Baby Blessing

Matt's parents were only here for a few short days during the holidays, so we were able to have Brayden's baby blessing in our home on Christmas eve.

Christmas 2011

Brayden sitting with Nana

Addy trying out her new toy and taking care of her baby.

We had a full house this Christmas! Matt's parents and brother's little family stayed with us. Addy loved playing with Nanna, Papa, Grace, Scotty and Brittney and makes sure she includes them in her prayers...especially Grace, She has also named her baby Grace.

Grace and Brayden are only a month apart, but Brayden is twice the size of Grace! Grace is older! There were pictures taken of them side by side, but not on my camera. I will have to get a copy.

Addy got her own little nursery station for her baby. Once she saw that, she couldn't be distracted by any other presents. I'm happy she likes it so much! She got lot's of fun presents from her aunts and uncles and grandparents that she has been eBnjoying these past couple of weeks as well! Brayden got a few things as well..mostly clothes, but he also got a little "play center"? I'm not sure what to call it, but he enjoys laying on it and batting at the toys hanging above him.

Our New Home

In the beginning of September, Matt and I decided we wanted to buy our first home. We had been casually looking at houses for several months and then we found one that we really liked. The house is a little on the small side, but it works for us. It has four bedrooms, one bathroom and a partially finished basement. The back yard is a good size with plenty of room for a great garden and maybe a little swing set. It also has a fire pit which I love. We still have some improvements to make, but it's coming along.
Family Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Entryway (sort of)

Brayden's room (Still working on it)

Addy's room (her room is so small I had to take pictures from two angles)


Master (Still working on it)

Basement

Back Yard

First Smile

Brayden is 1 month old! When he was three weeks old, he smiled at me for the first time. Three weeks is pretty young for a first smile, but it was a real one. He looked right at me and smiled in response to my smile. He is smiling more and more often now. Last night he finally smiled at Matt and it was a big one. I was fortunate enough to get a good picture of it too!

Happy Birthday Addy

I can't believe my little girl is already 2 years old! She is just so much fun and I feel so blessed to be her mom! Here are a few things about Addy. She is currently obsessed with her babies and does a great job taking care of them. I will often find her wrapping her baby in a blanket and then bouncing/rocking her baby or changing it's diaper. She actually does a pretty good job of putting diapers on her baby all by herself. She also loves music and dancing. It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing, if she hears music she likes she will stop what she is doing to dance. She loves her new baby brother and does her best to help out. The other day Brayden was crying in the car and Addy said repeatedly, "It's ok buddy, It's ok buddy". When he didn't stop crying she said " It's ok buddy....No Screamin'!" She's pretty patient with him, but apparently she has a limit. I had to laugh when she said that. She loves to read stories and her favorite books at the moment are "Alice the Fairy" and "Falling for Rupunzel". She knows each of these books word for word. The other day, I was reading to her and I was curiouse to see if she knew all the words to the story so I stopped randomly throughout the book and waited for her to continue. To my surprize, she knew every one! What a great memory! She loves to dress and undress herself and does it often throughout the day. I can't get her to keep her clothes on! What a fun phase...
We just had a little birthday party for Addy this year. I made a rainbow cake. After she blew out the candles, I planned to cut her a slice of cake, but she threw a fit when I tried to take the cake away, so I figured there wasn't any harm in letting her dig into the cake herself since I had a different cake to share with everyone else. She got lot's of fun toys, but I think her favorite was the shopping cart grandma George gave her. She is growing up so fast!

Happy Halloween!

Addy was an owl for halloween this year. Some people thought she was a turkey, so I thought I would clarify. On Friday night we went to our wards trunk or treat. Addy caught on to the trick or treat thing really quick. I knew she would, considering how much she loves candy. The next day she walked around the house saying "tricka treat" expecting to get a little candy. We didn't actually go trick or treating on halloween day because we were busy moving into our new house(more on that in the next post). I think one night of trick or treating was good for this year, next year will be more memorable hopefully.

Brayden Matthew Lerch

Our sweet little Brayden was born Thursday, November 10th at 4:10 p.m. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. He's a big boy! I was induced one week early. Imagine if I had gone until my due date! I would have given birth to an almost 10 lb baby! The delivery of Brayden was a much better experience than that of Addy which I am grateful for. The recovery has been much better as well. Here we are awaiting his arrival.


Here he is!




He had some jaundice unfortunately and has been under the lights for the past five days.
Addy warmed up to him pretty quick and is constantly wanting to give him kisses and see how he is doing. She has her own little baby that she takes care of as well and it has been kind of fun to watch her follow my actions. When I change Brayden's diaper, she changes her baby. When it's time for Brayden's nap, her baby has a nap. While he was under the lights, I constantly had to keep her from putting her baby under the lights as well.
Brayden is such a little sweetheart, and we are grateful to have him in our family.