Thursday, December 31, 2009

Teether Biscuits

I hadn't bought teething biscuits yet because they are so messy, and well, I am a bit OCD when it comes to messy eating. However, I caved in, and boy is Brayden glad. He LOVED it. What's even better, is it consumes about 30 minutes of his time before he realizes he hasn't been moving in a while, which is great for when I am doing dishes or cooking.
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Daddy's Little Helper

The day after Christmas Drew was working on my grandmother's hope chest that we have in our living room. Brayden crawled up to him to see what was going on, and Drew let him "help." They're going to have lots of fun together when he really is big enough to work with power tools :)
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas Chronicles 2009

I realize that I have not posted to my blog in almost 2 weeks. Please forgive me. However, if you knew what we've been up to, you would kindly disregard my absence from the cyber world. For you see, sometimes the best laid plans of men are altered in ways we didn't deem imaginable. Not that anything bad has happened; on the contrary, Christmas this year was awesome. But the days before our yule tide cheers and present openings was a bit bumpy.
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Brayden and his Mamaw
Drew and I celebrated 6 years of marriage the weekend before Christmas. We had everything planned out; the dinner, the movie, the babysitter. We were SO looking forward to our night out on the town sans-child, that we could hardly stand it. But on Sunday, December 20th, Brayden had a different idea. Well, it wasn't really his idea... I mean, who wants to get sick? He woke up from his nap running a 102 fever. Plans were quickly scrapped, and I ran to Walmart to get ibuprofen, pedialyte and tylenol. I figured we needed a backup plan on our anniversary date night, so I ran by Sam's and got us a pizza and 2 redbox movies. Hardly close to the Chili's, movie and Cold Stone we were anticipating, but a baby changes everything. What was even more disappointing than the anniversary plans being altered was that Drew's family was planning on coming in the next day and B man felt pretty terrible. Drew's fam had never met Brayden either, so we were super sad that their first encounter was with him lethargic and clingy.

Drew's family did end up getting in late Monday night. By that time Brayden's temp had been up and down, but never truly broken. I had the forethought to go ahead and get a doc appointment in the event he woke up Tuesday morning with a fever. Sure enough, Tuesday he woke up burning hot and resembling Bob the Tomato, so I packed B, myself, Drew's mom and brother in the car, and off we went to the doctor. Turns out he had a double ear infection, which was causing the fever. Poor dear! I am leary of antibiotics and drugs, but the doc assured me that Brayden's ears were bad enough to constitute a round of antibiotics. After a day of those bad boys Brayden's fever broke, but his ears got a bit worse before they got better. Thankfully they are now completely healed (so I think anyway-- no signs are pointing otherwise).

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Brayden loves his Papaw-- especially that white beard!

Wednesday we decided to go to the mall and meet Santa since B's fever had finally broken. I stood in line for more than an hour just for the 5 minute ordeal. Thankfully I had inlaws and a husband who took turns entertaining Brayden, so when I finally got to the front he was still happy and alert. He LOVED Santa, and kept pulling on his beard and gloves. The smile on Santa's lap was worth the 1.5 hours I waited in line watching all the other kids have mental breakdowns from the white bearded fellow. If you haven't seen the Santa picture, you can see it on this post.

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B-man and Uncle Nathan... he loved playing with Uncle Nathan!
Christmas Eve was filled with preliminary cooking, more card games and the Christmas Eve service. I was kind of nervous about the service since someone had told us the kids service is crazy, but we really enjoyed it. It was a candle light service, but they give the kids glow sticks so there were all kinds of neon colors throughout the room too. Brayden liked all the music, but tuckered out till the end. Before we left for the church service, we let Brayden open up his Christmas Eve gift-- a book and pj's from Santa!This will be a yearly tradition in our home... I was so excited to start it this year with B!
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opening up his pj's
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ofcourse he'd want to eat them
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Brayden sitting like a big boy at church before the service started
The best part of Christmas Eve this year is that it snowed! Not just a little snow, but enough to make the ground white and give us our first white Christmas in 30 years!
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Our white Christmas-- and yes, all of the black birds kind of weird me out.

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Brayden was less than thrilled with the cold weather and snow we tried putting in his hand. Oh well.
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Grandad came on Christmas Eve... B-man was excited to see him!

Christmas morning we started our own family traditions. We read the Christmas story, prayed as a family and then each took turns saying something that we were grateful for that God had blessed us with this year.
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When I was little, dad would always set up the nativity on the bible for Christmas morning. We decided to keep this tradition going with our family. It was a bit tricky with B-man since he is into EVERYTHING!
Afterward we each took turns opening gifts. Brayden enjoyed the paper and bows more than any present he got :o)
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Brayden was more interested in Toby's bone, and Toby wanted Brayden's new football and soccer ball. Apparently I got their Christmas lists mixed up :)
After gifts we ate cinnamon rolls, pigs in a blanket and started cooking. I was thankful for Drew's mom's help, otherwise I am not sure I would have been able to do it all! We cooked a ham, turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, gravy, stuffing & cranberry sauce! Drew's sister and brother-in-law were able to make it despite the snow, and we all ate dinner together and then enjoyed each other's company that afternoon. Brayden really took a liking to Drew's sister (whom he also had never met until Christmas), and promptly fell asleep on her for an afternoon snooze.
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Brayden with Aunt Eleanor
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Playing with Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Jim
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Being snuggle-buggle
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And.... he's out :)
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Even Mamaw got to get some snuggles
We wrapped up Christmas with a good game of Settlers with Jason and Susan. This time, I got pictures of the fun (I always forget to pull out the camera when we're playing).
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Sunday Drew and I took Nathan (his brother) out to take some senior pictures of him. He's a drummer, and dressed the part. We found some fun textures and settings to pose him around, and braved the chilly 25 degree wind to snap a few shots. I am still in the process of sorting and processing them, and will try to upload a few when I am finished. I feel so bogged down right now with editing; I've got my brother's senior pics, Nathan's senior pics and a family shoot to edit! Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Drew's mom, step dad and brother all stayed here through Monday, so we've been recuperating. Our house is a disaster, and we're all pretty pooped. We were thankful for Drew's family getting to come though, and thankful they were all able to meet little B. We'll be keeping it real for New Years by chilling on our couch and going to bed before midnight :) See you in 2010!
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Big Boy Bath

I finally decided to ditch the plastic bath tub B's been using since he was born. I was really nervous but he did great! The only thing I have to watch for is he likes to put his face IN the water-- I thought babies were afraid of the water like that? Perhaps he's the next Michael Phelps :)
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Santa?! I KNOW him!

Brayden met Santa today, and loved him. Actually, love is a strong word, but he was more inquisitive than scared. He even gave us several smiles! This was a special treat, since he's been dealing with a bad head/chest cold, fever and a double ear infection since Sunday. Poor guy's been fighting to get better, and today he finally broke the fever so we ventured out for the first time in days. Hopefully after the Christmas festivities die down I will post an update on the chaos of our lives! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!



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Friday, December 18, 2009

Christmas Party 2009

Every year, our community group (or now I should say groups as we have grown and split over the years) has a White Elephant gift exchange. It's become quite comical as some gifts are repeated each year. This year was no exception to the fun and craziness... check out some of the action:
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Chris was SO excited to get the Clay Aiken Christmas CD. And Katie has finally found a solution to losing her keys!
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Just can't wait to put this up on the mantle after Christmas :)
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John in his HD vision glasses glory.
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Alaina could hardly stand herself when she saw these gorgeous candle holders. Looks like a Lillian Vernon special!
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Susan having some quality time with Paige.
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Santa & His Reindog

Clearly they enjoyed this photoshoot as much as I did!
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"What's that I see? Maybe this photoshoot isn't so bad afterall... I see a bell..."
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1 minute of calmness brought on by the bell....
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This picture cracks me up. It's like they're consoling each other. I love these two so much! Aren't they troopers for letting me dress them up?!
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas Card 2009

From our home to yours....
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Monday, December 14, 2009

Weekend in Review

I feel like this week was the start of craziness in our household for a while. Not that we were SUPER busy, but it sure felt like it! And looking ahead for the week before Christmas, we don't stop one bit.

Drew had to work on Saturday, so B and I took the opportunity to go and visit with Mrs. Linda and her daughter, Sarah Jane. Mrs. Linda was my boss at the eye clinic I worked at before I had Brayden, and we've remained close friends even though I don't work there anymore.Saturday was a cold, rainy day, so it was perfect for visiting with friends inside, enjoying  homemade soup (made by Mrs. Linda herself-- it was YUMMO!). Mrs. Linda had gotten B a Christmas present, and even though it's a little early, we let him unwrap his gift.
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This boy is ENAMORED with wrapping paper-- show him a gift and he'll go to town.

Saturday evening we took care of our friend's kids while they did a service project for Christmas. The girls are 3 and 1, and are adorable. Playing with Josie (the 3 year old) definitely solidified that 3 years old is my FAVORITE age. If I could bottle kids up and keep them the same forever, that's the age I'd do it. They are potty trained, they can communicate like a grown up (well, that's debatable, but atleast they can talk!), and their imagination is HILARIOUS. Watching Toy Story 2 with the kids was pretty funny too. Girls view things through sensitive eyes; Never would you watch Toy Story with a boy and hear him say "Poor Woody. He misses Buzz!" LOL. So funny! I also realized that 3 kids is HARD. I was home by myself with the kids for about 45 minutes, and whew. It was a handful to say the least. The pinnacle came at dinner time, because all 3 kids were hungry at once, but I only had 1 booster. Brayden was crying, Kaiya (the 1 year old) was running around the kitchen yelling "'nana" and Josie accidentally ran into Toby's food and water, so I had a river of water and dog food in the kitchen. Ahhh.... Thanfully Drew came for backup not to long after that, otherwise I am not sure I would have made it!

Sunday was our volunteer day in the infants at church. Pretty uneventful. After church I ran to the grocery store to finish up the gifts for our family we adopted for Christmas, and then ran back home to get ready for a photoshoot I had later that afternoon. Brayden was STILL asleep before I left-- he ended up sleeping for 3 hours on Sunday afternoon. Poor guy must have been pooped (he's NEVER taken that long of a nap. He would have presumably slept longer, since Drew had to wake him up). My photoshoot went well on Sunday afternoon, but my pics aren't completely edited yet, so I'll have to post some previews later. Sunday night was my favorite part of the weekend-- Drew went and picked up a playset we got for Brayden with the money my parents gave him for Christmas... can you believe I got this playset for $50???
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SO exciting! Drew is going to power wash it, and bleach it down, just to get some of the dirt, grime and mildew off, but other than that it's in perfect condition! Too bad it's frigid outside :(
After we got the playset home we went over to our friends house to wrap the gifts for the adopted family. It was SO much fun to hang out with Tim and Candice, and to wrap the gifts knowing that 4 kids will have a Christmas. On a funny note, we put Brayden to bed there, and he cried for the longest time. It really isn't like him to cry when he goes to sleep, so we were both kind of perplexed., but decided it was just because his schedule was so thrown off due oto the 3 hour nap he had had earlier that day. On the way home, I realized why he was crying-- I had forgotten to breastfeed him before he went down. Poor guy just wanted his night night milk and was letting us know about it! He eventually went to sleep there, and when we got home we just gave him a bottle. I felt SO bad, and am hoping that's the last time I ever do that!

I have been a bit overwhelmed today when I look at my to-do list before my inlaws get in town. Today we had a pj day just because I knew we weren't going out, and I was too tired to get ready for anything anyway :) Here's to a productive week!
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