Brendan had such a great Christmas that he was in the dancing mood and happily danced all morning long when he wasn't playing with his new toys. A big thank you to all the loved ones who were kind enough to give Brendan some awesome presents. He absolutely loves each and every one of them, and I am not exaggerating. He was was so excited to open each gift and had to play with it for a few minutes before we could move on to the next. It was pretty awesome.

Christmas would not have been perfect without a Dancing Brobee. Brobee waves his arms and shuffles his feet while singing a song so naturally Brendan adores it. We've seen it in the stores a few times and we've had to drag him, kicking and screaming, away from it. It was a given that Santa had to bring him this toy.

He gave each toy his undivided attention for a few minutes before I would rip it out of his hands so we could move on.


He especially loves his new Thomas the Tank Engine Bulgy toy that his Great Grandma Russell sent him. Brendan has just recently discovered Thomas and his friends and runs around the house saying "choo-choo" in the sweetest little voice. It makes me smile every time. So when he opened this he was so excited! His excitement grew when he realized it's motorized and runs on a little track. Now he is constantly asking to play with this toy and to watch the TV show.

And of course, Curious George had to make an appearance. Grandma and Grandpa Near sure do know what he likes! He likes to pick up the George figurine and say "George" over and over.

This Christmas was especially fun watching Brendan tear into his gifts and hearing him ooh and aww over them. He made the day especially bright for us. I've always loved this holiday but it now has new meaning and pleasure for me since Brendan has entered our lives.

Again, thank you family and friends for your thoughtfulness! We have the happiest little boy in the world thanks to all of you! And don't worry Steph and Brent, we'll make sure Brendan gets good use out of his cool robot you gave him. Brendan keeps trying to get into the plastic box. :)

We may be a little absent from the blogging world for a while as we get ready to make the trek to New Hampshire the end of this week. We are officially leaving Saturday morning. I still have lots to do but the good news is that we have an apartment when we arrive in Berlin! I'll try to make updates if possible but it will most likely not be until we're settled.

Tomorrow is Christmas

And tonight we celebrated by having Brendan show off his new pj's. Can I brag for a second about these sweet jammies? I got them at Gap for $6. They were originally $22. I was very proud of my deal hunting skills and relieved that Brendan got his new pajamas for Christmas. I had planned on sewing him a pair but that just didn't happen and since I only spent $6 on these, I feel pretty good about it.

We also got Brendan a new toothbrush for an early Christmas gift. He really really LOVES his toothbrush but only because he likes the flavored toothpaste that goes along with it. He's gone through 2 toothbrushes because he constantly carries them around and chews on the bristles. I'm determined that this one will last longer.


Here he is just sucking the fruit flavored toothpaste off. We're working on the brushing part.

Here is my big boy doing it all by himself. I really am amazed at how independent he is. He loves to do things by himself and he's starting to throw fits if we don't let him. If I try to brush his teeth, he gets quite angry.

But if Chris does it, of course it's okay. He is such a daddy's boy! Chris was behind the camera for once but Brendan really wanted to get in his lap and have him brush his teeth. At least we got some brushing in.

And the night would not be complete without some pre-Christmas spinning! After a few minutes, he could hardly pick himself up off the ground.

After all this spinning, we tried to settle him down for bed time. As we read about the birth of our Savior, I couldn't help but feel extremely blessed. My sweet little family is the best gift I could have this season. And we're lucky that we'll be able to spend tomorrow with more family. We had a very festive Christmas Eve here and are looking forward to a great day tomorrow.

Can you believe there are only 3 days left until Christmas!?!

I can't. I don't know where the time has gone but I would like an extra week back. I don't think we're quite ready for Christmas here. I haven't been very full of holiday cheer yet and I've done absolutely zero holiday baking. Our Christmas decorations are at a minimum since I'll just have to repack them in a short time anyways. We've been so busy getting things ready for the big move that we've neglected Christmas shopping for the most part, although we did try to go on Saturday and it was complete chaos at the mall so we basically walked in and turned right back around.

We had another large snowfall today and I'm glad that it looks like we'll have a white Christmas at least! Brendan was having a rough day today so I took him out in the snow to help cheer him up. It worked for approximately 2 minutes. He enjoyed the falling snow and trying to catch the snowflakes in his hands but his good mood quickly turned sour.



I don't know what made him angry but even his dad's arrival didn't cheer him up completely (don't you love the bed-head). So we've been watching lots of Curious George this evening to keep him happy. I think the poor guy must not be feeling well... just in time for Christmas!


But it appears that candy canes also work in cheering him up. Although if you don't open it fast enough for him, he'll let you know.

Snow Days

It's a good thing I like to be prepared. We bought Brendan these snow boots 2 months ago and it FINALLY snowed enough for him to enjoy it. Chris helped pick out the boots- his only request was that they be as close to 80's moon boots as possible. I think we came pretty close.

Brendan REALLY likes his boots. He has worn them for 2 days straight and enjoyed jumping in slush and puddles while we were out running Christmas errands today.

I think our boy is addicted to snow. He loved being outside in it despite the cold temperature. He even braved picking some up in his bare hands although that didn't last long. I do have mittens for him but he refuses to keep them on so he had to learn the hard way. He still won't wear the mittens though.

I'm glad that the snow is finally here and for the nice distraction it's proving to be for us. We've been having some cabin fever lately so it was fun to get outside and play around. And I'm glad we're not experiencing sub-zero temperatures like some of our family and friends in other areas of the country! This is what I'll miss about Utah- one minute it's a mini-blizzard out and an hour later the sun is out and we're enjoying the fresh snow.

Because I am impatient

I was waiting for Chris to write a witty post to explain our up-coming journey but I'm tired of waiting. So here's the scoop- we're moving to New Hampshire in three weeks. Berlin, NH to be exact. Chris accepted a job offer with a PR Measurement firm as the their new Director of Research. Berlin is a small but beautiful town and we're excited to be moving on to new things. If interested, you can see some really beautiful pictures of our new town here and here.

We also finally got our Christmas tree up last week. Brendan had fun running around the lot zig-zagging between the trees and making us chase him. He was hard to keep track up with so many places to hide! But we finally picked one out and got it home. Brendan wasn't very interested in helping decorate it but liked looking at all the ornaments.

He also liked to pull them off and then throw them back into the tree. And he has a strange obsession with throwing his blocks into the tree as well. He laughs and laughs the whole time.

He also LOVES to jump off of things now. Sometimes he barely gives us enough warning that he's about to jump but luckily he hasn't gotten hurt yet.


And my little Picasso. He really loved the paint although it was a bit messy and he kept wanting to paint everything in sight. I should have prepared more but at least I know for future painting sessions.

Hopefully we'll be able to keep a normal routine around here the next couple of weeks as we get ready for the big move.

A few things

I was tagged by my friend Angela some time ago to post the 4th photo in the 4th folder on my computer... so here it is.

Sorry it took me so long, Angela! This brought back some memories. Brendan looks so little and he's got a scrape on his nose from pulling our box fan onto himself. And I bought his shirt from Baby Gap for this occasion and returned it the next day. It served its purpose. $20 was a little too pricey to spend on a tiny shirt.

And to keep the tagging tradition alive, I will tag my lovely friends Bekah and Teagan.

Any who, did I ever mention that my friend Jenn took some ADORABLE pictures of us? Well, she did and I love them. Brendan was a bit of a handful (not surprising) but luckily we got some cute ones of him.

He mostly just wanted to run around like a madman and play, so Jenn snapped some pictures of him in action. So cute.

And his sweet Converse shoes. I can't believe she caught him still long enough to get this photo but it's one of my favorites.

And in bigger news, the three of us will soon be moving. Soon. I'll leave you in suspense for now until Chris has a moment to write up a post explaining. There are a few of you already in the know so try not to ruin my fun. Hee hee.

All by myself

But luckily, not for much longer. Chris has been out of town since Tuesday (he left before dawn) and comes home late tonight. So I have been holding down the fort here all by my lonesome. But Brendan has been keeping me good company and I've been finding ways to keep busy.

Like seeing the Twilight movie, which even though I laughed out loud several times at horrible special effects, I really liked it. More than I thought I would. I guess it helps I didn't have high expectations. So despite a weirdo actor playing Jasper who looked like Edward Scissorhands and Nina from "24" season 1 playing Bella's mom, it was good. And I'm glad I got to go with my sister so I didn't have to make Chris sit through it.

I also added some of my Christmas stockings to my Etsy shop and I now have a total of 13 to make for people. I'm keeping very busy with sewing and embroidering. I even had to call my sister over to come help me. I have officially completed 3 so only 10 more to go. Yippee.

Hopefully we'll have more exciting things to report soon. We are planning to pick out a Christmas tree and do some fun activities this weekend (especially Chris' work party where he will be the special musical guest, I kid you not), so look for that soon.

Thanksgiving was last week

This is mostly a montage of pictures for everyone to enjoy. The old saying "a picture says a thousand words" is kind of true, but I've found that they don't say the exact words I want them to say so I'll fill in a few of my own words. Thanksgiving this year took place at The Gilchrist home up in Logan. The weather was nice, the food was good and the company was adequate. Just kidding, the company was spectacular, a fun time for all.

The first picture portrays the grandparents trying to hold onto the grand kids for a few seconds. The grandparents were nice enough to drive all the way out here to visit us. Leila didn't mind sitting, but Brendan did because he prefers not to be still, especially when there are new toys to play with.

The second picture portrays Carrie making an apple pie. Due to Brendan's sleep schedule we left before we were able to try it. That almost ruined Thanksgiving for me, but the other delicious pies made up for it. They included: chocolate cream with almonds, Reece's peanut butter cream, and a pumpkin turtle pie. All very good.

The third picture portrays Aaron sleeping. The lame football games put him right to sleep. Whoever decided that the crappy Detroit Lions should play every Thanksgiving wasn't too bright. Nobody wants to watch that team.

Pictured in the fourth photo is me, also asleep from the boring football games. Actually, I might have just blinked when the photo was taken, but that doesn't make the crummy football game anymore exciting.

The fifth picture shows the little kiddies playing with a fun toy that uses air pressure to blow little balls through some tubes and into the air out of the top of the toy. Perhaps the only thing louder than the kids screaming and playing was the motor on this toy. It was loud and forced everyone to yell if they wanted to be heard. The only kid not pictured here is Spencer. He was playing with his dinosaurs. He is an expert on dinosaurs and he told us all about their life cycle including some mating rituals. If you aren't familiar with T-Rex's mating rituals, then you should definitely consult with Spencer, it would be well worth your time and money. He charges a small fee.

This next picture is Valerie and Brendan. This may or may not have been taken on Thanksgiving. Let's assume that it was and we'll say that the food on Brendan's cheek is gravy. Valerie took almost all of the pictures so it was hard to find one with her in it.

The final picture is a sweet picture of Uncle Beefy feeding Brendan a plastic cookie cutter. He told Brendan that it would be delicious and to take a big bite of it. Poor little Brendan took the bait and got a mouth full of Chinese produced plastic. Okay, so Johnny-B didn't really trick Brendan. Brendan voluntarily eats plastic all of the time, but Johnny-B probably would have tricked him if he hadn't started heating it on his own.

So Thanksgiving break was nice. It was good to see family and it was good to give thanks for our bounty of things and blessings. So a Merry Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night.

All better

Brendan is feeling much better luckily and back to his normal self. After 5 days of throwing up and diarrhea, I'm very glad that we're done with that. It was a long 5 days.

I know it's still a little early, but I've been working on our Christmas stockings so I can put them up next week. After 6 years of being married, Chris and I never got around to getting stockings so I figured I better get on the ball. Brendan's was the first to be completed.


And Chris even contributed. I didn't like any of the stocking patterns I found so he helped me draw one out and this is what we came up with. I think it looks pretty good!

Now I just have to finish ours and we'll be all set!

Hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

While I have a minute...

Today has been quite the day and Brendan is finally napping, giving me a few moments of rest. He seems to have caught some nasty bug and has been throwing up. He's not able to keep anything down but for the most part, he is in good spirits. We went through this last year, so we know the drill. He'll be on a diet of toast today.

And just for fun, some pictures of Mary and Brendan. Mary wasn't very happy when Stephanie left for class but I couldn't help taking a picture. It was pretty cute.


Brendan gave her a hug to help cheer her up.


And then proceeded to play with a car on top of her head. She didn't mind though. I think she's used to Brendan putting things on her head by now.


She was fun to have over and Brendan enjoyed every minute of it. And it was super nice when we had to run a few errands with the two of them in tow. For some reason, Mary's presence seemed to help Brendan behave much better than normal. Thanks, Mary!

It's been a crazy week

Our lives have been a bit hectic this past week and I'm very much looking forward to the weekend. Mostly because this weekend involves some fun birthday activities and celebrations. Yay!

This week has been good too. Brendan recently started saying some more words, miraculously. Now, this probably isn't a big deal to most of you but for me, it was HUGE. Brendan refuses to talk. He can say a handful of words but will not use them. I've tried forcing him too but decided against it since I don't want him to have a negative association with talking. So we've waited patiently and I have a feeling that he'll be taking off real soon. This week, he freely spoke when I asked him to repeat back to me: "train", "gross", "cool", "cat", "teeth" and "cookie". He's still got a ways to go, but this definitely eased some of the stress and worry I feel about him not talking.

Brendan doesn't usually like to read books with me but has recently begun to request we read Walter the Farting Dog over and over. He loves this book and so do. It's hilarious.

I love this time together. It's not very often that Brendan is still.

We've also had lots of time outside despite the cold and rainy weather. Brendan never seems to care what it's like outside, he's just happy to be free to run around like a maniac. He always has to bring a ball with him too and often gets it stuck under a car. Chris is nice enough to fetch them for him. I love this picture.

And we've had some of these moments too around here. *sigh* For the most part though, Brendan's pretty easy to please but he's pretty close to the "Terrible Two's" and I think he started early.

I love that sad face. I don't remember what he was angry about- it could have been anything but luckily he gets over it pretty quickly.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!