Christmas Weekend

We have had such a fun few days! I have taken a bunch of pictures, as you'll see in this post. We got lots and lots of snow, and it was the whitest Christmas I've ever had :) I really liked all the snow, but I'll be grateful when it's gone so I can leave my house. The kids and I haven't left the house in over a week. Sad! Grandma Janeway came into town last week from So. Cal. She had never seen this much snow either. So this could be a really long post but we're leaving in a bit to go to Enumclaw so I'm going to keep it short and sweet (or at least try!) Christmas eve we had the entire Brad Janeway Family over. That hasn't happened in a long time. It was great! We ate a gigantic dinner (I wish I had taken a picture of the spread) and TONS of dessert. We played games and the grandkids opened their presents from each other since they wouldn't all be there Christmas Morning. Some of us went to Midnight Mass then we all went to sleep. Christmas Morning lacked the excitement that I"m used to in the Harston household but it was still awesome. Tanya and Scott and their kids stayed the night and we all got up (everyone was finally up at 10) and opened stockings and presents. Tanya and Scott had to leave, but then shortly after Ryan and Heidi and their kids came. We finished opening presents, ate aebelskiver and hung out while eating more sweets. Overall, it was a really enjoyable Christmas! I had so much fun watching Brayden tear open the paper on his gifts and with each pull he'd growl "ahh!" like he was beating someone up. It was awesome :) Here are some pictures of the past few days

Sean, measuring the snow. At this point, it was 8 inches and still coming. (I think we got somewhere around 14 total)

Great-Grandma Janeway (Brad's mom) with Asher

The frozen branches out the kitchen window

Brad and sleeping Asher (Yes, he's can breathe.)

4 generations

These next ones are Brayden's reaction to the snow. He would pull this little chair in front of the big windows and sit there in absolute glee as it fell. His new favorite sign is "snow" and he absolutely could not get enough of it!

Brayden, watching more snow

Great Grandma Janeway reading to Brayden

A cool lookin icicle

All of the grandkids, including the one in Heidi's belly!

This is Braydens dirt devil Ryan and Heidi and fam got him for Christmas. He LOVES it. Brayden always tries to take the vacuum from me when I'm vacuuming. Then when I'm done he plays with it for another 20 minutes. Same thing with the broom. Anyway, now he has his own! The middle part actually comes out and works :)

Brooklyn and Asher. She's so excited to have a new little brother!

Sean and Brayden opening presents

Joshy, me and Asher

Here is a video of Brayden just being super cute. I love this little man! At the very end of the video you can hear him say his attempt at "Help please"



Mikey entertained us with his mad beat-boxing skills. Keep in mind he is only 6. And no...he does not have 1 shy bone in his body.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!!
Love, the Janeways

Brayden

This is for my own record. I'm sure I've posted some of this information before but I just want to capture how Brayden is right now, because he's adorable!

Brayden has been so much fun lately. He has learned to say "Help please." Sounding more like "Hep pees." It's really cute. He LOVES his father. If Daddy is home, he'll have *nothing* to do with anyone else. We are in the middle of a big snow storm and we can't keep Brayden inside. He is LOVING being out there in the freezing cold. He doesn't get that from me! Brayden loves looking at himself in the mirror, and he loves jumping in his crib. He loves saying "cheese" when I take a picture of him...and by saying cheese I mean signing cheese. I have a few pictures of him with his hands together, and that's why! He loves to read. He'll bring me a book several times a day to read to him, and then when Dad comes home he'll bring him several more. Sometimes he just wants to turn pages, but somtimes he'll sit and listen to a whole book. His favorite is Berenstein Bears books. Brayden is an active boy. He loves getting chased, and if my back is to him, he'll come up to me and go "Arrrrr" while tapping me. It's fun that he tries to scare me. He loves playing peek a boo, and he loves his green blanket. He can't go anywhere without it! Brayden loves baths still. He screams every time he has to get out. I'm sure he'd be in there until the water was room temperature and not mind if I let him! He still loves brushing his teeth, and dancing is a big part of who he is. He just has the music in him. He loves playing with balls and he has a pretty good arm for 19 month old! Brayden loves having his shoes on. First thing after his nap he'll go find his shoes and bring them to me. Sometimes he'll bring them to me even before he's out of his pajamas and I just put them on over the footies. He loves it. He loves being outside, he hates being in the car. He hates being forced to do something. He hates being restrained. He loves his brother, smothering him with kisses as much as possible. He loves "Signing Time" and is picking up new signs daily. His favorite right now is "snow"...of course. He is starting to be a little more vocal. He mimics us a lot more now. The other day he was playing with his leap frog book and one of the characters says "violet" and Brayden just copied right after and said "violet!" He even mimics one of the characters laughing and sniffing a flower. It's really funny to watch him learn. I dont' know if I've mentioned this before but he still walks around saying "gigglegigglegiggle." He also knows when to say "Yeah" or "no." We'll say "You're silly huh Bray?" and he'll very optimistically say "Yeah!" Or we'll ask "Do you want peas for dinner?" and he'll say "noooooo" very matter-of-factly.

The other day I was sitting at the dining room table reading while Brayden was playing with his toys. He quit the puzzle he was doing, stood by my chair and puckered his lips. I bent down and gave him a kiss on the lips, then he went right back to his puzzle. We have never kissed him on the lips before, so he must have just seen his dad and I kissing or something. Brayden is still not a cuddly, lovey-dovey person at all. He doesn't like to give hugs or kisses, (except to Asher) so the fact that he did this just melted my heart!

Asher

I cannot believe how fast babies grow. I went to the hospital yesterday to visit a friend that just had her baby and he was tiny! It truly is shocking how fast he grew in a short 2.5 months.

Asher is a delight. He is growing up so fast. I just told Sean yesterday that since he's such a good baby and doesn't require any attention, he doesn't get any attention! That's not wholly true, but it is a vast difference than Brayden. Brayden still likes a lot of attention so it's nice of Asher to allow that :) Asher was laughing the other day. He wasn't trying to...he was just smiling so big and was in such a good mood that he let out a squeal of laughter. I love just sitting down and holding Asher and watching him. He loves to smile and he loves being loved. Asher still sleeps in our bed with us and last night we went to bed around 12:30 (after watching a movie with Brad, Lorraine, and Great-Grandma Janeway) and he didn't wake up to nurse until 6! It was awesome. He really is such a joy, and such a blessing. He has been spitting up practically every thing I feed him. I don't produce enough to feed him twice, so I've had to give him a bottle a couple times. Fortunately, he drinks out of it like a pro.

We are so blessed to have our two little boys. They really do make us so happy. We are definitely happy and healthy and are so blessed during this holiday season!

OMSI

My sister and her family came down this weekend and we all went to OMSI on Saturday. The exhibit was "Mindbender Mansion" and it was a little too old for the kids, so we just went to the permanent part of OMSI.

Brayden and Quinn throwing balls

Brayden, Lisa and Lance shooting balls at Quinn

Brayden

Sean and Brayden playing in the water

Tycen and his paddle boat

Kayla and Garrett

Sean, Brayden and Garrett in the earthquake house

Bread

When my sister was in October we made bread. It was so good and I wanted to do it again. My mom was going to the cannery so I had her pick me up some wheat that I could grind so it was fresh! I got that from her while we were up there for Thanksgiving and I made bread by myself for the very first time today. I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous! But it wasn’t that bad and it turned out beautifully!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE homemade bread. I hope to start making it more often instead of buying it so we’ll see how that goes!

Statistics

We had check up appointments for both of the boys today. Brayden had to get 2 shots, and Asher had to get 3. It was a sad day! I love our pediatrician though. He was in the room with us for at least a half hour, probably 45 minutes...checking the boys, answering my questions, and asking questions to better understand how the boys are doing. He's great! Alright, and now for the stats:

Brayden Kyle

18 months

Weight: 23 pounds, 11 ounces (13th percentile)

Height: 32 inches tall (36th percentile)

Head Circumfrance: 47.5 cm (39th percentile)

Asher Briggs

2 months

Weight: 11 pounds, 3 ounces (61st percentile)

Height: 23 inches (75th percentile)

Head Circumfrance: 39 cm (47th percentile)

I am so proud of both of my boys! Asher is letting me get decent sleep at night most nights. He is eating well and is still such a happy baby! Brayden is starting to say more words, which is great.(his pediatrician isn't concerned about his communication skills) He knows probably 20 signs but still doesn't say any words regularly. We're workin on it though! This past week he has said, ball, shoe, fish, trees, socks, and green. YAY!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had an awesome few days in Enumclaw!! There was a ton of family in town for the holiday. We played lots of games, ate tons of food (5 turkeys and 20+ pies to be exact) and had a blast. We went running, swimming, and shooting. And on Saturday, some of us girls worked on gifts that we're giving as Christmas presents. We had a blast! Brayden loved playing with his cousins and aunts and uncles and...drum roll please... we weaned him off of his paci!! It was all motivated by Mom (thank you!) and once we got there, we just hid it. He was so distracted with everyone and so tired by the time he went down that I don't think he missed it. I think it will be more of a challenge now that we're home and he's realizing that he doesn't have it but oh well! I threw it away so I"m not tempted to give it to him. When he wakes up from his naps, he always looks for it so it will be hard for the next few days with him not ever finding it! Oh well...we're on the right track though. :)

Here are some pictures from the weekend. And by some, I mean a lot!

Lance, Kyle and Brayden

It's tradition in our family that after we've eaten all the turkey we can, we pig pile on the couch.

This is all that would fit out of the 27 people there. :)The spread of pies

Kayla holding Asher

When we went swimming, my brothers thought it was funny to put a bucket over there heads so they could breath under water. This is Scott under with a bucket over his head.

We had the Turkey Shoot again on Friday this year. It wasn't nearly as cold as last year so it was nice! Sean and I got to leave the boys home with my mom so it was nice that we both got to go together again!

(We liked to pose with the guns a lot this year apparently.)

This is a picture of my cousin Kalyn that came and visited from Virginia. It was so great to see her!!

Sean and I...I think this is the only picture we've gotten of the 2 of us together in oh, I don't know...3 years?

My awesome daddy!!

My handsome husband :)

My really weird sister :) Just kidding...she had this beany and found these goggles so we had fun with them...as you can see in the next few pictures!

(I was getting my bum pinched) Me and Natalie having fun with the CameraiThe crew! (minus me, the photographer. That always happens!)

One night before the kids went to bed my mom broke out a bunch of glowsticks. I think the adults had more fun with them than the kids did! Here are some pictures I took while messing with my camera's settings.

and a picture of Asher, because he's so dang cute!