6 Months!!!

It's so incredible and hard to believe that 6 months ago today this little fella entered our family! It's been quite a rocky road with Braden from the get go, but an extremely joyful and happy road! Just today we got the confirmation that our boy does in fact have a milk protien allergy. Wow! All that we've been through - breast milk, soy formula, back to breast milk, hypoallergenic formula, back to breast milk again, back to hypoallergenic formula again, then finally to an amino acid based formula. Poor Braden has been through so much, but smiles all the way.

He's met some milestones recently. Last week he rolled from his tummy to his back all on his own for the first time! He is holding toys and bringing them to his mouth and babbling constantly. He is also trying so so hard to sit up on his own and I think he's getting his first couple teeth! It's been exciting around here!

Hope you enjoy the pictures in this post as much as I do! I know he's mine, but I sure do think he's stinkin' cute!!! I just wanna eat him up!

When Braden smiles like this, he reminds me of a little old man!

I just love the following set of pics.....

Don't you just want to laugh out loud with him?

Kissy Lips!!

LOVE this expression!!

Ridiculous!

Ridiculous is the only word that came to mind when Brian and I pulled all of Mersadie's old clothes down so I could put them in a garage sale. These are the clothes from Newborn - 18 Months. Can we say excessive? The sad part is I don't think that we purchased more than 6 outfits for this girl in that time. All of the clothes were given to us by grandparents, aunts and uncles or friends. There were 6 large buckets, 1 small bucket, 2 large space bags and 1 medium space bag and they were all stuffed so much most of the lids wouldn't stay on. I started feeling really guilty about having so much for her. The only thing I could justify all of this with is the fact that she was the first grandchild on both sides. I should have just had everyone put money in her college fund. Way better investment. Now I'll just have to sell them and put that money in her college fund!

My Babies!

Our sweet little guy is doing better at keeping himself up on his arms when he is on his belly. He's also getting stronger and wants to sit up really badly, but we are still missing the "milestone" things like sitting up and rolling over. The doctors keep saying to adjust his age for milestones from his due date, so I guess I shouldn't be expecting sitting up and rolling over for a 4 month old. It's hard to believe that Braden is 5 1/2 months old!!!

Our Braden loves to be talked to and to have attention. Just say his name these days and he'll look at you and be "yours".



I thought about editing the drool out of this picture, but it defines who he is at this stage, so I left it there. Oh...my baby boy is growing SO fast!

I noticed after going through all of these pictures that Braden has my ears. Poor guy. At least I can cover mine with my hair. Unfortunately, he will have to figure out how to deal with them a different way.

Sadie being silly! This comes very easy for her. She must get it from her daddy. :)

My sweet little Elmo-girl!

Mersadie is ALWAYS up to something. And that's actually not a bad thing. Sometimes she will be playing in her room for a while and will come out in the funniest get-ups. I had been here and there cleaning the house the other day and this is how I found her. Mis-matched p.j.'s, funny pink hat and polka-dot rain boots! I love EVERYTHING about my imaginative little lady. She's the best daughter anyone could ever ask for and like I've mentioned before, makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis!

"I'll Stick with the Milk, Please"

I decided it was time for Braden to try some "real" food the other day to hopefully help with our reflux issues, so I mixed up some rice cereal...

Here is our happy little fella before the whole cereal ordeal.

And here he is getting the first taste on his tongue. It did not produce the reaction that I expected! Look at that crinkled nose! It's as if Braden were disgusted!

I really thought he would like cereal, but look at this face. Don't you just feel so sorry for him? He just sat there looking at us and then - all of the sudden - his bottom lip went out and he did this...

...screamed his head off! I'm not sure why he decided to cry, but he got happy pretty quickly. He still did not want any more cereal, though. So I guess we'll try again next week.

Maybe I'll get this wonderful reaction out of him next time.

And we can't leave out little Sadie two posts in a row, so here she is with oatmeal all over her face. I thought it was appropriate for the post. Enjoy your Monday!

Yeah! Duke Blue Devils Take the National Championship Title!!!

Well, our family team, the Duke Blue Devils just took the NCAA Basketball Championship for 2010!! We are very excited - finally our brackets held strong to the end! Here are a few pics of Braden who was rooting for the Blue Devils. Mersadie, on the other hand, said she wanted the "black" team to win. Duke was in white tonight. I think we have a competitor on our hands...

"Yeah, Go Duke!"

At first, we weren't sure if Duke would be able to pull it out...

...it was even a nail-biter of a game at times...

...and we didn't even want to look at other times...

...but we were VERY happy with how it all turned out! Congratulations Blue Devils - what a great game!

Easter 2010!!!

After wonderful Easter services at church this morning, we got to spend the afternoon with our "family away from family" - our staff and Peaches' parents. Bert and Vicky are always so gracious to open their home to us and cook some wonderful food - I am still stuffed! We got to just sit and hang out with some of our favorite people - thank you for a wonderful day!

Poor Braden missed out on many of the festivites because he was napping, so here is a picture of Brian, Sadie and I....

...and here is the boy. This is the best picture that I got of him all day. Stinks, I know, but he was throwing up all evening and we went through 3 outfits in a matter of minutes and about 7-8 burp cloths. Poor fella. I can't wait until he starts feeling better. I will have to take some "formal" pictures of the kiddos in their clothes from today and post them.

Timothy, Sadie and Nathan - ready for "the hunt".

Mersadie starts looking for eggs with Auntie Peach. I think it was about this time that we had an earthquake that neither Peaches nor I felt, but everyone else did. We were too busy finding those eggs!

Mersadie got the hang of the Easter egg hunt this year. Last year I remember us helping her find the eggs and then she would just put them back where we found them. This year she wanted to gather all she could find! She now knows what is in those eggs! CANDY - and if you show up at the Badajos household, they also add a little cash to them! How nice! Where was that Easter bunny when I was little?

Here's Mersadie checking out her findings! I think she likes this game!

"Oooo" I think she found another one!

It's behind the bush!

Got it!!!

Sadie is happy with all of her "findings"!

After we thought we had found all the eggs, we were told that there were at least 4 more. Man, were they hard to find! Papa Bert and Miss Vicky sure are good at this Easter egg hiding thing. Finally someone had a REALLY good eye and spotted in egg in these homemade nests. Sadie found one - with the help of her wonderful Auntie Peach.

These football eggs were hard enough to find because they were brown, but add on top of that them being put in "real" nests!

We also dyed and decorated some Easter eggs today. This is Mersadie's creation. Purple egg with glitter. She's a girly girl - but take note of the Ninja shirt. We borrowed one of Nathan's old p.j. tops so that Sadie wouldn't stain her shirt.

I told Mersadie to smile and show me the egg. This is what I got. Love.This.Girl.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Bubbles!!!

Mersadie LOVES bubbles, I mean REALLY loves them. She rediscovered the bubble machine the other day and she was ecstatic! Here are some pictures of her enjoying some of the simple wonders in life. Oh, to be 2 and find the thrill in all the little things!

Sadie thinks it's hilarious to put her face right up next to where the bubbles shoot out.



And then the bubbles smack her in the face.

But she loves it anyway.

Jumping up and down for bubbles. I love how her hair is in this picture.

Another jumping picture. My silly little Sadie, I love you and your energy and wonder SO much!