Garage Sale Progress

We have a bunch of "junk" to get rid of today (and maybe tomorrow if we feel like getting up at 5:45am again)... here is our progress.

6:00-7:00 - made $1.50
7:00-7:30 - made $5.00 (at this point, we have made enough to cover the poster board and marker to make the signs for the sale)
7:30-7:45 - made $14.00 (I think people are starting to wake up...)
7:45 - 8:00 - made $2.50 (Can you tell I'm bored? The laptop is keeping my lap warm.)
8:00-8:25 - made $17.50
8:25-8:40 - made $7.00

At about 8:45, I went inside to get ready to take Brynn to swimming lessons and Chad lost track of time and money. The sale is over and we ended up with $76 and some change more than what we started with. Not too bad for a BIG pile of stuff that has been sitting around!! Now we have a small pile that can fit in a tote until next time.

So, that's enough money for a pretty nice date night while my mom is here next week! YAY!!

The Uppity Woman

I added a new blog link... it's for Marilyn Dittoe!! The Dittoes have been family friends of ours for a long time, I think it all started when Bri and Amy played soccer together when they were little.

Marilyn has a weekly column in The Daily Record, Wooster's newspaper. She has also written two books. You can click HERE to see them on Amazon. I was actually the photographer for the pictures that are on "Piece Talks". Pretty cool, huh? My photography skills have improved DRASTICALLY since then... so Marilyn, if you write another book, I'd love to take more pictures for you!! ;o) (Hint, hint...)

18 Months

Brynn, you turned 18 months old yesterday. That means you're officially 1 1/2 years old. I now realize why parents refer to their kids in months instead of years (I always thought that was dumb before I became a Mommy!!)... 1 1/2 years old makes you sound so grown up!!

I don't even know where to start.

I think you are the funniest little girl I have ever met. When you think you are doing something cute, or if you are excited about something, you say "Ooooooh"!! You do the same thing after we put lotion on your legs and you feel how soft they are. ;o)

Allie is still your favorite "pup" in the whole wide world. We think you're starting to grow on Mel now that she realizes that you like to pet her. She's even given you a few kisses. You call her Mellie but you still call Allie "AAAAAAA".

You call Spike "Spike-a", no longer Ssssppkkkkk.

You would rather drink out of Mommy or Daddy's cups instead of your own because you want to be a big girl. Last night, you tried drinking out of Mommy's cup and completely missed your mouth. You freaked out because it was ice water and Mommy was cracking up because you got water ALL OVER the place.

You only like to sit on the potty if you have a book (you get this from Daddy, except he likes magazines). If you don't have a book, you get SOOOOO MAD!!

Two times this week, on the way to Brenda's house, you've said "potty" and needed to be changed when you got there!! (I am super proud of you for this one!!)

You LOVE to dance!! I don't know what it is, but you love Beyonce. Oh and your BNL cd. I LOVE that you try to sing along with the songs!!

You like to carry my purses around, instead of yours.

Brenda told me that the other day at daycare, you ate spinach and loved it!!

You don't like to have your picture taken anymore. You turn away and pretend like you can't hear me telling you to smile. ;o(

You are so polite, you say "thank you" and blow kisses to EVERYONE. (Even the lady standing in the shampoo isle at WalMart last night.)

You say "love you" to Daddy and I!! Sometimes it sounds like "love you" and sometimes it sounds like "wuv-a-you". Oh and sometimes you'll just shorten it and say "you" and point to us. We know what you mean. ;o)

New Hair!

Trim and highlights... what do think?

Brynn In A Bock

This is Brynn in a bock. She won't say box, even though she can say socks and ox. This kid cracks me up!! Oh and Allie says hi too!!

Static!

Pretty much every time Brynn sits on the couch, this happens. She realizes that it makes her hair go crazy and she loves to roll around to make it look like this!! However, she doesn't like it when she shocks everything. Ouch!!

Conversation

For Christmas, my hottie hubby got me a gift certificate for HABIT SALON to get my hair colored. This is a conversation that we had a few minutes ago:

Me: What color did you say I should do my highlights? Blonde?
Chad: Yeah, it's getting close to summer so that would probably be cool.
Me: Um, yeah, close to summer? Ha ha ha... It's January!!
Chad: Babe, we only have two seasons here, remember??

He's right!!

Gooo Cardinals!!

I have to admit, I'm not a football fan... maybe I will be now!!

Arizona Cardinals play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2009 Superbowl!!

Hmmm... I was just thinking... Why are we called the Arizona Cardinals instead of the Glendale Cardinals? Or why are they called the Pittsburgh Steelers instead of the Pennsylvania Steelers?

Speed Cameras

Chad hates these things. Not because he speeds though. He's on the road all day long and has to deal with them daily. The problem isn't really the cameras, it's that people don't pay attention when they're driving and when they see the cameras, they automatically freak out and slam on their brakes before they look at their speedometer to see how fast they're going. We understand why the cameras are there and they aren't a bad idea but if people were paying attention to how fast they are driving in the first place, we wouldn't need them.

My mom isn't a fan of them, considering she got one in her rental car when she was here for our wedding... the day they turned them on!!!

However, I do like the cameras that are at intersections. I got into a pretty bad car accident about 6 years ago and since then, they have put up a camera at that intersection.

An Award!!

BECKI gave us an award on her blog!!

The Friendship Award means:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to six bloggers who must choose six more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Now I have to send this award to 6 bloggers who I love.

Sam
Heidi
Jenn
Rachel
Cassie
Bri
Rosey
Kelsey

(Yes, I know there are 8 but I couldn't decide!!)

My Husband's Third Love

(Or, um, his second child...) Is ALMOST complete! The whole reason behind buying "Kermit" was to save money on gas three years ago. "Kermit" was to be his daily driver. Hmph.

This car lead to he and three other VW friends starting up the Phoenix chapter of D3 (Daily Driven Dubz). They now have 25 members.

Chad's list of things to do:

* Purchase and install new seatbelts
* Fix turn signals and wipers (like he'll ever let rain touch this thing...)
* New exhaust

Chad's list of things completed:

* New transmission and oil cooler (this was project # 1 that lead to project # 4287...)
* Rear body bumper mounts
* Did a complete body overhaul, meaning body work and re-primer
* New carpet
* 1st round of pinstriping by Ol' Sol
* Completely stripped the car down to NOTHING... AGAIN.
* Cut jumbo sized hole in the roof of the car to put in a ragtop sunroof
* Reprimered/repinstriped ENTIRE car including motor fan shroud and new swamp cooler (kind of like a/c)
* Installed new door panels, seats, headliner and 2054cc engine
* Somewhere in there Chad has put about three different exhaust systems on it and it's still not the way he wants it...

Here is a picture history of Kermit (I will fix those HUGE pictures over the weekend if I have a chance, I don't know what the deal is!):

Using Her Words

Some of our favorites and the ones that she says the most:

If you tell Brynn to say "Brynn", she says "Bean".

Brenda = BA-DA!
GGMA = G.......G.......Mommy? or G.......G.......Mamamamama
Bri = Bee
Ana = Ana
Jami = Amy
Luke = Luke or Luk-ah
Matt = Matt
Mimi = Mimi or Mimimimimimimi
Lindy = Lee-dee

Allie = AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH (and yes, Allie responds to that...she LOVES Brynn!!)
Mel = Mellie
Spike = Ssspk

Balloon = Boon or boona
Shoes = Shoes
Socks = Ox
Phone = Fock (we've REALLY been trying to get her to say it correctly!!)
Purse = Purse or Pursy
Book = Booooook or Booooooka

She'll try to repeat anything we say so we really have to watch ourselves now!!

Bun

I took these a few weeks ago... I was SO excited, I put her hair up in a little bun-type-thing! It only lasted for about 3.7 seconds before I had to put barrettes in it to keep it from falling down, but we tried!!

Dancing

To one of Beyonce's songs. ;o)

And yes, I know her eyes are kind of floating in this one... but I thought it was super cute!! Next eye appointment is February 19th.

Tricycle

A few super cute ones I forgot to post from when we went to California for Thanksgiving...

Weirdo Mel

Laying inside with her head sticking out the doggie door... Maybe Brynn needed a diaper change and this was Mel's way of telling us???

POTAAAY Time!!

Sam requested the fun potty story from a couple nights ago that I haven't had a chance to post yet... so here it is (with a few details that you probably didn't want).

About two months ago, we bought Brynn a potty. We hadn't done much with it until last week when Gramma was here. One day, she and Chad finally got it out of the box and decided to let Brynn give it a try. Apparently she sat on it and that was that.

Story # 1
Well, two nights ago, I was getting ready to give Brynn a bath and decided that we might as well try it again. Well, she sat on her little potty and I actually had to go too so I sat down to go too. She FREAKED out and started yelling, so I stood her up because I thought she was scared. Once she stood up, she was fine. She actually walked out of the bathroom, said hi to her Daddy and came back in a second later. She walked right over to me, smiled, and all of a sudden I noticed that my pant leg started moving a little bit and then it felt really warm. SHE PEED ON THE FLOOR AND GOT IT ALL OVER MY PANTS AND MY LEG!! Thanks kiddo.

Story # 2
Tonight she used her potty for the first time!! YAY BRYNN!! What a big girl!! (Chad must have had a feeling that she was going to do it because he just happened to take her picture while she was sitting there tonight!! Like the angry face??)



Brynn, you continue to amaze us!!

Wedgie!

Brynn And Gramma!!

Girl Of Many Talents

Maybe we'll sign you up for gymnastics and a dance class instead of the next swimming session?

Apparently today at daycare you got up on top of the dining room table several times. Um, yeah. This scares me A LOT.

Or maybe karate?

At Christmas, we had a couple of wrapping paper tubes sitting by the trashcan and you and your Daddy walked around the house saying "HI-YA!!" while swinging them at each other. If you accidentally hit one of us, you would say "BONK".

Or maybe boxing?

The first thing you did when we went to Aunt Jenn and Uncle TJ's house on Friday was put on Luke and Matt's blow up boxing glove things, walk over to me and say "HI-YA!!".

What a goofball.

For Mom And Bri

We headed to Oregano's for lunch today... My mom and Bri were jealous and Bri said that we needed to take some pictures for her. ;o)

Brynn liked it.



Chad with our GIGANTIC calzone. (NO, we didn't eat all of that, we barely put a dent in it.)



Don't touch my pizookie! (The best desert EVER.)

Angry Face

She's not really angry, just trying to make us laugh!!

17 Months

I'm really late on this update, I'll blame it on the holidays. Brynn, you turned 17 months old on Christmas Eve. On that big day, Daddy and I were up late wrapping some of your presents from us and re-wrapping the ones that the dogs got into.

You are walking like crazy (YAY!!). You don't like to hold our hand anymore while you're walking because you like to do it on your own. The only time you get scared is when you have to go over the step that takes you to the garage, it's a little awkward and you just don't quite have the hang of it yet. You still fall over when you lose your balance but you just get right back up.

You are climbing on lots of things now too. This scares me a little. You can get up on the couch by yourself and sit like a big girl with Daddy and I. You also like to climb Aunt Jenn and Uncle TJ's steps. On Christmas, we caught you on step # 5. You lost your balance and we let you kind of tumble down a few of them so that you might get a little freaked out. Well, it worked until tonight when you and I went back over there and you saw like 10 other kids flying up and down them. You decided that you wanted to do it too. You did really good but it still scared me.

You LOVE food. I don't know where you get that from? (Wink, wink) You'll try anything that Daddy or I are eating.

You LOVE to dance. You also like to lip sync to songs. Aunt Lindy got you the Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime" cd for Christmas and your favorite song is 7-8-9. You sing "8-9". Tonight at Aunt Jenn and Uncle TJ's house, you had fun dancing to TJ and his friends play their guitars (Mommy did too!).

You love to carry around your Barbie cell phone and purse that you got for Christmas. We do have a problem with the phone though. For a LONG time, you called phones by their name. Well, for some reason, now you call them "foks". When you say it, sometimes it sounds like a bad word. Mommy, Daddy and Gramma have all tried millions of times to get you to say phoNe but you won't listen to us.

You call Auntie Bri "BEE". Gramma has been here visiting since the day after Christmas and you won't even attempt to say "Gramma". We're still working on that one. We also try to get you to say GGMa and GGPa but that hasn't caught on very well either. You say "GG Mama" and point to me or just "GG". ;o)

Your favorite word is "bye". For some reason, you've been adding an "a" on the end of a lot of your words lately, so now you say "bye-a".

Grammie and Grampie bought us a webcam for Christmas, ours is all hooked up and ready to go, so we should be able to use it soon. I don't know how well you're going to sit still for it, but it will be fun to try!! Who knows, you might like watching the screen.

You still love Abby Cadabby but now you really like Minnie Mouse and Elmo ("Mo") too.

You like to try to put your clothes and shoes on yourself... you're doing pretty well with the shoes but we're still working on the clothes. You try to put your pants on your arms and your shirts on your feet. ;o)

You are quite the sleeper. Several times in the last two weeks, you've slept in past 10am. Ahhh...

Brynn, your Daddy and I are having SO MUCH fun spending time with you, you are the best little girl ever. We love you!!

Christmas 2008

We're back-tracking a little bit here...

Christmas 2008 was pretty low-key. We stayed at home in the morning and then early evening, we headed to TJ and Jenn's house for dinner. Jody (Gramma!) drove in on the 26th from California and then we celebrated Christmas with her, GGMa and GGPa on the 28th at our house. We had some really yummy food and I made an attempt at a sweet potato casserole that turned out great!!

Brynn had a great 2nd Christmas, our families (and Santa) went above and beyond. (Thanks everyone!!) Some of her favorite gifts are a Barbie purse, Barbie cell phone, and two REALLY soft bears. One of the bears is Alpaca (sp?) and the other is lamb's wool. Allie and Mel really liked the bears too. We decided to put some of the wrapped gifts under the tree a few days before Christmas, we came back from the store and the bears were partially unwrapped. I think they liked the scent. Their names are "Bear" and "Baby Bear" - pronounced as "BEEEO" and "Baby BEEEO".

Brynn got a Barbie 4-Wheeler from Santa this year too. When she got on it for the first time, she pretty much drove right into the Christmas tree!!

Overall, it was a pretty good one for all of us!!

Here are some pictures from Christmas:

Happy New Year!!

From The Wests!!