Christmas in Nebraska

Christmas was so much fun this year! Brady really enjoyed opening presents and having family around. It was nice staying out in Nebraska and not having to drive anywhere. I am getting too pregnant to ride in the car for 7 hours w/ a toddler!! So this year, My family - Mom, Dad, Katie and Robert made the drive out to visit us. They arrived around 3 am Christmas Eve morning, tired and ready for some rest after driving 9 hours through an ice storm to get here!

The next day, Brady was so excited to wake everyone up and play! He talks so much now and the first name he said was Bobert! He loves his Uncle Robert! He loved waking him up at the crack of dawn every morning while they were here and if you know Robert, you'll know how well that worked! Although, even Robert couldn't resist that cute little face - even at 7 am! Katie is always an all time favorite of Brady's. Brady woke her up every morning right along w/ "Bobert". And again, she couldn't resist his cute little face or the way he says "Katie". So she was usually up by 7 am, too! Mom and Dad were usually the first ones to wake up, w/ Brady's outbursts in the morning. He doesn't wake up quietly too often and the room they were staying in was right next to Brady's. He definitely had his way of making sure everyone was up w/ him every morning!

Christmas morning, My Mom and I made Apple Coffee Cake from scratch and we all gathered around to open Christmas presents. Santa brought Brady a Step 2 Dream Kitchen. His face absolutely lit up when he saw what Santa had left him. The only problem after that was he wasn't interested in opening any more presents! It was a little distracting. But, he eventually came around and started to get the hang of ripping paper off of the presents to see what was inside.

We had such a nice, relaxing visit all together. It was nice to take in some quality family time, because with us all the way out here we really don't get to see each other as much as we'd like and I know Brady loves seeing his Aunt Katie, Uncle Robert, Mimi and Gampy! He was so spoiled w/ all of the love and presents - I know he had such a great time!

My family left on Sunday... but Christmas wasn't over for Brady quite yet. Brandon's Mom and Bill came out to celebrate w/ the holiday with us too!! They got in on Sunday afternoon and we had a great Christmas dinner and opened presents again that night.

Brady loved to see more family come to visit, love and spoil him!! Nana and Pappy got Brady all sorts of nice things. He really got the hang of opening his presents this time around. He would tear off the paper and get so excited to see the toys underneath all of that wrapping paper! He didn't have the kitchen to distract him this time.

We are so thankful for our family and all of the time we got to spend with each and every one of them this Christmas!! We know it's a long drive out here, and both sides of our family drive the distance so selflessly to spend time with us and that means to world to all of us, especially Brady. He is so lucky to have such a wonderful family who loves him so very much! We can't wait to welcome Camdyn into our loving family next month. We'll have two very blessed and loved babies!!!!!!!

7 weeks from tomorrow...

Brady will be a big brother!!!

I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant (officially on Friday)! Time is flying by and I feel like I have a million things still left to do! "Nesting" has totally kicked in... I can't seem to get anything clean enough or organized the way it should be, but I'm trying! I also have gotten really tired lately. Back to wanting to go to sleep before 9 pm! I keep reminding myself to just go to bed... Brady still has his nights where he doesn't sleep very well and I know once Cam arrives, I can just forget about sleeping more than a few hours at a time!!

Thanksgiving Flu...

I think I may be the only pregnant girl out there that actually lost weight on Thanksgiving weekend!! Brandon, Brady and I drove to Illinois on Wednesday (before Thanksgiving) ready for family time and great Holiday cooking!! Who would've thought we'd all end up with the stomach flu! It started with Brady, early Thursday morning. He woke up getting sick, which continued on and off for the rest of the day. Poor little guy... I hadn't ever seen him get sick like that before. It was so hard to see my baby so sick. But, he kept on going... he would get sick, need some Mommy cuddles and then five minutes later be his normal, fun self again until the queasy stomach started to turn again a few hours later... This continued off and on most of the day until early Friday morning.

Then it was my turn! Friday night I started to not feel so well... and then it got to my Mom. Her and I both were soooo sick all Friday night until the wee hours Saturday morning. Thank goodness for my Dad! He never did catch the flu bug! He was able to really help us out with Brady. Had he been sick too I don't know what we would've done... because not long after, Daddy got it! Brandon started getting sick Saturday morning which led into Saturday night. Finally Sunday came and we were all feeling a lot better! But, Unfortunately it was time for us to load up the car and drive back to Nebraska! Not really the way we planned on spending our Thanksgiving Holiday!!

After we returned home, it was reported that after we left most of the Patterson household was struck by the stomach flu and my sister, Katie, who was in Florida when we were there. She got back home a day after we left, but still somehow ended up with it! That was one powerful flu bug!!!