Birthday Celebrations!

I wanted to post a few pictures of Brady's visits from both sets of grandparents before I forget. We had a large birthday party for him last year in Ohio and I didn't really feel it was necessary to do that all over again this year. Instead Rob's parent's came to visit the weekend after his birthday and we had a very small party for him. Basically just pizza, cupcakes, balloons & presents. Justin, Britni & Noah joined us and Brady had a blast.

While Grandma & Grandpa Campbell were in town we also visited our church's pumpkin patch. Brady LOVED sticking his head through the Peanuts cartoon cutout.....Noah, not so much :)

Two weeks later my parents drove down for celebration #2. Brady had so much fun while they were here. He adores them. Plus they brought their dog, George (a blind yellow Lab), with them and Brady couldn't get enough of him. Thanks for visiting mom & dad!

Picture Time

I didn't plan on having any professional pictures taken this year. We spent a small fortune last year and I figured we would just wait till next year after Carson had joined our family before we invested in more. Plus I have never been overly impressed with any of our local photographer's work I have seen before (our pictures last year were taken in Cincinnati). But I came across a business card for a new local photographer who was offering holiday mini sessions for super cheap. I couldn't pass it up. If you are local check her out - Kati Nelson Photography. 

This one will be on our Chrirstmas card this year.

The Name

We've actually had our newest addition's name picked out for quite a while. And we've already shared it with the majority of our friends and family. With Brady we kept the name a secret until he was born. The main reason for this was that I didn't want any unsolicited opinions about whether or not people liked the name we had chosen. I was scared that if someone said they didn't like it we might start to question it ourselves.  This time around though I feel a bit more confident about my role as a mother and couldn't care less if people like the name or not :) So here it is.......

Today is also my big sister's birthday! I doubt she reads this little ole' blog of mine, but if she does I just want to say Happy Birthday Sister! Just remember you will always be older than me :)

And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We don't have any plans this year. All our family lives too far away to celebrate with. I'll be cooking some of Rob's favorites and he is planning on trying something new....cooking a beer can turkey on his Big Green Egg. Hopefully it's edible? I must confess that Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday.....only because it revolves around eating and I am the world's pickiest eater and don't like any of the traditional food. Growing up I always ate a frozen pizza while the rest of my family enjoyed their feast. I'm trying my hardest this year to make it a happy celebration even though I would really prefer some Chinese takeout:)

Halloween

I've never been a huge Halloween fan (besides the part about eating candy till you want to explode). I think this is in large part due to my parents never making a fuss about it. We went trick or treating every year, but  I don't EVER remember my mom buying me a costume. I was always something homemade and thrown together at the last minute and a dime was never spent. I can't even tell you how many times I went as a court jester (some old costume we had, which I'm pretty sure was given to us for free), witch, or hillbilly. I think all this somehow squished my enthusiasm for the holiday. Which is ok with me. I still don't like the "scary" stuff associated with Halloween. I prefer the cute costumes and decorations instead. But mark my words....my children will never feel like outcasts because they don't have a costume:)

Brady had so much fun trick-or-treating. In my opinion he was still too little to need all that junk food....thank God I'm here to eat it for him:) But he sure did have a blast knocking on doors and saying his version of "trick-or-treat". My child is fearless and not the least bit shy. He was barging in every house we went to. And was adorable telling everyone "Tank Yu". It really made me smile.

One other thing I want to make note of: We've been singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" together a lot lately and Brady knows almost all of the movements that go along with it. Sometimes I don't even do them and I just watch him. I cry every time I see him do it. I don't know why. He is growing up too fast.

It's a.....

 BOY!

We are beyond thrilled that Brady is going to have a little buddy. My instincts were completely wrong though. I thought for sure it was going to be a girl. He is healthy and already weighs 1lb 1oz. I get to have another ultrasound at my next appointment though because they couldn't find one of his kidneys. More than likely it's just because of the way he was laying. Worst case scenario though is that he only has one:) I'm certainly not worried. The doctor told us that he just found out a few years ago that he only has one kidney as well. 

I told Brady yesterday morning that we were going to see the baby that afternoon and he kept saying "baby!" all day long. And as soon as he saw the ultrasound screen pop up he got really excited. When I asked him if he was going to teach his little brother how to play trains and cars he enthusiastically replied "YEAH!". Adorable!

Right after we found out.