Braxton's First Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was on a Saturday, which meant that Mitch actually got to go to the Candlelight service again! He made it the first year after we got married, but hasn't been able to get off early enough in the years since. He did have to work that day, but thankfully was able to make it over to my mom's by 3:45. B, B and me spent the day at my mom's helping get dinner ready and the house cleaned for everyone to come over after the service.The plan had been to have everyone else meet at the candlelight service, but Mom had told them the wrong time and by the time we realized it, it was too late for everyone to make it. So just the Pearsons went. :) It was quite an experience!

Braxton and Brookelynne were wearing the beautiful Christmas outfits that Mrs Carmen bought for them, and looked great. Sure enough though, as soon as we got into the service, Mitch realized that Braxton had pooped up his back and it was all. over. Mitch's. suit. No, I'm sooooo not kidding. So while I took Brax to the bathroom and got him cleaned up, Mitch sat with Brookelynne in the service, with poop all over his jacket. I didn't have anything but some play clothes for Brax, and he had only gotten poop on his shirt, not his jacket or vest, so we went back to my roots, and just came back to the service with just pants and a vest. :) lol. It was kind of hilarious, but I didn't care.

Mitch went and got his jacket as clean as he could and then came back. No sooner did he sit down, then I had to take Brookelynne to the bathroom. All in all, we missed at least the first 20 minutes for trips to the bathroom! The rest of the service went a little rough for us, but that's okay. That's what 'family services' are for right? haha.

By the time we got home Braxton's shirt was dry and we got it back on him. And everyone arrived for dinner. We all ate until we were full, (to the point where no one had dessert because we were so full we forgot it! So thankful that my Mom is such a good cook!) and then settled in to open presents. I asked Brookelynne to help me pass out presents, which was one of the funnest parts of the night! I would say "Take this to Aunt Amy" and she would, or "Take this to Daddy" and she would, but at then Uncle Josh and Uncle Larry started teasing her! With every present she brought in there, they would say "Is that for Uncle Josh?" and she'd say "No, Aunt Amy" or "No, Gabba", etc, and Josh would say "Nooooo, I think it's mine" and she would get this look on her face like she was really doubting what she knew, but then she'd go "NOOOO, _______" and run to give it to who it belonged too. They were all laughing, but it did make present passing out take a lot longer! lol

When we started opening presents, we had a great time. Brookelynne was, of course, old hat at opening presents, and entertaining us all. Braxton was not really interested in opening presents, and would rather climb on the fireplace then open and play with his presents. lol. They both got a lot of great gifts, as did we all. We got new dishes for the house, which are amazing and Mitchell got me a CAMERA!!! :) As in a Canon Rebel T3i!!! lol. It was a fantastic night. We're so grateful for our sweet Savior who we got to celebrate, and for the children we get to teach about Him!

One of the funniest things of the evening was watching Brookelynne play with the new phones they got from Grandma. Brookelynne got a Minnie Mouse phone, and Braxton got a little green flip phone. Immediately, Brookelynne 'switched' with Braxton, and then started walking around the room dropping it into her pants. :) I guess since I always keep my phone in my pocket, she was 'copying' me, and since she didn't have pockets, was just dropping it into her pants. Of course, my brother was one of the first to notice what she was doing and started egging her on, until she was doing it over and over and we were all rolling! She would drop it in her pants, say "Ta-da" then pull the front of her pants forward, reach her other hand all the way down her pants leg, pull it out, holding it over her head and say "I found it" (which is pronounced "I sound it" in Brookelynne language") and we'd all laugh, so she'd repeat it. lol This is a picture of her doing it, obviously laughing at herself right along with us!

It's been a MONTH!!!!

Holy Cow. It has been a month since I posted, and now I feel REALLY behind. Brax has a surgery next week, so I'll try to get myself occupied by posting while he's back there, instead of pacing. lol :) Updates coming soon!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

This year as we started getting into the holiday season, I started saying to myself "We'll do this at this time, and get that done the next weekend" and on and on as I planned out the holidays in my head. Unfortuately, we got to Thanksgiving week (and I usually put our tree up the Sunday before Thanksgiving) and realized there was no time set aside for putting our own tree up. So, in haste, while the kids were taking an unusually long nap on Tuesday, I went into the garage, and got the Christmas tree down out of the attic (yes, by myself) and put it up in the living room. Mitch got home as the kids got up and I had him come out and 'catch' the Christmas boxes as I pulled them out of the attic too. Then I had Mitch put the kids in their Christmas pjs, brought the 2 boxes in that had the ornaments and stockings in them and started decorating. :)

The kids got in the spirit right away, Brookelynne remembering from last year what she was supposed to do. She was showing Brax and within a few minutes, he was hanging ornaments too! I'm so thankful for my sweet kids who love learning new things, they melted my heart as they interacted with each other and us as we decorated. We pulled out ornaments that had significance and told them what they meant and sang Christmas carols as we decorated!

The kids had a great time and so did I. I can honestly say that our Christmas decorations this year consisted of what I accomplished that night, not even bringing in the other 3 boxes of decorations. Too bad! lol I'll do better next year! haha. Weren't they adorable!

Moments to Remember: She's Cracking Us Up!

Brookelynne has started not wanting to go to sleep in her bed once again, and as always, I am still making her do it. Each time we cycle back through this fight, I end up having to find a new way to get her to stay in her bed and go to sleep. The most recent thing keeping her from going to sleep is that she's pitching fits once I close the door behind me. So we went through several ideas of things to keep her in bed, including talking about it, time out and spankings for screaming at me, giving her extra toys to take to bed with her, and yet, nothing had worked.

Sooo, last night I had gone back into her room to put her back in bed, tucked her in, kissed her head and said "Sweet dreams, baby doll" (like I always do) and before I could make it to the door, she had sat up in her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking her feet and slamming her fists into her mattress. [in case you were unaware, that behavior is not acceptable lol]. So I immediately turned on my heels, going back to her fully intending on putting her in time out. As I reached for her and started to speak, I saw "Baby Doll" (her baby doll she was sleeping with) and remembered what my friend Angela had started doing with her daughter, which was putting the toys in time out instead of her daughter, and it had worked great.

Soooo, I grabbed Baby Doll instead of Brooke and said "You know not to act like that, and because you're pitching a fit, Baby Doll is going to time out and baby bottle is going too" (the baby's bottle) At which point she screamed "NOOOOOOOO" I stepped over to the time out place, which is on the other side of  a big piece of furniture and not visible from the bed and sat the doll up against the wall in the same place we sit Brooke for time out, with the bottle in her lap, and stood up to see the funniest. thing. ever. :)

Brookelynne slid off her bed and 'ran' over to where time out is (it was only a few steps) and looked around the 'corner' so that she could see Baby Doll and when she saw Baby Doll, she screamed "Noooooooooooooooo!!!", covered her eyes with both hands and turned her back to 'the sight of Baby Doll in a corner", crying. I literally had to turn away from her to stop from laughing but it was just so pricelessly dramatic!

She's such a mess! Don't worry, Baby Doll got to come out of time out a minute later and everyone went to bed shortly after.

On a side note, I thought I would keep using this technique as needed, but tonight when I tried to put Baby Doll in time out, Brookelynne got all excited and jumped out of bed to 'do it herself'. Saying "I'm Mama, I do". Not exactly what we were going for Brookelynne....

FBC Preschoolers Fall Festival

This year our church had a great fall festival planned for our preschoolers, complete with tons of crafts, different age based games, bounce houses and a hayride! When I saw the flyer, I knew I wanted to take the kids, but since it was on a Friday night, I didn't know if we would be able to make it once Mitch got off of work. The kids had both had ear infections for the week before, so it wasn't even sure we were going to attempt it Friday morning, but I told Mitch to hurry home anyway, and if the kids were acting well, we'd go. :) Sure enough they were great! Mitch was able to get off around 4:45 and we were on the road to church at 6.

They had coloring sheets and thank you trees set up at all the tables, and Brookelynne enjoyed those for several minutes. Once she was done coloring we moved to the texture bins in the back of the dining room. These were so fun for both of the kids since they  had multiple bins set up with different items hidden in beans or corn or sand. Here's a shot of Brookelynne fishing something out!

Braxton enjoyed these too, but we had to keep an eye on him, because [as usual] he wanted to eat everything! lol While we were there, Shelly got up and spoke about thankfulness and how God wants us to be thankful. They had a slide show as well as a 'table talk' packet for all the parents that was filled with different Biblical topics to discuss with your preschoolers at the dinner table as well as how to explain those topics in their language.

Once the presentation was over, we went into the 'Under 2' room to play. :) Braxton went straight to the ball pit, and loved it! He was picking up all the balls and kept rolling around in them. Daddy would pick up the sides and shake it a little so that it would move all the balls around and Brax would laugh, it was soo cute! Here's a shot of him and his friend Davis sitting together! Look at that grin on my boy!

Then we moved onto some of the other toys which included a tunnel. Brookelynne showed Braxton how to crawl through it, and he followed suit very well! :) Here's my little man coming through the tunnel, laughing as he comes!

As we got out of the tunnel, I picked up Brax and saw blood running out of his ear. I was definitely not happy. As I mentioned, both of the kids had had ear infections that week, and we had been 'cleaning ears' every night before bed, and by 'we', I mean 'me', but Brookelynne saw things differently. Right before we left the house, I heard Brax scream, ran into the room and found Brooke holding the little tool I use to clean their ears, and when I asked her what happened, she said "I clean Brax ears". At the time, I calmed Brax, looked in his ears and didn't see anything, so we came to church like planned. At this point, after seeing the blood, I decided to call the doctors office. While waiting for a call back, we migrated to the craft tables, and Brookelynne took advantage of many of these. Here she is making a turkey. She had to place the tissue paper and then press it down :) She had so much fun making it and the teachers assigned to the tables were very impressed with her!

Braxton and Brookelynne both did hand prints and Daddy helped them so much!  We put them on the fridge and LOVE them! After the hand prints were done, we moved to the next room and Brooke did more crafts in the older room.

When the doctor called back, they said that we should probably go to the ER just to be safe, so we rounded up the kids and hit a few more 'attractions' before heading across the bridge. Brookelynne did the blow up slide outside (even though she didn't want to at first) and once she had done it once, she didn't want to get off! She slid at least 10 times after that!

And of course, we got a family photo at the wagon! :) We had a great time and were so thankful that our church planned something so sweet for their youngest members! Can't wait for next year!

And for those of you who are dying to know what happened with Brax's ear, we went to the ER where they put us in a 'fast track room' and a doctor came and checked his ear out. He had to clean out the blood several times (like 5 or 6 cue tips worth) and still couldn't see well, but was sure that Brooke had not punctured the ear drum, but had scraped the side of the ear wall and caused it to bleed. This was later confirmed by his pediatrician when we went back for the ear infection follow up. (Which hadn't cleared up, so we're onto another antibiotic. See if this works)



A trip to the Zoo.....

Mitch has been on vacation this week, so we've been trying to get a lot done. Unfortunately, we really haven't. lol. But since we weren't getting stuff done around the house, I figured we should get out of the house all together! So we took a trip to the zoo! We love going to the zoo with Brookelynne because she loves it so much and now Brax is getting to the age where he is starting to notice the animals, so it's becoming even MORE fun! This was the first time we've gone as a family of four!

We had a great time and started by heading toward the back instead of taking the African loop, and before we even got 15 yrd down, we saw a very active leopard pacing in his habitat. :) We got both kids out of the stroller and were so glad that he kept pacing. Braxton saw it and watched it very intently! Then we stopped at the giraffes, because we wanted the kids to feed them. It's one of our favorite exhibits, especially when its not crowded (which it wasn't), so we got to go up to the giraffes all by ourselves, and not worry about people pushing or rushing us. :) Brookelynne and Braxton both got to feed the giraffes and Daddy helped them do it! Of course, we stopped by the giant metal elephants for a picture, and then headed toward the Jaguars.

We stopped to see the flamingos, one of Brooke's other favorites, and Brookelynne reminded us how they stand! :) It was so cute! And then we headed to the bird sanctuary there. We went in and saw several birds bathing at the entrance, as well as some very active HUGE turtles in the water. Then we walked over to the otter window and were delighted to find two otters playing and swimming. They played and swam for 15 minutes while B&B watched them and chased them back and forth. Mitch took about 100 pictures of this, but I'll just give you a few :).

On our way out of the exhibit, we let the babes stand on a bench and look at the group of ducks sitting together. They really liked that! Then we checked on the jaguars (which weren't there, as usual) and headed into the "Lost Temple" exhibit. We saw snakes and frogs, as well as a lizard eating. Then we saw some very active bats, and 2 very funny armadillos! They were chasing each other around in circles and Brooke thought they were very funny! Then the kids got to stand and watch the anteater pace in front of them. Brax really liked that!

Then we headed on back to the Austrailian loop, because I really Mitch to see the exhibit where you can feed the birds and they land on you. Because, well, that's just awesome. lol. We didn't buy any nectar this time because the last few times I've been in there, the birds were full, and I've come to the conclusion that if you arrive after about 9:45, then there's no point because the school kids have all fed them. Anyway, we walked in and I was happy to see only 3 other people in the exhibit. And there were several birds, right by the door at eye level or lower for B&B. I got one to step onto my finger, but Brooke was not going to get close to it! lol. Brax liked it, but I'm not sure he was even aware that it was an animal and not a toy! We walked around with Brooke pointing out the birds and then she saw another lady feeding a bird, and she was VERY interested in that. A minute later, as the lady was about to leave, she asked if we'd like the rest of her bird food, to try and feed one. We happily accepted! While still holding Brax I went around until I found a bird I thought would like some food, and sure enough he did! So I showed Brookelynne how to hold the cup, and then let her feed the bird! It was soooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOooo SWEET! :)

After a minute or so, I got the bird on my hand so that we could move away from the corner we were sitting in. Once we sat down, Brax was bound and determined to get that bird. And then he saw another cup. One that only had a little bit of nectar in it, and started reaching. I was really hoping that he wanted to feed the bird too and had decided to do it, but alas, he only wanted to eat it. (Which I didn't allow him to do, of course!) But he was sure cute trying!

When we left the Australian bird sanctuary, we went to see the penguins. Once again, we found some very active animals. There were 20 or so penguins swimming right in front of the glass. Brooke got Daddy to pick her up to look down at them, but Brax enjoyed just looking up at them from the ground!

Before heading home, we stopped at the petting zoo. Something I RARELY do, lol. Anyway, I took Brax in and kept him from falling in the gross stuff and touching anything dirty, and we let Brooke pet/brush/see the goats. :) Here are some pics of that too!

I'm loving the days we have to go to the zoo as a family and am very thankful that my sweet husband took pictures most of the day, so I'm actually in them! lol :) Hope you enjoyed seeing the zoo through our eyes!

Braxton is 9 months!!!!

Okay, so I have to apologize, because I didn't do an 8 month post, and life has been sufficiently hectic that I've almost forgot to do a 9 month one, but alas, I couldn't let another month go by wit

At his appointment, he was 20 lb 5 oz, 28.5 in

* He can stand all on his own!
* He started pulling up around 7.5 months and since then has been standing up on EVERYTHING! He loves to pull up and look around. It wasn't long before he started letting go and standing all by himself!

* He's eating 2 times a day. He's not as good of an eater as his chubby cheeks would suggest, but he eats well enough. To be completely honest, he'd probably be a better eater if I were more consistent in feeding times/amounts/scheduling. But that's neither here nor there. lol.
* He's still not sleeping through the night consistantly. But he's getting close! He'll sleep great 2 nights, and then wake up for 3. It's totally random, but hopefully it won't be much longer! The last week or so, he's been pretty consistent, sleeping from 8-5.
* He still drinks 6 oz bottles during the day and then a 10 oz bottle right before bed.

* He's outgrown all of his 6 and 9 month clothes! We pulled out his 12 month clothes a week or so ago and most of them aren't even 'big' on him. They fit just fine. :)

 * He pretty much never wears shoes. I keep trying to put them on him and they're either too big or too small, but never seem to fit well. I'm trying more often now though, because he'll be walking before too long and will need shoes!!! :)
* He's still a super happy baby. We're so thankful for that!