On the 1st Day of Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Brenna, you were so excited to see all of the presents Santa left for you! You opened each present scrap by little scrap of ripped wrapping paper. We thought you might never finish. You loved your guitar and Wiggles microphone, books, and most of all your pink and purple tricycle. You can't quite reach the pedals enough to push them yet, but don't worry, your little legs will get there eventually. Our Christmas was magic through your 2 year old eyes.

On the 2nd Day (Before) Christmas

Dear Brenna...
You were insistent that we leave 5 cookies for Santa on the "Cookies for Santa" plate. Not more, not less, just 5. You weren't too sure whether you really wanted Santa to come to our house but finally just before falling asleep you decided "yes Santa, Mommy, Santa bring presents." I love that you were so excited! I can't wait to see your face and watch you open your presents on Christmas morning...
It's hard for me to decide which picture to use for the 12 days scrapbook. The cookies or this ready for bed picture:

On the 3rd Day (Before) Christmas

We're almost done...well, done enough that we can host Christmas Eve. Thanks honey, for all your hard work and effort...thanks too to everyone who helped to make this project go as quickly as it did. We appreciate all of you!


Little Girl got to spend some time with Uncle Freddy. He came home for Christmas. While we don't get to see him often, I love that he loves her so much and wants to spend as much time with her as he can while he visits.

On the 4th Day (Before) Christmas

It's cookie baking time! Brenna got to help this year, she poured ingredients into the mixer and supervised as it went round and round. Somehow I didn't get a picture of her while this was going on but I did get this photo...
~Note - this is the 3,000th, yes there are 3 zeroes there, image taken on our current camera since we got it for Christmas last year. How is it that I can take 3,000 pictures in a year and not a have a photo from every day of the year...I am working on that this year. This is also not the photo going into my 12 days scrapbook. This one is...

On the 5th Day (Before) Christmas

"Jack Frost nippin' at your nose"

The view from our kitchen window...it was so cold the storm window frosted over on the inside.

On the 6th Day (Before) Christmas

To My Princess...Love Uncle George.

Brenna received a beautiful floral arrangement today. He loves her so much...

On the 7th Day (Before) Christmas

I love when our home is decorated for Christmas. It is so full (aka cluttered) with Christmas that it makes it feel cozy and full of the spirit of Christmas. We got this cool mirrored star from one of our "white elephant" Christmas Eve exchanges a few years ago. The reflections from the candles is so pretty.

On the 8th Day (Before) Christmas...

When we arrived home this evening I took Brenna out of the car and put her down so I could carry things in from the car. She is certainly big enough to walk on her own and the driveway had a clear path to the house that wasn't covered in snow or ice. I'm getting things out of the back of the Jeep when this happens:

B: "my walka the no {snow} mom" (oh yeah...mom, not mommy, mom).

S: "please stay out of the snow Brenna, you don't have your boots on and I don't want your feet to get all wet"

B: giggling - walks immediately into the snow - "my walka the no!"

She then proceeds to take her little fingers and run them through the snow, grabbing as much as she can in her unmittened hands. She didn't have her mittens or gloves because she threw them in the car, it's not a far walk to the house, and it wasn't too terribly cold. I thought for sure she would start complaining immediately but she got this huge grin on her face and said "cooollldd"! She continued to play for another minute until I told her it was time to go in. Of course I didn't have the camera handy while this was going on...it's another one of those mental memories. I did manage to get a few shots of little fingerprints and shoe prints in the snow!

On the 9th Day (Before) Christmas...

So many of our ornaments tell a story, like this shamrock tree from last year. My mom is the giver of ornaments in our family. Every year for as long as I can remember we have gotten an ornament in our stocking, and every year when we're decorating the tree I remember that specific Christmas. Last year the three of us received our Irish ornaments...appropriate for us Sullivans.

I don't remember the year that I got this ornament, but it reminds me of the true meaning of Christmas. In read aloud time with my 5th graders we read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. Imogene Herdman - the most unholy young lady - plays Mary in the pageant. She comes to a realization in the middle of performing about the true meaning of Christmas and that really got me thinking about Mary and all that she must have gone through. She was so young and unsure of herself and her role. Joseph did his best for her with the full knowledge that this child was not of him. I can only imagine.

On the 10th Day (Before) Christmas...

A call to the doctor for me.

Better this week than next....

2009 Calendar - Check it out!

It's official! The 2009 Calendar is up and ready for purchase! The proceeds are going to one of the causes in the calendar...to be chosen soon!

Check it out here http://www.cafepress.com/marietaylor

I created February!

On the 11th Day (Before) Christmas

Hopefully this will work....I know I can't scrap a video but I may capture an image and journal about it!

The Sunday Six aka The 12th Day (Before) Christmas

1. We're on the countdown to Christmas! The tree is up ~ with 5 decorations carefully placed by Brenna. The dog's crate is in the middle of the living room - she is currently sleeping in there all curled up, it's rather cute! Brenna is napping - although I am not sure how as her daddy, pa, and uncle are downstairs sawing and nailing up paneling so that we can have a relatively finished basement by Christmas Eve...it's our turn to host the party ~ we hope we can do it!



2. I have entered all of my grades for my students' interims...yea - something else I can check off the list.



3. I currently am not remotely close to having our shopping done but if we would like to have clean clothes, clean bathrooms, and a finished basement, then shopping is on the shelf until next weekend.



5. A story to top all previous crazy mom stories - Friday Brenna had a doctor's appt. so I had to take the morning off to take her. We decided she would spend the remainder of the day with Grandma instead of going to day care. We finished up at the doctor fairly early so I decided we would do a quick Target run before we went to Grandma's. Shopped quick, loaded B into the car, not remembering that I had bumped the lock button on my keys, threw the keys in the front seat with my phone, closed her door. Went to open up the back of the Jeep to put our purchases in and OMG!!! it won't open. Yes, I did the thing all mothers are terrified of doing...locked my daughter in the car with not only my keys, but my cell phone. Luckily a woman in the parking lot took pity on me - thank you whoever you were - and let me use her cell phone. I called the police because who else would I call? The longest 5 minutes of my entire life. Standing on the outside looking in at B...who's looking at me like I am absolutely crazy. I'm crying and playing games with her through the window to keep her occupied. She was oblivious to what was really going on thankfully. I know this because she said to me "no mommy, you no do that (tap on the window and make faces at her). Thank you Officer Young for saving the day. I do solemnly promise to never throw my keys in the front seat while placing my child or my packages in other locations of my car. The only true damage was to my motherly soul...may I never lock her in the car, in the cold, with no phone, or keys again. Thanks mom for making me feel better by sharing a similar story of woe when I was about B's age!



6. Here is my first photo for my 2008 - 12 Days of Christmas Scrapbook


Have a wonderful week everyone!

Tuesday 10 Spot

Ok so really it's Monday but it is close enough for me!

1. The basement is well on it's way to being a great place for playing and having family and friends over. Many of you know we had to un-finish our finished basement because we found mold and water damage. We think we have solved the water part and are now in the process of re-finishing...insulation is in and paneling is going up next...the ultimate goal is to have it ready so that we can host Christmas Eve. Sean is working so hard trying to get it done.

2. Still having a hard time trying to decide what to get the little girl for Christmas. She's at that age where she's to smart for the baby toys, but not really ready for big girl stuff. Her attention span is about a minute - ok maybe longer but she's 2 & 1/2 - it isn't very long! We want to find something that will keep her interested for more than the first 10 minutes she has it.

3. Speaking of Christmas, we started decorating but now we have to get the tree up. Unfortunately it is more than just pull it out and put it up. It is cleaning out whatever we need from the front closet - coats, vacuum cleaner, and any games we may want to play during our vacation, so we can move Bailey's crate. She doesn't ever get locked in the crate, but it is her safe place/house and she just doesn't do well when we take it down, especially when Sean is out of town. Then we move the crate into the area between the front door and closet door. Then we move the footstool into the crate spot, put a piece of wood on it, and then the tree goes up (up a little higher to keep dogs and little hands from touching things that they shouldn't causing said tree to become up-ended (my husband has rigged it so that we string the tree to the window and the magazine rack to keep it from coming down). Then we can think about decorating.

4. Sometimes I love when Thanksgiving is late because it means Christmas will be here sooner, but sometimes I just need more time!

5. We have started our shopping, but just for the little girl. I don't really know when that is going to happen either. Between work and school, the little girl, family time - as much as we can get, activities, and working on the basement there just isn't enough time in the day to do the normal house stuff, let alone extra stuff.

6. I have joined the world of facebook, not that I will ever do anything with it. Fun to think that I can find old friends if I put in a little effort.

7. It has been very, very cold...to cold to wash my car which is absolutely disgusting. I am embarrassed that it is so dirty - both inside and out. I need to make that a priority when the weather gets a little warmer, even if it is only clean for a few minutes!

8. I can't wait for a warmer snow day to take the little girl out and play in the snow! We went to the grocery store yesterday and all she wanted to do was walk in her boots in the snow. Who knew that 3 steps in a tiny patch of snow could make a little girl so happy!

9. Little girl is working on her potty training...she's getting the idea but just not interested in doing everything in the potty yet. We've tried panties but after an accident yesterday I think it is just time to let her be and get back to it during break.

10. Only 16 more days my friends...I can't wait, can you? Merry Christmas!

PS ~ pictures coming soon!

Paper Pin-Ups 2009 Coming Soon

Keep your eyes peeled! The 2009 "Paper Pin-Ups for a Cause" calendar will be ready for purchase very soon. As many of you know, I have joined with 11 other crafty women to create a 2009 calendar. It will be available for purchase soon and all proceeds will be donated to one of the causes in our calendar. Stay tuned for the release date!

Happy Birthday Husband

Dear husband:

It's your birthday...the 10th birthday that I'll spend with you. I hope you know how important you are to me and our sweet litte girl. I'm so proud of all that you have accomplished, of the wonderful daddy you are to Brenna, and the amazing husband you are to me. I love that little girl loves you so much, it's so sweet that she tells you to be careful when you are traveling and that she is a "mini-sully". Every time I look at her I see our love. I love that you are the calm in my storms and know just what to say to put a smile on my face. Thank you for all that you are and for all that you do for our family. I love you so much,

Happy Birthday!

Love, me

The End of a Great Weekend

So I'm sitting here on the couch after a wonderful, long, holiday weekend wishing I still had a few more days off so I could spend more time with the husband and the little girl (even though 2 1/2 year olds have a tendency toward having multiple personalities). We had a great time together these last few days. Thanksgiving was the usual whirlwind as we traveled from family to family. Saturday brought a day of hard work for my husband in the basement (I love the sound of nails being shot into basement walls with a nail gun and .22 loads - how Brenna could nap through that and how my husband and dad can hear at this point is still beyond me).

Today was another great and relaxing day. Laundry and some dishes were my only chores. Brenna and I made a Santa Claus fill-the-beard countdown calendar and a red and green paper chain to count down the days until Christmas. Can you tell that I am a Christmas maniac? I love it...all the excitement and the family time and the snow and the songs...I love it all.

Munchkin napped, daddy watched football, and I got to scrap! Finally! I haven't scrapped any layouts since I started teaching my 5th graders, usually I'm too busy doing school work. I did four pages (2 - 2 page spreads) for Brenna's NICU album. I have to figure out how I can post them...I haven't figured out whether I can somehow scan 12x12 pages or if I am just going to take pictures and hope they come out well.

Luckily, Christmas break will be here soon and my scrappy friends and I are planning a crop - I can't wait to have several hours to devote to good times with friends and my scrappy self.

Oooo...we made snowflakes today too (well Sean & I did with Brenna coloring and hanging out with us at the kitchen table), and B had her first mug of hot cocoa. I don't think I have to tell you how much she loved it, it is chocolate after all.

Overall a great holiday weekend.

Here are a couple of pics of the little girl - it's her first official nightgown...

and an exact replica of a face I use to make when I was her age. Thanks Dad!

Oh yes...lest I forget...we have moved into the "WHY?" stage of life.

B: What doing grandma?

G: Sewing, Brenna (grandma is working on another quilt - currently piecing a few squares)

B: Why?

G: Because I like to make quilts.

B: Why?

This continued for a little longer until grandma turned it around on B, asking her why - this utterly confused the little girl.

I can only hope that these little memories will be saved here in cyberspace forever as I know that while I stop to commit them to my memory, it can only hold so much. Brenna, my little sweet potato, I hope you know that daddy and I cherish every moment with you!

A Wonderful Evening

I was able to spend some quality time playing outside with the little girl tonight. She discovered the pure childhood bliss of playing in the leaves...a great big pile of leaves. An unsure start turned into a wonderful round of jumping, rolling, throwing, and playing Ring-Around-the-Rosie in our neighbors' leaf pile with some of the little ones in our neighborhood. She really had a great time and had the dirt smudge on her little face to prove it. I'm not sure the cell phone really did it justice but I'm pleased with the quality of photos from my Curve (thanks for spoiling me again, honey!).

A Historic Election

Did you vote? I hope so. While you will not normally find me discussing politics or my own personal political views in my blog, on this night I feel like I need to say something. As Americans, I believe it is tremendously important that we practice our most basic of rights whenever we have that opportunity. No matter who you chose to vote for or against, this will be a historic evening. As we watch and learn who we have chosen to take on the most challenging of roles, we have changed the way we will forever look at the leaders of our Nation. America will either have its first woman Vice-President or its first African-American President. As a teacher, I find it exciting, regardless of my own personal political views. It's not often that this type of historic occasion happens in one's life but here we are America...you've made the history books tonight.

Happy Halloween

All did not start well as we had a very cranky little girl after day care. But with this question the whole night changed. "Do you want to put on your bumblebee costume?" "oh, yes!" Here she is...the cutest bumblebee!
She managed to make it to 13 houses (thanks to daddy carrying her most of the way), and then spent quite a while taking the candy out of the pumpkin and putting it back into the pumpkin. Such fun!

snow plows in october

On my way to work I saw something very disturbing, a snowplow :( I know I said I find something magical about the first snow, but this is ridiculous. I don.t even have my snowbrush in my car yet. Nor did I grab gloves because it was not snowing at home. there's easily 1-2 inches! Hello, it's october.

Some Photo Favorites

I've been working on better photographs and strive everyday to get better and better pictures. So here are a few of my recent favs!

Tuesday 10 Spot

1. I can't believe I have now created two, yes two tens in two weeks in row! That is fun!

2. Our little girl has turned into a RAGING two-year old the last few days. Even going to Target to purchase new Wiggles DVD's, a pair of snowpants and one pair of hot pink snow boots was a bit of a challenge.

3. I will say that watching B run around the shoe aisles in hot pink snow boots with fur at the top while still attached by the elastic string that they (the Target people) feel the need to use to keep the boots together was quite funny. And yes, I did say Running!! Full blast in attached boots with her coat half hanging off. She is a funny one that little girl!

4. If it is any consolation to my friends and family who do NOT reside in Ohio...it snowed here yesterday and today and will probably snow tomorrow. Not enought to stick but still it is October people. I will say that there is this little kid side of me that finds the first snow (even the tiniest of flakes)completely and utterly magical because it means that my most favorite time of the year is just around the corner.

5. I miss that my husband is not at the other end of this couch right now. We have been really lucky lately that he hasn't had to travel much overnight lately, not that he is traveling now, just a late work night for him tonight.

6. My scrapping friends and I are creating a 2009 Calendar so keep your eyes peeled for the link to purchase in the near future! I am pretty excited that I get to be part of this calendar. Our theme is...well I guess you'll just have to stay tuned.

7. We are going all out for Halloween this year. The grandparents are coming up and having dinner and then getting to see the little girl all dressed up and going out to get her "canny" as she calls it. She's been practicing for Haleleen. She brings me her pumpkin, says "trick a teat, canny pease" "thankyouwelcome" and "eat canny in my mouth". I seriously cannot wait for Christmas if Halloween is this much fun!

8. Report card time is here and I while this time we have to do them by hand we are piloting an electronic system that will make the process much more efficient. I can't wait to see how it ends up working out.

9. The weekend holds lots of work for us as we continue on the basement clean-out/revamp project. It is our great hope that we will be able to host something over the holidays. It will be great to have a place where Brenna can run around a little bit and get some exercise. We are seriously considering bringing in her climber so that she can use it year around. She loves to climb and slide so if there is room we are going to go for it.

10. I know I promised pictures from the Wiggle's Concert so here you go! Have a great week friends!

Who knew?

Who knew that a Wiggles concert would bring a mommy to tears. Watching our daughter as the guys came out in the Big Red Car and she waved and said "hi wiggles" over and over with huge eyes was just too much! It's as if she realized that they are real people, not just people in the tv. Pictures to come soon although they just don't do justice to the utter awe in that little girl's eyes.

Ten on Tuesday

Wow has it been a long time since I had time for a Ten!

1. I love my new job! Even though there is much more work, it is well worth it and my class is awesome. We are getting into our groove and really working well together.

2. Two days until the Wiggles - hopefully Brenna won't be afraid of them. I am hopeful since she loves to dance to all of the songs and sings along quite a bit too!

3. Thank goodness for furnace fixers who know what they are doing!

4. Having a wireless router is very convenient, I can sit on the couch, load grades into my gradebook, catch up on blogs, watch tv, and most importantly spend time next to my husband when I would otherwise be banned to the upstairs computer to complete my work!

5. I love that Brenna is really a little person with thoughts and feelings now. Not that she wasn't before but her personality is truly developing and she is definitely every bit of 2 that she can possibly be.

6. Day care keeps telling us that she is very well-behaved and they love her. I'll take that news any day!

7. Pain tolerance is apparently high in this little girl. We were in the ER over the weekend for a pretty serious ear infection that she didn't complain a bit about. The good news in all of this is that her tubes are still in their correct locations and working very well.

8. B likes to "read" her bedtime stories now. I start the sentences in her two favorite books and she finishes them, sometimes even telling the whole sentence before I have a chance to start. She is either very intelligent or we have read these books entirely too much. I am hoping the intelligence factor wins here.

9. I found some pictures from the summer that I love (taken by my awesome aunt!). Brenna is so lucky to have this photo - we have one when she is only 2 months old also - it isn't often that you can be part of a 4 generation photo.

Mommy and Brenna


10. I am happy that I can update the blog a little more often. I am trying especially since family and friends don't get to see the little girl too often!

Here's to being better about blogging. My goodness if my friend can move to another state and still manage to blog in the middle of it all I really have no excuse. Now if only there was enough time left in my day for a little scrapping...

Conversations with a 2 year old

M: Brenna, what do you want for dinner?

B: I want pie!

M: We can't eat pie for dinner.

B(very matter of factly): I like salad!

Oh Brenna, the conversations right now are absolutely priceless!

"Punkin's Mommy, Punkin farm Daddy"

"My punkin, my roll it!" Apparently pumpkin rolling is all the rage in toddlerland.

Our baby is not really a baby anymore! sniff, sniff

We did have lots of fun at the pumpkin farm...

Fall

Three words for you...

Pumpkin Spice Latte


I love fall!

It's Official!

After many years of subbing and tutoring I've reached a major goal that has been on my life list. Last Monday I was offered and I accepted a 5th grade teaching position!

Woohoo! Happy dance!

I started last Tuesday, shadowed the teacher I am replacing (who, by the way, is now going to my principal - yea for her!), and am now teaching my class.

The students and staff are awesome and have made me feel very welcome. I have 16 students in my class and they are doing very well with the transition.

So here I am...hoping to not disappear from blogland for another two months. I'll try to update the events of the last few months as soon as I can....

Thoughts for Thursday

Took Brenna for her 2 year photos today...my goodness...she is the sweetest!

Gearing up for the party. Why is it that when you have the most to accomplish, your body decides it is a good time to flake out and come down with something...I'm trying to burn it out with hot liquids although I don't think it is working. I don't have time to be sick!

I was cleaning and found these in the front closet...it was trash day but I couldn't bring myself to just put them on the curb so we loaded them into the car and took them to phone book recycling...there were 20, not including the bag of wet ones on the front porch which I keep forgetting about. Ridiculous I know but I never thought to get rid of the old as the new ones came I just shoved them in. At least the vacuum cleaner can be put away instead of hanging out in plain view all the time.


It is scary to delete the photos off the camera. I am now going to load everything onto my flash for back up....I should probably burn them to cd's as well...all in good time. I need to learn that it is ok not to keep every single picture that I take. Most of them are not good anyways. It was a friend who said "I take and take and take and take for a couple of really good shots!"

Brenna seems to be back to her old self. Full of toddlerisms that's for sure. I think her birthday is going to be fun for her this year. She has been walking around singing "Happy Birthday to me," all on her own...no coaching necessary. Such a silly, silly girl.


It's hard to believe that 2 years ago we were sitting in the hospital scared out of our minds about this little girl and the long road we thought we would be traveling down. In a matter of a few short days, we were amazed by the tiny girl born 8 weeks too soon. Nobody told her she was a preemie...preemie shmeemie mommy & daddy. Despite those long first weeks in the hospital (or short, as 3 weeks may seem to those who had a much longer stay than we did), she proved fiesty from minute one and has continued to be that way, proving to everyone that 8 weeks didn't mean anything to her. Size didn't matter in this case. Being her daddy's firey, fiesty, tempermental little girl meant everything. She's still has that same temperment and strong personality and I wouldn't want her any other way. The challenges were many but the milestones she surpassed and the joy she brings to us everyday makes every minute of that 32 week delivery priceless.


I'm getting all sentimental and weepy which that much worse because I don't feel 100% so I'm going to stop here. I need to rest so I can have energy when the little girl wakes up from her nap.

Home

We were able to bring the little girl home late yesterday afternoon. It was such a relief to be able to have her home with us and for us to know that she is on the mend. No fever for over a day now. She's eating and drinking some which was the biggest challenge.
In this situation the effects of the illness ended up being worse than the illness itself. Who knew that 36 hours in the hospital would feel like forever. I'm just glad we're home.

Hospital Day 2

So monkey ended up getting dehydrated and so here we sit....waiting and checking for wet diapers. At this point she's off the IV but isn't drinking much...her little throat hurts too much. Unfortunately it's hard to reason with an almost 2 yr old that if she would just drink enough she could go home. It stinks. So here we sit...hurry up & wait.

So I thought....

That keeping Brenna home for the summer might make a difference in the sickness factor at our house...apparently not. Oh well. Hopefully its just a virus and not strep...waiting to find out. I guess that is what happens when you go to the park multiple times in a day and have lots of playdates and sleepovers. She's bound to pick something up somewhere right? Other than that Brenna is great...amazing us every single day with the number of words she can say and the fact that she is starting to string words to form sentences. I can't believe she will be two in a couple of weeks! Have a great day everyone. I hope to have new pics up very soon.

Ten on Tuesday ~ Finished on Thursday

8. Brenna's new best friend is a stuffed Barney that she got from one of the retiring teachers. She loves him..."reads" to him, plays with, sleeps with, gives him drinks, brings him everywhere...who knew that that would be the thing she would become attached too. We knew it was only a matter of time.

9. Things to hope for over break...transition to big girl bed and master potty training. One might be fairly easy...the bed. The other rather difficult ~ potty training. It may just be a full week (or more) of staying home and being diligent with frequent potty breaks...this is probably going to be an end of summer event before school starts.

10. I have already missed a day on the photo a day for summer break but am hoping to keep up. I should have grabbed the camera last night when Brenna and several other kids in the neighborhood were running around and playing in our yard last night. It was fun talking to our neighbors and watching the kids play. I did manage to snap a couple shots at a red light this morning on our way to Grandpa and Grandmas. She was sleepy but loving Barney and wearing her baseball hat...which she always asks for if we are going outside. Thank goodness for that...it makes keeping the sun off her little head much easier.

That's all for now, hope to get pics uploaded soon! Have a great week.

Tuesday Ten Spot ~ Summer Vacation Begins!

1. Blogging has once again gotten the best of me. Hopefully now that I am officially on Summer Break with Brenna, I will be a better blogger. I can only promise to try!

2. Yesterday was our first official day. I am going to try to do a "photo a day" of our summer together. We'll see how that goes.

3. Our day yesterday was suppose to look like this:
~Mommy gets up and walks Bailey and herself (exercise is good for you right? sure)
~Brenna gets up, has breakfast, gets dressed, plays while Mommy does dishes,
vacuums, showers.
~Story time at the library
~Lunch, nap, and afternoon playtime (inside because of course it was 9000 degrees)

4. Our day yesterday looked like this instead.
~Mommy gets up and walks Bailey and herself (exercise is good for you right? sure)
~Brenna gets up, has breakfast, gets dressed, plays while Mommy does dishes,
vacuums *oh wait, the vacuum won't suck...that is a problem when there is a whole 2nd dog's worth of dog hair on the floor and I just vacuumed 2 days ago!* and showers.
~Uncle George stops by to visit and picks up a stool that he needs for his apartment. Brenna loved this visit...running to him with arms out saying "unca grge", dragging him into her playroom to show him her toys.
~He leaves, mommy goes out to let Bailey out and start the car so it will cool off slightly from the 9,000 degree weather before we go to the library for story hour. *Garage door won't go up...car with car seat (and extra car seat) in said garage.*
~Call grandpa because he is luckily at home on summer break too...comes up to help save the day (he and action door man who fixed the broken spring and adjusted our apparently swinging garage door so that it is no longer a swinging garage door). Daddy is unlucky in that he doesn't get to have summer vacation all summer long like Brenna and I, and was stuck in the office with a tightly packed schedule.
~Brenna naps early, wakes up, has lunch of pbj, pretzels, banana with mommy and grandpa
~While waiting for action door man, Brenna stays and plays with grandpa while mommy goes and gets parts for the vacuum (belt - hasn't been changed since we got the vacuum 7 years ago, that's right 7 years, and filters) man at store says he can't believe it lasted 7 years...well believe it because it did. Return home, take vacuum apart, attach new parts, put vacuum back together, start it up....WORKS LIKE BRAND NEW! woohoo...fixed something on my own!
~go to Target just to get out of the house after feeling slightly trapped after having only carseated car stuck in garage.
~played with playdough purchased at Target with only 2 or 3 instances of attempted playdough eating.

5. While this was not the way our day was suppose to go and things happened that were definitely not part of the summer plans, we still managed to make the best of it.

6. Friday we took B to have her first ice cream of the summer. Her very own child size portion in a dish with a spoon...she had a little ice cream moustache but didn't make much of a mess and didn't seem to get brain freeze either which was impressive since some of the bites she took were huge!

7. Munchkin is up so apparently this is going to be a Tuesday 7 spot with no pictures.....I'll be back sometime soon to finish and upload some photos!

Uncle Freddy's Visit

Freddy was in town over the weekend to spend some quality time with friends, family and mostly Brenna! Here are some fun pics from the weekend. It is so fun to watch him with B. She loves her Uncle Freddy that's for sure. "Uh peddy" since she can't say Uncle Freddy. She's still saying it even though he's not here. I definitely think there's a special bond between them.

Brenna is becoming increasingly more difficult to photograph. I have to catch her in the moment or take 1000 to get 1.

Seriously....
Uncle Freddy has been doing "Burt's Bees" with Brenna since Christmas I think. It's her "lipstick" (so she thinks anyway).

It's great fun to sit on and bounce on Uncle like he is my own personal jungle gym!
Hey Brenna, do you like this? OK, I'll get it for you...new toys are a little girl's joy and an Uncle's too I think.

We tried and tried to get some good ones...

Help please ~ shoe time.

Hug (complete with "aaawww" from the little girl)

While you probably can't see very well, they still have the exact same eye color.

It was a wonderful visit. Hopefully we'll be able to see him again before Christmas...thank goodness for cell phones, email, blogs and photo sharing!

Tuesday 10 Spot

Success! This post beats the monthly quota! Yippee...

1. It was a beautiful day today...warm and sunny...and it's Ohio so I will take them any time I can get them and celebrate.

2. Brenna likes to say "I got it," "Oh Noooo!," "Have it?," among other things. Although at this point "NO" is at the very top of her list of things to say.

3. She has become quite the puzzle wizard these days. She has several of the Melissa and Doug chunky wooden puzzles. If we sit with her on the floor she will go through all 7 of them and put every piece where it goes. The only one she truly needs help with is the alphabet puzzle...but there are 26 pieces to that one...the rest she can do with ease. I've taken to turning the puzzles upside down just to make it a little more challenging...no trouble there either. I love that she can do that and she's not even two! So smart, my little girl!

4. While the terrible two's phase has definitely reared its ugly head, she can be such a little sweetie. With her "hi" first thing in the morning to her "daddy, where are you?" when Sean is away at work or out of town. We do love it tremendously.

5. She loves hats. I have to say that this may just be one of my favorite pics lately. Sean's comment was quite funny but will most likely stay as an inside joke...at least for now. There was also this funny moment...I'm not sure that socks are good as an appetizer, especially ones that have been worn all day. Hmmm...
6. Scrapbooking has been on hiatus minus some magazine and book browsing. I'm waiting to get together with Marie (if our schedules ever manage to work out!) to get started. I have finished my sketches and gone through and picked all the pics(at least I think I have the chosen few of 400). Now it is a matter of getting the right supplies and materials and putting it all together. Hopefully that will be the fun part.

7. Still on the quest for fabulous pics of my little munchkin. Here are a few recent shots...I may be partial but I sure think she is beautiful.



8. 16 Days and counting until school is out...Those are school days by the way, no weekends or holidays included. I'm so looking forward to Brenna time, play dates, going to the zoo, visiting family, and just plain hanging out.

9. Uncle Freddy is coming to visit for the weekend...I can't wait to get a new shot of them! These are two of my favorites and while they are older pics, it is fun to reminisce.

10. Tomorrow my little girl will be 22 months old...where did the time go? Love you, bug!