Quack-Quacks!

While me & Ryan went shooting, my dad & Kendra watched Bransyn for us. After we got done, I called to see what they were up to so we could pick Bransyn up, & they were heading over the the duck pond. Since it was his first time going, I wanted to be there with him so we headed over there as well (; When we got there, they were all sitting down feeding the duckies some bread! (very, VERY stale bread! haha)

If you look closely right above B's hand, you can see he just threw some bread (:

He had lots of fun seeing the 'quack quacks' & even some biiiig 'ol fishies! We're definitely gonna have to go back more often. Maybe we'll even be able to find a duck pond closer to our house (:

Shooting!

Today Ryan & I went out and shot some guns! I have never been out shooting before, or even shot a gun (besides a paintball gun, haha!) so Ry asked me if I wanted to go with him (: I was kind of nervous at first, cause I'm scared of guns but it ended up being reallly fun!

The suuuuuper hott ear muff thingy's I had to wear because the guns were SO loud! haha

Yes, I wore flip flops to shoot in.

Ryan & the biiiig gun he was shooting.

Ryan setting up his targets -- bottles & jugs of water!

This is how he shot (: haha

{click on the picture to see it better}

He got one of the jugs & water went everrrrywherrre! hahah

BEFORE
Our shooting targets for the little gun.

Me shooting.

Ry shooting the little gun.

AFTER
I shot all the cans that were on the side of the box, & Ry shot the 3 other red things that were on top. I tried to get those... but I was barrrely missing them. I'm not so good at aiming yet, haha!

After we got done shooting (:

We decided to model with the guns ;) hahahah!
(bullet-free, of course)

I was surprised at how much fun I had! I wanted to keep shooting... but we were all out of bullets :(

Hopefully we'll be able to go out again, soon!

My Little Exerciser!

One day I went to pick Bransyn up from Ryan's house, cause his parents were watching him. His mom started telling me that Bransyn has started using their 'Gazelle' exercise machine. So I was just thinking that he like pushed the things back & forth or something. But she took him into the exercise room, he got on there, held onto the bars & started doing it correctly! She said that he just randomly started getting on there & figuring out how to do it! That day, I didn't have my camera with me, & didn't have a memory card for it for a while... so I just took a few pictures on my phone. But he did it again today while I had my camera, so here are some pictures (:

Gettin' fit ;)

All done!

FINALLLY!

It's pretty obvious that I am OBSESSED with taking pictures. I literally have about 10,000, if not more, pictures on my laptop right now. I just love having pictures to look back on & see my son grow up. Well when Bransyn was first born, I had this crappppy little pink camera. It took normal double-a batteries, that died FAST. Not a good camera. So I mostly used my phone to take pictures of him... until I stole my mom's digital camera. I used that until June, when I spent every cent of my birthday money (plus some) to buy this little thing:

And have not regretted it since! I love this camera. It takes AMAZING pictures & does some pretty cool stuff (: But, the only downside to it? It's big. And not easy to haul around everywhere in my purse like I did with my moms teensy one. So as you can imagine, I didn't want to carry that on my arm everywhere. And didn't want it to get all banged up in my purse, annnddd I couldn't find a camera bag for it. So if we were ever out somewhere & Bransyn was doing something I wanted a picture of, I would just pull out my phone. And everyone knows cell phone picture quality is not that great. Especially when getting an 'action' pic, you get some nice blurs. So I have been wanting to get a small digital camera for quite some time now. And today, I did it! I finally had the money to put towards one & I'm so happy I did! So much easier to take with me in it's little pouch (: It just stays right in my purse. I love it! I am back on track with taking TONS of pictures! And although it's a 12 megapixel camera, I get more pictures on one memory card, then I do with my P90. Here's the one I got!


Oh, and if you couldn't tell... I love me some Nikons! haha. Even the next camera I plan on buying, which won't be for a long time since it's a DSLR & I've gotta save up for a while, will be a Nikon (:

16 Months!

The B-man is 16 months old!!!

• he can tell me what a dog, kitty cat, duck, cow, snake & monkey all say.

• he can show me where his nose, eyes, mouth, tongue, teeth, ears, hair, hands, fingers, feet, toes, tummy, belly button & 'bo-bo's' (haha, boobies) all are, and also knows where they are on everyone else.

• he is doing really well with simple commands. Ex: if we tell him to put something away, he will as long as he knows where it goes. Or if he's doing something he's not supposed to, we'll tell him no & he'll listen... most of the time. Just things like that, that he can understand.

• he is still biting & hitting a lot, but whenever he does that to someone... I always tell him to tell them sorry & give them loves and he will.
(I still do not know how to get the biting thing to STOP! I've tried everything, I swear... anyone mama's have any suggestions?!)

• he loves to jump. but he can't really get his feet off of the ground yet, but it's SO cute to watch! Sometimes he'll even 'jump' & fall on his little bum, on purpose.

• he loves to spin himself in circles.

• he sleeps really good, most nights. He'll go to bed between 9:30-10 (we had to move his bedtime later, or he wakes up suuuuper early... like 5 am early) & he'll usually sleep until 8:30-9 in his own bed, the entire time! Mama looooves this, especially on work days! (:

• i'm pretty sure his favorite word is 'ow' (short version of ouch) he says it SO much! the time he uses it most, is when i give him food... he likes to think it's hot & says ow and then blows on it, to cool it down (:

• he does really well with hot food. if i put some food on his tray that is still warm or a little hot, i will tell him & he won't touch it for a minute. then before he puts it in his mouth, he will blow on it. (i give him hot food so that he'll learn... not to be a mean/irresponsible mommy ;)

• he now knows how to open the dishwasher & oven. which is bad. if he does it & we see him, we'll tell him to close it & he will. but I'm really worried about him doing it when no one sees & opens the oven while it's hot, or opens the dishwasher & pulls dangerous utensils out. is there such thing as oven/dishwasher child-proofing? locks, or something? help a mama out ;)

• he has QUITE the attitude, now days. he definitely knows when he is not getting his way & throws a huge fit. ahhh, makes for some real fun while in public ;)

New piercing.

Ah, I know I have been horrible at posting about things this month.
But really, I don't have much to post about! haha. Things have been pretty boring around here lately.

So anyways, I thought I'd post about the little adventure I had the other day.




I got my nose pierced!!!

And I absolutely love it! (: I have been wanting to get it done since I was like 16 years old. But of course, I couldn't have it during school. And my mom would not sign for me to get any facial piercings. So I decided that when I turned 18 I would get it done, since I could go get it done on my own. But I was pregnant for the the first 5 months of my adulthood. So I couldn't get it done. And since then, I have just been a big fat chicken! haha. I don't know why I was so scared to do it, I couldn't wait to get my belly button pierced & got it done the first time my parents offered to take me... for my 16th birthday. I guess I was more scared cause I heard a bunch of people saying that it hurts like heckkkkk.

So a few days ago, I decided that I was just gonna do it to get it over with. Told myself I was going Thursday after I got off of work, no matter what. And I did.
Got there, filled out all the paperwork, chose my ring & paid. then it was time to actually do it... and I started to get SO nervous! She got everything ready & I was still wanting to do it. She cleaned the outside of my nose & 'marked' it, and I started getting a little bit hesitant. Then she stuck the clamp on my nose & was about to stick the needle in & I told her I couldn't do it. hahah. I was way too scared. She told me it would feel the same as it did when I got my belly pierced. So after about 2 minutes of trying to back out of it, I told her to just do it.



Here is my before picture, of me being suuuuper nervous ;)


Right after I told her to go ahead, I felt the needle break the skin & felt a pinch. Then nothing. It was through & seriously did not hurt that much at ALL! My right eye did start watering, though. She stuck the stud in & then I started to get realllly light headed & felt like I was going to pass out. (saaaaame exact thing happened when I got my belly button pierced) So she told Ashlyn to get me a coke to help, while she finished up, since I couldn't lay down while she did it. After she bent the end of the stud so that it wouldn't fall out, I was alll done! (: Then I layed down while she did Ashlyn's. haha.



My nosey about 10 minutes after I got it done (:
It was still red, obvi, but I don't have any other pictures of it yet, haha.


So after I layed down for a few minutes & drank some of the coke (that did notttt help my no soda thing! haha) I was feeling fine & goood to go.


I am really glad I did it, I love it! I just forgot how much it sucks to take care of a new piercing. Especially the first couple of days when it's still sore. But it really was not as bad as some people make it seem. Some said it wasn't that bad, so I guess it just depends on the person & the how good the piercer is.

And yes. The first day felt like I had a booger in my nose when I would like wiggle it. haha. But now I don't even notice it's there, I'm already used to it (:

Successful ERF?!

{extended rear facing}


Not so much.


So as some of you may know... I have been planning on keeping Bransyn rear facing in his car seat for as long as possible. He wasn't quite 20 pounds when he turned one, so he legally could not be forward facing in a car seat. And that was fine. He was perfectly happy in the car at ALL times. I was pretty sure we would have no problems what-so-ever keeping him rear facing.

Well, at his 15 month appointment, he was FINALLY 20 pounds. The only reason I was excited about that, is because he's a little on the small side & I've been worried about him gaining weight. I still had every intention of keeping him rear facing, until around 30 pounds.

But I think this kid somehow KNEW that he could have his seat turned around. On the ride over to the pharmacy after his appointment, he screamed. When I put him back into the car after we left there... he screamed. I thought, 'Well, maybe he's just sick of being in the car today.' & just left it at that. But everyday since then, he has cried, screamed, kicked & tried everything possible to get out of that seat. And this is not just a normal cry/scream. It is like someone had just cut his dang foot off.

So as you can imagine, this intense screaming kind of drove me crazy while I was driving & gave me huge headaches. (and I usually don't everrr get headaches or anything when he cries... I think it was because I was trying to concentrate on driving & the screaming was distracting, haha) I decided that it would probably be safest for both of us, to do what I reallllly did not want to do. . . turn his car seat around. :(

I am totally bummed that we could not keep him rear facing longer. But since I turned him, I have not heard a single peep from him in the car... besides talking & laughing, of course. He loves it. I just try to be extra, extra careful while driving with him in the car now, to keep him as safe as possible. ERF is a wonderful thing to do. . . but I have now learned that it is not for everyone, along with many other parenting choices. I was hoping that he would continue to do amazing with it. . . but hey, I guess I can't have everything I want ;)

So I'll see how this goes. Maybe one day I'll try flipping him back around to see if it still bothers him. Who knows (: