4th Picture Tag

This is a picture tag!!

Here's the deal:
1. Go to the place on your computer where you store all your pictures and open the 4th folder.
2. Open the 4th picture.
3. Post the picture and give an explanation of what it is.
4. Tag 4 people.

DO NOT CHEAT!! You cannot edit or crop the picture!!

Thanks Emily!

The date was April 7, 2004. This is me and Brayden just several minutes after he was born. I had not even had a chance to refix my ponytail yet. lol I LOVE little bitty babies.

I tag Amanda (both...lol), Kathleen, Becky, Alison, and anyone else who wants to participate!

Going to Vegas, Baby!

25% of you were correct. Dustin and I are going to Vegas. Neither of us have ever been and since we are not drinkers or gamblers I think a long weekend will be the perfect amount of time. We will be staying at the http://www.montecarlo.com. Anyone have any pointers for us, especially for free or cheap things to do?

Obey...

I obey God

How sweet is that? This is what Brayden made at school today. He was so excited to show us when he got home. His very first sentence, and what a wonderful sentence it is. He has come so far since he started Pre-K in August, he did not even know how to write or spell his name, and now look what he can do!

Collision!

UPDATE 12/11/08:

Look how bad Brandt's eye is today. He says it still doesn't hurt, but wowza it looks bad! Several of the teachers at school thought they had been in a car accident, man those kids have hard heads. Brayden's head looks about the same as it did the first night. Any guesses on how long before all the bruising is gone?

Look what my poor babies did to each other! They had just gotten out of the bathtub and into Pjs and were on their way to bed. Brayden was coming back into my room and Brandt was leaving my room, and neither saw the other one. They both just wiped out and were hysterical. By the time I picked Brayden up his was already huge and turning colors. Brandt's eye kept swelling and by the time we got everyone settled and in bed his was pretty swollen as well. Unfortunately, we are suppose to take Mark Sykes photos on Friday.

Pictures of Bridgett

Here she is! We drove up to visit my sister and brother-in-law and meet Bridgett on Saturday. She is so cute, and it so fun to hold and love on a newborn and know I am NOT the one that has to do the middle of the nights feedings. lol

We are going...

My parents gave Dustin and I a pair of free airline tickets 2 years ago for Christmas. We hadn't had a chance to use them, and they had already expired once and we had to renew them. They are about to expire again, and so Dustin and I are making a quick weekend trip just the 2 of us on December 20th to 23rd. I am so super excited to have some away time just the two of us, it will be our 1st vacation just us since our honeymoon. Can you guess where we are going?

There is a poll on the top, right hand side. Even if you are just a lurker, please vote it is anonymous.

Bridgett Isabelle is here!

She was born today, December 2, 2008 at 5:02 PM. She weighs 6 pounds 7 ounces and 19.5 inches long. My sister did end up with a c-section since she was only 38 weeks, the induction didn't take and she wasn't progressing. Since Kathryn has high blood pressure and Bridgett has tubulars on her heart they decided not to chance anything. They are both doing very well. In fact, they were thinking they were going to need to take the baby to Dell Children's for heart scans, but they are not going to.

Praise God! My brother-in-law is suppose to send pictures later.

Please pray for my sister and niece tomorrow!

My sister (Kathryn) is 38 weeks pregnant with her first baby, a little girl to be named Bridgett Isabelle. She had protein in her urine today and they admitted her to the hospital to be induced in the morning. Please keep them in your prayers that everything will go smoothly, and the tubulars on Bridgett's heart will not be any problems and she will not need to be transferred to another hospital. I'll be down there this weekend to see her, and I can't wait!

75% Done

Today, Saturday, marks one full week of Bryson in big boy underwear. He has only had 2 accidents, and is even pooping on the potty! We are a ways off from underwear at bedtime since he still wakes up soaked. We are now down to just 1 in diapers. Woohoo! We are so proud of Bryson, he is doing so good. He is even telling us when he needs to go, and most of the time he just takes himself.

Funny: Bry was going poo on the potty and he said "I love poo on the potty. I don't like poo in diapers, or poo in underwear, or poo in jeans, or even poo in socks, but I LOVE poo in the potty"!

9 years ago...

9 years ago today, I was a sophomore at Texas A&M. Dustin and I were dating, and I was living with 2 great friends (M & A). About 1:30 in the morning my roommate (A) and I were driving Dustin and her boyfriend (R) back to the dorms. R asked if Bonfire was leaning. There was no way it could be, could it? About 4:30 in the morning we got the 1st call from R that Bonfire had fallen at 2:42 am, barely over an hour since we drove by it. How could that be? About 6 am we got another call from M (who was in Houston trying on her wedding dress). Her little sister was a freshman and they couldn't find her. I listened intently to the radio and news hoping it was a sick joke, but the death count kept climbing. A & I decided to do something and went to give blood. The line was around the building, and it took us 4 hours to get to the front of the line. Tons of businesses were bringing food and drinks to those waiting. Just watching the community pull together during this horrible time, it was the defining moment when I knew I wanted to make BCS my home, someday I wanted to raise my children here. We went to the prayer service at Central with George W. Bush in attendance and to the memorial service at Reed Arena with the senior Bush. There are so many more memories from that time, and it is unbelievable to me that 9 years has past. In the end 12 Aggies lost their lives, and 27 more were injured (1 very seriously and will permanetly be in a wheelchair and was over a month before they were even sure he would make it).

http://bonfire.tamu.edu/

Bow giveaway

A good friend of mine (she has a little girl that is the same age as Brandt and I have known her since we were both pregnant with them) makes super cute hair bows for little girls. She is about to open an Etsy shop with them. She is going to be giving away 2 different bows of the winners choice, check it out and enter:

http://amanda-ritter.blogspot.com/2008/11/giveaway-in-honor-of-my-100th-post.html

Getting so big!

Our little guy is getting so big! He is now 6 months old and has 2 teeth already. He rolls all over the place when he is on the floor, but is still as content as can be when you are holding him. He does not sit yet and isn't real close, but he loves to stand holding onto your fingers. He has an infectious smile and laugh that he shares frequently. I can not imagine my life without this cutie! We started rice cereal 3 days ago and he is doing awesome! This is literally as messy as he gets. He sits there and opens wide for it, and when he is done he just stops opening for it. I hope he keeps this up, as Bry would spit it everywhere and try desperately to get his hands in it. He would need a bath after every meal. lol

He had his 6 month old check up yesterday and got 7 vaccines (6 shots and 1 oral). Poor baby! He was fine as soon as I picked him up, but I hate shots and can't wait for him to be done with them. He was in the 25th% for weight, but in the 75th% for height.

Here is a comparison between all my boys at 6 months:

Brandt: 26.25 inches (50th%) 16 pounds 12 ounces (50th%) Head Circum: 43 1/2 cm

Brayden: 26 inches (50th%) 16 pounds 10 ounces (50th%) HC: 45cm

Bryson: 26.5 inches (50th%) 17 pounds 1 ounce (50th%) HC: 43.6 cm

Brennan: 27 inches (75th%) 15 pounds 12 ounces (25th%) HC: 43.75 cm

They were all pretty close, except Brennan is a little taller, but almost a pound lighter than the next smallest, and Brayden has always had a much bigger head. lol

Happy 3rd Birthday Bry!

3 years ago at 8:09 PM, Bryson Jacob entered this world almost 3 weeks early weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces. His brothers were totally in love with him, and so were we. I can not believe how quickly these last 3 years have gone. He is turning into such a big boy, and we am so very proud of him.

A few hours old 1st birthday

2nd birthday
These were all taken today at Sears. He LOVES football and when I got there with his clothes he already had this on. So he took several in the uniform and several in the outfit we brought. They turned out so cute, it was really hard to pick.

To celebrate his 3rd birthday we took him to Chuck E Cheese. He was so excited, and has been talking about it for several weeks. Right before we left Chuck E came out to sing Happy Birthday to all the birthday kids. Bry got really excited, and asked if Chuck E was going to sing "Happy Birthday to me". He kept grinning the whole time and got down and hugged Chuck E (that was the 1st time he has ever hugged him, he does not like people in costume). In the car on the way home he asked if it was still his birthday. He has such a sweet heart and absolutely LOVES babies. He has such a fun little personality and I am so lucky to be his mommy!

Poor baby!

Poor Brayden got poked in the eye really hard at school today. The wild child in their class went to hug another student and clocked Brayden square in the eye. I saw his class around 9:30 and his aide asked if I had seen his eye. I told her no, and when he turned around it looked fine. So I thought it was no big deal. Fast forward to 2:45 and then his teacher comes to tell me his eye is red and swollen and he doesn't want to leave the ice pack on. So she brought him to me and he stayed the rest of the 45 minutes in my class with the high schoolers. His eye was so red, and swollen and he was squinting really bad. I called my friend that is an eye doctor and she thought he needed to be seen today. So we made an appointment and off we went. As he was getting out of the car at the dr the bright light was hurting it so he closed his eyes and misjudged and fell out of the car and hit his chin on the car. So I got to carry him all the way inside and up to the second floor...man he is getting really heavy! Well turns out she scratched his cornea. It is not bad enough for a patch, but he does need a prescription eye drop 4 times a day for 5 days and a follow-up appointment on Friday. So because this other child is wild and careless we get to spend $75 between the 2 doctor appointments and Rx and Brayden is pretty miserable. Thankfully, he should be much better by Friday.

WOOHOO!

We made it, Daddy is home!!!

Missing their brother

Bryson has been gone the last 2 days. I went upstairs a minute ago to check on the boys and they were both asleep together in Bry's bed...they must be missing their brother.

Even Jingles our kitty is sleeping in the bed

Sweet Surprise

Dustin has now been gone 9 out of the 12 days. Today during my last class before lunchtime another teacher brought in a huge package to my room. I couldn't imagine what is was. When she brought it closer I realized it was an Edible Arrangement. Dustin had written a very sweet card and double checked yesterday to see when my lunch break was, because he needed to know when to deliver it since it needs to stay refrigerated. Here I thought he was wanting to know when he could call me. lol It is my 1st ever Edible Arrangement, and was completely not expected. It was so thoughtful, and really brightened my day.

Cute Story: I only have the older 2 kids right now as the younger 2 are at my parents' house. We needed to run errands after school, but I had to stop by the house for a second. I went in and grabbed a few skewers for the boys. Their eyes lit up, we are a huge fruit eating family. I told them Daddy was missing us and sent it to us. Brayden said "hmmm, that was DELICIOUS! Let's call Daddy and tell him to send us more". I thought that was so cute.

Crazy kids!

I put pjs on them and tucked them in last night. When I went back in to check on them they had each put an old costume on over their pjs and fallen a sleep. I never heard a peep out of them, so I have no idea how they managed to do this without me hearing them.

Bryson as Batman
Brayden as a pirate, notice his red and striped pj shirt underneath?

Brandt the pirate as well

Brandt's trip to Dewberry Farms

Brandt's class went to Dewberry farm yesterday. My mom went with his class and took Bryson again. Some good friends came to my rescue and watched the baby so he didn't have to go back out in the cold.

Love this picture!

Hayride

Love Brandt's expression! Checking out baby chicks

"I am king of the world"! Playing on top of the hay piles

Playing on the fort

Measuring himself to the tractor wheel

Riding the corn train

Dewberry Farm Field Trip

Brayden's class had a field trip to Dewberry Farms today (down near Waller, TX). With our babysitter out on maternity leave I took the younger 2 boys with us. Yesterday we had great weather, but today it was miserably cold and windy. The wind took your breathe away and Brennan hated it. Dewberry farms is a really neat place though, and has a lot of cool things for the kids to do.

Going on a hayride
Each child was allowed to go in the field and pick their very own pumpkin to take home. Little tidbit I learned today: these are full grown, adult pumpkins. They are just miniature ones.

Brennan was in a long sleeve/long pants romper with feet. He then had on Brayden's school hoodie (it covered his whole body), his blanket, and then a friend of Brayden's blanket. After we put on her red blanket, he settle down and took his bottle and went to sleep.

Getting face to face with a goose. Hate the piece of trash in the picture, but the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing empty wrappers around.

Checking out the horse

Always being adventurous. Bryson going down head first.

Brayden driving a pedal cart around the track

Going for a ride in the corn train

More festival fun

So after all the fun last night we ventured out to our church's fall festival tonight. Brandt didn't want to dress up the same as last night so we got out our old costumes and dress up clothes and the boys each picked what they wanted to be. Since it was over 80 degrees I was glad they didn't want to put on their fleece bee costumes today.

Brennan went as an Aggie fan. Real cheesy, but it was too hot for a regular costume and the boys insisted he dress up too.
Our very own Dash!

Buzz Lightyear

A wonderful vet! Notice the animals, he carried them around all night treating them.

Brennan has figured out how to play Peek-a-boo! He will pull the shade visor down on his carrier and just laugh.

Waiting patiently in line

Brayden playing Putt Putt

Bryson throwing bean bags. He actually threw all 3 through the holes and left handed nonetheless!

Brandt pumpkin bowling

The boys riding in the caboose of the train

I think everyone was worn out by this point and ready to go home. We have all been up since before 6:30 this morning since we picked up my parents at the airport in Houston early this morning. Not to mention they had a hard time going to sleep last night after all the excitement (and sugar) so they were up way past their normal bedtime.