Meeting Baby Jake

We just got back from a great weekend visiting some very good friends who live outside of Houston. Wade and Wendi Holmes have been best friends of ours for over 5 years now, with so many fun memories from college. After years of taking road trips to see each other, vacations to Mexico, guys trips to Chicago, girls trips to the Bahamas....all those have been trumped by visiting each other at home to welcome new precious babes to our families. We didn't have a very eventful weekend, but we loved every minute of our quality time with Wade and Wendi and their new little boy, Jake.

We drove in Friday early evening, and got there in time for Bryan to play softball with Wade's team for a missing player that night. Wendi and I did our best of getting there in time for the first game, but left halfway through the second to get these cute babes home to bed!
The four of us stayed up way too late Friday night talking (especially since Wade and Wendi are still having to get up during the night with their little man), so we chose to have a lazy Saturday morning. We let the kiddos play around the house, and we found time in between baby feedings, lunch, and naptime, to play a game ourselves. Brylee really enjoyed this rubber shark as a chew toy all weekend!

Jake was enjoying this piggy-back ride way more than Brylee was! Ha!

Brylee is so close to crawling, but still cant cover any real distance or get anywhere. But boy does she enjoy standing these days, and the Holmes had the perfect ottoman for her to cruise around all weekend.

As any friends would, Wendi and I thought it would be cute to bathe these babies together.

All in the hopes that one day these pictures can be used as cute embarrassment in a wedding slide show during their rehearsal dinner! (Hey, it can't hope to dream, right)

After bath time, they both got dressed in their Ranger's baseball gear! Sweet Brylee was born during the Ranger's playoffs last year and little Jake was conceived during the Ranger's playoffs. Ha! Destined to be Ranger's fanatics!

We thought it would be cute for Brylee to try to hold Jake, and we were all prepared with our cameras to shoot quickly because we didn't think the pose would last long before meltdown. To our surprise, they both just sat like this for several minutes watching us four make fools of ourselves jumping around and taking pictures. We had a good laugh!

I could tell Bryan was missing the itty bitty baby phase that Brylee has grown out of. It was too cute that he offered all weekend to rock Jake to sleep or cuddle and hold him whenever they needed. It was amazing to all of us how much difference there can be between babies who are just 7 months apart. It seems like so long ago that we were doing the things that Wendi and Wade had to do all weekend with a 2 month old.

On Saturday evening, we went over to Wendi's parents house before we went out for the night. How things have changed for our two families!

Butch and Melanie were so kind to keep our children that night while the four of us went childless on a double date.
We went to an improve comedy club, had a bunch of laughs, and ended the evening with ice cream and more laughing.

Sunday morning we went to church and out to lunch with the Holmes and the Blackburns. We didn't get to see much of Brittnie and Brandon while we were there, but had a good time at lunch. Brylee was a little leery of a bearded Brandon...until he gave her a bite of frozen yogurt, of course!

We had such a great weekend, that always feels way too short. It is a Godly blessing to have best friends who I will raise my children with. We love you guys!

Nine Months

On Tuesday, my itty bitty little baby turned a whopping 9 months old! We went to the doctor today, and here is how she is measuring up:

Weight: 18.35 lb 25-50%

Length: 27 3/4 inches 50-75%

Head: 17 7/8 inches 75-95%

She actually enjoyed her doctors visit today, especially since she didn't have to get any shots. She is really into tearing up paper these days, so loved sitting on the paper filled table waiting for the doctor to come in. By the time we were seen, we had a cute mess on our hands!
She also really enjoyed admiring herself in the mirror. But who wouldn't if you were as cute as her!
"You lookin' at Me?"

I've heard several of my friends with older babies say at every stage it gets more and more fun. And now I would definitely have to agree with them. My little angel is getting so fun. Her newest, and greatest (in my opinion) achievement is saying "Mama." Actually, on her 9 month birthday she just starting saying it over and over. She says it to the dog, to Bryan, and just randomly throughout the day.

Her schedule has staysed about the same. She sleeps from about 8:30 pm until 7:30 am, takes 2 naps a day, eats 3 full meals with an afternoon snack and a bedtime bottle. Brylee is completely weaned (to my slight disappointment, but oh well). Luckily, she does fine with formula, and is really wanting more table foods verses the pureed stuff. She doesn't have any teeth, so we're slightly limited on what she can have, but she does well with cheerios, saltines, gold fish, avocado, banana, and really cooked green beans. She has also learned to intentionally drop food to the dog from her high chair. Needless to say, Paisley is finally warming up to her!

In the picture above, it is a little blurry because as I was taking the picture, I was also lunging forward to make sure she didn't fall off the chair. She is wanting so badly to be able to move, but is not quite crawling yet. She will pull over from sitting to on all fours, but then doesn't know what to do, so goes back to sitting. She actually stands really well, and is cruising slowly around the coffee table and couch. And she is almost able to pull up by herself, and did it for the first time today, but I usually have to give her a small boost.

Her eyes are still blue. Her hair is a combination of light brown, blond, and red, so we're not really sure what color it will finally be. She wears mostly size 9 month clothes, although a few 12 month pajamas, and a few 6 month dresses/shorts. We use size 3 diapers.

Overall, she is a happy baby. She definitely likes being around people. She is getting better about playing by herself, but prefers us to be playing right next to her or holding her. I'm assuming this will get better once she is mobile. It has been so hot, our outings usually involve running random errands and walking around Target for much longer than needed just to get out of the house. I'm praying the weather gets a bit more mild in the coming weeks so we can spend time outside.

This girl is so loved, and as always, I continue to look forward to all the things we haev to come, while still trying to enjoy the moment.

9 Months Old

August 23, 2011

Family Reunion...Hammitt Style

This past weekend was the bi-annual Hammitt Family Reunion in Pittsfield, Illinois. Every other summer, during the last weekend in July, Bryan's mom's side of the family gets together for a good time of food, fun, and fellowship. We all stay at a church camp ground, complete with girls & boys dorms of bunk beds and community showers, a kitchen/mess hall, and a small lake where we can swim, fish, and play. It was a twelve hour drive, so we left in the middle of the night so half of the trip would be made while Brylee slept. Bryan's grandfather passed away a few years ago, but his grandmother is still living and has a legacy of over 100 people in her immediate family. We took a bunch of pictures, and I included a lot in this post, so will let the pictures do the talking.

Each afternoon, we spent time swimming in the small lake, complete with a blob, zip line, and slide. Since Brylee was not quite big enough to enjoy the lake, we brought our small inflatable pool, and her and her cousin Bryce had a great time.

The best part of the pool was reaching out of it to try and get the grass or dirt

She loved playing in the dirt

And loved trying to eat it!

The water got progressively muddier as the afternoon went on

Look at that muddy mouth

It is a tradition for all the little babies to take their baths in the kitchen sink

Brylee loved it!

I love this expression! She was actually trying to pull herself up out of the sink

I love the country feel of this camp. We are surrounded by bean & corn fields

Every year each family unit gets matching Family Hammitt T-shirts in different colors, and we take some family pictures.

Sweet girl really was into the grass this weekend. Illinois grass is much softer and greener than the yellow Texas grass we have going on right now!

Bryan's sister, Lori, and mom, Jan

Niece, Jillian, Jan, and sister, Lisa

Mother & sonSister Lisa and brother in law, David

Father and son

Bryan's grandmother will turn 90 at the end of the month, so they threw her a party the last day of the reunion

What a pretty lady

Brylee and Bryce had their own little area. Someone made a sign that said "Don't feed the babies." Pretty cute

The party was right during her afternoon nap. Poor girl was tuckered out

We used the flower decorations as a photo op for our family

Bryan's grandmother has 9 children, which made for 24 original grandchildren, most of whom made the reunion this year

There is something like 50 great grandchildren. The number is always changing, but I think Brylee was number 48, and there were two babies there younger than Brylee. The oldest great-grandchild is engaged and will be married next summer. Who knows, maybe there could be a great-great-grandchild before its all said and done.

These were all the kids who were attending reunion for the first time

Four generation of "Hammitts"On Sunday evening, after the reunion was over, we went to visit Bryan's other set of grandparents. The Brokaw grandparents had not met Brylee yet

Four generations of "Brokaws"

Grandma & Grandpa Brokaw

We had originally planned to get back Sunday evening after visiting, head to bed early, then wake up at 2 am to head back home. Well, it was 9:30 and we were no where close to getting to bed, and were pretty sure we would be more miserable waking up at 2 am than if we just left at 10 pm. So we quickly loaded up, and drove through the night. We did pretty good until about 4 am, then we were both miserable and had to switch drivers about every hour in order to stay awake. Thankfully, Brylee slept like a champ and we got home around 9:30 in the morning and had the day to recover.

It was a great time seeing family! Can't wait for the next reunion!