Landon and the "Beep Beep"

We bought Landon this new "beep beep" because he would always go over to our friends' house and play on their son's. He is getting pretty fast on it. The other morning, Landon and Daddy were chasing each other around and I just had to pick up the video camera and record it. It was too precious. The two of them have so much fun together. Enjoy!


Landon and His Beep Beep from Amanda Braisted on Vimeo.

Changing House

I like new changes...generally, only if I am the initiator! One thing I always have loved is revamping homes. I always walk into a house and think about what I could do differently in there to make it look just a little more awesome. I think we've finally settled on the general "look" of our house. Landon's room is still going to be re-painted at some point (to go with our Finding Nemo/Sports theme) and we still have some major furniture purchases that we need to make (i.e. Night tables, couches, patio furniture). But we are super happy with our home and it is just a great place for our family to relax, eat and play in! I just wanted to post some before and after pictures of right before we moved in and the rooms now! Enjoy.



Guest Bath - BEFORE



Guest Bath - AFTER



Kitchen - BEFORE



Kitchen - AFTER



Landon's Room - BEFORE



Landon's Room - AFTER



Master Bath - BEFORE



Master Bath - AFTER



Master Bedroom - BEFORE



Master Bedroom - AFTER



Third Bedroom/Office - BEFORE



Third Bedroom/Office - AFTER



Living Room/Dining Room - BEFORE



Living Room/Dining Room - AFTER



I haven't been totally inspired yet with what to paint on these canvases!



Our family portrait collage that I love!!! (Christmas gift from Mike)

Eye Update

The bump on Landon's head has completely gone away but the black eye remains. It is a beautiful mixture of blue, purple, and yellow. The swelling has gone completely down and it seems as though Landon has escaped any serious repercussions of his tumbling act.

Pobrecito :(

Well, it finally happened. Our little guy had a big-time spill.

Unfortunately, Lando is a monkey. He climbs on everything. And apparently, no amounts of "pow-pows" or "time-outs" are going to keep him from doing dangerous stunts. Recently, one of his favorite things to climb on is the back of our futon. He'll climb up the mattress and almost sit on the back of the futon. We'll rush over and tell him no and give him a time-out but as soon as we turn our backs, he does it again. Well, yesterday, our worst nightmare happened. He was climbing the futon and sure enough before anyone could get to him, he came crashing down over the back of the futon onto our tile floors. Thank goodness, I was not there because if I had seen it, the image probably would have haunted me for a long time. And thank goodness, Mike, who is pretty calm in stressful situations, was there to comfort him. He landed right on his head and we think his hand because he has a black eye where we think his hand hit him. We called the doctor and kept a close eye on him.

He was pretty cuddly and didn't want to be put down for about the first two hours as we watched Shrek 2, but after that, he grabbed his cars and played "beep beep" all over the house. So we knew that he was ok. But we did manage to get a couple pictures this morning of his wonderful, developing, black eye. This may be the first but I have a feeling it is NOT the last.

Landon on the Porch

Just another day in the little life of Lando. We were out on the porch doing laundry and playing in the water. He so loves water. I actually got him jabbering on video, finally. He is a talking machine. Most of it doesn't make sense, yet, but I know it will soon. Enjoy! I've watched this video at least three times cause it just makes my heart happy. Awnry little boy. :)


Landon on the Porch from Amanda Braisted on Vimeo.

Not a Baby Anymore

We did it! We buzzed Lando's hair. And I hate it (only because it makes him look too grown up!) But he does look really, really cute. I took these pictures quick this morning because he was in a really crabby mood (see pic 1) and just wanted to show everyone that he's not a little baby anymore! :(

Sad Day

Our little guy, in fact our family, seems to not be able to be healthy since we've been back to the Dominican.  We've had everything from colds, to chest colds, strep throat, migraines, double ear infections and NOW our little Lando has croup.  We went to the doctor yesterday and she described it as "like" bronchitis, but to me I just know they don't have a word for croup.  I only know of it because I got it quite a bit when I was young and so did my younger sister Abbey.  So now Landon is on an antibiotic regiment, tylenol for fever, a "chest pounding" regiment where we have to loosen up the junk in his lungs, AND we have to do a nebulizer treatment three times a day.  When we started his treatment this morning, I had to snap a pic.  It made me so sad to see just this little mask on his face.  I now have a VERY small glimpse into what the moms out there have to see when they have preemies or sick babies.  I have more respect and sympathy for you now, more than ever.

Fun in the Sun

Back by popular demand...photos of Landon playing in water!  We had a beautiful day a couple days ago so we whipped out Landon's frog pool (compliments of GaGa and Ma Braisted) and several new bathtoys (thanks to the Goodwin/Bickett clan) and played for a long time.  Don't worry, Aunt Ashley, he was donned with SPF 50 and a sun hat!  He is much more interested in putting water in containers and pouring it OUTSIDE of the pool than actually playing with the water inside the pool.  Still cute nonetheless.  Enjoy!

Ruth Cloninger 1/15/09

She was more than a Grandma. She was my mentor. She was the woman who led me to Christ. She was my shoulder to cry on. She was my counselor. She was the epitome of what a Godly woman should be.

I keep saying to myself that I didn't even get to see her to say goodbye. I didn't go see her at Christmas and I even said "well, I will stop in when we're home for Ashley's wedding in April." I surely didn't know I wouldn't get to see her again. I've cried, at kind of random times. I'm a little bit numb but I'm still very much hurting. Maybe it's because I'm here and all that is going on there.  It doesn't quite seem real.

I'm trying to keep Satan from creeping in and laying on the guilt of not seeing her before we returned home but he's a creeper, and I'm a little weak.  This is the culmination of my absolute biggest fear in life...losing people I love.  I told God he wasn't allowed to take away my loved ones because I'm not strong enough to take it.  He didn't exactly listen.  Or maybe I'm stronger than I think.

Regardless, there's a hole.  There's some pain.  Major heart burn, emotionally and physically.  It's been spewing up my esophagus since yesterday.  I didn't know emotional pain caused physical pain.

It's weird.  I'm usually the first to go running to people, telling them what has happened...but I can't right now.  It's like if I tell someone else, then it makes it real.  I don't want it to be real.  

I actually have always been kind of desensitized to people who lose their grandparents.  When people tell me their grandparents died I secretly thought, "It's not a big deal.  It's not your parents.  They are old.  They've lived their life.  Now they are in heaven.  What are you so upset about?"  I suppose its just because my grandparents all died before I was even 12.  Hardly enough time to be bonded to people you barely knew.

I think I never thought that Grandma Ruth would ever die.  She was 92.  She was healthy.  She had nothing wrong with her.  She couldn't die.  Too many people depended on her.  Or at least I thought God knew that.  But here it is.  A day I thought wouldn't come and of course I feel a way I never thought I would feel.  Hurt.

The only joy I feel right now is 1) I know for absolutely SURE that she is in heaven.  No doubt.  They are having a huge party because she came home.  She might even be sitting on the right hand of God, right next to Jesus.  And 2) She got to meet Landon.  And he adored her.  And she adored him.  I remembered that in May I got some pictures of the two of them together.  And it's really the first thing to make me smile in two days.  I guess I'll just focus on that.

First Time in the Snow

We let Lando go outside today for the first time since visiting Hama and Papa in Wisconsin. The temperatures have been in the -degrees so it wasn't very good for a little baby to be out there. But today it was pretty good. It was funny to watch him go from not knowing what the heck that white, fluffy stuff was to playing non-stop with so much joy.