Christmas

We have enjoyed a wonderful day with family today celebrating Christmas.  Brayden woke up to find that Santa had come to visit him last night.  He wasn't overly excited this morning...I think he was just in awe of all the new toys!  After opening presents at home, we went to see what Santa brought Madeline, Lydia and Margo and eat breakfast with them.  We all went to my parents house for lunch, followed by more presents.  The kids were all so excited to get their gifts!  Brayden got so many new toys today, he spent the afternoon going from one to the other.  Greg's favorite is a hockey net and sticks that Santa brought....he and Brayden played with that for awhile tonight (of course, Brayden was all decked out in his new Hurricanes jersey from Grammy & Grampa for that)  We were planning to go to Wilmington tomorrow to visit with Catherine, Travis, Caroline and Avery, but our area is suppose to get several inches of snow, so that trip will probably be postponed.  It will be fun to have a snow day....looking forward to see what Brayden thinks of it. 

Christmas Festivities

We have been enjoying the holiday season so far and all of the many events there are.  Greg and I are especially enjoying Brayden this holiday season, as he gets so excited over everything.  We decorated our tree and the house a few weekends ago, and Brayden was more than eager to "help".  For the first week the decorations were up, he loved to play with everything and show anyone who came in the house EVERY decoration.  His favorite is definitely the Christmas tree!  He played with all of the ornaments on the bottom half and rearranged them several times, but I think he is finally done with that...thank goodness!  Now he likes to look at the wrapped presents under the tree, and he knows who each one is for.  He's only tried to open them a few times  : )

We went to the Smithfield Christmas parade this past Thursday night.  It was COLD!!  We bundled ourselves up though and had a great time.  Brayden waved to nearly every person that went by and kept asking for more after a float would go by.  He really enjoyed the clowns and go cart racers alot, but I think his favorite part was seeing his friend Bo go by on his own mom's Smitfield Dance Academy float!  Brayden talked about that for quite a while.

We ate breakfast with Santa at our church yesterday morning.  Greg and I have been talking to Brayden a lot about Santa Claus, but we weren't sure how he would actually react to seeing him in person.  Brayden watched the other kids go up to him for a bit (while clinging onto me).  When I asked him if he wanted to go up and sit in Santa's lap, Brayden ran right up to him and climbed up.  I was so surpised!  You can't tell by these pictures, but he really liked sitting in Santa's lap.  He kept wanting to go up, but every time he did, Brayden would freeze up and not talk, smile, etc.  He must have gone up to him about five different times though before I had to pull him away. 

We have more Christmas festivities to go to this week.  Time is really flying by....Christmas day will be here in no time!

Thanksgiving

We spent most of the long holiday weekend at Greg's parents' house with his brother, sister in law and niece who came down from NY. Brayden really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with his "Mimi" (Grammy), "Bawpaw" (Grampa) and cousin "Nana"(Luciana), as well as Uncle Skip and "Titi" Bernadette. We started Thursday morning playing outstide in the leaves and then the 1st annual Parr family backyard football game was held. I observed from the sidelines, and trust me when I say it was pretty entertaining to watch!

Greg, Brayden and I ate Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's side of the family, so Brayden got to spend some time with his other girls too, Madeline, Lydia and "Gar-go"!  

After lunch, we went back to the Parr's for Thanksgiving dinner.  After two big meals in one day, we were definitely stuffed...everything was so delicious!  After dinner, Brayden and Luciana burned off a few calories by dancing to the jukebox (Brayden was a little camera shy and wouldn't do his moves while I was recording):

We had a great day spending time with both of our families, and reflecting on and giving thanks for the many blessings in our lives. We plan to round up our weekend tomorrow by going to Wilmington to visit with Catherine, Travis, Caroline and hopefully baby Avery in the NICU.  Avery is one of the many people we are so thankful to have in our lives this year!  She is such a little fighter, who has made slow, but steady progress in her first few weeks.  We pray that only continues in the weeks and months ahead!

Halloween Fun

We had lots of fun Halloween activities last week.  Our church had its annual fall festival on Wednesday with lots of moon bounces, face painting, cakewalk, kids games, etc.  Most of the children dressed up, but Brayden wanted to take his costume off less than 5 minutes after we put it on.  The festival ended with trunk or treating....Mommy did most of the trunk or treating for Brayden because he was not too into it.  However, when we got home he walked around the house with his pumpkin bag full of candy saying "Trick or Treat" for the rest of the night!

Brayden had a party at MMO on Thursday morning.  Again, all of the other kids were dressed up except for Brayden.  He really enjoyed eating the party treats, especially the cupcake!  He LOVES cake (most have gotten that from me!)  I was finally able to put his costume on for the last 10 minutes of the party.

Smithfield did trick or treating on Saturday night.  To my surprise, Brayden actually wore his costume the whole night without complaining.  We took him to a few neighbor's houses and he knew just what to do this time.  Then we came home and handed out candy to LOTS of trick or treaters.  Our neighborhood must be the place to go in Smithfield for trick or treating!  Brayden enjoyed watching all the kids come and go, and he even started handing out candy for us.  He would stand on the sidewalk yelling "suckers" trying to get more kids to come....it was pretty cute!

 

On another note, my niece Avery was born Saturday morning at only 26 weeks by emergency c-section.  Please keep both Avery and my sister, Catherine, in your thoughts and prayers!

Hill Ridge Farms

We recently went to Hill Ridge Farms in Youngsville for a fun family outing.  It was our first time going and we really enjoyed it!  Brayden's favorite thing was the train...he did not want to get off and cried when our turn was over.  We also got to play in the haystacks, go down an 80 ft slide, see lots of farm animals, and go on a hayride.  We ended the day at the pumpkin patch, where we each picked out a pumpkin to take home.  We had a great time and we will definitely go again next year.  Here are a few pictures:

  

Gone But Not Forgotten

 

This is a few weeks late, but I wanted to pay tribute to Greg's grandfather who passed away on October 1st after a very sudden and brief illness.  In the twelve years Greg and I have been together, I've grown to love Greg's grandparents as if they were my own.  Grampa Sharkey was such a sweet and easy going man who was always smiling and in a good mood.  We didn't get to see him very often since we are in NC and Greg's family is in NY, but we enjoyed our visits with him very much.  The picture above was taken the last time we saw him this past July and the picture below was taken in July 2009 of him with Brayden, the youngest of his 8 great grandchildren.

We have some wonderful memories of times spent with Grampa Sharkey that will always be treasured.  It's hard to believe he is not with us anymore...we will miss him so much!    Less than a week before he passed away, there was a large family dinner party to celebrate Greg's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.  Greg & I couldn't go, but Greg did speak to him by phone.  We are so happy that most of the family was together at such a joyous occasion with Grampa Sharkey one last time.  The poem below was read at his funeral:

God saw you getting tired
and a cure was not meant to be,

So he put his arms around you

and whispered "Come to Me".

With tearful eyes we watched you,

as we saw you pass away.

Although we loved you deeply,

we could not make you stay.

Your Golden Heart stopped beating,

hard working hands at rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us,

He only takes the best.

Brayden is 2!

Brayden is 2 years old today!  Where has the time gone?

 October 13, 2008

October 13, 2009

 October 13, 2010

We have done lots of celebrating for his birthday.  On Sunday, we had a birthday party at the park with all of his friends.  It was a beautiful day, although it felt more like summer than fall!  Brayden really enoyed the party, especially the cake that Grammy made for him.  He definitely has a sweet tooth!  He wasn't as into opening presents as I had thought he would be....he would want to play with whatever toy he opened and not move on to the next present!  Here are a few pictures from the party: 

We also celebrated his birthday at school on Tuesday.  He got to eat more cake and snacks with his MMO pals.

We are going to celebrate once again tonight with cake and presents.  It's hard to believe that my baby boy is 2 years old already.  It really has flown by quick!

Happy Birthday Brayden...We Love You!!