We are still here!

I always read others blogs, but never sit down and post anymore!  Life has just been crazy!  Braylea does not like if I'm not giving her full attention and once she is in bed, I don't want to do anything but possibly catch up on some DVRed shows or just go to bed..lol

We are all doing great!  Bryson is back home from rotation until first of November, so we can finally spend time together on the weekends..yay!

Braylea is funny as ever.  I'm afraid she is going to be a class clown someday.  Her old shyness has gone away for the most part.  She will talk to about anyone now.  Her talking is getting so much clearer and more fluant as well.  It is so amazing watching her develop.

Last week I got the opportunity to travel for my job.  My boss and I left Monday and flew to Atlanta, GA.  I have some customers in Millegeville, GA we went and visited and toured their plant.  On Tuesday, we drove to Savannah, GA - AKA right off the coast!! :)  I have my main customers there.  It was beautiful!  The plant was amazing.  I was able to tour the entire plant from the assemblying of planes to the paint and interior work.  Gulfstream Aerospace makes custom planes for private customers.  It is hard to believe we have that many millionares in this world!! ha!  I learned a lot and was extrememly fascinated.  That evening we went down to the river and ate dinner looking over the water - SO beautiful!  Wednesday we flew to Albany, NY and drove to our sister company in Coxsackie, NY.  I was able to tour their plant and meet with co-employees I interact with via phone/email daily.  It is always nice to put a face to the name.  NY was also awesome.  The trees were already in the early stages of changing, and the temps were highs of 70ish (our lows now..yuck!)  I want to go back! lol  We were only about 3 hours from NY City - I wanted to go SO bad.  We decided next trip we will add an extra day to run over there.
Overall, it was a great week and very successful.  I had a great time getting out of the office and traveling.  I missed my family like crazy, but it is always nice to get away for a few days.  It worked out great because Bryson was off all week, so he was able to keep Braylea.  I think they had a lot of fun together.  I was happy to wake her up Friday morning though to see that adorable lil face that calls me Mommy! :)  I said, "Hi Sissy!", and she said, "Momma's home?"  It was too cute!

Well, lunch is over so best be heading back to the office.  Until next time - hopefully not another month!

Bye Bye Bottle..

I officially have a big girl now - no baby crib and no bottle - never had to deal with the binky(we just have a blankey AKA night-night) when sleepy.  We have gone 3weeks now with no bottle and she is actually accepting the tippy cup and just calling it a bobba..whatever works!  She tries to get one every night but eventually gives in.

YAY!!

Bye Bye Crib..Hello Daybed

Saturday morning, Bryson and I woke up to Sissy knocking on our door..yeah, freaked us out!  So I made her show me what she did..

Yeah..good way of hurting herself!!

So we ended up with this by the next night.  I hope Babies R Us gets the conversion set in stock soon because now she falls out of bed sometimes because she rolls around so much..we need the railing!

Now I feel like we truly have a toddler without a crib..not ready that this!

Mallory's 3rd Bday Party

A little catch up since my internet is not allowing me to download pics from it! 

Braylea's cousin, Mallory, had her 3rd bday party two weeks ago..so we celebrated with the family.  We had a blast.

She would NOT let me take those off her arms! lol

Happy Birthday, Mal Mal!!

The BIG gift!

And more fun for the kids!

What is Braylea doing now?

So, I just realized that I have not posted for a LONG time about what Braylea is saying, doing, and all that good stuff..
She amazes me at how much she understands now.  She is figuring out how to put words together to better communicate.  I can almost tell her anything and she comprehends it with a for sure 'yes'/'no' answer.  The way she answers yes is probably the cutest thing ever!  I need to film it sometime because words can not explain.  She won't say 'yes', but she says, 'yyyeahhhh', and drags it out with her sweet little voice.  It is just amazing looking back at where she was development wise at 1 year old and 8 months later where she is at now.  I give my daycare props for that too.  She is awesome!  We started back in January and the development sky-rocketed from there.  It definitely helps that her twin little girls are just 6 months older than her.  They are potty training right now, so Braylea is starting to get the itch for it...but Mommy isn't ready for that quite yet.  I may get a potty chair soon to give her visibility of it. 

I can say that I love/hate this stage in her life right now.  I love that I can interact with her socially and she understands...buuuut that allows her to say 'no' and throw her temper.  She is one of the most stubborn kid I know!  Yes Mom and Dad, I know..she is MY kid - understood.  I honestly dread going in public with her when I know it will be a long period of time or if seating is required.  She used to be so interested in everything that she could just look around fascinated, and LOVED eating that she was so good and content..that all changed when walking came along.  I feel terrible pawning her off sometimes to grandparents just so I can go do something 10x's quicker w/o her or just to get away to have me time, but it just has to happen - that's what gparents are for, right? lol

We are still working on throwing the dang bottle away at bedtime.  I give in too easy when I know she will go to sleep instantly.  I normally give it a few weeks each time to try again.  I can't trick her either!  Last night was a success though because I bought her a new Dora tippy cup and told her she needed her big girl cup to go night-night.  She said no at first but took it and actually drank it all before falling asleep!  Normally she would toss it and go to bed with no milk and I don't really like that.  Therefore, progress is happening - yay!

Well need to get back to work so I will stop here for now..

Eureka Springs Weekend

Part of my family went down for the 4th of July weekend to attend my mom's wedding in Eureka Springs.  We left on Saturday and walked downtown to see the sights.  I don't believe any of us were very impressed with it.  We then just went back to the the motel and shot off a few fireworks and grilled out. 

Sunday we heard about the drive-thru zoo and decided to check it out.  It was really neat!  I have NEVER seen anything like this before.  There are just animals galore out in the open.  You can purchase food to feed them and they do actually come up to your window and eat out of your hands.  I would try but freak out every time they got real close so ended up throwing it to them. Ha..I was terrified of the ostrichs..they just look mean!

Deer were probaby the most common to see..

Sissy fell asleep on the way there, so wasn't quite sure what to think at first.  She liked them until they came up real close to the vehicle and freaked out a lil.

I do recommend this zoo.  They also have a petting side where you can get out of the vehicle to go see the animals.  My camera died right before we got to do that, so unfortunately, no pictures.

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Sunday evening we went to Mom's wedding.  We got lucky to have good weather to have it outside.  Braylea missed her 2-3 hour nap these few days we were gone, so by that time, she was exhausted and when that happens, she almost gets even wilder to overcompensate.  She first made Gma hold her during the ceremony, then grabbed the pillow on the table with the rings on top which caused them to topple on the ground and interrupt the ceremony, then she wanted to run so Daddy had to take her for a walk - Has to be center of attention!

The picture below describes my daughter's personality to a tee - ONRY!!!  It has to be my favorite though.  While Kevin and Mom were taking pictures, we all got stuck in this VERY small chapel with two kids under 2 years old..this equals ENTERTAINMENT to say the least.

They love each other one moment and are hitting each other the next..so Kari and I.

She found her blankey(nigh-nigh) and really wanted to fall asleep but up after a few seconds..can't miss anything!

Cheers!

Me and my Mommy!  My hairdresser gave me a quick overview on how to do Mom's hair since she couldn't make it and I was happy it turned out!  Thanks Bev!

The weekend was fun getting some much needed family time, but I have to say that Bryson and I really have no need to go back to Eureka Springs.  We heard so many people tell us how neat it is and we just weren't really impressed.  It almost seemed dirty.  If you like to just sit at a bar and drink or shop for old antiques, you may enjoy it, but that's not me.  We are more a Branson type of person and especially having a kid with us...that was a challenge!

B's 1st Haircut

As a baby, Braylea had a few times where we trimmed her bangs because they were long but the rest of her hair was rubbed off her head, so she just looked silly. 

This was her first 'real' haircut!  We are so very lucky that Gma does hair, so I think that helped the situation, plus seeing Daddy get his done a few times.

As you can tell by the pic, she didn't really know what to think at first...

Gma spraying water on her hair.

My good girl..

My onry girl..

My goofy girl..

My sleepy girl..

My sober girl..

My pretty girl!!  All done..thanks Gma Lorie!!

It is amazing how much healthier and fuller her hair feels from that lil trim..and yes, it was only a TRIM.  I'm anxious for her new hair growth to come all the way thru to fill it out even more!