the day addie found her voice...

...was last week - holy cow! the girl can yell! suddenly, i am having to relearn her vocal cues, as she has discovered she can PROJECT that little voice! i can't tell for sure if she's happy, sad, hungry, sleepy, or just listening to herself :)

please pray for the poor souls on the airplane :)

and prepare yourselves - it could be a very, um, we'll say exciting visit.

!

she looks so sweet and innocent, doesn't she!?

did you know?

yesterday, December 3rd, mom & dad celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary??? that is amazing!!! Darren, the kids, and I wish them a wonderful {belated} anniversary!!!



we love you and can't wait to see you in just 19 more days!!!

some things are more important than others

examples:

• growing really long hair on top of your head, rubbing a bald spot on the back of your head, and shedding the hair on the left side of your head. moderately important.
  
• staring at your new stripey-stocking feet as if they are aliens. important.
  
• sucking your thumb between bites of cereal. very important.
• craning your neck to see anything that has color, or moves, or isn't directly in front of you while drinking your bottle. incredibly important.
• sleeping 16 hours a day. pretty darn important. it makes you happy.
  
• clasping your hands together when your mom is trying to lift your shirt over your head. vitally important.
  
• being so excited to go to sleep that you kick the blanket off. of utmost importance.
• grimacing at the first bite of cereal and reveling in the second. your life depends on it.
• being so excited to greet the day you can barely contain yourself and alternate between trying to widen your smile by an extra inch, kicking your legs with all your might, and clasping your hands together while you bury your face in mommy's neck and wiggle your little self. the world revolves around it.

you need to experience it to fully understand
how important such things are
in the life of a 4 1/2 month old.

but how could you not appreciate all these things
when she smiles like this?
seriously.

Happy Thanksgiving to You, Too!

Since this was my first Thanksgiving where I made the whole meal myself, I thought I'd document the process in a little more detail... And then, I forgot to take pictures! Oops! It was a great day, though. I managed to get enough done on Wednesday that Thursday was pretty easy (it probably helped that we ate at 6:30) - I even got to take a nap, feed Baby Siggid, and have lots of play time!

The pecan pie!
(No, we didn't start with dessert, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the pics to upload in the order I want them, and moving them around is so hard!)

Candied yams (surprise, there's rosemary inside!)

Did I mention I forgot to take pictures until afterward?

The remnants of the chicken...

Onion-rosemary gorgonzola rolls...so good! Thanks PW! :)

Wlnuts and brown sugar on brie

Baby Addie had to eat, too, you know

Spiced cider

Whipped cream

mmm...yummy!
not pictured: rosemary sweet-roasted acorn squash wedges,
roasted carrots and asparagus, and mom's classic stuffing

Not too bad, right?

we were there, too

and finally, the only turkey that made it to our feast :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We had a great day, even though there was only four of us. Neil & Jen went to her parents. We pray your day was great also.

way too cute!

we bathed sigrid today. and she fell asleep. bathing has become so soothing for her, she can barely make it through! this afternoon, we decided not to bother her. we put a diaper on, and wrapped her back up in her towel, and laid her in the crib. usually she moves around a lot, but she stayed all bundled up for quite a while! it was just too precious. i had to share.

like i said. too cute.

b

The Day I Met My {cooking} Idol

Beej - this is for you - my pics aren't photoshopped properly but I won't make you wait any longer :)

on 10/27 my family went to the Tulsa Historical Society to meet Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. Her cookbook was released and she was doing a "signing" from 7-9pm.

We got there at 6:30pm, thought we did good by getting there early, and it was standing room only! So many people!!!!

{this was our view - we're standing behind the chairs - and this is only about 1/3 of the people!}

Around 7:00pm she came out and did a little "Q&A" with the audience - she is SO nice, and friendly, and REAL! I loved this part - and her brother, Mike, came up with her and told her how much he loved her, gave her a hug, then just hung out at the podium for the rest of the time - it was so cool!

{my camera didn't like how far away she was!}

{Mike is the bald one :) the other man is her husband, Marlboro Man}

When that was over they started a line for the signing part - but they did it by rows - in order of when people were seated! so we knew we'd have to wait - but while waiting there were cupcakes and sodas to eat and drink. My kids were all over that! lol it's now about 7:30pm and we haven't had dinner - we planned on going to Chili's afterwards - the kids' favorite.

Once we were finished with all the goodies (no, I refrained from a yummy, chocolate, fat loaded cupcake because that would've ruined my diet) we found some empty chairs to sit in. The kids played for a while and climbed empty chairs - and actually were pretty good - I tried to find a place to sneak into so that maybe we'd get in line a little sooner :) didn't work.

{the kids waiting - trying to keep busy}

The only good thing about our wait was getting to meet Marlboro Man and have him autograph the book - he was very nice about the whole thing - and believe me, I wasn't the only one wanting his autograph! LOL


SO - after a long time of imaginative play by my kids, shifting in chairs by me and Darren - we were finally in front of my idol! I was so excited to meet her and tell her how much I love her blog and her recipes!

she signed our books.

{that is Darren's name she's writing - obviously Darren was taking the pictures!}

she posed for a picture with me and my kids.

{the beautiful, Ree with Braden (she asked if he'd sit in her lap and he was more than willing! flirt.), Hailee (wearing the shirt they gave out), and me}

she smiled the whole time. pretty amazing I think. because it's now 11:00pm!!!

so my kids had McDonald's on the way home and slept like babies. I have the greatest family in the world to do this for me :)

It was a long night for sure but I'm so glad I had the opportunity - I've never been to a book signing and I don't know if this is always how it is, but next time when we get there early, we'll plan on camping out! LOL

some sigrid stories...

You get a lot of pictures, but I thought you'd enjoy some stories. Such a little darling!

I took Addie in the shower last night, which I've done a couple of times before, but not for a few weeks. She had liked it before, and would wave her hands and feet around in the water, and just stare at the falling water. And since she was born we would run the shower sometimes when she was inconsolably upset because the sound would calm her down. So I took her in last night, because she was getting bored and I thought we could burn some time before her nap that way. She was so nervous! We got in, and she curled herself up against me, and peeked out at the water. I took her closer, and put one arm and leg under the water, and she curled up tighter. She didn't make a sound, but you could tell she was unsure about it. It was amazing to see how her reaction had changed from a few weeks ago - a product of having a little better understanding of her world! Well, I kept talking to her, and singing to her, and letting her feel the water on her back, arms, and legs, and she relaxed a little, so I went ahead and washed her body and her hair, and then put her back on my shoulder, and just talked to her some more and let her feel the water. I was just rubbing her back and talking, and I looked down, and she had fallen asleep! So, so sweet.

The last couple of days, she's figured out she can look around while she's drinking her bottle. This afternoon, though, I found that if I sing to her, she'll focus on me and stop looking around (thereby keeping the bottle in her mouth so she can drink - novel idea!). So we sang Christmas songs for half an hour and she just watched my eyes and my lips - her eyes widened when I got to fa la la la la in Deck the Halls and puh rum pum pum pum in Little Drummer Boy - and you could see her watching my tongue make the sounds. She was also very captivated by notes changing when my mouth wasn't moving, like "let e-evry-y he-eart prepa-are hi-im roo-oom" in Joy to the world. She is just soaking up the information lately!

She was playing bashful with Parker tonight. I always sit on the loveseat by the computer desk to give her her bottle, and put her up on my shoulder to burp her. When he is at the computer, she just gazes at him. He'll always talk to her and she just looks and looks, and you can tell she's listening by the way her expression responds to his. She'll smile and raise her eyebrows, widen her eyes. Tonight, though, she would smile, and then bury her face in the crook of my neck, and then peek back up at him, then raise her whole face to look at him. Then he would smile at her, and she would smile and bury her face again. Over and over. It was so cute!

Happy Halloween!

"I'm so sweet"

"what is that?"

"you're so funny!"

"I LOVE YOU!"

Baby Addie strikes again

What can I say!? She's advanced :)

Ruling her bumbo seat, and practicing holding on to something.
Such big strides!
(The bumbo seat is like a little armchair that lets her sit up all by herself).

Showing off her red polka dot hair bow from Cousin Hailee.
Thank you Hailee!!! I love it!
Love, Baby Addie

New pics on facebook...

It's easier to upload a lot of them that way, and I just couldn't decide which were the best!

I sent them also to mom and dad separately, since you're probably not on facebook much :)

Love you all,
Beej

Really quick

I just had to show you these. This is Sigrid with her friend Emma, who is a month older than her. They have playdates every week! And today we got them together on one blanket to see what they would do. They were pretty apathetic, but we thought it was cute!
They held hands on their own - Emma has Sigrid's thumb - we didn't do that!

Prints coming your way...

Yesterday, we had portraits taken of Baby Addie in her little handmade dress from Grandma (convenient, because she turned three months old on Thursday!). I'm planning on mailing out 5x7's - Mom & Dad, Corey, Neil & Jen, Tyler, and Grandma will each get one - but here are more of them!

My personal favorite!

She was determined that we should see this foot!
The lady kept tucking it back in,
and then she would stick it out again to show us!

Smiles were a little hard to come by.
She's not accustomed to the aggressive photo lady tactics
and thought the hairy purple monkey
was more confusing than it was funny!

We still got some sweet shots though,
and you can see the fine needlework Grandma did!

Before I go, I suppose I should add some updates on Sigrid's new tricks:

• She's a smiler, definitely a smiler. Her smile lights up the room!
• She likes to feel the hair on the very top of her head, and will sometimes wind her fingers into it.
• She is very good with her feet. She likes to kick at little toys in her stroller and watch her own fancy footwork. Future soccer player, maybe?
  
• She's cooing a lot - making sounds I can't imitate for the life of me! But hey, she's supposed to be imitating me, right!?!
• She likes to smile shyly at herself in the mirror - so cute!
• She isn't grabbing things yet, or reaching for us to pick her up (she may be a little behind in this area), but she will bat at her little toys with her fist after she hits it accidentally first. She can also definitely get her hands to her mouth to suck on them.
• She sleeps 11 hours straight at night!!!
• She loves her little monkey friend in her bouncy seat, and talks to him constantly!
• She loves to work out with me - squats are her favorite: she gets to go up and down through the air when I squat! She also likes the airplane - where she lays on her tummy on my calves and gets to "fly" back and forth while I do crunches.

You all are going to love her!

Love you all!
Can't wait for Christmas!
Briana

Especially for Uncle Tyler...

80 more days!

tell me I'm not the only one counting down the days until Christmas!?!

family.
traditions.
presents.
kids.
Christmas tree.
photos.
chaos.
and most importantly.....ROCA BARS!


okay - that's not the most important - but I can already taste them! lol

my kids are SO excited (because ya'll know that I'm not! lol) about Christmas in Washington and they are asking questions DAILY! Mostly Hailee - Braden just enjoys all the answers.

1. "Will Santa find us at Grandpa's house?"
yes, we'll give him directions when we see him at the mall.

2. "Does Grandpa know to keep the fireplace cool so Santa won't burn his butt?"
yes dear, Grandpa has done this before.

3. "Does Grandma know about cookies, milk, and celery?"
yes, we can give Santa some of Grandma's GOOD cookies this year and he'll be glad he followed the directions we gave him at the mall.

4. "Will Uncle Tyler remember that I like to play with him?"
I'm sure it'll come back to him rather quickly.

5. "Is Uncle Tyler going to get married, too?"
Not yet. someday.
"darn"

6. "Do we get extra presents for not being at home?"
why would you get extra?
"because when I'm at someone else's house I have to be on my super best behavior and that's extra work"
...smart thinking I say...

7. "Can we go now instead of waiting until December?"
no
"fine. but I'd rather go now"

8. "will Baby Addie like to play with me and Braden?"
she'll be little, but if you're nice she'll like it.

9. "can baby Addie sleep with me?"
no dear, you'll roll over on her and that would be bad.

10. "I can't wait to see all my family, mommy. I love them and miss them."
me, too, baby......me, too.



there you go - thoughts from a 7 3/4 year old!!!!


(and we're trying to psych her up about lutefisk - no promises - but she thinks a clear jello might be cool! lol)

Portland Marathon '09

Neil & Jen, finishers in the 38th Portland Marathon, October 4, 2009. Yay!!

fresh from my desk

I made this today - sorry for the bad image, I was too lazy to scan it :)

I would change the label/title if it wasn't a sticker - but oh well. Now i just need to add the journaling and it can go in the family album.