Happy B-day, Brynnie-Pie!

The bike was the highlight. She doesn't really understand birthdays yet, but we tried to make the day special for her by waking her up with the birthday song, chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, 3 different types of rice for lunch (she is always asking to eat "wice"), and pizza ("pizzi, pizzi!") for dinner. And then of course cake and a few presents.

Speaking of presents, if anyone else has the same issue with their kids having birthdays right next to Christmas, we discovered that you can still spoil them thanks to the magical places of the D.I. and Savers. :) We got her a baby station with a high chair and bathtub and other stuff on it for $5, a humongous bag of giant legos for $4, and cool farm that makes noises and stuff for $3. With a little love and a whole lot of bleach, they look just like new! :)

Feeling Weepy

I can't believe my baby is turning 2 on Monday!

I also can't believe I am one of THOSE moms who wipes at her eyes and says sappy things like, "Why, it seems like only yesterday...." or "my baby is growing up so fast," etc. I used to make fun of those moms, and now I am ONE of them!

Brynnie in a stocking. Sigh....Sniff......

I do NOT miss....

SNOW!!!

Brynn Language

As we meet with friends and family over the holidays, I thought it would only be fair to give you a heads up on Brynn's own little language. She is becoming quite chatty, and is VERY determined for you to understand her. When she says something, it is often not enough for you to just reply, "Yes, you're right." She wants you to repeat what she has said, just to be sure you understood. This can be difficult, because a lot of her words are still gibberish. But here are a few of the important ones.

Moose!: Move...this is one to take seriously. :)

Yie-yun: Lion...her beloved stuffed animal.

Ci-we-wa: Cinderella...If she says this to you with a pen in her hand, it means she wants you to draw Cinderella. Same thing applies to all other Disney characters you can pick up on. Oh! And "oo-uh-suh" is Ursula.

Can...tee!: Candy...she says this one unfortunately often.

Hweep: Sleep...she's tired.

Tantse: Dance...you might also know she wants to dance with you if she says "I know" (as in "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream") or "Sha-ya-ya-ya-ya" (As in "Sha-la-la-la, Kiss the girl" from Ariel).

Tears: Upstairs or downstairs...she just wants to go with you to the other floor.

Sump: Some. Probably you are eating something in front of her and she wants it. Also, chapstick.

Oss: Off. Generally she is referring to her shoes, but sometimes she'll start from there and then ask you to take "oss" every article of clothing she's wearing until she is totally naked. I usually do it for her cause I think it's cute. :)

High-high: High five.

Waaaaaaaar: Water.

Pinket: Blanket...not one in particular, blankets are just her new favorite thing to play with.

Kers or Papers: Color or papers...means she wants to draw, her other favorite thing to do.

Bop-bop:...She wants to watch High School Musical (she is referring to the song, "Bop to the top").

Hope this helps!

Slappin up gingerbread house pics

So I'm am slapping these pictures up here the same way I slap up a gingerbread house...whatever I can get done while Brynn is occupied. Which usually isn't a whole lot. SO, on Monday for FHE we went to Jeff, Jana, and Emma's because we miss them so much! Also, because we HAD to continue with our gingerbread house tradition. Below are LOTS of RANDOM pictures of making the houses, Emma rough-housing with Brynn who is in HEAVEN over it, and pics of Marty's and my award-winning houses! Emma gives out prizes every year. She is such a great hostess and polite girl, because the only people who won anything were the guests. :) Marty won the most licorice-y house, and I won the most wintry house. Thanks for a great night, friends!

Craftin' up a storm

If anyone is interested in some fun, really easy crafts for little kids, here are a few ideas.

Here is Brynn making a snowy, decorated, cowboy-Christmas-cactus. :)

Glue is her new favorite thing in the world. I love watching how hard she concentrates, just to get herself to squeeze the bottle AND aim it all at the same time.

Here she is making a Santa Clause with cotton swabs. We would spread the glue and then she would say, "Pat, pat, pat" as she attached the swabs to the paper. So, here she is "patting."

Making snowflake ornaments out of Popsicle sticks and glitter. She looks cold, doesn't she? Isn't that GREAT! :)

Voila!

The cactus, the Santa, the top-right is Brynn's version of a snowflake (she started getting really offended when I tried to help, so this one was ALL her), and the top-left is a green piece of paper in a cone with beads (her other favorite) glued on to make a Christmas tree.

Our snowflake ornaments on the tree.

We probably won't win any art contests with them, but it was easy, and SO fun to do together!

Glad

Today I took a toddler on a long shopping trip. While we were out I decided I needed to think positive. This is what I came up with:

1. I'm glad that Brynn has outgrown almost all of her clothes, because that's all the more I get to see of that sweet belly poking out from under her too-short shirts.

2. I'm glad that I drive an old clunker car, because I don't have to worry about selling it. That means that if my husband buys manure and puts it in the trunk and forgets about it for two or three days, I at least won't have to worry about the effect the horrible, horrible stench would have on re-sell value.

3. I'm glad that I don't have teenagers to help their pregnant mom bring in the groceries, because...well, then I would have teenagers.

:)

My Big Fat Holiday Weekend

3 Fun holiday events in 24 hours. I think I like Queen Creek.



Friday night:

“Queen Creek Hometown Christmas” at the Queen Creek Branch Library. A new library just opened and it is so nice! I am so excited to have a good library now without having to drive into Mesa.



Anyway, they had a Christmas party there with Santa, booths, craft areas, and other stuff. Unfortunately, my camera died and I was about to take Brynn's picture with the lame FAKE snow machine. But this is what the library looks like.

Saturday morning:
Queen Creek Holiday Festival & Parade

Brynn's favorite part was the horsies (she says something like "Hote-sies"). She cried whenever they left. Good thing there are a LOT of hote-sies in QC.

Watchin' with Mommy



















And Daddy


















Santa #2 from this weekend


















Daddy loves having Brynn on his shoulders because she caresses his cheeks and runs her fingers through his hair.

















But Mommy loves it because of this.

















In this particular petting zoo, Brynn's favorite was the duck.



















Brynn and Daddy are on the left, walking around the park...probably looking for more free stuff. :)


















And this picture is for all of our relatives. We love you guys, but yes. This is us at a Christmas party in December, outside, sitting in the shade, eating a snow cone in short sleeves. Did I mention we love you?




















Saturday evening:
The Polar Express

Our ward Christmas party was the cutest little Polar Express program. The room was set up like a train and they had a big screen at the front where they showed little clips from the movie. During the clips they had the chefs in costumes dance in and hand out hot chocolate. The conductor stood at the front and gave directions like, "We need to sing songs to make the train go," or "everybody lean to the left," etc. Anyway, Brynn got SO into it. Here she is with the conductor.


















A very dark picture of the train.
















A very dark picture of Santa. And although this was Brynn's third Santa experience in such a short time, she still wasn't a fan of him. She is on the left clinging to Daddy.
















A very radiant picture of Mommy (ugh, can you tell it was rather a long day?) and Brynn waving her golden train ticket around like crazy.
















And a picture of her holding the bell she got from the Polar Express Santa. Her favorite new toy and Mommies new favorite annoyance.

Sporting the baby bump at the holiday functions. I told myself I was NOT going to post a profile pic of myself on the blog. But then, my family lives so far away and...I just couldn't help it.

So, what's in store for tomorrow? The First Presidency Christmas Devotional, choir practice in the morning (ya, I don't remember the last ward in which I wasn't the choir accompanist at some point), so basically an hour of Christmas songs. And then after church is Stake choir practice, so basically 2 more hours of Christmas music. The difference is that tomorrow will be sacred music, and maybe can start the week off on a different holiday tone. I'll call this "the Santa weekend" and now I am going to try to make it a more...edifying month. Any suggestions?

Today's Time-Out

Just a day in the life of a two-year-old...

Here is Brynn's beautiful artwork. She just happened to write on her leg with a super-indelible-never-come-off-til-you're-dead-and-maybe-even-later-scrapbooking-marker.
















She thinks it's beautiful.
















Look at that guilty face.

















Plotting her next evil plan.

Thanksgiving with the Johnson's

*Quick Thanks to Christy for posting hers first, and not copyrighting it, since I pretty much copied and pasted her post. So I haven't gone crazy if it appears I am talking as if I were her, it's just a bad editing job. :)

This was Marty's family's second attempt at Thanksgiving with us here in AZ. Last year they came down, heard that Marty's grandma had passed away, and promptly turned right back around so we could all attend the funeral.

They arrived on Saturday afternoon just in time for the BYU game, which is always volitile since Kelly is such a hard-core U fan and Marty bleeds blue. Christy and I left them at a sports grill to watch it, and we headed home with the kids.

When Kelly and Marty got home, Kelly hurried inside and hung his Utah blanket up inside. Marty is a HUGE BYU fan and so it was really funny to see him react and go tear it down. The funny thing is that none of us saw that blanket again until they left Sunday morning.We played for the next couple of days and took it easy.


Christy and I did some scrapbooking and a little craft project. We make Turkeys out of styrofoam balls, buttons, feathers and silk flowers. They turned out so cute and we had a lot of fun making them.

He was our Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Greg flew in on Tuesday and we all went to the airport to get him. Christy, Marty, Brynn and I rocked out on the way to the soundtrack from High School Musical. Kelly didn't want to participate in that, and I can't for the life of me understand why. ;0) Afterward we went to dinner in Mesa at Tia Rosa's. Yummy! I miss that place.

Brynn was ridiculously ecstatic every second of the day to be playing with her two 2-yr-old cousins. She also fell in love with Christy. I'm talking like, in the first half hour. Right after Christy arrived at our house that Saturday, she went out to the car to get something. Brynn started weeping, pathetically saying, "Hum, Hum, Huuuuuuummm!!!" (That's what Brynn called her - don't ask).

































The park by our house.











































Thanksgiving day Christy and I did most of the cooking, while the boys entertained the kids and helped out when needed. Surprisingly it was not very stressful and the food turned out great.

















Kelly did the potatoes, of course.




















The kids waiting patiently at their table.















After Thanksgiving dinner we all kicked back a little. General all the kids wanted a spot on Uncle Greg. Awe, look at them all snuggly!















It actually RAINED while they were here. A couple times in fact. When it rains the water just sits on top of the ground, because it's pretty much just clay. So after dinner the kids went into the backyard and played.

Carter thought it was hilarious to run through all the water and in doing so tripped and face planted more than once. He was drenched.

Landon, Carter and Brynn were all freezing, so we threw them into the tub. All three of them! Rub a dub dub, three kids in a tub!

Ah, that's better.

Kelly, Marty and Greg also played A LOT of Play Station 2 and Tecmo Superbowl on the Nintendo. I have no idea how late they stayed up every night, but I do know that it was late. Christy and I eventually hid the Nintendo.

Friday Christy and I went and did some Black Friday shopping. We each got some really good deals and had a great time. Neil also flew in on Friday to spend the weekend with all of us. That night Kelly, Marty, Greg & Neil all went to a Phoenix Suns game. When they got to the game they realized that the game tickets weren't in the envelope. They fell out in the house and so Christy, the kids and I all loaded into the van and met them in Mesa with the tickets.The Christmas lights on the Mesa Temple were turned on that night as well, so we decided that seems as how we were in town, we'd drive by and take a quick look. Christy didn't have the stroller with her and there were huge crowds, so we didn't get out for fear of losing the kids (three 2-yr-olds, only two adults...pass).

Saturday was their last day in Arizona. We just hung out and played games. We played at the park and Kelly and Marty created a"Merman" out of Greg. Neil didn't like that so much, but it was hilarious!

The evidence!

Merman Greg.

Short man Greg.

Neil sleeping through it all.

A sad Brynn saying bye-bye to Greg and Grandpa.

And here is a sweet little video of about two minutes of the fun that these three had together. Uncle Greg is SUCH a good sport!

We love you guys and miss you! Thanks so much for coming.