Our Baby Boys

Brooklynd James 7 months old

Braeden Donald 23 months old

Crash

Well the weekend is coming to a close so I thought I would let you all know there was something last week that I hadn't yet posted. Darren was working on Tuesday driving out near Keizer, Oregon. He was going through somewhat of a construction area, with someone above head in a bucket working, when suddenly a Toyota Tacoma ran a stop sign and T-boned Darren's work box truck. He gathered his info. got out and conversed with the driver making sure he was okay, seeing if he needed an ambulance, because his truck was pretty banged up. He told Darren he was fine and just before exchanging information Darren walk a few feet away to make a phone call to nonemergency to report the accident, when all of a sudden the man jumped back into his truck and fled the scene the construction workers and Darren were all baffled. Darren called 9-1-1 and the police caught up with the man about 2 miles away. The man was taken away on a stretcher. One of the construction workers actually had chased after the man and I believe was the one who caught up with him first. It was a strange set of circumstances. Darren has since talked to the man's insurance company to provide them with his statement. They disclosed to Darren that the gentleman (who was 73 years old) couldn't remember anything that happened after the accident. Thankfully everyone was okay. Just thought I'd share the story.

This weekend was busy we had a cousin's 40th birthday party which was great fun on Saturday. Brooklynd was back to feeling a bit under the weather for part of it, I think on top of him being sick he may be teething as well, he didn't seem to want to eat and slept quite a bit. On the other hand Braeden has been feeling great, eating lots and lots, making up for lost time. Today we all spent most of the day with Kody (our nephew) at his first fall baseball game. We hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Take care...tata for now!

Projectile What?

Okay so I spoke WAY too soon on my last post. Just as I was speaking of my babies being the epitamy of health...Brooklynd was starting his projectile vomit spree! Yep you guessed it starting Monday night, Brooklynd projectile vomited his entire bottle or what looked like it all over our living room. Poor Darren was home alone with Brooklynd feeding him at his last bottle and when he sat him up to burp him it all basically came right back up. I really wasn't too worried about it. Truth be told I figured there was some exageration to what I was being told. So...Tuesday I took the kids to daycare and received a call from their caregiver at about 3:00 letting me know he had done basically the same thing and his appetite had drastically decreased. Therefore, Wednesday & Thursday Darren stayed home with our little sicky baby! I went to work and Braeden went to a substitute daycare with his cousin...where he had oodles and oodles of fun and was most definitely staying as far away from the germs as possible. Brooklynd has vomited about 5 times over the last week. When I contacted the doctor/nurses each time they told me not to worry too much, just to keep him hydrated and the vomiting will probably only last about 24 hours...obviously our little one is an over achiever :-) His has lasted 4 whole days & counting! Wish us luck and new days to come without vomit up to our elbows! Today Brooklynd and I got mommy & baby time alone. I took him to work for 1/2 of the day and then home for 1/2 the day. He seems to be feeling a bit better and his appetite has increased a bit...so hopefully this continues on the road to a healthy baby. We hope you all have a spectacular weekend.

Healthy and Happy

So the boys are finally feeling like themselves again. Eating, playing and sleeping habits are mostly back to normal! Thank goodness! Brooklynd got his 7 month pictures taken over the weekend, can you believe he is 7 months old already and as my mom pointed out this morning in 4 or 5 months he could be walking...crazy! I am not so sure how close to crawling or walking he will be at that time since he is not yet sitting up on his own. He does sit when I put him in a sitting position, but can't get himself there. He is happy as ever and so content. He chews on everything and tries as hard as he can to get any and everything including my hand in his mouth. He doesn't have any teeth yet but with the amount of drool that comes along with the chewing it looks to be in the near future. He is continuing to eat & enjoy many different baby foods and rice cereal. He absolutely loves food just as his brother did/does! Braeden is also back to feeling & acting like himself and has been giving me & his dad some challenges. He is stubborn as the day is long, adorable as a button, loving and very, very determined. He is so smart, as I am sure every mother thinks (but he really is)! He doesn't like the word no, when it is used towards him, but uses it himself often. His vocabulary grows daily and his repeating skills have developed greatly too. It is amazing that my sweet baby is going to be 2 years old in a month. He is still helpful to his brother but does lash out at him sometimes unknowingly at the beginning of his tantrums. He has been experiencing "time out" as have we. I hope I keep my sanity when Brooklynd turns 2 and Braeden is 3 because everyone I've talked to in recent months tells me 3 is harder than 2...I can't imagine. Thankfully the good times and good behavior outweigh the bad on an almost daily basis and make me very thankful to have both boys as my own...but sometimes it's trying and I have to remember that Braeden comes by all of his good & bad traits honestly! :-) Looks like the summer plans have slowed down for us, Darrens family will be coming to visit for Braedens birthday which will be fun. We hope everyone is well!

Reunion Pictures

I have added my class website to our links there are pictures in the photo album of Darren, I and our friends at the reunion. This is much simpler than posting the pics on here...enjoy!!

Reunion Day

Yesterday was my family reunion. We of course arrived a bit late, Darren got to play a little poker, Braeden got to swim and have a blast playing with Kody & Erika and Brooklynd & I just hung out with the rest of the family. Darren and I only got to stay for a few hours. We had to leave quite early to head down to my 10-year high school reunion. We met up with some friends before hand at Henry's Tavern in the Pearl. We didn't get to try any of their food, but were seated out on the patio and the atmosphere was wonderful. My reunion was at Bridgeport Brewery in the same general area. It was another awesome environment. We all had a great time, saw some old friends, hung out with our current friends, laughed too much and generally had a great time. I still missed out on seeing some old friends, hopefully in another 10 years, we can catch up. Tonight, we got invited to hang out with Kim and Katie's family for a bbq. Braeden was having a bit of a hard time for about half the evening, he bumped his head on their couch and walked away with a nice bruiser (thanks to me), had some icecream and flirted with all of the ladies. After some great food and company we headed home to put the babies to bed. Our weekend was sure full and a great time...time goes way too fast though! Hope everyone enjoyed the sun that finally came out Saturday afternoon and today. Take care

Sick Babies!!

Well baby Brooklynd has gotten his first official cold over the weekend. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday and the Dr. told me that he just had a general virus cough, congestion etc. and it should run it's course after about 2 weeks. It is so sad to hear my little sweets coughing and sneezing. He smiles all the while through it though. Braeden also had a rough couple of nights and this morning when I went to get him out of bed, literally just before I was headed to work I found him standing in his crib, pointing at his bed asking "mama, what's that?" and as soon as I entered the room the aroma of puke was overwhelming, my poor baby bear had an upset belly and threw up sometime between in the morning. I felt so bad, he was acting normal, but did have a bit of a fever. I took Brooklynd to daycare, hoping to fend off the cooties at least as much as possible and I stayed home with pooh bear. It was good for him to have some me time and good for me as well. We had fun. So that's the update on the sweet boys. Hope everyone else is well and keeping the cooties away, we are trying to.

"Surprise!"

Braeden all done up!

Darren with the boys...Grant (our friends Kim & Sean's son) & Brooklynd
Courtesy of our friend Crystal these pics are from Trista's surprise birthday BBQ. It was a lot of fun. We got a few pics, but nothing too spectacular. Called it an early night and got the babies home sound asleep at their normal schedule. Was a nice quiet weekend. Next weekend is my family reunion that Darren and I will be going to Saturday at my Uncle and Aunts and then off to my High School 10-year Reunion Saturday night. It is an adults only get together and then Sunday is a family day for our reunion, so it should be fun, we are looking forward to it!

Happy Birthday Trista!!

At last, the weekend is here. I am looking forward to some much needed down time. Last night was Tristas birthday and we went to dinner at the (apparently) infamous Cheesecake Factory. Now need mind you I had barely heard mention of this restaurant before, but apparently I was the only one. Last minute Darren had to cancel, due to his work day being extra long. He got home at about 11:30pm last night after about 17 hours of work!! Therefore my cousin and I headed out with the babies toward the restaurant to meet up with Trista, Jason and Kody and the rest of the family at about 6pm last night, on our way Jason called to let us know the wait would be about 1.5 hours....he very kindly was checking if that would be okay for Braeden, figuring it would really only be about 1/2 hour by the time we got there....I said it would be fine. On the contrary our wait was about anohter 1.5 hours by the time we got there at 7pm. When we got seated at around 8:30pm Braeden was having a major melt down as was I. Therefore my 1st time experience there received less than rave reviews, I will hope to give it another chance with Darren sometime. I only got 2 pictures by request. So I will post one of the two! :-) Happy Birthday Trista/Nini...we love you!!

Our Little American Idol

Our baby is growing up he has officially learned and sang an entire song. I will try to post the video soon, but have had no luck.His very 1st and he is so very good at it. Let me tell you we continually ask to hear it. Over the weekend we weren't too sure which song it was Twinkle, Twinkle or his A,B, C's but now you can tell (or at least we can!!) His very 1st song is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" He knows all the words and sing beautifully. I hope to be able to share it with you all with Darren's help. Hope you are all well...

Old Pictures

Found these while scanning in some pictures for our upcoming high school reunion!! Kinda takes ya back... Can you guess who these lovely ladies are?? :-)

Happy Birthday Karen...

Nikki and Darren
The Ladies: Karen, Cody's mom, Nikki, Carly and I