He better get me a good ornament this year!

Nick and I get each other an ornament every year to put in our stockings. This is the one he got me last year:

He said its because I was pregnant, but still wanted to go skiing. I still don't appreciate it.

Answer

Yes, we got our tree on the side of the road. Amander, you are correct!

Last year, we bought a tree at a tree farm that we cut down ourselves. It was nice, but then we were driving home and realized that we kept seeing trees everywhere on the sides of the road. So last year we decided, never again are we paying $40 for a stupid tree, when there are plenty to spare here in Oregon.

However, it did require us to be quite stealth. I drove around during the day and found one that I thought was acceptable (I am generally pretty picky about my Christmas tree). The problem was it was on a fairly busy street. So we went back at night, I dropped Nick off, drove away, then he called me once it was cut down. We shoved the tree in our trunk as fast we could and sped off.

That's right, we are tree thiefs. We are living outside the law.

Guess where we got our Christmas tree this year?

Big Mouth

Briz does everything these days with her mouth wide open.

Standing on her Dad's hand. Apparently, it helps her consentrate.

Taking steps with Dad. Her hair looks so funny in this picture.

Her face is getting so chubby. I love her big cheeks. But doesn't she have a slight resemblance to Fat Bastard in this picture? I told Nick that was my new nickname for her and he did not appreciate it.

Nick's B-day

For those of you who know Nick, you know that he hasn't actually had his birthday yet. But on Saturday, I threw him a surprise bday party. That's right; I'm a really good wife. But mostly I did it because I was trying to figure out how to get out of celebrating his birthday on its actual date (this Saturday). I hate his birthday. It sucks because no one cares about it, being a few days before Christmas. But his party was really fun and I successfully surprised him.

We wore ugly Christmas sweaters, which apparently is trendy (a girl at work told me that today; I had no idea), and we exchanged white elephant gifts. We ate a lot of food and played a hillarious game called Quelf. I highly recommend it for a group of people that are pretty comfortable with each other. Just a small example: the very first turn our friend did a belly dance on another friend (both male), while lifting up his shirt and rubbing his stomach. It was a good time! Here are some pics.

Brett and Julia. Brett had to do the most embarrassing things the whole game, but he loved it. Their adopted son was born yesterday :)

Billy and Kera in their sweaters. Billy's was my favorite, because it could sort of pass for normal, but just ugly.

Kristi decided to go the whole nine yards and dress her entire outfit with the ugly Christmas sweater. In the words of Kera, she looked like a sister missionary! Hahaha.

Kyle reading the directions to Quelf. The reason I came to like Kyle more this weekend: he wore this sweater to church the next day.

Nick's sweater I bought for him. I never did tell him that I got it from the Women section at Value Village. I thought the ears would top it off nicely, and of course they remind me of Dwight Schrute.

He got attacked with silly string. I told them to go for his eyes.

For more pics, go to Kera's blog.

Courtney Cox-Arquette

Let me preface this post by saying that I know my daughter has a very different sort of name, but still, I draw a line at being unique and just plain weird . . .

I was in line waiting to purchase a few things at Target last Friday, and I heard a mom call her daughter's name, "Come here Coco!" I of course instantly thought to myself, Courtney Cox-Arquette is here in Salem. Oh no, it was a regular ol' mom with a few other kids. Who names their kid that? Honestly!

Thayne Family Pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here are the Thayne Family Pictures I took a week or so ago. It was a hectic day for them, but even still, they looked beautiful. And Piper was the best baby ever! We ended up taking these in the Willamette University Library (stole the idea from the Nielsons' pictures), and then took a few outside. It was really too bad it was so cold outside, because the lighting was beautiful and there are so many places to take pictures on Willamette campus. I wish we could have taken more!

6 months STAT . . istics

Brizzy and I just got home from the doctor's. She's a little behind in her appointments, but that's alright, we don't mind so much. This is how she weighed in:

Weight: 14.0 lbs. exactly - 10%ile (I think about 8 lbs. of that is in her chin and cheeks)

Height: 27 inches - 75%ile

Head - 42.5 cm - 50%ile

So there ya have it. We were having some issue with pooping (yes again) when I introduced foods a few weeks ago. Apparently, her body sucks up all the liquid it can handle in an attempt to gain some weight, 'cause her metabolism is freakishly fast; hence not having enough liquid to have a normal bowel movement. And she eats SO much!!! She was such a little trooper for her shots. Now if I can only get her to not throw a fit when Signing Times ends.

P.S. My favorite quote from Glee yesterday was, "I have to go, they're gonna think I'm pooping."

Halloween Part 2

On Halloween, Nick and I took Briz to Eugene for the U of O game. My parents sat next to us, and we had a blast watching Briz' reaction to all of the chaos, but even better was watching the Ducks play awesome against USC! (I am not, however, going to bring up the game proceeding USC, against Stanford, because it makes me angry). As we walked into the Stadium, I let Briz know that even though it wouldn't be the first time she got to be around drunken crazy college students, it was her very first smell of marijuana. I am definitely putting that first in her baby book.

This is the gorgeous Oregon sky above Autzen stadium.

Nona holding Briz. We handcrafted some sound decreasing devices for her ears. Those are ear muffs with socks stuffed into them.

And she of course has some of her U of O fan fare on.

Mama and Briz. And yes, my sweat shirt says my name on it. It's a long story, but I found it recently. I thought I had given it away to Meredith!

We forgot for a little while after that Briz didn't need her ear muffs on. They looked so funny on her, cause they squished her chubby cheeks together.

About half way through the game, we switched her into her Halloween costume because it's very snuggly and warm.

Overall, Briz very much enjoyed her first college football game experience. She slept about half the time, she spent about a quarter of it watching the Big Screen, and the other quarter was spent watching some excellent football. She was awesome; even when she was sleeping in her sling, and I was jumping up and down and yelling, she didn't seem to mind too much (Thank goodness for her sling). She had a very eventful and fun Halloween, and after wearing her costume 3 times, it is thoroughly saturated with drool and spit up, just how we like it :)

Halloween Part 1

We had a few days of Halloween fun this year. The first night was Nick's school party. It was a karaoke/drunken fest/dance party. Considering how much Briz loves a raging party, we had a blast. Unfortunately, I was not able to take any pictures, as I was busy shielding my baby from many drunken kisses by college students dressed up in freaky costumes.
The second night was Briz' sober night with our Mormon friends. Yet, it was not neccessarily any less scandalous :)

These are my friends. I'm very proud of their diverse costumes. Julia is a skater, and Kristi is a punk. Kristi is a counselor at an alternative high school in our district and used real life clients for tips.

Nick was a blind referee (he is absent his glasses and cane here).

I was a bunny rabbit and Briz was a lady bug. I had Nick grab some of my bunny items at the store last minute, and he of course, grabbed Playboy apparel. They went perfect with my extra baggy jammies.

Piper and Briz. Briz better watch out, cause her friend is catching up in size.

Mr. Incredible (aka Brett) with the ladybug.

Bethany being the Swin Flu. The ironic thing was that I thought later that night that I had gotten the swine flu. I didn't, thank goodness. It turned into a cold, but I swear its because I took a bazillion echinacea.

Our friends Kyle and Kristi. I think they should dress like on a regular basis.

She just wants to be a big girl

I am convinced Briz just doesn't really enjoy being a baby. There are a few things that I can always count on to make her happy, but one of them is to be standing. I'm hoping that when she starts walking, she'll never cry again. This is a completely realistic wish right?

She has been able to stand for a while, but we put her facing the couch, and holding on to it. A few weeks ago, Nick thought it would be fun to have her balance with the couch behind her. The biggest problem with this is that she will attempt to walk, and try to take steps forward. I am strongly discouraging Nick from doing this a lot because I really want her to crawl (which she has no desire to do at the moment). However, I couldn't help enjoy her being so happy while she thinks she's a big girl.

She's a little skinny minny, but yes, she does have quite a double chin (and rice cereal, spit up, druel and all sorts of fun stuff get stuck in it, which I generally don't discover until bath time).

P.S. This is the cutest little jumper ever. My aunt bought it in Italy a long time ago, but it used to be one of my favorite things to put her in. It's now too small :( I feel like anytime a clothing of item I love is retired, I need to mourn just a little bit.

Slumber Party

We have a babysitting rotation with some people that live near us. We all have babies within a week of each other and see each other almost every week at play group.

The first night was a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, little Sophie couldn't come, but Ethan and Briz had fun at their first slumber party.

Here boyfriend and girlfriend are reading a story before they spend the night in the same room. Yes, scandalous.

My New Favorite Show!

Family Pictures

Here are some family pictures that we took a few weeks ago. The real pictures you will see with your Christmas card, but here are a few extras. Most of them are candid. Let me know if you have a favorite, cause I may try to edit it and frame it.

Workin' It

Briz officially turned 6 months last Friday. Ceerrazzy! I have a 6 month old? Nu uh. That's too weird. Anyhoo, I have more pictures to come, but here are some that I took, trying to be creative and artsy. They turned out, well, not my favorites. But I always do a love black and white naked shot. You really can't go wrong with that. More posts to come!