Sittin' with the Soongs

It's time to take a break....

2011-12-21T16:43:00.000-05:00

This will be my last post on our blog for quite a while. Not sure if this break will be a couple of months or a couple of years, or possibly even forever, but I have been convicted that I need to take a break from it. I have never "loved" blogging, but did it because so many of my friends had a blog and I felt as though I needed to do one just because they were. I saw it as another thing on my "to-do" list and it often took away precious minutes from my child, now children:) There have often been several times that it came before my time with the Lord because I just wanted to get it done and that caused my time with the Lord to be cut short and rushed.

Having said all of that, I am saying good-bye to the blogging world for a while. Thank you to all of my bajillion fans that followed my blog for the past several years. :) I made our blog into a book today thanks to blog2print.com and I am sure that our family will often enjoy looking back over the memories that we shared on our blog.

Good-Bye Blog World!

MY LOVES!!!

2011-12-05T20:42:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would share with you three of things that I love so very much.......

Thank you Lord for your sweet blessing in my life. My cup runneth over....

Sweet Little Fairy Princess:)

2011-11-04T09:32:00.000-04:00

We had a great little Halloween with the sweetest little princess that we ever did see. We went trick or treating at a local shopping mall on Saturday and then we went to visit Papa Steve and Momma Dawn on Halloween night. Thanks to Sassy for the fairy costume!

Me and my girl!

We got to take a break from trick or treating and enjoy a puppet show! B LOVED IT!!!

Thrilled about seeing ELMO, but didn't want to get too close:)

B with her

Momma Dawn!

Greeting some trick or treaters with Papa Steve and Momma Dawn.

Thank you Papa Steve for my Halloween treats!

October Fun!

2011-10-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

I often struggle with what to share/write about on our blog, so I thought I would just simply share what B and I did this morning.......

First, we wrote Get Well cards to our favorite Gamecock. Brantley will tell you that she wrote a card to the "sick gamecock".

Next, we made yummy Rice Krispy Treat Pumpkins!

We pulled out all of our ingredients from the pantry. Rice Crispy cereal, mini marshmallows, butter, mini candies, spice drops, orange food coloring, green icing, and an adorable 2 year-old.

Next, the adorable 2 year-old tasted the mini marshmallows while Mommy melted the butter and the remaining marshmallows.

Then we mixed the crispy rice cereal into the orange colored marshmallows. We then covered the mini chocolate candies with the rice cereal mixture. (sorry, there are no pictures of this because my hands were a mess and so was my 2 year-old)

Finally, we put green icing and a green spice drop on the top for the stem and vine.

Of course, I then let her have one:) We had so much fun doing this together. Of course, it was super messy and I put her in bath right after doing it, but we had the best time celebrating Fall!

As promised....

2011-09-18T18:25:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pictures from Aiden's room. Please notice the precious 2 year old that tried her hardest to be in each and every picture:)

It's Official!

2011-09-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

I am the world's worst blogger! I love to read other people's blogs, I love how it reflects their heart and what is going on in their life and family. I love to talk to the computer screen as I read their blogs and say how much I enjoy reading their blog or wish I could cook like them, or was creative like they were, or could decorate like they can and how much I am usually in the same position that they are in when it comes to raising a 2 year old. But, when it comes time for me to sit in front of the computer and write something on MY blog, I can't think of anything interesting to type or anything worth sharing on the World Wide Web! All I can think about is other people's blogs and how I wish I would have thought about writing what they wrote.

I am really good at posting pictures though.......especially when I have this adorable little girl to take pictures of (and the HOT hubby too!!!)........ We enjoyed a nice Saturday together as a family of 3(well, i guess you could say 4. Aiden tagged along as well) last weekend with breakfast at Cracker Barrel and a visit to the Zoo! ENJOY!!!!!!!!

I have two last things to hang on the wall in Aiden's room and then his room is complete. I promise to post pictures as soon as they get on the wall. :)

Aiden's Room

2011-08-15T17:46:00.000-04:00

I have been busy making lists, shopping, and getting things organized around this house for weeks to be all prepared for my little boy's arrival in December. I pretty much nest during the entire 9 months of pregnancy and LOVE it! We decided to name our boy Aiden Jakob. Aiden is just a name that Eric and I both liked and agreed upon. It means "little fighter". Jakob is Eric's middle name and we knew that we wanted it to be our son's middle name because Brantley has my middle name, Renee.

My mom came and stayed with Brantley and me this weekend so we were able to get several projects completed for Aiden Jakob's room. My mom is probably one of the most talented people I know on the face of this earth! Thought I would share a couple of our completed projects with you! I will post more pictures once the room is complete.

These are simple frames and I just covered the plain, boring, white mattes with some leftover curtain and pillow fabric.

Box valance for the window in the room.

Personalized pillow for the rocker.

A couple of pillows for the crib. Don't worry people I am not keeping them in the crib when the kid sleeps. They are only in there for decorations right now.

These are embroidery hoops that we spray painted an almond color and then put several different coordinating fabrics in them to put on the wall above the crib. I got this idea from an adorable store in Colorado that my friend, Christy, and I visited.

Happy Birthday B!!

2011-07-31T22:07:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to the little girl who brings joy and laughter to our hearts! We hope your birthday was great fun and that you enjoyed being around all of your family and friends! We love you so much Brantley Renee!

Please stop growing up so fast!

Love,

Daddy and Mommy

IT'S A........

2011-07-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

BOY!!!!!

Eric, Brantley, and I are thrilled to announce that we will be welcoming a little baby BOY into our family around December 3rd. We had our ultrasound this morning and after about an hour of checking out each and every little part of his body and watching him move all around, the announcement came that it was a precious and healthy baby boy! Everything looks great and he weighs about 11oz. so far. Below are a few of the bajillion pictures that they gave us of our sweet boy! We do not have a name

right now, but hope to share one in the next couple of weeks.

Thank you for praying for all of us and rejoicing with us in this miracle:)

Here he is saying "Hi" to his big sister!

Two of the sweetest little feet I have ever seen!

Showing off his muscles for Mommy and Daddy!

MIA

2011-06-28T16:30:00.001-04:00

I apologize that I have been away from the blogging scene for so long. Our summer has been great fun, but very busy. I thought I would share a couple of pictures to hold you over a little longer until things slow down just a bit.

My sweet almost 2 year old (sniff!sniff!) LOVES bubbles and being outside. She doesn't seem to care that it is a 100 degrees outside!

We find out on July 11th if sweet Baby Soong #2 is a boy or girl! Until then........

"Baby Belly"

2011-05-19T14:06:00.000-04:00

That's what you will hear my little almost 2 year old (sniff sniff!) say if you are to ask her what is in her Mommy's belly. If you take it a step further and ask her if it is a baby brother or baby sister she will quickly respond with, "baby sister". Well, we will just have to see about that one in a couple of months.

Eric and I are thrilled to share the news that we will be expecting our second sweet little bundle around December 3rd. I am 11 and a half weeks pregnant as of today. Things are going wonderful. Thankfully I had a really smooth pregnancy with Brantley and so far this one seems to be taking the same path. I am not showing yet, but I certainly have those moments during the day that I just feel fat.

Eric and I (and my mommy) have known since the first week of April, but wanted to keep it on the hush hush until we were able to take a first glimpse of our precious baby and hear the wonderful sound of a heartbeat. We were able to take care of all of that last week and have been sharing the wonderful news ever since. Brantley even got to wear her" I'm going to be a BIG SISTER!" shirt to church on Sunday.

Here is the first of many pictures of our second little blessing!

( I am so sorry for the sideways picture. I have rotated it a bajillion times, but it insists on being this way!)

"YEAH, I did it!!!"

2011-04-30T17:27:00.001-04:00

"Yeah, I did it!" This is a common phrase heard around our house from our 1 and a half year old. Anytime she accomplishes something or does something that we ask her to do, it is usually followed by a very excited and joyful, "Yeah, I did it!!!". Today this phrase was coming out of my mouth as I crossed the finished line of my first ever race. I participated in the Providence Heart and Sole, Women's 5 miler this morning. There were TONS of women. All different ages, different sizes, different shapes, and different goals for the morning. Some women were there to walk a 3 mile, others were there to run it. Some were there to walk the 5 miler and others (me!) were there to run it. I had the great privelege of being able to run this race with my sweet, dear friend, Jenna! She is a much better runner than me, but she stuck beside me the ENTIRE time. She cheered me one, she pushed me when I really wanted to stop and walk up the most awful hill EVER, she encouraged me. (Thank you Jenna! I love you!)

When the race first started, I turned my music on and just stayed with the masses. My goals were to run the whole thing, not be the last person, and finish with an average of an 11minute mile. After our first mile, Jenna turned to me and said, "Megan, we just ran a 9 1/2 min. mile." I had no idea, but with all that adrenaline going through me and masses of women around me, I wanted to stay with the best of them. Of course going up that awful hill, I slowed down to a 12min. mile, but I am okay with that this time, especially since most of the women around me stopped to walk. The end of the race is going straight down this huge, glorious hill straight into the finish line. I don't even remember running that part because I was so happy and looking for my sweet hubs and baby girl on the side. I spotted them quickly, waved, smiled the biggest smile, and yelled, "YEAH, I did it!!". I finished the race in 54mins.

Great day!!! Already on the search for my next race. Who wants to join me?

Easter 2011

2011-04-27T20:30:00.000-04:00

Here is a glimpse of our Easter 2011....

Our family of three getting ready to enjoy a yummy Easter lunch at the wonderful Nicholes' house. (Please ignore B's face in this picture, she was staring down the food table and ready to eat.)

My little punkin. My mom made her Easter dress. Yes, she rocks!

Me and my favorite little girl.

Daddy and his princess.

Now it's time for the Easter egg hunt and bubble time. Seriously, I think the child could blow bubbles all the live long day if I allowed her to do so. ( I blame this on her Aunt Sissy and Momma Dawn.)

We pray that you and your family had a joyous Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

FUNDAY SUNDAY!

2011-04-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday our church held it's annual community outreach event, Funday Sunday! The weather was great, the food was yummy, the entertainment was awesome and the rides were thrilling. I have the honor of being on the committee for this incredible event with some of my best friends, so I was running around all day, but I was able to stop and snap a few pictures with my family and some of our new friends!

A Little Bit of Change/ My Hubby ROCKS!

2011-03-22T14:30:00.000-04:00

I have shared before that I have a sick love for organizing, but I also have a shared passion for decorating. The only thing about decorating is that it often calls for money that I don't always have. I have learned that a little bit of paint on the walls and some rearranging of items that you already have go a long way. Though I have been working on things all throughout our house, I thought I would show you our Master Bedroom and bathroom for now.

Here are some before pictures: (sorry they aren't great, the only reason I have them is for insurance reasons)

BLAH!!! Boring bathroom! Not really any color. I don't want to paint the walls because the ceilings are so high and we aren't planning on staying in this house for too much longer.

Another angle of the bathroom. I have found through my adventures of redecorating my house that I didn't know how to decorate with anything but picture frames. I was DROWNING in them!

Master Bedroom

BROWN,BROWN, BROWN!

More Master Bedroom

Now for a couple of changes!

Ahhhh! That is what I am talking about! Bright, clean, and crisp!

Not a lot of change here. I spray painted the frame and the vase to add a little change.

Much better! Curtain panels were purchased at TJMaxx for $12!!!!

Changed up the towels! We had been rotating three sets of towels for the past 6 years. Thought it might be time for some new ones. Found them on clearance at Kohl's!

I enjoy this area often!

Now on to my next post......

MY HUBBY ROCKS!!!

This past Friday I celebrated my 28th birthday! On the Wednesday before, my husband surprised me with the news that we would be spending the weekend together in Asheville, NC! I was thrilled! I didn't really care where we went, I was just thrilled that I got to spend the whole weekend with him! ALL TO MYSELF!

We took the kids (Sadie and Brantley) to my mom on Thursday evening. ( THANKS MOM!) We traveled home, did a little bit of shopping, got some ice cream and headed home to pack for our weekend. We got up on Friday and began our travels! The weekend was filled with lots of shopping, plenty of eating, exploring a new city, hiking and just being able to hang out with my best friend!

Here are a few pictures from our adventures:

We took a moment to miss Sadie:)

Our bedroom! KING SIZE BED! This is very important to me on vacations!

Awesome bathroom!

HUGE SHOWER!

Kitchen area. Don't worry, I did NO cooking, but it sure was a nice kitchen.

Living Room area with balcony:) The weather was fantastic, so we had the doors open a lot.

Yes, we were keeping up with March Madness. We did turn the fireplace on one night just because we could.

Our hiking adventures to several waterfalls.

Beautiful!

Triple Falls Waterfall

Me and My Man :)

YUMMY! ( I took this picture for you Christy!) It is one thing to talk about food, but to look at it is a totally different story!

Thank you to all who made me feel so loved and special on my birthday!

YEAH! It's Potty Time!

2011-03-10T08:52:00.002-05:00

A couple of months ago Eric and I went ahead and purchased a potty for B. We weren't sure when exactly we would start potty training her, but we knew it wouldn't be too much longer. Before Christmas I confined myself to the house for two days and placed her on the potty every 30 minutes or so. Well, let's just say that this was for the birds. I was tired of remembering to do it and B just saw it as another story time. So, I got the advice of our pediatrician and friend and decided to wait a couple of months and try again, only this time we wouldn't be visiting the potty quite so often during the day. He recommended us picking one or two times a day that most people have to go to the bathroom (right when you get up in the morning, after a nap, before bed, etc.) and placing her on the toilet for just a couple of minutes. This already sounded so much more relaxing, no pressure, no frustration for anyone. Besides, there really wasn't a rush, she is only a year and a half and let's face it people, the child is not going to be in her diapers forever! Eventually she would recognize that no one else in her 1st grade class has diapers on and would want to make a change. I wasn't worried!

About a week and a half ago Eric and I decided that we would start putting her on the potty again and we chose to put her on right when she got up from her nap and while we were getting her bath ready each night. During the day I would announce to her when I was going to the potty and of course she would follow. This led to her own desire to get on the potty even though there were no results she still had a desire and interest to potty. She wanted to wipe and flush, but I told her that she couldn't until the went pee pee or poo poo in the potty. ( Just a little extra incentive.) This past Tuesday night as her Daddy was getting her bath ready, our girl WENT PEE PEE ON THE POTTY!!! Of course her crazy Daddy did a song and dance and B just watched in amazement. She finally got to wipe (this consisted of simply dropping the TP into the toilet, we will work on this part) and flush the toilet!!! She also received a sticker, which she often refers to as a boo-boo( hence, the same concept as a band-aid). We were both extremely proud of our little punkin. She went potty again last night before her bath and this morning she ran to tell me that she had a poo poo in "diper", but insisted that she go to the potty. Sure enough, I cleaned up that bum, stuck her on the potty, and she pee-peed away!!!! YOU GO GIRL!!!!

Now, please understand that we are still in diapers and will be for quite a few more weeks. I want to KNOW that she understands when she needs to go to the potty! Though this works for our little girl, I have had several friends that have done it completely different and had beautiful results from their children. This is just what works for B and our family. Happy Pottying!!!!!

A few of my Favs!

2011-02-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we took pictures with our favorite photographer, Charlie, and his lovely wife and assistant, Suzanne! Here are a few of my many favorites! Enjoy!!

Our Valentine Jr.

2011-02-14T15:06:00.000-05:00

Hey Brantley! Today is Valentine's Day! We want to share with you a few of the many reasons that we love you soooo much!

1. We love when you do your Chinese face.
2. We love to listen to you giggle.
3. We love when you repeat the last word of all of our sentences.
4. We love when you make different animal sounds.
5. We love when you are polite to others.
6. We love when you say "hold you".
7. We love to watch you "read" books.
8. We love when you hug our necks so tight.
9. We love when you identify the parts of your body and say "tushy" for your bottom.
10. We love it when you eat all of your vegetables.
11. We love it when you are obedient and do what we ask you to do.
12. We love it when you climb out of your crib. (yeah, right!)
13. We love it when you wear our shoes around the house.
14. We love it when you are so excited to go to Weekday and Church to play with your friends.
15. We love that you love Chick-Fil-A just as much as we do.
16. We love it when you drink your water out of a nalgene bottle that is just as big as you are.
17. We love how you say "no" to everything in the sweetest little voice.
18. We love how you would be perfectly content if someone would read to you all the live long day.
19. We love how much you love to be outside.
20. We love how excited you get at bathtime.
21. We love how you love Sadie.
22. We love that you enjoy watching Baby Einstein movies on the t.v. or as you would say, "moobe" and "t.b."
23. Mommy loves how much you love Velvetta shells and cheese. A girl after my own heart.
24. Mommy loves how much you love shopping with me.
25. Daddy loves every nanosecond of snuggle time he can get with you.
26. We love it when you count and you only say the even numbers.
27. Mommy loves that you love organizing the frig. just as much as I do.
28. We love it when you color us beautiful pictures in your coloring books. Not so much on the kitchen floor.
29. We love it when you pretend.
30. We love it when you say please, thank you and sorry, even when it is our own mistake.
31. Daddy loves to listen to you laugh as he chases you around the house.
32. We love how you yell, "Yeah!!!" after we sing the "Itsty Bitsy spider" and then ask for more!

We love you very much Brantley! You are the sweetest little Valentine ever!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Breathtaking...

2011-01-31T19:12:00.000-05:00

Simply breathtaking.....

This is what myself, Eric, and two of our best friends, Nathan and Christy, got to gaze upon last week. Beautiful Breckenridge, CO

For those of you that didn't know, my friend, Christy and I shared the Awesome Wife of the Year Award last week. About a year ago she and I planned a surprise trip to Breckenridge, CO for our husbands' 30th birthdays. We booked the room and made sure it was the best of the best and then we told them about it around May so that they had plenty of time to take care of the detailed stuff that we either didn't want to be responsible for or had no idea what to do. :)
Nathan and Eric both love to ski and Christy and I will have nothing to do with it so we knew it would end up being an awesome trip. And boy was it!

Mine and Christy's days consisted of starting the day off working out with psycho woman in the resort's gym. Shopping in the precious downtown of Breckenridge, coffee drinking, lots of talking, and plenty of reading. We pretty much looked like this.....

Our hubby's days looked like this.....

Lots of skiing!

The four of us did plenty of this......

Spades playing

Eating....

Eating some more:)

We also took a day to all hang out together! We rode the gondola, went snow tubing and ate lunch on the top of one of the mountain peaks!

Here is a sneak peek at how much fun we had snow tubing together:)

These few pictures and blog post don't even begin to describe just how much fun we had together and the awesome memories and inside jokes we now share. It is very rare to have such incredbile friends that you can spend 5 straight days with and not get on one another's nerves. So, if you were to ask us what we think of Nathan and Christy....we would say they are ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!

Thank you both for such an awesome vacation and wonderful memories! We are already looking forward to our next trip together! We love you both!

Sweet Snow Days!

2011-01-11T10:37:00.001-05:00

I have LOVED having Eric home with us for the past two days during these snow days. I have heard lots of laughing and giggling. Had lots of snuggle time with Eric, B, and Sadie. Enjoyed watching my brave hubby take our prissy little dog out into the snow to go potty. Loved watching movies, eating popcorn, and sipping hot chocolate. Our most favorite activity has been building FORTS in the den:)

Here are some pictures from HH that I promised to post. Enjoy!

We visited a fun, FREE, petting zoo!

B was able to ring in the New Year at 12 (noon) at a local Children's museum.

Back to Life....

2011-01-05T14:05:00.000-05:00

Ahhh....breath.....Ever have that feeling that you are traveling in a tornado? Yea, me neither! But, for the past two and a half days I have been going non-stop. Until now. My husband will tell you that I love it and yea for the most part I do.
After having a wonderful Christmas in our home with relatives visiting, we took off the very next day to spend a week in Hilton Head with the hubby's family. It was a wonderful trip and a great time was had by all, but when we made our way back home on Sunday my mind was in the mode of list-making with all of the things I wanted to tackle when we got home and why I think I have to have it all done in 24 hours is beyond me. There were things to be cleaned, laundry to be washed, closets to organize ( I LOVE to organize), and consigning items to be gathered (my new favorite hobby), and errands to run.
Now, two and a half days later, it is all done! B went back to preschool today and I was able to run some errands, and now I feel as though we are back to life. Thank you Lord for vacation and rest, and thank you Lord for a clean and organized house and routine!
Here are a few pictures for our family opening our stockings. I will post more pictures from Christmas and HH as soon as I get the chance.

CELEBRATIONS!

2010-12-14T16:06:00.001-05:00

This past weekend our family of four traveled to spend some time with my side of the family for some celebrations. On Saturday we celebrated my sweet Grandma's (Brantley's GGma) birthday. She turned 80, but doesn't look it and certainly doesn't act like it! We had a Hot Dog Roast and a dance party. A great time was had by all.

Brantley had the best time rearranging the chairs at GGma's birthday party.

Me and my girl dancing the night away:)

Okay, so ignore B's face in this picture. It's the only picture I got with my awesome grandma that night:)

Below is a picture Eric took of B at Sassy's house. This girl almost always has a purse on her arm!

On Sunday we went to my Dad's house to celebrate Christmas with Brantley's PaPa, DeDe, Aunt Katie, and my Grandma Kitty. We started the late afternoon off with my Dad's incredible ribs and chicken, yummy Velvetta Shells and Cheese, and salad. We then moved on to presents! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Let the traditions begin.....

2010-12-02T14:55:00.001-05:00

Our sweet little family of three, okay, four counting Sadie, was so excited to start our holiday traditions the day after Thanksgiving this year. We picked out our tree (at Lowe's of course!), decorated the tree and house while listening to Christmas music, wrapped the gifts and placed them under the tree and when December 1st rolled around we were ready to have some fun. We ate an early dinner of yummy breakast food, bundled up in our warmest attire and headed to The Lights at the Zoo.

Yeah for Lights at the Zoo!

Daddy and his girl!

Candy Cane Lane

I love them so much!

The Garden:)

Story time by the "fire".

"Is this present for me?"

Bunch of Crazies!

Me and my little Eskimo!

This is exactly what I thought her first picture with Santa would look like. Daddy and Mommy all smiles and B crying her eyes out:)

Christmas 2009, one of my best friends and I took B to the Lights at the Zoo while Daddy stayed at home and battled a nasty cold.

Me and DD!!!

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

2010-11-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

If you didn't read yesterday's post then you need to head over to CND photograhpy and sign up for this awesome giveaway. Charlie and his wife are some of our best friends and Charlie just happens to be this incredibly talented photographer. Charlie very rarely goes anywhere without his camera (for which we are all grateful) and very often makes the mistake of setting it down for a few minutes only to be snatched up by my sweet and CRAZY husband. And when this happens, this is what we get......

(I have no idea whose sunglasses these are!)

And of course when Charlie gets his camera back, well.....it doesn't get much better with the amount of craziness that is captured!

Can everyone please take a moment and smile at my sweet friend, Renae, in the background breaking it down! (sorry, Nae, It made me smile!)

Now on to even more precious things........My B!!!! Today she had a Thanksgiving Celebration at Weekday! I love her to the moon and back!

AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!

2010-11-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

I am not sure why I am blogging about this because I really want to win this giveaway and the less entries the greater my chances are of winning, BUT......he is just that good that I can't keep it a secret anymore. Please head over to CND Portfolio (blog link listed to the right with all of the blogs I follow) and sign up for this awesome giveaway. Charlie has taken pictures of our family several times and recently took pictures of one of my best friend's wedding and I have NEVER been dissappointed and I can promise you won't either. So go....now....sign up....but... I hope you don't win! (I want to!)

No Words......Just pictures!

2010-10-27T13:57:00.000-04:00

Because that is what most of you really care about anyways.......

Coffee Filters

2010-10-05T15:16:00.000-04:00

There are so many uses for coffee filters.......

Enjoying a warm cup of coffee.

When I was a little girl I would have told you that coffee filters were meant to be worn on your head.

My mom has told me that you can use them for cleaning.

I love to save money (who doesn't?) and I love to decorate and redecorate my house! So, I say.....(and thousands of others) that coffee filters were meant for decoration!

This is my $5.00 fall wreath made out of natural colored coffee filters. Only took me about 45 minutes and I LOVE it!

How do you use coffee filters?

Odds and Ends

2010-09-23T13:53:00.000-04:00

Here are some things that our family has been up to in the past month.......

Brantley has found her new favorite place to play. One of our kitchen drawers!

We have gotten to spend time with Sweet Baby Ian!

We spent Labor Day 2010 at Finlay Park with some of our greatest friends. Including Brantley's favorite Nae-Nae.

We went to Monkey Joe's with B's Sassy and my great friend, Andrea, and her little boy, Grantham.

Brantley is getting much better at using utensils when she eats. I know it doesn't look like it here, but trust me, it is much better than it was.

We went to the Greek Festival this year and ran into our favorite Trevett Family!

I am still loving sewing and I have a list a mile long of projects that I want to accomplish, but here is my most recent accomplishment.

A laptop cover!

Weekday Fun!

2010-09-08T13:35:00.000-04:00

My sweet little punkin started the preschool program at our church, Weekday, this week! We had lots of fun getting ready for our first day at preschool and here are some pictures to prove it....

Bookbag on....CHECK!

Run around the house with my new bookbag....CHECK!

Stop for just a moment so Mommy can get a picture...CHECK!

Tell my best buddy, Sadie, bye and that I love her.....CHECK!

Show Mommy the precious craft that I did at school...CHECK!

Take a nap on the Bye-Bye Buggy at school because I am exhausted from all of this new excitement...

CHECK!!!

Gamecock and Playrooms

2010-09-02T18:11:00.000-04:00

About a year ago today Brantley was ready for her first Carolina Gamecock Football game.....

Today she is a little more ready for the first Carolina Football game of the season.......

Go Gamecocks!!!

Eric and I have been working hard to finish up B's playroom and we are finally finished and ready to show you the before and after pictures.

Before

After

Magnetic Chalkboard that we painted on the wall and lined with crown molding. We plan on hanging her artwork from preschool above the chalkbaord.

The wreath on the door to our attic is from her birthday party and the pictures are just some of our favorites that we blew up to 16x20.

Curtains that I made with my mom and some paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling above bookcase.

Her favorite: Pool of plastic balls! She dives into this thing as soon as we get up there. We put some circle mirrors on the wall above:)

Happy playing everyone!

Dedicated to....

2010-08-16T21:34:00.000-04:00

My favorite Mary Catherine and Debra Dele! Thank you for inspiring me to have the DIY attitude and giving me the courage I needed to sit behind that scary sewing machine. Look what I made.....

I made these curtains for the window in Brantley's playroom:)

I had some leftover fabric from the curtains so I made a pillow to go on a chair that Eric's parents have ordered for Brantley.

Okay, so I need to make sure that I give credit to my awesome mom because she is the ultimate DIYer and she helped me with all of the measuring and cutting for my curtains and pillow, but I did ALL of the sewing myself!

Happy 1st Birthday!

2010-08-01T21:27:00.000-04:00

Yep! That's right! My little bundle of joy turned 1 yesterday! This truly has been the fastest year of my life! I can't believe that a year ago today I was holding the most precious little 1 day old baby I had ever seen in my life and I had not a clue what to do with her! I have learned so much this year not only about being a mommy, but about life! B has taught me patience, she has taught me the importance of stopping what I am doing just to sit and enjoy life, she has taught me perseverance, and she has proven to me that the statement everyone tells new moms,"they grow up way too fast", is really true!

We celebrated her birthday yesterday with a small group of family members and had the best time! What a great day of celebrating her life! She also decided to show off her new walking skills. Yep, we are now walking and I am not sure I am ready for this phase yet because I was already having a hard time keeping up with her when she was crawling a mile a minute!

Below are a couple of pictures from our fun birthday celebration! ( I shared a couple of the decoration pictures that my AWESOME mom and I put together because I am sure that I stole the ideas from someone and I give permission to all who read my blog to steal away my friends!)

This is a simple wire wreath with ribbon wrapped around it, a huge bow at the top, and pictures of B throughout the year hot glued onto the ribbon. It now hangs on the door in her new playroom!

These are the party favors. Rice krispy treats cut into flower shapes with a popsickle stick on the bottom. We put the kind of icing the hardens on top and put sprinkles on top of that. Center piece of food table.

This is a homemade personalized birthday banner. Also, on the mantle we put pictures from each month of life that we had taken and put bright silk flowers all around.

This is the book that all of our guest wrote in that waited in the waiting room for B's arrival or that came to visit us in the hospital. We decided to put it out each year at her birthday for people to write a special birthday note to B.

B's new ride from her Sassy!A RADIO FLYER! This thing is awesome and she makes her Daddy pull her around in the house!

I would like to introduce Chef Brantley to you!!!!!

"Do I get to eat that whole thing?"

"Yummy!!"

I love you so much it hurts!

Fun, New, and Exciting!

2010-07-10T20:10:00.000-04:00

This past week was filled with fun, new, and exciting things for our family. My family rented a lake house for July 4th week and it was AWESOME!!!!!!! B loved the sand, the water, trying new foods, and it was good for her just to be around lots of new people. I am so thankful that my family is going to make this an annual event. We had the best time and we are already looking forward to next year!

Another fun, new, and exciting thing that happened this weekend was that I took a beginner sewing class! I LOVED it! My mom tried to teach me years ago, but I was immature and impatient. (My mom was just as excited as I was about me taking this class. I have always loved looking at all of the handmade items that my friends have made and I really wanted to learn especially since I now have a sweet little one that I can make things for. My friend told me about a beginner sewing class that she was offering and I jumped right on it. Check out the new things that I made during my class!

Thanks MC!!!

11 MONTHS OLD!

2010-07-01T15:00:00.007-04:00

Hello World! I am 11 months old today! My Mommy took some pictures of me today to share with you! Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T08:46:00.004-04:00

Happy Father's Day to the World's Best "Da-Da"! You are loved!

Happy Father's Day!

YEAH!! WE MADE IT!!!!!

2010-06-03T10:54:00.000-04:00

Our family of 3 just returned from our first road trip to New York to visit with the Soong Family. Eric and I both had our doubts with how Brantley would do in the car for such a long time and how she would do sleeping in a room with the two of us. Well......she did GREAT!!!!! Of course we broke the trip up into two days on the way up there and then took a mini family vacation in VA on the way home so that made it much more enjoyable for everyone. Eric and I were so proud of her and praised her constantly for the great job that she was doing. We did discover that our little one is apparently allergic to New York. The whole time that we were there she would have hives that would come and go on different spots on her body. They didn't bother her and she didn't even know that they were there. They did, however, bother her mommy and daddy. As soon as we left New York there were no more hives. Despite the reoccuring hives, we had a great time visiting with family. Below are some pictures from our sweet vacation.

Here we are celebrating Eric's 30th bithday with family.

We visited a local beach in New York one afternoon.

Brantley playing in the sand for the first time. (Yes, she put some in her mouth and quickly discovered it's nasty taste.)

Me with the Love of my life!

Me and Brantley with Great Grandma, Eric's cousins and there sweet newborn babies.

The Soong Family and Grandma Liu

Me, Brantley, and Grandma eating lunch in Central Park.

Our family 5 years later in the exact same spot that Eric proposed to me!!!!!!

We took a little shopping trip to the incredible F.A.O. Schwartz.

Chilling out at Starbucks for breakfast.

Me and my Punkin in Alexandria, VA.

Two peas in a pod!

Our Family of 3! (We miss you Sadie!)

I could eat her up with a spoon!

While we were traveling our little munchkin turned 10 months old. Here are some pictures from her 10 month "photo shoot".

Just for fun!

2010-05-18T21:25:00.000-04:00

Eric pulled out the camera this afternoon and took some pictures of Brantley playing around the house. Just thought we would share some updated photos of our little princess! Enjoy!

My Awesome Wife

2010-05-12T17:27:00.004-04:00

So I am turning 30 this year. If you haven't heard it's a pretty big deal. Three decades old. I don't feel it one bit. I still feel like I just graduated from college, just with a dog, a kid and an amazing wife! So apparently my wife has been sneaking around behind my back planning something pretty amazing. Something I have been wanting to do for a long time. So let me set it up for you guys. Megan said that the Trevett's wanted to go to dinner with us on Friday, May 7th. I thought sweet, I love hanging out with them. They are awesome. So just another dinner with friends right. Wrong! We sit down at dinner and they look at each other and each pull out a piece of paper that has a poem on it:

Thirty years old
In two thousand ten!
You’re husbands and fathers
You’re grown-up Men!

Your beautiful wives,
Have planned for us all
To have an adventure
Of which we will have a ball!

Don’t worry about details,
We’ve crossed all the T’s,
We’ve worked out the kinks,
And shined up your skis.

We’re going to Colorado,
To spend time together
We know you’ll enjoy it,
No matter the weather.

Don’t worry about kids,
We’ve taken care of that,
Grandmas’ and Grandpas’
Is where they’ll be at.

It’ll be January, next year,
So there’s no need to hasten,
This is just what is needed
For Eric and Nathan.

They have planned a ski trip to go to Breckenridge in January for 6 days and 5 nights at absolutely awesome place where we can ski to the mountain and ski right back to our lodging. So I am thinking to myself that I have the best wife ever. What do you think? You better agree or else! :-) So here is to my wonderful, beautiful and amazing wife Megan. I LOVE YOU!

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-10T08:47:00.001-04:00

This Mother's Day our little family of four (me, Eric, Brantley, and Sadie) traveled to spend the weekend with my mom. It was a great weekend:) I love spending time with my mom and this Mother's Day was extra special being able to be with her and my little bundle of joy. Here are some pictures of the day.

I love you Momma! I hope that I am at least half of the wonderful mom to Brantley as you are to me!

Remember when.....

2010-05-02T09:44:00.000-04:00

Remember when it used to be so easy to get B's weekly/monthly photo? When all I had to do is lay the bear down beside her and they both stayed where I put them? When it was just one quick click and we were done?

Well, gone are those days. Now we no longer have one quick click of the camera. We now have a monthly photo SESSION. Below are the pictures from B's 9 month photo session. Enjoy:)

A little catching up....

2010-04-27T09:20:00.000-04:00

This post will consist of a couple of things since I have some catching up to do on this blog:)

First.....
Brantley and I love reading together and we try to do it at least once everyday. I am usually the one holding the book while we read, but recently I have starteed giving her some books that I know she won't destroy so that she can practice opening and closing the book and turning the pages. Though I know she loves our reading time together, I think she is most interested right now in how they taste and feel on her gums.

Next.....
I LOVE when my mom comes to visit or we get to go to her house. We have so much fun together. This past weekend she came in town to go with Brantley and me to the local country fair. Eric stayed home to have new internet and cable installed. All in all, everyone in our house was excited on Saturday. I had looked forward to going to the fair with my mom and Brantley ever since I knew it was going to be taking place. We got up early on Saturday, packed all of our stuff, and headed out early to get a good parking spot. Well guess what? It rained!!! We sat in the car for a while and prayed for it to stop. It did.....for like 2 minutes. During the 2 minutes it stopped we were able to get out of the car and B into her stroller. We got about 20 yards away from the car and it started raining again. We toughed it out for about 10 minutes, but I started feeling like a bad mommy when it started to rain and I looked down only to see my child getting drenched, but with a smile on her face as she played in the water that was collecting in her stroller. She was loving it! We packed up and headed home. B took a 3 hour nap and then we headed back out to do what we do best....SHOP! We had the best time, the 3 of us girls:) Later that evening my mom and I were watching a decorating show on t.v. which gave us the best idea...let's redecorate and rearrange the den. So, we stayed up until 1am rearranging and redecorating the den. The best part was it didn't take any money. We just simply moved around things that we already had. I do have the itch to repaint a portion of my kitchen, so that is on the list of things to do in the next couple of weeks. I LOVE YOU MOM!

Finally.....
Brantley crawls everywhere now and is pretty stinkin fast at it too! She recently has started pulling up on EVERYTHING!!! We are constantly moving things out of her way that might harm her. She has also become quite the little helper. She loves standing at the dishwasher while I unload the dishes.

Until next time.....

Let me give you a tour of my house:)

2010-04-20T21:32:00.000-04:00

This post is dedicated to my most wonderful friend, Christy, whom I can always count on to be one of the first people to read our family blog and remind me when it needs to be updated. I love you friend!

Hello friends and family! I would like to give you a little tour of my house today. I hope you enjoy! ~Brantley

Hello! Welcome to my house. My name is Brantley and I will be your tour guide today.

This is the dishwasher. This is where Mommy washes all of my bottles.

Here you will find the oven. Mommy bakes lots of yummy things in this.

Next, is the guest bathroom. Uhm...I love the way this rug feels.

"Daddy, this rug is awesome."

Now we will move into my Daddy's office. These are the new air filters that he is going to change out.

"Daddy, what do these things do exactly?"

This is my Daddy's closet in his office.

And this is his file cabinet. Now, if I could just get this thing open.....

Next we will move to my Daddy's office chair. Don't worry Daddy, I will tighten up this wheel for you.

Now, we move out into the hallway...Hey..what are those?

Oh nevermind...that just looks like too much work.

Over there you will find the laundry room where Mommy washes everyone's clothes.

This is called the pantry. Mommy and Daddy put all of my yummy snacks in here. ( yawn....I am starting to get a little sleepy.)

And that my friends concludes today's portion of the tour. Join me later as I show you around the rest of the house.

Brantley has started crawling

2010-04-04T18:20:00.004-04:00

Well something momentous occurred a couple of days ago. Our child has started to crawl. On her 8 month birthday we saw what appeared to be two or three steps of crawling. This is just another reminder that our little girl is growing up and growing up fast. We were so excited about this major event in her life that Megan and I screamed with joy; this, of course, resulted in Brantley crying. Well we visited Megan's Mom's new house this weekend and I got to video her crawling. I feel as if she is progressing quite well and I am a proud father! I hope that all of you enjoy!!

I love you, B!

2010-03-31T10:32:00.001-04:00

March 31, 2010

My Sweet B,
    Well, another month has gone by and you have reached the 8 month mark. I knew that time went by fast, but since having you I feel like in the blink of an eye another month has past. Last night your Daddy and I were talking about you being a year old in 4 short months and I quickly felt my eyes fill up with tears and my bottom lip begin to quiver. That conversation quickly came to a close.
Brantley, you truly are my blessing straight from heaven! I cannot imagine my life without you. The laughter that you fill this house with, the babbling that you love to do, and the sweet cries that let me know you need me, are some of the greatest sounds to my ear. When I look back through pictures of the past 8 months it is amazing how much you have grown and things you have accomplished.
I love watching you sit on the floor and play. I love watching you roll around everywhere. I love waiting in anticipation each day as you prop yourself up on all fours and try so hard to figure out the concept of crawling. I love going on walks with you and talking about God’s beautiful creation as you listen to me so intently. I love going shopping with you and watching you get so excited about sitting in the front of the shopping cart. I LOVE listening to you laugh with your Daddy each night. I love giving you baths and watching you splash in the water. I love dressing you each day and admiring how adorable you look. I love getting ready for church each Sunday and waiting to see what your Daddy dresses you in. I love riding in the car with you and watching you gaze out the window at all of the things that pass by. I love holding you and feeding you your bottle. I love it when you smile! I love kissing you on your sweet cheeks. I love getting you up in the morning and watching you get so excited about another day. I love watching you sleep with your bottom straight up in the air. I simply love you my sweet child.
Above all of this, I love praying for you. I love praying for your relationship with the Lord to develop at an early age. I love praying for the gifts and talents that the Lord has given you and that you would use them to honor and glorify Him in all that you do. I love praying that you would grow into a woman whose love for the Lord radiates in your life. I pray that your Daddy and I would seek the Lord in every step of raising you and that we would make Him proud in our decisions. Though I will always be your Mommmy, I do pray that one day, when you are my age, that you and I would share in a sweet and wonderful friendship like the one that I share with my mom.
My heart spills over with love for you and not a day passes by that I do not thank my Heavenly Father for choosing your Daddy and I to be your parents and for you to be our child.
                            I love you!
                                Mommy

Below are some pictures we took today before going on our morning walk. Enjoy!

TOP THIS!!

2010-03-20T20:58:00.000-04:00

This past Thursday, March 18th, I celebrated my 27th birthday! The day was filled with sweet cards, phone calls, texts, messages from amazing friends, and the sweet day with my Brantley Boo! This day was also filled with some other surprises as well.....I woke up Thursday morning to my sweet hubby telling me bye and singing "Happy Birthday" to me as he headed off to work. I got out of bed, headed to the bathroom (as I am sure is everyone's first stop in the morning) and on my way saw a sweet sign on the mirror from my husband wishing me a Happy Birthday along with some Monopoly money. I thought to myself, "Aww..he is so sweet. I sure do wish that money was real." I then headed to the kitchen to make Brantley's bottle before getting her out of bed and what should I see on the kitchen counter waiting for me????? A CHICK-FIL-A BISCUIT!!!! My husband had gotten up extra early to go get me my favorite breakfast biscuit! I then noticed three cards sitting on the kitchen counter. So, as I gave B her bottle I read each of them. The first was a card from Sadie, then a sweet card from my daughter with her hand outline, and then finally a card from my sweet husband. Inside this card he had written me a poem. Now, I am not going to share the poem, but it basically told me that my mom was coming to watch Brantley for the weekend (which I had been told earlier that she was coming to spend the weekend with me!) and he and I were headed to Charlotte to go shopping (hence, the monoply money that would be converted into real money that I could spend), eating, and whatever else I wanted to do! I was thrilled!! Now, this was the first time that I was leaving Brantley over night, so of course there was a slight sadness that lasted oh... about a minute....and then I realized that she would be with my mom and I was filled with excitement!!!!!!! A whole day and a half to spend with my awesome husband!!!!

We left early Friday morning and headed straight to Concord Mills. Now, this man went in every single store that I wanted to go in, helped me pick out clothes, gave me his opinion on how they looked and even encouraged me to get other things.......AWESOME!!! We then got to eat where I wanted to eat!!!! He also made reservations at the incredible Renaissance hotel with a king bed and got us free breakfast there!!! We were walking distance from Southpark mall which is home to the marvelous Cheesecake Factory. So, after strolling around Southpark we made our way to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.
And if that wasn't enough, we then got up on Saturday and he said, "okay, so what would you like to do today?" we did a little more shopping and enjoying the beautiful weather before heading home.

Now....can we say....INCREDIBLE!!!! There isn't a day that goes by that I am not reminded of how blessed I am to have Eric has my husband, but this my friends, was just pure goodness! On the way home today I couldn't stop telling him thank you! Yes, the shopping was great, the food was wonderful, and I have to admit that not having to worry about feeding and nap times was an added bonus, but the time that I got to spend with my best friend was priceless!

Thank you Eric! I love you to the moon and back!

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

2010-03-12T10:58:00.001-05:00

Brantley has discovered that she loves sitting in front of the mirror and looking at herself or one of us sitting behind her.

On Sunday we had Parent/Child Dedication at church. Here are a few pictures of the day:

Brantley is getting ready to eat some lunch before taking a nice long nap.

"Daddy, why are you taking so many pictures of me eating?"

B and I ready to go!

Hello World! I am 7 Months old!

2010-03-03T16:57:00.000-05:00

Hello! I am 7 months old!

My Daddy and Mommy say that I am growing up way too fast.

I want to share with you some of the things that I have been up to in the last month.

I like sitting in my high chair at the table and eating yummy solid foods.

Can you see my cute littly toothie?

I love sitting on the floor to play.

Our family loves to go for walks around the neighborhood and I love being able to watch where we are going.

I enjoy drinking water from my sippy cup during the day.

I sometimes like to hold my bottle myself.

I love my new big girl car seat!

I like to stand at the coffee table with my Daddy right behind.

I love to splash in my new duckie bath tub. ( Mommy forgot to take a picture of me in it this morning during bathtime.)

Mommy and I love to go shopping together and I really like sitting in the shopping cart.

My Daddy and Mommy say that I am growing up too fast. I have no idea what they are talking about.

Love,

My heart strings!

2010-02-18T09:08:00.000-05:00

For the past couple of nights Eric has been pulling out his guitar and playing/singing for Brantley. She loves it! From praise songs to made up songs about her, she thinks it is the greatest thing ever. While making dinner last night I heard the two of them in the den and I had to stop and take a minute to check it out. I couldn't get the huge smile off my face for the rest of the night. There is nothing better than seeing a sweet little girl in awe of her Daddy!

This Valentine's Day Eric was asked to be several people's Valentine. Me, Brantley, and Sadie. He was honored!

Blizzard of 2010!

2010-02-13T10:41:00.016-05:00

Well Megan, Brantley, Sadie and I have been through our first snow storm together. We had so much fun playing in the snow today. Not too sure Brantley was too fond of it and Sadie was a trooper through all of it. Here are some pictures and videos from the snow day!

When it started to snow!

Brantley in the snow!

This is Sadie and I after I took her out to go to potty! Awesome! She walked around for at least 5 minutes before actually going potty!

Our beautiful home in the snow!

Our hood in the snow!

Me and Brantley!

Mommy and Brantley!

Brantley touching the snow for the first time!

Sadie in the snow!

Sadie Bounding in the snow!

Peek a Boo!

2010-02-10T15:04:00.000-05:00

Brantley's new favorite game is to play Peek a Boo! I laugh the whole time because she looks so cute!

26 Weeks of Brantley

2010-02-07T22:24:00.002-05:00

We have enjoyed taking the pictures of Brantley over the past 26 weeks. She is now a little over 6 months and it has been amazing to see her grow. Looking back at the pictures of when she was first born almost makes us cry; to see how mush she has grown in such a short time. I put all 26 weeks in a collage and I just thought I would share with all of you! Thanks for sharing in our lives.

Brantley's chuckle!

2010-02-01T18:13:00.003-05:00

Megan and I love hearing our sweet daughter's laugh! In fact, we would do almost anything to hear it and we probably have tried most things already. I love it when you are not even trying and she just gets so tickled that she can't help but laugh! I hope that you enjoy this video because we sure do!

A little tear!

2010-02-01T09:46:00.001-05:00

My eyes fill with a few tears as I think about the fact that my precious baby girl is now 6 months old! It really feels like just a couple of days ago that we brought her home from the hospital. I love being a momma and I am forever grateful that I am able to stay home with her and watch her grow each day! I sometimes wonder if it is a sin to love my child as much as I do:) Sometimes I think my heart is going to burst right out of my chest. Below are her 6 months pictures from yesterday! Enjoy!

Raggedy Ann and Brantley

2010-01-28T15:59:00.000-05:00

Here is my sweet little Brantley with my Raggedy Ann doll when I was growing up. My mom has a picture of me next to it and when I get my hands on it I will be sure to post it on here. Can you believe my little baby will be 6 months old on the 31st?!?! My oh my how time goes by!!!

25 Weeks old today!

2010-01-22T09:13:00.000-05:00

Our little Punkin is 25 weeks old today!

A Couple of Firsts! (and a few other things, too!)

2010-01-18T19:44:00.000-05:00

Brantley has such a personality and it is really starting to come out as we explore new things! Eric and I love making silly faces and noises to her to see her face light up. We recently started making a new noise to her and she is trying so hard to make it herself! I promise to get it on video and posted it ASAP. This morning as she woke up from her nap I could hear her on the monitor trying so hard to make the noise! Too Cute!!!

Last week we started Brantley on rice cereal and it is so much fun. She still isn't quite sure about it, but we have a good time putting her in her new high chair and watching her face get covered with rice cereal.

This Sunday B and I made a trip to Charleston for her to meet my Aunt Bettie and my cousin Jennifer for the first time. We had a great day laughing and catching up with family. This would be where I would insert a picture of us with them, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, so I will have to steal one from my mom and post it later.

Last week Eric's parents came to stay with us for a few days. We spent our time laughing and playing with Brantley, eating, and shopping!

Our little girl turned 24 weeks old this past Friday! I am going to continue to take a picture of her each week up until 6 months (January 31st). After that I will take a picture of her each month until 1 year of age and then after that we will just take it each year. ( I sure do hope that I remember.)

23 weeks old!

2010-01-07T18:17:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T10:59:00.000-05:00

This year Eric and I welcomed in the New Year with some of our good friends, Rob and Renae. We had a great time by eating chocolate chip cookies with ice cream, watching this crazy man shoot over water in a car, and played a new game called Quelf. Quelf is a game of random questions and actions that you must answer or perform to win the game. I went first and my card said that I had to snort each time that I laughed throughout the game. It was great fun!
Here are Rob and Renae striking a pose for me as I have to pretend to be a photographer.

Here are Rob and Renae pretending to be flight attendants!

I then drew a card that told me I had to wear a bib.

Eric and Rob with their girls, Sadie and Darla.

Rob pretending to be a cowboy running around a beached whale. (hilarious!)

Rob singing the National Anthem with his nose.

Eric doing the Hula while humming a lullaby.

Our family spent the first Sunday afternoon of the new year by going to eat Mexican as a family.(that's right, we were able to eat Mexican for lunch after church because B was sleeping and Mexican food is really fast.) Of course B managed to wake up before we were done and she took care of some business in her diaper as well. Good thing we only live 7 minutes from the nearest Mexican restaurant. Eric and I laughed through it all! After Mexican we came home and all took a nap, then woke up to just enjoy some time together as a family.

Our sweet baby girl is 22 weeks!

FINALLY!

2009-12-30T13:34:00.000-05:00

Traveling is done, laundry is complete, returns and exchanges have been made, Christmas decorations are back up in the attic, house is clean, and my sweet bundle of joy is laying down for a nap! As much as I love the holidays and visiting with friends and family, I really appreciate when things go back to normal and back to my everyday routine:) My goal was to update the blog and write one more letter to B before the new year. I think I am going to make it!
I am going to try and catch you all up on what has happened over the past couple of days and I am going to use some pictures to help me.

First, our sweet Brantley turned 21 weeks on Christmas day:)

On the day before Christmas Eve, our little family went through our stockings and got to open one gift.

B seemed very interested in this big ole thing in front of her.

Yes, of course, my sweet Sadie has her own stocking as well!

Brantley and Sadie got Eric an Amazon gift card.

I got some trail mix to munch on during all of our travels.

Christmas Eve we traveled to Charleston to celebrate with my Dad's side of the family and then we went to my Dad's house to spend time with Papa, DeDe, Aunt Katie, Dixie, and Izzy.

Brantley with Aunt Laurie

My Dad has a direct line to Santa and he always stops by to say hello to our family and bring an early Christmas gift for all of the kids.

B opening her gift from Santa. He brought her a seahorse that lights up and plays music. She loves it, but she LOVED the paper.

Now it is off to my mom's house to stay the night and get up the next morning to celebrate Christmas. Brantley had to be woken up on Christmas morning because she was so exhausted from all of the festivities the night before.

I had to stick this picture in here because it is a new face that Brantley has started making. While we were opening gifts we noticed her doing this. We think she is rubbing her gums together since she is in the process of teething. She looks so cute and funny when she does it.

One PROUD Daddy! Brantley's adorable outfit was from some of our best friends, Nathan and Christy.

All the girls!

After we opened all the gifts, ate breakfast, and B took a nap, we headed to my grandma's house to visit with family.

Brantley with Uncle Hendrix. This was Uncle Hendrix's first time meeting Brantley.

Okay, now I am exhausted just thinking about all of that again:) It was a wonderful first Christmas with Brantley! Eric and I look forward to the many traditions that we want to start next year with her and make lots of memories as a family.

I will see you in 2010!

Happy New Year!

So much fun!!

2009-12-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

We have been quite busy around the Soong house and enjoying the holiday season. I thought I would catch you up on some of our latest happenings.....

By far my favorite part of the day! I love when B and I (and sometimes baby doll as you can see) snuggle together in her room and read books.

One of my best friends, Debra Dele, and I packed Brantley Boo up and headed to her first trip to see the Lights at the Zoo. We had a great time!!!! ( Sidenote: My sweet hubby couldn't go because he was sick.)

Brantley staring at all of the fun lights.

Me and my sweet DD!

Momma and her girl:) (Can you tell someone is getting sleepy?)

Brantley loves her Santa ornament from DD so much that she wants to give it a big, wet kiss:)

DD, Santa, and Brantley Boo:)

Our family celebrated our annual Christmas at the Turner's this week. We have so much fun hanging out together and eating Momma Dawn's yummy cooking. This year was extra special because we were blessed with the sweet noises and smiles of Brantley Renee.

Momma and Brantley all dressed and ready for Christmas at the Turner's.

Brantley with her Momma Dawn.

20 weeks old!

2009-12-18T17:13:00.000-05:00

Our little Brantley Boo is 20 weeks old today!

Hospitaliano!

2009-12-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

Eric and I planned at the beginning of the week for all three of us to go out to eat at Olive Garden on Wednesday night and we had been looking forward to it all week! Though we didn't discuss it with one another, we later found out that we both were a little nervous about going out to eat because it was our first time going out to dinner as a family. We had it planned that we would feed her at 4:30pm and then we would pack her up and head to dinner. We thought going early that we would beat the crowds and catch her at a "happy" time during the day. So.....we arrive at Olive Garden....we take our seat in our booth.....Brantley chews on her baby doll.....so far so good! We order our food, things are going well........it starts to get a little bit noiser....and then......the world ends!!!!!!!!!! First, Eric gets up and walks around with her, while he is gone this sweet little lady leans over to me and encourages me by saying "Hang there, I have been there before and it gets better!", then he comes back and tells me that she needs her diaper changed. Well, I go and change her diaper and you all know how much I love public bathrooms!!! UGH! She and I come back to the table and we sit down and she quickly lets me know that she is not happy.....So I walk around with her for a while and to make a long story short.........we ended up having our waiter pack up our things after 30 minutes of dining and we finished our meal at home.
I am so thankful that I have an incredible partner to experience these things with! Geeat Memories we all made together tonight!
We will try again soon on another dinner outing:)

2009-12-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

Our family has been quite busy the past couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas, hanging out with friends, traveling to visit family, and loving on our sweet little girl. It is amazing to look back over pictures and see how much she has grown. It is going by way too fast.

Today our friend Andrea and her adorable little boy, Grantham, came by for a play date! He has grown so much and is all smiles. Of course, Andrea and I were too interested in playing with Grantham and Brantley that we didn't even snap a picture of the two of them. I will make sure to get one next time so that we can compare what these two babies looked like when they were first born and how they look now.

Hope that you and your family are enjoying the holiday season!
Here is our precious little girl at 19 weeks old:)

18 Weeks Old!

2009-12-04T12:03:00.000-05:00

Our Bundle of Joy is 18 weeks old today and growing like a weed! She even gave you a smile this week for her picture!

I could eat her up with a spoon!

2009-12-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

B and I were just laughing and playing and I caught a couple of precious pictures I thought I would share. Moments like this make me smile so big that it almost brings tears to my eyes!

B's First Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T20:39:00.004-05:00

My house is a mess right now as we decorate for Christmas and I am loving every minute of it! Brantley loves looking around at the new lights and the huge tree in the middle of our family room.

Our family had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving visiting with family. Thought we would share some pictures of B's first Turkey Day and then I need to get back to taking care of the house. Enjoy!

Playing with Daddy after a yummy Thanksgiving meal!

Brantley in her Thanksgiving dress from her Sassy!

Sittin' with my Sassy!

Yes, our sweet little girl turned 17 weeks old on Friday! By the way, I am fully aware that her socks do not match her outfit. Her Daddy insisted that she wear them for the USC/Clemson game!

Brantley Update

2009-11-21T21:33:00.001-05:00

Our sweet little girl continues to laugh daily and it is so contagious! I mentioned before that Brantley did her best laugh only with her Daddy, well that is up until this past Thursday!!!!!! She laughed so hard at me for making this funny noise and then as she was laughing I started laughing at her which made her continue to laugh at me. It was awesome! Yes, I did have the camera close enough to me that I quickly turned it on to catch the moment and to have proof when Eric got home!

Brantley made a great accomplishment this week......she rolled over!!!!! For weeks she has been rolling to her side and with my camera in hand I was ready to record at any moment. She would get to her side and then stop and I think it was because she wasn't quite sure what to do with her arm. Well, she finally made it all the way over! I was able to catch it on video for Eric to watch when he got home! I was so proud of her. She rolls over all the time now. I love it, but she obviously can't get back over onto her back yet, so I have to help her out often!

This is a great moment to talk about my awesome camera as well. Before Brantley was born, Eric bought me a Vado HD camera. It is so small that it fits in my pocket, my purse, anywhere! It is really easy to use. I honestly think it only has 6 buttons! I love it! It has definitly come in handy this past week and I leave it out all the time to catch fun times with my girl!
Speaking of my girl....she turned 16 weeks old this past Friday.

Tummy Time

2009-11-18T15:34:00.000-05:00

We have been enjoying some tummy time lately and Brantley is getting so much better at holding herself up. Thought I would share some pictures of our fun tummy time together. :)

Me and My girl!

Brantley's Sweet Laughter

2009-11-15T19:44:00.004-05:00

Megan had mentioned Brantley's sweet laughter. Here is the video of her laughing at the noises that I make for her. I could absolutely eat her up! We love hearing her laughter! It truly is one of our favorite sounds. Enjoy!

15 weeks old!

2009-11-14T21:00:00.000-05:00

Miss Brantley turned 15 weeks old on Friday. She gets cuter by the minute and we just eat up every bit of it. She recently has started to really laugh! She mainly laughs at her Daddy and the silly noises he makes! Her laugh is already contagious. When I figure out how to put a video on here I will be sure to post a short clip of her laughing. I guarantee you will LOVE it!

Look at me!

2009-11-06T14:07:00.000-05:00

We continue to be amazed at how fast our little girl is growing. She truly is our blessing straight from heaven.

B sitting in her Bumbo for the first time.

14 Weeks old today!

B's First Halloween

2009-11-02T13:41:00.002-05:00

What a fun day! We dressed Brantley up in her pumpkin onesie that my mom bought and got to admire this adorable pumpkin all day. We later put her in her Halloween costume and drove down to see some of our favorite people, Steve and Dawn. Steve and Dawn are Brantley's Godparents so I am really glad that she got to spend her first Halloween hanging out with them. She even got a new book from Momma Dawn and Papa Steve! Here are some pictures to show our fun day:)

Brantley turned 13 weeks old on Halloween:)

Brantley and her Daddy being silly!

Trick or Treating at Papa Steve and Momma Dawn's house.

Momma Dawn loving her Bumble Bee Brantley.

Good Gracious! I could just eat her up!

So, when it is 80 degrees outside on Halloween it isn't a whole lot of fun to be sweating in a heavy costume.

Papa Steve has rescued me from the costume. Now I am just a cute little pumpkin.

Papa Steve puts me to sleep after a fun and exhausting day.

Bittersweet visit home/B is 12 Weeks old

2009-10-27T15:29:00.000-04:00

This past Tuesday night my Grandfather went home to be with the Lord. I knew a lot about my Grandfather and the many things that he had accomplished throughout his life, but I never knew until this past week the number of lives that he touched. We had the visitation on Friday night and it was amazing the amount of people that flooded the church to visit my family. I was able to hear stories of how he had touched their lives in one way or another and it made me even more grateful to call him MY Grandpa. My Grandpa was a WWII veteran and each year on Veteran's Day I would read the book, America's White Table with my students in honor of him. Now that I am not teaching I look forward to reading this book with Brantley each year and telling her stories about her amazing Great Grandpa.
While our family was home it was great to catch up with everyone and give them some time to spend with Brantley.

Brantley with her Great Grandma

Brantley with her Papa and Mommy*

(Side note:Yes, my hair is brown! We are having to cut back on somethings now that I am staying home and getting my hair highlighted every 8 weeks is one of those things that needed to go. We are back to all natural:)

Sweet Brantley at 12 weeks old!

( I could eat her up with a spoon.)

Brantley's Talented Mouth

2009-10-20T11:07:00.000-04:00

Over the past couple of days I have noticed just how talented my daughter is with her mouth. Let me share a couple of her talents with you.
Out of this sweet mouth come the sounds of happiness when she plays with her daddy and the sounds of frustration when she is tired, hungry, or wet.
Out of this mouth come the most adorable spit bubbles that she forms.
Out of this mouth come the cutest noises as she talks to herself and her animals.
With this mouth she forms the most precious smiles.
But, I must say that her most recent accomplishment is what goes IN HER MOUTH.........her thumb!!!!!
Yes, our sweet little girl has discovered her thumb and loves it. Eric and I aren't crazy about it, but of course we thing it is precious. We are constantly going in her room to take it out and replace it with a pacifier. I wish she didn't have to take either, but I would prefer the pacifier because one day I can take that away. I can't ever take away her thumb.

I thought I would share some of the pictures that I took yesterday of Brantley and her new talent.

I stuck this one in there because I think she looks absolutely adorable!

Walking at Riverfront

2009-10-18T20:56:00.000-04:00

My mom came to visit on Friday so we decided to take a nice 5 mile walk at Riverfront. Brantley loved being able to be outside and look at all of the new things. We all had a great time and it was wonderful weather.

Brantley's 2 month photo shoot:)

2009-10-15T20:26:00.000-04:00

Our friends, Charlie and Suzanne, came over on Saturday and we had Brantley's 2 month photo shoot. We had a lot of fun! At least for the first 45 minutes when Brantley was easy going and happy. After that she had enough smiling, rattling of the doll, and bright lights flashing. I wanted to share just a few of the 200 pictures that were taken. Enjoy looking at our sweet bundle of joy!

Brantley's First Day at Church

2009-10-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

Brantley's first day at church was this past Sunday. We waited to take her to church after she received her shots. So that we could ease her and myself into leaving her, we only went to Sunday School. The FANTASTIC nursery workers said that she did marvelous and did not even cry a bit. When I went to pick her up she was as happy as ever laying in a crib smiling and talking to herself. Now, I am not saying this here mom doesn't still have some fears of leaving her and the possibility of her getting sick, but it sure does make it easier when you know that your church is cleaned so well and there are so many incredible people to take care of your child. I left her again for a little while this week as I went to a mommy group and it was much easier the second time to leave her for a little while. I am starting to realize the importance of "me time" and how it makes me a better wife and mom.
Speaking of being a wife... my hubby and I are going to be enjoying our first "date night" as parents this weekend. Brantley's Godmother, Dawn, is coming over to watch Brantley. Eric and I are really looking forward to our date night and have been talking about where we want to go eat for the past week.
I have included some pictures of Brantley's first Sunday at church. Not only was it a special day for Brantley, but it was also her Aunt Kristin's birthday. Kristin is one of my best friends and I am so glad that Brantley got to share in her exciting day.

Brantley and her Aunt Kristin

Brantley Renee all ready for her first day at church.

Brantley Week by Week! 10 Weeks OLD!

2009-10-11T20:26:00.006-04:00

So our little precious one is now 10 weeks old. Time truly is flying by in a way we have never known before. It seems like yesterday she came into our lives and it has been 10 weeks already! Enjoy!

1 Week Old!

10 Weeks Old!

Shopping in Charlotte/ 2 Month Check-Up

2009-10-06T14:06:00.002-04:00

Brantley, my mom, and I set out on an adventure to Charlotte for the weekend to do some early Christmas shopping. I was a little nervous about how she would do, but she surprised me. She did really well in the car on the way up there and even slept through the night in a new place and somewhere other than her crib. Our shopping day she did well considering that she was in a stroller pretty much all day unless being fed. She had a hard time taking naps because of all the new noises and fun lights to look at. This resulted in some fussyness towards the end of the day, but we were pretty much ready to head out at that time, so we packed her in the car and she quickly fell alseep until about 15 minutes left of the trip and she let us know that she had had enough of the car seat and was ready to be in her own crib stretching out. There are a few things that I found out about myself on this trip....
1. No matter how old I am, I will ALWAYS need my mother. She was so patient with me and such a great example of the mother that I want to be.
2. I hate changing Brantley in public restrooms. I know that there are going to be times that I have to do it, but whenever I can help it, I am going to avoid them at all costs.
3. I get really embarrassed when my child is screaming her head off in a quiet bookstore. I can laugh about it now!
4. I am certainly not ready to go on big outings by myself!
We had a great time together and we are all looking forward to our next "Girl's weekend"!

Brantley chilling out in the hotel room.

Brantley and I setting out for some shopping. My mom made Brantley her first purse!

Me, my mom, and Brantley

Brantley taking a little pitt stop:)

Brantley is continuing to grow up right before my very eyes. I can't believe how much she has grown in only 9 weeks. We went for her check up yesterday and this was the check-up that I was dreading because I knew that she was going to have to get 4 shots. Ouch! Thankfully Eric is our hero and he was able to hold her while she got her shots and screamed and I stood behind him with tears in my eyes. I had to remind myself the whole time that it was good for her and I would rather endure a few minutes of crying than a sick child.
Miss Brantley is a healthy, growing, little girl and her numbers are here to show it:
Length: 23 1/4 in. (93%)
Weight: 13.4 lbs. (97%)
She is now eating every 3 hours/6 times a day. She sleeps about 9 hours at night.
This Sunday will be the first Sunday that we take her to church with us and leave her in the nursery. I am a little nervous and excited. I am nervous about leaving her in the care of someone else that I don't know and I am nervous about her possibly getting sick.
I am excited about being back in the routine of going to church as a family. I know that she will be well taken care of and loved beyond measure!

Brantley Renee Soong- 9 weeks old

"These are a few of my favorite things..."

2009-09-29T16:28:00.000-04:00

Since the week I found out that I was pregnant I have written letters to Brantley as a way to journal about my experience being pregnant, preparing for her arrival, and now being a mommy. I write to her a couple of times a month and keep them in a notebook. I plan on reading them to her and letting her read them once she is able to read. I will continue to write to her as long as she is under my roof. I plan to do this for all of my children.
I thought I would share with you what I wrote to her today. :)
                                    September 29, 2009

Hey Sweet girl!
    Today I have one of the songs from one of my favorite movies stuck in my head, “My favorite things”. I thought I would write to you today about some of my favorite things.

•    Brantley Noises- Recently you have started making noises as you respond to Daddy and I, when you lay down to take a nap, and when you are just being silly. It is the sweetest thing I have ever heard. Sometimes I find myself just sitting next to your crib and soaking it all up.
•    Brantley Cheeks- I love your sweet cheeks. I wonder sometimes if you are storing food in them like a squirrel. I kiss on them all day long.
•    Brantley smiles- Your smiles have got to be the best energy booster anyone could ever take! You are simply precious when you smile. Though you smile throughout the day, I catch you smiling the most when I go to get you up in the morning. When I stopped teaching I feared that I would go through the day sometimes feeling as though I wasn’t doing a good job. There wasn’t going to be a little person telling me that I was the best teacher or that I was his or her favorite teacher. I wasn’t going to have a child drawing or coloring me pictures telling me they loved me. There wasn’t going to be that co-worker to tell me during the day that I was doing a good job. Though I knew all of that would come in due time as you got older, I still worried. Well, I truly believe that through your precious smiles the Lord fulfills all of that in my life. Your smiles truly are my words of affirmation!
•    Being a wife and mommy- I love taking care of you and your Daddy. I love being able to make sure that you both have a clean home, clean clothes, food to eat, and all those other things that come with being a wife and mommy. Your Daddy is my best friend and I love him more than you will ever know. As I am sure you have already found out, He is LOTS of fun to have around! I am so glad that your Daddy and I have been blessed to be your parents!
•    Shopping- This weekend will be your first “girls getaway”. We are going to Charlotte with Sassy to drop off your Daddy and Grandpa so that they can travel to New York for the weekend to pick up our new car. Your Sassy and I thought we would make a weekend out of it and do some early Christmas shopping. This will be your first night away from home! I sure do hope it goes well. We will see just how flexible you really are☺
•    Praying for you- I get great joy each day as I pray for you. I pray that you come to know the Lord as your Savior at an early age. I pray that you fall deeply in love with his Word and that you speak boldly the Truth to all of those he brings along your path. I pray that as you discover your gifts and talents that you will use them to further His kingdom.
•    Exercising- As I try to get these last few pounds off from pregnancy and I get used to my new body shape (thanks to pregnancy), I have enjoyed getting back into exercising on a regular basis. Sometimes it includes you as we go on long walks together. You usually spend the first couple of minutes looking around and enjoying the fresh air. The remainder of the time you spend sleeping as I push you up and down hills!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about some of my favorite things. I love you dearly my sweet one!
                                Love,
                                    Mommy

Brantley Noises

2009-09-27T17:11:00.005-04:00

Well as you may have noticed we are a little obsessed with our child! You find yourself doing things, speaking certain ways and videoing certain things you never thought you would. Like for instance we find it absolutely hilarious the way our child poops. Her face gets all red and she grunts like a little man. Absolutely adorable to us. Never thought I would video anyone pooping nor write about anybody's poop. So Brantley has started to talk to herself a lot more now. Of course this is the most awesome thing ever to me and Megan! So I caught it on tape this weekend. Anyway, all this to say here is a cute video of our child talking to herself. You know just noises but the most beautiful noises in the world! I hope you enjoy! She starts making noises around 50 seconds into it.

Movin' on up!

2009-09-26T15:46:00.000-04:00

Well my friends, we have made the move! Brantley spent the first night in her own room. She has taken plenty of naps in her crib from the day we brought her home, but at night she was right beside our bed in her bassinet. It was so comforting and reassuring to have her right next to us because we could hear her cough, move, sneeze, breath, etc. I loved being able to peek in at her anytime during the night to look at her, but as you can see by the pictures, our child is quickly growing and it was time for her to move into the crib. So, last night we got her all ready for bed, turned on the monitor (volume all the way up), turned out the lights, and allowed her to spend the first night in her room. After 30 minutes we went in to check on her and noticed that she was still staring at her monkey mobile so we decided to take that down. Shortly after taking down the monkeys, she was fast asleep. I wanted to take the monitor and place it right next to my ear and attach it with a stretchy headband so I could hear her every move during the night, but Eric talked me out of it. I only got up two times to check on her during the night and I didn't really fall into a deep sleep just because of fear of not hearing her if something was wrong, but I know that each night will get better. She did great and I am so thankful that it was an easy transition for her.
Our new obsessions with her are watching her smile and listening to her talk to herself when she lays down to take a nap. Her smiles are the best and my favorite time to watch her smile is in the morning when I go to get her up. She is just all smiles! I am sure it is because she knows that she is getting ready to get something to eat:) Within the last week she has started talking to herself so much. Especially when we lay her down to take a nap. She has a conversation with someone in her imagination for about 5 minutes and then she is off to sleep. It is the sweetest thing we have ever heard! Of course I prefer to hear her talking to herself before she takes a nap rather than her crying:)
Here is our sweet little girl at 8 weeks old!

A visit from the Fields

2009-09-20T16:30:00.000-04:00

Our friends Randy, Leah, and their new addition, Randall, came for a visit this weekend. Eric and I have been friends with Leah for quite some time and we were also able to share in the excitement of her and Randy getting married. We were thrilled to find out that we were pregnant at the same time and now our little ones are only 2 months apart. Their family will be returning to Central Asia in January to serve as missionaries. We are sad to see them go, but thrilled about what the Lord has in store for their family. We are so glad that we got to spend some time with them this weekend.

Brantley Week by Week #7

2009-09-20T16:14:00.005-04:00

Well we are at week 7 and she is growing so much. Here is the picture from last week to this week! She is getting longer!! We cannot believe it has been 7 weeks already. Time is really flying by!

6 weeks old!

7 weeks old!

"Playdate" with Grantham

2009-09-15T17:31:00.000-04:00

Brantley's buddy, Grantham, came over today for a "playdate". Now keep in mind that playdates with these two consist of looking at each other for about 10 minutes, taking naps, getting up to feed and then repeating that again, but it sure is a lot of fun for me and Grantham's mommy, Andrea, who get to catch up. Andrea has been a great friend of mine since we were in college and we were so excited that we found out we were pregnant at the same time and our children were due only one week apart. Brantley was born on July 31st and Grantham was born exactly a week later!
Though they don't do anything with each other now, Andrea and I are looking forward to real playdates in the future! I am so thankful to have such a great friend going through the exact same things I am as a mommy. It is great to be able to pick up the phone and bounce questions and concerns off of one another. Below is a picture of Grantham and Brantley! I am sure there will be many more to come in the future:)

Yippee! We did it!

2009-09-13T14:24:00.002-04:00

Brantley and I survived our first trip together to Charleston. Some of you more experienced moms are going to think that I am crazy after you read this, but remember that I am new at this. I know my OCD and flexibility will get better.
Thursday night I got everything ready for our adventure. I layed out clothes for Brantley and I, packed the diaper bag, made bottles, gathered a few other things and lined it all up. My goal was to feed Brantley at 6 am and put her back down to sleep, get myself ready, and be pulling out of the driveway by 7am. I had to make it to Charleston by 9am for the next feeding. Well, I did it! We pulled into my mom's house at 8:58am. My mom was so excited to see us and we were thrilled to see her. Brantley does so well in the car. For the first little bit she just looked around and then once we got on the interstate she slept the whole way. I am thinking that I need to take down the mirrors that we have up so that we can see her. I love looking at her precious face and I know that it isn't safe while I am driving. I just can't help myself!
My mom and I spent the day just talking, admiring Brantley, feeding Brantley, changing Brantley, and getting Brantley to take a nap. Later in the afternoon we went to visit my grandparents. Brantley and my Grandpa share birthdays so he was extra excited to see her. My grandma had 7 children and I admire her more now then ever after having one of my own. (Epidurals were not around when she was having children, obviously. One of my uncles was 12lbs and can you believe that she had another baby after that? She's a trooper!)
Remember when you were little and your parents always told you to try and go to the bathroom before you get on the road to travel because they were not going to be making any stops? Well, I guess my child already understands that because as we were packing up everything to leave and head back to Columbia, Brantley decided to take care of some business. I was so proud of her and so excited that my mom was able to partake in that fun event. I even so freely gave my mom the opportunity to clean her up:)
We left to come back to Columbia after visiting with my grandparents and it was another great ride back. She fussed a little once we got back into Columbia due to being hungry and I am sure exhausted from the fun day. I am so glad that we were able to visit family and so glad that it went well. We are already excited about our next adventure. Below are a couple of pictures from our day in Charleston with family.

Brantley taking a nap on Sassy's big bed.

Brantley meeting her Great Grandpa.

Brantley enjoying some meal time with her Great Grandma.

Brantley and her Sassy:)

Four Generations

Brantley Week by Week

2009-09-12T10:24:00.004-04:00

So a co-worker of mine did this with her little ones back in the day of Polaroids. She took a picture each week of the first year of her children's lives. I thought that was a really cool idea and so did Megan. It really has been neat to see how she has changed even in the first 6 weeks! So hopefully we will keep this up. Our little girl is now six weeks and check out how she has changed from her first week:

We can't wait to see how she changes all year long!

I wish time would slow down!

2009-09-10T20:55:00.000-04:00

Okay, before I get started on what is really on my heart I want to say that I am very excited about starting back up on blogging, but after looking at so many other cute blogs of friends, family, and people that I don't even know, I see that I have a lot of work to do. I am looking forward to adding to our blog and making it more interesting, but it is going to take a little bit of time as I figure it all out. I hope that it soon will be a blog that you enjoy visiting often.

Now on to more important things......our sweet little girl. I can not believe that she will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. It really does seem like yesterday that I was laying in the hospital bed waiting for her arrival. She truly has captured mine and Eric's heart and we sometimes wonder if it is a sin to love our child as much as we do. It is neat to look back at pictures and see how much she as already grown in 6 weeks. I am so thankful that I am able to stay at home with her. We have so much fun during the day reading books, swinging in the swing, playing on a play mat, laying on our tummies, going for walks, eating, sleeping, and just talking with one another ( I do most of the talking right now and she just stares at me. I always wonder what she is thinking.). I often find myself getting teary eyed during the day as I look at her and ask for her not to grow up too fast. I want to suck up every minute I can with her and not miss anything she does or any opportunity that she is awake to sit and play with her.

I love when Eric comes home because he totally melts over her and starts talking in this incredible voice and language to her. I laugh and she often gives him a look that makes you think she is saying, "what in the world is he saying and why is he saying it like that?". He is such an incredible daddy. Eric truly does everything that I do as a mom except nurse her. I am sure that he would enjoy that too if he could. I have no doubt that Brantley Renee will be a Daddy's girl as she continues to grow up.

I am really looking forward to blogging about the Soong Family Adventures. Brantley and I are heading to Charleston tomorrow to visit with my mom (Brantley's Sassy). I hope to have some pictures and stories to share with you when we return.

Speaking of pictures....that is one of my favorite things to look at when I look at other people's blogs so I thought I would share a couple of my favorites with you of our family. Enjoy!

Yes, I kiss on those cheeks ALL day long:)

GO GAMECOCKS!

PRECIOUS!

We packed up Brantley and Sadie, collected our free Chick-fil-a sandwiches, and headed to the Riverwalk in Cayce for Labor Day.

Eric and Sadie (our other child) waiting for the 1st USC game to start.

So to those 5 people that read our old blog...

2009-09-10T19:11:00.003-04:00

Well, to those few people that actually read our old blog an apology is in order. We may have been a little premature in our blogging excitement before. But things have changed only slightly. Ok, well pretty huge actually. We have a new addition to our family and she is an amazing blessing from God. Her name is Brantley Renee Soong and she was born July 31st, 2009 at 11:31pm at 8 pounds and 0.6 oz and 19 inches long.

So in my opinion we have a ton more to write about than before. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. So she has spurred us both on to keep people up to date on the family news and happenings. So here is our second attempt at blogging and I am sure it will be a much more successful one.

Ok so blogging might not be our strong suite.

2009-02-10T16:43:00.004-05:00

So we have been back from China for a while and we have not blogged in a while. The initial excitement has worn off and now our blog is just a dusty piece of furniture. Well China was AWESOME! It is one of those things that is hard to explain and after reading day one, I figure that people don't want to read a hugely detailed experience. So here we go with the highlights:

Highlight #1: Climbing Wuyi Mountain. So Day 2 of our trip we were in Wuyi San and we climbed Wuyi Mountain. Not an incrediblely hot day but still really humid. It was BEAUTIFUL! I loved the landscape of China. Green rolling mountains. Very different than South Carolina. So on the way up I may have thrown up a little. Not in the best shape and of course Megan is just trucking up the mountain like nothing else. But it was worth it to get up to the top. Here are some pics of our trek up the mountain. Ohh, we climbed up steps, I didn't want you to think we were rock climbing or something.

                          From the top!

Also my mom and some of my aunts and uncles rode up on chairs carried by two Chinese men. I don't know what to call these chairs. It was kind of funny. Here is a pic of those chairs.

                   Mom kickin' it in the chair!

We also got to float down that river on bamboo rafts! That was pretty cool also. Very relaxing and awesome after a long hike up the mountain!

That guy yelling at me was our awesome guide! He really was awesome!

Highlight #2: Liu Family Rock: So we visited Fuhzou and this was the birth place of my mother. So this was the sentimental part of the trip. But it truely was very cool. My uncle Ken found out that there was this decorative rock that my family used to own, that was kept in a park near our hotel. We named it the Liu Family Rock. Apparently, the Liu family was pretty prominent in the area and had a bunch of land. In their housing complex they had courtyards with decorative rocks. When they were torn down, the government or somebody kept and moved the rock to a nearby park. My grandmother remembered the rock! Unbelievable! It was really an emotional day for my family and so here are some pics!

                        Liu Family Rock

Megan and I looking good in front of the Liu Family Rock!

Highlight #3: The Tulous: Well the last day we were there we saw the Tulous which were round or square structures in which family stayed in. They we made from the mud from the river and they were absolutely amazing. They were the neatest structures. We even saw some people gather mud from river to do repairs.


Well I know this is months too late and I actually started this blog entry back in September. A lot has changed since then and we hope to maybe update the blog. You might not want to hold your breathe though! :-) The Soong's are obviously not great bloggers!

Our first full day in China

2008-09-15T15:00:00.000-04:00

Well because we were so tired from our travel, we got plenty of rest out first night and the whole day was good as far as jet lag. We started off the day with a big breakfast buffet and yes Megan and I had egg rolls for breakfast. Hey, we are in China why not. Where in the US will you get eggrolls for breakfast and good ones at that. We left aroung 8:30 am and headed to our first stop. We started off going to a Buhdist Temple, Nanputuo Temple, right by Xiamen University. Apparently it was a holiday, the Moon Festival. It was kind of rainy and when it finally stopped raining it got so hot and humid. It was so crowded at the temple but it was really neat to see. The next stop was where my grandfather went to college, Xiamen University. I think it is so neat to see where my grandfather went to school. Our next stop on our tour was a fort on Xiamen Island, Hulishan Fortress. It housed huge cannons to protect the water ways and could shoot over 10000 meters. Then it was off to eat once again. Although there are some things that are a little different, the food is pretty much like our meals in flushing. Everything has been really good so far.

Our afternoon trip was to Gulangyu island. This island is a small island off of Xiamen. It has been occupied by many different countries so the architecture is a mixture of a lot of countries. It was a very beautiful island. They don't let any gas powered vehicles on the island to preserve it. The people are definitely interesting. Very short and to the point about things. Some may call it rude and probably rightfully so. Also, Megan and I have seen multiple children peeing on the sidewalk. Gulangyu Island is also called Piano Island.

Then it was off to eat once again. We tried to eat at a place with an ocean view but our tables were not at the window so my family wanted to get tables next to the windows. An argument ensued in Chinese and we left the restaurant. But we walked down the road and had a very nice meal. We saw the biggest shrimp that we gave ever seen and they were such an interesting color as well. It was all very good and after dinner we were off to fly to Wuyishan and the Wuyi Mountain. One of Megan and I's favorite stops on the trip.

Our First Hotel in China

2008-09-15T14:49:00.000-04:00

After dinner we head to the hotel, exhausted and ready for the bed. Riding up to the hotel we had no idea what to expect. Mom had told us that 5 stars in China does not mean the same thing in the US. As we were pulling up, we see a huge really nice hotel, Xianglu Grand Hotel. I tell you what, 5 stars in China is pretty close to 5 stars in the US. Megan and I were really excited to take showers and hit the hay for our first full day in China (specifically in Xaimen). Here are some pictures of our room and the view from our room.

The Asian Party Bus Begins

2008-09-13T03:44:00.000-04:00

And we finally arrive at Xaimen, China and boy are we are tired. As tired as we were, we boarded the party bus and went to go eat as is custom in the Liu family to do. Here is a pic (sorry it's a bad one) of the party bus.

On our way to China

2008-09-12T13:55:00.000-04:00

Well I am sitting on a plane that we will have been on for 16 hours. Here are some pics of our home in the sky. It really hasn't been that bad because of all the entertainment available.

So China...

2008-09-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I was talking to my dad today about random stuff, you know hurricanes, flight plans, electical outlets and what not and realized that in a week Megan and I are going to be off to China. So much has been going on with Megan starting work and the college ministry at Shandon being in full swing. I knew that things had changed when I left home at 6pm and did not get back until a little after 10pm. So China, hadn't really thought a lot about it but it is coming and it is coming quickly. My family is celebrating my Grandmother's 90th birthday, yeah count 'em 90 years, by taking a family trip to China. I am talking uncles, aunts, cousins, the whole shabang. It will be like the "Asian" party bus to our wedding except on a plane for 16 hours to China. Megan and I are really excited about going and the best part about it is that we will see it with my family. People often ask us are we going to see the Great Wall, Bejing, etc... Well we aren't and though a part of me is bummed, I am excited about seeing the China my family knew. We are going to see where my Grandmother and Grandfather lived, where my mom was born, you know family stuff. As being the first born in America, sometimes it is hard for me to relate to my heritage, and I am hoping that this trip will connect me a little more to it than I was before. So pray for us as we prepare to travel half way around the world to a place we have never been and where Megan will tower above everybody! :-) 7 days to go!

Go USA!!!!

2008-08-11T15:54:00.000-04:00

Eric and I have been looking forward to the Olympics for quite some time and unfortunately with our busy schedules we have not been able to watch it as much as we would like to. Well, last night around 11pm we finally got in bed and were both about to fall asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. We had the t.v. still on and noticed that the men's 400m free style relay was about to begin. So, with one eye open we decided to watch. With in no time we were both sitting straight up and yelling, " faster, faster", "Beat those Frenchmen!". By the end of the race Eric and I were literally standing on top of the bed giving each other high fives as the USA team won another gold medal!!!! It was the best swimming race I have ever seen!!!!It was amazing how fast Eric and I woke up to cheer for our country.

After that we turned off the t.v. and it took Eric no time at all to begin snoring in my ear and it took me forever to calm down and fall asleep!

Go Team USA!!!!!

It pays to be a little OCD!!!

2008-08-07T06:31:00.000-04:00

I have gotten used to people making fun of me for wanting to have my checkbook balanced to the penny, but I am so thankfully that I am obsessed with doing this becauase it has paid off...literally!!!! Eric and I used to use our debit card for everything and about two or three times I found that the online banking had made a mistake, so from then on I have been very concerned about making sure that my registry matched up with the online banking. Well, recently Eric and I decided to start using our credit card as our debit card to earn points for airline tickets. I began keeping record of everything we purchased on the credit card just as I would the debit card. I sat down the night before last to balance everything and something just wasn't working out. I worked on it for about 2 hours and became so frustrated that I decided to put it aside and let Eric take a look at it tomorrow. So last night he sat down and found out that the credit card balance on the internet was charging us about $25 more dollars than I had recorded and $25 more dollars than their list of transactions that were posted added up to. Eric called the credit card company at 5:30pm to find out what was going on and at 7:30pm he and the supervisor of the company came to the conclusion that it was a computer error. So after much frustration we earned a $40 credit because of their "error".

This goes to show that you should not always just rely on what the computer says, because they can make mistakes too! Had Eric and I not noticed this error we would have been paying $25 more dollars than we needed to and I doubt we would have ever seen that money again. Who knows how much "extra" money we have been giving the credit card for the past couple of years.

Here we go....

2008-08-03T17:39:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I always thought that we wouldn't start one of these blog thingys until we had kids, but I came home tonight from walking with the dog and Eric had started one, so here we go:) So, tonight Sadie and I are enjoying a nice walk around the neighborhood and all of a sudden I noticed these three little boys, somewhere between 5 and 7 years old, in the wooded area in between two houses. One was obviously being held hostage against a tree while the other held his blue, plastic, water gun against his chest. I am assuming the third was the ring leader instructing them on what to do next. All of this is happening with their backs facing me. Well, apparently they all needed a break because the gun went on the ground, the hostage was released and down went the zippers to their shorts and they began marking their territory on the tree. I thought I was going to die laughing. I guess they heard me snicker because one turned around and they all started laughing like little girls. It is moments like these that I sometime feel the Lord telling me...."Megan, one day I am going to bless you with ALL boys." Oh dear!!!

Sadie's New Cousin

2008-08-03T17:23:00.000-04:00

So the weenie dog movement has begun! As you all know we love our dog Sadie and our obsess... I mean love for her and her kind has spread. Our good friends the Yangs have adopted a beautiful Dachshund named Bliss and she is precious. So let us, the
Soong's, welcome you, Bliss, to our extended family!