Happy Birthday Dadda!

This is us going out for a date night for my birthday...Chris full throtle beard...off on our next date New Year's Eve..ha!

Today we celebrated Dadda's (Chris's) birthday. We had to make it creative because his birthday and my birthday is so close to Christmas...so we had a birthday breakfast..with his FAVORITE sour cream

cake originated by Dee Dee Brace (Aunt)..Chris's mom makes it so good I didn't want to mess up her recipe. As a surprise I invited her to come over very early while Chris makes his coffee and surprise him with it.

For a Christmas gift to the birds Dadda and Isaac made may pinecones with peanut butter and birdseed and hung on our front crepe Myrtle for their Christmas present..we are talking about taking care of nature in our Growing Kids God's Way class and had a blast making them.

Olivia-Ryan the first week of December stood up straight in her exercauser...we have a picture of Isaac with these antlers on too...I will add it....from when he was 3 months old and Olivia-Ryan was 4 months old.

waiting for Santa Claus.....on her first Christmas...

These are a few of my favorite past activities, days...

Having so much fun in the Brace Family.

This week..Happy Birthday me and Olivia-Ryan is 4 months?? wow!

It's me ...thinking about all the uploads i want to do ..just one at a time...ha!
Olivia-Ryan is 4 months old today..she has been putting her clothes in her mouth and rattle type things and found her toes last week..so fun! We fall in love with her each and everyday and say what a precious blessing she is. Isaac is teething something hard lately..molars..seriously..when does this stuff end???
anyway...that's most of the reason i am not up to writing during nap time or at night b/c the effort it takes after a boy who is teething all over again....Lord help me..healthy and thankful though.

I celebrated my 34th birthday Sunday the 7th by : having all meals fixed, cooked for me, worked with precious babies at the Dream Center for nurseries,came home to flowers in 3 different rooms..lilies my fav!! a Elmo balloon greeting me on the porch!! so cute and homemade birthday cake decorated by daddy and Isaac...oh! also went to see 4 Christmases with Jessica at the new Cinnabare theather in Mt. Pleasant. more pictures later. Good night for now!

oh! just went to Isaac's first Christmas program at his school so cute. Isaac's class waved as part of the program..next year he will sing...can't wait. We had a nice reception and hung out with La-La Brace (grandma brace), the Page Family and the Ishie family.

Hi there I'm 4 months old today!!

We are so tickled that Olivia-Ryan is gaining such cute facial expressions..the one in red is her usual grin to us when we say her name but when that camera is in front of her it is hard for her to smile. Some new milestones we are just starting to do this week: stand straight up in exersauser with feet dangling looks at all the toys and sometimes hitting one or two, giggling at me when I change her and tickle her,ah-ah,ah-mmm-mmm.., looks at her when you call her name, loves to watch the tv when it is on (try to keep it most of the time off her face but can't help it with 2 men in the house)
God is so good!! all the time! We all are excited about Christmas because this year we are taking our new mini van up to North Carolina to see my family on the 26th of December.

Random recent pictures

Hello again blog readers...

Hi! I'm Kristen the slack writer..yes...I have been meaning to get this updated and will do it this week....i have tons of pictures to upload...hope you all are well! We all are doing great. I'm seriously trying to spend not too much time on the computer..but I totally want to keep all of this for a book one day. Good Day for now!

Baby Dedication ...what a precious memory...

What a wonderful day we had...we woke up...Olvia-Ryan is in a growth spurt big time so I was up with her two times last night..but other than that the day was wonderful. We dedicated Olivia-Ryan at the 9:30am service at the Dream Center..the first dedications to be in the new building. After the service we had family over for white chicken chilli, corn bread, homemade carrot cake(daddy's request) and other goodies.

Olivia-Ryan did great at the service and we had to wake her up after she was fast asleep in her carseat (after hardly sleeping all am)...glad that happened..that she fell asleep during the service. We were so thankful to have family atten the service. My folks are staying til tomorrow and all the other family is local.

this is a picture on the screen of OR...Sam and Amie did a great job!

Sleep through the night..first time..

Yes Happy Birthday mommy!! Olivia-Ryan slept through the night without a paci last night for the first time!! I'm writing this on the 13th and last night woke up at 5:30am for a little nursing..but almost...

Our little girl is 3 months old today!!

Can't believe how the time has flown by...I know it's been some time since I posted but wanted to let all know that the 3 month mark is here!! Some pictures will post soon...long past couple of weeks. (some highs and some hard times) just pooped to do it during the night.

More pictures from the beach...

yes i got my hair cut and back to it's original color..taking a break from highlights...thanks Ashley!

we got her to laugh..

I can't believe how big and alert Olivia-Ryan is getting. She will be 3 months in about a week. She is kicking her legs and almost rocking to try and turn over..so fun!

we did not get in the pool because it was too cool and took a long time and more $ to heat.

back of our house..

Girls Weekend Beach Getaway!!!

Here is our view of the ocean...wonderful..thanks Emily for a great relaxing, Jesus filled, time! Such great fellowship and naps that i can't get here!!

Mom and I dressed Olivia-Ryan in a a lot of different outfits jus because she has soo many and can't wear them all..we tried to get the most Girlly ones...she was a great sport about it..she did great! better than she is doing here..turned on her noise maker, put her in this really big wall in closet to sleep because of all the light in the room..and did great her first time in a pack-in-play..ready to go again..did better in that than in her bed..or it might be time change..any others going through this?? time change thing??

Boys Weekend....

What a fun night Chris and Isaac had..they camped out in the backyard..Chris is getting him ready for a camping trip. Isaac and Dadda roasted hotdogs over an open fire, ate sun chips and who all knows what else they ate and did...Tanner had a good time too. Stay tuned to the next outdoor getaway...Isaac did want to sleep in his bed after all was said and done...just like his mommy while daddy stayed outside (most of the night)..just relaxing and not having anyone to worry about..b/c Isaac was out asleep and the girls were at the beach..ahh...freedom!

looks like a little campground doesn't it..want to join them next time..let me know and we can arrange that..girls inside..until we have bigger tent...

It's Daddy and Isaac's weekend.....

OK...not big on the whole Halloween thing at all...while I was at the beach with Olivia-Ryan, my mom and friends Isaac and daddy headed out in our safe neighborhood to get some candy..he had a blast! they both did!
Isaac went over to Abby and K-K's house to get all fixed up...thanks Emily and off they went...Chris was a lot more excited about the candy than Isaac was. I was dead set against Halloween and celebrating something we didn't approve of at all so I researched online about the day etc...and in fact in a Christianity Today magazine article it talked all about how Satan hates mockery..he hates that people pretend and mock him...so for us..that made a lot of sense..we still don't talk about it all the time during the season..more talk about Harvest time, praying for neighborhood, thankful etc..but we are going to have some fun with this..We would love for the enemy to be angry..instead of striping our joy away for what it could be and can be...Christmas is also a holiday that people wanted to not participate in because of the Yule Logs etc...so anyhow...for now we will be joyful about this and not make a big deal about it (again for our family..each is different)i will post the article later on..

October 31st.....

Pumpkin Patch ..for a 2 year old...and more..

Yesterday we went to our great friends birthday party...Todd and Marti's daughter Reagan.. aka Re-Re ..they have a beautiful new home in John's Island..we had fun and then daddy helped brother Warren move to townhome of his own..we were all exhausted and had a late night with kiddos soo after all that..we slept in til 10:00am!! yes 10am! we have never d0ne that! guess we needed it!
Today we went across the street from Wannamaker park to get a pumpkin to carve
9from the mountains I guess?) etc..we are trying to teach Isaac about Harvest etc..on his level..then we drove to a great playgroud for Isaac...at his school fence and all! love it!! then we got home napped and headed to family cookout to celebrate our grandparents visiting Buito and Kathy..we love you all!! pictures to come.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!!!

no seriously i love rain but this past friday..rained all day..kind of scary how much rain we got...chris was stuck downtown at 5 pm and then his mom got stuck in a puddle (big one) and sat in water up to her waist before anyone could get to her..she's fine now and the car is working..Buito and Grandma Kathy came in to visit last night so today I loaded to kiddos up and headed to Mt. p to visit with them and Grandma Brace..earlier in the day...that night is when Momma Brace got caught. We were not able to go to group but had great visit with family ..i seriously fell asleep head up on the couch talking way tired!! long week..

Date Night again with friends...

Hello again! We had another date night this week...with our friends Jason and Demi ..we went to Charleston Grill..soo good! Chris and Jason had worked together on a project together and the pay was a date night with wives..we had a blast picture to come.

God is Good All the Time....

Here is my latest goodie to bake...coconut/almond with Blackberry perserves..scones..yummy..made last Sunday night!! any other ideas for things to bake..oh have made 2 pumpkin cakes.. (thanks jennie for the idea) soo good!!

Isaac loves to kiss his baby sisters hand...after his blisters were gone!!

feels soo soft and little..baby sisters hand.

hold my hand baby sister...agree Jennie how to get a christmas picture with the two of them...have no idea!

Olivia-Ryan is 10 weeks and will be 11 weeks old on the 27th of October..

Isaac had a fever blister last week...

Just so you all know..if your child or you have a fever blister (after I have kept Isaac in the house all week) are not contagious unless they open up....

Here above (red vest) is Isaac the afternoon after his 4th day total of Child't Day out....he did great today! made a cross of stained glass -working on the letter C,X,...number 2 and the color-orange...

Here is Isaac and baby sister watching Baby Mozart (Isaac always says now..watch Baby Moart) soo cute!! but we watch it about 2 times a week...I can already tell these two will have fun (hopefully/eventually) ha! playing together....