4 months old?!?!?!

I can not believe that my baby is already 4 months old! So, I'm a little late because he turned 4 months on Friday but with life being as busy as it is it's no wonder time is flying by like it is!

Just home from the hospital


2 weeks old


4 MONTHS!!!

In the last month Braxton has had quite a few firsts......

First Laugh

Rolled from back to tummy

Saw himself in the mirror

Reached for a toy

On a Swing

Was able to hold his head up all by himself

Was able to wear his cute little robe from Grandma Gerrie

Went on his first Camping trip and weekend getaway

Braxton at 4 months is.....

• Laughing with out being tickled for a couple of weeks we could only get Braxton to laugh if we tickled hime! Not anymore! Nothing is better than a baby giggle. It's so worth making ourselves look silly in order to get a good giggle out!
  


• Talking like crazy! It's so fun to sit and have conversations with him! He is definitely going to be my little talker! He loves to coo and babble and gets so excited while doing it.

• Is getting a cute, fun personality! He loves to smile, talk, make faces, and laugh! He already has a bit of an attitude at times but is usually a very happy, easy going baby!

Getting So excited! He kicks his legs, shakes his arms and smiles while moving his head!

My Blondie! He was born with super dark hair but it has come in blond!

Doing such a great job building his hand eye cordination! He loves to grab toys and put them in his mouth!

Such a good baby! He is still sleeping through the night, from 8:30 or 9pm until between 6:00 and 7:00am only getting up once between 4 and 6 to eat!

Wearing bibs all the time. They are now pretty much part of his daily wardrobe due to all of the slobber!

Braxton Loves.....

His Hands! He always has at least one of them in his mouth and is ALWAYS slobbery and wet! Lately he has been loving his hands so much that he tries to get more and more in his mouth and ends up gagging himself which only leads to more drowl and spit up! Needless to say, his clothes are never dry or clean anymore!

To sing songs! He loves songs that interact espcially the wheels on the bus and Pop goes the Wheisel!

To watch TV - all those neat colors! He expecially likes Sesame Street and Dragon Tales.

He still loves to have something in his hand to hold preferably his passifier ribbon, a blanket, birp rag, bib or the shrit of who ever is holding him. Whether he's wide awake, fast asleep, trying to play or just laying around. He also still always has his hands in fists! His hands are in fists wheather he is holding something or not.

Bath time! No matter what mood he's in, once he gets in that water he's the happiest baby on earth! He especially loves to splash!

To be outside! Whether he's in his stroller, on our lap on a chair or in his bouncer doesn't matter! He almost seems at peace when we're outside.

It's all about the little things......

A full nights sleep

Braxton has been sleeping through the night (8:30 or 9 until between 4 and 6) for a couple of months now which is something we definitely took for granted until last night! We're not sure what got into him but 9:00pm until 3:30am when I finally gave in and fed him he was up about 4 times screaming! Then from about 3:50am when he went back to bed until I left for work at 6:00 he was up about 4 more times! I'm not sure what time he finally got Nate up! Last night was a hard night for all of us. But I've learned that it's good to have those bad nights every once in a while to remind us how lucky we are that he normally does sleep so well through the night! We definitely got spoiled with one good little guy!

It's all about the LITTLE THINGS~

And sometimes it's the little things that don't matter at all!!

When I went to pick Braxton up from Grandma Hollie's on Monday after work this is what I saw.... (you dad's might not get it but I'm pretty sure you mom's will!)

All, I could say was "Oh buddy, look at you!" And Grandma Hollie responded, "That's all that was in the diaper bag for him, I promise!"

On the way home, after laughing about it for a little bit I realized that it doesn't matter! At least he had cloths packed to wear!

It also reminded me how grateful and lucky I am to have such an amazing and supportive husband who is willing to get Braxton to Grandma's house on his way to work on Monday and Tuesday when I work also. That he gets the diaper bag ready on the mornings I don't have time and gets clothes out for him to wear the mornings I forget, even if he looks like that!

Thanks for all of your help babe and for the wonderful husband and father that you are. Also, for reminding me that sometimes it's the little things that don't matter!

Braxton meets Beaver.....

........and what an experience it was!

Over Memorial weekend we went to Beaver for the annual family outing, only this time it was a little different.

First things first... Somehow I ended up being signed up to work all weekend, yes, Saturday, Sunday and Monday so we weren't even planning on going. But about 2 weeks before I was able to find someone to cover my Sunday and Monday shift leaving me only with Saturday. Nate needed to go down Saturday to pull the 4-wheeler trailer and decided to take Braxton and Chloee with him. Since I was stuck working Saturday from 7-7 I decided it would be best to head up Sunday morning. I figured that since it would be so late I wouldn't get there until after about 10:30 anyway and instead of going up there only to sleep I decided to stay home and get a good nights sleep, get up early and try to be to Beaver about the time everyone would be getting up anyway. Also, that would be one less day I would be dirty!

Saturday night was a long night, and a little scary! It was the first night since I can remember that I was totally alone. With all three of them gone it was a little weird. I must admit, I had to sleep with the TV on all night and I had the volume just loud enough that I couldn't really make out what they were saying but I could hear the noise! Once I fell asleep it was so nice to get a full nights sleep. Thanks so much babe for taking Braxton up with you. I'm glad you were able to get some good Father son bonding time!! Thank you also to everyone who helped Nate out and allowed for him to get a couple of breaks. In the end I decided that one night of camping with a baby is plenty!

The drive up to Beaver was really nice. There were just enough cars that I didn't feel alone and scared on the road but there weren't enough to make it a bad drive. Before you start asking yourself how my husband could let me drive the 3 1/2 hours to Beaver all by myself I have to tell you that he tried hard to talk me out of it. He offered to come home Saturday night or early Sunday morning to pick me up and he also offered to meet me half way but I insisted on driving out myself. I didn't see any sense in him driving all the way out to pick me up only to have to drive all the way back! Also, he had cell phone service so I knew I could get a hold of him if I needed to! Just after I got up there Sunday morning we went on our famous family hike and then hung out the rest of the day!

I found out just after getting there that my mother-in-law was sick with the flu (luckily only the 24 hour bug) all day Saturday and did her best to stay away from Braxton which I was very glad about. But knowing that all of Nate's immediate family was sleeping in the same motor home I knew the germs would make their way around. Sure enough, Monday morning Nate's brother, dad, and Nate all woke up really sick and not to long after Braxton started to get sick. Needless to say, Monday was a little bit of a long day and I was so glad we were going home. Poor Braxton was so miserable but was still such a good baby! I was so impressed with how happy he was despite how yucky he felt.

So, with how crazy the weekend was - me not getting there until Sunday and everyone being so sick on Monday I managed to only get two pictures, both on Monday right before we left to go home. I was a little sad that I didn't get more pictures of Braxton with it being his first Beaver trip ( I didn't even get our first family picture on the rock) but we'll try and do better next year!

Braxton with Grandma Gerry

Can you even tell he's sick?

Braxton's new hat! The smallest size they had in the store was newborn-toddler. I'm still a little confused as to why you would want to buy the same size hat for both a newborn and a toddler. As you can tell, he'll be able to wear it for quite a while!

And St. George (Cedar City)

This last weekend (two weeks after our Beaver trip) we went on our yearly Cedar City trip with my family. Every year Lexi's gym participates in the Utah Summer games and we make a little weekend getaway out of it. This year we decided to stay in St. George instead of Cedar and I'm so glad that we did! While Cedar was wet and cold all weekend, St. George was sunny and about 15-20 degrees warmer all weekend! This trip was a little more enjoyable thanks to the fact that everyone was healthy! It also is a little easier to take care of a little one in hotel than it is in a motor home in the middle of no where!

We really lucked out with such a good baby! He did so well on the long drive to get there and home and was great while we were there (other than then 3 blow outs he had, one being during the meet, and the spit up problem he had toward the end of the meet as well). I think he just got sick of being there and needed some way to get back at us!

When we got to St. George Friday night we just hung out for a little while, literally! Dad thought it would be funny to put Braxton in his back pack!



We also played my new favorite game, Master Minds! It's such a fun game but not so good to play late at night :) Saturday morning we went on a little walk around St. George by our hotel and ended up stopping by Brigham Young's summer home and went on a little tour there! It was so neat to see.







Also, you'll never believe who we saw there, yep Brigham Young himself. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself......

Saturday afternoon we headed to the meet! Lexi did really well, taking 4th over all out of about 9 for her age group! She made a couple little mistakes because they have been teaching her some new routines, different from the ones she would be doing at the Summer Games, and she got a little confused and would try to throw in some of the new routines! So, considering the circumstance she did great! After the meet Nate and I were ready to take off. Between the blow out (which by the way, mom forgot to pack wipes before we left for the meet!) and all the spitting up, we were done! When we got out to our car we found out our battery was dead and none of us had jumper cables!! Luckily my parents drove separate and were able to drive us to get some! What a long night!

Braxton hanging out with Aunt Sami and dad at the meet






Our Family after the meet and ready to go


Our little gymnast with all her medals




Because Lexi didn't get to swim at all before her meet (we learned last year that water in your ears throws off your equalibrium, causing her not to do so well) we spent Sunday morning before we left by the pool! Well, me, my mom and Braxton were by the pool while the boys and Lexi were in it!

It's all about the LITTLE THINGS~

~CHLOEE'S UNDERWEAR~

Your probably thinking, really? But this was really a blessing in disguise! Chloee went into heat the beginning of February this year. We were anxiously anticipating when the day would come that she would go into heat while also dreading the idea at the same time! We knew it should be anytime and were excited with the idea of getting it out of the way and knowing that the next heat cycle that comes around after this one we can breed her! I was a little worried though because I wanted it to be finished before the baby came and we got the carpets cleaned. A dog in heat = a very big mess!

Well the day finally came and totally caught us off guard. We were not prepared at all! I remembered my parents putting underwear on our dog while growing up so we decided to give it a try. Let's just say, Chloee wasn't a fan and she knew she had an advantage against me who was 9 months pregnant and usually the one stuck trying to get it on her! It lasted about 2 and 1/2 weeks but toward the end she finally accepted and got used to the fact that she had to wear her underwear!

The two hardest parts about it were 1- trying to remember to take it off before we let her outside to go to the bathroom and then trying to get her to stay still to put them back on when she came in and 2- keeping them on her at night!

So, for those of you who have girl dogs and decide you want to breed her just keep all of this in mind! After going through that long 2 1/2 weeks we decided that we didn't have a choice but to breed her! There was no way we were going to have gone through all that for nothing!

SO...... now for the blessing behind it! Well, the pictures them selves are hilarious now! It's definitely one of those things that you look back at and laugh! I meant to take more pictures of her different fashion statements but we had other things going on at the moment! The second blessing is that her heat cycle ended 1 week before Braxton ended up being born!! There is no way I could have had a dog in heat and a new born! It couldn't have been much closer! We also are so glad that this is behind us for a couple more months!

It's all about the LITTLE THINGS~

Baby Giggles


Braxton giggled for the first time yesterday and I almost cried! It was so exciting! He only does it if you tickle him on his chest just under his collar bones! Just the last couple of days he has become pretty ticklish but would only smile his big smile and open his mouth like he was trying so hard to get something to come out - but nothing ever would. Last night I was tickling him and expecting nothing but big smiles. So I was totally surprised when I heard him giggle and giggle and giggle! He hasn't done it so much today. I think it's because I used up all his giggles last night - tickling him over and over just to hear his adorable little giggle!

It is so fun and absolutely amazing to see Braxton and the little things he is learning. I wonder how people who have seen little ones grow up can say they don't believe in a higher being. The way that everything works from their development and growth both in the womb and out as well as actually getting them here! It's amazing how most of the time, everything happens exactly they way it's supposed to and when it's supposed too. There are so many little things that could go wrong and they usually don't! Hearing Braxton giggle for the first time is just another reminder to me that Heavenly Father is truly there and is aware of me!


I just now discovered that Braxton also giggles when he is tickled under his arms and on his belly!!