It's all relatives

Brock's sister Dor flew in from California and is staying with us this week. Tonight Travis (Brock's nephew), Lauren and their daughter Avery came over for dinner to hang out with us. Here's a video of Avery & Braxton.

Party Saturday

Today Braxton and I had a party Saturday. First we went to visit our Bosnian friends in Brooklyn Center. Braxton LOVES them like family. The first photo is Braxton with Azra and her son Arko, the second photo is of Braxton with Bakto (Azra's son-in-law). Braxton really likes Bakto and since he's still learning English Bakto was happy to talk and sing to Braxton in Bosnian.

.............................. Then Braxton went to his very first birthday party. Our friends Ben & Nina have a daughter named Maya who turned one year old today. The party was outside and the weather was only 70 degrees today so all the babies were in winter hats (although Maya's parents were smart enough to pull her hat off so she'd look fabulous for the photo). Isn't Maya a doll!

Mini-Van Glee!

The great search is over...it seemed like it would never end but yesterday we purchased a 2000 Toyota Sienna. We are excited that the vehicle hunt is over!

Grassy Photo Shoot

This weekend we played outside in the yard and took a bunch of photos. Braxton loved playing on the grass. He never ate it but he loved pulling it out...our beloved little lawnmower!

Mom & Baby Reunion

Braxton and I went to our Mom & Baby Class Reunion today. Instead of laying the babies in a circle we took the first photo of all the babies sitting up! Here are Braxton, Dylan, Hailey, Payten, Rebecca and Harper!

Grandma Rocks!

Yesterday Brock was really sick and was supposed to take care of Braxton all day while I was at work. Brock felt aweful and I asked him, "do you want me to call my mom and see if she can help? He paused and slowly said, "could you?" As I left for work at 6am I called my mom. She cancelled her plans for the day, jumped in the car, drove 2 hours and was at our house by 8:45am. She took care of Braxton while Brock was sick in bed all day long. Mom--thank you so much for watching Braxton for us! We love you and really appreciated your help yesterday!

Happy Squeals

Braxton has started making loud, happy squeals lately (probably because he's extremely happy and loves his parents so much??!!). Here is a video of it.

My friend Arin gave us three winter hats and a pair of mittens that her son outgrew. We tried them on to see if they fit. Doesn't he look cute in his sleeveless summer shirt and winter gear?

Free Shopping

Today Braxton and I went shopping. I received a "$10 off" Kohl's coupon in the mail this week that said "minimum purchase $10." Braxton and I went to Kohl's and found two long sleeve little boy shirts marked 2 for $10. We went to the checkout with our coupon and they did not charge us one penny for the shirts.

Next--Braxton and I went to fill medication at CVS (which is free until December because we maxed our out-of-pocket for the year). As the medication rang up, the cash register printed us a "$1 off any toothpaste" coupon. We went to look at toothpaste and found that Colgate was on sale for 99 cents. We went to the checkout and the total cost of our toothpaste was seven cents (we had to pay tax). While leaving CVS there was a lady giving out Taco Bell cards that said "one free Chalupa and Medium Soda - valid only today". Luckily I hadn't eaten lunch yet, so Brax and I went to Taco Bell to get a free steak chalupa and soda. Here is a photo of the loot we picked up shopping today for which we paid a grand total of seven cents (the chalupa didn't make the photo because it got eaten.) What a fun, cheap shopping adventure!

Overalls and Grocery Bags

This week after getting groceries Brock put Braxton into a grocery bag. Braxton LOVED it and was content for at least 20 minutes. Bizarre! But he loved it...so we just went with it. Braxton wore his dark blue overalls for the first time this week which were a gift from the Svardal cousins in Phoenix. They don't really fit quite yet...but doesn't he look cute overalls!

Wiggle and Sit

Braxton is moving around pretty well these days - and it probably won't be long until he starts crawling. Here's a video of his new spin move (we normally don't put him on the counter for fear that he'll dive off the side--but we made a one time exception to get a good video memory of his new moves).

And--here is a video showing how well Braxton is now able to sit up on his own.

One Night

You know the saying, "you'll miss it when it's over"...well, I just want to document one crazy night with a 6 month old. Last night Brock and I went to bed at 9:30. We actually talked about how pathetic it seems to go to bed so early every night, but to justify our actions...we rationalize that when you have to get up at 5am you actually are only getting 7.5 hours of sleep (if you sleep without any interuptions).

11pm - thunderstorm rolls thru town with crashing thunder. Brock and I wake up but thankfully the baby sleeps through it.

3am - Baby crying. Get up to check baby and find baby with head smushed against the side of the crib bars. Move baby to middle of crib. Crawl back into bed.

4am - Baby crying. Get up to check baby and find baby flipped over and flailing like a turtle with head smushed against the side of the crib bars again. Flip baby and move baby to middle of crib. Crawl back into bed.

5am - Baby awake. Get up to check baby and find baby flipped over again but this time happily playing in crib. And...here is the video I took of our beloved baby at 5am this morning.

A Bosnian Wedding

Yesterday, Braxton went to his first wedding. It was great fun to see Fatima and Otto tie the knot Bosnian style. I normally just post 2-3 photos of each event but I just had to include all of these photos since many of you know our friends through bridal showers, baby showers, etc.

After the wedding, I was standing in line to hug the bride and groom and the groom's sister Armina yelled, "Diane--don't stand in line! Come up here and let me hold Braxton!" I felt honored to "jump the line" past 30 other people to hang out with the family. Armina was wearing her red bridesmaid dress while she was holding Braxton and the whole time I was thinking "Lord--please don't let Braxton puke all over her bridesmaid dress!!!" I was SO thankful that Braxton was happy and slobber-free while the girls were holding him.

The first photo is the beautiful bride Fatima. On the right--is the bride's sister Armina holding Brax.

This next photo on the left is the mother-of-the-bride, my good friend Azra. It's not the greatest photo of her because she was talking while I took it. On the right is a photo of the father-of-the-bride and grandma-of-the-bride. Grandma flew all the way from Bosnia to attend the wedding (and boy are her arms tired!)

This next photo is of the bride's brother Arko (doesn't he look adorable in his tux) and the right photo is of the bride's cousin Jemka holding Braxton.

And just a quick story about a "lost in translation" moment....while talking to Arko he said to me, "finger or head?" I had no idea what he was talking about and he repeated himself, "finger or head?" He stared at me waiting for my response, until I reluctantly said "finger". He smiled and made a scissors motion with his fingers and said, "good, I get to take one of Braxton's fingers home with me!" I looked at him confused (knowing that he would never hurt Braxton and thinking that I must have heard his little Bosnian accent wrong) and said, "what?" He clarified his response by looking at me very seriously and saying, "I am going to cut off one of Braxton's fingers". By this time I was completely confused so I looked at his sister Armina and said, "what is he talking about?" She laughed and said, "it's a dumb Bosnian joke that people say to babies. Either you get to 'take their head home' or 'take one of their fingers home'". She said, "basically, its like the American joke when adults pinch a baby's nose and say 'I got your nose!'" Then she said, "Don't worry Diane, I know it doesn't sound funny. A lot of American jokes don't make sense either once you translate them." ....thinking back about this confusing and bizarre conversation with Arko makes me laugh!