Christmas...Blessing... OOWEE...8 weeks

The most wonderful time of year! We have just had a great Christmas holiday this year... and busy as ever! We spent Christmas here with our little family and Derek's mom and dad both visited, and my Dad and step-mom came about a week before. It is so great to see family during this time of year! We started the Christmas PJ's tradition this Christmas Eve, like almost every other family I know!



Christmas day was so much fun this year with Brody! He was more excited than ever, and I think Derek and I were more excited than him. Here are a few to catch the moment.....







Ok, maybe not a few pictures, but A LOT! Anyway Brody got totally spoiled, but we did go through his toys to give A LOT away.

Then on Sunday our sweet little Braylee girl got blessed. She is the sweetest little thing alive and smiles, sleeps and eats her way through each day. We often ask each other, I wonder why calm sweet Braylee got brought to us? Then we are quickly reminded what a rowdy playful loud and sometimes obnoxious little boy we have! And she is often a breath of fresh air, although we would not ask for a better little boy!

Derek loves that little girl and there is rarely a moment that passes that I dont see him giving her kisses :)




Then on Sunday night Brody was playing with his cousins at home and got his first big OWEEE :) He ran into the coffee table and got split open just above his eye.



When I ran in and saw it, I grabbed him to get it cleaned up and he said while crying, "I'm ok mommy, I'm ok." What a brave little boy we have, not to mention how proud Dad was!

The next day we were scheduled to get family pictures done but our sweet photographer said that she sould be able to fix the little owie... Oh yeah and we weren't sure if he needed stiches or not so we took him over to our friend Spencer and Kara's house to see. They took him to another friend's house and we decided that they would probably put a few stiches in it if we took him in, but there is no gaurentee for no scar, and it is probably more tramatic for him than it was worth. And I was informed that scars are cool :)

Brody was also very proud of his cut after his daddy told him that football players have scars and they think they are cool too!

Derek and I have also gotten back to the gym and are loving it. Well, lets be honest, Derek is loving it but it is still more of a chore to me right now. I know I will start liking it more soon!

And our little Braylee girl is eight weeks old today... I cant believe how time flies but I am trying to love every minute of her growing up. She is a smiley girl and smiles most at her daddy. She sleeps about 6 hours at night. She has battled two horrible colds in her short life, and is battling the second one right now. The sweet girl doesn't know what it feels like to be healthy, but she is still as happy as can be! We love our sweet children and couldnt ask for more!

Journaling...

It's crazy how sometimes you come across those blogs or stories that touch your heart at the time that it needs it most.....As I was sitting in church today, I was so thankful that I was able to be there. After church, I told Derek, "I really needed that, today church made me want to be a better mom." I haven't been in about 3 weeks, trying to make sure Braylee stays healthy during this time of year. But I am grateful for that feeling. I love my children so much. I want to be the best I can be for them. Days like today help me to realize what special spirits have been brought into my home. My rowdy two year old is my best buddy. I love him so much. I hope he knows. I came across a blog tonight of a little boy with a terminal disease. What a trial. I know Heavenly Father will never give me anything that I can't handle but I pray that he doesn't give me that. I am sobbing right now for that sweet family and pray for them as their little 3 year old boy just passed away. I hope that I can take a step back and be more grateful for the screaming, jumping off the couch and rough play with the baby. At least my little boy is healthy. I am so grateful. Our sweet little Braylee... I am so grateful for her health and spirit. When I am at my ropes end with Brody, it seems, she is in her calmest state. I love that. I love how Heavenly Father loves me and knows when I need the most help. Again, I pray that tomorrow I will be a bit more patient, loving and kind to my children and husband. I am so blessed.

5 Weeks :[

I can't believe how fast time flies, and that our baby girl is 5 weeks old! It seems that time flies a little faster on the second one, and I can't keep up with her! Well our little Braylee girl had an appointment yesterday and is GROWING! Yay! My main goal everyday since I found out that she wasn't gaining was to feed, feed, feed! And Braylee is such a good little nurser and sleeper that she only wakes up once a night usually! I feel so lucky and want to take advantage of it and just sleep because Brody was up every 2 hours for at least ten months, but I want her to grow too :) Well, She IS! She weighed in at 8lbs 13 oz (with a diaper on this time :) ! I was proud, our little nugget is growing, although a lot of babies are born this big :) Anyway, things seem to be getting a little bit easier as time goes on and I wanted to give a big thank you to Christine, Amber, and Celeste....Thank you so much for your encouraging words. I think I checked by blog and read those comments every day for at least a week! I look up to each of you as mommies and hope I can be as good as you someday! Thank you......

Brody just loves his little sister. He is ALWAYS concerned about her and about where she is.... I love it. Brody has developed a stutter that has progressively gotten a bit worse since Braylee arrived.... YES ONE MORE THING TO ADD! I am trying to figure out what makes it worse...etc....and just watching him, but sometimes it is so sad! A lot of what I have read says that it is very common in 2-3 year old little boys, that are stressed etc., and that a birth of a new sibling can accentuate it... We will see... I know that our little buddy has been through a lot the last month or so including the arrival of a new sister and potty training... So we will see...

HE LOVES HER!
~and I just lover her little Mohawk :)

Challenges....

I am so grateful for such a great husband. Period. That pretty much sums up the last four weeks. This has been a challenging transition for me and I am so grateful for Derek. I don't think a day has gone by that I haven't called him crying. Brody has been a bit of a challenge for me during this, and it breaks my little heart when I get frustrated with him because I know that he is just being a two year old, and not to mention, he is my little buddy! I don't know how many times I have just sobbed to Derek that I just wanted our sweet Braylee to come into this world peacefully, and with all the screaming, yelling, jumping on the bed and waking her up, she has to come into this world to that! I remember when Brody was born I didn't want to go anywhere loud, wanted the TV low, etc... But I just have to realize that only child number 1 gets that peace! I know it doesn't help that when Braylee came we realized how disgusting it was changing Brody's diaper and how he was ready to be potty trained. It was like changing a grown man's diaper! So that added some stress as well. Then after 12 days Braylee wasn't gained weight like they say she "should." If you know me, you know I worry about EVERYTHING. If you don't, just ask Derek. I worried sick about her. Finally I came to peace with the fact that she was gaining weight... Then she came up with a horrible cough. SO Sad. I finally took her in. What did they tell me? Nothing, well actually everything that I already knew. I asked them to at least test her for whooping cough (No fever, so I knew it wasn't RSV). He assured me that the cough is usually a high pitched cough with a whoop afterwards, and he hadn't heard anything like that so he wouldn't test her. I said to that man, " you haven't even heard her cough since she has been in here, so how do you know it doesn't sound like that?" He said, "Well, I guess that's true..." Needless to say it was a waist of time and money, and I have been distraught ever since trying to figure out what it is. She still has it. It is not getting better or worse....maybe more often. I don't know. Anyway, Derek has been such a great support to me and I am grateful. If i was him, I might have walked out by now... Literally. Thank you Derek!


Here is the sweet thing at four weeks!






P.S. Sorry for the emotional post...yes emotional...crying as I type!

OUr Lil football MaN and Beauty QUeen

So Braylee seems to have been the center of my most recent postings, but Brody deserves some much needed blog space! This little man has pretty much potty trained himself since Braylee was born, with a little help from Gpa Bunny and mommy of course... But.... I am so proud of him! And so thankful that I wont have to buy two sets of diapers for much longer!

Brody is Obsessed with football. Literally. He talks about it all night and all day... And watches it whenever he gets the chance. Thank goodness for the Fiesta Bowl DVD from a few years ago, for those days when football isn't on TV! I also think he loves it so much because he wants to be just like his daddy, and his daddy might be a little obsessed too :) *Wink,Wink* Hence, his daddy's hat in the pic!



Derek and my reasons for life!





And now for our sweet Braylee girl. Yesterday I took her to Boise for her last PKU test and checkup. Everything went well except for our little peanut has not gained any weight! She weighed 7 lbs 7 oz at birth, and at her 24 hour check up was 7 lbs 2 oz. Yesterday she weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz again. This is a little discouraging for me! Blah......! I was letting her sleep to long I think so I will continue to feed her every two hours and try to put some pounds on her! :( But other than that, she is doing fab and we love her so much! She is such a great babe :)

10 DaYs oLd :]

Here is our little Braylee babe at ten days....




Dear Braylee babe,

We are completely in love with you. Your little spirit has brought so much love into our home and we are so grateful for you! You are such a good little babe. I seem to have to wake you to eat each time :] Brody loves you so much..... he is constantly asking to hold you and kisses you every chance he gets! I think he is finally realizing that he is a big boy..... I mean he has practically potty trained himself in the last ten days! ANyway, all I want to do all day is love on your chubby cheeks! I love you so much and I hope that you know that forever. Your daddy is wrapped around your little finger, he even helped me paint your toe nails today! We are so blessed that you and Brody came to our family and we hope we can be the best parents to you! You have brought your daddy and I so close and I love you for that! We love you Braylee!

1 Week....EEK!

Baby Girl,

Please stop growing so fast!

~What makes all those sleepless nights worth it!~

Need I say more............I am completely in LoVe!

And she has her Daddy's heart already :]

And here is our little babe getting weighed (the only non-graphic pic at her birth :)

I am just loving every minute of this little babe and adjusting pretty well. I struggle a bit with making sure my sweet 2 year old gets enough attention, but thanks to Derek, that doesnt seem to be an issue for Brody! We are so very blessed!

Braylee Jade Davis

What a sweet surprise!




Little Braylee was born on Wednesday November 3rd, 2010 at 2.13pm. She was about 8 days early and we couldn't be happier. I will post more later, but don't want to forget some special moments.

So I had an appointment on Monday evening at 5 in Boise. After that we had a birthing class for a couple hours so we stayed in Boise that night. Derek had some work to do up there on Tuesday and then we headed back to Twin Tuesday evening. When I got home and settled in that night I started having some contractions around 10:30ish, but nothing I thought was labor, so I headed to bed. I woke up around 1:50 unable to sleep because of the contractions, so I decided to start timing them. Sure enough they were every 4-5 min apart for about 2 hours. Considering we had about a 2 hour drive ahead of us, I decided to call my midwife and see what she thought. She asked me a few questions and asked me if I had tried to go back to sleep. I was so caught up in timing them and figuring out if it was true labor that I hadn't. She recommended that I try to go back to sleep for a half hour and call her back if I couldn't. Well that's when I was sure I should go in. I couldn't get back to sleep. Derek packed the truck, made it comfortable for me, and we were off! The drive was not bad at all, and I am actually thankful that we had it to take some time off labor. We talked and bonded on the way up and expressed our excitement, between contractions of course! We got to the birthing center around 6:15am and got settled in. I loved it there and wouldn't change this experience for the world. NO doubt it was hard work, and painful. But very rewarding. Derek was such a good support person and I KNOW without a doubt that I couldn't have done it without him! I loved my two midwives and am so thankful for this experience. Childbirth is an amazing feat and I am thankful that I was healthy enough to do it this way. So after about 2 hours of hard labor and 15 minutes of pushing, this is what entered our world! Braylee was born at 2:13 pm and weighed in at 7 lbs and 7oz and was 19.5 inches long. I was able to leave the birthing center at 5:00 pm that same day and loved it! We headed for Derek's aunt and uncle's home in Meridian where we stayed the night. I loved being able to take her home so soon and bond with her. She is two days old and we are loving every minute. Brody is being such a great big brother and started crying when we told him we were leaving Boise to go home to Twin. He thought that we were leaving her there. He said, "What about the baby sister mommy? We cant forget her!" He also asked if there was another one coming because my stomach still looked pregnant to him. I assured him that she was ours, and that there were no more coming out, and that we wouldn't forget her!

More pics to come!

My Ever Growing belly @ 38 weeks :}

Well she still hasn't graced us with her presence yet so this the result......




And while we were at this picture taking, here is my cute date for the night ;)

36 Weeks and Counting :]

I am feeling so ready.... and I look it! Last week, Tuesday, this little munchkin was breech. I was very disappointed and left the office discouraged. They gave me a website and some ideas to try, and wanted to see me two days later. After much laying on an ironing board upside down, Derek rubbing her down, and of course a few prayers we headed back to Boise on Thursday to see. I felt like she had moved, but wasn't sure where. One of the lady's looked for the babe's head, while the other got the ultrasound machine ready. She said, my guess is that her head is down here, where it was supposed to be, and sure enough the ultrasound confirmed that! Yahoo, what a relief! She also assured me that I was having a little girl :) I loved that because I have so much work into a little girl, I don't know what I would do if it came out a boy~!



I know, I know...how can I get any bigger.....!!! I hear it often.....Is there just one in there?....Some people!

I have been passing the time by crafting, I guess I just have "nested" normally because my house is far from spotless!

Some cute little Harvest blocks...



Some little pumpkins made with the left over 2x4 from the blocks :0)



And finally some burp cloths ..... ( I won't let this sewing machine get the best of me and sit in the closet....)



And that is my journal for those of you that waste your time reading this!