Christmas 2012

This first picture isn't necessarily from Christmas, just lately.  In order to prepare for the upcoming changing dynamics in our house I found a little baby for Brennan to carry around.  She will pick her up, put her on her shoulder, and go Shh Shh Shh, just like I taught her to. 

Brennan's first experience meeting Santa didn't necessarily go as smoothy as I imagined it going...

Running away from Santa

Crying and clinging to me in fear when I tried to take her closer to him...

Bless that little face 

We were able to spend a few fun days with the Sandifer crew and spent our first day going out to Aunt Janice's ranch.  It was fun for Brennan to see real, live horses and to climb around on the hay stacks with daddy

Her tea pot from Nana and Papa was quite the hit

Christmas morning

This tea pot brings out the cutest pretend play in this little one 

First (of many) tea parties with Daddy

After Christmas we made our way to the mountains to spend a Hughes Christmas in Frisco.  First activity was going to the sledding hill and playing in the snow

Followed by some cousin love and wrestling!

Our month in pictures

In the past month, we:

Revisited our YL stomping grounds of Crooked Creek to spend a weekend while Lane worked as Camp Director.  Brennan stole the hearts of all of the high school girls.

Played with snow for the real first time in her life.  Brennan screamed "Noooo!" in delight (meaning 'snow').

Went to 'Club' with Daddy and 500 high schoolers.  Danced in the back to the music, spinning and clapping her hands.

Continued working on her plan to have Daddy completely wrapped around her finger

Love it here!  The belly grows... 

She was completely exhausted from such a fun weekend on the way home

Decorated the house for Christmas

Got sick and had a lot of water (which she calls "Watee"), shows, and cuddle time

Spent days and days in this position.  Sweet, sweet girl. 

Visited the West Point Chapel

Walked on Wall Street and captured the ever growing belly

And even made it over to the Rockefeller tree, along with probably half a million other people on the same night

Took a final round of Christmas photos as a family of three! 

What a fun month!

EE II EE II OOOOHHHHH

This is us working on animal sounds.  It's been long enough since my last post that pictures wouldn't do her justice.  Enjoy her cute little voice and adorable little face. 

Things I don't want to forget

~ When she's really engrossed in a book, she lays down to get an extra good look at the pictures.  Look at how she studies it.  

~ I know that she is preparing to climb into a closet to hide because she yells "BYE BYE!"

~ When getting her from a nap, she is normally standing at the edge of her crib saying "Uh Oh!" because she has thrown her puppies overboard.  Every time.

~ When she doesn't want to eat food that is on her tray, she tries to feed it to me and shove it in my mouth going "Num num num mmmmmmmmm"

~ She disciplines herself- if she is about to touch something that we have told her not to, she looks at us and goes "NO!", with a pointed finger and all, and shakes her head

~ Hiiiii

~ Doggie is never said as a single word, it is always DoggieWoof!

~ Her two obsessions: books and shoes (which she pronounces sheeewwwwwwwww)

~ She says Bye Bye See You!!!  Keep in mind that we never say Bye bye see you later, she somehow knew to string those two phrases together and now only says them as one

~ Peas. (please).  Sank sou. (thank you)

~ If I am feeding her food and she doesn't know what it is yet, she must first sample it.  She will either only open her mouth up wide enough to get just the tip of the spoon in her mouth or only stick out her tongue to try the food. If she deems it worthy, she opens her mouth wide enough for a good solid bite.

~ When I hand her her beloved puppy, she puts it up to her face in such glee.  The problem (and cute thing) is that she holds it over her eyes and runs because she is so happy to be reunited with him again but inevitably runs smack into a wall because her eyesight is blocked.  

Just let yourself imagine the visual; it's hilarious.

~ When we went to baby gym time, she practically threw herself into this foam pit that children 5 times her age were playing in. She begged and begged until I let her in to play in a pit taller than she is.  The child is brave.

She is finally tall enough to reach up to our breakfast table and tonight grabbed our whole loaf of bread.  Very proud of herself.

A little bit of lately

Here are some snapshots of life lately:

Finally, finally I have a child that has hair at least semi-long enough for pigtails.  So, SO cute.

She is in a funny stage where she mimics EVERYTHING we do.  Anytime I get out the vacuum or the broom, she has to get something too to follow me around and try to clean beside me

Sometimes it doesn't go so well

Her absolute obsession with books is hilarious and adorable.  She will grab a book, bring it over to me, and once she is about two feet away, turns around and backs up into my lap pushing the book into my hand.  We spend probably 60% of our day in this position with me reading Brown Bear over and over and over and over.  

I will catch her in her room silently looking through books all by herself.

Snack time!

See?  ALWAYS reading books!  It's her favorite thing to do.  

Antagonizing the Canine

Brennan ADORES Sophie and thinks that she is just the funniest thing in the world.  I'm glad that Soph is such a loving, gentle dog because Brennan makes her put up with a lot.  Watch these videos.  She's funny.

My favorite part in this one is when she walks away clapping, so proud of herself

and a 5, 6, 5 6 7 8

SOMEBODY went to her first dance class today.

She didn't really follow any of the directions but her LOUD squeals of laughter and joy told me that she loved it.