Cookies For Santa....

Braden had to get his cookies ready for Santa on Christmas Eve... :) Fun times for his first Christmas!! YAY!! :)

Lainey Turns Two!!

We celebrated our sweet neice Lainey's 2nd birthday on Christmas Eve this year. She was so precious, and she celebrated her 2nd birthday with a bang!! :) We had a lot of fun watching her at her party, as she seriously cracks us up! She is getting such a little personality. :)

My sis in law Jen did a wonderfully themed party for Lainey (just like she always does). Little Mrs. Crafy! :) This year's theme was "Lainey's Farm", and she made the cutest stuff....including the little overalls that Lainey wore for her big debut. :) Happy Birthday Miss Lainey...we love you! :)

Welcome to Lainey's Farm.......Fun cake....
Love the cute names for the food...
Chris enjoying his little potato with "haystacks" on it (a.k.a cheese)... :)
Party favors....."Thank Moo For Coming To My Party"...
Lainey trying to decide what she thinks about her cake....
Smiling.... :)
Loving her new presents.....
And she really loved her ladybug bean bag from Mimi... :)
Such a fun table that Jen made for Lainey...

She loved reading books at her new table.......

More New Babies....

We have been meeting babies galore this year and we are LOVING IT!!! It is sooo much fun for Braden to have so many fun friends to play with this coming year. The babies started arriving in May and they have not stopped!! HA!! We have friends having babies through next July...so I bet he ends up with about 25 new friends by then!! SO FUN!! :) God is so good to bless Braden with all of these wonderful friends so early in his life. :)

Our friends, Mark and Dawn had a sweet baby girl in October-Samantha. :) A few of the ladies met yesterday at Central Market and I got to meet that precious little bundle. YAY!! :) Good job Dawn!! :)

Tomorrow we get to go and meet another new arrival...Haylee. :) Our good friends Joseph and Dori had their little bundle of joy today around 1 pm. I am so stoked to meet her too!! Love that Braden also has lots of good girlfriend potential! HA! :)

Valerie and Braden just hanging out....and it must have been time for a nap by the way he is yawning. :) Sweet mom and daughter.......
Awww...Dawn and Samantha... :)

Sunday Church Fun and Lunches Around Austin...

Braden is really getting used to church on Sunday mornings and then brunch or lunch (depending on what service we go to). :) If we go to the 9:15 service then he tends to nap through the entire thing...so we can keep him in the santuary with us. If we go to the 11 am service then we usually have to take him out after the singing to eat, etc. :)

He has been going to church for about 7 weeks now and he really seems to like it. He loves the music at the beginning...and I think he also loves that there is always a fun restaurant to go to afterward!! HA!! So do Chris and I! :)

Some pics from this past Sunday.. :)

To Like Or Not Like Rice Cereal...That Is The Question...

At Braden's 4 month well check, the pediatrician told us that we could start rice cereal if we wanted. She did tell us that the earlier you introduce foods, the sooner they could have allergies or excema. She said she preferred if parents waited until at least 5 months for the cereal on a regular basis.... but some babies did not want to wait that long. So it was up to us on when we decided to start feeding it to him.

So we thought we would just try it and see how he did...and if he completely hated it then we would just put it away until the next month. We were fine with waiting if we needed to..but just thought we would give a try to see how it went. :)

Well...he HATED it!! HA!! I am not sure what he hated most-the taste, the texture, some random spoon in his mouth, etc. It was hysterical though!! He made some really weird faces and then just spit it all back out. He was not having any of that. LOL!! I am not even sure if he ended up swallowing any. :) Then he decided he was really upset and he just started crying. We gave him his bottle to wash it all down and he quickly forgot about the cereal. :)

Guess we will try again around month 5 or so and see how he does. :)

Just hanging out in my Bumbo before that awful stuff is introduced to me... :)
Not sure I like this stuff..
Still trying to decide but it does not look promising..."NO WAY!! Get this out of my mouth!! Ick!!" :(

Go Gingerbread Houses!!

One of the new things that we did this year to get us in the Christmas spirit was to make a gingerbread house. :) We had fun with this and Chris turned out to be quite the architect. :)

Looks like we might need to make one every year to carry on the tradition. :)

4 Months Old Today!!!

First of all let me thank all of my sweet friends and family for sending me words of encouragement about Braden's 4 month craziness!! I am sooooo glad to know that he is normal and that this is just the way things go around this age. :) Thanks for the calls, emails, and Facebook posts helping me out!! I have been reading a lot more about this "4 month wakeful sleeping" and it has given me some good insight. It is just crazy how one weird night of sleep can mess up so many other things in Braden's schedule...especially his daytime naps! And this could not come at a crazier time since he is starting daycare in just 2 1/2 weeks. I will have to apologize in advance to those ladies up there! LOL! :) Things are getting a little better in the nighttime sleep area then when I last posted...so that is good. :) We don't see 4 am anymore...it has lengthened to at last 6-7 am now. So that is a little more tolerable! :)

Today is a BIG day!! Braden is 4 months old today!! WHOOP!!! I love it!! He is so fun!! We went to his 4 month visit today and got lots of good info. He weighed in at 15 lbs and 6 oz and was 25 1/4 inches long. :) We are pretty sure the nurse did not measure his length right b.c she did not even stretch out his leg all the way. So we re-measured him when we got home and we got 26 1/4 inches. :) That seems much more realistic based on how his current pants are fitting! HA!! He is in the 75th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. :) And his head has gone from the 10th percentile when he was born to the 50th percentile. My little man. :) He is growing up right before our very eyes. :)

He has not started rolling yet but he shows some interest in it. Once he can get that head over..his whole body will follow. HA! The doc said that rolling is actually a milestone that is falling off many developmental milestones these days-that it is not that important if he rolls or not...but more than likely he will sometime in the 4th month (when you least expect it). :) He is MUCH more interested in sitting up. So much so that he really does not even want to be under his play gym anymore. He wants to be sitting up in the bumbo seat or something like that so he can look all around. I would not be surprised if he sat up on his own before he rolled. HA! :) He loves it! :)

He can also hold your gaze for what seems like forever when you are talking to him...and he tries to imitate the sounds that you make. Too cute. He is still into his baths and they tend to calm him down...but he is not into the hair washing...and he is NOT into getting out! LOL! :) He likes to talk, talk, talk and is finding his voice more and more each day (mainly with squealing). :) He seems like a totally different baby then he was the first month. He is so much more interactive which makes the days so much more rewarding.

Here are some pics from this past week.........

Love the Baby Bjorn even more now b.c facing forward rocks, and I can hold my own head up really well. :)
"Mmmm..I love it in here!" :) So cozy!
Chris made Braden a little hat out of a coffee filter. LOL! :)
Sitting up tall playing with my toys......