Story Time

Today we went to the balloon museum with some friends and they read a story about prairie dogs and then we got to see some.

We also did a craft and looked around the museum. Then we went to the Deseret book store! Brynlee took a good nap this afternoon too!

The Eclipse

Last night after church and before dinner James and I took Brynlee up to the base of the mtn to "watch the eclipse" Granted James and I watched while she played on the play ground but that made it no less cool!

 It took me a while to get my camera to take the cool pictures but once I did....

 they where pretty awesome!

Bike Ride

Today Brynlee and I went on a bike ride with the Spratlings. This was quit the adventure! I started off when I got the text to join them for a bike ride. I quickly searched for and found our bike pump and then proceeded out back to air up our tires. I had the 2 on my bike done and had just finished filling the last on the bike trailer. As I pulled the pump off of the tube the valve ripped off! The inner tube in the tire was ruined. I called my friend and told her what had happened and she said no biggie Brynlee could ride in their bike trailer!

So off we went. Brynlee and I hurriedly got dressed and did our hair and headed out side to meet our friends! We got about 20 mins into our bike ride when my back tire blew! When I tired to pump it up the air leaked right back out. Luckily we where not far from wal-mart and when we got close we found a park. My friend stayed with the 2 kids at the park while I ran to wal-mart to get a new inner tube and a tool to put the tire back on once it was taken off.

It took me 7 mins to get to wal-mart from the park, 2 to get from the entrance to the bike stuff, 15 mins to look through the tire stuff and make no seance of it find a guy to tell me he didn't get it make a phone call to get more info from my friend and make a decision on what tube I needed, 2 mins to walk to the front of the store, 6 mins to check out, and 7 mins to walk back to the park! Approx a total of 40 mins to get a tube. 

Then My friend helped me put the new tube on my bike. Thankfully last year when I was given the bike it was a very nice bike! Most bikes you need special tools and all sorts of things to change a bike tire. The bike I was given I have been told is very nice and very expensive, and I believe it! Changing the bake inner tube was a breeze! 

After getting that fixed we headed home as it was noon and my friend's son still takes a nap. When we got home I brought everything in and started to think about what to make for lunch. Brynlee fell asleep on the couch before we could even figure out what to make. My friend told me her son did the same. What a good way to wear the kiddos out!

Mother's Day

Sunday went well enough. It started at 0500 when I got up and changed Brynlee's bedding, washed her in the tub, and put her in new pj's and back in bed because she had an accident. She got up around 7 but played mostly quietly by herself in her bedroom till 0800. James fixed me an eff muffin for breakfast and was given the movie War Horse and some chocolate for mother's Day.

 

At 1000 James went to a friend's house to help him work on his car. Brynlee and I went to church at 1300 and met up with James afterword. At 1730 we went to Jp and Susan's house for Mother's Day dinner with the whole family!

 

 It was a very nice dinner and good to see everyone.

 Brynlee really enjoyed playing with her cousins.

Bike Riding

Brynlee is just a bike riding PRO now! At least in the back yard on flat ground going around the table. It's a little tougher when we get out in the parking lot where there are hills and it's not as smooth. Guess it's time to work on those leg muscles!

Family Outing

Sat started very slow, we where planning to go out and do things but it took Brynlee all morning to decide to get dressed and then she proceeded to fall asleep. So we all took a nap and when we woke Brynlee decided she wanted to go to the zoo... and so we did!

 We saw sleeping flamingos

 The baby Harbor Seal

 a peeking Tiger and much more!

 we arrived at the Polar Bear exhibit just before 1430 and just in time to watch them feed the polar bears. the top was very crowded so we stayed below where you can see under the water and we watched the polar bears dive for their dinner!

 then we went and played at the play ground. We watched the sky get darker and darker so we left the play ground and started to head out but Brynlee insisted we stop and see the baby giraffe before leaving.

All the adults headed inside and one even gave baby a nudge but it was content to stand and chew on a branch while the others headed for their enclose. Then we went home. It was a very fun afternoon!

Helping Daddy

Well last week my Jeep died. I was going to go pay the bills on May 1st but When I got Cowgirl and Brynlee all loaded up my car wouldn't start!!! When James got off work he came home and looked at it. The battery was really nasty so he cleaned it up but in trying to get the connections off one broke! So the next day he stopped off and got some new connections. We replaced those but in the process we nearly had our heads taken off when the wind blew and the hood came down on us. Luckily James caught it with just a bruise to the arm. By this Time James figured it would be the alternator and maybe the battery too.

 A few days later When the wind had died down James started trying to get the alternator out so he could take it down and have it tested. He discovered quit quickly that this would be very difficult without a way to lift the car. Brynlee did her best to help Daddy. After discovering how difficult it would be to get the alternator out and tested we just switched my battery and his to test the battery.  After some driving around with James' battery and having everything work fine I returned to find James stuck at the end of the parking lot. He had tried to push start his jeep with my battery and had no luck. This proved it was most definitely a battery issue. So we went inside to do some research on where to find a good yet cheap battery......

Brynlee found and brought us these batteries!

Any way now the car is fixed and our purses a bit lighter but thank heaven it wasn't the alternator too... (knock on wood) we hope!

The Garden and A Walk

Friday we went to the Botanical Garden with the Wheelers. The where celebrating National Garden Day and had all sorts of booths and tours. The trains area was all clean and pretty and there was even a new dragon fly habitat.

 I didn't see any dragon flys but there where turtles,

 and frogs and TONS of tad poles!

 The kids really seemed to like this area.

 We also visited the working farm at the back of the Gardens.

 That afternoon when James got home we all went for a walk.  It had just rained a lot and it was really windy, it even looked like it might rain again!

When we got back to the apt complex Cowgirl found a big water puddle at the end of the road and played!

 She LOVES to play in shallow water.

Too bad she didn't realize she would be getting a bath after word!

A Daughter's Pride

Yesterday a close friend of mine posted a lot of 'soldier tribute' videos this started to bring out the huge pride I feel for this country and the love I have for her soldiers. Another video was brought to my attention this morning of a soldier returning home and his disabled son walking to him for the first time. That one brought tears to my eyes, bringing back memories of the day James came home and how this soldier and his family must have felt in that moment. But this post is not about me and my pride in my soldier family.... This post is about Brynlee.

 Brynlee was watching that last video with me. I replayed the first 50 seconds about 3 times. After posting it to Facebook I tried to continue on checking mail and various things, Brynlee threw a fit. She started to cry and say "Daddy" and point to the screen. She thought the man in uniform on the video was James, and she wanted to watch him again. I told her that that was not Daddy it was another child's Daddy and she said "Oh" and was then fine with me closing the video. This act made me want to see how much she might remember of her own Father's home coming. She was less than 1 year old at that time but it sparked an interesting idea for me, that that memory had a deep impact on my daughter, I had to find out how deep.

I brought up the album of the day James came back from Iraq. This always brings back strong memories of pride and a strong mix of other emotions for me, but what do those pictures do to my daughter?

Brynlee watched each photo describing what she saw. When we got to the video of the soldiers getting off the airplane she cheered  and clapped like the people in the video and though it was never said in the video she yelled "Yeah Daddy!" We then watched the video of them in formation marching into the building before they where released to their families for a short time. She again cheered and yelled for her Daddy. I asked her if she remembered that day and she refused to respond to that question. She watched the video intently and made me replay it 5 or 6 times. The look on her face said though she may not remember the day or the moments in it she remembers the feelings mommy and everyone else around her where feeling and maybe she felt them too. The look on her face below says it all.

 The first hug she ever got to give James. There was no fear of him and she knew right away that that was her Daddy.

 Have you ever seen a happier baby? James was able to stay at the hotel with us that night.

 When James finally returned to NM I took Cowgirl to greet him.

 She was very happy to have her Daddy home too.

 Even today every time Daddy has to leave for a few days or a few weeks or even just to run to the store when he has returned from work, Brynlee cries and has to have love, hugs, and kisses before he can go and even then some days it's a battle.

 This little girl loves her uncles in uniform and loves her Daddy. When she sees men in the store in uniform she will point them out, not with aw or fear, there is no intimidation there like when I saw my first man in uniform but with acceptance and pride. When James has Drill on the weekends Brynlee is more than happy to tell you her "Daddy is playing Army" that day.When he comes home Brynlee helps him take off his shoes and the patches on his jacket, as if to say Daddy your home and that is where your going to stay. When he has to be away for more than a day or two we usually have to make bed time phone calls so she can say good night.

I asked Brynlee this morning as she watched the video again. "Brynlee are you proud of your Daddy?" She simply shook her head up and down and said "Yes."

A Friend's Birthday Party

Yesterday evening we where invited to go to the park for our neighbor's birthday party!

 He turned 2! He had a basketball cake

 and got a basketball hoop for his birthday!

we all had a great time till Brynlee said she needed to go potty, we where going to leave but then she got down and wanted to play again. She later had a big accident and that sent us home but it was 2000 (8pm) so we needed to head home any way. Its tough to stop playing and go home cuz there are no potties at the park! The accident was totally expected the moment she decided she wanted to play some more!

The Master of Disaster

In the last week Brynlee has earned the above title. This week alone she has ruined about $100 worth of food by one of 2 ways... 1) turning off the fridge without anyone realizing it till it was too late or 2) "cooking" Brynlee has begun to pretend and has quite the imagination. She has combined beef and pork she has taken leftover pizza out side and added dirt toppings, she has taken pork in a plastic container and placed it in the oven (luckily we found it before the oven got turned on.), Put a bag of hot dogs on the grill out back, mixed water with about a dozen yoghourts, and mixed mouth wash and maple syrup! She almost never has a clean room or a made bed. She very nearly killed the fish but did manage to rip some fins off, he is now in our room! She has escaped out the front door numerous times and once even ended up on the other side of the fence between the main road and the apt complex before I could catch her and believe me that was a scary moment. We have since put a latch on the door high enough out of the way that she can not reach it (because she can reach both dead bolts) and will soon be putting a pad lock on the fridge. It is awfully hard to replace $100+ worth of food every week on our current budget. She also now has an imaginary friend called "my friend" who has to eat everything she does but on their own plate. 

The other day I had been doing something on the computer and realized as I finished up that I hadn't heard Brynlee in a while. I searched the house and started to worry I checked the front door but it was still locked. I checked her room and then came back into mine and finally I found her....

She must have been hiding under the covers from me when she fell asleep... Her cute moments have saved her more often than not...

Walking

I have discovered that getting out of the house and doing things is so much fun when we do it with friends. Brynlee and I have been getting to know our friends the Spratlings and going and doing things that are fun together.  Today we went for a long walk!

Making Strides

Sunday morning James,Brynlee, and I got up early and went to Rio Rancho to do the "American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" It was a five mile walk. We met up with Brynlee's Uncle Johnny and 5 other people who had joined his team and we walked!

 

There where A LOT of people there, most in pink. if you look really close at the picture below you can see the line of pink snaking down the road ahead.

 Within our own team there where kind of 2 groups...this one and the other consisting of 4 girls some times we where together but mostly we where not lol

 

 I loved Johnny's shirt! The front said "Got balls?" and the back shows a stick figure kicking a ball and says "It's not how big your balls are it's what you do with them!" I thought it was cute.

 

 Brynlee loves her uncle Johnny!

 And her Daddy

 These three are all military guys and it was fun to watch them continuously fall into step with each other without thinking about it.

 By the end of the walk I was a little tiered but not too much so. It was a lot of fun and I am so glad we went as a family!