Walk-Talk

Taking a walk in Mommy I's neighborhood in New Orleans

One of my most favorite things to do when it's nice outside, is go for a walk! I love it! The summer before our wedding I walked and walked and walked and walked! And lost about 15 pounds. :) Most of the time my dad joined me on the walk, and we had (what I like to call it) a "walk talk." A walk talk is the best for great conversation and one on one time. It's just the two of you! I really treasure that time with my dad too! I try to walk as much as I can but it's hard dragging a 3 1/2 year old through neighborhoods-especially now that he doesn't want to ride in the stroller. He's too cool for that.

Walking is so great for staying in shape but it allows you to be intentional with your thoughts and prayers. You're not distracting by the laundry that needs to be folded or the dishes in the sink......I guess you could be thinking of those things though! :) It's just you and the Lord. Last Friday morning, my mother in law Peggy, watched Braylen for a little bit so that I could walk her neighborhood. It was so great! I listened to Shane and Shane's "Psalm's" album on my ipod and loved every second of it.

Braylen and I walked (well he rode) over to Mall Road a few days ago. We stopped at the grocery store and Old Navy. It's nice to be in walking distance to the store as we still only have one car right now. sigh. Anyways. I let Bray get out and run around next to the old movie theater. He loved it. He walked up the steps to the theater and started trying to open the doors, and one of them was actually OPENED! So we walked around the deserted lobby, played in the concession area, roamed the empty theaters......... totally kidding!!!! I was like ugh...let's get out of here Braylen. I don't know why but it totally freaked me out that the doors were unlocked. I mean who could possibly be in there! :) It was only 11am but who cares? I've seen plenty of scary movies and Law & Order episodes to know not to go in there.

But back to walking real fast. I was thinking about how awesome it will be to walk in Heaven. You can talk your little heart out and not have to worry about walking faster to burn calories. Wonderful.

This weekend is Father's Day! I am sooooo incredible blessed to have the greatest dad ever. Seriously. I also have an awesome father in law who is going to host a Father's Day dinner and grill out some amazing food. You should be jealous because everything he makes is delicious.

Guy! Braylen and I love you so much! Thank you for loving and serving us. Braylen says Happy Father's Day daddy!

Have a great weekend!

Lately.......

I feel like I am constantly saying things like "we've been so busy" or "what a few weeks it has been" but literally...............what a few weeks it has been! 

3 weeks ago Braylen started to lose his appetite and was having really terrible diarrhea (not to be gross just wanting to keep track of our crazy weeks). This was on a Monday which was also the same day that I was working hard on potty training! Thank the GOOD Lord that when he had a TERRIBLE accident he was in a training diaper and I happened to change him on the hardwood floor and not the carpet. Nasty. The poor kid had a week of no appetite and diarrhea. Well, then I started feeling sick! I also felt very, very stressed out. I couldn't eat or sleep. I just kept feeling very sorry for myself and hurt (for things that I don't really want to talk about now but maybe later). 

I finally started to feel better but Braylen started to have an asthma "flair up." I took him to the doctors and they gave him a prescription for cough medicine and told me to start giving him his inhaler again. Not fun! This was last Wednesday, and the next day we were flying down with my mom to see my sister and brother in law. Braylen seemed to cough less and less as the week ended. 

Que Friday- we were in Charlotte having a great time and got super cheap tickets to an NBA game ($3 bucks a piece!). We came home later and I put Braylen to bed. I decided to take some sleeping pills to help me sleep because I just felt unrested. Well it totally back fired. I can't really explain what happened but my mom and brother in law ended up taking my to the hospital. It was really really scary and we just didn't know what was going on. I ended up having a reverse reaction to the medicine because of stress and lack of sleep. :( Thankfully I was fine after resting and letting the medicine out of my system. Oh I forgot to mention that our basement started to flood while this was going on. My poor husband had to deal with that on top of me losing my mind. I am so thankful that we live close to our family because Guy's precious mom and dad really came to the rescue!! 

The next day we were all so tired but also knew that a certain 3 year old wakes up at 7am on the dot. Braylen was acting very strange Saturday morning and later threw up 4 times that day! Ugh. Poor thing. He continued to get sick a few times each day for over 4 days! Once we got back to NKY I was able to get him to see the doctors and the only thing he came up with was that Braylen had a reaction to the cough medicine he was taking. Braylen did not have a fever and was fine before and after he got sick. We stopped giving him the medicine and he is back to himself. However, now Guy is sick! Stay away from our family. :(

As I type all of this out, I really can't believe all that has happened these last few weeks. I am thankful that nothing worse happened and that God is constant and compassionate to our family. I have learned so much about my thought life and that I need to constantly fight to believe what is true. I get myself so worked up about things or worried that it affects everything about me. I've been feeling very misunderstood and I so badly what to voice what is true in my life but God is the one true Judge, and I am learning that I am justified by him. I can only imagine how his Son felt misunderstood his entire life. That brings me comfort! I am hopeful that instead of feeling sorry for myself or mistreated or stressed, I will just grow stronger. Stronger in my walk with the Lord and stronger in relationships. 

Big sigh of relief. 

Maybe next week will bring a "lighter" post. One about.............laughter and..........flowers.....or something like that. 

By the way, even though our trip to Charlotte was beyond CRAZY!!!, we still had a great time. My super cute sis is having a boy! Yay! I envision Braylen and baby Meiman as best buddies forever. I'm so excited to be an aunt! 

Here are the only 2 pictures that I took-which were on my phone! 

Paparazzi. :)

Just chillin' at the airport. Waiting for our ride. 

Thank you for reading! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us next! 

The Chronicles of a Babywise Mom

Since mentioning how Braylen is a Babywise baby, I thought I would give you a little recap on our experiences. My aunt Barb raved about this book called Babywise and said it is such a wonderful tool to use when training your baby to be on a routine. I read it while I was pregnant and learned a ton! Everything about the book was new and completely changed my thought process on how to raise a baby. Some new terms for me were PDF-parent direct feeding, and ODF-on demand feeding. PDF is what Babywise teaches meaning that it's the parent that ultimately guides, trains and directs feedings, sleepings, and playtime. ODF, which is what most parents do, and is also why you see and hear about soooooo many sleep deprived moms, is just that-feeding your child on demand. Whenever they cry, you feed them. Even if you just fed your newborn 30 minutes ago, you do it ago. There are so many things that determine these two terms and there are many studies to go along. PDF really made sense to Guy and I. And it worked! 


All through college I babysat kids. The youngest was a 3 month old baby, named Ella, and I remember giving her a bottle while trying to get her to sleep-per her mom's request, although I had thought that is how you should put a baby to sleep. The routine for babywise is to feed your baby, play with them, and then put them down for a 1 or 1.5 hour nap. You do this every 2.5 or 3 hours everyday and your babe will be sleeping through the night in no time. And YOU will be sleeping through the night. I can't tell you how much of a difference just one night of rest makes. Having Braylen on a schedule was such a blessing. It may not be the best thing for every baby but it was for us. I couldn't resist adding some pics of Bray sleeping when he was a little babe.

There are, of course, many experts (and peers) who disagree with Babywise. One reason is that you train your baby to CIO-cry it out! People argue that you are not loving your child by letting them cry. This was this hardest thing for me to go through as a new mom. As part of PDF, you allow your child to CIO if they are having a difficult time with naps or bedtime. However, you let them cry for 10 minutes (that's it!) and then go and check on them/comfort them. Do this for a day or two, and you're babe has learned to self soothe themselves. Even though 10 minutes may feel like 10 hours, it is so worth it for your baby! And because Braylen rarely cries, we know that when he is crying, it's because he's hurt, sick, etc. We know what each cry means. People have always told me that he is so well mannered and that he never cries! I say well you're not with him everyday :) but it is true that he is a very happy child. That is because he is well rested, well fed, and ready to explore. 


I hear moms say a lot that when you have a baby, your world revolves around them. I love Braylen more than anything-he is amazing. But he is not the center of this family. Our lives have not stopped now that he is apart of it. He has come along side us as we strive to love Jesus and love those around us, especially our YL students at Boone. Bray comes with us to games and YL outings. He sings with us in campaigners. He stays up a little bit later at night, while we meet for bible studies. And he loves it! Putting Braylen on a schedule has taught him this principle and has given us the flexibility to do ministry. 


I know that this option may not work for everyone but it's important for me to share our experience so that we can remember what it was like raising a baby-and to maybe help other mom's out there who may need to try this technique. Remember that when mom is happy and rested, so is everyone else in your family! 


Check out this mom's blog called Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. She has everything you need to know about the schedule. 


And! so that when I look back and Braylen does not nap anymore, I can remember the "good ole days:" Braylen at 33 months takes one nap a day from 1pm until around 4pm. And sleeps from 8:30pm until around 8am. 

The Last Week of Summer

Braylen has been such a momma's boy lately (WHICH I LOVE AND HOPE THAT HE STAYS THAT WAY FOREVERRRRRR! sorry Guy!) but it is so sweet to see him want to be like his daddy. I wish you could have seen the way Braylen's face lit up when Guy strolled into our living room on Monday wearing a shirt and tie. Braylen was so excited and said "Braylen tie too? Braylen shirt too?" I said you want to wear a shirt and tie too like daddy? "Yea! Like dada!" So up we went to his room-he picked out a blue button up shirt (from Easter) and Guy helped him put on his tie. It was so adorable. We put him in some khaki's too. Braylen would go up to Guy the rest of the day and stand right next to him and say "Pants! Tie! Shirt!" It was so cute. He also kept hugging us and saying "thank you." Oh boy.......you are welcome!!!!!!

We attended a funeral that day for a coworker of Guy's who died suddenly of a stroke. Tom was a believer and my family has known his family for many years. The service was a worship service and it was amazing. Tom knew the Lord and so it was very comforting to everyone he left behind. Braylen did a great job that day. He was very well behaved and went around to everyone, and I mean everyone, showing them his tie. And he sang his little heart out while we were singing hymns. He of course had no idea what he was saying but he didn't care. He sang loud and proud. My mom was holding him and she knew all the words. It was so precious. I think he knew we were singing to Jesus. :) Afterwards an older man came up and said to my mom, "I so enjoyed watching your grandson." I pray every night that the Lord would use Braylen to share the gospel and to bring joy to those around him. Of course Braylen has his moments, but he is so personable with people. He will stop and "talk" to anyone who makes eye contact with him. I don't know if that is how the Lord is using him at 2 years old but I like to think so.

Braylen and I were watching daddy cut the grass one day this week, and he says "Braylen cut grass too?" SURE! We went and got his little mower and he followed Guy around with that little thing for a while. Of course when Guy got too close to him, he ran away. Here are a few pics of the boys working hard.

Look at how happy Braylen is!

Working so hard!

We are attending a wedding this weekend for a child hood friend of mine. The house we are in now is the house he grew up in! We are excited! And next weekend is family camp!

We hope that you enjoy your last few week or so of summer!

Zoo & Chuck

Hello! Braylen had such a busy weekend! Saturday morning we took him to the zoo for the first time! We got there at 9am (when it opens) and that was a great time to go. It wasn't crowded and the animals were top notch! Braylen was in awe to see these huge animals walking around. He was scared every once in a while but he had an awesome time. Here is a picture of him seeing an elephant for the first time.

We had packed a lunch and while we were eating a peacock came and joined us. Braylen had dropped some of us bread on the ground so the peacock came over to eat it. Braylen didn't seem to notice otherwise I think he would have freaked. Then we went to a Cheetah Run! They have this show where they make the cheetahs sprint and they explain everything about them! Braylen did not really enjoy this because I had to force him to sit on my lap! He just wanted to go play! But Guy loved it, so at least one of my boys enjoyed the show. :) Here is a picture of Guy and Braylen (my favorite picture). They were walking on the "Jungle Trails." And below is a family picture!

Saturday night Braylen stayed with Jon and Peggy while Guy and I went on a dinner date and to a wedding! We had a great time. We had made some money from the yard sale at my parents house :) so we decided to have dinner at the Tousey House in Burlington. It was delicious! We shared the spinach and artichoke dip (which was amazing) and the cream of Chicken soup (yummy). And then Guy had halibut and I had a chicken sandwich. You should definitely check it out. Very good. Then we went to Lindsey Burcham's wedding at 7pm. It ended up being a long night but we enjoyed it.

The next day we had a good time at home just the three of us. We weren't able to go to church but listened to a sermon online. You can check it out at our YL Leader Resource page and it's called "Calling." Braylen played in his inflatable swimming pool and loved it. He loves water so much. Guy let him play with the hose and Braylen thought it was the coolest. That night we decided to take him to Chuck E Cheeses since we had a coupon. Well Chuck E came out from this door all dressed up and Braylen literally SCREAMED! I mean screamed his little heart out. It was so so sad! He was so scared. I had to unbuckle him from the high chair and take him away. Poor kid. I can relate though........... took me years to get over those furry characters. :)

Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for reading!

Screaming

So one of Braylen's new things is to scream!!! And scream loudly!!! And scream some more. He just thinks it's so funny. It is hard not to laugh except when we are out to eat or in a public place. It's not like he's screaming because he's mad, but he does it because.....well I guess he thinks it's cool to scream. :) Who knows. He did get mad at me today because I wouldn't let him play with my finger nail clippers and he went to his little lawn mower and knocked it over. Now that was definitely hard to not laugh at. It's just amazing that he is forming this little personality. He is so full of emotion! My friend Amy told me that when her Samantha was a baby she would smile and laugh at everyone. She wasn't shy like Braylen. And Amy used to pray that Samantha would smile at the right people-to those who needed a little pick me up. I mean who doesn't love a happy baby! So I've thought a lot about that and the other day we passed an older man in a wheel chair and he had these black spots all over his face. And Braylen just looked at him and waved and smiled and said "hi!" The man just lit up and was waiving back to him. It was so cute! I really think that God uses babies all the time to minister to the broken hearted. Thank you Jesus for our happy baby!