Happy Memorial Day!

Exactly one year ago today, I found out I was pregnant!

It's hard to believe that Brennan is now 3.5 months old!


It's even harder to believe how quickly he is developing. He might be turning into a rolling machine. I saw him roll over today (I missed it last time) and then he did it again on video! He's getting so big!

Brennan's First "Vacation"

I use the word "vacation" very loosely here. To me vacation means laying by the ocean or a pool relaxing. There was not a lot of relaxing during our trip to DC. We arrived on Sunday and left on Friday. We spent some time (anywhere from 1-4 hours) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at the hospital for Kyle's LASIK pre-op, surgery, and follow-ups. We also sat in a lot of traffic; which often ended with Brennan screaming because it was time for him to eat.

However, Kyle can see now and his eyes are healing great. We stayed in a great area at a great resort. And we did manage to squeeze some fun into our week.

On Monday, after Kyle's pre-op, we went to the National Zoo. It was Brennan's first visit to a zoo and the National Zoo is free, so that's pretty cool. We also went and visited some old friends from the boat. It was great to see Staci and her boys and to meet her baby girl Natalie.

Brennan was excited for the zoo!






The best part (because there were no giraffes) was the baby gorilla. He was so cute!




On Tuesday, after Kyle's surgery, he needed to rest, so I took Brennan to the pool. We ended up at the indoor pool because I left his hat in the room and didn't want to go back up to get it. He seemed to have a good time. No pictures though because we were there by ourselves.

Wednesday was Kyle's follow-up. Afterwards we came back to the room and I went to the pool to lay out, so I did get to relax a little. That night we walked around National Harbor and ate dinner at a really nice seafood restaurant.

On Thursday, we checked out of our hotel, headed to the Metro station, and went into downtown DC. Here are some pics from our day. It was VERY hot, so we did a quick tour.





Thursday afternoon we checked into a new hotel in Bethesda so we were closer to the hospital. Friday morning, Brennan and I slept in while Kyle went to his final follow-up. We checked out and headed home. We made a stop at Six Flags in New Jersey to do the Wild Safari. We loved driving through and seeing all the animals roaming around. The giraffes were by far the coolest! (And I'm not biased at all!)












Hope you enjoyed a peek at our week. (Ha! That rhymes!)

Friday's Fab Five

We just got back from a trip to the Washington, DC area. Kyle had successful LASIK surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital. I'll post some more about the trip soon, but here are 5 fabulous things I missed about home!

1. My own bed!

2. More importantly than my bed is my pillow. Hotel pillows aren't good.

3. Our shower pressure! It's pretty much perfect!

4. Our shower itself because the shower at the hotel was a free-standing shower and it is too hard to shave my legs without any ledge to prop my leg up on. A man must've designed those!

5. My own schedule. The hospital gave large time estimates for how long Kyle's appointments would take. He was told that his surgery on Tuesday could take 2-4 hours. It's not fun waiting in a hospital with a baby when you don't know if you'll be there 2 or 4 hours. Neither are long enough to go off-base and get back into the crazy traffic. I am glad to be back to my normal routine!

Short and sweet! Almost time for bed! It's been a long week!

Friday's Fab Five

No lack of fabulousness happening here!

1. Saturday was a big day. We went to Adah's first birthday party and had a lot of fun. When we left there, we headed to Strawberry Park RV Resort in Preston, CT. Bill, Sherri, Beth, and Luke were spending the weekend there and we thought it would be nice to get together with them since they were so close. The campsite was only 14 miles from our house! I felt like we were in the movie Dirty Dancing because there were all these families staying there and 30 activities a day to choose from. Everyone seemed to know everyone or at least they were all friendly to each other. I kept wanting to say, "I carried a watermelon" all evening! We roasted hotdogs over a fire and the girls went and watched karaoke that night. It was a good time!

2. Sunday I went to my first movie at the theater since Brennan was born. Kyle and I went and saw Iron Man 2. It was entertaining. We left Brennan in good hands at Josh and Amanda's. Amanda's parents and aunt were still in town and Christie was there too, so he got plenty of loving!

3. On Wednesday I got to meet Mike and Lachelle's new baby girl, Abigail. They attend our church and are active with the youth group. We took dinner to their house Wednesday night (they did the same for us after Brennan was born). Abigail was adorable. She was smaller than Brennan was at birth, so she looked super tiny to me. She has a full head of hair. Her momma is a champ. She labored at home for a long time and was only at the hospital 1 hour before delivery. And only pushed for 14 minutes! Pretty awesome!

4. Last night, instead of praise team practice we had a cookout at Sheryl's house. It was nice to get together with everyone and share a meal. We were cooking out in honor of Ryan, our praise team drummer, who is leaving at the beginning of June. :(

5. Today B and I went to Stroller Strides. It went well (although it was incredibly hot for only being 9:15 in the morning). We came home, I fed B, played for a little while, and tried to put him down for a nap. I put him in his crib and hoped he'd go to sleep. Instead he cried. I tried to let him cry it out for a while and took a shower and ate my lunch, but I think he is getting a tooth and though he might be in pain so I went in to get him after about 35 minutes.

This is what I found:


That might not seem like a big deal, but this is how I left him:

(Yes, the 2nd picture was posed after I went and discovered him and then ran to grab the camera!)

My baby rolled over! I was shocked! I knew he was close to doing it because he is super active. I'm not sure if he'll do it again soon because he was crying pretty hard for a while in his crib, so he might've just rolled out of frustration, but it is still pretty cool. It's hard to believe that he can roll over now and that I think he's teething. At only 3 months old! Geez louise this kid is gonna give us a run for our money!

Wishful Wednesday - Bedroom

Head on over to Kelsey's blog, link up, and join the fun!


Today's topic is: 'I wish' .... I could come home to ______ bedroom!

I got really excited when I saw today's topic! When I was in high school, I use to look through magazines and cut out pictures of my dream house room by room! I didn't save those (I guess that goes along with last week's topic), so it was fun to look at pictures again. I'm pretty sure I was driving Kyle crazy last night searching Google Images for "luxury", "amazing", "awesome" bedrooms. So here's what I came up with as my perfect bedroom. (Sorry if the pictures are blurry!)

I LOVE this bedroom. I LOVE the bed. The colors are relaxing. It is clean and organized which is super important to me. It has a lot of natural light and a fire place. But it alone is not perfect.

I want the above bedroom, but with the view below! (That's not asking too much is it?!?) How amazing would it be to have that view in the morning?! Of course I'd have some amazing shades that blocked out the sun until I was ready to wake up. So now the bedroom decor and the view are set; just a little more to go.

I want to be able to walk out onto this balcony to enjoy my view!

So there you have it! My dream bedroom. You can throw one of these bathtubs in the master bath too while you're at it!

Brennan Laughing (a little)

I tried to get a video of Brennan laughing today. He does laugh a little in this one, but I wish I could've gotten him to do more. The other day he was petting Dino and laughed the most we've heard so far.

I know you can't see his face very well in this video. I set the camera on a book so I could use my hands, so it is a profile shot almost the whole time. But he was very happy as you'll hear.

Adah Turns One

Adah turned one on Wednesday. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with a cookout/party at the Dishmons. It was a lot of fun and the guest of honor seemed to have a great time. Sorry, but there are no pictures of Brennan because he was taking a nap in Adah's crib during the entire party. :)

The birthday girl...so dramatic


Adah and Morgan finally get interested in the presents


She's not so sure about this whole thing


Adah's gift from Brennan...a picture of himself in an XOXO frame


The girls playing


A family shot before the cake fun begins


Right after Amanda tried to put Adah's hat on


"Happy Birthday to Adah"


Mom helped by smashing up the cake some


And a shot with the hat on


Messy girl


Now Brennan's first birthday party has a lot to live up to. I guess I better get planning!

Friday's Fab Five

So many fabulous things have happened in the past week. It might be a struggle to keep my list to only 5!

1. Stroller Strides - Last Friday I said I was getting ready to go to my first Stroller Strides meeting. I have now been to three of them. It's fun to get out of the house in the morning and working out. Plus, you get to be around other mommies. One of our meetings was at Mohegan Park in Norwich. I had never been there before and it's a really nice park!

2. Chipotle - Kyle texted me on Friday afternoon asking if I wanted to go to Chick-fil-a for dinner. The closest Chick-fil-a is in Massachusetts (an hour and half away)! I told him I was up for it if he really wanted to, but we ended up thinking it would be better to go Saturday for lunch. When he got home from work, he asked if I wanted to go to Chipotle for dinner. The closest one is in Warwick, RI (about 35 minutes away). We did go there for dinner and it was very YUMMY!

3. Chick-fil-a - We did make it to Chick-fil-a on Saturday. We left around 10:30. It was pretty neat because Chick-fil-a had these guys in tuxes helping you carry your tray to your table and they were taking away your trash. They were also giving carnations to the moms. I guess they had to celebrate Mother's Day a day early since they're closed on Sunday. There is a funny story that goes along with our trip to the Burlington Mall.

Kyle dropped Brennan and me off at the door because it was raining. Brennan was in his stroller and we waited right inside the door for Kyle to park. Brennan was starting to get fussy because it was time for him to eat. We were right at the escalator to go up to the food court, but I was nervous to go up the escalator with the stroller by myself. Kyle has always done it. I tried to wait and just push Brennan around for a few minutes, but the parking lot was packed and I finally decided Brennan didn't need to wait any longer and I would just have to be brave and go up alone. I knew what I needed to do: put the front wheels of the stroller on the step and keep the back wheels lifted in the air. I got the front wheels on and had the back wheels up and put my left foot on the escalator too. But my right foot didn't want to move. It wasn't literally stuck on anything I just got nervous and couldn't lift it for the life of me. I had a Buddy the Elf moment because my left foot kept getting further and further away from my right. I finally had to let go of the stroller with my right hand (still supporting it with my left), grab the handrail of the escalator, and put myself up. By doing that I made this lady in front of me nervous and she asked if I needed help and ended up holding onto the stroller too. I felt really dumb. Then once we got to the top, I turned around and Kyle was 2 people behind me! If only I had waited another minute.

Here's the scene from the movie. It was pretty much just like this, except reverse the feet (and I wasn't dressed as an elf)!

4. Crate and Barrel - After the mall on Saturday, we stopped at the Crate and Barrel that is in the same parking lot. We bought a new comforter for our bed! It was my Mother's Day present.

5. Mother's Day - I celebrated my first Mother's Day on Sunday. It was a nice day. We went to church and just relaxed the rest of the day. Brennan gave me the best present on Saturday by laughing! It was an awesome sound! There's a funny story that happened on Sunday too.

Kyle was craving a Dairy Queen Blizzard. We ended up going over to Eric and Christie's and Kyle helped them move some furniture around. The four of us ended up going to DQ together. It was past Brennan's bedtime, so he was asleep in his car seat and it was cold outside, so Christie and I stayed in the car while the boys stood in line. (Our DQ is super small; no drive-thru, no indoor seating, and the line is always out the door.) It took the boys forever to get through the long line, but we finally saw them at the counter and then exiting and returning to the car. However, they each only had one Blizzard in their hands. When they got to the car, they handed us our Blizzards and told us that while they were in line an announcement was made that they could longer accept credit cards. Kyle had no cash. Eric only had a little. So they started adding up the cost to see what they could get and 2 Blizzards was it. They decided since it was Mother's Day, they better get the Blizzards for us. Poor guys!

I hope your weekend is full of fabulousness!

Wishful Wednesday

Head on over to Kelsey's blog to link-up for today's Wishful Wednesday topic!

Today's topic is: 'I wish' .... I hadn't thrown away _________.

This is a funny topic for me because I am known to my friends as someone who throws away a lot! I am definitely not a hoarder. I like things clean and organized and don't want a ton of junk around, so I tend to pitch a lot of stuff; stuff most people couldn't imagine tossing out! I'm still trying to think if there is something I wish I hadn't thrown away, but here are some things I have thrown away that you may find surprising.

Our wedding cards! I know, I know. Your mouth is probably hanging open in disbelief. I saved them in a box for a while and then during one of my cleaning frenzies I looked through them and didn't see any reason to hold onto them. We have wonderful memories of our wedding day. We have great pictures to help us reminisce. Are we really going to look back through all those cards in the future?!? I figured probably not, so out they went!

In fact, I don't keep cards at all. I think they are nice. I especially like getting them in the mail, but I don't need to hold on to them. Sometimes I'll keep a card for a few days, but then it usually gets trashed. I am the same way with emails. I DO NOT believe in saving emails. They always come back to haunt you. I have made an exception to this rule when Kyle is out to sea. I do save those emails, but I'm not sure I'll keep them saved for much longer.

School work. If you have elementary-age children, don't read this part! I have thrown away student work. (Eeek!) :) This usually happens when I have a sub and have left a bunch of busy work for the kids. I get back and my desk is piled high with worksheets that have nothing to do with what we're studying, so I might just toss them in the trash. No harm done! I also don't save student artwork they make for me. I do hang stuff up on my desk at school, but then at the end of the year or when I need to make more room, it goes in the trash. (After school of course, so they don't see it!)

Pictures! After my college boyfriend broke up with me my senior year, I let off a little steam by destroying some things. I cut up a teddy bear he gave me. I broke picture frames with pictures of us in them. (I promise I am not a psycho!) I didn't keep a single picture that had him in it! I guess that's what I regret throwing out the most because there were good pictures of good memories with other people in them too and I just threw them out in my anger. For example, I don't have a single picture of my trip to Washington, DC. However, that will be taken care of in a week and a half though when I go back there. Those pictures I will most certainly save!

So, there you have it. I sound like a crazy person! I am just not a very sentimental person. I don't know where it comes from because my mom saved things. The staples from her c-section with me are in my baby book! I guess I just rely on my memories instead of having "stuff" to remember things by. I do wonder if things will be different now that I have a child. The Mother's Day card Brennan got me is still on the counter and it's been 3 whole days! I guess it couldn't hurt to save that! :)

Dear Brennan,

Happy 3 month birthday, baby! Oh how time flies! Here are some things that have been going on with you.

You are certainly growing! You seem to get longer each and every single day. I think it is time to pack away your newborn clothes. You have also outgrown all of your 0-3 month footy pajamas. You are mainly wearing 3 month clothes, but sizes can be tricky, so I've been going through your clothes and seeing what I think you can wear. On Sunday you wore a 6-month onesie and it fit pretty well! You are still in size 1 diapers.

You continue to be more alert during your wake-time. You can now watch your Praise Baby DVD while sitting in your swing. You have become more aware of your hands and will actually grab at the toys that dangle on your bouncer and car seat. You smile all the time and just this past Saturday, you started laughing. It is the world's greatest sound! You "talk" all the time. Daddy thinks you are actually trying to sing since I sing to you so often. You don't spend as much time in your bouncer anymore. You are usually on your blanket on the floor. Ringo has been such a good doggy and typically leaves you alone when you're on the floor. I bet the two of you become best buddies!

We try to get out of the house more often now. Since the Dishmons are now back in CT, we visit with them a lot. I think you fall more in love with Adah with each visit! :) Mommy joined Stroller Strides, so now we are doing that a few days/week. It comes in handy that you enjoy your stroller. However, it is often stop-and-go because the Mommies stop to do workouts and you aren't a fan of the stopping! You still love riding in the car. That's good because in less than 2 weeks we are taking a 7-hour trip to Washington D.C. Hopefully it goes well.

You are sleeping so well at night. Typically 10.5-11 hours! Just last night you slept from 7:50pm-7:10am! It was pretty awesome! Our nighttime routine has stayed the same. You get a bath and LOVE it! (I hope that means you'll love the pool this summer too!) You eat, listen to your Bible story, get swaddled, Mommy sings "Jesus Loves Me", and then you go in your crib. Most nights you don't cry at all. You just put yourself to sleep. You are taking good naps most days too. You always nap in your crib now, which gives Mommy time to get things done around the house (or take a nap herself!)

You are so precious and I love you so very much! I wonder what you will amaze us with this coming month?!?! I can't wait to find out!

Love,

Mommy

Brennan back at 2 months

Brennan today at 3 months

I did the above picture by myself while Kyle was still at work. It was hard to keep him propped up long enough to get the picture (hence the horrible posture), so I had Kyle help me with some more tonight. By that time, he needed an outfit change due to spitting up. Here are some of the up-close shots Daddy got tonight.

Do you think he knows he's cute?!?!

He's looking at his Momma here!

Cute smiley face!

Such a Big Boy

Brennan looks adorable each and every single day. Today, however, I thought he looked extra cute. The weather was cool this morning, so I put him in a sweater even though it is almost mid-May.

Little Blue Riding Hood

Since the day he came home from the hospital, Brennan has slept in a sleep sack. We have several of them and they are perfect for little babies because it makes middle of the night diaper changes a breeze. Brennan has been sleeping through the night for about a month now and he will be 3-months tomorrow, so in honor of his big day I decided to dress him in his new big boy pajamas for the first time! He's so stinkin' cute!

Please ignore my shirt in the background that is all pulled up! :) But do check out Brennan's right ear! My hand on the back of his head is making it stick out, but it is cracking me up in this picture!

Amanda, I think he almost looks red-headed in this picture! Eeek! :)