Mommies Can't Leave without their Daughters

The other day we were feeling kind of lazy about cooking dinner and so Travis suggested I go pick up a Papa Murphy's pizza for us. I was up for that and called it in and then a few minutes later headed out to grab it, an errand that takes me a total of 15 minutes even counting the driving. Well, Brianna decided she wanted to come with me on this little errand. I tried my best to dissuade her considering it seemed just more trouble than it was worth to wait for her to put some pants and shoes on, get herself strapped into her carseat (since she refuses to let anyone else do it for her), and then go throught the whole in and out of the car thing at the pizza place. "I'll be really quick, I'll be right back before you can even put your shoes on!" I assured her. But she was insistent..."Mommies can't go out by themselves," she told me, "They have to wait for their daughters. Mommies can't leave without their daughters." Well, that convinced me. It kind of impressed me, I'd never heard her use the word daughter before, and even in the correct context but mostly it was just so sweet that I had to take her. :)

Electric Chef

As I've mentioned, Bree LOVES to cook. And she's pretty good at it. I just measure out the flour, or milk, or whatever and let her go dump it in the bowl and then mix it with a spoon. I even let her crack the eggs into the bowl, which is, I think, her favorite part. (In fact, she likes it so well and my mom was so impressed with this trick, esp. the part where she doesn't even get any shell inside the bowl, that Grammy Dee-Dee let her crack more than a dozen eggs into a bowl during our visit, all the while calling different family members in to see it. We had a nice big batch of scrambled eggs for breakfast that day...) At least, cracking eggs WAS her favorite part until recently when we made Travis a rhubarb pie (his favorite) for a Father's Day treat. As usual Bree was up on her stepping stool helping out when I pulled out the mixer to make the crust. Apparently we've never used the mixer together since we've started this whole buddy baking thing. You should have seen her little eyes light up. She was saying, "I'm gonna help you Mom!" before I could even plug it in and had her little itchy trigger finger on the button right away. So, with each of us having one hand on the mixer I started it up. Oh the power trip for a preschooler! She was thrilled and was screaming like a crazed banshee the entire time..."Wheeee! Dad! Look at me! Look at us! See what we're doing!" Oy...I think I may have created a monster....

Fireworks!

I'm not real sure why, but for some reason our town was setting off fireworks last night at the high school. Naturally, they didn't start until after dark, after Bree was supposed to be sleeping. But, considering we only live 2 blocks from the high school she wasn't sleeping for long, it sounded like we were being bombed at our house. So we all marched into the backyard and decided we might as well enjoy the show. It was pretty cool actually to be able to sit in our own backyard and enjoy them. Bree didn't get to see any big ones last year so she thought it was neat. Of course, it was a bit of a shock when our own automatic sprinklers came on in the middle of the show and soaked us, causing us to jump up like crazy people and run to a safer, and dryer, part of the yard. By the time they stopped shooting them off, at 11 pm, we were all damp and pretty tired but at least we didn't have far to go to get to bed. :)

(Although, I have to say that seeing any kind of fireworks in the sky like that only makes me realize how soon this new baby is coming! AACK!)

Happy Birthday Brianna!

On June 16th Brianna Rose turned 3 years old! Can you believe it? Everyone always tells you how fast it goes but it's hard to really KNOW until you're actually going through it.

Since we were in Idaho the weekend before her birthday, we went ahead and had her major birthday party there, where most of her family and friends are. It was a pretty wild scene, family and tiny tots everywhere!

And of course she got plenty of presents and was pretty much spoiled rotten as usual.

This was her major present though, you know, the one you pull out of the closet at the last minute, after all the rest have been opened? This year her big present was a "pedaling bicycle" as she calls it, complete with basket, bell, and tassels. She was just ready for a big girl trike. And, it's taken her a little while but just in the past few days she's really started to get the hang of the whole pedaling thing, although it frustrated the heck out of her at first. Some of the other big hits of the day were her "Woody" doll from Toy Story and a new movie, "The Rescue-skeevers" (The Rescuers).

The highlight of the party though, at least for the kids, was the lighting and then eating of the cupcake tower.

This year Brianna even helped to make her own cupcakes since she loves to cook so much, and then she decorated them herself...they had LOTS of multi-colored sprinkles. It was a very special day!

The next weekend, for Bree's actual birthday we kept it low key. (Well, we HAD a gift we were going to give her but the little spy eyes found it early (a Jesse (from Toy Story) doll) and we went ahead and gave it to her then. So no presents for her on the 16th. So, we just spent a quiet day together, enjoying each other's company and reminiscing.

Can you believe that she's gone from this:

to this:

in just 3 short years. (sniff) Crazy! (Isn't she cute in her little Birthday Princess crown and clip on ear rings?)

Weekend Trip to Idaho

First off, I apologize again for the tardiness of this post...but I posted lots of pix for you to make up for it! :)

We headed off last weekend (June 9-10) to Idaho to help celebrate my Great Grandpa's 90th Birthday. Here's what happened....

We got into town Friday night and headed off the next morning we were off to Grandpa's Birthday party.

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Here's a 5 generation shot...of course, I managed not to be looking at the camera...oh well!

The Birthday Boy! And no, that's not me next to him (I wish). That's my gorgeous baby sister, Melissa. Don't hate her because she's beautiful people, but feel free to resent her. :P

Here's Bree in her party dress and looking sullen about it. :)

While we were in town, and since Bree's actual birthday was only a week away, we went ahead and celebrated her birthday the next day as well. More on that though in the next post....

In between everything else we even managed to squeeze in a visit to some old friends. Here's me and the wife of one of Trav's best high school buddies comparing bellies. She's due only a week after me!

Then it was on the road again....

Check out those mountains! These are the Sawtooths in Idaho.

We took our time on the way home, making lots of stops to enjoy the scenery. Here Brianna insisted on taking a break to pick some wildflowers. Can't blame her, they are pretty.

We saw A LOT of wildlife on the way home...this was one of our first sightings though. I guess when they post those deer crossing signs they really mean it! Good thing we spotted this one and were safely pulled off the side of the road when it decided to dash across the highway.

Just on the other side of the Idaho-Montana divide we spotted these guys. They're mountain goats! This was the first time I've actually seen them in the wild like this. Pretty neat...

About 20 minutes before we finally drove into our own driveway we spotted this guy...a buck with his horns in velvet. Actually, he was with a buddy, there were two of them, just standing there by the side of the road. So, this was our last stop along the way before we chugged into our garage, unloaded the car as fast as we could and passed out.

It was fun and crazy as usual...and definitely our last long road trip before the new baby arrives!

A Pity Post

Yep, it's just what it sounds like...I realize it's been awhile here since I've updated this here thing and although I'm still not quite ready to do a "quality" entry I'm just zipping something off to placate all the raving masses who have been patiently waiting for their update. :)

Actually it's been 2 weeks (2 weeks!) since I've posted which is pretty much a no-no for me. I really try to do it much more frequently but here's my lame excuses:
1) I was out of town for awhile there.
2) At 8 months pregnant I'm feeling pretty exhausted at virtually all moments of the day and haven't even felt like I had enough energy to drag myself over to the computer and make an entry.
3) At 8 months pregnant my whole nesting thing has kicked in really strongly making me spend whatever free time and energy I have doing things around the house like deciding where all the pictures should hang on the wall and then getting wishy-washy about it so they're still not hung up, or endlessly re-arranging all the tiny newborn socks in their tiny newborn sock drawer, which then leads you back up to excuse #2.....

Well, now that my lame excuses are out of the way I'll let you know what's been going on around here. We were in Idaho last weekend to help celebrate my Great Grandpa turning 90! While we were in town we also went ahead and celebrated Bree's 3rd Birthday with all our friends and family there. (There, now you're updated... So maybe it hasn't been THAT busy here but it's a 7 hr. drive one way to Boise and I'm still not recovered from the trip so there! I think that's gonna be my LAST major trip before giving birth.)

Our other big event was that Brianna's birthday was actually yesterday! She's three! Holy cow! She's practically old already! I guess now we officially have to stop calling her a toddler and must refer to her as a "pre-schooler." We kept it pretty low key yesterday though since we'd already had her main stuff go on last weekend. Just spend the day enjoying some quality time with her and remembering when she was born and how fast it's gone..and how soon I'm gonna be doing all that again! Guess I need to update the ol' birthday ticker up there as well. I have lots of pix to share from the trip and birthday so I'll do a better post later with those.

Until then I leave you with a few more Bree-isms to enjoy:

- "grand new!" the "Bree-ism" for "brand new." All her birthday gifts are all "grand new!"

- "I notice..." Which seems to be her new way of asking if she can do something. I guess she heard someone say it and thought it was neat because now she'll say things like, "I notice you want to go to the play park with me?" or "I notice I want a popsicle."

Phrase of the Day

I'm noticing that I used to blog alot about the cute little things that Brianna was saying. Every new word or phrase was funny to me...and now I seem to do it less. I guess she's getting older and I'm getting used to her talking like a normal person, in full blown sentences and all. But, she still says some pretty outrageous things. And, even if what she says isn't that outrageous when she starts saying a "grown up" phrase it still cracks me up. Here are a few of my favorite new little things she's been saying:

• "Of course!" She says this a lot which I find kind of funny in and of itself but even more funny when she answers her own question with it. Like this, "Mom, can I have a snack?" and without waiting to hear my answer, "Of course I can!" Or, "Mom, do you want to play dollhouse with me?...Of course you do!" I guess we must say this alot to her.
• "You betcha!" This is a phrase she got directly from her daddy. She's just started incorporating it into her everyday conversation but it's super funny to ask her a question and have her answer, "You betcha!"
• "Refreshing water!" This is a "Grammy-ism," or in other words, something she picked up from my mom. Seems like my whole family delights in teaching Brianna odd little phrases or humongous words that she wouldn't know otherwise. If you recall, last time my mom visited she had Bree going on about "glorious cheese." This time around, every time Grammy was drinking a glass of water she'd smack her lips and go, "Yum. I just love a drink of nice refreshing water!" So often that now Bree can't seem to talk about water at all without adding "refreshing" to the front.
• "Wouldn't you love to?" Okay well this was actually more of a one-time thing but just goes to show you how much Brianna is really listening to everything you say. It was at one point during Grammy Dee-Dee's visit and Brianna walked up to her and said, "Grammy would you hold my hand?" Grammy said, "I would love to!" and then she took the offered hand. Well, a few minutes later they had let go so Bree walked back up to Grammy and said again, "Would you hold my hand?" So, this time Grammy said, "Sure!" and took her hand. Then Bree looked up at her and asked her, "Well, wouldn't you love to?" Hee hee!

A Mix of Pix

For those of you who've already gotten the link to Trav's monthly photo album these are going to look pretty familiar. I actually meant to post these quite awhile ago, some I had planned to post as long as two weeks ago but just never got around to doing it since life has been a bit hectic and my blog posting has gotten kind of sporadic as of late (every day, every other day, twice a week, once a week, who knows?). Then it was so close to the end of the month I knew Travis would be sending the pix out with the album and I didn't want to steal his thunder by sharing them before he got a chance (for once! :D) So here they finally are...my favorite shots from this month's album with my own personal commentary added in. I did promise more pix coming about 5 or 6 posts ago so... Better late then never huh? Sort of a collage of recent life, hope you enjoy!

This was another trip to Como Lake. Here's Bree being "Queen of the Rock" and looking quite smug about it too. :)

A super cute close up (before the bang chopping incident obviously). Something about her expression in this one makes me think you can almost tell what she'll look like at 12 or something...she just is looking more grown up all the time!

These are her "bug-looking" eyes. Daddy told her to hold her hands up there like binoculars and look for insects at the lake. I guess they worked since she actually did find him a new beetle to collect shortly thereafter. (Well, at least they're spending time together right?) My favorite part is the messy face though. :)

Aww...



Just one of many hiking shots in this month's collection of photos. We've been hiking around a lot lately since it's just too easy to find beautiful places to walk around in the evenings here. This was a trail along a creek we found. Notice Bree's little walking stick there....




And here we are marching along the trail in our matching pony tails.




Brianna the wood sprite! Just another cute shot I couldn't resist.

Yet another hiking adventure. This time Bree rode in the backpack though. And there's me, looking super outdoorsy sexy in my camo hat. Oh yeah...

Apparently, Brianna really loves hiking! Doesn't it show?

This is the way she "hikes" just about every time, passed out in the backpack. Something about being strapped to Daddy's warm back while he walks back and forth just puts her right out.

Bathing Beauty....

Or Sassy Fairy, she's cute either way!

(She ran around with just the wings strapped on one day after her bath for quite awhile.)

Here Bree's helping our neighbor, Scott, mow his lawn. He's got an old fashioned push mower and Brianna finds it fascinating, along with Scott himself....she adores him for some reason! He's a bachelor but is really nice about letting our kid hang off him. :)

Classic...enjoying a windmill on a windy day. Love the expression.

You gotta really hold it up to get the good wind. (Yep, we're actually considering trying to power the whole house that way, gotta have a few more kids first to really get enough juice though.) Although, I'm not real sure how well she can enjoy the whole experience with her eyes closed. Doesn't she look like if the Statue of Liberty was holding a windmill instead of a torch? Hee hee!