Julia's 18th Birthday

We celebrated Julia's 18th birthday with two dinners with friends and family.  The first one was at home and I made one of her favorites (tacos).  Julia found a great recipe for buffalo chicken tacos and it's delicious.  Her best friend Marcello came over for dinner and Ethan, Grayson and Oma were there too.  We got her a big 18 balloon, flowers and cupcakes from Sweet Mandy B's.  Her second celebration was at Big Bowl with her friends Kay, Marianna, Marcello, her boyfriend Tim, her dad, Ethan, Grayson, myself, her mom and step-dad Bob.  We had a great dinner, opened presents and had chocolate cake from Portillo's.  We got her Kate Spade sunglasses, a manicure and pedicure at Elizabeth Arden's Red Door Salon (her and her Dad had a mani/pedi date before Big Bowl), a Victoria's Secret Iowa shirt (she will be attending Iowa next year!) and a Kate Spade bracelet.  Her mom and step-dad got her a Tiffany pearl drop necklace that matches her pearl earrings from Tiffany.  Grandma (my mom) got her Victoria's Secret Iowa PJs and a shirt.  

 I cannot believe Julia is 18!  I remember yesterday when she was just 6 years old.  Where has the time gone?!  She is such a mature, smart, sweet, beautiful girl that is now going off to college.  She was accepted into her top 3 choices: Iowa, St. Louis Univ (SLU) and Tampa.  She wanted to go to a small school in a warm climate and thought Tampa was the place to go.  After visiting all 3 schools she changed her mind completely.  She will now be going to Iowa, a big school in a not so warm climate. :)  We are so happy for her and know she will have the best time.  We love you so much, Julia!  We are so proud of you.

Julia's birthday celebrating at Big Bowl

Pictured with her boyfriend Tim

Julia's Holiday Party

Julia and her BFF Marcelo hosted a holiday party for 40 of their friends at his house. Julia spent all day making homeade treats of chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles and chocolate covered toffee with peppermint sprinkles. The food was delicious!  Marcello's aunt owns a catering company so she provided the food. 

Julia has a new boyfriend named Tim and we really like him. He goes to a different high school and is head of the model UN there. He is a really great kid and we are so happy for them. They make such a cute couple. 

Everyone had a great time at the party and they all loved Julia's homeade treats. 

Santa Visit at Macy's

We took Grayson to visit Santa at Macy's.  He wore his new outfit with gray pants, a gray vest and the cutest red and white polka dot bow tie.  He looked so darn cute!  It took about 20-30 minutes to get through the line so luckily they had a lot of fun things for kids to do in Santa's "workshop".  He also loved saying hi to everyone.  We visited Santa last year when he was only 3 months so it was a very different experience this year as he wanted to run around the whole time.  This will be another annual tradition for the Braham Fam.  Grayson was okay with Santa at first so we got two normal pictures, one of him smiling and one looking up at Santa and then he freaked out.  He started crying and looked at us like who is this crazy man.  We got one last picture with Mommy, Daddy, Oma, Grayson and Santa.  It was a success!  Afterwards Oma and I had lunch and took Grayson to the Chris Kingle Market at The Daley Plaza.  We bought a cute little ornament for him and then it started raining so we called it a day.  We can't wait for next year!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

While Papa and Mimi were in town we decorated the Christmas tree.  We listened to Christmas music and had fun putting their own ornaments on the tree.  Every year Oma and I pick themes that the kids are interested in that year and buy ornaments for each kid.  Here are some past ones for Julia: cell phone when she got her first one, drivers license when she turned 16, volleyball when she played, ice skating, purple butterfly, American Girl, red purse, purple heels, and this year one for her high school graduation.  Here are some past ones for Ethan: Tony Romo when he met him at EIU homecoming, White Sox, guitar, basketball, baseball, drivers license when he turned 16 and this year one for swimming.  Grayson got two ornaments last year for baby's 1st Christmas and this year he got an airplane from the movie Airplanes, a real airplane with his name as he is obsessed with them and a German guy that has moving legs from the Chris Kringle Market at the Daley Center.  We also get the kids an ornament that has the year and our family picture inside.  My mom had a tradition of giving ornaments for Christmas and then we took these when we got older and had a good start on our own trees.  I wanted to pass this tradition down to my kids so we have fun picking these out every year.

Family Tradition - Ornaments:

1st Set: Family pictures from 2004 - 2014

2nd & 3rd Sets: Family pictures close up

4th Set: Julia's ornaments

5th Set: Ethan's ornaments

6th Set: Grayson's ornaments

  

Grayson Videos ~ 15 Months

Here are the videos from 15 months: