Brandon's Blessing Day!

Sunday March 6th, 2016 Brandon was blessed by his daddy at our church.  It was a special blessing and a special day for him and us.  We are so grateful to our heavenly father for this little miracle boy.  He completes our family and we couldn't be happier!!!

We had family from Austin come to witness the blessing.  The picture below doesn't include everyone that was there.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of everyone that came, but it just didn't work out.  We are grateful for all our family and friends who came to see Brandon get blessed.

Since we have already gotten a negative comment, I thought I would explain.  I didn't realize Rachel had her legs wide open in these pictures since I wasn't the one who took them.  Rachel doesn't understand what she was doing. We had to sit them down to stay still enough for a picture.  So please excuse the crotches in these pictures.  Its all the pictures I have.

Kayla's first ballet class

Kayla had the opportunity to start ballet class (late in the season) due to an opening in the class.  She went to this ballet class for the first time on February 23rd.  She really liked it and wants to continue to go.  I love seeing my little girl enjoy doing ballet and I love seeing her in a pretty pink ballet outfit.

Brandon is 2 months old

Brandon turned 2 months old on the 14th.  He is growing so well.  At his 2 month doctors appointment he weighed 12 pounds and was 22 inches long.  The doctor was very pleased with his progress.  The doctor said he is doing things a 1 1/2 month old typically does and was very impressed.  Brandon is only about 2 weeks behind.  This is great seeing he was born early and was in the NICU for 3 weeks plus with the spina bifida, he is doing awesome!  Brandon started smiling at us when we smiled at him on Valentine's day.  He is gaining some head control, but I do still support his head.  He moves his legs and feet well.  He is sleeping through the night from around 11 pm to about 7am.  He is taking ~4oz of formula every 3 hours or so.  He does have reflux and spits up a lot.  We had to deal with this with Kayla when she was a baby and was so hoping Brandon wouldn't have it, but he does and its frustrating!  He is a fussy baby in the evenings, but I've been told this is typical.  He loves to be held by his mommy.  He's a mommy's boy already!

Brandon did go to the urologist back on February 1st and had a special test that looked at how his bladder was working.  It also checked to make sure the urine was not backing up into his kidney's.  Well Brandon passed the test!  His bladder is functioning normally and no urine was backing up into his kidney's!!!  We don't have to cathe him!!  We are so relieved and so grateful that Brandon was blessed and miracles have been done for our son.  Brandon is doing so well despite his spina bifida.

Some have asked how the girls are doing with Brandon.  Well Kayla loves and adores him!  She gives him kisses frequently!  Haley loves to touch him.  She will come up to me when I'm holding him and will touch his feet, hands and head. She smiles when she feels him.  Rachel has not really showed any interest in Brandon.

I have been enjoying taking pictures of Brandon (I have taken a lot since he came home).  Its so fun to be able to do the monthly pictures again.  Well here are his 2 month pictures:

He looks so big in this picture!

Valentine's Day 2016

I have mentioned in a past blog post that I LOVE Valentine's Day!  I love all the red, pink and white and all the hearts as well as all the yummy Valentine candy.  There is just something about Valentine's day that makes me happy.  I still remember when I was a kid the Valentine parties and getting to pass out Valentine cards to my classmates.  I loved it!  At least now I get to enjoy the Valentine's Day parties my kids have each year.  Good times!

This year for our annual Valentine's day pictures I set up my white backdrop and took some indoor pictures.  I was lucky to be able to get a couple of pictures of Rachel and Haley together.  I was not able to get a picture of all the kids together due to Rachel being uncooperative, but none the less I got pictures of each kid.  Whoo hoo!  I am feeling accomplished that I was even able to get Valentine pictures this year.

Love my little Valentine's!!!

Rachel and Haley

Kayla

Brandon (Mommy's little Stud Muffin)

Brandon's first Valentine's Day

Brandon is 1 month old

Time is going so quickly and just like that my baby boy turned one month old on January 14th!  At his one month check up he weighed 10 lbs, 7 oz and was 20.8 inches long.  He is eating well (3 oz of breast milk or formula every 3 hours).  He still sleeps a lot but when he is awake he loves to look around and be held.  He's so alert.  He is a sweet baby.  We have been so blessed with this little boy.  He is a miracle just like our girls.  He is just doing so well despite the spina bifida.  He is moving his legs, ankles and even wiggles his little toes. He is also peeing well on his own.  We are not having to cath him.  He does have an appointment on February 1st with urology to check the function of his bladder.  I hope and pray that all continues to be well and that his bladder is functioning normally and that he won't have to be cathed.  I am nervous for this appointment, but I just have to leave it in the hands of the Lord.

Here are Brandon's one month pictures.  I'm enjoying having another baby to take pictures of.

 

Family Pictures

It's just about impossible to get a family picture these days.  My girls just don't want to cooperate!  A friend of ours needed some pictures of all of us together (including Brandon).  So she came over and took some, but needless to say they didn't come out that good since my girls just didn't want to cooperate and the lighting in our house just was not working in our favor.  But since some of my blog readers have already asked about seeing a family picture that included Brandon I thought I would share these.  I hope that we will be able to get a better family picture in the future, but we will need a miracle and a photographer that can handle my wild family.  But for now these are all the pictures I've got.  Also we couldn't get a picture of the girls holding Brandon since they couldn't seem to hold his head well.  Brandon is just too little still.  We will eventually get a picture of just the kids together...

Brandon's Homecomming!!!

So I'm posting this a week late due to a lack of time now that Brandon is HOME!!!  Brandon came home January 7th!!!  He was doing so well at eating and had recovered well from his surgeries that the doctors allowed him to come home.  We are exhausted and lacking in sleep but we are so grateful and blessed to have our little guy home.

Car seat test the day before he went home.  He passed!

Dressed and ready to go home

In the car!  Lets go!

First bath at home

After his bath