A Night In The Life Of...

Brenna's Big Day Out

We went out to the Renassiance Festival today with Emily's parents. Hard to believe it's been a year since we took our then six-month old out there.

Our first stop was the giant swan swing. That didn't go over too well.

Afterwards we stopped and visited with a greyhound. Brenna enjoyed that very much until we decided to move onto other things.

Here is Brenna chewing on her hand, while Emily poses for a picture. We're still waiting on our canines to come in.

Here's one of the acts we stopped to watch, Brenna liked them very much.



Here she is clapping along to their music.

And here she is slapping her legs for good measure.

Later we paid Dextre a visit, by this time we were in a bit of a mood.

By comparison, here is Brenna last year in the same pose, same mood.

Here is Brenna opening her mouth to catch some spray coming off a dragon mister, with Grandma Becky looking on.

Brenna's favorite part of the day came at the end when we came across a harpist. Here she is dancing to the musical stylings.

Afterwards she was invited to play the harp herself!

And here we are with the woodland fairy, a favorite of last year. We stupidly attempted to take the shot with the sun shining on Brenna, and here are the results of that failure.

The woodland fairy kindly suggested we turn to where the sun was at Brenna's back. Much better.

And a final comparison to the prior year.

Brenna Beach

This week Home Depot has 50 lb bags of sand on sale for two fitty. Below is what twenty bucks worth bought us. I one day envision this entire area around her swing to be covered in the white stuff, but for now Brenna has enough to dig around in. Every time she dumps sand on her legs, she exclaims "ewwww", and then proceeds to do it over and over again, very funny.

Thursday's Child

My apologies to David Bowie.

Below is a picture I forgot I took of the new valance (sp?) that Emily just recently made for our dining room, a compliment if you will of the one she did in our living room. A few more blown up pictures of the islands and we'll be mostly finished with our Hawaii project in this part of the house.

Here's a random picture of a Mexican crossing in front of my camera in Nogales back in 1990 when I was there with my parents. I wonder whatever came of this gentleman. It haunts me sometimes.

Hey, check out the Brenna Art Gallery, she's discovered a new medium for her talent. Not to be missed!

One More For Easter

Here are a few pictures of Brenna during this past Sunday's service. She seems to have really good hand/eye coordination. I wonder where she got that from, just like her eyes, it wasn't from either one of us, I can assure you of that.

She seems to have gotten the best of both of us, rather than the worst. Her eyesight and hearing seems to be great, she enjoys reading like her mommy and she's shown recently that she's very interested in basketball, and has spent time out in Grandma Becky's backyard putting one into a basket that's about her height (well, a little higher, she has to heft the ball almost over her head to get it to go in the hoop).

I have a few more yard pictures that I'll post on the blog site shortly. We're cruising along in the 80s every day now, and it's been about four weeks since we last had any rain. I'm afraid it's going to be lean times for the yard from here until the monsoons start in about, oh, four months. There's always an outside chance of rain in the first part of April, but it's not terribly likely.

Also, after a two month hiatus, I've managed to get back on the treadmill these past two days (taking this afternoon off to get groceries). My first day back I was able to struggle through a mile in 10:15, which actually was my best time to date, and yesterday I finally got under ten minutes, clocking in at 9:55. I'm not sure at this point if I should work on running for distance, or continuing to improve my mile, but either way I'm feeling more energized than I have in a while because of it.

Counting

Emily requested that I post this video post haste. So here it is, enjoy, and turn up the volume so you can hear Brenna and her counting, etc.

Brenna Easter

Below is Brenna in her outfit from yesterday, and a vidoe of dancing around some.

Sidewalk Scribblin'

Below is how we spent some of our Saturday, coloring on our sidewalk in the shade. We also cleaned house, went shopping, and did a few other around-the-house outside activities, like going to the park and swinging in the back yard.

Speaking of, check out the Hoes blog for some more yard updates!

Some of the following pictures could use some explanation, but I'll allow you to come to your own conclusions. Good day.

Another Week Over (This Is All I've Got)

Another week gone by, and the following picture is all I have left in reserve to share with the masses. Brenna received a nifty package from Grandma and Grandpa H, including some summer clothes (which will come in handy soon, it was 87 here today), a Dora Easter DVD, and some other odds and ends, and below is the only picture we managed to fire off for the occasion.

For Grandma Becky, who constantly seems to be in my line of fire for unforgiving pictures of her being posted here, this one is for you. Hopefully now we're closer to being even, and if I can find any other unflattering pictures of myself where I appear stoned, confused, gape-mouthed, or sluggish-looking, I'll be sure to share them asap.

As you can tell, Brenna was none interested in posing with her Easter bag and goodies. But you can imagine the excitement when she watched her new Dora video.

I have some new video of Brenna dancing in circles, almost a line dance of sorts, if you will, and will be uploading that as soon as I possibly can.

Also stay tuned for a Hoes update, the main part of the deck is finally finished (at least flipping the planks over to the good side, I've yet to sand and finish it, but the pergola is anchored now).

Another Video

I can't get enough of these grainy, filmed in the bottom of a well videos. Believe me, they look MUCH better on this end when they come off the camera. I've yet to find a video format that translates well for uploading here.

Anywho, you're not hear to ready my grumblings. Here's a nice long video where the audio is what really matters. Brenna goes over the shapes that she knows, her animal sounds (albeit their a little muted), and at the end sings a few words from the Wonder Pets, although it's pretty hard to hear, as she's at the other end of the room.

At any rate, enjoy, and I'll do better about posting more videos.

Be on the lookout for another post here of Brenna coloring on herself (again) and some of her latest art pieces at her Art Gallery site.

Monday Night Festivities

After her coloring on the floor (pictures of that will be on the Brenna Art site shortly), Brenna decided to become the next member of the Blue Man Group.

"What have I done????"

The aftermath washing off in the tub.

And here's a completely random video of Brenna playing with jewelry and attacking me like I was a member of the paparazzi.

A new update is coming to the Hoes blog very soon as well, including new hummingbird pictures.

Late Night Brenna Videos

Three more Brenna videos for your viewing pleasure.

The first is of Brenna pushing her baby stroller around.

The second is Brenna enjoying making her rocking horse neigh (nice six dollar find by Grandpa Ron at a garage sale).

The third is of Brenna crawling on top of me, taking control of the camera, running into the camera, and other hijinks.

The floor is open for discussion.

Nothing To See Here

Sorry, if you came here looking for new Brenna pictures, I don't have any at the moment. But hey, while you're here, stroll over to the Hoes blog for some new yard pictures (updated 3/13).

Hopefully next time I'll have something new here for you!

Tid Bits

I don't think I've posted these two pictures before. Happy Tuesday/Wednesday.

A Few New Pictures

Below are a few new pictures from over the weekend, including Brenna eating dinner and trying on a hat.

Mosey over to the Hoes site for lots of yard pictures, including a cute one of Brenna for your trouble going there (yes, it's bribery).

Wedding Adventure

This blog is proof that Emily's camera, which got left in my parent's driveway overnight in the rain during Christmas, is still a force to be reckoned with.

Before I move onto the gazillion pictures posted below, a quick update:

- I'm no longer itching, thank you for asking

- Emily is still feeling quite ill, but not so much as before

- The pergola is on the porch (that's not code for anything, sorry) - Pictures to come soon in the Hoes blog

This afternoon we caravaned with Emily's parents to a family wedding about thirty miles north of town, past Saguaro Lake, to a local ranch out in the middle of nowhere.

The flowers this spring are incredible. I've never seen them en masse like this in the six years I've lived here, and Emily's mom indicated tonight that she's never so them this profuse. Below are a few pictures that Emily took from our moving car, you can even see them blanketing the sides of the mountains.

Here is where the wedding was, pretty nice, very big, old trees, a neat little pond, etc. Brenna and I were out in the parking lot picking up rocks during the ceremony.

Here we are tooling around the grounds before we headed for the aforementioned parking lot to pick up and move rocks to various places (this is one of our favorite outdoor activities at the moment).

Some pictures of Brenna with Grandma to follow. I love candid pictures. Brenna had crinkled her nose cutely when sniffing this somewhat rank rose that we were handed, and after a number of times doing this, Emily thought it would be cute to recreate the magic in a photo. This is what she got. I love it. Needless to say Brenna wasn't interested in cooperating, but you can imagine the nose crinkling and whatnot. Becky won't be terribly fond of me for posting this, I'm sure, my apologies in advance, I couldn't resist, it was the medication.

Here's a laid back Brenna playing with Grandma while we waited for the buffet line to start.

Here is Brenna and Emily at our table, with Grandpa Ron in the background.

And finally, you can't close a good blog without a 1 year old holding a knife. Well, a butter knife, anyway. Grandma appears to be very pleased, and/or concerned. I'm voting the later.