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.

Hawaii

I'm only like a month behind. But I have lots of excuses as to why I am. None of which I'm going to take the time to explain here, because well I'm busy. But here are a bunch of pictures from Hawaii. It's a little depressing posting them because it already feels so long ago. Maybe

I need to go back again soon :) I wish!

The view from our condo.

Nick and our moped.

Uhhh, look at that water!

I really wanted to buy this for Briz, but it was too small.

Beautiful sunset one night.

Top left: Nick and Brett trying out the moped. Possibly my favorite picture from the trip.

Top Right: Julia and I tried to get on the paddle board at the same time. It was a lot of work and we were pretty unsuccessful. I snorted a ton much salt water up my nose from laughing while falling in the water.

Bottom left: Nick getting sandy

Bottom right: Nick and Brett flirting with the old ladies.

Top left: Nick, Kyle, and Brett out on the the town in Lahaina

Top Right: Brett posing with a creepy cowboy guy. Who knew cowboys exist in Hawaii?

Bottom left: Before dinner at a local Hawaiian restaurantght:

Bottom right: After dinner

We had so much fun with our friends in Hawaii. We did miss our Briz. I'm not sure she missed us, but we like to pretend she did. We did, however, sort of forget that we had a kid sometimes. It was like before we had her. Anyone ever want to go to Hawaii, let us know. You know we're always up for it!