Fall 2010

We actually took a pic together this time!!

Going down the slide at the Zoo

Mommy and Brandt at the Zoo

Brooke and I at the OU/TX Party

I love this face!!!!

Well we finally bought a tractor and got our land brush hogged so now we just have to get the dirt work done so we can start on the concrete. Man this has been a process! We were going to go to Missouri this weekend to see Lauren and go to the OU/Mizzou football game but we decided to wait until November and just work on the land instead while we still have good weather. Brandt is 19 months old now! Where in the world does the time go??? He's still going to Mother's Day Out and still loving it. Lauren, Nate and Aiden came to visit at the end of September. It was so good to see them again! Aiden had gotten so big and he is so adorable! he and Brandt played really good together for a while but then they both were just tired so they were both pretty whiny. As always, we didn't get to spend hardly anytime together which was sad but hopefully we can make up for it in November when we go visit them. We took Brandt to the zoo for the first time a couple of weeks ago and he loved looking at all the animals--the sea otters were his favorite and he cried when we left them. We all had a really good time and were exhausted when we left--lots of walking!! We couldn't have picked a better day to go--the weather was perfect! My parents had a fish fry at their house for the OU/Texas football game. Tons of people came and we had lots of food so that always makes for a good time! Brandt especially had fun playing outside with the other little kids there. As long as he's outside he is happy--I swear that kid would probably just live out there if we would let him! We found a wooden swing set on sale for a really good price so we went ahead and bought it for him. Caleb is in the process of putting it together now. I hope he likes it! He is going to be a Hamburger for Halloween. We found the costume at Old Navy and it is too cute. Now i just hope he actually wears it!

Its already August?

The summer flew by! Not that I actually get a "summer" since Im a grown up now but still. Well Brandt loved going to Mother's Day Out--it's over for now but starts back up in September. It makes it so much easier to leave him since he likes it and doesn't cry for me when I leave. He is 17 months old now--it seems so crazy that I will have a 1 1/2 year old in a month! Time definitely flies! It's been so ridiculously hot outside that we haven't been able to do anything really that fun lately. Not alot to do around Duncan for little ones, especially inside things. Im ready for it to cool off so we can take him to the zoo! We did take him to the Omniplex a couple of weekends ago. He had a good time I think--it wasn't as cool as I remember it being..lol.



We got our loan to start building our shop so that is really exciting! Now we just have to find to go clear the land out and get the concrete laid. Thats going to be kinda hard considering Caleb has been working non stop it seems like lately. And we need to find a tractor to mow it--those things are sooo expensive! Even the ones that are like 1970 models! I had no idea--but Ive never really been in the market for a tractor until now..lol.



My mom has had jury duty all this week so Ive been staying at home with Brandt since she can't watch him. I love staying at home with him, I just wish there was more fun stuff do so we wouldn't have to just sit at home all day. I wish Duncan had one of those Gymboree things where the little kids could go and play and stuff--maybe I will just have to start one..lol.

Brandt's pics July 2010

Brandt had his pictures done by Ashley Thomas (Aspen Blue Photography). They were supposed to take place in her studio since it was so hot outside but needless to say that wasn't happening--he wouldn't even let us put him down. So we had to move it outside and he seemed to be okay then. He is definitely in a stage where getting his picture isn't the easiest thing to do. But she did manage to get some awesome shots and I love them! I can't upload them to our computer so I can't post any :( But they are on my Facebook page so you can check them out there!

40 Years!!

This was my parents Wedding Day--July 18, 1970!!

My Aunt Debbie and I gave my parents a Surprise 40th Anniversary Party at Eduardo's on July 10, 2010. My aunt had actually called me and said, "you know its your parent's 40th anniversary right?" and I was like um...no...lol. I didnt even think about it! Sad I know. So she said she thought it would be nice if we did something for them and I agreed. They were definitely surprised! They thought Caleb, Brandt, and I were just taking them out to dinner but when they walked in they saw all thier friends there! Of course my mom cried..lol. It turned out awesome! Big thanks to Debbie for helping me with everything!

Fourth of July 2010

We went to the Merrill's Annual Firework Party for the Fourth of July this year. As usual it was awesome---the food, the fireworks, everything! Brandt had a blast just getting to run around. Its crazy to think about that last year at the party he was just 3 months old playing in his jumper--and what's even crazier than that is the year before that at the party was the day I found out I was pregnant with him. I know I say this all the time but its nuts how fast time flies. It never went this fast before I had a baby. Sometimes I want to freeze it! It definitely makes you think about how important it is to just stop and count your blessings because it's so easy to get caught up in everyday stressors and forget just how good you have it!

My 26th Birthday!

Wow--it seems crazy that Im 26 now--where has the time gone? Anywho--I had a good birthday! My present from Caleb was our Mexico trip so that was obviously amazing. On my actual Birthday we just went out and ate at Don Jose's with my parents and then afterwards took Brandt to his first trip to Kiddieland. He really liked riding the train! Nothing to eventful but I got to spend time with my family and there is nothing better than that!

P90 X

Since having Brandt I have lost around 67 lbs which makes me 25 lbs less than I weighed before getting pregnant with him--which is awesome because the whole time I was pregnant I was worried I would never lose the weight. I've been maintaining it for a year with working out and eating better but I would really like to lose 10 more lbs and tone up a little more so I decided to do P90X. This is my 2nd week of it. Its crazy hard but I really like it. Im in decent shape and cant even do some of the stuff they do. Maybe in time I will be able to. Im going to continue going to the Simmons Center and doing the classes there and the elliptical trainer though, because I really enjoy that--and Brandt likes going to the nursery there too. So we will see how it goes. I hope I can stick with it! I will post my progress later!!

Brandt at 15 months!

Brandt turned 15 months on June 15th. I can't believe how time has flown by. He had his Drs. appointment that day also. He weighed 25 lbs and was 32 1/2 inches long. That put him in the 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height. He has got a mouth full of teeth--like 14 I think! And they all started coming in at once--poor guy :( He has started talking alot more but most of the time we still can't understand any of it..haha. He is running everywhere now, not just walking. He loves being outside and being in the water. We took him over to our friends house to swim the other day and put his floaties on and let go of him and he kicked his legs and was fine all by himself. It was so cute! It makes me so glad that he's not scared of the water. He is putting himself to sleep in his crib all by himself for his naps and at nighttime and is sleeping all night until 8 the next morning, which is so nice!

Today was his first day of Mother's Day Out. It was kind of hard leaving him this morning but I know he will do great because he loves being around kids. He didn't even cry so that made me feel better. I can't wait to go pick him up at 3 to see how he did!!

Riviera Maya 2010

When we got back from our Florida trip on May 21'st Caleb and I turned around and went to Riviera Maya, Mexico on June 3rd. Sounds kind of ridiculous to take two trips so close together but Caleb bought took me there for my 26th birthday present so we could get away just the two of us. The resort we stayed at was amazing! It was definitely the nicest one I had ever stayed at and I have been to Mexico like 5 times before that. It had 7 restaurants that had wonderful food, 5 bars, infiniti pools with loungechairs in them, 24 hour room service, a mini bar in our room and the best part was that everything was included!! My Mom and Caleb's mom traded off keeping Brandt while we were gone. We missed him so much!! By the last day we were so ready to come home and see the little guy. Caleb and I had a great time together--that was an awesome birthday present!!

Destin, FL 2010

This post is a little late but oh well. Me, Brandt, Caleb & my mom all took a vacation to Destin, Florida the week of May 15th. The previous Wednesday Caleb found out that he would have to travel to Newfoundland, Canada for his job the next day. I was really disappointed b/c I thought that was going to ruin our vacation but they flew him into Pensacola, FL on Sunday night and we went and picked him up so it all worked out great. So it was just me, Brandt & my mom on the drive there. Brandt did really well in the car. We stopped in Shreveport the first night and stayed in a hotel and then got up Sunday and drove to Pensacola and picked up Caleb and spent the night there. Then Monday we got up and headed into Destin! The oil hadn't made it there yet so I was thankful for that. It breaks my heart that is there now because that was the most beautiful beach I had ever seen. Hopefully it is cleaned up by next year so we can go back. Brandt had a great time playing in the sand with his shovel and bucket and wasn't scared of the water one bit. He loved the ocean. We stayed in a condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a living room and a full kitchen, so that was nice for everyone to have their own space. Basically we just spent everyday either swimming in the pool or laying out on the beach and then at night we would go out to eat. It was a blast--it made me just want to move there..haha.

LAND!

Caleb and I just signed a contract on the 10 acres we are buying and hope to close sometimes this week. We are so excited! It is 2 miles West of Lawton Duncan Y so it looks like Brandt will be going to school in Marlow when he gets older. Which is fine with me. Our plan is to first build a shop on it sometime next year hopefully. Then probably a year or so after that we can hopefully sell our current house and start building a house on our land! It is what I have always wanted to do so Im one step closer to living the dream! Plus Caleb can shoot his guns and ride his 4 wheeler on it and finally have a shop to detail cars and work on his "man projects" lol.

Brandt at 13 months

I love watching how much Brandt changes everyday. He has the cutest little personality--or should i say BIG personality! haha. He is starting to act like a little boy now instead of a baby. Its sad and fun all at the same time how fast he is growing up. Even though he can't talk yet he understands just about everything we tell him. When we tell him to go get his book, he does and gets the exact one we tell him to get, when we say go pet the puppy, he goes and pets our dog Kenzi, whenever we say "baby" or he sees a picture of a baby he will do the sign for baby, when we say go get your ball he does, when we say throw your ball he does. He has said outside a couple of times but everytime we say outside he points outside. He has said juice, dog, diaper, bird, and of course momma and dadda. When we say go dance he will go to his little walker car and turn the music on and start dancing, but the funniest one of all has to be everytime he eats popcorn chicken he picks it up and blows on it to cool it off before he sticks it in his mouth. Every bite. Its hilarious! He is getting so smart it's amazing!

Talk about funny things--the other day when he was staying with my Mom she found him in her bathroom with all of her necklaces drug out of the bottom drawer and he was wearing all of them...lol. I was like great, whats next--tap dancing? lol. Of course we took lots of pictures that Im sure he will hate me for when is older.

We enrolled him in Mother's Day Out which will start at the end of June. It sounds like a great program and I think it will be a great chance for him to get to be around other kids and have lots of social interaction! And it will give my Mom a break so she can actually get some stuff done. Im going to continue not working on Thursdays so that will be a perfect time for me to clean house and do laundry while he's at MDO considering he doesn't let me do any of those things anymore since he's so clingy these days. He is getting his two bottom molars--they are huge!! Its so sad! He is still sleeping pretty good in his own crib at night though.

We are leaving for Destin in 1 days and I can't wait to watch him play in the sand. That is if the oil spill hasn't affected their beautiful beaches which im hoping and praying it hasnt!

Easter 2010

Im a little late posting this I know, but we had a really good Easter! I can't believe it was Brandts 2nd Easter already--last year he was just 4 weeks old. Its so weird to think about. Me, Caleb, Brandt and my mom all went to church that morning, then we had lunch with my parents and Brandt hunted Easter eggs. Well not really hunted but just played with them and tried to eat them..lol. He is walking everywhere now, barely crawling at all anymore and he has been drinking his milk out of his sippy cup really good so he has been off the bottle for a while now. Now if we can just get rid of the Binky! He only has it when he goes to sleep at night and I can tell thats going to be a hard habit to break.

Brandt's 1'st Birthday Party!

We had Brandt's first Birthday party at the Simmons Center on Saturday March 13, 2010. It was a St. Patrick's Day theme so needless to say everything was green. Including his "1st bday cake" that was supposed to be white icing but when my mom went to go pick it up the one with green icing is all they had left. So his mouth and hands were stained green after he dug into it..lol. He wasn't too interested in it-he just dug around in it and rubbed his hands together but didn't put any in his mouth. Then he started throwing a fit when we tried to clean him off but that only lasted for a little while. There was a bunch of people there so it made the little room that it was in sooo hot, but I think it went as good as a one year olds Birthday party could go I guess! The look on Brandt's face when everyone started singing 'happy birthday' to him was priceless--he was like what in the world is going on!! I can't believe it's already been a year--Time is going way too fast! We took him to his 12 month well check Drs. Appt and he had to get 3 shots so he didn't like that at all! But his pediatrician said that everything looked good and that he was healthy and growing well. He weighed 22 lbs and was 32 inches long--hes one tall baby!! She said to switch him from formula in a bottle to whole milk in a sippy cup.We've been trying but he hates the milk so thats been a little hard. He will drink everything else out of a sippy cup, just not his milk. Guess Im just gonna keep trying and hopefully he will come around! He is starting to become a really picky eater too so that's always fun..lol.He took 8 steps by himself the night before his party when Caleb's dad was here. Hes done it a few times since then but still mostly crawling.

New things Brandt can do

Brandt can do so many new things now it's amazing. At the first of February he started to play pat-a-cake and basically does it on command now. He throws his hands up in the air when you ask him if he's a big boy, he does the sign for baby, he starts making blowing sounds when you tell him something is hot, he holds up his finger when you ask him if hes "1", he says momma and daddy all the time, he's not walking unattended yet but last night he did stand alone for about 30 sec which was longer than he's ever done before and took one step to Caleb. He's basically running when he's holding on to something though..lol. He walks over to his car walker and pushes the button to start the music and then starts dancing, and he definitely understands the word "no" and does not like it one bit..haha! He points outside when you say outside and we swear he said juice twice but not sure. It is such a joy to watch him learn and change everyday!

Sick of being sick :(

At the end of February me, Brandt, Caleb and my mom were all sick. We are just now all getting over it. I noticed Brandt was coughing way more than he usually does when he just has a cold so I started worrying it might be something more serious since every baby i knew basically had RSV so we took him to the doctor. Well the poor baby did end up having RSV and an ear infection :( They had to give him a shot of antibiotics and put him on a steroid. Luckily though he was feeling better within 3 days. I dont like being sick but I would much rather it be me than my little man! Its so miserable to see them like that!! We take him to his 1 year well check on March 16 and he has to get shots again. Hopefully he will take it like a champ like he usually does. Its still sad to watch though. His Birthday party is this Saturday so I am really excited for that. Its a St. Patricks day theme--I have all the decorations bought and cake ordered so im just hoping that everything turns out good! I can't wait to watch him dig in to his cake..lol! Lauren and Aiden might get to come down this weekend so that would be awesome if they got to be there. We booked our vacation to Destin, Florida in May. Me, my mom, Brandt and Caleb are all going. We rented a 2 bed 2 bath condo on the beach--it is a gated community and has its own private beach so it looks like its going to be really nice--I can't wait to watch Brandt play in the sand! Hopefully he is walking by then!

Valentine's Day 2010

For Valentine's Day this year Caleb and I went and ate at Santa Fe steakhouse in Lawton and went to see the movie "Valentine's Day" while Brandt spendt the night with Bubby and Grandpa. It was fun--This was our 3rd Valentine's Day together!

11 months old

Brandt is 11 months old now and learning new things every day--it is so fun to watch. He can pat-a-cake, play peek-a-boo and do the sign for baby. He can also take a diaper to the trash and throw it away, its too funny! He also has 8 teeth now. On Feb. 19th we had to take him to Urgent Med and he had RSV and an ear infection :( I figured thats what it was b/c it was going around really bad. Now I have an upper resp. infection and I think Caleb does too. No fun!! But at least Brandt is feeling better, that's all that matters! We are planning his birthday party to be on March 13th at the Simmons Center--its going to be a St Patrick's Day theme so Im really excited! Hopefully we will all feel better by then!

Brandt's 1'st Haircut!

Brandt got his first haircut on February 13th, 2010. I think it's so cool that my mom got to give him his first haircut! She was happy too! He was such a good boy--he just sat up in the booster chair with his little cape on. It was adorable!!

Brandt & Aiden--a little late

Opening Christmas Presents

I don't know why I never posted these but here they are better late than never. These are a few pics of Brandt's 1st roadtrip to Missouri to visit Aiden on December 18, 2009. We had a blast! It snowed while we were there but the weather wasn't too bad for the drive thank goodness. Brandt and Aiden played so good together--its so cute watching them play! I wish we lived closer so they could play all the time! Brandt did so well on the drive up there and back. He's my little traveler! Hopefully we will get to see them again this summer sometime!!

Ice Storm 2010

So our power went out Thursday Jan 28th in the afternoon--I thought oh it will come back on later today b/c it's never been out for very much longer than that so I didn't really think about. Then I heard people saying it was going to be days before power would come back! Caleb, Brandt and I went to my parents house since they have a fireplace hoping we could at least be somewhat warm. We slept there Thursday night--it was ok for us but Brandt just wanted to crawl around everywhere so it was too cold for him. We got up Friday morning and decided to head to OKC to my aunt and uncles house. We got to Chickasha and realized that the turnpike was closed and the weather was getting pretty bad so we decided just to turn around and come back home. After sitting at my parents for the rest of the day it just started getting colder and colder so we luckily found a room at the La Quinta inn in lawton--it was the only one they had left and it was the jacuzzi suite so it had a king size bed and a huge jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room so my dad and Caleb had to sleep in the floor...lol. At least we were all warm! We got a regular room the next night thank goodness so we could all have a bed. We ended up staying there Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Thank goodness they had a gym so at least I could work out or I think I would have gone even more nuts than I already was! Caleb had to go back to work Monday morning so my mom, Brandt and I went to waste time at the mall and went out to eat before heading back to Duncan. Monday night Caleb's mom got power so we stayed at her house. By this point we were basically living out of my car and I felt so sorry for Brandt having to stay in a different place everynight. He didn't know what the heck was going on but he acted so good. Even despite that his 4 front top teeth were popping through as well as one bottom one all at the same time. He also learned how to pat-a-cake through all this as well..lol. Anywho, Tuesday we borrowed a generator from one of my dads friends and Caleb hooked it up at my moms house to the heater, a lamp and the TV so me, Caleb and Brandt stayed there and my mom and dad stayed in a hotel in Duncan. Wednesday I went home before going to work and realized FINALLY we had power!!! Ive never been so happy to see a light in my whole life! I will never take electricity for granted again..lol. It was so good to sleep in our own bed and get back into a routine. It was especially good to eat normal things again instead of eating out every single meal--that definitely took a toll on my diet!! haha. We got through it though and nobody killed each other surprisingly, even though I had my doubts at times! I am so ready for summer now its not even funny--I am in desperate need of SUNSHINE!! We are starting to plan Brandt's 1st Birthday party for next month so thats exciting. Can't believe my baby is already going to be 1!

New Years Eve 2009

Our New Years Eve was uneventful to say the least. Caleb and I just went and ate at Don Jose's while my mom and dad watched Brandt for us. He had an upper resp. infection so we didn't want to get him out in the cold weather (it snowed again yesterday, how crazy is that!) Then we were all in bed asleep by 11:00...oh well, at least we got to spend it together, thats all that matters! We even had champagne and we were going to toast at midnight--so much for that..lol. I told Caleb we could do it today--haha. 2009 has been the best year yet b/c of the birth of our beautiful baby boy! Also Caleb and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in 2009--I feel blessed beyond belief to be married to a man who is such a wonderful husband and father, and to have a healthy son. Looking back, you don't even understand how happy I am that my life turned out like it has. There was some bumps along the way, but if those wouldn't have happened I wouldn't be where I am now and this is exactly where I want to be!! I'm looking forward to what 2010 will bring. Happy New Year!!