Brieleigh's Party- Two Years Old

We had a small little party for Brieleigh with a couple of her friends. She LOVES watching birds, and some of her favorite books are our bird identification books. So we had a bird watching party for her. We had a group of birds fly in during the party just in time for the kids to watch them. Brieleigh was so ecstatic to show them to her friends!

David did an awesome job with the bird cake. He made every bit of it from scratch, cut it out, and decorated it himself. I can take very little credit. I was so impressed, I told him it should be on Cake Boss on Food Network. It tasted great too!

Brieleigh going crazy when the birds flew in.

Brieleigh and her party friends: Berkley and Lewis, watching the birds.

Opening her presents

Brieleigh's 2nd Birthday

Our little girl turned two on December 15th! I can't beleive she is such a big girl now! At the same time, it seems so long ago that we brought her home from the hospital, swaddled her up to sleep, and carried her around in the Moby wrap. We have been using the "now you are a big girl" phrase alot and so far she seems proud to do "big girl" things. She went to the 2-3 year old worship training class at church today and has such good conversations with us lately. She told me a little about the angels and shepherds from her story at church today. She LOVES talking about every member of her family by name and her little friends.

We tried to make her day special for her although she and I were not feeling the best with a cold, and Daddy was swamped at work.

For breakfast, I got her a few mini decorated donuts from one of the many local donut shops.

I had planned to take her to the zoo or at least the park, but it was wet and rainy all day. Instead I promised we would go play at Chick-fil-A. She fell asleep for nap and did not wake up until dark around 5:30. They first thing she said was, "I wanna go to Chick-L-A!" So she and I went and got some ice cream so she could play for a little while.

Sitting on the butterfly at Chick-fil-A

Opening her presents

We got her a Radio Flyer vintage tricycle, and she loved helping Daddy "fix" it. She is still learning about the pedaling, but she likes to play with it regardless.

Kindergarten books from her Millie.

Singing "Happy Birthday" and Brieleigh saying how old she is.

Riding her new tricycle



Boulder, Colorado



In November, Brieleigh and I had the opportunity to go with David to Colorado for work. He was supposed to go on a Monday and Tuesday, so we all flew there Saturday to make a mini vacation out of it. It was so relaxing and fun just to be together. If I could live anywhere (that automatically came with a job for David and close family) I think I might pick Colorado. Everytime I go I am blown away by the awesomeness of God's creation and beauty. I love how they are so outdoors focused there which is a nice change from a city that has very limited natural beauty in the midst of so much development. I looked up some restaurants on Food Network and some other sites so that we could eat at some fun local joints. We found some definite winners which was alot of fun too!

Brieleigh LOVES airplanes, airports, and flying. She sat in her own empty seat for awhile.

We went for a hike up to see the Flatirons in Boulder. It was super windy, cold, very steep, and we were of course not used to the altitude. I am so glad we did the hike though.. it was totally worth it.

Brieleigh had to be carried a lot because it was a hard trail, and we were all exhausted from traveling, but she seemed to enjoy the hike as well.

The Flatirons coming down into Boulder.

We saw a little wildlife.. these mule deer stood right beside us for awhile. We also drove in the mountains a lot though did not stay too long because there were severe blizzards. We saw another pack of mule deer and a flock of turkeys right outside Rocky Mountain National Park.

While David did his site visits, Brieleigh and I walked around historic Pearl Street Mall... an outside mall with alot of little shops and restaurants. We mostly enjoyed the little play areas.

Of course we had to make a stop by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!

We hiked in a little snow, though we were not well equipped for such conditions so it was a very short experience.

We went by Red Rocks outside of Denver on the way to the airport. It has a huge rock formation and a natural ampitheater where all sorts of famous musicians have come for years and years.

At the top of the ampitheater



Brieleigh's "-ing" Words

Brieleigh LOVES watching this video. "I want to watch Brie-dee readin' the Bible again!" We wanted to catch on camera the way she drags out her "-ing" words. She also does it for a few other words as well. It is like she doesn't know when to end the word. Such a cutie! :)

Texas State Fair

Back in October (Why are you looking at me like that? Yes, I realize this is December!), Mom and Madeline came for a visit, and we took them to the Texas State Fair for their first time. We love the fair... not so much the rides and games, but the free stuff (cooking demos, Vitamix demos :), car shows, Texas food samplings, free shows, petting zoo, etc), the livestock, a little fair food, and the atmosphere.

Maddy, Brieleigh, and Mom riding the DART train to the fair

Our family

Brieleigh enjoying her free Texas samples- I think this was an ice cream cone :)

Mom and Madeline trying the crispy fried bacon. (I know... sounds like an oxymoron.)

At the Little Farm that she got to help with. It was so cute... especially these John Deere tractors. I really want one for her now.

Gathering her produce and crops to "sell" at the farmer's market

Fried Bubblegum- as bad as it sounds! (Marshmallows injected with bubblegum extract)
We did not get great food this year, but I did enjoy the "classics"- funnel cake and fried cookie dough!

Waiting for our Korean taco at the cooking demos

I finally had someone with me at the fair who is not too afraid of heights! This ferris wheel is there year around (otherwise, count me out) and is the tallest amusement park ride in the Western Hemisphere!

Overlooking Dallas- yes it made my stomach turn, but so worth it.

The view of Downtown Dallas from the top of the ferris wheel.



Brieleigh Said It

Brieleigh has been talking up a storm! I need to be writing down the things she says because she makes me smile so much. We have real conversations now. Driving in the car, she asks questions about everything she sees or tells me about all sorts of things. I LOVE this stage/age! I will try to list a few recent things I remember...

~Don't 'ook (look) at me, Daddy!

~Turn on some songs.

 (when we got in the car last night.. she has never mentioned music on the radio before then, but she has been repeating lines of songs that are playing on the radio lately!)

~One for Mommy, one for Brie-dee, one for Daddy!

~It's a ci-cada! (reading her nature book)

~I want my noodle, Mommy. (A man made her a balloon poodle that she carried around as her "noodle".)

~It's Daddy's a-pane (airplane)! ..she thinks every plane she sees is Daddy's because we always look for Daddy's plane on the way to pick him up from the airport.

~What's dat, Mommy? What's dat, Daddy? (Her favorite question by far!)

~Let's hit the woad! (Repeating her Daddy and using her hand to literally hit the air.)

~I twy again in a 'ittle bit. (When I make her potty, and she doesn't need to go at the time.)

~Have goo' day! Have fun! (What she says when she "packs her bags" to go to another room.)

~Watch tis! (she has been showing out lately for us :)

~Be wite back, Daddy!

 (What she says when I am going with her to the potty, and Daddy is staying in another room. She often tells this to whatever she is playing with that she has to leave, too.)

Ok, so my memory is failing me, but hopefully I can do a better job!

Brieleigh LOVES to sing. She is best at a medley which includes some of the following: ABC'c, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Let us Come to Know You, Come Christians Join to Sing. At the end she has started saying, "Yay, Brie-dee!" I need some videos of this.

I have more cute videos, but for now enjoy Brieleigh spelling and saying her name. She gets the first and last of her name spelled. :)

Camping at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park

Back on October 7-9, we went camping at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park in East Texas. We went with the Swindles (Jen, Travis, and Berkley), and the Edsons (Jane, Andrew, and Noelle) met us there on Saturday. The weather was perfect- got up to the 80s during the day and around 60 at night! There was a nice cool breeze blowing all weekend. We stayed at a tent site right by the the lake...actually the lake was only 67% full, so we stayed right by the "beach".



Brieleigh on the beach



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Berkley and Brieleigh playing in between the usually covered tree stumps.



 Our site had alot of room for the girls to run around, and I think they loved every minute of camping. Brieleigh, I know, loved having a little person her age their to play with. We had not been camping since the Spring because of our sauna of a summer, so it was so nice to sleep in the woods again. Brieleigh is getting to be quite the little camper. She woke up one morning and the first thing she said was, "Trees! Pineapples!" (i.e. pine cones) It was nice to see some pine trees on the trip- not quite the height of Mississippi trees, but I forget that Brieleigh is not used to them.

One of my favorite parts of camping is cooking on the fire. We were under a burn ban, so we used camp stoves which was almost as fun. Breakfast is always my favorite camping meal! We had grits, eggs, sausage, bagels, and chocolate milk the first morning, and pancakes, bacon, fried apples, and juice Sunday morning. I always feel like we eat such fun food camping since we allow ourselves to buy some food which we usually just buy on sale or for special occasions.



Travis and David flipping sausage.



Travis, David, and Andrew flipping bacon and pancakes on Sunday morning.

Jen was always so sweet to distract the girls while we cooked.

 We went for a few short hikes, played on the play ground, took naps, sat in our camp chairs and talked, and cooked/washed dishes. It was so relaxing and refreshing! We also had some tourist racoons try to come eat our dessert with us one night, but we made sure they remembered not to revisit our site.

Brieleigh and Berkley sitting in the leaves.

Backpacks with kids on and ready for our hike!

Girl talk. Of course this was a few seconds event. They don't sit still long! Their favorite activity was playing in our tent on the air matress. :)

The Willers family on the dock over the lake.

The whole camping crew! So fun to camp with friends!

Potty Training

So we have started potty training. WARNING... if you don't care to read about the ins and outs of a toddler peeing, then you might want to skip this post. :)

 It was not something we had planned to jump into full force yet, but I am so glad we have. I always told Brieleigh when she was little that I was not changing her diapers when she was 2. It looks like she might be potty trained before her 2nd birthday, so that is good news for her. :)

We have been half heartedly introducing Brieleigh to the potty. She has loved going through the motions for some time now. She will put her potty seat on the toilet, crawl up there, make a peeing noise, use the toilet paper, jump down, flush it, and remove her potty seat. We have been glad that at least she was going through the motions and not scared of the potty like many kids are. I usually sit her on the potty when I change her diaper or before her bath on occasions just to help her get used to it, and she pushed, but never seemed to figure out those muscles.

 Last week sometime while we were in the bath, Brieleigh (who had just sat on the potty) told me several times, "Tee-tee, Mommy, tee-tee!" I told her she just tried and could try again after her bath. She kept persisting so finally we got out of the tub, set her on the potty, and she really went! We were both so excited and called her Daddy who was traveling, and he was quite happy too. Brieleigh said, :I did it!" which made my heart melt. This week we bought her some big girl panties just to have on hand for when the time was right. She has tried wearing mine from time to time. As soon as we got them home she wanted to wear them! She had two accidents that night then a success. She was so proud of herself, so we decided to give it a try this week.

She wears panties except for nap and bedtime (which her diaper usually ends up pretty dry now). Often she will start to go before she realizes it and will them run to the potty to finish. We have been so impressed by our little 21 month old. I had no idea she was going to do so well. I give her a sticker everytime she goes for her chart.

This is her 3rd full day, and as you can see she has done pretty well. I think the first day she had a few more accidents then successes, which seems to decrease every day. She even did more than pee in the potty yesterday! Of course I had to be at work. :( We went and bought her a big prize for that though- a mini Elmo doll (since she loves the furry red animal even though she has never seen him on tv). I think she is still not too sure of which muscles to use, and she does not have much warning beforehand, but she is learning and doing quite well. I hope she continues to like it!