It's a BOY! Welcome to the world, Blake Graham!

Error: Time of birth 0624 (oops!)

My awesome, amazing sister-in-law (who's really more like a sister) gave birth to her 2nd baby boy yesterday morning via c-section! She went into the hospital on Monday evening contracting on her own, yet was booked to have a Foley induction anyway. The catheter got her to 5 cm, but no farther during the night so at 0624 they brought Blake into the world the same way Luke came, with a cesarean. Blake and mama are both healthy and doing really well! Words just don't do it justice, so here's some pictures I snapped yesterday!

 



Be still my heart! He really liked his little cousin "Baby Bake"! Braden's Big Brother training continues. Congratulations, Nelson Family! We love you and we're so proud of you!

Our BC Summer Vacation Part 3

This is the last BC post! I will always attest that this blog is for me and my family. I don't write to appease to anyone...but at the same time I don't want to bore my readers with every.single.detail of everything we do. So this is our last day in BC, which was 1 week ago today. We spent it at Parker Cover on the Okanagan Lake. This is where Jay's grandparents retired to and he spent 6 weeks there every summer. I'm happy we can share this with Braden!


The weather was beautiful, there was lots of shade provided by the big, beautiful trees if we needed it...and Braden and Jay enjoyed floating around the lake in the dingy and building sandcastles on the little beach.

Even the doggy had a great time on our vacation. I don't know if she really appreciates coming, after all...she is just a dog! But it sure beats a week in the kennel, at least we figure so!

 

Then that little thief stole my chair as I got up to take those pictures of him and the dog. Braden moves a LOT faster than Mommy these days!



Then it was back to the lake. He loved to pull the boat down to the water "all by 'yself!"

 

And was very proud of his sandcastle that he built with Daddy!

I loved this vacation so much! I aspire to bring my mom, meet up with Nelsons, my in-laws if they can make it too, and have Ben, Jess, & Abby there at the same time next year. These kids are going to have a great time growing up together, I want to do big family vacations and make lots and lots of memories together. Family is just so important and I cherish mine every day. We are stronger now than ever!

Braden is 2 & 1/2!

Braden celebrated his half birthday chilling at the Okanagan Lake down at Parker Cove today. Playing in the water, building sand castles with Daddy, and playing at the park. He is such a joy, I cannot remember life before him, and as Jay said during our vacation, "what do people do on vacation without kids?" I took these photos of him in the canola last Sunday after church.

Here's a summary of Braden at 2.5 years:

• 29 lbs, 35.5" tall
• Wears 3T shirts and 2T shorts/pants, size 7 shoes/sandals
• Sleeping from 7:00 to 6:30-7 every night and has dropped his nap (tears from mommy!)
• 100% potty trained, hasn't had an accident for a long time, still wears a pull-up at night, but wakes up dry...more for "just in case" for my sake, when we run out of this pack in a couple of months I just won't buy more!
• He is a talker!  He loooooves to talk, and quite frankly, never stops!
• Can sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" & "Bob the Builder" all by himself and "ABC's" with a bit of help
• Passionate about farming and always wants to go to work with Daddy & Papa
• He's getting very imaginative with his play - he pretends to be a froggy and hops around saying "wibbit! wibbit!"
• Loves smoovies [smoothies] and nukshakes [milkshakes]
• Swimming or anything water-related is loved, especially with someone else to play with him (Daddy!)
• Very much enjoys dinosaurs and going to Drumheller to see them & play at dinosaur park
• When he wants to try some of your food he asks to "try sasum?" and it's quite hilarious!
• Still loves Thomas, Bob, & George...but also really into Toopy & Binoo & Cailou lately
• Such a kind, gentle, caring little boy
• Loves his Poppy, Papa, and Mamaw (Grandma), Auntie Lala (Laura), & Lukey, Auntie Ben (this is new - calling him auntie!), Auntie Jess, & Baby Abby so much! He loves all his family, of course, but these ones he talk about every day!
• He says to Mommy: "wakey, wakey sleepy head!" and "don't slam a door!" as Daddy has taught him
• He could probably live outside if we let him - loves to be in the garden
• Can name every piece of construction equipment known to man, and point them out on our travels even if you can't see them
• Recently taught cousin Abby to imitate him by sticking out his tongue and babbling
• Has recently dabbled with trying to hit us, playfully mind you, but nonetheless we are teaching him that hitting/kicking/punching is not nice and will not be tolerated
• Has time outs for punishment, the odd time he needs it, and it works really well for him
• Will do almost anything for a sucker

He has just changed so so so much in the last 6 months, I'm excited to see what the next 6 months bring, including how he adjusts to Big Brotherhood!

 Love love love you, little man!

Keeping Cool

It has been a HOT July! We rarely get days over 30C, if not just a handful per summer....but this year I'd garner to say we've had at least 7 days over 30? If not, darn near close and in the high 20's! Well, last week Braden and I needed to keep cool, so I got out the little pool, filled the water table, and gave Braden his first freezie! He doesn't really get the concept of these frozen treats...but he kind of did this time!

How have you been keeping cool this summer? What's the weather like where you are right now?

Happy Halloween!

My heart is so happy, my heart is just beaming right now. Normally I would blog with the Toddle Along Tuesday ladies, but I have to skip out this week because this needs to be posted NOW! :) I have always loved Halloween. Jay and I met 7 years ago when we were out with separate friends for Halloween. I love dressing up, as you can see...

Now that we have Braden...oh my heart just melted today! He doesn't (obviously) 100% understand what Halloween is all about, but he was so excited to put on his Cookie Monster costume. He was even saying "Cookie Braden" today and he definitely knows what a cookie is! If I chose his costume based on what he likes most, he would be Thomas, of course, and he would make an adorable Bob too...but mama's choice was Cookie Monster because it suits his personality so much!

And with some help from Daddy we got some smirks and almost smiles!!

NOM NOM NOM!!!

Here's a little video of right before we were ready to go out:



So Jay wasn't feeling that great so he decided to stay home and hand out the candy and cookies that I made, so I got to take the little dude around to the neighbors. I cannot stress enough how much being a rural family ROCKS at Halloween! We get to go see our family & neighbors, get homemade treats, full sized chocolate bars and chips! Plus on the chilly years we get to stay in the car or in the houses the majority of the time! We ran into Lukey at our 2nd last house!

Then as a treat, we let Braden stay up...and have a treat! Plus we want to keep him up late all week to train him for daylight savings time!

Aren't his "batjamas" adorable?

And another video of the craziness that ensued post trick or treating!



So I kind of did a reverse trick or treat for the neighbours. I really wanted to bring a treat related to his costume, and I've been wanting to make these ever since I saw a picture them! I made Cookie Monster Cupcakes!!

I apologize for the yucky pictures...Speedlite is needed I tells ya! I'm happy with the way they turned out and the neighbours loved them!!Then I also made some Halloween cupcakes for Serena's 6th birthday and also some Halloween sugar cookies! :)

Oh...and just one more thing!