Brayden Kellond Bader

Introducing….Brayden Kellond Bader!!

Born Jan 25th at 10:48 am…. 7 lbs 1 oz…happy and healthy! I am truly embarrassed that it’s taken me this long to post something of such importance! I can’t believe that it’s already been three weeks. We’ve been busy changing lots of diapers, feeding lots, and enjoying the company of my parents (aka Bebe & Pops), my sister and brother in law, and Brad’s mom (aka Mimi).


Six days before my due date we dropped Kaitlyn at a friend’s house at 5am to rush to the hospital to meet Brayden on Jan 25th. We can’t thank Matt and Molly enough for taking Kaitlyn for us and easing all of my worries about her when she jumped into Molly’s arms and didn’t even turn around to say goodbye. With a call to Bebe and Pops on the way to the hospital they jumped on the first plane out that morning and amazingly arrived in OH by noon. Fortunately, Brayden made a much quicker and easier arrival into the world than Kaitlyn so he was ready to meet Bebe and Pops when they got to the hospital. Due to all of the scare with H1N1, the hospital wasn’t allowing healthy kids to come visit so Kaitlyn had to wait until we got home the next day to meet her new brother. Thanks to the Olds and Bebe and Pops I’m not sure she even noticed that we weren’t around. She has been a great Big Sister! She loves helping get his “binky” when he gets upset and telling him "it's okay, momma's coming".


We are SO lucky to have had such great support, many helping hands, and most of all, so much love the past three weeks! It was great to see Kaitlyn having such a good time with everyone and definitely made the transition to two kids easier for ALL of us! Here are lots of pics from the last three weeks including lots of fun in the snow which doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Getting our first peak at our baby brother!

Bebe and Pops took Kaitlyn to her gymnastics class... thought we'd throw in a few pics since I never seem to have my camera at gym. She absolutely loves it and we're so glad Bebe and Pops were there to take her and keep her entertained!

Getting warmed up...

Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Alan entertaining Kaitlyn in the snow. Not sure who had more fun, Kaitlyn or Lindsey and Alan who don't get to see snow too often!

Brayden enjoying his first snow storm from inside.

Our snow bunny!

Our final visitor (Mimi) reading books with Kaitlyn - one of her favorite pastimes.

More fun in the snow with Mimi!

Christmas 2009!!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! Bebe and Pops (my parents) came up to Columbus to celebrate Christmas with us and let Kaitlyn show off all of her new tricks and toys. It was a great visit!!

Making some cookies for Santa with my little helper!

On Christmas Eve we got dressed up and went to Mass and a nice dinner with Bebe and Pops. And we got to open one gift on Christmas Eve - our great friend Mickey!

As you can see Baby Brother is coming soon.... on the four week countdown!! Yicks!

Making sure that Santa has enough milk and cookies to make it to everyone's house and we've put Mickey on guard!

"I think it's Rudolph Pops"

Our other big news from Christmas is that Kaitlyn left Santa an extra special gift under the tree to thank him for all of her new toys - a box full of ALL of her binkies! Believe me when I first thought of the idea I didn't really think it all the way through and began to realize that it could have totally backfired with a miserable Christmas and / or Kaitlyn hating Santa forever. But she surprised us and dealt with it great. We had talked it up for about a month now and she seemed on board but I thought that would change quickly. Not going to lie, bedtime Christmas Eve and nap time Christmas Day were both a little rough but luckily she was exhausted after playing with Bebe and Pops and all of the Christmas excitement. So far she's been great and has only asked for it a few times but after being reminded of all of her new toys she seems okay with. Here are a few videos of Kaitlyn getting her binkies ready for Santa.

Our box under the tree for Santa...

Christmas Morning - playing in our new Dora tent from Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Alan - a great hit!!!

Opening gifts and trying on the adorable hat Mimi sent for my new baby brother.

Creating a new materpiece with Bebe on the new easle from Mimi and Papa - another big hit!

Celebrating Christmas Day with Jack and Sam! Another great holiday with the Olds - what are we going to do next year without them :(

Exploring the Conservatory Christmas displays for some indoor entertainment.

And one last video of Kaitlyn signing with her new tag book and ABC fridgerator magnets.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful holidays and is having a great 2010 so far! We'll be spending the next few weeks getting ready for Baby Brother expected to arrive sometime in the next month!!!

Happy Holidays!

I haven't exactly been very good at updating the blog these days so thought I would post a few pics from the past few weeks as we get ready for the holidays. Right after Thanksgiving we took Kaitlyn to the "Wildlights" at the Columbus Zoo. She loved seeing all of the light but think her favorite part of the night was riding the carousel.

Kaitlyn's real "Big Girl" bed finally arrived around Thanksgiving too and we upgraded from the "big girl" bed (aka matress on the floor) to our "BIG, BIG girl" bed without an problems. Now there's room in the crib for our baby brother!




Two weekends ago we went to visit Mimi and Papa and the Beller clan (Brad's sister) for a quick weekend trip. Kaitlyn had a GREAT time hanging out with all of her cousins (Kelly, Brandon, Bailey, and Ellie). They even got to have a slumber party at Mimi and Papa's house two nights in a row! We quickly figured out that putting two 2 year olds in the same room for bedtime was not a grand idea - while it was quite comical to listen to their "conversation" with one another and see on the monitor their attempts to sneak out of the beds it didn't make for a very sucessful bedtime. I think these two are going to be double trouble for Mimi!


We are very excited to get back to Dallas really soon and have plenty of slumber parties in the future. It was also SO nice for Brad and I to be able to have a "date night" - dinner at our old favorite restaurant, a Mavericks game, and drinks after with an old friend to catch up on the Dallas crew. I realized we hadn't had a night out just the two of us since our anniversary back in August so it was a nice break!

Dance party to the "Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Express" DVD.... the "choo choo boogey"!



This past weekend we took Kaitlyn to see Santa...

Patiently waiting to see Santa...

Very excited - jumping up and down to see Santa....

And changing our mind about three steps from Santa and clinging to me for dear life :) Oh well, better luck next year!

Not quite our best pic but we tried!

Decorating the tree...

She was actually a lot better at it than I thought although there are a few clusters of ornaments.

Admiring our work...

Santa's little elf "helping" with laundry..




Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and getting ready for all of the festivites and Santa's arrival next week...so hard to believe it's already Christmas!