A Fairy Tale Halloween

Following suit with Branna's love for princesses, she decided to be Snow White this year for Halloween. It took a little convincing for her to get the costume on at first, but when she heard that she'd be getting candy, she was all for it! However, as soon as we got back home, she was very ready to take the dress off.

We also had a special treat this Halloween, since my mom, stepdad, and brother spent the weekend with us and got to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. I think they enjoyed being able to see Branna dress up as much as she did getting her candy! :)

As we were walking around, I thought how much different next Halloween will be. Branna will be 3 1/2 years old (I can't believe that!) and we'll have a 6 month old (I really can't believe that!) We're looking forward to what the future holds!

A-Camping-We-Will-Go

Branna had a fun experience last weekend at her first campout. A group from our church went camping for a night at McKinney Falls, a local Austin campground. Although it was chilly, Branna was quite excited to sleep in a outside in a tent and to get to play with all of her friends.

Helping to set up the tent

Playing with Gavin...

... and Ethan

We ate hotdogs around a fire and, of course, roasted marshmallows for s'mores. Branna wasn't too interested in the s'mores, but did enjoy the chocolate. In the morning, we woke up to a cold morning where a warm fire and hot chocolate was very welcome!

After packing up our tent and cleaning up camp, we visited the falls that McKinney Falls is named for. It was a very pretty river, one that we'd enjoy visiting again.

I think if Branna had her way, we'd camp every weekend!

Vacuuming

Recently, we were on the schedule to vacuum our church's building. This is a job that takes at least a couple of hours, but Branna has always enjoyed getting to go and help out. She has a little vacuum that we bring, so she really feels like she's helping out.

However, even as energetic as Branna is, after a while, she needed a break. The cry room was a perfect place for her to relax for a little bit, since it's out of the way and quiet. As you can tell, she was having a good time, even taking a break.

A Week In Review

This week was somewhat unusually busy for us. We kicked it off with a great visit from my mom, brother and stepdad last weekend. Branna also had a few opportunities to have play dates with friends and we started "preschool".

When my mom comes for a visit, Branna knows that she's going to get the extra special treatment. Case and point: After eating a great out-to-eat lunch, we stopped by Wal-Mart. It was quickly approaching Branna's naptime and it was starting to show. She adam

ant about not going into the store. As I was walking around the car to get Branna out, I saw my mom whisper something to her and whatever was said, made things better. I didn't think much about it, until we got into Wal-Mart and Branna proudly announced that she w

as getting a bicycle. Yep, Grandma Honey bought Branna her first "bicycle". (It's actually a tricycle, but Branna doesn't know the difference right now.)

Fortunately the weather was great for outside play, so Branna spent most of the next morning riding her bicycle. She hasn't quite figured out how to pedal, but she's getting

better every time.

We also had a couple playdates with Branna's friends: First, we traveled to San Marcos to visit with our friends Lisa and baby Ella. After that, we had our friends Jackie and Naomi over. Since we live so far out of town and away from most our friends, we don't get to have company over often, so this was a special treat for Branna.

Branna and Naomi are good buddies and it's a lot of fun to see them play together at church. They can be so silly together. At the playdate, they seemed to have a good time playing pretend shopping and dressup.

Lastly, we started "preschool". I put preschool in quotes, because it's just me getting a few subject specific lessons together for the week. I was starting to feel like we were needing a little more structure to our day. With me trying to wrap up my research and spending as much time as I can on that, I was concerned about neglecting Branna's needs, especially when it came to expanding her knowledge about the world around us.

It's not anything big, just an hour or so a day learning about whatever. For our first week, I chose birds. (Right now, Branna really likes chickens... go figure.) Branna really seemed to get into "school" and had a good time working on our projects. As you'll see in the pictures below, we talked about chickens, ducks and penguins. By the way, if anyone has any good preschool websites that have free resources, please let me know!

Inspired By Love, Created By God

Everything about a child is truly amazing. From its growth in the womb to its development through each stage of life.
Last Monday, we were able to see our new baby for the first time! I wasn't expecting to have a sonogram at my first appointment, so what a great surprise.

I am currently 10.5 weeks, which puts the size of the baby between a kumquat and a fig. Still so tiny, but absolutely incredible that only a few weeks ago, it wasn't any bigger than a poppy seed!

At our appointment, the midwife said that everything was right on track and things were looking good. While the printed out pictures are a little blurry, we could clearly see the baby on the sonogram machine move and twitch. At one point, it looked like they may have had a couple of hiccups. I had hoped Branna would have been more impressed, but she was just ready to leave. Maybe next time. :)

Singin' in the Rain

What a welcome sight the rain was last week! Branna and I took advantage of it by getting out and playing in it a couple days. She hasn't seen much rain in her life, so that made it even more special for her. She had blast splashing in it and getting wet!

...And We're Back?

... Hopefully, that is. It's been forever since I've blogged, primarily because our internet has been down for over a month. (Yes, a month!) Finally, I think we've got the situation resolved. I wanted to post a quick note to let you all know what was going on and that we're back! :)

Out of the Mouths of Babes

As alot of you know, Branna likes to talk... wait LOVES to talk. The last few weeks, however, her personality and awareness of her surrounding has really shown through in her "conversations". Here are a few examples of some recent Branna-isms.

• She found a CD in a box and proudly announced that it was a DVD.com... Where has she heard the phrase ".com"?!
• Branyon was teaching her the names of different coins. In particular, they were working on the name for dime. After it seemed she had gotten it, Branyon asked her a few minutes later what the name of the small, silver coin was. She was silent for a little bit and Branyon asked her again. She put her hand to her head, like she was really thinking hard and then excitedly said, "Panuna!" We were a little confused because only a few minutes earlier, she seemed to understand what the dime was. It took us a minute to realize that Branyon had asked her the name of the coin and she was giving the small, silver coin a name!
• While we were in the bathroom, she kept shutting the door so that Jesus wouldn't come in.
• A little while back when my mom was staying at our house, Branna was going in and out of the bedroom. Each time she would leave, she said, "See you in a soon!"

Potty Party

Branna is potty trained! :) I debated about whether or not to blog about this, since it's a somewhat unconventional blogging topic, but decided to go ahead and post it. It's such a milestone and I thought others would like to see and hear the events of the day.

Following the book Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day, Branna had a "potty party" just over a week ago. The whole idea is to make the potty training fun, but efficient. The day went like this: In the morning, Branna got a doll that wets and she helped me teach it how to use the potty. The doll was supposed to have several "accidents" during this time which I used as potty memory building skills for Branna. The morning was primarily focused on the doll using the toilet, but we also had lots of fun reading, doing arts and crafts, and watching a couple of potty videos.

After lunch and Branna's nap, the real potty training began. Seewee and I greeted her with another present of big girl underwear that I had her immediately put on. Every little bit, I would check her to reinforce her being dry and she would get a treat for it. I also had her drink ALOT so that she could use the toilet successfully as much as possible. After only the second time of her using the toilet, she started telling me that she needed to go! I thought this was a big milestone.

At the end of the day, we had a celebration dinner for her becoming a big girl. She also got a few big girl congratulatory presents.

All-in-all, the potty party/potty training was a success. We still have a few accidents here and there, but that's to be expected. Branna has really enjoyed becoming a big girl and getting the praises of a big kid!

Here are some pictures documenting our day:

Right after waking in the morning, Branna opened her doll that she would teach to use the potty during the first half of our day.

Branna and Pongo Checking Out the Package

Branna named her doll Seewee... strange, I know. I have no idea where she got the name, but since that's what Branna named her, that's what we called her.

After eating a little bit of breakfast, Branna and Seewee came to living room to find a teddy bear picnic. This was the theme I chose for her party. We had all of her stuffed animals gathered 'round on the picnic blanket ready to eat! :) Branna had a good time serving her animal friends and Seewee.

This was part of our arts and crafts. I got face paint, thinking that Branna would enjoying having her face painted. Instead, she enjoyed turning Seewee into a Chucky Doll... I had a really hard time getting the paint to come off. Fortunately, it did... and even more fortunate is that Branna didn't want it on her. That would have been very hard to get off!

Branna modeling her decorated hatAt the end of the day, Branna threw her diapers away while we chanted, "No more diapers!" (A few days after our party, Branyon slipped up and called her underwear diapers. Branna immediately started chanting, "No more diapers!")

After all of the festivities, Branna recieved her big girl presents. She really is such a big girl!

A Week of Doctor's Appointments

This past week, Branna had 2 major doctor checkups. The first was a VCUG (voiding cystourethrogram) for her vesicoureteral reflux, which you may remember we had to do last year and was very traumatic for Branna. This year was somewhat better since we were able to explain to her before hand what was going to happen... not to mention that this year she also got ice cream afterwards! :
Our pediatrician called the next day with the test results and while it seems that the reflux is improving, it's not completely resolved. We're not sure right now what the means as far as treatment. Our hopes were that Branna could get off of her daily antibiotics, but we may have to visit with a urologist before making that decision.
Branna's second doctor's visit later in the week was to the opthamologist. We got a little bit better news there. Since it was just a check up, they didn't get a new prescription for her, but the doctor was very happy with how Branna is progressing. Branna got all of the tests right on. Our next visit will be in 3-4 months.