The Tingle Family

The Zoo!

2012-01-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-22T21:09:00.001-08:00

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

Our 1st Christmas with Brayden!

2011-12-26T22:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-26T21:28:00.000-08:00

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!

Christmas with the Tingles!

2011-12-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas festivities began at the Tingle residence! We went over to Brayden's PawPaw Brette and Mimi Traci's house for lunch on Christmas Eve. Auntie Lauren got to feed Brayden part of his Christmas Eve lunch - pears!

Afterwards, we opened presents and got lots of good stuff! Brayden tried to eat the wrapping paper most of the time, but had the cutest reaction to his toys! I'm so glad that he's 6 months because he's actually interested in toys and was very intrigued by all of his presents. Mimi and PawPaw did a great job picking them all out!

Eating the yummy tissue paper!

He was even excited for his new shoes!

Awe struck! Hahaha!

Opening his puppy, taking it all in...

Mmmm... tastes great!

Brandon got lots of hunting gear and a .40 caliber Glock. I got lots of cute clothes and some really cute boots!

Lauren racked up on some good stuff too!

Mimi Traci got a blue topaz pendant necklace and we went in with Mimi and Aunt Lauren for PawPaw Brette's gift... a lift kit for his new jeep! We don't have any pics of that, but his jeep looks great and he was super excited about it!

Mimi and her 1st Christmas gift from little Brayden!

Mrs. Vicki and Mr. Roy also dropped by to see us, which was just great! We love them so much and it was such a blessing to get to see them while they were in town!

Mrs. Vicki, Mr. Roy, and Brayden

We had a great time over at Mr. Brette and Mrs. Traci's house. Next year will be even more fun! :)

Family Pics

2011-12-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, we went and had some family pics done with Jane. Here are a few of our favorites!

Garrett's Farewell

2011-12-03T22:10:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we had Garrett's mission farewell. Lots of people came out to show their support. We're all very proud of the decision he's made to serve our Heavenly Father for two whole years! Good luck little bro! We love you!

The awesome cake!

MawMaw, PawPaw & Garrett

Garrett & his Mommy!

Garrett and his Daddy

Mrs. Kim, Mr.Todd, and Garrett

Mr. Brette, Mrs. Traci, Garrett, and Maci

2 cuties

Andrew, Alex, & Garrett

Garrett, Lauren, and Brandon

Crazy brother...

Cleaning in the kitchen

Applesauce... Yum!

2011-12-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

We tried Brayden on some applesauce during the Thanksgiving break. He's been very interested in any food that I eat and tries to pull it to his mouth. He actually loves the applesauce, but makes the funniest faces!

He grabs my hand and pulls the spoon to his mouth.. Hahah

It tastes good, but it's so strange!

You'd think that he didn't like it, but he eats a couple of tablespoons of it. It's so fun to see him experience new things! Love him!

5 Months

2011-11-20T08:27:00.000-08:00

Whew! Were does the time go?! Brayden is already 5 months old. It might be the "Mommy Goggles," but he just gets cuter and cuter! Haha!

We didn't have a check-up this month, so I'll have to weigh and measure him at home. No stats yet... I know you were just dying to know! ;)

Some of his favorite things include playing on his play mat, chewing on his fingers, talking, giggling, being outside, letting Blaze lick his hand, and watching the fish tank.

Some of his least favorite things include the dark (I have to put the light on in the back if we're riding in the car at night) and rice cereal! :)

Brayden is such a joy to Brandon and I and it's hard to imagine what life was like before he got here.

Brayden's puppy dog hat... I love this pic

Mommy and Brayden

Have you noticed that he likes his fingers?

Chilling in our bumbo seat

Letting the bumbo do all the work for us!

Best Buds!

2011-11-20T08:10:00.000-08:00

Brayden had his 1st four-wheeler ride last Saturday with his Daddy. Don't worry, it was really slow down the driveway and back, so no craziness... yet. He seemed to really like it. Little man loves being outside so the whole time he just looked around while Blaze chased them. :)

My 2 favoritest people ever!

Brayden's 1st Rice Cereal

2011-11-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

So the other day, we decided to try Brayden out on some rice cereal! He's been watching me eat and drink so I was thinking that might be ready to start and that he'd probably like it. As you can see below... I was wrong! He's definitely not a huge fan! Hahah... Oh well, we'll try again in a week or so!

Our Littlest Saints Fan

2011-11-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Our little Saints fan!

Loves those fingers :)

Mommy and Me!

LSU vs Bama

2011-11-10T22:29:00.000-08:00

We went to watch the LSU/Alabama game over at Joel and Holly's house. It was an awesome game and little man was decked out in his Tiger apparel. :) LSU won 9 to 6 and remained #1 in the nation.

Mommy and Brayden

Crazy eyebrows!

Yummy fingers!

Ready for the game

Halloween!

2011-11-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

We had Brayden's 1st Halloween this year! We spent it over at Mimi Kim and Grandpa Todd's house. Brayden was a shark. :) He loved being outside while we passed out candy, and walked around half the block. He got lots of compliments on his outfit. ;)

4 Months

2011-11-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late with Brayden's 4 month update, but oh well! :) He was 15lbs 5oz (50th) and 26 inches long (almost 90th). Brayden has really gotten talkative this month, and there have been several times where I've had to take him out of Sacrament Meeting or Sunday School because he's being too loud. :) But that's ok... I love his babbling. He also loves chewing on his fingers these days. His doctor said that she can feel his bottom, right tooth starting to make its way to the surface. Woohoo! Anyway, here are a few pics leading up to 4 months!

The day of his 4 mth check-up and my 1st Friday at home!

It's funny b/c I sleep like this too :)

LOVES those fingers

Happy Boy

Our church outfit!

Fridays At Home!

2011-10-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

I get to work from home on Fridays!!!

Which also means that I get to spend the day with Brayden! :) It's pretty much the BEST thing ever! With Brandon starting his new full-time job as Southern Tire Mart AND going to school full-time, he's not able to watch Brayden on Fridays anymore. We were very excited for this financial opportunity but it kinda left us in a bind as far as childcare. I'm so, so grateful for bosses who decided to let me work from home!

3 Months!

2011-09-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Little man turned 3 months today!

It's amazing to watch him grow and see the progress that he's making, mentally and physically. We went to the doctor's today and he weighs 14 lbs 3 oz and is 24.75 inches.

This past month he has:

Laughed for the first time at his Daddy! I have to say I was a bit jealous that he got the first one, but I did get the second. :)
Started lifting up his head while on his tummy.
Dicovered his fingers! And loves to chew on them.
Discovered himself in the mirror and loves looking at and talking to himself.

One of my favorite things is talking to Brayden. His little eyes light up, and he tries really hard to talk back. It's absolutely adorable! Below are some pics from this past month! :)

Our 1st LSU game! Looks like he's ready to pick up chicks, don't cha think?! Lol

Sitting with Daddy, watching the game!

Laughing with Aunt Wendy

I like this one because you can see the chub on his legs! Yay for chubby legs!

Taking a quick nap before church!

Snoozing :)

Brayden's Blessing Day

2011-08-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had Brayden's baby blessing! One of those days that I've always imagined... Hard to believe it's already come and gone! And it couldn't have gone more smoothly! Most of our families were able to come and participate. I was a little nervous before sacrament started because he was getting a little tired and fussy. But he ended up falling asleep right before Brandon took him up to the front. He didn't make a peep during the blessing!

Looking handsome in the outfit Memaw made! :)

I'm so grateful that his Daddy was able to give him this special blessing! And I'm also grateful that his PawPaw Richardson, Grandad, Grandpa, Uncle Byron, Uncle Jared, Uncle Joel, Uncle Garrett, and Bishop Masten could participate too! I noticed in the blessing that Brayden was blessed to have many good desires... a desire to gain a testimony, desire to serve a mission and be married in the temple. He was also blessed to have great faith.

We really loved having everyone together for this special event! Thanks everyone! :)

Mommy, Brayden, and Daddy

Grandad, Memaw, and Brayden

Grandpa, Mimi, and Brayden

PawPaw, Mimi, and Brayden

Aunt Wendy, Uncle Byron, Dallin, Davin, Daniel, Madalyn, & Dathan

Aunt Keri, Uncle Jared, Ashlyn, Anderson, & Jaxon

Uncle Joel, Aunt Holly, Kailey, Eli, & Ella

Aunt Mavanie

Aunt Lauren

Uncle Garrett

Mrs. Vickie

2 Months Old!

2011-08-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little boy is already 2 months old!! Where does the time go? I have enjoyed every minute with him, and now that I'm back at work, my time with him is even more precious! Brandon is amazingly helpful and does pretty much everything around the house so I can just sit and hold him after work.

He's so cute!!!
I just want to kiss those chubby cheeks and lips all day!

He weighs 12 lbs. 4 oz. and is 23.5" long! This month he has learned how to smile and talk! Of course, he's just making little noises but it's cute to see him get excited and try to communicate.

I absolutely love this pic! Can see the light in his eyes!?

He's been doing great at church, and likes to dress like daddy! ;) I don't think I've been able to make it through sacrament one time, but he's such a good baby and normally sleeps through Primary. My weekends are very special to me since I don't normally get to spend time with him during the day, so I tote him down to Primary with my handy-dandy moby wrap!

Do you see any resemblance?

Right now, he's absolutely loving his bouncy seat! It vibrates and plays music and comes is very helpful when I'm trying to get ready for work or church! However, he absolutely hates his car seat (see pic below)! *sigh* It's very difficult to go anywhere with him unless he is in a deep sleep because when he realizes that he can't stretch, he has a meltdown! Talk about stress me out (only because I hate when he cries)!

Anyway, we're loving life with our super cute dude and look forward to his new developments! :)

Trying out the new Moby wrap!

Quite an inquisitive look :)

Sunday before church

2011-07-28T09:05:00.001-07:00

Happy 26th Birthday, Brandon!!! We love you!!!

Brayden's 1st Bath

2011-07-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

Brayden finally lost his cord on the day he turned one month! He absolutely loved his bath and was pretty upset when we took him out. Here are a couple pictures proving it!

Chillin', loving the bath

I think we broke his heart!

1 Month Old!

2011-07-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little man is already 1 month old! Time has gone by so quickly... I definitely have been able to see the little changes in him since his debut. ;) He's definitely grown a lot. Much longer and definitely heavier (both great things!). I love all of his facial expressions and how he smiles randomly when he sleeps. But I've noticed that he is especially smiley right after he eats and has just drifted off to sleep. I love it, love it! He also makes the cutest face when he cries. He pokes his bottom lip out and actually says "waaa". It's the saddest yet cutest thing in the world! I love being a mommy, and it's definitely getting easier. Those first few weeks were rough! Anyway, here are some pictures from Brayden's first month of his life!

Brayden's 1st Car Ride

2011-07-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

So Brayden's first car ride was a bit nerve racking for me. For starters, you know I'm accident prone. So putting my own child in car on the road with all of the crazy drivers there are in Baton Rouge just makes me nervous. But on top of that, it was raining that day.

Crazy Drivers + Rain = Almost 2 Collisions!

We had barely made it out of Woman's Hospital onto Airline when a guy (I say a guy because we all know woman drivers are better than men ;) didn't check his blind spot and came over into our lane on top of us! I about had a heart attack. Thank heavens Brandon has quick reflexes! Then on the interstate, the guy behind us wasn't paying real close attention and almost hit us when traffic came to a stop. Whew! Luckily we were able to make it home in one piece! And Brayden looked extra cute that day. ;)

He was born scowling. Lol... Hopefully not an omen of what's to come!

Just love those cheeks!! :)

Brayden Has Arrived

2011-07-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

Brayden Joseph Tingle has finally arrived! He decided to give his daddy the ultimate Father's Day gift and came on June 19, 2011. I'm a little late on the blog post, but better late than never! :) He was born at 7:07pm and weighed a whopping 8lbs 13oz and was 21.5 inches long. Don't ask me how he fit in my tummy b/c I really don't know... Well, I do know... I was massive! Anyway, we love our new little man in the family and feel so blessed to have him!

On the way to the hospital!

Minutes after Brayden was born

Isn't he precious?!

One of the first looks at the world! :)

We didn't do so well coordinating which camera to look at...

Mommy and Brayden's first picture together! (And yes, I know my hair is crazy!)

Daddy and Brayden's first picture together!

Grandpa, Mimi, Daddy and Brayden

Memaw and Brayden

Grandad and Brayden

PawPaw, Mimi and Brayden

Aunt Mavanie and Brayden

Uncle Garrett and Brayden

Aunt Lauren and Brayden

Maternity Photos

2011-06-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I figured I should post my maternity pictures before I post post-maternity material :). So here we go! Below are my maternity pics that were taken by Jane Huddleston. I think they came out great and just love them! Hope you like them too!

Supermom to the Rescue!

2011-06-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I've really been stressing about Brayden's room for a while now. We decided to move him to the back room so we could have more space and I just didn't know how I was going to get it all done while I'm 9 months pregnant! It doesn't seem like a lot of work, but stick a baby in your belly and the task becomes seemingly impossible!!! Not to mention my house has been full of clutter for a while... Just not good for stress levels right before having a baby. Made me feel VERY unprepared.

Well, my amazing mom came to my rescue this past week! She stayed with us a whole week and turned my house right-side up again! I love her so much!!! If I'm half as good as her at being a mother, I'll be on the right track. Anyway, she did all our laundry (we had gotten a bit behind), straighten and organized my laundry room and pantry AND kitchen, cleaned and dusted everything, completely set up the baby's room and bathroom, organized the guest bedroom, and cooked dinner for us (and did all the dishes every night)! Oh! Plus she made a custom table cloth for a little side table in the baby's room. You may think I am terrible for having her do all of it, but I couldn't stop her!! She just kept going...and going...and going. I think I have Supermom for a mother.

Below are some pics of Brayden's super cute bedroom and bathroom!

Letters I did for Brayden, and his cute little crib.

Brayden's crib with his 2 stuffed animals and 2 blankies.

This is the right corner of the room, right when you walk in the door.

The side table with the the custom table cloth! Thanks, Mom!

This is the left corner of the room, with his changing table and dresser.

Froggie toothbrush holder, soap dispenser, and hand towel.

Froggie shower curtain and towel

My favorite, froggie rugs!!

Thanks Mom for rescuing me this past week!!!

Baby Shower!!!

2011-05-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm a little late posting this... but Friday, May 6th was my baby shower for Brayden! I don't know if I've mentioned this lately, but I truly have THE best friends and family! Aunt Vickie, Adrienne McCartney, Lauren Tingle, Katie Guy, and Aline Dykes threw a shower for our little man, Brayden. It was absolutely wonderful and we had an amazing turn out. Almost 40 people came to show their love and support for us that night! And luckily, we did NOT play the "guess how big around I am" game with the yarn! (Sorry Adi, I didn't know how gigantic you feel when you're prego! But I have to say, I'm about 3x as big as you were!) Below are just a few pics from the festivities!

The super cute decorations (which I got to take home with me!)

The amazing diaper cake that Adrienne made! It was really cute and had little pacies and a puppy blankie attached! Thanks Adi!! :)

The yummy food/more decorations!

Gifts for baby Brayden! If you look in the center, you will see a little "balloon boy". Sis. Mary Johnson made him, and he really had a lot stuff in him!

Adi and I waiting to begin!

Katie making us cry with a beautiful poem. Absolutely LOVED it!

Gift from Auntie Lauren!

This was part of the gift from Aline, aka Brayden's "Tutu Lady" - Hawaiian for grandma :)

Aline cracking everyone up, as always! I love her!

Small part of Aunt Vickie's gift!

The "Daddy Diaper Bag" from Katie and Andrea, which is actually a tool kit with baby supplies... and a little beef jerky for dad! ;)

Part 1 of Mimi Kim's gift

Part 2 of MiMi Kim's gift... the cutest bed set ever!!

Gift from Brayden's Great Grandparents, MawMaw Rosemary and PawPaw Pat!

Some of the wonderful ladies that came!

... giving my terrible spur-of-the-moment speech... wasn't all the great

My beautiful sis-in-law, Lauren and beautiful mother-in-law, Mrs. Kim! Love them both!!

Hubby coming to collect at the end of the night!

Anyway, I'm definitely less stressed about Brayden's arrival and feel somewhat prepared for him now! A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the shower, and an even bigger THANK YOU to the wonderful ladies who put it all together for me! I know it was a lot of time and energy (and money!) put into making it as wonderful as it was! I love you all!

Happy Birthday To Me!

2011-05-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I turned 25! I can't believe it! I sit back and think about my life and realize how incredibly blessed I am. I truly have so much to be grateful for. One of those many things would be my family. I have amazing parents and siblings (and their families) and I have the best in-laws that treat me like their own! And it goes without saying, but I have an incredible husband whom I love and think the world of! I'm so grateful for him and for the opportunity that we have to be parents to one of Heavenly Father's precious children!

Anyway, my birthday was awesome. It wasn't too much out of the norm, but it really was a great day. When I got home from work, Brandon and I went over to Ninfa's (my favoritest restaurant) for dinner. Needless to say, it was super yummy. Brayden really enjoyed it as well :) He was really moving around a lot during dinner. I'd have to say it's his favorite restaurant too! ;) After we finished, we rented a movie and hung out with each other for the rest of the night! My idea of fun. :)

For my birthday, Brandon got me a bluetooth ear piece, which is really cute. I have to drive to Denham everyday for work and am always on my cell phone, so I was really excited about this gift. And he's also going to take me to the New Orleans Aquarium as part 2 to my birthday! I'm really excited and it'll be the last time I get to go before I have Brayden. Mrs. Kim and Mr. Todd got me some beautiful roses and some really useful green stuff ;) They also got a delicious chocolate cake from Ambrosia. MawMaw and PawPaw also gave me some birthday money to go spend on myself! And Garrett (my sweet little bro-in-law) got me a pedicure along with my favorite candy, strawberry sour straws!

As I stated earlier, I have an AMAZING family and am so grateful for everyone! Thanks again for my gifts and all of the birthday wishes! Love you all!

My 1st Mother's Day

2011-05-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was my 1st official Mother's Day. Some may not agree because I don't have the baby on my hip yet, but Brayden is definitely my son and I am definitely his momma! So I'm counting it!! :)

My super sweet (and handsome) hubby got me what I've been needing for a while! An hour long massage!!! My back and hips have been more achy lately so I can't wait to go and relax for an hour. Yay! R&R, here I come!

8 Months Prego :)

2011-04-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

So I've hit the 8 month mark! I really didn't expect this day to come so quickly. I feel like its all gone by so fast... And there's a TON of stuff that I still need to do before he gets here! Mainly getting Brayden's room all ready for him... I'm anxious to get it all finished. I do have to say there are parts of pregnancy that I absolutely love, like feeling Brayden moving around (although he makes my ribs sore sometimes) and parts of pregnancy that I don't love so much, like tossing and turning and waking up a million times to go to the bathroom during the night! But I'll take it all! I know I'll get even less sleep once he's here... I've had a very easy pregnancy and feel very blessed to be expecting our first child! Only 8 weeks (hopefully) left!!!

32 Weeks!

30 Weeks!

2011-04-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

30 weeks!

3rd Trimester!

2011-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm officially into my 3rd trimester... 28 weeks! I am so excited to be getting so close to meeting my little one but I'm also quite nervous! Just a little longer to go!

26 Weeks!

2011-03-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Brayden is getting big, and so am I! :)

Janey Pie Design Giveaway

2011-03-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

A very dear friend of mine, Jane Huddleston, is doing a fabulous giveaway on her design work. Jane has designed birthday invites, a benefit flyer, and done a fantastic job on capturing precious memories for my family. Jane has done everything for Milan Maternity including there website layout, logo, advertising, and blog design. She is very creative on capturing and designing exactly what you want. Whether you want the perfect birth announcement to let everyone know about your new arrival, a festive family holiday card, or if you're starting a blog or a business and there is a certain look you have in mind, Jane can make it happen!

A "jane of all trades", not only does she design work for businesses, blogs, and personal announcements or invitations, she is also a great photographer. She is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, so if you live in the area and are also looking for a photographer, she's your girl! You can check out her photography and her design work on the Janey Pie Photography blog and website.

Jane is offering a fabulous giveaway to one of our lucky readers! One winner will receive free custom design service for a 5 x 7 announcement (newborn, holiday, invites, your choice!) with 25 printed cards and envelopes included.

Jane is also offering our readers an exclusive discount on announcements! So when you're ready to create those birth announcements or holiday cards, e-mail Jane at janeypiephotography@gmail.com to work with her and create a uniquely personal and custom card to reflect your own personal style and interests. All cards are sized at 5 x 7 inches and include envelopes.

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24 Weeks!

2011-03-02T19:31:00.001-08:00

Time is going by so quickly! I just had a checkup yesterday and our doctor said Brayden's heart sounds great and everything looks good. We love our little healthy baby!

The Circle of Life

2011-02-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

It seems like our house is overflowing with baby animals! This past Sunday, our goat, Maggie Mae, had 2 babies... both boys! They are super cute and doing really well! Here are a couple of pics of the little guys. Let us know if you want to bring your kids to see our kids. :)

2011-02-20T16:10:00.001-08:00

Pups are getting so big! Pile o' pups! They are soooo cute!!!

22 Weeks!

2011-02-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

We're at 22 weeks! Brayden is really moving around A LOT these days. He especially becomes active at night... to the point where I can feel him from the outside of my tummy. Brandon was able to feel him kick for the first time this past Sunday night, which was really neat! So far, I've been the only one who could feel the little guy, so it was exciting that Brandon could finally feel him. :)

On a different note, I don't think my tummy can stretch any further! I feel like I'm gonna pop sometimes... I know, I know... It only gets worse. I just don't really understand how it's even possible. Other than that, everything is wonderful! I actually like being pregnant! :)

We have puppies!!!

2011-02-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, Brandon woke up to find 5 puppies in the dog house! Kinley (our black Great Dane) had been pregnant, but we weren't expecting them for another little while so we were quite surprised. It was crazy cold that day so Brandon decided to bring them all inside. Not too much longer, Kinley had her 6th puppy! I thought she had finished delivering them, so I headed to work and Brandon stuck around a while longer. She ended up having 2 more while I was driving to work and then one more after Brandon had left for school. So that makes 9 altogether!

They are the cutest little pups! They are Great Dane/Rottweiler mixes... I know... They're basically going to be huge Rottweilers. Hopefully we can find them all really good homes once they turn about 6 weeks. We have 6 copper and 3 black pups. We haven't determine how many are female/male yet. We have been trying not to mess with them too terribly much. Anyway, here are some pics!

It's A Boy!!!

2011-02-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today, our suspicions were confirmed!

We are having a baby boy!!!

The ultrasound tech told us so quickly that we had to double-check that we heard her correctly. I have to admit, we would've been surprised (definitely not disappointed) if it would've been a girl. And we would've probably had to carry Brandon out on a gurney! Lol! But all-in-all, we are just very grateful that the baby is developing just like he should be. Here's a pic we snuck after we found out.

Proud parents!

For those who don't know, we've pretty much had our names picked out since Day# 1. We are 99% sure that his name will be Brayden Joseph! First name starts with a B and middle name Joseph just like his Daddy and PawPaw!

Our handsome boy!

His arm and hand

His little feet

His foot and leg

His spine

And finally, the "proof" he's a boy! :)

Me at 20 weeks! Please excuse my outfit! I just changed into something more comfy!

Yay For Christmas Trees

2010-12-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

So this past Friday night was a late night for Brandon and I. First, we went to a youth dance in New Orleans, and then ran by Jelani's apartment to drop off a computer that he's helping us with. It was about midnight when we arrived home and I was extremely tired. I saw a light shining in the living room and expected to find Garrett playing "Black Ops" on PS3, as that's one of his favorite things to do. :)

However, when I walked in, there was a beautiful Christmas tree all lit up and decorated!!! Apparently we had two little elves, named Garrett and Mrs. Kim, come visit our house that night. Thanks to both our elves for our wonderful surprise!!!

Aquarium Update

2010-11-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give an update on our beautiful aquarium! Brandon has been doing an incredible job taking care our tank! He is pretty much a "regular" at the local aquarium shops and spends lots of time researching how to improve the quality of life for all of the little inhabitants of the tank. It's exciting to see him participate in a hobby that is fun for the both of us. As of today, our aquarium includes the following fish/invertebrates:

Two Clown Fish
Sailfin Tang
PJ Cardinal
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Leopard Wrasse
Three Clams
Two Cleaner Shrimp
Serpent Starfish
Watchmen Goby
Lawnmower Blennie
Sea Urchin
Emerald Crab
Teddy Bear Crab
Various Snails and Hermit Crabs

Here are a few pics of a few different critters/coral!

Our PJ Cardinal and Coral Beauty (purple fish)

One of our Clown fish. They like to swim against the current created by the fan in the background!

This is Brain Coral. Guess what! It looks like a brain! Lol

These are Watermelon and Dragon-eye Zoanthaids.

This is Trixie! A Sailfin Tang.

More Zoanthids

This is Mr. Grumpy Guts. :) He is a Watchman Goby. He is quite territorial and is super cute! I love his little frown.

This is Candy-Cane Coral. I just want to mush on them... they look so soft!

To the right are Green-stripped Mushrooms, to the left is Cabbage Coral, and in the very back is a Purple Mushroom.

This is a Serpent Starfish! It's really fun to watch him when it's feeding time! He uses his tentacles like legs!

One of our two Cleaner Shrimp! They clean the little fishies. Like little car washes! :)

This is the coral that I picked out! It's called a Rainbow Acan. I think it's gorgeous!

Bubble Coral. Really pretty, but can be kinda mean to other coral. It stings!

One of our three clams! If you look really close, you can see the neon blue spots all over it!

3 Years and Counting!

2010-11-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! I can't believe that it's been so long! It seems like just a little while ago I was looking at a picture of Brandon on Mrs. Nelwyn's refrigerator thinking, "if only I could go on one date with him... I think I could be happy!". Little did I known that I would marry that boy! :) And I wouldn't have it any other way! I absolutely love Brandon with all my heart! He is an incredible man and an amazing husband... and I know he is going to be a wonderful daddy!

That's right, friends! We are proud to announce that we are officially expecting a new member to our little family!!! Not only did we celebrate our 3 year anniversary today, but we also celebrated the 8 week mark for our new Baby Tingle! :D

We are soooooo excited to start our family together and I wouldn't have chosen anyone other than Brandon!!! Happy Anniversary, babe! I love you!

Family Pics!

2010-10-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

This past Friday, Brandon and I took family pictures with Uncle Bob! We're going on 3 years of marriage and thought it would be nice to document our years together! To take these pictures, we headed over to Cajun Village in Sorrento and Uncle Bob did a phenomenal job, as always! Here's one pic, and can't wait to see more!

Salt Water Aquarium

2010-08-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

We have a salt water aquarium! Brandon has been working very hard, and doing lots of research to make our tank just perfect! Mr. Todd gave us an aquarium about a month ago, and we have just introduced our fist 2 little fishies! Their names are Jack and Jill! :) They are Yellow-tailed Blue Damels.

I absolutely love this aquarium! And can't wait to add more colorful, little fishies! Thanks babe, for making it happen!

Sand, waves, and sun burns!

2010-08-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

So this past June, the company that I work for, Trendsic Corporation, took us on another family vacation! I am so blessed to work for such an amazing company, who takes us out on amazing trips! We took a long weekend and had a blast!

The house that we stayed in was incredible! It was 3 stories with a pool and hot tub AND across the street from the beach! Needless to say, we were lovin' it!

The beach house from the front.

Beach house from the back. The bosses, Joel and Jelani and their families stayed on the top floor. Brandon & I were on the middle floor, which is where the kitchen and living room were. And James and Jared and their families were on the bottom floor.

Pretty much every night we went swimming. One night we had a mad game of Marco Polo going with me, Joel, Jared, James, and Jelani! Got lots of bumps and scrapes from it, but it was really really fun!

Anyway, we spent A LOT of time at the beach. The very first day, the water was kinda rough because a storm was rolling in. But we still had lots of fun out in the water and in the sand.

You can see the storm rollin' in in the bakground. Actually, quite pretty. :)

Joel and Holly

Ashlyn contemplating whether to check out those waves or not!

Jelani coming in from boogie boarding! The water was extra choppy from the storm, but he wasn't skerred! :)

One of the few times Brandon got in the water :)

We actually ended up swimming out pretty far and he put me on his shoulders so i wouldn't drown! It was REALLY fun! Poor thing was getting smashed in the face by huge waves, tho! I love you, baaaaaabe!

Look Eli, a plane! If you can't tell, that's me and Eli.

Anderson playing in... and taste-testing the sand!

Building sand castles!
Holly, Jared, KK, Eli, Ashlyn, and an Anderson tushy

Daddy and daughter digging in the sand!

Little miss KK covering herself in sand!

Jared, Keri, and Baby# 3 (Eli in the background)

Sweet Ella chillin' under the umbrella.

Brandon baking in the sun, getting his tan on.

Siblings, Kailey and Eli playing together! How cute!

Kailey and Ashlyn building a fortress around themselves!

Anderson was tuckered out from all the playing in the sand!

As you can see, so were Joel and Kailey! So they snuggled up on the couch!

Brandon had to leave early from the vacation to go back to work, so we took a couple last minute photos before he headed back home.

So by the end of the trip, everyone was burnt. So we decided to hit the beach at sunset, which turned out incredible, and we got some really pretty pics!

The cute couple, Jared and Keri.

The other cute couple, Joel and Holly.

Uncle Joel and Ashlyn playing. You can see Ashlyn really had a blast!

Anderson's eyes totally light up when he smiles! He is absolutely precious!

Me and one of my wonderful sister-in-laws

Whew! That one almost got us!

Ashlyn laughin' it up with Dad

Holly making sweet Ella giggle

Momma and son

Mom and Ashlyn catching some waves

Anticipation.

This is what it looks like to have fun!

The wave was seriously chasing him, ok?!

How can you look at this and not smile??

KK getting sucked out by a wave!

KK doing a pose for us!

I love this pic of Eli! He is such a cute little boy!

Anyway, our trip to Destin was amazing! We really had a lot of fun and really appreciate Trendsic for taking us on this incredible trip!

Thanks again, Joel and Jelani! Y'all are AWESOME! :)

Atlanta Trip

2010-08-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pics from the Atlanta trip! These are the ones from Adi's camera. Thanks Adrienne, for the cute pics!

Doesn't Brandon look pumped? Get a hold of yourself, B! Haha...

Me and Adi posing in front of a habitat where you couldn't see anything :) I guess we're cute enough to look at! :)

Mike looking picture perfect! Can't even tell that it was starting to get hot out there!

I look like a deer in headlights, but Brandon looks super cute! :)

I love this pic of us! This was at the Tropical Reef exhibit.

The cute couple, Mike and Adi, in front of the Tropical Reef exhibit!

I Love Sharks

2010-08-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

So ever since Brandon first met me and found out that I wanted to go to the Georgia Aquarium, aka the largest aquarium in the world, he has been planning to take me! He planned the whole thing himself and it turned out to be an awesome trip with Mike and Adrienne!

We left Friday (7/30) morning at about 5am and arrived in Atlanta around 2:30pm. We checked into the hotel, then headed over to the Underground Mall, which is supposedly where Atlanta 1st started. It was pretty cool, but kinda sketchy... So don't really recommend it to anyone going with kids... well, at all really. Then we tried to walk across town to see the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial. Key word being tried. It was terrible! We walked, and walked, and walked in the nasty hot weather only to get to the Memorial and be able to get in. Wow. Then we had to walk, and walk, and walk all the way back across town to get back to our car. Needless to say, we were pretty gross and ready for the A/C once we got back to the car. Since it was getting kinda late, we decided to go see Inception at the local theater. Adi and I thought it was incredible. Mike thought the ending sucked, and Brandon thought it was too creative and therefore stupid. :) ...Had a feeling he wasn't going to like it.

Once we got out of there, we headed over to Longhorn's for a good, healthy dinner. We were quite hungry from all the walking. So, all of us got steaks! Yum. However upon entering the steakhouse, Mike, Adrienne, and I had no idea that we would have the opportunity of a lifetime. To witness a true miracle. Brandon ate a salad!!! O.O Oh my gosh!!! I know!!! Truly amazing. In my entire time of knowing Brandon, he has never eaten a salad. Thank heavens I was able to get a picture of the great and astonishing event because who knows when it will happen again! :)

The next morning, we got up bright and early, and ready for the Atlanta Zoo! The Zoo is probably one of Brandon's favorite things to do. Side note: I think Brandon and I were truly meant for each other. He loves land animals and I love sea animals. We complete one another! :) Anyway, it was really a lot of fun and stayed pretty cool up until mid-day.

The parakeet aviary was gorgeous. There were hundreds of parakeets in all sorts of colors!

This guy was hilarious. We called him King Budda of the prairie dogs. :)

Not really sure what this one is... at first I thought he was a baboon, but he's not... Anyway, he was really cute and very interesting to watch.

Another beautiful bird in another aviary.

This Mamma Panda. She was too cute! I had never seen a panda so close before so it was really cool!

After we finished at the zoo, we headed over to the Georgia Aquarium. Holy Smokes! If you ever decide to go to this aquarium, get your tickets in advance! It was insane how may people were there. I've never seen lines so long in my life! They have so many people come that when you buy your tickets, you actually have to buy them for a certain time slot. Brandon and I bought ours ahead of time for 9am, and I thought that we weren't going to be able to use them because we didn't get there until 1pm. Thankfully, the very nice peeps just let us right in (after waiting in lines for about 30 mins). Once we were inside, I was pretty much in heaven. :) ...Wasn't as big as I thought it would be and it only took about an hour to go through everything, but they had some really incredible exhibits.

Jellyfish! Pretty behind the glass... don't ever want to meet them face to face! They were almost hypnotic to watch...

Japanese Spider Crab. You can't tell in this pic, but it was actually quite huge.

These are called Cichlids. Beautiful fishies. I believe they were in the Amazon section of the aquarium.

This was my 3rd favorite exhibit. Really, really pretty fish.

This was my favorite Amazonian fish, part of the exhibit shown above.
I just love it's coloration! :)

Baluga Whale. Not a great picture, but they really are magnificent.

This was the Tropical Reef exhibit, 2nd favorite. All of those tiny specs of color are little fish. This exhibit was really cool because it simulated waves crashing every few mins.

Now, if you don't know me very well, let me tell you I love sharks! I always wanted to be a marine biologist growing up so I could dive with and study them! However, I've chosen another career path seeing as how it wouldn't be the best for family life. ;) Needless to say, the "Ocean Voyager" exhibit was my absolute favorite! They had tons of sharks...

Beautiful Hammerhead Shark! He was swimming sideways for some reason... He was a little throwed off.

Blacktip Reef Shark and a Sawfish

Leopard Shark. Absolutely beautiful! The picture doesn't even do it justice!

And for the finale! A Whale Shark! They actually had four in this particular enclosure. The largest one is 24ft long... Holy Moly!

Before you watch the video below, let me apologize. I think I say "Oh my gosh! That's amazing!" about a billion times! So just tune me out! :)

Another year older, another year wis... well, older ;)

2010-07-26T00:32:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday (7/28) was Brandon's 25th birthday!!! Yikes, he's getting old! :) Just kiddin' babe! We celebrated at his grandparents' house the Sunday before. MawMaw and PawPaw fried up some fish for us; then we had cake and presents. A special thanks to PawPaw & MawMaw, Mrs. Kim & Mr. Todd, Aunt Vickie, Alex & Andrew, and Garrett for the gifts!

Then we had another small celebration/date night the day of. I am so grateful for Brandon and all that he does for us! He is one of the best men that I know, and I am truly blessed to be his wife! I love you, Baaaaaaabe! :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking properly on Wednesday so I don't have pictures from that, but luckily we have some from MawMaw and PawPaw's house! Enjoy!

The enthusiastic Birthday Boy!

Cake provided by Mrs. Kim! It was very yummy!

Being all theatrical blowing out his massive one candle :)

Look how cute he is! I do have to say, I got lucky with this one!
Happy Birthday again, babe! I love you!

Snakes!

2010-05-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Today, we had Dallin, Daniel, Madalyn, Kaitlyn, Andrew, Alex, and Patrick over after church. They got pretty brave and here are some pics to prove it!

Madalyn holding the corn snake

Kaitlyn, who isn't the biggest fan of snakes, got brave and decided she wanted to hold it too! :)
Good job, girlie!

Dallin holding "The Food"

This corn snake got it's fair share of attention!

The BIG one! Andrew, Alex, and Daniel decided they could take this one on together.
They did great!

16 and Graduated!

2010-05-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

So I cannot believe that my little sister, Mavanie, has officially graduated!!! Brandon and I just want her to know how proud we are of her! Especially graduating a WHOLE year early! A lot of hard work went into completing all of her work on time. So, congratulations, Mavers! We love you!!!

The Graduate and the Birthday Girl

She actually ended up graduating on my birthday, so that was pretty cool! We went to Lake Charles that afternoon. When we arrived, my mom took Mavanie and I to get our nails and toes done. Thanks Mom!!!

Here are so pics of the occasion :)

Joel, Jared, Dad, Mavers, Mom, and Me :)

Jared, Anderson, Mavers, Keri, and Ashlyn

Mavanie and Eli

The brothers (Jared and Joel) and Mavanie

Mavanie, Anderson, and Ashlyn...Look at that baby's smile! Precious!!

He was kinda cute... so I decided to take him home with me ;)

Work is for grown-ups!

2010-05-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, Joel and Holly moved... again :) So Kailey, Eli, and I decided to skip out on the work and head over to my house to check out all the cute little animals! Unfortunately, it rained most of the time we were at my house, but there was a short period where we snuck out a got a visit in.

KK and I feeding Maggie a banana.

Once Eli saw the banana, he HAD to have some. So in the picture above, you can see that he stuffed a big ole piece in his mouth then proceeded to pet Maggie a bit. :) Baby Annie was hiding at the time, so we weren't able to get any good pics of all the kids.

KK and one of the cute little bunnies!

As I mentioned earlier, it had been raining all morning. Eli and KK did a great job of staying clean, but their shoes didn't turn out as lucky. So, Uncle Brandon hosed them off.

We had lots of fun and can't wait for y'all to come back! Love you KK and Eli!

Early Celebrations!

2010-05-16T18:13:00.002-07:00

The tradition in the Richardson family is to celebrate birthdays on the Sunday preceding the birthday. So today, we celebrated my birthday! I can't believe that I'm already 24 years old! It's been an amazing 24 years and grateful for each one! :) Anyway, a special thanks to Maw Maw and Paw Paw for the wonderful lunch and Mrs. Kim for the delicious cake!!!

Me and my WONDERFUL hubby! :) I love this man!

Cutting the cake

Thanks to Aunt Vickie, Maw Maw & Paw Paw, and Mrs. Kim & Mr. Todd for the birthday gifts! I have the best in-laws ever!!! I love you all!

We love you, Mr. Brette!

2010-05-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Brandon's dad, Mr. Brette, came down this past Friday for Garrett's graduation and unexpectedly it was to be our very last visit with him before he leaves for Iraq. We just want him to know how much we love him! We are so grateful for all that he does for us and especially grateful for the selfless sacrifice of protecting our country. Mr. Brette, we are proud to have you as our Dad/Father-in-law!

Mrs. Traci, Garrett, and Mr. Brette

Amilyn, Mr. Brette, and Brandon

Mr. Brette and Lauren

Mr. Brette and Garrett

Ever since I first met Brandon, I've always heard stories about Mr. Brette. From stories of mountain biking, to service projects, to going under cover as an operative for the ATC. I could tell early on that Brandon truly loves and admires his father. As I got to know Mr. Brette, I began to understand why.

I want to thank you, Mr. Brette, for all that you've done, for who you are as a father. I'm grateful for the example that you set for Brandon as he was growing up. Because of your example, Brandon is an incredible man. I know that one day he will be a great father, because he wants to be just like you.

We are truly grateful for you, and love you very much! We will miss you greatly and can't wait for your return!

Garrett's Graduation

2010-05-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Brandon's little brother, Garrett graduated this past friday night! We're so proud of him for all the hard work that he put in order to reach this huge milestone in his life! Here are a few pics of the special night.

Waiting to receive his diploma

All smiles :)

He's so good-looking!

Sending a "shout out" to Mom and Dad!

Celebrating with some friends!

Congrats on graduating!!! We love you, Garrett! :)

McTinlge Farm Springtime Update

2010-05-15T19:29:00.001-07:00

So, Brandon wanted me to do my annual Springtime update for the McTingle Farm. We've had our ups and downs. But we've definitely grown quite a bit since last year.

We recently acquired some bunny rabbits. We originally we only going to get 2 from Rhonda Dickey. However, I sent Brandon and Mike to pick them up. BIG mistake. He came home with 4 rabbits AND a duck. But she also sent us home with a nice little setup for the rabbits, so it turned out pretty well. The bunnies are super sweet. :) Below is a picture of the big male rabbit. I think he's the prettiest of them all.

This is the beautiful female Mallard duck we got from Rhonda. She thinks she's a chicken.

Slick Willy is just as crazy as ever. However, we have him on a tether so he can't jump on my car or climb on top of the shed roof anymore... the crazy knucklehead thinks he's a mountain goat.

Cute little baby goat and her momma, Maggie. Brandon wants to name her Annie. I think it suits her! She looks just like her daddy!

Every year we have blackberries that grow out in the yard. They're pretty yummy and the goats love 'em!

These little guys are Broad-breasted Common Turkeys. Once they reach adulthood, they can get up to 55lbs! They'll be so fat that they literally won't be able to walk anymore. They're actually on the menu for Thanksgiving this year :) And no, I refuse to name them for that reason!

Lots of our new adolescent chicks with little the baby goat... They're pecking at a mineral block that we got for Maggie while she was pregnant.

Our big rooster and his favorite hen taking a nap...

These are some new baby chicks. They will grow up to lay green eggs :) Super cute little babies!

An last but not least! The newest additions to the family are some baby parakeets. My nephew, Dallin, gave us a parakeet last year. His name was Sammy. Brandon decided shortly thereafter that Sammy needed a friend... Well, a girlfriend, to be more specific. Needless to say, Sammy fell in love with his girlfriend. He would ruffle his feathers, give her soft pecks on the beak, and even feed her! Well, his wooing worked and the two love birds got married and had babies! 3 to be exact. They look kinda gross now, but they'll grow up to be very cute! Can't wait for that! We'll be selling them too! So if anyone wants a hand-raised parakeet, let me know now that way I can keep it on hold for you! They're only $20!

Yay for Baby Goats!

2010-05-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

At about 3:45pm this afternoon I got a text from Brandon. I looked down, and there I saw a picture of the cutest little black goat I've ever seen!!! Maggie finally gave birth to a little girl! She doesn't have a name yet. It was Adrienne's birhtday today so she gets to honor of naming the cute little thing. :)

Anyway, here are a few pics of the baby girl!

Nice and healthy! She looks just like her daddy (Slick Willy)!

Maggie Mae and her new baby girl! She's soooo cute and tiny!

Only a few minutes old and already standing! :) This is the picture Brandon took and texted to me. It was a few minutes after she was born. She walked right up to B for her close-up shot!

Church Activities - Cub Scout Day Camp

2010-04-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

So these past couple of weekends have been packed full of church activities! :) First, we had the Cub Scout Day Camp and invited the Denham Springs Stake to join us. Brandon taught the canoeing classes and a couple of the BB Gun classes.

Grad Pics

2009-12-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

So I found some graduation pics that I never posted! So, I figured I'd go ahead and put them up!

Dad, Me, Brandon, and Mom!
Sneakin' pics before the ceremony

Me and Wen

MeMa and Madalyn waiting for the ceremony to start

Jonathan flew all the way from Utah to see me graduate. Thanks Bro!

The Employer and his wife :) Aka, Joel and Holly!

Ms. Kim and Lauren showin' the support!

Jonathan, Joel, and Me

The whole crew! Thanks for all the support! Love you all!

A Tribute to Max

2009-08-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

So last Friday night, our little pup Max passed away. He was hit by our neighboor's truck accidentally, and unfortunately didn't make it. He was such a good little pup and Brandon and I will miss him a lot.

But because the experience was a traumatic one (a bit too much for the blog) we decided to go ahead a get a new puppy so that Brandon could put this terrible experience out of his mind and focus on happier things.

So on Saturday, we headed down to New Orleans and picked up Hercules...a GREAT DANE! He's no Max, but he is absolutely wonderful in his own ways! And we already love him to pieces! He follows Brandon absolutely everywhere he goes (which is what Max used to do). It's pretty cute to watch.

He is 4 months old and already weighs 50lbs! At 1st I was kinda sad that he wasn't a little pup, but then I found out that he's potty trained!!! Which is AWESOME!

The night we got him, we had Joel, Holly, KK, Eli, Jelani, and Taylor over for dinner. The whole time they were here, he slept soundly next to the couch by Brandon's feet. Eli put his temperment to the test by patting on him, tugging a bit on his tail, and even SAT on him... Hercules didn't even flinch. He was OUT! Another thing that we love about Hercules is that he loves to cuddle! (Which I find quite hilarious seeing as how he's a huge thing) On our way to hang out with Adam & Erica, he wiggled his way from the back seat so that the whole front half of his body rested in Brandon's lap. Too cute. :) Anyway, here are a few pics from today!

The Heils

2009-08-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

On 8/1, Ms. Kim and Mr. Todd were married! It was a beautiful ceremony and we're so excited that Mr. Todd is part of our family.

For their honeymoon, they headed down to a city a little south of Cancun. Here are some pics from their excursion.

Family Reunion 2009

2009-07-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Brandon and I at the Vinice Beach!
Picked this one up on the beach ;)

We went to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday, which also happened to be the day that San Diego hosted a Gay Day Parade! It was kinda crazy trying to get there, but it the zoo was well worth the fight! It was AWESOME!

Us with a monitor (lizard) but you can't see the monitor very well.

This snake is PINK (if you look closely you can tell)

And this one is a GREEN!

Standing next to the largest pieces of bamboo ever!

Panda exibit

The king of the jungle and his hunny.

Polar bear exibit. This was one of my favorites!!

This was the avion sanctuary, and this bird was pretty much within reach. Gorgeous.

Kailey was a bit tuckered out by the end of the trip. If you can see, she was pushing Eli's head out of her way so she could sleep. :)

The Snake Charmer

2009-05-25T20:36:00.001-07:00

We just got home from riding the 4-wheeler when Brandon jumped off and started chasing something... Sure enough, he rolled out from under the trailer with this little sucker. It's a speckled king snake.It was beautiful and turned out to be quite docile.

...didn't even try biting him. :)

My New Garden!

2009-05-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

So I've been waiting til I was done with school before I trying to plant a garden! So the time has finally come! Brandon tilled the ground where we're going to plant! I think his tractor's sexy :)

We've got yellow squash, cucumber, and bell peppers.

We thought we'd try out some watermelon too! :) Oh, and we also got some basil. Hopefully everything turns out yummy!

While we were at Ole Time Feed buying our plants, we got some new baby chicks . They were on sale :) Buy a bag of starter feed (which we had to do anyway) and get 10 baby chicks free! Pretty awesome.

And just in case you haven't seen our new goat, Slick Willy, here's a pic.

Celebrating Early

2009-05-17T20:52:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy weekend! Graduation, shopping, crawfish boil, and birthday celebration! I'm turning 23 on Tuesday, the 19th but we always celebrate the Sunday before at Brandon's MawMaw and PawPaw's house. His MawMaw made carrot cake for me and it was awesome! Here a couple of pics.

Graduation

2009-05-17T20:35:00.001-07:00

So I've finally GRADUATED! Yay! No more stressing over homework or exams! No more waking up at 6am (at least on a daily basis)! No more crazy professors! I'm just thrilled to pieces!!! I never thought this day would come; it seemed like it never would. But I can finally hold my offical degree in my hand at last! However, like the 9o% of college graduates who don't choose a career that puts their degree to work, I too will not be using my expertise in Nutrition. I am offically a software developer! Haha. A bit odd how that worked out, but that's life. Anyway, here are a few pics from graduation. These are from Ms. Kim's camera. I'll have more when Wendy emails the other pics to me. :)
Me while I was waiting to walk on stage to get my dipolma! Suprisingly enough, they said my whole name correctly!

Me and Hubby
Ms. Kim, Brandon, Me, and Lauren (The background is wonderful, huh?)

Buster has a new home

2009-05-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

So the little raccoon (Buster) Brandon found a couple of days ago has been relocated. He was the cutest, sweetest little thing, but he absolutely refused to take a bottle. We tried everything we could think of to try to get him to eat, but he just wouldn't take. Brandon and I decided this morning that we weren't experienced enough to work with him, so Brandon brought him to a wildlife rehabilitation specialist over in Livingston. There, he'll be taught how to re-enter the wild once he's old enough! Thank heavens for wildlife lovers!

McTingle Farm = Animal Refuge

2009-05-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

So apparently, our house is a refuge for animals... Brandon came home from work yesterday to find this lil' critter on our driveway!

Vacation Time Is My Favorite Time!

2009-04-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

While most people were headed to the beach for Spring Break, Brandon and I were headed to the snowy slopes of Utah! Trendsic (the company I work for) gave us this awesome opportunity! (They paid for everything!) We flew out to Utah Thursday night and arrived in Salt Lake at 11:30pm. The rental house was an hour away in Heber City. You have no idea what it took to get out their alive! Thanks to Brandon's awesome driving skills, we made it in one piece. :) As you can see, we were super tired by the time we got in! Everyone was asleep except for Jelani (of course).

It was a sweet house. Here's the view from the back porch.

Friday morning, Jamie, Holly, Joe, and I took turns helping Kaliey and Allison build snowman. It turned out really cute! As you can see, it has Reese's eyes, a Cheeto nose, a Twizzler mouth and pig tails, of course! :)

Later that evening we went snow tubing. :) Brandon, Jelani, Jillian, Zack, Josh, and I had races and of course the girls won every time, although Brandon denies it. :) This pic is after we were done.

On Saturday, we all headed to Park City for skiing and snow boarding. Skiers included: Joel, Holly, Jared, Joe, Jamie, and Josh. The snowboarders were Brandon, Jelani, Zack, Jillian, and I.

Joel, Jared, Zack, Brandon, Jelani, and I went half way up the mountain to go down the "Home Run" slope.

Brandon in all his glory :) He did pretty awesome with it, especially because it was his 1st time and he didn't have lessons. He did have one really bad fall, but luckily he was ok. We went and got some hot chocolate.

Joel and Jared were extremely good at skiing. They didn't realize they'd have to wait on all us snowboarders every 5 mins :)

This is my brother Jared, who lives in UT. We were really glad he and his family could come hang out with us the whole trip!

It was Jelani's 1st time snowboarding and he turned out to be really good at it. Of course, he had his fair share of falls and actually went off the side of the mountain one time, but he did awesome.
We have lots of fun. Check out Keri, Holly, or Jamie's blog for more pics!

McTingle Farm Update

2009-03-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

I figured it would be a good time to update everyone on how all our lil' critters are doing since "Winter 'O Death" is pretty much gone. :) Yay! Everything is starting to get really green and pretty again.

Sweet Pea is doing great! She is absolutely loving the nice green grass that's been growing. Pretty soon we'll be getting her a "play mate" so that she doesn't have to be alone. It's going to be a boy so we might have some babies in the future!!!
The chickens are having fun. Brandon has been letting them out lately and they are lovin' it! It's pretty cute how they stick together, and when they've had enough, they just mosey on back to their pen. :) We've had an unfortunate set of events which has left us with only 2 hens and our rooster. We've got 4 more on the way though.
All the pups are doing good too. Max is getting really big! He has really turned out to be a great dog! He's got a great temperament and listens very, very well.
Brandon's really been trying to work with Snow. He's got some "issues." His last owner didn't do such a great job raising him so we're trying to teach him a few things. He seems to be getting better... slowly, but surely.
And Coda, Lauren's dog, is doing great too! He listens really well also. He and Max get along really well!
And of course, Toola is lovin' life. He's got 2 little kitties to pick on and chase, so he's happy as can be. You can tell by the pic below that he waches their every move! However the little sucker has been getting into the trash lately... like knocks the whole thing over and digs through it... If anyone has any suggestions on how to "cure" him of this bad habit, please let me know!
The kittens are wonderful. They're growing, but not too much! :) (I wish they could stay little forever.) Anyway, they have their own cute personalities. Clyde is the "social butterfly." He loves to be loved on. But he can be a turkey sometimes. If he wants my attention or is feelin' kinda crazy, he will literally climb up my leg! And it hurts! He always catches me off guard too... Bonnie on the other hand, isn't quite as social. Every now and then she'll come love on us, but not as often as Clyde. Brandon is their favorite. Anytime he's on the couch, they'll both go take naps next to/on him. Quite precious. :)

This is a pic of Kailey and Clyde. She told me later that they were "best friends!" :)
Oh, and I almost forgot! Brandon made a new home for our quail! He built it so they could be on the ground rather that having to walk on chicken wire... and its a lot bigger too. They've been making all kinds of "happy sounds" since we moved them.

We've even gotten a few eggs!

Well, that about sums it up for the McTingle Farm. You're welcome to come visit us anytime!

Enrichment!

2009-03-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

We made Spring wreaths at Enrichment tonight. Here's my finished product.... the lighting isn't very good.

Bonnie & Clyde

2009-02-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

We have new baby kittens! Brandon found them out a job site in Lafayette while he was working. They stumbled upon the poor things behind a dumpster. Brandon said there were quite a few back there but all except 2 ran off. Of course, when Brandon told me about them, I couldn’t say no. The poor things would’ve died! So I told him to bring ‘em home. I know. We’re pretty much a rescue center for animals… but that’s ok. We love them all!

Bonnie

Clyde

Look how little!!!

Just call him Evel Knievel!

2009-02-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

Is that my hunny or Evel Knievel? Yes, Brandon is ramping the burn pile! And notice, only his hands are attached to the 4-wheeler... Gotta love 'em!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

We woke up at about 9am, exchanged gifts, threw on some clothes, and headed to a cute little cafe called "The Coffee Shop" located in the "Cajun Village." It is surrounded by multiple old timey shops. It's a really cute area and definitely recommend it to everyone. Anyway, here's a pic of the inside of the cafe.

Brandon and I love their beignets, so I got the beignet fingers and he got the regular ones.

There's also a little path you can walk down where they have 2 alligators named "Nubbie" and "Big Guy." As we were walking up, a 2 year old little boy immediated shushed us as he turned and pointed to a big alligator only a few feet away. It was cute. We determined that that one had to be "Nubbie" because we walked a little farther and saw an even bigger one. Fun, fun. It was pretty muddy back where we were so Brandon picked me up and carried me through it all. He's so sweet!
The rain had ruined our plans for the day (swamp tour and picnic at the LSU lakes) so after feeding all our little farm animals, we went to the movies and had lunch at Texas Roadhouse. It was all really good. I love being able to have a relaxing day of simplicity with Brandon. It's the best.

Next we headed out to a multi-stake youth dance. Yeeeaaahhh baby! :) I don't remember the dances lasting that long when I was in the youth program...but we had fun. Brandon and I made a bet that one of us (if not both) would get asked to dance because we look so young. Well guess what! I got asked to dance! Lol. I was even standing in a group with 3 other adults! Well, the guy who asked me was actually a person I knew as a little boy while I lived in Lake Charles! Of course he didn't remember me, but I remembered him. I quickly informed him that we once went to the same ward and that I was friends with his older sister. Of course the other chaperones from Gonzales (even the Bishop's wife) picked at me the rest of the night. :) My favorite part of the whole day though, was getting to dance with Brandon (several times). It's not often that we get to, so I definitely love it when we do!

Although it rained and ruined my outdoorsy plan, I had an amazing day hanging out with my best friend! I love you, sweet.......heart ;)

Beatboxing

2009-02-12T17:16:00.000-08:00

This is incredible! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au2yrUb6rxI

Eli's 1 Year Birthday

2009-02-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

Eli, aka Lil' Joel is 1 year old! Isn't he adorable!?

He was a little confused when everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

And of course Holly went above and beyond with his cupcakes! Can you believe how cute these are? What a good mommy!

As you can see, he loved his shark cupcake! I love this baby!

Nauvoo 2009 - Day 3

2009-01-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Saturday - Day 3

Saturday was our last day in Nauvoo. :( We could only spend half a day there so we planned to go to the temple. I do have to say, it was awesome! We were able to do an endowment session and a sealing session! If you haven't figured it out already, I absolutely love this temple. I think its a mixture of how beautiful it is and understanding the sacrifice that it took for the Saints to build it to do their temple work. It's an amazing place and is definitely the Lord's House.

All of the temple workers that we met were all really excited that we were there. They asked us about ourselves, where we were from, why we had come to visit, and such. The sealer was even more excited that we had come to do sealings. I guess they don't get tons of out-of-towners for sealings much.

After we got done, he told us to go to the Mission President's office to see Joseph Smith's sword that he actually used for the Mormon Batallion. It was really neat. He had even etched his name into the blade. Then they took us down to see the Baptismal Font. It's absolutely gorgeous as well. It's actually the largest font in any temple and it was reconstructed to be the same size as the original one. They made it so large so that they could do 2 baptisms at once! Interesting, huh?

Well, enough of the blabbing... after we finished at the temple, we headed out to return home. We made a couple of stops along the way. Once at a sporting goods store and once at the Galleria Mall in St. Louis. Fun Fun! We finally made it home all safe and sound at 7 am on Sunday morning. Needless to say, we definitely took our Sunday naps! ;)

It was a blast and I can't wait to go back and visit again!

Nauvoo 2009 - Day 2

2009-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Friday - Day 2

So, Friday we woke up at about 9am and Brandon cooked breakfast for us. Steak and eggs (filet mignon to be exact), toast, and hot chocolate! The room we were in didn't provide a pan (just 2 really small pots) so Brandon was creative and used a cookie sheet to grill the steak and scramble the eggs! It was kinda crazy... but breakfast was pretty awesome, I do have to say!

We were all acting grumpy in the pictures, but we weren't really. :)

It may look kinda gross, but it was actually very good! Good job, my hunny!!! (This boy could cook on anything!)
After we finished our meal, we all got ready to head out to Nauvoo. As you can see, Mike really wanted to look nice for all the elderly missionaries giving the tours!

Nice chops, Mike!

Here are a few pics of the places we visited!

The Pharmacy. It was also the place where they sold fabric, dishes, and bartered food. I suppose it was pretty much a general store.

The Cultural Hall. This place is really cool. It has 3 stories and we actually got to go up and see them all. The top level still has the original floor where Joseph & Emma actually danced together. The band played from the top balcony. It also has an amazing view of the temple from here.

Adi and I on the 1st floor. This is where the saints held all of their plays and entertainment.

There were tons of quilts and stuff on the 2nd Floor.

This is where the Prophet Joseph and his wife, Emma, danced!

This is the view of the temple from the 3rd floor window.

The stairs.

The Browning Gun Store. Brandon and Mike really loved this one. Shocker, right? It was really neat though. It's pretty amazing that one of the men in Nauvoo created guns that are still used today (and are real expensive, which means they must be good)!

We also went to a few other places but I don't have pictures of them. :( But when it got dark, we returned to our nice, warm villa. Adi and I cooked spaghetti for dinner (in the 2 smallest pots EVER). I actually had to cook the noodles in 2 batches... sad. But we had a great night! Day 3 coming soon!

Nauvoo 2009 - Day 1

2009-01-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

Thursday - Day 1

We left for Nauvoo on New Year's Eve at about 10pm. The guys said that they wanted to drive through the night so that we could have a bit more time there. Adi and I slept in the back while the guys drove. :) We arrived the next morning (1/1/09) at about noon. We were staying in a 2 bedroom/2 bath villa with a kitchen and living room, so we decided that we'd try to cook most of our meals. We didn't have any room in the car to bring food with us so headed over to the Wal-Mart in Keokuk to load up on some food. On our way there, we saw one of the most beautiful things EVER! There were tons and tons of bald eagles sitting on the frozen Mississippi River! They were everywhere!! Adi got a picture of one sitting on a branch.

Anyway, when we got back to the hotel, we unloaded and then let the guys get some rest. It was a 13 1/2 hour drive so we figured they deserved it. ;) By the time they were up and ready to get going, it was too dark to visit old Nauvoo, so we went to the little theater in Keokuk. We saw Bedtime Stories and loved it!
On our way back, we passed the Temple. It is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! If you've never been, I'd definitley recommend taking a trip at least once!
The night ended with some much needed rest. (Day 2 and 3 to come!)

Nauvoo Here We Come!

2008-12-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

So after we had all of that wonderful snow here in Louisiana, Brandon really wanted to take a trip somewhere where we could be in it for a few days. Last February we went with the YSA's to Nauvoo where there was tons of it! So, we've decided to go to Nauvoo with our BFF couple, Mike & Adi, for a New Year's trip! Last time we went, we really had a lot of fun.

We plan to visit the historic Nauvoo, take a trip to the gorgeous LDS Temple, and hopefully build an igloo (if there's enough snow)! Anyway, we leave tonight! I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures when we return!

Blaze

2008-12-18T08:56:00.000-08:00

I love my pup. He loves to cuddle and he almost always sleeps on his back like a little person. He is just too cute! He's the best present I ever got! Thanks Babe for the cutest pup ever!

Oh, Christmas Tree...

2008-12-15T20:36:00.000-08:00

For Family Home Evening, we decorated our Christmas tree! Yay! It's a bit late due to our hectic school schedules, but it's finally up.

Blaze didn't like it at first and barked at it for 10 minutes straight. But as you can see below, he has come to love our Christmas tree! :) He even posed for a picture!

Mother Dear

2008-12-15T10:59:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday my favoritest mother in the whole woooooorld! Happy Birthday to you!" :)

I just wanted to let you know how much I love you! You are a wonderful mother and I've very grateful to be your daughter! Don't know what I'd do without you, girl!!! Hope it's a wonderful day for you!

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-11T09:42:00.001-08:00

Ok. So it snowed. In southern Louisiana. And it snowed a lot! Enough said. :) This is what I saw when I opened the front door this morning!

It was a bit more than an inch of snow, as you can see.

YAY!!!

Brandon, Snow [the yellow lab], and Pete.

Max playing in the snow. He soon realized that it was extremely cold and wet and headed back inside.

Sweet pea and iPod found refuge under the tree. I don't think they were too fond of the snow.

Boys will be boys...

2008-12-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

Monday I came home early from work to study for my MNT final. I was inside studying my little heart out when I heard Brandon scream from the front door, "Babe! Come see what we caught!" He was supposed to be outside with Mike fixing the chicken coop so that no more chicken hawks could get in. Apparently they had finished that project and went to look for snakes out by the goat fence, and guess what...they found one! :) They were quite proud.

I love my country boy! :)

Thanksgiving Pictures

2008-12-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we decided that everyone would come out to our house. We live out in the country which was good for all the kids to play outside. We had 4-wheelers to ride, guns and paintball guns to shoot, animals to play with and a big tree that came down during Gustav to climb on. We had so much fun, as you will see. :)

Momma and two of her grandbabies, Kaliey "KK" and Eli "Lil' Joel"

Brandon & Boogie playing some baseball. Boogie may look small, but he sure has an arm on him!

Daniel and Max

Mom sneakin' into the pic! Gotta watch out for her! ;)

Me & Brandon!

Brandon & Daniel on the Racing 4-wheeler. This thing will get up to 80 mph! And Brandon wasn't holding back even though he had our nephews on it!!! Lil' sucker!

Mavanie and Boogie kickin' it on the 4-Wheeler!
She got really good at driving it and rode all the kids on it. Thanks Maver!

Max apparently wasn't having as much fun and wanted to go inside.

Me & Wendy taking a ride! I took her back into the pastures. We hit a few bumps here and there and she almost slid right off once, but overall we had lots of fun! :)

Left to Right: Jenna Bluth, Kaitlyn Richardson, Madalyn Cummings, and Bryn Bluth
Our "girly girls" climbing on the tree.

Daniel learning how to ride the 4-wheeler by himself! Yikes!

Davin got really good at riding. Momma had to yell at him to slow down a few times. But he had a blast!

Dallin showing off some of his paintballin' skills. I do have to say, he's a good shot!

Wendy showing Dallin how it's really done :)

Byron and Madalyn taking a ride!

I know. Shocker, right!?
Dad actually ended up having lots of fun shooting his new AR-15.

Joel showing Pops how the "big boys" roll
Just so you know, they were shooting at a target, not little animals. :)

Dallin taking his sis for a spin!

Mavers and Madalyn getting back from riding in the woods.

Brandon loaded up all the boys and took 'em for a ride. They had a blast! Brandon was the official tour guide for the entire day. He had lots of fun.

Madalyn, Brandon, and Boogie.

KK was playing Marilyn Monroe :) (She was standing over one of the vents in the floor.) Too cute!

Baby Quail

2008-12-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

So about a month ago, we had some baby quail hatch! They are absolutely adorable. One is a Pharaoh quail and the other one is a button quail. Seriously, when the button quail was born, it was no bigger that a quarter! Anyway, in this picture, Colin (one of Brandon's many cousins) is holding them. They were the only ones that hatched out of about 40 eggs so they stay together like 2 peas in a pod. :) We love 'em!

Button Quail

Pharaoh Quail