Visit to NY

We went to visit Greg's relatives in upstate NY last week. We drove straight through to Ithaca, NY on Wednesday (normally a 10 hour drive). It ended up taking us about 11 hours and Brayden was not happy for 10 1/2 hours of the trip!! OK...that may be stretching it a bit, but he did not enjoy the ride up one bit. He had a little cold and didn't take good naps, so I'm sure that played a big part in our terrible drive. We played in the snow and went sledding on Thursday and then rung in the New Year with Greg's brother & his family (Skip, Bernadette & Luciana). On Friday we drove even further north to Greg's hometown of Oswego, NY to visit more family. It snowed nonstop from the time we got there and it was still coming down hard when we left on Sunday morning. It was so pretty to see, but I definitely could not live in it! We really enjoyed visiting all of our northern relatives who we don't get to see very often. Brayden got in some good bonding time with his cousin Luciana, who was a very big helper in "reading" to Brayden, changing his diaper and giving him a bath! Brayden was feeling much better and more rested when we left on Sunday, so we were able to drive back in one day without having to stop for the night halfway like we were planning to. He was such a trooper for the ride! He is worn out from our travels today though....as I am typing this is he is working on his third hour of a nap! Below are a few pictures from our trip. Reading with Luciana Ready to play in the snow (with some pink boots from Luciana) Sledding

Our attempt to make a snow angel...Brayden wasn't very happy

Christmas

Christmas was so much fun for us this year. At the Christmas Eve service at our church, we played Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus and Brayden did surprisingly well. I had expected him to run wild, but he sat still for the most part (thanks to some graham crackers...they are his favorite snack and we rely on them quite frequently to get through things!)

Santa was very good to Brayden and brought him some new clothes, books, a work bench and most importantly a Cozy Coupe car. Brayden absolutely LOVES the car. Once he saw it, he pretty much crawled right inside and stayed there most of the morning. He wouldn't get out to play with any of his other new toys for awhile or to look in his stocking. Santa picked out the perfect gift for him!

Brayden's new ride

Looking in his stocking

Taking a milk break

Finally paying attention to his other new toys

We ate lunch and spent the afternoon at my parents house with my brother & sister and their families. The children were very excited to open presents, so after lunch it was pretty much chaos as they went from present to present. I think Brayden was a little over stimulated at one point and had a little breakdown, but a graham cracker helped to get him back into it. In the end, my parents living room was covered in paper, bows and boxes. Brayden got so many new fun toys from everyone, but as soon as we got home, he went straight to the car again! The novelty hasn't even worn off today, as he spent most of the morning crawling in and out of it.

Lunch time

All the cousins playing in Caroline's new play house

Opening presents

Breakfast with Santa

We had Breakfast with Santa last Saturday at our church. Brayden wasn't too sure about Santa. He did sit in his lap for about 10 seconds, but then Brayden started whining and reaching for me to come get him. We were able to get a picture of him sitting in Santa's lap, and then one with the whole family.

We haven't posted anything about Callie lately, but she is getting into the Christmas spirit too. Below is a picture of her all dressed up!

A Good Laugh

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Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree last Sunday. Brayden actually hasn't been too bad with it...we were worried he would pull all the ornaments off or pull down the tree on himself within the first day. So far no problems though. He likes to look at all the ornaments and lights and every now and then he'll try to grab one. Of course, his favorites are the shiny red glass balls! I put a few wrapped presents under the tree today for the first time. He hasn't even noticed them yet...hopefully it stays that way! Below are a few pictures of him checking out our tree.

Walking

Brayden took his first steps about three weeks ago. And although his main mode of movement is still crawling, he is getting better and better at walking as each day passes. He is now up to several steps at a time. He mostly walks back and forth between mommy and daddy when we encourage him to, but I have caught him daring to walk on his own from the coffee table to his toys a few times this week. We are definitely not trying to push the walking thing too fast....we chase him around the house plenty just with the crawling! It is fun to watch him as he learns how to walk though. He gets so tickled with himself when he reaches his goal, and he even chuckles a bit when he stumbles and falls. Here is a little video of him in action tonight.

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And here is another video of him taken one day last week. I was trying to catch him walking, but he decided to pull up his shirt to find his belly button instead (one of his favorite things to do now, along with finding mommy's, daddy's or anyone else's that is around). I thought it was pretty cute!

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First Haircut

Brayden got his first haircut today. His hair was getting really long in the back and around his ears, so I took him in for a little trim. He did such a good job. Tiffany (my hairstylist & one of my best friends) gave Brayden a sucker to occupy him while she did her thing. It worked because he sat very still the whole time. I made sure to save a few locks of hair to put in his baby book!