This is For You Mom!

My whole family has been losing weight in preparation for my sister, Ashley's, wedding coming up in May.  I, actually, had it pretty easy as all the natural food we eat and our busy schedule with teams this summer assisted me in losing 15 pounds.  I've gained a couple back but I ran across a photo from March of this year and another one from this week.  I didn't realize how much weight I can carry in my face.  Woo.  But this is for you, Mamma.  I can only post this because I don't look like it anymore but the first thing I thought was, "Where on Earth are my eyes?"  Haha.  Anyway, if no one else, my mom will enjoy these pics.


March 2008


October 2008

alright, alright

Ok so its been like two weeks. Apparently I'm supposed to get more photos up of Lando.

Landon is now 15 months old! Hard to believe. He is somethin' else too. Quite the little ball of energy, and he sleeps a lot to make up for it. He is still sleeping about 11 or 12 hours a night and takes two, two hour naps during the day. With the exception of today in which he wasn't interested in sleeping at all. He is wearing about a size 5 shoe, weighs probably 25 pounds or so and 16 teeth! Yes, 16. 4 molars and 12 teefers. It's crazy. He looks like a baby shark. We have completely gotten rid of bottles and he has decided he wants to drink all his milk for the day in the morning. It's pretty cute. As soon as you carry him out of his room, he points at the couch and then the TV. He's come up with this routine for himself where he has to watch 1-2 baby einsteins or praise baby DVDs while drinks anywhere from 8-16 ounces of milk. Then he doesn't want milk the rest of the day. If we try and take him anywhere else before he gets to sit on the couch and drink his milk he literally cries until we take him there.

He is saying "mama" (sometimes mami), "dada" (but actually prefers to call him "Ma" or Mike as we've figured out), Gracias (or "Gra"), mas (which is more in spanish), some new one which is "ee" which I'm not sure what it is...and several other sounds and words. He is still signing but because we've kinda slacked on keeping it regimented he confuses his signs a bit and actually has made up new ones for "more" "milk" "juice" and "eat". They all kinda look the same with a slight variation. Still, super cute.

Lando's favorite food of all time are BANANAS. If he even SEES a banana anywhere he will scream his head off unless he has one. And its awful too because here they have yellow plantains that look like bananas but you can't eat them without cooking them so when he sees the plantain he goes crazy. Again, still super cute. But yes, Landon has learned the temper tantrum very well. I do my best to not react too much to it and be as calm as I can be, but somtimes...man, oh, man...Especially at the supermarket. Woo. Exhausting.

Anyway, just updating a little bit about the little guy so here are some pics. Enjoy!

Lando with the bandana on for 5 seconds and wanting it off

I love this one cause he is looking so sweetly at Mike

Seriously, how did he get so cute?

My bandana boys

Remember when your mom said, "no playing baseball in the house."

Well, this is what happens when Mom plays baseball in the house.

Luckily it was with a wiffle ball.  Please don't call child services. :)

All the girls in my family have a picture of them taking a bath in the 

sink in Maine.  We didn't get to do that with Lando so we decided to

try it in the Dominican instead.

Washing the dishes for mommy.

Our sweet little boy.

Our Little Switch-hitter

Had to post this video. Mike, Lando and I have been playing A LOT of baseball in our house these past few days and apparently it has sunk in with the little guy. Today when Mike was playing with him he just started hitting the balls all by himself. Amazing part, he was doing it with both hands. Got some video of one lefty and one righty. Pretty cool. More coordination than his mom, that's for sure.

www.yearbookyourself.com

So this morning I had a bit too much fun and apparently too much time on my hands. I am an avid facebooker (www.facebook.com) and one of my friends had posted some pictures and they were so AWESOME!!! I've always thought I was born in the wrong era and www.yearbookyourself.com gave me the opportunity to see if I was right. :) All you do is upload a picture of yourself and they do the rest. You can see what you'd look like from 1950-2000. It was an absolute blast. Then, I thought, maybe I should do Mike too! Then blast, turned to riot. Wow. So I decided to put the two of us together in a couple of the "years" and see if we'd look compatible. Pretty funny. Enjoy the pics.

1950

1952

1958

1962

1966

1968

1996

2000

And, yes, I did Landon too...my favorite one of our little love child...1976

Giggle Box

Haven't posted video in a while. So here are some random giggles by our little guy. He is seriously just the joy of our lives. So, so fun.

Mom and Dad in the DR!

Mike's parents came to the Dominican this past week for 10 days! It was seriously the best time EVER! We took them to several of our ministry sites, visited restaurants, played with Lando (A LOT!!!) and went to the beach. It was so good to have them here. And it gave us a little "family time" to help us not be homesick for the ones we love. Here are some pictures of their trip. To see more go to our ministry blog.

Front balcony...Joe and Lando's favorite hangout (especially for eating bananas for breakfast!)

Daddy and Lando (kissing is Landon's new favorite thing!)

Debbie and Lando looking at the view from the hotel at the beach

Our cute little boy

Lando in his new frog pool that he got from Grandma and Grandpa...he likes it more if one of us go in it with him :)

Joe and Mike got to steal away for a morning of golf

Landon reading in a box...kids seriously find the funniest things to do

Mommy and Lando sleeping on the way to the beach

Of course we have a bucket bath picture!!!

Family Photo

We had a wedding today and got a family photo taken. Lando's not smiling but he's still adorable!

Ode to the Bottle

Oh, bottle, so good and cozy

Many nights I needed you to keep me calm

To see you being prepared was such excitement

To have you in my hand was like bliss

For thirteen months I have obsessed over you

Sometimes six times a day

When nothing else could make me feel better

You knew just what to do

Although our time together has been good

Our time together has passed

I don't need you anymore

I have found another 

And sippie cup makes me happy now

But I will always remember you

And I'm sure when a new little baby comes along

I will want you again

But for now, I'm saying goodbye to my dear 'ol bottle.

-Landon

Yep, that's right. No more bottles. Landon has decided this week that he wants his milk cold, in a sippie cup. I shouldn't be surprised. He was the one that decided to stop nursing and now he is the one that decided bottles are not what he wants. Let's hope the bobo will go soon too. (Although I fear that may be a civil war)

Van Gogh

I've been an artist my whole life. I've loved art. I've loved all art forms. I've never so much been into the modern art where people paint a red circle on a blue canvas or cut a cow in thin pieces and display it. But apparently, my son is very much into modern art. What is his medium...poop.

I woke up this morning to the fresh smell of doody. I was thinking, "those darn dogs..." and began searching for a pile somewhere. As I passed Lando's room a foul smell hit my nose. I opened the door and thought maybe it was his diaper pale. Then with a huge grin Lando holds his hands up high...absolutely covered in poop. Hands, feet, hair, sheets, pillow, blanky...the whole shabang. He had figured out how to take his diaper off and had a little too much time to paint, I guess. So here are a couple quick photos that I could take before I wanted to gag by the smell. Warning: may induce vomiting.

(had to cover the wee-wee...he's a year old now, ya know!)

Finally a girl in the Braisted Clan

Nope. I'm not pregnant. But I am a new mother of two new puppies. Sisters.

We've been praying about and looking for a new puppy to give us some added security and a play friend for Landon. Plus, Mike and I love dogs. Ever since we had to give our dog, Simba, away when we moved down here...we've been thinking about having one again.

Well, we were working on one of our churches in Brisas de Ocampo and I spotted these black puppies that looked SO cute from far away. There were three large dogs chained up in a garage and the two puppies were asleep. Every day for about two weeks, I passed the garage and wanted to jump out and ask if I could take one. It wouldn't have been a good idea. Mike and I had two stipulations about a puppy. We didn't want to pay for one and we wanted it to be a rescue situation. Because the puppies actually had owners and the mama dog was around I figured it wasn't really a rescue. So I didn't think it would happen.

Well, Mike told our friend Luis about how I was in love with the puppies (from far away) and Thursday Luis went right in and asked for them. Mike surprised me as I was having coffee with my friend Yajaira. I was MORE than ecstatic. Well we didn't have to pay for it at least...it wasn't a rescue though. Or so we thought.

When Mike showed me the little girl there were some awful news. He lifted her ear up and inside each ear were MORE THAN 100 ticks! In between her toes, on her neck, under her arms, her stomach...just everywhere. It was the most horrific thing I had ever seen. The moment I saw her, I knew she was ours and we weren't going to let her be miserable like that. So we jumped in a car and drove to the vet.

The vet removed all of the huge ticks and treated her for ticks/fleas, gave her a vaccination, and anti-parasite meds. We were happy that it didn't cost very much as it would have been a FORTUNE in the states. So her recovery began.

The other puppy was left in our "almacen" or area where they store vehicles and equipment. I thought about her all night just wondering if she was getting something to eat or if she was cold. Then Michael said something I never thought I'd hear..."I think if no one wants her we should just take her too." I about died! But was so excited.

So the next morning, I went looking for her. She wasn't there. OH NO. Someone wanted her. But long story short...I found her. We took her to the vet too. We reunited the sisters and they slept through the entire night until 6:30 this morning. (well, with a couple presents on our bedroom floor...oh well, they'll learn!) The two puppy thing is still on a trial basis. If it gets in the way of our jobs or is too much to handle, we will find a home for one of them.

Landon's not sure what to think. Sometimes he laughs hysterically. Sometimes he tugs on their ears or hits them in the face.

So here they are...our little girls, Frankie and Finley.

Sisters

Finley

Frankie