Christmas and Snow

I finally have 2 seconds to sit and post again! I love the Holidays but man talk about being busy! So here are some pics of Bryn on Christmas morning. She had way more fun ripping the bows off of all the presents so we opened hers for her. Here she is holding one of the movies we got her, I think Prince Caspian. She also got Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E.And here she is looking at the cool blocks I got her that now I think I want to wait until she is older to actually let her play with. Right now she doesn't appreciate them but they are sooo cute!

And the big news is that it snowed all day on the 26th in St. David!!! It was so weird to see snow again and man was it cold, but it was really pretty. Here are a few pictures of the scenery.

And finally we were so spoiled this year. We got Guitar Hero 3 and a bunch of blu-ray movies (including The Dark Knight - our fave) and I got Justin a digital picture frame and he got me a Dyson and a really cool clock! And that sounds funny on here like he got me what?!? but I really wanted the clock and the Dyson so he did really good! He also got me Heroes seasons 1 & 2 on HD and Blu-ray. He hid the Dyson at his parents house and didn't give it to me until last night and I had no idea he had done that! It is pink and I am so excited because with Bryn eating everything she can find on the floor this will be nice. Bryn was the most spoiled of all and now I can't even find room for all her cool new toys and stuff that she got, including a stuffed Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) that is bigger than she is!. Spoiled baby! Well now on to 2009, can you believe it? See you in the new year!

Christmas newsletter

Here is our 2008 year in review! This is our Christmas newsletter this year so enjoy! We love you all!

Santa Clause

Our ward had a Christmas activity where Santa read a story and then the kids got to take pictures. Well the first one came out ok, and Brynlyn seemed to be doing fine.

Then out came the quivering lip and she decided that Santa did not come in peace or something and she really started crying. It was funny cause I didn't know if she would freak or not, but she has a fear of men and, apparently, Santa Clause as well. But I got a few pics out of it. It was really cute.

Anyways, that is our holiday update for the week.

Test to see if I am left or right brained. Kind of a weird test but interesting. Enjoy and you should do the test and post it too!

You Are 40% Left Brained, 60% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

What Bryn was doing...

...while I just posted about her. What a little stinker. She threw all my books on the floor. Kids are so funny.

Bryn update

Well we went to the Dr on Monday and Bryn now weighs 20 lbs. 3 oz. That actually puts her in the 73rd percentile (she was in the 90th last time) so that is good. She is 28.25 inches long and she wears 12 mo. clothes with no problem now. Crazy huh. And she is starting to stand on her own without holding on to anything. She does try to take steps but she just falls, however, I know that walking is only a week or two away. And, finally, her first top tooth just popped through today! It is her right front tooth and that thing has been trying to come through for 2 months so yay!!

Elliptical

Allright so we FINALLY got the elliptical that Justin got me for my B-day on Friday. Yea a little late right? Well anyways it is here and I finally was able to work out on Saturday. It felt so good. This is the box:

And here it is all put together which is how Justin and I spent our Friday night:

And Bryn turned 9 months old on Thursday so we of course took some more pictures. Man I am running our of poses! But here are the cute ones that I took:

Fun huh. She automatically starts posing anytime I get the camera out. Apparently I trained her well. Also speaking of pictures my Mom gave me my Dad's old 35mm manual camera and I am learning how to use it and take some old fashioned pictures with a camera and film. I know, it's like I am back in the Dark Ages but I think it will be cool to learn and take some pics that aren't digital. Later!

Christmas pics

So I decided to put Bryn in her cute Christmas dress and take a few pics. This one turned out cute so I thought I would post it early. Good times, good times. Later!

Thanksgiving pictures

Ok, it has been forever since I posted but the holidays make it so hard to get anything done! First, seeing Beth again was fun and made me realize how fast time flies. It is good to see how much Beth has grown in the last year and a half. I ended up not seeing Twilight though and I am ok with that since I have really only heard negative things about it. And then we spent Thanksgiving with Justin's family and that was fun. This first picture is Bryn making a huge mess at G & G Pollard's house while we were cooking. What a pill!This is her first Thanksgiving meal -she had some chicken and some potatoes and loved it!
This is her in her cute outfit before we left.


And finally I thought this one turned out so cute. It is a little statue in the garden of the house we were at.
We had a good Thanksgiving and ate sooo much! Isn't that the best/worst feeling? The food tasted so good but feeling that full makes me feel so bloated and tired. So that has been our last few weeks and I feel like I have just been going everywhere and not getting anything done. Oh well, I guess that is life with a 9 month old. And now on to Christmas! We just put our tree up for FHE and Bryn has decided that the tree is too pokey and she doesn't like touching it. I think she will keep trying though so I have to really watch her until we take it back down. Oh well it is worth it, I love this time of the year. Happy shopping everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Make a Smilebox greeting

Life

So no exciting news or anything just life. Last week I had a good week and worked and played with Bryn. Nothing really exciting, we are still having to baby-proof the house. And I cleaned out our office and that is about all that happened. But this coming week should be funner. On Wednesday I am headed down to the Tucson airport because my lil sis Bethany is coming home from her mission in Detroit!! I am so excited for her, from her letters she had a great mission and has changed a lot. It will be so fun to see her again. This picture is of her and 2 comps. She is the one on the right. This is the only picture I have of her on her mish. But anyways she was/is an awesome missionary - she always has been a talker and would talk to anybody and everybody - the mission just focused the conversation more towards Gospel principles. So I am proud of her and excited to see her again and have her meet Brynlyn. Also on Thursday night my sisters Elise, Nat , Beth and I are going to go see the midnight showing of Twilight which I know is not going to be anywhere near as good as the book but worth the admission price to see it once. I don't know why people have to take a perfectly good book and make a very mediocre movie with so-so acting and expect that readers will love it. I have never liked a movie better than a book I have read except Jurassic Park and that was because the book was too complicated. But we'll give Twilight the movie a shot. And hey if nothing else there are some rather attractive males in the movie so I will just ogle them and ignore the complete thrashing they do to the plot. I'll post again after I get back (and give you my honest opinion of the movie too).

8 months!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here is the project I made of her 8 month pictures. Enjoy it!

what's up with us

Hey all - so here is a funny picture of Bryn sleeping last week during a nap. Doesn't look comfy to me but she was so out that she didn't even flinch when I took the picture. What a silly girl. Well anyways the big news from us is that Bryn started crawling last Tuesday and has been a terror ever since. Just kidding she is actually really good, she just loves to open cabinets that have lots of off limit stuff in them. So I am getting my exercise now. She loves to be able to go where she wants so that is nice. And last week I was working really hard on making some stuff for a craft boutique this Saturday. Here is the flyer for it. There is going to be tons of cute stuff so feel free to come if you want to get some cool stuff for Christmas presents.

Here are a few pictures of what I made. They are magnet boards to put misc. stuff on. And if you can't come to the boutique I am taking custom orders so just email me and I can get what you want and make it for you.

The pictures don't look nearly as good as the boards look in real life. If you are interested then just let me know and I can e-mail you more pictures. If you have some scrapbooking pages you like I just need 2 of the 12x12 size for the bigger section and 1 12x12 for the smaller. I am charging $30.00 per board and I can have them done by Christmas. They make great gifts! Ok, I will stop selling stuff. I actually have a blast making them and they always turn out so cute. I love having a craft to work on. So that is all from me!

Halloween slideshow I made

Make a Smilebox greeting

Fairy

Ok so our ward had our annual trunk-or-treat on Saturday night and Justin took Brynlyn. I know Halloween isn't until Friday but I took these super cute pictures of Brynlyn and couldn't wait to post them. She is a little fairy this year. I made her a tutu and bought some wings. It was the cheapest homemade costume ever but I think it turned out dang cute! She is such a little doll! This is her clapping which she does all the time now and if you look closely at this one you can see her teeth.

So those are pictures of Brynlyn. And why did I not go with them you ask? Well that would be because Justin had me chasing down some speakers for our house in north Scottsdale. Oh yes, we got a smoking deal on the last 2 rear speakers for our surround sound system because they were discontinued. So because they were discontinued the only Best Buy in the valley that had any left was at the 101 and Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd. And the 101 was closed down to 1 lane pretty much the whole way out there. It was lame, but hey we got both of our speakers for half of what 1 used to cost. We've been saving up and waiting for a sale plus we had a bunch of money on gift cards that we wanted to use so it turns out that we spent nothing out of pocket on them and still have a bunch of moula left on the cards. And then Justin spent all day yesterday drilling holes in our walls and running speaker wire so that they work. What a hassle but we're done and they sound awesome and we saved a ton of money. So that is our good news and what we've been up to. At least we haven't had any more scorpions!

It finally happened!

Yes, that is a picture of a scorpion. In my house. I was not happy about it. All summer with Bryn I have been thinking that after 3 years of no scorpion we would probably finally get one and guess what - we did. It was almost in our kitchen and when I found it I had no shoes on and it was 10:30 at night. It was pretty freaky. Justin smashed it with a shoe and it is now in a baggie and hanging from our corkboard. But this is a 2 in. scorpion and I am just so glad that no one was stung. So we now own a blacklight and Justin will be checking the house and yard every once in a while. Gross!

She did it!

Ok so while I was checking my email this afternoon I had Bryn in here with me playing on the floor. I felt her playing with my chair, but she always does that. Well, I finally looked over and she had pulled herself totally up and was standing. So I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics. The one of her looking to the side I put on here because you can see that she does indeed have hair. It is so blond and fine you can hardly see it, but it IS there. And it almost looks like a mohawk in the picture and I thought it was funny. Also this morning when I went in to get her out of her crib she was almost standing, so I guess it is time to lower the mattress. Crazy monkey! On a side note while watching conference they kept advertising ldsjournal.com and so I went and checked it out and it is pretty rad. I have been copying my blogs into it because they let you add footnotes (pictures, scriptures, links, whatever) and they are going to add a print it as a book feature and that is easier than the blog slurp thing which I have previously used to organize my blog into a book. So check it out if you are interested.

Cold weather

Another week has gone by and we finally had some nicer weather! I love fall/Halloween time!! We took a walk on Saturday and here is Bryn in a super cute coat that she inherited from cousin Makinzie. Don't you just love the little bear ears? She was adorable. And in other news we had my mom come visit since last Friday and that has been fun. Yesterday we went to Hobby Lobby and got some fun stuff. And other than that Bryn has been getting in her top teeth and she is having the worst time. Especially at night she just can't sleep; so neither can I. But last night she slept for 11 hours so she must have finally tired herself out. And she can get from her stomach to a sitting position and back down now so that is good. She is going to be mobile before I know it!! Anyways that's all she wrote!

7 months!

Here are Bryn's 7 month pictures. She wouldn't let me take any cute ones but while I was getting her food she grabbed an ad and started playing with it and I thought she looked cute.


And these other ones are from her playing with a box in the den while I was working the other day. It was pretty cute and she was having a blast.


I still can't believe she is 7 months old. I say that every month but man it's crazy. It reminds me of Presidnt Monson's talk today about change and how much she changes and learns every day and how fast her babyhood is going to fly by and soon she will be starting school. It makes me want to just hold her all the time and not let her grow any more! But that's life and I can't stop it. Anyways I sure do love her so much!

Standing

Here are just a few pictures from the last week. This first one I was trying to get of her teeth but it just turned out cute: This is my little monkey who now holds everything with her hands AND feet.
And here she is trying to pull herself up on our table. She is obsessed with trying to stand but can't quite do it yet. So that means if one of her parents is near she pulls up until you hold her up and let her wiggle and try to balance and stand and look at everything. It's pretty funny actually.
And this is her mouse from Ikea. When we showed her this mouse and a teddy bear to see which one she would show a preference for she smiled so big at the mouse and just grabbed it. And now she eats the nose and tail. She sure loves that thing.
And other than that not much has happened. We went to second cousin Dakota's baptism on Saturday morning (into the Catholic church) which was an interesting experience. Then I had a fun girls night and watched the Women's broadcast, which was really good, and afterwards saw Nights in Rodanthe which I did NOT enjoy very much. And then I have just been working on making Bryn's Halloween costume -she is going to be a fairy and I made a cute tutu and bought some wings. I am sure that within 5 minutes she will have probably pulled her wings off and sucked on all the ribbon on her tutu but if I can get 1 cute picture it will be worth it.

Another tooth!

Ok, so I know I just posted a little while ago and then I felt in Brynlyn's mouth again and her other bottom tooth is through! Maybe that's why she has been so dang grouchy still. So we have 2 teeth and I saw them but they are barely through the gums. Cool huh.

A Tooth! A Tooth!

We have a tooth! (By we I mean that I have all of mine still and that Brynlyn has her first one). So Tuesday after weeks of grouchiness and much whining her little tooth on the bottom left side finally poked through her gums. She is still a huge grouch and it is still bugging her, but hey at least it popped through! So that is the news here. Once it comes in more I will post a picture. As of right now I have only felt it because she won't let me look in her mouth - she covers it with her tongue.

Time flies

...when you are so dang busy! Being a mom IS a full time job, I don't care what anyone else says. So anyways it has been awhile but it is just the same old stuff for us. I work and play with Bryn and we have fun. This past week and a half I have been getting up sometime between 6 and 7 am because that is when Brynlyn is getting up and I HATE IT! I am not a morning person and so maybe this is Heavenly Father's way of trying to get me into the habit. That doesn't mean I have to like it though. I found out that Justin got me an elliptical for my birthday. The story goes like this: The doorbell rang and the UPS guy delivered an exercise bike and I thought well, it's no elliptical but it will work. (I have been hinting I wanted an elliptical for a while now). So I called Justin and he said, "what?!? I got you an elliptical". So I called the company and they had no record that a bike was sent to us and they informed me that our elliptical should be here in about 5 or 6 weeks. They were going to have someone call me to figure out the mistake a week and a half ago and no one ever did. So basically we have a free exercise bike and the elliptical should be here in a few weeks. Not that we really need the bike or have anywhere to put it but hey free is free right? And the weird thing is I signed for the bike and it has our name on it and everything. So I have no idea what the heck happened. Well here are my pictures for the week. This one is Bryn playing with a water bottle that I always give her when I am doing the dishes. She loves to squeeze it but of course as soon as I got the camera out she wouldn't do it anymore.

And I just love this little dress so I did another portrait of her. I think by the time I have more kids I will have a million pictures of Bryn!
So anyways th..th..th..that's all folks! See ya!

Family Pics and other news

So we finally got our family pictures and Bryn's official 6 month pictures done. We went to this old shed and took some cool photos. It was fun but hot outside. Kaylea did a great job and here are a few of my faves. This is just a family shot:

I love this shot of Bryn:
Justin and I:
The cutie pie:
Bryn and I:
And, finally, getting kisses from Daddy: Well we had fun taking them and I think they turned out great (except I need to lose 30 lbs.). Well Bryn also went to the Dr for her 6 month visit and she is super healthy. She weighs 18 lbs. 9 oz. and is 26.5 in long. She makes me so happy and I love my little family so much!!