Brynn's 2 Year Pictures

Love JC Penney's... we got 8 5x7's, a free 8x10 and all of her pictures online. Want to know how much all of that cost us? $20. Awesome.

Here are a few of our favorites (in no particular order):















Janny, didn't you get her the pink dress??

Brynn's 2nd Birthday - Party # 1

This year we had Brynn's birthday party on the 18th, it was a little early but it worked out great!! We really tried to keep it low-key because we went overboard last year. We ended up having a pool party at Jenn's mom's house with a "fishie" theme.

Jenn and I (99% Jenn) made Brynn's cake and it turned out awesome!! She's so creative and crafty, I wish I could do all of the things she does (she'll probably tell you that she's not, but don't believe her!). I think I might take a cake class sometime, I had a lot of helping her out.

We were really excited because GGMa was able to make it to the party this year. GGPa wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home. Luckily, he's doing much better now. We were also excited because Jody was in town for two weeks watching Brynn while Brenda was on vacation.

We ended up getting Brynn a 10 gallon fish tank and six fishies for her birthday. Fishie # 1 only lasted a few days. The other 5 are still alive and doing well!! Here is Chad setting up the tank:



Here are some pictures from the party (thank you Jenn and Ann!!):

Running Behind

I planned to have Brynn's birthday post up ON her birthday (yesterday she turned two!) but it's been a little crazy around here.

We found out Thursday (around 8:30PM! or so)that Chad's sister Ana, her boyfriend Keith and their daughter Kalynn were coming to visit the next day (on Brynn's birthday) and that they were staying with us. Jody (MIL) is still here visiting, so she, Chad and I flew around the house scrubbing it down because Keith is allergic to everything. :)

We were really bummed that they missed Brynn's birthday party last weekend but we're super excited that they made it for her big day!!

Today we're taking a quick trip up to Sedona to show them how beautiful it is (and to get us out of this freakin' heat). Tonight we're all going to dinner with GGMa and GGPa.

Within the next couple weeks, watch out! I'll be catching you up on June and July!!

Lately I've been on Facebook a lot more than I have been on here so for more up-to-date stuff, sign up for Facebook.com!!

Break Time

Sorry I've been on a blogging break, not a whole lot has been going on around here!!

I still need to post about my mom, Mimi and Lindy's visit FROM LAST MONTH and our trip to California. I'll catch up eventually, I swear!!

We've started a workout program called P90X and it's going ok... we really need to work on the nutrition part of it, we're horrible eaters. The exercise part is going ok. It's really tough, but it's going ok!! Bri and my mom have been doing it for about two months and I can tell a difference in both of them! (Me, jealous? Yes. UGH.) Anyway, I'm really happy for them. Bri is actually one of their "coaches". If you are interested in it at all, please let me know, I'll get you in contact with her!!

Chad's mom drove in on Sunday and will be here through next week, Brenda (Brynn's sitter) is on vacation!! Brynn's calling her "Damma" or "Namma", she can't make up her mind. :)

Potty training was going great while my mom was here last month, then we went to California, Brynn used a different potty and got completely freaked out. Up until today, she had only used hers like 3 times since then. Jody's been working it with her again this week and she's doing pretty good!! Thank goodness. Hopefully we can keep it up. Tonight after work, I went to Costco and bought diapers, pull ups and wipes. $100 later... ugh.

We're having Brynn's 2nd birthday party on Saturday (a little early, her birthday is on the 24th), so I'm trying to get things together for that. Jenn is awesome and is making Brynn's cake again this year and we're having a swimming party at her mom's house. It's the perfect party house. We're doing a fish theme and I'm really excited about it!! I'm trying to keep it low-key this year, we went WAY overboard last year. I think Brynn will just be excited to see so many people she knows!!

We had her two year pictures taken over the weekend and a few of them turned out AWESOME. I'll post them closer to her birthday.

I still can't believe our little girl is going to be two years old. Ahhh...

Happy Birthday Grampie Don!!

Hope this made your day!!

Happy Birthday Lindy!!

Ice Cream Cake

I had a brilliant idea for my mom's birthday. In Ohio, Dairy Queen is closed for the winter. I thought it would be really cool to get her a DQ birthday cake, since she's never had one for her birthday before.

Well, the night of her birthday, we took her to Logan's Roadhouse (YUM!) and we were too full for cake when we got back. They embarrased her at the restaurant and brought her a desert, so we didn't need the cake that night anyway.

Tuesday, Chad made his yummy quesadillas for dinner and then I went out to the freezer in the garage to get the cake. I opened the freezer door and the cake looked funny. Apparently when I put the cake in there, the door didn't shut the whole way and when I pulled the cake out, it was mostly melted except for about a 7" circle in the middle. We opened up the cake, scraped away the melted part and each had a few bites of what was left. UGH.

Oh and it looks like the girl wrote "Happy Birthday GNammie" instead of Grammie. ;o)

It was a nice thought... and I think we all got a good laugh out of it!!

Where Do I Start?

The last week and a half has been weird. Completely out of the norm.

Brynn got really sick and Chad and I stayed home with her for three days. The next day, my mom flew in from Ohio!! While she was here, we did some pretty fun things which I'll blog about over the next day or so. I was sick (and still am) pretty much the whole time my mom was here, I went to the doctor and found out that I have bronchitis.

Here are some pictures from the first day that mom was here. Brynn and I took her to a pottery place so that she and Brynn could paint something as my mom's birthday present. Mom picked out a mug and let Brynn "paint" and then we added a black hand print to it and Brynn's initials on the bottom. It turned out SUPER CUTE!! I didn't take "after" pictures but here's the work in progress:

Happy Birthday Deegans!!

Today Brynn and I went to a birthday party for Kailey (7!!) and Reilly (4!!). They are growing up WAY TOO FAST!! When I met the Deegans, they lived right across the street from me in Queen Creek and Kailey was two years old.

Here's a really nerdy picture of Kailey and I from almost five years ago, in December 2003.



Amber (and Jenn!), why didn't you tell me I looked like such a dork?!

Amber mentioned that the girls are really into the Cheetah girls and all of the High School Musical stuff. So, I was on a mission to find something related to the Cheetah girls. I failed. We ended up getting them High School Musical jewelry boxes, glitter and beaded bracelets, watches and some lip gloss. Man, this girly stuff is fun!! Reilly loved her watch, she wore it for the whole party!!

Here are some pictures from the party!!


















(Reilly was tickling Brynn's belly... Brynn wanted Reilly's necklace!!)

Maroon 5 ROCKS!

So, yeah. I'm still annoyed with hyperlinking. Thanks for trying Heidi but I think I'm just a dumbass at this.

Anyway... Last night, Brynn stayed the night at the Caudill's house. Brenda watches Brynn during the day so we figured it would probably be easier for Brynn just to stay there. (Thanks for the offer though Jenn!!) Brenda said that she did pretty good, she woke up once in the middle of the night and got up at her usual time this morning. I think that was a little rough on Chad and I... it's only the second night that she's been away from us!! We weren't worried about her, it was just a weird feeling not having her at home with us!!

Back to the subject of this post... Maroon 5 ROCKS!! Chad bought perfect seats, Cricket was packed and it was a lot of fun!! Augustana opened up, Maroon 5 was the second band and then the Counting Crows closed the show. We didn't end up sticking around for the Counting Crows... Chad isn't a big fan, we were exhausted, and the Counting Crows WAY too long to set up.

Our friend Rosey was exactly two rows behind us!! (Um, yeah, I would hyperlink that but I can't figure it out... so you can click on her name on my blog list instead.) I knew she was going to be there but I didn't think she'd be so close to us!! How cool is that?!

Unfortunately, we didn't bring our camera. It was supposed to rain last night and we didn't want to deal with it, so we left it at home. Since we knew we weren't going to take the camera with us, we took a pre-concert picture!! Here is my Hottie Husband Who Buys Me Awesome Birthday Presents and I:

Gramma!!

Gramma Jody was here for your birthday party, left that night and then was back on Tuesday! She didn't get a chance to see you much while she was here, so she made an extra trip to spend more time with you!! (Daddy and I even went on a date while she was here - thanks Jody!)

Here are some pictures from Gramma's visit!!

Happy Birthday Babe!!

Today is Chad's 32nd birthday!! This year, his celebration was pretty low key. We went to Old Chicago for dinner, which is where Bri made him open up his card.



Technically, he bought his own birthday presents this year... he bought all sorts of pieces and parts for the Bug. He's not letting me post a bunch of pictures of the Bug until it's completely finished (for now anyway). So... here's one that he took, especially for this post... one of his new arm rests!! Sweet!



I hope you had a great day!! Brynn and I love you so much!!

The Wests!

Thanks to Jenn for a picture of Chad, Brynn and I at her birthday party... We don't have very many of these!! This was right before Brynn chowed down on her birthday cake. Notice her tiara with a "1" on it?! It was a little tight... her ears got smooshed and she was trying to take it off!

Birthday Celebration # 2 - the final part - Swimming, Friends and Family!

Brynn loved spending time with her friends and family at her party!!

























(I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone!!)