Long time no post

Hello!
Well, the semester is over and I'm finally on Christmas break! It was a difficult semester - 5 classes, working 24hrs a week, being a mommy & wife, but I did it! And I only have 2 semesters left, Praise the Lord!!! It's all been such a blessing and God continues to open doors and things just keep falling into place! God is SO Good!!! And thank you for all of your love, support & prayers during these past few month - keep 'em comin! :)

Enough about me, lets talk about adorable little Brayden! He's getting ready to turn 2 January 7th and I can't believe it! Where has the time gone??? He's talking up a storm and growing like a weed! It amazes Ryan and I how fast he learns things and applies them. Right now we are working on his name and who he is. I pat him on his chest and ask him who he is and his response is always "baby" and my response is "yes, you are my baby and always will be!" I guess we probably didn't pick the easiest name for a child to pronounce, but I like it way better than the name Bob (no offense)! He loves to read, color, play with playdoh, building blocks, and play with any type of ball. We sometimes play a miniature version of baseball in the living room and he goes crazy! He's thinks its the funniest thing to watch us hit the ball and to throw it back and forth! He just laughs and laughs!!! I love being a mommy, he's filled with such innocent joy!!!

We put our tree up this past week while Bray was at Grandma & Grandpa's and it is so funny to see. There are no ornaments on the bottom 1/4 of the tree and then on the next 1/4 are all felt, non-breakable. All of our other breakable ornaments are on the top half. Bray has been pretty good about it... well except for taking his baseball bat to it... and pulling the ornaments off... and throwing toys and balls into it - but other than that, he's been good! :)

I'll try and upload some pictures soon so you can see his cute, joyous little smile!!!

Brayden and the Dirt

Dad here. I guess it is easier for me to just put a video up, so here ya go!

Finally a new post!

Since Brayden will be 21 months this week I thought we should have an update. Tiffany is in full swing with school and still working 3 days a week... she's a trooper! So, I (Ryan) thought I would share this video.

Temper tantrum...

I believe we saw a glimpse of a temper tantrum tonight. On our way home we saw a Little Tykes basketball goal at the end of a driveway that said free. We've been wanting to get one for Bray so this was perfect! So we stopped, loaded it up in the minivan, and took it home! We put it back together, grabbed a ball and shot some hoops with Bray. He loved it!!! Well, not only was it past his bedtime, he also needed a bath. So we brought him in and boy o' boy was he upset! I took him upstairs and put him in the bath, much to his dislike, and gave the fastest bath I've ever given! :) While still crying, we took him into our bedroom to try and get his jammies on him and he was crying so hard that he threw up, twice. He kept going to the door and crying, he wanted to get out and play with his new goal so bad. Ry and I have never seen him act this way before. We tried to sooth him but nothing would help. Finally, we got him calmed down with a bottle and I sat and rocked him back and forth while patting his back. Wow I sure hope this isn't a glimpse of the terrible two's, it stressed both of us out! Poor Bray, he wanted to play so bad! Tomorrow... all day long :)

No cable, no internet... what!?!?

As you've noticed, I haven't updated the blog for a bit. Well, we did a little experiment in our household. We've been trying to cut costs and save money, so we decided that we would stop our cable and internet. We both felt that we were watching too much TV and didn't want Brayden to get addicted to it too, so we made some changes! After over a month now of neither one, we've decided that we can definitely live without cable... but internet is a little harder! So we just activated basic internet service for a much smaller fee. So now, if we want to watch a cable show or a show that we've missed, instead of a high price DVR, we can watch it on the internet. We do have an antenna so we can get local channels and Ry can keep up on his sports fix via ESPN.com! It's kind of freeing - you should try it!

So a lot happens in a month! In our continued efforts to save money, we decided that it was time to get rid of a car payment, so after pinching many pennies, we bought a minivan! And yes, I know I said I would never, ever, ever own a minivan, but I absolutely love it! It has so much more room! And you press a button and the sliding doors open or shut! This particular feature is amazing for a mom, especially when you have a child in one arm, the diaper bag, bottle of water, wallet, groceries etc, etc. So I'm proud to say that we are now minivan owners!!! We also had some good friends that are now far away come to visit.

I applied, interviewed and was accepted into a Surgical program through the hospital I work at. This is a great opportunity and blessing and that we are all very excited about!!! They only selected 16 people for this program and I was one of them! Wow! I'm so excited!!! It's an 11month program that starts August 30th. It will be hard wearing so many hats - wife, mom, student & employee, but we have prayed about it through the whole process and I know that God wouldn't have opened the doors if He wasn't going to open the rest and continue to provide! Also, Brayden is now 18 months old an talking like crazy and into everything! I am loving this stage of his life - he's so fun and such a joy!!!

I'll try to post more often again, however, when school starts it will be a little harder - but I'll do what I can!

Mommy & Me Swim Class

Bray and I started our Mommy & Me swim class today! We did the "Hokey Pokey," "London Bridge," Itsey Bittsy Spider," "Humpty Dumpty," "Alligator Sit, Alligator Stand, Alligator Jump!" We also did lots of kicking and blowing bubbles in the water! It was so much fun!!! I can't wait to go again next Friday, and I think Bray feels the same way :)

One... Two... Three!

When we are driving in our neighborhood we go over 3 bumps before we get to our house so each time we go over them we count. Yesterday while doing this we went over bump number one and said one... then as we're getting ready to go over bump number two, Bray says "twwoo" It was the cutest thing! Two is one of his words that he says but for him to say it in order was so precious! They are such little sponges and we just love to teach him!

Bray learned to play corn hole

We had a busy weekend this weekend with a birthday party, an open house, church (I volunteered in the nursery with the one year olds), and a birthday dinner. And Bray was a trooper - as always! These are pictures from our good friend Justin's open house, where Bray learned to play corn hole... he got more in the hole than anyone else!



He's impeding the game... Sorry Michael





And this is beautiful Katie, Justin's sister, that adores Bray and we adore her :)

My "Captain Adorable"

These are my new favorite jammies...


And they even have a cape in the back!


Look at those baby blues, definitely momma's captain adorable, oh how I love him!

"The Linus Gene"

In the past two weeks Bray has shown a sudden interest in the blankets in his crib. He has one that is from Aunt Koryn & Uncle Jay that is wonderfully soft and fuzzy that he curls up on top of. And another one that is blue with sports on it and soft that he pulls up next to him to cuddle with while he sleeps (I can't remember where this one came from so if it was you, let me know :)). These two blankets have been in his crib with him for a few months now, but he's recently showed a great interest in them. Any time you get him from his crib, he grabs at least one if not both of them and carries them around the house with him - kind of like Linus from the Peanuts. He gets so excited about taking them with him when he gets up!

Ok, so here comes the confession... I too had a blankie when I was growing up that I slept with and carried around the house behind me, kind of like Linus. So apparently, the genealogy runs really deep between Bray and I because we share this same childhood gene. I'm going to call this gene "The Linus Gene." This gene is very unique and is well known throughout our family, in fact after talking to my dad last night, he agreed that Bray was definitely my son and that we must name the blankie. Confession #2: not only did I carry my blanket all around with me as a child, I also named him... his name was Bambi. So, its official, Brayden now has a Bambi of his own. I'll post some pictures soon to show you just how cute he is with his new pal, Bambi.

Playing in the dirt

Brayden loves the dirt...



He's planting his crop... :)


I usually plant flowers in this little pot... I think I'll skip it this year! :)

Art project

So after church today I noticed something blue sticking up out of the diaper bag... it's Bray's first art project while in the nursery! I put it on the fridge right away! It's the cutest thing, it made me cry!
It's so precious

The Zoo

For my birthday weekend (we celebrate for at least a weekend if not the whole week in our family :) we decided to go to the zoo! We didn't take Bray last year so we were very excited to take him this year! Here are some pictures of our first day at the zoo...


Here I am petting a shark! They actually have a shark petting tank - crazy!



The sea lions, which Bray loved!


The dolphins...

The donkeys... where Bray decided he didn't want to wear his hat, so he threw it into their pin... good thing daddy has long arms because he had to reach in and get it!



Lamas...
The big grizzly bears were chasing each other around - Bray was greatly enthused!



Then we went to see the butterflies and flowers at White River Gardens which is all so beautiful


Bray is such a boy, he kept smacking the tulips back and forth!


Then came the water...

This face says it all :) :) :)