Christmas- 2008- Owens 1st Christmas!

Trying out his new exersaucer, he didn't get this for Christmas but thought we would try it out, he loved it!


The Gergens

Sportin' their new JD sweatshirts, feel the brotherly love?

Owen trying out his new seat!

Opening the family gift from Santa, Wii!!!

Our 3 sons christmas morning

Erika and Brady on Christmas Eve

The boys' second cousin, Lillyanna, she is 4 days older than Owen

Rodney and Lilly, teaching her young!

Kiley and Owen

Grandmas Chris and the gang

My beautiful niece Olivia and I being silly

I had too.....

It was a good Christmas, but it went so fast! I loved spending time with my family, eating, laughing and just hanging out. Owen did really well, he was alittle tired with all the activities, but was a trooper! The boys haven't shut the Wii off since we got it, wonder if they will ever let me play it!!??

Merry Christmas from all of us!

May peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

~ Love, Rodney, Stacy, Bailey, Brady & Owen ~

Random

So how about an update! I am alittle behind, but what do you espect, I have alot of kids and responsibilities these days!

So last Tuesday Rodney has knee surgery to fix his ACL that was damamged back in June, so he is off of work until February. Everything went well with that and he is getting along pretty good at home. He is not driving me nuts totally yet, but I feel for the boys who are stuck with him over Christmas break, they will be ready to go back to school early! LOL

This past weekend my tribe and my brothers tribe went to my dads to help cut down and decorate a tree for him. We took 5 of the 6 kids to Hampton Hills and picked out a tree for grandpa, it was a perfect day for it! We then brought it back to grandpas and they kids got to decorate it while us adults knocked back a few! It was such a fun day, I just love spending time with my family and I know the kids love playing with each other, it was a great day!
Here are the little darlings!

The boys are both doing good, Bailey is having fun being in wrestling and Brady just isn't so sure anymore about it. I took them lastnight and Brady was getting thrown around pretty good by an older kid and he told me he didnt want to wrestle anymore, I am not going to push him playing, but encourage him to stick with it. We will see how he feels after the holidays, he might change his mind. Brady is getting over being sick last week too, he had strep throat and was out of comission for a few days, I just pray no one else catches it, he seems to be doing better this week.

Owen is just Owen, he is so perfect it is scary! He is just the happiest little guy ever and so strong. He loves to stand and be pulled up and screams in excitement all the time, he smiles all the time, it just makes my heart melt! Makes me so sad that he is getting so big, I just cleaned out his closet and put away the clothes and jammies that are too small for him already, there was alot!! Looks like Santa is going to have to do alittle shopping for Owen! Anyway, here is my little peanut just being cute! He loves to suck on his fists, usually all 4 fingers at one time!

And then theres me........ boring ole me! I work, tend to kids, give baths, I am the taxi driver, cook, maid, nurse, handywoman... that basically is my life in a nut shell and then some! But am loving every minute of it, I honestly think I would be bored if my life wasnt go,go,go. I am trying to get our shopping done for the holidays, I am usually done by now, but been alittle busy, I am hoping to finish it up on Saturday - I hate waiting until the last minute!! UGGHHH Especially since we have our first Christmas this Sunday already!

So there you are, an update on the Braatz family!

Decorating the tree

We decided to hold off on decorating the tree until after baptism, so we did it Sunday night. They boys had fun, of course they faught alot, but I guess that is what brothers do! Owen even got into the spirit as well as the cat! LOL

Baptism

Owen and his new toy he got

With his cake

Godfather- "Whiteye"

Our darling family

Godmother- Jennifer

Owen in his monkey suit, he didnt care for it at all!

3 months old!

My precious baby is 3 months old today... Happy Birthday buddy!!

Owen is growing much too fast, I am trying to savior every minute I am with him and his brothers! It is just so wierd to me how much the birth of Owen has changed me, I appreciate the smaller things so much more and I am not such a freak about everything being perfect or having a spotless house or even having "me" time which is very scarce these days! LOL I have become more of sap after having Owen, I cry at anything and tear up at the silliest things, I even have found myself asking people for help, which is something I never did!! But I feel that even with all the mad chiaos at our home 7 days a week, I am one of the luckiest woman alive to have what I have!

Ok enough of that, Owen is doing GREAT!! He had a great 1st week at his daycare, Janet just loves him and he seems to love it there too. I am guessing that Owen weighs in at or around 15lb if not more, he is a pig! He smiles and coos all of the time and when he gets really excited, he lets out these screams, it is too cute! Even when he is starving he manages to smile! Yesterday we baptised Owen, he was a perfect little angel. Everything went well and we had a nice time spending the day with family and friends.

I am off, but hope to post some pictures really soon, I am little behind on everything, imagine that!!

Back to work!

So here I am back to the grind. Yesterday was my first day back and it actually went pretty good, I was only 15 minutes late to work, nothing a little fine tuning couldnt fix. I had to revamp my schedule alittle bit this morning and was on time with no time to spare! LOL
I actually did fairly well yesterday considering, I think I had my day on Sunday, no one was allowed to hold Owen but me, and Rodney only got to hold him while I went to the bathroom, baby hog I know. I had a few "moments" on Sunday about coming back to work and leaving Owen, but nothing to major. I did think about him alot yesterday when I had the time. My daycare provider, Janet Stein said I could call, but I didn't want to be a pest, so I didn't. He is going to a home daycare, and I couldn't be more pleased with it and plus we have know her for awhile and know she will give him lots of hugs and kisses throughout the day, very glad to be done with a daycare center!!

Anyway my mornings are nuts with trying to get myself ready and 3 boys ready and fed. The boys need to be ready by 7:15 to catch the bus and Owen and I need to leave the house by 7:30, today it was 7:39,but we still made it on time. It may take a week or so to get in a routine, but I think we will manage. Anyway, I left work and picked up the boys at home and all 3 of us went to pick up Owen. Janet said he was such a good baby, very talkative, hardley cried and when he did he cried very soft, and she said he loves to snuggle! ( I made him a snuggler), I was really happy to hear he did well. He did cling to my alot lastnight though, which of course I didnt mind at all!

I do have to say that I enjoyed every minute of my time off, there is nothing I would change about my time off with Owen, even the days that Brady was home and drove me nuts!! LOL I am very thankful that my job allowed me to take that much time off and that we could scrape by witout my income for a few months. I do already miss being in my jammies all day though, those days were the best, plus not much fits me just yet, so the old comfies look pretty good when I get home!!! LOL

I just thank god everyday that I have the life that I do, I may be busy, non stop go, but I wouldn't have it any other way and I will cherish every moment I have with my boys, because they grow up way too fast!!