Destin

A few weeks ago we spent a week at the beach with our good friends Lisa and LJ. Emma (who is 3 years old) and Braylin get along great and had a fun time together. The weather was beautiful, no oil in sight, the girls made the week a blast, and the adults had a great time! We can hardly wait for another vacation with them. I'm not a good writer, so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Oh how we loved the water!!!

The girls heading out to the waves

At Gulfarium

Bubbles...always a favorite

The guys and Their girls

Emma teaching Braylin how to listen to seashells

Me and Lisa in the kayak -- We made it out to the school of dolphins that had been swimming up and down the beach all day! Unfortunately the guys didn't get a picture with the dolphins behind us. Figures...

Summer time update

Oh the things Braylin surprises us with now! I've been meaning to write them down since it's taking me forever to post updates on here, so I'm probably going to have to come back and add them as I remember them!

She is repeating EVERYTHING... from cute little words like "thank you", "love you", "please", etc... to phrases like "go fool" after hearing her mama say it to the idiot in the car in front who would not pull out into the traffic. We are certainly having to watch what all we say around here!

It has been such fun buying girl clothes for this summer! Last summer she spent most of her time in onesies or little cotton cuties. Now, she loves wearing play clothes and dresses. And swimsuits!!! And flipflops!!! And sandals!!! Every morning after getting dress she pats her head and says "bow" until I put one in... only to remove it as soon as she realizes it's on her head.

Oh how we love naming everyone! Mention one name and the listing has begun... "mimi" "pop-pop" "izz-izz" (my parents dog)... over and over and over. The other day I told her we were pulling up to JC Penneys and the listing began again (because Jay's parents dog is named Penny)... "ott" "poppi" "pop" "matt" "penny" "ott" "ott" "ott" (we love our uncle scott, can you tell?). Mentioning Aunt Jen starts "ray" "ray" "ray"... "jen" and "tay-tay" come after MANY repeats of "ray". :)

Braylin LOVED cake aftering tasting Mama's 29th birthday cake. Yes, I'm getting closer to 30. Lets move on to another topic...

Still slowly-but-surely remodeling the house. Almost finished with the kitchen and then onto the master bath and bedroom. Jay is working so hard on all of it! I must admit... going five years without a dish washer and an indoor utility room has made me thoroughly enjoy dirtying dishes and doing laundry! I LOVE my dishwasher!!! And not having to go outside to my washer/dryer is heaven. Who would've thought.

Ok, here's a few pictures. Gotta go finish dinner and get ready for a work day tomorrow. This must be the time of year to have babies because the labor unit has been booming! More updates to come soon! Surely I can update sometime before we go to the beach!

Celebrating Mama's birthday

A fun day shopping at the Boardwalk. Braylin had fun watching the turtles climb the rocks on the riverbank.

Playing in the backyard... She could LIVE out there. It's always a battle getting her to go back inside.

Saying cheese ("teese") for the camera

Braylin apparently inherited her Aunt Jen's fashion sense. After pointing to these shoes in the store and practically yelling/repeating "soos", I let her play with these while I shopped for some sandals I thought she could wear easier. Upon taking the shoes away from her, we had a little meltdown and mama gave in... the shoes came home and what do you know?!? She can wear them without any trouble even with the thong between her toes!

She still loves bathtime (even if her tub is brown and Mama can hardly wait to replace it with a new fresh white one) and eating the bubble bath.

A Random Grouping of Updates....

Packing and moving....exciting once it's done! We are officially moved into our new house. It's still a work in progress since we are trying to remodel a good bit of it, but we are having a lot of fun with it. Looks like the kitchen will be finished in the next week or so and then on to the bathrooms!

Easter: Braylin attempted to hunt Easter eggs, though she much preferred pulling them OUT of her basket. Had a fun day getting to see both of her cousins!

Showing us what a fish does... she loves making this face when she wants goldfish, sees a fish, hears the word fish... Looks like we're going to need a pet fish pretty soon.

Still one of her favorite times of the day... bathtime!

Emma's 3rd birthday party at the petting zoo / farm. Thank goodness Jay was there to help out because Braylin couldn't get to the animals fast enough. As soon as her feet hit the ground she would head towards whatever animal was in sight. We had a great time!

First sip from a straw! Success!

Updates......

Trying my best to update this blog but can't get our internet up and running... Oh the joys of moving. Hoping to post some badly needed updates by Monday!


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Quick update...

I'm a total blogger slacker lately. Here's a quick quick quick update to hold you over....

Bought a larger house... so excited... been busy selling our house... luckily sold in 1 week!.... our new house will be a total remodeling project so busy busy picking out appliances and things for it... trying to pack to be out of here in a few weeks... busy working... Braylin's a load of fun and keeping us on our toes!...

I'm posting a few pictures and will be back to update you soon on everything! Here's Braylin in her Elton John sunglasses (spent the day outside -- so excited Spring is here!!!), and Braylin modeling her swimsuit prior to her first Water Babies class last week. We had so much fun!

Braylin's first snow

It has been snowing since 8:00 this morning and has yet to let up! We have large trees all around us, but we managed to find one part of the backyard that collected some snow.

Birthday Party

We had a wonderful time celebrating Braylin's 1st birthday! Here's a few pictures from her party. We had hotdogs for lunch, watched (helped) Braylin open her gifts, and then had cupcakes and cake for dessert. She did great, and we left with a bundle of gifts!

Uncle Ray, Aunt Jennifer, and Taylor

Aunt Kasey, Poppi, and Bryce

Opening presents

Showing Humpty Dumpty to Dada

1 year ago today....

Happy 1st Birthday Braylin! One year ago today I woke up at 2:00 am contracting.... nine hours later I was on the labor unit... and at 8:07 pm our 8lb 3oz, 20inch baby was born! One week earlier than we expected, our little chunky sweetheart was here.

I can't believe how fast the past year has gone by. She has brought so much joy to our lives, and we are looking forward to seeing the changes she'll make over the next year to come! Such an exciting time!

A few things she's doing....
-- walking on her own
-- crawls with her feet on ground and bootie in the air
-- saying "woof" at a dog, pointing at EVERYTHING, saying dak dak at a duck, uh-oh, oh-boy, daint for Saints, ball, bowl, ba-ba for baby
-- eating big-people food
-- drinking whole milk
-- loves to swing and rock
-- kisses when you ask for one
-- loves to blow a kiss
-- loves to clap her hands
-- I'll add more as I think of them....

Started off her birthday morning like this:


Reading the Birthday Monsters book from Taylor, Aunt Jen & Uncle Ray

Pictures...