the way over to the other's, and all over the backyard!  We had a blast!  I love this kind of weather!  I would probably say that springtime is my favorite!

Yay! We can see the ground!



A little curl!  No matter how much I brushed it today, it still curled up! YAY!



She wasn't very happy with me!  I wouldn't let her eat the acorns!



She's so silly!

 

My beautiful girl!



Run like the wind!



I love these blue eyes!



Oh the beautiful sky!  I'm not a good photographer, but I have always loved it!  And I always try my hardest, so these next few are me trying!



This may be my favorite because you can see Brailyn in the background!  Don't worry, I was watching her!

A little video of my little excited girl playing outside!



Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a lot of fun this year!  I have always loved Valentine's Day being the girly girl that I am, but it is even more fun now that I have a beautiful baby girl to buy for!  We may have gone a little overboard!  Oh well, we love on her every day, but it's fun to have one special day to just set aside to do nothing but shower love on each other!  I love buying her presents!  We bought her 6 books, and a stuffed animal!  I love the animal, it is an owl that is pink with pink hearts all over it, and on it it says, "Whoooo Loves You?  John 3:16."  I love it!  Then her sweet Daddy started a tradition of buying her a stuffed animal last year so that continues this year with a stuffed dog and she loves it!  She also got 4 cards in the mail today! Fun, Fun!  One from her Gramma and Pop-up, one from her Great-Grandmother and Grandaddy, on from my friend Lauren's twin girls, and one from Uncle Andy, Aunt Jen, and Ma-mi!  She also got a stuffed dog, some snacks, and a balloon from Neena and Papa Dale!  She is going to be one spoiled little girl!  I also bought her a balloon today when we went to Rehkoph's.  She giggled and hit that balloon all through the store!  Then she squealed at the top of her lungs all the way home!  I think those were her best presents!  Jody and I didn't really do presents this year.  He got me a bear with the year stamped on its foot, our little tradition since Christmas 2005!  I absolutely love it!  I cooked him a steak supper and a red velvet cake in the shape of heart!  We had a nice romantic candlelit dinner along with our sweet little baby sitting in her highchair!  Doesn't get any better than that.  Daddy also got a present from his baby girl today.  I just thought of it this morning, and made it!  She stamped her hands down on a piece of paper, and they made a heart!  I framed it and it says "My Heart Belongs to Daddy!"  He loves it!  Then after she went to bed, we drank some sparkling red grape juice! YUM!  It was mainly for me!  Wow, that was a long post!  Now it will be followed by a bunch of pictures!  Brace yourself!

Our little Valentine before church last night!



Her new kissy face!



Giving daddy his present!

Her card with some money! YAY!

Reading her card from Uncle Andy, Aunt Jen, and Ma-mi!  It sang the theme song!



Card from Gramma and Pop-up!



Opening her presents from mommy and daddy!



I think she loves her dog from Daddy!



Surounded by all her things!  The owl we bought her is in front of her!





The cake and candles



Playing with her "boon!"



The set table!

I think this was the first candlelight dinner I have ever had!

Happy Valentine's Day!

"Dot Dog!"

Saturday night we went to Wal-Mart mainly just to get out of the house.  Jody worked hard all day hanging up two new fans in the house! YAY! And after the week we had, this mommy needed some fresh air!  We were just leisurely walking through the store, and as always I have to walk through the baby section. I remembered that Brailyn really needed some new pajamas.  My sweet baby girl is needing more 18 month stuff now than 12 month. :( Anyway, I was looking for some and spotted the perfect ones! "Dot dog" pajamas!  She already has two pairs with Minnie mouse on them, so now we have three! I handed them to her and she started just bouncing and kicking in the buggy!  We would see somebody we know, and she would smile at them and say "dot dog!"  She was absolutely the sweetest baby!  She started waving and saying hi to EVERYBODY in the store!  Then we saw a woman from church who keeps her in the nursery a lot and she wouldn't say anything to her! Crazy girl!  Well here is my sweet baby girl in her "dot dog" or "mi-mi"(minnie as she is starting to say) pajamas!

Can you tell she was a little excited!

Oh how we love this precious girl!

Little Magician!

Oh my goodness!  She cracked me up!  She did this no telling how many times and one time she had 8 little coins in her sleeper and was walking on one! I could hear her coming from a mile away!

Just a Little Cuteness!

Brailyn was being a little ham tonight! We laughed and played all night!  She's so silly and just too cute!



Giving momma a big ol' kiss!  If you can't tell, it was so sweet, but not so comfortable!



Puppy Love!



Having a little tea with mommy!



Crazy hair!  Her hair is really starting to grow! FINALLY!



Snuggling with Minnie before getting her teeth brushed!

Just a little video recap:

She's our silly little monkey!  I think our hearts would burst if we could love her anymore!

***This was all taken on Wednesday night!  It has taken me 3 days to get the video figured out and uploaded! AHHHH!  I'm glad it's finally on here though!

15 Months!

Our Baby Girl turned 15 months old yesterday!  Where did the time go?  She has changed so much just since she turned 1!  It blows my mind to think that it has been 15 months since we became a family of three!  We do not even remember what we did before she came along! 

We had our 15 month checkup today! OH MY WORD!  That was the first thing I said to Jody after I got finished taking her!  We had a very early appointment this morning, so when I got there we were the only ones in the waiting room.  I sat down to fill out the 15 month questionairre and I hadn't even finished the first part before they called us back!  Wonderful? NO!  As soon as Brailyn saw the nurse(Ms. Kay the one that it always is) she started screaming! I mean SCREAMING!  She screamed the whole time I had to lay her down to get her weighed, lay her down to get her measured, and when she tried to measure her head, I had to hold Brailyn's arms because she was trying to get the tape measure off!  SHe finally quietted down after she left.  SHe was still snubbing when Dr. Green walked in, and she started screaming again!  She screamed the whole time he looked at her and I was holding her.  After he left, she got quiet and then the nurse came back in for the shots.  As soon as she saw her she started screaming again! It was awful!  It didn't take long for her to get quiet, but she snubbed all the way back to the car!  My poor baby!  It amazes me how she can remember that place!

Anyway, here are our 15 month stats!  This will be a long post, but there is a video at the end if you just wnat to watch that!

• 23 lbs 14.5 oz--70%
• 30.5 in--50%
• The doctor said everything looked great, and we mainly talked about safety and eating habits.  She does not like many vegetables!  She likes green beans and corn, but that is about it!  Lately I have tried pinto beans, broccoli abd cheese sauce, and carrots.  She has spit out everyone!  She absolutely loves fruit, any and all kinds!  He told me if I had to sprinkle a little cinnamon on the carrots, that was fine.  Also, I could give her V8 VFusion juice.  Lately, she has been eating better with ketchup on stuff.  He told me to watch that! OOPS!
• Her vocabulary expands every day! So far she says, or attempts to say: Da-Da, Ma-Ma, Neena, Papa, Pop-up, Ma-mo for Gramma, Nit-nee for Whitney, Maa-Maa for Madi, Bip-bo(hippo), Duck, dog(and she now says pete for the church dog!) cak-ker(cracker) Wa-wa(water), ju(juice), gone-gone) night-night, iiiiiiiii(I love you!), bow, poo(poop-just started this)  no-no(AHHHH), nose, noo(snow), bye-bye, hi, bear, deer, Dot Dog(anything mickey mouse), mimi(minnie mouse), nack(snack) na-nas(bananas), bubble, belly button, ball and but-ball(football), uh-oh, book, hot, and bath!  I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but she just amazes me every day!  Is it wrong to be proud of her?
• She can point to her nose, tounge, belly, hands, toes, eyes, and hair.
• She tries to imitate us constantly!
• She runs all over the place, and she also falls all over the place!  She keeps a bruise at all times!
• She loves to read books!  She will grab a book and then back up to you! HA SHe could sit and read for 30 minutes, and she often does!
• I read her a story, usually twice beacause when I say the end she says "no" and turens it over. How can I resist. When I turn her over to rock her, she looks right into my eyes and says "nigh-nigh!" Talk about melting her mama's heart!Then we rock to sleep singing Jesus Loves Me, Deep and Wide, or Jesus Loves the Little Children. 
• Her bedtime is usually 9 o'clock.  We feed her cereal at about 8:30.  Then we take a bath, get lotioned up, brush our teeth, and recently we have been learning to spit.  Then she tells her daddy night night. She usually sleeps until 8 or 8:30.  Then we eat lunch at about 12 and go back to sleep at 12:30 and she will usually sleep for 2-3 hours. Heaven!
• She loves to give loving, i.e hugs, kisses!  Then she will usually blow a kiss.
• She pretty much obeys simple commands when she wants to!
• She sleeps with her blanket bear, and she loves that thing!  It is a big time comforter!
• She loves to have company!  She doesn't like for people to leave! I hope she will be much more social than me!
• She loves to play dress up!
• She loves to help me do different things around the house or just go behind me and mess it all back up!
• She has 14 teeth now!  I found 2 more on the bottom the other day, and I didn't check the top ones tonight.
• She knows what a cat says-mow, sheep-baaa, cow-mmm and noe mooo, pig-chh-chh(that is her way), monkey-ah-ah, dog-uff-uff, and duck-gak-gak!
• She likes to try and whistle(you will see on the video below), and she likes to blow duck calls with her daddy!  She holds when end up to her mouth and just blows on it!
• She has a book called "Little Quack's Opposite's." There is a page that says near and far.  I always bring it up to her face and then move it back.  Now she does it.  Then there is a page that says he is loud.  SHe will squeal at the top of her lungs!  Then it says fast and slow.  She shakes her head real fst on that page.  On the happy and sad page she pretends to cry! On the hot page she says hat and blows!  And on the awake/asleep page she puts her finger to her mouth and says "shhh!"
• She wears size 12 month clothes, and a few 18 months.  She wears a size 5 shoe!
• She gets into everything!  Today she climbed in the bottom drawer in the bathroomm but she couldn't get herself out!




Rolling around in the laundry!  This never gets old! 

 



This was taken today, but we will call it our official 15 month pic!


• If I ask her where Brailyn is or if she sees a picture of herself, she points to herself and says "oooo!(you)"

That was a long post!  Sorry about that, but I just wanted to make sure I had everything recorded mainly for myself!  Here's a little something for y'all!

Happy Birthday Papa Dale!

Today was Mr. Dale's birthday!  We met Andy, Jennifer, and Madi at Ta'Molly's in Caddo Valley to celebrate!  It was a blast!  We were nearly the only people there, so after we ate Brailyn and Madi ran around our little area and just played!  On the way home, Brailyn was talking on her toy phone.  Everything I would ask her she would say "no."  Mrs. Donita asked her if she loved her(Neena) and Brailyn said "Papa!"  She is a sweetheart! 
Happy Birthday Papa Dale!  We love you!

SuperBowl XLV

Let me tell you! The superbowl parties get wild and crazy around here!  Do you believe me?  I surley hope not!  I don't think we have ever seen the first half of the Superbowl.  We always catch the second half after church, and I have no problem with that.  I mean you don't know who wins until the end so what does it matter.  We do enjoy watching it though!  We went for the Packers this year.  I'm not sure why, but oh well!  They won!  We enjoyed watching the game, and watching Brailyn show off her football fan skills! HA  We had a not so lovely supper of hot wings and cheese dip( The hot wings were really gross and very hot!). Jody had been wanting some, so we bought them just for this.  It was a disaster!  Oh well, we had fun anyway! See: 



It's blurry I know!  Can't you tell we go all out for these things!  I'm don't think any teams in the NFL are pink and white!

Our not so lovely dinner!

Snacking on some chips, or some "cak-kers" as she calls them!

"NO!!!"

Translation: Snow!!!!! 
When I got up on Friday morning, I saw the beautiful white blanket of snow!  We could hardly wait for Brailyn to get up and see it!  Jody was home sick and quarantined to the bedroom, so when Brailyn finally woke up(about 9:00 AM)  I got her out of her bed and Jody watched from the hallway as she looked out the window and said, "No!!!"  She was one excited little girl!  Every time we have gone outside since the last snow, she always looks around and says, "no?"  It is the sweetest thing!  So Friday when it snowed for the SECOND time this year, I knew she would be excited!  We got all bundled up after her nap and took a stroll in the snow!  Unfortunately Jody couldn't join us, but we had fun!  She could actually walk in this snow since it wasn't as deep as the last time.  She looked so cute just waddling in it!  Here, I'll show you:



Our neighbor's yard





The trail a squirrel made form the tree to our house about one hundred times!



"Come on Mommy!"

Staring at the birds!

Uh-oh!



This is how the last picture ended!



Mommy and Brailyn enjoying the snow!



She still remembered that she liked to eat it.....



....and that is all she did when we went out today!




There was going to be a video, but I have tried it three times and it is obviously not working!  I may try again later, but for now I hope you  enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed making them!

Today is my Nanny's 73rd birthday!  We were all supposed to suprise her, and go to her house today and eat, bt my WHOLE family is sick!  My brother, my sister, my mom, Jody, my niece, and my nephew!  But I got to talk to my Nanny, and hopefully we will be planning another weekend to all get together! 
Happy Birthday Nanny!