2 blog posts in less than a week. I know, AMAZING!

For some reason January inspired me to craft and sew again. My friend Dani (who has an EXCELLENT Etsy site) sent me a pattern to make a cute cap for Browen. I really liked this project and love how it looks on him! He usually will wear it for about an hour at a time, which makes me overjoyed every time I look at his cap-covered head.

I've also been making these felt flower accessories, and wearing them in my hair :)

AND totally off subject = Browen has been obsessed with our piano for the last 8 months, he plays it every day for about 30 minutes at a time. Had to share these cute pics. Oh, he is a silly little boy.

The best thing about this post is that: the pictures are all out of order, so you get to infer which picture goes with which sentence. Enjoy the mental stimulation.

The Rise and Fall

Our friends, the Childs, invited us over for an evening of gingerbread house making. Rachel made the gingerbread and frosting for us, and we provided an assortment of goodies to decorate with. I have a problem of getting WAY to involved in crafts. I think that a gingerbread house qualifies as a 'craft'? Anyways, I was beyond absorbed in the task of assembling, fortifying, and decorating the house. Blake dutifully cared for our would-have-been-orphaned son. Here are some pictures from the evening:










For New Years Day, we decided to blow up the stale gingerbread houses.

When I taught school the fellow teachers and I were sharing traditions around the lunch table. A good friend of mine shared her family tradition of "blowing up the gingerbread houses" on New Years Day. I thought that was funny, and unique. . . I know people save their gingerbread houses for years, but I just throw them away (after eating a few candies off of the chimney) as soon as Christmas is over. Since that lunch conversation, I have always waned to try the blow-up disposal method for my gingerbread houses. The Childs were great accomplices.

BUSY buSy BusY Christmas Time

SO. . . I have been busy, editing pictures, taking pictures, planning a ward Christmas Party, planning our own little Christmas. True, the blog has been utterly neglected. I am sorry, look forward to many random, late, out of season posts after the holidays. For now. . .Merry Chritmas from Browen and us!

Melimba

Melimba is my friend. She is quite creative in a very unique way. Her creations are fabulous and have so much style and personality. . .visit her website: YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

http://web.mac.com/melimba/Site/home.html

I am excited because she is having a free card giveaway. . .and I want to win

Birthday Boy

On Saturday Oct. 24th we celebrated Browen's first birthday with a small group of family and neighborhood friends. Browen was a little overwhelmed by the crowd at first. He's never seen so many people in his house at once. For his birthday Blake and I decorated together the night before. We were more excited to celebrate Browen's birthday than he would have been,even if he had known what was going on. It's true: first birthdays are more for the parent than the child. Browen did enjoy having a large group of familiar faces come to visit him, he also enjoyed the stories we read to the group because they are his favorites (Dinosaur Roar and Hi Pizza Man). The big event was that he got to eat his own cake made by Raven and you can see form the pictures that he was shy at first. He approached the cake with caution. After dad painted a chocolate smiley face on Browen's belly Browen started to warm up to the messy experience. By the end he ate way more cake than any one year old should be allowed to ingest. Browen had some help opening presents form some of the girls in our neighborhood, they were excited for him and couldn't resist the wrapping paper and gift bags. All in all, in was a fun event and great experience for Browen (who took a good 24hrs to come off of the sugar high). Thanks to all who came an participated.

These Men

Blake went to Texas about a month ago. I was sad to see him go, but excited about the fun he was in store for. He went with long time buddies, Aaron, Jordan, Mark and Scott. They went to the BYU vz Oregon Game at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. These are some pics Blake brought back with him. I wouldn't let him take my 'nice' camera, so he took his sweet Kodak easypic. No worries, photo shop gave the images a bit of a color boost (I couldn't help myself).

Don't these men look great? What a fun group of guys. I know Blake wishes he could spend more time with each of them. They are all close to his heart. Growing up happens fast and now that they are each fathers and husbands time together is getting scarcer and scarcer. That's why this trip was a really special thing for him to do.

Not to mention, I got to hang out with Jandee (Jordan's wife) and bask in her creative genius while eating chinese take out and watching a sweet obscure film about Indian immigrants. . .can't remember the title.

conN-GRAD-Ulations! Brittny !!!

My sister is an Registered Nurse (RN) YAY. She has worked so hard over these past years, I am so proud of her accomplishment and am wowed that she also graduated with HONORS! it is an 'honor' to be her sister. She will be wonderful nurse full of compassion and intelligence.