In A Nutshell

As you all know, it has been awhile since I last updated the blog so there are A LOT of pictures, which I suppose is easier to look at than a bunch of words. :)

A lot of people ask me what it's like to raise 2 kids at the same time that are SO close in age. Well the best answer I can give is, I had to adjust to having one kid and now I have to adjust to having 2. I have been told by other people that having 2 kids is easier than 1 because they have each other to play with (regardless of age difference). Spencer is not old enough to play yet so I can't agree or disagree with that statement yet but within the next year I'll be able to. There are some awesome things about it and there are some things that make it difficult. Brayden absolutely loves Spencer-sometimes a little too hard. Every time Brayden sees Spencer his face lights up and he smiles and when Spence is sleeping, Bray will scream in excitement and of course it wakes him up... Brayden loves to get on top of Spencer and just sit on him (I have pictures but they need to be downloaded). Spencer will just sit and watch Brayden play. Because he has someone (a child) to watch, I imagine he will walk earlier and speak earlier than Brayden did-that's how it was with my brother and I (who are 1 year and 22 days apart) according to my mom. Anyway. The pictures are in order from most recent to least recent. Enjoy!

Here is Spencer at 4 months of age.

Brayden at 4 months of age.

Brayden in his toddler bed.

 
Brayden at the park at the base lake.

 
Spencer at the beach for the first time! Bryan took
the day off and we went to Ocean City, Maryland
and had a lot of fun even though it was a little chilly
and windy on the beach while it was nice and warm
inland.

 
Brayden's first time at the beach. He loved playing
in the sand and was a little afraid of the water. We
buried him in the sand and surprisingly liked it-it
was warmer underneath all that sand.

 
At Mount Vernon. Bryan is George Washington and
Brayden is Patty Custer.

 
Well we finally decided to cut Brayden's hair.
Before.

 
After (sorry if it's a little blurry).

 
Brayden likes to play with the toys that Spencer plays with.

 
Spencer baby!

 
Spencer's blessing!

 

I was inside the house when Bryan told me to hurry
and come outside. This is what I found:

 

Brayden then decided to eat a ball of mud/dirt after
he tasted it.

 

This is what he thought of what he did. (And then
he did it again). We were laughing so hard.

 

A picture at the White House.

 

Spencer at 3 months of age.

 
Brayden at 3 months of age.

 
Easter. Brayden giving Spencer kisses, which he
loves to do. We will tell Bray to give Spence a kiss
and since he knows what that means, he gives it
to him!

 

Family Picture.

 

This was back in March. We went to the 316th
Wing Awards Banquet. Good food. Good company.
Good to get out.

 
Brayden and Spencer in the same bed. (Don't worry
they really didn't sleep like that).

 
That's all for now...until the next couple of months!
Hopefully it will be sooner than that (depending on
how many comments we get.)  :)

Old Update

So I tried to post this awhile ago but Brayden wouldn't stop touching the computer so I'm now getting to it, which means I still need post the most recent pictures but here are these ones anyways.

Happy Birthday Brayden!

Well it's time for another update I suppose. Brayden absolutely loves his little brother. He gets excited every time he sees him. He just doesn't know how to treat him: he likes to grab at him.

Spencer and Brayden playing. Brayden didn't want

Bryan to take Spencer off him-he wanted to keep

holding him-it was pretty funny.

Spencer is just a couple weeks old here.

Brayden wearing 3D glasses that we brought home

from watching Avatar.

We're not used to living in/near the city. Things

we've learned from this movie outing: always keep

cash on hand/in the car if you don't have an ATM

card because you ALWAYS have to pay for parking

and it will ALWAYS feel like highway robbery. We

didn't have cash on hand or anything (didn't take credit)

so I thought we weren't going to make it back home...

but we did... I guess the guy took pity on us poor non-city

folk unaccustomed to being prepared to pay for parking.

We really got lucky!

One of Brayden's favorite things to do: pull clothes

out or off of something and throw them behind him.

I was trying to go through clothes we got from a friend

and it was near impossible.

Brayden's 1st birthday cake! He loved it! We

gave him his own cupcake and he loved eating

the frosting off it. After awhile though, he threw

the cupcake on the floor.

12 month picture. He weighs 18 lbs

and I can't remember how tall he is

(I have to look it up).

Here's little Spencer chillaxin. So cute.

Spencer Bryan Winston

So here is the story all about how....

My due date January 4th came and went. I went to my Dr. appointment on the 7th and I was dilated to a 5. The doctor was really surprised at how far I was dilated especially since I hadn't had any contractions. He had me take a stress test and everything was fine. We were talking about a date to be induced and since my mom was already here and would be leaving in a week, we wanted it to be sooner than later (I couldn't stand to go that much longer anyways). The doctor was talking with a nurse or someone about a date to induce me and were talking about Tuesday or Wednesday (this was taking place on a Thursday of the previous week) and my mom was leaving on Thursday. Bryan stressed to them the sooner the better and the doctor asked "do you want to have him today?" We said yes and asked if we could go home and get our stuff which we did, and then we came back. Before we got back I was starting to have some contractions but nothing like the ones I had after they broke my water. But before we get to that part of the story, we had to wait in a waiting area because they were cleaning up one of the delivery rooms. Then, the fire alarm went off and we had to go back downstairs and outside! Luckily they let us stay in the lobby (because Bryan told them it was ridiculous to send a pregnant women in the beginning stages of labor out in the cold). Luckily we didn't have to wait long and we were able to go back up to labor and delivery. The doctor broke my water at 5:30 and shortly after I had HARD contractions. I had never felt so much pain before in my life. In fact, my life passed before my eyes. A few minutes later I had to have an epidural. All of those women out there who have natural birth...there's a higher place in heaven for them. Once that kicked in, I could still feel the contractions but only a little but I was still really uncomfortable because Spencer was seriously burrowing in my sternum and my ribs and that really hurt. Shortly after the epidural, I felt the need to push and so we called the nurse in. She checked my dilation and I was at a 10. This baby was coming. They called the Dr. (he had just left to get something to eat) and when he came the nurse asked if she should start pushing with me and he said no because this baby was coming. The nurse said I would have a baby before 8. After getting things ready, I pushed and 4 minutes later he was born-all before 7:30! (He was born at 7:28). So I was in labor for only 2 hours and all it took was to break my water. This time around was a lot easier than the last time even though I had a bigger baby. He was 8 lbs 14.7 oz and 21.1 in long-that explains the hibernating in my ribs.

This was after the epidural.

Proud father!

Proud mom.

Cute "little" baby

Future heartthrob lady-killer.

On our way home!

Brayden holding Spencer.

All ready for bed!

Happy Holidays!

An update is long overdue and with all the unfinished projects I have that need to be done (that take forever doing) this is going to be a short post with some things excluded because I don't feel like downloading the camera right now.

Brayden is 10 months old-he'll be 11 on Christmas day. He's finally older than the amount of time he was in my belly, and that also means that that's how long Bryan has been home. This time last year was something I don't want to go through again so I'm extremely grateful that Bryan and I got to have Thanksgiving together and that we don't have to worry about moving during Christmas. Last year all I wanted for Christmas was for Bryan to be home and I want to remind everyone that one of the important things about Christmas is who you spend it with -not what you get to unwrap and to not get caught up in presents. (That wasn't worded very well but you get the idea).

We were able to go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving this year and it sure is nice that we live close enough to drive! If only we could make it there for Christmas...

My little brother Chase and Brayden played along with each other well. Here they are playing with one of my favorite toys-the doll house.

There was also a kitchen area that Brayden

loved to play in as well.

There was a competition for a Christmas card

and this is what Bryan's squadron turned in.

Bryan and I helped paint this. Helped is the

key word.

A lady from Bryan's work gave Brayden this

toy and here he is playing with it-it's gonna

be his Christmas present even though he's

already seen it (and is still out...)

Bryan's squadron threw me a baby shower, which

was really nice because 1) I'm not a part of the

squadron in the same way Bryan is and 2) we already

have boy stuff. It was a lot of fun. The guys were

invited as well and boy were they a crack up!

The cute cake. Brayden loves that little bear.

Brayden and Laila liked each other. They are

only a few months apart (Brayden is older). They

were so cute!

Here is a little video of our crazy little man.

ok that's not the one I wanted to post. (He shakes

his head back and forth like a crazy man which

is what I was trying to get him to do but of course

he wouldn't). Here's the one I wanted to post:

The pregnancy is going well. I'm tired and have no energy which won't improve until who knows how long after the baby is born. It's as uncomfortable as ever and sleeping well through the night doesn't really happen. I'm 3 weeks away from the due date. I look forward to the day when I can be normal again which still won't happen right after birth but it's a step closer. Even though I did this a year ago, I'm terrified to do it all over again. Brayden loves other kids so hopefully he'll love his little brother too. :)

Halloween, Something Unexpected, The Petting Zoo, Brayden Updates, and Anniversary

Since it has been a long time since I've updated, there are lots of updates and pictures to share.

Here, we are at Joanne's looking at the Halloween

and Fall stuff and Brayden was not afraid of the

masks in fact, he liked them. :)

Here is his 9 month picture. It's so hard

to get him to cooperate sometimes.

He has been so attached to Bryan. When

Bryan sets him down he has a fit, or if Bryan

gives him to me, he has a fit. He isn't satisfied

until Bryan is holding him. He just loves his

daddy!

Brayden can clap his hands together, pat his foot

(from playing the game "shoe the old horse"),

can push unwanted food/drinks away, can walk

along the couch and walk while pushing something,

he loves drinking out of a glass even if it has grapefruit

juice in it, and has to touch and play with absolutely

EVERYTHING-when washing his hands he has to grab:

the soap, the lotion, the faucet, the stopper, stick his

finger through that little hole, grab the water, touch the

mirror and starts all over again. He loves playing with

toilet paper too.

Here he found some candy-a tootsie roll. The

position he's in is pretty cute and if you look

closely you can see a long piece of drool coming

from his mouth.

Here is our little Brayden with his first pumpkin!

He loved it.

He's enjoying the leaf too.

Brayden will play with his toys for a minute but

he will play with the electronics for quite a while.

He's just like his dad.

Here we are at the trunk-or-treat. Brayden was

a little caterpillar/wiggle worm. Bryan was a black

bird and I was a butterfly (which there are no current

pictures of yet).

Here's a close up of Brayden in his

costume. He was so cute.

We were pretty much the only ones

who dressed up-there were two other

couples.

On Halloween, we did a little trick-or-treating.

Trick-or-treating on base is so awesome. If you

want kids to come, you leave your porch light on,

and if you don't you leave your light off. We live

across from a parking lot so we got tonz of kids

and our candy was gone in about an hour! There

were kids everywhere! It was really dark out (at

6 p.m.) but we felt really safe. Security forces people

were walking around to make sure everyone was

safe and that sort of thing. People had their houses

decorated and even though Brayden couldn't walk, it

was fun to be out and about and see all the kids in

their costumes and the halloween decorations. It

wasn't just a neighborhood thing, it was a base thing.

It was so much fun, we felt safe, and I can't wait to do

it again next time! Trick-or-treating on base was

pretty much the best!

Here is Brayden asleep in his high chair. It was

hilarious watching him fall asleep. His head kept

bobbing back and forth!

Brayden was watching baby einstein

and he was trying to get at the TV or

something-although this is something

he's starting to do anyways.

The day before Halloween, we received

some horrible news about Bryan's grandma

Barnes. She was having a hard time breathing

and went to the hospital where we thought she

might not make it through the night. Her death

was very unexpected and she was only in her 70's.

She was healthy and happy and we will miss her

greatly. We were able to fly to Washington for

the funeral. One of Bryan's bosses was willing to

help get paperwork done that night so he could

go. His squadron people were very supportive

and bent over backwards to make things possible

for him (and me) to get out there. It was so good

to see his family-we just wish it was under different

circumstances.

Here are Bryan and Brayden giving a rose to

Grandma Barnes. (Sorry about the picture-

people kept walking right in front of me).

Brayden was absolutely horrible during the

funeral service. We wonder if he could sense

something.

Bryan and his brothers. His "adopted" brother

just got back from Iraq.

While we were there, Bryan, Jared, and their

cousins loved playing the x-box. Brayden joined

them many times.

Ella (cousin) and Brayden. It was so cute to

see them interact.

Bryan and the boys flew this kite-well it's more

like the kite flew them. I'll let Bryan talk about

that one.

Brayden making a cute funny face.

Brayden got behind the couch to

play with the electronics (that were

plugged in).

Bryan and I have the great privilege of being

a part of the petting zoo and feeding the little

monkey on a daily basis.

Here is the little monkey we feed and pet at the

petting zoo. The "gate" (made from crib parts)

blocks him off from the kitchen. He does this

every time I'm working in the kitchen, when he

isn't high pitched screaming.

On the 18th of November, Bryan and I celebrated

our 3 yr anniversary. We spent part of the day in

Annapolis and enjoyed part of the marina, ate lunch,

had some yummy gelato, and walked a little through

the town. It was very enjoyable. Thanks Charla and

Chris for watching Brayden!

Bryan got me a dozen beautiful roses and we

enjoyed a nice meal together the night before.

I'm grateful that we were married and sealed

in the temple forever so that I can be with him

FOREVER. In one of my YW lessons, I told my

beehives that temple marriage is not happily

ever after-it's happily ever beginning and forever!

Last night, I went to mom's night out (aka girls

night out) and I wasn't sure if I should go because

I had a ton of cleaning and chores and packing to get

done before our trip to Indiana for Thanksgiving. I

didn't get much done during the day due to errands

and later my legs and pelvis were hurting so I had to

lie down because it hurt to stand. Anyways I went and

when I came back, Bryan had cleaned! What a wonderful

husband! Thanks babe I love you!