Long Lost Brenna Pictures

Emily sent these to me from the church a few weeks ago and I complete forgot about them until now. These are of Brenna in the nursery during service, and were sent in this four pack you see below. She apparently had been awake for about five minutes when these were taken, and for those of you that are a fan of the big haired Brenna, these pictures are for you.

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, I've been working until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, cooking in the evening, and then going back to work from 7 until 10 or 11 at night. Not much time for new picture taking and/or posting.

Super-Sized Brenna

Back due to popular demand, Brenna chats with the cameraman for two minutes about various subjects. Not to be missed! Sorry the video quality isn't the best!

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20070225&ctime=165011

Brenna's A Pro

We had some pictures taken of Brenna last weekend, and they're now available for viewing and/or order from their website.

Click the link below to see them, they're pretty good!

http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=4fd6b814-7a96-4621-829c-6e8cd2ac445a

Brenna In Action!


Click the link below for video of Brenna's first swing ride on the back porch. We think she liked it, although she didn't seem terribly excited (humoring the parents).

Savour Emily's running commentary and the peaceful serenity of our back yard...

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20070223&ctime=152219

How Brenna Spent Her Weekend

Taking a bath, getting ready for church...

Posing in her Sunday outfit...

Hanging out on the couch...

Spending some tummy time in the crib...

Chewing on the bug on the jumperoo....

Swinging with mommy on the back porch!

Valentine's Brenna

It's hard to believe it's been another week already, but it's Friday night, and I suppose that's a good thing.

We're a little short on Brenna pictures this week, but Emily took a few on Valentine's day before baby was dropped off at daycare.

The last picture is of Brenna admiring her new skull and crossbones shoes that Emily bought her with part of our State refund return.

While Daddy's Working...

Here is your mid-week Brenna update (not quite mid-week, but we're being optimistic). I managed to find only a few new pictures of our daughter over at Grandma Becky's during daycare time. This must have been "Do Silly Things With The Baby's Hair"day, as you'll see
below.

Not much else to report, the days continue to fly by, and Brenna keeps growing.

One more thing, there is a short plant update on the Hoes blog!

Super Sized Brenna

After a weeks absence, I'm trying to make up for lost time here with a slew of new Brenna pictures to share. Thankfully I wasn't gone due to illness, it's just been too nice outside this week to spend any more time in this office. I'll be posting some yard pictures later to show what's been going on in the great outdoors, so check the Hoes blog... if you dare, ha ha ha.

The first picture of the night is of Brenna in her newest contraption, some sort of jungle-themed slingshot. Notice we've had to stack phone books under it so her feet can touch. Every time she squirms in this thing it plays jungle music, and every time I get hungry for Rainforest Cafe.

This next shot is of Brenna in her Bumpo, on the kitchen counter (being closely supervised, of course). This is one of Emily's favorite shirts of hers at the present, so we had to preserve the moment.

The rest of these were of Emily trying to get a good Brenna picture in this Valentine's day outfit. She took about, um, a hundred pictures (well, not quite that many), and I thought a lot of them turned out really well, so here are a few of them, for your viewing pleasure.

Brenna weighed in at 14 lbs even at her four month check up earlier this week, and we were told that she's in good health. Her thighs have gotten chunky enough that she barely noticed the four shots they gave her while we were there. Grrr.

Hoes Update

New garden update on the Hoes blog!

http://addictedtohoes.blogspot.com/

Brenna Video: Higher Learning

Below is a link to a new Brenna video, this one of her reading a book with Mommy. This is the action version of the still photos you'll find in the next blog down.

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20070201&ctime=190652

This Is The Best Book I Ever Tasted

A few pictures below of Brenna and Mommy reading a book together. Hmmm, tasty!

Cap't My Cap't

As already posted on my cousin Christine's blog, her sister and my cousin Melanie has brought Alexander Sean into the world. He was apparently born on Monday, and details at this point are sketchy, but stay tuned, as this is baby central around here, a picture will be forthcoming (I hope). Our congrats go out to Melanie and Darrick, who will be fantastic parents. We look forward to visiting and introducing our little on to theirs!

Back From The Dead

Sometime late last week, Emily and I were stricken by a nasty stomach bug. Four days and about twelve pounds later, we both seem to be on the road to recovery.

A couple of things I suggest you shouldn't try eating when your stomach is purging everything you put into it:

- a six inch turkey sub with avocado and honey mustard
- a Whattaburger honey BBQ chicken strip sandwich
- a raspberry filled doughnut
- sun chips and/or a BBQ hot pocket

Today I have stuck to eating crackers and Cheerios, and lo and behold, I've for the most part staying away from the facilities.

Thankfully Brenna was not as effected by this nasty sickness as we were, and besides a continually runny nose and coughing, she seems happy and healthy. We'll be taking her in for her four month check-up in a few weeks and will see about getting something that can dry her sinuses out.

Sorry, no pictures today, any pictures we'd have taken since my last post wouldn't be anything you'd want to see here, unless you're interested in how our bathrooms are decorated. Stay tuned though, I'm sure Brenna will offer us some photo ops soon.

A Night In The Box

After dropping Brenna off at grandma's, we managed to get to the concert at around 9pm. Unfortunately, we missed the entire Shack Shakers set and only caught the last song of Junior Brown's (didn't even get to hear him sing a note). The Rev delivered a great show, as always, though, and it was worth our time just for him. The parking lots for the venue were sold out, so we ended up parking on the opposite side of Tempe Town Lake, about a mile away. Thankfully it wasn't terribly cold last night.

We got home this morning around 3am, and the picture below is of Brenna sleeping around 7am, while Emily got ready for work. You'll see my leg off to the right here, and in the next picture below you'll see me watching vigilantly over our daughter. I'm preparing my speech for Father Of The Year as we speak.








This next shot is of Brenna after getting her hair washed, this is totally unrelated, but we thought it was a nice picture of her high hair.




Finally, here is Brenna in her crib, watching her water thingy that Grandma H got her recently. She seems to enjoy it thoroughly.

Back To Brenna

My apologies for straying in recent weeks to other non-Brenna related topics here, including our freak weather. I'll be posting some snow shots over on the gardening blog, including some pictures from our snowstorm from last March (well, snow in Superior, about 30 minutes from here). I'm also pondering creating a new blog dedicated to my dreams... no, not as in aspirations, but some of the bizarre things my subconscious digs up in the middle of the night when no one is looking. I feel like some of these are worthy of my amateur interpretation, and in the process, perhaps someone else will find those types of posts interesting. Dunno, we'll see how much more time I can squeeze out of this.

Getting back to the subject at hand, our first Brenna update is from last night, where Emily used a toothbrush and some olive oil to get some dry scalp cleaned out of our daughter's hair. In the process, we decided to pay homage to the Rev'd Horton Heat, whom we're going to see in concert tomorrow night (I know, an adults night out, go figure!). To learn more about the Pyschobilly master himself, go to www.reverendhortonheat.com




This next picture was Emily's attempt at a Mohawk, maybe in honor of The Clash? Hmmm. Yes, Brenna's eyes are still blue.

Here is Brenna on the couch last night, doing much of nothing, but that's better than crying/screaming.

Finally, Brenna picking up a habit of Grandpa H. We'll let that one remain a mystery, and will entertain guesses... look closely. And no, it's not breaking wind, this is a visual.

Hell Has Officially Frozen Over

While we only saw what I would guess to be flurries in our backyard, Mesa, which is west of us here in the valley, got hit with what the meteorologists are calling a thundersnow, where it was apparently cold enough aloft for snow to fall in 40 degree weather, and heavy enough to actually accumulate briefly on the ground.

Below are three pictures I borrowed from the following article about this freak storm, at

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0121weather-ON.html

These were all taken, according to the article, from people living in northeast Mesa, maybe
fifteen minutes from us.

They're forecasting 2-3 inches of snow in Tucson, and it continues to pile up in the mountains, which can only be good news for our water supply come this spring/summer.

Snow(flake) Watch

We're on high alert this evening, the local news reported snowflakes falling in downtown Phoenix this evening, and are forecasting snow in the rest of the valley, with no accumulations. Meanwhile, and Melanie and/or Darrick can vouch for this, but it would appear it's snowing in Tucson as we speak. More to come.

Cold Continues...SNOW!

Here's another rarity, it wasn't in the forecast, but we got a nice amount of rain today, and it barely got above 40 degrees today. The mountains surrounding us, down to about 2500 ft are covered in snow, including Four Peaks to the north (pictured below).

I drove over to a local park just north of here to take this next shot of the Superstition Mtns. Not covered nearly as much as when we had that snowstorm last March, but worth taking pictures of, since this happens maybe once a year.

This was supposed to be the "money shot". Every time I drive over to the Post Office after it's rained, I've notcied the mountains reflected in the water ponded up in this retention basin, and have always thought, "gee, that would make a nice picture". Today I thought I'd check it out, but unfortunately there wasn't quite enough water to get the entire mountains reflection in it. Oh well, maybe next time.

And finally, for the Brenna junkies, here is a picture from this morning, where she's showing off her blue sandals that Grandma H gave her this past Christmas.

Alien Talk Continued

I was hoping to break out my Robert Plant "Little By Little" song this week ("I can breathe again"), but woke up yesterday morning with my sinuses clogged again. It would appear that either a) my 10 days worth of medication wasn't enough to shake my infection, or b) this is something totally different that I've picked up. So far I don't feel miserable, but stay tuned, that may change.

Brenna has had a good weekend so far, lots of naps and good sleep at night, not much fussing at all, except when she's been hungry and/or bored with how we're entertaining her. It's been fairly cold out this past week, 50's during the day, cloudy and a little rain, so we haven't taken her out too much, although I'm sure we'll take her to church in the morning.

Below is a link to some video of Brenna discussing the immigration control problems that continue to plague our state. I think you'll see that she has some insight into the situation and some very valid points to make in this riveting one-minute video.

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20070120&ctime=221350

Near Perfect Night (or The Chin Of Solace)

Tonight got off to a somewhat rocky start with Brenna screaming when mama got home (she's decided she doesn't like riding in the back of the car by herself to and from Emily's work). Things improved quickly though, as we were able to put her to sleep long enough in her swing to eat a quiet dinner.

Afterwards, in a moment of grumpiness, Brenna reached for my face and found my beard, apparently a new creature comfort. Below are two pictures Emily took of her squeezing my chin, which lead eventually to her taking a two hour nap on me while we enjoyed the hilarity of American Idol.

By far, tonight was the least fussy/quiestest evening we've had at home in quite some time, and I owe it all to the beard/goatee/fu manchu (I knew it would come in handy some day).