Pumpkin Carving

Ever since we brought a pumpkin home Brynlee has been obsessed with them. She points them out every time we see one. On Saturday we finally showed Brynlee what people actually do with pumpkins. We carved a nice face in them. At first Brynlee was very curious about what was going on. 

Once dad pulled off the lid Brynlee backed way back.

Eventually she came in for a closer look. 

She watched dad clean the pumpkin a little bit. 

And then she got right in there and helped. 

She loved pumpkin carving. 

Here is a little video of Brynlee cleaning out the pumpkin.

Here is the finished product. Joel made ears and eyebrows for the pumpkin but Brynlee kept pulling them out.  They only lasted for a few days before Brynlee took out an ear and took a bite out of it. She didn't try to eat anything else but I guess the ear looked good. Luckily she spit it out. 

Fun Day

Brynlee and I love to play on the computer. Brynlee especially likes to watch herself while we listen to music. Here is a short video of me and Brynlee watching ourselves on the computer. 

P.S. Our trip to Boise was a LOT of fun. I love getting to see my family. 

What a Week

So far this has been a really long week. It started on Sunday with Brynlee only taking a short 20 minute nap at church. We had some family over for dinner and even lots more family over to celebrate Joel's birthday with us. We bought an ice cream cake but I forgot the candles. I guess Joel really wanted candles on his cake because the next thing I knew he had one of my scented candles in the microwave and he cut up one of my hair ties (thanks Joel) so he could make his own. One of them actually worked. We had a fun night of cake and games.

As soon as everyone left we put Brynlee right to bed. I have never seen Brynlee that grouchy. Almost as soon as we went to bed, we were awaken to the sounds of Brynlee throwing up. This happened throughout the night so we didn't get any sleep. I kept having to change her clothes, or her sheets.  On monday morning she seemed to be much better. She was running around and making all kinds of messes. I was just glad it was a short bug.

Tuesday was Joel's real birthday. We spent the morning at the doctors for a check up on baby number two. They also gave me the flu shot while I was there. As of Yesterday I am 17 weeks pregnant and baby looks healthy and has a good strong heartbeat. We find out if it is a boy or girl on the 3rd of November and baby is due on March 22nd. We are all pretty excited.

After the doctor's appointment Joel had to go to school. Brynlee and I went to the store to buy him some presents. We came home and wrapped everything, I made Joel a cake, and then I felt so sick I couldn't even get off of the couch. I got whatever Brynlee had and felt miserable. I just let Brynlee terrorize the house and she did a good job of making a huge mess. When Joel came home he had to make his own dinner, eat a piece of cake alone with Brynlee, and he brought the gifts in the bedroom so I could watch him open them. Then he spent the rest of the night taking care of Brynlee and doing homework.

On Wednesday I felt much better but I still had no energy. Later that day, Joel came home early from class with the same sickness we had. He spent the rest of the day in bed but he felt much better by dinnertime. He didn't get near as sick as I did. He felt completely better On Thursday and was able to go to all of his classes. We finally got to put some real candles in the last piece of cake and sing happy birthday to Joel that night. Now it is Friday and we are getting all packed and ready to go to Boise for the weekend. My grandpa and Uncle are there from Texas and I haven't seen them in almost four years. I am really excited to get to visit with them and my family is always excited to see Brynlee. This should be a good weekend which will make up for our crazy week.

Fifteen Months

This girl turned 15 months a few weeks ago. 

At Brynlee's 15 month check up she weighed 21.1 lbs. (23%) and she was 32 in. (91%) tall. She grew almost 3 inches in 3 months.  

Brynlee loves to play outside. She loves dirt, mud, and bugs. She is good at blowing bubbles and loves to play with them. Nowadays she is really fast and runs everywhere. She is extremely independent and wants to do everything by herself. She also wants to be included in everything we are doing. She is good at helping us load the dishwasher and make dinner. 

Brynlee only has two teeth (the bottom ones) in her mouth but she is finally starting to grow some more hair. She says new words everyday. Some of the words she can say include... thank you, please, what, more, bite, dog, kitty, cow, bug, nose, mouth, eye, belly, go, down, bath, no, wee, bubble, mommy, daddy, and Joel (Joel was not happy about this one so now I can only call him dad in front of Brynlee). She can say several other words and has even said a few small phrases.

Brynlee can be very sweet and loving but she also has a temper. Lately she has not been fun to take anywhere because she doesn't like to sit still for long. Lately her tantrums include throwing herself on the ground with loud screaming and kicking. She throws several of these fits a day. She is just a very busy  little girl. 

Overall, Brynlee is a happy, healthy, active 15 month old little girl and we are very glad she is in our family. 

Corn on the Cob

While we were in Boise, we got to chance to pick some corn. My family went with us and we got lots of corn to freeze.

As Brian went to shuck a piece of corn, Brynlee grabbed it right out of his hands and ran.  Then she ate that corn like it was candy. "Mmmmmm" she was saying the whole time she ate it. She actually ate quite a bit of the corn off of the cob. I was impressed, especially since she only has her two bottom teeth. 

Brynlee even shared some of her corn with her grandpa. 

It was a fun day and we got a lot of corn. 

We spent the rest of the day shucking, cutting, and freezing corn. The whole day Brynlee kept stealing samples of the corn. Although, I think she liked it best fresh from the field. 

Seven Week Break

Joel finished his internship on July 22 and school didn't start up again until Monday, September 12. This gave us 7 weeks to do whatever we wanted. We decided we needed to earn some money so Joel and I went to Kuna, Idaho and stayed at my grandma's house where Joel worked on the farm with his brother. He worked as a mechanic from 7am to 7pm Monday through Friday so we didn't see him a lot. On Saturdays he had lots of projects planned. He helped my family fix some vehicles and put in railroad ties, rocks, and sand at my grandma's house. Brynlee and I helped him when we could. The rest of the week we spent time with family. Here are just a few of the things we did.

We went to the lake with Joel's family and played in the water. His sister Joy was there from Washington and his sister Jenny and her family was here from Canada. We got to ride in the boat and Joel went tubing while we watched. Brynlee liked being in the boat but she hated the life jacket.

We spent a lot of time outside. Brynlee loved playing with the dogs and grandma Verna let her have her own ice cream cones. Grandma also got Brynlee her own fly swatter and taught her how to swat those flies. 

Brynlee loved riding on Grandma's riding mower with her dad. 

We went to the park and saw lots of ducks and geese. We also went to the Boise zoo and Brynlee got to feed the goats. 

We ate lots of good food.

We spent another day out at Lake Lowell. This time we went with my family and Joel got to water ski while we played in the sand/mud. 

We visited Joel parent's several times and we got to see their new house. They have some kittens that Brynlee really enjoyed playing with. 

And best of all, we just got to spend lots of time with family.

It was a great trip and I am glad we went but it is nice to be back home again. Brynlee is sleeping much better now that she is in her own room; which means we are all sleeping better. I can tell Brynlee misses everyone but is adjusting well to being back home. This is Joel's last semester so we are excited for him to go to school and finish. So far he thinks it will be a busy semester but he likes most of the classes he went to.

Dad's Little Helper

Brynlee loves hanging out with her dad. Especially if he is doing something outside where she can get dirty. She really is a great helper.

She loves to help her dad mow the grass. She could sit on the lawn mower with him all day.

She is great at helping dad move dirt around. Here she is helping her dad put some railroad ties in at grandma's house.

She also helped dad even out the piles of sand and rock. Her favorite part of helping with this was to ride in the bobcat with her dad.

She really is daddy's girl. I love watching them together. I especially love it when Joel takes Brynlee out to work with him and actually lets her help. She is good at getting things we ask for and she will throw things in the garbage for us. We love this girl.