Daddy's Helper/Update - Big Girl Bed

After two nights and two naps Kate is doing great in her big girl bed. We know when she wakes up because she leans over to her night stand, turns on her lamp and turns off her sound machine and then just sits in her bed until we come to get her. So things are going great so far!

We moved her crib out of her room and into Whit's room. Kate is at the age where she copies everything you do so of course it was adorable to watch her want to help her daddy and then copy everything he was doing. I love sweet moments like this.

Big Girl Bed

We took Kate this morning over to my parents to get her "big girl bed." They have two twin beds and we have now become the proud new owners of them - thanks mom and dad! Kate was very excited about the whole process and helped us by holding the door open while we hauled them out of my parents house and then she helped me make up her new big girl bed when we got home. But we are about to find out how she does sleeping in her big girl bed as she is about to go down for a nap in a bit...so I will keep you posted!

If you ask her where her crib is going she replies "it is baby Whit's bed." So at least she seems okay with giving up her crib. Let's hope that the rest of this process is as easy!

Wii

For Christmas both Jason's parents and my parents got a Wii. Until this Christmas I had never played before. I was full out bowling and swinging the bat on baseball until I figured out that you just need some good wrist action. However, it was a little too late as the next day I could not even lift my right arm it was so sore!

Kate has taken a strong liking to the Wii as well. First my dad tried actually letting her play and trying to teach her how to pitch the ball in baseball...which she was actually very successful at since you don't actually have to push any buttons when throwing.

However, we then got to the point where we just gave her the control that wasn't being used at the time and just let her go to town. I mean seriously, she is two, she has no idea that her control wasn't actually the one working but yet she gets all the joy from the strikes being thrown by others in bowling.

The Wii is proving to be lots of entertainment. However, tonight I think I pulled something in my bottom while bowling so I am now coming to the reality that I am out of shape if video games are putting me out of commission!

And here are just some classic pictures of Kate from a few weeks ago.

A New Year

I realize that I usually post on our blog weekly and lately it has been more like monthly.

I promise to do a better job in the coming year as we have a new camera now (the old one didn't always want to take a picture when you wanted it too), I am feeling great now that I am over the hump of pregnancy sickness and can multitask again, and Kate is potty trained enough now that she can take herself to the potty (for the most part)!

The Brantley household has been a little crazy lately. We decided to build a new deck on the back of our house. It is still in process but I will have post pictures when its done. Jason and his friend Tom are building it and I am most impressed with their work.

As luck would have it, a good friend of mine that has two boys already is now having a little girl around the same time I am having a little boy so we decided to swap baby stuff. And I mean we swapped everything. Clothes, shoes, crib sheets, blankets, bumbos...you name it. It has been a blessing as I went from thinking that Whit would have nothing to wear and that we had so much to buy, to the fact that he now has more stuff then Kate ever did when she was born. So besides some baby basics and getting the nursery actually cleaned out and set up, I am feeling very at peace and ready for this baby!

Kate is loving school and I am loving her being back at school after the holidays. I need to start sewing some spring dresses for her as I am sure that I will not be sewing too much after May. And we are just looking forward to the weather warming up again so that we can play outside and get out of the confines of our house most days.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Even though this year Kate still was a little clueless it was really fun trying to teach her about Christmas. When speaking to a two year old and trying to tell them its Baby Jesus's Birthday really puts things back into perspective for me as Christmas so easily becomes all about decorating my house, buying presents for everyone, parties, cute outfits, great music on the radio, and so much more. So I am thankful this year for the sweet reminder that Christmas is all about a little baby who came to be my Savior.

Kate was uninterested in having her picture taken with Jason and I in front of the tree...but it was nice getting a good picture of the two of us. Is anyone else like us and since having children have a million pictures of the kids but haven't taken a picture of you and your husband in years??

Both my brothers were in town and Kate loved playing with Bryce and Hannah. Here is a cute picture of Hannah and Kate loving on each other Christmas Eve night.

We had a wonderful Christmas Day with family. Kate really enjoyed opening "my presents."

*Santa Clause made a personal appearance for Kate about a week or so ago. The Brantleys have a good family friend that dresses up for Kate every year. Kate loves to talk about Santa Clause but has absolutely no interest in seeing him in person. She was shaking and squeezing my neck when Santa came into the house...but after he left she loved telling everyone about Santa and the Mickey Mouse stuffed animal he left her. When my computer starts behaving better I will have to post pictures...it took me forever to get these up.

Oh Boy, Oh Boy

We are having a BOY!

We are thrilled and Jason is obviously super excited about this news!! Our ultrasound tech was awesome explaining everything to us as she checked and made sure that the baby was healthy. We did not get all that with Kate. She spent so much time with us that it was neat to see the baby rolling around and opening/closing his mouth. We saw him sticking out his tongue and then sucking his fingers. We got to count all his little fingers and toes...I am again in awe of our Lord and how he creates and he is definitey in the business of details.


Now if I could just take everything that we have that is pink and turn it to blue...that would be helpful!!

Andrew Whitlark Brantley

"Whit"

What we have been up to...

We had a great Thanksgiving, a great time with family but very low key. Kate is doing well with potty training and we have resorted to bribery with milk shakes to get her to poop on the potty. I am not sick anymore for the most part and actually really starting to enjoy this pregnancy. We find out tomorrow what we are having so stayed tuned for another post really soon!!

Kate has become a lot more opinionated lately. Very much into what she wants to wear and what she does not. So this morning when she got up it shouldn't surprise me that she was intent on wearing her fleece hat. But it was actually really cute and great for some pictures.

Our Christmas tree lights are on a light switch and Kate is very intent on making sure the lights on the tree are ALWAYS on. She has even started taking it into her own hands.

Update on Potty Training - oh and a little help!!

So we have got the tee-tee down well. She went to church this morning for her first real outing without me and she stayed dry the whole time and her teachers said she did really well coming up to them and telling them she needed to go potty. SUCCESS!! However, as Jason found out this afternoon we have not quite conquered getting Kate to poo-poo in the potty. If you catch her in the act then you can get her on the potty to finish but if you are not fast enough you are then chasing around a 2 year old with poop about to fall out of her panties! So gross! Anyone have pointers on the poo-poo?? Since it is by far the yuckiest to clean up I will take any suggestions that will get us closer to her pooping in the potty as well as she tee-tees in the potty!

Potty Training

That's right, I pulled the cord and this crazy kid went straight to big girl panties today. I must say that putting a kid on the potty every 10-15 minutes makes the day go by VERY slow but we are having great success. I knew Kate was pretty much ready but I was still taking a risk. However, all morning she has told me that she needed to potty and I haven't even really had to ask or make her go. And besides first thing in the morning where she straight up tee-teed all over herself when we first put her big girl panties on, we haven't had anymore real accidents. We have changed her panties a few time because she will start to go and realize it then she will run herself to the potty to finish. So after our first 6 hours of potty training we are having great success but it is going to be a long next few days!! I will have to keep you posted.

Update on baby: went to the doctor yesterday and heard a good heartbeat! we will find out next time what we are having! I know everyone says it is because it is my second baby but I am only 14 weeks pregnant but look 20 weeks. And because I have lost so much weight from being sick I know its baby related what is sticking out from me but seriously, isn't it just a little too early still??

Halloween and My Best Find EVER!

We had a really fun Halloween. Our neighbors had a cookout for all the families beforehand and then afterwards all the kids went trick-or-treating together.

Most children were eating dinner with their parents. Not Kate, she was content eating cheezits and then she found the candy stash of M&Ms. She was thinking she hit the jackpot since she was getting to eat M&Ms and didn't have to tee-tee on the potty to get one.

We didn't do any original costumes this year. I went with something we already had and that I could make warm since it was going to be cold that night. So an Auburn Cheerleader we were. At least we didn't have to hang our head since Auburn pulled off a victory against Ole Miss earlier that day!
Kate went trick-or-treating at one house then was "all done." Oh well, maybe next year she will be more into it.

We had a great time on our street as afterwards we had a small bonfire going and all the kids continued to run around and play until bedtime!

I cannot believe that I have not posted about this yet. It has to be my best find EVER! Every year Smith's Variety in Mtn. Brook has Rosalina come and they do a 2 day tent sale of smocked dressed. Good dresses, good prices...nothing super spectacular but a great deal if you can make it. Well this year I went and found dresses that were already put together and pleated, just not smocked. Now you can find things like this but usually you are going to pay around $40. I love to smock and I love to sew but as any mom can tell you time is off the essence these days. So when I saw these dresses in every color, shape and size and all I had to do was smock them and then put them on Kate I was super excited. Then I went for the price tag to see what kind of damage I was looking at.....$8 a dress. Yall, I almost fainted. I can't buy fabric for that price, much less the fact that I was saving time on cutting the pattern out, pleating, and then sewing the dress together! I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness then permission from Jason so I bought a ton of dresses for Kate and then pleaded my case of what an amazing deal they were to Jason later that night!

Here is what the dresses looked like. It is wonderful, you just sit down and smock whatever you would like! The pain of then knowing you have to sew the dress is all gone and its make the process so enjoyable!

Here is one of the dresses that is a sundress. I smocked these cute cows on there and can't wait for Kate to wear it next spring.

And I smocked this one with fall leaves for her to wear now!
I usually try and make this sale every year but you better believe that I am never missing it again!!