White Oak Park with Daddy

We've been counting down the days for Nate coming to visit. When he got home last night, Braelinn went crazy! We decided to go to a new park that just opened up down the road from our house since the weather was beautiful today (nearly 70 degrees!). The kids had so much fun. The park equiptment looks like a farm. Here's Braelinn on the section shaped like a tractor.

Here she is blowing bubbles in front of the barn playground. I love this picture because it looks like the bubble's popping on her nose.

Here is the rock wall that she climbed to the top of by herself....

Here's one of my favorite pictures...kisses for Daddy.

Danen had so much fun playing on the little bulldozer for babies. He loved this slide!!
We had a lot of fun playing with Daddy and are so excited that he will be able to visit next weekend also since he gets an extra day off. The last month has seemed very long, so we'll take advantage of our short weekends.

Danen's 1st Birthday!!

Okay. I know I've won the Worst Mom of the Year award, but I promise there is a good excuse as to why this has taken soooo long to get on our blog. The night of Danen's birthday party, I tried to get all of this posted, but our internet was down. The next day Nate left for Brunswick to start his federal agent's school and I haven't had a computer. So here we are.

Two weeks late but just as adorable.

On New Year's Eve, Danen's 1st birthday, we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's house to have a small get-together. Uncle John, Aunt Jamie, and Aidan came back up to get their Christmas presents, so they were able to celebrate with us. Grandma made a cake which Danen LOVED.Then we opened John and Jamie's present. It was a bowling set that moos. Danen had so much fun knocking over the pins.

Then on Saturday, January 3rd, we had his official 1st birthday party. The theme was sports' balls. It turned out being very small as well. (We're going to have to time it before or between football play-off games from now on.) As an experienced cake-eater now, Danen knew exactly what to do...

One of his favorite presents of the day was a popazon chair he got from Grandpa and Grandma. He almost fell asleep sitting in it.

He has been enjoying all of his presents. Trust me, I know; I clean them up all day long. So thank you to everyone for coming and participating in Danen's 1st birthday!

Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone had as much fun as we did. We started the morning out at our house opening presents from Santa and each other. We were very blessed this year to get everything we did.

Brealinn was very excited to get started. She was so grateful for even the smallest things (lip gloss, for example). It was so fun to watch her open her presents. Her two most favorite things were a Tinkerbell tent from Santa and a Taylor Swift CD from her dad. Danen was hilarious. He was done before he really started. We opened his stocking, and he found a clementine. All he wanted to do from then on was throw it like a ball. We could have skipped his presents altogether. He favorite thing was a tunnel to crawl through from Santa.

After we finished up at home, we went to Nate's parents' house to open presents with them and Jamie's family. Braelinn got a lot of great things. She has been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz this year, so Grandpa and Grandma got her a Dorothy doll.

Danen, once again, was happy with the first thing he got. It was a police car from Grandpa and Grandma. You might say that Nate had even more fun with it.

We also went to my grandparent's house on Saturday, ate together, and opened presents. Braelinn got a doggie she can stuff (like Build-a-Bear) at home that goes with a toy Santa got her, and Danen got the loudest drums and musical toys ever.

IT"S A GIRL!!!!

We found out today the baby is a GIRL. We were really worried about finding out before Nate left for school. My appointment was scheduled for Jan. 2nd, and Nate is leaving on the 4th. The doctor's office called saying the sonographer needed to reschedule for the 6th. We were so sad Nate was going to miss out. So Nate asked his friend, who's a sonographer, if she could do it for us on Dec. 20th. She said yes, and we were all set. Well, today, I had to go in for routine bloodwork, and my sonographer fit me in! Nate raced up to the doctor's office, in uniform and all, and we found out today. We actually had her put the gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope, so we could open it with family to find out. It was the cutest ever when Braelinn opened the envelope and squealed, "It's a girl!" She's so excited except she really wants the name to be "Snow White." Anyways. We just wanted to get the word out to all of our family and friends. We love you all.

The TWILIGHT Adventure

Last night was so much fun!!!! Although my body is feeling it a little more than it used to, we had a lot of fun partying until the wee hours of the morning. We've been looking forward to this night for months. Twilight came out at midnight last night, and a big group of us from Church went to see it. I think there were 19 of us altogether. Jenny, Kasey, and I rode together. We all enjoyed it very much. Of course, if you've read the book, nothing can compare or live up to the "Edward" of your dreams, but the story was portrayed well. There were some corny parts, but who cares? It was a great girl's (and boy's) night out. Thanks for the fun, Ladies!

Halloween fun...

Halloween night was a lot of fun. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood to go
Trick-or-Treating. Braelinn really had fun. Danen was just ready to get out of the cold. Next year we are definitely taking a wagon.... Danen was a lion. RRRoaarrrrr. He did a great job snuggling up in the stroller to keep warm.

Braelinn was the beautiful Princess Aurora, but no one got to see her outfit because it was so cold. And yes, she walked in the heels the WHOLE time.

Braelinn's 4th Birthday

Okay. I know it's taken forever to put up the new pics., but I said from the very beginning I would have problems. Anyway. Here are the pictures from Braelinn's birthday. Her present this year was to go to Disney on Ice. She really enjoyed it!!We decided to have her party at the park this year since I was not feeling up to hosting. It was a lot easier, and I think everyone had a great time.

Here is one of the only pictures I got. Nate got stung by a bee, so he was incapacitated. Luckily, my friend, Jenny, got some good shots. The wind was blowing so strong, she almost didn't get to blow out the candles.