Another Room (Almost) In The Bag

The new guest bedroom (formerly my office) is almost completed (needs crown moulding). We moved our old ceiling fan from our bedroom into here, and for the first time in four years (since my cousin hooked up the last fan ever so masterfully), we actually have a light!

Very Special Brenna Art

Today Brenna was doodling with Grandma Becky, and the following is one of her creations. Take a guess at what this is before scrolling down for the answer.



Here is the answer.



Pretty incredible, we thought, that she drew her own face and told Grandma that that is what she was drawing. This was interesting enough that I thought I'd post this here instead of the Art Gallery blog.

No Deliverance

It's amazing how much work one accomplishes when sitting around on call for work all night. I've imported dozens of albums into my iTunes library, have posted a blog (albeit a somewhat mindless one), organized more things in the new office/library, and have discovered that The Toadies have released a new album (yes, Emily, if I failed to mention this on Wednesday morning in my sleep deprived stupor, after seven years they've put out a new one, and it rawks!).

I have a few more random pictures to share from the Tom and Brenna photo session from a few days ago. I was attempting to get a pleasant picture of both of us looking at the camera and got everything but that. You basically get a good look at my dental work in all of the shots, and Brenna looking in every direction except at the camera.

I do like this one because we get something other than the open piehole expression that she's so fond of these days.



And this one is so ridiculous that I just had to share it. The only one where she's looking at the camera, and I capture one quarter of her face, and too much of mine.

Weekend Renovations

This weekend was quite a blur. We had the remainder of our carpet replaced on Saturday, and spent the rest of our time getting the front room in our house setup so I can work again on Monday.

A quick reminder of what the room I speak of looked like before. Egads.

And here it is cleaned out, with new carpet, blinds, and a paint job. I dub thee Ye Ole Lemon Room. The desk there in the corner doesn't look like much, but it took me all of four hours (and an Abita) to put together. It's a compromise from the surface area I had with my old desk, but this will keep me from leaving all of my work laying around.

And here's the room with the computers set back up. Emily has the arduous task ahead of her of dusting and sorting about a zillion books before they go back up on the bookcases that are on the opposite wall, and we still need to put up the crown moulding and a ceiling fan. Otherwise, we've made a lot of progress in this room.

Here are the makings of my old office, being renovated into a guest bedroom. The color there on the wall is the same we used on the kitchen cabinets. We have a bed being delivered tomorrow, and I have four or five wall to ceiling shelving units that we bought at IKEA a few weeks ago to put together in here for storing all of Emily's sewing things.

When asked whether she approved of the chaos, Brenna approved with her customary smile.

She is so into this gaping pie-hole smile these days that she's taught me how to do it, as you'll see pictured here.

Stay tuned in the coming days, I have lots of new yard pictures to put on the Hoes blog, and more Brenna pictures from her helping me water plants in the yard.

On A Break

Just a heads up for you Brenna groupies, I won't be able to upload any new photos or videos until after this weekend. We're in the process of cleaning out my office, Brenna's bedroom, and our library to be recarpteded this Saturday. I've moved my work computer into the library to get by for now, but our personal computer is not connected to the net at this time.

Many photos to follow next week, stay tuned.

Backwards Hat Day!

Brenna decided to put on her Brenna cap last night, and put it on backwards. She seems thrilled with the results, providing another pleasant smile for me.

Just Give Us Some Wood And We'll Build You A Cabinet

This may very well be the last blog that involves woodworking, at least for a while. We're almost done with this bookshelf project. I added some trim to the front of it earlier today, and Emily has stocked it full of Brenna toys and books. We decided to paint the wall behind it the same color to give the illusion of it having backing.

Here's a side view showing the trim on the sides.

And onto better things. Brenna went clogging the other day, here she is getting ready.

And here she is with her clogging skirt on, complete with patented smile (or gaping pie-hole, if you prefer). This has become her trademark expression.

See, I told you. Here she is donning her complete clogging ensemble (well, minus the clogs).

This weekend, while painting, Brenna got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa H. I had grandma on speaker for a while, but Brenna told me ever so politely, "no, I'm talking to grandma", and took the phone away from me.

And here we are deep in conversation. Head over to the Art Gallery for more pictures of Brenna painting, as well as the finished product(s).

I'll Never Go To Texas Again

In case you're wondering, I sometimes insert subject lines (headers) for these blogs based off the song I happen to be listening to at the time. Can't say as I've ever been terribly creative with those, so there you have it, I'm a plagarist. Anyone out there know what song this one's from? I'll send you a Diego sticker if you guess it correctly, ha!

Hey, I finally ran three miles today. It took figuring out that walking for three miles beforehand as a warm up is probably not the smartest thing in the world to do. It was probably a gillion degrees in the garage today (well, not hot by August standards, but a smidge warm for October), but I managed to complete my run in 27:22 today. I figure by next October I'll be ready to run in the Walk/Run For Hope Breast Cancer extravaganza, and not totally embarass myself. I noticed looking at the race results from this year that an 8 year old girl ran the 5K in under 25 minutes, so that's my lofty goal by next year, to not get schooled by an 8 year old girl.

Keep scrolling if this is your first visit here today (10/16), I also uploaded some Brenna videos, so don't feel too ripped off that you're getting nothing but non-Brenna related stuff here.

Two More

Here are the final two videos of Brenna's birthday party. In these she's enjoying her play kitchen that Grandma and Grandpa H got her. In the second video she counts to 12 (while partially drowned out by her enthusiastic cousin, Rachel).

This ends the flurry of new Brenna posts, I don't have any recent photos to upload, but will come up with something if need be.

With our weather cooling off (albeit temporarily), I've gotten back on the treadmill again. Yesterday I walked three miles and ran two and a half. I'm working on getting up to running three miles on a regular basis, and probably could have stood to do it yesterday had I not walked for an hour beforehand. It's supposed to be in the mid 90s the rest of the week, so I expect the garage will be nasty again very soon.

I've also finished building the rest of the deck outside, and Emily and I are nearing completion of painting the built-in bookcases I installed last weekend. Painting is the next thing on the agenda, and having a garage sale to raise more money for our projects.

More Videos

For more Brenna videos, head over to the Hoes site, I mistakingly uploaded some there earlier today. I have two more to go after these.

Oops!

This is not, I repeat, not a shameless attempt at getting anyone to go to the Hoes blog. I accidentally uploaded three Brenna videos there this afternoon instead of here. Honestly, in the time it took to finish that little task, I'm not feeling inclined to move them over here. So please, I implore you to shuffle over to the Hoes link to see Brenna reading Bible stories and opening birthday gifts. I have four more videos to upload and will do so in the near future.

By the way, you're doing an excellent job of clicking on those ads and using the Google search engine on this site, Brenna appreciates it!

Monday Update

Here we are on yet another Monday. We had a nice weekend, got a few odds and ends done.

I found the time on Saturday to build these shelves for Brenna's toys, I hope to get this sanded and painted this week.

Last week Brenna and the kids at daycare got to wade through some muddy water. Here is Rachel leading her along in the goo.

Here's a shot of our daugther holding a bag of patended Brenna Mix.

Yesterday she was trying out mama's shoes.

And here she is saying hello. More to come as the week progresses, lots of videos, particularly.

She's Going The Distance

This past weekend we walked in the City Of Hope drive for breast cancer awareness.

Here's Brenna in the waiting area, gearing up for the three miles of riding in her jogging stroller. We got up at the crack of dawn to get there in time, so she's still decked out in her pjs (yes, her tops and bottoms don't match).

We made sure to stay back near the back of the crowd so we wouldn't be trampled in case we had to make some stops (which there were a few, especially once we made our way through the zoo).

Here I am strolling with Grandma Becky. Brenna took this picture. No, sorry, it was Emily.

And here Emily is with our vampire girl, still at odds with the sun.

Brenna received some goodies in the mail for her birthday from Grandma Sheila, here she is on the bed reading, this was from two nights ago, if memory serves. It all runs together these days.

Conversation W/ A 2 Yr Old

2!

Brenna turns two in a few days, but we took care of that today with some birthday festivities. Strap in, this is going to be a long one.

We barely finished painting everything and cleaning the house up before people started coming over. Here's the kitchen as it looked before the party happened. The dark brown paint on the cabinets really improved their appearance, I think. Such a cheap, simple fix.

And here's the living room, painted and cleaned up. For my mom who was asking, the Shark steam cleaner/mop worked wonderfully on getting up splotches on the floor with minimal effort, but did nothing to clean our stained grout. Could be because it hasn't been cleaned in six years, though. It worked wonders for not leaving smears all over the floor, though, and was worth the money for that alone.

Here are some of the Dora decorations for the party.

Brenna spent the afternoon with Grandma so Emily and I could get things wrapped up at the house. After her nap, and seeing all of the decorations (including balloons!), she was ready to rawk! Let's get it on!

To get things started, she watched some of her favorite programs and ate some sugar toast, a personal favorite at the time. If you don't believe me, check out the Brenna-sized bite taken out of this defenseless piece of bread. Only the crusts were spared.



After playing with her sand table with cousin Rachel, she then engaged in a rousing game of peek-a-boo.

Finally, the hats! Here is mama, Brenna, and cousin Rachel.

And here are the rest of the party goers. From left to right, if you please, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle John, cousin Tyler, Mama, cousin Rachel, Daddy, and the guest of honor.

Here's a shot of Brenna's grotesque cake, complete with a dismembered Dora, with Diego rushing to her rescue.

And then there were gifts, including a cool kitchen set from Grandma and Grandpa H. Brenna played with this for a loooong time tonight before heading to bed. Rachel is looking on in anxious anticipation while I'm filming the destruction of package opening.

Here Brenna is checking out a cool new Diego toy from Aunt Beth and Uncle John. You can never have enough Diego paraphernalia.

Another favorite, a princess carriage. In this shot, Brenna is putting Diego (of course) in charge of steering the carriage.

Man, can this party get any more lively? I can hardly contain my excitement. Probably looking forward to cleaning up afterwards.



Yet another favorite (of many), the princess castle. Diego is in the gunner's seat in the tower.

The cake was delicious. Diego and Dora look on.

Mama put together the kitchen, it's fabulous! Grandma Becky provided Brenna with all the trimmings (food, etc).

Finally, Brenna gets in on the action, assisting Emily with construction.