He Found Us!

We were a little worried that with all of our travels Santa wouldn't know where to find us, but he did! Breah was still asleep at 8 when we rolled out of bed, and because we were up half the night with her, we didn't want to wake her (she doesn't sleep as good when she gets overly tired)so we decided to have breakfast first. Nancy made yummy butterscotch rolls and a potato casserole, and by 8:30 Breah was up, so we proceeded to open presents. Santa brought Breah some slippers and her very own vacuum, which she loves. She also got that cute puppy from G. Nellie (as well as the entire LP Nativity for the 12 days of Christmas), LP Zoo from G. Nancy & G. LaMonte, 2 dolls & bottles (that she has to take to bed with her) from cousins, a flashlight, LP CD, Little Einsteins DVD, some books, and lots and lots of love! Brandon and I were spoiled as well, with food storage, clothes, watches, a pillow, running shoes, etc. But of course the best part of Christmas was being able to spend it with those we love! Even if that means getting stuck in the snow in Saratoga Springs. It was a very, very white Christmas for us this year, no dreaming required. It was beautiful and we enjoyed it while we were there, but we definitely had our fill of snow for the year and are glad to back home where it's relatively warm! I think I've become a whimp since moving down here. The negative temperatures in Vernal were miserable this year! After examining all the toys Santa brought, she shoved them all onto the floor so she could have her couch to herselfShe's really not in love with the idea of sharing her couch yet, but for a few brief moments she allowed her cousin Squiggle to sit with her. Later in the day however, she was not so giving and put up quite a fight:

Testing out her new vacuum and enjoying her baby's bottle. When she finishes she says, "Aah", just like she does every time I take a drink.

Part 3: Christmas Eve

We got to attend the annual Neilsen Family (Brandon's Mom's family) Christmas Eve party in Mona this year. It was good to get everyone all in one place for a few hours to visit. As usual we enjoyed lots of yummy food (if you don't believe me, just look at Breah scarfing hers), and new this year, Neilsen Family Bingo. Breah had fun following the kids around pretending she was one of the big kids and eating all the M&M's from the bingo game (hence the chocolate all over her face).

Surprisingly enough she was still awake when we arrived back in AF after 9, and the old "hurry and go to sleep so Santa won't pass us by" didn't really have much of effect on her. That's ok though, she still had to open her Christmas Eve Jammies! This was day 2 without a nap, but she was still going strong. She must have sensed all the excitement and was content to hang out on her couch all night!

Learning Animals

While driving in the car Breah entertained herself with her books. Have I mentioned how much she loves books? She is always carrying them around, reading them outloud, or ripping them off the shelf. This particular book has a tiger cub in it, which she confuses with a cat. For like 20 minutes in the car we heard "meow meow", until I got the camera, of course, but you can kind of get the idea.

Then while we were in Vernal, we used this fish aquarium as a night light, and it didn't take long before every time we entered the bedroom Breah would say, "feesh" (I'm not very good at spelling it the way it sounds). Once again, the video isn't the best documentation of her first words, but it's the best we could do, if she sees the camera its over. She also knows duck, but we are working on the others!

Part Two: Christmas with the Grandmas

My G&G Kay spent Christmas in Illinois this year, so we got to exchange presents early this year. I think it's safe to say this couch they got Breah ranks among her favorite gifts. She absolutely LOVES it. She also seemed to love all the attention she got jumping around on it. It sure is lonely here at our house after having so much fun with all the cousins (and G's and aunts and uncles too).

Here are my sweet Grandparents in their new house. We are so glad we got to see them for a bit before they left, wish it would have been longer!

Monday night we had Christmas dinner at my G&G Martin's house my mom and kids, and Kyndi and her family, followed by more presents! Sure was fun, and how nice of them to have their Christmas dinner early for us! Vernal got dumped on that day, so we spent some time on Grandma's hill, but those pics will have to come later. I made the girls matching tutu's but never did get them to stand together. And Breah got My First Purse! She loves it, even though it doesn't fit on her shoulder. We sure had fun hanging out with all the fam in Vernal and wish we could have stayed longer. Thanks everyone, for making this a Christmas to remember

Christmas Catchup Part One: A Nauvoo Christmas

Our Christmas travels began Friday the 19th as we trudged on to AF through a horrible snow storm, witnessing multiple trucks spin off the road, cars flipped over, and tow trucks pulling cars out of the snow, but we arrived alive and were glad we 1)left town hours earlier than planned, and 2) only had to go halfway. Saturday we woke up and headed on to Vernal. My mom's ward had their Christmas party at a cabin up by Red Fleet, themed "Christmas in Nauvoo". It was really fun, they had an old fashioned candy shop, pioneer crafts, soup, scones, and hot chocolate, and Santa, of course. He a was a very sickly santa--no one could sit on his lap, he could hardly breathe, and they had to carry him up the step, but he was santa non the less, and he seems to have had a speedy recovery in time to deliver all the toys.

Me, trying to force my baby to sit on this scary man's lap again:

Breah chillin with Grandma Nellie, and it was chilly!

Brandon and Brin enjoying fresh, hot, yummy scones!

Breah and Mom, trying to stay warm.

Breah's first snowman

I couldn't resist, we had to go out and make a snowman today. Who knows when the next time we will have enough snow in our own back yard to do that! Breah loved being outside but was a little intimidated by the snowman, she kept running from him. The snow was extremely heavy and slushy and my second ball crushed the first ball--so he's actually 4 high, but still not much taller than his buddy.

Merry Christmas!

I'm a little slow getting my Christmas cards out so here's a preview. You may or may not get one, depending on how on the ball I am tomorrow!

Snow Day

I just saw on the news that tomorrow will be a snow day for all local students. I feel like I am living in the East again, where life as we know it stops when a little snow is on the ground. I realize that areas not accustomed to a lot of snow may not be equipped with all the infrastructure to remove the snow...but seriously! Maybe I'm just jealous cuz I never got a snow day, no matter how much snow there was. I was quite excited about the snow today. I got Breah all dressed up and we went out to play and deliver our Christmas gifts to the neighbors. She loved being out in the snow, despite not being able to move much. If my 14 month old can handle a little snow shouldn't buses?

Her gloves are HUGE on her, but they came with the hat, which had to be a 3T to fit over her abnormally large noggin. And I bought the coat big enough for next year too since I wasn't expecting to get to use it much. I had to take a picture of my view too, she never moved. It's practically impossible for a one year old dressed like this to get up using only one hand, but there was no way she was going to touch that icy grass! And notice in the bottom picture how she is holding one finger up...she does that a lot, I don't know why but I think it's cute!

December at our house

I love December for all of the obvious reasons, but this year it is especially nice. Why? Well for one, Brandon is done with school for the semester, which means we have our daddy back to hang out with us. Saturday we went to the Dickens Festival and then to the park...without our jackets. That is another reason I am loving this December so much. Breah absolutely loves to be outside. We usaully go walking with some friends every morning, and often stop at the park. She's finally getting brave enough to venture away from me and play on the equipment with the other kids and loves going down the slide, so we were excited to be able to take Dad with us this time.

this picture cracks me up, this is the position she has to get into to stand up...it just looks so awkward to one who can't even touch her toes (that would be me).

She can do it all by herself!

We also found a big pile of leaves at the park and couldn't resist. We plopped her down and got almost the same reaction as in sand--she wouldn't touch them. So then I proceeded to throw them at her, afterwhich she decided it wasn't so bad. And I swear these pictures were taken Saturday, Dec. 6, not in September.

Oh Christmas Tree

I just love this picture...isn't it sweet? I started putting out the decorations before we left for Thanksgiving and have finally been able to put the finishing touches on everything. Amazingly enough, Breah hasn't bothered the tree much at all. Once in a while she'll go up and touch the lights or carefully examine the ornaments, but has really been very gentle. And here she is playing with her nativity. She loves it and will even occasionally say "Jesus", only it sounds like Jejus. I love nativities--in fact I collect them, but I love that this one is a toy. Too often we get all caught up in the excitement and forget the true meaning of Christmas, so I think it's great to have one for the kids to play with.

Here are a few more pics for you viewing pleasure. The blue sweater ones are of Breah helping me decorate the tree, the rest of her admiring the tree and enjoying the "pretties" of my wreath I was making--she thought that was great!

I'm Back!

That's right everyone, I finally got my computer! Happy Anniversary, Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to me! It feels so good to be connected to the world again! And I know there are at least a few of you (you know who you are) who are dying to see pictures of the Bre-ster, so I'll do my best to fill you in. (I feel like I'm writing in my journal...that's how all my entries start). And if you haven't missed us in our absence, well, HOW RUDE!

Let us begin. On November 20th we celebrated our 4 year anniversary! Man are we old! It was so crazy to think back on our wedding day and how COLD it was--it was beautiful here so it didn't really feel like it was mid November. We left Breah with a sitter (Thanks so much!) and headed to the Olive Garden for dinner. You may not think that sounds all that exciting, but it was so nice to have an evening out all to ourselves! And Breah did fairly well without us too!

Then Wednesday afternoon we headed to the big V. It was our first attempt to make the drive straight through and amazingly enough, we made it all the way to Provo, with Breah only sleeping for 30 minutes, before we had to stop. I'm telling ya, the forward facing carseat makes all the difference! We played lots of peekaboo, "pat a cake", and "if you're happy" but couldn't have asked for a better trip. Sleep was a struggle for her while away but we had so much fun getting to see all the fam. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Kyndi's new house with all the Martin fam and G&G Kay. Dinner highlights for me were 1) mom's cranberry sauce, 2) super moist and yummy turkey & 3)cranberry salsa, oh, and 4)the feeling of not being so stuffed it hurt to move after eating...maybe eating with a 1 year old on your lap has it's advantages. Here are some pics from our festivities:

Breah, me, and Grandpa Lanny. I'm pretty sure someone had looked at her here. Notice the jumprope around her neck? Grandma Joy, Me, and my sweet Mom

Cousin Graci trying to play with Breah. I keep telling her she's not making many friends with her stranger fits, but what can you do?

We were lucky and got to see both families over the holiday. Friday morning we had our last Quarter B-day party with the Martin's and then we headed up to party with the Dansie's. Saturday (which also happened to be my 25th B-day) we had Thanksgiving Take Two at Nancy's house. Everyone chipped in but me...my contribution was a clock--didn't taste very good but it sure looks pretty! Then Nancy watched all the kids and we all went to see Austrailia. I didn't take any pic's that day, but her I am on Friday, one day shy of 25: (and yes, I'm aware that my bangs really need help)