Fun

Being at home with Bryn all day is fun. Really fun. Especially when she lets me play with her awkward baby hair.

I keep looking at this picture over and over and can't stop giggling.

Oh, Brynlee I love you. And I love your patchy hair.

Hide and Seek

Hmm....where could Brynlee be?

Christmas Shirt

Modeling her new shirt for the ward Christmas Party
My friend and I made our girls Christmas shirts this week. I cut out a simple green wreath shape, backed it with interfacing and attached it to the shirt. But it just looked like a green cheerio. So I attached some green ruffles, and it looked much wreath-ier.

This was a quick, fun project. I want to do this for other holidays, too.

Impressive

There are certain accomplishments that I am pretty proud of, but this stacking job ranks right up there at the top of my list.

(Please ignore the fact that I had all of these dirty dishes in my sink before I was finally forced to do dishes. That's not important.)

Someday I will have a beautiful kitchen with a dishwasher, but until then I will continue perfecting the art of dish-stacking.

P.S. For any aspiring dish-stackers reading this, I offer my biggest secret: Use large, sturdy braces (like cookie sheets, pans, etc) on the sides, and all your dish-stacking dreams will come true.

Bryn's New Favorites

Bryn has been going a little stir-crazy since our car's been in the shop and we've been stuck indoors. She's discovered some new favorites. Some are great, some are a little problematic. In no particular order, Bryn's new favorites are:

*Eating cheese

*Climbing into drawers and emptying them

*Shaking it to Beyonce and "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch"

*Wetting the bed. On purpose. Three nights in a row.

*Opening or pulling the lids off of anything - pens, lotion, containers, dvd cases, etc.

*Drawing on furniture, her hands, and clothes with markers, colored pencils, or pens. Bryn claims she's just expressing herself, but I'm not buying it.

*Nuzzling her cute little face against mine, all throughout the day.

*Rummaging, in general

*Fake coughing

*Ripping things - tissue, paper, the pop-ups in her books, my hair, etc.

So we had a little family council to clarify our rules with Bryn and agree upon future punishments. We'll see if the threat of dish duty will keep her in line.

Deliveries

I did lots of Christmas baking today, then sent these two out on deliveries tonight. The weather is finally cooling off enough for Bryn to wear her cute pink beanie from my mom. And miracle of miracles, she didn't pull it off!

Quiet Book, Part One

When Josh was camping with the Scouts this weekend, I started making a Quiet Book for Brynlee to take to church. I've only finished three pages so far. (Because I am really bad at sewing around tight curves! Yikes!) This has been such a fun project so far. Josh and I have made up the pages, with a little help from my youngest brother Logan (the animal and insect expert in our family). I'll post more pages as I finish them. Hopefully I can get the book put together by the time of our plane flight in two weeks!

(This page won't be complete until I buy red felt for the lady bug.

Blah

It's been dark, gray, cold, and rainy all day.

Our car has issues once again. I'm crossing my fingers Josh will be able to drive it home tonight without a big fiasco. (It's time for a second car! One that works! I know I've been saying this for months, but I mean it this time!)

And I just realized the attire for Josh's work party this weekend is "black cocktail dress". Do I own a (modest) black cocktail dress or anything even close? No. The thought of having to buy a new dress is quite nice, but what is not so nice is the pressure of finding a dress for a good price, by Saturday, and without a car. Oh, the trials and afflictions I have to suffer! Ha.

Raffi

I have quite a collection of Christmas music, ranging from Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Martina McBride, and from Jon Schmidt (maybe my favorite album) to N*Sync (burned from my Mom! Ha ha.) But my collection is lacking one key album. Raffi. Am I the only one that grew up listening to "Must be Santa" and "On Christmas Morning"?

There's something a little unsettling about the album cover, but I must admit that he has some catchy tunes. No Christmas is complete without some Raffi Christmas tunes!

While Josh is Away

Josh is on a camp-out with the Scouts to Joshua Tree. Brynlee and I have certainly missed having Josh around, but we've had a pretty good time with just the two of us.

Lots of time at the park, numerous games of hide and seek, lots of snacking, a little shopping, a long walk around the neighborhood to touch every tree in sight (Bryn's idea), and finally cuddling up to watch Bryn's favorite show, Baby Einstein (I couldn't convince her to watch Sense and Sensibility).