Photo location updated

We are once again using Flickr to share pictures.  The "Photos" link on the right side of the blog links to our gallery.  We have uploaded full resolution pictures, but not sure if they can be downloaded from the site.  We will be happy to email any pictures you want- just let us know.  All is well on our side.  Just enjoying the last bit of summer.  Hope all is well.

The Brauners

Summertime

Happy July to everyone!  We haven't posted for a looooong time, but we've been having fun along the way.  Ashley is 14 months, and Alex is 3 3/4.  The picture of Alex was just taken today while we were on a family hike across the road from our community.  Ashley was carried in the pack by Derek, and Derek also ended up carrying Alex for a short while at the same time!  Lucky me; I just carried the water.  Hope to keep updating more regularly...we'll see!

We visited the Castle Winery in Napa this past weekend.  Fun trip for a rainy weekend.  Sorry we do not update the blog very often- but new pictures have been posted to the web gallery.  Also added a "send us some pics" folder that should work for sending us pictures as well.  Hope all is well and Happy New Year...

Welcome Ashley Renee Brauner

Welcome Ashley.  Born at 8:07pm on May 6th, weighing 7 lbs 7 oz.  Momma and baby are doing great.  We were home within 24 hours of the birth and enjoying some family time.  Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes.

Derek & Traci

Alex's 2nd Birthday Party

Alex really enjoyed his day as a train conductor. We have more pictures on the web gallery also. Hope all is well.

Love,
Derek, Traci and Alex

It's been a while!

Sorry it's been months since we've posted a new blog! We've been having a great summer and Alex is just growing fast every day. He is really learning many new words and improving in his speech constantly. He loves the garbage truck and his favorite thing is the tag on his blanket. He holds it in his fingers when he goes to sleep and searches for it if he needs some comfort. Our big boy has been without his bottle for about two weeks now, but that unfortunately means he hasn't had milk at all since he's refusing to drink it out of any other cups still. We're resigned to yogurt, enriched fruit juice and chocolate milk which he still likes! Go figure! :) Hope all is well with everyone!

Happy Easter!

We all enjoyed a great Easter weekend with egg hunt, a friend's 2-yr old birthday party, church, family bikeride, and ham feast prepared by Derek. What fun! Thank you all for the cute cards and yummy gifts! The weather was really nice, so we felt pretty fortunate for that too. Alex took a 3 1/2 hour nap at school today. Apparently we wore him out! Poor kid!

Lately, he has been learning all sorts of new tricks and his speech has been improving everyday. He can say all kinds of words (maybe just that Mama and Papa can understand) including spoon ("boon"), bike, duck, blocks ("bock"), blanket ("baba"), bottle (also "baba"), puppy ("pa-pa"), etc. He knows that doggies say "Uh-Uh" and ducks quack. He also tries his best to say many, many other words, but most are unintelligible babble! He can give high five's and also knuckles. Sadly, he has also learned what time-outs mean because he sometimes thinks it's fun to hit mommy. Not so fun after all!

Thanks for checking in, and hopefully we'll be posting more regularly again now that things have seemed to settle down a bit and I finally finished my real estate courses too! Hooray! Love, Traci