josh laura and brynlee

Making Valentines

2012-02-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

Bryn and I have had so much fun making valentines this year!

I just planned on making a few with her, but Bryn's been going crazy with it, so I think we've made enough for everyone in California!

Bryn insists on being a part of the whole process:

-Helping me cut our full-sheet cardstock into thirds

-Gluing on paper hearts

-Helping me stamp the V-day phrases

-Picking out all the pink/red/purple crayons

-And coloring them!

Bryn loves a good project and I love just sitting next to her and watching her work!

Winter Youth Conference

2012-01-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

We had Winter Youth Conference this past weekend and it was so much fun!

We had lots of devotionals and workshops, played Capture the Flag at Central Park, ate lots of yummy food, played games, went ice skating, had line dance instruction and a dance party, and finished it off with a fireside and testimony meeting last night.

These events are always exhausting, but so worth the work! I love seeing the youth build friendships, have fun, and strengthen their faith.

(This is the only picture I have of the whole weekend, but it's me and Alex...one of my old young women who moved to a different ward in our stake. Love you Alex!)

P.S. You can see in this picture that my baby bump is starting to emerge! Earlier than when I was pregnant with Bryn!

W Day

2012-01-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was W Day for playgroup. I didn't take many pictures, but here's what we did...

We talked about W is for Weather. We read "Little Cloud", one of Bryn's favorite Eric Carle books. It's a cute one about clouds and rain.

Then we read "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". Bryn had never read this one before, so she thought it was hilarious!

Bryn and Ivy were hard at work, coloring parts of their "Weather Wheels"

Practicing writing the letter W

Here is Bryn's finished "Weather Wheel". We talked about each kind of weather and then they colored the pictures and glued them to their wheels. Bryn keeps checking out the window to see if she needs to change the arrow. Yesterday the arrow stayed at "sunny" all day long, but today she has loved changing it from sunny, to cloudy, to windy, and back to sunny.

Halfway through playgroup Bryn remembered witches start with W, so she dashed off to her room and came back as a "witch", clown collar and all. So here is the little witch!

We also did a weather matching sheet and one other weather game, but I didn't take pictures.

Fun day!

Peter Rabbit

2012-01-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

Remember how Bryn went on a Birthday-Date with Josh and bought Peter Rabbit?

Ever since that night Bryn has no longer been Bryn. She has been Peter Rabbit. And I am Cottontail and Josh is Mr. McGregor. All day she refers to me as Cottontail instead of mom. And all day, literally all. day. long, she corrects me if I call her Brynlee instead of Peter Rabbit.

I thought it would only last a day or so, but this might be a permanent change??

Yesterday Bryn announced "Hey Cottontail- Peter Rabbit needs to go potty. I'm going to put my little rabbit bottom on the toilet and use my rabbit paw to flush the toilet."

Today Bryn had a doctor's appointment and every time the doctor or nurse called her Brynlee she said "I'm not Brynlee anymore. I'm Peter."

And all day she asks for carrots instead of her usual snacks. Naturally, Peter Rabbit prefers carrots to goldfish or bananas.

She runs from room to room, stealing Mr. McGregor's vegetables and rolling around, tangled in the "goose-berry nets". You'd think she'd be getting sick of this story by now!

I don't know how long this rabbit phase will last, but we just bought 10 pounds of carrots just in case. Peter Rabbit loves her carrots!

(Three is a great age!)

Bryn's Birthday Pictures

2012-01-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we did Bryn's yearly photo shoot with Michelle Photography. Michelle is an amazing photographer and she also happens to be one of my very best friends! I LOVE these pictures! I have about 50 favorite pictures from the shoot, but here are a few of my very favorites...

Michelle also did Bryn's 1-YEAR and 2-YEAR photos and each year she's gotten such great pictures that capture Bryn's personality!

P.S. We used Christmas money from my Tueller grandparents for this photo shoot, so Grandma Tueller if you are reading this...Thank you! :)

V-Day

2012-01-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

I hosted V-Day for playgroup today!

It was hard to think of what to talk about that started with a "V", but luckily it's close to Valentine's Day, so we did Valentines stuff.

I made little felt mailboxes and valentine hearts with V's on them. The girls had to say who they were sending each of their valentines to, then they could put it in the mailbox!

Then we got out paper, stamps, stickers, glue, and made some valentines. I loved how meticulous the girls were with their gluing and the placement of each heart. It was serious business!

And then they practiced writing the letter V. They are so much better writing their letters than they were when we started! (It doesn't hurt that V is a pretty simple letter, I guess!)

Fun day! Hooray for V!

A little news...

2012-01-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

I'm 17 weeks along, due July 1st, and couldn't be more thrilled!

We are so THANKFUL for all the prayers from our family and friends that have helped this little baby hang on!

After my 4th miscarriage last summer, I was referred to a new high-risk pregnancy doctor (Dr. Sassoon) and she and her staff have been awesome! I wish I would have been working with them from the start. We're been doing a few new treatments this time around, including Heparin injections every 12 hours. I'm not a big fan of shots (who is?), but it's a small price to pay if it will help me stay pregnant the whole nine months!

We are feeling really optimistic about this pregnancy and really grateful that this baby hasn't had any complications yet. Hopefully all will go well and we'll have a new addition this summer!

25

2012-01-21T09:30:00.000-08:00

I turned 25 yesterday and had such a great birthday!

Bryn and I spent the morning at Disneyland. (That's the only picture I have to show for it). It's the first time we've been to Disneyland without other friends, and it was super cute to have a fun day with just Bryn. We did whatever Bryn wanted to do.....which meant multiple rides on Little Mermaid!

Then I had a fun date with Josh last night!

I hope my next 25 years are as wonderful as my first 25 have been :)

Birthday Eve

2012-01-20T08:41:00.000-08:00

Josh and I ate these at 10:30 pm last night, in celebration of my Birthday Eve.

We normally don't celebrate "Birthday Eves", but I love any excuse to make a late-night treat!

Cinnamon rolls are maybe my very favorite treat, and THIS recipe is probably my favorite recipe for them. It's the Lion House Bakery recipe and they are amazing! (I use skim milk instead of half and half for the glaze). YUM!

Ric Rac

2012-01-13T20:53:00.001-08:00

Josh is on a camp-out tonight with the scouts, so Bryn and I spent the night playing with ric rac!

A long time ago my friend gave me a big stash of ric rac, trims, and bias tape but I had forgotten about it til Bryn found it today while rummaging around my craft drawers. In the spirit of Valentine's Day (she's a just little excited for this holiday!) she picked out all the V-day colors and made a nest for Oscar the ostrich.

While Bryn was busy nesting, I made a handful of simple Valentine's dish towels with ric rac remnants from the stash. (For an even cuter version of ric rac dish towels, check out THIS post on "Aesthetic Nest". Josh's talented cousin Annaliese has so many fun ideas on that blog!)

Three cheers for Ric Rac parties with Brynlee!

Yesterday

2012-01-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Bryn's playgroup was cancelled, so we did the next best thing:

We walked to the beach, found a bench on the pier, and watched the surfers.

Bryn thinks surfing is hilarious and laughs so hard when surfers fall and their boards flip up into the air. It's good entertainment! She was begging to go out in the water and try it herself, but that definitely won't be happening any time soon!

Love Pillow

2012-01-10T13:54:00.000-08:00

V-Day Project #2...

I made this pillow yesterday during naptime with materials I had on hand. I just cut the cursive "love" out of white felt, hand stitched it onto some home dec fabric, and then sewed it up!

Hooray for simple, FREE projects!

It would have looked more Valentine-ish if the fabric were pink (I didn't have pink fabric), but the gold goes along with our V-Day Garland, so I think it works.

(P.S. I got the idea for the pillow from THIS beautiful room).

Birthday Date

2012-01-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

We have a tradition that every year Bryn gets to go on a birthday date with Josh to pick out a new book from Barnes and Noble. Last night was the big night!

Bryn had so much fun last year, and had been anticipating this year's date for so long! She was completely giddy as she left and she was even more giddy as she returned.

Last year she picked out "The Little Red Hen". This year she picked out "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". (I'm glad she's picked out good ones, especially since I'm not even there to influence her choices!)

After the Barnes and Noble they made a stop at Wendy's for a little treat.

I am not very good at establishing family traditions, but this is one tradition that I really love. It's the cutest thing ever to see Bryn so excited about her special night with her dad!

Beach Day

2012-01-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

I really love January in Southern California!

It's been so warm this week and we've been enjoying the awesome weather with lots of time running around outside, playing at parks, and hanging out at the beach.

V-Day Garland

2012-01-04T14:21:00.000-08:00

Bryn LOVED the Christmas season with all the decorations, books, crafts, goodies, and excitement. As soon as we put our Christmas decorations away Bryn started asking me every day "Hey Mom! What holiday is next?!" And when she heard it was Valentine's Day she started asking "What do we do on Valentine's Day?" and "What decorations are we putting up for Valentine's Day?" We don't really have any V-Day decorations, so Bryn and I are going to change that! Here's our first project:

Yesterday we headed to JoAnns, stocked up on felt, cut out tons of circles and hearts, and made some simple garland. Bryn loved being involved in the whole process, especially putting the shapes in order and handing me the next shape as I sewed. We still have a few weeks before we'll actually put them up (still too early for Valentine's decorations, right?), but at least we've got one V-Day decoration that Bryn is excited about!

I got the basic idea from Dana's "Happy Day Garland" found HERE.

Primary

2012-01-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Bryn's first day of Primary at church! I can't believe she's old enough to be a big kid in Primary! She had so much fun and loves her new teacher.

Bryn's Birthday!

2012-01-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

Usually we're in Utah for Brynlee's birthday and we do a little party with my family, but this year we were back in California. I was bummed we couldn't do a family party, but it was actually really fun spending the day with just her and me!

She was bounded out of bed in the morning and sang happy birthday to herself.

And she chose orange juice and square cereal (Chex) for her special birthday breakfast.

We did some fun things during the day and then she helped me make some yummy chocolate cupcakes. (I used the Magnolia Bakery recipes for the cupcakes and the chocolate buttercream frosting. I actually don't really like cake, but this recipe is yummy).

We had a "party" that night with my uncle Mark and our friend Dede who lives down the street. They were so nice to come and sing to her, help us eat cupcakes, and make Bryn feel important!

Opening presents

Thanks Mark and Dede for coming over!

And most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite little girl!

Last of the Utah Pictures

2011-12-31T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here's the last pictures from our trip to Utah...

My parents, Bryn, and me

Bryn loved parking herself on the little ottomans and reading books

Playing "Polly Pockets" with my Dad

Bryn was crazy about the Polly Pockets. It's always fun to see Bryn enjoying the my old toys that I loved as a child!

The girls: Getting pedicures the day before Rie's wedding.

The boys: playing games on Christmas Eve

We got new sweats on Christmas Eve. This position was a horrible idea because (A) it's totally unflattering but more importantly (B) the boys loved jabbing and tickling me as Mom was taking the picture. You can tell by the picture Logan is up to no good!

We had a fun party with the Clarkes, my dad's extended family. Bryn loved doing crafts and running around with her second cousins. I wish she got to play with them more than once or twice a year!

Playing with Jae

Practicing the "Flex Arm Hang" on the basketball rim

We also had a fun party with the Tuellers, my mom's extended family.

There's nothing my brothers love more than some good Christmas chimes.

We had a White Elephant gift exchange at the Tueller party which, of course, provided lots of laughs. I brought the black "du-rag" and Grandpa Tueller ended up with it! Classic!

- - -

This trip to Utah seemed to go by way too fast (probably because the first part of the trip was busy with wedding details), but it was still so fun to be with our families and fit in as much as we could!

Christmas Day

2011-12-31T18:36:00.001-08:00

We spent Christmas day at my parent's house and it was wonderful! I love it when Christmas is on Sunday because it's great to go to church and hear of Christ...the whole reason behind the holiday. My mom is ward choir director now, and it was a treat to hear the choir's Christmas program.

These are all my siblings minus Marie who spent Christmas with her new in-laws

Bryn and I before church. She still looks half asleep!

We didn't open presents before church, but we did see what Santa left in our stockings. Bryn was pleased :)

My mom's parents went to church with us and then spent the morning with us afterwards. Grandpa enjoyed a little head rub with my mom's funny scalp massager.

Grandma Tueller had just finished her cancer radiation a week before Christmas, but you'd never know it! She was as radiant and energetic as always! She even insisted on cooking the bacon on Christmas. Love you Grandma!!

Bryn LOVED my mom's big stash of Christmas books

Reading with Jordan

Bryn loved all her Christmas gifts, especially this little doll cradle from my mom.

My dad's parents joined us for Christmas dinner and games that night.

What a wonderful day!

Brynlee is THREE

2011-12-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Three years ago today our sweet Brynlee was born! It's been a blessing and a joy to have her in our family and I'm so grateful to be her mom. She is so silly, sweet, confident, smart, and creative. She is my little buddy and I'm grateful to spend each day at home with her.

Happy Birthday Bryn!

Homemade Christmas Gift #2

2011-12-29T22:19:00.000-08:00

Another homemade Christmas gift this year was sewing throw pillows for my sister's new apartment. She just got married and she needed some pillows for her bed. Her sheets are pale blue and her duvet is a charcoal gray color, so hopefully these pillows will be a fun pop of color. Zippered pillow covers are a simple sewing project and THIS is the tutorial that I always refer to.

Homemade Christmas Gift #1

2011-12-29T13:14:00.001-08:00

We always do a gift exchange with Josh's siblings and this year we had Becky and Hema's family. Becky said they could use some quiet activities to keep their young kids entertained during church, so I made a couple things...

- - -

(1) First of all, I made a "Dry-Erase Quiet Book" using my friend Autie's awesome tutorial that you can find HERE . I don't have a picture of it, but I printed off lots of coloring sheets and activity pages from the online Friend Magazine, put them in a binder in heavy-duty sheet protectors, and then added a pack of dry-erase crayons. You can color on the pages and then just wipe it off clean for next time.

- - -

(2) Then I made some really simple felt activities. The background for each one is 6 inches by 9 inches (a half sheet of felt). The background pieces are glued down, but the other pieces can be moved around. (That's probably obvious).

Butterflies

Fish Pond

Christmas Tree

Flower Garden

Autumn Leaves

Dinner Plate

Rainbow

Jack-O-Lantern

Faces

Ice Cream Cones

Names

(I included the names of all the family members)

The pieces for each set were put in super fancy snack-size bags

And all the pieces and backgrounds were put in a big gallon-size ziploc. And that's that. I usually don't make homemade gifts, but these were fun projects to put together!

Bryn was a little sad that we gave the felt activities away, so I'm working on making a set for her!

Utah: Hawkins

2011-12-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

We had a great trip to Utah and had so much fun with our families! Here are some pictures with Josh's fam, all photos via Josh's phone...since I didn't have my camera!

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

Having fun digging around

Hunter, Bryn, Vela, Hema, and Halle

We spent a few days/nights at "the farm" with Josh's parents. Bryn LOVES "Tag" the cat and always tries to follow it around.

Feeding carrots to the horses

Walking down the lane with my Mom in law.

Bryn feeding "Tag" breakfast

Josh's mom is an amazing baker and cook. One of my favorite things she makes is her amazing breads!

Beckam and Brynlee were good buddies

Playing games

The cousins love to dance around when Josh's dad plays the guitar

Cute cousins!

Josh's sister Jess is Bryn's preferred hair stylist and she gave Bryn her annual shearing.

Bryn had fun helping her Grandma Hawkins in the kitchen

Josh's fam LOVES to play games, so over the break we played Rook, Apples to Apples, Word on the Street, Settles of Catan, Sequence, and Ticket to Ride. My favorite was playing Rook with Jason and Brandi. Fun times.

Playing with the wigs

It's a fun tradition to spend Christmas Eve with the Hawkins side. We have a Christmas devotional, sing songs, play games, eat lots of good food, open presents, and have a talent show with the cousins. Bryn's talent was singing Silent Night. She sang it about two octaves too low for her range, but that made it even better.

Usually all of Josh's seven siblings are in town for Christmas Eve, but this year it was a small group! We missed all the other Hawkins families, but it was still a great night!

I am lucky to have married into such an awesome family!

Rie's Wedding

2011-12-21T11:42:00.001-08:00

My beautiful sister Marie got married yesterday! I left my camera and video camera in California, so I got zero pictures, which is a bummer. But a friend sent some pics to my Mama.

My freezing fam outside the temple

The only picture I have of the reception...Logan and Bryn having a little chat. What a wonderful day!

Tester

2011-12-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas time means waaaay too many baked treats! We've been baking almost every day the last week and Bryn loves to be my little helper. It takes triple the time to make things because she has to be a part of every step. She has also designated herself as the "Special Tester", which means she is the one to taste the first goodie of each batch and tell me whether they pass her standard of approval.

I think I was my mom's designated "Special Tester" my whole childhood! And I'll gladly resume that role again when we're in Utah next week!

Ward Christmas Party

2011-12-12T20:50:00.000-08:00

We had our ward Christmas Party at the church on Saturday and my favorite part was watching Bryn dance and dance and dance. There was a cool folk band performing Christmas songs and Bryn was loving it!

I tried a few times to upload a silly video of Bryn shakin' it, but to no avail. Just imagine the cutest thing ever :)

Disneyland

2011-12-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Jason and Brandi and their girls were in town and it was so fun to meet up with them at Disneyland for a day! (They came on a really cold day!)

Bryn had so much fun with her cute cousin Hunter and Halle

Today was another fun day at Disneyland, although we were overdressed for the unexpected heat!

Small World is really cute at Christmastime. They decorate it with tons of lights and Christmas decor and they sing Christmas songs.

And I love the other Christmas decorations around the park, too.

Hooray for Disneyland and hooray for Christmastime!

Babies

2011-12-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

How do I convince Bryn we actually do want another one of these...

(This is cute, jaundice-yellowed Bryn at 3 weeks old)

In every prayer Bryn says she prays for a "new baby in our family", but on Saturday she stopped in the middle of her prayer and said "Mom...I actually don't even want a new baby in our family. I only want a new KID in our family. I don't really like babies, but I do like brothers and sisters that know how to READ."

And now the wheels in her head have been turning and she's told me more and more ideas of the perfect type of "kid" we should add to our family.

So our options are: (1) shift our approach and look into adopting a KID instead of trying to have a baby, or (2) convince Bryn all the wonderful things about BABIES. I think we'll stick with the second option for now :)

R Day

2011-12-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

Today I hosted R Day for playgroup and it was a fun one. We started off with some books on rain and rainbows. Then we made rainbows with felt.

Aubrey and Bryn

Ivy

Then I put elmer's glue onto their letter R's and they stuck on the rainclouds and the rain.

They practiced writing the letter R and colored rainbows.

And we snacked on rainbow fishy crackers and rainbow fruit by the foot.

Hooray for R!

Marie's Bridal Shower

2011-12-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

The whole purpose of my trip to Utah a few weeks ago was for my sister's bridal shower! It was a shower with both sides of my extended family, so it was great to see lots of cousins and aunts! I didn't take any pictures, but my aunt Carolyn and cousin Diana sent me some pictures....

Me, Marie, and Diana.

Diana, a former event planner, coordinated the shower and she is so talented at this sort of thing! No detail was overlooked!

Some of the food

Marie and her cute, little parfait

Diana interviewed Marie's fiance and used it for a game at the shower

Four generations

Marie and I are such good friends and I was so grateful to be there to celebrate with her!

Brynlee getting to know her second-cousin Anna

Love you, Rie! Can't wait for the wedding in three weeks!!!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

Right after I got back in town from my Utah trip, my brother flew in from San Fransisco. Jae comes down every so often and it's always so fun. We spent Thanksgiving with him and my uncle Mark who lives around the corner. I cooked the turkey, rolls, gravy, and pies, and Mark made brought the vegetables, stuffing, and a mean batch of mashed potatoes. It was a great meal and so much fun to be with Mark and Jae!

Bryn LOVES Jae and had so much fun playing with him. Any time she'd catch him sitting down she'd bring out her blanket stash from her room and cover him, saying "Ok Jae, it's time to get comfy and cozy!"

One of Jae's best friends is getting married in a few weeks and specifically asked Jae to be sporting a mustache at his wedding, so Jae willingly obliged. Bryn, however, is very anti-mustache! The whole weekend Bryn repeatedly told Jae "I like everything about you, Jae, EXCEPT for your mustache!" She kept asking him to wash it off. When we dropped Jae off at the airport Bryn said "I hope I see Jae again! But not with a mustache. I like everything about Jae but his mustache." Despite the mustache, we had a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for flying down, Jae!!!

Black Friday

2011-11-26T11:06:00.001-08:00

While Josh was working, I did my share of Black Friday shopping with Bryn and my brother Jae. Can you tell what's at the top of Bryn's Christmas list??

At every store we went to (well....except for Best Buy) Bryn found a Men's furry hat to keep her warm. I think she'd make a cute Eskimo.

Play Group: Thanksgiving Day

2011-11-23T18:56:00.001-08:00

I hosted the Thanksgiving Day at playgroup and it was a fun one!

We started off by reading some Thanksgiving books, talking about cornucopias, and playing with felt cornucopias I made.

We played "Pin the Feathers on the Turkey"

Each girl got a little turkey snack plate with a PB & J body, apple and orange feathers, cranberry eyes, cheese beak, and pretzel legs.

I cut out lots of cardstock leaves and we made "Gratitude Wreaths". Each girl told me 12 things she was grateful for, one for each leaf. It was so cute to hear their answers! If you can't read the leaves, Bryn's answers were: "Grandparents, Ivy, Aubrey, Mom, Dad, babies, fruit cups, rocks, beans, going to Utah, Santa, and Disneyland. "

I had planned on doing one other craft where they would make "Indian corn" by using Q-tips to paint the kernels on the cardstock corn. BUT....the girls were extra silly and energetic and I was nervous to get out PAINT with them. So I skipped that craft and I printed out a quick Thanksgiving coloring sheet instead!

Quick Utah Trip

2011-11-21T21:42:00.001-08:00

I just got back from 5 days in Utah and it was wonderful!

Cooking with Grandma

Playing the piano with Logan

Bryn's second-cousin Avery was verrrry friendly with her, but Bryn was completely focused on her food. Food first, cousins second.

A little performing

In HEAVEN at Grandma Tueller's house, playing with the Little People sets my Mom grew up with.

Uncle Rich brought Bryn a HUGE new book and read it to her before bed

Bryn LOVED playing this horn all weekend

She even played it while hanging upside down on Jordan's back

Hanging out with a skewer

It was fun to get to know Devin, my sister's fiance. He and Marie are so cute! Only one more month until the wedding!

We had a big family dinner on Sunday and Marie and Jordan drove up from BYU. (Pretend that I'm in a cute Sunday outfit instead of sweats!)

Bryn loves Jord

My mom, Bryn, and Logan

Not pictured:

Playing games at Grandma Tueller's house

Getting together with my dear dear friend Lindsey

Lots of fun play time

Talking wedding details with Mom and Marie

And....the whole reason I went to Utah: my sister's bridal shower! I didn't take any pictures, so I'll post about the shower when I steal pictures from my cousin.

- - -

As always, I was crying all through the airport after saying goodbye to my mama! And as always, I left Bryn's favorite red blankie in Utah....which I seem to do every time we visit!

A Good Pipe

2011-11-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

Bryn finished her lunch today and said (in astonishment) "This lunch turned out to be pretty good, Mom!" When I asked her if she was ready for her afternoon nap she replied, "After a good meal and a good PIPE, I'll be ready for my nap." WHAT!!??

She's never used that line before, but I know just where she got it: Curious George. The page above reads "After a good meal and a good pipe George felt very tired." Oh brother!

Surprise!

2011-11-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

My sister had a surprise visitor at her bridal shower last night: David Archuleta!

He knew this was his last chance to swoop in and steal Marie before she's off the market!

(Actually, he was headed to another bridal party in my parent's neighborhood and ended up at Marie's shower by accident when he saw ladies carrying gifts into the house.)

As sad as I am to have missed little David, rumor has it that Justin Bieber will be making an appearance at Marie's second bridal shower next week. And you bet I'll be there for that one!

What We've Been Reading

2011-11-08T11:47:00.001-08:00

Josh has a month break from any studying and I haven't had anything big going on lately, so we've had lots of quiet reading time in the evenings. Here's our current reads....

Josh: "The Brothers Karamazov"

This is one of my all-time favorites, and finally convinced Josh to read it. He's enjoying it, too.

Me: "Emma"

I love the movies of Jane Austen books, but I've never actually read one of her books until now. I'm 1/3 of the way through Emma and so far I'm loving it! (Thanks for the book, Rie!)

Bryn: "A Little House of Your Own"

Bryn has about 100 favorite books right now, but this one is read very frequently around here! It's a book I grew up with, and my Mom tracked down an old copy on Ebay for Bryn. It's a cute story. The only down side is that every time she reads it she wants to make a "little house of her own" with blankets, chairs, etc. :)

October

2011-11-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

A few last October pictures before we get too far into November....

Bryn was really excited to carve pumpkins, but once she found out about the messy goop inside of them, she decided to let Josh do all the carving! She just sat next to him doing Halloween stamps. (As a side note, I am still not used to this SoCal humidity! Our jack-o-lantern got squishy and gross in just 2 days!)

This is Bryn's favorite thing she got Trick-or-Treating

And Bryn will miss this crow now that it's packed away in the Halloween box. It followed her all over the house!

M Day

2011-11-03T14:01:00.001-07:00

Today was M day for play group. I didn't take many pictures, but here's what we did:

They practiced tracing their names and the letter "M", and then colored their "M is for Mouse" worksheets.

We read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", which is a fun one. (Thanks to Dede for our copy!)

We also read "Squeak-A-Lot", which is another cute mouse book. Bryn loves checking this one out from the library!

I made little puzzles for each girl with a mouse on one side and cheese on the other side. (I don't know why that mouse picture is flipped sideways). They needed a lot of help with this activity, so I should have used wider and fewer craft sticks...or waited until they were older!

Not pictured:

Doing a mouse matching game

Going on a mouse hunt for cheese (yellow post-its with hole punches in it)

Snacking on string cheese

Easter Egg Hat

2011-11-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

This doll with the Easter egg hat has been positioned all over the house today and it's been cracking me up. Bryn knows it has been making me laugh so she keeps showing it to me again and again and laughing hard herself. Why do silly little things like this make me laugh all day?

In other news, Bryn just exclaimed, "Mom! Some of your hairs are white like SANTA! What in the world!!!???"

Thank you my observant child.

L Day

2011-11-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

I'm hosting playgroup again this week and today was L day!

We talked about LEAVES today and started off with some leaf rubbings. The girls had a lot of fun with it! (If you were trick-or-treating in our neighborhood last night and saw a grown man combing through flower beds in the dark....that was Josh finding leaves for me. Ha ha. He's a good husband!)

Then they did a little matching game with different leaves

We read "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert

Love this book!

And another cute one: "Leaves" by David Ezra Stein

Cute, cute story

No play group is complete without felt, right? The tree branches were glued down, but the girls had to arrange the leaves onto the tree.

Bryn admiring her work

Hooray for L!

Trunk-or-Treat

2011-10-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the annual "Trunk-or-Treat" at the church. Months ago Bryn decided to be a monkey and she was so excited to dress up tonight! I bought the brown leggings and shirt, then made the monkey ear headband, hair bow, banana necklace, and the tutu with the tail. (She got called a mouse and a puppy tonight, so I guess it wasn't obvious what she was...Ha!)

Before we went to the activity at the church Bryn wanted to "climb a tree like a monkey", so we went to the park and let her climb her heart out.

This is our little friend Colton who was also a monkey tonight. We used to watch Colton a couple days a week, so Bryn loves him and was excited that he was a monkey, too!

Doing the Candy-Corn Ring Toss

Bryn had lots of fun going from trunk to trunk and getting CANDY!

But as much as Bryn loves candy, she was actually more interested in putting rocks and leaves in her candy bucket. Sometimes she couldn't grab a piece of candy because she had two fists full of rocks! (She collects rocks every day, everywhere we go!)

Hooray for a fun night!

Afterwards, she got in her monkey pajamas, found her stuffed monkey, and picked "Curious George" and "Eight Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" as her bedtime stories. Can you tell she's kind of going through a monkey stage?

Family Fun Day

2011-10-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

I kept telling Bryn when Josh was done with the GMAT and other projects that we would have a really fun day with all three of us. She's been so excited for our "Family Fun Day", as she has called it, and today was the day!

One of the things on Bryn's list for "Family Fun Day" was frosting Halloween cookies. We don't make sugar cookies often, so this was a fun, new activity for her!

This cookie is my favorite. I can't even tell what shape it is...(ghost?) and this is after Bryn mixed all the colors together into a lovely grayish color.

Fun day :)

Datey Datey Date

2011-10-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Every weekend for the past what-seems-like-forever Josh has been studying for one certification test or another. And when he had a little break from studying this summer I was crazy with Girls Camp and Youth Conference stuff. But........Josh is done studying until January, so we have a few months break!!!! It's been so nice for him to be able to come home from work and just play with Bryn or relax.

Besides quick temple trips, we haven't had a date in way too long, so tonight was such a blast! Hooray for dating! Hooray for playing mini-golf with pre-teens and ruffians at Boomers! Hooray for treats from Corner Bakery!

Stickers

2011-10-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

How to keep a two-and-a-half-year-old happy at a two-and-a-half-hour volleyball game...

A little game called "Cover every Polka Dot with a Sticker"

(Not pictured: my sticker-covered back. Courtesy of Bryn)

Hooray Hooray

2011-10-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be a good day! Lots of things to be happy about!

-I'm going to Disneyland with Bryn after breakfast

-Josh and I just finished a huge project with deadlines and stress, and I'm so relieved to have it behind us!

-I'm going to a volleyball game tonight with the young women. Fun fun fun.

-After a random week of HEAT we are back to cool fall temperatures. Hooray!

-Bryn has been especially cute/funny/wonderful lately.

-I discovered Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownies. So good. (Too good).

-In exactly two months and one day I'll be at my sister's wedding! Can't wait!!! (Aren't her engagement pictures gorgeous?)

Bryn

2011-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

So many things make me laugh about Bryn. Motherhood is wonderfully entertaining, especially as Bryn gets older and sillier. Today I've found myself laughing every few minutes at something funny she's said or done....silly little things that are probably only laughable to me!

One of my very favorite times of the day is right now (1 pm). Bryn is just going down for her nap, and I love listening to her talk and sing herself to sleep. She started off with a dramatic monologue on how badly her finger hurts from pulling off a hang nail ("...I pulled my broken nail off and now I am dying. My finger is sore and hurt and my band-aid might fall off in bed...")

Then she started in on a wonderful medley of The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow/Do Re Mi/I see the Light (Tangled).

Her medley was cut off abruptly, however, when she exclaimed "I've got it! I know the mystery! It's...... INGREDIENTS! That's what we need! OF COURSE!!!!" (??)

Now excuse me as I park myself outside her door to hear even more :)

Today

2011-10-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

I started off the day with this...

And ended the day with this...

With lots of laughing with Bryn in between.

It's been a good one.

H Day

2011-10-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was H day for play group. I was planning on talking about HOUSES, but Bryn was insistent on doing HATS (no surprise there!), so we went with it.

Bryn was eager to wear different hats throughout the day, but the other girls didn't think it was such a good idea!

We practiced writing their names and coloring H's

I made a little hat matching sheet and the girls did so good with it

We read a couple of Bryn's favorite books on hats. First, "Hat" by Paul Hoppe

It's a cute story and I like the simple illustrations

Then, "Do you have a Hat?" by Eileen Spinelli

It's a cute book with lots of different hats and "famous" hats like Abe Lincoln, Carmen Miranda, etc.

I made simple felt faces and the girls had fun trying on different felt hats

Bryn

Ivy

Aubrey

And one more of Bryn because it's rare that she looks at the camera and does a normal smile!

G Day

2011-10-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

I've hosted the play group this week and Tuesday was G day.

I made little GARDEN "books" and the girls worked so hard coloring the pages.

The finished product

They also colored VERY fancy G worksheets

One of my VERY favorite authors is Lois Ehlert and she has two really great book on GARDENS. The first is "Planting a Rainbow"

This book shows how flowers begin as seeds and the whole process it takes to become flowers. Beautiful illustrations!

And the second one is "Growing Vegetable Soup"

It shows the whole process of growing vegetables and then harvesting them and making soup! I love the clean, colorful illustrations!

We also went on a hunt around our apartment looking for GREEN things.

And we snacked on GARDEN vegetables!

I was actually babysitting two other kids on Tuesday, so it was a full house with 5 little kids running around! But it was a fun, busy day!

Making Bread

2011-10-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

Lately, things have been busier than ever (yikes!), but tonight my to-do list was put on hold and my apartment was filled with these beautiful, smiling ladies! I taught the young women how to make yummy wheat bread and it was a blast....at least to me! (We used my Mom's Bread Recipe, which can be found HERE).

Of course, today was the HOTTEST day in weeks, so my apartment got so warm with all the added bodies and the oven heat! The "ocean breeze" wasn't cutting it :)

Renee prepping the pans

Sarah, Elizabeth, and Morgan mixing the 2nd batch of dough

Suzy and Elizabeth hard at work

Morgan getting all her frustrations out with the kneading

Our eight finished loaves! The loaf on the bottom left is my favorite! :)

We ate the first batch, and then the second batch will be used for the Sacrament bread at church on Sunday. While the bread was baking we worked on Personal Progress Faith experience #4 that talks about the Sacrament.

I love these girls! Fun night!

Nests

2011-10-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

If ever I don't see or hear Bryn for 5 minutes, this is what she'll be doing. Just as soon as we've finished putting away the last "Blankie Nest", she slips back into her room and pulls out all the blankets to make a new one. It's kind of a messy game, but it's super cute to see how silly and chatty she gets as she hangs out in her nest with stuffed animals. I love to just lay next to Bryn and listen to her conversations with Polar Bear or Teddy. She always mimics phrases she hears me say, so it's awesome and hilarious to listen to what she's picking up from me. I could go on (I mean, we really love nests over here), but I think I've said too much already.

Three cheers for Blankie Nests!

Happy Happy Birthday

2011-10-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

The birthday boy is home the ice cream cake is half-way gone.

Hip hip hooray!

Friends in a Tent

2011-10-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

When I asked Bryn at bedtime what good things happened today she had three answers:

"I got to paint! I found Minnesota!!! (the missing puzzle piece from our states puzzle) And I had two different friends in my tent!"

Bryn played with a little friend in the tent all morning, and then Uncle Mark stopped by for a tent visit later on. Best day ever for Bryn :)

Happy Birthday Josh

2011-10-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

(Josh's 25th birthday....right after we got married)

Josh turned 29 today! But we haven't celebrated yet because he left out of town at 5 am this morning for a business trip....nothing better than waking up at 4:15 am on your birthday, right?

Bryn and I are kind of bummed we didn't get to spend any time with him, make birthday cake, open presents, or take any birthday pictures. And since I don't have a current 2011 birthday picture....hence the classic birthday pic from four years ago. Good memories!

I won't get mushy about Josh on the blog, but he is the best and I am a lucky, lucky girl.

P.S. I took Bryn to Target today so she could pick out something to give Josh as a birthday gift. When I asked her what her gift ideas were she had three ideas: (1) A wheel, (2) A new eye, (3) A box full of hair. Good options, but we went with something different.

Halloween Books

2011-09-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

We checked out a big pile of Halloween books from the library this week and here Bryn's two favorites of the bunch. Both happen to be by the same author: Erica Silverman

Big Pumpkin is such a cute, cute story. I think this will be the Halloween book we buy this year. Different Halloween characters have to work together to break the big pumpkin off the vine and then they all eat pumpkin pie together. It's a cute, well-written story. Bryn LOVES it. The Halloween House is a funny spoof on the "Over the Meadow" classic book/song. Do you know that classic? Bryn loves the original, so she loved that this book is read to the same "tune" but with Halloween scenes. The illustrations are great, too.

Hooray for holiday books!

Disneyland

2011-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today I bought myself a Disneyland annual pass. Yep. I've thought about it since we've lived here, but I was too practical/CHEAP to get one even though we only live 30 minutes away from the park. My friends all have passes and I always said I was going to get one, but I never thought I'd actually do it.

But you know what? It's been a really hard year and a half and I had another disappointment this weekend, and so it was time for something FUN! A Disneyland pass is the next best thing to a new baby, right? All joking aside, I think this will be a really fun thing for Bryn and I to do each week. We spent all day there and Bryn is already asking to go back. It's fun to see her so excited about something! I think I've done a good thing :)

Same

2011-09-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm still finishing Bryn's photo album from 2010, and I just found these pictures of Bryn exactly a year ago. Her hair is a little longer now, but her personality doesn't seem to have changed much. I love this girl.

This is Brynlee

2011-09-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

Josh made this little rack for all of Bryn's cute little purses and necklaces, but Bryn had other intentions for it. I can't look at this picture without laughing because it is so Brynlee!

Play Group: "B Day"

2011-09-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

We ate butterfly snacks

Practiced tracing our names, colored our letter B's

Decorated our Butterflies with two "B" things: Beads and Buttons

Hard at work

The finished product

Of course, we read a few Butterfly books. "The Hungry Caterpillar" is a classic.

"Butterflies in the Garden" had lots of butterfly pictures

And my favorite butterfly book is "Waiting for Wings" by Lois Ehlert. It follows the process of egg - caterpillar - cocoon - butterfly, and then talks about how they drink nectar from flowers.

The illustrations are BEAUTIFUL. (I love everything by Lois Ehlert! Her illustrations are some of my favorites!)

Then we talked about other Bugs and did a little matching game.

Another fun day with these cute girls! Now I'm done hosting play group until we get to "G" and "H".

Halloween

2011-09-21T15:39:00.001-07:00

Halloween is over a month away, but we're already getting excited over here! Holidays are more and more fun each year as Bryn gets older, and is already getting excited to carve pumpkins, dress up, go trick-or-treating, etc. On Saturday I cut out lots of bats (from THIS template) and Bryn stood on the step ladder with me and helped taped them up. I thought it would look a lot cooler than it turned out! Ha! But Bryn loves "the family of bats" and talks about them all day!

We're saving our other Halloween books until we make it to October, but this is my favorite so we got it out early. It's a really cute story and I love the illustrations. Bryn is definitely a fan, as well. We have read it so much this week that I'm sure we'll be sick of it by Halloween.

***Not pictured is the authentic spiders web in my kitchen right now. I made pancakes and left the pan cooling on the stove while I went on a walk with Bryn. When we returned there was an intricate spiders web all across the pan and then leading up to my oven hood vent. Kind of creepy. Happy Halloween to me!

Play Group

2011-09-20T14:43:00.001-07:00

We took a break from play group for the summer, but I started it again today with the letter A. It was so fun to have the girls together again, even though we missed Maddy and June who graduated to real preschool this year. We talked a lot about alligators, and read my favorite alligator book "Alligators All Around" (from the same author as "Where the Wild Things Are").

It's a clever book.

And we also read "Gator".

We practiced writing the letter A and coloring alligator A's

Then we went on an "Alligator Hunt"! I hid clothes pin alligators throughout the house and they had to find the ones that had the first letter of their name on it.

The girls got so serious about it the hunt. It was funny.

I made little felt alligator A's and they had to put on the teeth and apple.

Here they are at work

We ate apples for snack time, and danced and sang to some alligator songs I found online.

Hooray for A!

Gallery Wall

2011-09-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

When I get in a rut about the wanting-a-baby situation, one of the best remedies is making something! Usually that means making cookies, but it's better when it's painting or working on a project. One project that kept me busy for a little while was putting together this little "gallery wall" arrangement in Bryn's room. It was really fun making simple paintings and collages, collecting and painting frames, and putting it all together. It's not my grandest achievement in life, but I think it turned out fun. All the art was free or cheap, and the frames were all from goodwill or I already had them. And nothing beats a free/cheap project! Someone (I can't remeber who. Was it you?) told me a great tip for hanging clusters of frames. You tape a few sheets of wax paper together, then figure out your arrangement on the paper. Then trace the frames onto the wax paper and label which frame goes with each drawn square. Once you determine where you want it on the wall, you tape it to the wall and start hanging your pictures. When all the pictures are hung you just pull the wax paper downward and it rips through the nails and comes out. It was pretty slick. I don't know why I feel the need to highlight each silly little frame, but here goes... I drew the butterfly; my younger brother drew the bird a couple years ago; the map is cut out from an old atlas I bought for $3.00; and the lovely watercolor heart was painted by moi. The happiness quote is from a used book I got for 10 cents; I painted the blue watercolor pattern up top; and the little print on right is a postcard of a Jacqui Larsen painting. I cut the green and blue flower out of paint chips with a razor; the other flower is a little collage I made; and the orange page corresponds to the "happiness" quote from above. It is Charlie Brown playing hide and seek behind a tree. The green painting is just a little random watercolor; I made the little collage on the right from catalog pages; and the bird drawing was done by my little brother. The wood "B" has been about 10 colors now, but it's now reddish; and the bird on the right is another little collage.I painted the flower watercolor; and the orange postcard is of a Peter Everett painting. (Bad picture of that one). My friend Emily gave me the I am a Child of God print, which I really love. And there's also the painting of Spanish Fork, which I mentioned earlier this week.

And that's that. Bryn's once-bare wall is now the other extreme. When you can't paint your white apartment walls, I guess the next best thing is covering them in pictures.

Wedding Bells

2011-09-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

My favorite (and only) sister got ENGAGED last night and I am so thrilled for her. I met Devin this summer and he is a really great guy. Marie knew of Devin from going to his BYU volleyball games last year. Then they moved to apartments right across from each other during Spring term....and it was LOVE. :)

They're both in the Marketing program at BYU, so aside from being an awesome couple, they are going to become great study buddies :) I was always picky about who dated my little sister, but I totally approve and am so grateful Marie found such a great guy.

Marie is the best of the best and I'm so excited for her! Love you Rie!

New Little Painting

2011-09-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

I just did a small (8" x 10") painting of my in-laws rural neighborhood in Spanish Fork, Utah. I love the beautiful, open landscape of their home, and I've been wanting to paint it for a while. This is the view when you're sitting on the porch, looking to the left.

Confession: The original painting was larger and it included some of my mother-in-law's beautiful garden. But the garden part of the painting looked really bad, so I just cut off the bottom and made it into an 8" x 10" painting! Ha. I'll have to do a second attempt to include the garden!

Big Girl

2011-09-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days where Bryn would pose for a cute picture! Now, instead of smiling, she's always doing one of three things:

(1) Dancing...sometimes in knee socks

(2) Making a crazy face

(3) Or stuffing food in her mouth (Now where does she get that???)

ANYWAY, Bryn has been so silly and so cute and so sweet this week! I love her more and more! And I she seems even cuter and OLDER now that she's in underwear instead of a diaper.

She's officially POTTY-TRAINED! We started on Monday morning and she had one accident right off, but she's been dry since then! The best part is that I didn't even have to push her this time or bribe her with treats and prizes. It just clicked and she was excited to be in undies. She goes 4-5 times a day now, and she always tells me when she needs to go. I was really dreading this week, but it's been so easy! We even ran errands for 4 hours today and she was fine in her undies.

And in celebration of no more diapers (woot woot!), I'm off to go make a treat! ...As if I needed an excuse.

Bedtime

2011-09-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

I love this little girl.

P.S. Potty training has been a breeze the last two days! Last time we tried potty training I had to bug her all day to go potty, but it totally clicked this time and she's been awesome. We even ran a few quick errands today and she didn't wet her pants. We had one little accident yesterday morning, but none since then. Woot woot!

Third Time's a Charm

2011-09-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

The first two times I chickened out after a few hours of potty-training, but I'm determined to stick it out this time!

Wish me luck! We're starting this morning!

Back to School

2011-09-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

We had a fun Back to School night for the Young Women on Wednesday, which was their first day of school. They had three mini classes on education, friendship, and being an example. The speakers were so awesome, and it was a great night!

We made little sack "lunches" for them with a juice box, granola bar, apple, and cookies.

We gave them their "class schedule" the week before.

Fun night!

Fun, Hot Day

2011-09-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

We got together with some of Josh's extended family today and it was so fun to see them! Josh's cousin Dillan was playing in a football tournament in Mission Viejo today, so that's what brought us together. Josh has an AWESOME extended family and I always love getting together with them.

Bryn loved Aunt Betty!

Bryn never stopped moving the whole time, running up and down the bleachers, showing off her dance skills, and covering everyone with her stickers. She left the game soo red and sweaty, and conked out right as she got into the car.

It was so fun to see everyone!

Utah Trip: According to Josh's Phone

2011-09-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

A few last pics from Josh and Bryn's trip to Utah...

Bryn and my Mom at Logan's football game

As Bryn would say, "getting comfortable and cozy with Grandpa"

Helping my mom wash the car

Bryn woke Logan up each morning by wrestling him

I'm not sure who gave her that hat, but Josh has tons of pictures of Bryn wearing it. Probably from Jae's 7th grade bucket-cap collection

Seven course meals from Grandma

And this picture is just cute.

Yay for trips to Utah!

Bryn has asked to go back every day since being home. I just can't compete with Grandma.

Caught

2011-09-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

We caught Bryn measuring her bottom in stretch pants.

And I haven't stopped laughing.

Oakcrest

2011-08-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

For the past four years my mom has been the head of the women's administrative committee at Oakcrest Girls Camp in Kamas, Utah. (Each summer Oakcrest hosts over three thousand 12 and 13 year-old-girls from 93 stakes across Utah). This was my mom's last summer with this calling after four busy years, and her release was a little bittersweet. When I was in Utah last month I got to spend a day with my Mom at Oakcrest, and it was so awesome to see her in action. I've heard about "Oakcrest Oakcrest Oakcrest" for the past four years, but this was the first time I could actually be up there with my Mom and see what she does up at camp!

I don't know why, but I was getting emotional seeing her interact with the girls and staff up there. Even when she was up on stage dancing and doing the "Hoedown Throwdown" with the counselors, I was getting emotional! Ha! I just love my Mama and love seeing the impact she's had up at Oakcrest! She is super woman and I hope to be like her when I grow up :)

Today

2011-08-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

My car got hit a few weeks ago, so it's been at a body shop getting fixed up. Today Bryn and I went to pick it up and Bryn was so excited to see her "VERY FAVORITE white car!"

When they brought out the car I noticed a new dent across the hood. Turns out one of their techs had caused some new damage while fixing the initial damage. Wonderful.

Bryn took the news harder than I did, and I was holding in the laughter. While we headed home in our rental car Bryn's lip was quivering as she quietly voiced her concerns .

"But Mom, I just only want to drive in our favorite white car!....I don't even like this silver car. It's not even good......All I want to do today is drive in the white car.....I have a good idea! Let's go get our white car!......Mom, this silver car only makes us sad...."

I shouldn't laugh at her despair, but it was cracking me up. Life is HARD for a two year old with her favorite car in the shop.

Utah Trip

2011-08-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

Josh and Brynlee are home from Utah! Bryn had such a good time staying at my parent's house and playing with all my siblings. She is already saying "Ok! It's time to go see Grandma again!" It's going to be a long wait til Christmas!

Bryn and my dad

Logan reading books to Bryn before bed

My cousin Cara was in town from NYC with her little daughter Olivia. I wish I would have been there to meet Olivia! Bryn had fun playing at Grandma Tueller's house, and seeing my Tueller extended family.

Giving kisses to her second-cousin

Logan and Bryn found a lovely, little toad in my parent's yard and Bryn keeps talking about the "toady toad" ever since she's been home.

I really wish I was there, because you know how much I've always wanted a dirty toad crawling across my face. I missed out.

This is my whole fam at my cousin Jenna's wedding....which I'm sad I missed! I'm also sad I wasn't in town to see all of my siblings, including my brother's who have been working out of state! At least Josh and Bryn got to see everyone. It sounds like it was such a fun, relaxing time. And Bryn just can't stop talking about it!

Ready

2011-08-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen Josh and Bryn for four days now, and I'm ready for them to come home!

I miss seeing Bryn come out in a different dress-up outfit every five minutes, telling herself she looks "soooo beautiful!"

I miss our daily trips to the park, watching her run and climb and jump and get so excited.

I miss hearing her busily playing in her room, working on something like "critter park"... as she calls it.

I miss being creative with her and making up funny little projects with buttons or ribbons or paint chips.

It's always good to be away from Josh and Bryn for a bit, to remind me how much I love being with them!

Lake Arrowhead

2011-08-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an AWESOME trip to Lake Arrowhead with the young women of our ward. It was a fun weekend of....

hiking,

cliff jumping,

swimming,

kayaking,

boating,

wake-boarding,

games,

devotionals,

way too many treats,

lots of laughing,

lots of singing to High School Musical,

lots of great memories!

A Date to Grandma's House

2011-08-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

Josh and Bryn are on a flight to Utah right now.... and I miss them already!

Josh has two client conferences in Utah this weekend, and while he's at meetings Bryn will be spending time with her "best friend", Grandma! Bryn's been so excited for this little trip with Josh. She keeps saying "Sometimes Dad and Bryn go on dates to the bookstore. But sometimes Dad and Bryn go on dates to Grandma's house!"

(The photo is from our 9 pm flight to Utah last month. I hope she's as good on this flight!)

Tonight

2011-08-18T22:26:00.001-07:00

I've been in a funk the last few days. All I can think about is BABIES BABIES BABIES and how I kind of want one. And how doctor's appointments and blood tests aren't as exciting as Bryn thinks they are. And how the space between Bryn and our next child keeps growing every day. (Yes, there are certainly dilemmas far worse than the one I'm in).

I know I can't complain because I already have Bryn, and I'm blessed in countless ways. Sometimes I just overlook those wonderful things and my mind is like a broken record just stuck on what I don't have.

- - -

I went on a beautiful walk to the beach tonight, then spent the rest of the night at my kitchen table, painting and listening to sweet Bryn sing song after song after song in her bed. I always love quiet walks in the evening, to get outside and find some clarity after a busy day. And I need to paint more. I mean, really. It just does something to my soul, even when the paintings themselves are completely insignificant. I need more quiet evenings like this, preferably with Bryn serenading me in the background. Oh, her little voice....

Life is so good. And I need to remember that.

Hawkins Reunion!

2011-08-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

When we were in Utah we had an awesome Hawkins Reunion! I might have to add more pictures when I get them off Josh's phone or from his siblings, but here are the pictures from my camera...

We had such a fun time with ALL of Josh's family at our reunion in Utah. All of his seven siblings came from across the country, and it was so great being with everyone! The picture above is everyone but Josh's brother Jason...who was at reunion, but missed the picture.

The best part was Bryn getting to know her cousins! She's finally old enough to remember them and she had so much fun playing with them. Bryn and Halle were good buddies and spent lots of time exploring by our cabin

My sister-in-law Marilee brought craft supplies, which kept Bryn occupied for HOURS! Thanks Mar!

Josh's twin has one child, just like us, and their son Beckam is only a few months older than Bryn. It was so cute to see them playing together. (Bryn actually has 4 cousins born her year, so it's fun to see them all running around).

Our fam

Bryn was totally spoiled by her cousins! Abby and Hunter were nice to walk with Bryn around the boardwalk, on our way to feed the ducks.

Bryn and Beckam again

My sister-in-law Becky was in charge of the reunion this year and she planned such a fun "Minute to Win it" competition.

I married into the BEST family and it's always so fun to be together with everyone!

Singing

2011-08-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Bryns sings all day long and I absolutely love it. Sometimes it's primary songs, other times it's random songs she's heard in the car or something. Either way, it cracks me up and I can't get enough of her little singing voice! Last week I caught Bryn in the corner of her room, filing her nails (?), and singing "I love to see the temple".

If you've ever wondered....

2011-08-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

what Bryn would look like with a uni-brow and a beard...

Utah Trip

2011-08-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome whirlwind trip to Utah last week and it was so awesome to spend a couple days with my parents and two of my siblings!

I forgot how HOT Utah summers are (compared to SoCal), so Bryn spent lots of time with Logan running through sprinklers and swimming in the little pool.

Reading bedtime stories with my dad

Bryn had never been to a zoo, so we spend a couple hours at the Hogle Zoo with my parents and Logan. So fun!

Bryn's staring at the giraffes instead of the camera

The new tiger exhibit is really awesome and we spent a long time watching the 4 tigers (mother and 3 sons) fight each other. Pretty cool. Josh was in heaven :)

I wish took more pictures of Bryn with my mom because they are good buddies.

One more with Bryn and my dad

We enjoyed lots of Mom's great cookin' and plenty of other Utah treats

Logan organized badminton tournaments for us which were really amusing. Naturally, I am horrible.

I really, really miss the mountains and Utah hiking, so Josh and I fit in a fun hike one morning and it was so great!

It was so fun to see my Clarke girl cousins and aunts at my cousin's baby shower, especially since I missed the Clarke reunion this year!

We went to the ReAL soccer game with my dad, brother Logan, sister Marie, her boyfriend Devin, and Devin's brother. It was my first pro soccer game and it was so fun! And it was the first time we met Rie's little friend, so that was fun :)

And finally, here is Bryn about to hike a pigeon.

What a fun trip! I hope December comes quickly because I miss my fam already!

(We also spent time with Josh's fam at the Hawkins Reunion, but I'll post those pics later. This post is long enough already!)

Quilt for Linds

2011-07-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't sewed much lately, but I finally had a good excuse for a sewing project: One of my very closest friends is having a baby! Lindsey and I lived across the hall in the dorms and then we were roommates at Liberty Square after our study abroad programs. She is such a great friend and I'm so excited for her to be a mom!

Here's the baby quilt I made for her little boy. I can't wait to meet her little guy!

The Latest

2011-07-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit of a roller-coaster week....

LOW: My parked car got scratched and dented by another car backing out. The cute, little lady who hit me can barely speak English, so it's been super fun trying to communicate and get the details worked out with her insurance company and the body shop. Now she thinks the scratch was from her, but not the dent. Ahhhhh.....so fun.

HIGH: After almost 2 months of waiting, Josh found out he PASSED level 2 of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Exam!!! I'm so proud of all his hard work and preparation! Woot woot! The CFA exams are only given once a year, so next year he'll take level 3 and hopefully be done!

LOW: We had miscarriage number four. I'm hoping four is my max because it's kind of getting old :) And returning un-worn maternity clothes is definitely not as fun as buying it. Oh goodness.

HIGH: This is the best news of all. We're heading to Utah for the Hawkins family reunion, and a few days with my family. I can't wait to see my fam and Bryn is going nuts, sooo excited to play with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The picture above is from our last Hawkins Reunion 2 years ago. Bryn is tiny!

Visitors

2011-07-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Last week we were lucky to have visitors! My Tueller grandparents, Uncle Rich, and Aunt Patty were doing a California road trip and spent 3 or 4 days in Huntington Beach. Bryn LOVED having them here and has asked for them every day since they left!

Grandma and Bryn had some cute coloring time

Bryn loved reading books with Rich during our last Utah trip, so she was thrilled to have another reading session with him and Patty. They are so sweet to her!

We also had a fun evening at the beach, watching Mark play volleyball.

Their visit went by too quickly, but it was such a treat to have a few days with family!

Anniversary Date

2011-07-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

We walked the beach trail to the Ritz at Dana Point, then ate at an awesome place called Luciana's. It's a cute, little authentic Italian restaurant that was highly recommended, and we totally loved it. Fun night!

Four Years

2011-07-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's been four beautiful years since Josh and I were married, and I'm looking forward to many wonderful years ahead! I'm one lucky girl.

Painting

2011-07-16T14:35:00.001-07:00

We've been doing a lot of painting over here this week! (I know, another post on painting? I can't help it!) Bryn loves it and so do I. Josh makes fun of me for how excited I get about her little paintings. It's so cute to sit right next to her and see her hard at work! She used to talk and sing to herself as she painted, but now she's silent except for funny, heavy breathing of concentration.

She asks me to draw lots of circles and then she paints them.

I love watching how she picks out color. Initially, I tried to suggest colors she should use next, but she would purposely never use that color. So now I just let her do it and see what she comes up with.

Another favorite painting "game" is where I draw a design in white crayon and then she has to paint over it to see the design. I loved this one because she explained "Blue is for sky, green is for grass, and brown is for dirt!"

Whenever I'm sad or impatient about not having more children yet, all I have to do is spend good one-on-one time with Bryn like this and I'm reminded how lucky I am to have her as my little buddy.....and fellow painter :)

I look forward to a house full of kids someday, but I'm sure I will cherish these years with just Brynlee and all of our sweet, uninterrupted days of painting and talking and learning.

Well, That Was Fun

2011-07-13T12:56:00.001-07:00

While Bryn was eating lunch I ran outside to move my car for street sweeping, and as I heard the street sweepers coming down the street behind me I was so glad I barely dodged the parking ticket!

My feelings of victory were short-lived, however, when I approached my door and heard wild laughter from the sweet little angel pictured above. She had figured out how to lock the dead bolt. And my house key was inside. Awesome.

Meanwhile, my brownies were burning in the oven and Bryn was dancing to the rhythm of the beeping timer. Bryn thought the whole thing was rather funny and kept saying "Wow Bryn! You locked the door all by yourself!" Yes. Yes you did.

My attempts to convince Bryn to unlock the door were completely unsuccessful, but thank goodness for large, low windows and a screen that popped out easily.

Rie

2011-07-11T13:46:00.001-07:00

My favorite (and only) SISTER turns TWENTY today!!!

I look up to Marie in every way and she's always been an example to me, even though she's 4 1/2 years younger. I'll never forget the good old days of sharing a bunkbed, ballet recitals, backyard photoshoots with mom's prom dresses, and having hair-spray wars at midnight! I wish we lived closer, but thank goodness for daily texting, phone calls, and skype!

In tribute of Marie's big day, Bryn and I tried to recreate one of Marie's famous childhood pics...

We love you, Rie!!!!

Pizza

2011-07-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

We love making homemade pizza on the weekends and lately we've tried out tons of different pizza dough recipes and toppings. Here's our favorite...so far:

For this kind of pizza dough I use my favorite breadstick recipe. (Instead of shaping it into breadsticks, I roll it into two large, thin rectangles. Everything else is according to the recipe, including the same rise time as I use for breadsticks.)

And I top it with:

Prego spaghetti sauce

Two cups of cheese (I like a mix of mozzarella + provolone, or mozzarella + parmesan)

Lots of finely chopped spinach

Lots of halved grape tomatoes (we use almost all of a 16 oz. package)

One can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

About a pound of chicken, cooked, seasoned, and chopped

A few shakes of pizza seasoning

It makes two delicious pizzas that we go nuts over!

Lately...

2011-07-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

Besides family in town, these are some of my favorite things from the past week :

Snagging this cute little lamp at Goodwill for $6.00, after I saw it earlier this year at HomeGoods for $40.00. And my lamp budget was about $6.05, so it was meant to be. Fate.

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Listening to Bryn pray every day that "Uncle Jae will get buried in pigeons" and that we can get a new "booty in our family" .....instead of Jae getting married and us have a new baby. Unfortunately, Bryn sees prayers as a time to crack jokes.....the same jokes every time. We're working on both things with her: (1) prayers are serious, and (2) vary your jokes.

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Finding my neice sweetly combing Bryn's hair with a dirty dustbroom. And then watching her sneak behind Josh and do the same thing. So great. I love watching things like that.

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Catching Bryn slurping water from at least five different puddles....."slurping just like a PUPPY!!!" Yes. Just like a puppy.

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Discovering Bon Iver, and listening to him every day during naptime while I get stuff done.

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Booking our flight for our Hawkins Fam Reunion at Brighton. Can't wait!

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Listening to a groggy Bryn talk about her nightly dreams of a "brown goat who eats sand for lunch" and a "cow named Taco". Good stuff. I could listen to those stories every day!.....and I do.

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Reading "I Don't Have to Make Everything All Better" and realizing....I don't have to make everything all better. Phew. That was a relief. (Actually, it's an interesting book).

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Researching grad schools with Josh, making goals, and looking forward to the things ahead.

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Laughing as Bryn sings "Mamma Mia! Here I go again! Ma-ma! How can I assist you?" over and over again, complete with her killer dance moves.

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I have a good life.

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-06T09:53:00.001-07:00

We were lucky this year to have lots of visitors! My brother Jae was here, as well as my sister-in-law's family. It was such a fun weekend and it went by too quickly!

Of course we went to Duke's the Friday night with Jae. It's my favorite!

On Saturday we went to the Great Park with everyone, and had dinner, rode the carousel, and went up on the big balloon.

Here's my cute sis-in-law Marilee with James

Jae and Bryn are good buds

Bryn and her cousins on the balloon ride.

Brandon and Marilee

Sarah and Maren are such cute cousins! They were so sweet to Bryn the whole trip, and she LOVED playing with them.

Monday, on the 4th, we played frisbee golf, went to the beach, went to dinner with everyone, and then walked to the beach for the firework show at night. The girls got so silly dancing at the restaurant. Bryn was in a full sweat trying to imitate Sarah and Maren.

Tuesday we rode the ferry to Balboa Island

Maren, James, and Marilee

I love this picture of these three little buddies! James and Bryn are both 2 and Maren is 4, and they had fun playing together all weekend!

Josh got his workout for the day :)

Sarah and Josh at Wahoo's for lunch

I think Bryn's favorite part was playing dress-up with James and Maren last night! They were so cute and silly together.

Bryn was in heaven!

One last group hug before the cousins left! (I'm so sad this picture is blurry because I love it!)

Thanks so much for visiting guys!!!!

Beach + Jae

2011-07-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

It was a fun beach day with my brother Jae today.

We actually have even more visitors in town, too.

More pictures to come!

Two and a Half

2011-07-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

Bryn is officially two and a half as of Thursday! I really love this stage because Bryn's little personality is developing more and more and it's so fun being her buddy every day. In honor of her half birthday, here's two variations of her most stylish outfit:

"Ballerina Witch"

And "Ballerina Clown"

One ballerina skirt is never enough. A real ballerina wears a t-shirt tutu dress, stiff classic tutu, and long flowy tutu. All at once. Bryn flits around the apartment saying "Mom! Do I look like a beautiful ballerina??"

Yep, I love this stage.

Yummy Summer Recipe

2011-06-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite summer meal that you need to try! Josh and I have been going nuts over it. (That's not a great picture of it, but it's so good!) It's called "Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps", found on the Two Peas and a Pot cooking blog.

It was also my first time making homemade tortillas, which were super yummy.

Bryn Bryn

2011-06-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

I missed this cute girl the four days I was at camp! It's so fun to be back home with my little buddy.

I love this little girl, and I swear she seems even older and even cuter than she was before I left!

And I'm glad to be home with Josh, too. But he wasn't as eager to pose for welcome home snapshots as Bryn was :)

Girls Camp!

2011-06-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

I spent last week at Girls Camp with the young women of my ward and stake, and it was such a blast! Above are the girls and leaders that were at camp from our Huntington Beach 4th ward.

Singing camp songs at the fire pit

I totally made a fool of myself with the girls, but one of my very favorite parts of camp was the impromptu dance one night. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! Oh goodness.

One of the days they did lots of fun unity games

The ropes course was a hit! Here's Alex coming down.

Suzy going across the "tight-rope"

And Taylor climbing up to the ropes course.

Sage, Suzy, and other girls painting blocks for a humanitarian aid project

Megan (left) is my awesome counselor who is over girls camp. And Kelli (right) is our wonderful ward camp director. I had so much fun with these ladies!

Our ward girls and leaders were split up into different cabins the whole week, but it was fun to be together at certain events.

Each cabin was a different country and I was one of the leaders in the Greece cabin. I didn't know any of the cute girls in my cabin before, so it was fun getting to know them!

It was the 6th year Kelsey and Elizabeth have been to camp, so this was their final year of girls camp. They had leadership roles this time and they were awesome!

The camp we stayed at prepared all the meals for us, but the menu was strictly vegetarian. By the end of the week we were all craving MEAT, so we stopped at In-n-Out on the way home.

What a fun week! I hope I serve in the Young Women program long enough to go to girls camp again and again.

**BIG, BIG THANKS to my sweet friends who watched Bryn this week while I was away. I have the greatest friends! Thank you!!!

Swimming

2011-06-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Bryn LOVED swim lessons this year! This summer she did three weeks of private lessons from my friend's awesome swim school. Maddy was her teacher and she was wonderful! Bryn's been asking all morning when she can go to swim lessons, so she's going to be pretty sad when I break the news to her that we're done for now. It was so fun!