Winter fun...and not so fun!

We have had some amazing weather since Daddy Bear left for his LONG months of school. First we had a GORGEOUS, sunny, you must be crazy to stay indoors day! Little Bear had a great time at the park, especially since many of his friends in the neighborhood were out too!

We enjoyed dinner and fellowship with some of our neighbors and Baby Sister got to play with her favorite neighbor babies.

Then we had a couple of snow days in a row where we got an inch or less but enough to enjoy.

Even enough to make a "snow dad" with!

What a pick-me-up for us! The rainy winter days can get a little dreary when you are feeling cheerful but especially when Daddy Bear had just left! We welcomed the change of pace and had a blast! Then it snowed some more! Beautiful right??

Then more snow. We were living in a winter wonderland! It was magnificent!!

All we could think about was snow--even when playing Legos!

And it was still pretty fun!

We would play in the snow and get chilled to the bone!

Then bundle up with our warm blankets in our warm houses!

That is until the ice came and brought along with it the END OF OUR FUN.

We were without electricity, snowed AND iced in, cold, spending all our free time holed up with neighbors, also without electricity, which was great and all but without Daddy Bear to help us we weren't finding much enjoyment in it all. After 2 1/2 days without electricity it finally came back on for good and we rejoiced! It could've been, and was, much worse for many others in our area but one day would've been long enough to stress Mama Bear a little. It's no cakewalk trying to keep a baby warm, a cooped up 3 year old sane, and a dog pottied in an ice storm with no electricity. All as a single parent. But we made it through and what didn't kill us...I suppose made us stronger. ;)

8 Months OLD!

It is absolutely unbelievable that we have an 8 month old!!!

And my oh my is she fun!! This is her excited,playful face. So animated!

As you'll see in the video, if it works, her laughter is infectious, she's reading books, and talking non-stop. The video is low quality and the orientation is weird--clearly done on the phone. They were taken with the idea of sending them to Daddy Bear so he doesn't miss out while he's away, not for sharing with the public, but they are too cute not to share! I, Mama Bear, am HEAD OVER HEELS for my little sweeties!

Oh my goodness, is she cute or what???

First Christmas Comparisons

I thought it would be fun to take a quick look back at Little Bear's first Christmas and compare it to Baby Sister's first Christmas pictures. They were only 2 weeks different in age in these pictures.

Babies' first Christmas (on the same futon :D)

Daddy Bear and Babies

Family photos (notice Daddy Bear has the same Christmas sweater 4 Christmases later? And Shaddie Bear didn't make it to the photo this year--it's hard enough getting the four of us to all look at the camera, let alone the dog too.) :D

Christmas!!

We had such a fun Christmas Eve!

As we waited for California Uncle to arrive at the airport, and for Washington Uncle's family and Grandma Bear to come over, Little Bear and I took down the Advent decorations and prepared our tree for Christmas! We like to celebrate Christmas Eve somewhat as Daddy Bear did growing up. Though in Daddy Bear's family the children did not help decorate the tree. Since this was one of my favorite parts of growing up (putting on the ornaments) and since Little Bear's great grandmother is continuing her tradition of buying a Hallmark ornament for each kid every year we decided we wanted the children of our family to help in the decorating stage. But then we don't light the tree until the children are up in their rooms Christmas Eve evening. When they hear the bell ring, they know that "Christ has come" and they come into the room to see the tree lit in all it's glory for the first time and we sing a couple of Christmas songs and read the story of Jesus' birth. It is really quite magical, and while we have decided to let the "magic" of Santa Claus/St. Nicholas come at Christmas time, we want the excitement of Jesus' BIRTHday to trump all of that! I would say we were fairly successful this year.

All of the family finally arrived and we enjoyed a lovely dinner of crepes (made by our amazing chef, Daddy Bear). We talked, played, and had a fun Christmas pj photo session of the kids. They were somewhat cooperative...

The family went back to their homes that evening and we awoke the next morning ready for our Braun family Christmas at our house before joining up with the others for Christmas dinner.

Little Bear was CRAZY EXCITED about all of the gifts under the tree. Naturally.

He was thrilled with his gifts and ready to play!

Baby Sister also enjoyed her gifts and wanted to get into everything! Even Mama Bear's toothbrush.

Next we ate breakfast and headed to Christmas Mass, then came home and opened stockings. Look at these happy faces!

Our sweet little Christmas babies!!

We enjoyed spending time exchanging gifts with Grandma Bear and hanging out with all the family for Christmas day.

Mama Bear got to blow out MORE candles on ANOTHER cake for her birthday (NOTE: the candles do not represent MB's actual age)!

And we went home feeling very blessed and ready to celebrate Christmas for 11 more days!! Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany!!!

Time to Travel--#3+

I'm a little behind on all things blog-like. :) But now that I have Baby Sister's 7 month blog posted I can catch up on the rest.

After a year of suffering my grandmother left behind her pain and went to a place of rest and beauty this past month. The Rosary and Visitation were scheduled for the ONE day of the month that Daddy Bear had to work and couldn't get off. So I, Mama Bear, took the two kids and met my brother and his 2 year old at the airport to head to the funeral without him. The kids did great on the first airplane and we met up with my other brother in Denver for the second leg of the trip so we had an extra set of hands for our luggage and kiddos. They did great again!

Though it was a sad time, we were all glad for my grandma that she didn't have to suffer any longer. And the neatest part of the time there was that all 4 of her children,

all of her grandchildren,

and several of her great-grandchildren were able to be there.

The first time we were all together since we were young kids. I know she was smiling down on us as we ELEVEN grandchildren led her casket out of the church and lifted her into the hurst and onto the gravesite. It was a very special moment. One I will always remember and cherish.

After we got back home to Daddy Bear we decided to slow down with our traveling and stick a little closer to home for our adventures. We drove through a huge park display of Christmas lights near our home and went to see the Zoo Lights both in one week! I couldn't capture the beauty of the lights but did my best.

I did manage to get a good shot of the sharks!

And a blurry picture of Baby Sister's first carousel ride.

And Little Bear's fourth.

We spent the rest of our Advent season with our prayers and reflections,

finishing our Jesse Tree,

coloring Little Bear's nativity sent from his Omi,

sitting in front of the crackling "fire,"

enjoying time puppy-sitting for one of Shaddie Bear's best friends,

and wrapping packages (Shadrack's friend wanted to be right in the middle of it all!).

7 months (and then some)!

Okay, so I'm REALLY behind this time. Baby Sister turned 7 months old on Mama Bear's birthday, the 23rd of last month. Oops! I did take the pictures when I was supposed to, just haven't had the time to post them. We celebrated my birthday, Jesus' birthday, and our nephew's birthday all within a week of each other. Then we spent as much time together as possible leading up to Daddy Bear's departure this morning for 6 MONTHS!!! Ugh! Heavenly Father, help us all! There are many blessings for us to focus on: our amazing support system in our neighborhood for the kids and me, family members just an hour away, Daddy Bear won't be overseas or in harm's way, we'll get to go visit a couple of times throughout, we have a wonderful guard dog and live in a very safe "gated" community ;D, and it is ONLY 6 months. Could be much worse! So we will focus on what we are thankful for, busy ourselves with fun things like swimming lessons, museums, libraries, sending packages and letters to DB, and counting down the days until this is all over and Daddy Bear never has to leave us for this long again!!!

So back to the 7 month old update...

Baby Sister is blossoming into such a beautiful, fun-loving, adorable baby girl. Not that she didn't fit that description last month, or the months before that, but it just seems that the statement becomes truer each week! She is sleeping MUCH better than she was a month ago. She takes two good naps a day and, though she goes to bed much later at night than we would like, she is sleeping through the night most of the time and letting everyone else get more sleep too. She eats a variety of vegetables and cereals and loves bananas but we are waiting to start the rest of the scrumptious fruits last because if she's anything like her parents and big brother she will most definitely have a sweet tooth. She isn't saying any distinct words yet but speaks clearly with her eyes and her smile, and sometimes her shouts. She is not on the move just yet but is getting closer everyday. And when she does--look out house! Better get to baby-proofing!

This past month Baby Sister got to celebrate her first Christmas. She did enjoy tearing the paper on the packages but she most loved looking at the twinkling lights on houses and on our Christmas tree. Here she is with her new dolly she got from one of our sweet neighbors.

And here she is giving Dolly a kiss.

One of the funniest things BS does is flap her arms like a little birdie and bounce up and down when she gets excited. Anytime there is something sparkly, if someone is drinking from a cup, mug, or glass (we don't understand that one), or if she sees me, Mama Bear, after some time apart the birdie comes out! Maybe one day I'll be able to catch it on video! Here is a picture of our little birdie on Christmas day with one of her uncle's stocking stuffers.

She has also started drinking water this month. At first she wasn't sure what she thought.

But she so wants to be a big girl so Little Bear helped her try it again and she decided it wasn't so bad.

Such sweeties! These are the little faces that are going to get ME through this tough time (with God's help of course!). Daddy Bear is going to miss them soooooooo much! Please pray for him. Pray that he'll have the strength and endurance to make it through this time, and the wisdom to make the right choices, to do well on all tasks, and the comfort of our Lord during the times when he needs his family most.