Merry Christmas Banner

In Jackson I was able to get some fabric to make this Christmas Banner. It was a fun project I did with my friend Natalie. I just wish I had somewhere great to display it. But lo, it has ended up on the wall above our t.v. At least we can feel the Christmas spirit while watching tv .... if that's possible.And of course, here are some pictures of Brinley! (A post would be boring without a pictures of her afterall)

Wonderful Wednesday

We have some great friends that we have met while here in Greenville. Every Wednesday me and two good friends, Natalie and Leslie, get together to take a timeout from our regular routine and do something that we all want to do. This includes doing crafts, sewing, watching movies, cooking, or going somewhere that we haven’t been. It has been so great to have these girls to spend time with. I don’t know what I would do without them! This week we decided to make some Christmas trees out of ribbon. A project we all though would take a couple of hours ended up taking 6 HOURS! I forget that everything takes longer when there are babies involved, especially when you have to keep one baby (Brinley) from love attacking the other baby. It was a fun craft to do and now we have some Christmas decorations to rock while we are still in town. Here they are:

The tree on the left I made and the one on the right Natalie made. I forgot to get a picture of Leslie's but hers were awesome.

This week we are going to Jackson to go shopping! I am looking forward to this outing a little too much.

On another note, Brinley is rapidly growing up. She now says momma and dada and will stand on her own, although we have only gotten a few measly steps out of her. The little stinker. She surprises us every day with something silly she decided to do. Love this girl!

Brinley playing with one of her favorite toys, Mom's computer.

One last thing. I was on the news tonight! Haha. Too bad it took me moving to Greenville before I could get on the news. And no, it wasn’t for “Manhunt Monday.” Yes, they do have Manhunt Monday specials on the news here. I just happened to be walking at the park with Brinley when the fire department was there doing conditioning and somehow it made it on the news. Awesome. I think Brent is probably sick of me chanting “I was on the news” by now.

Happy Birthday Brinley 11-03-09

I can’t believe that our little girl is one year old. It seems like just yesterday she was inside me kicking my ribs, yet at the same time I can’t even remember what life was like without her. She has brought so much joy into our lives. More than I could have ever expected.

You never know how much your own parents love you until you have your own. You learn a lot about yourself and your spouse throughout the process as well. You learn patience, kindness, selflessness, unconditional love, and more (all of which I still have plenty to work on.) You learn how to function without sleep. You learn what things matter most in life. You learn to let go of the little things. I really believe that the family structure is divine. It has been set in place because we need it.

About our one year old Brinley. She currently weighs 18 lbs 5 oz and is 28.5 inches tall. She loves to eat as long as you let her feed herself. No way will she let mom or dad feed her unless it’s yogurt or dessert. Her favorite foods right now are yogurt, grapes, and turkey. Brinley is a crawling maniac right now and loves getting into mischief. She is not quite walking yet because she is just way too good at crawling. She has no motivation which is alright with me because I don’t really have any motivation to get her to walk either. I am okay with keeping her on the ground as long as possible. Brent on the other hand would love to see her walk RIGHT now. Brinley loves following mom and dad around, clapping, and waving hello and bye bye. She is growing up so fast and everyday has something new to surprise us with. Oh we love this girl.

We had a little birthday party for her with a few of our friends and neighbors. I was surprised to see that Brinley wasn’t really shy with a whole bunch of people watching her. Actually she never really seemed to notice people were watching her at all. She LOVED her chocolate cupcake (as did I). Although she never got the idea that under wrapping paper is something she’d want, she still had a good time letting us open her birthday gifts for her. It was a great day.

Here are some pictures from her party!

The Springers

Megan and Alex

Our neighbor Reet

It’s still surreal that I have a one year child.

Halloween 2010

Halloween is way more fun when kids are around. This year we all dressed up as sesame street characters! Brinley was dressed as big bird, Brent was cookie monster, and I was elmo. Brinley loved trick or treating, wearing her costume, and holding (not eating) candy! We were lucky that our city decided to do trick or treating on Saturday, and although we only went to a few houses we still had a great day! We finished the day by watching How to Train a Dragon at a friends house. Great movie! For the first time Brinley got scared while watching a movie. As long as she snuggled mom and dad though she loved it!

Here are some pictures:

We didn't get around to carving pumpkins until Halloween but it was worth having them lit for a day.

Brinley and her best friend charlie.

Baby and football

Brinley has been so much fun lately. She has so much personality and is changing daily. Here she is!

I gave her a pot to play with the other day and she decided that standing in it and trying to balance on the handle is the way to play with it.

We keep some of Brinley's toys in a basket so she can get them as she pleases. The other day I found her sitting in the basket!

Brinley refuses to let me brush her teeth so we just give her the toothbrush while I am brushing so she can copy me. She doesn't really brush very well yet but she loves putting the brush in her mouth. I figure that's probably as good as it's going to get for now.

Brent has been coaching football at the high school this year. It makes for a fun Friday night activity each week! Brinley has done very well sitting through all of the games. There is a lot to look at!

Fort Worth, TX and Memphis, TN

What a whirlwind the past few days have been. On Saturday morning we got up before the sun and started a 7.5 hour drive to Fort Worth, Texas! Although we were only there until Sunday, it was well worth the trip. We went for the BYU vs TCU football game. It was great to see our team live and have a little taste of BYU, even though the game was not so pleasant to watch. Oh BYU, how I wish you would just figure out how to play football again. After the game we got to experience a little bit of a bigger city by going to Hobby Lobby. Seriously this was the only thing I really wanted to do in Texas. Greenville has one tiny fabric shop with a very small selection of fabrics and everything is overly priced. For example, I bought a package of pins the other day there, and they cost $8. Eight Dollars! Greenville also doesn’t have anything that resembles a craft store, and Walmart is limited in craft supplies. Thus hobby lobby was a must. Even though we drove 7.5 hours for a bad football game and a hobby lobby, it was totally worth it.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Us and the Wall family. We caravaned with them on our trip.

Uh, are those lights sideways? A city we stopped by in Texas has all sideways lights.

Anyone hungry for some pizza on a stick?

We got home Sunday night, got unpacked Monday and then left early Tuesday morning for a day trip to Memphis. Brent had a Spanish teaching seminar there for the day so Brinley and I tagged along and spent the day exploring Memphis by ourselves. It was fun to get to walk around a big(ger) city. Memphis is an enchanting little city. Downtown is right on the banks of the Mississippi river. Memphis is known for it’s famous “Beale Street” which is a street full of blues music bars and stores and Elvis Presley paraphernalia. We enjoyed spending the day there exploring and want to go back again soon!

The city

Beale Street

It was a lot of fun spending sometime away from home, but I was surprised to find myself happy to be back in Greenville and to be home. I guess this place is starting to grow on me. Plus, Greenville is right in the middle of Memphis, Little Rock, and Jackson so at least it is comforting to know that some civilization is never more than a couple of hours away!