To my mom

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Little Homie

Brendan absolutely loves to play with Chris's hat- especially when he's wearing it. For some reason, he's completely intrigued by it. He loves to stand or sit in his dad's lap while he proceeds to try to stuff as much of the bill into his mouth. So the other night, Chris decided that Brendan needed to try it on.

The result was the cutest homeboy you've ever seen. Our little gangster is growing up.

The cutest hand prints

Brendan recently discovered how dusty our home is. I was in the kitchen when I heard him start screaming. He had used the entertainment center to hoist himself up (a common occurance, hence all the tape to keep the doors and drawer closed) but must have slipped in all the dust. He hit his little head right across the top of his nose, which made for a lot of tears.
But afterwards, I noticed the little hand prints from where his hands slipped. They are just the cutest little things. Maybe only a mother could think so...

Another fun evening at the park

It's been a little chilly here the several days so I'm glad that we were able to get in some more time at the park before it turned cold. Brendan loved the swings again and cried when it was time to get out.

We were also able to spot some ducks, which I fed some chocolate chip cookies to draw them near enough so Brendan could take a good look and I could snap some photos. They seemed to enjoy the cookies more than I did- I cooked them just a little too long so they were quite crunchy. I do not enjoy crunchy cookies at all so I'm glad the ducks ate them.

Brendan had a great time and we really enjoyed it as well. It was a lovely evening and it tired out Brendan so bedtime was extra easy- which is always a good thing! Hopefully the weather will warm back up a little bit so we can sneak in some more trips to the park.

Brendan thought it was his party

On Tuesday, I threw my sister a baby shower, which was so fun. I had a blast getting everything ready, and luckily I had some very kind and fun helpers. I say things turned out quite well- especially for Steph. She got some awesome gifts! That baby is going to be quite stylish! I'll let Steph do most of the blogging for her baby shower so check it out soon.

Earlier that afternoon, I went to the dollar store and purchased several balloons to tie to our front porch. When I came home with them, Brendan was so excited so I couldn't resist letting him play with them.

I love the blurred balloons. He was shaking them so hard as you can tell by the pictures below.

His adorable little smile peeking out from behind the ballons- too cute for words!

And my favorite...

This little boy is just a ball. He definitely knows how to start a party!

Fun in the crib

Try as we might, Brendan gets more riled up at bedtime than any other time. I try quite hard to make it a quiet routine so he can drift easily off to sleep, but that never happens. Instead, he cracks himself up and rolls around in his crib. And now lately, he pulls himself up and chomps on the crib side.
I wonder how long he does this before he goes to sleep?

Box

I received a package in the mail a couple of days ago and Brendan was entranced by the box. Everytime I tried to take it away, it caused an unnecessary amount of tears. Needless to say, I'm a sucker for this little boy so he got to keep it around. And it turned out to be a very useful "toy". Brendan has been using it to practice his standing skills.

He is probably just as proud of himself as I am of him! Standing is definitely now his favorite activity.

Bye-Bye

Gone!

I can hardly wait...

I know I'm spoiling a little bit of the fun and surprise since October 31st is still quite a ways away but, I can't resist. I'm just so excited about Brendan's Halloween costume. At first I thought I was going to get a pirate costume (the eye patch was almost too good to resist- but it wouldn't have stayed on anyways) but then I saw this little goodie go on sale at OldNavy.com.

Can you blame me?!

Swings

Friday evening, we were invited to a birthday party for another little boy in our ward which took place at this really cool park in Orem. We'd never been there before but we really enjoyed it and I'm sure we'll be back soon. The best part was the swings. Brendan's first time in a swing and he loved it.

He's been a little cranky the past few days (due to more teeth coming in, I'm assuming) so I took him over the swings mostly to distract him from being whiny. It paid off. He was instantly in smiles and even giggled a few times for us.

These pictures turned out so cute and I just love the lighting from the setting end-of-summer sun. So precious and I really don't want the summer to end since I know these moments will now be fleeting and just as Brendan is really able to enjoy the outdoors. Ah well, there's still the fun of the snow to come in the winter, but we'll take all the warm days we can get now!

Labor Day? More like Barbecue-Guitar Hero-Fun-time Day

First of all, for Labor Day we went up to Johnny-B and Erin's place for a barbecue. The barbecue and company was great and all, but the most intriguing part of the day was that we discovered Valerie's hidden talent for playing Guitar Hero. Everyone that had never played it tried it out and pretty much stunk, then Valerie gets up and plays some Guns 'n Roses and nearly plays it perfect. Valerie truly is a guitar hero. Brendan was going to try it out after Valerie, but the guitar was literally on fire after she played it so hard.

So Labor Day was good. We thought it might become an In-Labor Day for Carrie as she is quite close to giving birth, but unfortunately we're still waiting. And I think now would be the appropriate time and place to announce that they just found out they are having a boy. Tune in next month to my next posting to see if I'm telling the truth or not.

Now Brendan (as you can tell from the above photo) really enjoyed his visit with his cousins and aunts and uncles. He got to play with Leila lots and he got to play with some keys that Aaron lent him. Brendan's new favorite thing is to eat keys or pretty much anything that is really dirty.

The bottoms of shoes are also a favorite; I think Valerie taught him that one.

So all in all the holiday was a nice break before school and work started up again. In fact, reality quickly set in for all of us when we got home and found out that our apartment had been flooded from our newly broken water heater. Fortunately, we have the most amazing manager that immediately took care our every need. Actually, our manager is completely incompetent and fixing everything will be an ongoing process that may well last into next year so stay tuned for updates over the next few months.

In closing, I've posted a picture of a shoe that Valerie is trying to sell. If there are any interested buyers out there please give us a call. Satisfaction guaranteed.

- End communication.

A rainbow and a fly-swatter

Sunday brought a quick and strong rain shower which produced the most beautiful and bright rainbow that I've seen in a LONG time. I really can't remember the last time I saw one but I guess that's what you get when you live in the desert. Gotta love the beehive state. But it was beautiful and I even captured it on film. Now Brendan can always remember his first rainbow sighting... although he didn't seem too interested in it.

Brendan has also moved on from his love-affair with spoons. He discovered the world of fly-swatters. Our neighbor bought one for us since we seem to share the annoying abundance of flies but it hasn't been used once yet to kill one of the nasty buggers. Instead, Brendan has found a new best friend. My favorite thing about Brendan is how the most simple things are the most precious to him. He's just a sweetheart. Could there be a cuter boy in the world? I think not.




Seriously, I am so lucky. He is usually always this happy. What an abundant life!

Adventures in crawling

Crawling is a scary thing for me. Not only because I'll have to start keeping a better eye on Brendan but also because I know it means walking is not too far off, and that means running will soon follow that. Yikes! But it's so fun to watch Brendan try SO hard to crawl. He's doing quite well as he can now crawl four or five times without falling on his face. In the past two days, he's made leaps and bounds in crawling and Chris estimates that by the end of the week, he'll be going full steam. I've tried to snap some good action pictures of his crawling adventures so I hope you enjoy!

In other Brendan news, he had his first (and hopefully only) fall off of our bed. It was probably the worst moment of my life. Early Sunday morning, as we were getting ready for church, I put Brendan on our bed to play around on while I tried to get his clothes ready for the adventure that is dressing Brendan. You have to dress him as quick as you can or else he just screams the whole time... so there I am fussing with some new socks and the next thing I know, my baby is falling to the floor. How it happened, I still don't know- I was standing 4 inches from him but being the expert roller that he is, he just plowed right by me onto the floor. I've never heard him cry like that before. It was unbearable.

Then, of course, I was worried that he had a concussion and that he shouldn't take his morning nap but after about 10 minutes or so, Brendan was his normal self and he stayed that way throughout church, so I figured I was being a little overly worried. He's fine and he still loves me. Thank goodness!

Brendan's first camping excursion

This past Friday, our ward had their annual campout. We didn't stay the night (no surprise there) but we did head down for the evening to enjoy some of the festivities, this being Brendan's first experience with a campfire and marshmellows and all- how could we not?! It was fun and Brendan had an excellent time being passed around. He even got to stay up WAY past his bedtime but luckily being outside and new faces tend to distract him and keep him happy. He eventually fell asleep in the my arms before we left and was so worn out that we enjoyed a full night's rest. That's right... he slept through the night! Woo-hoo! Let's hope this becomes a regular occurance!

Small Fry

Brendan is 8 months old and still swimming in his clothes for 6 - 12 months, but he's gotten to the point where his 3 - 6 month clothes are a little tight. His shorts were daisy dukes on him. :) So we've transitioned to the larger size and it cracks me up. He's such a small fry... I guess that's one thing he's gotten from me- for now. His feet are soooooo big for his age; the doctor said he'll grow into them sooner or later. For now, I'm happy that he's still little. My baby is getting too big too quickly!