Juicy Lips

Am I just crazy or are these some of the most smoochable lips ever??

Sacked Out

I'm usually the one who takes Brayden out in the hall during Sacrament to help him drift off into his morning nap, but this past Sunday I had to give a talk.  So Brandon was on baby duty!  After Sacrament meeting was over, I walked out into the hall and this is what I found!  Lol!!  :)  Love my two boys!

Where's the time go?

So Brayden is 8 months!  He's growing like a weed and getting really active.  He's up and down and all around the house.  He can crawl really quickly and is very good at pulling up on furniture and people.  His fine motor skills are getting much better as well and he's learning to use his thumb and index finger to put ALL kinds of things into his little mouth (in which he has 2 very sharp teeth)!  I prefer it to be food, but he seems to find every microscopic item... goodness!  He's really starting to watch us when we talk and has started saying "Da da."  He doesn't know what it means yet... but he's saying it!  :)

He has started feeding Blaze!  I think it's hilarious and don't know if that's something he thought of on his own or if he has seen us do it and decided to try it out.  He's also "hulking out" these days.  He usually starts it when I'm not fast enough with the food, but will also compete with anyone who wants to rise to the challenge!


A few things Brayden loves:

His toys... and uses them to help him stand up!

While he likes his toys... he LOVES empty juice bottles.  He'll flick them with his hand around the kitchen.

Harassing Blaze.  You can see Blaze is pretty mad about it...

Caught!

Loves the theme song to "The Office"

Brushing his 2 little teeth!  Is it just me or does he seem too big in this pic??

He is such a joy, and Brandon and I feel so blessed to have him in our family!  He's truly the best thing that's happened to us!

I could just smooch those little lips all day!!

Oh, one last thing!  He's figured out the drawers!!  Uh oh!  Time to "Brayden proof" the house.

Hmmm... what's in here...

Oh hi mom!  I was just... looking.  :)

The Zoo!

This past Saturday was perfect for the zoo!  The weather was nice and sunny with a cool breeze, so we decided to pack up and go to the Baton Rouge Zoo with my brother Jared and his family.  Even the animals were enjoying the day.  Most were out in the sun making lots of noise.  :)   Brayden must have learned a little something because he was yelling at the top of his lungs the entire 15 minute walk back to our car!  Hahah... he had lots of fun!   

Momma's little monkey at the alligator exhibit

Eating our snack!  Mum mum and juice!

Jared, Keri, and little Carson (in the car seat)

Anderson being shy

Ashlyn and all her cuteness

Jaxon was content riding and eating his snacks!

Brayden loved this goat!  It kept trying to stick his nose thru the fence and Brayden was fascinated.

Anderson and his Daddy!

We have a crawler at 7 months, 3 days!!!

Our 1st Christmas with Brayden!

Christmas Day was just wonderful!  Santa came to visit the night before so we got up and opened presents together before church.  Santa brought Brayden a walker this year along with some cool clothes!  Mom and Dad got him some other toys and clothes!  Here are a few pics from the fun!

Helping momma unwrap gifts!

Gonna put these to the test!

Checking out some of his new clothes

Likes his guitar one the best, I think...

A fun ball that lights up, rolls and plays music

Brayden's idea... helps you find your lost keys!

My gorgeous blue topaz ring!  Love it!!

My beautiful new jewelry box!

Some new lights for my car!  :)  I forget what they're called but Brandon worked overtime to get them installed for me!  Thanks babe!

Brandon got a new hunting rifle for Christmas so he was pretty stoked about this scope!
My parents and I went in together to get it.  :)

Was this a selfish gift?  :)

He likes tools and gadgets...  He's a handy man :)

Christmas tie!

After we finished gifts, we had to hurry and get ready for church!  It was combined with Gonzales 1st Ward... at 9am!  Certainly not used to 9am anymore!  Church was great!  We got to listen to a beautiful Christmas Cantata and then we heard from Bishop Shane Richardson.  We just met 1st hour, so we returned home and went to MawMaw Richardson's for lunch.

My two favorite men in the world!

Next, we headed over to Woman's Hospital!  Joel and his wife, Holly had their baby boy Christmas Eve, so we wanted to go meet him.  His name is Kai Benjamin Bonnette and he's super cute.  This is the only pic I could find of him.  He's a really good baby and I got to hold him for about 30 mins!  :)  Joel and Holly we eating lunch (I guess we timed it perfectly!).

Next we went to Brandon's Aunt Melissa's house.  Brandon's dad's family was getting together and they've never met Brayden before, so we thought we'd swing by.  They were super surprised and were so excited to see us!  We really had a lot of fun visiting and catching up.

MawMaw Tingle!  Brayden's great grandma!

Whew!  This was a long post, but I just want to say how grateful I am for the Christmas season!  I'm grateful for the time of year where we slow down and think of the birth of our Savior for an entire month!  I'm so grateful for a Father in Heaven who loved me enough to send his Son, who then gave his life so that I may one day return to live with Him again.  I'm grateful for their love and the hope that the Savior's sacrifice brings!  We love Christmas and can't wait for next year!

Christmas with the Heils!

Our next stop on Christmas Eve was the Heil home!  Brayden just loves his Mimi Kim and Grandpa Todd!  It was really fun to spend the evening with them along with MawMaw & PawPaw Richardson, and Lauren & Jay.   We definitely missed Garrett, but don't think he's missing us too much!  He loooves the MTC, which is just wonderful.  We love you, Garrett!

Anyway, Mrs. Kim cooked some really delicious chicken and sausage gumbo, which... I really need the recipe to!  After we ate, we opened gifts.  This year, Mrs. Kim and Mr. Todd paid for and built us a front porch!  It was heaven sent and we couldn't have asked for anything better!  Mr. Todd really put in some long hours putting together the plans and building it for us, and we are so, so grateful for that!

The "Before" pics... Have to take the "After"

Brayden got some really great stuff as well!  Once again, he was trying to eat the wrapping paper, but loved all of his gifts!  Santa even came early just so he could get his stocking!  How nice, right?!  :)  He got more clothes, toys, and books!  Unfortunately we don't have pics of everything... but here's a couple. 

Lots of goodies in the stocking!  Food, a sippy cup, juice...

He's really checking out the cars, making sure they're ready to race.  ;)

His favorite book was a bear "touch and feel" book!

MawMaw and PawPaw Richardson got him some socks and a little key chain toy.  Aunt Lauren got him some church shoes and they are adorable!  She also got him a little hat that said "My 1st Christmas"... but Brayden's head was too big. :(  We're happy for big brains, but sad that it didn't fit!  Lol!  And then she got him a little stuffed reindeer.  You can see in the pics below that the reindeer was a huge success!

I thought Brandon was zoomed in on Brayden... ooooh well.

The hat was toooo little!  He's loving that reindeer tho!

We got Mr. Todd a toolbox, and Mrs. Kim white sapphire journey pendant necklace!  Brayden helped me pick out Mimi's gift and she really seemed to like it!  She even wore it Christmas day!

A "real man's" toolbox  ;)

Mimi's 1st reaction!

We didn't have a pic with her and her gift, but this was it!

After gifts, we ate some dessert and PawPaw sang a couple of Christmas songs for us. It's kind of a tradition and was really nice!  Definitely brought the Christmas spirit!  Brayden really enjoyed it and gave PawPaw his undivided attention the entire time!  It was adorable! 

Then we played a game a Trivial Pursuit... Boys vs. Girls!  And of course the superior gender won... (hint for any males reading this: the women! *snickers*)  It was close, and the boys almost came back and beat us... but we pulled thru as the champs.  I have to say Mrs. Kim and Lauren are reeeeeally good at that game, and I was really glad to be on their team!!

After that, we went home and hit the sac!  It had been a wonderfully long day, but we were ready for Santa!