It's "boy-hawk" time!!!!

I have been waiting so long for this!!! Finally Brax has enough hair for me to give him little mowhawk!! I just snapped with my little point anf shoot so Ihope you can see it well enough!!! Once it grows in a little more I will trim it up! :)

Our first family walk!

Now that the weather is starting to warm up w were able to take Brax on his first walk! (thanks for the hat, Jack ... and the snowsuit thing, Easton!). There is a cool pond by our house so we took him down there! He has HATED the front pack since he was born, so I finally felt like he was big enough to turn him around and that I think did the trick! I don't think he wanted to look at my collar bone! Can you blame him?!?! He had a great time looking at the ducks in the water!

Is this the cutest boy in the world or what?!?!?!

Bouncie Chair Olympics! Brax got Gold!!!!

Who says you only get to wear it once?!?

So, I was putting away some of Braxton's clothes in his closet and I came across a big white bag .... so naturally. I asked Brax, "Do you want to see Mommy in her wedding dress?" and I took his smile and drool to mean yes. I ate lunch in it and even changed Braxton's diaper in it! By the end if the day I packed it back up until the next time it catches my eye..... :)

What a baby SHOULD look like :)

So here is what a new baby should look like! Emma is only 6 weeks younger than Braxton and HALF the size! Brax is going to take her for a ride on his big green tractor in a few years :)

Braxton's new girlfriend, Emma!

Our good friends, Matt and Wendi, came home from DC for a long weekend, so I -- of course -- took pictures of Braxton's girlfriend, Emma! She's only 5 weeks younger than Brax! For those of you who know Abbey, you can probably tell these girls are sisters. Emma is almost a spitting image of Abbey from when she was born! Makes me wonder if we have another boy if I'll get another cutie patoootie like my Braxamus Maximus!

Check out him in his overalls! He's channeling a choo choo train conductor :)

To my 3 month old....

Braxton:

I just wanted to say how much I love you! I cannot believe how much my love for you has grown over the past three months. It's hard to describe even the way I feel about you! You have made me realize that while I was so happy before you --- you have completed a part of my life I didn't even know I was missing! Since my last post to you, here are even more things I love about you:
• the way you make Dinosaur noises
• when I look at you and give you a big smile, you smile back and stick your tounge out!
• how you sleep with both your arms above your head like a "touchdown" position
• how your eyes get sleepy as soon as I start to sing your bedtime song
• how you hold my fingers with your hands when you're nursing
• how I felt when you laughed for the first time last week when I was singing you a song
• how you love the "stand up/sit down" game
• the way you grab your toes during naked jaybird time
• the way you always fart in your bathtub :)
• the way you cuddle with me in the morning after your breakfast
• and the way you stretch and your legs so super straight, feet point up, and your neck disappears!
• how you have my skin :)
• and how you melt my heart when I watch you sleep each night

I love you more than I could ever ever tell you. I was telling my friend just the other day that I don't even know if it's possible for me to love another child as much as him! I was scared to have another one! But she assured me that as soon as the next one's born, the love just continues.

A year ago today I was pregnant with you and didn't even know. You were our little secret baby who was just meant to be here! And I'm so happy you chose us to be your Mommy and Daddy!

You have made my life enormously better and I love you more every day we spend together!

You're mine and Daddy's best friend :) We love you, Baby Balooga!

V-Day!

I did one of Southridge's coaches a favor and took a team pic for a program booklet...while we were there I found a HS collage of Senior athletes that had my charming hubby circa 2000! See below! And while I was waiting I had to get some pics of the cutest boy in the world!

Southridge HS also does advertising for me so I took a picture of the banner with my logo on it! They kind of stretched it weird, but oh well ... not much I can do about it now!

And also in the mix is a pic from Blake and I last night on date night! We went to a great dinner at Monoroso's (cool old dinner train!) then to the movie Valentines Day, then to get ice cream, then home! He surprised me with beautiful roses and my favorite chocolate covered strawberries and even a card written by my 3-month old himself :)

Love you baby! Happy Valentines Day to my two favorite boys!!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

So, did you all think I fell off a cliff? Well, I didn't! I have been horrible at posting and normally I am really good! Somehow these last two weeks have been super busy! We had our friends Pete and Julie come into town: (check my photog blog for their engagement pics! http://www.brittneyklusephotography.com/blog) and that was so fun and then I've been busy with shoots and hanging out with my favorite little boy in the world!

Below is a pic I got today of him smiling! Just the other day he gave his first laugh! It is seriously the sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeetest sound in the world! He's only done it another handful of times, but more laughs are surely on the way! I just can't wait for the next one! Ohhh I just love him so much!!!

In cool news for me (I shared this on my photog blog, but forgot to on this one!). I was recently asked by one of our area hospitals (Kennewick General Hopsital) to be one of two exclusive photographers to provide photos for their Birth Center!!! And the Children's Hospital Harvest Ball Committee (their largest fund raising event) have asked me to take the photos for this year's program! Wahoooooooo! That will be great exposure because it is sent to 1500 Tri-Citians!!

That's all on this front! For Vday my hubby has a cool Saturday evening planned so I'll take pics and post! Nana and Papa (my folks) are going to take Braxton so we get a date night and they get 3's company :)

Mr. Rashy-Rasherson

Since inquiring minds want to know! Here are pics of Mr. Brax's rash. It looks tons better now thanks to time and modern medicine :)

Also, had to include a pic of what happens every day when Daddy gets home from work. He gives me a kiss, grabs his boy, and they sit and watch the NBA. Brax actually stares pretty intently at the screen! I think we have a basketball player on our hands!!!

I've been bad ..........

Sorry I have not done a post in what feels like forever! It's been a long week. As you know, Braxton had that double ear infection ... the Dr. gave us amoxicillian to treat it. He was on it for 10 days and did great! He never had a problem taking the medicine or anything! His ear infection symptoms cleared up almost over night!

Well, Sunday was the last day of his dose. We noticed he wasn't himself that day. Pretty lethargic and not really interested in eating. We took his temp, and sure enough he had a fever. Some infant Tylenol did the trick and brought it down. But Monday we were in for a rude awakening ... an awful rash all over his body!

The hard thing was, it looked different on different parts of his body! Here we go again with skin issues ... so the next day I took him to the Pediatrician and Dermatologist and what they think he has is a 3-fold rash going on! 1) possible allergic reaction to amoxicillian causing one part of the rash, 2) a viral exanthem rash and 3) another excema outbreak. Good lord. So, off to the pharmacy I went again!

The meds are helping some, but he's still pretty rashy and is off schedule (harder on Mommy than him cause I thought I JUST got that figured out!!). Any way, we have our friends, Pete and Julie (WHO FOR THE RECORD, BLAKE, I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SETTING UP!), coming into town from AZ to meet Brax! So we are looking forward to a great weekend with them and I'll have lots of pictures to post by Sunday!

Braxton - 3 months

You have got to be kidding me ... in a week I will have a 3 month old?!?!?! Where is the time going? How do I get it to slow down! He is down for a nap right now and I am listening to him through the baby monitor make those same "honking" sounds the day he was born. He's our little goose! My little baby is growing up so fast right before my eyes. Now that he is sleeping in his own room I find myself going in there 5, 6, 10 times before I go to bed to just watch him sleep knowing that these are precious moments that I want to remember forever.

We love you Braxamus Maximus! - Mommy & Daddy

Updates on Braxton!

Sorry I haven't had any posts lately, it was a BUSY last two weeks! Blake had to travel back to the east coast for work so I was busy busy busy with Mr. Braxton! While Blake was gone, Brax developed a viral infection and a DOUBLE ear infection, so I had a sick, sad little boy on my hands who needed some TLC from Mommy!

We got him on some meds and now he is back to my HAPPY HEALTHY baby boy! The day he started feeling better I was even able to teach him how to blog "raspberries" ... see the video below! Now he does it all the time! He is so smiley and I just love this stage!

Also, in GREAT news, I am following the BabyWise schedule and he is rockin' at it! In a 3-day period he went from really being on no schedule to a really set eat, play, nap schedule and after following that for only two days he slept through the entire night (8.5 hours!). That book is MAGIC. I can't wait to share with others. I don't even have to rock him to sleep anymore, I just lay him down, say nighty-night (for nap or sleep) and within about 10 minutes he puts himself to sleep! No crying anymore either! I swear by this book now!!!!!!!!!!

2 1/2 months and growing strong!

How is it that my little boy is already two and a half months?! I quickly made the B&W collage below to show you one of his newborn, 1st month, and 2nd month pictures. I can't believe how much he is changing looking at that! Being a Mommy is really the best thing in the entire world. Each day it gets better and better and it feels differently than it did from the day I had him. I am so connected to him and it's getting harder for me to remember what life was like without him. I love my little balooga soooooooooooooo much and we miss our Daddy right now! We can't wait to see him on Wednesday and have lots of cuddle time! Love you, Daddy!

My new photog blog :)

In fun news [I need some with my sick baby :( ...], I have a new photography blog! If you haven't gone out there already, check it out!

www.brittneyklusephotography.com/blog

Our sick little boy :(

Urrrgh - it breaks my heart that Braxton has his first full-on bad cold :(. He has been waking up in the middle of the night screaming and crying so hard and I had no idea what was wrong and could only comfort him for 10-15 minute periods of time (and of course this is happening when Blake is on the east coast for work!). So I took him to his Pediatrician today and he said sure enough, it's a bad cold and time is the only thing to make it better. We are glad it isn't an ear or sinus infection, but it's bad enough! He is so lathargic and not his normal smiley self, so it is even more sad! I think I just held him for an hour and a half tonight after he was done with his last feeding just so we could cuddle more. I didn't want to put him down! I could hold him all night .... I just want him to get well!!

We miss you, Daddy. Love Braxy and Mommy

The hardest day ever ...... :(

Oh my gosh, the hardest day of my life was Wednesday, December 28th. That was the day my little boy spent the first night in his crib in his own room. It absolutely broke my heart and I had no idea it would be that hard. Now that he is 8 weeks, we were encouraged from our Pediatrician that now was a good time to make the transition into his own room so he can learn good sleeping habits and can work on putting himself to sleep. Sure, sounds logical right? No. If I had my way he would sleep in my room until he is 20! I loved having him in his pack and play right next to my bed where I can peek in on him at any time. And just to watch him for a bit if I wake up in the middle of the night.

We did his normal bedtime routine and then I put him in his bed and he went right to sleep. I kinda hoped he would cry and scream as if to say, "no mommy, I'm not ready for this. Take me with you." ... but he didn't. He went right to bed and looked as peaceful as ever. And I just sat over his crib and looked at him and bawled my eyes out. Blake had to come in and escort me out of the room then cuddled with Mommy to make her feel better as I cried. I don't think I have ever been up as much! Every single noise I heard I raced into his room to see what it was. And sure enough, he was sleeping peacefully as the last time I raced in there. I still like to nap with him (see 2 pics Blake snapped of us below) and I am sad that our time together in my room is gone ... it all went too fast and it breaks my heart. I may still need to have him in my room for a slumber party now and then ... that's ok right????

I love you baby Braxy....stop growing up so fast, Mommy needs you to be her baby awhile longer.

Drinking, Karaoke, and some more Karaoke

One of the nights with all the fam in town we headed out to a bar for some karaoke and good times ;) what resulted was mediocre singing and a lot of laughs! Our Bullie did his favorite "old time Rock and Roll" and Meghan and I rocked out to "save a horse ride a cowboy" ... and yes, that's a diaper bag I'm rocking as I'm Karaokeing. Whoop, there it is....

The Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

So I am catching up on posts and I realized I never posted pictures from our Ugly Sweater Christrmas Friends "Festivus" ... our annual friends holiday tradition :) My attire will definitly be the envy of some old school 2nd grade teachers across the country, and my husband is wearing a womens --- yes WOMEN'S MEDIUM --- christmas tree embrodiered number. Tyhe O'Malleys' kept it traditional, Colt's snowflake sweater had hanger marks on the sleeves from christmases past, and Katie's kittens playing with snow and yarn was a sure delight. Jake's mother's Christmas sweater was a throwback to the year he was born and he topped it off with some pink velvet pants. Devo's "snoman fall from heaven one flake at a time" was fitting, and Meg took the snowman theme to a new level. But none was greater than Mr. Mustache himself - Eric. Eric's slicked side-do, winnie the pooh Christmas vest. cream mock turtle neck and 1970's mustache won him the prize of best dressed! all in all we had another great time ending at 3am! Wahhooo, parents can rock too! :)

Christmas with the Kluses

Whew ... sorry it has been so long since my last post! Life has been hectic, but good hectic! All of Blake's family flew in to be with us for Braxton's first Christmas! It's been about a two week visit and we have been so happy for Braxton to get to spend this much time with his aunts, uncles, and cousins! His cousins love him and love to help me take care of him! They are always bringing me blankets, wipes, and diapers!

Here's a quick recap of the past week: Christmas was noisy and wonderful! We barely got a shot of all the kids in their Christmas outfits looking ... but at these ages, we'll take what we can get (fyi: Brady (4), Jodi (2), Cami (2), Carli (7 months), and Braxton (2 months). Then the 26th we had Braxton baptised! We asked Nicole (Blake's sister) to be his Godmother, and my brother, Blake, to be his Godfather. It was a beautiful service and I bawled like a baby. We all had a one-big-family night with the Kluses over at my folks' house which was so fun and resulted in a lot of "celebration" shots :) .... If you know the Kluses you know that sports follow them where they go, so we had to get a basketball gamed lined up! And my sisters-in-law know how to use connections and I took family pictures for each of them. Grandma told us all of our wedding photos are getting 86-ed and we needed to get replacements with family pics .... that's where I come in!

Everything was wonderful and we feel more blessed this year than any before! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tummy Time!

Braxton is actually really good at tummy time and doesn't seem to mind it! We do about 15 minutes a day and he moves his head back and forth. Sometimes he gets tired and just lays there but for the most part he wants to/tries to look around!

Braxton smiling and riding his Harley

When Braxton is in his bouncy chair he always puts his arms out and Blake and I call it "riding his Harley" cause it looks like he's hanging on to the handle bars of a hog!!! :) I finally got him on camera smiling and talking to Mommy! He is such a happy baby!! I love him to pieces!!!!!!!!

7 weeks!

It's hard to believe tomorrow, Brax will be 7 weeks old!!! My baby is getting so big! Here are a few pics I snapped of him this morning after changing his diaper :). In updated news, we found out the rash thing on his face wasn't baby acne but instead infant eczema. I think I was more upset than anything. It's hard being a first time Mom and you just want everything to be perfect, so when something like this comes along it really got to me. We talked to the Dr and he told us to use some hydrocortisone cream for a week along with Eucerin lotion and that should hopefully zap it. I just have to be dilligent now about staying on top of him with creams to avoid it coming back worse. Right now it's just on his face and a little on his chest. If anyone has advice or a child with it, let me know what you have found to be successful/helpful!

He is doing such a good job holding his head up and he seems to like tummy time ok too! We took a long nap together today which was GREAT since it was cold and yucky outside. We were cozy and snuggly inside!