The Holidays - Part !

So it has been weeks since I have updated the blog. Sorry! Right after Thanksgiving we started boxing up the apartment to move to a house in Auburn. It is a huge blessing to have more space, but it made the already hectic Christmas season that much more hectic! So now, we are all settled in, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have all come and gone. But I did take plenty of pictures to remember all the festivities. Maybe in 2011 I'll do better about keeping all this updated!

Thanksgiving Day at Maw-Maw's in Clanton.

Braylen and some of his cousins (second cousins). The big kids were getting ready to take a ride with Aunt Becky

Grammie and all her borthers and sisters.

Brannon and many (but not all) of his cousins.

Poor Braylen...With all the excitment, he just would not take a nap. Here at the end of the day, Julie was at least able to get him to rest his head a little.

The Holidays Part 2

With the move, Christmas really seemed to pass too quickly. But I did manage to get the tree up. (Braylen had to have a Christmas tree for his first Christmas!) Anyway... below you can see some of the pictures from our time with family and friends.

Okay, so this pic was not from Christmas, but it was just a fun bath pic. (Taken in early December)






Call me crazy, but I actully wrapped all the Christmas presents before we moved. This was Braylen "helping" me wrap.






The week before Christmas, we spent the day with Grammie, Poppy, Jess, Hunter and the girls. This was the best picture we got of all four kiddos!

Braylen's favorite part of Christmas... the paper!

Loving his new "work bench" so he can be like Poppy.

Sunday afternoon, Braylen started running fever. (by Wednesday on our second trip to the dr. we found out it was RSV.) This pic was taken just before we realized he was getting sick.

This is one of the pictures after the motrin kicked in! ;-)

I just had to get a picture of B in front of his first Christmas tree. I am sure next year, we will have to consider a tree with plastic ornaments only!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas Eve we went to Meme and O's for a few night. This is Braylen, Christmas morning, checking out his new Leap Frog farm from Santa
.


Christmas morning we had to go see what all Santa brought Suzie and Collier.

The only thing cooler than it snowing on Christmas, is that it snowed on Braylen's 1st Christmas! ~~~I love snow on Christmas!~~~


Christmas with my cousins!

More fun out in the snow!
Just after Christmas Braylen started pulling himself up to his knees. Needless to say we had to lower his crib.

Christmas Eve fun. These two guys didn't stay up to ring in the new year!

What a better way to start 2011. A super cute, super silly, super precious baby Braylen!

What are you thankful for?

I could make a list much longer than anyone would want to read about all the things I am thinkful for this year, but instead, let me focus on one something...

Friendship! I truly have some of the best friends anyone could ask for.

Ginger Nix is one of those people. She and I have been BFFs since we were 18 and have stayed thick and theives even though we live many miles away from each other. A few weeks ago, she and her family, Jeff (aka G-E-F-F) and their sweet baby Judah came to visit my parents house in Georgia and we had a great time, especially watching our boys start to "play" together. Here are just a few pics from the trip.

the mamas and our little guys

I love the below series of pictures.

Boys will be boys!


I love this family shot since we got all three of us smiling! yea!
(All pictures were taken at Barnsley Gardens)

"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

His love endures forever."

1 Chronicles 16:34

Ladies Man

Braylen has some of the sweetest friends. One of them is this precious little girl named Ella. Ella was born 9 weeks before Braylen and her mom, Emily, and I are wonderful friends. We had a girls night a couple weeks ago at our apartment and Brannon and Wes (Ella's dad) were out of town so they joined the fun.

Braylen should have been in bed by this point but, as always, he would not sleep with all of the action. Braylen was really pretty mellow, but Ella was ready to play. She was lovin' her some Braylen!

The pictures below pretty much tell how their "playtime" went...

Emily pulling Ella back...

Emily stopping Ella from pulling Braylen's hair
Ella squealing with delight!
Braylen looking at me like "what do I do mom?"

Ella: "Hey Braylen, where are you going?!?"

This little guy can only handle so much love!

Play time over.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

(about a month late!)

Braylen and three little pumpkins!
Before the girls went trick or treating we were able to get a few pics of the kids together. As for getting them all to look at the camera is another thing...

At the Preschool we have "Trunk or Treat" and all the teacher dress up with the children. I was a fairy (or a butterfly)! Braylen was a cute baby in cute "my first Halloween pjs" that had bats on the feet. ;-)

Every Friday, Children's Day Out (CDO) is closed, so we have childcare for the teacher's children who are not yet in Preschool. This year it is just Braylen and Owen. Owen is the sweetest two year old and he just loves "Baby Bayben." They had a good time playing that day with Tish, their teacher and jumping in the moonwalk.

Owen was Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales. Braylen loves just watching Owen play and play!

Baptism

Baptism Day

Benjamin Braylen Traywick

October 31, 2010

Auburn United Methodist Church

Dr. George Mathison and Braylen

Braylen and Cela Grace. I had to be quick with the camera because just as we would sit Cela back she would lean forward trying to get to her crawling position. That little girl is fast!

Poppy, Grammie and the girls

Aunt Jess and Braylen after a he was changed out of his "dress," as Brannon kept calling it. I insisted it was a gown, but Brannon didn't seem to think there was a difference!


On the left; Uncle Kevin, Aunt Mary, Collier and Suzie.
On the right; O and Meme

Collier and Suzie with Braylen

Oh Braylen...What a grand responsibility we have. God has given us such a special gift, but with that gift comes the responsibility to raise you to be a strong Christian man. Our main prayer for you is that you will follows God's greatest commandment: to love Him and love others. At some point Braylen you will choose to make a commitment to Christ that is your own, but for now, your Dad and I have made that commitment for you. We promise to do our best little one. We love you dearly and always will.

Oops! I forgot to mention....

...while at the beach, Braylen started sitting up by himself!
I was so surprised! But I was even more exited that I had my camera right beside me so I could catch the moment!
Just look at that big boy!