Unconditional Love

I am one hundred percent certain that there is no possible way that she, my girl, could possibly be any more beautiful.

She is my life. My world. My everything.

The Baby Belly

Mr. Brayden Dean is squirming around in my tummy all the time! I hadn't really forgot what it was like, per say, but feeling him inside my tummy is just as amazing as it was the first time. It's such a miracle. I am feeling awesome and couldn't ask for a better pregnancy! I got sick twice a couple of days ago- out of the blue- but other than that, all is wonderful. To be honest with you, I am not looking forward to being huge and pregnant during the summer, only because it is going to be HOT!

I am getting so excited to meet my little guy. Time seems to be flying and that is absolutely wonderful as far as getting closer and closer to having him in my arms.

Michael's best friend Tanner and his wife Natalie are pregnant with a baby girl. She is due a couple weeks before I am. She came by on Monday to get all of Ava's things. I gave her the car seat/stroller combo, the bouncy seat, her swing and a bunch of her clothes, towels, rags, blankets, etc. Of course I held on to some of her special outfits and I still have a huge plastic tub full of her clothes- ones that Natalie's baby couldn't use due to the season's being off. I was a little sad to see all of her things go, but such is life.

Katie gave me quite a few of Mason's clothes for Brayden, so I went through them today and am washing them right now.

My mom and Katie are both insisting on throwing me baby showers. I thought you were only supposed to have one baby shower, so it's making me feel a little selfish, but what can I do?

I have started registering for a few items, but I told my mom to hit up the resale shops first and see what she can find there. My family spent a lot of money purchasing all the big items for Ava as well as throwing my baby shower. I really don't want them doing all that again.

My mother in law bought all of Ava's furniture and my Dad's girlfriend, Kim is giving us her sons old crib for Brayden, so we are set there.

I feel so blessed to have so many generous, loving people in my life and I will forever be grateful.

On another note, Ava has used her potty every morning for 5 days in a row. (today was the first morning that she didn't go in her potty). On the second day, she not only went in her potty in the morning, but also after her nap time. We haven't had a repeat of that yet, but I am so proud of her! Like I said before, I wasn't expecting any progress just yet, so that it wonderful. I am certain that it is going to take a while to get her to use the potty throughout the day, but it's a start!

P.s.- Mike finally gave in on the spelling, so it is offical- BraYden Dean :)

He has a name...

Michael and I decided on a name for our baby boy about a week ago.

Brayden Dean.

We are still disagreeing on the spelling as of right now. Michael thinks it look girly with a 'y' and doesn't like it with an 'i' either.

He wants to spell it Braden, but I am afraid that people will mispronounce it.

So anyways, that's our little bean's name! :)


P.s.- Ava pee'd in the potty again this morning. That makes 3 times in 2 days! We're getting some where! :)

Potty Training and Blue Bonnets

Michael, Tyler, Ava and I all spent Easter weekend out of town with my Mom and her side of the family. Ava and I ended up staying a whole week and I loved it! I miss my Mom a lot, so it was nice to be able to just enjoy my time with her and the rest of my family out there.

Ava had another birthday party while we were there and one of her gifts was a new potty. I told my Mom that I would like to start practicing with Ava so she got one for her. I didn't really expect her to start using it just yet. I mainly wanted to start getting her used to the idea of it. She follows me to the bathroom every time I go so she already sort of gets the concept I think. We started practicing yesterday. Every time I went potty, I would take her diaper off and sit her on her potty (it is in the bathroom next to our toilet). This morning she peed in it!!! It scared her at first, LOL. I thought it was just luck, but she peed in it again tonight! I know I still have a lot of training to do and so forth but I am excited that at 13 months old, we are already getting a head start. I think she is going to do really well with it. She is SOOO freakin smart! I am sure it will take a while for her to actually approach me and let me know that she needs to go, but I am still excited to say that on our 2nd day of training, she went twice! Way to go Ava!!!

Today my Aunt Tami treated us all to lunch at Sudie's, Elise LOVES catfish! After lunch, we took some pictures of the girls in the bluebonnets. Ava was really tired as she hadn't had a nap yet, but I got a couple of good ones.

Michael and I told Elise about her baby brother today. She was a little sketchy about it at first but once we finished explaining and assuring her, she was pretty excited about it. She kept saying "Brayden. I want to see my Brayden." and kissing my belly. She is such a sweet girl.

Easter was fantastic by the way, all except the part where my Aunt wrecked the motorcycle and split her knee open. But that is a story for another day. My Aunt Becky has an AWESOME new Canon Camera that I have been wanting for a while now. It's about $600.00 or so, plus another $200 or so for the zoom piece. This camera has been on the TOP of my wish list! Hopefully one day I can get it!

She got some awesome pictures (about 250 to be exact) of our Easter weekend and I can not wait to get a copy of them. My mom is putting them on a disc for me and is going to mail them to me. Can't wait to share them with you!

Here are the blue bonnet pictures:

We had to get Lily's picture in the Blue Bonnets also! :)

A much needed update

-Michael was on the radio yesterday morning! They started talking about whether or not it was weird to date someone with the same name as your mother. Considering that both of my husbands ex wives have the same name as his mother, he just had to call in. LOL It was hilarious.


-Ava cut her 6th tooth today. Bottom right. She had 2 poop explosions yesterday and one massive one today that was on the kitchen floor as well as me! LOVELY. She wouldn't eat much today either, but other than that is doing well.


-She says cracker now, shows you please in sign language on command, knows where her nose is, and bats her eyes at you when you ask her to show you "pretty eyes". She is getting so big and SO fun! She picks up on so much now and learns new things everyday. I absolutely love it!


-I had my first doctors appointment. I am 16 weeks and 4 days and our due date is September 17th! Michael, Ava and I waited for quite a while, but it was well worth it! We were able to get an ultrasound, see our baby, hear the heartbeat AND find out the sex!

It's A Boy!!!

There was definitely NO denying that! He takes after his Daddy! ;) Today was a wonderful day!

-My Mom came into town to finalize the closing on her house, so Amber, Ava and I met her and my step dad for lunch. It was wonderful to see them and visit for a while. We are going to CS this weekend and I am really looking forward to that!

-Ava is having another birthday party on Saturday at my mom's house. Spoiled little girl!

-I have made a couple of new friends, ones that I have known for a while but are getting closer to now and I love it! I love making new friends, especially ones that I know will be around for a while :)

All that being said, life is going great over here. I really couldn't ask for more. Michael and I have reached a point in our relationship (for a long time now) where we have become more and more of a team. We are partners, we work together, we lean on each other and I love it. I am happy, he is happy, we are happy.

Having Tyler here with us has been great. It's hard work, trying to get him caught up in school and so on, but he is doing well. This weekend was his first weekend at his mother's and we missed him tons!

New bean (we haven't chosen a name yet) is doing great. I can feel my little guy moving around in there now and it makes me smile. Tyler knows we are pregnant, has for some time now. As far as Elise goes, we decided that we wanted to wait until I went to my first doctor's appointment, to make sure that all was well, before breaking the news to her. She has been having some behavioral problems at school and so forth and to be honest with you, I really didn't want another excuse for Melanie to use as far as Elise is concerned. We felt like she was blaming us for things going on with Elise when Ava was first born. Second of all, I wanted to get past the "scare" of a possible miscarriage, etc.

So we haven't told Elise yet. Now, whether or not Melanie has? I don't know. Elise made a comment this weekend when she was here, saying "Your boobies are big and so is your belly. You have 2 babies in there this time or what?" Michael was standing there when she said it and gave me a look like "what the heck?". I asked her who told her that and she said "No one" and left it at that. So I don't know if Melanie told her or if she was just saying that cause she noticed. If she told her, I think that's messed up, considering that she told me, more times that once, that it was our place to tell her. But in all actuality, I guess it really doesn't matter either way.

We are planning on sitting down and talking with Elise the next time we have her, so we will see how that goes.