Rainy Days

It seems like it rains in New Hampshire every other day. It's much more wet than Huntington Beach, so we've been adjusting to all the rainy days where we're stuck inside. Here's what we do on rainy days...

We fill our hair with flower clips and pose for pictures.

Bryn is always putting flower clips in my hair, and I often forget to take them out before I get the door or leave the house. It's awesome.

We do lots and lots and lots of coloring. It's my favorite thing to watch Bryn draw! 

This is "Little Red Riding Hood raising her hand"...of course.

 We try out new hair styles like the trendy bald spot look.

 We bake. A lot.

 We dress up as cats with bow ties and black clown noses.

 We get in Mya's space.

We sew and craft and cross off projects from our to-do list.

We build forts with the kitchen table and chairs.

(Mya looks totally scared of Bryn's flailing legs. I would be, too!)

And I should mention, Mya is wearing her first turtle neck in that picture! Cute! Except you can't see the turtle neck part because her neck rolls are hiding it.

We blow up the air mattress and have family movie nights in the front room.

Or we just put on our rain boots and splash in the puddles with friends!

New Sister!

My older brother Jae got engaged this week! This will be my first brother to get married, which means the first sister-in-law to join the family. Woohoo! I am so excited for Jae and his beautiful fiance Amy, and I can't wait for their wedding in January! I'm so glad they came to visit us in SoCal before we moved and that I had a chance to meet Amy. She is wonderful and I couldn't be happier for them!

Three Months

This cute little cutie is three months old. And oh, I love her way too much.

This is such a great stage because she just smiles and coos and babbles to herself all day long (when she's not snoozing). Bryn and I just move her around to where we're playing and she just kicks around and goes nuts watching us. Bryn is definitely her favorite person and she always lights up when she sees or hears Bryn.  It is so cute how much she loves big sis already! Mya loves to grab onto things (especially hair) and she loves us to put noisy toys around her, so she can kick them and hit them with her arms. Mya's a super eater....takes after her mother....and a great sleeper. She sleeps 8-9 hours a night with some solid naps throughout the day. She eats at 7:30am, 11:00am, 3:00pm, 7:00pm, and 10:00pm, and has a pretty predictable routine.

 I get emotional thinking about how much I love this little girl. I'm just so grateful to have her in our family and to have another little soul to love. I remember so clearly this time of year last year and all the stresses of trying to get a viable pregnancy going. Working with a couple different high risk doctors, the daily progesterone supplements, the heparin injections morning and night, trying to prep myself in case it was another miscarriage. I think of that so often when I see Mya's healthy little body and big smile. I know that our miscarriages and pregnancy issues were really minimal compared to the infertility issues that many other women deal with, but I still count Mya as a little miracle babe. And I couldn't be more grateful to have her as our daughter.

 Brynlee got totally jealous when I was taking solo pictures of Mya. I only took a few shots before Bryn put on a baby headband of her own and jumped into the pictures.

 Mya didn't seem to mind, though :)

And here's the Bryn and Mya comparison.

2 Month Check-Up....(a month late!)

Mya finally had her "2-Month" check-up today, nevermind the fact that she'll be 3 months on Wednesday!

Everything went well and she did fine with the shots. Bryn went to the appointment with me and was so motherly about it. Twice she exclaimed "Oooh....she's such a chubby little thing! Look at those chubby wubby legs!" I guess it's fine for Bryn to say that now, but hopefully Bryn won't still be saying that to Mya when they're teenagers. Not cool.

Okay, here are Mya's stats. Drumroll......

Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz (96th percentile)

Height: 25 inches (99th percentile)

Head: 15.5 inches (39th percentile)

Is it bad that Josh and I laughed out loud when we head her percentiles? Bryn was tall, skinny, with a large head. Mya is tall, chubby, and small head. Why is that so funny to me? Both girls are totally cute!

*The doctor did the percentiles according to 3 months instead of 2 months....For those of you worried about the accuracy of the percentiles. I know this is serious business.

Who Wore it Best?

Bryn at 4 months, Mya at almost 3 months

There's nothing special about this outfit, but I love to compare Mya and Bryn's pictures when they were are in the same thing. Whenever I put Mya in one of Bryn's old outfits it brings back the memories of when Brynlee was at this same cute baby stage. 

Mya's hair has definitely been thinning, but I guess she still has a lot more than little bald Bryn had. 

That's all. I love these two.

Movie Night

After a month of an empty living room we finally got a couch today. Woot woot!

Josh has been gone all day (14 hours on campus! Grad school is super fun!), but that wasn't going to stop Bryn and I from "breaking in" the couch with a movie night. 

The verdict:

The couch passes the comfort test. Phew.

And Mya snoozed next to us the whole time, so I guess the couch passes the sleep-able test, as well.

Bryn has claimed the corner seat as her own, but that will have to change.

And lastly, Bryn and I shouldn't be left alone with a bag of popcorn because the two of us polished off that whole bowl in about seven minutes. I guess that's not too surprising, but it's a little alarming just the same.

P.S. I know that's an awkward picture of Bryn, but it was actually the least awkward picture of the night and we had to document a big night like this!

Painting

 This girl loves to paint!

I like to sit on one end of the table painting or sewing, Bryn sits on the other end doing her thing, and Mya hangs out on the ground beside us kicking and coo-ing (or squirming and grunting). 

We did this twice last week and it was so fun! It's already getting cold and wet in New Hampshire, so I think we'll have plenty more painting days in these next few months of fall and winter.

Goliath

Last night we talked about David and Goliath for Family Home Evening. 

Bryn worked hard at creating our Goliath picture and then we taped him to the side of our house and took turns firing marshmallows at him. 

 Bryn had a great victory dance when the "stone" hit Goliath in the forehead and he was declared dead at the scene.

 Mmmm....marshmallows. I think this was Bryn's dream FHE: 

(1) drawing on "extra big" paper

(2) chucking marshmallows

(3) stuffing marshmallows into her cheeks when we weren't looking

FHE is getting more and more fun as Bryn gets older and more excited about it. It's one of the highlights of her week even when we do something silly or simple.

Tunbridge World's Fair

 Last week Bryn and I checked out the Tunbridge World's Fair in Vermont and it made for a fun afternoon. I haven't been to many "fairs", but the Tunbridge fair was a little different from the Orange County fair that we were familiar with. Here are a few special features that weren't a part of the OC fair...

"Cool old things". What is better than "peering into the past" and looking at cool old things? 

Unfortunately, Bryn wasn't buying it. I thought she'd be excited to see the century-old cement mixer...(what 3 year old isn't?)...but no go. Maybe next year she will show a little more respect and awe for the ancient artifacts of Vermont.

 Country dancing performances by some cute elderly folks. Two little ladies played the songs on their violins and then the dancers did their thing. It was kind of amazing. I loved the top hats!

 Bryn and her little friend Emma livened things up with a little dance performance of their own.

 Alex the Jester.

THE one and only Alex the Jester. Wow.

I don't even know what to say about this performance. I've tried to explain it, but it's just indescribable. Bryn stared at him blankly for 5 minutes and then said "Mom, this man is really strange!" And yes, he is truly world's strangest man. 

 Bryn loved this band of mechanical orangutans that circled the fair playing old fashioned tunes. We passed it about five times and Bryn went nuts every time. The Tunbridge Fair has been around since 1867 and I think these singing monkeys have been around for most (or all) of that time!

 It's never a good idea to creep up behind a large cow and grab it's tail. Bryn has always been big on confidence and courage, but not always so big on common sense. Can cows kick backwards? That could have been dangerous. Tomorrow's Family Night lesson is going to be on cow safety. Never pull the tail.

 Petting goats. 

(That is a goat, right? Why I am suddenly doubting myself and thinking that could possibly be a sheep? With horns? Maybe a ram...with small goat-like horns? Yikes. Maybe before we cover cow safety we need to back up and cover the basics of farm animals. Namely the difference between a goat and a sheep!)

 Basically, it was a fun day at the one and only Tunbridge Fair.

And can I just add that Vermont is completely beautiful! It's really hilly and totally covered in trees and just absolutely gorgeous. Everyone told me New England was beautiful and they were right!

Gymnastics

Well, I kind of missed the boat on signing up Brynlee for preschool here in New Hampshire. I should have been researching preschools before we got out here, but I was too busy having a baby and moving and pinning craft ideas on pinterest. (Bryn doesn't start kindergarten til 2014, so I guess it's not the end of the world that she's not in preschool this year).
But the next best thing to preschool is gymnastics class, right?
All the other kids her age will know how to read and write, but Bryn will be able to do a round-off back handspring, so it all evens out.

 In all honesty, signing up Bryn for gymnastics was one of the best parenting decisions I've ever made. I'm kind of kidding but I'm kind of not. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. Bryn is crazy about it! She came in to our bedroom at 6:30 this morning and said "Okay Mom! I've got my stretchy clothes on! I'm ready for gymnastics!" She was about 5 hours too early, but it was pretty cute. Here are some pictures from her class this week....(They're totally blurry because I was holding Mya and she was silly and squirmy the whole time, but you can still get an idea of Bryn's gymnastics skillz).

I am the only parent who laughs throughout the whole class. Something is just so funny to me about seeing Bryn try some of those little tricks. Ballet is the perfect activity for most little girls, but for silly Bryn gymnastics is such a perfect fit! 

Paint

Josh is usually gone every night meeting with his little study buddies on campus. I've decided I need to keep myself busy with hobbies and projects in the evenings while I'm husband-less and the kids and snoozing. Last night I finally blew off the dust from my paints (I don't think I painted at all during Mya's pregnancy) and started a small painting that morphed from one subject to another until it ended up as a weird little made-up floral arrangement. 

I forget how much I love painting....even when I'm horribly rusty. All day I've been thinking of subjects to paint and I'm excited about starting some new projects. Hopefully this post will make me more accountable to get to work and make some good art! It's been too long! 

Free Craft #2: Bulletin Board Make-over

Our home is gradually coming together and feeling more like home.

Here's another free craft  Bryn and I did this week...

 We had this old bulletin board (from high school!) hanging in our kitchen, and we made it a little more colorful for our boring kitchen.

We mixed some old paint samples to make the green color and then painted the border. Then we used some extra blue fabric from Bryn's curtains (in California) to cover the cork board. We just attached it with hot glue around the border. I tried to measure the fabric piece to cover the cork perfectly, but of course there was gaps in certain places, so we covered it up with a ribbon border.

I don't love the white ribbon, since it's a little see-through, but it was the only color that we had enough of! Bryn really wanted to use thick hot-pink ribbon as the border, but luckily there wasn't enough of it to go all the way around :)

We attached the ribbon with fabric-tac instead of hot glue since Bryn helped for part of it. Bryn and a hot glue gun would be bad news!

 So here's the finished bulletin board in our kitchen. It takes up the whole wall right there and adds a little color to the space. I added our calendar and a few silver bulldog clips with my grocery list, coupons, etc. There's empty space at the top of the board, but I'm sure it won't take long to fill it with one thing or another.

Total cost: almost nothing!

I can't honestly say it was totally free because I did buy two of those silver clips for $2.00 :)

So here is our $2.00 bulletin board make-over!