It's A Boy!

Today was an exciting day... my little brother became a dad... a scary thought, but a good one. Gabriel Robert Branley was born on 6/24 and was 6 lbs 10 oz and 19" long. Ali had a c-section because little Gabe was breech (Already causing trouble)Here are some photos I took.. in these he is only a few hours old and so Precious.

When I arrived he was sleeping on him mom's chest...


Is that a Branley or what...


Proud Auntie Cori finally pulled the baby away from the proud mommy... just let me hold him for one second (*insert evil laugh here*).


Ok, ok, if I have to give him up I will... but I'm not happy about it. Here is Grandma's first chance to hold the new little one. Please notice that he is STILL sleeping...


And time to pass to my dad.. the proud papa.


And then off to the proud Daddy for his first bath, still sleeping...



Time for my first bath...



I actually have video of the bath, but I am having issues posting it. I will try again later today or tomorrow. But just so you know... he slept through the whole thing!!! I can't believe it either :-). He even slept through drying off, foot prints & his first shot. I wish I slept like that.



And finally, the family...

Ankle Update & Birthday news

Quick ankle update. I am in a walking cast until we get the results of the MRI I have scheduled for Thursday. once we know exactly what we are looking at, we will know the course of action. And yes, I did ask him about Softball, he didn't really give me a straight answer on whether or not I should keep playing, so until we know the treatment I'm gonna keep doing what I love :-).

Birthday News!!!
In less than one month I hit the big 3-0. I am very excited about this (please note that on the same day my sister hits the big 4-0, which makes her much, much, much older than I am). We will be at family camp and we want to invite EVERYONE we can think of up for a BBQ Potluck. Check out the evite link below and RSVP for this fun event. Sorry if you didn't get the orignal email... I really didn't know who I should send it too.
http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=XMUPTLEGKZUBAVEXFDBV

Father's day

Just a couple of quick photos. We went out to lunch with David's family- sorry I didn't pull the camera out once everyone arrived.

Saturday...

So on a whim, I decided to take Josiah to the Marysville for the Strawberry Festival parade. David was off to Xbox night so I thought it would fun. I invited my parents along because I don't like to take Josiah to something like that on my own. Having someone else there keeps me sane and allows me to take him the bathroom with out having to pack it all up.



Josiah & my mom


Josiah waiting for the parade...


You know you are watching a "Hick" parade when...
the retirement home puts a bus full of seniors in the parade,


The crowd cheers that the lumber trucks that go by. The City talent show winner has his own float and each entry gets it's own prize.
The only saving grace of the parade was that it is an offical SEAFAIR event so we get the cool stuff like...
Seafair clowns


The Vigilantes


and of course, the Seafair pirates. They are a great group and the have a very loud cannon that goes off. That is why Josiah is covering his ears. It caught the attention of one of the pirates. All three of these groups (Clowns, Vigilantes and Pirates) spend their time and fund raising money for sick children and childrens hospital & the Make a Wish foundation.

My dad is offically old

Today was my dad's 61st birthday... after work we met them at their favorite watering hole and headed down to their favorite mexican resturaunt in downtown Seattle.


We had a great time and I actually got pictures of my parents together which is very rare!


And I even got some good pics of the boys!


I had to bribe Alex with a dollar to take the photo and Josiah with a dollar to wear the hat! (Just kidding, I only had to bribe Josiah- Alex hasn't got on to the bribing idea).




And finally the group shot.


We had a great time!!! Happy Birthday Dad!!! Remember only 5 1/2 more years til retirement...

Women's Softball!

Last night I played in my first Women's Softball game of the year! It was exciting and fun. Tonight we have a second women's game so maybe I can get some good action shots then...


I really thought I had better form that that :-).




Me behind the plate. I usually play catcher and over the last few years I feel that I have really improved.
We lost last night by one run... so hopefully tonight we can turn it around. The best part is that win or loose we have a great time!

Last Baseball Game for Alex

This Sunday also marked Alex's last game. It was bitter sweet. I love watching him play, but I could do with out the sitting in the cold & rain.


Alex played in left field most of the year

Softball!!!

Yahoo! Softball season is in full speed for us. Last night we had our second Co-Ed game. I played three innings but then sat myself out due to the ankle. It was also for the team, I struck out twice and I didn't like the way the Ump was calling them :-). Here are some photo's below. I'm not in any of them (which I think is good) but I maybe retiring my cleats for the year and becoming the offical team photographer & Score keeper :-).


FOUL BALL, and Cori thinks I can't figure out the password!


Kim up to bat. She got the game ball last night for her AWESOME double which scored a run!!



Our fearless leader, Keith.

We are now 2-0 and having a great time!!

Oh yeah

About four rows up from us at the Mariners game were some good friends of ours. John David, his son and his dad Terry David. The David's have lived across the street from my parents for 30+ years and I adore them!
I had to pull some teeth to get them to smile, but it ended up being a great photo!

Last weekend

Last weekend was a BUSY one for us...

Friday I took the day off to watch two young kids so their parents could go on our church marraige retreat (even though they ended up not going on the retreat they still got a weekend away together- long story). Anyways Friday night my parents treated us to a Mariners game, but since our prior commitment was babysitting, David offered to stay home and I went with the boys.




They were GREAT seats!!


Josiah and my dad...


So the rest of the weekend we enjoyed watching Kreston (2 1/yrs old) and Kiera (18 months old). They were great kids, full of energy and SO happy! I don't know if David would admit it or not but Kiera had him wrapped around her finger. She loves to cuddle and David was her first choice. I don't think I have met two happier kids.



I wish you could see her dress in this picture it is SOOO cute and it has a matching hat & diaper cover. I spent a lot of time picking out the perfect outfit for her. Boy I am glad I don't have any girls I would go CRAZY!


Josiah's favorite part of the weekend was taking care of the pets and this was my dredded part of the weekend. Their dog, Lily, is VERY skiddish. Let's just say everytime we walked in the door she went nuts barking and growling. It wasn't til Sunday afternoon that she finally warmed up to us and quit barking, but she was still very scared of us. If she didn't keep me up all night the two cats did.



Just reminds me that I am not an animal person. It's like babies, I don't mind holding them for a few minutes but you can keep all the work it takes :-).

And to end our weekend was our first coed game of the softball season! it was great!!! I didn't get to play as much as I wanted but I sure had fun just being there.
One quick prayer request that has to do with Softball... On friday I learned four things about my ankle. 1. Arthritis has not set in- YAHOO. (However)2. The crack in my bone never fully healed from the break 8 years ago. 3. There is too much space between the bones and 4. Bone Spurs have grown in all that space and a huge one has formed on the bottom of the tibia. So in two weeks I go to an ortho to discuss the options- surgery. For those of you who know me really well- me and surgery don't mix all that well. Also, with it being softball season- do I schedule surgery right away and fix the pain, or delay til august and enjoy the softball season. Unfortunatly I know what I need to do- surgery ASAP, but after last nights game- it will be really really hard...

Cubbies!

This last Wednesday was awards night for our AWANA program. It also marks the end of Josiah being in Cubbies, which is bitter sweet. He does so much better when I am not there, yet it marks a time when we are starting to talk about kindergarten and backpacks and things like that. He is growing up so fast. Sorry these pictures are so dark, it was the first night I had my camera and I hadn't taught David how to use it.