Goodbye Thanksgiving

I see my diabolical plan to flood our ad banner with duck related items was a success. Fabulous, ducks are swell.

We've unceremoniously kicked Thanksgiving to the curb this weekend, and have moved full speed ahead into the glorious Christmas season. Hurray.

Here are a few shots of Brenna and Mama putting some ornaments on ye old tree tonight. I have a few other things to share that we've been up to this weekend, and will post those in the near future.

Trick Or Treat (?)

Our daughter thinks it's still Halloween. No, really. The last few nights we've "played" Halloween, where she puts on what apparently is her official trick-or-treating (Dora) hat, she grabs her candy bucket, and starts knocking on doors in our house, asking for candy.

Here she is coming.




And here she is going.



Here she is that same night, seriously working on a Cinderella tower of blocks on top of her new piano she got as a belated birthday present.



And finally, in honor of Auburn's horrible football season, here is Brenna sporting a cheerleader's outfit that was given to me two years ago by some nice folks at work.

Day At The Park

Okay, I get to drop the word duck multiple times here in an attempt to get some cool links to "ducks for sale", "duck meat by mail", or other duck related topics in the ads across the top of ye old blog, which I hope you're still indulging us by clicking from time to time, so our Brenna can buy a meal or two when at college in some sixteen years.

We went to the park today for a family get together. Here's a splendid shot of Brenna caught in the act of feeding a duck, perhaps two ducks, perhaps three ducks. Cousin Rachel's hair is flying in the breeze in the background, more about her later.

You'll see what appears to be two white ducks and perhaps a mallard duck in the vicinity.

Duck duck duck duck duck.

Straight out of young ladies clothing catalog, I present Miss Brenna sporting a nifty new long sleeve shirt supplied by Grandma H (I believe). You can't tell here, but the shirt features a nifty pattern of birds, if memory serves. Keep scrolling and we may get the answer to that mystery. Who knows, maybe they're ducks.

As Brenna is gazing off into the distance, perhaps contemplating the next chance she'll have at whopping one of us across the head when we least expect it (hey, we're working on correcting that), cousin Rachel is staring off across the bubbling stream (not pictured here, but believe me, it was there). She's sporting some sort of active wear featuring some nifty stripped pink pants, a girly top with a nifty print of something hip for the day, and a super cool turquoise bracelet.

And finally, some close ups of our Cookie Monster being nibbled on by her mama. Don't click on the close ups of these if you have a boogie phobia. And yes, the print on her shirt appears to be birds, but not necessarily ducks.

While you're here and have nothing better to do, why don't you check out the Hoes and Art Gallery blogs, I've posted something new in each locale for your reading enjoyment.

Being Brenna

Here are a few more Brenna pictures from this past weeks visit with Grandma and Grandpa H, including playing with stickers, and leading us all on a fun game of "Brenna Says".

Center Of Attention

Brenna had a lot of visitors this past weekend.

Here, she's having a conversation with Uncle Tom after concluding a rousing round of train under the bridge (that being Uncle Tom's legs).

With the exception of Aunt Sue, everyone is watching Brenna do something funny here.

Here she is holding Cinderella while Grandma and Grandpa H hold her.

Checking out Grandma's necklace.



Darrick, Melanie and Alexander made it up from Tucson to say hello. Brenna is engaging Darrick in some show and tell of some sort.

The Grues and Mallons. Darrick is overcome with excitement.



Nighty-night time for our exhausted girl.

Night Crawler

Hi. How have you been? We've been fine, just a little distant lately. What a busy week, and just here recently do I have a few new Brenna pictures to share with you, the world at large.

My parents have been here visiting, and this weekend my Aunt Sue, Uncle Tom, and cousins Mallon were here as well. Pictures of that gathering to come very soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this collage of pictures that I like to call...

SEE NO EMILY

SMELL NO EMILY

SPEAK NO EMILY (Featuring yours truly still sporting a horrible mustache straight from a horrible porno. The beards days may be numbered, be forewarned.)

There's nothing scarier than a two year old decked out in pink pajamas, sporting gang signs. Hide the women and children.

And here is possibly the best shot of our daughter yet, courtesy of Emily. We asked Brenna to creep across the kitchen, and this is what we got. Whomever she has her eye on in this picture is truly going to get theirs, courtesy of a wild spider monkey. Night crawler, indeed.

Sing Us A Song, You're the Tookie Bird

One of Brenna's new things is singing and mumbling to herself, she seems very amused by this. She's also started adding a "y" to almost every word she can think of, another bit of amusement. For example, when she's watching her favorite shows, she names off her favorite characters as:

Diegy, Dory, Bootsy, Trolly, Ticy, Tyroney, Pabloy, etc, it goes on and on

When we told her a few days ago that Grandma and Grandpa H were coming to visit, she said of Grandpa, "He's a swell guy".

Another popular favorite when she's upset at us, "You're not the baby sitter".

Ah, the innocence of youth.

Enjoy these seemingly neverending clips of Brenna singing what sounds like her version of the Star Spangled Banner. I ask her in these clips to sing the Ten Little Monkeys song (to which she replies "just looking at them"), which she can sing very well, and what you hear is what I got instead, contrary at the least.

Ay, Cap't

Groundskeeper Willie Christmas

Adding to my disgust at the earliness of the holiday season from my last post, I've been "treated" this afternoon with one of our neighbors, who is a bagpipe player, to some Christmas tunes. At least it's in the 70s today, so it's vaguely beginning to feel like fall out here, but hearing Jingle Bells, O Come All Ye Faithful, Deck The Halls, We Three Kings, and a wretched rendition of Joy To The World through my office window is just a little much.

Yes, imagine Joy To The World played on the bagpipes and you'll be thankful you're not me right now.

Go about your business.

Election Day Pictures

Boy, am I glad this election is finally over. Let's reclaim our street corners by laying to waste all of those tacky campaign signs (unless your last name is Doolittle, you can keep your signs up year round, I like truth in advertising), and lets make way for all of those Christmas commercials that we just love to see when it's the first week of November. There's nothing quite like strolling through Wal Mart in your shorts and flip flops and hearing Deck The Halls on the old Muzak system, that really puts me in the spirit of running up my credit card balances.

Hey, how about a few Brenna pictures? Emily took these pictures last night while we watched the network news christen in Obama as President with four out of fifty polls closed. I'm reminded more and more why we cut our cable package down to the family channels, everything else is just worthless noise.

But I digress again.

Brenna being the sticker monger that she is, pilfered Emily's voting sticker away from her and wore it around proudly all night like a badge of honor. She was also busy wielding her fairy wand from Halloween, beating anything in sight with it, including us.

Halloween. Boo.

Here are some pictures of Brenna this Halloween.

Pictured here beating something with a stick and enjoying it thoroughly.

Going out trick or treating with cousin Rachel.

Doing the same with mama.

And finally, posing for some candid pictures.

Angel before (last year).

Fairy after (this year).