Christmas highlights

So here we are, the end of January, giving Christmas highlights.  But, I figured it's better to document than skip it.  That "skipping" is what got me so far behind in the first place!  So here are the highlights:

Travis got to have a chunk of time off to come up the mountain with us!!  It was WONDERFUL to have him join us.  It was our first Christmas "together" and was fabulous :)  Although we weren't supposed to exchange gifts (given all the moving and other stuff going on) he surprised me with a laptop! I love that man!  Can't wait to skype with my family when they catch up ;)

Brenna was at the PRIME age for enjoying Santa.  She was excited to leave out cookies, milk and a few m&ms for him and even spread some reindeer food (oats) out in the yard to make sure they knew how to find us.  She was SO excited when it was bedtime that she told me, "Mom, I'm just so excited, I can't go to sleep."  I explained that she'd have to be sleeping or Santa wouldn't stop.  She explained that she could pretend to be asleep...little stinker.  Of course it didn't take long for her to fall asleep, but I loved how excited she was.  It brought back so many memories of when Jamie and I would wake up so early in the morning eventually running by the living room (without sneaking a peek...well maybe a little peek) to wake up mom & dad. 

Brenna recieved many of the things she asked for - a Magic Snow Moxie Girl, a makeup studio (a post all about makeup will arrive on this blog soon), and a barbie vacation house. 

We had a wonderful, relaxing time in Show Low.  We rarely left the house (hence all the relaxing) with the exception of a drive up to Pinetop, a walk around the neighborhood, and an after-Christmas Kmart shopping trip.  We ate delicious stuff...and lots of it.  We are now closely watching what we eat :)

We missed Jamie, Josh & Rylan SORELY.  It was an odd feeling knowing that they weren't coming.  Not even the next day or the following weekend.  All we got was some phone conversing.  It just wasn't the same without them.  Not to mention all the planning ahead we had to get used to to make sure that packages were shipped in plenty of time.  Guess we'll be more prepared next year!

We are looking forward to all the exciting things that 2011 will bring for us!  And can't believe that one month is already gone...

Is anyone still out there?

When I started this blog (way before Facebook invaded my computer) I LOVED it and was committed to using it as a true history log of my life with a child - it helped me remember all the funny things she did or said without much effort.  Well, many things changed in my life over the last few years and some of it just didn't seem like the kind of stuff people wanted to know.  I could've stayed more current if I focused just on Brenna, but I now realize I just wasn't in a great place to wanna blog about life so I slacked.  I miss having the blog as a journal of sort - even if just to keep track of stuff my kiddo does :) 

I'm going to try to get back into this - and hopefully those of you who still check this once in awhile will keep coming back.  I have a lot more info on Facebook these days so some of you will already be able to fill in the many blanks on this blog. 

Hometown 4th of July

We celebrated Independence Day 2010 in Show Low this year and I just LOVE celebrating that holiday at home!  I also brought along a very important guest this year (my boyfriend Travis) and got to show him around the lovely little town that I grew up in.  We enjoyed all the traditional activities including the parade, a BBQ with friends and fireworks.  The weather was so gorgeous it was difficult to come back to the oven that we live in.  We could just spend hours and hours outside without breaking a sweat at all and we even got chilly in the evening!

Long time, no blog

So many exciting things have been happening in my life lately - many blogworthy things - but they are also things that are taking up the time I used to use for blogging.  Thus, the long absence (over 5 months)!!  But I'm back and will try to be back more regularly. 

In the last 5 months:

• We had our annual "pink" dinner for Valentine's day

• We visited the zoo, had a yard sale

• Brenna joined a soccer team!

•  Brenna went to a cheer/dance/tumbling birthday party (which seemed to be more her forte than soccer)

• We celebrated Easter in Show Low with Jamie & Rylan

• Brenna got her ears peirced!

• We celebrated Mother's Day in Tucson with Grandma, Papaw, Jamie & Rylan

• Brenna graduated from Preschool!

• We went to a Diamondbacks game

• We spent one more weekend with Jamie & Rylan before they moved

Big big-girl bed

Last week, I got a new bed and gave my bed to Brenna.  She'd been using the crib as a toddler bed for awhile and was quickly outgrowing it.  So, we used some money she got for Christmas and went shopping for a cute bedding set and transformed her room into a beautiful little girls room.  She got a pretty pink comforter with white polka dots, some cute patterned, multicolored sheets and cool repositionable stickers for her wall.  She LOVES it.  The first night, she stayed the whole night in her bed (which tends to be fairly rare) and even looks forward to making it in the morning. 

Show & Tell

Every Friday at Brenna's daycare (when she's with me) is Show & Tell. She is always very excited for this day and asks regularly if it's Friday yet. Little does she know we all live for Fridays. So, throughout the weeks, she's taken many different things. Usually when I pick her up, she'll show me what the other kids brought since it is all left sitting on top of their cubby shelves until they are picked up for the day by their parents. Last week, Brenna went to get her belongings - coat, lunch box, etc. and stopped to show me what some of the other kids brought. Among the stuff was a rubber lizard ("mom, feel it, it's squishy"), a small plastic bug of some sort, and some other things I can't remember right now. Lying among these random toys and things was what my daughter chose to take to show her friends.

Not the shoes, just the sparkling, sequined purse. Yes, I have the girliest four year old on the planet. Prior to leaving for the morning, I had to remove the following from the purse so that she didn't over-show at Show & Tell: $2, coupons, a Hello Kitty watch, carmex, a bracelet and a barette. A ring and chapstick was left in the purse (she wore the ring most of the day and needed the chapstick because of her chapped lips). And she would've worn the shoes if I let her.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2010

We had a wonderful holiday season this year! Jam-packed full of traveling and visiting family, but so much fun. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people to visit :)

Christmas was celebrated at Aunt Jamie and Uncle Josh's house this year. We enjoyed lots of puzzle and game time, Christmas music and FOOD. Unfortunately, I gave in WAY too much to the food part, but it sure was fun. Brenna recieved lots of great stuff from Santa including the two things she specifically asked for: a pretend blow dryer and a Cinderella Barbie (a miniature one). She also got a makeup case with new makeup (read lipgloss and nail polish), jewelry, games, books, Barbies, clothes, new jammies, a princess book w/music player, and a kiddo mp3 player. She must've been a really good girl! Although Rylan was sick and kinda grumpy for a lot of the trip, she had a blast spending time and playing with him. They cracked us up whenever they cracked up - nothing more contagious than laughter. Especially when it's the laughter of children! It was really nice to have a wonderful, relaxing LONG weekend to celebrate Christmas. Too bad about those peanut butter M&Ms though....they just weren't meant to see more than one day after the bag opened. Or really more than a few hours. Anyway.....

We also had a great New Years weekend visiting cold Show Low. The snow that was already on the ground made it nice and pretty and the roads nice and safe. We celebrated with a quiet ny eve and watched a bunch of great movies with more great food. Uh oh, do we see a pattern here? Good thing I can chase that wagon down and climb back on after the holidays! We got to visit with more friends and had a great weekend. And although I took my camera with me and even loaded new batteries into it, I took no pictures. Zero. Zilch. None. Ugh. Regardless, we had a great time and loved spending lots of quality time with the family!

Polar Express

To make the most of my time with B this month I took a couple of days off of work and drove to Williams to ride the Polar Express! It was FREEZING. Granted, it was similar to the weather that I'm used to from Show Low but when you are used to living in the Valley of the Sun - it was freezing. Either way, a good excuse to bundle up with some cute winter clothes and look at the snow and see your breath and slip around on the sidewalks! We got into town, grabbed our will call tickets and got checked into our room while we waited for departure time. We got to the train depot, had time for a pic with Santa and boarded the train! The kids, and some parents, were all dressed in their jammies. Not long after we started down the track, cookies and hot chocolate were passed around - YUM! The story of the Polar Express was read over the loudspeaker and the "chefs" walked up and down the aisle showing the pictures from the book. After traveling through a magic tunnel at the speed of light, we made it to the North Pole in record time! We could see out our windows, all the lights of the North Pole, including some elves' houses, Santa's house, the reindeer stables and Santa's sleigh! Santa and an elf were there waving to us. When we went back by, Santa was missing, but we were quickly informed that that was because he'd boarded the train! Soon enough, Santa was in our train car passing out bells to all the children. On the ride back, we all sang Christmas songs and jingled the bells. Brenna had a great time and it was a lot of fun to see everyone get into the Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving

Since I'm behind - here's a quick update on our Thanksgiving holiday: B was with her daddy for the actual holiday, but I got to spend some time with other family. I made a quick trip to Globe to see Grandad and Aunt Sandy (with my mom & dad). It was nice to visit and laugh. I drove back to get another turkey meal in with Aunt Debbie and her family - I was stuffed to my eyebrows by the end of the night. The following weekend, I got B back so we took a day trip to the Silliman's house for yet ANOTHER turkey meal. YUM. We had a great meal and lots of fun times watching the kids play and chase each other around. We also watched some football - specifically some Wildcats kicking some SunDevil bootay! Woohoo!

Disneyland

We had a fantastic trip to Disneyland and apparently I'm still recovering since it took me so long to blog about it - sorry! Either way, we wanted to share the fun that we had, so here goes! Day 1, we left in the morning for the long drive ahead of us. Fortunately, we had a DVD player to keep B entertained. We all thought she'd sleep - well she didn't. Mommy might've napped a little - or it might have looked like she was napping - really I was just checking my eyelids for leaks. Anyway...we arrived at our hotel and got checked in. Then we ran over to Disneyland so we could be sure to get at least one ride on It's a Small World (we got word that it would be closed the day after we arrived, so we had to hurry!). We also got some rides in near there - all through Fantasyland. We had a great time! Went back to our room to settle in and could watch the fireworks show from our room - so cool! The next morning, we hit the park early and got to go on even more rides. Among them, was Splash Mountain. You could say that B really liked this ride. In fact, you could say that it was her favorite - she loves the "screaming rides" and especially if you get wet (or anyone with her gets wet). We had a blast on that one and rode it a few times. We also did all the old standards - Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn, Teacups, Autopia & the Jungle Cruise. It was fun to see lots of the rides updated (i.e. the Submarine had a Nemo theme, Pirates had a few Johnny Depp look-a-likes. Because it was Halloween time - the whole park was decked out in Halloweentime decor. We got to see lots of characters, get lots of autographs and take lots of pics. The longest line was for Tinkerbell - who knew? B got her princess mouse ears, her face painted and we watched the parade. We went back for the fireworks show that night and it was really cool! Day 3 we started out with early access to Disneyland, rode Space Mountain and a few others before the crowds were big. We even got to meet some of the characters all dressed up in their Halloween costumes! Then we headed over for a day at California Adventure. Although it was chillier, we got on another water ride that day - got soaked - then road a few other rides before meeting all the princesses for lunch! Brenna met Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and Aurora! We stayed at CA Adventure for awhile after that (allowing me to ride the craziest coaster they offer - alone since B was too little and Grandma & Papaw were well...um...wanting to keep B company). Then we watched a Pixar parade which was full of all the characters from the Pixar movies. Day 4 we went back to Disneyland for some repeats and some things we hadn't seen yet. We visited Toontown, met Mickey Mouse (again), rode the Monorail, took the train, and snuck in as many more rides as we could handle. We had such a great time - some really good quality time with Grandma & Papaw and made some great memories. B is looking forward to going back someday! She asked if we could go back when she's 10. I said yes - I figure that gives me time to save up :) Thanks to Grandma & Papaw for taking us on a great vacation and planning such a great time! We love you!

Halloween

My little rock star LOVED dressing up like Hannah Montana for Halloween. She was so excited to dress up in shiny, sparkly clothes. She lives for lipgloss. EEK. So with her costume, I let her wear actual lipstick. Bright pink, 80's style lipstick. Actually the same lipstick I wore to the 80s party this summer. She loved it. She also got blue eyeshadow (do you see a trend?) and glitter on her face. Her hair was straightened to look like Hannah's and I put pink stripes in it since she was a rock star after all. She ate it up - loved every minute of getting dolled up in makeup and fancy hair. She posed like the STUPER STAR (her words, not mine) that she is! We enjoyed trick or treating in the neighborhood and then hanging out with the CGC gang. Halloween was also our last night in that neighborhood before moving a couple of miles away, so it was a nice way to end our many happy years there!

We'd gotten home from Disneyland just a couple of days earlier, but the Halloween post is about all I have the energy for right now - so I promise to post something Disneyland related soon! We had a BLAST, so there is definitely a lot to tell!!

I'm kind of a blog slacker

Sorry to those of you who still follow this. Unfortunately, I get sidetracked by talking to the cyberworld via Facebook instead of Blogspot. However, I do have some cute pictures to share, an update on my 5K experience and some funny things about Brenna that make me laugh.

We visited a pumpkin patch/farm earlier in the month and had a great time enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Unfortunately, this weekend summer came back for a visit - can't wait to have fall again. Here is B posing with some huge pumpkins! She decorated a small pumpkin with foam stickers, got her face painted, took a hay ride and visited with some farm animals. A fun way to kick off the season!

The following weekend, I ran my very first 5K (the Phoenix Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure). When I say ran I really mean ran - yes, me...running!! I admit that I took a couple of short breaks during the run and fast-walked, but picked back up the running and really, truly ran at least 85% of the time. I don't claim to be fast - it wasn't a race for me, just something I wanted to do. Although I wouldn't say it is my favorite thing in the world, I have come to truly appreciate running and actually look forward to it now. I don't run a whole 5K every day or anything, but running makes me feel good so I think I'll keep doing it! My friend Jennifer and her hubby Jack ran this one with me and we are planning to do another one in just a few weeks (and hopefully some more throughout the winter). We may even be gearing up to eventually do 10Ks, 1/2 marathons or marathons. Someday.....but for now 5Ks are all I see :)

Finally, some fun quotes from Brenna:

"Mom, can we do the stuff where you make funny faces or tickle me and make me laugh?"

"My bones are all cracked" (this after having to be carried in an awkward position out of a store for throwing a fit)

"Um..I really need to go shopping so I can have cute clothes for Disneyland. Cuz I wanna wear LIGHT pink pants with my horsey shirt, not regular pink, LIGHT pink. So I can look cute for Disneyland"

Next post is sure to be about Disneyland! My fabuloso parents are taking us soon!! We are SUPER DUPER excited!

Weekend getaway

We hadn't visited Show Low for sooooo long - well a few months at least and we just had to get up there and escape the heat! It was a beautiful long weekend to visit - wish there would've been a bit more rain, but thankfully, we got all the fun of the rainy weather (loud thunder, cloud cover, etc.) but without the actual rain. We enjoyed a fantastic visit with Grandma and Papaw! We fed the ducks at Woodland Lake Park. We. HA! When I say "we" I mean everyone but me - ducks count as birds you know. Brenna tried hard to throw that bread out far enough for them - she just not the best bread thrower around :)

We also got to have fun just playing in the yard and I got to play with my camera! There are sooo many beautiful things in the yard at my parent's house - I got lots of practice with different shutter speeds, etc. It was fun to get a chance to goof around with settings and see what I ended up with. Now I just need to do it more often!

Brenna helped water the yard one afternoon followed by an early campfire. Well, a fire in the firepit - not actually camping. But perhaps the closest to camping that Brenna will get from me. She wasn't crazy about it anyway - talking about how the "air" would change and blow the smoke toward her. The whole idea was to make s'mores - who doesn't love s'mores? Well apparently, Brenna doesn't love s'mores. She knew right away that she didn't want marshmallows. Whatever I thought - when she sees how cool they are when the fire melts them into the chocolate, she'll love 'em. Nope - I was wrong. She only wanted chocolate and cracker. About 2 tiny bites of chocolate and cracker. I made her try the actual s'more. This is the face she made. I know - crazy!!! But I enjoyed TWO s'mores to make up for it. She is such a ham - she cracked us up the entire weekend. We all got our fill of being the "buyer" while playing store and listening to that little chatterbox talk our ears off. She doesn't slow down or take a breath sometimes - and the stories that she comes up with! We love her so much!!

It was such a great weekend - nice and relaxing. I even managed to stay on my health kick, getting my running/walking in at least 2 of the days! Even in the high altitude - but it will be worth it when I finish a 5K!!! Stay tuned for that story.

Stuff about Brenna I wanna remember

• She LOVES Hannah Montana - not like I will forget that! She asks when she can go to her house. She wants to hug her. She's upset that I don't have her phone number. LOVES her. Even said that she wishes HM was a boy so she could marry her when she grows up. She likes her because she sings so pretty and has cool clothes!!
• She is impatient - doesn't like being stopped in traffic/construction, etc. She wants what she wants and she wants it now.
• She has a crazy good memory - remembering things that were said weeks before in a five second portion of a conversation.
• She sings all the time (much like her mommy and Aunt Jamie). If she doesn't know the words to a song, she begins humming and over time, learns the words (much like her mommy and Aunt Jamie).
• She is starting to get freckles - one appeared near her belly button (also a family tradition - oddly enough) a number of months ago, but now I'm seeing them on her nose/cheeks and arms.
• She has sensitive feelings - has told me (after she's been disciplined/scolded) that I hurt her feelings "right here" while holding her hand to her heart - awww....
• She asks some of the most amazing questions - that I don't always have an answer for: "How did God make us?" being one of the most recent. After I attempted to answer that - she said "I wanna hug God"
• She is a girly girl - loves wearing lip gloss, nail polish, carrying a purse, wearing jewelry and putting on my blue eyeshadow (at home only - haha).
• She tells me she loves me out of the blue FREQUENTLY. I try to soak that one in as much as I can.

Happy 4th Birthday!

How can it be that my baby girl is FOUR years old?? I can't believe how fast time flies when you have a kid - everyone says that but it is soo true! We celebrated Brenna's birthday with a small (local) family lunch. Appy Debbie and Chelsea joined us for lunch at Red Robin where Brenna got to eat Macaroni 'n' Cheese and apples (which she dipped in ketchup - weird, I know). The staff came and sang to her and brought her a sundae - she wasn't too crazy about that, and didn't even take a bite of the sundae (I know, WHAT??). But she got four balloons, and couldn't have been happier about that. Then, we went to the mall where Appy Debbie let Brenna go on a shopping spree at Claire's jewelry store. You know that saying "like a kid in a candy store"? I'm changing it to "like a princess in a jewelry store." She went nuts - got a necklace/bracelet set, some stick-on earrings, a headband, a sparkly purse and some hair clips. She loved it. Then we came home and did her annual interview - some answers surprised me, but they are precious.

Rumplestiltskin...no actually Root Beer

As part of our nighttime routine, I am regularly reminding Brenna that she needs to SLEEP once she is in bed. Tonight she claimed that every time she closes her eyes, she has a bad dream. I don't really believe this - although I've heard about a couple of these bad dreams, I don't think she actually has one EVERY time she closes her eyes - notice, not sleeps, but closes her eyes. So, we started coming up with ways to get those bad dreams outta there. We spend time thinking about princesses, bubbles, butterflies, flowers, castles, Hannah Montana, etc. to get some happy thoughts in there. I suggested that she pretend that she is at Disneyland WITH Hannah Montana. She said, "Mom, that dream is cute, but I still have bad ones." So, we continued brainstorming ways to get rid of the bad dreams.

I suggested that we come up with a magic word that we can say every night before going to sleep that would chase the bad dreams away. I asked her what the magic word should be and she replied "Rumplestiltskin". Side note: this has been a "magic" word since I was a kid - it is used to get out of being tickled, to open hands that are holding surprises, etc. So, naturally, I taught it to her. I thought her suggestion was good, so we continued with our teethbrushing and hair drying. Then she said "Actually, Root Beer." HUH? "Root Beer is the magic word." Okaaaayyyy.

So, after I tucked her in tonight, we said "ROOT BEER!!!!" at the top of our lungs a few times to chase away the bad dreams. It didn't work the first time, but the 2nd time was the charm. She isn't asleep just yet, but close :)

Fun filled weekend!

We had a great, busy weekend! Even though it is BLAZING hot here, we still get out and have fun :)

We got to go to birthday parties with friends, got to eat lots of cake and ice cream, went swimming and got in a visit to Rylan (who was being visited by Grandma and Papaw).

Some adorable pics of Brenna and Rylan:

And finally, Brenna's tribute to the King of Pop. We'd been watching the coverage (who can avoid it right) and I'm really enjoying seeing all the stuff about his music. For all his personal troubles, you can't deny that he was an incredibly talented singer, dancer, artist. Brenna picks up music pretty quickly and was singing this one night. I had to record it...so cute!

Summer begins!

And we are officially private. Here are some fun pics of Brenna playing in the water to start off summer. More to come!

Last chance

I know, the deadline already passed. I got lots of emails and responses, but I'm extending your opportunity.

And I'm calling some of you out - I'm curious to know who's looking from the following places: Prospect Heights, IL; Austin, TX; Rochester, NY; Rome, GA. Just email me if you want to be invited - I'm really just curious who you are :) Otherwise, this is it!

Private

Ok folks, I've been sort of threatening this for awhile and now I'm really doing it. I'm taking this blog private.

I know, I know, I kinda hate to do it, but I've decided that I need to do it. Nothing extreme or crazy has happened to motivate me into doing this, I just want to do it.

So....you have until Monday, June 15th to email me or post a comment here and let me know that you want me to invite you to be able to read the blog.

Please know that you can post a comment here without actually "registering" just make sure to put your name or email in your comments so I'll know who "anonymous" is. If you don't want to post a comment, just email me at jenn_harvey@cox.net.

And really, ANYONE who reads this should contact me. I will not freak out if I haven't talked to you in years and I might still invite you :) Just let me know who you are!