Where Did January Go?

...And half of February. Oops!

We haven't been doing much of anything. Brayden continues to make us laugh hysterically everyday. Jason is now at a permanent branch here in town and loving it. We've been on a weight loss adventure and have been trying new recipes and work out classes. Maybe I'll try to blog once a week about it...we'll see. :)

Anyway, these are some pictures from the past month and a half. Most of them are from my phone. I swore to myself I would NEVER use my phone camera as my primary picture taker, but it's just so convienent. New goal for the next few weeks: Use big camera more.

Playing at the park!

Froggy rain boots! (he calls them alligators)


Grocery shopping and wearing his Potato Head glasses. Never a dull moment!

Visiting daddy at work!

Flying (or crashing) airplanes!

Being silly.

The Top 10 of 2010

I was going to do a 2010 re-cap, but Blogger hates me and refuses to upload pictures nicely. Does anyone else have to jump through burning hoops just to get some pictures on here?! Anyway, instead of a lovely re-cap, we'll just count down the Top 10 moments from 2010.

10. Finding a church.
We joined Trinity Baptist this year and have been working at getting involved in a Sunday School class. It's been really hard to "start over" in the friend department since leaving Ruston, but we really like our class and we've been able to go to lots of fun events. Can't wait for more in 2011!

9. Trips to the park.
When the calendar rolled around to January '10, Brayden was just beginning to walk well unassisted. We started taking him to parks around town to play and he loves it!

8. Family, family, family.
As mentioned in the Christmas post, we love living near so many family members. There's never a shortage of love or an open invitation. Brayden especially loves it...who wouldn't love all the extra candy and toys?!

7. Fun trips.
We were fortunate this year to be able to go on a few trips. In March, we went back to Ruston to visit friends. It was fun to catch up with everyone and we loved letting Brayden roam around our alma mater! In July, we went to Gulf Shores for a super fun (and blazin' hot!) beach trip. Brayden LOVED it.

6. Fun around town.
We were also able to do a lot of fun things around town. We participated in local egg hunts for Easter, took trips to the local Children's Museum, visited parks, went swimming, played in local splash parks, and visited the trains in DeQuincy.

5. Learnin' and Growin'.
Brayden now weighs 26ish pounds and is around 34 inches tall. He wears a size 7 shoe. He speaks in full paragraphs and we love hearing all that he has to say. He knows the colors yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green, pink, black, and white. He can identify a circle, triangle, and a star. It's so fun watching him learn!

4. Getting older.
Jason turned 24, Kristen turned 23, Brayden turned 2, and we celebrated 2 years of marital bliss.

3. HOUSE.
In February, we made the biggest purchase of our lives thus far...we bought a house! It's definitely a fixer-upper, but it's our house and our own space. I've loved getting to decorate everything and we're still working hard at getting everything fixed up.

2. Working for the man.

Jason started working for Capital One at the end of September! We're so thankful that we both have steady, stable jobs in this economy. And that we both like what we do! (most days)

and finally...

1. Being Us.
I'm so thankful for our little family. We go through all kinds of crazy stuff and have plenty of day to day nonsense, but I'm thankful we have each other and that we got to experience 2010 together. I pray that 2011 will bring lots of love, laughter, and togetherness.

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Happy New Year, everyone.

A Holly Jolly Christmas, Part Two

We spent Christmas Eve with members of the Berryhill clan and my mom's family. I love love love spending time with my sweet family. We're so blessed to live near so many wonderful family members who love on and spoil our boy rotten!

We ate way too much food, played some fun games, and chatted the night away!

Brayden saying "cheese!"

On Christmas morning, we woke up way too early and opened all of the gifts. Santa outdid himself this year.

After taking naps and cleaning up, we headed over to the Bellon's house for more Christmas fun. We're so lucky to live near BOTH of our parents.

All in all, it was a very successful Christmas. It was great getting to spend time with our wonderful family members and reflect on the true meaning of the season. Hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday season as well!

A Holly Jolly Christmas, Part One

Blogger is being ridiculous about loading pictures (and then putting them in the right order once they're uploaded), so I'm going to have to split the Christmas posts in two. Which is probably for the best, since there was no shortage of Christmas activities this year!

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A few weekends ago, we attempted to take some pictures of the cousins on my mom's side of the family for our grandparents. Cold air + two toddlers + two teenage boys + the rest of us = recipe for disaster. Luckily we got a few good shots and were able to print some pictures.

How cute are these babies?! I'm so thankful that Brayden has a built in playmate and that they love and adore one another (for the most part!).

The best group shot we could get. Brayden looks drugged and Mackenly is checking out my horrible hair straightening job. :)

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The weekend before Christmas, we got together with my mom's side of the family (all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and their children). I love getting to catch up with family! Poor Brayden didn't feel so hot that night, but he was a trooper.

My sweet Maw Maw reading Bray & Mack their Christmas book.

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Stay tuned for Part Two!

O Christmas Tree

I am way behind on blogging (as per usual). I skipped a post about Thanksgiving, but we'll have to forget and forgive about that. :) Since we've been in full-swing Christmas mode since the day after Christmas, I thought I'd do a post about our tree.

This is our third Christmas to spend together. Our first Christmas, we hadn't quite been married a year and Brayden was a wee tiny baby. We lived in an apartment about the size of shoe box (seriously...you could vacuum the whole house and never have to re-plug the vacuum). It was a cozy little place, but it left very little room for Christmas decor. Still, I couldn't imagine December without a tree, so we got one. A sweet little three footer that only had one ornament on it. At least it was easy to put up and take down! :)

Last Christmas, we had moved to Lake Charles a few months prior and were still living with Jason's gracious parents. There was a tree up at their house of course, but it didn't belong to us.

And now we're at this year. We're very blessed to be finally owning our lovely abode...complete with a great big ol' living room. The first thing I said when I saw the living room is, "Wow, we'll be able to have a Christmas tree!" I get slightly giddy around Christmas time, so all of the decor went up the Saturday after Christmas. We still don't have much, but I love the tree's glow and the warm holiday fuzzies it brings to the house.

The tree and our make-shift mantle. (complete with the LSU/Arkansas game on the TV screen...there's no need to discuss the outcome of said game.)

Ahhh, I love Christmas. :)

The Zoo

Ok, I have obviously not kept up with the 30 day blogging challenge. I think I'm a week and a half behind at this point, but meh, oh well.

A few weekends ago, we trekked over to Lafayette to visit The Zoo of Acadiana. Brayden loves his animal book and is an old pro at animal names and sounds, so it was really fun showing him the REAL things. As expected, he loved the animals. One of the best parts of being a parent is seeing joy on your child's face and getting to experience things from his perspective. A simple day at the zoo becomes an amazing adventure!

Feeding the fish and ducks.

"Calling" the deer.

Day Eleven

Favorite TV Shows

I love me some TV shows. I could probably live without TV, but it makes life enjoyable. I mentioned in Day One that I love to watch shows on DVD. We also record shows on our DVR and watch instant Netflix. More entertainment than you could ever need!

As far as "primetime" shows go, we watch The Office (love!) and Law & Order:SVU. I get sucked into what I call "train wreck shows"...16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, etc. I also like shows on TLC and A&E. We also watch a lot of Blue's Clues in this house, although that's not really enjoyed by those of us over three feet tall. :)