Parade and Pulling Up

This past Sunday was our city's Parade of Lights.  Right after the sun went down all the floats with their Christmas lights paraded down Broadway.  We had so much fun watching all the pretty lights!

Brynn was all snuggled up!

Look at that poor little face...the first things that came by were all these police and firetrucks and motorcycles with their horns blaring...I guess she didn't really like the loud noises.  I got her out of the stroller and held her for the rest of the parade and she seemed to like that much better!  Mommy can make all the loud noises seem less scary!  HA!

Pamaw and Papaw were at the parade with us, and Lindsey and Curt came right before they drove back to school.

She loved seeing all the colorful lights!

My parents joined in, and so did Jason, Sarah, and Ansley.  What a FUN PARADE!  It always gets me in the Christmas spirit!

Look who has started pulling up on EVERYTHING!  Can you believe this little thing??

She loves to pull open drawers and gets her hands on everything! HA!

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving Football...and more Thanksgiving Fun!

On Friday, Brynn and I had a wonderful low-key morning of playing at home.  After the craziness of Thanksgiving it was nice to just have some downtime together.  Then around 1 I dropped her off at Pamaw's and rode to St. Louis with my mom and dad, and Lindsey and Curt.  (Ryan had to work, but was coming to St. Louis to meet us after he got off.)   We shopped for about 3 hours (super fun for us girls, for Dad and Curt not so much) and then headed to the Dome to watch my cousin Scott's team play for the state championship.  He is the head coach at CBC High School in St. Louis.  They were undefeated and we were so excited to support Scott and cheer on the Cadets!

We had never been to one of the high school state championship games and the atmosphere was so cool!  Watching them warm up felt like we were watching a college team!

GO CBC!

Here is Scott pacing the sidelines...he is such a good coach and we are so proud of him!

Ready for kickoff...

It was a GREAT game!  It was a nail biter the whole way, and CBC ended up losing by 3.  We were so proud of them anyway!  And just for the record, we didn't get home until 1:30...I don't think I have stayed up that late since college!

The next day, Saturday, was the Pingel (my dad's side of the family) Thanksgiving get-together.

4 generations...Grandma Sally, my Dad (not in that order...ha!), me and Brynn

Brynn checking out her Great-Grandma.

Brynn's favorite game right now is to sit on Grandpa's head and give him kisses (aka slobber on his bald head) or play his head like it's a drum!  HAHA!



After everyone left from the Thanskgiving celebration my parents decided to use Ryan and Curt for manual labor and put up their Christmas tree.  Brynn found a shiny ornament and that was her entertainment for the next hour.



Hopefully this isn't how she gives kisses for the rest of her life...ha!  Well...she can for her mommy and daddy but I don't think Ryan will want her doing this to any boys...EVER!

Linz and Curt got a hold of the camera and this is the result...plus a few more ridiculous pictures I deleted.  Oh the joys of hanging out with those two...we all never stop laughing.  We love them so much!!!!!!!! 

Brynn loves looking at the lights on Christmas trees...I don't know what Ryan is doing in this picture.

This child is into everything...if I had a dollar for every time my dad said "she is so active" I'd be rich!  (I just hope we don't hear that in a parent-teacher conference in 5 years!)


We have had such a fun Thanksgiving holiday!  We are so thankful for all of God's blessings.

Let the Thanksgiving Celebrations Begin...

Thanksgiving morning we started our celebrations by turning on the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!  I LOVE watching it every year!

Brynn was too busy playing to watch much of the parade.

I love watching all the musical numbers and then switching the channels back and forth to the channels that just broadcast the actual parade and floats.

Lindsey and Curt came over that morning to watch the parade.

Every year for Christmas my mom makes "monkey bread" (I have no idea why she calls it that...).  Several years ago I found a recipe for a "chocolate" version.  You put a hershey kiss in each piece of biscuit.  I started making it on Thanksgiving morning while we watch the parade, and that has become our new tradition. 

Coffee with pumpkin spice creamer, chocolate monkey bread, and the Macy's parade...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  (Notice the fine dining table...aka ping pong table...we were watching the parade downstairs.)

Brynn was having fun playing and looking at our Mizzou Christmas tree.  (Yes, we put our trees up before Thanksgiving, and I love it!  I know some people don't like that, but I think it just makes me feel even more in the holiday spirit!)

After her morning nap we loaded up and headed to Aunt Soni's for Thanksgiving lunch with the Bandermann's.

Hanging out with Pamaw

Loving on Uncle Kyle

We had fun visiting and playing with Aunt Sarah and Ansley!  We took Brynn's pack n play, and while she napped (in cousin Mollie's bathroom no less...yes that was the quietest place...thank goodness Brynn is a good napper! HA!) Sarah and I had fun looking at all the Black Friday ads!
  

Then it was time to head back to Cape to my great aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family.  Several relatives hadn't seen Brynn yet and were so excited to meet her!

BIG FAMILY PICTURE...We were at my grandma's brother's house...he was there with his family, along with my grandma and all of our family, and several other of their siblings and family members.

One of my absolute FAVORITE holiday traditions on Thanksgiving is when we all sit around the piano and sing Christmas songs.  We always end with "The 12 Days of Christmas" and each person (or 2 or 3 people together) has a part to sing.  This year I requested "8 maids a milking"...get it?  Kind of the theme of my life right now! HA!  The funniest part is that I was paired up with my dad, and if you know me and my dad you know that neither one of us can sing a lick! HAHA!  Oh well....even though I'm not a very good singer I love this tradition and you better believe we belted our part out!  I think we were in the complete wrong key but it was still a blast.  Ryan is now used to our family's crazy singing tradition, but it was really funny to watch Curt (my sister's fiance) joining in. 

Brynn watched all the singing with Pawpaw!  She was so funny...clapping and making her little noises during the songs!

Later that night after Brynn and Ryan were in bed, I headed out to shop.  Actually, there wasn't anything I really needed or wanted to get, but some of my cousins were in town and Lindsey, Curt, and I went out to meet them at Walmart.  My mom wanted Lindsey to try to get some mattress cover, so I figured I'd experience the craziness with them all.  And WOW, it was CRAZY!  I have never seen it that bad.  People were fighting over towels, crockpots, and even kids pajamas!  I thought we were going to get trampled just waiting to get a mattress cover (which I ended up buying too by the way...it's amazing how the adrenaline and crazy people make you feel like you also need to buy something and join in the craziness).  Thankfully, we survived the chaos and made some fun and crazy memories along the way.

What a GREAT Thanksgiving Day! 

8 months!

November 22 marked Brynn's 8 month birthday!  Last Thanksgiving and Christmas when I was pregnant I remember thinking "wow...this time next year we are going to have an 8/9 month old during the holidays."  I can't believe that time is already here! 



 Month 8 has been a BIG month!  Here are some highlights...

• Brynn weighs about 19 pounds.
• She is wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes, although we've put her in a few things that say 12 month.
• She is in size 3 diapers.
• She started CLAPPING!  She loves to do it all the time! HA!
• She has become more vocal, and says "mamamamama!"  I know she probably doesn't associate it with me yet, but to hear her say "mamama" is so exciting! 
• She army crawls all over the place and can put herself in a sitting position, to a crawling position, back to a sitting position.  She likes to stand up, but can't pull herself up yet.
• She likes to feed herself puffs.
• She went to her first "concert".  Travis Cottrell came to our church and performed with our choir and she LOVED it.  When we were sitting, Ryan would hold her in a standing position and she just looked and clapped the whole time! 
• She has started sitting in her crib...sometimes she will sit before she falls asleep, but most of the time when she wakes up she sits and plays until we go get her. 
• She "tries" to drink from her sippy cup.  She will hold it and get water out of it, but usually spits it out and soaks her clothes! HA!
• She loves to play peek-a-boo and knock down my "block towers."  She loves to play with her soft babies and with the brush and comb.  She LOVES this musical table thing we have downstairs.  She is so content to play with people or play independently.
• She dropped her last catnap around Halloween. 
• Typical schedule...we go get her around 7 (toward the end of this month most days she has been sitting up awake when we go get her) and she takes a bottle around 7:30, then oatmeal and fruit.  Morning nap for an hour to an hour and a half (starting at 9 or 9:15), bottle around 11:30 or 12, with veggies.  Afternoon nap for about 2 hours starting at 1.  Bottle around 4:30, then veggies and fruit.  Then around 6ish when we eat she gets a bowl of oatmeal.  I nurse around 7:45 or 8 and she is asleep by 8:30. 
• She is just so much fun!  We love to take her on errands because she loves to sit in the shopping cart and look around.  We were definitely blessed with a happy baby and we love her little personality so much!   

Brynn you are amazing and we love you so much!  Happy 8 months!

Thanskgiving Break Starts Early

Well...it's Tuesday morning and I should be at school teaching but I'm home with STREP!  Yuck!  I taught all day yesterday and made an appointment after school because my throat was so sore...and sure enough the strep test was positive.  I had it in my mind I could make it through the day, but by the time I got to his office I felt so bad...I even started crying in front of my doctor.  How embarrassing!  Part of it was because my throat felt like it was on fire every time I swallowed, but the other part was because I was worried Brynn would get it, and because I was supposed to be "hands off" for a couple of days in regards to her.

I started antibiotics last night and I feel a lot better today, so I'm hoping with another dose tonight I'll feel way better tomorrow and be feeling good for Thanskgiving.

Here are just a couple of pictures of what Brynn's been up to the last week or so.

Doesn't she look so old?  We had a wedding this past weekend...she was all ready to go!

Smiley girl!

Ready for church on Sunday.  She LOVES buttons...this hat from Great-Aunt Soni is covered with them so she LOVES IT!

Her new FAVORITE toy...the comb I use to fix her hair!  She has really started understanding that things are still there even when she can't see them ("object permanence" from my early childhood days...haha!) and she has been yelling for a couple of seconds after we take it away!  Oh no....are we getting a sassy attitude?  HA!

Latest development...getting herself in a sitting position in her crib!  When we go in to get her in the mornings or after a nap she is usually always sitting up playing!  There are times we put her down and she just sits up and plays before she falls asleep...Ryan and I will look at the video monitor and laugh and say "child...lay down!"

New Jacket

We stopped at Target the other night to pick up some things...and ended up with a super cute little jacket!  Brynn needed a winter coat that was casual, and since we are suckers for North Face jackets (it's not a North Face, but looks similar) we had to buy it.  Ryan was such a pushover when he saw it..."she will be adorable in this...we have to get it!"  HA!  I can just see him in 16 years when she wants to pick out a prom dress...watch out.  She has daddy wrapped around her little finger!

When we got home today I just thought she looked too cute so I snapped a couple of pictures. 

Such a big girl in her jacket!

Do you guys like my jacket?

I don't really enjoy cold weather, but seeing this little cutie in her winter jacket just might make it worth it.  =)

Brynn's Baby Dedication

This past Sunday morning we had Brynn's baby dedication at church.  The dedication part was toward the beginning of the service, but we sang a couple of songs before it and Pastor Mark shared some announcements.  Brynn was cracking me up.  She has recently learned how to clap and she sat there in Ryan's lap and clapped pretty much the entire time we were singing and waiting for the dedication part.  Some of our friends in choir were cracking up! 

We had our camera and video camera ready (we had given them to our parents to use...you could tell we were the first time parents of the group.)  Ryan and I were laughing because his dad was already videoing before the dedication part even started! We were singing the VERY first song of the church service and there was Rick, videoing away.  When Ryan asked him about it later he said that he had to get Brynn clapping to the songs! =)

Walking up on the stage...

There were 2 other babies in our 10:30 service...watching them walk up on stage.

We have a great preschool director, Christy Brey.  She introduced us and talked for a couple of minutes.  Also dedicated in our service were Scarlett (to our friends Emily and Drew...poor Drew got "Scarlett spit-up" all over his shoes during the ceremony!) and Liam (to our friends Kurt and Ashley). 

Brynn was trying to clap the whole time.  =)

Listening to Pastor Mark talk about what our baby dedication means.

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Brynn forgot to bow her head for the prayer.  HA!

It was hard to believe that WE were the ones actually standing up their with OUR child!  It was almost surreal.  We love Brynn so much and thank God every day that He blessed us with her.  We want to raise her in a Godly christian home and teach her to love Him.  We pray that He would help us do the best job we can, and we are so blessed to have a wonderful church family to help us along the way!