Four Down... Many to Go

 Tess is a pretty good mixture of Clayton and I. Tess had her first school picture and there is no denying that she is Clayton's little girl. She looks more and more like him every day. A lot of people actually ask if I am

jealous that my child looks a lot like her daddy. I think its a little funny because this child may not look like me but she sure does have a lot of my personality :) We tried to take a four month photo... this is the best that we got... got to love the look of death. I probably have a ton of pictures where I am giving my own mother this face.

This month Tess started smiling back at you when you smiled at her. Now she smiles all the time, mostly when she sees her puppies. Her whole face lights up when she smiles. My mom use to call me her ray of sunshine, well Tess is the same way. When she smiles everyone else in the room smiles. .

One weekend everyone came to the house to watch the game and eat an early dinner before Matt flew back to Florida. Tess had to support her team. It says "My First Texans Tee" T

We had a couple rough weekends during the fourth month. Tess came to visit my mom and spend the night with her Oma and PawPaw Charlie. Her she is helping my mom work. Clayton and I picked her up on Saturday morning. Clayton got sick with the horrible stomach bug that passes through Houston once a year. So I shipped Tess off the my parents so she wouldn't get sick. Good thing she wasn't at home because I had to take Clayton to the ER to get an IV. The next weekend I got the stomach bug and again Tess was shipped off to my parent's house. We are all so thankful that Tess never got the bug (Clayton, Matt, Mona, Kevin and I were not so lucky)

 It finally got a little cold her and Tess was able to bust out some cute winter clothes. While I was getting her pants and jacket out I realized we really were not prepared for the cold weather. A bunch of clothes were bought and she is set for all the cold weather. The weather was nice and chilly for Clayton's game. We put a hat on her to shield her ears from the wind. I think she likes the cold weather as much as she likes being outside.

We hit another milestone this month... guess who can roll-over. Now she rolls everywhere. She realized she could roll to get places so that's what she does. She would roll across the room if we let her.

Three Months and Counting....

We have been pretty busy the last couple of months. Tess has grown way more than I expected. I don't know how ready I am for her to be getting this big!

This month Tess started focusing more. She would focus on the dogs, the tv, our phones, and the iPad. She still loves the tv and gets distracted by it all the time, especially during feeding time. The dogs are still her favorite and she loves to cheer on the Texans on Sunday!

Tess also found her fingers this month. The minute she found out she could put her fingers in her mouth it was over, they barely come out. She also puts everything else in her mouth also. She used to love her soothie now you can see that she now prefers her own fingers. She usually doesn't suck her thumb, it's usually her ring and middle fingers.  

We were at an outlet mall and I saw the cutest converse shoes. They are a little big for her but when she is able to start wearing them she will be able to match her mommy (except I have black ones). This picture makes her feet look huge :).

Clayton started playing outdoor soccer this fall. We have been able to go to a couple of his games. Tess loves to be outside. Sometimes the only thing that will calm her down is going and sitting outside. She doesn't really sit in her stroller for too long, she likes to sit on my lap and watch the action. She is pretty entertained by the game and pretty much the coolest kid in the park!

During her third month Tess hit a pretty fun milestone, she started laughing. For a while she would only laugh for her daddy, but she warmed up and her and I have a ton of fun laughing and playing.

Daycare here we come!

Tess started Daycare last week. I thought I was going to be fine dropping her off but I had to do it fast or I was going to breakdown.

  

Here she is right before

we walked out the door

 

Her bed is one of the ones on the far left and
you can see her playing with one of the workers





   

Here is her report for her first day,
Clayton picked her up and the
ladies had nothing but good things to say!

 



Tess goes to daycare every morning. When Clayton is home she gets picked up early and if he isn't then I swing by on my way home and get her! I am pretty sure she likes going because they have cool toys that we don't have at home!



The Second Month

 

I can't believe that Tess is already 2 months! This past month has been a little calmer than her first one but we still did a lot while I was still on leave.

Clayton and I got out the play mat/piano that was given to us at one of the baby showers. Tess loves to look around and see what is going on around her. We thought the play mat would be perfect, it took her a little bit to figure it out but once she did she loves laying on it and looking around playing with the toys hanging down and most of all looking at herself in the mirror.  

  

Here is a clip of her playing...

Tess started sleeping in her crib, I thought it was going to be a disaster but I think she was ready to get out of her cradle and be in her own room. She is sleeping pretty well and she will even put herself back to sleep if she isn't wet or hungry.

Lexi is still a big fan of the baby, she likes to lay right next to her. Lexi is a little anxious to have Tess old enough to play, she has tried to give Tess toys for her to throw, we keep telling Lexi no but if we don't throw it I guess she thinks Tess is the next best thing!

 Tess has done quite a bit of lounging around. Whether on her daddy or in the boppy or on her mommy. One good thing about this kid is that she can usually sleep anywhere. 

 A couple of weeks ago we went to an Astros game. Tess did great, she only got a little fussy and then went to sleep and was fine till we got home.  

Tess met her first friend, this little girl was so intrigued by her. She didn't really watch the game. All she really wanted to do was look around and look up at the lights. She was pretty tired the next day.

Tess got baptized...

Tess was baptized on August 11th at Strake Jesuit at the Chapel onsite. Fr. Lahart performed the ceremony, he also married Clayton and I.

Before the ceremony we got a three generations picture. Tess was really interested in everything else and didn't want to look at the camera.

Here are some pictures of before the ceremony and during it. My mom made Tess's baptism dress out of her wedding dress. I wore a portion of her veil when I got married and the lace on her dress matched the veil. The dress was amazing.

My brother, Matt is Tess's Godfather. He flew in from Tampa so he could be here for the ceremony. Clayton's cousin, Meredith is Tess's Godmother. She stayed an extra day in town so she wouldn't miss the event. She left to go back to Lubbock very early the next day.

A few of Tess's great-grandparents were able to make it down for the baptism.

And just for fun.. this is what happens when a bunch of people are taking pictures all at once. We are all not looking at the same camera.

Newborn Pictures

We decided to get some Newborn shots done the week after Tess came back from the Hospital. They came out pretty cute. One of my favorites is her smiling in the Owl hat.

We also incorporated Clayton's job in the pictures. She is so cute sitting on top of his helmet.

All of these outfits have been passed down through the Braun family. At one point in time my sister, myself, and now Tess have all worn these pieces.

Road Trip

Clayton was playing soccer in the Firefighter Olympics again this year so we decided to make a road trip out of it. The tournament was outside of Dallas so we stayed with his parents. We were able to stay up there for a week. I wasn't able to go to any of the games but another HFD wife was able to take some pictures and sent them to me. His team didn't do as well as in past years but they ran the tournament differently this year and not a lot of teams were happy.

Tess was able to meet all of her great-grandparents. Tess's GG and GPa saw her just about everyday we were in town. Grandpa Conn and Vicki also stopped by and so did Mammaw. We had a poker tournament while we were in town and there were a whole lot of Harris's in one place. GG and GPa were the big winners.

Tess turned one month old while we were there. We had to take a one month photo. She is laying on her dog that lives at the Harris house and every time we visit she is going to get her picture taken with it. While we were there she also helped me play some Skip-Bo. She also supported the Rangers one night.

I guess Lexi was not getting enough attention and needed to be some body's baby. She stayed in Mona's lap for a while. She has the act down, she will go around the room acting like she gets no attention until someone will pet her. You cant blame her for trying.

We had a lot of fun in Dallas!