Mr. Photogenic

For those of you cursed to live out the rest of your days having horrible pictures taken of you, this post has your name written all over it.

I'm sure to some extent everyone can relate to this, but I found this chain of photos, taken by my mom and/or dad while they were here at Christmas, hilarious, bordering on sad.

The first picture below is typical for me, caught blinking, appearing stoned. I could fill an entire album with shots like this one. Click on the picture to enjoy the splendor of this shot.




This year I determined I wouldn't have any shots like this, but I guess it happened anyway. Below are a few pictures where I was so determined not to be squinting that I went a tad in the other direction.







There is small solace in the fact that other people fall victim to the photo curse, such as my father below, whom Emily commented looks like he's breaking wind or pondering such a thing.

And finally, for all of the horrible shots, you get lucky. As they say, even a blind chicken finds a kernel of corn every now and again.

Calling All Aliens

Brenna has a message for all alien lifeforms living among us or otherwise. Click the link below to listen to her thirty second top secret message. The future of Earth may depend upon it...

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20070107&ctime=151303

Brenna Video #3

Below is a link to Brenna pulling on her shirt, yawning, being all around energetic in her shaky chair.

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20070103&ctime=152517


And below is a rare toe sighting, the sock belonging to that foot was no doubt kicked off at some point before this picture was taken.

Finally, we have lemons! We picked about six or seven off our tree while my parents were here over the holidays, and the rest of them have ripened. Below is the link to that blog.

http://addictedtohoes.blogspot.com/

New Hoes Post

There's a lot happening in the back yard these days with our balmy 65 degree weather, click the Addicted To Hoes link to the right to see what's going on!

Back In The Saddle Again

We've managed to claw our way out of the holiday season and are now anxiously looking forward to the drudgery of work on a daily basis... hmmm. Sure, that sounds much better than spending time with friends and family and having our daughter all to ourselves for over a week (or much of it, anyway).

In retrospect, the worst gift I received by far this Christmas was a sinus infection. In fact, it appears to be "the gift that keeps on giving", right through New Years, and presumably into the work week ahead. More annoying than anything, I'll be anxiously awaiting the day that I can roll out of bed (and not the couch, where I've resided the last four or five nights) and not spend the first ten minutes awake serenading the geese passing overhead with my honking. I keep hearing the Robert Plant song "Little By Little" in my head, particularly the line "I can breathe again", and will have to listen to that tune in celebration when this sickness has passed.

At any rate, my misfortune is not why you're here. We've had a nice week with Brenna since Grandma and Grandpa H. left for home (and don't worry Otis, I don't know who you are, but unless my parents have a drastic change of heart, you won't be losing your golfing buddy anytime soon), and below are a few pictures of our daughter enjoying her activity center from the grandparents.










A few other pictures here follow, including Brenna learning to clutch things, particularly her rabbit that Grandma H gave her, and her bibs (any and all). I have yet to capture the devouring of the bib on film, but do have video where she's pulling her shirt over her head, and will post that as soon as possible. Occasionally, if the stars are aligned, you might catch her clutching her shirt and/or bib in one hand, and some other object in the other. Using both hands at the same time is something she's still working at.

Our daughter has also mastered the fine art of thumb AND palm sucking (such a pleasant sound when she's going whole hog at her palm), and is becoming quite the chatter box.






We're still managing a good bit of sleep each night, although we've had to resort to driving around town more often here recently to help Brenna along with this process. Last night she fell asleep around 11pm and outside of feedings, didn't wake up until after eight this morning.

Finally, on a more serious note, we're very thankful for our little one and how well she's doing, and all of the support we've had from friends and family, both locally and across the country. It has been our privilege sharing our lives with all of you these past few months, and God willing, we'll continue doing so for years to come.

Brenna's First Christmas

What a busy last few days we've had with Brenna. After hours of consoling, we've managed to put her down this evening, I think taking her around from place to place was finally too much stimulation for her.

We'll be spending the last few days around the house with Grandma and Grandpa H. before they leave for home, but in the meantime, below are a few of the highlights of the last couple of days.

Here is Brenna in her favorite new seat. She seems to like it.

Here are mom and dad and Brenna at Emily's parents house.

Both sets of grandparents with Brenna.

Emily's sister Beth, with husband John, and their daughter Rachel.

A candid shot of Brenna and Daddy. Oh, that zany Daddy.

Brenna showing off her Christmas outfit (one of them).

Grandma H with Brenna.

Mama with Brenna sleeping in her tater sack.

Grandma and Grandpa H. with Brenna and Daddy.

Big Day For Brenna

Today the three of us, with Grandma and Grandpa H, drove down to Tucson to see cousin Melanie and her husband Darrick. We woke this morning to a dense fog, caused from the rain we had the prior day (see the Addicted to Hoes blog for pictures... shameless plug), and drove through it until we neared Florence, about a half an hour down the road from our house. Brenna did very well on the two hour plus drive, until we reached Tucson. We stopped briefly to refuel her, but were rewarded by being able to eat a peaceful lunch with our family. Below is a picture (the only one) of everyone together (except me). Melanie is about a month out from her due date, and is glowing. We're all very excited about the arrival of Alexander Sean and look forward to meeting him sometime in February. Hopefully by then Brenna will be able to withstand a 4-5 hour roundtrip drive, strapped into a car seat (we had a "slight" meltdown on the way home that told us she's not quite ready for that long a period of confinement/containment).
















We later attempted to give our daughter a break from the car seat on the way home, stopping at Target to pick up a Bumbo for her. What is a Bumbo (sp?) you may ask? See below and be amazed by Brenna's abililty to hold up her head in this contraption all by herself. I took three pictures of her, trying to capture a smile, and came up with a wide variety of expressions, none of which I'd consider to be what I was looking for, but amusing just the same.

In this first picture, she seems to be figuring out what to do in it, holding onto the crotch rod (well, what would you call it?) for support.
















Here, she seems to have gotten the hang of sitting (somewhat) upright on her own, preparing to stuff as many fingers in her mouth as she can handle. She hasn't quite figured out what she has five individual fingers on each hand, but one day that thumb will break free and find itself in her mouth.
















This was the closest I got to a smile, um, sure. This is the classic deer-in-the-headlights shot.

Christmas Quickly Approaching

We're slowly approaching the big day, and I apologize for the lack of posts lately, Grandma and Grandpa H have been here since Wednesday afternoon, and we've been spending our timing visiting with them.

We actually had some rain yesterday and this morning it's so foggy you can barely see out the front door (that's a once every couple of years event).

Today we're all driving down to Tucson to have lunch with cousin Melanie and (hopefully) her husband Darrick. Should be a fun day!

Below are some recent pictures of Brenna leading up to the holidays and one of Grandpa holding her while she's intent on watching TV (her new pasttime).

Busy Weekend

This was one of those weekends where you blink and it's Monday morning again. Well, not quite yet, but it may as well be. Brenna is dozing in her swing, which has been a Godsend lately, and I thought I'd post a few pictures while the silence is deafening.

Here's a picture of Brenna at church two weekends ago, she's enjoying her time in the nursery while we go to bible study, etc.

Brenna at home below, being held by mama, staring at the goofy guy behind the camera.

Here's Brenna thinking about being happy, but not quite there yet.

Brenna sticking her tongue out at her circling sheep.

Whew, all of this blogging just wore us out!

Brenna Video #2

Here's another short clip, a more animated Brenna.

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20061212&ctime=160624

Video Test of Brenna

I'm experimenting with uploading video of Brenna to dropshots.com. To see a third world quality video of Brenna eating her hand, click on the link below and let me know if you can see her! Oh, and make sure you crank the volume up on your speakers to hear the excellent music that she's jamming to!

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=217718&cdate=20061211&ctime=173328

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

Oh wait, Christmas is still two weeks away? Oh well, that didn't stop us from sticking Brenna into a stuffy sweater for this picture. We managed to take four pictures, including this one, before our daughter protested. This was the best of the four... I guess I wouldn't smile either if I was burning up.

We had a busy day with Brenna, took her to Babys R Us, Target, Sonic, Emily's hair stylist, and an open house Xmas party hosted by a friend of Emily's. Whew, that's a mouthful, and Brenna seemed to think so also, as around four this afternoon the screaming began, and continued, and continued until about three hours later. Mom and daughter are now fast asleep, leaving me time to get as many things done in peace and quiet as I can.

Before I forget, one new picture on the Hoes blog being posted tonight of a red ice plant I bought in October that's blooming purple. I'm crying foul, but what can you do.

Friday's Here

Friday is here, it came pretty quick, and I'm sure Monday will be here soon enough.

Tonight we're going out to Golden Trough to celebrate Emily's dads birthday. I've posted an update on our Chinese Pistache tree on the Hoes blog, but that's about all that's happened since the last post.

For your viewing pleasure, more Brenna pictures!

Below is Brenna after bath time.

Here's Brenna with her Don King hair:

Caught! Brenna captures one of her wooly sheep.

Finally, Brenna getting ready to go to Grandma's this morning.

More Fall Colors!

One more tree in the yard is changing, check it out at the Hoes Blog link to the right!

For The Brenna Junkies

Seriously, if I had anything else other than Brenna pictures, I'd do it... no, really. This is not a Brenna only website... hey, did you see that last post? It was of a DIFFERENT baby! Yes, there are other babies out there besides our own, I fully acknowledge that! And hey, when cousin Melanie's little one arrives in February, I bet we'll have a picture of him here also!

Glad it's Wednesday already, everything is going well here. Yesterday Emily's mom came over and soothed Brenna while Emily sewed a baby sling and I cleaned house (as usual). Tonight I went over to the in-laws and planted some vines and bushes around the arbor/deck that Ron built for Becky. Emily is playing the part of baby bed right now while Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits plays in the background for perhaps the thousanth time this week (one of Brenna's favorite CDs, what can I say, the ladies love Dwight).

Here's something new, a Brenna picture! This is from some random morning earlier in the week, where I'm holding the sleepytime girl while mom is out catching dog pee for the morning blood sugar test. Yes, our dog has diabetes, if I haven't mentioned that before, and Emily collects piss and gives him a shot twice a day. We've both agreed that should anything else come up that we'll have to draw the line on extending Mr. Tazi's life. Not a happy thought, and I'd rather not change this blog site to The Adventures Of TEBO, but time will tell.

Okay, here's another one, some more candid Brenna close ups. She still gets a hoot out of her twirling sheep. In this picture, she's trying to help me beat on them, she gets a kick out of sheep in pain, apparently. Perhaps they've been baaaaaad. Okay, that was absolutely horrible, my apologies.

Here's what Brenna sees, for those of you wondering what these sheep look like. That would be my wife there in the corner.

And one more for the road....

A New Member Of The (Somewhat) Immediate Family



Not terribly immediate for me, but Emily's cousin Jenny gave birth to a little 7 lb boy, Jayden this past Sunday. He's spent the last week in NICU due to being about a month early. We're all terribly excited and pray for the health of her little one!

(Photo "borrowed" from Jenny's online photo album)

Brenna At Church!



















The nice lady in the church's daycare took this picture of Brenna, below is a brief snippet that she emailed Emily:





Brenna enjoyed the Nativity Story Sunday! We only let her sit in this seat for the picture but when she gets a little stronger I think she’ll feel really independent in there. Brenna responded to the “Bible Thoughts”. I believe she knows exactly what the story is, that God picked Mary and Joseph to be Jesus’ parents and we thank God for Brenna’s parents.

Have a wonderful week.

Blessings from Brenna’s teachers





Since our chuch has been without a permanent pastor, people have been leaving in droves for the "big church" on the corner down by Crismon and the highway (for all of you that know this area in detail, that would be my wife and I). I guess they don't like something about the gentleman that's been filling in since Tony's departure, or they don't like how the Seach Committee's finding a permanent replacement, but I find it utterly ridiculous if either of those are their reasons for moving somewhere else. I told Emily this earlier today, this email and picture show that we're truly blessed with the people that are still at Skyline and it doesn't matter who's delivering the message of salvation every Sunday, as long as it's being delivered and not being clouded by politics of misinterpretations of the Word.

I Can Show You Some Of The People In My Life

I have no shame, thanks to Phil Collins for the title to this blog. It's actually one person in my life, and you'll see many pictures of her as you scroll down.

We've had a fairly uneventful week here, which is probably a good thing. Emily found something called Gripe Water that has calmed Brenna's night fits quite a bit. We're still taking car rides around the greater Apache Junction metroplex from time to time (and actually got rained once, well, spat on, depending on how you look at it), but our evenings after work are not as chaotic as they had been.

Anyway, the following picture is from tonight, Brenna's grasping something for the first time.... well, mom helped, but there it is. Brenna is carrying on her nightly conversation with her best friend, the bug eyed bee that resides to the right side (or left, hmmm) of her shaky chair. A rather lively discussion it was, I'm sure they were talking about the upcoming '08 elections, or something along those lines.
















The next three pictures show the many faces of Brenna. These were all taken by Emily within seconds of each other. It would appear in the last of these three that our daughter is inciting a riot among the migrant workers, or some such. Who thought anarchy could be so much fun.


















































There's really no telling what's on her mind in this picture, but it looks like she's having fun.






















And finally, the last picture, because I know it will take me the rest of the night to get this blog to align right (Blogger, your new beta site SUCKS). Ahem, below is a recent bath time adventure with mommy and baby girl. Brenna is typically very well behaved when getting cleaned up.

All in all, we're putting one foot in front of the next, and as long as we don't fall on our faces too often, I should say things are okay here.