Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with family and friends in Spokane! We were fortunate to be able to spend about two and a half weeks in Spokane and enjoyed every minute of it. It was packed with lots of family time playing games, eating and having parties!! It was especially fun having Braden celebrate his first Christmas as well as meet a lot of family that he hadn't met. We were also lucky to see lots of friends from home. I don't know how I didn't take any pictures of my friends. But it was so fun to see Melanie, Kristi, and Michelle. We also had a fun get together at the McCoy's house with a bunch of our friends from high school. It had been a while since I had seen some of them. So this post is a flood of pictures, but believe it or not, it was just a fraction of the ones we took!!


These were Braden's first Christmas jammies and I loved them. They have little reindeer on them and were just fun! Oh, and that is Freddy the firefly he is holding. He has been Braden's favorite toy and is becoming even more fun now that he can hold him.

Aunt Amy loving on Braden. One of the first things we did in Spokane was head to Amy's house to do some holiday baking. We made tons of holiday treats and had such a fun day together. I just wish I lived closer to do these kinds of things with my sisters more often.

We also wished we lived closer so that Jason could have more sword fights with the kids. Jason is such a good uncle and I think he loves playing with the kids as much as they love playing with him.

Kade takes his sword fighting pretty seriously. Unfortunately he didn't make it through this battle!
Cute cousins making Oreo truffles...yummy!!! They dipped so many, I think they were a little sick of it by the end. But they were good sports about it!

Josh and Aunt Becca baking away!!

One night we had a sleep over with the Thomson kids and Braden. I didn't have to take care of Braden much with Abby and Ellie there. They were so good with him and were so eager to help change his diaper and entertain him. And Braden loved every minute of the attention!! What sweet girls!

Weston was also very sweet with Braden and kept him asleep while he held him.

More cousin fun! Mary was a little natural with Braden. Every time she came over she was so excited to hold him. I think this is a really sweet picture of the two of them.

The Thomson kids with Dad at our Christmas party. We had such a fun night eating lots of great food, playing with the kids, and exchanging presents. Becca also shared a Christmas message that made the night extra special. Thanks Becca. :)

It was so fun to see these two together. Emmett and Micah were hilarious. They are only two and a half months apart and are both so dang cute!! They would babble back and forth and went around pointing at stuff and showing each other things. I guess there was something cool about the edge of the fridge!!

We had tons of yummy sugar cookies, thanks to Katya. She spent one whole afternoon cutting them out and baking all of them. Then we all decorated them and enjoyed eating them. Thanks Katya!

Amanda and Katya busy decorating the cookies!

This picture was just to cute not to post!! Mae just might have been the most festive one out of the entire family. I loved listening to her sing Christmas songs over and over!!

Mom making Christmas breakfast in her new kitchen! Our traditional cheese blintzes tasted extra good this year since they were made in mom's new kitchen!! ;)

Braden, so excited about his first stocking!! He was even the first one up...I guess he was every day. But we like to think it was because he was excited about Christmas!

Austin in his new Thomas jammies Christmas morning. What a cutie! He's definitely a mama's boy but he finally said my name the day they left. woohoo!

Braden just chillin' with Uncle Kirk.

Jason and Kirk, hanging out at the family Christmas party. I think they enjoyed talking dentistry for hours and catching up a bit. It had been almost two years since we had seen them. We miss them so much being on opposite sides of the country!! Who would've thought we would be in L.A. and they would end up in New York for school...crazy!

Falycia and I. It was so good to be together. I just wish it could've been longer. The time flew by, but I am so glad they were able to come home!!

Dad, Jason and Braden at the family Christmas party. Braden loved hanging out with Grandpa.

David and Jeff just waiting for dinner to start!

Some of the cousins- Mae, Micah, Anya, Kade, Braden, Katya, and Emmet. Man we miss these kiddos!!

Micah was so fun to have around. He is so full of life, has SO much energy, and is such a sweet boy. Braden watched him very closely. I'm afraid he was trying to learn all of Micah's skills and is going to keep me very busy in this next year or two!

Our trip was so fun and it was especially hard to come back to L.A. this time. We miss family a lot and can't wait to see everyone again. However, we hope some family will come visit us in our last year and a half here. :)

Friends

Braden is lucky to have lots of friends already!! Here he is Noah and Evalyn. Noah is a few months older and Evalyn is six weeks older than Braden. It was fun to watch how unique their little personalities are from the beginning!! I love how interested Evalyn looks!!
Evalyn liked checking out Braden. Noah was just chillin' watching the other two. And Braden just went along with Evalyn poking and holding hands with him!
I think Braden already likes the attention from the ladies!! Uh Oh ;)
What cuties!! I love these babies!!

Utah Trip

On the 27th of November we were able to bless Braden. Since we have a lot of family in Utah and Jason's parent were moving out there that weekend, we decided to bless him there instead of here in L.A. Jason's Aunt Denise and Uncle Rob let us use their brand new beautiful home for the blessing and it turned out to be really special. I have never been to a baby blessing that wasn't in a chapel, but I thought it was pretty cool. We started by singing I am a child of God. Then Jason's dad gave the prayer. After that, Jason and I both bore our testimonies before the blessing. The blessing was beautiful and overall Braden was very good. After the blessing everyone stayed for dinner and visited. It was so fun to be with everyone and to feel all of the love and support.
The little guy all dressed up in his white tuxedo. Boy did he look handsome!!
It was hard to get all the men in the picture that stood in the circle, but here are most of them. Uncle Rob, Spencer, Dad Scott, Josh, Joey, Victor and Jason. The two missing are Kevin and our friend Ben White.
Jason and Braden after the blessing. He was kinda tired after it all, so it was hard to get a smile. But he was a good boy all day with everyone passing him around and playing with him.
We also made it to Temple Square to see all the lights. It was chilly, but we bundled up and Braden was as warm as can be in the wrap. In fact, he slept through the whole thing. It was fun to see the lights and be with family. These are some of the things we really miss about Utah.
Josh and Holly looking a bit cold! I love the red lights. So pretty.
Victor and his little Eskimo wife Jannae all bundled up.
Jeff and Micah hanging out. Micah was a such a sport and didn't complain the whole time. I think he liked all the lights and crowds.

Jason and Mae played in the backyard with all the leaves for a long time one afternoon. Mae loves his Uncle Jason!!!

We got to help decorate Jannae and Victor's Christmas tree with the kids this year. It was so fun and simply magical when the lights were off.

Kara loved her cousin and wanted to hold him all the time. She held him nice and close and sang I am a child of God to him. What a sweetie!
And of course we had to get our first family picture with Maya.

Braden Pictures

We have taken SO many pictures of Braden so far, it's really kinda crazy...hundreds. So, I thought I would share a few. We just got him this little jungle play mat and he really likes it. He doesn't intentionally grab stuff yet, but occasionally he will make contact with it and he gets excited!
He LOVES his baths!! I think he would stay in his bath forever if we let him. I love it when he gets all wrinkled...so cute! And he doesn't even cry anymore when he is cold afterward! :)

He really enjoys his swing these days. And unfortunately this week it's the only place he will let me lay him down to take naps!

All bundled up for a jog with mom. He loves being outside and going on jogs with mom.

I love it when he smiles in his sleep. He really likes having his right arm up by his face when he is sleeping, eating, or just hanging out. We even have a picture of that arm up by his face in one of his ultrasounds. Cute.
Sorry if this next picture grosses some of you out, but I thought it was hilarious! I was just taking a bunch of snap shots and he happened to spit up. I don't think you could plan that if you tried. We love our little guy!

2 Months Old!!

Braden is two months old today!! He is setting a record as we speak for the longest nap time yet...he just hit the two hour mark and is still fast asleep. This is awesome because he hasn't been the best napper until the last couple of days. You may see more blog posts if this continues!! He has been sleeping 5-6 hours consistently at night for the past 3 weeks, which has been wonderful!! Braden is getting more and more fun each day. He is starting to smile and coo more and more. He is getting stronger and holding his neck up longer. At his doctors appointment today he weighed 11 lbs 10 oz and was 22 1/4 inches long!! This means he gained 4 1/2 lbs in the past 5 weeks!! What a big boy!! Braden's favorite place to play is his changing table. He loves to lay there and look around (I'm not sure at what, since the walls around him are simply blue), but he loves it. He will lay there close to 30 minutes sometimes. He especially likes it if he is naked or just in his diaper.

This was our one and only attempt at "tummy time" so far. And here's how it went...

The first few seconds he thought it was kinda fun. But that didn't last long.

Then he was just plain mad. And don't worry, I am not a mean mom, I only let him scream like this for a few seconds. And he was as happy as can be once he was on his back again. :)

I just had to add one of him sleeping. He is so sweet and I love his little ducky jammies a friend in Utah gave us. Just plain adorable!

Braden Robert Scott

The past two months have been the most wonderful, hard, and amazing months of my life!! Braden Robert Scott joined our family on September 16, 2011. He weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. He was born two days past his due date and was absolutely perfect!

I love his fuzzy hair in this picture...it was after his first bath in the hospital. As you can see, from day one he has been a very alert baby.

Braden and Daddy just hours after birth. It was so fun to see Jason with Braden. He was a natural and I didn't have to change one diaper in the hospital!

Mom, Braden and Grandma King. He had a bit of a cone head, but it resolved quite quickly. He is so precious and such a sweet little guy.

Braden was born at the UCLA Santa Monica hospital, where we had a really great experience. Most of the reason was because of this wonderful woman. Meg was my nurse the day Braden was born and she was amazing! Overall my delivery went well. I was admitted to the hospital on Thursday night around 6:00 to be induced since my body was not showing signs of labor at all. They gave me a medication to help prepare my cervix. That had to be in 12 hours before they could actually start the induction with pitocin. However, over night the medication really kicked in and it helped my contractions become more frequent and intense. Braden was still very high up and hadn't descended at all, but they decided to start the pitocin anyway and see if it would help bring him down. Well, apparently I don't need much pitocin at all because they gave me 1 unit, which is the smallest amount possible and I went from being dilated to a 2 to a 9 in one hour!! After that, things wen fairly fast and Braden was born at 2:18 in the afternoon. I feel like all in all it was a good experience for a first baby. He is worth the wait and all the discomforts of pregnancy and labor for sure!!