Happy Birthday, Braden!

I don't even know how it's possible, but today my oldest nephew turns 3 years old!

I gave him his gift a few weeks ago when the whole family was together in Michigan. He looked so cute, but serious, in the chef's hat and apron I made for him.

The next day I promised him we'd bake a treat of his choice - peanut butter cookies - together when he woke up from his nap.

Doesn't he look so thrilled to be baking with "Aunt Bee"?

I promise I didn't force him to make the cookies with me. He said he wanted to, but I don't think he woke up from his nap in the best of moods. It gave us all a great laugh, though!

The next day he was a great helper when I was making fajitas for dinner. He added the seasoning to the peppers and onions and stirred them for me while I made the chicken. Such a wonderful little sous chef!

Please ignore my windblown and sand-filled hair (courtesy of Braden's younger brother, Caleb) from the beach. And, for posterity's sake, this is the best photo I have of me at five months pregnant.

Happy 3rd Birthday to the best sous chef nephew an aunt could ever ask for! Hope you have a wonderful Thomas the Train birthday party this weekend...wish I could be there to celebrate.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Happy Birthday, Caleb! How is it even possible that you are one already?! I only got a chance to meet you when you were 3 months old. This living on different coasts really stinks, but I do cherish all the times I get to hear your sweet sounds on the phone. Please come visit your Aunt Brie before you get too much older.

I loved this picture we used on your birth announcement. You are such a happy-go-lucky little guy. Your big brother, Braden, wasn’t too sure about you at first, but you guys have grown to be best buds. And, Grandma, well, you know she loves you.

I think I startled you the first time I met you!

I know that sometimes it seems like we give Braden all the attention, but I promise you buddy that next time I see you we’re going to have some special “Aunt Bee” and “Kayo” time.

Hope you have a fabulous birthday and enjoy the duck hooded towel and wash cloth puppet I made you for your gift. I hear bath time is your absolute favorite activity and that you go crazy for the color yellow.

I love you, Caleb!

Special Agent Oso Invitation

My youngest nephew turns one the end of February and I was commissioned to design his party invite.

Supposedly, he’s a HUGE fan of Special Agent Oso. I had never heard of this show before, but a quick little internet search provided some needed details such as color scheme, characters and special phrases the show uses.

I guess Special Agent Oso is a type of James Bond show for kids that teaches them how to do things in “3 Special Steps” because after all, “It’s all part of the plan!”

Here is the invite I designed for my nephew (click on the picture for a larger view):

Hopefully he has fun at his party. Wish I could be there to join him.

I’m linking this project up to Kimba’s DIY day. Click here for more projects and don’t forget to enter one of your own for a chance to win a gift certificate from here.

It happened again

Remember this post? Well, it happened again while I was away at the house last month, and it sure made my day!

My phone rang and it said it was my sister. When I answered it, I heard, "Hi, Aunt Bee!"

Thinking Chelsea had just put Braden on the phone, I started talking with him and we were having a good ol' conversation. He told me all about his books and the toys in his room. Then he took the phone over to "Baby Cayo" and had me talk with him.

It was all a lot of fun, but I began to wonder why I didn't hear Chelsea in the background at all. I asked Braden if he could put mommy on because I was starting to wonder if everything was okay. He proceeded to just talk to me some more.

Finally I heard my sister's voice in the background and she picks up the phone and hears me talking. She proceeds to tell me that she was in the kitchen and Braden was in his room calling me, unbeknownst to her.

I love getting unexpected calls from my nephew! Especially when he can tell who it is that he called based on the voice!

Brightens My Day

My mom sent me some photos from my nephew's 2nd birthday weekend. One of them was a photo of the cutest nephews in the whole world, and it makes me smile every time I see it.

It appears Caleb is a little scared or curious about something at Chuckie Cheese! Happy birthday, Braden! Can't believe how big you both are getting already!!

2 Already?

It's hard to believe that my favorite little blond haired nephew is turning 2 already! It seems like just yesterday he was born. I was so excited when I got the news that my first nephew was born and I'll always remember the first time I met Braden - he was a little over a month old when he attended our wedding. I thought he looked so handsome in his little tuxedo!

I was so anxious to see him again that I arranged for my sister and Braden and me and hubby to fly in to Colorado to surprise my dad for his birthday in March 2008. Boy was he surprised! Braden was such a cute little bugger and brought all of us a bunch of laughs. Here he is with his favorite aunt!

I didn't get to attend his first birthday last August 23rd, but I definitely saw the photos and it looks like he enjoyed his cake immensely! For that birthday I made him giant papermached letters that spelled his name for him to hang in his room.

When he was one and a half he became a big brother. He is such a good big bro to baby Cayo (as he calls Caleb) and I'm sure the two will be best buds for life. Here they are at my cousin's wedding this past June. During this trip he and "Aunt Bea" had a lot of fun hanging out together!

This is the latest photo I have of my almost 2 year old nephew. Hard to believe how fast time flies (and he's not even my own kid)!! I like his wild and crazy spiky hairdo because I think it captures his zest for life.

Hope you have a fabulous birthday tomorrow, Braden! Thanks for all the laugh and joys you bring to Aunt Bea! You're the best nephew ever and I look forward to watching you learn and grow even more throughout the years. Enjoy the airplane and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - I hear you really enjoy playing "tuwtules" with daddy.

Wish I could be there to celebrate with you today at Chucky Cheese. I love you!

One Week...

until I get to meet my newest nephew! I'm so excited to see these boys (and the rest of my family too)!!

The Cutest Artist I've Ever Seen

This picture just makes me grin from cheek to cheek every time I see it. Someone found the crayons during his nap one day while daddy was watching him! He was so proud of his work!

My brother-in-law is getting "deployed" to Las Vegas this summer so my sister and nephews are going to come hang out with me for awhile and I'm so excited!!

Introducing Caleb Scott Eggar!

I finally got to see some photos of our new nephew. Needless to say, big brother does not look too happy about having to share the attention!

My sister & her family. Caleb can't take his eyes off his big brother, while Braden doesn't know quite what to make of him.

My beautiful mom with her grandsons. Braden is not happy at all that he has to share Grandma's lap! Granted, it was 10pm or so by this time, too.

"Do we have to keep him?"

Thankfully the latest report is that Braden is warming up to his new little buddy, but the poor kid (Braden) had a fever of 103 the other day and is now all covered in the red spots associated with roseola!

So glad you're finally here, Caleb! Can't wait to meet you in June!!

Randomness

WARNING: Random post ahead!

We'll this last week has been a week of catch up. I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't unpacked or done the laundry after returning home from our Cook Islands trip. It's almost as if I'm avoiding it because as soon as the suitcases are unpacked and put away, the trip of a lifetime is behind us. Very sad. Thankfully, we got some amazing photos and I'm hoping to post some of them shortly...maybe even by tomorrow...with a little post about all the fun things we did there. And, tonight I'm biting the bullet and unpacking while hubby is at his meeting.

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We received some very exciting news this past weekend - our second nephew was born on February 28th around 9:30pm! He was due on the 21st, but was too cozy in my sister's belly I guess. They had scheduled an induction for March 5th which my sister was really bummed about because she wanted a February baby, so thankfully Caleb Scott (my dad's middle name) decided to make his appearance on his own in February. Although, technically in my part of the country he was a March 1st baby! I'm still waiting to see photos of the little guy, but I've been told he looks exactly like his big brother, Braden, only with thick brown hair. I won't get to see him in person until our cousin's wedding in June, so hopefully some pictures will be sent my way soon...HINT! HINT!

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Yesterday we had our biggest snowfall of the year. Silly me passed up on the opportunity to take a day off and made the drive in to work. Being from Colorado, I always laugh at the way people drive on snow. My typical 30 minute commute turned in to an hour only to arrive at work and realize 2/3rds of the office took the day off. Oh well, it earned me some brownie points with the boss which I'll need seeing how...

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Hubby and I are going to ITALY in April for a friend's wedding! I'm so excited because I got back in touch (via Facebook) with one of my college roomies from freshman year (we also went to youth group in Colorado together in high school) and she invited us to her wedding in Italy (where she's been living/working/met this American soilder stud of hers). I'm really looking forward to going because I've always wanted to go to Italy and because I'm eager to see "Josh" again! Plus, the trip is practically paid for already because we had about half of what we saved for "spending" money from the Cook Islands left over (thank you New Zealand dollar for having such a favorable exchange rate!) and between that and the steal of a deal on airfare tickets we got, we shouldn't have to put anything on credit! Such a blessing from God!! We leave on April 15th from NYC, change planes in Madrid and arrive in Milan on the 16th. There's a couple days of partying before the wedding on the 18th in LaSpezia and then on the 19th we take the train back to Milan where we'll sightsee until we hop a plane home on the 21st with a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam (hopefully we'll be able to go see something in the country of my ancestors) before returning to NYC that afternoon. I'm so stinkin' excited!!

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The deadline I gave hubby for telling his parents about our house is looming. We also have to spill the beans about Italy so those should be a few unpleasant days. Hopefully everything will go well with all that. We're eager to get back to working on the house and we're hoping to head out there again come May when the weather is warmer. Our plans of finishing up the kitchen may take longer than originally thought because we just recently paid of two credit cards and I told hubby we're not allowed to put the kitchen on credit. So, we'll do whatever little projects we can as the cash comes in.

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I'm super excited because I have two new ventures I'm working on lately. The first is a "business" I'm doing with my aunt and uncle who are missionaries in Tanzania, Africa. It's going to be a way for them to raise some extra money for their orphan ministry and just to get their story out. We'll be selling handicrafts that my aunt purchases from natives in their area and the bulk of the money will go directly back into orphan ministry with a small part of the proceeds going towards the business maintenance side of things. I'm working on getting the website up and running and getting all the product she sent back with my cousin from Michigan to me so once those things are finished, I'll post the web address in case any of you are interested.

The other venture I'm working on is a long time dream of mine starting to become a reality. I'm opening up my own business! It's called Divine Creations and is an online store where I'll sell the jewelry, invitations, cards, other crafts, and graphic design that I do. Hopefully little by little I'll get some business and eventually it will be enough to make it so I can stay home when the kids come. I'm terrible at coming up with names for things, but feel lead to use this one. Not that I think the things I make are "divine" necessarily, but because whenever someone asks me where I come up with my ideas I have to respond that "they just come to me" which to me means that God placed them in my head. I was originally going to use Divine Inspirations (since they were God inspired), but that didn't really define a craft business, and thus the title of Divine Creations came about. I should be finished with my website in a few days, but then I have to replensish my stock of things to sell, so hopefully I'll be able to post the web address by the end of this month and start getting my name out there.

If you think of it, please pray that God would bless both of these ventures and use them to expand His territory. It's a big step for me to announce this because being a perfectionist, I'm very afraid of failure. But, it doesn't hurt (or cost anything really) to try!

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For those of you who may remember the story about my dad getting mugged at gun point in the backyard of our house in Detroit, I have an update. He had to go to trial again as a witness while hubby and I were away and the judge ended up sentencing the kid to 8 years in prison. Praise the Lord that he'll at least be off the streets for a little bit, but at the same time, pray for his salvation.

And while we're on the subject of my dad, if you remember it, please keep him in your prayers because he's in South Africa right now for work and on his flight back home he has to change plans in Sengala. For those of you who watch 24 you know all about the type of violence that's in Sengala (no that's not all fiction on the show!), so please pray for his safety and the safety of their two donors who are on the trip with him.

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Whew! What a random post! Stay tuned for an update from our Cook Islands trip and for pictures of our new nephew (if I ever get them, Mom & Chels!).

Crank Called by a 1 year old

While I was at work yesterday, my cell phone rang. The caller ID said it was my sister, so picked it up only to hear a bunch of laughter from a certain one year old on the other end of the line followed by *click*.

I tried calling her back thinking that Braden accidentally pushed end, but while I was calling her back, she was calling me again.

I answered only to hear more laughter and then *click*. This happened once more and then I finally figured out that while mommy and daddy were still sleeping, my nephew was entertaining himself by crank calling his aunt.

He's lucky he's a cute little one and I love him! Can't wait to see you in a couple weeks, Braden!

Mischief Times Two

Yesterday was the day when my sister went to find out if she's having a boy or a girl. The little one was very cooperative by lying spread eagle. And, it looks like we'll be getting one of these in a few months:

Isn't he such a cute big brother? He stole the spoon, though, from a restaurant so don't let that smile fool you! Can't wait to see him in a few weeks!

Are you sure?

My mom called me yesterday to say she ran into my sister and her family in the Denver airport. Mom was on her way to Michigan to visit relatives, and Chelsea & family were on their way to Montana to visit Bennett's family. My mom told me Braden had a very interesting shirt on that said something along the lines of "world's best big brother".

Now, I know what it normally means when kids where shirts like this. It means the family is expecting another little bundle of joy. But, I had to ask to make sure because I was a little confused.

You see, when my sister and her family where just out to visit me, they mentioned how they love Braden, but don't know if they want another one or not, and if so, they know that they definitely don't want another one now. Thus, my confusion over them expecting again.

But, it looks like my sister gets pregnant as easy as rabbits, even when she's on birth control. Braden came while she was on the pill, and her doctor switched her to a different pill while she was nursing, and well, obviously that one didn't work too well either.

So, my nephew and nephew/niece will be almost exactly 18 months apart. Guess the Lord's timing isn't always our timing! How exciting though that I get to have two little ones to love on now!!!

A few things to keep in your prayers if you think of it:

1. It's possible Bennett may get deployed in the next few months and it could be a year deployment, so pray for my sister in case that happens.
2. A healthy pregnancy.
3. That they'll find a birth control that works...just kidding!
4. The baby to come early or late February because hubby and I will be in the Cook Islands for 2 weeks in the middle of the month, and my parents will be in Africa the end of the month, and one of us is going to need to be available to watch Braden, especially if Bennett is deployed.