3 months old

Malea is 13 weeks old today, and will be 3 months old tomorrow!  Happy quarter of a birthday, baby: )  3 months... wow.  I can hardly believe it myself!  She doesn't have a check-up this month (not until her 4 month check in September), but Joel unofficially weighed her a few days ago at home and thought she was about 11 pounds, 6 ounces.  I know she is getting a lot longer too because she is filling out her carseat a lot more, and any of her p.j.'s or outfits with footies are starting to be too short.  Growing and changing everyday!!

One of my favorite things she does lately is giggling and smiling non-stop.  She contiunes to be the happiest little girl.   This morning I had her sitting in her bouncer seat when I was getting ready for work, and she was giggling non-stop at the ceiling fan.  There goes my theory that it's ME that makes her laugh... apparently she just laughs at anything these days:o)  If I would have thought of it, I should have grabbed the video camera because it was so cute.  The only giggles I've managed to get on video so far are below... however, this is not a good representation of her giggle because usually she giggles a lot more intensely than in this video.  This will do for now though...... my favorite part of the video is near the end when she lets out a cute little squeal, then gives me a look like, "did that noise just come out of ME, Mommy?"  It cracks me up when she makes noises she hasn't made before... the "was that me" look afterwards is priceless. 

She has very active arms and legs... she's always got them goin, and she still loves sucking on her hand, fist, arm, etc.  She started pushing herself up with her arms a while back when she lays on her belly.  Look how strong she is getting!!

Well I have survived my first week back at work, but have missed the dickens out of Malea every minute of every one of those days.  I was quite the wreck my first day back... the drop-off was not easy at all, because I was not ready to leave her.  I didn't even bother with mascara that day because I knew it would be a wasted effort.  Day 2 I thought I was more "stable", so I braved the mascara.  However, on my drive to work I wished I wouldn't have.  The drop off went better (I was still extremely sad, but contained myself much better), but then on my way to work I still had her "God Loves You, Malea" cd playing in my car, and I looked in my rearview mirror to see if she was smiling at me signing her songs like she always does.  Unfortunately all I saw in the reflection of her mirror on the backseat was an empty carseat base: (  No baby: (  I am so used to having her with me everywhere I go, that it was so foreign to me to look in my rearview mirror and not see her.  WAAAH!  (That was the sound of me crying: )  I pray for no cops on my ride home every day because I drive super sonic to get home to her.  The best part of my day is getting to Mom and Dad's to pick her up, and seeing that beautiful smile on her face when I walk in the door.  I cannot imagine taking her to a big center somewhere... it's so perfect having my mom take care of her.  She is loving all of the attention and good care she gets from Grammy, and I'm sure the day will soon come when she is having so much fun with Grammy that she no longer will care that I'm there to pick her up.  She has been a very good baby for Grammy!  Mom keeps a little notebook about how and what Malea does every day, and it's fun for Joel and I to read since we can't be there during the day.  Mom always says that when I call over my breaks and Malea hears me talking on the phone, she gets all excited by the sound of my voice.  Awe!!

We bought her a $4 baby pool, and she loves it!  Hopefully she gets her daddy's swimming skills and not her mommy's.... here are a few pictures of her in her pool.  I wish I looked that cute in a swimsuit... unfortunately MY rolls aren't "cute" ... HAH!  : ) 

Last night we went out to dinner for Joel's Grandma Vaupel's 89th birthday!  Happy birthday Grandma!  Doesn't she look great for 89?!  She doesn't look a day past 60: )

Dinner was excellent, and it was so good seeing everybody.  Malea slept through the entire dinner.  She stayed in this position for the entire dinner.  She is so high maintenance, huh: ) 

I woke her up when I got her out of her carseat to put her jammies on and she was so happy, so I took the opportunity to snap a quick pic in her cute little dress since she had slept through Grandma's entire birthday dinner: ) 

I have been taking a snapshot of Malea every morning before I go to work, because then I take my camera with me to work so if I'm missin her too bad, I can pull out my camera and look at the pictures.  Always seems to cheer me up!  Here are pictures from her first week at Grammy's / my first week back at work. 

Day 1

 Day 2 - our pretty little princess

Day 3 - my john deere outfit daddy bought for me

Day 4 ... still sleeping when it was time to go to Grammy's, so she went in her jammies.  Look how long she is getting!!

Day 5 - i love my grammy!!

Day 6 - lil' jimmie johnson fan!!!

Friday my siblings and I had a surprise retirement party for our mom.  It went very well, and she was definitely surprised!  We cracked up because Shane told Dad to say "Reservations for 2" with a wink so the waiter would know they were the ones there for the surprise, but apparently it was a different receptionist when they arrived, because Dad said the gal looked at him like he was a pervert when he winked at her.  HAHAHA!  I'm still laughing about that one: )  I didn't really get any good pictures at the party, but here are just a few. 

For her retirement gift we decided to get the grandkids together for a grandkid picture, then we got the picture made into a canvas and gave it to her that night.  She LOVED it!  The finished product is awesome, but she would have laughed so hard if she would have saw us trying to take a good picture of all 6 kids.  It was pretty hilarious trying to get them all to stay sitting and smile... I took this picture because I thought it was funny... Joel was trying to get Malea positioned on Brayden's lap, Shane was trying to make Trevor stay sitting, and Jodi was tending to Aubrey.  LOL! 

But look how great the finished product turned out!!!  From left to right (at time of picture):
Malea 11 weeks ; Brayden 6 years ; Trevor 1 year 10 months ; Mitchell 3 1/2 years ; Aubrey 10 months ; Nolan 7 years

Saturday, "Bray's Brigade" was back out in full force for the Linn County Heart Walk.  It started out rainy, but turned out to be a nice day for the walk.  I don't have a team picture on my camera, but we had a nice group this year.  Here are few pictures. 

Malea slept the entire walk.... real shocker, huh: )  The shirts Jodi made the kids to match ours were adorable!!  Here is Miss Thang in hers!

Welp, that's all for now!  Sorry my posts are so long... I guess we must have a lot going on lately.  Hope you're all doing well!!  Thanks for reading!  Until next time....