Celebrating Christmas In Memphis

The weekend before Christmas, we headed to the Memphis area to spend a few days with Bruce's family and have 'Christmas' with them. Here are a few pictures from our weekend with them:

Brinley 'reading' a book before we exchange presents.

Brinley opening one of her gifts from Grandpa 'Jet' and Grandma 'Pet'.

What a pretty dolly!

Brinley playing with her puzzle pieces and other new toys from Grandpa 'Jet' and Grandma 'Pet'.

Brinley playing with A'Pexi's leash after a walk around the neighborhood while Grandma 'Pet' tries to read her a story.

Brinley showing Grandma 'Pet' that she knows how to build a tower with her blocks.

Grandpa 'Jet' trying to tickle Brinley.

Christmas Eve

When I was growing up, we had a small tradition in our house that Mom and Dad would let my brother and I open ONE present on Christmas Eve. So, while we were celebrating our first Christmas with a little one in 2008, we decided to continue this tradition in our family and let Brinley open one of her gifts. As you will notice in the video, she is at the stage where she thinks that any box around is something for her to sit or stand on. Silly girl...

Yesterday Ended With A Bang...Or Should I Say A Pop?

Yes...this would be Brinley's souvenir from the E.R.

Yesterday began like any other day. Brinley and I got up at...well, I won't even admit what time she let me sleep in 'til. We had our 'brunch', and then got ready so that we could go out and run some errands while Bruce was working over-time. Our first stop was Babies 'R Us to exchange a few things. After once again spending too much time--and money--in there we proceeded to Hallmark and then to SuperTarget to do our grocery shopping. I called Bruce while we were on our way home (about 4ish) to see how his day had been and what time he would be leaving work. (Don't worry, we weren't on a busy highway or anything. It was very rural roads...remember, we live out in the boonies now.) Bruce said that he was trying to wrap things up there at work for the day so that he could leave soon. Brinley and I proceeded home and when we got there, unloaded all our goodies and groceries. Anyone that has children knows this is a good 30-45 minute project when you have a toddler 'helping' you.

Bruce arrived shortly after Brinley and I were finished putting everything away. I immediately put him to work grilling hotdogs for supper while I started heating up the chili and got out all the yummy toppings. After Bruce finished grilling the hotdogs and had brought them in the house, I started making our plates and taking things over to the table. While this was going on, Bruce was playing with Brinley to keep her occupied while I was tying up all the loose ends for dinner. I wasn't watching them at this time, but all of a sudden I hear Brinley start crying. As any of you know that have been around us for an extended period of time, Brinley is some-what of a 'high-maintenance' baby , so to hear her fuss or cry isn't anything unusual, but after she kept carrying on even after we sat her in her high chair I started thinking something was really wrong. I asked Bruce why she started crying in the first place (remember, I wasn't watching them), and he said that he had pulled her up by her hands (which we have both done before numerous times and now know is a big no-no for little ones). He mentioned that when he did that, he thought he had heard something pop but just assumed it was one of her joints popping normally. At this time, Brinley is still carrying on and so after Bruce got finished inhaling his hotdogs I grabbed the diaper bag and we decided to head out to the Emergency Room at Providence Hospital, a Catholic hospital in Mobile. While in the car, Brinley settled down. Infact, she either fell asleep from crying or passed out because of the pain, but if we hit a bump in the road or if I took a deep breath (she was wrapped up in my lap because I didn't want to be forcing her arms through the straps of her carseat) she would flinch like it hurt her. When we finally arrived at the E.R. (which is one downside of living out in the middle of nowhere is that we are a good 25+ minutes away from Providence), we were relieved to see only two other people in the waiting area which meant that as soon as Bruce finished handing over the insurance card and signing a few papers, Brinley was able to be seen. (I have to mention, it was definitely the shortest time I've ever had to wait at the E.R.) When we got back to the triage area, we told the nurse what happened and that we suspected that one or both of Brinley's shoulders were dislocated because when her arms were moved even the slightest bit, she began crying out again. The nurse mentioned that it might actually be a dislocated elbow, and that the doctor would be in to look at it. After the doctor came in and felt her arm, he did a little 'tweaking' and then we were asked to wait in a recovery area. He said if it was infact her elbow that had been dislocated she should start to move it around again after 10 minutes or so. Sure enough, after several minutes, Brinley started to use that arm to rub her eyes and point to things in the room. After the doctor checked her over again and we were given our discharge papers, we were able to go home and resume our evening.

Once we made it home, Brinley acted as though nothing ever happened. She and I had a late dinner, she and Bruce played in the living room while I tidied up the kitchen and then it was bath, bottle and bed.


Brinley and her baby doll snuggled up in their pajamas and watching a movie together this evening.

After doing a little research on dislocated elbows in toddlers today, I learned that it most commonly happens to the left arm of baby girls inbetweeen the ages of 1 and 3--which fits Brinley to a 't'. Now that Brinley has had a dislocated elbow once, she is at a disposition of it happening again. Infact, my mother has told me that I had a dislocated elbow several times when I was a toddler, and that they really had to be careful with my arms--such as when they were holding my hands, putting my arms through shirts, etc. When children reach the age of 5, a dislocated elbow is less common because usually the bones and ligaments are finished growing and formed and aren't as loose as they were before.

So...that was our Friday night excitement. So far it has been a wet, cold weekend, and by looking at the forecast it seems like it will continue to be that way. The only upside to this weather is it is absolutely perfect for sipping cocoa and watching Christmas movies infront of a roaring fire. Unfortunately I have a little one that doesn't quite understand why she can't go outside to play when it is cold and raining...

St. Nicholas's Feast Day

"Time to open gifts from our stockings!"


"Hmmm...I wonder what's in here."


Daddy helping Brinley figure out her fish-shaped clapper.


"Mom...Enough pictures already!"


Unwrapping another gift.


"Oh, boy...new crayons!"


"To celebrate St. Nicholas's Feast Day, Mommy and Daddy stuffed my stocking with new books, new crayons and a clapper."

We're Still Here

Well, I hope that since I haven't been able to write an update until now --Brinley's naptime-- that you all didn't think that we blew away overnight. Overall, the weather has been fairly mild. It continued to rain steadily yesterday afternoon, evening, and last night. So far today has just been quite windy. The windspeed has been in the low 20s with gusts into the low 30s. From looking at the hour-by-hour forecast, it seems as though it is going to continue to be this windy until Wednesday evening or so and there's not any rain in the forecast until next Monday. It seems like we are going to be blessed with a beautiful weekend--one that will be perfect weather for being outside picking up branches, pinecones, twigs and other debris in the yard from the storm. We hope all of y'all have a gorgeous weekend as well, and now that we don't have a storm at our front door to worry about, I am hoping to get a few pictures uploaded for y'all soon since Blogger is still giving me trouble with video. Blessings to all!

Ida Update

Here she comes! www.wunderground.com

When I checked the weather shortly after 10 o'clock this morning, I learned Ida had downgraded from a Category 2 hurricane to a tropical storm overnight thanks to the cool front that came to our area. It has been raining steadily since noon and winds are clocking in at around 12 m.p.h. with gusts upto 21 m.p.h.. As I look at the hour-by-hour forecast, it appears that around 6:00PM or so, we are going to start experiencing 'severe weather'. Winds are going to steadily increase the rest of this afternoon and evening, and by midnight tonight, winds are expected to be at 35+ m.p.h. In the early morning hours the wind will slowly start to die down, the rain will begin to back off and by 7:00AM tomorrow morning our chance of rain will be 1t 70% (versus the 100% that it is now) and winds will have died down to a little over 20 m.p.h. By noon tomorrow, our chance of rain will be 30% with winds still about m.p.h.

I'm going to try to keep y'all updated. I hope to get at least one more blog entry posted before the end of today, but that will probably be after Brinley goes down tonight. Until next time...

(Completed at 2:45PM)

Hurricane Ida

www.wunderground.com

As I'm sure most of you know, Hurricane Ida is currently a Category 2 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Although it seems that Ida is headed straight in our direction, at this point the storm is expected to downgrade to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall then shift to the west towards Florida as it collides with the cool front that is headed our way.

Just so everyone knows, Bruce and I have been watching this storm very carefully this weekend and have already taken the precautions that we feel are appropriate at this time including a quick inventory of our emergency food stockpile to confirm that we have plenty of bottled water and non-perishables, insuring that we have plenty of batteries and that we know where the NOAA weather radio, corded telephone, flashlights, first aid kits and other emergency paraphenilla are. Bruce also went out this afternoon to top-off both of the cars with fuel and purchased a replacement propane tank for the grill should we lose electricity and need to do our cooking outdoors.

Since the rain isn't expected to arrive until early to mid afternoon tomorrow, in the morning Brinley and I are planning to move loose objects that are around the yard into the garage so that they don't become flying missles while we're having 35+ m.p.h. winds. Other than that, I think we're as prepared as we can be at this point. During the next few days, please keep us and all those along the Gulf Coast in your prayers.

Brinley Visits The Doctor

Well, I've been in the process of getting a new entry posted over the past couple of weeks, but I have been having trouble getting Blogger to upload my videos. Sooo...even though I am unable to share a couple of videos that I have, I would like to give you a little update.

The week before last, Brinley had her 18-month well baby check-up--about a month and a half late. Better late than never, right? Overall, her doctor was pleased with her growth and progress. She weighed in at 22lbs. and measured 31in. in height which actually puts her at approximately the 8th percentile for weight and approximately the 11th percentile for height for her age. Although this is actually a pound less than what she weighed at her 12-month well baby visit (which you can read about here), her doctor is not worried. She is eating well and in his words ' right on target otherwise'. None of this was surprising to me. I assumed that she is small for her age because she still has a bit of growing room in 18-month clothes--which she's been wearing for the past year. Yes, a YEAR! As I write this, she is actually sleeping in pajamas that I bought and she wore last winter...craziness! I guess she's going to take after her daddy stature-wise, and I'm just going to have a petite toddler on my hands.

Well, I hope all of y'all have been having this gorgeous, autumn weather that we've been blessed with lately. I am going to continue to try to get the videos uploaded to Blogger so that I can share them with you--which I hope will be soon! Until next time...

This Past Week

Last weekend was what I considered our first 'real' cold spell--you know, weather that actually required sweaters, pants and hats. Below is a short video of Brinley enjoying the cool weather. She loves to pick the tiny leaves off my bushes in my front flowerbed. Nana--my Mom--said that I should teach her to pick the leaves on the top part of the bushes so that I would never have to spend another weekend trimming hedges. Hmmm...that's not a bad idea!



Also, this past Wednesday Brinley had her 18-month well baby visit--nearly a month and a half late. Better late than never, right? Overall, her doctor was pleased with her growth and progress. She weighed in at 22lbs. and measured 31in. in height which actually puts her at the 8th percentile for weight and 11th percentile for height for her age. Although this is actually a pound less than what she weighed at her 12-month well baby visit (which you can read about here), her doctor is not worried. She is eating well and in his words ' right on target otherwise'. None of this was surprising to me. I assumed that she is small for her age because she still has a bit of growing room in 18-month clothes--which she's been wearing for the past year. I guess she's going to take after her daddy stature-wise, and I'm just going to have a petite toddler on my hands.

Anyway, here is a short video of Brinley and her Daddy stacking blocks together Thursday evening after he got home from work. I apologize for the noisy background. I had a load of Brinley's clothes in the dryer, and all the little snaps on her clothes made it sound like I had a handful of gravel in my dryer. Also, I apologize for the lack of commentary--I was feeling quite under the weather that evening with a migraine.



I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. So far, ours has been beautiful as we have been blessed with wonderfully cool, fall-like weather again.

Brinley and Daddy Coloring

Here is a short video from Saturday of Brinley and her Daddy coloring. It was the first time for us to have the crayons and coloring book out, and I think she enjoyed it. She doesn't have a lot of interest in coloring yet--I don't quite think she's grasped the concept yet--but we go over what crayons are which colors, and Bruce or I will draw shapes or write letters and numbers. Enjoy!

More Visitors and Household Projects

This past weekend we were blessed to have my mom and dad come visit us for a few days. Overall, we had a lovely weekend together. My dad and Bruce finished hanging up the gutters on the south side of the back of our home. (This was something that Bruce and his dad started a few weeks before but were unable to finish because time got away from them.) Dad and Bruce also finished laying the insulation down in the attic area over the garage. (When Bruce's parents were here, he and his dad installed the door and layed about half of the flooring of the attic storage with insulation.) Dad and Bruce also put plywood down over the insulation to act as flooring. Of course we had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company and we look forward to seeing each other again during the holidays. Here are a few pictures from our weekend together:

Brinley, Bruce, Mom and Dad working on getting the gutters hung.

A'Pexi sitting pretty and watching everybody else work.

~Brinley Anne~

Brinley pointing out the orange flowers to Mommy.

Brinley checking out Mommy's potted-flowers on the patio.

Nana and Brinley snuggling up to read a story together.

New Cell Phones=Videos To Share

This past week, Bruce and I gave each other new cell phones for our birthdays. While this may not seem like much to some, Bruce and I had used our old phones for about 4 years and to be honest, the only reason we decided to replace them was they were no longer working very well. So, since Bruce and I have never invested in a camcorder of any kind and have been wanting to for quite a while, I decided on an iPhone (which I am loving by the way!) that has an impressive camcorder feature that allows me upload videos that I take with my cell phone straight to youTube and seamlessly to Blogger to share with you all.

I am so excited to finally be able to share video of Brinley, and our lives in general, on our blog! While pictures are great, I know those of you that live far away from us--like 600+ miles away in Texas-- are just itching to see our little stinker cutie pie in action. So, without further ado, here is a short video of Brinley playing in our front yard this past weekend while her Nana and Papa were here to work visit.

Grandpa and Grandma Come To Visit...and Work!

This past weekend Bruce's parents, Joe and Cilla, came to visit us and see our new home for the first time. Aside from the rain showers that decided to visit us off and on, we had a great weekend. Joe and Cilla arrived Friday early afternoon. After a quick lunch the guys ventured out to Lowe's to get what supplies they knew they would need for the projects that they planned on doing over the weekend. Shortly after returning, they began to work on adding guttars to our home. Apparently guttars are quite a rarity here along the Gulf Coast, which is something that I don't quite understand since Mobile is literally the rainiest city in the U.S. After spending the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening working on the guttars, I served Taco Soup and Mexican Cornbread for supper and we had Chocolate Cake that Cilla brought so that Joe and I could celebrate our birthdays--his was the 16th and mine is the 2nd. That first evening we stayed up pretty late visiting and enjoying each others company.


Brinley helping her Daddy and 'Grandpa JET' with the gutters.

Saturday morning, Bruce and Joe made another trip out to pick up a few more supplies to create an attic access in our garage that they didn't have room for on Friday. Although our home has an attic access in the hallway, it was really only designed for accessing the a/c duct work and such. There really isn't any room at all to lay down plywood and and use as a storage area. So, Saturday morning after Bruce and Joe returned from the hardware store, they created an access in our garage. That evening, Bruce grilled steaks for dinner, and I put together a salad and baked potatoes for our side dishes. After having such a busy, work-filled day we didn't stay up visiting quite as late as we had the evening before.

Brinley and her 'Grandma PET' reading stories together.

Bruce parents left Sunday so they could stay a few days at Orange Beach before heading back up to Memphis. All in all, we had a wonderful visit. Bruce and I especially appreciate all the help that his parents provided. The gutters have been working like a charm, and I look forward to finish going through several boxes that are in our spare bedroom still unpacked from the moved and being able to properly store thing in our attic.

Now Bruce and I just need to make a 'to-do' list for Joe and Cilla's next visit. ;-)

Brinley's First Haircut

Yesterday, I got an itch to do a little bit of trimming on Brinley's hair. Since she has never had a haircut at all, there was quite a bit of unevenness because during her first year she lost some of her hair--mainly the sides--while other sections--mainly the top and back--just kept growing. Because her hair is quite thin and stringy as it is, trimming it up really did wonders for it. And just for the record, she was a very good girl while I was doing my work.

The front before her hair was trimmed--not too bad, but a little poofy.

Side profile before her hair was trimmed. Definately starting to resemble a mullet and we can't have that!

The back before her hair was trimmed--very stringy and uneven.

The front after her haircut. Much better!

Another picture of the front/top after her haircut.


"Enough pictures mommy...the lens cap is going on the camera!"

"I can't get it to stay on!!!"

Mommy adds a bow for the finishing touch.

Reading a book after Mommy was finished cutting hair.

Later that afternoon, she decided to stack every shoe that she could get her hands on into her push buggy. She would stack them up as high as she could get them. When they started falling over, she would take them all out and then restack them. Lately, she has been really interested in putting things in containers and taking them out over and over and over...

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend being Labor Day Weekend, Bruce, Brinley and I were blessed with a FOUR-day weekend together, and we spent our time piddling around the house and in the yard. To fullfill a few requests that I have had for current pictures, here are a few shots that were snapped over the past few days.

Picking up the balls in the backyard so Daddy can mow.

Watching Daddy mow the front yard.

Off to help Mommy water the flowers!

Trying on Daddy's cap.

Visiting Family

This past weekend we headed up to the Memphis area to spend time with Bruce's family. Here are a few pictures that Bruce's mom took while we were there:

The first evening that we were there, we celebrated Bruce's 31st birthday.

Having a snack while at Grandpa and Grandma's.

Daddy showing Brinley Grandma's pretty flowers.

Fourth of July Weekend (Nearly a Month Late) and More!

Wow! I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post...but a busy month it has been. As most of you know, my parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew came to visit us Fourth of July Weekend. This has become somewhat of an annual tradition for my parents, as they have been coming to visit on that holiday weekend for the past three years. However, this was Brandon, Emma and Cole's first visit, and we were so happy that they were finally able to do so. Their visit included a morning at the beach (which the babies loved!), dinner at one of my and Bruce's favorite restaurants in Ocean Springs--Jocelyn's, a visit to the Katrina Memorial in Biloxi, a tour of Beauvoir (the last home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis) and last, but not least, a walk-through of our new home.

The babies playing with the toys that Cole brought.

Cole and his Daddy enjoying the beach.

Brinley and her Nana wading in the water.

The gang at Beauvoir.

Brinley and her Uncle Bubbee reading a story the morning that everyone left to go home to Texas.

The following weekend, Bruce, Brinley and I moved into our new home with the generous help of some WONDERFUL friends of ours. Within the first few days, we had the living room, kitchen and dining area set up to our liking. There are still a few decorative touches that I would like to finish in Brinley's bedroom and the guest bathroom. Also, the master bathroom still needs a little organization, and the master bedroom still needs a few pieces of furniture swapped around in it. Other than that, things are going well. The spare room, which is acting as a storage room at this point, still needs some work. There are probably a handful of boxes in there that I need to go through, but I'm taking it one day at a time--and I have to with a little one under my feet that likes to 'help' Mommy. We still haven't fully decided what the spare room is going to be used for (whether it be an office, playroom, etc.) so that makes it kind of hard for me to find homes for things. Of course, time is also a huge contraint for us. Since Bruce commutes out of town for his job, that cuts down quite a bit on our weekday evening time which means that all the major household chores get squished into the weekend. Through trial and error, we're trying to find a routine that works well for us.

I think the one thing that we have absolutely fallen in love with about the property is the yard. At first Brinley was a little unsure of the different textures of the grass, sand, gravel and mulch that cover various parts of our property, but now I think she loves to explore. She definately knows the word "outside" so Bruce and I have to be careful not to use it unless one of us is able to take her out to play...otherwise we're asking for a fit.

Brinley and her Daddy kicking the soccar ball around one evening after Bruce got home from work.

She LOVES to play with her ball outside.

I can safely say that Bruce and I still haven't gotten used to the quietness of the neighborhood. You wouldn't think that would be such a hard thing to get used to, but it is, especially when you're used to living living in a crowded apartment complex right off of a busy highway. There are times during the day when nothing in the house is running--not the washing machine or the dishwasher or the dryer-- and I feel like I have to turn on the radio because it is just too quiet. The good thing about the quiet is that we have so many little critters come and visit our yard--various wildbirds, butterflies, squirrels, and the like.

Mr. Squirrel that comes to visit our backyard nearly everyday...

...and a pair of wildbirds that decided to sit on one of our side fences in the backyard.

I hope y'all have enjoyed this update and that everyone is doing well. Until next time...