Monster Blog

Sunday April 11th, our Braylin girl turned 1 year old. It was a great excuse for us to go on a much needed family vacation away from reality. We loaded up after church and headed to the great city of Seattle. This blog is not going to be for the faint of heart. I decided not to narrow down the number of pictures, because I knew our families would want to be a part of everything we did for Braylin's 1 year extravaganza!

It started off with a hearty breakfast off eggs and biscuits.

She ate so much she needed a before church nap. Thank you thank you Granny and Pop Pop for my birthday shirt.
Once we got to Seattle, we went straight to cake.
Yes, we put our child in the bath tub to eat cake, but it was the easiest way to clean up the mess. I highly recommend it!
If you can't tell, she LOVED it!!
Our hotel was across the street from Lake Union and we loved walking around looking at all the yachts.
We went to a crabhouse for lunch, and they gave Braylin an ice cream Sundae for her birthday.
The next day was our day of tourism. We went to the Seattle Aquarium. Braylin is still a bit too young to understand the concept of cut out pictures.
We thought she would just love watching the fish swim around. Turns out, it scared her to death when those fish would swim in her direction. Everyone around thought it was pretty funny. She would flail her arms and cry.
She did however like to be under the fish as they swam above us at a safe distance.
Somehow the seals and sea otters were not so scary.
We then went to Pikes Place Market.
They are known for the fish throwing.
This nasty looking fish was still alive and would flop every now and then...disgusting!
We visited the original Starbucks.
We ate lunch at a restaurant (Athenian) that Sleepless in Seattle was filmed in.
It was documented!

Of course we saw the space needle.
Then we ended the trip with a Seattle Mariners Baseball game.
It was cold, but the food sure was good!

On our way home we stopped and got Braylin a new big kid seat. You can tell that she LOVES it!
We had the greatest trip. Seattle did not disappoint. I'm incredibly thankful for the gift of little Braylin and the chance to celebrate such a wonderful little life. Although we won't be able to keep up Birthday celebrations like this one, I am thankful for the opportunity to take this chance while we had it.

Sneak Peek

We are in Seattle for a few days celebrating Braylin's Birthday. (It was just a good excuse for a much needed getaway.) I'll post more later, but I wanted to give everyone a sneak peek of our Birthday celebration.

Wearing a shirt from Granny and a hoodie from Uncle Josh and Aunt Jessica (made by Amanda Kilgore)
Our hotel room had a big jacuzzi tub, which was perfect for a cake mess!

Day 2 of celebration wearing a "1" t-shirt from Veronica.

Much more to come. We are having a blast!

Happy Easter!

Last Easter (2 days old)

This Easter (11 months 3 weeks old)
Our little baby is getting so big. She loves carrying her purse!
Her first Easter egg

We wanted a family picture even though it was freezing and started to rain.
We came back inside to play, but sharing was a bit harder than it looks!

The weather didn't quite cooperate with our plans, but Braylin was still the cutest most accessorized girl at church! (Not that I am biased!)

Happy Easter everyone!

A week with Aunt Jill

Joel took the youth kids on a mission trip over Spring Break. Braylin and I really missed him, but Aunt Jill came to spend the whole week with us. We had to work the store most of the time, but we still managed to have fun. Here is a recap of the week:

Working with mom and Aunt Jill is so much fun!

We went shopping several times!
Braylin would wave at people passing by or coming into the store. What a friendly welcome! (We are training her early!)
Braylin loves the pretty girl in the mirror. She stopped giving us kisses and would only kiss the mirror. (Is the word "Zida" rubbing off on her??) *Zida means vanity in chinese.
She loved crawling to the shiny jewelry and would try so hard to get it in her mouth. (She was just checking to see if they were real diamonds)

We had a mini Birthday Party

She liked mommy and Jill's dessert better than the cupcake
And she finished off with a cookie.
She rode the carousel (not the easiest thing at this age)
She loved it though.

Aunt Jill and Uncle Kevin got her new toys. The lion was so helpful because she could cruise in the store on her own.
We had such a good time. Thank you again Aunt Jill for all your help, especially at such short notice. It is such a blessing to have you in our lives.

Oh, how time flies!

My sweet little angel is 11 months old. She is more and more fun every day. I have spent the past hour trying to figure out how to get the video from my camera on to this computer, and have officially thrown in the towel. Braylin is now crawling (if that's what you want to call it) It looks a bit like you would picture the hunchback of Notre Dame if he were to crawl. She stays very hunched and crawls sideways...it is quite entertaining! She is also walking along everything, and I am quickly realizing how unprepared and not child friendly our house is. She is also developing quite the personality. She had started making a face that we couldn't figure out. Then we realized she is mocking me. Apparently when I laugh, I toss my head back, close my eyes and laugh with my mouth wide open. She will look at us and throw back her head, closes her eyes tight and smiles as big as she can. (It's pretty darn cute!)

Her Baby BROTHER is growing too! I am 19 weeks along and feel like my belly doubles in size daily. We are thrilled to be having a boy and are beginning to look at and think about boy stuff. It feels like a major shift of gears. It will also be quite the challenge to create a nursery the two of them can share, but we are up for the challenge!

During the past few weeks, we got to have Joel's parents come out and stay with us as well as going on a very quick and packed trip to Texas (Sorry I didn't have a chance to see all my friends there. It was a crazy time!)

In preparation for Jack and Karla's arrival, Braylin and I weeded the flower beds. (Man, you can tell by this picture that it was much needed.) Braylin ended up eating dirt and crying that she was eating dirt. It was a continued cycle until I gave up and went back inside. It was such a pretty day though!

Granny Karla was helping her get ready for church in her pretty new outfit!

After church, Braylin got to have Mucho Gusto for the first time (and maybe the last) She had to go straight to the bath tub.
We went to visit Uncle Jay and Aunt Traci and they got her those CUTE monkey pajamas! You can tell she pretty much loves them!

And she snuggled right into Nanna to go to sleep.

The weather in Texas was PERFECT! We got to go on several walks.

This one wore her out!
This picture is for my dad and anyone who knows my dad. Mom and Dad took Braylin to the bow store. Girlfriend has 28 bows....a little over the top, you think? She may not have been born in Texas, but by golly she will look like she was!