The day after...

Darren had to go back to work today and I will go back tomorrow. This morning for me was spent spending time with my babies. We had a great old time of playing and hanging out, each of them woke up at very different times this morning, they must be getting caught up from the long holiday weekend of not sticking to our schedules! I decided to take them to daycare just before noon since I had intended to do a little shopping with my mom and Trista. First Trista, Jason, my mom and I went to lunch! Then off to the mall and Fred Meyers we went. It wasn't too bad at all, it was very warm in the mall, I forget how stifling it can get, I haven't been there in ages! We got to the car and low and behold Trista realized she had left her purse at the last store, she ran in and I telephone them (they said they hadn't seen it!), just as my mom was about to retrace Trista's steps, she called to say it had been safely recovered! We were all very thankful! We hope everyone had some relaxing time over this weekend and we hope to get ourselves back to our schedules for the benefit of our kids and ourselves!

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Last night was a fun evening filled with lots of food & drinks, laughter and great company. We got home from my cousins house sometime after midnight. The boys had both been sleeping very soundly after 10:00pm...we extended bed time unknowingly! The festivities started at about 7pm and for once we were the first guests to arrive. I had made some peppermint bark (for my first time) it didn't look that appealing, but was very delicious! I didn't make it to bed until about 2:30am and for Darren is was closer to 4am. Sometime there After Santa stopped in to fill the stockings and leave a few gifts for the children. We had quite a later awakening than usual when we rolled out of bed at about 8:30am. Braeden and Brooklynd were so very ecstatic about the gifts Santa had left that I opened most of their stockings. They were very blessed by many, many people. They got toys, pajamas, and many other things. It was Brooklynds very 1st Christmas, he did very well, still hasn't mastered the art of tearing the paper, I am sure he will get much more practice at his first birthday in less than a month! After our family opening festivities we showered and headed over to my parents. We let all of the kids open their gifts first as Kody was ancy to play with some kids next door and Braeden & Brooklynd were both nearing nap time! This sped the gift opening process up tremendously I think it's a tradition we will keep up! After all the gift giving and receiving we were all pretty tuckered. We started dinner and hung out for a while! My uncle Kevin came over for dinner which was great! My mom, Braeden and my sisters headed over to spend a bit of time with my grandma whom had decided not to join us at my parents house then home we went! It was a great Christmas for us and our babies, we hope you all had a great one!

Happy Christmas Eve...

We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas Eve. Our weekend has been fairly quiet thus far, but we anticipate things picking up tomorrow. We have plans to go to my cousins house in Camas, WA we usually end up staying fairly late. Then Christmas morning we will open gifts here after Santa visits and then head over to my parents somewhere around noon time. We hope you all have a safe and Happy Christmas and Christmas Eve. Love to all!

Recipe & Christmas Fun Facts & more pics!

Holiday Breakfast Casserole Recipe:
Ingredients:
Butter for greasing pan
1 (12-ounce) package frozen hash-brown potatoes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1 cup diced ham
4 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
4 ounces Swiss or Jack cheese, shredded
1 (4-ounce) can diced green chilies
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon saltSalsa to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 10-inch pie pan with butter. To save time, hash browns can be baked evening before. Ham, cheeses and chilies can be placed on top and refrigerated overnight.1. In prepared pie pan, spread hash browns. Brush with melted butter and bake 25 minutes.2. Layer ham, cheeses and chilies on hash browns.3. Combine eggs, milk and salt. Pour over ham, cheese and chilies.4. Bake at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes.5. Place salsa on top before serving.

FUN CHRISTMAS TRIVIA

• There are 364 gifts in 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'
• 'The twelve days of Christmas' was started a long time ago in England because Catholics were not allowed to teach their children about their religion, so each of the verses was really a hidden way to teach about Jesus.
• Artificial Christmas trees have outsold real ones every year since 1991.
• Sugar Plums still exist, though not called that anymore. They are chocolate candies with fruit preserves, cream or other sweet filling in middle.
• The tradition of Christmas lights dates back to when Christians were persecuted for saying Mass. A simple candle in the window meant that Mass would be celebrated there that night.
• In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship. That may account for the custom of "kissing beneaththe mistletoe".
• In the Ukraine what does it mean if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas morning? Good Luck! There once lived a woman so poor, says a Ukrainian folk tale, that she could not afford Christmas decorations for her family. One Christmas morning, she awoke to find that spiders had trimmed her children's tree with their webs. When the morning sun shone on them, the webs turned to silver and gold. An artificial spider andweb are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees.
• Santa Claus was born in 280AD as Nicholas, he wore a red and white Bishop's robe.
• The first electric Christmas tree lights were telephone switchboard lights.
• In 1836, Alabama is the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

Latta/Lorenz Holiday Newsletter

Since ALL of the cards are finally out. I thought I'd include on here the jist of what was in our newsletter (which was included in most of the cards). Most of you have already received one, but if you haven't here is the overview... :-)

This year has been an eventful and busy one for our family. Starting with the birth of our second son Brooklynd in January. It was a big adjustment for us but one that we have thoroughly enjoyed. Braeden loved the new addition and mostly wondered what “it” was! Things have changed a lot since then. Now they interact
with each other so very much. Braeden has become a very helpful and loving big brother, and has only pushed him down a few times! Brooklynd is now almost 11 months old and Braeden is just over 2 years old, yes we are crazy!! We enjoy (most) every minute of it and are thankful for everything. Brooklynd is pulling
himself up and will be walking any time now, I cannot believe how big he’s getting it will be interesting to see which one dominates as they grow up. As you can probably imagine Braeden is a chatter box and can be as stubborn, (we aren’tsure exactly where he gets that), as the day is long, but thankfully he is an absolute doll and a very happy & loving child the majority of the time.
We are very lucky to have our baby boys and are thankful each day for it. As for Darren and I things are pretty much the same. Darren is working for Western Pacific delivering doors & windows to homes being built. He drives lots of miles in a day. This keeps him at work from 6am to 7pm on average, so he looks forward to starting the Sheet Metal Apprenticeship, hopefully in February or March! I am still working at MCAM doing clerical work, this year makes 7! I am also starting school in January, I am registered for 2 online classes and am looking forward to working towards a degree. I have also started selling Avon very recently and
look forward to the opportunities that will bring. For more detail on what our family is up to check out our blog throughout the year www.dtandbb.blogspot. com I try to keep it up to date for all the family out of the area and those of you whom we don’t see often enough. It helps me remember day to day as well!! Best
wishes to all of you for a happy holiday season & a prosperous & healthy 2007
With Love~ Darren, Trina, Braeden & Brooklynd!
Christmas Fun Fact: John Callcott Horsley, a British painter, designed the first Christmas and
New Year's card in 1840. It went on sale in 1843, when 1,000 cards were offered for $1 each.
Christmas Fun Fact:In Italy they have no Christmas trees, so instead they decorate small pyramid shaped wooden stands with fruit.

Not exact, but you get the idea!
Love to all of you near and far!

Silent Night, Jingle Bells, We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Tonight some friends of ours are doing their annual Christmas carolling in their local neighborhoood I believe. They sent out a letter inviting everyone this year and I was so excited because it was one of the things I had wanted to do this holiday season. I think I would like to go carolling because I can't sing alone..if I did the dogs would howl...so this gives me a great chance to belt out some songs without people having to hear me...Hahaha! Darren on the other hand has an amazing voice and let me tell you I hope my children end up with his vocal genes that is for sure! We aren't sure yet if we are going to make it to the carolling even tonight, but are looking forward to planning it in next year, now that we know someone who actually does it! I actually have missed out on a lot of the activities we had intended to do, I know this always happens and therefore am taking it as it comes. The ships have sailed out for the season, I hope to see the Christmas Ships next year. We have had pictures for Brooklynd this week, LOTS of wrapping for both Darren and I, shopping and with the regular house duties we have had a FULL week. We are both looking forward to some time of with the kids and the rest of my family. Ryan is in town as of last night, so I hope to see him soon and reintroduce him to the babies! We hope everyone has a great weekend and a very Merry Christmas!

Ladies Xmas Get Together

Just a photo from our Girls Night last weekend (courtesy of Jaime..thankyou! And Darren for taking it of course!) Our camera batteries were dead therefore we didn't get one...We had a great time and look forward to many more in the future. Love you ladies! Merry Christmas and Happy 2007 to you all!

Happy Holidays...Season Greetings...

Yay...all of my Christmas cards are done & all but one of my gifts are purchased. Now I am just getting to the final wrapping of presents already purchased and sending of our boys holiday pictures. I am happy to be caught up and on schedule I actually have had most of my cards done for sometime now it was mostly the ones whose addresses I wasn't sure of that weren't sent but almost all of those are sent as well I think I have exactly 2 waiting for verification!

We hope everyone is having a fulfilling and wonderful Holiday Season.

Love, hugs & kisses to all!

Holiday Happenings

So this weekend we had a lot going on. Friday we went to dinner for my cousins birthday (Happy Birthday Colleen!) We first attempted Old Chicago where the wait was extremely too long for the kids. It was a big party of 7 adults and 4 children (Wow)! We decided at about 7:30ish that instead of continuing to wait we would head to a less busy restaurant. SO off to Chans we went. They got us right in, but even so it took FOREVER to get our food. By the time we were headed out it was about 10:00pm at that point I contemplated the rest of the evenings activities our original intention was to go out to continue the celebration, however I was tired and the kids were all but sleeping. We talked it over and decided to celebrate as we originally had commited to, so after stopping at home I took the babies to my parents house and Darren and I went to Meadows to meet up with everyone by this time it was almost 11:00pm. We had a very fun evening it was packed..we did some drinking, some dancing and lots of socializing and laughing. We may not get an evening out with Terra and Ryan so we figured we'd better jump at the chance while she was going.

Saturday for me was spent cleaning and picking up and getting food ready for my Girls Get Together. It started at 6ish that night. It was a busy day of spending time with the kids as well as getting things ready. Darren spent the night hanging with Terra and returned home around 9:30ish. It was a fun time with most of our girl friends it was a smaller turn out than usual but those of us that were there had a GREAT time and many more to come in the future. In the gift exchange I got a very good smelling candle, a couple of ornaments and some bath stuff from bath and body works in one of my favorite scents. We enjoyed laughs and lots of talking and had some great food. After it was all wrapped up....I headed out AGAIN with a couple of friends from the party...What a nice guy Darren is for staying home with the sleeping children...I was gone for just over an hour and was home before midnight so it was a nice early end to a fun evening with some friends!

Sunday we had another long day. Braeden and I went shopping and to pick pictures up and then home to get ready for my work Christmas Party. The party seemed to be quite a bit shorter than the previous years but a nice dinner and nice evening was had none the less! IT was a busy weekend and we anticipate another busy one this coming weekend. We hope to see the Zoo Lights, Christmas Ships and Peacock Lane sometime from now until the New Year. I am almost done shopping - just have one gift to pick up and many I am hoping to receive in time either by the mail or by UPS in the next few days I hadn't been worried about their delivery until now! I hope you all are having a wonderful season...stop and smell the hot cocoa...for it's better this time of year.
Love to all!

Night Out & Day In

So over the weekend we were very busy. On Friday we celebrated my dads birthday (his official Birthday was on Monday) at the Spaghetti Factory. It was a good time, great company and good food. Braeden had his first overnighter (since Brooklynd was born) with his Nini and Kody (dodo) afterwards. It was odd being at home with just us and Brooklynd although since it was bed time shortly thereafter it wasn't too different. I did get some odds and ends done that I normally have a hard time with when Braeden is there, which was nice, but we sure did miss him come morning :-) We met up with them for lunch and then Trista and I did a little bit of shopping. We went out for a friends 30th birthday on Saturday and had WAY TOO much fun (well I definitely know I did!) It was great! Sunday we hung out with my parents most of the day ate pizza, played with the boys and watched movies. We headed home near 6:00pm and Darren got the lights on the tree, I started to decorate it and after baths and bed I had some alone time! Darren went to play poker for a while and I got the presents out to wrap, the tree somewhat decorated, the house picked up and such! I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, must be the anitcipation of the holidays! I absolutely love this time of year and am excited for Braeden since the older he gets the more exciting things are...this year he LOVES the reindeer in our yard and the lights! It's wonderful looking at things through a childs eyes!
We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is surviving the rain today!! Tata for now!

News..

For those of you whom I haven't contacted yet, I just wanted to let you all know I have decided to explore a new business venture! I am now selling Avon! I am very excited to start this and see where it may take me. I am also FINALLY registered for shool in January and happy to be starting back up again. I am taking 2 online courses and am happy that I am doing that because Darren just found out that unfortunately his apprenticeship won't be starting until February or March! Which means he will have to endure overtime and 14 hour days for a while longer...tata for now! Hope everyone is well.
Loves!!

O' Christmas Tree...

This weekend we had quite the experience getting family pictures for Christmas done and going to get our tree! We went to get our pictures done early this morning, a few turned out well, it will be a challenge for several years to come I imagine, Braeden had to be bribed with candy and Brooklynd just sat there for most of it, I can't even imagine how we will do it next year with them both running around. Some of the most adorable ones were with just them of course, I will upload them soon so you all can see!! After heading home to change out of our nice clothes, we headed over to meet up with Trista, Jason and Kody to seek out the perfect Christmas tree!! Last year Darren suggested getting a Noble (as I have always had Douglas Firs growing up) so we decided to go to a U-Cut Farm that Jason had suggested. The place is right outside of Oregon City...We had a good time trecking around through the tree farm with the boys UNTIL I realized our video camera bag had fallen out of our stroller or rather off, of our stroller. See I had "temporarily" hung it on the handle not very securely...to make a long story short after about 10-15 minutes of searching we were very thankful when Jason came across it! We are very lucky! Besides that little problematic spot in our trip, it was great. We walked away with a great tree for less than half of what we payed last year for our noble! I am so very excited to decorate it, hopefully very soon! Our lights are up outside (Darren took care of that the day after Thanksgiving!!) and the house is decorated as well. I love the holidays with all the adorable decor and fun festive recipes. I am going to attempt some baking this year hopefully time permitting! I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great holiday season thus far.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all! We had a wonderful thanksgiving, ate WAY too much (as usual) and spent time with family. It was a small dinner party this year, us and the boys, my parents and my grandma. After dinner, however, the party got a bit bigger, Trista, Jason and Kody came and then later the boys came for the annual Poker Game. I was SO tired I didn't even make it up for Black Friday to shop with all the frantic, crazy people out in search of a deal! It was very sad and I hope to resume the tradition next year. My mom and I shared the cooking responsibilities this year and eventually I hope to be able to do it all so she doesn't have to for those of you who do it you know what a big job it is! It was good though and we hope everyone had a great holiday! I will post pics soon, I have been having trouble uploading them as of late.
Loves!

Aunt Stacy comes to visit

So it has been quite sometime since I have posted anything. Darren's sister Stacy came to visit us this past weekend. She got spend some time with the boys and we all went out on Saturday evening. It was a fun time. It was a very short visit as she stayed with some other friends Friday and part of Saturday, but it was good to have her here! Braeden loved playing with her as did she with him! She is hoping to make it out our way again in January, we are looking forward to that.

Steelers Fans!

So Darren's favorite NFL team is the Steelers (if you hadn't guessed by the Title!) Anywho he got to go to their home territory for a quick visit while he was out of town and got some pictures of Heinz Field and their stadium as well as some beautiful scenic Pennsylvania photos...here they are! Enjoy!

The Stadium!

I have been having some trouble uploading the pics, I will add more to this post once I can get them to upload!

Darren's Trip to PA!

Here are a few photos of Darrens vacation to Pennsylvania with his mom to visit family! He went for his cousin Debbies wedding. He got to see many of his family member he hasn't seen in about 17 years or so! He had a lot of fun and said the wedding was beautiful and lots of fun.

Debbie (The Bride to Be - Darren's cousin) and Marcia (Darren's mom)

Sharon (Darren's Aunt, Marcias Twin Sis, Debbies mom) and Marcia dancing
Darren and Debbie's sister Lisa Sharon, Marcia and Darren's Grandma Helen
The bride and groom - Matt & Debbie standing above Grandma Benson

Costumes!!

Here are a few pictures of the costume party we went to on Saturday the 28th!! As I said before I was "supposed" to be an African Safari Guide however it turned out to be more of a tourist than a guide!! Braeden was of course (supposed to be) the tiger and Brooklynd the Lion!! As you can clearly see there are no pics of Braeden as he wouldn't keep his costumes on even for 1 picture at the party!! We did try to put it on again over the weekend just for ONE picture he started but didn't like it once it was up to his waste....I gave up...He did go trick or treating in a ninja costume with Freya at daycare on Halloween, so he must have just NOT liked the furry costume...he was so cute in it, at least I got to see him in it once (right when we got it!)

Cally, Tanner, me and BrooklyndRoar...
Braeden's costume (heehee!), Braeden, Tanner & Brooklynd!Our baby Lion!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We hope everyone has a very happy Halloween. Hope the kids get lots of candy all the while staying warm. It is a beautiful day which means it should be very chilly tonight! We will be attempting to get Braeden into his costume for at least 1 picture and then possibly to take him to a couple of our friends houses to trick or treat! We will see how that works out...our plan B is none of the above and stay at home and hand out candy :-) We are very flexible!! You have to be with 2 babies!! We hope everyone has a great night!

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS SITTING ON A GATE

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,The first one said,"Oh my, it's getting late." The second one said,"But we don't care."The third one said,"I see witches in the air."The fourth one said,"Let's run, and run, and run."The fifth one said,"Get ready for some fun."Then whoosh went the wind,and out went the lights,And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

As always I post the history of the holiday we are celebrating: http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/viewPage?pageId=713

Fast Facts about this spooky day!! http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=51880&display_order=9&mini_id=1076

Just in case you are interested! Have a great one all!!

Flight Delays!

Just an update on Darren's ETA home....So Darren and his moms flight out of Pennsylvania was supposed to leave at 5:45pm(ish) EST however he called me around 6:30pm to let me know they had actually been sitting on the plain for almost an entire hour. The quick version is that the flight actually ended up being delayed by almost 2 hours, they arrived in Chicago where they were each to have a layover for about an hour originally very late therefore missing their connection flights home. Marcia was able to get on a flight tonight that I believe left at about 10:00pm EST tonight. Darren, on the contrary won't be able to get a flight until tomorrow morning- there just aren't very many flights out from Chicago to Portland! :-( He for now is anitcipating having to sleep in the airport, the hotel across the street was somewhere around $300 a night and the airlines only are will to pay 60% (which is absolutely ridiculous)! We are looking forward to him coming home to us very soon and I am sure he is looking forward to sleeping on the plane and in a bed :-) Will keep you posted if anything changes!!

The Perfect Pumpkin!

Here is Braeden picking out the perfect pumpkin. He picked one for himself and one for Brooklynd :-) He wouldn't let anyone else hold his pumpkin!! The only pictures I got of the actual pumpkin picking are from my phone as the camera we were using batteries died just beforehand and Darren had ours. But you can get the jist of it! He carried (and dropped) his pumpkin the entire way to the car, he fell asleep after we left Fir Point Farms still holding it with him in his carseat!!

These perfect pumpkins were seized at www.firpointfarms.com another good one in the local area (from a friends reference is) www.baumanfarms.com Happy Pumpkin hunting!!

Happy EARLY Halloween!!

Yesterday we headed out to the pumpkin patch in the late morning we decided on Fir Point Farms just outside of Canby as it's closer to home. There was SO much fun stuff going on, the boys had a blast. Braeden got to pet the billygoats & rabbit and feed them as well. He went down a hay slide with Kody and got a little hurt, he started crying....At first we thought it just scared him, but I think he jammed his leg a bit! Luckily he walked it off and was good as new within a short while. Kody got to play on the blow up castle and all of the others. We all (except my dad and Brooklynd) went through a little haunted house. Lastly, after visiting the gift store we headed out to the pumpkin patch where Kody picked a HUGE pumpkin and Braeden picked a little on for him and an even litter one for Brooklynd. We got several pictures of them before my dads cameras battery died, I had to take the pumpkin patch ones with my phone! I will post them asap. On the way home from the pumpkin patch the boys crashed out...they were exhausted neither having gotten their naps. After napping they both got their baths and we headed out for the evening. We first went to my mom and dads to grab some last minute additions to my costume then we headed off to the costume party. My costume didn't turn out as well as anticipated but it served its purpose! Braeden absolutely would not wear his costume he had it on for under 1 minute. I had decided not to put them in their costumes until we got to the party because they were warm costumes and a bit uncomfortable (especially I am sure in a carseat) plus I wanted them (namely Braeden) to be excited about it! It didn't work as planned as soon as Braeden's costume was zipped up, he walked out to the living room of Lori & Tim's house and took the hood off and started to unzip the entire costume. We tried everything to get him to keep it on even for just 1 picture, but it was no luck. Brooklynd kept his on for quite sometime, then he was getting too warm so I decided it was time to take it off. We got a couple of pictures on other peoples cameras of Brookynd and I as Darren has ours and our video cameras battery wasn't charged and the charger wasn't working. I will share these pics as well as soon as I get them....It was very hard for me not having a camera....anyone that knows me knows it's attached to me at all times!! My parents took the boys home with them and put them to bed and I went out to meet a couple of friends for a short while. Then off to meet up with some other people and that was great fun! Hope you all had a great weekend. We are missing Darren very much and excited for his return tomrrow. Wish us luck at the kids party...should be great fun for the kids and the moms as well!

Cute countdown...

Darren's Trip & Our Weekend

This weekend will be a new adventure for all of us. Darren is heading out on Friday morning to San Francisco, where he will get to see his sister and mom, before him and his mom head out to Pennsylvania. They are travelling to see their family for a cousins wedding. Darren is very excited to see his grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. He hasn't seen most of them for somewhere around 17 years! It will be weird to be apart from eachother for 4 days. Luckily, the boys and I have a fairly busy weekend. Most of the weekend we will stay at my parents house. Saturday we (my mom & dad, Trista & Jason and I) plan to take the boys (Braeden, Brooklynd and Kody) to the pumpkin patch. We are undecided as to which one, either Fir Point Farms, or Bauman Farms. Both have lots of stuff going on. On Saturday evening we are all going to Tim & Loris (my bosses) Halloween Party as well, so this will be the first time the kids will get to wear their costumes and the first time Brooklynd will dress up ever! Braeden is going to be a Tiger and Brooklynd is going to be a Lion..their costumes are adorable and furry! I am going to be a safari guide. After the party, I am going to meet up with my 2 best friends to go out for a few drinks. All of our boyfriends are out of town, so I am looking forward to some fun, friend bonding time. Sunday I am having a costume party for some of our friends children and after that if it's done in time I will be headed over to my cousins 18th birthday party. Then after the weekend Darren comes home to us on Monday. We hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend and lots of fun activities planned for the holiday weekend.

Brooklynds Big Week...

So my littlest baby boy is getting huge! He will be 9 months old tomorrow...I feel like I am always saying how old he is going to be and then that month goes by in what feels like a day. It seems like the time is flying by faster and faster, day by day...minute by minute. Yesterday was Brooklynds first day in his new big boy carseat, he looks so little in it and if that wasn't enough firsts for one day...Freya called me to tell me that Brooklynd got his very 1st tooth...I almost started crying. I know that sounds silly, I just was sad I wasn't there for such an important event....but nevertheless I did get to see it just a few hours later and it's perfect and by today it is even more apparent. He is chewing on everything and has been doing so a lot lately. I think the 2nd one isn't far behind. The first chance I get once the tooth is really showing I will take a picture (of course) and share it with you all! Today I took Brooklynd in for his 9 month check-up everything seems to be great. He weighs about 22.5 lbs and is just just under 30 inches tall..it's amazing! He should be getting more mobile over the next few months. Due to his size (he's a big boy!!) the doctor wasn't surprised he wasn't standing yet or crawling for that matter. In fact he indicated that he may never crawl, as it's not vital to development and some babies just don't ever do it! We'll see. He has been getting up on all fours and scooches everywhere, but I have yet to see him crawl. He is very content when he is just sitting, but I can tell that is going to change and he has started to let that last much less than he used to before he wants to be on his belly to scooch around! The doctor said he is very healthy and right on target as to where he should be and that he isn't over weight by any means just a big, solid baby :-)

The baby boys pics!

So we went in a couple of weeks ago and got the boys pics taken and let me tell you, Darren and I were both exhausted and we got about 4 total where they were even in the same frame. Not to point any fingers at the cause of this, but remember only one can run...and run away! Therefore we scheduled another appointment for the weekend after and I forgot about it completely. So, this weekend we were taking them in for the last time and the morning of the pics decided that since we had one good shot last time and we have so many photo appointments coming up for the holidays that we would go ahead and order one from the very first session! So here are the only 2 decent ones from that session several weeks back! The first one I cropped because that is the best of them both, but in cropping it, it comes out a little fuzzy on here...Hope you are all doing well.

Following in his daddy's footsteps...

Just some funny pics of Braeden from the other night he found Darren's hat & shoes and he started calling me and when I found him, this is what he looked like...

Where'd everybody go?!

He wants to be just like daddy!
Uh-oh...it got dark, I can't see anything!

You can tell just how big these shoes are from this one!!

The babies...

Kim and I FINALLY after much talking about it got the boys together this week. Here are a few pictures!

Brooklynd (8.5 months) & Grant (6.5 months)

All 3 boys play nice together!
No smiling here...at least not for this picture :-)

3 Big Boys...

Whenever Jennifer, Jaime and I get the 3 boys together we try to get a picture...this is getting to be much harder as you can tell. They is only a couple of weeks difference in age. Braeden was 2 on September 22nd, Josiah turned 2 (which is the occasion we were together for in these pics) approximately 2 weeks later & Cody will be 2 in November. This was the ONLY picture where all 3 were seated as well as mostly facing forward....From left to Right, Josiah, Braeden & Cody.

They decided to touch tongues...almost!
Moms & boys...I am cut off in this picture, but it was the only one where all of us ladies eyes were open and we were facing forward instead of towards the boys....this was almost harder to get than the pic of the 3 boys together!!