September

We have had an action packed September so far!  Beginning of September Brayden started swim lessons at the YMCA twice a week.  He LOVES the water!  And all the other babies in his class.  He is learning to kick with his little legs and paddle with his little arms.  He has already learned how to pull himself out of the pool from the edge.  Twice a week I have classes I do as well.  This is Brayden's time to play in the nursery.  The gals that work there get so excited for easy going Brayden to come!  Often times I get there and he is playing in the "big kid" section too!  We also started MOPS at Life Center with some other friends.

Bray continues to be such a busy boy!  Always on the go!  He is learning to wave hello and goodbye.  Right now he does it at random.  I even caught him on our video monitor as he woke up from a nap, waving in his crib by himself.  He is also learning high-fives and to throw his hand in the air when we say, "How big is Brayden?"  "So Big!"

Brayden is serious about crawling now!   He has gotten really fast!  Still doesn't really show an interest in walking, but is cruising around furniture pretty quickly.  Just in the last few days he has started to stand on his own for about 5 seconds or so, but in his world, it is all about speed!

Can't believe his first birthday is right around the corner!!!

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Below is a picture of Brett playing his latest hobby, Wii boxing.  Which Bray also LOVES to watch.

Caught him givin' Brandy a little love...

What a gorgeous sunset!  We enjoyed a walk with Michael and Kik the other night.

Quincy is so fun with the little ones!  We enjoyed having them over for dinner.  I have been trying new recipes and the Allan's are always ready to come over and see how it turns out.  It's been risky, but so far so good.  =)

Playdate with boys!  Most of our friends have girls, but yes, there are a few "guy buddies" in the picture.  

Tagney Paddock, Coleson and Tate Mensonides.

Tagney and Bray are just six days apart!

We enjoyed an evening at the Puyallup Fair last weekend with our Small Group from church.  Also met up with Jacob and Julie! 

Hanging out at the Allan's.  When I got there I realized I didn't bring any toys!  No worries, plastic kitchen tools entertained for hours!

Out to lunch with Small Group girls... and their girls.

On the left is baby Adeline Anderson with Lean, Katie and Bray, and on the right is Cora and Carly Huff.

Cute little man likes to cross his legs in his high chair

Squishy face smile!

Sunday afternoon uniform = Seahawks jersey!  

Enjoying the view and Papa and Grandma's

Bray gets SO excited when Dada gets home!

Playdate at the Huff's!  

Adeline Anderson (4 mo.), Vienna Lee (2 mo.), Cora Huff (6 mo.) and Bray

Happy 30th Anniversary Dad and Mom!

Happy 30th Anniversary to Dad and Mom (aka Grammy and Bebo)!

Below is a picture of them (dad sent to us) celebrating their 30th in the Canary Islands (Spain) today.  

11 Months Today!

Wow!  Both Brett and I can't believe how fast this time has gone.  Seriously, every day we can't believe how lucky we are to have such a fun little guy.

At 11 months he is crawling all over the place!   He loves to hear my foot steps behind him when I chase him.  He will really rev it up and put his crawl into full speed!  But as soon as I say with a smile, "I'm gonna get ya!"  He will turn around and throw his arms up to be picked up!  He is loving more "solid" foods.  We have gone out to eat a few times this week and I am able to pick certain meals that I can share with him.  Bray also makes the funniest faces!  One he is famous for is the squinting eyes and nose face while he smiles.  It is soo funny!  A lot of the time we can make that face at him and he will do it right back.  

One of my most favorite things that he does is when he wakes up from his nap, I always pick him up and rub his back.  He has learned that I always do that and started doing it back!  It's more of a "pat" on the back, but soo cute.  He also gets so excited when Brett comes home!  Most days I go around the corner so we can't see Brett when he walks in the door.  I will put Bray down and Brett will come in and say something and Bray will become overwhelmed with giggles and excitement and he crawls all over looking for "dada"!

He is loving the church and the YMCA nursery as well!  Most times I put him in the nursery and then wave and say, "bye bye!"  but he is already off and playing.  He really enjoys the other kids and all the toys!  He is quite the sleeper too!  An average day is waking up at 8:30am, nap at 10am, nap at 2pm and then to bed at 8pm.  

There is a summary of our little boy as he enters his 12th month!

Brayden is Crawling!

Here is a video from Crescent Bar as Brayden is learning to crawl.  

We were sooo shocked!  Brett and I really thought that he would never crawl.  We were sure that he would go straight from scooting to walking!  He is such a fast little scooter!  He has been scooting since he was six months.  But sure enough, all it took was a little water and sand and he is crawling all over the place.  For a while he would crawl half of the time and scoot the other half.  He would crawl if he was looking around and maneuvering, and then scoot was for speed.  Now we are mostly crawling, with occasionally a scoot here and there.

Next to learn, walking!!!!  Eek!

Crescent Bar - August

We had our 3rd annual trip to Crescent Bar with friends!  This time we went for longer than we have in the past, five days.  It was fun and went surprising smoothly with 14 people and 6 kids!   Our friends, Jake and Quincy, have a really nice boat so there was lots of wake surfing, wake boarding and skiing!  The guys had some golf time and also a fishing trip too!

The highlight of our trip is Brayden learning to crawl.  We put him in the very shallow water and he got up off his belly and started crawling around!  I have some videos that I will post soon.  While we were camping he was doing half crawling and half scooting when he was out of the water.   It is so cute to see his little body crawl around!  

Bray in his "Happy Camper" T-Shirt!  Yes, we got that shirt just for this trip!  =)

Brett learned to wakeboard!

The babies!  Tate Mensonides (just over a month), Cora Huff (about 5 months) and Brayden!

Our friend Brian is a fishing guide and hooked the guys up with all the equipment.  It was an early morning but they had a good time, especially Michael who was the only one who caught fish!

Bray was obsessed with the water spiket!  He could have stayed there for hours...  Just checkin' it out and feeling the water...

Snuggling by the fire with a very tired boy...

So fun to have Julie and Jacob stop by for a night!  They were on their way to a wedding in Spokane and got in late Friday and stayed until Saturday afternoon. 

Splashing in the water with Dada!

Sunset on the boat...

The last morning I woke up early and started packing, Bray woke up for a second and then fell back asleep next to Dada...  It was SO nice to be in the comfortable air conditioned RV!

SunRiver, OR - August

We had such a fun week in SunRiver.  We have been going as a family ever since I can remember.  It has taught me the value in tradition and family "togetherness".

We spend most of the time, just spending time together.  There are lots of bike rides (the whole town has paved bike paths, you can go anywhere on a bike there), to the pool, golfing, playing games, etc.

Last year when we went to SunRiver I can remember laying on the couch and watching Brayden kick around in my belly.  This year he got to experience it!  He loved the pool and got soo much attention from everyone.  Brett and I were thankful for all the help from family.  We had built in babysitters!  It was awesome!  It was such a relaxing week and we had a great time.

Nathan and Greg traveled down there with us.  Bray always loves to have company in the backseat!

The BOW family! 

(Julie's nickname for the Bodine Overfield Washburn clan)

Here we are!  Uncle Paul, Auntie Lisa and the boys had to leave early.  We were also missing Michael, Kristina and Chloe...

Brett and I taking off on a little date!

Family pool time!

These little bike carriers were so great!  Bray enjoyed the bike rides and fell asleep of the time...

Hanging at the pool

Auntie Karin snuck him some popsicle!

He spent most of the trip smiling this big!

Hmm...  Bebo I don't think that is regulation!  No worries, this was not how we transported him!  =)

The swing at the park was a hit!

Here is a picture of Greg before he left for Biola!  We miss Uncle Greg alot!  It was so fun to have him around for the summer. 

Our Friend Nellie...

Our friend Nellie went to be with the Lord on Sunday.

Nellie was so much fun to be around.  We only knew him a year and a half.  He was friends with both our brother, Jacob, and our good friends, Quincy and Jake Allan.  (Yes, two Jacobs that were PLU football players!)

Brett and Nellie instantly bonded with jokes and laughter.  Nellie and Brayden loved each other too!  Nellie would swing this white stick around and type and text fast than anyone you know!  Brayden loved to try to grab it!  

Here is an article on who he was and some pictures from the good times we had with him - 

Copy and past this link into your browser:

http://www.nwcn.com/video/sports-index.html?nvid=393850&shu=1