A Walk in the Park

Tonight, Guy and I took Braylen up to Central Park to walk their trail. Guy brought the back pack so we didn't use the stroller. Braylen loves to be on daddy's back! Then we took him to the playground. The boy has no fear when it comes to climbing on things or sliding down huge slides. He climbed up a slide tonight and almost fell off. He just laughed. We also ran into some friends-the Hart Family! They have 2 boys and it was good to catch up with them.

Braylen and I recently came back from our Florida trip! We had such a great time with my mom and sister. Braylen loved the ocean and the sand. He was so amazing this trip. He didn't cry or whine once! When I would say, it's time for bedtime, he would go right down. What an amazing kid! He ran right into the ocean and would laugh when the waves would knock him down. He didn't even mind the salt water being in his face. He's crazy. He also loved the sand. He would take his shovel and play with it and put it in buckets. He also liked throwing it which wasn't as much fun for me. :) He usually ended his time on the beach with sand in his hair, face, mouth, and shoes. Thank goodness for swimming pools!

Braylen was like a little celebrity everywhere we went. He would wave and say hi to everyone. Most people wanted to stop and talk to him. One time he climbed out of his chair at a restaurant, walked over to another table, and climbed up in one of their chairs. The couple ended up being from Louisville so it was nice to talk to them. At the airport, he walked up to this lady and climbed up into her lap! She was an older woman and it just made her day. We continue to pray that the Lord would use Braylen to bring joy to those who need it! Joy and kindness seem to burst out of this kid. He's so awesome.

This weekend we have our leader retreat and next weekend is Family Camp during Labor Day! Lots of things happening! Hope everyone has a great day! Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Summer Fun

We have been on the go this whole summer! We've had so much fun though! Last weekend we decided to go to Idle Wild park in Burlington to take a walk on one of their trails. When we got there we saw that they were having a "Touch A Truck" event. They had tons of huge trucks for kids (and adults) to check out! Braylen was so excited! He loved sitting in the drivers seat and "turning" the steering wheel. One trucker accidently left his keys in the ignition and Braylen tried to start it up! If he would have kept turning the key, he would have! Guy captured the moment below-

He is so sneaky! He got on fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, tractors, semi's...just about every truck you can think. We thought he might be nervous from all of the loud noises but it didn't phase him a bit. He even honked the horn a few times-even the big semi horn too. He's so cool.

On Monday we took him to the Boone County Fair. We were meeting some of our YL students there so it was a good opportunity for him to go and ride the rides. Which of course, he loved. He had so much fun. Just loving life. He just runs around like crazy. And then Wednesday we went to the Red's game! So fun! Braylen danced and waived to everyone. We taught him to say "Go!" and point your fist out in the air. It was so cute.

He has been learning and growing so much. When we say, what does a cow say? He says moo! Same with a dog-woof woof! But everything is high pitched and cute sounding. Please! Mama! Baby! Dada! so cute! We are so amazed that the Lord brought this little boy in our lives. We pray every night that Braylen would have confidence in Jesus and be so secure in his faith. Only time will tell......

On another note, Guy is starting school in a few weeks so things are about to get a bit crazy! We are so proud of him for going back. He is going to be the best elementary school teacher ever.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We are headed to a YL 40th Celebration tonight and then Goetta Fest tomorrow! Woohoo! :) It's the small things in life that are the most fun.

A Much Needed Update

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great summer! Braylen is napping right now so I thought I would update the blog. It's been too long. I have the windows open and it is so nice outside. I would be sitting out there but the kids next door are screaming. Plus they are like magnets to our fence whenever we are out there. They just stare at us......weird.......Anyways! We have had a really fun summer! In June we took 9 Boone students to Rockbridge Young Life camp in Virginia. We left Braylen with my parents and Guy's parents and it was very very hard to leave him. But our trip was amazing. Perfect weather, entertainment, food, club talks, music...everything. The staff was amazing as well. Our group was awesome and everyone got along wonderfully. We are now doing follow up work with the students by having hang outs at our house (we watched a movie outside! It was cool!), campaigners, and bible studies. We really want to start Club this fall but we're not sure how that will work out.

We had a busy start to July with the holidays and back to back birthdays-mom and Vince. Also this past weekend, Guy's cousin Brooke and her husband Wayne came to visit. We went to the Dayton Air Show with them all day on Saturday and it was freezing! The clouds were out and it was really cold. Good thing my capri's rolled out into pants. Braylen stayed with Grammy (Guy's mom) so we missed him. He'll love the air show one day!

We also got our house painted! It looks awesome! We are so pleased with it. It's a lighter shade of the previous green color. We have been working hard on our landscaping and everything is looking really good. We have soooo many projects we want to work on. The landscaping on both sides of the house and the back needs a lot of work! Frankly it just needs to be removed (sorry Madden's!). We'd also like to put a small stone patio in the back by our fence so we have a place to hang out and put our fire pit! Can't wait for it to be completed. We also just painted our bathroom. I love it but Guy is not sure about the color. It's a turquoise color. We painted the cabinet and sink white so it ties together. Stop by and see it!

Braylen has been amazing! We are trying to get him to repeat lots of words right now. He actually tries to repeat things but they just don't quite come out correctly. He can "say" amen, please, ball, woof, moo, mama, and dada. We've been working on more sign language so that he isn't as frustrated when we don't understand what he is saying. With sign language, instead of just babbling when he wants something, he can sign it and show us. Our bedtime routine is the best. We give him a cup of milk, read a story, sing a song, and say our prayers. Then he says amen and puckers out his lips to give us a kiss! Soooooo precious. I could just melt everytime he does that. He has been testing us a lot more too. He's so busy and gets into everything! It's also really hard to not laugh at him when he does something wrong or doesn't listen. He's just so darn funny. When he gets mad, he literally shakes his head and makes a fist and screams. But then he laughs about it. He's crazy! But we are all learning right now and I'm sure we will figure it out.

Next month, we are going to the beach! yea! Braylen has never been before so I am so excited for him to go. It's just going to be me, Bray, mom and Jess. The boys can't get off work! I can't wait!

Next week is mom and dad's 30th anniversary! Can't wait to celebrate with them. They are so amazing and we are so blessed to have a Godly example of marriage in our lives. Thank you God for my parents!

Hope everyone has a great week! I'll be updating more often!

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!

100% boy

What a great day today! The weather is awesome. This morning Braylen woke up around 7:45am and he was in a great mood! These past few mornings he has just been fussy and wanted to be held all day long. He was running around like crazy. After breakfast we went upstairs to change his dirty diaper. I had waited to change it until he went #2. :) He has had diarrhea these past few days, so I shut his bedroom door and let him run around a bit airing out his clean bottom. I started to hang some clothes when all of a sudden I heard this "watery noise"-like water hitting plastic or a can. I turned around and Braylen was holding his trash can and peeing into it!!!!! Oh my goodness. He had a big laugh about that when I freaked out. It was so funny. Of course he wasn't tall enough to get ALL the pee into it so a little bit got on the carpet. No big deal to him. It was hilarious. I carefully removed the trash can (after he was finished of course) and took it downstairs to empty it out and clean it. He is no doubt 100% boy. So funny. I put his diaper on after that. He's like a little doggy.

After that, we went out to do a few errands-shopping for a booster seat, sandals, a wedding gift for tomorrow's wedding, and then we met Guy for lunch. Braylen was laughing at everyone. Guy had taken him to his bible study dinner this past Tuesday and he said he was able to get a glimpse into my daily life with Braylen because like "20 people" came up to talk to him! I said you mean 20 girls? He said girls and old people. Ha. But seriously it takes me like an hour to go grocery shopping because Braylen is so friendly with everyone.

After lunch we went to pick up my new ring! Yea! Glad to finally have it back. It is beautiful and I was able to get $50 back! nice. Not sure how we managed to get money and a new diamond but not complaining.

Tomorrow will be fun for us since we are going to take Braylen to the zoo for the first time. My goal is to leave the house by 8:30am! We'll see. I'll update you on our trip and post some pictures!

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!

The Case of the Missing Diamond

I know that it has been almost 2 weeks since my last post but right after I wrote Wednesday's blog, I went into the kitchen and noticed that my diamond was gone!!!! I guess that I had lost it somewhere in Bellevue! I was so upset and called Guy crying. It is such a sentimental piece and so special to Guy and I. However since it was insured I was able to get a replacement diamond for free and my new ring should be ready sometime this week. So sad. :( On a side note-make sure to get your prongs tightened around your diamond once a year! Didn't know that!

Our little family has been so busy with parties, retreats, and get togethers. Last week we went to Rockbridge for a Young Life leader weekend! We had a great time! Braylen loved being the center of attention. And he loved playing with the other kids. There were 8 small/2 big kids and 5 moms from our area in NKY! Wow! Our community has grown so much. We all shared a tiny 2 bedroom/2 living room pull out couch room. Friends of ours brought a little car to push their baby in instead of using a stroller, but every time Braylen walked outside he went right to that car. He was so sneaky about it too. He loved it! The fellowship, food, worship, scenery, was great! Guy and I bought the Chronicles of Narnia on CD and it was so fun to listen to during the ride. I highly recommend it. It made the trip go by quickly. Braylen slept for only 2 hours both there and back but had a great time entertaining himself during the other 4 hours. He is such a good boy.

Braylen has been teething so he has been quite fussy. He had a 101 temperature all day on Friday but seems to be feeling better. He fell asleep in my arms Friday morning because he just felt so bad! He NEVER does that. I of course loved it but once he woke up he had a fever. Poor kid. But he is better now. He is just so much fun. He copies everything we do now! He's so observant now. Yesterday I took the garbage can out from our cabinet to throw some things away and Braylen went over, picked it up and put it right back where it belongs. Today he went into our bedroom, picked up one of Guy's shoes and then tried putting it on Guy's foot. He's so smart. Oh he also went up to this little boy at Cracker Barrel and tried to give him a hug. The little boy just pushed him. Punk.

This week we are having 2 Boone Young Life get togethers, bible study, and then a wedding to go to on Saturday. Lots to do! Can't wait to work out this week! I ate so much food over the weekend! Diet starts Monday! But for real. I'm thinking about taking Braylen to the YMCA's outdoor pool tomorrow but I'm not sure if it will be warm or not!

I will update the blog more often! Here are a few recent pictures of our sweet baby boy!