Bryn

Let's talk about Bryn for a minute. She is at such a cute stage (I think say that about every stage, but you know...) I love this sweet girl so much and I'm so grateful for all the joy and laughter she brings to our home every day. Here are a few pictures of Bryn from this past month...

Bryn wanted to make cookies all by herself one night, so she read the recipe and made them by herself! I stood right behind her and directed her, but I wasn't allowed to touch anything, get any ingredients out of the cupboard, help her measure anything, nothing except put the cookies in the hot oven. She was so proud of herself!

She loves spelling out words with the duplo blocks. This one was built after she watched the movie "Hercules"

Josh did some travelling for work in September and Bryn always loves sending him with a note or two ...or ten. That girl loves writing a good note!

Josh works with the young men in our ward and he wanted to support a couple of them that were on the high school football team/marching band. Bryn wanted to go with him so it turned into a fun Daddy-Daughter date.

Josh and Bryn met up with my niece Abby at the football game and Bryn felt so cool to be hanging out with Abby and her high school friends. 

Bryn loves to read on her own, but she also loves reading to Mya. It's one of my very favorite things to see those two cuddled up on the couch reading books. 

Bryn usually wakes up before I do and she always gets herself dressed for the day. Every once and a while she picks out an outfit that I'll actually let her wear to school, but most days the outfits look something like this. 

 And her poses are always pretty great, too. 

 As soon as she gets home from school her regular clothes are always replaced with dress-ups. And then she usually stays 100% in character until bed time. 

 Bryn loves when it's her turn to teach the lesson at Family Home Evening. Her lessons always include some pretty great props and drawings. A few weeks ago she gave us a lesson on how we should "destroy Satan by only obeying God". She made a big drawing of Satan (saying "Mwa ha ha Jesus") and she had us throw balls at Satan to show how we were going to defeat him.

 She also made this sign that said "I believe the Lord God is alive. Hooray!" with a drawing of God? Jesus?

 We have lots of squirrels and bunnies that roam our neighborhood and Bryn likes to leave snacks for them on our back porch. 

The sign reads "Help yourself to my food, customers"

She loves drawing princesses and I loved this drawing because of the little sign she included that reads "Its good to be pretty but its better to be nice." Atta girl :)

We sure love our Brynnie girl!

NYC for the Day

On Saturday we spent the day in NYC. We had been wanting to go into the city as a family ever since we moved here two months ago, but our Saturdays have been either busy or rainy days. We woke up Saturday morning to a clear, beautiful day and decided - somewhat last minute - to head to NYC! We had so much fun!

 It's quicker to drive into the city, but the girls really wanted to take the train and see how Josh gets into work each day. I had thrown together a bag of snacks and activities to keep them busy on the train, but we didn't need any of it because the girls were just so excited to look out the window and see where we were headed.

Calm, little Mya is the perfect traveller! She was so sweet and content all day! 

(In our rush to get out the door Mya somehow snuck her blankie with her. I'm pretty sure that blanket is now full of diseases after a day in NYC!)

 Josh usually takes a 40 minute express train into NYC, but we took a regular train into Penn Station and then hopped on the subway for a few stops to get up to the Natural History Museum. It took us about an hour. Bryn loved the subway even more than the train because she could stand up and hold on to the bar. 

 The Natural History Museum. 

Josh and I had been there last fall and were really excited to come back with the kids this time.

 The museum is gigantic and even though we were there for two hours we didn't even cover as much as Josh and I saw before. We mostly just went to all the animal and dinosaur rooms and then the Native American section. 

The monkeys were some of our favorites :)

 Bryn also went nuts for the dinosaur hall

For lunch we went right across the street to the Shake Shack, which was every bit as delicious as I had remembered it. I'm not even a big burger person, but these are so good!

 This was the girls' first experience with Shake Shack and they were easily converted!

 After lunch we walked around Central Park and the girls had fun getting some energy out. 

Bryn (and Josh) enjoyed climbing on the huge rocks throughout the park. 

 One happy pregnant lady with a hot Levain cookie in hand!

After Central Park we took the subway to the New York Public Library - somewhere none of us had been before. 

We had actually hoped to see the Sesame Street exhibit that has been advertised lately, but we hadn't realized that the exhibit was at the library's Performing Arts extension building which was way back by the Natural History Museum. Bummer! We didn't want to make the trek back up there, so we'll have to see it another time.

The library was a really beautiful building and we loved the art and architecture throughout the whole thing. 

 After the library we walked over to Broadway to see Time Square and for Josh to show us where he works. Mya had fallen asleep in the stroller by this point, but Bryn was in awe of all the lights and signs and people. 

 There is still a lot that we'd love to see and do in NYC as a family, but I'm glad we could fit in at least one NYC trip before the baby gets here and things get crazier. 

Dresser Project

The baby's room had become the resting place for most of our unpacked boxes and random items from the move. Finally, we cleared out the room and it's actually looking like a nursery now.... which is good because we've only got 7 more weeks until my due date! I've been busy working on some projects for the room and I thought I'd share this dresser project since it felt like quite an accomplishment for a tired lady with a big pregnant belly :)

The baby's room is really small, so we didn't want to take up the whole room with a big dresser or changing table. Instead we decided to use this skinny little dresser that we found by a dumpster for free. I painted it blue (it's so fun to decorate with boy colors after having two girls!) and then replaced the knobs with some $2 knobs I found at Hobby Lobby. 

 The dresser was in good shape, but some of the drawers were stained and I didn't want to put cute little baby things on thfele dirty drawers, so I lined the drawers. I've never lined my drawers before, so it felt like a pretty fancy project for me! I just used wrapping paper with clear contact paper on top, then stuck the paper down with double sided tape. 

The best part was filling the dresser with a few little boy things we have so far :)

Turtle Back Zoo

 The Bronx Zoo is the closest big zoo to us, but there's also a smaller zoo about 20 minutes away called Turtle Back Zoo. We had fun checking it out the other day after school with my cousin Cara and her girls.

 Mya was still in post-nap mode at this point :)

Looking at the llamas, emus, tortoises, and capybaras. 

 The girls loved the parakeet center. 

Fun afternoon! 

Mya's Birthday Date...a little late!

Mya turned two at the end of June, but it was a bit of a crazy summer so she and Josh didn't go on their birthday date until the beginning of Setptember! (Better late than never...)

Mya was so excited about her special date. She still talks about it all the time and asks "Maybe today Mya and Dad can go on a birthday date? Just Mya and Dad." 

 Josh is the best dad and our girls are sure lucky to have him!

 As per tradition, the birthday date was a special trip to the bookstore where Josh and Mya read books and Mya got to choose one book to take home. She chose the book "Ten Apples Up On Top", a Dr. Suess book that she has read over and over with her cousin Leah. 

 Josh said Mya was giddy and cute the whole night. 

She sure came home with a big smile on her face!