Brayden the Big 1 Year old Birthday Boy...

Brayden opening his birthday presents on Monday night. He got a bouncing, singing tigger which he thinks is pretty funny. He also got his own life jacket from Grandpa and Grandma and hates it already! (the 2 times i tried to put him in it he would not have it!)

It is official! Brayden is now a big 1 year old! I can't believe it has already been a year since he was born. On Saturday, we had a birthday party for Brayden. Jason's aunt and uncle, cousin Heather and her kids, and Jen and Chris and their kids all came. We had it at Grandpa and Grandma Rupp's house and even BBQ'd in the rain. Brayden did great playing with the other kids.

When it came time for cake, I made Brayden a little mini cake of his own to destroy. He had a great time playing in the cake but he was not too interested in eating much of it. Luckily, we stuck to the funfetti cake and not chocolate so it was pretty easy to clean up.

Brayden with his cousins.

Jen and Chris gave Brayden a rocking rocket for his bithday, which he really likes to play with.

Brayden is growing like a weed and keeps impressing us with how smart he is. It seems that now, all of a sudden, since he is 1, he has taken off learning new things. His most recent things are learning how to clap, push his cars around on the floor as he crawls around with them, and he climbs the stairs now. Brayden has grown quiet a bit in a year...he was 4 pounds 2 ounces when he was born and today, when he was weighed he came in at 23.5 pounds! He has also grown 1 foot since he was born!

We love our Brayden and are so glad that he is part of our family! He brings us such joy and happiness and he is always making us laugh because of all his silly antics.

dejavu all over again...sort of....

These past couple of days have been interesting, frustrating, and once again without any answers. It was a flash back to week 27 with Brayden when almost the same exact thing happened and I got put in the hospital. It was rough past weekend for the baby and I and on Monday, we had to go into the hospital. The hospital is in downtown Atlanta and actually pretty nice. I spent 3 days there and of course they could not give me any answers to what is going on. They couldn't figure out why I kept bleeding and they just gave me lots of medicine to stop the contractions that kept coming and lots of IV's to make me puff up and swell. Luckily, the baby was also given the lung steroids to help it's lungs develop faster if it is born early. Brayden was given these steroids and they helped a ton when he was born early. Brayden spent lots of time with Grandma and dad. It was a huge blessing to be staying with my parents so that they could help with Brayden. Thank you so much mom and dad! For now...they have me "taking it easy" but I have a feeling it is going to turn into bed rest soon....harder to do than it sounds for me. For now though...the baby is doing good and getting bigger and we are almost 27 weeks along. only 13 to go...

An update on life...

As always, life continues to go on and as always be filled with lots of crazy stuff. Jason has been busy finishing his MBA applications and looking into pharmacy school. (He is really interested in doing that after the MBA) looks like we are in for the long haul with schooling...He has always been busy applying for lots of jobs but no luck yet. We are praying that something turns up. Jason is also in the midst of remodeling my mom's pantry which he is having a lot of fun doing...of course he is...it's a project with tools and wood and building stuff.

Brayden continues to be loud and noisy and crawls all over the place. No walking yet but he sure loves to cruise all over. A big accomplishment has been that we switched off of formula and onto regular milk. He actually did it cold turkey 2 weeks ago and loves it! He seems to drink it better and eat solids better with it. Were looking forward to the big 1 year old birthday in a week and a half!

As for me....well...life has been filled with Brayden and helping Jason and trying to keep baby #2 from being born early. This past monday night I started having contractions for about 4 hours. They were about 6 minutes apart and finally went away around 3am..thank goodness because i was ready to get Jason up and go to the ER. The next day was filled with doctors appointments, emergency testing, a trip to the hospital for an emergency ultrasound and a meeting with a perinatoligist. Now, lucky me, I am on medication to stop any and all contractions (...didn't work too well with Brayden) and special hormone therapy. Lots of fun. No bed rest yet but I am supposed to be taking it easy but it is hard when you have 1 year old and lots of stairs to climb. I am almost 26 weeks along so we still have a ways to go...

That's all for us...just trying to hang in there and doing the daily grind of life.

Fun with Grandma...

Brayden and Grandma Rupp have been having lots of fun together. Here are some pictures from our trip to Atlanta and then Brayden's bath time tonight. Brayden sitting in the chair, eating his phone and sitting with his bear Giggles, while Grandma is at the computer.

We took a walk one day and Brayden got tired of riding in his stroller so I put him on my shoulders. He thought it was great until mom got to tired and took him off.

This is bath time tonight. I still give Brayden his baths in the sink since he still fits and it takes less water. Up until now, he hadn't been interested in splashing at all. Well, tonight he figured it out and went crazy! Grandma had a great time letting him splash and even made the comment that, "I would have never let you do this but since it's my grandbaby it is ok."

A happy boy....

Brayden splashing around and loving it!

The Game of Life...

I have always had a hard time with change but since meeting Jason, I am quickly learning that the only thing that stays the same is the fact that things change! Our families "game of life" has taken a couple new turns lately and we have been busy trying to adapt and adjust...

I know that I have not posted anything in a while but things have just been too crazy...now that they are slowing down here is what we have been up to.... A LOT!!!

Brayden and I went to Atlanta to visit my parents for a week February 17-24th. It was nice for Brayden to be able to spend time with his Grandpa and Grandma Rupp although the visit did not turn out quite like planned... We arrived on Tuesday night and on Thursday night, Jason called to let me know that he had been layed off from his job. We had a feeling that this might be coming and eventually it did due to the hard times that have fallen on the construction industry. I was more upset about the news than Jason...he was relieved more than anything since he hated his job. (Commercial construction is not his thing as we found out with this job in California)

I about went crazy for the next 4 days (not being there in California with Jason) until we flew back to California. We decided to hurry and pack up and move, to Atlanta, so that we did not have to pay another months rent. Luckily, the company gave us a severance package so that we were able to move across the country. Why Atlanta? We actually had been planning on moving here at the end of summer since Jason has been applying to schools here for the MBA program. Jason decided that he is tired of construction and wanted to go back to school in order to give our family more options. We decided on Atlanta since we both have family here...my parents and Jason's older sister and we both like the area.

Anyway...I got home Tuesday afternoon...we packed up everything by Thursday night and on Friday morning we loaded the moving truck.Friday night we went to a party at the Kerrs and had a terrific time with all of our friends there to say goodbye to us! Thanks Jenn and Jason! Jason's parents flew in from Hawaii to help Jason drive the moving truck, which was towing our truck, and our car across the country. We left on Saturday and drove to Salt Lake so that we could visit with family and friends. We had a lot of fun spending time with friends and spending time with Jason's younger sister Aubrey and her family. On Wednesday morning, Jason and his parents left to begin driving. Brayden and I flew out on Thursday morning for Atlanta and we all arrived Thursday night. On Saturday, we moved all of our stuff into a storage unit. Since then, we have been busy with all the little details of moving such as changing addresses, getting new drivers licenses, etc.

Our current plan is that we are staying with my parents until Jason finds a new job. We both feel like moving to Atlanta was the right thing for our family and we are having lots of faith that everything will work out especially since we are due to have a new baby in 3 months!

Thank you to Mom and Dad, Jenn and Chris, Brooks and AmyAnn, Cam and Katie, and Mom and Dad Sesssions for all our your help in this process. We couldn't have done it without all of you guys.

Life goes on and things change but these past couple of weeks have once again reminded our family that "We may not have it all together but together we have it all!"