TOO CUTE!!

Alan's friend Mike from the Ft. Lauderdale area came up for a visit a few days ago. As you can tell from the picture Mike drives a motorcycle. Brady thought is was really funny to have Mike's helmet on and I thought this picture was too cute so I had to post it!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS (part 2)

We had so much fun watching Brady with all of his presents Christmas morning. He had a good time checking everything out and giving them a thorough examination. It really is amazing being around a child at Christmas!! (the following pictures are a bit out of order so I apologize for that)


Brady is wearing a hat and holding the Winnie the Pooh Pirate Mega Blocks that his Uncle Michael (Beth's brother) got him. He actually loved all of the hats and wore them MUCH longer than any of us expected him to. I guess that's a good thing since we're moving to the cold where he'll HAVE TO wear hats!!!

Here he is in the GIANT Tonka Dump Truck that Grandpa got for him. I don't really think he's supposed to be able to fit in it, but he did seem to like riding in it!!!

Brady's latest thing is that he starts to "conduct" whenever he hears music...it's quite funny really, because we can be in the store and he'll hear music and he starts conducting!!! He's doing some of his best work here!!

Brady waiting for mommy and daddy to get ready to take him to the tree.

WOW, look at all those unwrapped gifts Santa left for Brady!!! (All of the wrapped ones are not for him!!)

Daddy showing Brady how the TMX Tickle Me Elmo works!

Brady sitting with all of the presents!

The tissue paper was the best part of the day!!! : )

MORE FROM OUR TRIP TO VA.

During our visit to VA earlier this month we got the chance to spend some time with Alan's parents and his brother and sister in law and their two kids. We had two nice long visits with Gung Gung (Alan's Dad) and Po Po (Alan's Mom). We managed to get take out from 3 of their favorite restaurants too, so I was very lucky to get such good food all in one weekend!! This was also the first time Alan's brother, Eric met Brady as he was out of town the last time we were there! We had a good time hanging out with Preston and Ashley while Pam and Eric were out for the night with friends. Preston tried to teach us a thing or two about Madden Football on his XBox 360, but we were pretty pathetic so we decided a game of good old ping pong was more "our speed"!!! Even though it was a short visit is was a nice one!!


Brady better get used to getting all bundled up!!!

Opening presents with Aunt Pam and his cousin Ashley.

More presents!!!

With Daddy, Mommy and Po Po at Po Po's house in Maryland.

With Gung Gung and Po Po

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Every year the scrapbook store that I frequently go to, Whim So Doodle, offers the opportunity to have a photo session with Santa. Both two legged and four legged children are allowed so this year I signed up and took both Brady and Chelsea. Leisa, the girl who takes the photos is SUCH a talented photgrapher and I would LOVE to hire her to take some family photos of the 3 of us. Even though they didn't capture the "open mouth Brady smile" that we all know and love they did a really great job and really know what they are doing. Not to mention that Santa is AWESOME!! Here are a few of the pictures.

NEW HOUSE

Our trip to VA was successful because we found a house!! It's actually a house we saw when we were up there in early November and had been trying to reach a price agreement with the sellers ever since. They weren't coming down in price far enough so we went back up to try and find something else. Well, we couldn't so we got them down a bit farther and got a GREAT house at a great price!! We absolutely LOVE the house and as I told Alan it's a house that I can see us in for a very long time. It's got everything that we wanted and I really couldn't find anything wrong with it. It's got a great yard for Brady and Chelsea and a great deck and screened in gazebo for entertaining, and tons of room inside so we definitely expect some of you to come visit!!!

HARD TO BELIEVE!

It's hard to believe that we've been home just over 2 months already with Brady. Strangely enough, it really feels like he's always been here. He has adjusted SO much better than I was anticipating. And we really can't get over how good of a baby he really is. He really is always happy unless he's tired, hungry or hurt (can you blame him?). His little laugh just melts my heart every time I hear it. It's also such a great feeling when someone else is holding him and he looks for me and holds out his arms to come back to me. He's chattering away these days although we really haven't heard any "real" words to speak of. He's crawling pretty well now too, but he's much more interested in standing and he pulls himself up every chance he gets, so I'm guessing the walking is coming quicker than we expected. We're still working on his relationship with Chelsea...he likes her and gets excited when he sees her, but she's still not too sure about him, but I'm sure she'll come around. He's also totally fascinated by the cat, but she's living at my parents now, so he doesn't see her as much. She seems equally fascinated by him.

For those of you who don't know this yet, we are moving back to Virginia! This move has us both happy and sad. Sad because of ALL of the great friends we will leave behind, but happy because we already have lots of friends up there and most of them have kids under the age of 5, so really, the timing couldn't be any better. You all know that we don't mind getting on a plane so we'll be back to visit. Our house here is currently on the market but we haven't bought a house there yet. We did find one on our last trip up there, but we can't agree on a price with the sellers, so we're heading back up this week to look for something else. Of course, our door up there will always be open to anyone who wants to come for a visit.....and we EXPECT to see some of you!!! There's no time frame at the moment, but it will be sooner than later because the back and forth travel for Alan is getting old and EM is no longer paying for the flights either!!

Until the next update....( I will do my best to update a bit more often)

MORE TIME AT GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S

Brady really likes bath time now that we got this swivel seat thing. It's much easier for both of us this way and he has a lot more fun. He's got some nice hair, huh?

He LOVES to ride Grandma's "leg horse"!! He was laughing so hard, I just couldn't a good picture.
He really seemed to like playing in the grass....he was "helping" Grandpa put up the Christmas lights. There's something wrong about putting up Christmas lights and sweating, though!!!
Okay, so here's the story behind the pink and white.....Brady didn't have any clean bibs and my mom found this one that my aunt Nancy made for me some 30+ years ago!!! It's a hand towel that she converted by putting arm holes in it and it ties in the back and even has my initials on it!! Even though he still looks cute, I will only use this again when we're desperate!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents and my aunt at my parents house. We had a nice quiet, low key dinner. Brady tried a little bit of everything and seemed to enjoy himself!
I guess next year we need to find a Thanksgiving bib!!

Here he is hanging out with Grandpa before he goes to bed.

HANGIN OUT AT GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S

It's obvious from these pictures that Alan dressed Brady this particular morning. Yellow and green really aren't his colors! We're just hanging out at my parents house watching some football.


Brady likes to look over the back of the couch and chair and see what's going on.


How can you not love this cute face??

BUILD A BEAR (well, a reindeer!!)

Because I love the "classic" Christmas shows for kids, we took Brady to Build A Bear to make him a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

We chose a heart and now we're rubbing it on Brady's stomache so he never goes hungry...

and we kiss it so he always knows he's loved.

And here we're getting ready to stuff it.

Brady with his finished Rudolph, whose nose lights up and he also plays the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song.

ORLANDO

We met up with our friends Rhonda and Sonny and their son Kyle in Orlando the weekend of November 16th. The plan was that the girls and Brady would go to the scrapbook convention on Saturday while the guys did whatever. Rhonda and I had a good time spending money and checking out the new products. We also discovered that Brady LOVES ice cream because the Skinny Cow people had a booth and were giving away free fudge bars and after I gave Brady a taste of mine he started "yelling" at anyone who had one in their hands!!! Pretty funny, really!

I think at this point Brady had had enough of the scrapbook convention. The shirt he has on is from my other scrapbook friend Tina, and it says; I grow up fast. Scrapbook.

When all else fails, give a kid a box and it's hours of fun......

especially when it's on "aunt" Rhonda's head!!

Here's a picture of all the boys hanging out watching tv!!
Brady with the ladies!