Easter Re-Cap

I know, I know. Easter is old news. And I have...6 weeks? of catching up in the blog world. I have GOT to find an easier way to upload pictures, because the way I'm doing it now takes for-ev-er and most of the time it just isn't worth it.

Now, on to Easter.

We kicked off our Easter celebrations with an egg hunt the week before. Brayden did ok at egg hunts last year, and definitely improved some this year. He was more concerned with watching the other children and opening the eggs and eating the way too sticky/sugary candy inside.

He was also greatly obsessed with the Easter Bunny. For some reason I always expect him to be nervous and shy around strangers/characters, but our little man was totally smitten with the big furry rabbit. Who knew?

He collected about 5 or 6 eggs on his own, and was given a few eggs by and older girl (her mom made her, lol). Overall, he made out pretty well. (Especially considering plastic eggs just litter your house AFTER Easter)

For Easter weekend, we started out on Good Friday spending time with the Berryhill side of the family. Brayden got to play with Eva, Noah, and Nicholas and Mackenly on Mimi and PaPaw's new swingset. He ran around all evening and wore himself out.

On Saturday, we headed to The Bellon's house. Brayden played with Haley and Luke, hunted more eggs, got a baseball lesson, and pocked eggs. And wore himself out again.

On Sunday, we dressed in our Easter best (pictures to come soon) and went to church. Afterwards, we headed to Longville to wrap up our Easter weekend'o'fun. We hunted MORE of those darn plastic eggs, ate, petted horses, rode go-carts, played with bubbles, ate, swam, and ate.


We're so thankful for our loving and gracious families! And the most important reason for the "season," Jesus. Easter 2011 was a success!

Teeth Woes

It's been a dramatic week in the Bellon household. Nothing earth shattering...but we have had FOUR chipped teeth within a seven day period. The first two were mine. Brayden accidentally knocked his head into mine and I chipped two of my bottom teeth. And then last night, Brayden fell in the bathtub and chipped his top two teeth.

See them on the top? :(

We've been needing to take a trip to the dentist anyway. Luckily for Brayden these teeth will fall out at some point.

Maybe we should all invest in some mouth guards?!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Mardi Gras season is upon us in Southwest Louisiana. We've been enjoying a king cake (or a few), the music, and the festivities. Today was Children's Day and we took Brayden to the children's parade. He LOVED it. He could've done without the 18 wheelers honking their [very loud] horns, but otherwise he was all about the fun.

Playing the blues.

Throw me somethin', mister!

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!