Friday, September 24, 2010

I Heart My New Camera





Brian got me this super awesome Canon Rebel T2i camera for my Birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Mother's Day/Anniversary. I am infatuated with it and can't wait to get some more things figured out. It will definitely be a work in progress, because it is much smarter than I am. I got to fiddle with it today some - here are a few pictures I took with it. I have a LOT to learn about all the different settings and possibilities! AND any tips on photographing people who don't sit still are welcome! More soon.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Half -Way Between 1 & 2

Where did the last 6 months go? On Brett's first birthday in March he was not yet walking and only saying a few basic words...and very much still a BABY. What a whole new little boy from just 6 months ago! He has grown leaps and bounds. Here are some (lots of...) pictures I took of Brett outside playing in our yard on his 18 month "birthday". Outside is definitely this little guy's favorite place to be. First though, a picture from his first birthday 6 months ago (this picture is courtesy of my good friend Kate! thanks!):

And now...















Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bubbles

We have had plenty of fun in Brett's kiddie pool this summer...I didn't manage to get Brett going on any early swim lessons this year, but I was so excited about this...

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Take Me Out to the Ballgame....


I love my job. Especially right now. It is so much fun getting to be with the little man all day every day (and the bigger one too!). We have been staying just busy enough, I think. Lots of walks, wagon rides, visiting friends and family...I just couldn't ask for a better summer vacation. The only problem, of course, is it's gone way too fast!

Brian's mom bought 30 tickets to a Naturals baseball game, and a whole big slew of family came down from Kansas last month to spend the weekend. It was so much fun. HOT, at first, but sooo much fun. And the babies did great, even though they were up way past their bedtimes!

Grandma arrived a day early, with a little present for Brett - a new pool! Such fun. Thanks Grandma, we were definitely needing one of those! Brett has been taking advantage of that thing most every day (us too!). He loves it. More pool pictures some other day.







Here he is in his Natural's hat. He got that hat last year at his very first game.


Here's what he looked like in it last year...


It was so hot when we got there, but once the game started lots of clouds started rolling in along with this AWESOME breeze that might as well have been air conditioning. We thought we were going to get wet, but no rain-just fresh air - and it was PERFECT.
Brett played, watched, clapped, and ate lots of junk food, like cotton candy, cheetos, ice cream....(as you should at a game, right?)


Here is Brett ignoring us at the playground. We were calling his name in an effort to get him to come back our way...

but he had more important things to do than listen to mom and dad.


Peggy fed Brilynn ice cream and Brilynn fed Brett ice cream. I think that system seemed to work out pretty well for a bit, until the bites were just coming in to fast for Brett...maybe he got a brain freeze?
Some of our other family and friends enjoying the game...









The Chicken - very entertaining for the kiddos, as long as he kept his distance.





Kissing Cousins




An abundance of Cheetos



Brian's brother Rob and his Hannah Montana Bag. Just kidding. Not really his. He is outnumbered in a house full of girls!

This game was SO much fun, even more so to have so many family and friends there too. Thanks Peggy for organizing it!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Lost In Translation


Long time no blog! I think it's safe to say that, particularly since Brett started walking around mid-April, things have gone quickly from baby-hood to toddler-hood around here...and it's happening so fast! When did we acquire this walking talking little wonder?? Brett started to become a little extra chattier after he got tubes in his ears in May (he had had 6 ear infections in 10 months, the first one when he was less than 5 months old-absolutely no problems now!), but now things are actually starting to make sense. I love listening to him "talk". It's crazy how, in just the past couple weeks, he's picked up a few more words all of a sudden. I know he also understands a lot more than he can say or express too. He's a little sponge. And, of course, we think he's the smartest thing ever!! There are a few things he's been saying for several months like mama, dada, bah (ball - has now become "bot" for some reason), ba-ba (usually something to drink) and he's been doing a signal for "all done" for a while now, and in the past couple months he's been doing the signal for "milk" and "more". So, for anyone interested, here is a sampling from some of sweet boy's ever expanding vocabulary with translations where necessary. :)
"Bite"
"Moe" or "muh" - more. Sweet thing loves his bites.
"shoosh" - shoes. Loves shoes. His shoes, our shoes, one shoe; doesn't matter.
"Ot" - hot
"bye-bye"
"Peese" - please. sometimes does hand signal for this one too. Has to REALLY want something to say this.
"MAOW!!" - meow. he says this just as excitedly as it looks.
"kkkkk" - kitty
"Buppy" - puppy/Buster
"Boo" - Peekaboo
"up" - ...sometimes sprays the p sound.
"waa waa" - quack quack
"mehmoe" - Elmo. He's just recently started noticing/being somewhat interested in some things on tv. Yo Gabba Gabba, Looney Toons, and the Garfield show also catch his attention now and then. Sometimes also uses "mehmoe" to refer to Gymbo the clown at Gymboree.
"Out" - Ouch.
"cheesh" - cheese or keys; again, pretty similar. The kid loves cheese.
"tcheetch" - teeth. He says this when he takes a bath since we brush his teeth in the bath.
"da-doo" - ???? We have no clue what this is yet. still trying to figure this one out, but he's said it several times
"La-Low" - Jello
"beebee" - binky
"baby"
"djootch" - juice
"nuh" - no. Generally accompanied by a shake of the head.
"psew" - pew/yucky - has just begun to connect this "word" to all diapers and trash cans.
"uh-oh" - nothing to explain here! probably the most used word at our house right now. That and "moe".


Around all the learning to talk, our little funny guy is also pretty good at tickling our feet, giving zerberts, throwing the bot for buppy, giving hugs and kisses, and cracking us up. It's awesome that he's starting so be able to communicate now. Many things are still a guessing game, but....So cool.

(psew) ("Mehmoe, anyone?")

Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter

This weekend we hung out with Brett's Uncle Jeff and Aunt Stacey quite a bit, and did lots of eating...we really enjoyed the weather this weekend, and loved just being able to stay around home.




Brett got caught up on sleep, taking a 3 hour nap each day. We also, of course had to go see the Easter Bunny. Brett was clinging to my shirt with his little kung-fu death grip when I tried to sit him on the bunny's lap and started to fuss when a nice little girl came along and distracted him just long enough for me to snap a few pictures!





I have to include this picture of last year on his first Easter...it's blurry because it's a picture of a picture...



We "hid" some Easter Eggs here at home - I put puffs in most of them, but we discovered he also likes Peeps (and why wouldn't he?!) so I added a few little bites of peeps in some of them. It was so much fun watching him crawl around and find his eggs and eat the treats in them. He got the hang of it pretty quickly! He would find one, make an excited sort of noise, and crawl after it. He played with those things for the longest.









Brett also spent some time doing one of his other favorite things...watching the laundry. LOVES it. Glad someone enjoys laundry! What a nice, relaxing weekend!