Bye-Bye to 2007

As we come to the end of 2007, it's time to realize how lucky we are. Although the year started with sadness for the Bramell family, we were also blessed with our baby girl. Wow, look at all that has happened. We had a baby, and we've somehow managed to do alright with her! She is so wonderful and has the sweetest personality. It makes us sad that Becca did not get to meet her Grandpa Lee because we know he would be so in love with her. But we are also thankful for all the family and friends that we have to help us take care of her.

Here she is all dolled up this morning. This is an outfit that my best friend LB sent her. She is head to toe decked out from Lisa wear, including hair bow (LB, aren't you proud?). She reminds me of a very stylish girl named Avery. Note: she is not crawling yet, but I think it might happen soon.

Safe and Happy New Year wishes to everyone! We love you!

Woo Pig Sooie! Becca's first Hog game....

FUN! FUN! FUN! We got some last minute tickets to the Hogs basketball game yesterday, so we decided to take Becca and let her have her first taste of Razorback mania. Our seats were really great (on the 10th row!!) and we hoped to be on TV, but I don't think we were. Were we?

She had such a good time! She looked around at all the lights, noises and people--so much to see. She stood on my knees and bounced through most of the game. As it was getting near nap time, she fought it with all her might. With about 10 minutes to go, she finally gave in. The Hogs had a big win, and Becca got a special treat for her first game. We ran into Pork Chop, the baby mascot, as we were heading for our seats. I'm so glad to have a picture of that!

Baby's First Christmas

We had a great visit over the holidays. We took a road trip for a few days in Wynne and then on to Munford, TN to see Lee's brother and his family. It was quite a trip! Who knew that an SUV is not big enough for everything we have to take on a trip! Talk about filled to the rim...

Becca was not sure what to think about Christmas yet. She did like playing with the paper and getting lots of attention. I have a few pictures now, and will be posting more. I'm waiting on mom and Tracy to send some that they took so I can share them here. Becca really likes playing with her blocks from Grammy, her animal boat from Pop and her ride-on lion from my Uncle Bret and Aunt Sandy. We are ready for her to get big enough to ride the rocking horse unicorn from Grandma Francena, but it might be a while yet.

In these pictures, she is also modeling some of her new clothes. Oh yeah, there's a picture of the cool gingerbread house that Aunt Nanette and Dale made. More to come...

Ho, Ho, Ho!! Becca Meets Santa

We finally got around to taking Becca to see Santa at the mall this afternoon. Better late than never, I guess. She did exactly what we expected her to do; she is so predictable. She stared at him and pulled his beard!! And, as we expected, she would not smile for her picture. She is such a serious baby lately. I don't know what's going on with that. Strangers will come talk to her and she just stares blankly at them. I like to tell people that she's just thinking. But at least at home she's all smiles and giggles. Strange.

Bramell Update

We spent a nice but cold, rainy and foggy weekend in Branson last weekend. We took all the grandmas and Aunt Tracy and Jonathan with us to celebrate all the December birthdays in the family. Becca got lots of lovin' and attention, of course. Luckily, no fist fights broke out and all the grandmas behaved. The weather was just too yucky to do much of anything (like shopping), but we did take a tour of the Stone Hill Winery and saw the Titanic Museum.

Becca goes for her 6 month check up and shots in the morning. Last time she had a little fever after her shots, but I hope that won't happen again. Weatherman is saying 90% chance of snow here on Saturday. Why is it always when we are already OFF work??? And why, when we need to get our Christmas shopping done! And we want to take her to see Santa. Oh well...

Ok, enough of that. I bet nobody even reads this. We know it's all about the pictures. Here you go! The last pics are some we took tonight by the tree....good luck getting the dog and baby to both cooperate, huh.

OK now, everyone cool it!!

You have just seen new postings 3 days in a row! Shocking, I know. But this means you can all stop e-mailing us and harassing us for new pictures. Contrary to popular belief, just because we have a new baby does not mean we sit around with our camera all day. When we aren't taking pics of Becca, there are diapers to change, bottles to make, dinners to cook, clothes to wash/fold, etc. And sometimes we sleep. We would gladly accept any offers to help with the previously listed chores so we might be able to take more pictures. Seriously.

In other news, the Bramell family made our first trip to church together this morning (including Lee). We are getting ready for Becca's baby dedication service at the end of the month, so we are practicing going to church. Becca did very well and enjoyed babbling out loud so people would look at her. She sat in Grandma Francena's lap most of the time. I think she liked the music and the band (we went to the contemporary service). After church, we got the Christmas tree put up. Fergie and Becca are not sure what to think about it yet.

It's ducky bath time! We tried it out a few weeks ago, and Becca hated it.
Now that she can sit up, she really likes it. The beak quacks, too!



We tell her not to play with her food, but she still wants to play with her feet!


Surprise!





Daddy caught her playing by herself yesterday. Becca is such a good girl!

Best Friends

Here are some pictures of the girls from Daddy's phone.

Becca is 6 months old!

Here are some pictures of our sweet babe. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home

I just got back from our staff conference in Nashville. I was gone for three days!! It was so hard to be gone from Becca that long, but Lee did a great job with her. They had a great time together. I am sooooo glad to be back, though. I am staying home today to love on Becca all day.

I know it's been a while since an update. I'll do more later. Becca is sitting up by herself now really well. She is also eating lots of veggies and oatmeal. Her friend Eleanor Eichmann loaned us a jumparoo jumper, because she is walking now and has outgrown it. Becca just loves bouncing in it! It's so funny to watch her.

We've had some visitors over the past month. Tracy came one weekend in October, then Grammy and Nanny. Then for Thanksgiving, Becca got to meet her Uncle Ben and see the Pugsleys from Yellville. Becca enjoyed some mashed potatoes for her Thanksgiving treat.

New study finds that eating veggies boosts hair growth...

See, it's true! Must be all the carrots and squash Becca has been eating lately. HA! No really, it's just a wig I promise. She was at my office trying on wigs the other day and we had to get a picture. But it is true that Becca is finally getting some real hair, thank goodness. She is also almost sitting up by herself and she's just about figured out how to roll over in the bed. She is getting to be such a big girl and we are having fun watching her.

Grammy and Nanny are coming to visit this weekend, so we are looking forward to that. Plenty of pics to come later...good night. It's bedtime at the Bramells.

Engelbert Pooperdink

Yes, Becca has a new nickname. She will always be our Petey, but now she is occasionally Engelbert Pooperdink. You can probably guess when this name applies. It's funny, and she likes it.

NEWS FLASH: This child apparently loves squash! She had carrots for 3 nights and did ok with them, but last night she had squash for the first time and cleaned her dish! She even cried when I took the spoon away from her. I think she is going to be a good eater. We are only doing veggies at night now for a few weeks, then we will go to two meals a day.

We also had another big thing happen yesterday. We broke up with daycare! Yes, we are taking Becca out of daycare. Nothing they did wrong, we really like it there, but Becca is going to start staying home with Dad. This will be so much better for her and hopefully keep her well over the winter. Dad will be able to play with her and take her to do fun things instead of being cooped up in that daycare all day with sick babies. Her last day is the 16th.

That is all for now, gotta get to work. Sorry no pics this time.

Trick or Treat!!

Well, here's our little penguin. It looks like she is dressed like Fergie! We couldn't get them both to cooperate for a picture. On Tuesday, all the kids went to Lee's office for a costume show and treats. Becca was really good and didn't mind the costume at all. However, Halloween night was another story. As you can see, she didn't want any part of the penguin suit--quite a fussy penguin. She kept it on about 10 minutes, then went to sleep at 6:30!! She event slept through the doorbell and kids knocking all evening.

The oatmeal feeding is going much better. We're still not sure how much is actually getting IN her instead of ON her, but she's getting the hang of it. We might try some veggies this weekend. I'm also happy to report that the cold is just about gone--3 weeks is enough already!!

Thank goodness it's Friday! Have a good weekend....

Happy Halloween!!

5 Months old

Monday marked the 5th month for Becca outside Mommy's womb. She decided to stay up late to party, finally going to sleep around 10:00. She has been falling asleep around 7:30 and sleeping pretty much till 6:30 in the morning, except for the occasional poopy diaper or "i want my binky!!" cry. It has been a blessing for sure.
As you can see, orange is the theme!! We have not picked out a halloween costume yet, but she will get one before the weekend is over.
The family is going to get out of town this weekend and go to Branson, MO. Home of the worst traffic this side of the Mississippi. Actually it shouldn't be too bad this time of year. Fergie will be staying home with one of our friends Anne who will take care of the little monster while we are away. We didn't want Grandma's cats eating her while we left town!!
Enjoy the pics and watch for costume pictures soon!!!