Happy

Apparently blogging just wasn't in the cards for me for the entirety of 2010. It may not be for 2011 either, but I guess we'll see. The latest on my life is the same as always - the perpetual balancing act between being a mom, wife, and lawyer. Currently, I'm trying to focus on the blessings in my life because I have an abundance. For one, I'm typing this in the middle of the day on a Saturday because Ryan took Kerensa to the grocery store and Brennan is still napping. I looked around and noticed that the dishwasher needed loading and, in general, items should be picked up and put away. I then thought about all the photos on my phone that I really should upload to the computer, so I chose to do that instead, which then lead me here.

So without further adieu, here are a few things in this life that make me happy:




Yum, these are awesome!

So I've realized that I rarely take pics of Ryan - oops! He has a place on this list too!!

December '09

So rather than play catch up on past events this evening, I thought I'd upload pictures from this month before Christmas consumes my memory card. We've been busy as I'm sure most people are this time of year. We did our Christmas shopping pretty early, but have continued adding things. While we try not to spoil the kids, I think they are going to have quite the haul. We baked the traditional cookies, although I have to say Ryan's batch turned out much better than mine.



Kerensa's preschool class had a Christmas party. It turned out to be a birthday party for Jesus and was really cute.



The following shots just depict the kids playing with Kerensa's doll house. Brennan kept opening and closing the front door giggling to himself.



After asking us every day if it's Christmas, Kerensa opened her first present this evening. We had our littles over for gift exchanging, and Kerensa and Brennan were thoughtfully included.



Of course it wouldn't be December in the Northwest without some snow. We haven't had much, but what we did have wreaked some havoc. Here's our share:



Fortunately, the responsible party stopped, gave us his information, and provided us with a check 2 days later. It's back to new already, which is great because our chihuahua can't resist chasing people who happen to be on the sidewalk back there!

As usual, a post from me wouldn't be complete without a few videos!




Merry Christmas!

Working backward

Well, that's not entirely correct. I probably have some photos/video on my camera currently that I haven't put on my computer. But, be that as it may, here's a taste of our lives from October and November (with the exception of Brennan's birthday, which deserves a whole post of its own!).

Before it got too cold, we took the kids to Greenbluff, which is a collection of farms that are very family friendly. On weekends, they'll have various entertainment. Here's Kerensa riding a pony. She's a pro at this sort of thing already.



So, even though I haven't shared pics from our time in Ohio, my parents came to visit us in October. The kids really enjoyed having them here. They've been gone for several weeks now, but Kerensa still asks on occasion where they are and if they're coming over.



Here's our kids in their costumes. You may recall that Kerensa was a mouse last year. Eh, the outfit still fit her; she loved being a mouse; and we didn't have to buy a new costume. End result - everyone's happy.



Here's Kerensa with her pumpkin. She talks about it in the video below.

I just thought these next two of Brennan were cute. It also gives you an idea how mobile he is!!





And last, here are two videos I thought I'd share.

Interruption

I interrupt this unintended and extended blogging hiatus to say, wow - complete fail for me re updating. It first occurred because I didn't feel or necessarily have the energy to post, but now so many months have gone by that it's turned into a block for me. I'm so far behind and have so many pictures / moments that have taken place that I should share that I don't even really know how to start. Today, however, I realized that I miss this blog and that I will start posting again (sporadically as usual). I just have to get home to my photos! :)

Checking in

We're still here. I don't really have a good explanation for the lengthy delay since my last post. It was a combination of my general haphazard approach to this blog and my decision to read the Twilight series. Those books are hard to put down. While I wouldn't consider that genre my usual cup of tea (hmm, I don't even drink tea), I enjoyed the story. The third book got a bit soap opera like for me and the last book at times seemed like a horror movie, but the writing was compelling. I also liked how each novel was a re-envisioning of a classic.

Anyway, we've been busy. At Brennan's 6 mo check up, he weighed 17 pounds 9 ounces, which means his growth has slowed some. That's just fine for me because he was getting too big too fast! I think during the latter part of 5 months and at 6 months he was having teething pain that interfered with his desire for bottles. There were a few days Lynn couldn't get him to take one. Good thing we had some solids to start on. It took him awhile to decide he liked them, but he finally is downing complete jars! The baby food stage is so fleeting that this time around I'm not nearly as worried about the added grocery expense (I really would like to entertain the idea of making it myself, but when would I do that??). He was sitting up at 6 months, and we got some good professional pics done. I'll have to do a separate post for those. He worked hard at crawling for a few weeks (there's a couple of pics below). He did a combination of an army crawl and a real crawl for about a week before he perfected his technique. It was kind of funny - he would lunge himself forward by his toes and then just sort of drag his legs. Already though he's been pulling himself up on everything! I know it took Kerensa longer before she tried to do that. Not sure if he'll be an early walker or not, but he loves standing and even manages to cruise a bit.

We celebrated Kerensa's 3rd birthday on the 11th. We went to Chuck E Cheese, and she had a blast! I'll have to upload those pics later since I'm so behind in sharing prior ones. I have to amend my prior posts about her counting abilities. At times, she won't even count to 3 right, although it had seemed to me before that she could count to 10. She will sometimes, but other times she seems like she doesn't know which number comes next so she'll guess. I'm assuming this is typical for toddlers. In any event, she is so hilarious! She loves talking on the phone to me now when I'm at work, and I never know what to expect from her. I need to do a better job recording her cuteness!

Well here's some random photos from the last few months. We leave in two days to spend a week and a half with my fam in Ohio, so I'm sure it'll be awhile before my next post.