Bramell, Party of Five: January 2012

Monday, January 23, 2012

'Tis the Season 2011

After much debating and thought (well, not that much), we decided not to make the trek to Wynne for Christmas. Just the sheer amount of stuff we'd have to take along with the kids was overwhelming. Not to mention the crazy amount of stuff we'd be bringing back home!! 

Let's just say my kids were treated very nicely for Christmas. They should not be bored or in need of something to play with for many, many years. Literally. I'm glad they are so loved, but FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, would someone else in my family please start having some babies!!! 

I love the look on Becca's face here when she was opening her BIG gift.

Pop got Carley her very first baby doll. She loves it!


Here's the "big" gift put together. Thanks to Lee and his mad toy-assembly skills. Becca is in love with this dollhouse. 

I need to take a picture of it now. She got a set of 7 Disney Princess Barbie dolls for Christmas. Those, combined with the few she already had, make for a crowded house. Poor kid only has one Ken doll--she calls him Justin Bieber! I told Lee the other night that it totally looks like the house on The Bachelor....all those princesses and one dude. Glad I don't live there.


One December night, we were lucky enough to have some pretty mild temps. We took the kids to the Fayetteville Square to see the Christmas lights. Becca was thrilled to ride the ponies, see a real reindeer and look at the smelly camels. Evan and Carley just hung out in the stroller and did some people watching.

Did I already post these pictures? Now I feel like I've blogged about this already...did I? Oh well, I'm not going back to look now.





Better late than never

It just occurred to me that I haven't posted any pictures from Thanksgiving or Christmas! I almost forgot to do it.  The Bramells spent a nice Thanksgiving holiday in East Arkansas visiting our families. We had a great meal with my mom's side of the family in Jonesboro on Thursday. We spent Friday watching the Hogs vs. LSU game at Dad's, but Karen had to work. Then on Saturday, we went over to Memphis for our first trip to the Children's Museum of Memphis. We got to have lunch with Bernie, Annette and Sarah, then they joined us at the CMOM. We had hoped to go to the zoo instead, but the weather was pretty yucky. The kids loved the museum! I know we'll be going back.


The kids loved grocery shopping at the Kroger in the CMOM....even the little ones knew just what to do! They filled their carts and went to scan their loot at the cash register. So cute!


They loved playing with Sarah....and I think she liked it, too. I think we had to drag them off the slide.



Here is Becca at the dental office. I think she'd make a fine dentist!



It was pretty chilly on Thanksgiving Day, but the kids just had to get out and run a little. I didn't get many pictures. I guess I was too busy eating!

Leave it to Becca to make a toy out of anything. She used the door to Aunt Pam's storm shelter as a slide! 


I think Blake was trying to get Evan to stand still.  Um, no way!


Thursday, January 5, 2012

18 month check up


The kids had their 18 month well visit last week. Poor babies had to get 4 shots each! They were surprisingly tough. I think Becca was more upset about it than they were. The good news is that we are done with shots until they turn four. Yay!

Dr. Davis was very happy with their growth and development; they are both right on track. In fact, they hit a growth spurt after the 12-month mark and moved into the 25th percentile and even 50th in a couple of categories.  Carley is 75th percentile in height!

Baby A (Evan): 24.5 pounds, 31.5 in tall.

Baby B (Carley):  23.9 pounds, 32.2 in tall.

We questioned him a little about Evan's speaking, or lack of. Carley is definitely talking way more than he is.  The doc said at this age they should have between 3-10 words they can say and we know what they are talking about.  Evan has maybe two at this point; Carley closer to 10.  He told us not to worry unless his speech hasn't picked up by the two-year check up. He says most babies' speech kicks in right before they turn two. Evan certainly has no trouble telling us what he wants with his pointing and yelling, though.

While all three kids were running laps around the exam room, it occurred to me what our life is really like. I've been struggling to find the right way to explain it when people comment that "you sure have your hands full." Well, I can do it now!  It's just like that scene in Toy Story 3 where the toys are fighting each other and Evil Dr. Porkchop (the pig) drops the Barrel of Monkeys out of the sky! That's it!  They are the monkeys....it's totally like someone dropped a real life barrel of monkeys in our house.  Every. Day.

Monday, January 2, 2012

More Becca Funnies

It's late and I'm trying to get to bed so I can get up early to exercise. Wanted to write down a couple of Becca funnies before I forget.

  • Becca and Carley went to stay a few days at Tracy's house the week of Christmas, so Lee and I could finish our last minute prep. The first thing Becca said when she got home (seriously, THE FIRST):        "The house is so clean!"  Yeah kid, much easier to keep clean with only one kid around. Duh.

  • We took the kids to Silver Dollar City for the last night of the Christmas Festival. We didn't tell Becca we were going until we were ready to leave, as she has turned into a Miss Million Questions kind of gal. It's exhausting. We were literally on the other side of Springdale heading out of town when she asked (for the first time), "Are we there yet?" Seriously, 3 miles from our driveway.

  • Then, poor kid, the anticipation was killing her. The traffic into SDC was horrible, the parking was horrible and waiting in line at the gate wasn't much better.  We got inside before dark, so she couldn't really get the whole effect of the lights right away.  It wasn't long after dark that she was running around screaming, "It's the first day of my life!" over and over. Hilarious, as we're sure she meant the BEST day, not the first. But who could burst her bubble like that?

Pre-holidays 2011

I know it's been a long time since the last post. Oh well, December happened. Will try to do a quick update, as it's getting late and my vacation ends tonight. Ugh. So not ready to go back to work!



Before Christmas, we took the kids to the mall. We thought we'd do some shopping--but--it was someone's bright idea NOT to bring the stroller. HA! No way, Jose. Those kids were going buck wild. We stopped to see Santa but not one of them cooperated. I'm sure it was quite funny to anyone who was watching us: Becca stayed in the line, the babies actually walked up to him but wouldn't sit with him. We finally settled on a high five from Santa and went on our merry way. At least there were no tears, right?


Every time we are in the mall, Becca has to ride the little rides. So I guess now we've started it with Carley and Evan. They loved it! Note to self: always take plenty of quarters or you're screwed.



The Fayetteville Square is always so beautiful at Christmastime. I have more photos, but these came off Lee's phone and are much easier to access.  Becca rode the ponies twice. Better than last year, when she cried. See, we are making so much progress! It was pretty cold out, so we didn't stay long. Babies enjoyed looking at all the pretty lights. Evan enjoyed flirting with all the old ladies.

 
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