Merry Christmas!!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great one. It started out a little early - with just Brenna, Mommy and Daddy at home on Friday morning. We opened presents, and got ready for the big trip to Show Low. Among Brenna's gifts, she got a new table and chairs set, a toy cell phone (one of her favorites), a toy laptop, other toys and some clothes and other practical gifts. We enjoyed a relaxing morning and then loaded up and headed to SL. We visited Grandma Ann at work for a bit before heading over to Grandma Diane and Grandpa Dave's house. We got to play for a couple of days, visit friends (the Penrods and Mark & Cindy) and enjoy the cool Christmas weather. Although it didn't snow while we were there, the snow from earlier in the week wasn't all melted, so there was some for Brenna to experience and enjoy! On Christmas Eve, the Pearson's were a little under the weather, but daddy took Brenna out on the town to visit more friends and explore. That night, we visited Grandma Ann and Grandpa Rick at their house and got to open more presents. Brenna got a Leap Pad book, a magnetic paper doll, some clothes and more! On Christmas morning, we woke up with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Dave (feeling a bit better) and waited for Aunt Jamie and Uncle Josh to come over to open more presents! Opening gifts took a lot longer this year since Brenna had to play with everything she opened - it's been a long time since our family had that type of delay in opening gifts! Brenna got blocks, a new little people house, puzzles, clothes and a counting piggy bank. She is so loved to get so many presents from all the special people in her life! We had such a fun time over the Christmas weekend - mommy and daddy took a little extra time off of work and LOVED having the extra time to relax. We are looking forward to a new year and more fun adventures with our little angel!

Feed me!

As we've shared over all these posts, Brenna is growing to be quite the little person - she's not a little baby anymore. This was very apparent to mommy the other day when we got home from work/daycare and came into the house. We were hanging out in the living room, just getting settled into the evening, Brenna was drinking some water from her cup and mommy was on the phone. Brenna disappeared into the kitchen, went into the pantry, grabbed a can of toddler ravioli (one of her favorites) and brought it to me. Then she took it back to the kitchen and the next thing I hear is the cabinet doors. I went into the kitchen to see what she was getting into and found that she'd opened the "tupperware" cabinet, had pulled out her bowls (some that we typically use for her food) and put them on her high chair tray. The ravioli was on the dining room table. She was hungry! Clearly this was her way of telling me to feed her! Needless to say, I fed her then and there and mom & dad could just eat later. With Christmas approaching, we thought it would be fun to teach Brenna what Santa says. We've been giving her a small stuffed Santa to play with and then telling her "ho, ho, ho." She now knows what the Santa is if we ask her to bring it to us and when we ask her what he says, she replies "ho, ho" - don't know where the last "ho" went, but it's close enough and it's adorable! We are looking forward to heading up to the mountains to celebrate Christmas with both sets of grandparents, Aunt Jamie & Uncle Josh and lots of friends! We're hoping it'll be Brenna's first white Christmas! Happy Holidays to you all!

Zoo Lights

This weekend, we went to see the famous Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo! It was very popular - there were lots of people there. It was a pretty nice night, not too cold, although we eventually bundled up. Brenna enjoyed looking at all the pretty lights - colored, white, solid and twinkly! Once we let her out of her stroller, she even liked touching the lights (when she could). It was a nice family evening out! The rest of the weekend was devoted to getting ready for Christmas - shopping and such. We are looking forward to watching Brenna open her gifts, playing with wrapping paper and boxes and just enjoying the season with her this year!

Preparing for Christmas

As mentioned last post, Brenna helped to set up the Christmas tree last weekend and loved the lights on the tree and has been very good about not touching the ornaments - thank goodness. Here's a picture of her enjoying the tree! This weekend, we had a visit from Santa at our house! Brenna wasn't too sure about him, but we wanted to try to document the occassion and take some pictures. Although she knows the man that was dressed as Santa (helping him out during his busy season), she did not like the strange outfit and long beard. We tried playing with the beard, giving him fives, all kinds of things to help her not be so scared, but in the end, this is what we got - hope she's not permanently traumatized! She also helped decorate the outside of the house this weekend - we put lots of lights on the house and in the bushes and she hung out with us all afternoon outside. Not that she didn't find her own adventures of course (including moving the rocks from one side of the yard to the other, playing with clumps of dirt found in one area of the yard and eating the dirt in one of the planters - yes, I know gross!! That is dirt on her mouth and in her nostril - evidence for the future. But every kid goes through it right?
We also had some visitors this week - our friends Paula and Ryan visited from Philadelphia. We are looking forward to them moving back to Arizona this spring, it was nice to have them around! Brenna also bonded with them and had some playmates other than mom and dad while they were here. They also got to have some practice with a toddler since they are about to have their own little munchkin in February. I tried to post a picture of Brenna with them, but blogger won't let me - I'll try again later.