Dawn and Alex, along with Colby and his mom, spending a minute coloring a Halloween picture page.

And finally, a shot of everyone chillin' and enjoying the party. We had a great time and it seemed like all the guests did too. It was a lot of fun!

A Little Warmer Weather

It's warmed up just a bit here the past few days. Enough so that you don't really need a full coat to go out, just a nice warm sweater. So, since taking a nice walk is one of Brianna's favorite things, her and her daddy took off for another outdoor adventure this afternoon. As usual, Trav came back with some darn adorable pix...

So cute in her little stripey sweater. Doesn't she look so grown up in this pic?

She's ready for her close up... I always have to include a cute headshot with her big blue eyes in there. (And, at least you can see them now. I finally trimmed her bangs up and out of her eyeline.)

Making the ducks fly! Brianna loves to chase them until they fly away. You can see how much fun she thinks it is by the look on her face. She does it every time we take a walk around the apt. :)

PEEK-A-BOO!

Another shot of her running through and crunching the leaves. Bree has really enjoyed doing that this fall. And, I have to admit, it's still one of my favorite things to do as well!

A cute one! I like the way her hair is in this shot.
A windblown beauty...

Clifford's Mom

It’s no secret (if you’ve been reading this blog very long) that Bree ends up going to bed with quite a few friends every night. Bear and Green (her two favorite teddy bears) are a given but other than those two the cast kind of changes from week to week depending on her mood. Recently she’s also insisted on having “Clifford” in bed with her as well. “Clifford” is a little stuffed red dog Brianna got from Grandma Dee-Dee. Since he’s red, she promptly named him Clifford after, well, Clifford the Big Red Dog (duh). Clifford’s been one of the important bedtime players for a few weeks now. So, when Bree asked for him tonight it was no big surprise. What was kind of a surprise though was when she also suddenly asked for “Clifford’s Mom.” I wasn’t exactly sure which of her little stuffed friends she was referring to, but soon saw she was pointing to a slightly larger stuffed dog who’s brown with darker brown spots. Not exactly sure when this happened but I guess our Clifford now has a new mom. Congrats to the newly formed family I guess..although that means just one more extra thing in Bree’s little bed. I’m not quite sure how she manages to have enough room to actually sleep in there…..

Bunnies Everywhere....

Well, you know what they say about bunnies... you start out with 2 and end up with a million. I guess that's true for drawings of bunnies too. See, Bree has a notebook with a picture of a bunny on it that she got in her Easter basket months ago. Naturally, in perfect toddler reasoning she thinks that we should only draw pictures of..bunnies..inside the bunny notebook. And, that's all that's drawn in there (aside from scribbling which is Bree's contribution-she thinks she's drawing bunnies). I swear I've drawn a bunny on pretty much every page in that darn little notebook. Every day Bree will hand it to me saying "Mom, draw a bunny!" As soon as I've finished drawing one she'll turn the page and say, "Mom, draw a bunny right there," and point. I usually have to draw around 5-6 bunnies before I can beg off making any more. I think we're gonna have to buy a new notebook to house all the bunnies at the rate they're "reproducing."

Photo Montage

Okay well, actually Brianna and I had kind of a tough day today. She spent most the day feeling rather crabby and was bursting into tears at the slightest provocation. We were both pretty exhausted by the end of the day. So, for once I couldn't really find our one happy or cute moment to talk about. Instead, I was looking through our photos and found a few cute pix from other days when we weren't so crabby. :) Oh well, guess we'll start over tomorrow. Anyways, here's a few random photos from the past few weeks....

I love this one! It just looks like a happy childhood shot to me... Bree's got the paper-plate mask we made the other day around her neck. (I've been trying to do an afternoon craft every day since the weather's been colder. We were actually making jack-o-lantern masks and this is what hers ended up looking like...) Here she had insisted on wearing it to go help us do the laundry. She did wear the mask on her face quite a bit, we just couldn't manage to get her to hold still long enough to get a pic of it!

Checking out the shark at the MN Zoo. Man! He's scary looking. But, Brianna was just staring at him through the glass without flinching.

Running through the fall leaves with such abandon. Here, she was on one of her walks around the apartment grounds with her daddy.

This was one day when Bree woke up and decided she needed to spend the morning in just her diaper. She does that a lot lately. :) I think this one is just full of little girl sweetness.

Do the Twist

On one of our many baby song CD's we've got the song "The Twist." I think it's a catchy tune and everytime it comes on I try to get Bree to dance with me. So, I dance around like an idiot while she stares at me. I had just about decided that Brianna just didn't like that song, or at least that she didn't appreciate it as being on the level of say, "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "The Muffin Man." Today she surprised me though by singing "The Twist" almost word for word. She had just needed some inspiration was all. She got it this afternoon when she was standing on the computer chair and using her hands on the desk to push herself back and forth, making the chair swivel. Suddenly while doing this she breaks out with, "Come on baby..do the Twist! Come on BA-BY, do the Twist. Do it like this! The Twist!" She sang it for about 5 minutes and despite my best efforts to keep a straight face, (so she woudn't feel embarassed), every time she said "Come on baby!" I would snicker. Oh well, it didn't bother her at all. My baby is not one to be shy at all! I can just see future karaoke incidents now....

A Day at the Orchard

This weekend Travis, Brianna, and I joined other families from my mom's group and went out to a local apple orchard. We got to walk through the orchards, play in a pumpkin patch, and do all kinds of fun stuff on the farm. It was a little chilly out, but we all had lots of fun!

The orchard was set up quite nicely for visitors. They had apple cider and doughnut stands, hay rides, a little petting barn, and these little wagons to haul the kids around the farm in. So, while all us poor adults had to walk the toddlers got pulled along in luxury. Ivy, Bree, and Skylar are in the wagon. Another friend, Erin, and her son, Finn, were also there but aren't in this picture.

Ivy, riding along in the wagon.