Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween Fun

Brianna got to be a bunny for Halloween this year. A good friend gave us her daughter's costume from last year and it was perfect! She was very happy to be a bunny and especially loves her whiskers. She's always asking me, "make up whiskers mommy!!!" She cried the first time I wiped them off!

We had our ward's Trunk or Treat on Tuesday and she had a blast once she figured out that she could get candy at every car. Then there was no stopping her! I had forgotten her basket, so she used my purse which was nearly as big as she is!
When we got home all she wanted was her candy so I let her have one sucker and this was the result! She thought it was hilarious that her lips and teeth were blue! Unfortunately the next morning I went to go get her candy out of the linen closet where I hid it from her and found thousands of ants all over it! I also found hundreds of ants in our kitchen sink and in our food pantry. I even found ants crawling all over my clothes that were hung up in the closet!! Weird! So I spent the entire day killing ants and trying to find ways to prevent them from coming back. Once I had cleaned an area I would come back 10 minutes later and several more ants would have appeared. By 3:00 that afternoon the only thing I had done was kill ants since I had woken up! I'm still finding some several days later, but at least it's not in the thousands anymore!
Brianna goes to a group called Music Makers on Fridays that some moms from our ward have organized. Today they got to wear their costumes! Brianna started out really fussy, but as you can see she was really happy by the end. Here she is being "Frankenstein" for one of the games!

She was finally happy after pouting forever!
We carved our pumpkins on Wednesday and Brianna LOVED painting hers!
So proud of her finished product. When people come over she says "I maked it! I paint it!" and shows off her pumpkin and other things she's done!

We tried to get her to help with cleaning out the pumpkin, but as you can see, she didn't like the guts at all!

Chad hadn't carved a pumpkin since he was a teenager so he really had fun!
Here's our finished product. We just wanted something simple and we are excited to put it on our porch tonight! Unfortunately it's supposed to rain all night and tomorrow! Hopefully we won't get too wet trick or treating! Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Auntie Em's Visit

We had a lot of fun this weekend! My sister, Emily, was working in San Francisco and decided to take a train up to visit us for a day with her friend Sue. Then, the next day my parents had a work reunion thing in the Bay Area and spent a day with us as well!! So, I have tons to post! We also had our Ward Trunk or Treat, and we carved our pumpkins....so brace yourself for lots of photos and posts!

Brianna adored Emily and had so much fun with her that she keeps asking about her now that she's gone! Emily taught her this little dance where they sang"doo do loodle doo do loo"and she does it all the time now! Here they are doing it together!


She had so much fun playing with Emily, whether it was silly games or just throwing and catching a ball!


Emily and Sue came late Sunday evening and the next morning we drove Sue to the airport and went to the zoo!
Brianna loved the monkeys! The monkeys in this cage were howling so loud that I thought they were siren at first! This is her response to all the noise!We found some chimpanzee statues and Brianna kept kissing this one because his lips looked like he was puckering!

Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

My parents arrived Monday afternoon after we returned from the zoo! We woke Brianna up from a very short nap to drive up to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch! It was a little over an hour away, but we were told it was the best! And it was! Chad was able to get off of work a little early to join us too!!! (He deserved a break too because he took his huge 16 hour, 2 day Professional Engineering test this last weekend and he needed something fun to do!)


We took a free hay ride to the pumpkins!



Brianna fell in love with this little pumpkin! We hoped to leave it behind, but she wouldn't get on the hay ride to go back without it!

She wished she could've taken this one, but it was just too heavy!

Sitting with Grandpa and her prized pumpkin!!! We were glad when we were able to set it aside and pick a prettier rounder pumpkin later!!! The pumpkin we finally bought to take home!
They had a cute little petting farm! Here's my family posing as the animals!

Brianna really wanted to pick this goat up, but she just couldn't hold on to him! I'm sure he was grateful!

My parents treated us to a ride on the train at the farm! Bri doing her "do doo loodle doo" dance on the train"!There were also a few playgrounds with slides, a huge slide for older kids and on the weekends there are pig races and other shows! They also had a fabulous bakery where my dad bought us some pumpkin pie that was delicious!!!

We went out to dinner and headed home worn out from a long long day!!! But, my dad's birthday was over the weekend so we surprised him with a little cake and some presents! We played for a little bit and then headed to bed early!

Emily left really early in the morning and my parents left at lunch time! So it was a really quick trip, but we were so glad they all took the time to travel the extra 2 hours each way to see us! Thanks for coming you guys we loved having you!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Birthday Party Fun!

Brianna was invited to her friend, Malayla's, birthday party! She had a lot of fun! They started out swinging then ate pizza:
Then they fed the ducks! Brianna loved it!Then we got to go to the petting barn and she loved the donkey!!! Unfortuntely it was too crowded to get a picture of her face, she was laughing her head off and kissing the donkey!!They also got to feed the chickens! Brianna pretty much just chucked the food at the chickens...and if they wouldn't eat it, she'd pick it back up and chuck it again!!! After the petting barn Brianna wanted to hold Malayla's hand and they walked together like this for at least 5 minutes!

She was so excited when she saw they cake! She thought it was for her! She even tried to help Malayla blow the candles out!

The petting barn gave out little plastic animals and they sat on the bench admiring each other's animals! All in all it was a lot of fun and we were so glad to be invited!



Thursday, October 16, 2008

More Key Fobs on Etsy


For those who have been patient and waiting until I got new supplies, I just listed these 5 new key fobs on etsy! I will still be making more, but this is all I have for now!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Potty Training

Brianna insisted on wearing her panties on top of her pajamas because I still make her wear a diaper at night! By the morning, she was still wearing them! She reminded us of some kind of Super Underwear Hero! She is a silly girl. Potty training has had it's ups and downs for us. Brianna was doing really well and almost completely potty trained...even at night...before she turned 2! Then she started teething with her incisors and it's been hit and miss lately. It seems to be an every other day thing. One day she'll do great with no accidents, and the following day she will not have any successes!!! It started getting really frustrating and so I decided to do a new kind of potty chart! Since Brianna is obsessed with Dora I decided we needed a Dora Potty Training Adventure! Here's a photo of her chart:Brianna needs to help Dora save Boots (or whatever Dora toy she's working for) from the Gooey Geiser! First they have to get over the River, then through the Echo Bush and then she'll get to the Gooey Geiser and save her friend (which is waiting on the shelf above the toilet)! Every time Bri goes potty in the toilet Dora moves from one velcro stone to the next! Since Brianna hasn't seemed to care anymore if she has an accident we added Swiper to the chart. If she has an accident then Swiper makes Dora move back one space. It's been working pretty well, though some days are still better than others. She earned her second toy, "Isa" today and she's thrilled! Hopefully this will work!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Bri's Big Girl Bed

We finally bought Brianna a toddler bed! She's been starting to try and climb in and out of the crib, and though she's probably still too short to be successful, she's getting close. (And since my sister broke her neck climbing out of her crib, I'm a little more paranoid!!!)
We found this nice bed on craigslist that the family had only had for a month and their son wouldn't sleep in it!!! We got a great deal on a practically new bed! I was nervous that Bri wouldn't do well in it! But, so far she loves it! She doesn't get out of bed and stays there and plays quietly with her baby until she goes to sleep!!! Now we just need to take the crib apart and put it in the garage so her new bed can be put in the right place!

Brianna seems to be growing up too fast for me! She's talking a ton now and I love having little conversations with her! She talks in lots of sentences and phrases and often repeats the last few words we say in a question form? She also is becoming more and more of a 2 year old! Some of her favorite phrases lately: (notice they are her favorites, not mine!!!!)

"Stop it Mommy, My do it!!!", "My turn!" "Non't Want It!" "What you doing?/ "How you doing?" (repeated over and over throughout the day!!) And probably the most common thing I hear "I want more Dora!!!" She's becoming very independent and lets me know it!!! She is still teething and 2 of her incisors are breaking through which has added to a little more meltdowns and tantrums, but most of the time she is a very pleasant and easy going child! She brings a lot of laughter and fun into our home.

We also noticed the other day that her hair is getting really long. I can actually braid it in two pony tails! She hasn't had a hair cut in a long time and will definitely need one from her Aunt Christine when we visit for Thanksgiving!


Saturday, October 04, 2008

Frozen "Boys"

I was really excited last Friday when the Contractor announced that he would not be working on Saturday. I was very excited because I could now take my scouts to the University Falls located by Georgetown, CA.

After driving 1.5 hours we got to the trail head. We enjoyed an almost 3 mile hike to the falls.


There some interesting obstacles along the way.

The top of the falls.
University Falls.
The trip was amazing overall! If I could change 1 thing it would be to increase the temperature of the water. That is not going to happen anytime of year due to it being snow runoff. Anyway, here are some videos of the frozen "boys."





This last video is a conglomerate. We tried to contain the agony associated with the freezing cold water. Everyone made quick work of getting out as soon as you hit the water.