Braylen's 1st birthday

Here's my version of a save the date card...Braylen's first birthday party will be Oct 9, wow only about a month away, brings a little tear to my eye!  For those of you from out of town, we would love to have you visit and stay at our house or if you'd rather get a hotel, I can get a reduced rate with UD.  Hard to believe we've almost made it to 1.

 "Blash maba rirey baa mamma"
(that's Braylen language for we hope you can join us for the big Party!!)

Ready, set, relax...

Or not.  I thought I would be able to relax a bit this weekend, I thought wrong!!  After a late night out Friday(and fabulously fun hanging with my coworkers!!), I was not doing so hot on Saturday.  We cruised to Bellevue, hung out for a while on the beach with friends and it would've been a great day to be boating except for my headache!!  I was able to relax finally around 9pm that night, just in time for bed.  Braylen and I had all day Sunday hanging out while dad went boating and just as I said, "I'm going to read for a while before I start doing much around the house." I stepped on a sticky spot on the kitchen floor and that opened up a huge can of worms, cleaning worms that is!!  After my sweeping and mopping and Bray's nap, we played in the pool and swung in his swing and then when it got too hot we went inside to play and read books.  Then dinner and bed, what happened to my relaxing and reading??  I guess that's what happens when you've got a baby and a dirty floor :(
I've got a cute video with Braylen standing and his newest word...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww5DmjaahHs. 
And another good one of him swinging and "kicking" me, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIsXoXdXafs

Playing on the beach

Playing in the pool!!

Swinging is fun!!

Especially when mom pushes me really high!!

Seriously, I could do this all day!!

Thursday night fun

Thursday after work I picked Bray up and noticed he had a new do, pretty cool look for a little guy!!!  We went for a jog and then home where Braylen helped dad unload the dishwasher, he's a great helper!  He at his first pizza, made just for him, thoroughly enjoyed it and took a bath.  It was his first bath that he had so much fun he didn't want to stand up and didn't want to get out!!  I made some homemade salsa from our organic CSA tomatoes (pics below, they were funky), jalapenos, red onions, garlic, cilantro and pepper, it was very good!!  We were pretty wiped out after our busy night.

Helping dad unload the dishwasher

All done, I even got the basket out!

New do

Yumm Pizza!!

food monster 

tomato #1

tomato #2

and salsa

I could've played in here all day

Relaxing weekend...

We had a great weekend Friday-Sunday with Braylen and Jeremy! Friday Bray's daycare had the day off and we hung around at home getting some things done. Jeremy started on shelves in our storage space downstairs and Braylen and I ran some errands in the afternoon, including visiting UD and going to lunch with dad at Hu Hut. That night we had our neighborhood picnic and it was Braylen's first night he's played outside, crawling around and walking with his push/ride toy! He was dirty and was go, go, going until he hit a brick wall. Jeremy stayed out latest and had fun with the neighbors playing bags, smoking cigars and having a few drinks! Saturday Braylen and I enjoyed the nice weather on the deck where he helped me with laundry while dad slept in a bit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C149VtMPVA. We went boating for a few hours in the afternoon with Bray and then out to dinner with newly married friends of ours, Dave and Sara. I was able to finished the laundry on Sunday, clean the kitchen up, fix Braylen's food for the week and play with Bray while Jeremy finished the shelves. I got out bowls of water and spoons and that entertained him for a long time on the deck, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6f1E2odvn4, and then snacks entertained him as dinner approached!! We're weening him from his afternoon bottle and limiting him to 2 bottles a day, so far 3 days down, wonder how it will go at daycare?! He's very interested in watching me feed the dogs and the "way" that they eat. He has not yet decided to eat the dog food, yet, but I'm sure I'll be telling a different story in the near future when I'm not looking!!

Weekend with the Nana and Papas

Not only did Nana and Papa come to visit Bray, Super Nana and Super Papa also came!! What a great weekend to spend together. We hung around Saturday when we got home and then went for a boat ride with the Nanas and Braylen. We made dinner when we got home and everyone was out the door early on Sunday. Nana and Papa brought a gift for Braylen that he loves, it's a ride and walk toy. He was so fun to watch walk around with it, but mom and dad didn't get to see him cruise around the house :(. We did take video so they could see his enjoyment,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr4G8IcHtYk!! We decided to make the best of the gorgeous Sunday and went for a longer boat ride and stopped at the beach. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera because Braylen played in the sand for the first time and loved it!! A bath was in order after the sand and river water.

Black Eye Peas

Jeremy and I had a night out to see Black Eye Peas Friday night. It was really amazing!! My parents are wonderful for coming to Dubuque to babysit, even though dad was laid up (understatement of the year!). I hope they had fun because we had a blast. We went to dinner and then saw TPain and BEP!! Great concert and it was fabulous to get away for a night with no worries!! Thanks for the present babe!!

Pictures: before the concert, during and then right after (we were booing because they were done!)

10 months old

Seriously... Not only is Bray 10 months old, but I must say he's probably about the cutest 10 month old I know! He's got 5 teeth and more on the way, crawling and pulling up like crazy, walking around with fingers, eating lots of good food and seems to be able to eat for weeks, is getting lots of bumps and bruises (visible from pics), is drinking well from his sippy cup, likes to see what happens when he drops his food and cup off of his high chair, loves looking at his picture and all around getting SO BIG. So much life has been crammed into his 10 months, whew, he's got to be exhausted!!

Fluhr family "camping"

We had our annual camping trip with the Fluhr's this past weekend! Although, mom doesn't really think what we do it camping because we have cabins and a camper, it's camping enough for us!! It was lots of fun and we enjoyed all of the time we spent with the kiddies and the adults after the little ones were in bed. We had some late nights and early mornings, but for the most part was pretty relaxing. The downfall was the mosquito's!! They were horrible and wouldn't leave us alone. Braylen had a first, powder sugar donuts and golf cart ride (unfortunately the picture was super foggy!)I think next year we're moving even further away from camping, but we will still have the bon fire and camp food, yippy!! That's my only requirement!! We crashed when we got home and all took long naps after the long weekend and previous week!!