Christmas getaway and a long post

I really do apologize in advance for all the pictures. And I don't blame you if you don't look at all of them.

For Christmas we had an adventure. We went with the Cottles to Vegas and then to Palm Springs. It was so much fun to see Briz play with her cousins.

Seth showing us Libby's teeth. I was shocked that she just let him play with her mouth. Briz would freak out.

Libby and Kloey are freaks about swimming. I would not be surprised if they can swim on their own this summer, because they already want to. They are just born fishes. Here is Libby blowing bubbles.

Briz playing with "Backuh" (How she pronounces Grandpa).

We were each in charge of a day and this is was Jacci's. In Vegas we went to the Winter Wonderland with a bunch of lights.

Briz giving Libs hugs and kisses.

The cousins in their coats. Who knew Vegas gets so cold in the winter?

I think this is the only picture I'm in from Christmas. Nick and I are getting into the Christmas spirit here.

Blinding Dad.

This could be quite possibly the ugliest cheesy smile ever. But it's what she does now.

The girls were SO excited to go on the carousel.

This is SO much fun!!!

Christmas Eve afternoon, Mike and Julie put on a princess party for the girls. And I have to admit it was pretty hillarious. I had no idea Briz would even care, but she loved it. This picture of Libby makes me laugh. She looks like she just won Miss America and she is overwhelmed.

Briz' tummy makes her a little awkward, and the dress was a little bit too long. She kept tripping over it during their "fashion show."

In her princess gear and a little sweaty. She was working hard getting around in all of her stuff.

Squinty eyes.

Posing for their annual picture. It's a little challenging getting them to sit still let alone to look at the camera and smile.

Kloey loved giving Briz kisses. And Briz was always willing to oblige. She never turns down a kiss (she's Nick's daughter).

Story time with Dad.

Costume change to her Tinker Bell outfit, which also exentuated her pot belly.

Christmas morning, Briz loved the golf clubs. Mike and Julie bought a collective little kids golf set. Briz almost got violent with them, it was a little scary.

Whitney got Nick the perfect game called "Cheater."

Brizzy and Grandpa hangin' out on the balcony. She looks so big to me here.

Checking things out with Aunt Brittany.

Libby and her dramatic crying face again.

Getting dried off after swimming.

More kisses.

Cuddling with Grandpa.

She was walking around with this towel around her waist, it was so funny.

I gave Briz a timeout and Kloey wanted to join her.

Splashing around in the pool.

Swimming with grandma. She calls her "Juwee" for Julie. I really am not quite sure how she came up with this because we have tried to get her to call her Grandma. She kept saying over and over again while laughing, "No way Juwee!"

Briz misses her cousins. The other morning she woke up and sort of was whining, "Koey, Yibby." I thought it was hilarious because we hadn't seen them or talked to them in a few weeks. Can't wait to see them again this summer.

Christmas # 1

Brizzy is ridiculously spoiled. There's really no other way to put it. She had three Christmases this year. The first one took place on Nick's b-day. We were going out of town for Christmas and so Nick wanted her to open some presents before we left. Plus, I think his b-day was so incredibly lame (another post another time) he wanted something to look forward to, even if it wasn't for himself.

She was standing like this for a while, with her hands folded behind her back.

I know she looks mad, but really she is just concentrating. She was trying so hard to open her present she started shaking.

Her favorite present (and one that I did not know about!) was her bike. Shey came down the stairs and when she saw it she started running in place and screaming, "bike bike bike!" I was a little mad at Nick because we had already discussed buying her a tricycle like this for her b-day when it starts to get nicer weather and she's older and more capable. But it was hard to get too angry when she was so excited. Mostly now she's forgotten about it. It hangs out in the garage and I will maybe re-gift it for her b-day:)

Snow snow snow!

At the beginning of December we took Briz to the snow for the first time. We went with our friends the Nelson's and we cut down our own Christmas tree. It's a lot of work packing Briz into snow gear while she whines and kicks me. But once she was in the snow, she loved it.

Nick tossing Briz in the air and I'm very nervous about it. But I still took a picture :)

I loved our Christmas tree. It smelled SO good and I literally watered it once for the entire month (It did however take 2 hours to put it up and a lot of debating and it also fell over twice while Nick was out of town in Dec.)

I love this picture of Nick and Briz. Nick did make a true statement though. He said he always looks like a robber when he wears a bini. Hahaha.

This snow is great!

Making Briz and Jaron pose in the snow. One of my favorite things about it is that Briz wasn'tvery mobile, cause it wasn't too packed. It was a nice change!

I can hardly move but I'm happy

I definitely think this is a tradition I want to start. Our tree only cost $5 and we didn't break the law! Bonus.

We're going on a trip, start the countdown

This title has nothing to do with the content of the post. It is the lyrics to the song from Little Einsteins and I have it stuck in my head because that is the only way I have been able to get sanity lately with entertaining Briz and trying to move!!! Hence the lack of posts. I am almost ALMOST settled into our new house, and once I am, I will be posting a lot, cause my pictures are definitely backed up.

In the meantime, amidst my exhaustion, this is one of the funny things Briz did to make me laugh today:

- She was watching Little Einsteins and saw a picture of the Mona Lisa. She got all excited and started screaming, "Cheesus Cheesus!" (translation Jesus). Maybe I need to start showing her more historical art besides just pictures of Jesus. Would that be considered blasphemous?

blog post

I have a new blog post for my LAC Photography blog (see the link to the right).

Cute Things

Here are some cute things Briz has been doing:

- She gets very excited about Christmas lights. When we're driving in the car, she yells "Ights!" and then when she sees them says, "Woooahh!" If she doesn't see them, she says over and over and over again, "Mo ights?" (translation, more lights)

- She has been going potty on the toilet. Don't worry, she's not freakishly advanced, she's not potty trained. She just thinks it's really fun to sit on the potty when she goes poo poo sometimes. Many times she will tell me and sign, "potty," but th

en just sits on the toilet for at least 5 minutes without actually going to the bathroom. I got her her very own potty, so she will say repeatedly, "Bizzy's potty, Daddy's potty" as she points to our real toilet.

- She has started to understand the concept of closing her eyes during prayer. So instead of just closing her eyes, she covers her eyes with her hands like she's playing hide n' go seek. She gets very confused though because she knows she is supposed to be folding her arms. That's a tricky one.

-We have been reading the nativity fairly often this month. So now almost every night when I ask Briz what book she wants to read, she says, "Cheesus." It's very sweet. She sort of likes "Anta" (Santa) too, but he's just alright. The real Santa freaked her out.

- She has this weird obsession with monkeys. But not in a cute way. She thinks that there is a monkey in her room. She always points to the closet. I

tried taking away the stuffed dog that I thought maybe she was mistaking for a monkey, but it didn't do any good. She will get scared sometimes and run up to me and hug me. When I ask her why she's afraid, she says, "Monkey." And now she has started saying, "No no monkey."

- She likes numbers, but doesn't really understand counting. So for example, she will look at two items of something and say while she points to the objects, "Whu, two, tee." (one, two, three) When I ask her how many there are of something, this is always what she does.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving up at my parents in Lake Oswego with friends. Landon and Sierra made it home after a long traveling experience. And we were glad to hang with them. Brizzy was especially happy to have Ewadaw (L dawg, aka Landon) and Itsi (Sis). Here are some pictures and a video.

Papa and Nona at a Christmas tree lighting thing. There was a large soldier and snowman. She was a little freaked out.

Nick, Sisi, and Nona outside at the lighting ceremony.

Brizzy is obsessed with pushing things. She no longer wants to sit in her stroller, she wants to push it.

The blondies. A lot of people still think that Briz looks like Sierra, but I don't see it.

The video below is Brizzy pushing Jaron around my parents house. It was so funny. They did it for like 30 minutes.