The Elsner Family Blog

Christmas 2011

2012-01-10T08:57:00.001-08:00

Christmas was fabulous this year. Even though it was chaotic as usual, especially adding another child to the mix, it was so much fun and we feel so blessed to have such amazing families. My house has totally been taken over by toys and we are still sneaking things up into the closets to pull out later in the year for Brady. Since his birthday is in one week he is so overloaded with toys this time of year. I love being able to pull out a new toy every few months. It's like Christmas all over again for him. I was determined this year to make sure Brady truly understood the meaning of Christmas. Well, that didn't work out so well because he could not understand why it was Jesus' birthday on Christmas and not his. I know it must be confusing to open presents on someone else's birthday. We'll try again next year. I think I'm going to read him the "real" Christmas story all year long so he gets it by next Christmas. We'll see. :) So here is how Christmas was for us:

Our first celebration was with Austin's dad, Opa, and his wife, Oma. Brady just loves his Opa and Oma and really enjoys spending time with his cousins. At Christmas there were the 3 big cousins and Brooklyn. Since Christmas we have added 2 more babies. Very exciting!

Brady (almost 3), Madelein (1), William (almost 4). Of course my child is being a total ham.

This is what Brooklyn did while everyone opened presents.

Brady and William always have so much fun together. They loved playing with each other's toys.

Look who woke up! She woke up for a little while so she could show off her cute smile.

Lovin' on Oma.

So Christmas Eve did not go how we planned it at all. That is just how life with kids go. Brooklyn had a cold and felt horrible that day and Brady was just worn out from so much fun. Austin got a migraine in the afternoon which, with all 3 combined, kept us from going to the Christmas Eve service. We went to my grandmother's house for dinner and presents and Brady actually slept on her bed all the way through dinner. My boy who never naps. :) He woke up just in time to inhale some food and open presents. He was nice and perky by then.

Here is Brady with my cousin's little girls. He has so much fun with Chayse and Avery and they are so sweet to him. They are posing on these really cool stairs that my aunt had made for Brady. They are next to his bed and make it so much easier for him to climb up on his super tall bed. He loves them so much!

So Christmas Day...started out at our house just the 4 of us. And really it was just the 3 of us because Brooklyn was kind enough to sleep in so big brother could have all of our attention. I can not even put into words the excitement Brady had over Christmas morning. It was definitely contagious.

This is Brooklyn's stuff. Sad looking I know, but we figured she had no clue what was going on this year so no need to go overboard.

Now here is Brady's stack. Austin and I have a budget each year for each person. Christmas Eve when we were setting out the kids presents he asked me, "are you sure you stuck to the budget? This is just so much stuff." I responded by explaining to him that we have a budget by dollar amount and not by amount of presents. And I did stick to the budget!

My precious boy!

He got lots of books of course.

We got him a Melissa and Doug cutting set so he could practice cutting. He had it down in 2 seconds.

We also got him a chef's kit because he loves cooking with me. He now has his own spoons, spatula, measuring cups, bowls and of course a chef's hat. :)

After opening presents at our house we went to my parents house. My brother and his wife were here this year and we had a blast and were each spoiled like crazy.

Brooklyn's Christmas outfit. :)

He had not trouble tearing into his and Brooklyn's presents.

My cute parents.

This is what Brooklyn did while we opened presents. Notice a trend!

Brady got a grill from my parents and he had to take it in the kitchen and cook while his Nonna was making lunch. He is soooo stinking cute!

Later that day my Aunt came over and gave Brady his first bike. It's one of those balance bikes that has no pedals but teaches them balance and how to use a bike. Brady is already a pro and loves riding on it.

We had an amazing Christmas and are sad its over. We are blessed beyond measure and are so grateful for all the wonderful friends and family that God has placed in our lives. Happy 2012!

Brooklyn's 2 Months Old

2011-12-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my baby girl's already 2 months old. Time really flies the second time around when you have a toddler running around like crazy. I've noticed I take WAY less pictures of Brooklyn than I did of Brady. I just don't have time. It's very sad when I stop and think about it. It's really hard to do anything right now with an extra kiddo added to the mix. I feel like I'm behind on everything. At least I'm catching up a little bit on the blog. :)

Brooklyn is such a sweet little girl. She has become so smiley and precious. She had a lot of trouble the first month adjusting to formula. She has really bad gas and we tried everything to help her out. We finally feel like we have the best combination of things right now and she is like a totally different baby. When we wake her up to eat she is so smiley and happy which is such a huge difference. I love it. There is nothing worse than your tiny baby being in pain and you don't know what to do about it.

Brooklyn is so different from Brady is so many ways. She is very sensitive. If you put her in a position she doesn't like she will scream and let you know about it. She also eats at a snale's pace. Brady would wolf down his food and beg for more. :) Brooklyn is a fabulous sleeper. She will go to sleep on her own without needing to be rocked. Brady had to be rocked till he was sound asleep and would still wake up most times when I put him down. She is already sleeping about 7 hours at night which I'm loving. I don't feel as exhausted this time around and I know it's because she has never woken me up more than once a night. She is so good to her mama.

We took her to her 2 month checkup this week and were surprised by her stats. Brady was always at the top of the charts for weight and height but Brooklyn is proving to be a dainty little thing.

Brooklyn's 2 month stats:

Weight 11lbs. 9oz. (67%)

Height 22in. (32%)

Brady was 13lbs. 3oz. and 24in. long. She is definitely going to be smaller. Her head is even tinier than Brady's. It's so fun seeing how they are different and how they are alike. The funniest thing they have had in common so far is that she screams and cries at red lights and stop signs just like Brady did. They cannot stand when the car stops. It cracks me up every time. :)

This is the face she makes right before she cries. She didn't like posing. :)

I love, love, love how much she is smiling now. It warms my heart that she is a happy baby. Especially after how rough the first month was.

Precious!

Brady adores his baby sister. He asks almost everyday to hold her. He is always saying "cute baby girl" or "sweet baby sister." I knew he would be an awesome big brother.

So I'm new to the whole headband thing and have learned not to leave one on your baby while they are in the car seat or else they will end up with an eye patch. :)

Brooklyn's first day of church!

More smiles!

She is definitely a Daddy's girl. Austin wasn't sure how he would feel about having a girl but man is he already wrapped around her finger. They have such a sweet relationship. He says she's already a little diva and I totally agree. :)

We love you baby girl and are so blessed to have you in our lives. Stop growing so fast!!!

Pancakes at the Zoo

2011-11-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Saturday we took Brady to Pancakes at the Zoo. It was so much fun spending time just the 3 of us. Brady had a blast and enjoyed the alone time with Mommy and Daddy. Brooklyn was at home with my mom. The event was so cool. We had breakfast first and then got to walk around the zoo in a more private way. They had zookeepers everywhere for you to ask questions and pet certain animals. We also got to ride the train and carousel. It was such a fun experience for Brady.

Brooklyn Girl

2011-11-20T18:44:00.001-08:00

Well adjusting to life with a newborn has been a little rough this time around. Brooklyn is so precious in so many ways but she has had a lot of trouble with her tummy. We're not positive what is going on with her but she is now on Soy milk formula. From the time she was born she has always screamed bloody murder after her feedings. You can tell she is in pain because she kicks her legs and flails her arms. It breaks my heart and frustrates me all at the same time. It makes it even harder that I have a toddler that needs my attention as well. We have tried so many things and are now trying Soy milk formula and an all natural medicine called Colic Calm. We'll see if this combo works.

On a brighter note, Brooklyn is absolutely beautiful. She is a spitting image of her brother as a baby only she has dark skin and dark hair like her mommy. She is growing very well despite the vomiting. She actually eats really well. Hopefully that continues. Here are some pictures of my sweet angel.

This is one of our attempts at tummy time. She fell right to sleep. I think she really likes to be on her tummy. It must make her feel better. My poor baby girl. :(

This is her swing or her home right now. The doctor suggested keeping her at an angle so she sleeps in her swing all the time. It should be fun transitioning her to her bed when that day comes. Not looking forward to it.

Brooklyn has a nickname, Super Baby. Since the day she came out of my tummy she has been able to hold her head up. She will lift it all the way up when she is on her tummy. Even her doctor was amazed. It is so funny burping her because she holds her head up and away from your shoulder the whole time. It's like she wants to see your face. Adorable!

My precious babies. Brady just loves his sister. The only time he gets upset is when we tell him to be quiet. He does not like to be quiet at all. He always replies with "but I need to be loud." Other than that he has been totally loving to her. This is him giving her a kiss.

My sleeping beauty!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T18:35:00.001-07:00

This year Brady got to go trick-or-treating for the first time. Last year he didn't really understand the whole concept so we thought it would be silly to take him. He totally got it this year though. He was so excited to be Lightning McQueen and to go trick-or-treating. He did great too. He was so full of joy when he got back home. It was so precious. Since I had surgery and a newborn I was stuck at home. I took pictures all the way down the driveway though and stood there until they were out of my site. And yes, I did get weepy. I can't believe my big boy is already trick-or-treating. They grow up way too fast!

My two precious angels. Doesn't Brady look huge next to her? Austin's step-sister was kind enough to give us the newborn costume Brooklyn is wearing. It was so cute and she really liked it. I guess it was warm and cozy. :)

My little baby giraffe!

My Lightning McQueen showing off his loot. And just FYI for all my friends and family that know we don't let Brady have candy, he has had 3 pieces of chocolate since Halloween. He loves Crunch the most but mainly because the wrapper is blue. :)

My mom, Nonna, came over to be a part of the fun. She walked with them and kept Austin company. My dad would have come but he was bowling with his bowling league...nerd! :)

Brooklyn Christine Elsner

2011-10-31T13:30:00.001-07:00

Now that Brooklyn is one week old I guess I will finally sit down and blog about her birth. That's actually pretty good turn around time I think. :) Brooklyn was born 10/24/11 at 8:14am by Csection and she came out absolutely perfect weighing in at 7lbs. 1oz. and 19in. long. She has brought so much joy to our lives and I still can't believe God blessed me with a little girl. My family feels complete, for now, and we are all doing great. My surgery went very well this time around and even though recovery has been more difficult I feel like I'm finally starting to heal. I now know that I am allergic to every kind of pain killer and I have hives from head to toe. FYI, Advil does not do the trick after major surgery. Hopefully in the next couple of days I will be feeling better. Here are some pictures of Brooklyn's birthday. Enjoy!

First of all, ignore the splotches all over her, they did go away. :) Notice her feather clip on her cap? That is because of my wonderful friend Jennifer that was my delivery nurse in the operating room with me. She surprised me with Brooklyn's first accessory. It was so special having her there for our special day.

Meeting Mommy

Our newest addition!

Brady meeting Brooklyn for the first time. He was really shy and not sure what to think because I had just gotten out of surgery. He warmed up more later.

This is him warming up once we got into an actual room. He loved playing with her little fingers and still does. He calls them "little grabby fingers."

Spending time with her Nonna. The first of many cuddles to come.

I love how sweet Brady's face looks in this picture. He was falling in love.

Check out this precious face. She looks just like her big brother except a more feminine version. She also seems to have my more olive color skin and she has my dark hair. I can't wait to see what color her eyes end up being.

Going Home!

Summer Fun/First Day of Preschool

2011-09-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

Warning: long post coming up. I'm finally going to catch up on what's been going on and post some cute pictures of my boy. I know your in shock. :) We have had a great summer and I am so sad to see it come to an end. Especially because my baby boy started preschool last week. It was the hardest thing I have ever done as a mom to take him to school on Thursday. I cried for a long time after I dropped him off and then cried myself to sleep that night. It's just so hard to let someone else take care of him for a little while instead of me. Part of me was really considering waiting one more year, but after a weekend to recover I'm doing better. We'll see how Tuesday goes.

Before school...

After school...his teacher said he did great and joined in with every activity. The only thing we have to work on is talking during nap time. However, I do not see that changing because Brady doesn't nap at home either. I could see us having to pick him up before nap time within the next few weeks. We'll see how long the teachers can take it. :)

Unfortunately for Brady, we have not spent much time outside this summer. Being very pregnant in the summer was not a great idea so I basically stay inside as much as possible. When we do go outside though, water is definitely involved. Brady loves watering the grass for Daddy and getting watered himself.

Our other favorite past time is going to Chick-fil-a for a fun and cheap form of entertainment. Brady has gotten pretty brave and will play in their play area by himself now. He also loves to share an ice cream with Daddy.

Since Austin has to travel a little more than he used to with his new job we go hang out with my parents so they can keep us company. I just love this picture of Brady scrambling eggs with my dad. They are a cute pair!

Brady also enjoys helping Mommy any chance he gets. He loves to cook, do laundry, clean house...he is such a big helper. Here he is trying to clean the fan blades for me. Love it!

This is Brady showing off his injury. It was a tiny cut from one of the drawers on his big boy bed. He made us put a Band-aid on it for like a week and he would walk around with his thumb in the thumbs up position. It cracked me up. He's dramatic just like his Daddy. :)

Having fun shopping with Mommy.

This cracks me up. This is what happens when your child refuses to nap in his room. He tends to crash wherever, whenever. We had driven home from my moms house where she didn't put his shorts back on him after he went potty because he was so hot. Little did I know he was going to pass out in the car and sleep pantsless for 2 hours. Funny boy!

More fun outside. This was tonight and the weather was fabulous. It was still like 90 degrees but it felt so much cooler for some reason. I'm so ready for fall.

I love this boy to pieces!

What's Going On...

2011-08-04T12:56:00.001-07:00

So a lot has been going on around here lately which is pretty much why I never find time to blog. I feel like I have this short time window before Brooklyn arrives to get a TON of stuff done. I'll get there eventually. So here's a rundown of what's been going on.

1) Austin and I just recently took on the role of directors for our Sunday school class. The two older couples that were directing our class decided to "retire" after 6 years with us. It has already proved to be a big job, but we both felt called by the Lord to do it and have already been blessed because of it. We just love our class so much and everyone in it.

2) We redid Brady's room into his "big boy room." We had him in his crib which was converted to a toddler bed but knew we would be needing the crib for Brooklyn, so we decided to go ahead and buy him his big boy furniture. I will now take this opportunity to caution all moms on this topic. DO NOT put your toddler in a big boy bed too soon. We basically traumatized our poor child. He has had all these issues going to sleep and waking up in the night because of this huge bed. It has been about 3 weeks now since "the change" and he is just now showing us signs that he is getting used to it. However, he has napped only a handful of times since getting the new bed. I'm terrified he is going to stop taking naps. EEEK!!! I was reading last night in a book about healthy sleep habits that when a new baby comes along, keep your toddler in their crib until baby is about 4 months old. That would have been genius! However, I'm a huge planner and insisted on having his room completely done before starting Brooklyn's nursery. Sometimes my need to keep things in order and organized ends up biting me in the butt. Oh well! I'm sure this too shall pass. :) Here are the pictures from Brady's new room. Those of you who have seen Brady's room know how huge it is, so imagine that only half of it is shown in these pictures. Half of the room is fully furnished and the other half is empty. I'm trying to find a really cool book shelf for the other half. Those pictures will come later I guess.

3) We have a baby girl on the way. Okay, so I know this is old news, but I just like saying it again. We haven't really started her nursery yet because my mom is hand making all of her bedding still. The fabric is very elegant and frilly and I can't wait to see it all come together. Poor Brooklyn gets the shaft somewhat because her room is only half the size of Brady's. I guess that is the benefit of being the first born. :) Way to go Brady! As far as pregnancy goes, I'm now almost 28 weeks and am feeling elephant size. I have actually gained way less weight than I did with Brady, but I still feel enormous. I HATE being pregnant in August and we basically stay inside because of that. I'm not sleeping well at all and I have sciatica again but other than that I'm feeling fine. I'm just ready for her to be here!!

4) Austin has a new job. He is still working for Chase Bank but has taken on a new role with a lot more responsibility and a lot of really important people watching him. They created a new position within the bank, just in Texas, and asked Austin to take it on. He is the first one to ever do it so there is a lot of added pressure there. His new title is Senior Relationship Manager Healthcare Specialist. Oh yeah, say that five times fast. His new boss is some big wig at Chase that offices out of Houston so there is a little bit more traveling involved as well. I'm so proud of him though and keep telling him that he will be CEO of Chase in no time. :) He has actually been with Chase for 11 years now, which is pretty rare for someone his age. He started there when he was 21 as a teller. So cute! That's when I met him. Anyways, he is such an amazing provider and is so successful that I thank God everyday for meeting someone with so much drive, focus and dedication. And he does it all while glorifying his God. I love my husband to pieces!

So I guess that's all for now. I've bragged on my husband, gushed about my baby girl and questioned my parenting skills with my toddler. All in a days work! :)

Bad Blogger

2011-06-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

Okay so I know I have been a terrible blogger lately. After we got back from South Padre I immediately started planning for Vacation Bible School at church and have been swamped with that. Our vacation was amazing though and Brady had a blast. I will try to post pictures later.

We did get some great news this past week. We are having a GIRL!!! I'm sure most of you who follow my blog already knew that from facebook but I just had to share. I am beyond excited and Austin's getting more used to the idea everyday. He really wanted all boys so that he never had to deal with a teenage girl, but he has always said he wanted a girl for me. He's so sweet! So now that we know what we are having we have started redoing Brady's big boy room. We bought him some new furniture this weekend that will be delivered in July and he is already asking where his new bed is. He's really excited to get a new room. I will start baby girl's nursery after we finish Brady's room which is really hard for me to do. I just want to decorate girly stuff so bad. Soon though. :)

I am now 20 weeks along and am feeling great. The first trimester was horrible this time around but I am feeling much better now. I still seem to have every pregnancy symptom in the book. It's almost funny what havoc this little girl is wreaking with my body. I know she'll be totally worth it though. :)

I promise I will post some pics soon!

Easter Fun

2011-05-10T07:26:00.001-07:00

We had another wonderful Easter. We started our day out at church and then went to Sunday School to get pictures with all the kids dressed up so cute.

We were missing a couple kiddos, but we did pretty good getting a decent picture.
After church we went home to pick up some food I had made and to let Brady go through his Easter basket. He just lights up when he gets any kind of present. I just love that about him!
Trying out his bubbles with Daddy.

We got him a magnifying glass (well plastic) so he can look at bugs up close. He is obsessed with roly polies right now. Or as he likes to call them roly holies. :)

We went to my parents house for lunch and an easter egg hunt. One of my cousin has 3 beautiful girls and Brady had so much fun hunting eggs with them. It was so cute watching Brady play with 3 girls because my brother was always stuck playing with us 3 girls (me and my 2 girl cousins). It brought back fun memories.

Brady with his great-grandmother. I see the tired look setting in all over his face. He is very easy to read. :)

Brady is such a ham. He will take any opportunity to make people laugh.

Hunting eggs with Daddy. There were SO many eggs and Brady moved SO slow that the egg hunt took a very long time. The girls were all so sweet though to leave a bunch of eggs for him. They all had a blast.

Brady and Avery...I guess Brady was sick of smiling at the camera at this point. Such a ham!

Chayse showing me her loot.

He looks totally confused because he is holding a confetti egg and we are telling him to break it with his hands. He just couldn't fathom breaking an egg in his hand.

The oldest cousin blowing bubbles for the youngest one. How precious!

We ended the day with a game of teeball. They all took turns smacking the ball at my mom. Fortunately, there were no injuries. :)

Good Times

2011-04-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot has been going on around here. I am still feeling pretty sick most days and really exhausted, so we spend most days at home playing. Poor Brady is going stir crazy I'm sure. We still have fun though and come up with silly games at home. He has gotten really good at T-ball and can smack that ball halfway across the living room. Normally, T-ball would never be allowed inside my house, but for right now a lot of stuff is allowed that usually would not be. :)

I went to the doctor again recently and the heart beat sounded wonderful. I can't wait to find out what baby #2 is but that's not until June. I'm hoping this all day sickness thing goes away soon. I hit 13 weeks tomorrow so if it is just a 1st trimester thing then it should be going away. We'll see! Here are some pictures of random things we've been doing lately. Brady keeps getting cuter and funnier by the minute. He is just talking up a storm right now and is starting to put sentences together. He cracks me up with some of the stuff he says. I'm already thinking he is going to be the class clown, because at home he is such a ham. When I go pick him up from his Bible Study Fellowship class on Wednesdays he is always playing with something and has kids all around him. Mainly girls! I really hope he is an extrovert like his Daddy and not shy like me.

Loving on his Nonna...his 3rd favorite person in the whole wide world! :)

I pulled the bumbo chair out to take to a friend and Brady has been sitting in it everyday. When he was a baby we never got to use it because his thighs were so chunky. He would always get stuck and I couldn't pull him out. Ironically, he now can get in and out of it with ease. He has such long thin legs now. It's too funny!

He loves playing racquetball with Daddy. Which means Daddy bounces the racquetballs on the racket while Brady watches and laughs. I caught him one day using the bag as a hat. See what I mean by ham??

One day we had to go let my parents dogs out to potty so Brady took the opportunity to love on Max. He is such an animal lover.

He's really into fixing things. He has a set of fake tools from Home Depot that he gets out and fixes his cars. I'm not quite sure where he learned this because we all know his Daddy is not Mr. Fix it. I guess he learned it from Pop. :)

He loves wearing his big boy underwear. We'll put them over his diaper sometimes when he asks. We decided to potty train him this summer after we get back from out vacation to South Padre. It's a long drive and we didn't want to pull over 50 million times. However, he has started holding his tee tee so long that he will cry because it hurts. So we might not make it till then. We'll see. I know he is definitely ready.

Big Announcement

2011-03-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Well it's hard to tell from the picture but....we're pregnant!!! We're so excited and feel so blessed to be having another little angel. It has been a long journey to get to this place after trying for a little under a year. God has been so faithful though and has taught us so much through this process. I'm still fairly early so I'm not announcing on facebook but I know my closest friends and family look at my blog and those are the people I want to know. My due date is October 29th but my scheduled Csection will probably be the week before that. Brady came early so I think they want to prepare for that. My doctor's appointment went great yesterday and there is no better sound than that little heartbeat. I was so much more relaxed after hearing that. And even better news....there is only 1 in there!!! :) We are giving God all the glory for this little miracle.

Lately...

2011-03-06T15:44:00.001-08:00

Life around the Elsner home is so much fun lately. I love this age and how much personality Brady has. He is constantly making us laugh and smile. He is talking more and more everyday and starting to put sentences together. He's always surprising us with new words and we wonder where did he hear that? Only cute stuff though, don't worry! He is FULL of energy for sure. He plays and plays all day and sleeps really hard. Every now and then I can't get him to take a nap, but he will just play up in his room and talk to his stuffed animals. It's pretty cute to listen to on the monitor. I love this little man to pieces and can't imagine my life without him. Here's some random pics from the past month or so that I downloaded off my phone. I usually get the funny ones on my phone. Quicker access! :)

I caught him playing in my closet one day with his cars. The funny thing about this picture is that he was in total darkness. My flash makes it look light. He's so funny!

Yes, we are potty training...kindof. I say kindof because we are taking it really slow. I'm not ready to go hard core yet but I see it coming in the near future. He does tee tee and poo poo on the potty everyday but still wears a diaper. I'm thinking of going cold turkey with the big boy underwear in the next couple of weeks.

Rough life...

Yep that's a black eye. This is what happens when you get kicked in the face by our 55lb. dog. They were just playing though don't worry.

He is such a ham. He loves when I use the camera on my phone and make the camera turn around to where he can see himself.

He still loves lining things up, but I'm not worried about OCD anymore. :)

I just had to do it. He's such a good sport!

Having fun on his hot wheels that Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn got him for his birthday.

At least he loves his big boy underwear! :)

Fire Station Fun

2011-02-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

Today our church had S3 which is super servant sunday. This year the whole church focused on ways to support the volunteers for the Super Bowl. Each sunday school class fed a fire station or police station for lunch. We covered every station in town. The firemen we visisted with were so nice and showed the kids all around. The kids had a blast!

Brady did not like looking into the sun. Cadie is looking at him like he is sooo weird. Cadie, it's a boy thing. :)

This tire was the funnest part for Brady. Go figure!

Brady Turns 2

2011-01-31T12:40:00.000-08:00

My baby turned 2. I can't believe it. It is so true how they say time flies when you're having fun. Brady is so much fun right now. He is one big ball of energy. He loves to talk your ear off, even though you will only understand about half of it, he drinks milky, as he calls it, like it's going out of style, and he loves anything related to cars or balls. I'm pretty sure I am raising an athlete of some sort I just haven't figured out what sport yet. :) Maybe all of them?

He is a very happy and loveable boy. He rarely cries, unless he falls down, and overall has a sunny disposition. He turns into a terror at the dinner table though because he cannot stand being held down by anything. He will repeat over and over "get down, get down." He will repeat anything you ask him to say and it always sounds way cuter coming out of his mouth. He loves playing "go, go" which is holding a ball and chasing after him. Yes, you must be holding a ball. I have my own special basketball that is red and blue and it's called "mama's ball." I'm still not sure how that one became mine, but I just go with it. I get a lot of excercise running around the house with him that is for sure. I wouldn't trade it for the world...I love him to the moon and back.

Friday the 14th was his actual birthday so we set up his basketball goal the night before and let him open one present when he first woke up. He plays basketball all day every day. He is actually really good. I have already had to raise it up for more of a challenge.

So his birthday party was on Saturday and we had it at our church in a party room. It was perfect because all of his little friends were able to just run around and play. Here is Cadie and Reese chatting about the latest gossip I guess. :)

Daddy and Brady being silly with the pom poms. It was a sports theme by the way so that is why everyone is wearing jerseys.

Balloon fun!!!

Mimi and Nonna watching Brady have tons of fun.

Oma and Brady having cuddle time.

More balloon fun!!!

The cake

Brady loved hearing everyone sing happy birthday to him. Especially when everyone said his name.

He even clapped when everyone was done singing.

Blowing out his 2 candles...tear!

What a happy boy!

Opening presents, his favorite thing to do!

Check out the awesome bean bag and Thomas the Train pillow. He actually takes naps on this bean bag. It's better than on the floor I guess. More on that later...

Still to this day he will ask me for more presents or say birthday. He just doesn't understand why he can't open presents everyday. I totally get it!

Way Behind

2011-01-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

I know I am way behind on blogging but life has been crazy around the Elsner house. Brady's birthday is 3 weeks after Christmas so the holidays are extra nuts for us. I'm hoping to get birthday stuff blogged before Valentine's day...we'll see! :)

So our last Christmas celebration was at my parents house on New Year's Day. My brother and his wife were in town and we had a blast as usual. New Year's Eve they all came to our house since we had to put Brady to bed around 8pm. We played a hilarious game called Quilf (or something like that). You drew cards that would give you tasks you would have to do for a certain amount of time. The next few pictures say it all.

Then came New Year's day and more presents. Brady had a blast, of course, opening tons of gifts. He is still to this day asking for presents throughout the day. It cracks me up.

His first set of golf clubs. Way to go Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn. He practices golf daily.

Teaching his son to golf. Priceless!!

Presents, presents, and more presents!

For dinner my grandparents came over. Here is Brady with his great-grandmother. She looks great for being a great grandma huh?

Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn with a squirmy Brady.

Pop and Nonna with their pride and joys. That's plural because they think these two dogs are their babies. Pretty cute picture!

Mommy and Daddy with their pride and joy. What a wonderful Christmas it was!!!

Christmas Part III - Christmas Day

2011-01-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

This Christmas we spent actual Christmas with Austin's family and New Year's weekend celebrating Christmas with my family. So on Christmas day Austin's mom, stepdad and siblings came over to our house.

Of course the first thing Brady had to do was show Poppy his new teepee. He was so proud of it.

The family playing with some of Brady's new toys. Too funny!

I love his face in this picture. I think someone was starting to get tired from all the excitement of Christmas.

He even thought Daddy's gift card was cool.

Playing with his Daddy.

Poppy and Mimi got him a train set. It was a perfect gift because he is really into trains right now. Here he is playing with the logging house that came with it.

This cracks me up! Austin's family couldn't do anything until that train set was completely set up. They all had to take part in it. Brady was sitting with me dying to open another present.

Then he opened Uncle Houston's presents.

Then Poppy's presents.

Then he played around with his Poppy until he couldn't play any longer! What a fabulous Christmas Day it was. :)

And this is how it ended...

Christmas Morning

2011-01-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was so special this year. Brady was so excited to open presents and couldn't wait to get downstairs to tear into all the gifts Santa brought. He didn't really get the whole concept of Santa this year but he sure understood the concept of presents. He would tear into one and immediately say "more, more." It was really cute. It wasn't until all the presents were opened that he actually took the time to play with his toys. We definatly spoiled him this year, but it sure was fun! I'm really going to have to cute back though once we have more kids. Otherwise, we will be broke! :)

Brady got a giraffe pillow pal which he totally loved. He gave it a hug right after he pulled it out of the box. My sweet lover boy! He's been sleeping on it in his bed ever since Christmas.

He also got a Little People's farm. He actually doesn't play with this as much as I thought he would. It should be no real shock to me, but he is already back to playing with his same old cars he had before Christmas.

Brady also got a big boy chair from Pottery Barn with his name on it. He loves this thing. He really loves climbing all over it. I love this picture because he is holding his fork. After he opened all his presents we stopped to eat cinnamon rolls. He would get a bite and then sit in his chair to eat it. Too cute!

Reaching down into the depths of his stocking to find any last presents that got away.

We ended the morning practicing on the vuvuzela. He is still walking around the house blowing on this thing. Such a boy!

Christmas Festivities Part II

2010-12-26T17:44:00.001-08:00

Our second round of festivities started Christmas Eve morning. Austin's dad and stepmom came over that morning to spend the day with us until Pam's family all came over that evening for dinner. The day started out like this...

Pam had made Brady a tee pee. It was awesome and Brady totally loved it. He spent quite some time playing in the tee pee with Opa (Austin's Dad) and Daddy. Today the tee pee is full of different toys he has taken in there to play with.

He was very surprised to find a tee pee in his living room after he came down from his nap.

Once Austin's step siblings got there we had dinner and opened presents. Austin got to play Santa Claus.

We actually got a picture with all three grandkids looking up. Very amazing!

Of course Brady wouldn't look up for a family picture. That was asking too much. :)

William got lost in a sea of presents.

Oma (Austin's stepmom) holding her first grandaughter. She's totally loving it!

Uncle Jordan got William a huge bag of balls. Uncle Jordan thought it was funny but mom and dad were not laughing. :)

Uncle Chad and Aunt Gretchen with their new little girl Madailein. They are loving their first Christmas with Madailein.

Brady tearing into some gifts.

William gave Brady a Thomas the Train set and they had a ton of fun playing with it together. It is cute watching them start to interact with each other.

Madailein

We ended the night by setting up all of Brady's gifts. It was very fun making it look just right. I was giddy with excitement at the though of seeing Brady's face the next morning when he found all his presents. His reaction was priceless! More on that later...

Christmas Festivities Part I

2010-12-26T17:33:00.001-08:00

This Christmas has been very busy but very wonderful. Brady has absolutely loved opening presents this year. He tears into them and as soon as he is done opening one he is asking for "mo mo" which is more, more. Too cute! We have so many Christmas celebrations and then a few weeks later is Brady's birthday so he is going to be totally spoiled by the end of January. He's going to wonder where all the presents went.

Our first Christmas party was the weekend before Christmas. We celebrate with Austin's stepmom's family. They have a party every year in honor of her mother who passed away a few years ago. Brady got to spend time with lots of kiddos. He especially loves to hang out with his cousin William.

Lots of people squeezed into a small space, but still very fun.

Playing Break The Ice with cousins. I've never played that game but Brady loved hammering the ice cubes. It was funny to watch his concentration.

This is Brady with his cousin William. This picture cracks me up because the angle of my camera made Brady look enormous. He already looks huge compared to William. William is 2 1/2 but very thin. They are the same height but much different in weight. Two cuties for sure!!!

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

2010-12-16T19:54:00.001-08:00

To start this blog off right I need to go back to two Mondays ago. Brady was upstairs for his nap when all of a sudden I hear some weird noises coming from upstairs. I looked at the monitor and there was no Brady in the crib. My adventurous little man finally figured out how to climb out of his bed. I ran up there and put him back in, but within 20 minutes he was back out. The next day he spent the whole nap time sitting on the rail of his bed trying to build up the courage to climb out. He finally did. He never napped again that week. He never tried to climb out at night because he was so exhausted from not napping that he went right to sleep.

So this past Sunday comes around and climbing out was pretty much the norm. There was no getting around the fact that he was not staying in that crib. So for his safety we decided to make the transition to toddler bed. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Total torture that's what! Guess what, they don't stay in the bed! He thought freedom was awesome. Sunday night it took an hour and a half of pushing him back up onto the bed before he fell asleep. Monday he wouldn't take a nap but fell asleep quicker that night out of exhaustion. However, he woke up at 3:30am and decided he wanted to play. You see, when your child wakes up in their crib they know they can't go anywhere so they go back to sleep. Not the case when they are in a toddler bed. So he was up for 2 hours. I eventually just held him and rocked him until he went back to sleep.

Yesterday he took his first nap in 2 weeks only because he woke up at 6:45am, went to BSF, and played with his Nonna. My mom was watching him for me and she basically held him down until he fell asleep. Last night it took 2 hours of sitting by his bed before I totally lost it. I said bye and left the room. I was getting so frustrated! After about 10 minutes of him crying by the door Austin went up there and laid him back down. He was asleep in seconds. So...tonight we took every potentially dangerous piece of furniture out of his room and decided to leave him in there. We only left him in there for 15 minutes at a time, but it only took 2 times doing that before he fell asleep. Hopefully, we have found the method that works for us. We shall see. I'm not sure if he will ever nap again, but he will have to stay in his room for rest time. I am definatly praying my way through this, because it has been the most frustrating stage so far.

This is Brady's room after we took most of the furniture out. We removed the bookshelf, the toy shelf, all of his stuffed animals, end table and the dresser. We also turned his armoire around so he couldn't climb on it. I guess he was so bored that he finally went to sleep. :)

Even though we have had a horrible time figuring this stuff out, he does totally love his big boy bed. He thinks it is very cool.

Grand Prairie Lights

2010-12-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we went with my parents to see the Grand Prairie Lights. It was awesome! I would highly recommend it. Brady loved it. He had so much fun sitting on the console in Pop's truck in between Pop and Nonna. You go so slow that it was totally safe. He even got to hang out the window a bit. We originally wanted to sit in the back of the truck but it was freezing that night so we nixed that idea. By the end of the drive we were all wearing gloves and hats and were wrapped in blankets. It was a wonderful night!

Santa Visit

2010-12-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

We went to Pancakes with Santa again this year at our church and, unfortunately, we had the same outcome as last year. Brady is still terrified of Santa. I don't really blame him. I don't like people in costumes either. Especially when you can't see their face. I won't even tell you what I thought about the guy dressed up as an Elf. Can you say inappropriate?

Anyways, I guess we'll try again next year. :)

He was totally fine while we were in line. He was just playing with the fun toys and hanging out with his BFF Josh. They are one week apart in age.

Still fine...

Bam, Santa freaked the poor little guy out. Not really! Santa actually felt horrible that he scared Brady so much. He kept apologizing. Poor guy!

Daddy came to his rescue! We were all laughing so hard. I'm sure that's not nice. Good thing Brady won't remember this. :)

Totally fine afterwards!!! No permanent damage done.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2010-11-27T20:14:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We ate tons of food, spent quality time with family and tried to keep our very sick boy happy. He did great even though I think he has strep or RSV. I'm taking him to the doctor on Monday to find out what's going on. So Thursday Brady did fine. He ate a little turkey and ran around my aunt's house exploring everything. That night we slept over at my parent's house to spend more time with my brother and his wife. Around midnight Brady woke up and was awake for 3 hours. It was around 3am that we decided to pack up and head home to see if he would sleep in his own bed. He went right to sleep. He slept until 10am the next morning. We thought this would help him feel better, but Friday was a nightmare. We went to the ICE show at the Gaylord Texan and it was downhill from the moment we got there.

First of all, we had to wait in line for about 1 1/2 hours. Even though you buy tickets for a specific time, you still have to wait in line to go in. Brady did okay during this long wait. Then, when you think you are going to start the tour, they have you go in and watch a movie about the making of the ICE show. This is when the melting down began. After the movie, you go wait in another line to get your picture taken, then you wait in yet another line to finally go in to see the ICE. At this point you put on your big coats and wait your turn. Brady started screaming and crying because he didn't feel good, he was tired of waiting and he hated having on a huge coat. It was a total disaster. Totally not worth $25 a person. The actual ICE show was like a 5 minute walk. It was nothing. Don't do it people!!!

Today we had lunch with my family and said goodbye to my brother and sister-in-law. Thanksgiving was great but would have been better with a healthy child. There's always next year! :)

This is the beginning of our adventure. He's all smiles!

My brother Waylon and his wife Carolyn.

My sweet parents during the grandparent thing.

It was hard to enjoy the show with a screaming child but it had some cool things about it.

Saying "cheese!"

Checking out daddy's gloves.

Cool parkas Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn.

He found a TV playing Charlie Brown and it distracted him for a few moments.

The show begins.

His face says it all here.

Pretty cute!

We're pretending to look like we're having fun here. Do you believe it?

This picture is priceless because we all needed to see a therapist after this adventure.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-07T13:03:00.001-08:00

We took our annual family trip to our neighborhood pumpkin patch a few weeks ago, but this year we took our close friends the Bush family. The kids loved it, of course, even though it was very warm out there. I felt bad that Brady was forced to wear long sleeves and jeans in 85 degree weather, but he had to wear his cute Halloween shirt people. By the end his cheeks were bright red. Needless to say we didn't stay very long. We got some great pictures though and, oh yeah, some pumpkins too! :)

Trying to pick up a huge pumpkin of course.

Here is Brady with his little girlfriend, Cadie. They love playing together and are often mistaked for twins. Cadie is 6 months older but Brady has always been a big boy and stayed up with her on size. He's just taking his "little lady" for a ride.

This was right before he threw the pumpkin.

Loading up our pumpkins to take them to the car.

The kids got stickers for coming. Brady thought that was pretty cool, but he still wasn't sure about the guy giving it to him. He's all about "stranger danger." I love it!!! It was a great day with family and friends.

Bye Bye Paci, Hello Big Boy

2010-11-01T12:18:00.001-07:00

Well we did it! We got rid of the paci. It went alot smoother than I ever imagined and it was totally worth it because he is talking up a storm now. I guess I didn't realize how much he was using it during the day until he didn't have it anymore. He is amazing me everyday with how much he can say. He can already say the whole alphabet, one letter at a time. Every day I see my baby slipping away and being replaced with a big boy.

Here is a shot of him sleeping with his paci. He has one in his mouth and, if you look closely, there is one in his right hand. That is how attached he was.

Here's my two handsome boys eating lunch together. This is the first time we let Brady sit in a booster seat instead of a high chair and he loved it. He sat perfectly still the entire meal, which is big for him. :)

Here is Brady trying on his big boy boxer briefs. We started potty training today and very soon he might be wearing them. Scary thought!! He was so happy to have them on which is so funny. It's like he knew what they were!?!

Costume Party 2010

2010-10-31T13:01:00.001-07:00

The funny thing about this picture is that, even though it was not technically a "church" party, we only invited our Sunday School class so I love that an angel and the devil were both present. :)

Watching the Ranger's Game.

Uh oh, our little angel baby Sloan is turning into a little devil. And baby David's like "what is going on here?" These are two of our most recent additions to the class.

Rowan (Dorothy) and Cadie (Minnie Mouse) playing in the playroom. I love how Cadie found the one baby doll in my house. Probably the only girl toy we own. It was to teach Brady the body parts.

Of course all of us Mommies were crammed into the playroom as well to watch our kiddos play. Where are the daddies???

My little Shrek, Sarah (bumble bee), and Josh (elf) playing together. These three little ones are just weeks apart in age.

Group shot! This picture was minus two of the tiny ones, but I had to start clicking to get at least one good shot.

Brady was like "I'm outta here."

I love baby Reese's costume. Our little lamb. Her and Sloan (the angel) were born 1 day apart.

This picture has everyone in it. Brady, Josh, Sarah, baby David, Cadie, Sloan, Rowan, and Reese. I can't believe we got it!

All the kids jumped off the couch but Cadie was doing such a good job of minding her Mommy. She wasn't going to get up until she was told it was okay. Love that girl!

Josh felt bad that she was by herself so he jumped back up there. :) Josh has a little sister coming in 1 month. Yay!!!

San Antonio Vacation

2010-10-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we went on a trip to see my brother and his wife in San Antonio. They had just purchased a new house so it was exciting to see them and their new place. On the way to San Antonio we made a stop in Bastrop, TX and stayed at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort. We had a couple of certificates and it was a beautiful resort. Brady loved being there and exploring the entire property. We had fun making memories on our family road trip.

Brady's ready to go! He loves pretending to drive the car. He's such a boy.

Playing the guitar with Daddy at Cracker Barrel.

Checking out the fishing hole at the hotel.

Having fun in the room. The room was huge with a few different areas so Brady was able to run all around. It was so funny when we walked into the room he said "oooooohhhhhh." It was almost like he knew how nice it was.

Checking out the pumpkins that were everywhere.

Brady had fun checking out the animals.

Mommy and Brady in the butterfly garden. There weren't any butterflies because of the time of year but it was still fun for Brady to explore.

They even had a basketball court which, of course, Brady loved. He was mad that he couldn't make a basket like his daddy.

Having lunch with Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn.

Playing with pillows on the couch. I love, love, love this little boy.

Giving Aunt Carolyn's kitty cat a hug. He's so sweet like that.

Aunt Carolyn is an amazing pianist and Brady got a chance to play piano with her. We had a great vacation and can't wait to go back!!

Around Here

2010-09-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well we are excited for fall around here. I love the holidays and the cool weather. Bring it on! Not much happening around here. BSF is the only regular weekly activity we have. Every other Friday we have play date with my girlfriends and their precious kiddos. Other than that we hang out at home, do our home school activities and find fun stuff around town to do.

Brady has been getting molar after molar this summer. It has been miserable. He suffers for about a week with each new tooth. I think this past week he got his last molar until after he is 2. At least that is what I am praying. The poor thing has fever, gets congested, then has runny nose and doesn't like to eat whenever he gets a tooth. It is sooo sad. Not to mention all the sleep we don't get. It's no fun for anyone. The funnest thing right now is that Brady is really talking up a storm. He can say so many words and can use them in the correct context. It cracks me up how he uses "cool" and "whoa." Where do they learn these things? Here are some random pics from the past few weeks.

These next few pics are from the Parks Mall play date. He had so much fun playing there.

Brady has learned how to climb and he is really good at figuring out how to do something that he really should not do. Like it's probably not safe to ride your car on top of the ottoman!?!

This is Brady feeling totally miserable. This was a very bad teething day. He was running fever and his mouth was killing him. Little Einsteins kept him company for quite a while.

Here is another example of what not to do. He uses his cars to climb up on furniture. I caught him sitting on the end table. Hmmm. Gotta love the smile though!

So Austin taught Brady how to say "Cheese." If I say look at mama and I'm holding a camera he will smile so big and say cheese. I love it!

We've been spending lots of time at the park now that the weather is letting up. Brady is really starting to get comfortable doing things on his own. Am I ready for that?

Finger Painting

2010-08-31T16:42:00.001-07:00

Before I talk about finger painting I should probably give an update on what's been going on around here. Well, not much. Right now we don't have any activities until BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) for Mommy and Brady starts in a couple of weeks. We are really excited about it. I've always wanted to do it but didn't have the time to commit to it. I had heard so much about the children's program and how amazing it was that I knew we had to join.

Brady has really come out of his shell lately. He has gotten super friendly and waves and says hi to everyone that he sees. Which can be a little uncomfortable for his shy Mommy at times :). It's helping me come out of my shell as well. He is saying alot more words. He basically will repeat anything you ask him to say but has about 15 words he uses regularly. My favorite right now is WHY. He will fall down or trip or drop a truck and say WHY?? It cracks me up. He gets that from Daddy! Another great word he learned is HELP. He has gotten really good at saying HELP or HELP MAMA when he needs something. This has really cut down on the screaming fits lately.

Now for finger painting. This week I have started an at-home preschool curriculum with Brady. I ordered it off a really great Christian curriculum website and have been looking forward to starting all summer. Brady is obviously too young for preschool this year but we have tossed around the idea of not sending him until the year before kindergarten. I want to keep him home as long as possible but I don't want him to be behind. Sooo...Mommy is his teacher for the next couple of years. Or at least this year to test out the material. We did our first art project today which included finger painting. The project won't be totally finished until Thursday but the pictures were too cute not to post.

I was surprised that he jumped right in. He usually can't stand his hands to get dirty so I was glad to see that didn't hold him back.

He is concentrating very hard on his art.

Uh oh, this is were he realized his hands were really gross. We called it quits at this point.

Look at all the raw talent. I see lots of natural ability here!! :)

Bass Pro Shop

2010-08-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

So Saturday Daddy decided we all needed to make a trip out to Bass Pro Shop. I was surprised at how much fun we had. I was also surprised by how much money we spent. Oh well! It was a fun family outing.

"Daddy can I have one for Christmas?"

Checking out the fish.

Checking out the fish in the little pond.

Still checking out the fish.

Eyes! He loves pointing out body parts on animals or people. He basically knows them all now. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, ears, elbow, arm, hand, knees, fingers, toes, you get the point.

Lately

2010-08-05T11:56:00.001-07:00

Not much has been going on around here lately but we seem to stay busy all time. Go figure. With summer winding down The Little Gym and Kindermusik are about to end. I am still debating over which one to do in the fall. We can't do both because they are too expensive to be able to do both during a full semester. The Little Gym alone is $345. We will probably end up doing Kindermusik. Fortunately, Brady loves both of them equally. It has been a fun but busy summer. It seems like every weekend is full of activities.

One thing that has changed this summer is that Austin and I have taken on leadership roles in Sunday School, so he has been teaching and I have started planning the social events. It is quite an undertaking since half our class is pregnant meaning a bunch of baby showers coming up. I've got one in September, one in October and 2 in November. One of the November showers is not a Sunday School friend though. It is for my oldest and dearest friend, Brooke. Yay!!!

This neck pillow cracks me up. My mom bought it for him because he is always falling asleep with his head straight down because there is no good head support in this car seat. I didn't think in a million years that he would ever leave a pillow around his neck. So the other night we were going to dinner as a family and Austin put it around his neck just to be silly. He left it on the entire ride. He actually loved it!! Random! So now everytime we get in the car he either wants to hold it or have it around his neck. He is such a funny boy and is constantly surprising me!

Another new thing is that he will finally wear his hat. As long as Daddy is wearing a ball cap he will wear his. They are so cute in their matching U.S. Open hats that my parents bought them when they went. I love that he is finally keeping a hat on because the sun is wretched right now.

Yes folks it's a potty. Can you believe I have a potty for my 18 month old? We already had a potty ring that fits on the big potty upstairs. We have been putting him on that potty every night before bath for about 6 months now. He peed in it a couple of times. I had no plans whatsoever to start potty training though. However, on Monday he started telling me before he went poop. He did this 3 days in a row so I figured it was time to go buy a potty. He was very excited about his potty and has sat on it many times. Nothing has happened though. We will see how it goes. I am not excited about this process at all!

My boys are so cute. Brady is obsessed with Daddy. When Daddy comes home from work in the evenings, or when the weekend starts, I am chump change. Brady only has eyes for Daddy. I find it quite cute actually. I know how much he loves me because he shows me all day every day. He is a very sweet boy. It is actually kind of nice on the weekends because I get a pretty nice break. He won't let me do anything with him so Austin is stuck doing it all. Hilarious! Thank you Lord for that!

Lake Weekend

2010-07-27T08:12:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we took Austin's family to the lakehouse like we do every summer. It was really hot but we still had fun. Brady loved playing with his Aunt and Uncles all weekend.

Brady swinging with his Aunt Rachel. Rachel is soooo good with Brady. She will play with him for such a long time and never get tired of it. They are so cute together!

Brady was so worn out from playing and swimming that he fell asleep on the way to dinner.

Austin's Family

Houston (23), Austin, Brady, Rachel (16), Karen (Austin's Mom), Travis (17), and Chuck (Austin's Stepdad)

We had dinner at the Wildcatter Ranch which is like a dude ranch near the lakehouse. It is super nice and has a great steak restaraunt there. Outside there were a couple of donkeys Brady got to feed. They were really cute and Brady loved it.

Brady has no fear when it comes to animals. He will go right up to them and love on them. Probably because he has a 55 lb. dog at home that he plays with all the time.

My cute boys. This is the view from the Wildcatter.

18 Month Checkup

2010-07-21T11:49:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Brady's 18 month checkup and he did great. He's definately getting more comfortable with the doctor and only cried once. For some reason he is terrified of the stethoscope. Whenever she checks his heart he freaks out. Not sure what that's about. She said he looks great and is developing perfectly. One thing we discussed was his language development. You see, Austin knows alot of German since his Dad is German and he has always spoken German with Brady. Lately it has seemed like Brady has been confused between German and English and that his language has been developing slower than other children his age. However, the doctor told me that this is all normal when a child is learning two languages but that this is the perfect age for them to start learning. I feel much better now and Austin is glad that he can continue teaching Brady German.

18 Month Stats:

Height - 34 3/4 in. (97%)

Weight - 27lbs. 4oz. (70%)

Head Circumference - 19cm (50%)

I could tell Brady had gotten taller and thinner and after going to the doctor those thoughts were confirmed. He is looking less like my baby and more like a little man every day. I sure love this little boy with every piece of my heart!

July 4th Finale

2010-07-11T20:25:00.001-07:00

Saturday night we did fireworks and just like every other year my dad bought a ton. Austin and my brother had a blast shooting them off. The first couple scared Brady and he was shaking but he quickly relaxed and just laid back on his Mommy to enjoy the show. By the end he was pointing and clapping. It was soooo cute! It is so special watching my children enjoy the same things I enjoyed so much as a child. There is nothing better than fireworks, family and Possum Kingdom Lake on the 4th of July.

Look at our huge stack of fireworks. None of those dinky ones either!!! :)

The next day Austin let Brady ride in the front seat all of 15 feet to load the used fireworks into the back of the truck. Brady thought he was really getting away with something. I think he pushed every button in my dad's truck.

Yay I did it!!! Whatever IT was.

He can already make baskets thanks to The Little Gym. Too bad he is probably going to be really short. Poor kid!

I had to get a close-up of his Team USA outfit. I always get him a 4th of July outfit and this one was adorable. Okay so maybe he had more than one 4th of July outfit :).

I love the USA. That is what he was saying. HaHa!

July 4th Vacation Day 2

2010-07-06T11:27:00.001-07:00

Sitting on the lawn mower with Pop.

Daddy took his little man for a ride and Brady loved it.

Look at me Mommy!

Alot of our time at the lake is spent looking at this. Both Brady and Riley are ALWAYS wanting to go outside. They are never satisfied hanging out on the porch.

I think I have mentioned this before but now I have proof. Brady learned a while back to tell our dog Riley to stay and use the hand motion as well. Here he is telling my parents dachsunds to stay. Notice the hand!

Getting in the lake! We put him in his infant life jacket this time and it just fit better. The new one we bought him this summer is still too big and chokes him when is rides up. He had sooo much fun in the water with Daddy, Mommy, Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn.

Hi Mommy!!!

Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn.

Brady just floating on the water. How relaxing!

Sitting with Mommy on the dock while we dry.

July 4th Vacation Day 1

2010-07-06T11:09:00.001-07:00

Yes there are enough pictures to do one day at a time. I'll put them up quickly though. Our weekend or really 6 days at the lake were fabulous. Brady absolutely loves being at the lake. It's such an adventure for him and he spends the whole time exploring. He plays non-stop the entire time we are there which means he sleeps great too. His new favorite thing to do at the lake is walk down to the dock. We spent a lot of time sitting on the dock just watching boats and jetskis go by. The only time Brady EVER sits still is when we are sitting in the swinging chairs on the dock. Great times!

When we got to the lakehouse my brother and his wife were already there and they had a big fort type toy set up for Brady with balls and everything. He was ecstatic! He immediately started climbing through it. Brady is so lucky to have such an awesome Aunt and Uncle.

We have the best dog ever. Riley lets Brady do whatever he wants to him and never makes a peep!

Here he is playing with the balls inside his fort. Having a total blast!

Fun, fun, fun!!!

Then Brady got to sit on the riding lawn mower before Pop took it for a spin.

Look at me Daddy. I can mow the lawn for Pop!

After lots of play, it started to rain. Here is Daddy and Brady watching the rain together. It is so nice sitting on a screened in porch during the rain.

Here I am trying to entertain my baby boy during the rain. You get pretty desperate!!!

Vacation Begins

2010-06-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today officially starts our 4th of July celebration because Austin is off work until next Tuesday. Love it!!! We are running errands today and then heading up to the lakehouse tomorrow morning for the rest of our vacation. Since Daddy was home today he got to go with us to The Little Gym for our weekly class. Brady loved having his Daddy there and i'm not sure who had more fun playing on the equipment Brady or Austin. It also worked out great because I finally got some pictures of Brady at the gym. Check out my little gymnast.

He loves hanging on the bars. He does this at home with Austin's chin-up bar and thinks its so cool!

Even though he can roll down these mats he likes to crawl up and down them more. Not quite sure why!?!

So cute on the balance beam. He actually does pretty well on it, even with his chubby feet.

He loves, loves, loves this thing. I don't know what to call it but he likes it because it is the most challenging one. He is always so proud of himself when he makes it across.

Look at the concentration on his face and he doesn't want Daddy helping either. Too funny!

Our New Toy

2010-06-14T12:33:00.001-07:00

So we were at Bed Bath & Beyond this weekend for something totally different and we found this for just $20. Who new a tent with a connecting tube could bring on so many hours of fun for the whole family. I think being a parent of a toddler makes you revert back to childhood yourself! It's so great!

Playing inside the tent for Daddy. We had set it up during his nap on Saturday so he came downstairs and got a big surprise.

We had to put his soccer ball inside the tube to get him to crawl through it the first time. After that he wouldn't stay out of it.

Here he is trying to decide whether or not to go through the tube.

This is Daddy showing Brady how fun it is. It was really funny for Mommy to watch Daddy worm his way through this tiny tube.

Brady was having so much fun playing with it. Great purchase!

Look at that precious face! Melts my heart!

I had to prove to Daddy that I could make it through the tube as well. It was a tight fit but I made it. :)

We love our sweet boy so much. This is such a great age!!!

Even Nonna played in the tent with Brady later that evening.

The Little Gym

2010-06-10T12:08:00.001-07:00

Today was our first day at The Little Gym. It is something we decided to do over the summer and Brady just loved it. He got to sing songs, play with instruments, bounce balls, and play on all the gymnastics equipment. It was a little hard to make him sit still during the song time because he wanted to go play on all the fun looking stuff. Once she said they could go play he hopped up and took off. It was so cute watching him run from thing to thing and figuring it out so quickly. He even walked on the balance beem perfectly, one foot in front of the other. Maybe I have an olympic gymnast on my hands :). Daddy would love to see his little man in a leotard i'm sure. I can't wait to see what all her learns this summer.

Here is a list of our summer activities:

Swim Lessons

Vacation Bible School

Kindermusic

The Little Gym

Lots of Lake Trips

Brady should have a great summer and so should Mommy. No more sitting around the house all week for us! Sorry there are no pictures from little gym. I had to do everything with him so I couldn't snap pictures. I'll have to make Austin go with me at least once so I can take pictures of him.

Swim Lessons Day 1

2010-06-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last night Brady started swim lessons. He did the lessons with his Daddy while Mommy stood on the side and took tons of pictures. He had so much fun. I was so proud of him. He never cried, even when 3 other kids were crying. I have a feeling he is going to be a water baby. We go M-Th this week and next. We'll see how it goes!

So when we got home Brady was running around in his diaper. After a little bit of that he got really cold and instead of going upstairs to get him some clothes I just reached in my drawer and pulled out one of my smaller shirts. Austin was not happy with my choice of course. His exact words were "Not only is it pink but it says cheerleader on it." I couldn't stop laughing. Brady never even knew. Someday Brady is really going to hate this picture. :)

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

This past weekend at the lakehouse was fabulous. We got there Thursday around dinner time and stayed through Monday after lunch. It felt like a real vacation. Something I haven't had in a LONG time. Plus, Brady is at the age now where he loves it there. He loves being able to play on the huge lawn and after this weekend I think he will always love the water. He got in the lake for the first time. So excited! We tried putting him in last summer but he screamed so much about having the life jacket on that he was never able to get in. He had so much fun though. Once he got used to the water he was even splashing his daddy. It was so cute to watch. After that he took his first boat ride. He didn't really know what to think about it but he never fussed. He just sat in dad's lap and chilled. As always we had a blast being with family and letting Brady entertain us. We can't wait to go back on July 4th!!!

It was sooo hot that Brady spent a lot of time in his diaper.

Brady in his cute swimming outfit.

My cute boys!

Brady with his Nonna right before he got in the lake for the first time.

Floats don't work with a life jacket....just FYI! However, children canNOT be in a lake without a life jacket so we brought the float home. We can always use it in a pool somewhere.

Fabulous family picture...ha! I hate getting my picture taken at the lake because I always look terrible. Oh well!

Brady enjoying the water with his daddy.

Brady's first ride on the boat. He just laid there on his dad's lap.

Me with my cutey pie. Don't you love the hat.

Lounging with my daddy.

Lounging with my mommy. Surprisingly he sat down on the dock with us in these swings for probably 30 minutes.

Playing in the boat with daddy. He loved being in the boat even when it wasn't moving.

Brady and Uncle Waylon.

Playing with Max, my parents dog.

Brady and his Aunt Carolyn.

Case of Brady Vs. Wall

2010-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

So today Daddy made a surprise visit home after lunchtime just to say a quick hello to Brady before heading back to work. Brady was so happy to see his Daddy during the day. He just wanted to play with him so bad. Brady started doing ring-around-the-rosie for Daddy and got really dizzy. Unfortunately, he tumbled into the wall. Where he landed was really bad because in the dining room we have molding on the wall as you can see below and of course his forehead landed directly on the molding. He started crying immediately and wanted his Daddy. Within seconds it was swelling and purple. It eventually was the size of a golf ball. Of course Mommy freaked out and was saying things like emergency room but hey it's weird seeing a huge bump on your babies head. Thank goodness Daddy was there to calm us both down. Austin held Brady and put ice on his head while I sang every kid song I could think of so he would stay still. Not a great day for the poor little man.

The Defendant: Dining room wall. Charged with injury to a child.

The Plaintiff: My precious baby boy. The only crime he committed was loving ring-around-the-rosie too much. He didn't stand a chance.

Check out that bump. This is immediately after the incident.

This is the bump after his nap. It was very redish/purpleish. Fortunately, the swelling had gone down some. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Unfortunately, there are no laws against inanimate objects harming children so all charges against the wall were dropped. Brady feels there is no justice in the world. You can tell by the look on his face. Tomorrow is another day my son!

First Trip to the Zoo

2010-05-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to the zoo. Austin took off work and my brother came with us while his wife was at a continuing education class for speech pathology in Dallas. We had a blast. It was Brady's first time at the zoo and he did great. He didn't fuss once. He didn't really want to be in the stroller at all but who can blame him? He couldn't see a darn thing unless we lifted him up to see. It was perfect weather so we didn't get too hot. It was pretty crowded because there were alot of field trips to the zoo that day. There were children everywhere. We had to be patient to see the animals but overall it was a marvelous day.

Brady, Austin and my brother Waylon checking out the animals.

Brady got so excited when he would see the animals. Some were harder to see than others, but he would point and talk when he saw one he liked.

My two sweet boys.

Uncle Waylon hauling the jogging stroller up the stairs. What a great Uncle!

Daddy and Brady went into the bird area and Brady loved it. He is always pointing out birds in the sky and they seem to be his favorite animal, besides dogs, right now. It was neat because they were able to get really close up to the birds.

I was hoping Brady would get inspiration from this lion and take a really good nap when we got home. It worked!!!

I love this picture. Brady is admiring his Daddy. Too cute!

How funny is it to see a giraffe trying to eat something off the ground? I had to get a picture.

Here they are watching the giraffes.

Daddy gave up his hat because it got really sunny and Brady's cheeks were turning red. Still no sunburn though. I can't believe with his pale German skin he still has yet to sunburn. And I'm not even that great about doing sunscreen. He did have it on that day though.

This monkey cracks me up. Doesn't it look like he is lighting up a cigarette? Some kids watching him said, "Look mommy the monkey is smoking." I laughed so hard. Fortunately Brady was too young to know so I didn't have to go into the dangers of smoking with him. :) I don't know what the monkey had. Hopefully not a real cigarette.

My boys checking out the animals. I don't know who had more fun, Daddy or Brady? They are definately animal lovers. It's adorable!

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T13:32:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day was so special this year. Austin took off on Friday and we were able to have a wonderful weekend together as a family. I love spending time with my boys. It's funny but it is hard to imagine my life before Brady was here and before I became a mother. When I think back to when I was younger I remember not always wanting to be a mom. When I was in high school and started thinking about it I always thought kids were brats and I wanted nothing to do with them. When I went off to college I started working at a Mother's Day Out program at a church and worked in a room with 2 year olds. At the end of the day when the moms would come pick up their kiddos I would watch the kids light up and run to their moms yelling "mommy, mommy." It melted my heart and I knew from then on that children were in my future.

When Austin and I started discussing when we wanted kids we decided to wait 5 years before trying. We wanted lots of good quality time together as a couple before bringing another life into our family unit. Turned out to be a great idea because we were able to do a lot of traveling that we would not be able to do with babies. Once we decided to start trying I was so excited. I had very little patience with the "getting pregnant" part. I wanted it to happen right away. Fortunately, 3 months later we were pregnant. We found out the Wednesday before Mother's Day. So this week is special to me for multiple reasons. Nine months later came Brady and life has not been the same since. Even though it has been the hardest thing I have ever done it has been the most rewarding. I love being a mom and I love my sweet baby boy and all the joy he brings to my life. I will never be the same...thank goodness!!!

Under Construction

2010-05-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed my blog keeps changing and it looks unfinished. I am trying to get fancy with technology and make my blog even cuter but I am obviously still technologically challenged so bare with me please!

Uh Oh

2010-04-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

So Brady has added a couple cute words to his collection. We were able to teach him Uh Oh and it is so darn cute. He even understands when to use it for the most part. When he falls he will say it or if he drops something. However, yesterday morning right when he woke up I heard him on the monitor say Uh Oh. It was adorable.

He has also learned how to give commands to our dog Riley. We use hand signals along with words to give commands to our dog and when we tell him to stay we put the palm of our hand in front of his face and say stay. Brady now holds up his hand to Riley and says stay. It makes me laugh so hard. He is really intense about it to. He really wants Riley to obey. My little genius!

15 Months Old

2010-04-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

15 Month Stats:

Weight 26lbs. 1oz. (70th percentile)

Height 33in. (95th percentile)

Head Circumference 19in. (70th percentile)

I can't believe my little man turned 15 months old yesterday. He is getting bigger and bigger right before my very eyes. He no longer reminds me of my little baby anymore and is starting to remind me of a little boy. He has become so verbal over the past 3 months. He is constantly talking Chinese and every now and then he gives us a word in English. He can say DaDa, MaMa, Nonna, doggy, there, hi and this. Anytime you ask him where something is like "Brady where is DaDa?" he will point to Austin and say there. It is with this cute Texas twang and it melts our hearts. He can also make some animal sounds. For monkey he says "ah, ah, ah" and for rooster he says "doodle, doodle, doodle." He loves animals of any kind. Anywhere we go that has animals whether they are stuffed animals, painted animals on the wall or real animals he points and makes noises.

As I have said before, Brady is obsessed with playing outside. He loves going in the front yard and riding his car in the driveway, he loves the backyard because he can play with rocks and step on and off of the deck, but mostly he loves going to the park so he can run free with no boundaries...basically. He would rather run around the park than play on the equipment. The only bad thing about being outside is allergies. Some research says that children under 2 cannot have allergies because they have not lived through 2 pollen seasons, however, my doctor told me that pediatric allergists would disagree with that and so would I. Brady already experiences allergy symptoms when coming in from outside. Runny nose, scratchy eyes and congestion. My doctor has said to give him Zyrtec when we plan to go outside that day. For Brady everyday is an outside day though. Hopefully his allergies won't be as bad as his daddy's.

Brady has become so affectionate within the last month. He had grown out of that phase when he started walking and just had too much going on but lately he has gotten back into it and I love it. You can ask for a hug or a kiss and he will come running to give you one. He will also surprise me sometimes and come cuddle with me. I love my sweet boy! He also loves to bring you a book and sit in your lap to read it. He will walk backwards and plop down into your lap. We call his backward walk his moonwalk. It is really funny. I am so glad he loves to read though because it means more cuddles for Mommy. He has gotten so good at remembering words. He can see the word and then know the action that goes along with it. I love "Your Baby Can Read." It really works. It has really helped in his following directions also. He will pretty much do whatever we tell him to as long as he understands the words. He can point to his head, hair, tongue, nose, ears, and eyes when asked.

Because he is so active now and has learned to run I am always worried he is going to get hurt. Well low and behold he got two injuries within the last 2 weeks. Easter weekend he busted his lip open in his playroom and then this past weekend he fell on the driveway. He fell right on his sweet little face. He bumped his forehead and got a bruise and he scraped his nose and got a pretty good case of road rash. You can see his poor nose above.

Playing has become a lot more fun because he is becoming so independent and has learned how to work all of his toys on his own. He likes having me sit in his playroom with him as he plays though. The picture above is his first tower he built all by himself. He just decided one morning he was ready to do it on his own. My little engineer. Some things he also loves doing is putting together his wooden puzzles, kicking the soccer ball, finding rocks in the backyard and playing with his plastic eggs from Easter.

My little man is a great sleeper now. As you can tell from this picture he sleeps hard. This is him right after a nap with total bed head. We start our bedtime routine around 7:30 which includes bath, pj's, and bible story and he is usually in bed before 8:00. He typically sleeps 11 to 12 hours a night but every now and then he will sleep until 9:00 or 9:30. Crazy right? I am being so spoiled right now by all this sleep that I might not want another infant in the house! :) He takes one nap in the afternoon around 12:30 and will usually sleep around 2 hours.

As far as food goes we are still trying to figure him out. One day he might love something and then hate it the next day. Usually he will eat well but somedays he will spit everything out. The doctor told me that is normal so that makes me feel better. He gained 2 pounds over the past 3 months so I guess he is healthy. He will drink milk with breakfast, lunch and dinner and then drinks water and juice the rest of the day. He definately stays hydrated because he chugs fluids. That makes me feel good though.

Easter Celebration Day 3

2010-04-04T19:00:00.001-07:00

We had an amazing Easter weekend. Lots of fun, family, friends and the remembrance of what our Lord and Savior did for us on the cross. I attempted to watch Passion of the Christ last night but only got half way through before I had to turn it off. Very graphic! It did remind me in a more realistic way of what Jesus went through leading up to his crucifixion. Maybe I will watch the rest of it this week.

Our Easter morning started out by Austin and I having to wake Brady up to get him ready for church. Some mornings he will sleep until 9:00, which I love by the way. However, Sundays are not the mornings to be sleeping in. So we were a little late to church. First, we headed to our Sunday School class because we were having an Easter parade with all the kiddos in their Easter outfits. The "parade" turned into Ms. Debbie blowing bubbles while all the Mommies tried taking pictures of the kids together. We're talking about 6 little ones between 1 and 2. Not easy! After the Easter parade we took Brady to nursery and Austin and I went to the service.

Bubbles!!!
They love Ms. Debbie!

Family picture after church.

Brady with his Pop and Nonna.

At church they had written He Is Risen in rocks out on the lawn. It was really cool!

Me and my precious little man.

After church we stopped by our house to change our clothes and to let Brady open his Easter basket. He is really loving presents lately so he was really impressed by his big Easter basket full of fun toys, books, movies, and a new swimsuit with matching flip flops. Don't worry, he's not spoiled at all!

Is this basket for me Daddy?

This stuff rocks!

Once we changed clothes we headed over to my grandparents house to have lunch with the whole family and to hunt eggs. My cousins girls were there and Brady loves to play with them.

Here is Brady with his cousin Chayse. She is so good with Brady and loves to play with him.

It seemed like Christmas morning over there because everyone had brought presents for each of the kids so there were presents and little toys everywhere. Brady got lots of fun stuff!

These two kids are ready to hunt some eggs. Chayse made sure to tell the little ones to be patient. It was really cute.

Brady and Daddy hunting eggs. Brady did great looking for the eggs and putting them in his basket. He was a lot slower than the other girls so he got a lot less eggs but that was okay since he can't have candy anyways.

Let's just say this egg hunt went on forever. We just let Brady look for eggs until he was finished so we were out there a while. He had so much fun though and thats all that matters.

As you can tell in this picture Brady did not want to pose. He just wanted to run around. He's like "let go of me Mommy."

Look at all my eggs.

He even got to ride on the tricycle while his great-grandmother (Mom) pushed him around.

Easter Celebration Day 2

2010-04-03T21:03:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a very busy day. We started out the morning by meeting Austin's family at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Brady loved getting to see his Opa and Oma and his cousin William.

This picture should really be last but I forgot about it until the end of downloading pictures so sorry it's out of order. This is the end of the evening after Brady fell and busted his lip open. It is hard to tell from this picture but he had a fat lip. He cried for such a long time and there was so much blood. Of course I cried too and Austin was totally calm. I was for sure he knocked out teeth as much blood as there was, but nope, just a fat lip. Hopefully some of the swelling will go down before church tomorrow. His first injury!

Our little family!

My boys.

Look at that precious face. Doesn't make your heart just melt!

They had rocking chairs for kids at Cracker Barrel but Daddy had to prove to himself that he could still fit in them. He did!

After we had breakfast with family we went to the Egg Drop at our church. They were going to be dropping eggs from a helicopter but we just stayed for a little while since it was time for Brady's nap. They had a large pin set up with baby animals and they were letting people just go inside and play with them. Brady loved it to say the least. Actually I'm not sure who loved it more, Austin or Brady. They had baby goats, pigs, ducks, chickens and rabbits. Is there anything cuter than your child playing with baby animals? Nope!

The baby goat was tiny and so precious.

Look at that sweet smile. He is totally loving it.

This is my attempt at getting him to look up at the camera. He almost did it.

Saying bye bye to the animals.

Heading back to the car. And yes, my boys were matching today!

When we got back home we decided to practice hunting for eggs so Brady would get the concept before tomorrow. Brady is a quick learner so it only took Austin showing him once before he got the idea and was finding the eggs and putting them in his basket. He's a genius!

Easter Celebration Day 1

2010-04-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

Just a side note before I begin with the Easter Celebration extravaganza Part I. There will not be many pictures where Brady is looking at the camera. He is always on the move now so he will never take the time to look at the camera unless he is tired. At least you get the idea of what is happening from the picture though!

So back to Easter. We started out our Easter weekend by going to dinner and to the park on Friday night when Daddy got home from work (which means when he got done golfing with a client). As I have mentioned in previous blogs, Brady is OBSESSED with playing outside so we thought we would make a quick trip to the park while the sun was still out. Good way to wear out the kiddo before bedtime too! He had a blast!

Here we are at dinner. Austin loves to put his hats on Brady for some reason so we have a ton of pictures just like this one but I still have to post it. It's funny because you think he's a tough boy with his hat on and tilted sideways but the paci speaks the real truth. Speaking of paci, we are phasing it out slowly. He only gets it at naptime, bedtime, and in the car. He tends to scream way too loud in the car when he wants out of his carseat and it totally distracts me, so for his safety and mine he gets paci in the car for now. He snuck the paci from the car into the restaraunt last night so that is how it ended up in the picture. My plan is to have paci gone very soon. We'll see!!

No more paci! Daddy pulled it out once he realized he had it.

Daddy and Brady looking at bugs in the park. Totally a boy thing!

Brady always claps a bunch when he is outside because he is just so happy. Gosh I love this kid!

Here he is pointing at a bird. He is becoming very familiar with animals and will point at birds and doggies. He can say doggy and gets sooo excited when he sees one. He almost screams with excitement...it is so cute. He is a dog lover just like his Mommy and Daddy.

Going on the slide. He hasn't quite got the hang of a slide yet. When we push him from the top he lays back and usually hits his head on the way down. He sits up at the end of the slide and looks around like what just happened?

I think Brady sees a bird.

William's 2nd Birthday

2010-03-20T18:35:00.001-07:00

Today we went to William's birthday party. William is Austin's step-brother's son, so he is Brady's cousin. They are 10 months apart and always have fun together. I know they will be best buds growing up.

My two cute boys!

William and Brady loved playing with balloons. Who needed birthday presents?

Brady playing with the birthday boy.

Brady laid down on this big stuffed ape that William had. Brady had fun playing with all of William's toys. He thought he was at Toys R Us'.

Brady had fun riding the horsey.

Daddy's hat is cool.

Brady with his Oma.

Hanging out with Daddy.

Brady wanted to play with Becks so bad. Becks is Opa and Oma's pet pug.

They all took turns hitting the pinata but Brady just wanted to take off with the bat.

Spring Is Upon Us

2010-03-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

So beautiful weather has made its way to Texas and Brady is loving every minute of it. He absolutely loves being outside whether he is at the park, walking around in the yard, or riding in his car in the driveway. He has even started running to the front door when I put his shoes on. It is so cute! He is going to be outdoorsy just like his daddy.

This has nothing to do with Spring but I love this picture of Brady with his Mommy.

Brady went to the park today with his friends from church. They had a blast playing together and they were all worn out by the time we finished lunch. He was asleep 2 seconds after we were in the car and on the way home. Here he is playing on the slide with Cadie.

Nothing like being in the middle of two cute girls. He was trying to figure out the teeter totter while Cadie and Samantha were riding it.

Look at me on the slide like a big boy!!!

Brady, Rowan, Joshua and Cadie all on the teeter totter together. This was a hard picture to take. Especially since Brady wanted off so he could run around.

This was the first time Brady has been in a swing at a park. He has been in a tree swing we hung at my parents house, but he hated that. He had fun on this one and loved it when Josh came and swung next to him.

Hanging out in the shade.

He loves playing in Pop and Nonna's backyard because they have a great yard. He has Nonna's excerise ball here and he loves carrying it around.

Daddy calls this off-roading when they go in the grass.

This car took me two days to put together and it was not easy. Why they thought a screwdriver could do the job I don't know. Once I got the drill out it was alot easier. It took him a few minutes but he warmed up to it and now loves going to rides in his car.

My Feelings on Friendship

2010-03-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

My friend Jennifer recently blogged about her feelings on friendship and I loved reading what she wrote so much that I decided to do the same. Jennifer spoke about the friends you have at different stages in your life and how some stay with you and some don't. Someone said in a show I was watching once that "some people come into your lives and stay there forever while others are just passing through." I love that phrase because it is so true. I think God brings some people into your life just when you need them most and sometimes it's just for that time in your life.

When I sit down and think about all of my friends it is funny how they have all come into my life at different stages. I have a friend, Brooke, that I have been friends with since kindergarten. That is one of the most special friendships I have for that reason alone. She knows things about me that I might not even remember and there is something comforting in that fact. Even though she lives TOO far away right now I know we will be friends till we die. Then I have friends that I have been friends with since junior high and high school which I love to death. They are spread out all over but we still try to get together at least once a year. We love talking about old times and all the trouble we TRIED to get into. I laugh harder with those girls than anyone else. Then I have a friend, Carley, who I met when I was away at college a couple of years and whom I immediately bonded with. She took care of me and kept me grounded and safe during one of the scariest times of my life, being away from Mommy and all. I love her so much and miss her dearly because we have a hard time seeing each other regularly. That doesn't change the way I feel about her though and when we get together it's like no time has passed. There were other friends I made in those couple of years but none that stuck like Carley.

That brings me to an important story regarding friendship. In those college years I had a roommate that was basicly my best friend. We had met in College Station and decided to live together my second year of college. We were like sisters. We did everything together, we cried on each others shoulders, we dated, got engaged, and got married together. Soon after we were both married we had a falling out. I won't share any details mainly because they are really foggy to me now but words were said that could never be taken back. She hurt me more than anyone has in my entire life. So the friendship ended. Once this happened friendship took on a whole new meaning for me. I couldn't open up to anyone anymore because I was afraid of being hurt again.

About a year after this happened we joined a new Sunday School and praise God for it. We made a bunch of new couple friends and these girls have been amazing and such a blessing in my life. We have all been friends for about 5 or 6 years now and have babies all the same age. We have been through a lot together and even though it is still hard for me to be a great friend I try my hardest and I hope that it shows.

So to wrap up, I love all of my friends and what you mean to me. I know that I am not the greatest friend sometimes and I thank you for sticking by me through it all. You each mean the world to me and I would do anything for you!

Brady and Daddy

2010-03-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

Today Brady got to spend a couple of hours with Daddy alone while I hosted a baby shower at our house. They decided to go walk around the botanical gardens in Fort Worth and by the looks of the pictures they had lots of fun. Austin took some fabulous pictures and I was so jealous I missed all the fun.

Quick picture with Mommy before they left.

My silly boy! He is such a little ham.

I was so amazed at how Austin got him to sit still for all these pictures. Daddy's are amazing.

Lake Weekend

2010-03-06T19:56:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we made our first trip up to the lakehouse for this season. Even though I was anticipating a frigid weekend it turned out to be beautiful. Saturday was sunny and warm and perfect for Brady to spend lots of time outside. He is obsessed with walking right now. He does not want to be held. He wants down to explore his world. He was so cute at the lake because he just walked all over the property the whole time we were there. Everyone took turns taking him outside. He wanted to walk down to the dock so bad but we wouldn't let him which he hated of course. I'm not quite ready for him to walk on the dock yet. Especially since we haven't found a life jacket that fits him yet. We are working on it though don't worry.

Brady already knows that the lakehouse is all about relaxing. He is just kicking back in a comfy chair.

Pop just wants to relax but Brady isn't having it. He wants down to explore.

I love this picture of my sweet husband and beautiful son. They are so cute together. They are definately the best of friends. Brady is sooooo attached to his Daddy and I can't blame him one bit. So am I!!!

Brady loves his Nonna. Especially since she took him on most of his walks!

My three boys. Riley loves the lakehouse too. It means lots of running room and a lake to jump into. And yes he did play in the water even though I am sure it was freezing.

We are so blessed to have this lakehouse. My grandparents bought it when my dad was young and now it belongs to my parents. We love it so much and have so many wonderful memories there. It is so precious having a child there with us to create new memories. I can't wait for this summer when he can really experience the lake.

Anything Brady could step up on became his favorite thing to do. He would go up and down over and over.

Male bonding!

Snow Snow and More Snow

2010-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

So we loved the snow and we hated the snow. Thursday was a beautiful day of snow and we loved watching it pile up. However, that night our power went out at 9:30pm and didn't come back on until Sunday night. We stayed at home that first night because Brady was already asleep in his bed. He slept great that night almost 13 hours. He loves sleeping in the cold. The next morning we packed up and headed to my parents house for the next fews days. But let me tell you the funnest part of the whole story (note the sarcasm please). Friday morning when we were heading out I held the garage door open while Austin backed out of the garage. Since the power was out the garage door didn't work obviously. Well, being the total girl that I am I didn't think letting go of the door and letting it slam shut by itself would be a problem. It was! When the door slammed shut it locked. We do not have a key to the garage door and our only key to our house (don't ask me why we only have 1 key) was on my key chain in my car inside the garage. So we had no way of getting into our house until the power came back on. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem except we were going to the NBA Allstar game on Sunday night and our tickets were in the house. So Saturday night rolled around and still no power so we had to call a locksmith to come and get us into our own house. Embarassing! And costly!! So basicly we got some great pictures and have some funny memories but we also learned a great lesson. Make more copies of your house key and pass it out to family and friends.

Brady was crying the whole time we were playing in the snow because he was not feeling well that day.

We went to the football field behind our neighborhood and it was beautiful.

My three boys.

I love seeing my house covered in snow. Our entire neighborhood was so beautiful. Noone drives down our street so it stayed covered in snow forever.

Our Valentines Day was spent at my parents house. Here is my sweet little Valentine.

There isn't too much stuff to play with at Pop and Nonna's but Brady doesn't care. He will get into anything.

He'll climb on chairs...

Play with tupperware...

Even a wooden spoon can be fun when you bang it against a dryer.

More beautiful snow pictures.

My Little Fireman

2010-02-07T18:44:00.001-08:00

Today our church had S3 Sunday which on this day every Sunday School class picks a mission project and goes out into the community to do this project. It is really an amazing thing. Our class chose to go to a local fire station, where one of our good friends works, and provide lunch for all the firemen. We had so much fun. All of the firemen were so friendly and appreciative and they showed us around and let all the kids play on the fire trucks. The kids loved it. Brady had so much fun looking at all the fun things. We had a wonderful day!

Here is Brady with his Uncle Ben, who works at this fire station. Brady wanted down so bad because he was having so much fun.

They tried putting Brady down in Ben's boots but because of his shoes his feet wouldn't go all the way down. It was still pretty darn cute.

Fort Worth Stock Show

2010-02-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

We took Brady to the Stock Show this weekend and he had so much fun. I was really surprised at how much fun he did have. He was dissappointed that he couldn't pet every animal but he sure tried. He would stick his fingers into every cage. Austin was real careful with him though so his fingers didn't get snatched. His favorite part was in the rabbit area he was able to pet this girl's rabbit and he loved it. I can really tell he is already becoming an animal lover like his dad and I know it is because he has such a sweet dog. Riley, our dog, lets him do whatever he wants to him. Brady will climb all over Riley and he won't budge. Riley is such a sweet dog and I see that even more now that we have Brady. Check out the pics from the Stock Show.

Brady is making this face because the rooster just made its cock -a-doodle-doo sound really loud right next to him. It was hilarious.

Check out this enormous bunny. It was the biggest bunny I have ever seen!

Here he is petting the bunny. He stroked its back in such a sweet and gentle way. My sweet boy!

Birthday Party Redo

2010-01-30T20:52:00.001-08:00

Today we had a little party with our Sunday School class since they weren't able to come to the original party when Brady was sick. Only a couple kiddos were able to come but we had a lot of friends there and it was fun sharing his birthday with them. We have the best Sunday School class in the world. We have all been friends for almost 5 years now. It is fun going through different stages in life with your friends.

Brady woke up from his nap about 30 minutes before people started showing up so he was a little fussy during the first part of his party. He is like his mommy and is never in a great mood when he is still trying to wake up. He likes his alone time in the morning so we always let him watch a Baby Einstein video after he eats breakfast. After that he is Mr. Playful and happy go lucky. His face is so funny in this picture.

Here he is with his friends Rowan and Josh. Rowan is 3 months older than Brady and Joshua is just a couple weeks older. They are all so cute and really love playing together.

Brady loved his fire truck that our friends Chris and Alissa gave him. He loved all the noises it made.

My Smart Boy

2010-01-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure my child is a genius. Okay so I am sure every mom says that. This age is so amazing because their development just seems so rapid. Everyday Brady does something new that totally shocks me and makes me think "that seems really advanced." Of course what mom doesn't think their child is advanced...and I don't really have anything to measure his development against. Anyways, it is so fun to watch. I am so blessed that God has given me the ability to stay home with him so I can catch all the fun moments.

This week he has learned what ears and noses are. If you ask him where mommy's nose is, he will point to it and same with ears. Austin taught him this along with so many other things. Austin is an amazing teacher and father. He is so patient and will work with Brady forever until he understands something. He even taught him how to make the sound of a monkey. It is so cute. He also taught him how to say thank you. It sounds nothing like thank you but he says it everytime you give him something. My sweet boy with great manners. I'm pretty sure Austin was meant to be a teacher but financially that would not have worked for us. God really knows what He is doing!

A couple of days ago Brady learned how to stand up from sitting without pulling up on something. He has been walking for weeks now but he still had not figured out how to stand up on his own. I am so proud of him. He is so mobile now that I am exhausted by the end of the day. I am surprised he hasn't worn a path into the carpet because he just walks all over the living room and playroom all day long. I have finally removed all dangerous items and raised up all the blinds so that I don't have to follow so closely behind him. I am trying to give him more freedom which in turns means more freedom for mommy. He is getting so much more stable now that falls are happening less and less each day. He usually still goes to bed with a large red mark on his forehead every night but it is always gone by morning. He is just so fare skinned that you barely touch him and he turns red. That must be the German and Irish in him.

Brady is really into climbing right now. He loves to climb up my kitchen stool. He gets this cute smile on his face like he is doing something he is not supposed to. Little does he know that I am allowing it and fully monitoring it!! My little secret. He attempts to climb on everything. It is quite humurous the things he thinks he can climb up on when in reality there is no possible way. Adorable!

He has started immitating us alot. Scary thought! He will take his toy cell phone, our telephone, or even remote controls and hold it up to his ear and start babbling into it. It cracks me up. He got a toy cell phone in his stocking for Christmas, because he loves our cell phones, and Austin would hold it up to his ear and pretend to talk on it. After a few times of him doing that Brady would start bringing Austin the phone when it would ring so that Austin would talk on it. Now Brady holds it to his ear and talks into it. So funny. Just another funny thing...I never get to watch TV during the day because of chasing Brady around but at 4pm Brady drinks a bottle and I feed him a snack so I get to watch Gilmore Girls reruns for a few minutes around that time. Apparently Brady has gotten into it as well because the past few weeks when the theme song comes on in the beginning of the show he stops what he is doing and looks at the TV and gets the biggest smile on his face. Austin is really concerned about his love for Gilmore Girls!!!

More cute things to come I'm sure.

1 Year Stats

2010-01-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Weight: 23lbs 15oz...70th percentile

Height: 31 1/2 in...92nd percentile

Head Circumference: 18 1/2 in...70th percentile

It still amazes me that he is so tall. Now he is really starting to thin out. I guess all the walking and crawling is realy burning off the calories. I hope he stays tall and thin!!!

RSV and Birthday Party

2010-01-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

So...to continue the story from the previous blog, the next morning, Friday, Brady had his one year checkup. This worked out well because he could see his regular doctor and he was feeling even worse. She ended up checking him for RSV and he tested positive. Why the doctor didn't do this the day before I don't know. Anyways, she said there is nothing to give him but we just have to wait it out. We have to watch his breathing really close. Because Brady was diagnosed with RSV we had to call all of his little friends and tell them not to come to his party. He was very contagious and we didn't want any of them to get sick. So we ended up having just a family party for him. He did great even though he was sick. I think he still had a great time.

He loved putting his hands in the cake. He just dove right in with no hesitation.

Brady with his Pop and Nonna. As you can tell he doesn't like to be held anymore because he wants to walk around everywhere. He wants total freedom.

Brady with his Oma and Opa (Austin's Dad and Stepmom).

Brady with his Aunt Rachel, Mimi, and Uncle Travis (Austin's sister, Mom, and brother).

Our little family.

1st Birthday

2010-01-17T19:31:00.001-08:00

So this past week was Brady's first birthday. It was an interesting week that's for sure and one we will always remember. The Monday before Brady's birthday he got a really bad runny nose. This wasn't anything new so we didn't worry about it until Thursday, the morning of his birthday, he woke up feeling really bad. He had a cough and a low grade fever. We had already planned on going to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch so we took him and he did so so. You could tell he didn't feel very good. My mom, sister-in-law, Austin and I all had lunch with him and even though he felt yucky it was still very special. It was so dark in there that the pictures aren't great but you get the idea. You can tell he felt bad.

So after lunch we went home and he refused to nap because he felt so horrible. He was so conjested that he couldn't breathe through his nose but he wanted his paci which kept him form breathing through his mouht. He was miserable to say the least. I called and got him into the doctor that afternoon and he checked out fine. The doctor said he just had a viral infection and that he would be okay soon. That night my mom was cooking a birthday dinner since my brother and sister-in-law had flown in for his birthday. Even though he still felt bad we put him in his pj's and headed over there. Once dinner was over and he was able to open presents he at least pretended to be happy for a little while.

And this is when we knew it was time to go home.

Brady's Birthday Month

2010-01-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my baby boy is turning 1 year old in less than two weeks. This past year has been the craziest, hardest, and most precious year of my life. It really does fly by. Brady is maturing more and more everyday and he trully amazes me with all the new things he is learning. Last week Brady decided to start walking on his own. He has been cruising for over a month now and has been crawling like crazy since before Thanksgiving, but last week he just decided to let go and take off. We are so proud of him. I was jokingly telling him that he needed to walk before his 1st birthday because all the other babies from our Sunday School class had walked by their 1st birthday. I guess he saw it as a challenge because he started walking that week. He is so cute when he walks because he holds his arms out in front of him like Frankenstein and waddles a bit like he is pregnant. He gets this huge smile on his face when he is walking towards you like he is accomplishing something so big. And he is!!! He is pointing now at everything with his cute little chubby finger. He points at things he likes, food he wants, or just people. He always points at these Santa figurines on our kitchen table so Austin taught him to say Ho Ho Ho and it is adorable. He is going to be really sad when I take down the Santas tomorrow. He can also say Thank You, Bubba (which is what I call him alot), and hi. These are his newest words. Of course they sound a little funny but we know what he means. He still says Da Da ALL the time, ALL day long. On Saturday he said Ma Ma all day so that made me feel good. He also says Nonna which is my mom's grandma name. Those are the only words we have made out so far. He is really trying to have conversations though which is really fun. I really feel like we are communicating sometimes. I just love this age so much because we just play, play, play and have so much fun all day long. It's fun just to sit back and watch his brain work. He goes to the doctor for his one year checkup next Friday so I will have stats then.

Christmas Day

2009-12-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

Brady's first Christmas Day was wonderful and white. We woke up to a beautiful snowy wonderland. Brady had to squint because the snow was so bright. We went to my parents house Christmas morning after Brady opened his presents from Santa. It was such a special Christmas and one I will remember my entire life. Christmas is so magical when you have a child and you can see it through their eyes.

Brady and Daddy playing in the snow.

Brady with his Nonna. Brady gave Nonna a wonderful Christmas present and said her name for the first time. She said it "made" her Christmas.

Our family on Christmas morning. You can tell we are all tired from being up since 7am.

Brady with his Uncle Waylon and Aunt Carolyn. We love you guys.

Brady liked the boxes just as much as the actual presents.

Check out the HUGE stocking Brady has at his Nonna's house. I guess Grandparents really do know how to spoil!

Again, he loved the boxes.

My aunt gave him the adorable zebra that he can sit on and play with. He loved bouncing up and down on it.

Daddy and Brady look like they are ready for a nap!

Here's Brady playing with some toys the next morning. This is a little camping backpack with camping supplies inside. Too cute!

Still wearing the backpack and pushing around his little car that is also a walker.

First Presents

2009-12-30T13:02:00.001-08:00

The week before Christmas we went to our annual gift exchange with Austin's Dad and Stepmom and her whole family. Brady loves going to see his cousin William. William is his only first cousin right now and they are only a year apart so they will always have fun together. They exchanged presents and so Brady got to open his first Christmas present of the season. I was really surprised but he did tear the paper off SLOWLY! It was very cute.

Here is Brady giving William his Christmas present.

Brady and Daddy.

Brady tearing into his first present.

William wanted to help Brady get his trucks open. They both gave each other trucks which is pretty funny. Such boys!

Playing with his first present.

Chewing on his present. During the Christmas season Brady has been cutting about 10 teeth so he chewed on pretty much every toy he got.

Pancakes With Santa

2009-12-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

This morning we went and had Pancakes with Santa. Technically, we waited in a long line, Brady cried in Santa's lap, and then we left without eating pancakes. However, we made memories and that is all that matters. Brady loved seeing the people dressed up as Rudolph, an angel, a penguin, Frosty, and others. But when we put him in Santa's lap he lost it. He wasn't the only one though. Apparently all the little ones were crying. Our church set this up and there were a ton of people there. They did such a great job and it is wonderful being able to go to your church for special moments like these instead of places like the mall.

Here is Brady waiting patiently in line to see Santa Claus.

Here he is starting to freak out.

This is Santa trying to distract him with jingle bells. Nice try Santa!

This is Brady having a meltdown. It was very sad :(

Here we are leaving and catching a picture with Frosty. He liked Frosty but probably because Mommy was holding him.

First Haircut

2009-12-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

So I finally admitted to myself that it was time for Brady's first haircut. He was starting to look like he had a mullet. The front, back and top were really long. The back is just so cute because it is curly. I just hated cutting his curls but Austin didn't want him to start looking like a girl. I was soooo nervous to cut his hair. Austin said I was way too maticulous about the whole thing but I wanted it to look professional. I think I did a fabulous job. I might have a new career in my future. Brady didn't even care I was doing it because I did it during his bath. He was so distracted by his toys that he never even flinched. It was great. However, he started shivering because it took too long. Next time I will make it much faster. Notice I was in fleece pajamas because it was so cold upstairs. Poor baby! We pulled him out of the tub and quickly put him in his fleece pajamas as well. He was such a trooper. I posted his before, during and after pictures.

Before...

During...he was having fun!

Doesn't even know Mommy is cutting his curls.

He's just reading his book!

After...he is so proud of Mommy. He is even holding his hairbrush.

Check out that sweet haircut!!

I even got around the ears...oh yeah!

Preparing For Christmas

2009-11-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

I can already tell that getting ready for Christmas this year is going to be very interesting. Now that Brady is all over the place crawling and walking he is into everything. I have been slowly wrapping presents since about September and it has been pretty easy. I would just set Brady down in his play room and wrap presents right next to him. Now that plan is not working. Anytime I pull out wrapping stuff he crawls over to investigate. To entertain him this week I gave him a box of bows and he thought that was alot of fun. He kept taking them out of the box one at a time and then I would put them all back in and he would start all over. Cheap entertainment for sure!!! I had to get pictures of course!

Our Best Month Ever!

2009-11-13T16:00:00.001-08:00

Alert the media...Brady has finally decided to crawl!!! A couple of days ago Brady finally figured out what crawling was all about. It totally took us by surprise because we were for sure he had passed that stage and was going to start walking anyday. I will say that pulling up on things and walking around is still his favorite mode of transportation, but when needed he will crawl to something. It is too cute!

This month has been such a month of milestones. He has grown so much developmentally it blows my mind. He is standing by himself a little, pulling up on anything and everything, walking while holding on to parents or furniture, crawling, opening up any cabinet within reach, eating great and trying new things, saying MaMa and DaDa, standing up in his crib and of course he got his first two teeth this month. Need I say more? Wait one more thing...he also got promoted to the next class up for nursery on Sundays. My big boy! This has been a very fun stage of his life. I can only imagine how much more excitement is still to come. He is 10 months old tomorrow and his first birthday is just around the corner. I am going to start planning that after Thanksgiving is over (not that don't already have the whole thing planned out in my head!). I can't believe my little baby is going to be one year old soon. Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Check out that adorable smile/smurk. Notice he is only wearing one sock and the other one is nearly pulled off. He hates wearing socks and pulls them off the first chance he can get. And yes he is playing with my camera case. Why do we even buy them toys when things like camera cases are so much more fun?

Step 1: Crawl to the retro rocket

Step 2: Pull up on the retro rocket

Step 3: Up on knees and smile for the camera

Step 4: Stand up on the retro rocket