Christmas Parade of Lights

This past Sunday night was Cape's annual Christmas Parade of Lights.  I LOVE watching it...it's always cold and really feels like the kick-off to all the December festivities!  We have a spot where we always watch it, and this year my parents were there, Pamaw and Papaw came, and Jason, Sarah, and their girls were there too.

Snuggling with Pamaw

My camera happy husband started taking pictures of lots of floats...don't worry, I deleted them...
I'm like "Ryan...when will we ever want to look at all those!" HA!

He did, however, get to keep his picture of the float from his work.  =)

She was SO EXCITED to watch it with Charli!  This picture was taken after she stopped making out with
Charli...HAHA!  She LOVES to kiss all over her!

COUSINS!

Ryan's brother Jason and his fam...LOVE them!

After the parade my mom made chili and we all went over there to hang out and eat and let the girls play.  We ended up going downstairs and having a HILARIOUS dance party!  These girls are REALLY into dancing!

Brynn has learned how to march.  She will look at you and say "much!" (That's how it sounds!)

HAHA!  We were trying to get her to do all these funny poses...HA!

Who would have thought that old keyboard would provide so much entertainment?

What a fun night!  At one point, Ansley was dancing so hard that the Christmas tree fell over on her!  (It was funny, not scary).  We also got to see some incredible "cruise ship moves" by Jason and Ryan.  (They were recreating some of the dances we watched while on our cruise a few years ago...hilarious!)  

20 months!! (and 19 too!)

On Thanksgiving Day, this little cutie turned 20 months old!  (I absolutely CANNOT believe that means she will be 2 in four months!  That blows my mind!  For some reason I can see Ryan and I as parents of a baby, but it seems crazy to think of ourselves as parents of a TWO year-old!)

There isn't a DAY that goes by that Brynn doesn't seem to learn something new, or say something new, or assert a little more independence.  =)  She is growing up so fast and is just the MOST incredible little thing (not that I'm biased or anything!)  Here are a few things from the last month...

• She weighs about 25ish pounds.
• Wears a size 5 diaper, size 5 or 6 shoe, and wears 18-24 month clothes.
• She has 12 teeth...all of them except her incisors and last set of molars.  But a top and bottom incisor both JUST cut through.  I"m sure it will be a little while before they are all the way in, but you can feel that they've cut through the gums.  The other two are right there.
• Her sleeping has been really good.  She's at this age where even if something wakes her up at night (like her teeth...that's happened a couple of times in the last month) I can go in, give her tylenol and rub some oragel on her teeth, and say "it's not time to get up yet, so lay back down and mommy will come get you in the morning" and she lays right back down.  (I'm sure our next child won't be this good of a sleeper so I'm going to enjoy it now!  HA!)  I cannot say enough how thankful I am for her sleeping!  And the last couple of weeks it almost seems like she's rearranged her sleeping a little bit...instead of sleeping until 8 or 8:30 she's usually up by 7:30 or 8 and seems to take an hour longer nap??  Interesting.
• She is jabbering up a STORM!  I have no idea how many words she knows, but it's a LOT!  She knows a LOT of names of people, and a ton of other words.  Tonight we were laughing because Ryan said "I bet she knows 500 words!"  (Of course she doesn't know THAT many...) but I said "no way" and so he started holding up things and having her say them.  She got all of them right, and each time we started laughing more and more.  When he held up the jar of jelly and she said "jeh-ee" I was DYING!  I think she is one smart little cookie!
• POTTY - Who would have thought she would love to use the potty!  We got her a little pink potty (post coming soon) just because she's shown such an interest in it.  We are in NO WAY attempting to potty train, but if a kid wants to sit on the potty and make some pee-pee then I'm NOT going to stand in the way of that!  The last couple of days she still pees and poops in her diaper all the time, but she also wants to sit on the potty and every time she CAN and WILL pee-pee in it!  She's sat on it and gone about 6 times in a row!  
• Mama's Girl - The last couple of weeks she has really been into MOMMY!  Sometimes she won't even let Ryan hold her...she just will say "mommy!"  One night she even pointed for Ryan to sit at a different spot for dinner...oh my!
• She is really good about praying for dinner...if we forget she will say "pay" (pray) and put her hands together.  That's pretty bad when your child has to remind you....
• She LOVES to dance...my parents have a keyboard that plays all these songs and she LOVES to go down there and dance.  That's a big favorite of hers right now.
• She still doesn't watch much TV independently...she will watch stuff on the DVD player in the car, but at home I don't think she has sat more than about 4 minutes to watch something...DARN!  I'm hoping this changes soon.  =)  I would LOVE for her to sit and watch even 10 minutes of something while I'm cooking!  She does LOVE Elmo ("Melmo")  and Abby from Sesame Street.  She loves for me to turn it on but just doesn't sit and watch much of it.
• She really likes to do things herself and frequently will say "no, me!" because she wants to try to brush her own teeth or put on her own shoes.  We've had to get out the "no no spoon" several times over this!  HA!
• She knows several colors!  She doesn't say them right all the time, but about 75% of the time she can correctly identify (wow...that sounds like my inner kindergarten teacher doing report cards) blue ("boo"), green ("neen"), purple ("puh-ple"), pink ("peek"), and yellow (lel-ooow).  It is really crazy to me how she knows that!

The last few months have just flown by as we've enjoyed fall and the beginning of all the fall and winter holidays.  I'm enjoying my time home with her SO MUCH (but I also love subbing part time...I feel like I have the best of both worlds!).  My heart has just been so full with how special she is and how blessed we are to be her parents.  There is never a dull moment with little Brynnie around!

Pingel Thanksgiving - A Little Trip To The Farm

This past Sunday we headed to Perryville to celebrate Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family.  We went to my Uncle Gary's house, which is the house that my dad and all his siblings grew up in.  They still use the barn and have cows, etc. so we after we ate we took a walk out to see the barn.  It turned into one of the MOST FUN times!!!  What special memories I have from Sunday out on the farm!

I was supposed to bring a dessert so I decided to bring this brownie recipe that has been all
over Pinterest.  It's the one with cookie dough on the bottom, oreos on top of that,
and then brownie batter on top!

Here it is ready to go into the oven.  These brownies were DELICIOUS!  Online they were called
"slutty brownies" but the girl said they would be the perfect brownie to eat after a bad break-up
so we changed the name to "break-up brownies!"  HA!  It's a lot better walking in to a family gathering and
saying "hey, I brought break-up brownies" rather than "slutty brownies anyone??"  HA!

My grandma has been broken her hip twice in the last few months and has been  in a nursing home
because of it.  But my Uncle Tom was able to pick her up from the nursing home and bring her to Thanksgiving!
They were joking that she was the Queen of Sheba because everyone carried her out to the garage
where we were eating!

The meal was SOOOOO GOOD!!!  Oh my gosh, it was delicious.  Then after we ate we decided to take Brynn to see the barn.  Turns out, even though Ryan's been to my Uncle Gary's several times, he had never been to the barn either!  So it was a lot of fun letting my Dad and my uncles tell Ryan about growing up on the farm and just hearing all their stories.

Brynn was wearing this cute little Christmas outfit (actually I think it was the same outfit she wore to see
Santa the day before...don't judge! HA!) and then she kept wanting to wear my dad's hat...I thought she looked
adorable!

My heart is full!!!

Then we walked up to the second floor of the barn...Brynn was saying "CHEESE!"

My dad and his brothers were so funny..."Do you remember the time that cow did this?  Do you guys
remember when that cat bit me when I was over here milking"...etc...it was really funny!

Then she found Uncle Gary's farm cat...oh this girl...I think she was made to live out on a farm!

Here she is chasing the cat...she kept pulling its tail and saying "come on cat!"
We were like "oh my gosh...that was three words together!  HA!"
"come on cat!" (It sounded more like "cuh awn tat!")

In my dad's family there were 5 boys and 1 girl...here are Uncle Wayne and Uncle Curtis reminiscing...

The boys agreed to pose for me...HA!  These are the four oldest boys in order from left to right...Uncle
Gary, Uncle Wayne, my dad, and then Uncle Curtis.  Uncle Tom was inside with Grandma.

 We walked out past some woods to where my Uncle Gary and his son hunt...who do you think wanted to climb up in the deer stand?  Ryan, of course...and then Brynn wanted to go up the steps ("up, up, up").  Ryan took her up and she LOVED looking down and waving.  She has been really into the word "hunting" lately.  When Ryan went hunting a few weekends ago we would ask her "where is Daddy?" She would say "hunting!"  (It was adorable..."hunt-eeeng"...and then anytime we would say "where's Daddy?" she has been saying that.  Even when he's just at work she always says he's hunting.)  So when they went up in the deer stand everyone was like "Brynn...you are hunting!"  It was hilarious!  For the rest of the day my family would say "Brynn, what did you get to do today?"  She would say "hunt-eeng."  My dad asked "Ryan, when do you think you will take her hunting with you for the first time?"  Ryan's answer?  "Kindergarten!"  AHHHH!

I kept saying "Ryan...are you holding on to her?"  Oh my gosh, she was up so high and she kept
leaning over so far to wave!

She LOVES to be outside...little country girl at heart!

I have tried to be so thankful this holiday season.  But spending time with my dad and his brothers out on their old farm was just another reminder of how blessed our family is.  Things could have been very different this Thanksgiving, and while I don't want to dwell on the "what if's", I DO want to thank God for his healing power and  for my dad still being here with our family.  The memories and fun that we had are priceless, and it's a day I will treasure forever!

Milk and Cookies with Santa

On Saturday, Saint Francis (the hospital where Ryan works) had a special event called "Milk and Cookies with Santa."  It's something they do every year and it's so cute.  The kids can get their picture with Santa, they get candy and cookies and milk, do little crafts, etc.  It was really fun taking Brynn, although she wasn't nearly as excited to see Santa as she was the day before!  I think part of it was that we walked right in and she didn't have any time to get "adjusted."  HA!

She wasn't really interested in walking up by herself like she was the day before...and since parents
could go with them, Daddy got to pose with Santa too!

FAMILY SHOT...Brynn's face cracks me up!

She wasn't nervous at all to run up to the table full of cookies!

Some of our friends from church were there...so Brynn got to eat with Parker and Trey!

I guess Brynn felt a little more comfortable after she got to watch Santa the whole time she was eating milk and cookies.  All of a sudden there was a break in the line, and Brynn hops off her chair, takes her candy cane, and walks over to Santa.  She gives him her candy cane and then walks back!  HAHA!  I could not stop laughing...what goes through her little brain??

"And now my job of spreading Christmas cheer is COMPLETE!"

We had a fun time visiting Santa...or at least eating the milk and cookies.  =)