Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year Every One!!!
2008 has been a very exciting year. This year has had alot of challenges and excitements. Challenges come in many shapes and sizes. This year I was presented with the opportunity to change jobs! I am really enjoying that new change in my life. Its presenting me with new challenges in my career, it was a very welcomed changed. Another challenge was Chris' grandfather, papa Metz's passing. I know the whole Zerr family is looking forward to 2009 to start the year off with a clean slate. A third challenge this year was my mom's surgery. She is well on her way to recovery and attaining her goal weight.
Our exciting news this year of course is our pregnancy. That is giving us a whole new reason to look forward to 2009 and meeting our little guy! We get to share our excitement with our best friends Brian and Amanda who will also be having a little guy in March as well. She has been presented with a new challenge. She has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes which will make her last few months a little more challenging. Several of the people that I have known with the condition end up having their babies several weeks before the due date. That would be kind of funny if that happens with her. We could all get to meet Gabe before Kase, or who knows they might even share the same brithday. That would be an interesting 2009 twist.
Thank you all for your love and support during 2008 and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Wishing you all the very best in 2009!

Baby Kase Update!

Howdy!  Well today was a very fun day. It was my 28th birthday.  I had a regular doctor check up. I got to hear the babies heart beat today which was a really nice present for my birthday.  My doctor said that everything was going very well and that I gained some weight this month. She said that it was normal and on course.  I chalked it up to Thanksgiving dinner.  I also had to do the glucose test today.  It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The worst part of it all is that the drink tastes like orange soda.  I hate orange soda. They served it very cold so it made it a little bit more palatable but I tried to chug it as fast as I could.  Then I had to wait an hour and have blood drawn.  Next week I should find out the results. They said they'd only call if something was wrong so here's to not hearing from the doctor until Jan 15th (which is my next appointment). 

After my appointment we went to celebrate my birthday. Chris and I went to a restaurant called the Roaring Fork. It was very good.  I really enjoyed my steak and had Green Chili Mac & Cheese. I didn't order dessert because I had enough sweets for the day with the Glucose test. 

Well I wanted to wish every one a Merry almost Christmas.  Remember there is only 1 weekend of shopping left. Good luck!

The Car Story

With the baby coming Chris and I had been discussing getting a new car. This discussion has been going on for quite a while. The debate of either pay off the Maroon car and drive it till it dies or trade it in and get a new loan on a new car. The main debate was due to the warranty. The warranty on the car was over ... we were riding on the extended warranty that covered very little. We had to get new tires, new brakes, and I was going to have to take it in to have the suspension looked at because it was making funny noises when we hit bumps. So we were going to have to invest a lot of money into a car that we would get absolutely nothing back for it if we traded it in or tried to sell it. I'm starting the nesting phase and wanted to make sure that we had a very safe car for the new guy.

Well on the way home the other night a deer ran into the car and dented it pretty good. The door and the side panel of he hatch back were both pretty damaged and we would have had to file a claim on the insurance. That would have cost us another $500 easy for our deductible on top of all the other money were about to have to outlay onto the car. So that made the decision easy for us. We traded in the car.

We went to Toyota and talked to our guy Jay. We and several of our family have bought cars from him and he cuts us a great deal. We also figured we would get a good deal on a 2008 SUV since the 2009s were coming out and SUVs aren't selling all that well. Jay gave us a great deal and we got 2.9% interest. So as of Wednesday we are the proud owners of a new Highlander. I added the Highlander onto my insurance policy and replaced the HHR. The new policy was actually $50 cheaper for the new car then the Chevy so that was pretty exciting as well. I feel a whole lot better now in the new car!

Happy Thanksgiving from Hondo Texas!

Happy Thanksgiving All!!!

This year I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a wonderful hubby and we are expecting a beautiful baby boy. We are thankful that our pregnancy is going well and also that my best friends Amanda and Brian are having a healthy pregnancy as well!

On Thursday we all celebrated Thanksgiving. This year we stayed in Hondo for the holiday. My grandma informed me that I missed a great party at her house. 23 people traveled to have Thanksgiving at her house this year. What a crowd. Wish it could have been 25 but we have our family here in Hondo that we rotate with every other year. I also heard that I missed a great reunion of some of my old high school buddies. Hopefully they will do it again and I can meet up with them the next time I’m in the Houston area.

At the Braden Thanksgiving we had quite a few family members as well. The normal Braden Crew was there, plus a few special additions. John brought home a new friend Kaleen to meet the family; she is a very big T-sipper. So that made for a very interesting Thanksgiving evening. She was obviously rooting for Texas. She was the odd man out at the major A&M rivalry game at our house. Of course her team won. Which brings me to another item I’m thankful for… the end of this dreadful season! We also had the Mullen’s join us from Austin. We rarely get to see them so we were excited they were able to come and spend a few days with us. This crowd gave us a total of 14 to enjoy the fried turkey and all the fixing’s of a traditional Hondo Thanksgiving dinner. Even though the fried turkey was great like normal… I do really miss my grandma’s baked turkey and her famous dressing. I look forward to Christmas day lunch!

At this point I don’t have any pictures from Thanksgiving to post. I tried to stay away from the camera because I wasn’t feeling 100% and didn’t want pictures to prove it. So I’ll see if I can at least get some of the crew from my mother in law.

The rest of the weekend we just enjoyed relaxing and started decorating for Christmas. I need all the rest I can get. Kase is wearing me out and he’s not even here yet. I hope every one had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that it continues throughout the Holiday season as we head into the Christmas events!

17 Weeks and Counting

Well, We have about 17 or so more weeks to go till we get to see our little guy. We had our Dr. Appointment on Wednesday. Everything is going well. It took a while to find his heart beat like normal but once we did it was good and strong. He's kicking around like crazy, so either he's becoming more active, or he's getting bigger to where I can feel him more now. I'm not really sure the reason but it is kind of strange if I don't feel some sort of jumping jacks every couple of hours.

I have been very sick the last few days. I had to take off Tues-Thurs from work. I'm doing a bit better now. The Dr. said that there wasn't much I could do other then rest, drink OJ and take some Sudafed or Tylenol Sinus. That also makes me think his recent activity is attributed to the OTC drugs. Who knows. I sound horrible though. I have my 1-900 voice happening. I also have a nasty cough that keeps a 3 of us awake at night. The dogs sleep through it though. I know so becuase they SNORE!!!

My next Dr. Appointment is scheduled for my birthday. They really didn't have anything else that worked with my work schedule available that week. I have to do the glucose test that week. Dr. Cerney said that she really wasn't worried about me having a problem but they have to do it to be on the safe side. So I'm going to leave work a bit early on my birthday go to the appointment at 2. Drink the nasty stuff, then make Chris take me out for a nice dinner to make up for it.

Well as for the other news, I think we've decided on Kase Michael Braden as the baby's name. Its been a big debate. It is a very hard decision but I still have Konnor in my back pocket and I'm sure once I see the little guys face in March We'll know for sure! Kase seems to me more of an Athlete's name and since he's been so crazy active I think he's going to be. Only time will tell. Kase also means Brave in Irish which is pretty cool. I really wanted his name to mean something.

Well Thanksgiving is next week! I'll post some pictures then. Until then I hope every one has a safe and fun Thanksgiving. Eat alot of Turkey!

20 Weeks!

We have made it to the half way point last week. This picture was taken on the Sunday which was the start of our 20th week! So on Sunday I had a revelation. I am getting huge. If this is the half way point, I'm going to be 2x as big as I am now. Wow! I wont be able to do anything, see my feet, nothing! So when I went to work on Monday morning, I started talking to my friends about my new revelation. This just made it worse. They told me I would be lucky if I was only 2x as big as I am now. It would probably be more like 3x times. AAAAHHHH! I'm scared!

The good thing about all this is that we have a healthy and energetic baby. So far he's very active in the afternoons. Which is good. He lets me slip at night and I'm hoping that his is a sign for a good sleeper. Only 20 more weeks to go till we get to meet our little guy!

It's a boy!

Well we had our Dr appointment on 10/22. We decided to go ahead and find out what it is. I had a feeling ever since I was pregnant that the baby was a boy. Amanda and Brian found out the week before that they were having a little boy. Amanda and I were having alot of opposite issues. She is carrying low. My baby bump looks higher. She wants sweets like pumpkin Cheesecake. I can't eat sweets at all or I'll get sick. So little things started to make me think well if Amanda's is a boy then maybe our is a girl? The suspense started to bug me and I was a little jealous that they knew and I didn't. So I begged Chris to let me find out. Sure enough it was a boy. Its amazing how different pregnancy is sometimes for each of us. So the Chinese baby calendar is right again. 2 March baby boys. Unless the Drs have one of ours wrong. Only time will tell!

The little guy is perfect. According to the weight measurement he is almost 12 oz. So he is a little big for his age by about 4 days.

In the pictures, we have a close up of his feet. All ten toes present. We also have proof of the boy. We also have his first profile shot with his arm resting behind his head, his thumb is sticking out and some say he's already an Aggie displaying a Gig'em. Other believe its a hang 10 and we just can't quite see the pinkie finger.

The Baby's Room

We have started working on the baby's room. The curtains are hung and the Crib and Changer are in. Thanks to Jason for helping Chris set up the crib. The furniture turned out to be very beautiful. It's starting to look like a baby lives here.

Chris wouldn't let me paint the walls so I made him do a polka - dot art project to put on the wall. The next thing that he is going to do is create some letters to spell out the baby's name above the crib. We are getting really close to having a complete nursery.

The Braden Bunch!

Welcome to our family Blog! The Braden Bunch. I know we aren't quite a bunch yet but getting close. In march we will become three. Well Nine if you count our fuzzy family, who I'm sure will show up in the Blog quite often. We have 2 Boxers, Tyson and Riley, and 4 horses, Roany, CC, Apache and Buddy. I hope to be able to keep up as much as possible on the blog so our family and friends that don't get to see us very often get to keep up with the goings on in Hondo Texas. We'll include everything from back yard organizing, family trips to most importantly baby updates! Love you all and hope you visit often!

More then one baby bump

Well most of you know already that there is more then one baby being born in March. Our best friends Amanda and Brian are having a baby too. I'm due March 15 and she due March 22. This was not planned and was a surprise to both of us. We were so excited to be able to share this together. We are both having boys as well so that adds to the fun to be able to watch our two little bouncing baby boys grow up together. This picture was actually taken on on Oct. 10, 2008. Amanda was 16 weeks and 5 days along and I was 17 weeks and 5 days. Our goal is to have our picture almost at the half way point and then another very close to the end to compare our baby bumps!

Back Yard Project

Chris has been working so hard on his BBQ Pavilion. He really wants to get it done so we can have a Super Bowl party at the house. The roof is on and the counters are getting close. He still needs to put on the rock and call out the guy to make the counter tops. Then hope and pray that all the grills ad drawers and such fit in the holes that are cut. More to come!