Thursday, February 28, 2008

Two New Videos

For your viewing pleasure, I offer up this fine evening/morning two clips of Brenna being a chucklehead and singer of songs.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Out Of Hiding

In my last picture-less update, I mentioned that the crown molding was up in our bedroom. Well, here's the proof. There is still some clean up to do to make it look finished, but it's definitely a step above having a non painted line around the top of the room.



Tonight Brenna did some more coloring, and this time around I got wise and took a few pictures. She's very intent when working the crayons and is further fascinated with sliding them in and out of the chute at the top of her crayon "box" (aka an old wipes box).

As you scroll down you'll find a picture of her latest work, entitled "Scribbles At Sunset".

This afternoon I finished demolishing my pride and joy on the back porch, my wooden planter. Emily mentioned the deck looks a lot larger without it, and I agree, but it was difficult tearing down something that I was proud of building just last year. At any rate, it's a done deal, and once I've taken a belt sander to the deck, I'll be putting in the pergola we bought a few months back. It was nearly 80 degrees today and it felt like every bit of it without overhead shade. I actually had to take my shirt off while I was shoveling the topsoil out of the old planter and into the yard.

If you mosey over to the Hoes blog, I've uploaded a picture of a an annual planter that I put out in the sun a few days ago that's now blooming. It's a combination of dianthus and alyssium (sp?). I like the color combination and got a good picture of both blooming at the same time. More pictures from the yard will be following soon, with the temperatures warming, there are numerous plants blooming now.














Saturday, February 23, 2008

The No Picture Blog

Wait, don't leave yet, although there aren't any pictures in this blog, I have a few updates on things around here:

1 - Brenna is feeling much better, her cough is almost completely gone, her eye infection is better, her ear infection is healing, and she's sleeping more than before

2 - The crown molding is up in our bedroom, it still needs finishing touches, but it's up

3 - The arbor on the back deck is almost completely taken down, I hope to finish that demolition job tomorrow and put the pergola in it's place

No other exciting news to share at this point, thanks for looking, you ROCK!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Brenna Bath Time!

Let the record state that our water is not this poor of quality. Brenna was soaking tonight in some powder for her rash issues from some medication related... um... issues.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Yucky Week

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, the three of us have all been sick. We're slowly recovering, Brenna finally slept almost normally last night, so we're all very excited about that. We've been sharing a mighty fine virus that has me still hacking uncontrollably at moments, which is a plus when trying to talk to customers on the phone all day.

Below are pictures from this past weekend, taken during one of the moments when the three of us were feeling decent. Brenna loves being outside, and it's a nice distraction when we let her wonder on her own.

One of her favorite outdoor activities (besides swinging), is putting rocks in our hands, or in containers, such as this one. She is very good about handing us small objects, and very rarely is interested in seeing how they taste. We both agree that she has inherited my anal retentiveness in the cleaning and tidying department.

You'll notice some of my bulbs are coming up already, including a calla lily. I'll be posting some pictures of the lilac vine on the Hoes site shortly, it's in full bloom.


Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa H for the nifty outfit pictured here. This was another goodie in Brenna's V-Day package.



In this one, Brenna is pointing to something on the orange jubilee bushes, maybe a bloom, not sure. These are some of my favorite pictures because they combine family with my gardening hobby.


Here's another one where Brenna is fascinated by something overhead.


These last two pictures show our big girl walking up and down this little walkway on the side of our house.





Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Yet Another Update

Keep reading and I promise that beyond the bedroom pictures you will find new Brenna ones.
And skip over to the Hoes blog, I'm posting a few yard pictures. With our temps being in the 70s this past week, some things are starting to bloom.
Oh yes, and we've uploaded a new Brenna art piece at the Art Gallery.
We're almost finished with our bedroom project, below is my dresser with a few plants added this past weekend. We'll be replacing the blinds with bamboo ones once we get the window sized up.



Here is Emily's dresser, the same as mine. It barely fit in the back of our Passport, whew! We still have a mirror to hang here (leaning against the dresser) and the ceiling fan. Thanks to Aunt Sue for the wonderful suggestion to purchase palm blades for our existing fan, but in the end we decided to replace the entire thing and move the old fan into my office.



Here's part of our new bedding, minus some extra throw pillows that Emily later discovered were down. We'll be taking those back to IKEA soon. In the corner there is a lamp/nightstand. We'll be hanging a canopy over the bed and will be blowing up some more pictures of our last trip together to Hawaii in here. Emily saw three pictures of some historic buildings in Kona that she thought would look good in sepia tone, I'll post those once they're done.
This weekend we tackle with Emily's dad's help, the crown molding, which is painted and ready to install!



Ok, enough of that. Because we miss Christmas so much, we put Brenna in this outfit a few nights ago and took pictures of her and her potty. Genious!
Emily is taking the little hair farmer to get a real haircut very soon. Hopefully I can tag along and take some pictures of that momentous occasion.







Here is Brenna holding her new favorite purse, given to her for Valentine's by Grandma H. We hope to be seeing her and Grandpa H again sometime in April.



Bad Year For Dogs

I am sad to report that we have now lost the O in TEBOT, barely a month after we lost the T.

Orson was found deceased this morning at Emily's parents house, where he had taken up residence since Emily's pregnancy. He was saved from the pound nearly four years ago, and there is no way to know how old he was, but it would appear that he went peacefully in his sleep overnight, so we're thankful for that.

Below are a few pictures of Orson, the last picture is of him and Tazi when they were both here at the house together. Like Tazi, I'll be adding a halo to Orson's portion of the TEBOT name.






Monday, February 11, 2008

Some Friend

I'm not naming any names, but someone in the following story is getting a raw deal.








Brenna Sized Post
Again, my apologies in advance for any manhandling of the English language in the following post. Spell check is still not working for some reason and even if I proof read this, it would still be pretty bad.
We managed to capture a number of emotions this evening as Brenna read with Emily on the couch some of her favorite Pooh books and looked at some picture flash cards. Below are a few for your amusement.
This first shot is Brenna illustrating through interpretive dance what a butterfly looks like. Of course, with a still camera, you get part of the Vulcan greeting, minus one finger. Trust me, her hand movements for the butterfly are impressive.
BTW, we don't normally dress her in little boys clothes, I heard through the grapevine that there was a momentous pooing earlier today that sullied her first and/or second outfit of the day. She's recovering from an ear infection and pink eye and you can only imagine what the medication does to the old hind quarters.



But I digress. Here's a shot of Brenna pointing out something cool in one of her books. We'll say it was a monster truck with alligators in it, just to cover our bases.


In case I've failed to mention it before, Brenna is teething. Here's Exhibit A. Normally there is most of a fist in that pie hole, but tonight she's been favoring a finger at a time. Occasionally she bites down too hard on them and is very displeased about the whole affair.



This picture took a few takes, the first attempt our daughter looked a bit stoned. In this one she appears deep in thought as she immitates Winnie The Pooh, who's thinking about what to dress up as on that day in the 100 Acre Wood (a bumble bee, for those of you scoring at home).
This is the "think, think, think" portion of that storyline.


Here is a nice picture of Brenna chuckling at Emily doing something beyond all coolness. You can only imagine.



Ahh, a rare moment where Brenna is not clawing Emily's eyes out or swinging from the light fixtures bellowing like a wild yard ape. It's not all that bad, really.



Speaking of yard ape, Brenna was throwing down so hard on the xylophone tonight that she appeared in a flash in this picture.
In actuality the flash didn't fire, and here you go, art, voila.



Here she is, "slowed down", tinkling on her "ching chong ling a long", as we call it. She has another fine Pooh book where all of the characters are given instruments to play in a band, and Pooh gets the xylophone.


When time permits, I'll attempt to video tape Brenna making some fun and assorted animal sounds, as well as her commentary on this years upcoming Presidential election. She also chimes in on illegal immigration, pointing out a Hispanic baby in her Splash Time book, and calling him "Pedro", that is not to be missed.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Four Saturday Morning Videos

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Bedroom Update

Warning: There are no Brenna pictures in this blog!

We've put curtains up and situated our new dresser. We have another one on the way for Emily that's just like this one, we'll be putting it on the wall to the left of this shot.

Also pictured here is our new bed that we had delivered yesterday. Large enough for a Brenna bear to kick us in the ribs in our sleep, both of us!

I picked up some crown molding today and will be painting that soon for installation.






Monday, February 04, 2008

Three For The Road

I've finally uploaded some new videos for your viewing pleasure.

Lots of Brenna action! Enjoy!

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Quick Update

Spell check in Blogger must be permanently out of commission, or else I'm suffering from amnesia and can't remember how to use it. Don't be shocked by my spelling on a third grade level as you sift through this post.

Our new carpet is down in our bedroom. Between the fumes from it and the paint, my sinuses are plugged up, perhaps forever more.

We're pretty pleased with the paint color, combined with the carpet, the room reminds me of Key Lime pie, which is a nice thing to think of when going to sleep.

Emily is working on finishing up the trim, and once she's done with that, I'm going to tackle putting up crown molding (hence the white stripe at the top of the walls where we haven't bothered painting). We'll also be replacing this ceiling fan with one with palm fronds for blades.

No new Brenna pictures, sorry about that. She's been in such a foul mood with her canines coming in that you wouldn't want to see her anyway. The only thing that's kept her happy recently is a neat DVD of songs by her favorite artist, Laurie Berkner (sp?). She sings some neat kid friendly tunes that Brenna loves and sings along to in her own little way.

Some other new developments in Brenna's little world:

- Saying "my daddy" when I pick her up : )
- Identifying Elmo and Dora and calling them by name over and over and over again
- Showing interest in the potty (another new favorite word), although not too thrilled at this point in spending much time sitting on the one we got her
- Using lots of hand gestures and body movements when listening to her L.B. music, including beating her chest, stomping her feet, clapping her hands, and making all sorts of little noises to go along

I'm sure there are many more, I'll post them as they come to mind. I also have video of her singing/yelling along to the American Idol auditions, and will upload that as soon as I have time.



Friday, February 01, 2008

Another Busy Day

Emily and I went to a church thing tonight, came home and painted the second coat in our bedroom. Tomorrow the carpet in that room will get replaced and we still have to move a bed, dresser, vanity, and all the crap piled on top of those items out of there by the time the workers get here to do their thing. This has been a lot of work, taking care of these things while Brenna sleeps, but it's the only time to get anything done.
The night before Emily had a meeting with staff at the church, and I was left to babysit. Below are a few pictures from that.


And yes, the beard is still there.