Brayden 6 Months

Can you believe my little boy is not so little anymore? Seriously where does time go. I really can't believe Brayden is already six months old. I remember thinking when he was born that when he was six months it would almost be time to visit my family for Christmas. Well the time is here. Brayden is growing and changing so much. Here are some stats and some things Brayden is up to these days. 

Brayden's weight: 16 lbs 5 oz

Length: 25 3/4 inches

He is a little on the light side, but has grown in length.  He will probably be tall and thin like his dad. 

 Brayden is easily entertained by anyone and anything in sight. This also means he is very distracted especially while eating which is can be interesting.

 One day he just started to suck on his lip. It is actually quite cute to see him soothing himself with his lip. It is like a built in soother. It lasted for a couple weeks, and now he only does it occasionally.

 At around five months I decided to give him a baby cucumber to chew on just to see what he thought and to help sooth his gums. Man did he go to town on that thing. He loved it. In the last week I have started him on solids. He is definitely a lover of food. He just needs to get the swallowing down. I have a whole post on him eating I will do later.

 Brayden is now practicing sitting up. He is still really wobbly but has come a long way in just two weeks. As long as this pillow thing is behind him he does good for about 5-10 minutes before toppling over. The best is when he does a nose dive and manages to roll himself over to avoid squishing his face in the ground.

 Oh how he loves his daddy. As soon as daddy comes home and walks up the stairs he is grinning from ear to ear. When Philip is in the room Brayden constantly stares at him. Sometimes while I am feeding him he stops, tilts his head upside down and looks at Philip. I think they will make great buddies. I actually have a similar picture of Summer on Philip's shoulders I should post.

 He has finally learned the cause and effect of the jolly jumper. Jumping is a new favorite of his. Actually he mostly twirls in circles.

 I always love sneaking a peak of my sleeping kids. There is just something so peaceful about it. This is where Brayden likes to take his naps. I don't know why but he just sleeps the best like this during the day. I need to start training him to take his naps in his crib now that he can roll.

 What an adorable little fellow. I love him so much I can't stand it. My kids just make my life so much sweeter.

 And of course he loves his big sister. She is his best friend. She can always make him smile and laugh a bit too. There are those moments when he just wants her to leave him alone, but that is only because she can't get enough of him either. They make great pals.

 I was cooking dinner and looked over the couch to check on Brayden since he was with Summer and this is what I found. Summer was playing like she was Mary and Brayden was Baby Jesus. She had the blue hippo as a sheep and since there were no more people to play the wise men she used the tiny ones from her nativity. She must have forgot about Joseph all together because I don't think I see him in the picture. Anyhow, Brayden was entertained and Summer was teaching him about Christmas.

 Our good friends were so nice and brought this little hippo to Brayden. Of course he is too small for it right now, but daddy gave him a little ride anyways. As you can see he is getting more teeth as evidenced by the soaking wet onsie. This kid can't stop drooling.

 Brayden and I get to hang out quite a bit since I am at home with him all day long. He is my best shopping buddy, exercise buddy, scoffer buddy, and sewing buddy.

 I am pretty lucky that I get to spend my day with this little boy. I love you Brayden.

Baby it's Cold Outside

Ok, so it has been cold here, but surprisingly not as cold as I thought it would be. I guess I was expecting arctic weather similar to how it was in Rigby growing up. Well, I do love the change of season and the rosy cheeks my kids have it we are outside very long. I love the hot chocolate and all the good things that come with winter. Here are some of our random happenings as of late. 

 Before swim lessons Summer wanted a picture outside with her brother. He is getting heavier and harder for her to carry so we had to make it quick. They sure are cute.

 One morning Summer and I wanted to jump rope outside. It was quite cold so we decided to bundle Brayden up. It was so funny. He reminded me of Randy from A Christmas Story when his mom bundles and bundles him up so much that he can't move his arms or say anything. All he can to is cry. Anyhow, he was my little marshmallow man.

On November 18th we woke up to snow outside. Summer has been dreaming of this for so long. She could not resist going out to play in it quickly before school.

 The best part of the day for me was going to pick her up from school to see the remnants of the children playing at recess. Several large snowballs left alone in the field. It was so fun and reminded me how fun and imaginative childhood is.

Anyhow, we are looking forward to some more cold weather to get the winter feel.

Summer Learning to Sew

Since I started sewing four years ago Summer has been at my side watching and anxiously awaiting her turn. She has been wanting to sew for some time now, but I always put it off because I didn't feel she was ready yet. Maybe I just wasn't ready to sit there patiently teaching her. She has even asked on several occasions for a kids sewing machine. 

So, the day finally came when I told her my attention was all hers and that I would teach her how to sew. The first step was choosing a project. I let her pick something I knew would have all straight stitches. She ended up picking a scarf. So we went to my fabric stash and I let her choose her fabrics. It was hard not to guide her and pick for her what I thought went best, but she did it and managed to get coordinating prints. 

I am not ready to let her begin using my rotary cutter or my really sharp scissors yet. So I ended up cutting all the fabrics out for her and then she began. 

She sewed everything herself. I sat next to her to guide her. I taught her what it means to put the right sides together in her terms of course (the pretty sides), lining up the edges, pinning, sewing a straight line, and most importantly controlling the foot peddle. It is very easy to press too hard and make the machine go super fast and out of control. So she quickly learned to press gently or it goes crazy. 

Lining up the edges.

Pinning

Sewing 

Topstitching

She was curious how we were going to get the ugly side (wrong side) to be pretty again if we were sewing both of the pretty sides on the inside. I explained that we would make a magic hole that we can pull it out and it would look pretty again. I still think she believes it was a magic trick. 

It was actually really good to spend one on one time with her teaching her something that we both have an interest in. I am glad she had fun and that she did really really well. I was impressed because this was her first time and she really did sew everything except for a part of the topstitching at the end. 

Yay for Summer. Nice finished Product. 

 Happy she got to sew. 

I am glad we had fun and that she now has a scarf to wear. Love you Summer, and yes someday you can have your own sewing machine. 

All About Halloween

This month we wanted to have a lot of fun with Halloween. First we started off with some fun Halloween dinners throughout the month. I started off with the ghosts and pumpkins made from mashed potatoes. That was documented in my last post. Some of the others we had are below. 

This was a snake calzone. The tongue got a little over cooked but Summer still had fun with it. 

We had black bean soup with cheese spiderwebs and some orange and black tortilla chips my mom sent us. 

For our Halloween dinner we did the classic mummy dogs. There may have been a few more festive meals in there but I can't remember. 

Next up we wanted to let Summer have a party with some of her friends. She helped me plan the party and we started early on baking and getting set. Here are some of the fun things we made for the party. 

Colored bread inspired by bread sold at the Broulim's bakery my mom works at. I thought it would be fun for sandwiches so I made the bread dough and kneaded forever to get the bright colors. I need to invest in a standing mixer someday. Above is the dough before it was raised. 

This is what the bread ended up looking like after it was cooked. We enjoyed toast and sandwiches with it.

 I am sort of obsessed with cake pops. I need to stop making them, but they are fun. We made pumpkins, black cats, and purple people eaters. Red velvet inside.

 Carving pumpkins with some friends

 Summer's first power tool. She loved using it. I need to invest in this power pumpkin carver.

 Scooby fast asleep until he wakes up for more Scooby snacks.

 Daphne loved her costume and loved the candy she got even more. Our ward had a nice trunk or treat with chili, cupcake contest, parade of costumes, and finally the trunk or treat.

 The front side of Summer's pumpkin that I carved. I forgot to get a picture of the part she carved.

 Philip's attempt at Darth Vador. He ended up with a huge eye. It still looks good though. I never got around to carving my pumpkin, and Brayden's I am planning to puree for muffins.

 The whole gang except for Fred. We need another kid. I guess we can pretend Fred was parking the mystery machine.

I finally found a wig last minute for $4. It was actually suppose to be a Justin Beber wig, but I think it worked out for Shaggy. Summer and  Brayden loved trick or treating. We all loved getting trick or treaters at our door for the first time even if it was only 20 kids. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to next years costumes. I hope you all had a great Halloween.

Baby Teeth

 Yep, that's right. Our little Brayden has already sprouted some teeth. I think Summer got her first one at four months. Brayden turns four months on Sunday. I guess they are right on track with each other. 

In fact they look an a lot alike. Most people that see him tell me he looks just like Summer. Their baby pictures look so similar. In fact there are a couple of Summer in gender neutral pjs and it looks like it could be Brayden. This picture below is of Summer around Thanksgiving in November 2005 she is just about a month older than Brayden is right now. Crazy. 

He goes to the doctor tomorrow so I will be able to post his four month stats after that. He is a happy and content baby. Some of the highlights of his life right now besides getting teeth are:

*He hast started to grab at toys and loves his new teething rings. 

*Pulling hair especially Summer's has become one of his talents. Of course he doesn't really what he is doing. It just gets near his hand and he closes his fist.

*He loves to tell us stories in his own little baby language of coos and goos. 

*This little boy is my pooper. I should keep a tally of how many blow outs this kid has. I think it is safe to say that he has one almost every day. Emergency baths required. 

*He is growing. Philip got him out of bed one morning to say that he grew over night. 

*He loves bathes especially sticking his feet all the way up in the air and splashing them down into the water. 

*Summer is his best friend. He loves her, and she knows how to make him smile. 

I could not be happier to know that my kids have each other. Being a mom is the biggest blessing and although it can be hard sometimes I still love every moment of it. 

Oh Where Oh Where Can My Pumpkin Be

Since we are now living in a beautiful area supplied with all sorts of farms we decided to go to a real pumpkin patch this year to get our pumpkins. Summer went to the same one for a field trip just days before and had a great time. 

It was rainy and cold, so Philip wore our little baby carrier and packed Brayden around under his jacket. I think he was secretly stealing the heat from Brayden. They kept each other warm. 

Once we got to the farm we saw that u-pick apples and u-pick pears were only .70 cents/lb. I thought that was a great deal so we headed to the orchard to pick some Gala apples and some pears in the rain. 

Summer having some fun. 

It was also nice to see that there is such variety when it comes to pumpkins and gourds. Who knew. Anyhow, we loaded up on the hayride that took us all around the farm and over to the pumpkin patch to check out the pumpkins. 

At the pumpkin patch we wandered around for a bit to find our pumpkins. It was wet and muddy there and since Philip had the baby I had the honor of carrying them to the hayride. Summer is the only one prepared for the rain and yucky mess with a raincoat and boots. 

Summer enjoyed riding in the little wagon to wash and pay for the pumpkins. 

It was a lot of fun. I am glad we are surrounded by so much harvest that we can enjoy. 

Update Long Overdue (Random Happenings)

These are in no particular order, however, I need to update my blog since it also serves as my journal. I guess I need to work on it because I am not very regular about posting. 

We have been enjoying ourselves and preparing for the fall/winter which we are not really use to having anymore. I have decided that I really need to invest in some rain gear since it rains like crazy here. Fortunately Summer is already prepared for the puddles and drizzles. 

At the end of August and all through September we were able to go pick wild blackberries that grow everywhere. This is just across the street from us. It was nice because we could just pick a small bowl at a time to go with dinner. Maybe they are still growing. I should make a pie for Thanksgiving here since it is in a week. That is weird too. I am not use to having Thanksgiving before Halloween.  

 Here are the Blackberry bushes behind our house. 

 Brayden's First Shower

 This is when we moved him to his crib. I am a little sad not to have him right next to me, but it is better that he gets use to his bed. 

I love looking at my kids when they are fast asleep. There is something about it that just makes me want to hold them and give them many kisses. They are just so peaceful and I think it is then that I remember their innocence. 

 Here Summer is learning to ride her bike over a dirt mound with some friends of ours. She seemed to enjoy it enough. 

 Summer and Brayden watching TV together for the first time. Fortunately I don't turn it on that often so he is not really hooked, but he does like it. 

 Enjoying the Jolly Jumper. It only lasts for about five minutes before he falls to one side and wants out. 

 Brayden very frightened from the flash on the camera. Apparently he cried for quite a while. He is also very scared of the vacuum. Every time I turn it on he cries with tears and all. I have come to the conclusion I have to vacuum when Philip is home and can hold him. 

 Rockin' a tie I made out of Uncle Aaron's shirt.

 Summer after losing her second tooth. The Tooth Fairy almost forgot to bring the goods until just before she awoke. The funny thing is my friend just posted a tutorial for a Tooth Fairy pillow just for this purpose and I thought I should make one and never did. I guess I really should have. 

Brayden looking a little bald as Philip would say. He is just too cute. I can't get enough of him. 

 Brayden has started to coo/talk a lot. He also loves laughing and interacting with us. He especially likes Summer as long as she is not flopping him all over the place. Recently he has been grabbing for toys and Summer's hair. One of his favorite things is taking baths. I think he is getting a tooth because he is very slobbery and chews on his fingers all day long. 

 One day after school we made play dough. Summer made an alligator and it reminded us of Texas at the alligator park (Brazos Bend)

 This one is for my sister who loves Kiss. At least she use to. It reminded me of her, so I thought I should have Summer try it on. What do you think Kori?

 Brayden finally wearing the Darth Vador shirt his dad got for him. Philip loves Star Wars and when we saw this shirt on clearance at the GAP last January it made it into the cart. Philip has been wanting him to wear it since he was newborn. Now that it is October I gave in. 

 Also since it is October I have decided to make a fun Halloween meal for dinner every Monday night for Family Home Evening. Tonights menu was courtesy of Martha Stewart, and it was a lot of fun. Even though I shaped her meatloaf into a bat she still wouldn't touch it. At least the ghosts disappeared. 

Anyhow, it has been way too long. I hope to keep it up a little better now that I am in a better routine with Brayden and Summer is off to school. Oh Yeah, see I forgot all about documenting those pictures. I guess more posts to come tomorrow or sometime this week.