Bringing Zeke Home

Sorry we haven't blogged since Zeke was born! Obviously, there are a lot of adjustments around here with 2 boys now!

We brought Zeke home on Saturday. It seemed like just yesterday we were bringing Liam home! I wanted to post a few pictures because coming home from the hospital has quite a tradition on the Bratvold side of the family.

My dad, Larry, was brought home on a snowy day in December in a special homemade outfit. Well, 27 years later the same outfit was on my sister, Kari, the day she went home from the hospital. Then 2 1/2 years after that, I wore the precious outfit!

Fastforward 28 years and I dressed my sweet first born, William Justice, in this keepsake. Here is Liam the day he came home from the hospital after he was born March 2, 2009.

And now 22 months after Liam, it was Zeke's turn! Here is little Ezekiel Bravery saying goodbye to the hospital and hello to his new life!



I think the boys look so much alike! We will see how they grow and change. At this point, Zeke has dark fuzz on his head, but Liam had little to no fuzz at this point. What he did have was strawberry blonde. Both priceless gifts from the Lord!

Zeke's Birthday

Well, we have been way behind on blogging, so please forgive us. We may or may not get around to sharing the news of our recent move, or talk about Christmas or New Year's holidays. Because we have some much bigger news to share right now.

Julie just gave birth to our second son, Ezekiel Bravery!

She did such an amazing job! She is incredible! She had a great labor, and Zeke came in weighing just about a pound less than his brother did. But he looks like a champ.

Liam wasn't exactly sure what to make of this new baby.

He had heard us talk about "little brother" for a while now, but didn't really have his finger on what that meant. The thing he was most interested in today was that this baby had a hat on. "Baby wear a hat!" Then, "Take off the baby hat." When we wouldn't let him take it off the baby and put it on himself, he was pretty much done with the whole thing and ready to go. So, not quite what you would call a real "bonding" moment yet.

But we are so thrilled this new little gift is in our lives, and look forward to showing him off more to you soon, via pictures, or hopefully in person.

We're still here...

We've been so busy lately we haven't had time to blog! However, there has been a lot going on!

A quick update...

We finally found a house! We closed last month, and have been moving in and getting "settled." We love the house, and have been working hard unpacking, and painting (I'd estimate we've painted over 60% of the walls already by this point).

Liam loves his new home, but wasn't sure at first. He wandered through the place a little hesitantly the first day, but grew to love it very quickly, and now calls it "Liam's house". He likes to walk outside with Daddy to check the mail, and to look at the neighbors' yards. One neighbor has a snowman that lights up in his yard so we always have to check it out, too.

We wanted to wait to post until we could upload some pics of the house, but we haven't yet found where we packed the camera! Hopefully we'll find it soon, and we'll share some pics then. Until then, happy holidays!!!

Liam Goes to Work

I have posted previously how Liam watches very closely what Logan puts on to go to work everyday. Well, he has taken it one step further, and now Liam wants to be even more like Daddy and go to work himself.

The other day I was in the kitchen and I heard Liam fumbling around in our closet. Usually this means he is finding shoes to walk in, but today was different. He was reaching as high as he could to grab one of Logan's ties. He wrapped it around his neck and said "Liam go to work."

I said, "Oh, is Liam going to work? Ok, well bye-bye. Have a good day!" He walked out of the room, waved goodbye to my Mom and said, "Bye-bye, Mimi. See you later!" Mimi said, "where are you going?" As if we didn't know, he replied, "Liam go to work."

I wondered what he would do. He walked all the way to the garage door and sat down because it was locked. (All outside doors stayed locked these days!)
Maybe he decided this specific tie just wasn't right for him, because we went through this same routine with 4 different ties, except he started adding goodbye kisses! It just melted my heart. He wants to be just like his Daddy!

"Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?"

"No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb, sir."


So, Liam the Dinosaur was not quite AS happy with his costume on the actual Halloween night as he was a few days before! But he was a good sport.

Basically he just hung out around the house and watched all the kids come to the door at Mimi and PaPaw's house. Some he would watch from a distance, and some he would want to see up close. There were a few scary costumes that made him cry. He would rush to Logan and Logan would pick him up and say "Daddy's got you." Then every time Liam was unsure of a kid's mask or costume, he would run to Logan and say, "Daddy got you."


One little fairy princess was so cute, I guess Liam wanted to join her. He ran out the door into the dark to follow her. Logan raced after him and they followed the cute little girl to the next house. Liam even got a treat out of his trip! He didn't say "Trick or Treat", but he did say "thank you" to the nice neighbors. They gave him a Frankenstein sucker!

We unwrapped it, stripped him down, and told him he could eat it. After the first taste he squealed and said, "oooooooo!"



He had a grand time with it. Of course, he got all sticky. He crinkled up his nose as he looked at his hands and said, "Dirty, messy!"



But, it was well worth the mess. He loved it, and we loved sharing the evening with our sweet boy!

Liam's DINO-mite Party!

Well, Halloween is in full swing! We have had Liam's costume a few weeks, and already it is tighter than it was the day we bought it! Oh well, he is a growing boy! Liam is dressing as an adorable dinosaur for his first little costume.

Yesterday at his Mom's Day Out Preschool Party, I was able to go and have my first "Room Mother" experience. Liam goes to "preschool" at our church two half days a week. It really helped Mom and me get through the roughest part of my pregnancy. But now Liam talks about his teacher and other kiddos so much, I want to keep him in it so he can have playtime with other children.

We had a great time at the Party! Liam's class is the youngest, because the program starts at 18 months. Liam being only 19 months, he is one of the very youngest, but you would never know it! He is such a big boy!

For the most part Liam looooooves his costume! He wore it all day long until bathtime, and we even took an evening walk around the neighborhood with his pumpkin bucket and everything! The tail is not his favorite though. It bothered him in his chair at the party, so he kept saying, "Takey off!"

None of these kids have sugary cookies very much, so it was cute to see them study their little treat and decide how to tackle it.

Liam's first encounter with a juice box was successful! No spills! Just frosting all over his face, fingers, and hair!

On our way out of the church, we had to go by the big colorful elephant! Here Liam is moving his arm up like a trunk and making an elephant noise. Soooo adorable. He is cute! But maybe I am biased.

More Halloween pics to come!

Liam counts

I was away in Philadelphia for some CME when Liam started counting! Julie caught some on tape (it was early in the morning and in the garage, so she wants me to apologize for the lighting). But it was too cute not to share!