Happy Birthday Bray-Lynne & Merry Christmas!

Cousins :)
Grandma Judy & Grandma Nettie w/Bray giving the babydoll 'kisses'
Grandma & Grandma Van Zante w/Bray. Bray thought she'd frown for this picture
Bray-Lynne likes her Great-Grandpa Van Zante
Here she is in her birthday outfit made by Aunt Joyce - thanks!!
I painted her toes red for her b-day & Christmas.
Saying "cheese!" on her birthday
She really was trying hard to say "cheeeeeeese!" here

This past year has really flown by. I don't know where all the time went. Sometimes it felt like the days were dragging and other times they got away from us in no time. We have come a long way since last year & couldn't be more blessed with the path God has us on. Life has changed so much and we are in awe of his AWESOME power...love...grace...mercy....glory!! There have been many times in the past year that we have questioned "why are we here?", "what are we doing?", "what are we supposed to do?", "what now?" through all of those questions we turned to the power of prayer and our faith in God. HE has opened so many doors and we are beyond grateful!

The pictures above are from Bray-Lynne's 1st birthday party on December 23rd and our Christmas with the Van Zante/DeVries/Cowman family. We have many more pictures and many videos; however a lot of those were taken on other family member's cameras. Once I get a few more through email I hope to get those posted.

Snow storm

We might be going a stir crazy at our house :) We have been working on teaching Bray-Lynne to go up and down the stairs. She can go upstairs on her own just fine but going down is still a work in progress. She will do a couple but doesn't want to by herself yet. We also took a few pictures of the snow we got out here at the farm. On Monday night we got our tree completed and I included a few pictures of our stockings and other Christmas decor. Hopefully we can get out of the house today even for a quick trip to the grocery store...if it's too cold I guess tomorrow will be better!

busy, busy, busy

New crocheted hat. She didn't want me to take her pic :)
Trying so hard to stand up in the tub

Her classic bath time look.

Playing with mommy's spice rack

Busy playing in the kitchen.
A picture of mommy on her 25th birthday

We are staying busy keeping up with Bray-Lynne. She is just about 11 months old now. We can't believe we are already planning her 1st birthday. It feels like she was just born! She is getting more confident pulling up on things and forgets what she's doing and lets go momentarily. She was nervous about going "boom" to get down but daddy worked with her on that one night and she had it down. We are constantly given smiles and 'kisses'. She loves to point out our eyes and she can show us where her hair is. She is also very good at showing us that she is "soooo big". Bray still doesn't really crawl on her knees...only a few times here and there. She prefers to army crawl to get where she's going the fastest. She is totally off baby food and LOVES to feed herself. Sometimes it can be a challenge to think of things to feed her. We are working on weaning her and so far we only have 2 bottles a day. One before afternoon nap & the other at night time. She doesn't like milk from the sippy cup yet but I am determined to get her there! :)

We have a busy weekend and week ahead of us. We are trying to get done in the field and are on the home stretch. We had some very long days and will be thankful when we are finally done. Tomorrow we have cousin Lake's 3rd birthday party and are very much looking forward to that! Next week we are hosting both Van Zante and Filer/Fox Thanksgivings. We know it will be a lot of work but work that we look forward to and enjoy! We can't wait to see our families and spend some quality time with them...not to mention the great food that will accompany! Once Thanksgiving is done we have several birthdays and of course Christmas. We are looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends over the next few weeks!

Bath time

Splashing!

I'm in the sink guys
Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Des Moines to celebrate my 25th birthday. We went out to dinner with my parents and oldest brother. Dinner was great but seemed like it took way too long to get our food. By the time we were done, Bray-Lynne was definitely ready to go. She was being put to bed that night by her Grandma & Grandpa Filer while we went to catch up with some old friends. I told them not to worry about a bath because it was getting late; however they decided they'd do a quick bath since they don't get the chance to do that very often. I didn't know until later but they decided to do her bath in the sink that night. I don't know why I never thought of this before. I think all of us kids have pictures of us in the sink taking a bath. I am glad they got several pictures. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween and more!

Bray's first Halloween
She found our souvenir shot glasses from Hawaii in the cupboard tonight
She thinks these binkies are funny
In the pantry
Messy in her high chair. She will not drink milk/formula from a sippy so this is her looking at me thinking "is this some kind of joke?"


We spent our first Halloween as a family at Josh and Chelsea's house. We had a great supper and passed out candy. We got to celebrate Nana's birthday too. The night was a lot of fun and Bray had a great time keeping up with her cousins. We dressed Bray-Lynne up as a ladybug which was only appropriate being that we have a million of those bugs flying around here nowadays!

I have been pretty good about getting a few snapshots each day/couple days. Bray-Lynne is now pulling up on everything she can get her hands on...especially mommy and daddy. She is getting into everything and it's so much fun to watch her explore. Of course we have to be careful for little fingers and toes...and going 'boom' on the floor; she hasn't figured out how to get down gracefully from standing yet. Our little girl is turning into such a 'big' girl right before our eyes. We are cherishing every moment.

Brandyn has been working hard with his mom and dad getting crops out. The days have been long but we are grateful for dry weather. Bray loves her daddy so much and it's so hard for her to say 'bye bye' after short visits during the day. He has to sneak out before she gets too worked up. I am so glad she loves her daddy that much :)

I turned the big 25 today but suprisingly I don't feel "old". I was talking to my older brother tonight and he asked me that question...I replied: "I'm 25, married and have a child but I don't feel old." I still sometimes feel like a kid myself. I suppose that's a good thing.

It's been too long since I posted last!

Big girl in her high chair
Pulling Mitties tail...the cat puts up with a lot :)
Picture with mommy
Pulling herself up all alone now!
Happy girl!!
It has been way too long since I've done a post. Much has happened since my last post. We have moved into our new house on the other side of town. There were a few rainy days the first week in October so we decided to get our move on. We got everything done within about 3 days and are happily settled. We moved into Brandyn's parents house and they will be moving into their new home that is currently being built...probably in the middle of winter sometime?!? They are kind of nomads for now :)

Our little girl adjusted to the move so well and loves her new house. She is now pulling herself up on things. She is hesitant at times to use her knees but that is getting better and better each day. She loves to eat as well. She loves to eat foods that she can feed herself with (with the exception of a few things). We are done with baby food totally. I think she is very independent when it comes to eating. She loves to feed herself fruit, veggies, bread etc. She will let us feed her (with a spoon) her baby yogurt and a few other things. Last night we had Mexican and she loved the Spanish rice and soft tortillas. Most things she will try and usually finds out she likes them pretty well. I have even gotten her to try tomatoes, black olives and fresh mushrooms! WOW!

Tomorrow night we are headed to spend time with Josh, Chelsea, Lake & Harper to celebrate Halloween and Nana's birthday. We are going to get lots of pictures of the kiddos in their costumes and I will post after that!

Busy, growing girl

Can stand for short periods of time now!
Mitties puts up with a lot these days :)
Two "toofers"...one on top is finally breaking thru.
This baby gate obviously isn't working
Mitties inspires Bray to crawl everywhere
"Pattycake" is the new thing nowadays

Time is just flying by. Our little peanut is now 9 months old. It is so crazy how fast they grow. We thought it'd be forever until she was crawling, standing, eating solids etc. but here we are! She has such a great personality. We see a lot of both of us in her. As you can see, most of her looks are still her daddy's :) Her hair is starting to curl in the back and I think it's going to be brown so at least I have that going hehe. She likes to "pattycake", she now says "mama", "dada" and "baba". She still army crawls but that sure works for her well. She is getting curious about how to get up on the couch so I think that's going to come soon. We just had her 9 month check-up and we were told she is doing wonderfully. In 2 weeks we are headed to Ohio for my cousin's wedding...I'll post some pictures after that. We are also eager for her first ride in the combine. Fall is here!

Our big girl

Bray-Lynne is growing so fast it's amazing. She has changed so much in the past couple weeks. Bray loves to give out smiles, especially to her daddy. She thinks he is something else :) We were goofing off a little this afternoon...daddy thought it'd be cute to put his Cubs hat on Bray-Lynne. She thought it was pretty funny. As you can tell she is all smiles for her daddy. She has started to be a "big" girl lately about her bottle. Sometimes she thinks she needs to do it herself. She isn't to the point where she insists on doing it herself...we might be kind of sad when that day comes. Then again, it may also be kind of nice. They become independent very quickly. Bray has also become very good at feeding herself things like Cheerios. She loves to pick them off the tray of the high chair and shovel them in her mouth. We really have to watch her so she doesn't get too many in. She also loves to hold her sippy cup all by herself and drink water. It's also fun to use a real cup...we have to hold that for her but she thinks it's pretty neat. She has mastered the "combat" crawl so we are chasing her everywhere. We love watching her grow and change. Hard to believe in 4 months she will be one!