Be still my heart

I'm sure if you have a daughter you get sweet moments with her, and that she does cute things that make your heart melt. But, in the last year and a half I have learned that I love being a mom of a boy, Owen is such a Daddy's boy, but at the end of the day he is deep down a Mommy's boy too.

He did something this week that is on the list of one of my all time favorite moments of being his Mommy. After a long day of taking care of kids, being spit up on-like 100 times, and lot's of melt downs I raced for the shower once Joe came home. I was gone for a little over an hour because I decided to blow dry my hair. Well, an hour to Owen is like a lifetime and it isn't often I disappear from him that long on a normal day. When I came down stair's he raced to give me loves, but he stopped to examine me too. It was like he was taking me all in. He stroked my hair, gave me kisses, and told me "hi" about 5 times. I have heard of little boys telling their mom's that they are so pretty or that they are the prettiest girl...I'm sure if O could talk that is just what he would have said. I saw nothing but love in his eyes for me...my heart melted. I love that kid!

My healthy growing boy!

Today Owen had his 15 month check up. We are about a month over due for this appointment, but that's just how it worked with our schedules. The doctor said he is a healthy little boy, something that Joe and I are so thankful for. I am grateful for Owen's health and thank God for keeping him that way. Dr. Ellis was proud of how many words Owen is speaking and we talked about his comprehension levels and she was pleased with that as well. We also had to have a little chat about how I should go about discipling his screaming, and how to try to get him eat more fruits and veggies. All my issues with O seem to be pretty standard with active crazy boys! He received 2 vaccinations today, something Joe and have decided to go very slow with, he got the 3rd series of the DTap and the Prevnar vaccines. He weighed in at 21.11 pounds and is 32 inches long... Oh, my little string bean!!

Yo Gabba Gabba!

I think I may have done a bad thing...I let Owen watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, and he seemed to really love it. I don't think it's a bad show, we have only watched one episode and I didn't see much teaching on it, but there was a lot of singing and dancing, which we all know Owen loves. What I did find hilarious was Jack Black was on it, and he was singing and dancing and that cracked me up! One thing we did learn from Jack Black was how to Disco Roll Dance! I probably will let Owen watch another episode if he wants to, ususally he watches about 2-3 minutes of a show if I put it one, but he watched a full show of Yo Gabba Gabba on my lap...like I said I might have done a bad thing!

Music

Last Wednesday Owen went to his first Music Class. It was so cute! He was in a class with about ten other kids and some of them brought their siblings. Owen got a CD to listen to during the week (which BTW is so annoying-but he seems to like it!) While in class he got play with a few different instruments, got to "play" follow the leader to different songs, he learned to pat his knees to the music-which he does all the time now. It's 45 minute class and by the end his attention span was worn out. Speaking of being worn out, he fell right to sleep on the way home! I wanted to do a special activity just he and I on Wednesday's when I am not taking care of Jackson, and I think we both really enjoyed our time alone together.

He has also discovered "Jack's Big Music Show", a Noggin show. I don't like him watching TV much at all, but since he loves music so much, we were introduced to this show and he LOVES it. The little girl, Joey, we live with has the CD too and we listened to it today and I have never heard Owen laugh so hard in his whole life! It was cracking me up!

Music is good for his soul!

3-day update

There is not much to update. My training has tapered off almost entirely! But, friends' do not worry I am back in the saddle again! I have treadmill access at our new place and Joe and I plan on walking/running on it at least 4 days a week. Plus my 3-day team are going to get at least 2 good long walks in a week. I really miss the walking, and how I felt when I was being so good at it. I am looking forward to that feeling again.

My fund raising is doing okay. I am currently at 35%. I have $805 of the $2,300 I need to be at 100%. With 18 weeks til the race I'm staying positive that I will reach my goal. I need to be a little bit more agressive and have a few ideas that might be helpful.

That's how my progress is for my walk. Remember if you feel led to donate you can do it right online. It's really easy, and it's tax deductible! www.3day.org/goto/jenbraun

Again, if you have already made a donation thank you soooooo much. I really appreciate you getting behind me in this journey and supporting me with your encouraging words and with your finances.

"Hi"

My little guy is trying to talk more and more as each day passes. He is so cute! He says "Hi" probably one hundred times a day. He says "hi" when he first see's you in the morning. He says "hi" if he or you leaves the room and then comes back, and my favorite...he says "hi" if you take your sunglasses off and he can see your eyes! Precious!!

Along with "hi" some of his new words include:
bible
no (very rarely)
MOMMY (finally!)
down

I think his total of words are at about 10. Now that doesn't mean he uses them all correctly or at the right times, but we are workin' on them!

Beach fun!

Our little family packed up in Mike and Michelle's car and headed to Seagrove, FL for a nice long weekend. It was a 5+ hour drive (including Michelle's much needed potty stops-baby on the bladder equals lots of potty breaks!) Owen did really well in the car. I think he thought it was really cool for either mommy or daddy to be sitting next to him in the backseat. We are staying at a beautiful condo, that is walking distance to the ocean, and has a pool for us to enjoy as well.

Owen is not a huge fan of the beach. The fist time we set him down in the sand there was a lot of whining. Not a whole lot of crying, but a lot of whining. We kept pressing on, not letting his whining stop his experience of the beautiful white sands end. After a bit of getting comfortable in it, he would finally get brave enough and venture of his little beach chair, to grab his ball or a toy. Once off the chair he was back to whining and didn't know what to do from there! It cracked us up! He pretty much acted the same way about toward the water. He liked the loud crashing of the little waves and would soon imitate what they sounded like. After "playing" in the water for a bit we took him back to our chairs. I noticed he was just staring off in space watching the water, I called his name and when he looked back at me he looked SO tired. So I scoped him up in my lap and he fell asleep instantly in my arms. I LOVED it. What is better than holding your baby and admiring God's beautiful creation of the ocean? Talk about a moment of worship and glory to our King! After a few more trips to the beach Owen warmed up a little more and more. never sat in the sand and played, but the whining stopped!

The pool has been a complete opposite experience! He LOVES the pool here! As compared to the pool at home, and from when he had swim lessons. He is practically jumping off the edge to one of us adults, which makes us all have to be on our toes! The condo we are staying at has a whole closet full of fun beach/pool toys, one of which is a blow up car! O loves this car and he looks so darn cute "driving" it in the pool. He has beeen so good about putting his face in and trying to blow bubbles. He also has let us put him all the way under, with no CRYING! Such great progress from a few weeks back.

As you can tell we have had so much fun! Vacation is the best. Life is good!

CRAZY LOVE

We are at the beach. We are having a great time with our little family and our sweet friends' Mike and Michelle. I am reading a wonderful book, a book that I have wanted to read for awhile now, and just never made the time for it.

It's called Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. I'm only on chapter 4, but what I have read so far has been freakin' amazing! Francis Chan is a Pastor of a church in Semi Valley, CA. Funny enough He spoke at my beloved Angeles Crest Camp, when I was in High School. I remember loving listening to him speak then. I remember all of us kids hanging on to every word that he spoke in that amphitheater. I'm being hit with many truths in this book. Truth's that I have not thought about in a long while and truth's that I have chosen to ignore.

I was reading and had to stop so I could blog on something that I am so struggling with these days, something that he brought to full attention. I have been Lukewarm for a long while. I confess I have not been living like God desires me to. Two ideas Chan writes about of being Lukewarm really spoke truth to me:

"LUKEWARM PEOPLE are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act. They assume such action is for "extreme" Christians, not average ones. Lukewarm people call "radical" what Jesus expected of all his followers."


"LUKEWARM PEOPLE are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God."

Anyway, this book is giving me lot's to think about and spawning some wonderful conversation between Joe and I, which we both love! So, if you haven't read Crazy Love by Francis Chan...do it!

FAMILY!

5 beautiful years together!

I am so blessed to be married to my best friend. Joe and I have had an amazing 5 years of marriage. This past year has been a year of growing together as parents. By far I think that is the best thing we have done together. =) For our anniversary we went to Chicago to celebrate, just me and Joe. Owen stayed home with my mom, aunt debbie, brother and cousin matthew. It was so refreshing to be just Jen and Joe, and not mommy and daddy for almost 4 days! We slept in, stayed up late, ate, WALKED everywhere, laughed, kissed, and only were responsible for ourselves. I had never been to Chicago, and I loved it! It is such a fun and clean big city. I loved how it was right on the water, my favorite part was going to the beach at sunset. I really like how you can walk almost everywhere, and if you don't want to walk how amazing the public transportation is.

I love my man! I love how he always is striving to be a wonderful Godly man and example to our son. I love how he calls me Sweets. I love how he always wants to kiss me. I love how he loves Owen. I love him!!!! I can't wait for next 5 years and so many more!

Falling by the waste side

That is how I feel about my blog these days. Life for us Braun's has been so incredibly crazy, in fact I feel like crazy doesn't even describe it. The thing is, is it's all good things, just intense!

My family (my mom, my aunt debbie, my brother and cousin matthew) came for a wonderful visit almost two weeks ago now. I had so much fun with all of them. They were all here for a week and Joe and I escaped for three days for our 5 year anniversary to Chicago (which was wonderful!) and spent the rest of the week with the family. The best part was seeing how great Owen connected with each of them. He gave kisses out all the time. He went for special walks with Grandma, he loved eating Aunt Debbie's cereal every morning, he loved Uncle Mike lifting him up to the ceiling fan, and oh wow how he loved watching Matthew!!! It was a great visit, there will be pictures to follow!

We have officially moved. We have moved in with our friends Chuck and Jennifer Martin. They have been nothing but gracious to Joe and I and I and we are so thankful. Yesterday was my first day watching their son Jackson (4.5 months old) the day went good, much better than I anticipated. Owen was a challenge in situations that required my full attention to Jackson. It will be a lot of getting used to for both of us. We are so used to having my full attention devoted to him. I thought Owen would have a harder time with that thought, but I am having a hard time with it too. He LOVES their daughter Joey too. He is trying really hard to say her name, and they are very cute together. The Martin's have a pool in their community-walking distance! So, I signed O up for swim lessons. Last night was his first one, and he didn't like it so much!

So, as you can tell we have a lot on our plate. I will post pics of Chicago, our visit with the family and swim lesson's soon!