The REAL Game of Life

1/6/18

Dear Brady,

I started this blog post back when we found out you would be joining our family! To be exact, I found out I was pregnant on March 30, 2016 and surprised your Daddy with the news on April 1st - April Fools Day! I left the pregnancy test on the counter with a note that said "This is not a joke."

Now here we are, a year old!!! I thought about ending the blog, then I realized that documenting our family moments & memories is something very important to me. Actually I've been posting consistently to Instagram and printing monthly "Chat Books" with pictures & captions. It seems to be working better! But, I'm going to give the blog another shot. :)

Needless to say, time flies. Keeping up with your older brothers, work, and just daily life is B.U.S.Y. And that's an understatement! BUT, no matter how busy, MAKING and CAPTURING our memories is so important. So here's your journey from in-utero to birth to 1 year old!

Before we announced our pregnancy to anyone, we wanted to know if you were a boy or a girl! And given that mommy would be 35 when I gave birth, the doctors recommended all the bloodwork to make sure you were healthy. So we had a blood draw to also tell us if you were a boy or girl. When we got the results, I took them to a local bakery and asked them to fill cupcakes with either blue or pink frosting. Evan, Tyler and I each took a bite of the cupcakes at the same time and I'll be honest, I sort of freaked out when I saw you were a boy. I mean, A THIRD BOY!? Well, really a 4th because (let's be honest), your Daddy is really my 4th boy in the family.

We love you Brady, and I'm going to get this blog caught-up because pregnancy and year 1 with you has been so amazing & I just don't want to forget it! This post gets me from April-June 2016. Stay tuned for A LOT more to come!

I love you baby bear (my nickname for you!).
XO,
Mommy

***April-June 2016 Pics***

Your pregnancy announcement!! Everything is digital now so we sent this out via email, Facebook & Instagram to our friends & family. Your brothers were SOOO excited to share in making your announcement!

Life during your pregnancy continued at the non-stop pace as we had lots of activities, events and plans with your brothers. And you came along, in-utero! My first trimester with you wasn't too bad. Some afternoon & evening sickness which I had with Evan & Tyler, but nothing out of the normal pregnancy stuff.

We took Evan & Tyler to their first Detroit Tigers baseball game in May 2016, pics below!

We went to the game with our friends the Wilson's. Here's Tyler with his girl buddy Ellie. This picture perfectly sums up their relationship!

The fireworks show at the end of the game was amazing and we had great seats!

Tyler watching fireworks, so excited!

We always kick off summer / celebrate Memorial Day at the Walled Lake Memorial Day parade. Our friends Jamie & Tim Lynch and their family host us on their lawn to watch the parade, hang with friends and get lots of candy!!

We had some warm weather in May and enjoyed being outdoors anytime we could!

Silly Tyler!

We landscaped at the top of the driveway/backyard with Grandma's help. Lots of work, and it looks awesome!

Family BBQ with our cousins!

Mr. Tyler shootin' hoops and getting help from the slide to make him taller!

Last day of Young 5's at St. Pat's. WOW, look how much he changed in 9 months!!

School celebration at a local park / farm with friends! Evan & his best buddy Grayson.

Tyler and his crazy hair when he was about 2.5 years old. He's 4 now and even when I let his hair grow a little, these curls just won't come back! :(

Evan at the dentist. No cavities, woo hoo!

My boys, cheering on Evan at baseball

3 years in Moms Club. Love these ladies and thankful for this network in our community. I was President of the club for 3 years and it was the best thing ever!

In the TV zone....

I was very active during my pregnancy with you. I tried to bike with the family as long as I could! This was our first bike ride (May 2016) where Evan biked on his 2 wheeler for almost 6 miles!

Evan's first lemonade stand

Why do I have a picture of this empty case of Miller Lite? Well....Evan tried to set up his lemonade stand using this box as his "table!" hahhahaha I'm sure the neighbors were delighted to see the kid next door selling beer for $0.10! hahaha! I quickly moved him over to a table!

At a friends house on the lake with our friends starting Kindergarten with Evan in Fall 2016.

Class of 2029!

When Mom gets a new vacuum, we make a robot out of it!

Oh dear....

Evan & his little buddy cousin Colin

Our friends Chris & Meg got married in 2016. It was a fun wedding and night out in Detroit. Mommy was 21 weeks pregnant here (and missing champagne at the wedding!).

Your cousin Howie turned 1! We celebrated with a party at their house and play time / fishing on the lake.

Cousins - Tyler (3), Evan (5), Howie (1), Colin (almost 1), Madelyn (3)

Our lifelong friends the Ferriman's came to visit. They're living over in England (2016-2017) and moved to Germany summer 2017. Always fun to see them and catch-up! Luke & Evan are the same age and Cole and Tyler are about 9 months apart.