We survived!

Saturday night Braden had his first night away from home. Matt and I went out with friends for my birthday and Gramma took both kids for the night. As I was packing up the kids things I realized that I haven't been away from Braden for more than about 3 hours! With me not working I haven't had to really be away from him except for a couple trips to the grocery store and taking Alexa swimming. I must say things went much better than the first time away from Alexa, I actually DID have a great time going out and spending time with my husband. I'm not saying I didn't think of them almost the whole time but I knew they were in good hands. Gramma did a wonderful job and didn't even laugh (too much) at me when I showed her Braden's page long "instructions" for the evening. Things went great and I can't wait to have another night out. We love you Gramma!! :)

Global Warming?

For those of you that live in the Midwest, this is probably what you woke up to. For those of you who don't live way up here, consider yourself lucky. This was our outside temp this morning. This doesn't include the wind chill factor which made it feel like -41 degrees! This is CRAZY! Coldest temperatures in 5 years. I'll be the first one to admit I don't know much when it comes to stuff like this, but global warming? Really?

Music to my ears

happy birthday to you mommy
happy birthday to you mommy
happy birthday to you mommy YAAAAY

This is the song I got to wake up to this morning, sung by my adorable little Alexa. She was so excited to sing to me and give me my birthday card that she made a whole TWO days ago. It has been sitting on our counter since Tuesday night and the temptations to take a little peek have been crazy, I couldn't wait to see her masterpiece that she and daddy spent so much time making. They also spent lots of time in the kitchen last night making my cake. Below are a couple pictures of the event, and now that I think about it I really should have video taped it instead to capture the "real" thing. The two of them are funny when they get together and start making things. Overall it went pretty good, only a couple extra broken eggs and just a few little fingerprints in the finished project.

Adding the sprinkles (notice the pink around her face already.) :)

And here is my pretty PINK cake that Alexa picked out all by herself!

(It says "Happy B-day MOM" and that's a heart in the upper right hand corner)

And here is the card.....

She's so sweet, she even included Braden.

Hold him, Mommy

Alexa loves holding Braden, and it's so cute....she climbs up on the couch and says "I hold him, mommy!" So I hand him over and she holds him and kisses him and it just the sweetest thing ever. We always knew we wanted more than one baby, mostly because we thought it was important that they have someone to grow up with and play with and knowing that they will always have someone there. What I never thought about was how it would feel as a mommy to watch your kids interact and grow together. Since the day Braden was born Alexa has been nothing but wonderful to him, it was like she knew that this was the little guy she would grow up with and always have in her life. Even at such a young age I just watch them interact, her tickling him, kissing him, hugging him and him watching her, smiling and laughing. I find myself smiling all the time and I think I must say "awwww" way more than I think because now every time Alexa does something cute to him she looks at me and says "mommy, awwww." We know they will probably have their ups and downs like almost all siblings, but I pray that they will always have a deep connection and love for each other.

Already 5 months old?

Can it be possible that Braden is already 5 months old? He's getting so old....

Here's a look at what Braden is up to at 5 months:
-Rolling all over the place (making diaper changes and getting dressed very difficult!)
-Exploring the world of solid foods
-Loves sitting up and standing (with help of course)
-Smiling and laughing constantly
-Talks A LOT
-Loves to sit in his saucer chairs to play
-Sleeping well at night (12 hours, up once)
-Likes to take baths
-Has discovered his hands and gets so serious as he watches them move
-Loves listening to music and reading books
-Is finally taking a bottle with no complaints
-Is a happy, adorable little boy....seriously take a look....

Weekend in review

I thought I would share some pictures of our eventful weekend. We tried to get out as much as possible since the highs this week is suppose to be below zero (YUCK!) so we probably won't be going too many places.

Alexa has all the sudden decided that she is going to be a little gymnast. She is obsessed with doing somersaults all over the house and she can actually do them very well! Here are a few pictures of her in action....

As you can see nothing can stop her or get in her way....

Not even me as I take her picture.

She's a natural and actually doing more somersaults as I type this. I looked into maybe getting her into gymnastics classes but the youngest age group I could find was 3 years old so we will have to wait until next fall after her birthday.

Here is Braden sitting in his swing watching Alexa, he is happy now that he is off the floor and out of the way.

Here's Braden waiting to eat. The first food we gave him was carrots and he loved them and since he did so well we decided to try a yummy fruit next, so we picked bananas. We haven't decided if he didn't really like them or was just surprised at the taste, but his reaction to them included way more facial expressions then the first time even after having them for a few days. So when we finished off the bananas we went on to peas and once again he loves them, not one weird face. We can only hope he stays so interested in his vegetables!

Just another picture of Braden being super cute.



Alexa started swimming lessons again this weekend after taking the summer and fall off. She LOVES the water, she kept telling me to let her go even though the water was almost up to MY neck. She is still in the Waterbabies class because you have to be 3 to move up to the next level (apparently 3 is a very important age and that's when you get to do all the fun stuff.) So we are still just working on kicking and blowing bubbles and she even wanted to go under the water, twice.

Alexa also goes to Lowe's every other weekend for a kids building workshop. Her and Daddy usually go but he and Braden were stuck at home with no power. So since we were already out for swimming lessons I got to take her for the first time and see how much fun she really has there. It is such a cute thing to do, they have several different things you can build and they get little hammers. I was so surprised and how good Alexa does, she can actually hammer in a nail! I would totally recommend anyone with young kids to check out your local Lowe's if you have one to see if they have this program there. Not only is it fun to just get out and do something but you get to keep what you make and Alexa is always SO proud of herself and shows EVERYONE what she did on the way out of the store. Below are a couple pictures of this weeks masterpiece....a time capsule.

Last but not least here is my wonderful husband working so hard on our closet that we finally finished this weekend. After spending hours in there and taking several unexpected trips back to Lowe's we now have completed the second closet in our room and have more than enough space for all of our clothes. It's so nice to be done with that project and have the huge mound of clothes off the middle of our bedroom floor! Thanks Matt! :)

Just a couple pictures

Here are just a couple recent pictures to start off our new blog.