Thanksgiving/Birthday Party

Thanksgiving - check
Birthday party - check
Happy little 2 year old - check

I can't believe the holiday is over for another year.  We had a great time with family and ate a LOT!!  Bryson and I took off Wednesday to spend the day with Birthday girl.  That evening we had a dinner at my cousin's house.  Thursday we went to my mom's, then dad's later in the evening.  Saturday we had Braylea's birthday party and then out to eat with Bryson's family.  Finally, Sunday we had lunch at Bryson's Grandma's house.  Tomorrow back to regular routine?? No thank you!!  I need a day to just do NOTHING..well and clean house - guess we will wait another week for that!

Here are some pictures of the week:

Dora couch and bed from Nama Karen along with Dora, the doll and Dora's backpack.

She had to remove every bit of paper before digging in.

A Dora rocking chair from Papa Tom!  Yes - LOVES Dora.

Jamie got her a cake for her actual birthday - thanks Jay!

Mallory and Braylea posing silly.

Karaoke for hours..she sang and danced all evening!

Birthday party time!

I was so happy with the cake.

Kamden helping Bray open.

She loves babies, so this was a hit!  She also received a baby crib and car seat.  She is definitely entertained being a Mommy at home now!

Halfway through opening gifts, she said, "I play with kids now, Mommy" and walked away leaving me with the remaining gifts.  It was SO funny!  She is a little social bug.  I made the mistake of telling her about her party a few days in advance and so she asked when the kids were coming to her party non-stop.  Who needs presents when you have kids??

I'm so thankful for the family and friends that God has blessed me with.  Becoming a mommy definitely makes you appreciate things at a deeper level.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because all it is about is family (and food - can't forget that!) lol..I love family gatherings and am blessed that most of my family is local. 

Last Day at 1

Tomorrow my baby girl will be two years old.  It just doesn't seem real.  It is so true how they say that once you have a child, the time goes by even faster - I don't like it!! 
For the past few weeks, we have asked Braylea what she wants for her birthday and the only thing she says is a 'birday cake!' - I can handle that!  She must have gotten this from Dora - where else, right?  We watch at least 4 episodes daily.  I have the DVR set to record every new Dora so we have some assortment.  I'm just thankful that she is learning from it.  Since she began sitting and watching, she has learned to count to 10 on her own.  Her brain is like a sponge!  I do love that I can sit her on the couch and put Dora on and I can take a shower, clean house, or even lay down and relax - something I haven't had since she was born!
I took tomorrow off to spend the day with her.  Daddy and I are taking her to Joplin to get things for her party and shop for her gift.  It'll be a good time to hang out with her before we begin the hecktic  Thanksgiving schedule we have with family gatherings.

I wanted to get a good picture of the day before her birthday and I got a goofy ball instead - then, I tried to upload the pictures to show and it keeps giving me a failure status - I guess no pics today!

Pictures!!

We have pictures ready to view!!  Again - love them like always!  Kelli is great and has great ideas.  We did these a little early because of the weather because I wanted to make sure we still had pretty leaves on the trees..it worked out!  The only downfall is that is was pretty windy, so some are better than others, but I think we will be able to pick out several to order - anyone want to give me a loan? :)

To view, go to:
http://www.studiokonline.com/
click on website
go to Client Proofing
Password is 'nutter2010'

Enjoy!

One vs Two

Last weekend the fabulous Kelli Carnahan (Studio K) took Braylea's two year pictures along with some family pictures.  She let me see a sneak peek this week when she posted it on facebook.  I LOVE this picture and cannot wait for more to come..2 more weeks of trying to be patient.  It has been a whole year since we have had professional pictures, so it is insane to see the difference from last year.

Difference from last year:

Braylea's hair is 4x's longer.  Last year she just had hair on the top of her head..not even at all.  Now I'm able to do about anything to it.

She had no teeth at one, now has 11 - still not a lot but making a lot of progress.

She was still needing help walking, now she is running.

She understands when you tell her to smile or say cheez - we were able to bribe her by telling her to smile for a picture, then she was able to take one picture each smile with Kelli's phone - thanks for your patience, Kelli!

I love this age - I wonder how long I will say that?  It seems like I think it couldn't get any better and it does!  Now I feel like I can carry on conversations with her.  It makes it nice when Daddy is gone all weekend and it is just the two of us.  It makes it so much more enjoyable.

We are still semi working on using the potty.  When she tells me she needs to go, I let her and normally she does go - it just isn't consistant.  We just need to spend a weekend home and work on it, but we have been so busy lately that it hasn't worked out.

She can count to 10 now and 'help' sing the ABC's (she has certain parts she has done and others we are still working on).  She is getting better with colors as well.  Her attention span just isn't the greatest, imagine that, so it is hard to keep her on track to retain things!

Potty Training begins..

Thursday evening I went and got Braylea a potty.  She always wants to go potty, but just sits there..nothing happens.  The girls at daycare have been working on it, so I knew she had the concept of it.  I thought I'd see what she did.  We didn't really 'try' to train her, but let her sit on there a few times a day.  The first time she did Friday evening she went pee!!  I was so shocked!  She was telling me, "I pee, Mommy..yay!" and clapping.  I had walked away for just a few seconds and thought..there is no way.  Sure enough - she was telling the truth..smarty pants.  She did the same thing Sunday evening before bedtime.  I hope when we full board begin, it is this easy..time will tell.

Aunt Lo Lo's visit

Last weekend, Aunt Lo Lo(Lauren) came to town because it had been way too long without seeing her fav niece.  We spent the weekend there and had a good time with the family.

Grandma had to do Sissy's hair since she was doing Aunt Lo Lo's!  So silly!

Kisses for Daddy!

This is the Nutters' poor cat.  Braylea loves it.  The cat really tolerates Braylea pretty well, hence the way she is holding her!

That's better!

Shirtless after trying to drink Gpa's beer and it going everywhere!!  Bad girl!

This is bad - I realized I took no pictures of Lauren and Braylea.  I'll make up for it in November!!  Sorry Sister!



Cousin play time..

These were taking a few weeks back but I wanted to share.  I was so excited to finally get to french-braid Braylea's hair.  I love fixing hair, so this was a big deal for me! :) It didn't stay cute for very long with how rough she is, but I was satified..ready for it to thicken our a little more - new growth is coming!

Kamden and Braylea haven't gotten too close yet - but it is coming!  Kam has to protect Bray in the future like Kari did for me!