Bruns Family

Christmas in Virginia

2012-01-12T22:18:00.004-06:00

After the 12 hour car ride (that is usually 9 w/o kids) we finally got to Virginia. Not the best way to spend my birthday, but we did celebrate properly the next day. (and Jason took me to the Guns N' Roses concert earlier in December which is the best birthday present EVER!!!)

Richmond has been having a famous "Tacky Light tour" for several years now. It is even featured on TLC. We have been trying to stop by a few house each year to add to the Christmas cheer. The boys loooved all the lights.
This house had alot of homemade lights. He made them from particle board and drilled holes for the lights and decorated them. It was very impressive. This guy got a lot of air time on TLC and he has security cameras from all angles on the roof. The next door neighbors house had a sign that said "What's the point, Ditto>".
My two little snowmen...
We left cookies and milk out for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.Here is Kaleb with all his loot. His favorite is the Mario Brothers game that he has been playing non-stop since Christmas.
Chase's favorite gift is his Barbie size Ironman. He also loves hats and got a cowboy and pirate hat. The funniest part of this picture is Jason in the mirror trying to get Chase to look up and smile.

We enjoyed decorating a gingerbread house. The best part about it was that it was already put together. We have had other disasterous houses in the past. We enjoyed eating it too!
And Chase tried hard too...
Kaleb and Papa had some good times wrestling.
We had a great and relaxing Christmas in Virginia and then stopped in Knoxville on the way home to celebrate with Jason's side. Apparently we did not bring our camera in. After that stop it was a tight squeeze in the car.

After we got home it was back to business. :( but the kids still had fun helping (haha) to put the Christmas decorations.
Chase can hold his own...and yes we were aware of the "do not let your kids play in plastic boxes" sticker that was on the top of the storage bin.

Christmas Cheer

2012-01-12T21:38:00.005-06:00

The Christmas season started out relaxed and fun this year with cookie decorating. Chase even joined in on the fun.
and a huge mess was made by all...
Bath time to the rescue...
So Jason and the boys got out the marshmellow gun to take a few licks at Frosty...at least he's covering up his snowballs.
Chase was not scared at all about the loud sound the gun made. He was really into it.
Then we went to Kaleb's school Christmas play. He's in the plaid shirt in the middle of the picture w/ his mouth open singing. This was the first song. For the rest of the night he was facing the other way and wiggling around without a clue that there was a production going on around him.
He actually did really well on his speaking part. He said "R is for Riches, He left in the sky".
One Saturday Kaleb decided to play Santa Clause and Jason, Chase and I all sat on his lap and told him what we wanted for Christmas. Kaleb did not break character and he was halarious...Santa Kaleb, I'm still waiting for my new car you said I would get!

Visit from the Harrisons

2012-01-12T20:58:00.004-06:00

So this is a very late post but I did not want to not have it in my self-jounal. Christie, Brett and Baylor spent the last few days they had in the states with us and my parents at our house. The 3 kids were always together within inches of each other. It was so cute.
Gigi got her grandkid time in.
Cousins hanging out again...
All the kids had birthday really close together so we had a cake and party for them. It was great to have everyone together right before Thanksgiving b/c it was definitely a day to give thanks, whether it was the official day or not.
Cuddle time in the playroom...
Baylor has a personality like Kaleb...very outgoing and very energetic. It is almost impossible to get a picture w/ her unless she is watching Dora.

Chase's first haircut

2012-01-12T20:42:00.003-06:00

So, we reluctantly took Chase for his first haircut. I was not at all looking forward to cutting off his beautiful curls, but soon we would not be able to see his eyes so it was time.I can't believe he sat in the chair by himself and let her cut without a fuss.
What a big boy!
So then we all had a big party for him...no, just kidding...i actually forgot to take an after picture so this is the soonest picture after and I really like this picture!

Kalebisms

2011-12-18T14:13:00.002-06:00

I post a lot of developmental steps for Chase but I haven't really said to much about Kaleb's third year. Probably because it was a really hard year. Kaleb did not have any difficulty with any transitions in the past whether is was bottle/sippie, paci/no paci, change in schools, big boy beds, etc....until, little brother came along. Wow, it hit him really hard. But, there were also, many other funny and good things that happened last year for Kaleb. He was potty trained, went to a new school, moved into a new house, moved into a big boy bed, and played soccer on a team. He moved from his love for Diego and trains into his love for Superhero's, especially Batman...and at the end of his third year became addicted to MarioKart. He is just like a little Jason and gets so passionate about his hobbies and what he loves.

We've been writing down his funny and sweet comments over the last year and I have just not posted them yet....they are in chronilogical order from 3-4 years.

*"I have Diego underwear on!!!" to the unknown ladies across the parking lot.

*Mom: "Do you know where God lives?"

Kaleb: "No"

Mom: "In heaven"

Kaleb: " I want to go to heaven tonight, Mommy"

*"When I grow up, I'm going to be a Great Bad guy"

*sniff, sniff..."I smell puma"

* Kaleb talking to an older man from church..."What happened to your hair?...Did a tiger lick it off?"

*Dad as he's leaving the bedroom: "Goodnight"

Kaleb: "Don't let the hyena's bite"

* Kaleb: "I only work on Tuesdays"

Mom: "Mommy and Daddy help people's booboos at work. What do you do at work?"

Kaleb: " I protect Sophie from Tigers"

* Mom: " Kaleb, where did you get these booboos on your back?"

Kaleb: "Well, I got this one from riding hippos in India and I got this one in Africa. The Joker was chasing an elephant and I whooshed in and it got me with it's tusk."

* "My tummy's telling me it's not hungry anymore"

* Kaleb's shirt got stuck on his head while he was taking it off and he declared,

"I AM WOMAN!!"

Mom: "Kaleb, do you know what woman is?"

Kaleb: " No, what is woman?"

* Listening to Dave Matthews Band in the car...(Jason's favorite band)

Kaleb: "Wow, this music is fast, but they can't sing very good"

* while walking into the hospital, " I think I hear an E-cock"

Mom: " Kaleb, Do you mean Peacock?"

* "You like pickles? I like pickles! We can be best friends!"

* after hitting his funny bone, "Ouch, my bone is all mad inside"

Mom: "Oh, Is your arm asleep?"

Kaleb: " yea, his eyes are closed like this (1/2 way closing his eyes)"

* Mom: "Ouch, I just got bit by a mosquito"

Kaleb: "Mom, you need to have good skin-muscle like me"

* K: "God made big people and Jesus made the brothers"

Dad: "Kaleb, did God make you a good brother?"

Kaleb: "No, God made Chase a good brother"

*Mom: "Kaleb, I have to call work really quick"

Kaleb: "Does work talk and have skin?"

* singing "Jesus loves me this I know, EIEIO"

* Cousin Nylah crying in the car because she can't hear the movie b/c of heavy rain.

Kaleb: "You should ask God and Jesus to stop the rain"

So, Nylah prays and literally 5 min later it stops raining. Soon, Nylah begins to cry again b/c a toy hits her in the face...and cries and cries..

Kaleb: "Nylah, you better stop crying or God and Jesus are going to make it rain again"

Although, 3 is a hard year discipline-wise...it was a year full of discovery and laughter...Kaleb has really slowed down w/ his funny comments but I'm sure there will be more to post later.

DOUBLE BIRTHDAY PARTY

2011-12-10T21:53:00.005-06:00

One good thing about the kids birthdays being a week apart is they can share birthday parties (at least until they object). Since Chase hasn't really built up much of a friend base yet, he shared Kaleb's friends and they all had a blast.
I take the boys here on fridays when its cold or rainy and they both LOVE it.
The first hour the kids got to play in the gym and the second hour they ate pizza, cake, ice cream and cheese balls...and more cheese balls. The cheese balls were a bigger hit than the cake.
It was already past Chase's bedtime by the time it was time to eat his cake so he wasn't too interested. We helped him eat a bit and then he just cried. Poor guy doesn't even like cake.
We had a Batman and Robin theme so I made a Batman cake for Kaleb
and a Robin cake for Chase.
We are so blessed to have two healthy beautiful growing boys. Kaleb spouts out "I'm four!" to anyone he meets now. Oh, he is just too big!

Chase's 11th month

2011-11-17T22:21:00.005-06:00

These days I see more of the back of Chase's head than the front. Good thing he has cute curls to look at. He is into EVERYTHING!He also loves to wrestle. I'm in trouble with a house full of boys. I'm already getting beaten up on a regular basis.
Chase pretty much has a wet shirt all the time. He only has 6 teeth and I keep thinking some might come in any day. His mother's day out teacher got him this crown for his birthday.
What a cutie. Again w/ his cylindrical object in his hand. His first words are Uh Oh!, Bubbles and ba-oon (balloon). No Mama or Dada, just the fun stuff!
Here he is on his first birthday. He started walking pretty consistently a couple weeks after his first birthday. He loves to give high fives.
An all around view of the Birthday boy.
He looks so grown up here. We hardly ever put shoes on him because he curls up his toes and the shoes just don't stay on.
He has a blast crawling through tunnels and tents.
Kaleb was pretty obsessed with trains at this age but Chase seems to like cars more. Hopefully the train table will still get some action.
Why is it so hard to get a picture of 2 kids looking at the camera with their eyes open and smiling. This was the best of 10 pics of our front porch fall scenery.

Halloween and more Fall Fun!

2011-11-17T21:22:00.007-06:00

First down, pick your pumpkin! The boys had a lot of fun roaming around the pumpkin patch.Chase seems to always be carrying some cylindrical object in his hand. We just try to make sure it's not sharp or attached to an electrical oulet...like the 90$ computer charger that he used as a pacifier one day and shorted it out.
They had a lot of ghouls and goblins set up to see. Chase's bottom lip started quivering a few times but he was brave and did not cry.
Check out the Buddah belly. Mission accomplished! We got our pumpkins!
Next we took them home to carve them. I was impressed that Kaleb could use to pumpkin carving knife to cut out an eye...but an eye was enough for him...he handed over the knife b/c he could not concentrate (ie sit still) any longer.
We only ended up carving one pumpkin b/c the other one was too thick and dense to cut thru so we painted it. I'm sure a picture of that will follow sometime shortly.
We went to the zoo for the 3rd year in a row. As usually we had a good time and went w/ a Superhero theme. My fantastic outfit is catwoman (if you couldn't tell) and Jason is Wolverine.
Cousin Nylah and Amanda and Jeremy were Dorothy, Glenda the good witch and the Tin man. They had such great costumes that they had tons of kids coming up wanting to take their pictures with them. Grandma and Granddad dressed up as the bad witch and the lion to but for some reason I failed to get a picture of them.
We ran into this uncanny bunch at the zoo who complimented our outfits rather nicely! haha
Jason and I had our own neighborhood party to attend...We were the "crazed wife who cut off her husband's head" couple. We didn't even win the costume contest! What does one have to do to win a contest around here? One of the finalist was Mary Poppins who dressed in black and carried an umbrella...hmmm, i guess i'm still a little perturbed.
Those crazy eyes took a lot of concentration!
Finally on halloween night we went to a friends house in the neighborhood for chili before walking back home, trick-or-treating along the way. Kaleb either said trick-or-treat or thank-you but not both. He still seemed a little overwhelmed about the whole thing, although it is by far his favorite holiday. Chase just chilled in his stroller on the cold night. He refused to take a nap that day for the second day in a row, so we figured it would be a challenging night, but he didn't cry once. I think he was just checking out all the action around him. Kaleb had to stand in lines 15 people long at some houses. It was crazy!
We've also been doing a lot of marshmellow roasts in the back yard. After eating his hotdog and getting catsup all over his face he did not want to touch his marshmellow b/c it was sticky.
Chase even joined us for some fun until his bedtime. Then we just used the monitors to relax and enjoy the crisp evening fall air.
One friday night Jason and Kaleb decided to camp all night in the tent. I was not sure if they were going to make it b/c it was a pretty cold night, but they succeeded!
I'm sure there will be many more campouts in the backyard.

Fall Fun

2011-11-17T21:13:00.002-06:00

One beautiful day Jason happened to only have one patient on friday so was able to join us at the zoo. Chase didn't know what to think of the birds.But he knew exactly what to do by the tigers...grrr! He would raise his paw up and cry, "Grrrr!" just like his big brother. It's so cool to see what boyish things he takes to. He loves to make car noises too..."vrooooom, errrk!"
Kaleb played soccer for the first time this fall and he LOVED it! We were so happy b/c we LOVE it too! He did really well and scored many goals (most for his team) which was lots of fun to watch.
Chase loved to come to the games b/c he would crawl all over his stroller like it was a jungle gym. Here his friend Dillon joined him for the fun.

Chase's 10th month

2011-10-10T22:14:00.005-05:00

BABY FOOD STRIKE! That's all I have to say for the 10th month of Chase's life...uhhh! This boy decided that he was not going to eat baby food all of a sudden, but only has 2 fully in place teeth...tell me how he's going to get full on Cherios...the answer...he's not...and he will wake up repeatedly in the middle of night b/c he's hungry....Finally, the four teeth that had been erupting for quite some time came in the end of the month. And to add to that, he had a double ear infection. OK, maybe hunger wasn't the only reason he was waking up in the middle of every night this month...But during the day, you would never know he was teething or had an ear infection (he had no fever).
He is such a climber...always trying to climb on something...i think he was planning to scale the columns here...i bet one day he will actually do it.
He has been sticking his tongue out all the time lately.
He loves his baths, especially when he gets to take them w/ big brother.
He has this thing w/ eating tissue...actually, he wants to chew just about everything.
Finally, jean weather!
He kept himself entertained w/ this box for a good 30 mins while Gigi watched him.
There was a whole series of these pictures that were halarious, but you can get the pictures w/ these two.
We were amazed at how calm Chase was on the beach. Besides climbing up in this chair himself, he just sat and played in the sand. When we took Kaleb to the beach at this same age, he was crawling all over the place.
Chase is definetely the one that can relax a bit. He loves to snuggle in the morning can last through several books before wanting to get up and do something else.
Everyone that watches Chase comments on how happy he is...I just hope that last a lifetime...he's a fun and loveable little guy and I can't wait to see what life hold for him.

DUCK VACATION! QUACK!

2011-10-10T21:42:00.007-05:00

We had a wonderful vacation in Duck, N.C. this September. We were a little nervous about it being hurricane season, but we lucked out and had beautiful weather.

There are really cool sand dunes in the outer banks. Actually, these are the sand dunes that the Wright Brothers flew their very first motorized aircraft.
Somehow, in the vast amount of sand, Kaleb managed to step in the only pile of dog doo and of course we did not have anything to clean his foot w/ until we got back to the car! YUCK!
Kaleb and Baylor making sand angels...
Mom AKA GiGi surprised us with a Christmas in September!
Kaleb and Baylor became pretty good friends on this trip. They had a lot of fun playing together.
The waves were really rough b/c there was a hurricane there the week before we came, so kaleb got to do a little sand boogie boarding.
Chilaxing...
Chase got to do some sand surfing too!
The kids entertained themselves pretty well inside the house...it's funny how they all stuck together most of the time.
Kaleb LOVED to be buried in the sand...and it only cost us $120...we made a trip to the doctor when we got back b/c the mysterious bumps w/ rings appeared all over his body shortly after we got back home...we thought it could be ring worm or possibly bed bugs from a hotel...but it ended up being a reaction from sand flea bites...ughh!
Baylor the mermaid...
Kaleb (and I) devoured a m&m covered marshmellow on a stick...i think he's still smelling the delight in the picture.
Baylor sporting one of her stocking stuffers...her lady bug girl bathing suit
The family pic...it was great to relax at my favorite place (the beach) with my favorite people!

Kaleb's summer fun

2011-09-05T20:23:00.003-05:00

Just the last couple of weeks Kaleb has become a video zombie. He has really gotten into Mario Kart. When he first started his times were over 9 min. When the places were displayed on the screen at the end of the game and Kaleb's name was in 12th place, he would proudly declare, "Look at all those people I passed". Within one week he knocked his time down to 2 1/2 minutes but is still in 11th/12th place...Hey, he doesn't need to know."Soccer Ball!" (as Kaleb calls it) Kaleb started soccer this fall. He was a little nervous at first, but as soon as the coach made practice into a competitive game, he was all over it...And he's really fast too. We haven't had a game yet, but Jason and I are both looking forward to watching him have fun w/ our favorite sport...and hopefully fall in love w/ it like we did.
We have been doing behavior charts w/ Kaleb and his latest prize was a Batman mask and shirt. He loves to wear my black robe as a cape.
He grinned from ear to ear the entire time he was riding the ponies at Trace and Dillan's birthday party.
He is my little dare devil...and I do mean devil. He is constantly standing on the arms of the couches and jumping off (not onto the couches...onto the floor) and climbing all over the furniture...and exercise equipment. I don't worry about him. I assume he's going to break something one day...hopefully later than sooner.

"Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting"

2011-09-05T20:12:00.003-05:00

We were on a road trip and listening to one of Kaleb's favorite songs, Kung Fu Fighting. I felt him kicking me in the seat and I look back and see this...

After a while he was hamming it up for the camera...

Fun times on the road!

At home with the Harrisons

2011-08-27T22:30:00.002-05:00

After our trip to Gatlinburg Christie, Brett and Baylor stayed with us for a few days. Christie got to catch up w/ Kaleb and read together like they used to before they moved.They made up lots of fun games to play. Kaleb pulled Baylor all around the hardwood on the blanket.
Then they got clean!
And watched a little T.V.
It was so good to catch up w/ my sister face to face. I felt like we spent a lot of quality time together. I just wish she didn't eat all my pickles...she's prego!

Meeting Cousin Baylor

2011-08-27T22:02:00.005-05:00

We have been looking forward to this weekend for years! Finally, my sister and her family returned to the States after 2.5 years in Africa. Kaleb and Chase got to meet their cool cousin Baylor for the first time. Both Brett and Christie's immediate families rented a cabin in pigeon forge the first weekend they were in town. We spent quality time catching up with each other and getting to meet Baylor. I had met her before but she was only 3 months so it was exciting to see her develop into an adventurous little girl that could keep up w/ Kaleb. In the cabin, they played with playdo...

played pool...
and played on the bunk beds...
Then we decided to get out on the town and ride some gokarts....Kaleb and Papa kicked Jason and my bootie...The whole time Papa was driving Kaleb had an overstimulated blank look on his face. We were not sure if he was having fun or not. For once in his life, he was speechless. But now, when we're driving on the road, Kaleb will randomly bring up what a good driver Papa is and how fast they drove.
Then we all went for a little game of putt-putt. Chase had fun chewing on his ball.
One morning we drove around Cade's Cove and then took a swim in the creek. All of the kids loved it. Baylor doesn't get to play in the water in Tanzania b/c there are many diseases she could contract.
Then they chilled out and watched super dog on the computer while eating their fruit snacks.
It was a great weekend for all. I know Christie, Brett and Baylor were jet lagged but it was great to see them, finally!

Chase's 9th month

2011-08-27T21:38:00.004-05:00

Chase has really made a lot of changes this month. Most significantly, he is mobile..he is crawling and cruising everywhere. It is so fun to watch him explore his new environment. He also enjoys staying put if there is something fun to do...like playing in a ball pit.Two bottom front teeth popped up this month and he seems to be getting more. He is constantly licking something...toys, the floors, kaleb's shoes...you name it, he's licked it...i don't recall Kaleb going thru a licking phase.
He visited his great grandmommy with his cousin Baylor recently. More on cousin Baylor later...
He's been learning how to party lately...he's been to a pony party and got to be a cowboy.
yipee, ki-yo, ki-yah!
He's getting into everything! Today I was brushing Kaleb's teeth and thought I was smart to close the toilet since he has been reaching into the water lately and he found something else to get into instead.
He also seems to love plants...at first he would just pull the leaves off. Now he sticks his hands in the dirt and sticks it in his mouth! uh! I have to watch him constantly.
Happy 10 month birthday, little dude!

Brotherly love

2011-08-09T22:27:00.004-05:00

Kaleb and Chase are slowly starting to have fun together. Most of the time I will find them entertaining each other while I am cooking dinner so I will keep the camera in the kitchen and run over when I see them acting cute.

It's like a Chinese new year all year round at our house.When I first started weaning Chase would not take a bottle from me so Kaleb was pretty helpful.
Chase can hold his own with his grab-the-hair-and-twist move (which he has been practicing on me for months)
Kaleb's been trying to teach Chase to crawl. (Actually, Chase will see something he wants and then cry until Kaleb goes and gets it for him.)
Chase gets to benefit from Kaleb's behavior chart rewards and enjoy the Bob the builder rides at Chuck E Cheese.
One of the boys favorite things is bath time. Chase hates for me to wash his face or wipe his nose, but laughs so hard when Kaleb splashes water in his face.

Chase's 8th month

2011-08-09T22:00:00.003-05:00

Chase is just an easy going baby that loves to be with people. He seems content where he is put and plays to his hearts content.This month he began to love to stand...so much that it is almost impossible to get him to flex his hips to sit.
He is constant drooling and is like a slug...leaving a trail of drool behind him on the hardwoods as he scoots along.
I left him sitting in my room while I took a shower one day and when I got out I found him trying to hide under the bed. Little stinker loves to play peek a boo and apparently hide and seek too!
He went for a swim at his cousin Nylah's house with a scorpion and a Barbie. We warned him that they could both hurt him, but he still continued to play with the woman. Typical male!
Chase recently got his two bottom teeth...say Ahhh Chase!

My favorite friday night date

2011-08-09T21:35:00.003-05:00

The evening started off as a normal friday night dinner of pizza but it was a nice night and we decided to go for a walk. Something came over my rambunctious three year old that is a complete Daddy's boy. He became totally in tuned with mommy and wanted to hold my hand while we were walking almost the whole time. He would look up at me and smile. At one point he lagged behind a little and I kept walking. I heard a "mommy wait up" and as a turned around Kaleb was running towards me with his hand behind his back with a huge smile on his face. It was just soooo sweet. When he got to me he handed me a hand full of hand picked flowers. He made me blush and he was beaming from ear to ear. It felt like we were on a first date...so happy and giddy. It was a beautiful night...and it even ended with a kiss!

These are the moments I want to remember in life so I had to blog myself a reminder of how sweet my Kaleb can be.

God is Great!

2011-06-25T22:35:00.000-05:00

Chase's 7th month

2011-06-25T22:09:00.004-05:00

We got out the Johnny jumper for Chase this month. He's just mad now when he gets in his exercauser and it won't bounce.He's hanging with the big boys and seems to enjoy himself.
ON GUARD...and why not sword fighting too...he's got to learn to protect himself around Kaleb.
This is pretty much how he starts his day...playing in our room while we take showers. He has mastered sitting up this month.
and mastered being cute too...
He loves to eat fruit, veggies and cereal. He tried refried beans last night while eating Mexican and I don't think he even tasted a difference from the green bean baby food he was eating.
He sleeps well and plays well. He's a very happy baby. He loves to be on his belly and press up and spins around, but has not started crawling yet. He is starting to put his knees up under him but has not figured it out yet. I'm okay with this b/c we will have to put up 6 baby gates once he starts and that will be a big pain!

The Best DADDY ever!!!

2011-06-25T21:56:00.004-05:00

Every day I fall more in love with Jason just seeing first hand what a good father he is. He makes such an effort to put in good quality time with the boys...and enjoys himself too.He teaches them important tasks...but hopefully they won't be using all of them right away...
He finds ways to make Kaleb's super cool forts even better...
And he has put a lot of sweat equity and love into finishing our attic space to make a playroom for the boys.

We are so lucky to have Jason so present in our lives! Thank you honey!!

A TRUE WATER BABY

2011-06-25T21:47:00.003-05:00

Chase has been a real trooper. He has gone out on the boat with us two times and has done great. He was not quite as miserable as Kaleb in his lifejacket. We got another one that did squeeze his cheeks so much.
And he is able to lie down in it. The boat just rocked him to sleep which allowed the rest of us to relax and take turns getting in the water. ZZZZZZ!
We've also made several trips to the pool and Chase likes his little boat. He also likes watching Kaleb play just as Kaleb liked watching the big kids.

Chase's 6th month

2011-06-07T21:07:00.002-05:00

Chase has had a pretty productive month. He has spent a lot of time with his big brother. Mainly watching and laughing at him. It is so easy to entertain Chase as long as Kaleb's around. They took their first bath together this month and Kaleb would stand and beat his chest and then jump on his knees and splash Chase with water. Chase was just cracking up laughing. It was so fun and we got it on video.I think if we collected all of Chase's drool at once this month it would have come close the the 1000 year flood. Lot's of drool, but still no teeth, but looking as cute as ever.
Luckily, Chase likes the outdoors as much as we do. We often eat dinner on our deck. Chase loooves food. He will gobble up any baby food we give him. I've started showing him some signs like "all done" and he is actually doing them already (@ 7 months). He shakes his hands and laughs. Then he'll wet razz with the food in his mouth and spews it all over himself...just great.
The exersaucer is still his favorite toy although he has started sitting up on his own, which is nice for me b/c I can set him down just about anywhere now if needed. He does not roll over as much as Kaleb did. He would just roll where ever he wanted. Chase seems to be less motivated to move and just content to stay where he is.
Chase loves people and just lights up when a new person comes in the room. He seems very content with his life (and he should be...babies have it made, right?) He loves zerberts, especially on his neck and belly and likes to pull my hair when i give them to him. I guess it's his way of wrestling. I can't wait to get to know Chase more as his personality develops.

Safari Park Adventures

2011-06-02T22:19:00.004-05:00

I have no words to describe this picture. We went on a safari trip-texas style where we could drive around a trail in our car and feed the various animals. We bought 5 bags of feed in total.The zebras were not shy. They would just stick their whole head in the car.
This is my beautiful Emu friend. The different animals definitely had their own personalities and even amongst the same breeds their were aggressive and friendly ones.
The Emu's and ostriches were definitely peckers. The ostriches were a lot bigger and Jason tried to feed one out of the sun roof and got his hand bitten.
This gazelle-like creature was Kaleb's favorite. He says "They have horns as big as trees!"
After this one got aggressive we rolled the window up and it started pecking at the glass. Do you think insurance would cover an ostrich invasion?
Luckily the bison didn't ramsack the car.
And just to document that Chase was there too...
This was probably my favorite event of the week. It's not every day that you can have zebras eating out of your hands, although I'd take Chase drool over zebra drool any day.

Sea World

2011-06-02T21:29:00.004-05:00

On Monday of our vacation we went to Sea World with my Uncle Pat and 2nd Cousin. We ended up buying a season pass b/c it was the exact same price as a day pass. Ridiculous, huh. So we went back on Thursday for a 1/2 a day just to feel like we got our money's worth.Sea World/Busch Gardens now have a Sesame Street section in all their theme parks where they had rides and shows that were perfect for Kaleb's age.

Kaleb had a lot of "firsts" this week. He got to feed the dolphins smelly slimy fish and pet the dolphins. (It was a first for me too, and pretty cool I must admit.)
They had this HUGE water area that had probably a 1/2 mile of tunnels to walk thru and since they had different openings one of us had to go thru them with the kids. I thought I was going to blow a disc b/c I had to walk thru with my body bent at a 90 degree angle for a constant 20 minutes. It might not have been as bad if it wasn't 100 degrees that day.
Kaleb rode his first roller coaster, Shamoo! It was in the kiddy section, but it was fun and there were no lines so we got to ride it multiple times.
Now this monster of a ride was Kaleb's second roller coaster. Jason taught him how to stand on his toes to be tall enough to ride. The first day I wouldn't let him b/c I was too scared for him, but the second day I gave in b/c Kaleb and Jason gave me guilt trips for 3 days in between. Kaleb was not scared at all and they went a second time b/c there were no lines. I always knew Kaleb was a daredevil, but I really didn't expect this at age 3.
We had a great time riding rides, seeing shows and exhibits and hanging out with my family.

San Antonio, Part 1

2011-05-30T21:51:00.002-05:00

We ventured off by car to San Antonio last week to visit my Grandmother. As we left the screeching saccadas in Tennessee we treached through terrible rainstorms in Arkansas and were finally greeted with 100 degree weather in Texas. Luckily we were also greeted w/ warm smiles from my wonderful family. Tonight Jason and Kaleb were talking to his parents on the phone and they asked him what the favorite part of the trip was and he replied w/ "Grandmommie, Grandmommie". He can be sweet when you least expect it.
My Aunt Linda was visiting from Idaho and Kaleb took to her right away. We hadn't been there but probably an hour or two and he asked her, "Can I sleep with you tonight?" So, gracious Aunt Linda (an experienced Grandma) set up a little pallet on the floor made from the patio chair cushions right next to her bed that was just perfect for him.
We were glad to meet my cousin Pamela and Uncle Pat for lunch after church on Sunday.
Pamela has a five year old son, Gage that got along with Kaleb really well. I think Kaleb is trying to look tough in the below picture, trying to be cool for his big 3rd cousin.
On Monday we went to Sea World with my Uncle Pat and Gage and we had a blast. We had all sorts of fun that I will blog about later. We had a fun-packed week and were able to see lots of family and friends. We saw two sets of friends that used to live in Nashville so that was a real treat too.

MOTHER'S DAY 2011

2011-05-15T22:39:00.006-05:00

I had a wonderful mother's day once again. We attempted to go strawberry picking this year to continue our tradition for the past 3 years. The farm we usually go to was shut down this year b/c a neighboring farm's pesticides blew over into theirs and killed all their strawberries. So after a nice lunch at Fulin's we hauled ourselves up to Portland only to find the strawberry picking was closed on Sunday! ARRHH! We could not break tradition so we picked/stole a few strawberries (see, I'm confessing my sins to ya'll)

Too bad the law didn't understand...
And if that wasn't enough...
No, luckily we did not get in trouble from the strawberry picking and found that the farm also had a little "ghost town" with some other activities to keep us busy and make up for the long drive up there. I did think the above picture was a good rendition of time out.

They had a huge, very bumpy slide that kept us busy...
They also had goats which Kaleb had a blast feeding grass until he was leaning over to pick some grass and one bit him in the butt. Ha!
Chase wasn't sure what to think of the slide. He had that overstimulated blank stare on his face for a while.
We finished the day on the farm with some delicious ice cream.

I am so blessed to be the mother of these two beautiful boys and look forward to many more strawberry pickin' mother's days.

"I think I like him"

2011-04-28T21:17:00.002-05:00

Kaleb's face below pretty much sums up the way he's felt about his brother the last 6 months.But after lots of forced play time together Kaleb stated the other day, "I think I like him. I didn't before, but I think I do now". The day before he said that I caught Kaleb smirking at Chase. The next few days he would say " I still like him" and now he says "I like him!" Yeah! Now we all like each other. It took Kaleb 4 months to get back to normal with me and now after 6 months he's decided to like his brother too. This was definately not something I expected b/c every transition we have had w/ Kaleb has been extremely easy, so I know this had to be really tough on him. I'm glad he's finally come around.
Now they are getting closer and Kaleb is even teaching him some KungFu moves.
I mean, who wouldn't like this adorable little guy!!

EASTER

2011-04-28T20:54:00.004-05:00

This Easter started with gifts to the Easter bunny. Kaleb painted him a picture and we left carrots and grass for him along w/ a tall glass of water. Oh, and cheese. Kaleb thought the Easter bunny would want some cheese too. In the morning he came down stairs and the carrots were chewed up and left all over the floor. Messy Easter bunny!
Kaleb got a sword from the Easter bunny. Kaleb declared, "Cool! A StarWars sword"...huh, we've never mentioned Star Wars to him and he's never seen the movie or a cartoon. Somehow, he learned about the sword. I'm pretty sure that they don't allow swords at daycare or church, so I don't really know where he learned about it, but he was right, it was a "Star Wars" light sabor.
I think Chase was pretty excited that he got some new paci's for Easter, along w/ a rubber duckie, a rattle and some cute bunny ears.

This was our 3rd annual Easter lunch and egg hunt with our friends, The Tumlins. Neither of us have family in town and now we both have two boys each, so it's always fun getting together.

VISITORS GALORE

2011-04-25T22:16:00.006-05:00

The first of our visitors this month was Grandma and Grandad for Chase's baby blessing at church.
Next Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Amanda and cousin Nylah came down for the weekend. We went to the zoo and played around the house. Nylah took a liking to Chase, but unfortunately she was sick most of the weekend and couldn't play too much.

The next weekend GiGi came into town and we went to Clarksville to visit my Grandmother for her birthday. We made sure she got enough little boy lovin'.
She and Gigi had to fight for Chase. Meanwhile Kaleb and I were fighting for the Ukrops cake that mom brought from Virginia.
We were glad to have our families visit. We are also getting very excited for when Christie, Brett and Baylor visit this coming August!

Chase at 5 months

2011-04-25T21:49:00.005-05:00

There's my favorite bunny. Chase had a wonderful 5th month. We had a lot of visitors and events that made the month fly by. He started eating baby food and rice and barley cereal, which has been awesome b/c he has been sleeping so much sounder. He has been sleeping from 7:30pm to 6:30-7:30 am. I think I'm actually turning into a person again.He loves being in the standing position and therefore loves his exercauser.
Chase in the hood in one of my favorite outfits. I'm so glad its summer now b/c I can see his chubby little legs all the time now.
Just recently we figured out that Chase loves to read books. His favorite is "Pat The Bunny". He like the books that he can feel the different textures and the ones that make noises. He really looks at the pictures and feels the pages. It never seemed that Kaleb was that interested, although now he likes to read too.
You have to watch out for Chase b/c if you get too close he will grab your face and try to literally twist it off. I have to keep his nails short b/c he has put his little fingers in every orifice on my head and it hurts! He also likes to pull my hair, but I'm not going for a mom cut just yet.
He found his feet this month and just loves to play with them.
He also loves to go to the park w/ his big brother and be toted around in the chest carrier, although it just about kills my back. Most other times he just sits around looking cute and being in awe of his big brother who he thinks is sooo cool!

Krazy K

2011-03-26T22:38:00.004-05:00

Kaleb is such a goofball! This particular morning Kaleb said, look Mommy...he had pulled off 5 different doorstops and made himself some "shooters". I told him he could play with them as long as he put them all back where he got them and he actually did. He has been really good at picking up after himself lately....especially when it helps to delay bedtime/naptime...but I don't mind b/c then I don't have to do it after he goes to bed.Kaleb has this thing about toe lint...he does not like it. The other night after dinner we told him that Chase had toe lint to and he rushed over to clean it all out...What a great helper!
Apparently Kaleb decided that babies had more fun and he just had to try it out again.
Kaleb came down the stairs the other day with his legs in the arms of his shirt and his pants on his head. Last night he came into our room at 2am with his filled pull-up in his hand and no pants on. He exclaimed that he had wet his bed but not to worry b/c he had cleaned it up and just couldn't reach his new pull-ups hanging in the closet. Jason went upstairs and his closet light was on from where he was trying to get a new one. It ended up his bed wasn't wet thanks for the absorbent pull-up, but we give K-man props for trying to take care of the situation himself.

Chase at 4 months

2011-03-26T22:22:00.003-05:00

Chase is such a blessing. He is such a good and happy baby. This month he is becoming more active. He always wants to have something in his hands or something to entertain him. We have to keep him moving (changing positions and atmosphere) so he doesn't get bored. He loves to watch his brother play. I do a "mirror" test to see he's tired or just bored. If he's fussy I'll take him to a mirror and if he's tired he'll turn away and bury his head in my chest and if he was just bored he'll smile and laugh in the mirror, like he just needed a little companionship from a cute little guy.He is enthrawled with the little monkey spinner on his exersaucer.
He has spent a lot more time on his tummy than Kaleb did. I forgot to do tummy time alot with Kaleb and when I finally did he would scream and scream, so I decided to not forget with Chase. He turned over from belly to back this month and we were all pretty darn proud of him! He seems so serious when he plays sometimes...like he's concentrating really hard. He seems to be more observant than Kaleb was. He loves to watch T.V., especially baby einstein. Kaleb was never interested in that.
There's my happy little guy, sporting his new shoes that grandma and granddad brought him.

Snow, Snow and more Snow...but not really

2011-02-13T16:44:00.004-06:00

The first "snow" of the year Jason and Kaleb got a little overzealous and decided to go out sledding before there was much snow even on the ground.My favorite way to burn off the baby weight...
It amazes me that in Tennessee the weatherman has such power. Just a forecast of snow can shut down schools before the first snowflake falls...and if it doesn't snow...oh well, the kids have a day off and the parents have to stay home from work...It seems crazy to me that they can get out of school for a week for an inch of snow...but we're here and were not going anywhere so I guess we need to get used to it!
So, it takes about 20 min for us to get ready and put all of our snow gear on to go out and play. On average we are out for about 7 minutes before Kaleb is ready to go back in. It takes me about 10, so I'm okay with his decisions most of the time...and its a great excuse for hot chocolate and a warm fire.
Here we are enjoying a nice fire on a snow night.

Today it is 54 degrees so it is a nice change. Hopefully there will be more warm days to come!

Chase is 3 months...already

2011-02-02T19:44:00.004-06:00

It's so cool to see a personality develop already in a 3 month old. Chase seems to be a very happy guy. He has recently found he hands and seems very intrigued by them.For a while he would scream and cry every night at dinner...One night we decided to put him at the table with us and he hasn't cried since. Who would have thought that he was feeling left out! Now he just happily sits and plays with his hands and blows bubbles.
One of Chase's new favorite pastimes is blowing bubbles...he sure can drool!
GATOR HATER!! from the start...Go Vols!
Chase has had a few firsts recently. He took his first trip to the zoo this Saturday b/c it was about 65 degrees on January 29th. It was a great day and a relief from the cold weather we have been having.
Last weekend we went to the circus. Chase slept happily in his carseat the whole show and just woke up at the end to eat.

The year of the BATMAN

2011-02-01T21:47:00.007-06:00

When Kaleb was 2 he was obsessed with Thomas the train....Now that he is 3 he has moved on to bigger and bolder things...BATMAN! He got the batman cave for Christmas and plays with it non stop...he has batman clothes, pajamas, underwear, socks and sunglasses. He eats, breathes and sleeps batman. Below he is on the way to school for pajama day.
Here he is at the dinner table as the Riddler battles it out with Batman. The other day at dinner he stated "When I grow up, I'm going to be a GREAT BAD GUY!"
He is so rambunctious and has no fear. Here he is at the zoo doing dives off the platform and running at diving into forward rolls with some bigger kids. They did this over and over for about 10 min until we had to go....man, I wish I still had that much energy.

Despite all his excitement to fight bad guys and run around like crazy, he has a big compassionate heart. Our life group has decided to do a service project every month and involve the kids so they learn how to give. In January we collected toys for an orphanage in Africa that our friends were adopting from. We told Kaleb that there were boys and girls in Africa with no toys...He said, "That makes me sad" I thought that's nice, but what is he really going to do when he starts to see his toys go in the box...well, he seemed happy to give them...later he even wanted to give his vitamins to the kids in Africa...(I'm sure they need them even more than toys). We're so proud of him and are so glad he's such a passionate guy (even if it is about batman)!

Two ER visits within one month

2011-01-26T19:44:00.002-06:00

We have recently had the opportunity to meet the nice folks over at Vanderbilt Children's ER, once for each child. The first was for Kaleb about the end of November when he started complaining of stomach pain. This kid never complains of pain even when he has a really hard fall or hit. So, we really were concerned when he started complaining. Earlier that day I was nursing Chase and let Kaleb stay in my room playing with coins and it crossed my mind that that could be dangerous and I called him in to be w/ me. Well, later that night when he started complaining I asked if he had swallowed any money and he said "yes". We asked him how many and he said alot. Then we asked if he swallowed big ones or little ones and he said big ones. So, I called poison control and they told us to go to the ER for Xrays.

We were really concerned by this time so we called our friend Chris who is an anesthegiologist at Children's and he met Jason and Kaleb up there for moral support. After lots of waiting and Xrays confirming that he was constipated, they were discharged. So, Chris went and found the cool ball shown below for Kaleb and we have named it our "$400 ball" for our uneventful ER visit.A few weeks later we had a more serious problem. Kaleb had the croup and then a few days later Chase began to cough and had lots of mucous. He couldn't keep his food down and therefore became dehydrated. Our doctor told us to take him to the ER at 11pm. He had to get an IV and they couldn't find a vein and kept poking him and poking him. He was screaming and I was crying. It was terrible. They finally put it his ankle and also did breathing treatments. They had us stay overnight to monitor him and we got in our room about 4am and he slowly started to get better and we went home early afternoon that sunday.

Hopefully that will be the end of the ER visits for a long time!

Best Buddies

2011-01-14T15:11:00.004-06:00

Kaleb and Chase have had a few of those special moments together. Kaleb really enjoys having a little brother, unless his playmates (me or daddy) get taken away to care for Chase. His teachers at school say he talks about "baby Chase" all the time. Below he is reading bed time stories to Chase.Baby Chase and Giraffe Kaleb make Mom's 35th birthday a success! Notice my very tired eyes! I don't think it has anything to do with being 35 though.
Kaleb got this Elefun game for Christmas where little lightweight butterflies blow out of the elephant trunk and you catch them with a net. One day I looked over and Kaleb had given Chase a net to play.
Here's the three boys watching TV before church one Sunday, probably Batman.
Daddy taught Kaleb the pull my finger joke...

"The Little Emperor"

2011-01-14T14:49:00.003-06:00

Oh they say you can't get lucky twice. Well that is sure true in our case! Kaleb was the most laid back baby...a perfect "Babywise" baby...anytime he cried I knew exactly why and could remedy the situation quickly and easily....Oh my, not the case with Chase. We are still using the babywise schedule, but he is just picky and stubborn. For instance, if I try to feed him at a certain time he will absolutely refuse, screaming and arms flailing. Then 5 min later will be crying to eat. Ahhh, he thinks he's in charge...and I guess he is...We have to swaddle him to sleep and if his left arm moves up in it he will start screaming and we have to reswaddle him...My thoughts are if you don't want your arm there, don't move it there!But of course, how can you not completely fall in love with this adorable little face!

(Chase at 2 months)
And when he is awake, he is happy.
He loves his swing that makes noise.
But when he's not getting his way...
and Mommy changes him into this shirt...
Oh man, I definately think Chase is more stubborn, picky and demanding BUT Kaleb never had toys being pelted suddenly at his head and someone running around playing Batman when he was trying to go to sleep...so I'm sure there are some environmental factors involved in Chase's drama. We'll see how his personality holds out as he ages. And I can't complain to much...he got all these traits from me! :)

Chase's sip n' see in Knoxville

2011-01-09T19:18:00.004-06:00

On Dec 5th we had a Sip N' See to welcome Chase into the world.It was given to us by Jason's mom and sister Amanda.
Ryan is a friend of Jason's from college and his wife Beth is a PTA.
Mark is a friend of Jason's from high school and his hunting buddy. They don't seem to get out as much now that they have four kids combined. Jenny keeps her hands full with Luke and Mary Kate that are near a year 1/2 apart.
Ulla is a great friend of mine and her son Benny will be one this January.
Ellen is a friend who just moved to Knoxville recently and I miss her so much in Nashville. Kaleb is in love with her daughter Abby and was very excited to play with her at the shower.
We were worn out from celebrating with our friends and eating cake but were so glad to be able to celebrate out beautiful son's birth with our friends!

Christmas card attempts

2011-01-03T22:08:00.005-06:00

HO, HO, HO! Santa Jaws here to brighten the day!It is quite difficult to take pictures of two kids. You have to time their naps just right, then rush to get them dressed and just hope that they are in a good mood.
We had to bribe Kaleb with chocolate to even get in a picture.

Pooped...
But after 56 pictures over 2 days we finally got our perfect picture!

Chase: One month

2011-01-03T21:56:00.002-06:00

What a cutie! We are starting to finally see this guys eyes open each day!But not for long...
At first he wouldn't take a paci, but I was persistent. At this point, he spits it out and then cries to have it put back in...I've gotten a lot of exercise running to his bed lately.
Here he is enjoying another bath. Can't wait to get him out on the boat!

BIG BOY, BIG BROTHER

2010-12-25T20:09:00.003-06:00

Before Chase was born when people would say Kaleb was a big boy or talked of him being a big brother he would get mad and upset and say, "I'm not big, I'm little. Daddy's big". But lately he has really grown up.

Kaleb has not only become taller, but has become a "real" helper. I had to take this picture of him doing the dishes, so when he's a teenager and claims he doesn't know how, then I can pull out this picture and tell him that he did when he was three.Kaleb "Bono" Bruns helping Dad put speakers in the ceiling.
Below Kaleb shows his nurturing side, being a good big brother.
Telling Chase all the truths of the world. Chase is eager to learn.
Over Thanksgiving Jason took on the daunting feat of potty training Kaleb. The pediatrician told us to start taking him to the potty every 15 min. I thought that there is no way I am going to do this any time soon seeing that I am breast feeding a 4 week old. But he stuck with it and Kaleb is now potty trained. It was amazing that he really did go every 15 min. Just like everything else this transition seemed pretty easy for him. Although, before we started trying he seemed to want nothing to do with it. I think he finally realized that it was more comfortable sitting in thin dry underwear than a thick wet diaper. I've only had to nurse Chase in the bathroom standing up over Kaleb on the toilet a few times. Ha! He still wears a diaper at night, but usually wakes up in the morning dry. Good Job Big Boy Kaleb!

Chase, 0-4 weeks

2010-12-24T14:48:00.003-06:00

We quickly found out that Chase is a water baby. He loved his first bath and has never made a voice of discomfort or dislike about his baths since. Check out his big belly!
All snuggled up in his POOH outfit
Chillin' w/ Dad
We took similar pictures with Kaleb at this age in the same cammo outfit. It's so fun to play dress up and take pictures at this age...they can't really object...or at least cant move if they do.

Happy 3rd Birthday Kaleb!

2010-12-24T13:44:00.005-06:00

On Halloween day, the day after Chase and I got home from the hospital, we had a little birthday party for Kaleb. I wanted to have it that weekend b/c the whole family was in town...even though it was very hectic and I was very tired. He loves Diego, the animal rescuer, so I collected all the decorations and ordered the cake before going to have the baby and then let the family do the rest. Thanks family!!Here's the Diego cake and Kaleb still plays w/ the cake toppers.
It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed playing outside...

Aunt Amanda and Uncle Jeremy brought their bounce house for all to enjoy.

Although very overwhelming and tiring for everyone, it was a great day and we are so proud of our big 3 year old, Kaleb.

Introducing Chase Tyler Bruns

2010-12-17T19:26:00.005-06:00

Delivery was so easy this time around. We went in at 6am and Chase was born at 8:44. We were instantly in love. Last time with Kaleb there was a lot of anxiety when he was handed to me, but this time I knew we would survive one way or another, just like we did with Kaleb.We didn't even see Chase's eyes for the first several days. He was a very sleepy baby.
Kaleb had this priceless look of awe on his face when he was holding Chase for the first time. He would stare at him and then stare at my barren body in the hospital bed. We had told him what was going to happen, but it is truly a miracle for all of us to actually see.

Proud grandparents below...

Chase with his fauxhawk on the way home for the first time!

Anticipation

2010-10-26T21:39:00.002-05:00

So here we are, Oct. 26th. awaiting the morning when we will have to get up at 5am to get to the hospital for my 8:00 surgery where we will meet our 2nd little son, Chase. We are so excited that I don't know if I will sleep tonight. Jason's and my parents came in the evening and we got to show them the new house and Chase's room. We think Kaleb has finally come to the reality of the situation or at least admits it now. He will have a little brother tomorrow and his name is Chase and he will be a baby and not have teeth and drink milk. I think I am most excited to see what Chase will look like and to see Kaleb react to him and hopefully love on him. I am most nervous about any complications that may happen like last time, but all you can do is hope and pray for the best. I guess my next blog will be of my beautiful baby boy! Later!

Fishing w/ Kaleb

2010-10-26T14:50:00.002-05:00

Kaleb and Daddy (not Jason-recently Kaleb has been calling his dad Jason. I think its halarious but Jason does not) have discovered a new hobby. Fishing! On there first trip to the pond in the back yard they caught 3 fish. Now they catch 4-5 each time which is usually under an hour. Jason says Kaleb will be very disappointed the first time he fishes in the real world.I'm standing on the deck taking this shot. It's nice that I can watch them w/o having to get too close to the worms!
This is a sideways video (taken from a cell phone) of Kaleb's fishing experience one day. He's getting to be such a big boy!

Kaleb's recent interests

2010-10-25T13:41:00.005-05:00

We were recently invited to Kaleb's friend, Jacob's bowling birthday party. This was Kaleb's first time bowling and he had so much fun. I had no idea they had these shutes to roll the ball down as well as bumpers. The kids actually scored higher than the adults!
Kaleb loves to ride elephants now. I recently treated a Shriner circus clown and he got us tickets to the circus! Thanks Buck! Kaleb had a blast. His favorite part was riding the elephant which was humongous! Later that week he started telling us details about the acts and even started acting our some of the clown acts. He pays attention more than we think.

While we were packing and moving and being very busy it is sad to say that Kaleb watched a lot of TV. But, this is not all bad b/c most of the time he was watching Diego, which is Dora the Explorer's cousin and male counterpart. He loves it so much b/c Diego goes and rescues animals...and not just any animals...humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins, bengal tigers, etc. It is amazing how much kids absorb b/c I would have never thought to tell Kaleb the species name of the animals! He has learned alot from Diego, including counting to 10 in spanish and learning different words and phrases like Vamanos Amigos! He wants a Diego chocolate birthday cake this year...so I have ordered it seeing that I will not be able to make it b/c I will be in the hospital!

We have also been going on puma hunts around the pond since moving into the new neighborhood. Can you believe that there are pumas in Tennessee!

What...even more excitement

2010-10-16T23:26:00.003-05:00

So, what does every loving husband do while their wife is pregnant...Why of course...goes skydiving....I guess all the other things we had going on this summer were not exciting enough for him. No, he had to leave his adorable son, pregnant wife and unborn son at home and step out of a plane...but notice i didn't say perfectly good plane b/c if you look close enough at the picture below you can see the duck tape by the driver's side of the plane.Yes, and there he is floating down safely with his parachute open...Thank God!!
He did this as part or a bachelor party outing. I was verrrry glad when it was over and he called me from the ground...safe and sound... He said it was the most intense thing he's ever done and doesn't feel he needs to do it again....I was glad to hear that! He did get a video of the whole thing and I must say it was pretty cool...his skin was flapping in the wind and I caught a glimpse of what he may look like when he's 90.

Transitions

2010-10-16T22:43:00.003-05:00

We have been sooo busy this summer. We put our house on the market in February as we built our new one. Finally, we sold it in August and moved less than a month later when I was 8 months pregnant. ( I guess it could have been worse). The week we were going to close on our house our car broke down beyond repair which also forced us to buy a new (to us) car. Wow, do we feel broke! Since we moved, Kaleb started a new day care which he seems to be enjoying, although at first he refused to take naps. But that didn't last too long when I told him he wouldn't be able to watch T.V. if he didn't take a nap. He also started sleeping in a big boy bed at home which has been a smoother transition than I ever thought was possible. He actually is sleeping better in the new bed. This is b/c in his crib he slept the width of the bed, not the length and would get his feet and legs stuck in the slats all the time.

But the biggest transition is yet to come...
This is about 35 weeks...I'm very glad not to have gained 50 pounds this pregnancy like I did for the first. It is due to the fact that I do not have pre-eclampsia this time which is much more comfortable. This pregnancy over all is much easier/ less complicated than the first. Also, I know what to expect which helps, especially when I break out in tears for no reason. I know it won't last forever.
This is the first meal in our new house...pizza on the floor...
Here we are enjoying the nice sunset while eating dinner on the back porch.
So, with all this excitement we had not been able to concentrate on finding a good name for our baby. Of course, like before I went thru every single boys name in my 5,ooo baby name book but we didn't have one "pop" out at us like before. We narrowed it down to 3...Colin, Ethan and Jacob....so finally, we settled on "Chase". Not originally in the Top 3 but it started to grow on us...We are pretty sure his full name will be Chase Tyler Bruns....We've been calling him Chase now and it feels right....We have finally painted his room and picked bedding. I will have to post pics of his nursery soon.

Charleston with the Carrs

2010-10-16T22:20:00.005-05:00

We had a relaxing vacation in Charleston S.C. in August with our friends Andrew and Ulla who had a 6 month old little boy at the time. We tried to take advantage of the nice scenery and take some family pictures.You always have to entertain the kids...Here we are "riding the train" and you can see my little belly bump.

It was fun to have Kaleb "practice" being a big brother with "baby Ben". I think he did a good job. He was interested in him and even shared some toys with him every once in a while.
Here they are playing trains together.
Both the Carr's and us do not have family nearby, so one of the exciting things to do that week was to go on a date night while the other couple babysat the kids. On our date night we took a sunset sailboat cruise and then went out for dinner. It was nice to be able to take our time and not have to rush back in order to save money on the babysitter. I must say we got the easy end of the deal b/c Benny went to sleep 30 min after Andrew and Ulla left for their date.
We had a great time vacationing with the Carr's and hope we can do it again soon!

Kaleb's crushes

2010-10-16T21:58:00.002-05:00

We have enjoyed lots of parties and weddings this summer. This is one of Kaleb's older women that he adores...Abby. This was at her 4th birthday party and I just loved their facial expressions in these pics...having so much fun together.

We went to our friends, Claire and Dan's wedding in Alabama this summer. Kaleb found this cute little girl to dance with and they bounced up and down all night...not sure if my video will work... On the way home Kaleb seemed like he was on cloud nine and started talking to Jason saying.."Daddy, I danced with a girl...and she was pretty...like mommy...I had fun...I danced with a girl" We also have a video of that but I'm having technical difficulties and just want to get something on this blog since i havent in 17 weeks!

It's a....

2010-06-22T22:24:00.003-05:00

BOY!!!

How can we not be excited about having another sweet boy! Today Kaleb came to me out of the blue and said "Mommy, you're pretty"...I was giddy all day long...I can't wait to see him love on his little brother. I know it may take an adjustment time, but i think we're going to have a very loving and active family. The ultrasound took 45 minutes b/c baby would not stay still to get measurements...he was all over the place. We have a few boy names we're thinking about, but havent nailed anything down yet. Any suggestions? My criteria (no B names, has to be at least 2 syllables)

Father's Day

2010-06-22T21:41:00.003-05:00

We all had a great father's day. After opening cards and a boom box (requested by pops to take w/ us on our next beach vacation) we went to the movies. The 96 degree heat kept us away from the original idea of a nice hike.We went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D for Kaleb's first movie in the theater.
He seemed to like the movie b/c the first thing he said when it was over was " I want to watch it again". Although, he has not mentioned it at all since.

Three little pigs

2010-06-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

Here's Kaleb's rendition of the three little pigs.

VACATION!

2010-06-06T13:40:00.004-05:00

We took an extra long weekend over memorial day to go to Virginia and visit Gigi and Papa and get some rays at VA beach. There was this really cool park a mile from my parents house where Kaleb had a blast. It had everything a little boy could love...firetrucks, trains, cars and ducks to feed. There was also a petting zoo complete w/ sheep, turkeys, cows and horses.One of the great things about Jason's new job is that he gets to frequent the parks w/ Kaleb and me. Kaleb is still obsessed w/ trains so was glad he could drive one w/ daddy.
Papa and Kaleb just chillaxing...
Va beach is a great vacation spot...there was tons to do. We took a walk on the boardwalk. We were going to rent a "bicycle car" to ride up and down the last night, but it started to thunder and lightening so we didnt...but it didnt rain...we had great weather!
We got this cool beach tent since we're going to have many more vacations at the beach in the upcoming years. It was nice to have some shade.
Rock on!
Every kid has to be buried in the sand.

HELPER IN TRAINING

2010-06-06T13:21:00.003-05:00

Since we have a "new one" on the way, we are trying to ease Kaleb into being a helper. The other day he was "helping" me cook spegetti...I was stirring the meat when I was interrupted by Kaleb who wanted me to help him get the last can on top of his tower...as you can see in the corner of the picture
Next, he was helping me do the laundry...as i was putting things on hanger he made sure they were all color coded...as i went to put some away i came back and Kaleb had put some of jason's underwear and socks on hangers....well, don't you hang up your underwear and socks?
So, we are getting the feeling that Kaleb does not want a little sibling (or competition)...you say, what makes us think that? Well, the other day he "took" the baby out of my belly (thru my belly button) and put it in his mouth, ate it up and then spit it out....hmmm, what is his little mind thinking?...it doesn't look good!

Kaleb and I were playing doctor the other day and he took the light and shined it in my mouth and said "It doesn't look good mommy" and proceeded to take the scissors and cut my tongue off! Who's idea was it to put scissors in that doctors kit anyway....well, we'll just have to watch him carefully after the second one arrives or he/she may not have a tongue!

MY EXCUSES...

2010-05-01T14:29:00.005-05:00

for not blogging much at all since January.

#1: We are building a house...it has been fun watching it built from the ground up and getting to choose the details to make it our own. For example, we got the garage two feet deeper so that our boat would fit in straight (as of now, ours it caddy cornered in our garage and we cannot park any cars in it). The new house is not taking up too much of my time, but trying to sell our house is...We have to keep the house spotless everyday "just in case" we get a showing. That is not to easy when you live w/ a 2 year old.#2. I went to Africa..as I've already blogged about. But, it took some time to prepare for it and then recover from it.
#3. And for my biggest and best excuse...I'm 13 weeks pregnant!...and who wants to blog when you're extremely exhausted and nauseous! Little did I know that when i went to Africa i was pregnant...So when I went for my 8 week ultrasound and it had arms and legs, we were very surprised...I was actually 10 weeks and I can not describe how excited I was that I was two weeks more thru my first trimester than I had thought.
I am still tired but it is getting better. Last time that got better around 15 weeks, so I'm holding on until then. I've been less nauseous than with Kaleb. I am so happy that I'm not working full time (except full time as the mom of Kaleb)...I've been able to rest more in the middle of the day and have more time to cook still, so I've been eating healthier. I'm trying hard this time not to gain 50#s. So, if anyone has any special intuitions if its a boy or girl...I have no idea...some days I think girl, other days, a boy...only time will tell.

So, I hope I will be able to keep up my blog as I grow, b/c I love having this journal of the kids lives to one day show them.

The Legend of the Easter Cow

2010-05-01T13:43:00.003-05:00

We had a long easter season, but it was filled with lots of excitement. It first started with a trip to Knoxville. Amanda and Grandma thought it would be fun to dye eggs...i was thinking to myself "are ya'll crazy"...as the day played out everyones ideas were right. We dyed eggs outside (thank goodness) and Nylah calmly colored one egg at a time in a very gentle manner...Kaleb on the other hand...liked to drop the eggs into the dye from about a foot up...cracking the eggs and also splashing it all over the place...he moved so fast it was hard to stop him..here we are shielding the area from Kaleb disaster...Here the cousins are counting their easter eggs...
On the Saturday before Easter we went to a community festival where they had a helicopter that dropped 20,000 eggs over a field and let the little kids have at it... Kaleb had so much fun b/c they had inflatables and his friend Abby was there too.
Here they are posing with the Easter bunny which was a very brief encounter...and now starts the story of the Easter cow...Chick Fil' A was there providing lunch and they had 2 cows too...Kaleb chased the cows around all afternoon and just couldn't stop thinking about them....
So, the next morning when Kaleb explored his Easter basket we asked him who he wanted to thank...and he exclaimed "Thank you Easter Cow"...we tried to correct him, but it was just too funny...we'll see if he remembers the Easter Cow next year.
On Easter we had our 2nd annual Easter lunch and egg hunt with some friends who also do not have family in town. The kids enjoyed each other and all the chocolate.

AFRICA!

2010-04-14T20:52:00.005-05:00

Welcome to beautiful Tanzania! I went to visit my sister, brother in law and new and adorable niece this February. It was quite a trip. I went by myself while Jason and Kaleb fended for themselves at home. My parents were there at the same time but we travelled there separately.The first full day we were there we went to church in a small village. This is one of the women standing by her house.
When we arrived at the church they had seats prepared for us at the front facing the rest of the church. We were "guests of honor". This is the church choir singing away. They sang one song that we actually knew..."Nothing but the blood of Jesus". We sang in English while they sang in Swahili. It was pretty cool to know we had something in common with this people that were completely different from us in so many ways. Church lasted 2-3 hours and then they invited us to stay for lunch...sooo, about 3 hours later we were finally sharing a meal of rice, dagu (small fish) and a tomato (but looked like eggplant) dish with our fellow Christians. It was neat to get to know them even though we couldnt communicate with them unless Brett or Christie were right there. They were so friendly and giving. They owned nothing but spent 3 hours cooking and providing lunch for us.
Christie and Brett had only moved into their house a week before we got there. It is not even finished, but livable. They had a beautiful home and although they had spotty electricity and concrete floors and walls, I was very happy to have a hot shower!
So our big vacation part of the trip was going to Robundo island that is situated in the middle of Lake Victoria. The plan was to drive an hour to the shore and take a 30 min boat ride to the island...BUT...we took our hour drive, but when we got to the shore we had to wait 2 hours for a storm to pass...well, we thought it had passed and got into our little boat (w/ precious Baylor in her car seat) and headed off...well, right way it started raining off and on again. 3, yes 3 HOURS later we were all miserably wet, exhausted and frustrated when our boat driver said "look ahead, you can see our beach from here"...then capoo! we ran out of gas! ahhhh!! we were in the middle of the lake, and as you can imagine, cell phone service in africa is not so hot, so we could not get a hold of anyone to tell to bring us gas or come save us....at this point i was seriously thinking that we may have to spend the night on the boat...we finally floated to where Brett got some reception and waited another hour in 6 ft swells for someone to come bring us gas. Ah, once we got there we literally wanted to kiss the ground.
Once we got to the island, it was pretty fabulous. We took a walking safari tour that morning and saw huge hippos (shown above), crocadiles, bush bucks and many tropical birds. They fed so so well! It was delicious and we stuffed ourselves at every meal. Below is the bandas that we stayed in. I got one all to myself and the first morning I woke up to monkey running across my roof. Apparently they had been sitting on my front porch when Brett saw them and came to take a picture and they all ran.
This is my adorable little niece Baylor taking a dip in Lake Victoria! She had the best cheeks!
This is saying goodbye at the airport. It was such a great trip and I have many more pictures for anyone thats interested, just give me a call...i love to share my pictures! Thanks for a great trip Brett and Christie!!

Kaleb Happenings

2010-04-11T21:37:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know, it's been an extraordinary amount of time since I have written, as I am sure you are all waiting on the edge of your computer chairs to see what Kaleb has been up to for the last 4 months. Well, here are just a few. For about a week, Kaleb decided that the tree in his room by his bed was "scary" and he made us take it out every night. Luckily, it didnt last forever. But he is starting to think things in the dark are scary now. Somehow, I will use that to my advantage...One night we were sitting in the kitchen eating dinner and all of the sudden Kaleb jumps up and runs to the dining room and says Hi Big Bird! Hi Elmo! Hi Oscar! We said "where are they Kaleb?" and he directed us to each of their chairs that they were sitting in. For a few nights he was consistent on who sat in what chair. This was the first incidence where we realized he was imagining. Ah, man, he's growing up!
Crocagators! as Kaleb calls them....While I was gone to Africa visiting my sister (another posting) Kaleb became obsessed with crocagators and took them everywhere he went...he read to them...
He bathed with them...
and he slept with them (not pictured)....i'm glad he has so many friends!

Kaleb has been saying his ABC's for a while...we have those ABC fridge magnets that sing and he loves them. He sings with such vigor!

He also loves to sing other songs such as Jesus loves me, itsy bitsy spider, row-row your boat, he's got the whole world in his hands, twinkle-twinkle, monkeys jumping on the bed...and the list goes on....

One day we were grocery shopping and he was being very irritating...throwing things out of the cart, climbing out of his seat, whining...you know, typical 2 year old...i had about reached the end of my rope and he started singing Jesus loves me in his little high pitched voice...at first I thought "yea, he's the only one that could love you right now" but then my bitter heart melted into his innocence...i needed that moment.

Christmas with the Wades

2010-01-16T22:38:00.004-06:00

For Christmas we went to Virginia to my parents house. We missed Christie, Brett and Baylor! It was a short but enjoyable Christmas (b/c you can see below that Kaleb got all the attention) Welcome to the Kaleb and Papa show!

It looks like they are both very musically inclined, but photos can be deceiving! Ha! They sure did have fun though.
Papa and Kaleb make cookies for Santa. Notice the shape Kaleb made them into (a choo choo). He is so obsessed with trains. He will line up anything in the form of a train.
He was so excited to leave cookies for Santa that he didn't even want to eat them himself. We went to see Santa at the mall at home. He sat on Santa's lap and didn't even cry. He did however stare off into space and not answer any of Santa's questions. I think he must internalize his fear.

During the night Kaleb woke up several times wanting to go downstairs...I was surprised he got the gist of it so soon. The next night, he woke up wanting to go downstairs and open more presents. I had to disappoint him and tell him Christmas is only once a year.

Another cute story: Outside of Kaleb's daycare they have a Nativity Scene that we always stop and look at... he always says hi to baby Jesus and the shepherd...One day we drove in the parking lot and Kaleb shouted "Jesus!" like he was in a charismatic church. It was so funny!

Now he always wants to pray to baby Jesus, kind of like in the movie Talledega nights with Will Ferrell....anyway...
Kaleb got really sick while we were in Virginia, which was a major bummer b/c they got 12 inches of snow the weekend before we came and we were planning to have so much fun in it. Instead Papa brought some snow in the kitchen and he still had a blast.
Later in the week we were all getting cabin fever so we went to the train station and Papa took Kaleb in a couple cars. He was in heaven.
One of the best things I got for christmas was to see my Dad on the floor with Kaleb about 90% of Kaleb's waking hours. They had so much fun together and really bonded. I have since tried to go thru this tunnel myself and am really impressed they my Dad could get in and out of it.
Flip side...
I got to meet with some of my high school friends on Monday morning for breakfast and it was so good to catch up with them again. During that time everyone else went to the park where they had some old train cars that you could climb on.
Besides the sickness we had a really good Christmas. I got almost all the "Twilight" series books...the real reason I haven't blogged in a while (I'm obsessed).

Christmas with the Bruns'

2010-01-16T22:19:00.005-06:00

Well, like always there were enough presents under/around the tree that all of Santa's elf got paid overtime this year. We went to Knoxville the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with Jason's side of the family.We thought Kaleb had enough trains, but obviously more made him very happy!
Granddad and Grandma in their Christmas spirit.
We thought it would be a lot of fun to have Christmas with two toddlers this year...and it was, it just seemed to also be very stressful. Kaleb and Nylah wanted to open each others presents and then fight over the toys once they were ripped open... like their weren't enough to go around.

WELCOME BAYLOR!!

2010-01-16T21:56:00.005-06:00

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY BAYLOR!! Baylor Adelaide Harrison was finally born on Dec 4th, 2009, weighing in at 7lbs 14 oz in Tanzania Africa to my wonder woman sister that went "all natural". Here are a few of my favorite pictures. The first two are in the hospital so she's still only days old.
Isn't she the cutest!!

I must admit that I'm a little jealous of this one. While we're all freezing here in December, Baylor is basking the sun in her Santa gear.
She's going to be a boxer when she grows up.
They are all doing very well and back in Geita now. Baylor has a healthy appetite and is apparently very strong since she rolled from her stomach to her back at 6 weeks old!! I can't wait to go see her and give her kisses. Although SKYPE is great, its just not the same!

In the Christmas Spirit

2009-12-06T22:12:00.004-06:00

We went to Opryland Hotel this weekend and had a fun time looking at the lights.That is an elephant behind us, if you cant tell. Kaleb liked the animal theme this year.
With Daddy and the Santa bear...
This was the section of the tree that Kaleb decorated. We thought it was great, but what is even funnier is that as I am sitting in front of the tree now, only one of those balls are still in the original position (and Jason and I have not touched them). Kaleb will put ornaments on and off throughout the day, although mostly just off...
Daddy making sure that Kaleb didn't fall through the window. Kaleb was actually pretty steady on the ladder.

THANKSGIVING WITH PAPA AND GIGI

2009-12-06T21:59:00.002-06:00

My parents came up for Thanksgiving. They had not seen Kaleb since July. Although we Skype every week, Kaleb is rather shy on the computer so he doesn't talk much, but they got to see the real Kaleb this past weekend. We all went to my Grandmothers house in Clarksville where my Aunt, Uncle and cousins met us as well. We had a good time, except for the fact that Kaleb did not want to take his nap for 3 out of the 4 days they were here. Below Kaleb is showing Papa how to do the elliptical.Kaleb just loves his GiGi. And I love GiGi too! We were able to go Christmas shopping and take a few evenings off reading with them around. Thanks Papa and GiGi!!
We decorated one tree while they were here and I think everyone had a good time!

We're going to visit them for Christmas, so we'll see how a 2 year old does on a 10 hour car ride.

In a typical day

2009-12-06T21:28:00.006-06:00

In no particular order (b/c I still can't figure how blogspot posts pictures after 2 years)...

We go somewhere fun. We have gone to Chucky Cheese twice now and Kaleb loves it (and we do to). My memories of Chucky Cheese as a kid consist or germ infested ball pits, dirty floors, flat, cold greasy pizza and frustrating games of ski ball. (Although I still loved it as a kid) So, when Jason begged and begged to go, I finally gave in and brought my 3 bottles of hand sanitizer. But, much to my surprise, the one nearby is really clean and does not have a ball pit. The best part of it is that all the games are only 25 cents (unlike Dave and Busters, etc.)

We also go an indoor gym at a local church that has tons of padded tunnels, walls and slides for Kaleb to climb. I hope to start him in an indoor swim class and/or gymnastic class this winter when I won't want to go outside at all.
We watch Wiggles. I HATE the Wiggles! For some reason Kaleb LOVES them. He knows all the characters by name, except the pirate which he calls Arrrr! Recently I've tried to get him interested in Sesame Street again, which is working. It is so much more adult friendly and is actually fun and educational.
Kaleb takes a nap. For some reason he always sleeps horizontal in his bed, on his pillow, so his feet hang out. Even when I try to get him lay the "correct" way, he moves quickly back to his favorite, seemingly uncomfortable position.
We make dinner. Kaleb loves to pull the chair up by the counter and help me dump the ingredients into the bowl. He is such a good little helper.
He hangs out with Daddy. Although, it is rare to catch them in this pose (that is...not moving), they are usually playing trains, making up some crazy game that I would have never came up with in a million years, doing art, or wrestling.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY KALEB!

2009-12-06T20:35:00.006-06:00

This year we celebrated Kaleb's 2nd birthday with family. I figured it would be the only year I could get away with it, b/c next year he'll know what's going on and want a party with his friends too. He is so obsessed with choo choo trains that I made him this cake with candy freight. I must say I was surprised and proud that it came out looking like an actual train (although up close it looked a bit furry!)He definately liked the way it tasted...he kept sneeking the candy off the top. His big birthday gift was a train set/table....We could not pull him away for a few weeks (which was great for me b/c I got a lot of housework and dinners made) but now he doesn't play with it as much but at least 2-3x/day.
Nylah had to help him open his gifts b/c he was too into his milk.
This is our attempt to teach Kaleb and Nylah to share. This way they could both ride the bike. For a while I actually thought Kaleb was catching on to the sharing concept, but recently he's been coming up to us and saying "share mommy" and grabbing whatever he wants out of my hands. I guess it will take a little longer.
Kaleb's really started to copy what we say. The other day Jason was dressing him and he put a plain white T-shirt on him and Kaleb looked at it and rubbed his hands down it and said "How cute!" I guess I say that when I'm dressing him...I've never noticed...

TWIK-TWEET

2009-11-09T21:52:00.002-06:00

Halloween night we went to our church's fall festival where they had lots of fun activities for the kids...We dressed as vampires b/c Kaleb would not where anything on his head so that cut out all the costumes in the stores. I made him a cape and vest, but he wouldn't even put on the vest. Nylah, Amanda, Jeremy and Grandma and Granddad all came up for Halloween and Kaleb's birthday (coming soon to a blog near you). After the festival we went trick or treating in the neighborhood and the kids loved it. They got pretty good at saying "twik-tweet" The feindly vampire family

The weekend before Halloween we went to the zoo for their Ghouls at Grassmere festival. It was so fun and well organized. I would definately recommend it for anyone next year. The kids all dress up and trick or treat to different vendor set up. They also have a maze, bounce house, haunted hayride, haunted carousel ride, and dance floor.

The funny part of the story is that we were going to attempt to put Kaleb in his monkey costume we had and we got 1/2 way down there and realized that we didn't have the costume...soooo, we stopped at Walgreens and picked up this skeleton suit. It did the job and was pretty cute.
Above, Kaleb and Daddy kickin it on the dance floor to the monster mash!

PUMPKIN PREP

2009-11-09T21:19:00.002-06:00

The month of october was full of fall activities. One was a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.Kaleb really got into carving them. He did not want to stick his hand in it to pull the "guts" out, but loved stabbing it with the carving knives.

Burt and Ernie are some of Kaleb's favorite characters. We also did a Thomas the train pumpkin, but Kaleb stabbed his eyes out.

PAINT! PAINT!

2009-10-18T14:01:00.003-05:00

Kaleb's vocabulary is exploding...he now has 3 favorite phrases...1. "NO!" 2. "What's that?" 3. "I want..." which is followed with...paint, play choo choo, eat, apple juice, daddy, that, etc. Sometimes I'm glad he can communicate and at other's I want to scream...He thinks that now that he can communicate sufficiently he feels he should get what he wants b/c he now knows that we fully understand his demands.

Painting is now one of his favorite pastimes. Jason and he did it one evening when I was gone and now it's turned into an every evening event (right before bath time of course).
Below he seems to be reflecting on his masterpiece...

Jason recently got a new job doing home health PT (what I do, but full time). He has several hours more in the morning and evening to spend with us now. I must admit it has taken an adjustment period b/c it got us all out of our routines, but now we're starting a new routine which should be much nicer once we get used to it...by we, i mean I... Kaleb is just loving having his daddy around so much he has blown me off... I dont just mean blown off, i mean pushing me away when I try to do anything with him...yes, it hurts and I've felt that if I almost died giving childbirth to him and have taken care of him for 2 years now, that I deserve a little love!!! Actually, this weekend has been much better so I have hope that both of us will once again be worthy of his love and attention!

HELP!!

2009-09-16T22:17:00.003-05:00

Beginning last week, Kaleb has not been taking his naps. We will put him down around noon and he will just talk and sing for 1-2 hours. Then I'll just get him out of frustration. Then he's grumpy for the rest of the day. What would be any easy solution would be to move his nap time up to 2:00pm...but there's a problem. His day care gives all the kids naps at noon, so I think he will get even more off schedule if he takes naps at different times every day...arrhh! Any suggestions?

So, today I left him in his room for 2 hours, checking on him occasionally and pleading with him to go to sleep. Well, when I finally came to get him out, this is what I found....It looked like he cut the grass! He reached out of his crib at the nearby tree and grabbed all the grass at the base and scattered it everywhere! All I could do was laugh.

Labor Day Camping Trip

2009-09-12T22:08:00.002-05:00

We went to Center Hill Lake for Labor day weekend. We camped Saturday and Sunday night. Here is a picture from our campsite. It was beautiful and so close to the water (just as we like it)! Our friends Andrew and Ulla and Mary and Dan joined us. We waterskied and hung out on the boat during the day (except for the 2 short thunderstorms where all 7 of us huddled into our 8 man tent.)Kaleb didn't nap well either day. We took the pack n play in the tent, but during the day it was too hot and humid for Kaleb to fall asleep. So as soon as we got on the boat and it started rocking over the waves he was out like a light. He did, however, learn to climb out of his pack n play that weekend. He had fun jumping out of it and onto our air mattress.
Unfortunately, Kaleb missed out on the S'mores...we ate them after he was sound asleep...that was planned of course! We had fun sitting around the campfire talking to our friends after little man tired out.
Here's the little camper with his flash light.

August Happenings

2009-09-12T21:47:00.001-05:00

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we had to take advantage of the weather. Kaleb is definately a product of Jason and I. He loves to GO, GO, GO!! He had a great time riding and is always up for an adventure.Jason was so excited about this slip and slide...He and Kaleb used it several times and had a blast. I tried to go down it and realized that I was getting old. It kind of hurts to thrust your body on the ground w/ your arms outstretched.

If this isn't a Parent's Choice, then I dont know what is!! He had so much fun with this box. He doesn't seem to play regularly with his toys. He wants to play with anything that I don't want him to touch, so then I have to redirect his attention elsewhere. The other day at the playground he started picking up the dirt/mulch on the ground and putting it in the trashcan saying "dirty, dirty"

YELLOWSTONE

2009-09-12T21:06:00.004-05:00

These first two pictures are actually of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming (I guess i downloaded them in backwards order). We drove through them on the way to Jackson Hole where we ate dinner.
Here's a family shot in front of the Tetons...Daddy, Papa and Kaleb resting after walking around the geyser park where old faithful is.
This is in front of "Morning Glory" a popular and beautiful thermal effect. See closer picture below.

There were a lot of cool (or hot rather) thermal effects throughout the park. They were all so clear and you could see quite a ways down them. No bacteria or algae grow b/c its so hot.
Here's good Ol' Faithful. Actually, not too impressive, but it gets its fame through how predictable its eruptions are, not its magnitude. Although its the biggest geyser we saw, its not the biggest in the park.

Family Reunion in Idaho

2009-08-20T21:45:00.004-05:00

My side of the family (my mothers) trys to get together every few years for a family reunion. We are located all over the country. This time we ended up at my aunt and uncle's home in Idaho Falls, ID. It was all of our first time there. Our first full day there we loaded up everyone and headed up to Yellowstone which was only a couple of hours away. Below is a picture of the guys at our lunch location. You can see where the trees were destroyed by the big fire in the 1980's. Everyone told us we would see tons of wildlife in yellowstone, but we only saw ONE elk...not even blogworthy! Below is a picture of Kaleb and his 3rd cousin and best buddy, Noella. They had a blast playing together. My mom brought them matching monkey shirts. Kaleb still asks to wear his all the time.

We went white water rafting one day. It was so great and relaxing (the grandmothers watched Kaleb and Noella). The day before the guys blew up the rafts to prepare and the kids tested them out by jumping on them like they were a bounce house. They had a blast. The weather there was AWESOME! Even if it was 80-85, there was no humidity and felt perfect! (from left to right: Leida (Noella's mom), my cousin Kathy and me.

Below is my cousin Wes, with his daugther, Noella and Kaleb...let's just say he had his hands full in more ways than one.

Below is my Uncle Mike playing with Kaleb. They had multiple tickle wars. I must say, Kaleb had plenty of attention on the trip. It was nice for Jason and I to have a break too.

More pictures of Yellowstone to follow...

The @*#^! fence

2009-08-11T22:37:00.002-05:00

So we thought it was time to build a fence to contain our wandering son. Jason's dad came in town to help. It was his 60th birthday so I think he was trying to prove he was still young. They started out w/ the auger to drill holes and immediately hit rock. They had to rent a jack hammer and it took them 8 hours to drill 7 holes and put up the posts! ARRRHH! There's my manly husband!

So after the long day the guys had, Jason and I decided to just drill holes until we hit rock and move on. We ended up drilling 24 holes in 1.5 hours w/ no rock. Glad I wasnt around for the tedious work.

Jason and Kaleb showing their muscles.

Thanks to neighbors and friends, and friends that are neighbors, and after 4 nail guns, the fence is mostly finished. After a few finishing touches i'll post some more pictures (believe me, you won't want to miss them...it's a beautiful fence)

Father's Day

2009-08-11T22:23:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I'm definately playing catch up. Jason had a nice father's day. He got this two man tube from Kaleb. Kaleb actually fell asleep while riding in it b/c the waves rocked him.

We also took a trip to the Zoo. It was very hot!!! Kaleb's face always gets so flush when he's hot...or even when we're tickling him.

We went out for Mexican (Dad's favorite) and we all enjoyed this ginormous fried ice cream. On the way home we looked back at Kaleb and he was violently slinging his head back and forth for several minutes. I think he had enough sugar!

PARIS

2009-07-12T20:50:00.003-05:00

So, I must say, we were quite dissappointed in Paris this time. Last time we LOVED it and this time we strongly disliked it (hate is too strong of a word). The difference...well, a few things...I didn't remember as much French as I did last time, so we spoke more in English and did get the Parisian snub that it is known for. We did not remember all the stairs in the underground, or lack of elevators, so we lugged Kaleb in his stroller up and down many, many stairs. Also, the newness of the city and the awe of all the sites were a distant memory. We also noticed how misrable and rude the parisian people were this time b/c we had a baby. When you're an adult you don't expect anyone to talk to you in the subway, but when you have a cute red headed baby waving hi to you, most people smile and wave back, but not in Paris...they look away and act irritated. This was so different in Greece b/c there everyone wanted to talk to Kaleb and try to make him laugh. They were so friendly. Paris was such a stark contrast and was very noticable. Nevertheless, we were still on vacation and enjoying ourselves. I don't mean to complain, we were just surprised at how different we felt about the city this time and I am not recommending Paris with kids. Above is a picture at the Arc de Triumph...The tomb of the unknown soldier is underneath it You can go to the top of it, but we didnt do it this time.

This pic is taken from the eiffel tower on the first level stop. We went all the way to the top and Kaleb kept sticking his head out of the rails, saying "car, car". It scared me to death!

Above is a "The Thinker" by Rodin, a famous french sculpture. Rodin is one of our favorites and we went back to the gardens this time.

Above is Notre Dame which was beautiful. Kaleb took a good nap inside and Jason went up top to have tea with Quasi Motto. A couple of pictures down is a picture of a gargoyle and the eiffel tower from the top.

Above is the Sacre Coeur or "The Sacred Heart" church. Tons of people go and sit on the stairs and listen to musicians sing songs in English and then start speaking in french. I wonder if they have any clue what they are singing about. And yes we drug Kaleb and his stroller up all those stairs. This church is in the are of town called Montmartre. We stayed here this time and last, but over the 3 year gap I think we forgot how hilly it was. Oh, here is a funny story. On the way to this church, we were walking up all the hills with the stroller and there were tons of "african-french" beauty parlors. Suddenly the stoller didnt steer right and we realized that we had a hair weave stuck in the front wheel...oooo, nasty...we weren't about to touch it to get it out, so it just roller up tighter and tighter. Anyone want to borrow a stroller??

Below is Saint Chappelle, a church that was closed when we were there last time that we were eager to see this time. It was one of the only new things we did and it was very impressive. It was full of stain glassed windows that told stories of the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. It was very hard to see them b/c they were so far away and we had toddler scooting around on the very dirty floor.

We had such a great vacation and think that everyone should go to Greece at least once in their life. It was beautiful, the people were friendly and the food was more than amazing!! We've been cooking greek food every week since we've been home.

Naxos

2009-06-15T21:31:00.006-05:00

Naxos is another Greek island known for their beaches. The one we stayed on was a gignatic baby pool. You can see Jason standing way out in the water in between the 2 boats. The water was only up to his knees the whole way out. It would have been fun if Kaleb wanted to get in the water, but he was not the least bit interested.

Naxos is also known for the above structure which was the beginning of a huge temple that was never finished. In fact, it barely got started b/c the front door frame shown is the only thing that was built. The temple was built on a smaller island that is connected by causeway (shown below) to the larger island of Naxos.

Below we had just finished our dinner and the owner, who was very friendly the entire meal, sat down to snap a picture with us.

Kaleb at his cutest!

This was the street that our hotel was on. The streets were so quiet and quaint. I think it looks like a fake background in this picture. Our hotel was about 30 steps from the beach and even better it was only 35 euro's a night! I would highly suggest Naxos if you're in Greece!

Dinner in Oia

2009-06-06T21:54:00.005-05:00

As you can see above we had an amazing view for our dinner in Oia. It was so beautiful that every time I looked out I started to cry. That meant I was crying throughout our whole dinner (and I'm not joking- I couldn't stop).

Despite our awesome view all Kaleb wanted to do was stare at these empty beer bottles in the back of the restaurant. I'm not sure why he thought they were so entertaining but it kept him occupied. Luckily there were not many people at the restaurant so we could roam about freely.

This is a panoramic of our dinner, but as I've said before, it doesn't do it justice! Oh yeah, and the food was great too!

Santorini-Oia

2009-06-06T21:38:00.004-05:00

Santorini is known as one of the most beautiful places on earth. I agree b/c these pictures do not do it justice. Oia is a little town on the island that has beautiful sunsets.

Here you can see the cresent shape of the island from where the volcano blew and it filled with the beautiful agean sea

There were lots of churches with either crosses on top of blue domes.

Santorini- Kamari

2009-06-06T21:25:00.005-05:00

I love this picture. Kaleb and I were just enjoying the beautiful view. Karmari is the beach on Santorini where we stayed. Santorini is mostly a bunch of cliffs and we didn't feel comfortable staying that close to a cliff with our adventurous toddler.

Santorini has a very interesting history. It was once a good sized island with a dormant volcano. Then one year there was an earthquake that woke the volcano up and it erupted and the whole center of the island slipped away into the sea. Some experts believe this is the lost city of Atlantis.

Here is a view from our hotel. Ahh, I want to go back!!! The beaches were not sand, they were black volcano rock and pebbles. It got pretty hot during the day, but Kaleb loved playing with the rocks.

Athens

2009-06-06T20:46:00.005-05:00

One of our first trip in Athens was to see the Temple of Zeus. It was never completed and later was damaged by storms.

Above is a picture of the Plaka, a lively area of town with lots of restaurants and tourist shops for people like us. Every where we went the greecian men tried to make Kaleb laugh and seemed so interested in him. I thought it was interesting b/c in the States, it's typically the women who are interested in babies.

Every once in a while Kaleb took a break from his stroller to chase some pigeons. We were at the tomb of the unknown soldier that had a changing of the guard ever hour. It was pretty interesting.

This is part of the Acropolis and is an ancient coliseum. You can see Athens in the background. They still have shows in it today. Some ballet dancers were practicing when we were there.

Here is family Bruns at the parthanon. It was much bigger and grander than the one in Nashville (where we got engaged), but there wasn't much left of the inside. It was blown away during a battle, where they were storing gun powder.

Athens was a big city, but Kaleb loved the subway and all the cars and taxis. He's definately a city boy, like his mom (except I'm a city girl). By the end of the day we would go back to our hotel room and Kaleb would jump back in his stroller and yell "GO!" He didn't hold us back from doing anything. He was a great traveller.

Hi from Greece

2009-05-20T14:49:00.002-05:00

We just had our first day in Greece. Our trip could not have gone any smoother. We had a 6 hour lay over in Philly, but they had a nice playground that kept Kaleb occupied for most of the time. He fell asleep as soon as we got on our long flight and only woke up once for dinner. Yes, he had some help from Benadryl. Once we arrived we were able to check into our hotel early and we unpacked and went to lunch around our hotel (which is in the middle of Athens). The first time I came to Europe and completely fell in love. As I've returned a few time since, I've come to realize that I do like some things about America much better...like, no smoking in restarants, no people begging at restaurants, no motorcycles on the sidewalks and child seats in the restaurants. After lunch we all took a 3 hour nap and then went to check out the Acropolis and Plaka (surrounding area around the acropolis w/ lots of character.) We quickly found out why they said the Acropolis was not stroller friendly. We had to carry the stroller and Kaleb around and tommorrow will bring his riding backpack instead. We had an awesome dinner of moussaka and tender lamb w/ potatoes and Kaleb had some fresh squeezed strawberry juice. We then came home gave Kaleb and bath and put him to bed by 10pm. And now i'm typing b/c I had a 3 hour nap. I hope to add pictures to these posts once we return home.

Melmo and Cracka!

2009-05-16T20:53:00.003-05:00

Kaleb has become obsessed with Elmo and Cookie Monster. We got a Sesame Street DVD at a consignment sale not knowing how it would change our lives. He wants to watch it every day and runs around the house saying "Kracka!" and "Melmo". I think he calls him cracka b/c I interchange animal cracker and animal cookie alot.

Lately he has not been wanting to drink his milk and only wants juice, which we give him in a different sippy cup (one w/ elmo on it). So, last week I gave him milk in his Elmo sippy cup and he has been downing his milk every since- Who knew it was the cup? Also, Kaleb does not like to brush his teeth so we got him an electric Elmo and Cookie Monster toothbrush and he wants to brush his teeth all the time now!! Melmo, Mommy loves you!

SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY

2009-05-10T20:50:00.003-05:00

My day started out with a nice breakfast in bed, served by my little man and big man...although little man is a bit of an indian giver...he tried to eat my whole waffle! Kaleb looooves strawberries, so we thought it would be fun to spend the day at the strawberry patch...

he ate 20+ strawberries...he was in strawberry heaven...that is until we stopped at the store on the way home to get some vanilla ice cream and he threw up strawberries in the isle

He loves tractors in his books so when he saw this real one he was thrilled...he has now added tractor to his vocabulary..

My day ended with a nice relaxing steak dinner grilled and eaten on the back deck...ahh, what a perfect day! Thanks Jason and Kaleb!

Easter recap

2009-05-05T22:46:00.003-05:00

On Easter day we ate lunch with friends and the kids had an easter egg hunt. I think Kaleb ended up w/ about 4 eggs. He was no match for Abby and Baylor!

The next weekend we went to Knoxville and had another egg hunt. Kaleb faired better and even made a little money (the eggs had quarters in them). He had fun w/ Nylah and Granddad and Grandma!

Chillin out after the egg hunt

Nylah is lucky enough to have a bounce house all to herself. The kids had fun bouncing in it, and I think us parents did too!

Blackmail!

2009-05-05T22:31:00.002-05:00

Now I have great blackmail footage for when Kaleb is a teenager. He loooves shoes. He always wants to put his shoes on when he first wakes up and he is always trying on my shoes...but his favorites are these orange heels that he picks out almost every time. Sorry it's sideways, I don't know how to change it.

Kaleb had his 18 month doctors appointment today. He is exactly 41%tile in height and weight, so I guess he's pretty proportional, except for his head (75th %tile). The first thing the doctor asked was, "Is he driving you crazy?"...."Yes"..."Well good, he's normal then"

Yes, the terrible twos are beginning. He's definately becoming opinionated. Today I was holding him while he was playing with a toy. I was occasionally kissing him on the forhead gently. After about 3 kisses, he looked at me and said "No"...okay, so I stopped...hmmm, he doesnt want my kisses!!!

So, really it's not terrible, yet...we'll see how things go in Greece when we're all jet lagged... 2 more weeks!

Do you have your ducks in a row?

2009-05-05T21:58:00.003-05:00

I know, I know , I have been really bad at blogging lately...but we have still been taking pictures. Here is a typical bath time for Kaleb. He lines up all his ducks ever so precisely (definately a Jason trait) and the proceeds to talk to them, sometimes as a drum major and sometimes sweetly as below. His vocabulary is expanding daily and he says duck! duck!

Farewell Christie and Brett!!

2009-03-28T22:56:00.002-05:00

As most of you know, my sister Chrisite and her husband Brett just left for Tanzania, Africa to be missionaries for the next 7-10 years...Boooohooo! We will miss them greatly, but look forward to "Skype"ing them often. We met them at the airport to say good-bye.

Kaleb loooves to be elevated 9 feet off the earth by uncle Brett! One last time at the airport. I doubt the next time we see them, he will be able to lift Kaleb up with one hand.

Ahh, how sweet! We miss you Uncle Brett and Aunt Christie!!!

CARS, ROCKS, DIRT AND DOGS...

2009-03-28T22:33:00.004-05:00

"These are a few of my favorite things" I know its been quite a while since I've updated our blog but we've been quite busy since the weather has been nicer. We've also been lucky to be spending a lot of the last two months with family on both sides. Above Kaleb is diving into the lake near our house after throwing many rocks into it. Why not take a dip after a hard days work.

When we were in VA visiting my parents in February it was 60 degrees when we arrived. Two days later there was 8 inches of snow!! We improvised on our clothing since we did not expect the cold weather. Go ahead, laugh...I was wearing my sisters hat, my dads sweater, my pants and my mother's boots...Kaleb liked the snow as long as I was holding him...He had his first plane ride on this trip. He did well and I'm hoping he will do just as well on our trip to Greece in May.

Look at this man work! We have spent many unexpectedly warm days at the park lately.

So, this was a slab of ice from Kaleb's swimming pool. He spent a long time skating on it. He had a blast.

Kaleb has been on a shoe kick...He loves them so much that it is the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning. He will run to his closet and ask me to put on his shoes. Since he has on his footie pajamas, only a few will actually fit. His frog wellies work perfectly b/c they are a little big for his feet.

SPIDEY MAN!

2009-01-30T21:07:00.003-06:00

I always bring Kaleb into the bathroom with me while I'm taking a shower and he plays with his toys. But today he disappeared out of my site in our stand up shower and I suddenly heard a few small wimpers. When I peaked out the door this is what I saw. "Kaleb Bruns!!" How did he get up there?? He climbed up the toilet and somehow turned around and was clutching onto the wall like he didnt know what he was going to do next. It was not funny at the time, but I noticed he was wearing his spider man pajamas which makes me crack up now (now that he's safe). Now I'm wondering how I'm ever going to be able to take a shower again...how do you put up gates around a toilet??

(I obviously did not run and get my camera at the time of the incidence... We recreated the picture for the blog w/ Daddy standing very close-which I'm sure putting him up there and taking pictures of him does not quite relay our sense of disapproval of this dangerous act-but it's definately a site to share!)

MULLET BE GONE!

2009-01-30T20:53:00.002-06:00

Before: So, Kaleb has been sporting this fiesty mullet, but I did not have the courage to try and cut it myself, as alot of my friends have done to their kids. Also, I've noticed that blonde hair is starting to grow in and I thought if I cut it, the red would not show as much. Well, the mullet finally took its toll on me and I bucked up and had his hair cut this week. Although it looks much better, I was right about the red. It definately looks more blondish now. A lady at the mall actually commented on his "strawberry blonde" hair and I wanted to cry...no, no, its red I tried to exclaim!!
After:

Not the best after picture b/c his hair is not even brushed, but I was just trying to get a picture before he jumped out of the chair.

Kitchen Renovation

2009-01-30T20:39:00.003-06:00

BEFORE:
When we first moved into our house I loved the layout and rooms, but the kitchen was horrible. I hated the white floors and counter tops that showed every little piece of dirt. The cabinets were also outdated. Sooo, we painted the cabinets ourselves and got new pulls. Then we got the granite countertops (about a year ago) and we recently got the floor tiled. I think we will put up crown moulding soon (As soon as I can talk Jason into it, that is)
AFTER:

150% BOY cont.

2009-01-06T20:27:00.007-06:00

If I could only figure out how to rearrange the pictures on this site after I choose them it would save me alot of time and frustration!!!

Anyway, as I was saying...We "won" this marshmellow gun at a christmas party this year and Kaleb and Jason just LOVE it. It makes a really loud noise when it shoots and I thought it would scare Kaleb, but he loves it. Sophie is the one with her tail between her legs running for cover!

Watch out Frosty!

Lately Kaleb has been throwing his food on the floor and saying Uh-Oh (much to my dismay), but recently he has been putting his snacks on the floor and eating it like he was bobbing for apples. This perplexed me as I wondered where he learned this disgusting move (were they letting him do this at daycare?). Then we figured it out when we let Kaleb feed sophie a snack and he ran after her laughing as he watched her eat the treat off the floor. Ah-ha! Kaleb, you're not a dog!! (or as he calls them bow-wow)

Kaleb had his first "get down on the floor and scream" temper tantrum today. He wanted some Cheerios and I asked him to sign please. He did not feel obliged and decided to throw himself on the floor and cry, then he begged again and ran to the kitchen and threw himself down and cried some more. I couldn't help but smile-he was so cute. After 5 or 10 minutes he finally gave a half-hearted please sign and got his much desired Cheerios.

I know I wont think temper tantrums are very cute for long. We finally booked our trip to Greece for May. We are planning to take Kaleb with us and are a bit nervous about the whole thing. We know he will be fussy from the time change and know we will not be travel and sight see like we're used to, but will hopefully just be glad we are there.

**We welcome any advice from you who have travelled with a toddler or to Greece**

150% BOY

2009-01-06T19:43:00.008-06:00

So today my forture cookie read " You have a charming way with words. Write a letter this week". So I thought I would linquistically mesmerize you today....if not, maybe you'll like the pictures!! :)

Kaleb's grandfather said he was 150% boy and i must say i have to agree with him 150%.

Crouching Tiger Fierce Dragon

HI-YA!

(Thanks for the cool Kung-Fu outfit from China Aunt Christie and Uncle Brett)