Been Around

This is by far the longest time between updates here. We've been a smidge busy, to say the least.

Since our last update, I've been to San Francisco for work. Here's a shot from my hotel room.

We've been to Hawaii. Here's a shot from Punchbowl.

I've thrown Brenna into the ceiling (well, close).

Hey, here's Brenna showing off a new fall outfit. It's finally under 80 degrees, hurray!

And just today, she helped Mommy make more sugar cookies.

Finally, this morning, Brenna helped me plant some poinsettas and about two dozen seeds in pots. Whew!

A Day At The Arboretum

Here are a few shots of us at one of my favorite places in town, the Arboretum. Brenna is now officially old enough to enjoy the place, and walk around on her own quite a bit.

Here we are strolling along, talking about the Stock Market, or something equally deep, I'm sure.

Here we are again, crossing a bridge, and discussing some other serious matters. Actually, as I recall, the small child didn't want us to rock the bridge while we went across.

Pictured here is Brenna checking out the Clevenger House with Emily.

Posing inside the house.

Out of order here, Brenna and Emily walking up to the same house, through a nice herb garden.

Brenna being a human sundial in the new Children's Discovery area. This was worth the price of admission.

And finally, the spoils of humoring Daddy by going to a park with no swings or slides.

Facebook's Lament

I for one will admit that Facebook has it's benefits. Besides connecting with people you haven't seen hair nor hide of for years, you can quickly upload pictures with little blurbs/captions, etc. This is fairly convenient for the guy on the go, such as I've become. With work keeping me more than busy (hence my posting this at 1 in the morning), as well as a wild and wooly three year old, it's becoming more and more of an effort to post anything here.

And therein lies my grief with Facebook, it sucks you in like any other bad habit. The convenience of it all completely destroys the art of the written word. And I'm now taking care of approximately fifteen fake fish in one of the many time killing games they offer there. My God, the distractions there are endless, and bordering on ridiculous.

But I digress. Perhaps I should blame the coffee for my rambling.

I have already posted the following pictures on, ahem, other websites, but the loyal blog followers will get my bonus rambling AND pictures, how nice for you!

A few days ago Emily and Brenna whipped out the aprons and chef's hats, and made some sugar cookies. Here are a few of the highlights. There are many more pictures, and when time permits (and/or should Facebook spontaneously combust), I'll submit another blog for your viewing pleasure.

Good evening.

BIRTHDAY - More Cake

Hard to believe it's been nearly a week since I've posted last, but here I am.

Here are a few more pictures from Brenna's birthday party, including some chuckling, showing off how old we are, and then the always popular cake horns.

Taller

We interupt our latest blogs about Brenna's birthday party to announce that Brenna is... taller!

BIRTHDAY - Pizza

Continuing our leading up to Brenna's 3rd birthday, which is officially on Wed, 10/7, here are a few more shots of her party from this past weekend.

Upon coming into the house, the first thing our girl gravitated to were the balloons that I insisted we leave within reach. Brenna is a big fan of squeezing and/or kicking these things around the house, and we always have one handy for her (the last one we got was from Home Depot).

Here are some shots of Brenna and cousin Rachel enjoying some pizza. I caught Rachel about to flash some gang signs, it would appear. Fancy shoes, Aunt Beth!

More pizza enjoyment.

And if the last two shots weren't enough, here's another angle of the pizza eating. I told you I was going to milk these pictures for as many days as possible!

BIRTHDAY - The Cake

In an effort to milk this past weekend's activities for all they're worth, I present to you the first installment involving Brenna's 3rd birthday party, which transpired this past Saturday.

Firstly, the birthday girl is presented here, showing off her dress for the occasion. You may recognize this outfit from her professional pictures, taken and posted a week or so ago. Never mind the scuff mark on the child's forehead, just an altercation with a wheelbarrow, I'm told.





The next three pictures document the small child assisting with the cake preparations, including sprinkling the, um, sprinkles, and setting the Cinderella candle just so. Ironically, after asking specifically for said sprinkles, they were picked around (pictures of this to follow on another day).

Hello There

Well, I'd like to say that my being busy this week has been the cause for no updates, but in all honesty it's just been laziness. But here I am, cranking out a quick blog before Brenna gets up for the day, and Emily leaves for a church breakfast, posting the few new Brenna pictures that I have.

Brenna is having her 3rd birthday party later today, so we'll probably have some gems to post from that at a later time.

For now, here is a shot of Brenna partying it up with Emily at a friends house last weekend, and a shot of her enjoying her/my rocking chair. I had some good pictures of the child sitting on the floor in her underwear eating a popsicle, but I've been told there are weird people out there that might see those shots and want to borrow our child for an extended period of time. So, you'll just have to image the hilarity that ensued there.

A Few More Brenna Pro-Shots

Photo Op

Brenna hammed it up today at the photographers. I'll post a few of these at a time, there are a ton of them that we got to take home on a disc, enjoy!

Just Another Manic Monday

Celebrating the beginning of Fall, we'll be dipping below the old 100 degree mark for a high tomorrow, and it looks like we'll stay below it for the next 10 days. Whoopity do. Elsewhere the leaves are changing, people are breaking out their Bill Cosby sweaters, and I'm still dragging a hose around the yard, sweating like a dog keeping the jungle alive. Very thankful for the rain we had about two weeks ago, but as it goes here in the desert, it may be Thanksgiving before we see any more. That gives me plenty of time to put more gutters and rain barrels around the house, in an effort to hoard every drop of rain that drips off the house for future use. Ah, but I digress.

We haven't been taking many pictures of Brenna lately, she commands the camera and wants to take pictures of us instead, so what we get these days is few and far between. But here's a new one of her proudly showing off her outfit for church this past Sunday, which she picked out on her own (well, I helped with the safe pick of a white tank top, what else the heck would go with an octopus patterned skirt).

The child has graduated to enjoying talking so much that she now goes off on these rambling discertations about shows she's seen while at Grandma's, and anything else that she feels like talking and/or complaining about. While getting her out of the car this afternoon, for example, she went from marvelling at the boys playing basketball at the park, to making this statement (and I'm paraphrasing, but this was pretty much what came out of her mouth), "When I grow up, I'll be able to go to the park and play basketball... and I WON'T need your help". Well, appreciatation for the game of basketball and a defiant comment all rolled into one, very efficient. I could go on and on about this subject, but then I would be stooping to her level, wouldn't I?

I made an effort to install our camcorder software on our new computer, after digging through countless boxes in our garage, but was thwarted yet again by Windows Vista, which told me it couldn't install the XP supported software. I even went to Sony's website and downloaded the Vista version, was able to install the application, and now can't get it to recognize when the camcorder is attached to the PC. I'm hoping that Windows 7 will be the answers to my prayers, buying it will probably be cheaper than flying to Washington state and pooping on Microsoft's front lawn to express my disgust over this inferior operating system that I was dupped into inheriting with our new computer. Ah, but I digress again. I say of this to express my apologies for the lack of videos of Brenna. I can go on and on about how much she's talking and how funny she is, but I can't do it justice without the video. For now, you'll just have to believe me, and if anyone would like to ship us another PC that's equipped with XP (you can't downgrade from Vista), I'll gladly install our camcorder software on that PC and upload some video for you all.

Enjoy and get it on.

Busy Week

Not much of an update here, been a busy week with work, and running around with Brenna.

Here are a few more shots of her playing on the computer, still a favorite of hers.

Quick Shot - Hanging Around

A few quick pictures of Brenna from the last few days, 1) holding balls again, 2) sitting in a rocking chair that was mine many moons ago, 3) doing something wierd with her arm, yes, holding a ball.

Tookie Update

We had a busy weekend here in Tookieville.

On Saturday morning it rained for a few glorious hours. Brenna enjoyed splashing around in the puddles. It was grand. I look forward to doing this again the next time it rains, in December.

Later that day we went over to cousin Jenny's house, ate lunch, and fell asleep on the back porch (well, one of us did that). Here's a shot of Brenna playing with the big kids on an airplane thingy. I'm going to get one of these for our house, maybe to replace the couch with. That'd be sweet.

She didn't learn to do this from us.

Riding in the car today, coming home from Grandma's. I'm told the car was not in motion when this was taken. Check out the Hoes blog to check out some pictures of a thunderhead, which Emily also took pictures of while the car was not in motion.



Our daughter likes balls. Here are two of her favorites. This picture reminded me of another one I had seen recently. Since I have so much time on my hands, I searched it out, only to discover that it wasn't quite as similar as I had hoped.

Ok, so not quite the same, any reason to post a Led Zeppelin picture, though.

Oh yes, and a few cute Brenna poses to wrap my rambling blog up.