Is it August? wow..1 year old..Is it September?double wow...3 years old?

Isaac is 3! am of birthday..fav. present from Nana and Papa Bill..Fed Ex truck collection set.

here it is the Fed Ex birthday that Isaac dreamed of and what fun it was in creating if for him. Mrs. Lauren our personal Fed Ex driver came to see Isaac and have him a duplicate little Fed Ex truck like the one she drives..Isaac was in HEAVEN!

to see some of the sweetest pictures, these are live from our play gorup we used to have...what a special time we all had together.

I know this blog is sort of out of order for pictures but just had to add these pictures in for all to see the big change in Isaac and all of the kids for that matter.

Olivia-Ryan walking with her puppy dog that La La Brace brought to our home..she loves this dog, it barks, sits, and walks...Jennie Jake and Owen would LOVE this dog!

Olivia-Ryan enjoying her birthday cake on her birthday. (a few days after her big official 1st birthday..weekend party...upload other pictures from my folks house also.

awww..Daddy and Olivia-Ryan at one week old.

nap time. how tiny is she.

after her first bath..she had dark hair.

I can not believe that one year is here and gone for Olivia-Ryan. It seems like about 5 months ago Olivia-Ryan was born. Olivia-Ryan has been a huge blessing to us. She is a lady and girly but also can hang with her total boy brother. Some fond memories I have with her are mostly late nights when she was super tiny...when we were the only two up in the house and wanted to treasure those times instead of make those long nights awful..every night up with her is a blessing...mostly now just when she is in a growth spurt does that happen.

Wow--Isaac is 3 years old now? what!! seriously...more writing to come.

Olivia-Ryan is walking steady these past few weeks and everyday wants to get into brother's room, play with what he plays with and keep up with him.

Updates on the kids..

Isaac- LOVES life, loves to talk to anyone.."What is your name?" he says, loves planes, trains and automobiles..."Isaac, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?...a FED EX truck!!""WHAT?? any ideas? Isaac is not into food as much as he used to be but does eat just about anything you put in front of him when he is hungry. He loves loves his baby sister a whole lot, still kisses her on her head and says when she does something she is not suppose to do:" No mame". Isaac loves to ride his tricycle (to get pictures it is hard b/c that is the time daddy is not here and at work). Loves CARS, playing cars/trains etc., likes to pray for people all the time, says no thank you, please good manners. His attitude can be disturbing at times especially when he says..I all done with nap...and it hasn't started yet. naps are about 1.5 -2 hours long..getting shorter..Lord help me wear him out for great naps. Loves to sing scripture songs, bible songs, worship, kindermusic songs etc. anything to do with music.

Olivia-Ryan is growing up way to fast. ORyan will be 1 year old in about 3 weeks and we can hardly believe it..where does time go with #2. Olivia-Ryan gets quite upset with strangers..totally opposite of Isaac. Even if it's family or daddy (when we got back from our trip last week..she clung to my shirt)..we hope that gets better. She loves quesadillas, toast, waffles, broccoli, grapes, most foods except baby food...on our trip that was the easy thing so we did that and found great specials on my fav. organic Sprout food. She loves to stand on her own now, wave, say hi, Hat is her first word besides Momma and Dadda and LOVES hats, still working on the signing thing..be patient right?? She has been introduced to more different foods than we would EVER introduce to Isaac at that age. She loves to be obedient, she will cry if I say no loud to her and put her head down...(opposite of Isaac) Our kids remind me so much of our friends boys Jake and Owen. Olivia-Ryan is almost identical to Jake when he was younger and Isaac was just like Owen all over the place but good kid.

Chris and I are enjoying the different seasons of our life and trying to get more time together with his new business starting up this year. We do want to get more involved soon with our church home in volunteering etc. but also know our first ministry is our family.

Some Brace Family Updates:

What a whirlwind we have been in. I hope to read this back when the kids are all grown up and see that we made it through the 2.5-3 year old phase with lotsa patience gained, consistent parenting skills and ready to take on Olivia-Ryan when she gets there. LHM..aka.Lord Have Mercy.

The kids both celebrated another month older..Isaac 3 months from being 3 years old and Olivia-Ryan becoming 10 months old. BIG MONTH..as far as milestones in her life so far. (No wonder there have been some character growing days for Chris and I...teeth, pain,not napping or eatting well etc). Olivia-Ryan does not want to crawl hardly at all. June 13th she took her first crawl forward and then proceeded to try and stand and did holding onto the couch.wow she has a lot of balance. ORyan has aslo started clapping both hand together the first week of June, tapping her head, Da-Da.. (momma was last month), hand to open mouth going..bab baba bab ahll hall , walking around her Blue Toy as we call it, and Isaac's train table...and this am I saw that her top two teeth have cut the surface as of this am..wow what a month. Isaac (we think is coming out of his hard Lord help me days...yesterday he seems so much more obedient but also is drooling a whole lot, has his first zit, and very cranky...complains of teeth pain in the back..molars..last ones right?? Talking a whole lot and singing a whole lot. Our favorite lately is at the dinner table Olivia-Ryan was pretty fussy not wanting to eat etc and he says out loud ..DRAMA..yes he said drama..where did he hear that from...umm...me i guess under my breath when she gets going.

New pictures to upload soon from the past month.

Aunt Marianne's and Uncle Kent's wedding and visit with Nana and Papa Bill

Some highlights of our weekend: Aunt Marianne got married!!


Eatting some Dora ice cream from the ice cream truck..no really it still somes by good ol' Hanahan.

Nan and Olivia-Ryan relaxing together...getting good with each other before Mommy left...hard time for leaving her lately 8-10 months old the dr. said girls get very attached to mommy and i'm still nursing too.

sweet!!! soo thankful Marianne and Kent's wedding had great weather. Chris and I took their wedding pictures.

just got married...a little blurry but exciting picture!

Spring Portraits of the kids...

Well, I know it has been a long time since these hands got to typing in the blog and then I decided I'm not going to beat myself up to have the perfect blog but at least 3 times a month or more if big things happen. While my parents were visiting this past weekend we decided to take the kids to get their pictures done at Portrait Innovations or the beach and we tried both places...Portrait Innovations def. won this race.

Olivia-Ryan is 8 months here and Isaac is about 35 months old...both of the kids will be getting a little older this Monday the 11th of May. We had a great time doing pictures and the kids did great..even with a 3pm appt.. (nap time)..only time avail...so we put them down early and wow what a gift to have good behavior and well napped.

Visiting Nan and Papa Bill and others in NC...

We had a great visit with Nana and Papa Bill this Spring. My great-grandpa visited us from Michigan he is I think 93 years old and looks great! Several times we were able to get together with my brother and his family. Chris was not able to make the trip due to work but that's ok b/c we are thankful for the jobs he has going on right now.

My mom's sister Donna and Larry also came to visit from GA. and we have a nice time seeing them. Donna had not seen Isaac since he was about 5 months old and had not met the little lady yet. We are excited to be visiting Aunt Donna again this summer for a few days in St. Augustine with Nana and myself...yes I did drive about 5 hours with both kids and just me..wasn't that bad. seems easier with two than with one...they keep each other company.

Isaac and Eli enjoying the great bubble makes..all ages love this thing!

SUPER COLD DAYS HERE!

Ok..so it's almost April and the weather here has been very cold for us. Chris is still looking for a job and almost has a job lined up definitely..we are thankful!

Isaac is amazing us everyday on his new growing vocabulary and Olivia-Ryan is growing much faster than I think I remember Isaac doing..but she's also #2 also.

March days.

So now Olivia-Ryan is picking up things.

smiling and interacting a whole lot more, starting to sit up without pillows behind her (I still use them just in case)

Olivia-Ryan loves bath time with her daddy...soon we will bath them together each night..they have done it one time and love it together! Isaac adores his baby sister and 9 times out of 10 he is treating her sweetly and Christ-like. I know that will change some but we tell them both every day, you are each others best friends besides Jesus. Isaac is also loving his school and whole lot and enjoying the time with other kids, learning all kinds of great lessons along the way.

Part of Christmas "Road Trip"

Yes here we are having a blast at my parents from the 26th-6th of January.
We had some fun things happen while we were there.

These pictures give a snapshot of fun things we did #1 Chris and I kissed..yes we kissed! ha! getting ready for a date night New Year's Eve..joke picture!

Isaac got a BIG firetruck from Nana and Papa Bill and Olivia-Ryan got a fun monkey (lovey)..they both had a wonderful Christmas and also got some fun gifts from their cousins.

ok....my favorite picture so far of Olivia-Ryan and Isaac ..she is a very healthy 5month old and when we got home from our trip in the 2nd week of January was sitting by herself for a total of 10 seconds! whew.wee..she is taking her time on most things but I was quite impressed of her sitting on her own..she takes after her mommy and can balance well with that bootie of hers. ha

Our best group family picture by the tree.

After bathtime..look at those sweet adorable rolls!

Nana is soo happy here!!

My brother and his family Christmas day.

Pringles boy...ha!

Ok yes...i just had to do it...we had some yummy on sale Pringles and shared them with Isaac today for some snack and found a place where you could go online and create your own Pringles can and they would donate $1 for every can made to the Children's Miracle Network..why not..tried to be creative..but then noticed that Isaac's nose is running..oh well..pure toddler for you...no shirt, watermelon drip and 4th of July..doesn't get much more American than this! ha! www.pringles.com/popart ..try it yourself or vote for Isaac to win fav. can.