...My Birthday...

I had a great birthday!

The night before we had a Christmas Party so Bray spent the night at Grammy and Bebo's. Sunday morning I slept in, Brett cleaned up from the party and made me breakfast and a latte! What a sweetheart! Then we went to church. After that we took Bray home to have a short nap before meeting the family for lunch at Tacoma Country Club, followed by cake and presents at Dad and Mom's! After that Brett took me out for some shopping!

The next night our friends took us out to celebrate!

One of the first pictures on my new camera!

So fun to have Greg home for a few weeks!

Brayden and Bebo

The newlyweds! Jacob & Julie.

"Ooohhh Tree!"

Family Picture by the tree... We are all so tall that you can hardly see the tree!

Brayden LOVES his Grandma! Smiles so big when he hears her laugh...

When the family was singing to me I let Brayden be a part of it. He loved having everyone sing to him (or at least he think they are all singing to him). He also likes candles and points at them and says "hot! hot!"...

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Monday, I talked to Greg and told him that we were going out for my birthday and we were planning on taking Bray, but if he was interested he could babysit. We was thrilled to babysit and they had a great time. Greg spent time with him last night and also this morning and taught Bray to "raise the roof" on command!

Michael and Jake

Brett and Chris (his college friend visiting from Las Vegas)

My BFF's and I! Love these girls!

Got home to tuck Bray into bed! He is getting to be such a big boy!

Learning new words and "tricks" everyday! Record for most steps in a row is EIGHTEEN! And he is transitioning to walking being his primary mode of transportation. He just LOVES the tree! Whenever we are out and about he is looking for a tree and gets so excited when he spots one! Once he spots a tree all we hear is, "Oh Tree! Pretty! Tree Pretty!" He also LOVES Christmas lights! If we drive through our neighborhood in the evening he will notice them and point out the window and say "Pretty!"

It's a Jungle Gym!

It was so fun to put together this short video of Brayden!

Last night he was walking all over the place at Uncle Michael's and Auntie Kik's! It was the most steps ever caught on video. You can see in the video, the motivation was to get to the guys game they were playing. I added on some other videos that I have taken over the past week or so. The world is a huge jungle gym to this little boy! Climbing is the main goal, lately he has been trying to get onto the kitchen counter, via the toy drawer, or onto the top of the couch, via Brandy (our Golden Retriever).

There is also another clip where you can see him wake up and immediately start asking about the "Tree"! He is in love with the Christmas tree and all it's ornaments. =)

Walkin' and Talkin' Brayden!

- Brayden Update -

What a funny funny little boy! He bring so much joy to our lives every day. He loves to play chase, roll a ball back and forth, climb up on anything he can, walk/run behind his push toys, steal whatever dog toy Brandy has, push any button that has a light on it, call people on my cell phone speed dial, point and "talk" about everything, etc...

Some of his favorite words:

"Dada", "Momma", "Daddy", "Doggy", "Yeah", "Pretty", "Ball" and "Tree"

His latest little saying is "Oh Pretty!" On Thursday night we had our church small group. The night before we were hanging out with two of my girlfriend, Kristina and Quincy and so I asked if either of them would like to babysit. They both said yes and it turns out their hubby's had already made plans to hang out! So we dropped off Bray on Thursday night at the Putnam's (Kristina's home) and Allan's. Kristina's tree is just gorgeous and often one of the girls would point to it and exclaim "Oh Pretty!" By the time I picked him up he was saying "Oh Pretty" and pointing at the tree!

The next morning when he woke up we did our normal routine. During our morning routine, I pick him up out of his crib and we snuggle as he is still waking up, then when he is ready to tackle the day he will point at his curtains. We walk over to his curtains and say "Good Morning Neighborhood!", although this morning was different... There was lots of pointing and suddenly everything was "Oh Pretty!" It's his favorite thing to say now...

Also that night that the Putnam's and Allan's were babysitting, Brayden beat his own record for most steps taken in a row! Eight to be exact! He is not interested at all in walking and is still such a fast crawler! But when coaxed with a sparkly Christmas ornament this kid will run a few steps for you!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our home! Below are a few pictures we had to take being that Brayden was in his Christmas Jammies! Of course, they were Christmas Puppy Jammies...

Below is a picture of Brayden modeling his Christmas Jammies! They are so soft and cozy...

Brett was my assistant, trying to get him to pose for the picture... One year old's don't really know that you are supposed to stay still and smile for the camera. =)

Middle of the photo shoot he needed a break to play with Brandy's bone (that he stole from her mouth, ew!)

Both Brayden and I have Christmas Jammies!

Thanksgiving!

We had such a fun kick off to our holiday season!

Auntie Julie and Uncle Jacob (and Sydney) spent the night on Wednesday night. We woke up on Thanksgiving morning and Greg came over. We had a big breakfast and then everyone seemed to practically roll into the living room and doze off for a couple hours! Everyone except for me. I even had Brett go put Brayden to bed and when I checked on them about ten minutes later they were both sleeping!

We hung out the rest of the day and then headed over to Brett's parents for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! Great Grandma Laura was up visiting from California too. On the way home we thought we would swing by the Putnam's to say hello, but ended up staying till almost midnight. Needless to say, Brayden slept in till 11am the next morning... =)

Brett continued the weekend with the ultimate guy trip! A bunch of guys (family) went skiing, saw a guy movie, spent the night in the motorhome, then woke up and went bird hunting all day Saturday and then caught a football game that night. It was wonderful timing because, although Brett was missed, I was able to get the whole house decorated, presents wrapped and Christmas cards ready to be sent out! I also spent the evenings with Mom and Kristina so that I could have some conversation with someone over the age of 13 months... =)

Dada and Bray Bonding Time...

Over the last week Brett and Brayden have a a few days of bonding!

Last Monday I had a fun home party to go to. Then on Friday night another night out with some girl friends for a friend's birthday. Saturday was an all day family shopping excursion (we were gone over 12 hours!) with my mom, sister, aunt and cousin.

This was a huge step for Brett! He LOVES spending time with Bray but is not so comfortable feeding him and keeping him on a schedule. I had post it notes everywhere to assist him throughout the day... =)

Below is a picture I got from Brett Saturday morning, after breakfast.

Another picture that was sent to me in the afternoon.

Seriously, such a cute picture of the two of them, but my first thought was,

"Oh good, Brayden's not still in his jammies!" =) Good job Dada!

A picture of us girls on our shopping day

Swim Time!

Brett came last week to watch Brayden's swim lessons.

He snapped some pictures while he was there.

Kick! Kick! Kick!

Blowing Bubbles...

Paddle, Paddle, Paddle!

The need for speed!

So for Brayden's Birthday he got a couple push toys. One was a "dump truck push toy". We have been trying to show him how to walk and push the toys. He has mostly been interested in putting toys in the dump truck part and taking them out and playing with them. However, a few days ago, he got behind the dump truck push toy and took off! Not walking, but running!

Brayden has always been such a busy boy! When he is going somewhere, he does not waste any time! Whenever I pick him up from the nursery at church the report is always that he was very happy and very fast! I volunteered the other Sunday and realized that sometimes babies will just sit and play with one toy for more than two minutes!

He is such a funny little love bug and we are enjoying watching him and new things happen every day!

(I am trying to catch a video of the speed racing around the kitchen with the dump truck)