God Bless America

Our July 4th holiday spread across 4 days. We started out by attending Vestavia's "We Love America Day" celebration where we went swimming at the Wald Park pool. Actually, Brantley and I were the only ones to get wet but it was fun none the less. Brantley loved the little pool so I'm hoping to take her back there soon. 

July 4th was actually pretty uneventful for us. Chase had brought home the green pool for Brantley to play in but we were having a bee problem that day so she only got to play for about 5 minutes. We're thinking they have a nest in the front yard somewhere because Chase killed at least 30 or more with wasp spray and then more kept coming out.

The night we went over to Chase's parents house for dinner. Beverly had cooked a killer brisket and some other stuff I don't even remember what it all was now but the brisket was AMAZING! We opted out of watching fireworks again this year because Chase had been up since about 3am so he was tired. Hopefully next year we will be in to see Thunder On The Mountain for sure. Or some other show somewhere. I'd love to be at the lake next year for the 4th.

On Thursday the 5th, I took the girls to the Birmingham Zoo all by myself. We didn't get there until almost 11:30 so it was blazin' hot and we were pretty miserable the whole time. No worries though, we still had a good time and made the most of our outing.

On Friday morning, we went down to meet my parents at Lake Jordan. My Aunt Brenda had rented a house for the holiday and we got to spend Friday night down there. It was great and I'm so glad we were able to go. Brantley got to swim in the lake for the first time and she went on her first boat ride (pictures below). Savannah slept under an umbrella in her moses basket for about 3 hours when we first got there. I was amazed that she slept that long out there but it felt great so I guess I don't blame her.

She loved the boat ride most of all I think!

All in all we had a great time celebrating America's birthday. We spent time with family and that is the perfect thing to do on holidays. Happy Birthday, America!!

Brantley Rae's 1st Birthday Bash

Chase and I with our sweet ONE year old! It's still hard to believe that she's one. Before I know it she'll be graduating high school. Yikes!! haha

 This was the first decoration that I made and I LOVE the way it turned out!

First up are the decorations. I had been working on these decorations and planning it all out since the beginning of December. I lost so much sleep over planning, it was ridiculous. But thankfully in the end it all came together and looked great.

The food and the cakes were SO good. The same lady that made our wedding cake made BR's birthday cakes. So special. Thanks so much, Pam! You did a wonderful job!!

I also LOVE how cute Brantley's outfit turned out. The pants are so adorable! I'm going to applique a "B" on another shirt so she can wear the pants again. I love them!  
Shameless plug: I would love to make your little one a birthday outfit. E-mail me if your interested!

Party Time

Brantley just walked all around the room holding onto a balloon or two and she also pushed Dina around the room a little. She was having a blast! It was time for friends and family to join the party.

My girlfriends from high school/college were there with their kiddos and some husbands. It meant the world to me to have them all there to celebrate with us. I love this picture of BR and Bebe. They haven't had a good one together in a while so I'm glad we got this one. It will be framed!

Lots of Brantley's little friends were there as well. It was so special to have everyone there. Thanks to everyone that was able to come.

These are just some of the great gifts that were given to Brantley. She got lots of really cute outfits, toys, shoes, that adorable hand painted Tea Set from Miss Jami, and a really adorable cupcake backpack from Miss Ashley and her kiddos. I think my favorite outfit is the Minnie Mouse outfit. I so wish we were going to Disney World this summer but that just isn't going to happen...unless someone else want to foot the bill. haha

Really she was given so many great gifts that I can't thank everyone enough. It just shows how much Brantley Rae is loved!

Brantley didn't really care much for smashing the cake. She didn't like the icing on her fingers so she didn't eat much of it. Which honestly probably wasn't a bad thing. She still ended up stay up until 9:30 that night. I was falling asleep on the couch and she was walking around the living room just playing away. It was nuts!

So that was the party. Two months of planning for 2 hours of birthday party fun. Kinda like a wedding. ha! We had a fabulous time celebrating our baby's  FIRST birthday and we're so glad so many of our friends and family were able to be there with us. It was a wonderful day! 

I know BR won't remember but we have the pictures to prove the fun and how much she is loved.

Thanks, everyone!

Guess who's walking?...

Well, she's not walking just yet but she is taking lots of steps on her own. It's so stinkin' cute to watch her waddle across the room or rather in between Chase and I. She first started taking steps on Tuesday, Nov. 23rd. We took this video of her walking on Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

She's still falling quite a bit but she thinks walking is really funny. She is really proud of herself. Can you tell?
She is growing up so fast! I can't believe that we'll be celebrating her first birthday in less than two months. Can you believe it? I've started planning already!!

Happy Halloween - 2010

 Happy Halloween from the cutest kitten on the block!!!

BR's New Hair-Do

We did this to BR's hair after her bath the other night. I was surprised that she even had enough to make a mowhawk with. So cute! Don't worry she won't be sporting this look outside of the house. It's not girly enough for her. hehe!

p.s. Just so no one freaks out and thinks we're bad parents. We've never actually used the blub suction she is chewing on because it's too big for her nose. ha!

Old Baker Farm - October 9, 2010

Last Saturday, Chase and I took Brantley to Old Baker Farm with my mom and Alyssa. We all had a really great time even though it was WAY too hot for an October Saturday. Despite the sweat we had a good time! Above are pictures from the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Brantley got to take these sweet pictures with a really big pumpkin. There was no way she was gonna look up at us and smile. She was super distracted by the pumpkins. We tried to get pictures of Brantley and Alyssa in the pumpkin patch but neither of the looked or smiled. Better luck next time!

After the hay ride and picking out our pumpkins, Alyssa got to climb the mountain of hay, swing on the tire horse and jump in the cotton trailer. She had so much fun!

 This thing was really tall but she wasn't scared at all. No Fear!!

The cotton was really soft and looked like a lot of fun. Alyssa was doing flips in it and jumping all over the place. It will be so fun in 2-3 years when Brantley can do stuff like this with Alyssa.

I'm so glad we got to go to Old Baker Farm with Mom and Alyssa. We'll have to do better at taking pictures of everyone next time. We didn't take a family picture or one of my mom and the girls. Shucks! We'll just have to do it again before Halloween. Alyssa has the same shirt that BR was wearing but it was WAY too hot to change her into it even for a quick picture.
I'm totally loving this time of year but I'm really ready for fall weather to come back and stick around for good.

Have you been to a pumpkin patch? If so, which one did you go to?

Crawling at 7 Months!! Ahh!

This is a video I took of Brantley on the day that she started crawling. Yes! She is crawling already!! It's been a week now and she is all over the place. In the video she's crawling slow and still unsure of what she's doing but now she knows exactly what's up and loves being mobile. 

I think it's adorable to watch her move around and explore although, I don't like it very much when she wants to explore Marley's toys and food bowls. Yuck! haha! (So far nothing has made it to her mouth!) I'll have to take a video of her now that she's crawling faster and add it soon so you can see how much better she is at it. 

Our little sweet pea is growing up! Sniff, sniff!

 She was crawling over to Marley's house with the letter "I" in ther mouth. I thought it was so silly so I had to take a picture. haha

Our First Family Vacation

The weekend of August 20-23, Chase, Brantley and I went on our first family vacation to Gulf Shores Beach, AL. We went with my parents and had a BLAST! Brantley was an angel the whole time! Even the car ride there and back. She was so sweet!

We stayed in condos called Sanibel. It was very nice! I would love to go back there maybe next year or something. Brantley or course loved swimming in the pool. We spent a lot of time down there because she was NOT a fan on the ocean water, the sand or the heat.

She really loves the water. We have a few videos of her but I've been having trouble with YouTube so they haven't gotten uploaded yet or I would share with you guys.

She that top middle picture...that was her reaction to her feet touching the gulf water both times we tried. She was NOT having anything to do with touching that water. It wasn't any colder than the pool so I think it was just that the water moved and made noise. haha! I'm sure next summer she will love it but for now she prefers the pool.

We went to dinner the first night at The Hangout but I forgot our camera. It was really good! We didn't stay and party or anything since we had BR but I would like to go back sometime when we can stay out later than 7:30. ha! Saturday night we ate at Bahama Bob's, which was wonderful and then on Sunday night we ate at LuLu's. Everything was great! No complaints on food here!

Saturday night was the most BEAUTIFUL sunset. Chase and my dad both took lots of pictures of it. Have you ever seen a sunset with green in it? How awesome is that?!!

On Sunday night we got to take these great family photos on the beach just before a really big storm came through. That's why the sky is so dark. I think they turned out great! I was determined to take some good family pictures because it was our first vacation and it had to be documented correctly. ha!

I thank my Mom for putting this trip together because otherwise we wouldn't have gone to the beach this year as a family. It was great to spend so much time with them. We love you, Mom and Dad, and we thank you for helping us with BR. My parents kept her one night for us so we got to go get TCBY and play mini-golf. It was so fun! We played at Adventure Island where they have a volcano that really (but not really) erupts. Fire comes out of the top! I mean a HUGE burst of fire blows out the top every once in a while. It was wild! 

All in all it was a great trip and I'm so glad we got to spend the time together relaxing and having fun. I can't wait until we get to go back when BR is older. Hopefully she'll decide that she likes the water one day. :o)

Number 3...Check

Last weekend I took Brantley to the beach for the first time. I went on a whim and we had a great time! We went down to meet the Bachofer's in Santa Rosa Beach. We stayed in a great house that was in the same neighborhood as their Aunt Pooh, aka Charlot. Both houses were beautiful but I liked Miss Charlot's better.

 I love my baby girl so much! It was great being at the beach with her and I'm pumped that we get to go back this weekend. Chase, BR and I are going to Gulf Shores with my parents for the weekend. It's gonna be great!!!