I'M BAAAAACCKKKK!!!

Whew! It has been a super crazy couple of months! As a short recap, we have traveled to Alabama, San Francisco...twice, and Palm Springs. On top of all that, Chance and I both got new jobs and I started mine. As for Brayden, he has been growing like crazy and discovering new things every day. He discovered that he can now pull himself up on things and let me tell you, he hasn't stopped doing it since! He is constantly giggling at just about anything and is still a champ at traveling with us wherever we go. He is wearing 9 month clothing and I won't know his length or weight until our 8 month appointment which will be in just about a week. Brayden is getting so much more personality now and we absolutely love it! He is just so much fun! Brayden is still sleeping through the night although we had a week-long spell where he was waking up 5-10 times per night...that was NOT fun! He still only has the two teeth but I am positive that more are quickly approaching. He is also actually crawling now too which is fun but at the same time, I have to keep a very watchful eye on him! Chance even bought him a play yard/cage for when he is at home. Brayden isn't so fond of the cage yet but hopefully he will get used to it.
Now that I have a work schedule, I am planning on penciling in when to update my blog so this two-months-without-posting thing won't happen again! But seriously, a 9 hour work day and then attempting to keep a clean house(which hasn't been happening) and making dinner is just a little crazy but I am getting used to it! I know you will all forgive me if I show you some pictures of the little guy so here ya go!!

Wine tasting with a baby is normal right??

Got to meet cousin Kelli!!

Pretty views!

"I am adorable...and I know it!!"

So happy to see Aunt Samantha and Uncle Mike!

Best margarita EVER!!! Habanero tequila...YUM!

Love Auntie Samantha!

Being silly!

Lord help us!

First baseball game...go Dirtbags!

Looking a little ghetto!

Two baseball games in one weekend=spoiled!

Standing in his crib...the following picture would
have been Chance moving the mattress down!

Yep, that's right...a 3rd baseball game all in one weekend!

Taken by Kelli...clearly I need a better camera!

Family photo in San Fran!

So there ya go! Most of them are from our trip to San Francisco to see Samantha and Mike! The baseball photos are not(obviously, since the Dirtbags aren't a San Fran team!) We had an absolute BLAST in San Francisco and we cannot wait to go back! Hopefully next time Chance will get to come with us!

6 Month Stats

Yes, I am aware that I am a little behind on this post but Brayden went on his first vacation that included road-tripping to San Francisco! More on that later. As for now, you all need an update on my little man! A few weeks ago, Brayden got his first cold and let me tell you, a baby with a cold isn't fun but he is such a trooper! He was full of snot and sleepy for a few days but he was still his happy self. Thankfully that cold is gone and he is back to normal! We went to the doctor on the 12th for Brayden's 6 month wellness check and the boy is growing like a weed! He weighs a whopping 17 pounds 10.5 ounces!! He is HEAVY!! His length didn't change much, he is at 26.5, but the doctor said that always depends on who is measuring and how far they stretch his legs...not to worry! We know he is getting longer because his feet now touch on his Jonny Jump Up and his bouncer.
As for changes in behavior, Brayden is still super happy and he has become quite the ham. He smiles at everyone and absolutely LOVES when people make silly faces at him or play peek-a-boo! He is eating a lot of real food now including peas (although we have to mix it with bananas or something) pears, peaches, and mixed veggies. He only eats about 3 bottles a day and those happen right when he wakes up, before his afternoon nap, and right before bedtime. Between those bottles he just eats regular food. Brayden has definitely developed his voice and is constantly making some sort of noise. While in San Francisco, he was so loud in a restaurant that I actually had to cover his mouth!! He wasn't crying or anything but instead of just talking, he really enjoys screaming!! It is pretty funny when we are at home but a little embarrassing in front of a bunch of strangers! Brayden is ALMOST sitting up on his own...he can sit on his own but he can't get there on his own. He did it once yesterday but hasn't done it since...it's coming though!! He also isn't crawling yet but that is super close as well. And although he isn't crawling, that doesn't stop him from getting where he wants to go. He moves so fast and of course he always goes where I don't want him to go...like near the corner of a wall or large piece of furniture! Oh well...I guess I should just wait until he starts crawling....then I will always have to keep a close eye on him!
So there is the update for Brayden at 6 months old...I cannot believe he is half a year old!! YIKES!! I need to start planning his birthday party if the next 6 months are going to fly by just as quickly as the last 6 months! And let me just say, I am the happiest person ever! I absolutely LOVE being a mom and Brayden is just so perfect! Of course there are days when I just want to rip my hair out because the house is a mess and Brayden is hungry but I don't have any clean bottles so I have to hold him while cleaning one just so he won't cry (yes, this happens!!) but overall....I wouldn't trade this for the world! And his little smiling face always makes everything better!

How can you not smile at that face??

His favorite bib!!

On a walk...his hat finally fits!

Sexy pose!!!

Smirking

Happy traveler!

Out for a walk in San Francisco!

Bundled up for the cold weather

His first time in the shopping cart!

Always smiling!

2011 in Review!!

To say the very least, I had an amazing and crazy 2011!! I want to thank everyone that was a part of this big year and the biggest of thanks to my awesome family for helping us get through it all!
January: This month should have warned me how the rest of the year would be (crazy!). While being 3 months pregnant, we had to move out of our Mission Viejo apartment, move me into my parents house, put everything else in storage and send Chance off on his last deployment! After finally getting everything moved, it sunk in that I would be without my husband for the majority of my pregnancy...bummer! I adjusted to living with my parents again and looked forward to the phone calls and skype sessions from Japan!

First sonogram pictures! (Jan.)

February: Not much happened this month. I was taking my one class at CSULB to finish up my bachelor's degree and working at The Cheesecake Factory. Working as a server is not the easiest thing when pregnant. Let's just say that bathroom breaks are usually few and far between during a busy night and that is not good news to a pregnant lady! Yikes!

My barely there bump (Feb.)

March: I finally started looking pregnant this month and yet people kept telling me how small I was! I also went to my first baby shower held by mom's and volunteers of my husband's battalion! This was such a fun experience mostly because those sneaky women surprised all of us pregnant, emotional women. They instructed us to move into the large ballroom for another game so we all changed rooms and sat down for the video of directions for the game. SURPRISE!! It was not a video of directions, it was a video of messages from our husbands overseas! The best surprise EVER!! Of course I cried like a big baby, along with all the other pregnant wives, and then we played some more games, ate some more food and won tons of awesome prizes.

Our team for the games! (Mar.)

April: This month was full of apartment shopping and clothing adjusting. Chance was coming home in just a couple of months and I needed to find us a place to live (kind of important!) I was also starting to no longer fit into my regular pants so along came my friend the BeBand! This thing rocks. It allowed me to wear my regular pants but they were unbuttoned and unzipped. The band held the top of my pants flat onto my growing belly so no one would see that I was half undressed!

Definitely looking preggers now! (Apr.)

May: Woo Hoo!!! New apartment this month and it's HUGE! This apartment is so nice because not only is it close to my parents but the living space is seriously so big that it could actually be a bedroom and a living room. I was so happy to have found this place because that meant we didn't have to live on base! Another big event this month...I graduated college!! I was so sad that my hubby was still gone and didn't get to see me walk across the stage but it was a great day none the less. I looked massive in my tent of a graduation gown but it was worth it!

Graduation Day! (May

Our gigantic living room! (May)

June: Another awesome month for me! The hubby came home, we had the most amazing baby shower and we finally got to start living in our new apartment! I will let the pictures do the talking!

So glad he is home!!

Looking large!

July: HELLO BRAYDEN!! Obviously this was the most exciting month of the whole year! We became a family of 3 and welcomed our precious son Brayden into the world. After only  6 hours of labor (30 minutes of pushing) we had a little boy depending on us to take care of him and love him always...easily the best job ever!

Love at first sight! (July)

August: This was the month full of diapers, breakdowns, breastfeeding, sleepless nights and tons of love! A crazy month to say the least! Also, Auntie Samantha had been home from her stint on the reality show "Love in the Wild" and we were all ready to view the final episode, celebrate her birthday and have the whole family finally meet Mike! Of course Brayden slept through the whole party!

Silly boy already! (Aug)

September: Well this was a sad month for me because I started student teaching. I had to give up my days home with Brayden to spend them in a classroom full of crazy children attempting to teach them something valuable. It was definitely hard to start my days in the early morning after having to wake up in the middle of the night to feed Brayden. I think I may have resembled a zombie this whole month!

Family walk for charity! (Sept)

October: Well my little Brayden turned into the most adorable lobster you have ever seen!! Not much else happened this month except for the continuous sleepless nights and breastfeeding! 

LOBSTER!! (Oct)

November: I can see the light at the end of the student teaching and TPA tunnel!!! I am almost done with student teaching and my two huge assignments on top of that but I am still a basket case! Huge amounts of stress due to working full-time for free, being broke, massive papers to write and a family to take care of on top of everything. I am pretty sure my house was a disaster this WHOLE month...yuck! On the bright side, it was also a month full of family and food...my two favorite things! Brayden also got his professional pictures taken early in the month and he was great! He only peed while naked twice and only had one meltdown and that was because he was hungry! Do we have a model on our hands?!?

Thanksgiving!

Brayden's Professional Pictures!

December: BEST MONTH EVER!!! (Besides July!) I finished student teaching and successfully graduated from CSULB with a bachelor's degree (officially). We got the biggest tree our ceiling would permit and decorated it to the max! We spent so much time with family and Brayden was finally all mine again! Such a happy mommy to be home with my baby boy!

First picture with Santa!

Oh Christmas tree....

Opening presents!

Awesome family!

Adventures in Teething and Peas!

Do you hear the *womp, womp, womp* after that title?!?! To tell the truth, teething really hasn't been bad so far. Brayden has two teeth popping through his gums right now...the bottom two. He has been drooling like a Saint Bernard and putting everything within arms reach in his mouth! The only time he was grumpy and seemed to be in actual pain was right before the two teeth came through his gums. Other than that, this little boy of mine didn't even notice that he was getting teeth! How lucky are we?! I just hope that teething continues to be this smooth when his other teeth start coming through.
On another note, Brayden is branching out into other foods now. He absolutely LOVES bananas and he seems to tolerate peas. He gave a pretty interesting face the first time he tried peas and gives that same face every time I give him peas but he still eats them. He has become a pro at actually opening his mouth and allowing the whole spoon to get in his mouth before closing it to eat up the peas/bananas/rice cereal/oatmeal!  So basically, not to brag or anything, I have the most amazing son ever. He is such a happy baby even though he has been teething and has a cold! He constantly smiles and his laugh is most definitely the greatest thing I have ever heard! And to put a little smile on your face, here are some recent videos of my little man!!
Here is the video of Brayden trying peas for the first time. Down below is another video of the same feeding of peas...and let's just say he changed his mind about the peas!

Sick Baby :(

Brayden began getting a cold a few days ago and let me just say, a sick baby is not any fun at all!! The first night Brayden was sick, he didn't sleep in his crib at all! He would only sleep on my chest which meant I was very uncomfortable and barely got any sleep myself. Of course Chance had to work overnight that night so I was all alone! I called Brayden's doctor in the morning and they gave me some suggestions to help him. I have been suctioning his nose like crazy and giving him saline drops in his nose to help break up all the congestion. He has been sleeping better so I think it is working. At first, Brayden would scream when I had to suction his nose. He absolutely hated every second of it and would try to push my hands away! Well last night that all changed!! He thought it was downright hysterical!! Of course we had to get it on tape because I was cracking up! He was laughing so hard! While that was very funny and all I really hope he gets better soon!! A sick baby makes for a very tired Mommy (and now a sick one!).

Christmas Madness!

Brayden's first Christmas was great!! And by great, I mean absolutely-fan-freaking-tastic!! We got to see so many family members and celebrate Christmas THREE times...yep, three times people! That's a whole lotta Christmas!
To begin our holiday festivities, we received a package from Brayden's Sittie (Chance's mom) and put all the presents under our Christmas tree! It made our tree look even more beautiful. Then came Christmas Eve where we ventured over to my parent's house to spend the night. My parents definitely had a house-full because not only did the three of us sleep there, so did Samantha and Mike! It was so fun for us all to be there to celebrate together Christmas morning. (For those of you that don't know, my sister and I have spent the night at my parents house every year, except last year, and we have always slept in the same bed.) Anyways, on Christmas Eve, my dad always gives us girls our first present which is always matching pajamas for us to wear that night. (They are so cute!!) We put those babies on and then it was time for bed.
On Christmas morning, we all walked down the hallway together as my parents videotaped everything....just like we have been doing since I can remember. We went straight to the stockings while Brayden went down for his morning nap! After the stockings were opened and the lottery tickets were scratched, we headed to the kitchen to make some much-needed coffee and I had to make my breakfast roll. We decided to just hang out for a bit because Brayden was sleeping and I wanted him to be awake for the presents. Finally I actually went in to wake Brayden up so we could get things rolling for the day. We opened all of our presents and everyone got spoiled!! Brayden got so many cool toys and obviously super cute clothes! I am completely excited about my Crock Pot, Bundt pan, and bissell sweep and steam! I guess I am officially a wife and mom when I ask for very practical gifts(and am actually excited about it!).
After opening all of our fantastic gifts, we headed back to the kitchen for our breakfast. My mom makes a mean breakfast casserole and we each made a breakfast roll. To say the least, our Christmas breakfast was amazing!
Finally, it was time to go over to my grandparent's house for our big family Christmas celebration. Things were comical as usual! We got to spend time with our whole family (on my mom's side anyways) and eat another amazing meal and once again, Brayden got spoiled when we opened presents!
To say the very least, we had such an amazing Christmas and I can't wait for next year. Brayden obviously does not grasp the concept of Christmas yet and I know he won't next year either but by next year he will at least be excited to open presents and actually rip into them himself!
Here is my massive photo collection from the holiday festivities! Enjoy!

Our beautiful tree!

Loves his Grandma!

So excited!!

Ready for Santa!

Our cute PJ's!

Early morning nap

Ready to open presents

Ripping into it!

A new toy!!

And a new bouncer!!

Hanging with Daddy!

GiGi and GiGiPa!!

The bouncer wasn't the easiest thing to put together!

Finished product!

He loves it...despite that facial expression!

Spending time with cousins!

Feeding time with Momma!

The whole family!