Christmas 2010

Ugly Sweater Party at the Bements!

Just before seeing Santa for the first time, she was so cute and so excited





Opening presents, she loved the paper and the noises that it made!



Sitting on the cute blanket I made opening some of her gifts, Brian is such a good daddy!



Brian caught us sneaking a nap Christmas day on my Christmas present from Santa, a new rocker for Braelyn's room!

This picture is a bit dark, but if you look close, she fell asleep cuddling with her new horse

Christmas this year is been such a different one.  It is amazing how your life changes even in the holidays when you have a child in the home.  It made me think about Mary and Joseph and how much they loved baby Jesus. 

Brian's family has a tradition on going to see Santa and taking pictures on Christmas eve.  This year the line to see Santa was a bit long.  Our niece Rylee had been so excited to see Santa.  Santa gave each of the children coloring books.  Brae was getting tired and hungry.  She started to get upset as we were walking back to the cars.  As I was trying to calm Braelyn down, Rylee came up to the side of the stroller and gave Braelyn her coloring book and told her she could keep it.  Brae stopped crying and was ever so interested in the coloring book.  It made me tear up because of how selfless it was.  I thought to myself when was the last time I took something of great value to me and gave it to someone else.  I hope I can be more Christ like, just like how Rylee was towards my little Brae.  I am so grateful to have such great family and friends.  So many have helped our little family out in so many ways and wish everyone happy holidays! 

My Knee Surgery

We decided to get my knee fixed since we already met our insurance deductible for the year.  It has been needed to be fixed for some time now and I can't wait to be running again!  It was a short out patient surgery, they did a scope of the knee and cleaned out some ligaments and scraped some arthritis under the knee cap.  The nurse gave brae a stuffed animal from the surgical center and they let me play with her while they were setting up the operating room.  They said that I should be back to running in about two months....so next Wasatch back here I come! 

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas

We have gone to the festival of trees which is one of our traditions that we have.  We also have picked out Braelyn's first Christmas tree! I love the smell of the real trees and every time I come home I can't help but think of Christmas!  We have our house all decorated for Christmas, I love this time of year!  We are so excited because it is the first year Santa will be visiting our house and I can't wait, I don't think Brae will remember much about her first Christmas, but it will be our first Christmas with a child in the home and I don't think we will be able to forget it!   

My little girl is 6 months!

We haven't had the internet hooked up yet and I am posting this from Brian's grandparents home.  I thought I could sneak away for a sec while Braelyn sleeps on grandpa's chest.  A ton has happened in the last six months....Speaking of which our house is coming along.  We just put in the kitchen sink so I now have a working dish washer, sink, and disposal.  I have been doing the dishes in the bath tub and it was like christmas when we finally got that in.  Brian jokes like he doesn't have to do dishes in the shower like kramer anymore, whatever that means, I haven't ever seen Seinfield...Big news that my brother Jake got married last week to a beautiful bride Jessica, who I am so excited to have as a sister, we joke that we are like twins.  Braelyn is such a funny little girl, she loves music just like I do.  If she is cranky in the car I will turn up the tunes and she will calm right down.  When she is out of her car seat she tries to dance already.  So hopefully I can get back in teaching dance because I would love to be her teacher. 

I have opened up my blog so it isn't private anymore, hopefully that will help me to post more so more people can catch up on what we have been up to...here is a few pictures of us

Trying to play catchup

Brian and I went to the doctors on a Monday morning hoping that they could pull any strings so to speak to get Braelyn coming, I had tried everything to this point, you name it I tried it from spicy foods to going on walks to jumping on a tramp to castero oil, etc...It was just my luck that nothing work for me.  The doctor had been out of the country for a month and this was her first day back, she took one look at me and said she had never seen me like this and she would be right back.  She came back in and had made the next available inducement.  It happened to be the same day as Brian's Birthday, we took the appointment anyways.  So, after going home from that appointment I organised a birthday party for Brian for the night prior to going in to the hospital.  It is cool that Braelyn and her daddy share the same birthday (they also share it with my late grandpa bascom as well!)

Everyone knows I am sure by now that we have had the CUTEST little girl!  It was fun to look back at these photos to put one up of when she was first here.  Its funny how one little girl can make two new parents so happy.  Labor was great....Not!  I had quite the time, had contractions for a month prior to delivery every 5 minutes 24 7 (even meds that were supposed to stop them didn't), so we visited the hospital 4 different times thinking she was going to come and finally after weeks of not sleeping and they had given me all the meds that they could to try to keep her in, she came!  About ten minutes prior to this picture I was telling Brian how we were never going to have kids after her.  It took pushing for 3 hours to get her out, something I need to be reminded of before having another one....She was defiantly worth all the hard work though!  We named her Braelyn McCall Watson...Brian, when thinking of names one night he chirped in and said how cool would it be if her initials were BMW that way we can get her a beater BMW when she turns 16....for a while that was just a joke and then we both fell in love with the name Braelyn (a name we thought we had made up from combining both of our names, until we found it in a book).  The McCall came when I was entertaining the idea of a BMW.  It was one of the few names we liked and didn't know what to really name her until she was here, I think other than labor, naming her was the next hardest part.

So exactly one week after having Braelyn, Brian went in for his tonsils to be taken out.  He has had bad ones since a kid and for a while now he just kept getting sick and loosing a ton of weight.  So, he had them taken out in the next available time, funny how it worked out being a week after having the baby.  It was like having two babies at home (Note:  Its way harder for adults to get this surgery than it is for kids, kids recover better and faster from it).  Not only was I feeding changing etc every 2-3 hours with Brae, Brian needed meds every 4 hours with food, ice, etc for 2 weeks.  So I had a system down where I put timers on my phone, some for Brian and some for Braelyn so I could keep up.  It was rough and I don't know how I did it, but it was so neat to be able to have Brian home when Braelyn was so little.  These two would just snuggle up and it made for many cute pictures!

Six weeks after having a baby we went to Lake Powell, ya try thinking about that when you are about to pop that you have exactly six weeks to fit back into a swim suit, haha after all is said an done, I had to realize that my body is the way it is now for a reason and that reason is sleeping soundly in her bed right now and she is way more than worth it.  I may not have the perfect body but I have a perfect little angel!

Lets Try This Again

So I am going to try to be better at keeping a blog as more or less a journal.  So with our newest edition I thought it would be best to make the blog private so that I can share funny stories and what we are up to without worrying about creepers out there...So hopefully this weekend I can start posting like crazy and get everyone caught up on pictures of the house remodel, the baby, and what we are up to now

Update

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! So we as of December 31st are first time home buyers! We have been looking for over a year and finally found a place in a good area for a good price (two huge things when buying a home). We are so excited about it and have been working every spare second this past month. It is planned to be done in about two weeks so I will have to post some before and after pictures....So far we have completely redone the sewer line, plumbing, and electrical. We have torn down walls, made bathrooms bigger, put in a shower in a bathroom where there wasn't one there before, moved the washing machine into the same room as the dryer (that would have not been good walking wet clothes from one room to another), insulated, and so much more! We will have a totally remodeled home by the time we move in!!! So I am so excited and the best part is that we aren't throwing our money away to rent each month anymore! We wouldn't be able to do it without our family and friends help! Its for sure been an adventure!