update (mostly about the kids)

my kids are sleeping. all night long. in the same room. it is changing my life!

I realize that sounds dramatic, but seriously...In the past 6 months, Tim and I have shared a room with at least one child. But as of last Sunday, our room is child free! I was so anxious because I assumed the worst. Brayden had only slept through the night in the crib for only 2 nights, and Brooke had been getting up and coming into our room in the middle of the night (you see now why I was assuming the worst). They have been amazing! Brayden will go to bed first, usually between 8-8:30, then Brooke will go down at 9. No waking up in the middle of the night for either of them! HALLELUJAH! Brayden will usually wake up first between 7:30-8, but Brooke doesn't wake up when he starts to move around or cry. I go in and get him and Brooke will usually sleep 30-60 minutes longer. I have been a very happy momma this week!

Brayden turned 6 months old on the 9th and just had his check-up this week. He is a healthy 19.2 pounds and is 27 inches long, both 75th%. He started eating some solid food. We have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, avacado, apples, bananas and broccoli. He has seemed to like them all, although the first taste never looks enjoyable....except for bananas, he LOVES those! He has started sitting up and giving me hugs! In addition to sleeping through the night, he has started to take 2-3 hours naps! This coming from the kid that never took more than a 30 minute nap unless we were in the car. He is still just the sweetest baby and I love him more and more each day!

Brooke will be 2 1/2 on the 23rd and she is FULL of personality! She loves all things princess, which is funny because she has never even seen a Disney Princess movie! She is such a girl!! She loves dressing up and has obviously not inherited my obsessive need to match when picking out her outfits. :) She is taking gymnastics and loving it! She even "practices" at home. She constantly keeps me on my toes...and my knees! I pray for patience with her daily! She is always saying something new that cracks me up. Some of my favorites have been:

"Mom," she says while putting on her backpack. "I am going to go to school. I'm going to pay for college and play Volleyball!" Another time she had a handful of change, handed it to Tim and said, "here daddy, I'm going to pay for college."

after trying to do something, she looks at me and says, "Oh my gosh mom, that's ridiculous!"

While driving to church she asked me to cover her with her blanket and I told her I couldn't reach her and she replied with, "Mom, just do your best."

"when I grow up I want to be a doctor and help people"

After eating some ice cream, "This is delicious!"

And this morning...oh my daughter...she is sitting by the door ready to leave and she looked down at her rain boots and saw a piece of mud and said, "what's this crap?" in a completely serious tone. Yes my daughter said crap. and it took EVERYTHING in me not to laugh! We talked about it and she knows that is not a word she is to say! I couldn't wait to tell Tim about that one!

We have been busy and I will have more posts coming soon!

Brayden at 4 1/2 months

My sweet boy

Brayden is 4 1/2 months! Obviously from his picture he is really into drooling! He has also been rolling from his back to his front for almost a month now, and just recently figured out he can roll the other way too. He thinks his sister is the funniest person in the world. When he starts to get fussy I have Brooke go sit with him and sing him a song or talk to him and he will laugh and smile at her! It's so cute! Brayden has always been a really good sleeper, until a few weeks ago. He started sleeping through the night (11pm-6am) consistantly since 7 weeks old! My good sleeper has gone back to his newborn ways...possibly worse than newborn sleep habits, waking up at least 3 times a night! I am not sure how much longer I am going to be able to function...but naptime is definitely coming back into the routine for me! I was hoping it was just a growth spurt, but it's been 3 weeks. I don't know...maybe I'll try giving him some rice cereal. We tried food at 5 months with Brooke, but didn't really start until 6 months. Brayden was 28 inches long (97th%) and weighed 16lbs 2oz (75th%) at his 4 month check up, which is 2 inches and 2 pounds bigger than Brooke at 4 months so maybe he is ready. We'll figure it out sooner or later...hopefully sooner!

Things I never thought I would say (then I had a toddler)

"You can't eat the whole block of cheese"

"Don't touch your poop!"

"You are squishing your brother's head when you sit on him like that."

"You have to wear a shirt when we leave the house."

"Take the magnet out of your mouth."


"Please don't put your hair in your brother's mouth."

"Ok, you can watch Barney"

"You cannot have mac n cheese for breakfast"

"Hand mommy your poop."

"Only mommy and daddy can change your diaper. YOU may not change your own diaper."

"You may not hide in your brother's bed and take your clothes off."

"You cannot eat the butter."

"You only need to wear one pair of pants."

"You cannot eat the pancake mix out of the box."

"Don't put your hand in your diaper, there is poop in there!"


*(notice a theme with the poop...it's been fun)

Love my girl!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

We had such a great Christmas this year! Tim's mom, brother Todd and Todd's girlfriend were able to come up this year. It was a full house with 7 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment, but we had a blast!

Here are some, and by some I mean a TON, of pictures:

Christmas Eve at church

Brooke and her besties

Nana with her grandbabies

My handsome and happy baby boy!

Love them!

Christmas Eve present

Christmas jammies

reading the Christmas story

Brooke has been loving Toy Story so we got her a Jessie doll.

She LOVES her!

Brayden got a bumbo! I love his funny expressions!

He will hate me for this later!

We sang happy birthday to Jesus at my parents

Brayden's first Christmas

same pictures...

Since my kids were both born in September, doing things with Brayden at 3 months reminds me of things we did with Brooke when she the same age. I went back to look at some pictures of some of our traditions we do every year and found these 2.

This first one is from our annual trip to San Francisco. We always take a sister picture. The top one is from 2 years ago with Brooke and the bottom one was this past Sunday with Brayden.

This one was taken where Leah has her Choir's Christmas concert each year.
I didn't even remember that I took this picture with Brooke until I saw that tree...it's hard to miss!

This is what happened when I tried to take a picture with both of them!

Merriment on Main

Every year Vacaville has their annual Christmas Tree lighting which is called Merriment on Main. We used to go every year when I was growing up, and for 15+ years my dad led the singing. I have been back in Vacaville now for 5 years, and I had never taken Tim until we went last year when we had started at Crossroads. This year, since Brayden was 2 1/2 months old, we were Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. It was fun to be a part of the Nativity scene while the kids choir and adult choir were singing some beautiful Christmas music!

Brooke hung out with my mom and Michael (who obviously did not want to take this picture) while we were up on the stage

Brooke and daddy getting ready to share a burrito

Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving this year and had so much fun celebrating as a family during the day then spending time with my family and some friends that night. I am so thankful for the blessings God has given me.

some of my blessings:

Another thing I am thankful for happened this past week as well. Once a year I get together with 7 of my closest girlfriends from college. I usually only get to see them once a year because I live so far from them . So you can imagine my excitement when I got to see 2 of them this week!!! Amy, Chris and Logan came up last week and we were able to have dinner with them and the Eckles. It was so fun to sit together and talk and watch our babies play together! I love that Chris (who I have known since I was 12) married one of my favorite people!

Then, later that week we headed out to Napa to see Sarah, Max, Jacob, Kennedy and the cute little baby bump! I loved our time together, eating and catching up, talking about the newest addition that has recently joined us and the one that is coming soon. We watched our kids be a little crazy and play in the restaurant (thankfully we were the only ones in there most of the time).

I am so thankful I got to see these girls and their precious families! Can't wait until our next girls weekend!!