Thunder and Tsunamis

Let's be honest ... i am not into this blog thing at all. Want to know what I AM into? Sleep. Quiet. Breathing. Going to the bathroom by myself. Yep you read that right. If you are a parent, specifically a mother, you know that privacy when toileting is a priceless gem. What you also know is that there is something about mommy sitting down doing "nothing" that is equivalent in both my son's minds to the strongest magnates on earth finding a football field full of something metal... haha have i mentioned that i am sleep deprived. not my best analogy. so yes if you were to only go by this blog, you would think i am only the mother of one little boy... but what has happened since that last post is like ten tsunamis in our life (some good, some not so good) that also included having Baby Boy #2 18 months after Baby Boy #1 arrived. His name is Charlie and he is pretty much the sweetest, happiest, cutest, soon-to-be 1 year old that ever lived. Read: he is a very good tsunami of snuggles and kisses and giggles and love. we are so blessed by the addition of our Charlie.

James is TWO POINT FIVE. Holy cow, he is THUNDEROUS! He recently figured out all of his colors ... the only one he still isn't sure about is Orange. He is LOUD and very into sound effects and singing at the top of his lungs while playing air guitar or more likely today it would be the trombone (not to be confused with the trumpet... confusing the two would be a travesty worthy of emphatic correction). He literally mows the lawn 5 times a day and believes in his heart he really is mowing the lawn. Thank you Fisher Price for selling toddler sized lawn mowers or I would have to have figured out how to let my baby push a real mower... cause watching a lawn mower temper tantrum every week wasn't gonna cut it (haha see what I did there, my sister-in-law would be very proud). He is very sensitive and if he thinks I need a hug and some water for comfort he will move mountains to get it. He loves 'nuggles but not such a fan of the letter/sound "s". He can count to Eleven and I am not sure how he learned that either because I didn't teach him (at least not intentionally). He has amazing rhythm and can dance like no other. His dream is to be in the marching band and be in parades and if he knew there was a job called "Mayor" he would want to be that too. There is no one that he isn't interested in waving hello to and asking "your name"? HE wants to be sure to do everything the "right" way so that includes reminding me to do things the "right" way, like putting my seatbelt on before the car has even moved an inch. He loves new shoes and hats and sunglasses and watches and yet couldn't care less what I dress him in each day, which is awesome. He is still in his crib and it is his most special private place of day dreams and 'tending and I am pretty sure he will still be in that crib when he goes off to college bc he loves it so much. Again, not complaining. He loves his Elephant Lovie and still uses a paci ... I don't care. Not making a mountain out of that mole hill. He loves making Charlie laugh and laugh and he loves tickles. In fact, he loves tickles so much that he assumes everyone loves tickles... try explaining to him why a random little boy at the lake doesn't want to be tickled... mind blown. hilarious and awkward. He is very passionate and emotional too so there are a lot of tears and lots of physical drama when there is a perceived unjustice or we say no to something he wants. Did I mention he has like 400,000 ideas spewing out of his brain at any given moment and he passionately wants to pursue alllllll of his ideas as they each arrive?! OMG mommy needs a nap! and a glass of wine. James also loves running and jumping into his Daddy's arms and knocking him over. He loves wrestling and baths and any project that Tim includes him in. He loves errands, especially to Target (not sure why) and he thinks his Nana and Bumpa hung the moon. He is sooooo easy to write about. There are a million hilarious things that he says or does every day that I wish with all my heart that I would be able to remember forever... I am trying to store it all in my heart but it isn't easy. Mainly today I want to remember this ... at breakfast this morning James was randomly stung by a wasp. No we weren't eating outside, the little devil somehow was in our house and it got him. It was sad and horrible and everything you would expect when your 2 year old gets stung. I was a mess. I told him a few minutes later that I felt worried about him in my heart (that's how we talk about things around here right now) and that I love him and want him to be ok. And he said to me "Don't worry Mommy. I ok. God heal me." My heart swelled with joy... my baby is listening. He hears me when I tell him that God heals us. And he trusts me. And believes. Remember that whole "have faith like a child" thing that Jesus recommends... well here it is. And guess what, I am walking through a season with a lot of wrestling and questions and grief and there it is ... Don't worry. God will heal. I sure needed that little reminder. You know what else James always tells me "Mommy Jesus Powerful" with muscle arms. That's true too and so powerful and a healer are the lessons around our house today! So grateful for my amazing little boy who is stretching me and taking me to my limits and filling my heart with sweet little boy love!! Can't wait to start hearing more about what is going on in that head of Charlie's! It is a big one so there has got to be a LOT going on in there! Haha Sorry if you read this Charlie, but better to hear it from me than someone else. Don't worry buddy, it will even out and you are completely a total precious handsome adorable babe!!

ok this delirious mama is going to bed. no clue what prompted me to write this silly post. I barely even made paragraphs. haha no winning any awards with this writing! til next time ...

Welcoming our Sweet Baby James!

Below are some highlight photos from James birth. He was so perfect and we were such newbies! So glad he won't remember how we had no idea how to take care of him but somehow we figured it out and we all love each other bunches! 

Above: James' newborn photos. He was two weeks old here. 

Above: Our precious, dear friend "Auntie Jodie" met us at the hospital and stayed with me all night after James was born, so Tim could go home and sleep. She was a HUGE blessing ... I believe Tim and I were trying not to panic when she had to go home the next day to be with her own family. She just instinctively knew what James needed when Tim and I were CLUELESS! Doesn't Tim look so rested!? :) haha James is still super swollen here ...  I guess over 24 hours of labor will do that to a boy. 

Family cuddles. The above and below pictures look so serene ... for some reason I don't remember it this way at all. James cried a LOT but I do think we cuddled and held him a lot too. Mostly I did my best to feed him ... he was FAMISHED! Enough.said. 

Above: Uncle Bubba came to visit when James was less than a day old. A very special moment happening here! I must say I LOVE this photo! 

Above: 3 weeks old and being cuddled after bath time by his Nanna! I think here we were finally getting the hang of the newborn thang. :) And glad for someone to help us with the cooking! XO to Nanna!  

... 15 months later

Hello to my huge blog audience ... haha j/k I don't think there is even one person who follows my blog. But with that said, I am actually typing out a post because life is worth documenting even if I only do it every 15 months for myself. In the year 2013, my goal was to post 12 times ... i think i posted 3 or 4. So maybe my goal should be once a year?! As an update, James Timothy Bratton was born on March 26, 2013 and he.has.rocked.our.world. In all good ways and even some really tough ways, parenthood has changed everything for Timbo and I. Hence, the lack of blogging. James is now a TODDLER and he is wonderful and busy and chatty and demanding and needy but equally demanding of his independence... only to dramatically fall down and need his mommy and daddy to patch him up. He loves kisses and also loves to hit. Parenthood is hard. How do you discipline or correct behavior in a human who cannot understand 85% of the words you say? And certainly cannot communicate his own thoughts and feelings and desires? Sheesh! We battle through each day with TONS and TONS of kisses and hugs and food and play and repetition, and I just wish I could come up with the creative ways James needs me to help him stay busy! He.never.stops.moving. 

As an update on our little family, after James was born we moved out of our West LA bungalow and into a more "spacious" home in Lakewood, CA... about 45 min south of LA near Long Beach. We were barely settled in about 4 months when Tim's work offered him a big ole' promotion in none other than Minnesota. SO with a 6 month old in tow, we headed back to the midwest to live with my mom and dad until we could purchase a home. We thought that would take awhile... instead it took us 24 hours. Yep that is right. Within 24 hours of Tim's arrival (James and I came a few days ahead of him) we put an offer on a house a mile from my mom and dad, the offer was accepted an hour later, two hours later we were signing papers and launched into escrow. Ummm... ooops! Lets just say, with all the changes and challenges of our year we were not emotionally prepared to find such a wonderful place to buy so quickly ... SO even though now I can look back and see that God CLEARLY was blessing us and guiding us and giving us the roots we have been craving ... we were overwhelmed! We kept joking that we accidentally bought a house. It should be noted that we love our new home! So three months after we moved into my mom and dad's we moved again, but this time hopefully for the last time for a long time! If you are counting, that is 3 moves in a period of 6 months, oh and you know how easy that first baby is to adjust to ... oh wait not at all easy for us! James was a handful! 

So ... keep up now, 4 weeks after we moved into our new home ... I peed on a stick! Yep I said it and that stick produced not one but TWO pink lines. Holy schmoly! PREGNANT.  I had been hoping for a little more time before we hurled ourselves into more change ... but once again THE LORD plans our families and He had different plans than us ... actually I think He just wanted to send home the message that He is ultimately the one in charge and He alone directs our steps. Message received - through a few tears and sweaty panicky moments of realizing what would be happening again. Sooo needless to say, we have Baby BOY Bratton #2 on his way, rockin' and rollin' in mommy's tummy and due to arrive mid-October. We are completely thrilled and already so in love with our 2nd little Goony! 

Needless to say, the Winter months were TOUGH for us. The weather was HORRENDOUS ... I am talking record breaking lows for weeks on end that brought us into the -45 range. James and I didn't have much to do as we hadn't started making new friends yet, and Tim was working long hours in a demanding new role! We also threw in a 12 day trip to California for my brother's wedding which with an 11 month old was less than relaxing. When the weather warmed up and James started really walking and a few friends were made, we finally started to take a deep breath. Slowly, but surely we are getting settled into our house, meeting new people including amazing neighbors, spending hours and hours outside soaking up the Minnesota Summer, and I am taking a trip to Northern California to wine country in the end of July before I have to limit my travel and welcome a new Babe! WHOA when I type it all out I am so grateful for this calm before the storm. I mean hello, I even just had time to type out a blog post. I must be doing better!! Anyways, James is calling to me from his crib but next I will try to post some pics from the last year. Tim and I are so grateful for all that we have been given from the Lord and are praying for direction on how to serve God more and more from this new stage of life! We love you all )especially if you are reading this ... haha) and hope to see you all again SOON! 

XO Amanda 

PS Did I mention I am starting a new business too? Oh I guess that is another post for another time! Can't fit everything in at once. 

H.U.M.B.L.E.D.

welp ... it is March. Yep March and my whole goal last year of at least one blog post a month clearly got thrown out the proverbial window. Oops. To be honest, i think my brain got thrown out that window too. 

An update on us Brattons, for those of you who don't know, last July we found out that I was/am once again preggers! Whoooo hooo! With that lil' bit 'o' information came a whole LOT of morning sickness. I am talking 18 weeks of it. So, between trying to survive lonnng work days and pregnancy, EVERYTHING else fell by the wayside. 

March 2013 is the month we see the face of, snuggle to our hearts, and kiss the nose of our son. And I am completely humbled by the timing of his arrival. Actually, I am just completely humbled by his existence at all. His due date is 5 days before Easter. This is significant. Last year we lost our first little one on Easter morning. And we were given the opportunity in real life to practice "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; May the name of the Lord be praised."It was really tough. We wanted to snuggle that baby too. Still do. But we had to entrust him to the One who made him, and give him back; still practicing that regularly. And now, just a year later, for reasons I cannot understand, God sees it in His mercy to fill our arms with another little one on almost the same day as the day He took our first. Coincidence?  No, definitely not. 

This is what I have experienced and learned in my heart through this journey... 

One) I now am about .0000001 steps closer to understanding what it took for God to sacrifice His own beloved Son on the cross. I absolutely do.not.know.how.He.did.it. 

Two) I know that I know that I know, that I am never to forget Who my son belongs to, Who he was created by, Who I am to entrust him to when I worry (because I most certainly will), Who loves him more than I ever could (which is a lot).

Three) I am being given a gift to nurture and steward this precious life about to join our family. Pure and simple. I did nothing to deserve this. Trust me. Most of us only ever see each other's "highlight reel" ... I did nothing to deserve this. I am sure Tim would echo these same sentiments. 

Four) I know more than ever that my God is a god of mercy, grace, redemption, life, and Love. 

Five) God's timing of Easter is not accidental. He knew how to open my eyes to what He needed me to see about himself. In other words, this whole story may look like it is about Tim and I and our children, but it is actually about Him. Everything is about Him. Thank goodness. 

*Needless to say, more than anything else, I.am.a.woman.humbled.

(*not to be confused with a humble woman)

Happy 56th Birthday to my Favorite Puppy-kins!

Uh ... So this was supposed to be posted LAST JULY! Holy moly! Hope that video works. I am still learning this whole technology thing!
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If you know me even a little bit you most certainly know that I LOVE my sweet pooch Selah. She has been with me through thick and thin now for EIGHT years! She has gone from a wild, uncontrolable puppy to a wild, semi-controlable grown up lady (I use the term "lady" loosely)! Lately she has been showing her age only by the fact that she gets more and more gray by the day! We are just so blessed by her joyful and free spirit in our home! We love our sweet little Wiggle-Booty-Tortilla Chip so much... even when she has melt downs on three mile hikes and we have to carry her down the mountain. And even when she eats Tim's food (I am never naive enough to leave it where she can get it and assume she has any self-control). I truly feel like I have my own very precious "Marley and Me" story with my maniac who jumps out of moving car windows and who has so many weird idiosyncracies they are hard explain (like her terror of old ladies with walkers and her terror of roller bladers But no terror of fireworks or thunderstorms or moving vehicles). So much to be thankful for with my little love bug who keeps us laughing and on our toes all the time! No human can make me feel as special as Selah does when I walk into a room (I guess they could try her technique but it would look a little weird). So with that said, I am attaching one of my favorite Selah videos!

HAPPY EIGHTH BIRTHDAY SELAH-BELLE!! YOU ARE MY FAVORITE!

PICTURES Gallore!! Whoo hoo!

Tim and I have been doing a LOT of traveling lately. But wait, before you think for one second that we are fancy let me assure you we are not! As an update, Tim and I, while we have yet to fully embrace and become huge fans of Los Angeles living, we have embraced how stinking BEAUTIFUL this place is that we live and are doing our best to make the most of it! We have also a ceaseless aching for friends and family who are far away so we are doing our best to get out and see peops! So our travels started the last weekend in April when Tim's work sent him to Nashville for a few days! I mean, I couldn't let him go to Nashville without me so I tagged along. As per usual I took almost zero pictures. But here is what I do have ...

 That is right, we were caught for TWO hours in stopped traffic on our way to pick up our bibs to run the Nashville Half Marathon. This guy behind us was frustrated too.

 Just us and a few of our friends waiting for the race to start!

That is Hannah on the far right, and then Ellen in the yellow and Tim... Mile 9.

Ellen and I at dinner the last night. We were feeling pretty tired by then! Let me tell you... we lived it up Nashville style. What is not pictured was the beautiful farm we stay at where Ellen was house sitting (yes I said farm - this included horses, sheep, a donkey, three dogs, a bunny, and a lot of cats ... we had to feed them and keep them alive which was hilarious!), the Main Street Festival in Downtown Franklin that was so fun, seeing my LONGEST friend Kristen and her family, time with MOEN and her sweet hubs, Tons of BBQ, and live Bluegrass music! It could not have been more fun and I have now seeing Ellen twice in a matter of months! hooray!

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Ok so then two weeks later Tim and I took a stunning one night trip to the central coast because we had never been to Hearst Castle and it is a must see on our newly created Bucket List! Of course I didn't take one picture but I found so google images of exactly what we saw ... I swear to you this trip was good deep in my heart! did I mention we camped ... hehe So "fun"!

Ok while we were in the central coast we did get to see our sweet friends the Thomson's and meet Michaela Rose for the first time. She was about 10 days old. We became Besties! Don't be jealous... ok be a little jealous that I got to hold that little squooshy thing!

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THEN (yes no joke I mean we were road warriors) two weeks later Tim and I took to the roads again for a visit in Sacramento with some of our most favorite people in the world ... THE PETERSONS! and nope I took very few pics ... see below. 

 Me in Karen's onion glasses ... I think they kind of worked.

A trip wouldn't be complete without pics of our sweet Kylie and her sweet pooches. She owns Geoffrey but also dog-sits sweet perfect yellow lab puppies in training to be Seeing Eye Dogs. She is so gifted with those animals!

HAHA He is going to KILL me for posting this picture! We took Kylie to Old Town Sac for Jazz Festival and Tim went shopping for his fedora ... he even agreed to try this one on!

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Ok the next weekend Tim took off with his buddy, Jaime, to climb Half Dome at Yosemite (I swear to you we really aren't as cool as all of this makes us sound... we have just been adventurous lately) and Selah and I went to visit our sweet friends the Hylkemas. I only got one pic :( Selah is such a foodie ... sophisticated palate you ask ... Nope! String cheese works for her! I am pretty sure Elliana didn't even know Selah was there for the first 10 minutes.

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Finally, one night Tim and I got away for a sweet date night out and I actually DID take pictures this time! 

 Yep, me being paparazzi because I swear to you that girl over the shoulder of the girl in the front was my sister's clone! I texted this picture to Melissa and she was very confused!! haha I love being paparazzi! She even had the same manerisms! Weird!

 My most favorite dessert in the WHOLE WORLD ... Molten Chocolate Lava Cake!

I just literally love my hubby so much! And Food! hehe (I was trying to get right in next to Tim in the picture but ended up looking like I am hiding! oops!)

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Another paparazzi moment ... well... i might get sued if i post it so feel free to ask me about it and i will text you the picture. It involves a bandaid in a strange location and a rockin' pair of overalls! 

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Ok, it is my Friday off and it is time I go recover from all this craziness and enjoy this ...

and cuddle with this ...

Yep, you are seeing that correctly ... it is a sicko DOUBLE BUBBLE! Praise the Lord for paper towels!

Have a great week friends! The Brattons love you all!

 

Ken got MARRIED!

Last weekend Tim and I flew out to St. Louis, Missouri to celebrate the nuptials of his brother Ken. Ken married his sweetheart Karen and we couldn't be happier for them! Unfortunately, I was too busy to take many pictures, but part of what made the weekend so special (in addition to the wedding of course) was Tim and I getting to snuggle and play with our sweet nephew, Daniel, who just turned ONE! We loved every second of it. Here are a few random highlights from when I did pull out my camera! Enjoy all the cuteness!

 For all you Moms out there, I feel for ya. All we wanted was one shot of Daniel with the hat on and both him and Tim looking at the camera smiling! In the end you just give up I guess!

 Cute little family! I love this picture!

 I mean I had to document the temperature... It was so brutal. This doesn't also mention the 100% humidity going on! Holy BANANAS!

 It was a beautiful walk to the ceremony sight! That is Tim and Ken on the bridge.

 Jay checking out the turtle pond ... hundreds of cute little happy (and cool) turtles! Lucky them! I was wishing I was a turtle so I could be in the water! :)

 The Pagoda where the ceremony was held! So beautiful.

 A hilariously awkward shot of the hubs and I, but it was our only one so I included it! :)

 Three cute brothers (all the groomsmen wore hats).

The boys just hanging at the reception... I even accidentally caught Ken in the background so it worked out perfectly!