See Santa and the Christmas Train

We took Brody to see Santa, and to our surprise and delight he walked right up to him and sat on his lap! :) We have been talking about Santa as well as explaining why we give presents on Christmas... to celebrate Jesus' Birthday. So I think it helped him knowing who he was and what he was supposed to do when he saw him. :) He of course told him that he wanted a train that makes noise. (Every time we ask him what he wants for Christmas this is what he says).
We got one of their pictures (that they give for free) which is a good one of him looking right at the camera, and we were also able to take our own pics as well. He had a great time and was talking about it the whole next day.


The Christmas Train!

We went and saw the Christmas Train with Jason's family. It was a lot of fun yet at the same time it was very cold!! Brody loved riding on the train and was looking out the window the whole time! Here he is playing with a train in one of the gift shops. :)

Papa and Brody playing with some of his cars while we were inside getting warm!

Aunt Brandy and Uncle Jeremy eating some ice cream to stay warm..... :)

Aunt Holly, Uncle Ryan and Lilly enjoying the indoors.

Here we are on the train. He is not to interested in looking at the camera, he would rather turn around and look outside. :)

We had a great time and look forward to going back next year when hopefully it is a little warmer. :)

Christmas Lights, playing with Lilly, and going to the Doctors

Tonight we went and looked at some Christmas lights. Brody was fascinated by all the lights they had and really enjoyed walking through them. We all had a great time!

Brody and daddy walking under the Bridge.

Yesterday we were able to watch our niece for a little while while her mom went and got her hair cut. This was the first time that Lilly has come over to play and we were so excited to have her! She crawled around everywhere and even came into the kitchen with me while I was cooking and played with my Tupperware. :) Brody was taking a nap most of the time she was here but when he woke up he was glad to see her. I know as they get older they will have fun playing together and going over to each other houses!

I am now 30 weeks along and have 70 more days to go. When I think about it, that is not long! We are ready to meet our little girl, yet at the same time not ready. :) I went to the doctor today and had to take Brody with me since my apt. was changed due to a surgery my doctor had to perform. We had scheduled the apt for a time when Ja would be home to watch him, however it did not end up working that way today. My apt time was at 10:30 and Brody and I did not see the doctor until 1:30! Yes that is right! Just imagine an active two year old waiting that long! :) However he did really good and I was very proud of how he acted and minded me while we were there.

Here he is playing with his cars. I am always prepared with snacks and cars for him and usually if I have those he is good to go. I was also encouraging his good behavior with a reward of a sucker!

You can tell by this picture that he is looking a little bored, but after you have looked at every magazine in the room and picked out things for him to identify, sung songs, pointed to body parts, practiced counting, and played with cars, there is just not much more to do in the small doctors office! I know some of you are thinking, gross he is laying on the floor..... no worries I put hand sanitizer all over him when he was done. It is not like you can keep a little boy off the floor when he is playing with cars! I was just happy that he was not playing with the trash cans!!! :) When the doctor came in she listened to the heart beat and we were done in about 3 minutes! :)

Look at that happy face now, he had eaten lunch, had a chocolate chip cookie and is eating his sucker on our way home! He was such a good boy that he deserved some special treats!

Visiting my grandparents

This past weekend we went to visit my Grandparents. We had a lot of fun hanging out and eating a late Thanksgiving dinner with them and the rest of our family!

A fun family photo. :)
We would like to congratulate my sister and brother-in-law on their upcoming adventure of becoming parents!! We are so excited for them and can't wait to have another niece or nephew!! We know they are going to be great parents and are so glad that our children are going to be close in age so that they can be great playmates! Our baby girl and their baby will be three months apart!

My grandparents took us to a very fun and festive hotel, that had tons of Christmas decorations and trains (for Brody) to look at! They surprised us by taking us in a limo to and from their house to this hotel. It was a lot of fun! Brody really liked riding in it and enjoyed watching the trains go along their track at the hotel.

Mom and Dad :)

I am now 28 weeks along with our little girl and it is very hard to believe that we are not far from having her! The bigger I get, the more Brody is interested in touching my tummy. He will come up to me and say, "I want to see baby sister". :) It is very cute. Tonight we were trying to get her to kick while he was touching my tummy. I think it is cute to see him trying to feel her! I am sure there will be times when she comes that he will wish she was back in my stomach! :)* Our prayer is that they will be great friends and playmates!

Ja and Brody cooked a wonderful Gingerbread cake tonight!! Yum, Yum! He had a great time helping Ja make it and then later eating it!! :)

He loves his teddy bear! We have lately been feeding Teddy, taking Teddy to go pee pee on the potty and putting big boy underwear on Teddy! Stuffed animals can be such good friends! For some reason he wanted to get in this bucket and hold Teddy. :)

Learning how to be a big brother... :)

I had a doctors apt today to check on our little girl. Because of some complications that I have we are able to get an ultrasound done more often then normal. Our doctor has a 3d ultrasound machine so that makes it really fun to look at! This morning before my appointment Brody and I were talking about how he is going to be a big brother, and what he can do with his little sister. So he wanted to go and read a book to his little sisters Daisy Duck doll and practice being able to read to his sister. :) It was so cute that I had to capture the moment on camera! He likes going in his sisters room and playing with some of the stuff that we had in his room when he was a baby. We then talk more about her and hope that the idea of having a sister will sink in and he will understand what we are talking about. :)

*I would also like to share that Brody is now going pee pee in the potty when we ask if he needs to go. He knows he gets 2 MM's if he goes and that is great motivation for him! We are still at the very beginning of this, but I wanted to document the date on here of when he first started for my records. :)

Reading in his sister's room. :)

Some pics of our baby girl in my tummy!

We also were able to have these done on Brody and it is amazing how much they look alike, yet there are some noticeable differences. :) She has a smaller face right now and a pointy chin. However her nose is the same as Brody's was. :) Cool to look at I think!

I am 27 weeks pregnant with her.

26 weeks!

26 weeks and counting.......

I am now 26 weeks along in my pregnancy with our little girl. I noticed on the pregnancy count down that I am now under 100 days!! It has been going really fast and yet at the same time I think about how long I still have to go. :) I am trying to enjoy my time with this pregnancy. I want to enjoy my lovely schedule that I have with Brody. :) We have a pretty set schedule during the day and I enjoy it and know that this little baby is going to shake things up a little around here. :) As I was getting ready for church today (as Ja worked) I was thinking, how am I ever going to get out of the house on time with TWO kids, I can barley do it with one! I was blow drying my hair in his room, while reading him a book and holding all of his stuffed animals in my lap. Wow that about wore me out right there! :) I know that I am going to figure it out and in time things will become on a schedule again, however I am going to enjoy this time with Brody right now! :)
Brody has been very talkative lately. He has started saying I and me instead of referring to himself in 3rd person. The other day I was sitting on the floor playing with him and he said, "I am going to go get you a pillow mommy". He went and got me a pillow to put behind my back to lean on!! How cute is that! He is also telling us in words that he is becoming a big boy and has a mind of his own. I told him it was time to go and take his bath and he said, " No I am busy right now." :) You don't know whether to laugh or not when he says funny stuff like that. People ask me if he understands that he is going to be a big brother. I am not sure that he understands it completely and really how could he. We do go into the baby's room and talk about her and how he is going to be my big helper with her. We try to talk about her all the time so that it is not a shock to him when she comes home! :) Our prayer is that it will be an easy transition for him!!

Brody and I tried to take some pics together of how much he is growing and how much I am growing. :)

Brody's Big Boy Bed

Last weekend we decided it was time to switch Brody from his crib to his big boy bed. He was not having trouble in his crib, however we thought that we needed make the switch a good time in advance to his sister coming. We were not sure how it would go and had heard and read to leave his crib in the room and let him sleep in that at night if he wanted to, while sleeping in his bed during nap time. So we made a big deal about his new big boy bed and told him that his sister was going to sleep in the crib since that was for babies. So I guess something clicked in his brain and he said ok, and he has been sleeping in his big boy bed nap and night time ever since. I had heard horror stories about this switch and was told to wait as long as possible, however he has done really good and enjoyed being in his big bed. :) Yeah! Praise the Lord! He is the type of child that if you explain something to him where it makes since to him then he is ok with it. Like throwing away his passie in the trash can and telling him that the trash truck came and took it away, or why it is time to go to bed even when he does not want to, why he can not throw his toys, and how he is a big boy for sleeping in a bed instead of a baby crib. I can only hope and pray that our next big step in becoming a big boy (potty training) will be as easy!!!!!! :)

Yes I know some of you are thinking, man does he sleep with all that stuff in his bed? The answer is yes. :) He has always liked to have his head up against something when he is sleeping (like his bumpers in his crib). And having his stuffed animals in there is a security thing that a lot of kids do. We always go in and check on him, and at night we take some stuff out when he is asleep. :)

Trick or Treat!

This year for Halloween Brody dressed up as a fireman. He loves to play with fire trucks and loves watching them drive by when we are in the car. So it was very fitting that he was a fireman for Halloween. He looked very cute and loved his costume and even kept the hat on!

(I had a smudge on my camera lens that I did not realize until after a lot of the pics were taken so some of these are a little blurry, but just to cute to not put on here!)
Family photo

I love this pic of him smiling!

Marmee and Pop's with Fireman Brody!

Pop's and Ja took Brody trick or treating to some of the houses in my parents neighborhood. He had fun watching all the other kids on the block and got into it when he saw them doing it. However he was done after about 5 houses. :) Here he is showing Marmee the candy that he got.

Looking at the goods and eating some yummy candy!

We went over to Nana and Papa's house and hung out with them, Brody's Aunt Holly and Uncle Ryan and cute little Lilly who was a pumpkin!

cutest little pumpkin I have ever seen!

Here Brody is showing Lilly how to play with her new toy. :) We did not have much success getting them to both look at the camera at the same time. :)

We had a great Halloween spent with family and some yummy candy!

Another Party and A Visit To Aunt Amy and Uncle Eric's House

We had another birthday party for Brody on Sat. morning with all of Ja's family. We had his favorite thing instead of cake (since it was in the morning), Monkey Bread! Yum Yum! This time he knew what to expect when everyone was singing Happy Birthday and knew to blow out his candles when they were all done. It was so cute!
Enjoying the yummy monkey bread, it is lick your fingers good!

opening all of his birthday presents from family! He loved them all and really liked tearing the wrapping paper off of the presents! He also loved a card that sang the itsy bitsy spider..... :) We want to thank everyone for all the wonderful gifts that you gave him!

He got a wonderful police car and has played with it ever since!

Lilly had a lot of fun at his party watching him open his presents and intently watching him play with his fire truck and police car! I think she was taking notes for Christmas and making a list of some fun things she wants. :)

Uncle Jeremy teaching Brody how to hold his new putter that him and Aunt Brandy gave Brody! They also gave him a very cool golf bag so he can be just like them when they go play golf! I know that Ja and him will have a lot of fun on the putting green or in our back yard hitting golf balls. :)

Aunt Heather and Uncle Drew were in town visiting and Brody was very excited to see them! He really liked making things out of play dough with them. Brody had a great Birthday and we are grateful to all of our family's for making it so special!

A VISIT TO AUNT AMY and UNCLE ERIC's HOUSE!

Brody and I went to spend the week with Amy and Eric, while Ja was out of town on business. It was nice to be able to go there and spend a little more time with them. We were able to do a lot of fun things and I know Brody had a blast while we were there! I was a little nervous about the car ride since I have never driven with Brody by myself for a long distance drive. However he did really good and was able to entertain himself by watching some videos, driving on his steering wheel that we have for him, reading some books, and eating lots and lots of snacks!!!! :)

We went to a place called the Wonder Place where it has a lot of different centers that children Brody's age can pretend play with. It was very fun and I know that he would love to go back there! We also did a little shopping and Brody got to try out his new bicycle. My sister and I did some scrapbooking while Brody took his nap and was in bed. I was very grateful for this since I am so far behind and really need to get caught up before our little girl arrives! It is always better to scrapbook with someone else and especially her because she gives me good ideas! Brody and I also ate some very yummy food while we were there!! It was a great little vacation for us!

Pics from the Wonder Place

Thanks Aunt Amy and Uncle Eric for a wonderful week and for helping out with Brody! We had a great time and were sad to come home!