December 29th

DECEMBER 29TH, 2006

Josh and I went on our first date. (No picture, unfortunately). It was a blind date, although we had technically seen each other ten years before. I remembered him. He had no recollection of me. Ha ha. DECMEBER 29, 2007

Notice the ring on Josh's left finger.

We had been married for five months, and we went out on a fun date to celebrate the one year mark from our first date.

DECEMBER 29, 2008

Notice the bulging belly. (How could you not?)

I was pregnant and December 29th was Brynlee's due date. Josh and I spent the day playing basketball with my family, performing a rousing song and dance routine for FHE talent, and then going into labor that night at my parent's house. (Bryn was born the next day). DECEMBER 29, 2009

Notice the cute girl ... wearing Valentine's Antenna in JoAnn's. We played with family, went to the Draper Temple, played with silly Brynlee, and reminisced about how are lives have changed in the last three years!!! Bottom Line: We are blessed. And we like the 29th of December

Quiet Book, Part 3

Here are my final quiet book pages, for now.

The flowers all have velcro.

The front of this page is pretty lame.

(The food has velcro on the back so it can stick to the plate.)

The pages are getting progressively worse (and sloppy!) but I'm running out of time!!! I have ten pages done now so I just have to put them together into the book and then it should be done....in the next hour or so. Hopefully this will keep Brynlee occupied on the plane ride to and from Utah!

77 Degrees

Today has been so warm. Too warm, actually. Isn't it December!? I convinced Josh to take a break from GMAT studying and go to the park with Brynlee and I.

And we had a pretty good time.

Especially Brynlee.

Less Than A Week

Christmas 2006 (Gotta love Jord's closed eyes!)

Next week at this time we'll be UTAH!!! I can't wait!

Blegh

Tonight I ruined this little painting. I liked the fresh background, but then I started making hasty decisions and before I knew it the foreground was all muddy and blegh. It was actually still fun to be painting, though. I've been so busy sewing lately, but I need to fit in painting more than once a week! New Years Resolution.

Quiet Book, Part 2

Here are the latest pages I've finished for Bryn's Quiet Book. I'm hoping to get it all done by Christmas, but it's taking way longer than I thought. We'll see.

They sky page looked a lot cuter in my head! Ha ha. The kite and butterfly are driving me nuts, but I just can't bring myself to pick out the stitches and change it. Oh well.

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).

Book Club

I have to choose the upcoming book for book club. I've thought of a few options, but does anyone have a recommendation? I know lots of you do book clubs, too. Please leave a comment if you have a good suggestion!

Our November book was "Wild Swans", a fascinating historical nonfiction of a Chinese woman Jung Chang and her family's journey as Mao Zedong reigned. The details of their life were horrific and heartbreaking. The courage and integrity of Chang and her family is unbelievable. It was a great book. (Similar to "Life and Death in Shanghai", if you've read that one.)

Brynlee's New Habit

Last week Brynlee discovered that her finger is just the right size to stick up her nose. And she's been doing it ever since. Great.