Fall, Halloween, Catch up...

Winter has certainly arrived here along with the holiday season!  I love this time of year so much!  I don't like the freezing weather but I do love the snow and I love what it brings with it.  Hot chocolate, family time, holidays, parades, lights, music.  So much going on, it's a busy time of year and I absolutely love it!

We had a great Halloween this year too!  It feels like this was the first one Brayden really got into.  He chose to be Jake from Neverland Pirates.  We shopped around for costumes but for the price of them all they looked awful so I decided we would just make his costume this year.  My hubby actually did the sewing and putting together of the costume.  It turned out amazing!  LOVED IT actually!  So did Brayden!  We went to trunk or treat at church on the Saturday before Halloween.  He had so much fun playing all the carnival games and trick or treating afterwards.  On Halloween we met up with his cousins and they took off in the neighborhood for a freezing fun night of trick or treating.  Brayden lasted a lot longer than I even wanted him to!  LOL... I thought we would only go out for about 30 mins or so.. but 2 and half hours later we finished up.  He had so much fun and got lots and lots of candy!  Braydens baby cousin Madalynn even got to be here for Halloween so we got a few pics with her before we went out.

Brayden is still loving preschool!  His teacher loves him and tells me that he is her buddy and is just a sweet sweet little boy.  I think he would rather hang out with adults sometimes and is still a little shy with the other kids.  He always comes home with cute crafts though.

Pregnancy is good so far!  I still can't believe that Brayden is going to be a big brother!  He has no doubt in his mind that he is having a baby sister.  UH... hope he isn't to disappointed if it goes the other way!  We had our first doc appointment last Monday.  Everything is good so far.  I am now 10 weeks and definitely feeling the effects.  No vomiting, but had lots of nauseousness.

We are just gearing up for the holidays.  My sister is coming out for Thanksgiving, a week later her and I and the kids are taking a train out to Chicago to see our folks there and then a week later from returning they are coming here for Christmas.  Will be a very fun month!!!

Hope you all have a very fun, loving, family filled holiday season!!! 

The day has come...

Well I always told myself I wouldn't be like all those other moms who cried on the first day of their children starting school.  BIG FAT LIE!  I totally cried, and this was just preschool!!!  My handsome, smart little boy started preschool today!  He was totally excited as we were getting ready this morning.  Easy peasy getting him ready to go.  Of course once we got there and his teachers were asking him what his name was he froze up and hid behind me.  That lasted all of 2 minutes once he began looking around the room and seeing all the fun things they had.  He was off playing and I left the room.  As I walked out to the car I totally felt the tears headin right down on my cheeks.  SERIOUSLY??  I'm crying?  Oh GEEZ!  But I'm so proud of my little man.  He is so adaptable to so many different situations.  He had so much fun today.  They did some painting, and had a parade, and he said he even held one little girls hand and he thinks she is his friend.  Ha Ha.  He is very excited to go back on Thursday!

Couple of pictures from this morning...

He wanted a picture with his bear before we left! Silly kid!

Pictures from Hospital

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One of the most beautiful moments in life...

As most of you know (if any one is even reading this).  My sister finally, FINALLY had her baby!!!  Madalynn Nicole Mott, born 9/1/13 at 7:08pm .  She was 6 lbs & 13oz and 19.5 inches long.  She has a full head of hair and she is absolutely beautiful!  I LOVE HER!  I didn't know I could love another baby like I do her.  I would do anything for her like I would my own child.  She is amazing and special and so damn lovable!

This whole experience has been amazing.  Honestly we or I didn't know if my sister would ever  be able to have children.  So this little girl was quite the miracle baby!  I will always remember talks with my sister of our dreams of having children and them growing up together and how close they will be because she and I are so close.  We have longed for this day!  We have waited for this day!  This day is finally here!

I drove out to Nebraska on Friday before labor day because the doc finally told her they would induce her that following Tuesday if she doesn't go into labor over the weekend.  Well she did.  She started having contractions late Saturday night, early Sunday morning.  We took off for the hospital about 4:30am.  Her contractions started slowing down at one point and the doctor asked if she wanted to go ahead and induce.  (UH, YA!)  

At first it seemed like things were progressing so slowly.  Brayden and I slept in the family waiting for another 3 or 4 hours I think. Then we got up and were able to go check on my sister.

This was such an amazing experience to me.  Watching my own sister go through this whole birthing process.  I learned more about my sister in one day it seemed than I have my whole life.  First of all my sister is beautiful and kind and I knew she would be this amazing mother.  But what I didn't know was how strong she was and is.  The first STRONG contraction she had and started to cry, I started crying right with her.  I was hurting for her.  I didn't feel like it was fair that she was going through so much pain.  Every contraction she had and I could see she was in pain the harder it was for me to hold back the tears.  But she dealt with it.  She would get through one contraction and catch her breath and gear up for the next one. (This is all with no pain meds mind you!)  Finally at about 5 centimeters they offered the epidural.  Hallelujah! (I WANTED ONE TOO!)  She was now being heard through the halls and it was awful!  I wanted the pain to just stop for her.  By the time they had given her the epidural she was already 8 centimeters.  What she or anybody else for that matter didn't know, it was now to late and she was about to feel EVERYTHING anyway!

My sister was AMAZING!!!  She pushed and pushed and pushed and suffered and suffered and suffered in so much pain.  BUT she kept on going and at the point of thinking she could not do this anymore, she would say okay, here comes another one and she would push some more!  I don't know how to describe this well, but it was truly amazing to see her strength in those moments of total fear.  Like you feel like you are dying and not sure if you are going to even make it to see your baby.  And yet you will do everything in your power to push this beautiful baby out into the world.  My sister did such a good job and she tried with all her might!  The baby started to have a little distress so the doctor thought it would be best for a C-Section.

(by the way daddy was quite supportive through all of this!

I will never forget this day, and all the emotions and the pain I could only imagine (wait, I don't have to imagine, I know because my epidural wore off and I felt EVERYTHING!) that my sister felt!  She is stronger then I ever knew her to be and I totally admire her for that!

Now baby Maddy is here and it is such an awesome experience to see mommy and daddy being, mommy and daddy.  They are both doing so great at this.  They are both so exhausted and again, emotions are flyin high with all that is new here.  But it is a beautiful family and Madalynn is so lucky to have the mommy & daddy that she has!  UH, and lucky to have me for her Aunt!  And yes I am a ZIA now too!  YAY!!!

(Pictures coming soon!)

Camping Trip and Park

We took Brayden back up to our spot we went camping at last time.  He is such a good camper and loves the outdoors and nature!  Gary took the day off on Friday and we headed up early.  Although the campground was almost empty, I think most people are done for the year since school is starting.  It was beautiful weather the whole time.  We just hung around camp and did some hiking and fishing.  The first few days were a bit rough with Brayden and his potty training.  He has been in big boy underwear for a few weeks with little to no accidents.  We got up there and I felt like we were starting all over.  I think it was just all to new and he didn't like not having a toilet with running water. LOL... by  the last day he was good to go!  Oh well.  On Saturday Gary's folks and sister came up for dinner and we went on a little hike with them also.  On our hike we ran into 2 HUGE bull moose.  It was pretty amazing and almost frightening at the same time. We were pretty much right up on them.  AmAzing!

We had a great time and headed home Sunday.  Gary took a detour on the way home and we got to see some beautiful sides of the mountains that we have never seen before.  We found a new campground that we may go try out next time!  Another successful weekend in the mountains!

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On Monday night we enjoyed an evening at the park!

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My 3 1/2 year old!!!

Each day I am in such amazement of Brayden.  He is growing and learning so so much!  We have had such a busy fun summer!  And he is seriously one of the funniest kids I know!  He has quite the personality!  He makes funny faces to make you laugh and loves to joke around with you!  He is also very very stubborn, and is always wanting to be first in everything he does. (I mean like even walking down our stairs to go somewhere or walking into the kitchen to get his milk.) He always has to be in front of you.  Never behind.  He yells out, "I want to be the leader!!!" (Sometimes it gets a little annoying LOL)

His favorites:

DINO Dan - I really want to shoot myself in the foot every time I have to watch this, but hey it makes him happy!

Mike the Knight

Jake and the Neverland Pirates - This is what he wants to be for Halloween, guess I better get this costume figured out!

Cars

Trains

Horses

Dinosaurs - He knows pretty much every single dino's name, it amazes me that he can pronounce half of them!

Swimming

He is now about 41.5 inches tall and weighs just the same!  Crazy!  

OH AND FINALLY, FINALLY... he is potty training.  We have had a very hard and trying time with this.  But we now have him in big boy underwear and I would say we are 90% of the way there.  He still will have a few days where he will have accidents.  But we are completely out of diapers!  YAY!!!

This fall he will be going to preschool (yes I said it!)  Just a couple days a week for only couple hours at the rec center!  I think it will be good for him to make some friends!  He is so excited!  

We have taken it pretty easy these last few weeks after all the fam went home and now the baby shower fun is over.  We are now anxiously awaiting the phone call letting us know the baby is coming!

In the past few weeks we did the Museum and went to the Adams County Fair!  Brayden as usual, had a great time!

My first Moose in Colorado!

Last weekend Gary and I went on a camping trip while Brayden stayed home with Grammy and camped out in the backyard.

I had seen pictures, of a friend of mine on Facebook, of her camping trip and the area looked absolutely beautiful.   I told Gary about it and we were totally up for the adventure.  All we knew from what she told me was she camped on the west side of Chambers Lake.  No campground.  So we took off Friday morning looking for our spot to camp.  Unfortunately you can't have open fires so we packed no firewood! :(  It took us about 3 hours.  We first drove past Chambers lake a ways looking for a road that would even take us on the west side of Chambers Lake.  Couldn't find and just kept driving ...

On the drive a deer ran across the road in front of the car in front of us.  So of course we all stopped to watch the deer.  He was gone up the hill.  My husband in the meantime was looking out over the meadow on the opposite side and spotted a big Moose.  I was so EXCITED!  Everyone keeps telling me how many moose they see here in Colorado.  And in my whole life of living here I have never seen them.  I love this animal and just think they are so fascinating so I was pretty happy that we got to see one.  Not just one there were 2 standing together!  Pretty cool!

After watching them for awhile we took off back toward Chambers Lake looking for a camp spot.  The lake campground was completely booked so we drove down the road that goes north of chambers and ran into this beautiful little campground that is pretty tucked away.  It is first come first serve and we got there early enough that we were able to get a great spot!  There was a river and pretty little hiking trail that runs right through the campground.

Our first night we just set up camp and walked around the river and the trail a bit.  OH and since we were in a campground we could have fires!  YAY!!  SMORE'S!! (I won't be able to have these for awhile so I was pretty happy!)  Saturday we wanted to go fishing but because we had driven so far the day before we needed to get gas.  According to our GPS it was only 17 miles to the closest station.  We started that way and kept going and going and going.  We ended up on this dirt road and the GPS kept reconverting to an even further point.  The drive was absolutely beautiful!  We ended up in Walden.  Ya I have never heard of it either.  Filled up on gas and took the highway back that we should have taken.  On our way back we stopped at the Moose Visitor Center.  They have a big board in there that all the rangers write on saying the last place they saw moose and what time.  Kind of cool I thought.  Although you don't really need to look at it. We learned that the area we were in is known as Moose capital of Colorado.  On our way to the lake to fish we saw a bunch of cars stopping.  MOOSE, AGAIN!  There were 3 this time.  They were in this area that had a bunch of hiking trails.  All 3 were down in this meadow below the trails.  So Gary and I thought we would go up behind them on the trails so I could get some pictures.  We walked back in but couldn't get any good shots and didn't see any of them.  On our way back though at one point I looked to my left and not maybe 30 feet away is one of the moose.  I got a few shots and he looked up but then started charging at us!  AHHHH!  Gary took off on the trail back and I just ran for the closest trees behind me.  He went right past me and of course I'm trying to snap shots as he is doing so!  I felt safe where I was at.  The shots were a bit blurry due to my shaking hands, and I couldn't stop laughing(that's what I do when I'm nervous), and trying to hold my bladder!  I seriously almost pee'd my pants!  LOVED IT!  I would do this all over again!

Needless to say we didn't get much fishing in.  We stopped at a little lake and there were way to many flies for me so I wanted to just pack it up and go back to camp!  We enjoyed a nice steak dinner back at camp and then went on a little hike.  After the hike it started sprinkling a little bit.  So we put up a tarp between the trees and took cover next to the fire!  It was nice and warm and cozy!

Sunday - RAIN.  We woke up to it, we had to pack up in it, and we had to drive home in it.  BUT, I didn't care.  We just had such a nice weekend and it was so pretty up there.  The only thing  missing was Brayden.  So we are going back to the same place in a couple weekends and bringing our boy with us this time!!  I hope we have the same luck with seeing all the moose!

Sisters Baby Shower

Last Saturday we finally celebrated my sisters baby shower!  I have been looking forward to it since my sister first told us she was pregnant!  My mom and I had a so much fun planning it!  We had lots of help getting it together and making the final day so beautiful!  Thank you to everyone who helped set up, clean up, and take home!  It was so much fun and SO HOT!  We had turned on the swamp cooler to the clubhouse but "someone"(my mom) forgot to turn on the air conditioner too!  We were all melting, but still had a great time!  I am so so excited for my sister and Rick.  This is something my sister has wanted since before I can even remember.  This is a dream come true for her.  I'm just so happy for her and for our family too!  We get to have another baby in our fam!  Yay!!  She has picked out a beautiful name, Madalynn Nicole Mott.  And I just love her so much already!

Here are the pics from the shower and some maternity pics I took of her also!

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Our trip back "home"

A few weeks before South Dakota we got to go visit my dad and Lynn.  We always enjoy it there and truly is just our "other home".  We wish we could be with them more often!  We had a wonderful trip out there!  We went to Brookfield Zoo and they were having a Dino exhibit.  We also went to our usuals, Portillos and Salernos.  We took a drive up to Lake Geneva.  It was so beautiful.  My dad wanted to take us to this chicken place for dinner. They are known for the broasted chicken.  He was right, it was delish!  We had a great time and did some relaxing too!  We can't wait to see them again in July when they come out for my sisters baby shower!

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South Dakota

We had such a great time on our vacation this summer!  My mom and Jerry joined us and we rented a mini van and took off for Mount Rushmore!  Absolutely one of the coolest things I have ever seen!  And it's just beautiful country up there anyway!

We drove through Custer State Park, which had lots of beautiful scenery and some tight squeezin tunnels!  Our first night in town we went to the sunset memorial at Mt. Rushmore.  They did a little tribute, played a film and then as they sang the song America the Beautiful you slowly saw the Memorial being lit up!  It was very beautiful and of course I cried.  Like I always do!

We had a lot on our schedule the next day!  We went back up to Mount Rushmore for more pictures during the day.  We then stopped at Bear Country USA.  It is very cool.  You stay in your car as all the animals are out in the open and you drive through the park.  They have Elk, Reindeer, Mountain goats, Longhorn sheep, BEARS, Wolves, Mountain lions, and some buffalo.  It was very cool to just be driving along and bears walk right past your car and wolves are sniffing bumpers.  Brayden was loving every minute.  My mom made fun of me because I would only roll down the window an inch at a time to try and get pictures.  I was so afraid one would pop right up in my face as I was taking a picture. LOL  At the end they had a few animals and baby bears you could get out and look at.  The babies were adorable!

After Bear country we headed over to Reptile Gardens.  This of course was lots and lots of snakes, crocodiles, alligators, birds, and turtles.  It was fun to see how freaked out my mom and husband were.  We got to pet snakes and a baby croc!

That night we had dinner and headed back to the hotel for a relaxing night of swimming!

The next day we headed out to see the Badlands.  It was an area known for fossils and crazy rock formations coming up out of the land.  It was pretty cool.  We also stopped at this place called Wall drug.  It is this little tourist "trap".  It was a cute little stop.  They had lots of little shops and some random things for the kids to see.  Like a huge Jackelope and TRex.

After we got back to Rapid we stopped at a cute little park called Storybook Island.  It was this huge FREE fantasy theme park for kids.  Lots of things to climb on, run thru, and play on.  All having to due with nursery rhythms or disney characters.   Great place for kids to run off some steam!  I actually wish we had more time here!

We then headed over to Old MacDonalds Petting Farm.  They had a pig races, Pony rides, and a train.  You could pet every animal and feed some too!  It was great and perfect to enjoy for a couple of hours.

We were wiped out that night and just got dinner and headed back to hotel.

Monday we stopped at Dinosaur Park on our way out of Rapid.  Totally random place but Brayden loves his dinosaurs and loved this.  They were life size and OLD.  Could use a little upkeep but hey it was free!  W

We then began our drive home.  Back through Custer but a little different route.  We took the wildlife highway this time and got to see quite a bit of deer, buffalo, and antelope.  We stopped in Custer at the Flintstones Bedrock City.  Again, totally random, but totally cute.  And it got Brayden out of the car for our long ride home.  He had lots of fun even though he has never seen the cartoon.  It brought back lots of memories for me though!

We made it home by about 10:30 that night.  It was a fun trip and I never knew there was so much to do in South Dakota.  Definitely a kid friendly vacation and a place we will totally visit again!  Cheap and close to home!  Totally doable!

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Winter fun!

We have been pretty busy doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that this winter!  Brayden has tried some new things and is a pretty adventurous little boy!  Love it!  I think the only thing he won't venture out in is Potty Training!  Not only is he adventurous but he is very stubborn also!

We have done a lot this winter and kept ourselves pretty busy!  Brayden has been enjoying his sport class at the rec center!  I think he knows how do soccer easily but would rather play basketball because he wants to use his hands!  He is doing well at both!  They just had their last day and did a field day of relay racing and tug-o-war.  The kids had lots of fun!  I just actually signed him back up for the next session since he enjoyed it so much!

We also have been finally having some snow.  Not that it sticks around long but long enough that Brayden and I were able to meet up with my sister-n-law and niece to go sledding.  Last year Brayden was a little freaked out and wouldn't go down by himself. This year he was all in!  I had to fight him to let Ravyn go with him or me!  He wanted to do it all by himself.  And he thought it was so cool to lay head first on his stomach and go down!  He liked to hit the little snow ramps too.  Love my brave kiddo!

Roller skating... well maybe the 5th time trying is a charm.  We have gone to the pixie class a few times and he just can't get the coordination down for this.  He never wants to go out into the rink.  He would rather play skee ball!  So we had Gary's uncles Birthday party there last weekend and he actually gave it a go again.  Tho he didn't last long he still tried it and went around a few times.  He used the plastic skates this time that go over your shoes and the handle bar on wheels to hold in front of you.  That all totally helped.  But still not his favorite thing to do. He did win at Limbo tho!  Probably because he was one of the shortest and smallest kids out there!

For one of our family nights we went bowling! After a few times of daddy and I  showing him what to do, Brayden didn't want any help doing this either.  He carried his own ball and would shove it down the alley.  It was so fun!  He got to use the bumpers and therefore got a much better score than me!

We are definitely ready for spring!  Yesterday was so nice out that we played outside for awhile in the afternoon.  I am looking forward to swimming and playing at the park as I'm sure Brayden is too!

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Weight Loss Journey

If you would like to follow me on my journey of becoming healthy!  Here's my other blog!

http://www.shandrasdoordiejourney.blogspot.com/

Sports!

I love sports! I always played in sports when I was younger (before high school). But even in high school I played in my churches youth group sports. I think it's so good for kids to be involved in sports! So for one of Brayden's birthday gifts this year his Aunt Jacque offered to pay for him to take a multi sports class at the rec center. He was so excited! Today was his first day! He ate it up! LOVED IT! And I love how attentive he his whenever he is learning something new! In this class they are supposed to learn how to play soccer and basketball. Today was soccer! He did really well!

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Oh my, lots of pics!

I can't believe today is the first of Feb! Jan zoomed on by, we have been so busy and I think we have done something every weekend this month! We celebrated Brayden's 3rd birthday! Can you believe it??? My baby boy is 3 years old! He has changed so much this past year. He was hardly talking at 2 years old and now I can't get him to stop. But I love it!!! He is taking swim lessons right now and loves it! He almost gets private lessons because the other kid in his class never shows up! He is doing really good. He really pays attention to his teacher and does everything she asks him to. Except for jumping in the water. He sort of just falls in slowly but makes sure his face does not go under water. He is not quite ready for that yet! Next week he starts his first sports "team". It's a multi sports class for 3-5 year old's at the rec center. He will get to learn how to play soccer and basketball. I'm excited to see how he does and if he likes it. Brayden is wanting to be such a big boy now. We bought a stool from the store for him and he carry's it all through the house telling me he can "get things". He loves to get his own toothbrush and toothpaste down from the medicine cabinet and do it all on his own. He also likes to make popcorn in the microwave. And he takes after his daddy when it comes to setting our alarm on the house before we go anywhere. If it's just him and I he always reminds me that I need to set it before we leave. He is a good kid. Actually he is a great kid. Now that's not to say that he doesn't have his tantrums, because, yep, he sure does. So bad the other day it made me cry more than he did I think. Crazy what emotions your children can bring out in you. OH AND... wait for it... Brayden went pee pee on the big boy potty today!!!! YAY!!!! It's in the works right now. Last week I went to the mall with a friend and Brayden always loves to go into the Disney Store. He found this Jake and the Neverland Pirate Ship that he LOVES!!! That's all he talks about! So I am kind of using it as my bribe (whatever works is totally my theory on this!!!) to get him to go on the potty! Tonight we made him a treasure map and hung it in the bathroom. So he can see what he working toward. Every time he goes we add a sticker to his trail on the map. We will see how it goes! We went to the Stock Show 2 weeks ago. Brayden is finally old enough now that he really enjoyed it this year. He loves farm animals but I think had the most fun riding the pony and making his own rope(which he uses every day to capture me or daddy or his rocking horse in his room). We also went to the rodeo and he thought it was so cool to see all the cowboys on the bulls and horses. We went with a big group this year of family and friends! YeeHaw! Brayden and Dolly He would not let go of his rope! We had a fun little birthday party for Brayden this year. We did a pancake and pajamas birthday party. I swear my kid will eat pancakes for every meal if you let him. And sometimes I do just because I know then he is at least eating something! Anyway, we had a good time! Most everyone came in their pajamas and we made some yummy breakfast. I had bought pillowcases for all the kids to color and decorate and my mom made yummy cupcakes. Brayden enjoyed all his gifts but he loves more just having friends and cousins to run around with! Thanks mom for the yummy cupcakes! May all your wishes come true my baby boy! So much excitement at the start of this new year and now... my sister is EXPECTING!!! SO SO HAPPY!!! Brayden will be getting another cousin!!! We are all just so excited and so happy! I can't wait!!!