I LOVE Weekends!

Okay so this title seems like a total "duh" but because I work full-time, my weekends are my mini-vacations! Sometimes we don't do much and other times our weekends are full of family adventures. This weekend is a little of both. Today I took Brayden to the mall after his afternoon nap just because it was something to do. Shockingly, I only spent about $12.00 and only bought Brayden 2 books!! I was going to shop around for a new top or two but I am not patient enough to be in those small stores on a Saturday with a stroller...not my thing! So we booked it out of the mall and headed to the park. Much more like it!!! Brayden was very excited to have so much space to walk around like a free bird!

When we finally got to the sand, Brayden was a little apprehensive. He has been in the sand before but not recently so he was figuring it all out.

Once he got used to it, he discovered that he actually liked it! I know...weird...a boy that likes sand!

He didn't want to leave the sand but I got him back over to the grass and he walked all the way back to the car. Brayden LOVES the park and it's so easy to take him for an hour or so and then head back home.

And THIS is why I love my weekends so much! I really wish my hubby could have the same schedule as me so he would experience these adventures with us but he gets to have his own adventures with Brayden while I am at work and he is home. One day our schedules will work together and then you will all see more pictures of the hubs! For now...you will just have to suffer by looking at Brayden...life is tough...get used to it! :)

Sick again!

This is what I get for working with kids...sick! I started feeling sick on Wednesday of last week and by Friday, I was so done! My throat was hurting, my head was throbbing and my nose was stuffy one minute and runny the next. Not good people, not good! Of course since I was sick, Brayden got sick too. I noticed that his nose was stuffy on Thursday evening and by Friday morning, he was done too! I made a quick trip to Rite Aid on Friday evening to get him some extra fever reducer and to get me some cold medicine. I started Brayden on saline spray and nose suctioning and I was no longer one of Brayden's favorite people. He absolutely HATES getting his nose suctioned out! He doesn't mind the saline spray so much which is good because that is what will help to break up all the junk in his nasal cavity!

Our whole weekend was filled with saline spray, nose suctioning, naps, midnight wake up calls, a crying baby, a slight fever, lots of snotty tissues and eventually calling out of work. We both felt pretty crappy and I knew that Brayden needed me to take care of him and I needed to get my rest as well. It was a rough weekend but today we both feel much better. Brayden woke up smiling and I have been way less congested so this is a good sign. I am heading back to work tomorrow so Brayden will be home with Chance and I know that they will have a good time without me. It will be a good break from being at home and I will only have 3 days of work and then 2 more days at home.

It was definitely not the fun weekend I was imagining but we made it through anyways. I am so glad that I have a pretty flexible work environment that lets me take the days I need off to get better! It makes it much easier knowing that I am not in trouble for taking a couple of days off work. I am actually excited to go back and see my coworkers and kiddos (lets see how they treat me on my first day back!). I am just glad that we are both feeling better!

On a happy note, I had a great first Mother's Day but more on that later!! For now, I will leave you with the smiling face that I love!

Brayden's First Easter!

Easter is easily one of my favorite holidays and that is mostly because I get to see my WHOLE family (on my mom's side anyways)! It's a pretty big deal in our family and I was so excited to have Brayden experience it for the first time. In the early morning when Brayden woke up, he/we opened his Easter basket/bucket. He mostly played with the bucket but I didn't mind...it was so fun! After all the excitement of his Easter bucket, Brayden ate and took a nap and so I got ready for our family party. When Brayden woke up from his nap, we headed to my parent's house to carpool to my Aunt's house. To my surprise, my mom still got me an Easter basket! I was like a little kid again!! Then it was time to head to Aunt Cyd's house.
Our family festivities begin around lunch time with tons of food and drinks! Then we hunt for Easter eggs and then its back to the food and drinks...can you tell we like to eat and drink?!
Brayden got to spend some time with his new cousins Elsie (3 months) and Addy (9 months). It was so fun to have so many babies around!! I got to spend time with my cousins too and that always puts a smile on my face! My family is so amazing and I am so blessed to be so close with even my second and third cousins. People say our family is weird because I actually hang out with my second cousins and my great aunts more than once a year but I think it's pretty spectacular! I absolutely LOVE being around my huge family and I know that Brayden will appreciate it one day as well.
Speaking of this huge family of ours, I was a little nervous for Brayden to be around so many people that he doesn't see on a regular basis. I was afraid that he would be overwhelmed but he was wonderful! I don't know why I even worried! He gladly went to most family members, stayed on his eating schedule, and even took a short nap! The day was a complete success and I know that next year will be even more amazing because those three babies (Elsie, Addy and Brayden) will all be walking and super pumped!
Here is what our day looked like:

Easter Bunny Brayden!

Pirate Easter bucket!

Cousin Addy

Playing with his egg!

Cooling off in the pool with Grandpa!

Concentrating on the swing!

Grandparents...is there anything better?!?

P.S. My sister was in town this weekend so that made everything a million times better!!! I don't get to see her nearly as much as I am used to and this was a much overdue visit!! Can't wait to see her again :)

First Easter Egg Hunt!!!

Today was a big day people!!! Brayden experienced his first Easter Egg hunt! This is how it went down...we woke up and everyone got a bath and then Brayden got dressed in his super cute bunny onesie (Thanks Lisa!). We made our way to the POA(Police Officers Association) park and got down to business by visiting Grandpa who was cooking up all the hamburgers and hot dogs!

So much food!!

 Brayden was pretty oblivious to the madness that was going on around him! Kids were screaming with excitement when the Easter bunnies came in on the police car with sirens blaring! Once the bunnies were inside the park, the egg hunting began.

Super interested in the sign!

Easter Bunnies!

Found an egg!!

Saying goodbye to Grandpa!

So Brayden got a whopping 4 eggs (two of which Chance and I picked up for him) but he had a great time banging them on the table and of course, putting them in his mouth! I really can't wait for next year's Easter Egg hunt because I know he will be so big and totally excited! All in all, it was a success and these pictures show it all...happy baby! Thats all I need :)

A Day in Our Life...

I have mentioned in the past few posts how busy we have been since starting new jobs. Well now I want to let you in on how crazy our life has become!! Here is a rundown of a regular day for us right now...

5:30 am (Yes, you read that right!): I wake up to start getting ready for work.
5:30-6:30 am: Brayden wakes up at some point in this block of time usually.
6:30 am: I wake up Chance to take care of Brayden so I can leave for work.
6:45 am: I start my route to pick up students and take them to school/my work.
9:30-10:00 am: Chance takes Brayden to my mom or Aunt Kym or grandma so he can get ready and go to work.
12:30-1:00 pm: Chance heads to work.
2:30 pm: Students are done with school for the day so I get in my van to drive the same students home.
3:30 pm: I am finally off work and drive to pick up Brayden.
4:30-5:00 pm: I am picking up Brayden and driving home.
5:00-8:00 pm: I attempt to entertain Brayden and make dinner at the same time. (Mostly I play with Brayden and throw something quick together for dinner. Brayden is just so much more fun!!)
8:00 pm: Brayden goes to sleep. I clean up from dinner and pack Chance a lunch for the next day.
9:00 pm: I get into bed to read or watch tv and fall asleep by 9:30 pm.
11:00-11:30: Chance gets home from works and gets into bed.
Then our day begins all over again at 5:30 am!

Did you notice that Chance and I don't see each other except for 10 minutes in the morning?!?! I am not a fan of this at all but for now, we don't have a choice in the matter. Annnddd, Chance actually really likes his new job which is amazing! He always has a story to tell about his day at work (which I usually hear at 11:30 pm so I have to ask again in the morning because I am OBVIOUSLY way too tired and half asleep to remember what he said!).
So as you can see, we have completely opposite schedules which makes both of us very busy! I am hoping this schedule doesn't last too long but we will see. Also, since this wasn't the most exciting post...here are a couple of pictures of the little man!! Oh and by the way, he is going to be 9 months in 11 days!!! That's just insane if you ask me! Here are some pictures of the little guy that makes this crazy schedule totally worth it!

Loved the swings!

Not as interested in the slide...

Clearly, the pole was his favorite part of the park!!

BFFs!!!

So silly!

Apparently, laying flat on his back was really comfortable!

How can you not LOVE this face?!?!

Adventures in Making Baby Food

So we FINALLY ran out of the free food from Auntie Ellen (aka Ellen Degeneres)!! It was a very sad day in the Sentelle family household! Buuutttt, I did decide to start making my own baby food so I know exactly what I am feeding my little man. I want him to be as healthy as possible and preservatives just aren't in the picture of healthy in my book! Our adventure began like this!

I bought strawberries, bananas, blueberries, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, spinach and avocados! I also bought peas but I forgot them in the freezer at home! (Thanks Dad for getting me some more!) I bought most of this at the grocery store only because the amount sold at Costco is just a little insane when I don't have that much storage. I did buy the sweet potatoes at Costco because I figured that Brayden loves them and they won't go bad for a while. Anyways, my mom and I started with the veggies because they were going to take longer. 

Steaming the carrots.

Boiling the sweet potatoes.

While this was going on, we started on our fruit! We needed to peel the waxy skin off the apples and simply wash everything else.

Prepping the apples.

Washed blueberries! Yum!

We were finally ready to make some food!! For the first batch, we used blueberries, apples and strawberries.

Batch #1

Batch #2

Our second batch of fruit was less blueberries with apples, strawberries and bananas. The fruit was a success! Now our sweet potatoes were ready to go. P.S. we left the skin on the potatoes because it has so many vitamins but I was sure to thoroughly wash them to get all the dirt off. Anyways, here are our beautiful sweet potatoes!

We simply popped these babies in the blender with some of the water used to boil them and they were done! We also made another batch of sweet potatoes with spinach just to add some extra vitamins. I eventually got to make some peas when my dad got back from the store and I also mixed those with spinach. We put everything into meal-sized portion cups and popped everything in the freezer! 48 portion cups later (and some baggies because we ran out), Brayden's food was complete! 

This isn't all of it...clearly!

While all of this was going on, my little man was really enjoying some fruit in his mesh pacifier thing!

He started out like this...in his
super cute bowling shirt!

And ended like this....eating strawberries= naked baby!

Our adventure ended with testing out the sweet potatoes on the only little man that matters...Brayden of course!

SUCCESS!!!! He loved the sweet potatoes and later that evening he had the sweet potato and spinach mixture. I would say that taking an entire Sunday to make some healthy food for this beautiful son of mine was entirely worth it! I can definitely say I will be doing this again!

If you have any questions about my recipes just leave a comment and I can let you in on my secrets! 

Alabama the Beautiful!

Our family trip to Alabama was amazing to say the least! We bought our tickets very last minute because it was really the only time we had to go after looking over our calendar. We left on January 31st and took the red-eye flight. And by flight, I mean FLIGHTS! We had two stops in Vegas and Houston. I don't think we will be doing that again but it seemed to work fine for Brayden. He slept through each of the 3 flights and that made it so much easier for us. The flights weren't very packed either so I actually got to lay Brayden down on one of the flights across all 3 seats. He slept like a rock! Once we finally made it to Alabama, Lisa picked us up and we immediately went to see Brayden's Big Sittie (his great-grandmother). She was so excited to see us...well Brayden really but we can pretend! Then we headed back to Lisa's house so we could unpack a little and then nap! Four hours later, Chance and I woke up and we continued our day!
We got to see so much of Chance's family and everyone finally got to meet Brayden! We also went to a rodeo (without Brayden of course!) We can't wait to go back and we know that Lisa will be out for Brayden's first birthday in July! I will let the pictures do the talking of our awesome trip!

Ready to go!

Hanging out in the airport!

So sleepy!

Beautiful trees! Even in winter!

Taking a nap in the car!

Cousin Clara!

Of course we had to go to Bass Pro Shops!

Beautiful Farmhouse!

Mansion...I could live there!

Tree-lined roads!

Meeting Great-Grandmother Sue!

Wearing Dad's hat

YUM!

Such a happy camper!

Perfection!

Tornado destruction!

New houses being built!

Construction to rebuild!

Grandmother Sue and her boys!

Family photo!

Night out at the rodeo!

Crazy bulls!

He loved meeting Big Jittie!

3 Generations!