Something I'd thought I'd never see.....

Changes

I guess I should start explaining the above pictures. This is Brakston's Halloween costume for this year. Brakston loves rooster and chickens right now so when I found this yesterday at Old Navy, I went ahead and bought it. It was too cute to pass up.

We have been experiencing many changes around here. First, Brakston has two new cousins. Erin and Bret finally got to bring Grace home from China after four long years of waiting. She is an absolute doll and we can't wait to meet her. Bret's sister Rachel gave birth this week to the newest addition to the family, Drew Michael. He's a little small, but adorable. We can't wait to meet him too!!

We have finally found a use for what was our "cat room" at the front of the house. After Sylvie passed away, LT had the great idea to move the laundry room upstairs. I absolutely love it. When I finish it, I'll post some pictures. We also moved the twin bed out of Brakston's room and put it in there as well so it's the laundry room/guest room. (funny story, Brakston actually thought that the twin bed was my bed and that's why he wouldn't go to sleep without me being in the room, he now understands where mommy and daddy sleep and goes to sleep without me in the room without too much fussing!!). When Brakston stops sleeping in the crib, we will turn it into a full bed, and put it in the guest room and get rid of the twin bed. We also moved Brakston's car bed into his room. He doesn't sleep in it yet, but he really likes it.

We also added a dog door to what we call the "breezeway" room. It's been nice to not crate Harley when we leave. We've been leaving he and Cassey blocked off in the breezeway and it's been working great. Brakston likes the new dog door too and uses it when I'm not looking.

I went back to work full time for the first time since we brought Brakston home. It's been a transition. We were so blessed to find a great place for Brakston to stay during the day. We started him in daycare last year, but took him out in November due to frequent ear infections. Sarah, who has watched him since he came home, stayed with him during the morning, and Bridget came in the afternoon. It worked out great and he got to be at home all day. This year, Sarah is going to ISU and her mom, Lora, is watching him at their house. Lora home schools her two younger girls, Evie and Lydia, and Brakston loved going over there. He never cries when we drop him off and it has taken the stress of leaving him away. It's been such a huge blessing.

I'm enjoying being back at work full time. I'm in two new schools, one I supervised in the last two years, but this is my first year of actually being there all the time, and the other school is where Margie used to teach at so a lot of them new me already. It's been crazy busy, moving stuff out and in, but I'm really comfortable.

The next few weeks are crazy, with lots of stuff going on, but I'll try to post more often.

In Memory of Sylvie

Today's been a hard day. I had to put Sylvie to sleep. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still hard. She was 17 and 1/2 years old, which is really old for a Persian cat. She was originally Lacy's cat, but when she was 3, I ended up with her. She's lived everywhere that I've lived in the last 14 years so she made a lot of moves!! I've never had to put an an animal to sleep. When Morgan died, I was there, and that's not something I ever want to repeat. While this was a little easier, it was still hard to say goodbye. I'll miss you Sylvie.

Life Lesson #1 with an almost 2-year-old

Important life lesson, never leave the gigantic, Sam's Club size Parmesan cheese container on the kitchen counter and run to the bathroom. (Boy knocks it over, dog breaks it open, and chaos ensues). All I heard from the bathroom, with the door open, was "uh oh, mommy."

When I was on the phone with my dad, I said, "Brakston was bad" and he looked at me and said "doggies bad." Sigh.............he's just too cute, even when he's in trouble.

Disney World

Here's a quick update until I can take the time to write a longer one. Disney World was a blast, we had a lot of fun and Brakston is still talking about "mouse," "Buzz," and "bus." (For those of you who don't know, he really enjoyed riding the buses to and from the parks).

This picture was taken while we were standing in line to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, it was a big hit with little B!!

Mother's Day Photos

We had a great photo shoot at Portrait Innovations today. I wanted to badly to get one picture of Brakston kissing me (he puckers up so cute), but of course, he refused to do it. We'll be giving away pictures for Mother's Day, these were two that didn't make the cut.

Why I shouldn't leave things on the oven...

Happy First Gotcha Day Brakston!!

Wow, one year ago today this beautiful boy was placed into my arms forever. The day has been harder than I thought. I have so many emotions running thru my mind, so much happiness, guilt (there are many that still don't have their children home), sadness (for the tough choice his birth mom had to make and for the huge loss his foster family had when he came home)....and many others. It's hard to put into words. I've just felt overwhelmed the last few days.

This past year has been amazing, watching Brakston grow and change. He's a wonderful, loving child. God sent us the most precious gift and I often wonder what I ever did to deserve it.

Brakston's new favorite word is "bump." He likes to bump his cars into everything. He's starting to put two words together and he imitates everything. He eats just about anything and his favorites are chicken, sausage, ham, and gerber puffs. He loves chips and "dips." Dips can be anything from salsa, queso cheese, oil for dipping your bread into, butter, or salt. (and don't ever forget to give him his dips if you're having them, I have to fake putting salt on his food before he'll eat it if he sees me use it on my food)

Happy Gotcha Day Brakston, I hope you'll always know how many people love you. I am proud and beyond thrilled to be your mama and I can't wait to see what you'll do next.

Brakston's first Easter!

It dawned on me today that we are approaching the last of our "first's" this week. This will be Brakston's first Easter at home. These pictures are from last year at Easter in Guatemala. Easter in Guatemala is amazing, they have huge parades and the men all dress in purple and white robes.

Monday will be our first "Forever Family Day" celebration. We got Brakston on 4/13/08 at the Westin in Guatemala knowing that we never had to give him back again. I can't imagine how much is foster family has to be missing him. I have a much larger post planned for Monday, I have many thoughts running through my mind, it's just hard to get them down. Life with an almost two-year old is crazy!!

One year ago....

One year ago today, we were in Guatemala. Around 1:30 Guatemalan time, we got the call that we were out of PGN and Brakston was ours.......I can't believe how fast time flies. I don't know how I could have left him without the knowledge that we were returning in just a few short weeks.

At times, I can't believe that I traveled not once, but twice, to Guatemala last year. Me, who really doesn't like flying and had never been out of the country. That first visit trip was just amazing. I can remember seeing the moutains for the first time from the plane, I remember walking into the Westin and seeing Brakston for the first time in the lobby, I left LT at the desk and practically ran across the room., I remember feeling like a "mom" for the first time when I finally got to hold him in my arms. I can't believe that I have been blessed with such a wonderful son and husband.

Brakston is a joy. We have so much fun together as a family. ( I just asked him if I could have a couple of his fish crackers and he shook his head "no.") We have been so blessed.

Good Dog!!

Harley is such a good dog, he just loves Brakston. This is Brakston watching his new Thomas "sing-a-long" video from Ma Pat and Boppa, he loves it!!

Happy 10 months home Brakston!!

Today Brakston has been home for 10 months!! We are spending the day watching Thomas videos in my office as I try to list a bunch on eBay. You can't really tell it, but Brakston is actually sitting on Harley in the one picture, poor Harley.

It seems like Brakston has changed a lot in the last couple of weeks. He talks non-stop (except when I want him to talk to someone) and really seems to understand stuff now. He now goes to bed much easier, he tells me "night night" and then I can leave the room. I think he understand that I'm still there, just in the other room. His new thing is that he says "bye bye" (or "die die" in Brakston speak) and then says "See ya." I guess I must say that a lot. Today while we were at Kroger, he kept saying "arm arm" and I look down and his arm was stuck in his coat sleeve, I didn't even know that he knew the word arm.

His favorite thing right now is carrying around picture frames. I'm going to make him his own photo album this week. He names everyone in the pictures, including himself, which is "baby." He calls cousin Grant "baby" too.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful son. He brings us so much joy.

We went to the children's museum last week, me, Brakston, KK, and Yoce (Joyce). How many kids have the 3:1 ratio when they go out? We had a blast and I took lots of videos. He loved digging in the dinosaur area, he had a brush and kept brushing the kid's hair that was next to him. He liked the slide in Lego Land the best. He's going back in March when he spends the weekend with KK and Joyce. They have so much planned, I don't know when he'll sleep. They have schedules of their friends and Bonnie and Mel, Nona and Joe, and Aunt Lacy are all coming over to play with him. He won't want to come home after all of that!!

And the journey begins....

So, I met with the trainer again today, to start this journey of weight loss and getting healthy, and he tried to kill me. Seriously, I got light-headed and had to lie down a minute. I did eat before I went, I guess I had better add some protein to breakfast next time. I go back Friday at 8:00, wish me luck.

Boomer has been hitting the gym 4-5 times a week for almost a month now. We're both really concentraing on living a healthier lifestyle. I'll leave you with a picture of Brakston on his trampoline.

Brakston's first attempt at pudding

OK, this is my first attempt at adding a video using the new video camera that Boomer got me for Christmas. This is Brakston enjoying his sugar free, fat free pudding last week. He loved it, as I'm sure you can tell. His hair is much shorter now, it was getting so long.

OK, here's my first attempt at adding a video from the new video camera Boomer got me for Christmas. This is Brakston enjoying his fat free, sugar free pudding from last week

Happy 18 months Brakston!!! (and a snow day)

Today Brakston is 18 months old. That just seems impossible. This is a picture of how we are spending our morning since I don't have school today (in case you don't know, that's Thomas we're watching). As you can see, we have lots of snow here (10-12 inches).

Brakston is really starting to understand a lot more. He now goes to the fridge and asks for "milk," he says "eat" when he's hungry and usually tries to climb in his high chair, and the other day, he was signing "more" to me and I said "what do you more of?" and he then said "cheese." He's a bright little man. He finally says "Harley" which comes out without the /r/ or /l/ sound so it's kind of funny to hear. He has learned "cold" and says it when he touches his window or is close to the open fridge door. He says "nana" when he wants a banana and he has learned to says "pops' (grandpa Larry). He's adding new words every day and I have to really watch it now. Yesterday morning, I got up and was a little mad and said "oh no, Harley pooped" (in the house, yuck!!). Brakston then said "poop." Now it's become a favorite word.

He has two new bottom molars, his two eye teeth are coming in, and now, he has two top molars coming in as well. When they all are in, that's 14 teeth!!! We have also been bottle free for two weeks!!

Happy 1/2 birthday Brakston, mommy and daddy love you so much!!!!!!

Big Day

Wow, two major things happened tonight. 1.) Brakston went to bed WITHOUT a bottle for the first time ever. Yippee!! 2.) WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD FOR A WHOLE WEEK IN JUNE---YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE

I got an email from our adoption agency this afternoon that they were sponsoring a trip for their families, right now there are over 60 families going....I'm so so so excited. It's June 13th-20th. My friend Nichole and I are driving down on the 12th with Brakston, and Boomer is flying down on the 16th and will drive back with us. You cannot beat the prices right now (stay four nights, get 3 free, buy a 4 day hopper pass, get 3 more days free, which the park hopper passes don't ever expire.) We also got a discount for going with a group. I can't wait to meet other families that used our agency. Now I'm so motivated to keep eating healthy and working out (six pounds gone, many more to go)

Yippee!!!! And a two hour delay tomorrow, makes for a good day!!

What's wrong with this picture??

I was working in the office yesterday. I had the gate closed so I could keep an eye on the children (Brakston and the dogs). All of a sudden, I noticed it was very quiet, I turned around, and my son had strung six pairs of plus size thong panties around his neck like necklaces (I was getting ready to list them on Ebay in case you're wondering). Hope it doesn't scar him for life.