Growing Like Weeds

BRAYDEN

He is a huge help to us! It is hard for me to believe he will be seven this summer. Right now he is in the process of losing teeth so check out the gaps. He lost his top middle tooth in a strange way. He was hit with a swing at school and that made it so loose I figured it would fall right out. It was hanging in there at some weird angles and it held on for a good week. He is getting ready to lose the other top middle one so then he will have a huge hole.

He loves the outdoors! We have been getting some very pleasant days here recently and the kids just want to be outside. Who can blame them! The only problem is that it looks nice out but it still doesn't feel that great out there. The kids believe that if it looks nice out it is time to get sandals and shorts and we aren't even close to that type of weather. I did give in one afternoon and allowed them to play outside for a little while.

KAYTLIN

Kaytlin is definately a tough girl. She stands up for herself and knows exactly what she wants. If only we could channel that to not include temper tantrums when she doesn't get exactly what she wants! She likes to see how far she can go before she gets into trouble! Baby toys around here aren't just for babies...

She got caught and then she felt very proud of herself. I had a hard time not laughing about this so I had to get a picture! Let's just say she had a hard time getting out of this predicament.

She wants in on any activity that doesn't include her. I was taking pictures of Alayna and Kaytlin insisted on it as well. I thought they turned out half decent even!

She even enjoyed the great outdoors the day they played outside!

Her hair is getting super long and check our her eyelashes! Personally, I think being three agrees with her! She is certainly one cute girl!

ALAYNA

She is growing the fastest to me. She is coming up on eight months of age and is so fun! She loves Brayden and he can usually get her to giggle lots. When she doesn't like something we can certainly tell! As always I couldn't just choose a few pictures!

 You can make her day when giving her something new to play with  instead of her toys. She loves bowls, paper, silverware, and just about anything else she can get to her mouth. I gave her this blue bowl in the pictures and she was in heaven. I once gave her a laminated bookmark and lets just say there wasn't much left when I checked on her a few minutes later.

 This is my favorite picture of her! It was almost like she hadn't seen a camera before or something!

 When she wears this outfit I like to call her my little red riding hood! She likes it because the hat is so huge she can turn her face and eat it.

She has just learned that when she is sitting on the floor and something is just out of reach she can flop over onto her belly and reach whatever she was going after. It is quite comical to watch her and then seeing the pure joy on her face once she gets what she wants. She hasn't figured out how to roll over yet and she HATES being on her belly so shortly after getting the object she was after she just cries.

She doesn't have any teeth yet but is working on them. I don't know who is more excited for teeth, her or me. When she gets some teeth she can then eat more things because the way it is now she just stares us down until we feel guilty for eating in front of her and get her something she can have. I found some hard crackers that she can gnaw on and eventually they disappear.

Enjoy this video and we hope it makes your day!

Alayna 6 Months Old

Alayna is getting so big and so much more active! She can now grab onto things most especially hair... just ask Kaytlin! She laughs and giggles at our funny antics and she jabbers like she is carrying on conversations with us! She loves eating! Oatmeal with Bananna's is her favorite cereal and she is still undecided about the veggies and fruit! So far she enjoys applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, peas and pears. We are still trying to get her to enjoy the other things such as carrots and apricots. She certainly loves veggies more than fruits which is surprising! She isn't quite rolling over yet but I expect it any day! When she has a full belly and a clean diaper she is the most amazing little girl full of happiness! If only I could package up her laughs and giggles for you to enjoy with us!

She loves playing too! Anthony, Mandy and Mason came up to celebrate Mason's first birthday and Alayna just watched him. An interesting fact- They currently wear the same size clothes.

Brayden and Kaytlin both love holding her and playing with her until she grabs hair then the games are over. Brayden would hold her all day if I let him and sometimes she doesn't mind at all.

She is a very good sitter. Sometimes she needs help but she is getting stronger everyday. She enjoys rubbing the carpet and trying to eat it most likely because it is a new texture for her.

She is starting to chew on everything so my guess would be teeth may make an appearance in the next few months! Her fingers are always in her mouth which means her clothes are always drenched with drool!

 I am finally able to upload all the videos that have been taken of Alayna up to this point. Enjoy! This first one was when she was two months old approximately.

In this video Brayden and Alayna were playing ball and she thought it was so funny. She is 4 1/2 months old here during the Christmas season!

This video is when she was learning to make new sounds! If she talks like this now I think I have a good idea of how talkative she will be when she gets older. YIKES! She was 5 1/2 months in this video!

She is certainly growing fast and learning so many new things. I hope you enjoyed!

Happy Birthday Kaytlin

January was such a fun month for us! The first big change was that Kaytlin now has her own bedroom! No more sharing with Brayden and talking and laughing with each other well into the night. I figured she would have a hard time adjusting to being by herself in the dark but that never happened!

Kaytlin turned three! It is kind of hard for me to think she is getting so big! Three years passed so quickly and in some regards I wish it hadn't sped by. She is so helpful and tolerant with us as parents and with her siblings.She is all girl! She loves trying on shoes, dressing up, doing her hair, and helping mommy with everyday chores. We can always count on her to do what is asked and to do it with a smile on her face. I recently asked Brayden to put his laundry away that I just got done folding and he said "No I don't want to" and then I preceeded to have Kaytlin do hers and she comes running...which sometimes prompts Brayden to do what is asked!

At her birthday party we had Strawberry Shortcake which was super yummy. Many of our family members came to celebrate with us. 

She got some cute outfits also.

Her favorite gift of all was a dance outfit that she wears around the house most everyday.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Christmas 2010

Preparing for Christmas

While everyone put the tree together I took pictures! I just love watching the kids enjoy the whole process! The time spent with daddy is also a bonus!

While they worked on the tree Alayna was busy too!This was while the tree was going up and I loved her expression here! It almost makes me think she was the one in charge!





Christmas Morning

Kaytlin was the first up and she woke Brayden up. It wasn't to early either!

Alayna even got into the action Christmas morning.

Brayden trying to put together his train track even using directions... I was impressed because most adults refuse to use directions anymore! We got it together and realized we didn't have the right batteries for it so he had to wait!

A few weeks before Christmas we went to my neice Cadance's dance performance and ever since Kaytlin pretends she has a costume on and dances around the room! I caught this picture of her dancing in Grandma's living room on Christmas. I am thinking it is about time to put her in dance, tumbling or something because she seems to have pretty good posture here!

Josh got a mystery gift! Can you guess what it would be? Whenever I take his picture he sticks his tongue out and I constantly remind him this will be on our blog but he still does it! Back to that gift... he got two large clamps for his workshop!

Kaytlin got a few outfits that she had to try on right away. She loves playing dress up and will layer several times to get everything on.

Alayna loved it! She just liked to hold onto the wrapping paper and watch what everyone else was doing!

Another outfit for Kaytlin she had to try on! It was so cute too! She sure pulls the cutest faces!

Got *~BLING~* ?

She does! Grandma sent her a whole container of rings and she was not satisfied having just one on she had to have them all!

Alayna is just a happy little girl! There isn't much time that she isn't smiling or giggling at someone's antics... usually Brayden's!

We hope your holidays were fabulous! Good Luck on your New Year's Resolutions!

Happy Halloween 2010

We hope you all had a safe and fun halloween this year and don't get to sick from all the candy you will consume in the next month! We went to a corn maze last Wednesday and they had a bucket train the kids enjoyed riding on! Kaytlin seemed to do ok until her feet got wet.

Brayden loved the whole idea! He was running ahead of us in the maze to tell us where to go next! If I could contain his energy I would never get tired watching him!
This was after we went through the maze before we did the train. Josh wasn't to thrilled that I brought the camera so every picture we took he had his tongue sticking out!

I asked another maze goer if they would take our picture all together.

Here is Kaytlin showing off her new Halloween bow her Aunt made her.

Brayden was Mario for Halloween which was a very popular costume this year!

Kaytlin chose to be Elmo! I purchased this costume for Brayden a few years back and he refused to wear it so I just put it in our Halloween box to keep for another child. I went and got the box out to get buckets and costumes figured out for the kids and Kaytlin got so excited to see Elmo she decided it was all hers this year!

Last but not least Alayna got in on the action as well! Some of you may remember when Brayden was a baby he wore the frog costume so I got it back out for Alayna. She managed to sleep through most of the activities we went to but at least she was warm when I carried her around! I am just looking forward to next year when she is walking with the other kids! Bye October Welcome November