Brenna At The Fair (aka More Attitude)

This past Saturday we spent a few hours at the Arizona State Fair, what an adventure that was. All in all Brenna did very well, and enjoyed the music and sights. She was also struggling with teeth issues and got tired after a while, but here are a few pictures of that afternoon.

The idea behind this first picture was to get Emily and Brenna in front of the largest travelling ferris wheel in the US. Unfortunately for them to show up in the picture, they needed to be in the sun, so they're both squinting merrily at the camera in this one.

Here is more of the ginormous ferris wheel. You couldn't pay me enough to ride that thing, although I bet I could have seen our house from the top of it, that could have been cool.

Here's Brenna not looking at the camera again. She's sitting next to some smelly sheep. Fun had by all. My allergies loved it.

Here we are in the Game & Fish exhibit, lots of dead, stuffed animals for your viewing pleasure. Brenna was busy looking at something, we'll pretend it was Abraham Lincoln and that talking beaver from those sleeping pill commercials. I see those guys all the time, myself.

Ah, here we are eating twenty dollar BBQ and listening to really loud, distorted country music. The expression on my face says it all, I think. Brenna is being pleasant in her stroller, she had a nice meal of apple sauce and some cheese doodles with her Grandma, who's pictured here looking at the fair program.

I have a million other Brenna pictures to cull through that Emily has taken lately, stay tuned!

Attitude

(Editor's Note: A new garden blog is ripe for the picking, har har, regarding jujubes)

We were in a bit of a mood tonight. Perhaps the lack of good nap times today contributed to the following pictures.

The thought was to capture Brenna in a cute new outfit, looking precious and whatnot. The following is what we ended up with instead. Entertaining, nonetheless, but not what we bargained for.

This first shot is the I'm-going-to-come-at-daddy-like-a-spider-monkey-pose. I managed to get out of the way without getting my eyes gouged out.



Methinks some sore teeth may have also been a factor, as well. Here is another cutesy pose, we look very happy here to still have a camera man sitting in our way.



And finally, a pleasant picture of our daughter enjoying a good book, and not minding at all being interrupted by the flash of a camera.

Happy Friday to come, everyone!

Two Pictures And A Lot Of Rambling

You may think after reading this blog that it wasn't worth all of my rambling for two pictures, much less only one of our daughter. I feel obligated to make up for the last three or four blogs where all I've done is posted pictures and videos and a three word heading to the whole thing, with no explanation of what you're looking at, and/or what's been going on in our world.

Well, today is your lucky day, I'm no longer feeling that poorly (see, I bet you didn't even know I've been sick the past week or so) and am putting off going to the grocery store, so settle in and stay a while.

We've had a rather eventful last few weeks since I took time to type much. Brenna's grandparents from Georgia visited for a while, and during that time the three of us (myself and them) took a number of day trips, including:

- Case Grande Ruins - Where we saw two great horned owls in the ceiling of the ruins cover, cleaning themselves and hooting to each other. What a grand site, and what a pity that this was one of those trips I didn't bother bringing a camera.

- Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior - A nice morning for a stroll through the gardens, as it were.

- Lynx Lake in Prescott - We saw there what appeared to be a bald eagle circling the lake, searching for lunch. This time I had my camera, but was nowhere near the action to take a picture. Here's a shot for your viewing pleasure.

(Yes, but where's Brenna, you're thinking....)



Well, here you go, a picture of Brenna wearing a birthday outfit from cousin Jenny. The shoes are about a foot too long (well, maybe not that much), but we're sure she's going to grow into them.



In other random news:

- I stubbed my toe horribly on a chair and it still hurts two weeks later if I stand on it funny. Methinks it was broken and isn't healing because I keep putting weight on it.

- We bought a treadmill that's sitting in the garage collecting dust. Since installing it, Brenna has been sick with an ear infection and a stomach bug, which I took off her hands this past Friday. Between that and the aforementioned toe atrocity, no one has christened that machine as yet.

- Halloween candy is the spawn of the devil. I've single handedly eaten two thirds of a bag of Nestles Crunch bars in the last two days. Granted I probably lost five pounds this past Friday (see above and do the math), but replacing it with pure choclately goodness is probably not the best route to go.

- Emily and I are converting our entire CD collections to MP3s and storing them on this neato Western Digital 1TB hard drive that's about the size of a paperback book. We're hoping to buy some things for around the house with the proceeds (once the drive is paid off, of course). I'm in the B's at this point (my gosh this is going to take forever).

- Speaking of B's, David Bowie just rocks, pure and simple. After ripping about twelve discs of his material, from the beginning of his career to his last few albums, I can't decide what era I prefer. Queen Bitch is just the best song ever, and if you've ever seen the movie Life Aquatic, it's chopped full of Bowie goodness, including that delightful tune. What has this man NOT done musically during his life.

And here is your reward for wading through all of this. Emily created a wickedly cool montage video of Brenna's first year on this earth, and has posted it online via the following URL. If you have about ten minutes to spare and like listening to some cool daughter/parent related music in the meantime, this is for YOU! Enjoy!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=3f0fd07a1349be1cd2a49e&skin_id=801&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=email

A Few New Brenna Pictures

Birthday Videos!

More Pictures!

Below are some more pictures of Grandma and Grandpa H's visit!

More Birthday Fun

This indeed the birthday that won't end, and we're loving it! Today was Brenna's official birthday party at the church with all of her nursery friends. Below are a few pictures from today's festivities, I'll upload more once I pull the pictures off my camera and hope to also upload some video.

Below is Brenna checking out one of her many gifts (a Stitch Halloween candy caddy).

Plotting an escape from Auntie Beth perhaps? No, we LOVE Auntie Beth (wringing hands).

Stranger Danger Tip #42: Never accept gifts from strangers. Well in this case Grandpa H is offering Brenna some of her cake and she is politely declining. I know what you're thinking, this is not a "pull my finger" gag, I promise.

This is one of Brenna visiting with her party goers. Mommy is quickly closing in from behind.

And finally, party just isn't a party without a bubble machine. Both kids standing below Emily in this shot entertained us with the old rug pulled out from the feet trick, falling on their rears in the bubble puddles. No toddlers were harmed in the making of this blog.

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We celebrated Brenna's first birthday this past weekend. For starters, Grandma Sheila sent our little one a gift card that we used for all the goodies you see in the next two pictures. Brenna loves her Little Mermaid card, and we have some great video of her opening and closing the card over and over and over again, laughing the entire time. We also got her some warmer weather clothes for our upcoming trip to see her other grandparents in Georgia come December.

The rest of these shots are of Brenna opening her other gifts from Aunt Beth, Uncle John, Grandma Becky and Grandpa Ron.

Brenna was having a good time until she reached the end of her cake eating experience. A nap followed shortly after this last picture.

It Had To Happen Sometime

My cousin Christine has a knack for close encounters of the animal kind. As I recall, first it was a loose dog, then a blood thirsty Canadian Goose, and finally a clingy spider web (with spider in tow?).

I may have her beat.

This morning I was expecting a delivery for Emily, and walked out the front door to make sure I hadn't missed the guy. I walked down our sidewalk that runs along our house, and out to the driveway, then came back. On my return trip, I glanced down and saw this fellow pictured below, a rattlesnake. The snake was none too happy to see me walking within feet of it, and it hissed and struck at me. I did the only thing a self respecting man could do, I jumped and screamed all the way back to the front door (swearing obscenities along the way, to be sure).

The two pictures below were taken through a crack in our front door. The first was the snake after being unsettled by my presence, and the second is of the snake awaiting my return. The fire department came out and picked him up about thirty minutes later, he appeared to be about four feet long, and the guy that scooped him up was complimenting his size. I refrained from telling him that I about soiled myself when seeing this thing on our doorstep.

Happy Tuesday!

VIDEOS!

Goofin' Around

Wow, is it Monday already again?

Below are a few pictures of Brenna from this weekend. She's now trucking around on her little legs at will, crossing rooms before sitting down from exhaustion. To wear her out before bedtime, we're now sitting at the opposite ends of a room and letting her motor in between the two of us until he can't do it any longer. Works pretty well except when her teeth are bothering her. Emily is guessing she has at least three or four molars that are trying to come in, and I would agree from watching Brenna stuff her entire hand in her mouth, chewing on her fingers.

We have some videos to share that I'll upload pretty soon, including Brenna walking, Brenna dancing to Frank Black, aka Black Francis of Pixies fame, and Brenna brushing her teeth before bedtime. What a hoot this little girl is!

On a totally different note, I'm almost finished with grouting the flagstone joints in our back yard (after five months) and just recently replaced our kitchen sink, pictured at the bottom of this post. Our old sink was corroded chrome, and the faucet was leaking pretty badly. What a chore this was, but with Emily's help, I think we finally got it finished!