Gimme Five Minutes!

I don't know who taught Braedan this, but now when he needs to go poo, he tells us "Gimme 5 minutes" and goes off someplace to do his business! It's pretty funny. We always try to get him on the potty, but he's not quite there yet.

It's hard to believe it is mid November already, and we are down to ONE month until Baby Girl is due! We've still got lots to get done, but I did pack my bag last night after I started having some painful Braxton-Hicks that felt closer to the real deal. Luckily, after laying on my side, they went away. She must let me get through finals!!! ;-) I'm almost there!

November 1st Elizabeth Vernon Bell, Leila Nadel Bressler, and my sisters hosted a very nice baby shower for me. Sadly, I have not downloaded or shared any of the pictures yet! It was a lovely day, I'm behind on my pictures and my thank you cards, but so appreciative of the outpouring of love and generiosity! We are very close to having everything we need for BG, and we are just about ready for her arrival! Like I said, must make it through finals! Tell me if this sounds like fun... between now and the 2nd week of December I have to complete: a 12 page paper, a 15-20 page paper, read and review a book (2-3 page paper) and two final exams! Wahoo! Plus, get my work project squared away for my 12 weeks out! I will be so ready to relax!! let's hope BGB is a good sleeper with no colic or feeding problems!!!

Braedan seems to have gotten over his love of Bob The Builder and has moved on to Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. He has the toys and he takes Buzz and Woody with him everywhere! He is in a phase where he is very possessive about everything - for example, we were at Nathan Sansonetti's first Birthday party last weekend, and when Lindsay Johnson (Karen J's) daughter arrived, he went right up to her and said "MY milk cup!" like he was concerned she was going to take it away. I'm not sure if that's normal for the stage, or if it's because he knows something is up and is starting to get concerned about a little girl taking his stuff?? Who knows, but we're working on sharing skills!

He continually amuses us with the funny things that come out of his mouth. Now when he responds in the affirmative to a question, he says "sure, sure!" And in the negative "no way Jose!"

Jeff stays busy with work, school two nights a week, and football and basketball games at USC. His friend Chris came down last weekend and they went to the USC season opener for Basketball on Friday night, and then on Saturday to the USC/FL football game. I gave up my tickets, knowing I'm not a very good tailgating partner right now!

Looking forward to the Thanksgiving break next week. Darrin, Dena, Tanner, and Chloe are coming up for turkey day, and mom, Gayle and Andrea will join us for dinner on Thursday. My favorite holiday! yay!

More updates and photos when I download my next group of pictures!

Happy Halloween!

Braedan will be Bob the Builder this year - his favorite! This is a pic of him in the practice round the other night. We'll get more pics tonight and post soon!

Happy Halloween! Braedan has perfected "Trick or Treat" and is ready to go looking for candy! :-)

First trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

This is the first year we've ever gone to pick out a pumpkin from one of the patch's. Braedan enjoyed himself, and we got a great pumpkin!

2.5 years old on Oct 10th!

My sweet child... 30 months old on October 10th, and growing like a weed!

Updates to the house - new floors!

Well, this is now over a month old,but we had the carpets pulled out and hardwoods put in throughout the living room and hallways. We are very pleased with the updated look! Little by little, we are making this the perfect house! :-)

Before:



After:

Party for the Maas's

Saturday we hosted a get together for my long time friend Mara, and her husband Kevin and their son David. They live in Chicago and were in town for the weekend, so it was lucky that it worked out on a weekend that almost the entire high school crew was able to come spend the afternoon/evening together. Quite a different experience with all of the children, but we had a really good time. The weather was terrible and all of the kids were trapped in the house, but a tent that Jeff set up in the nursery provided quite a bit of entertainment for them! David (also two) arrived asleep, and managed to sleep for almost another hour on Braedan's bed, even though Braedan did his best to try to wake him up! We got some great pics of all of us and our children.



New Buddies:

Happy 6 Year Anniversary to Us!

Well it was actually yesterday, Oct. 18th. We had some pics taken on the horseshoe, and they turned out so lovely. (Thanks Karen!!)






It wasn't the most "exciting" of anniversaries, but we did have a really nice family day, and soon, our family will be different so it was very nice to be just the three of us. I made breakfast of scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls, and then Braedan and I went to church. After church Jeff and I exchanged gifts. I got a new video camera that I can directly upload videos to You tube or DVDs so that I can easily send out and capture videos (and more easily put them on my blog!!!) I was pretty excited about that. I don't know why Jeff spent so much money on me - I got him a gift card and a book and some exfoliation mask (he loves that stuff!!) but I guess the camera is something we can both enjoy, so that's cool. After lunch the three of us went to the Horse Shoe on Campus (which is where Rutledge Chapel is, where Jeff and I were married) and we had some family pics and some pics of Braedan taken. It's been at least a year since we've had any professional pictures taken... I hope at least one of the family pics turns out well! If so, you'll be seeing it in your Christmas letters! :-)

After the picture session (done by my long time friend Karen Johnson, photographybyKarenJohnson@yahoo.com) we came home, took care of some stuff around the house, and then loaded up and went to the Zoo for the "Boo at the Zoo" and watched Braedan run around and dance and trick or treat and have a good time with Will and their friend Haley. It was fun and very cute. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted. It was a really fun family day.

We decided a few weeks ago that rather than wasting the money to go out to a nice restaurant that I probably wouldn't even be able to truly enjoy at this stage, that we would like to have a nice family time. We have so little time left with just Braedan, and with the craziness of life lately, we don't get a lot of good quality, family time. I'm glad that's how we spent our day, even if it is far from a romantic way to spend the day! Six years and 1.5 children down... I'm sure this next year is going to fly!

I'll be posting pics, videos, and more info from this weekend (we also hosted a get together for Mara and Kevin and David while they were in town this weekend which was a lot of fun) once I get them all uploaded/downloaded!

Too cute not to capture

I just constantly get a kick out of things Braedan is saying and doing these days. He catches on to things so quickly. I love it, when we are getting a meal prepared he'll say "mmmm, smells Nice!!! It's wunch time!!" Some days he eats great, other days not so much, but he's enthusiastic about it either way! he's finally getting to the stage that we can manipulate him... ie, tell him if he eats ONE green bean, he'll get his "candy" - which, by the way, is a flinstone vitamin that he just thinks is the best. The other night, he ate one, then wound up eating all of his green beans and was very happy to receive his reward - a multi vitamin CANDY!!!

One of his favorite Disney characters is Handy Manny and his tools - a cute little hispanic guy who is a handy man and carries around his little red toolbox with all of his talking tools. Braedan has a Handy Manny toolbox and tools, that he takes everywhere with him. Last night, Jeff (handy Jeff) was fixing our door to the laundry room. Of course, Braedan insisted on helping. But what cracked both of us up is that he said: "Braedan helping! Get Handy Braedan's toolbox!" We laughed. Handy Braedan.

Too cute.

Other fun things he says:

(like his cousin Jacob) - "oh man!"

He says "excuse me" and sometimes "excuse me people!" that one always cracks me up!

Love you!

Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy! (Hi anyone!) He'll point at me and say "That one's Braedan's mommy!" Or "That one's Braedan's daddy!"

Braedan helping!!!! (he wants to help do everything!)

And our favorite of late - he has started to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

My big boy Braedan

September 18, 2009

And like the blink of an eye, another 15 days have passed! We had a great visit with my dad and with Charlotte and Rodolphe. The time went by very quickly, but we had a nice trip to Charleston, we visited the Columbia Zoo, and we had several family dinners, including a birthday celebration for dad's 69th birthday.

Here are just a few pics from their visits:







Since then, life has been go-go-go some more! Jeff and I are both back in school two nights per week, I've made several trips to Charleston for work and will be going to a conference in the upstate at the end of the month. Football season has started, and we are enjoying watching the Gamecocks win some and lose some, but overall, looking better than last year!

Braedan just continues chattering away. He loves to play in the "backlard" especially now that it isn't quite so hot. Bob the Builder and crew are still his very favorite toys, and he loves playing with all of the different tractors, diggers, cranes, etc. He has such a great imagination. I enjoy watching him play! He still hates to sleep, but last night, for the first time in I don't know how long, Braedan slept through the night, so we were all a little less crabby this morning! I hope that becomes a trend!

We had a small scare that I might have gestational diabetes after I failed the one hour glucola test, but thankfully, the 3 hour test came back normal. Baby girl is a very active baby and moves around somewhat violently sometimes, but it's nice to feel her moving regularly and I hope this is a sign that she is very healthy.

Tomorrow is the first Home Game. Jeff is playing in a golf tournament this weekend, so I'll be taking Robin with me. IT should be a good time. Braedan will get some good bonding time with Grandma Sue, who has been jetsetting again lately, and he's missed her!

Til next time.