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!