blessed

As I check on Brayden one last time tonight, and have to fight to tear my eyes away from his beautiful little face, and make my way to my warm bed, stepping over our large black breathing bear rug to snuggle up to my sweet wonderful husband, I just think how incredibly lucky I am. Even if our house never sells, if we never move, if life just stays just like it is right now, I couldn't possibly ever ask for more. And I had to write it down before I get caught up in the heartburn of selling and interviewing and references and forget again. I am so blessed and I really do feel like "His favorite".

And now we even have a doctor in the family. Congratualtions Dr. Earp!

Are you kidding me?

Today, as Brayden went down for his peaceful little nap, mommy decided to get a little peace herself and do some yoga. Five minutes into the session, the phone rings and it is the realtor. "Would you mind if the house was shown in an hour? I know you guys want a two hour notice, but they are in the neighborhood..." As I surveyed my surroundings I said "okay, but I gotta go then!" and took off like a tornado through the house. We have it down to a system now and we work from one end of the house to the other. Aren't you supposed to be able to let your house go when you have a baby for crying out loud? That is exactly what I was thinking as I was frantically tearing through the house, fluffing and folding, vaccumming and dusting, wiping windows of nose smears and wondering if the potential buyers will notice the litter box that I wasn't going to clean.

Brayden slept through most of my running and ramming around the house and woke up about 15 minutes before Griz and us two humans had to be out the door. Thank God for that mobile that keeps him happy! I loaded him up into his car seat and gently as I could, locked him in place, threw the leash in, called Grizzly, loaded him up and backed out the driveway with two seconds to spare. As I pulled over to the side of the road to catch my breath and figure out what to do with my carload, I realized Brayden was talking to Grizzly in the back. It was very cute. And almost redeemed Grizzly for the rest of his behavior. I decided Bailey needed to be fed, so as long as we were in the car, that is what we would do.

We drove out to the barn, splashing through huge puddles of melting snow (we just had no less than 17 inches of snow-happy birthday to me!). The barn area was really sloppy and Grizzly gives the horses a really hard time, so I decided he had to stay in the car. Well, if Grizzly was staying, Brayden wasn't. I picked Brayden out of his seat, wrapped his cute little self up in a blanket and opened the back door to lock Grizzly's leash in so he couldn't jump around the car. Then I left Brayden's car door open and we crossed the few muddy feet to the barn. I unlocked the barn and turned around just in time to see my 110 pound black ball of fur step into the baby's car seat and start to whine to be let out. As red filled up my field of vision, I clenched my teeth (not wanting to yell with the baby in my arms) and quietly threatend his life if he didn't get back into his part of the Xterra. I am not sure how he heard me, but he stopped whinning and got out of the teeny tiny little car seat and back into his own, much larger section of the car.

When Brayden and I were done throwing hay (Bailey was not impressed Brayden), we tearfully loaded back into the car and I checked the time...to the unmistakable sound of a diaper over filling. We had 10 minutes left before we could go back to the house. Now Brayden was really crying (who likes to sit in poop?) and Grizzly was trying to lick us as I sat in the back seat contemplating my options. We were going back to the house. I got Brayden quieted down and locked into his seat and then I put the car in gear and rolled out while I lectured my two and a half year old dog on being a good boy. Actually, I asked him why, just once, couldn't he just behave? He turned around and laid down so I couldn't see him anymore.

We passed by the house and no one was there, so we went back and pulled into the garage. Grizzly went out and I brought Brayden in, dropping my muddy, muck covered pants at the door. I grabbed clean pants and began changing the blow out on the baby, just as I heard a knock on the door. I thought: no way, you must be kidding me. Knowing that if I didn't answer the door the realtor and potential buyer would just use the lock box and open the door, I drug my half naked baby to the door and opened it. The realtor said "oh, you beat us here...we took some extra time at the last house, but we are here now." After a long pause I said "We can leave again if you want" in a tightly controlled voice (we had already been gone for an hour after rushing to get out with a 45 minute notice). The realtor looked at the potential buyer and he thankfully didn't care that we were there. As I headed off to clothe my child I told them to make themselves at home and then rushed out to calm Grizz, who was now completely nuts at the two strange men in the house, and no Jeremiah to protect me and the baby. When they finally left, they stood outside in the street (they never came out to the back yard...I wonder why?) for what seemed like an eternity, oblivious to me standing behind the curtians shaking my fist at them.

Gee, I wonder if we will get an offer?

Here are some pictures from this week (when things were much calmer).

Mobiles

When Brayden goes to bed before 8pm, the nights are a little bit rough.

So we decided to try to keep him awake.

Normally we do that by taking a walk.

Seeing as it is snowing, and 7 inches are expected,

tonight we read a book.

And for a little while, it worked.

Then I remembered how much he loved the

mobile from his pack and play

(which, coincidentally, has the same freinds as the swing).

so we dug it out and tried it!

He was WIDE awake for quite a while,

kicking his little feet to ask for more when the

spinner stopped spinning his freinds around.

Peanut loves when we try these shenanigans!

It actually worked so well, we had to move it out from over his crib to get him to go to sleep!

Too bad we bought another stupid mechanical lights and songs and showy mobile. I had searched everywhere for a mobile that was less then $40, and not lights and songs. Too bad I didn't just look in the pack and play!

You just never know what you are going to find...

I always keep the camera in Brayden's diaper bag. That way, we never miss an opportunity for a great picture. Like this week for example, as we were passing Western Ranch Supply on errands, we saw...camels!

This is Katie. She is an Asian camel.

This is Winter. And I wanted Brayden's picture with her, but wasn't sure how to get it myself. So I asked the camel guy to take our picture with her. He obliged, but then the wind started blowing and when I was trying to get my hair out of my face he snapped the picture (I didn't want to ask for another one). Besides-Brayden didn't seem to thrilled (zoom in on his face!).

We also went swimming in the Warm Pool.

Brayden is an excellent swimmer!

We belive he could easily beat Micheal Phelps in

the 50 freestyle.

But we also think that when he is tired and fussing he says

"night-night" and "mama" and "dadda" and that

when Daddy is holding his hands that he walks around the living room.

He also says "hi", but of couse doesn't know what any of that means.

We love his babbles!

Right after we went swimming, he was pretty tuckered out!

Brayden also discovered flying this last week.

He really seems to enjoy drooling on us!

I love that little butt!

The Tooth Fairy commeth...

Well, this week, Brayden began to really, really suck on his little hands in addition to an increase in drool. After careful inspection, we noticed the some signs of the Tooth Fairy at work. Brayden is teething. And he is pretty good about it. Except when I was trying to get him to go to sleep (after an interupted nap for a showing), he dropped his pacifier, couldn't get his thumb and decided to suck on my arm (I thought I might lose it to him!!). He left quite the mark!

And just in case you are wondering-those mustaches from the

last post are not actually on us!

They are stickers on the picture, not the baby!!

Facing Forward

Happy Easter! This was a big week in our household. Our beautiful little red house on top of the hill officially went on the market. We have had 5 showings in three days and keeping the house this clean and organized (with the spring shedding dog and cat) isn't the exhausting part. It is the being gone during the showing. We get a two hour notice, which is really nice, and then we pack up the dog and the baby (Peanut gets to stay) and head out; the only issue is that it throws Brayden's nap schedule off so he doesn't sleep and gets over tired...and that is the hard part! Other then that, he remains his happy, smiley, wiggely, fast growing self, and we can't imagine life without the joy that he surprises us with every day (and back to middle of the night!).

We went to the Faith Center for church this morning and after the first half hour of joyfulness (Brayden was VERY surprised by the applause) his eyes shut inspite of himself and he slept through the rest of the service and brunch at Perkins. (His onsie says "mommies little jelly bean"!)

After church we put the camera on the timer and took just a little too long. It was time to eat (five seconds before the timer went off, he was sleeping), and that is why you don't see Griz and Peanut.

Some of our neighbors have fantastic decorations for every holiday. When we were out for our walk, we snapped a quick picture-hope they don't mind (or at least, didn't notice!).

And also this week, Brayden began facing forward himself. In the front pack/Baby Bjorn, Brayden was happy to watch the house get a few last minute touch ups from chest height. He loves to be part of his world!

On a Wing and A Prayer

This past week, Brayden and I took one last trip. I had a second interview in Minnesota, so he and I packed up and parted from Daddy one more time. This time, we even had some company. Kayla and her little six week old dolly came with us. And all I can say is thank God, because there were some very blizzardy parts of the trip! Our first day of travel was clear and bright and just as it got dark, the roads started to get questionable. We stopped at a hotel for the night and called it quits.

The second day we had white out conditions, so we did everything in the car.

We ate in the car...

We changed diapers in the car...

We kept hitting the road again as quickly as we could, but we stopped to take this picture of the hub caps. That is how yucky it was outside.

The little ones had lots of firsts...including a sleep over! Brayden and Jordan shared the same pack and play and seemed completely undisturbed by each other. Brayden is old enough that he noticed Jordan (when they were awake) but Jordan is still a bit young for baby friends.

The best part of the trip was that we stayed the Grammie and Buppa! Brayden had lots of company. Great Auntie DeeDee, Joycee, Janelle, Auntie Sharon and cousin Kayla all got the chance to love him up (unfortunalty, almost everybody was loving him in the rocking chair and that doesn't make for good pictures).

Brayden also got meet his cousins! Including baby-crazy Mavie!

Here are all of the boys (just missing Gavin).

On the way home, we took a little more time. We even went into gas stations to change diapers and stretch!

We spent one night at the hotel and we took the babies swimming. They loved it! Unfortunalty the person taking the picture didn't know how to use the camera and we don't have any pictures. But we can't wait to do it again (swim that is-no more driving!!).

Both babies were angels the entire trip.

Here we are finally back at home, relaxing and spreading out in our familiar bathroom sink. I think this will be the last sink bath for our fast growing little one. It is getting harder and harder to keep in him warm and the water in the sink.

This was our last trip for a while. I go back to work on Tuesday. Hopefully the next one will be to stay!