Just a little thing

A while ago we were just out running errands and we spotted a hot air balloon. We didn't really have anything else to be doing so we pulled over into a parking lot and spent a little bit of time watching it. It was so fun and the kids were enthralled. Morgan was so curious about how it works and what the fire does and Ian would get a little distracted and start trying to climb up the back windshield (since we all just sat on the trunk of the neon) but all you had to say was "Where's the balloon" and he would immediately whip around saying "Boon! Boon!" and find that puppy floating in the sky. Eventually Ian got tired of it and wouldn't quit climbing the car so we gave up on it, but it sure was fun while it lasted :)

Rain is Falling All Around

Since we don't have a tree skirt, I always put some of the fluffy batting under our tree. I kind of like it in my own ghetto way, because it's the only snow we see around here. Anyhow, I will NOT be using it next year because this year it ended up ALL over my house. But this particular use of it made me laugh. Morgan rounded up some pencils and stuck them in the bottom of some poofs of the stuff and her and Ian spent a good hour gallivanting around the house singing about rain clouds and making it rain on me :)

Neeeeeeiiigggh!

Ian loves anything and everything to do with horses. He is such a crack up. He likes to grab the bottom hem of his shirt, or the top of his pants and gallop around the house saying, "Gidup! Neeeeiggggh!" like he is holding onto the reigns of the craziest horse this side of the Mississippi :)

About a month ago I made some brownies and I gave him the spoon and this is what followed. I was laughing so hard, his personality is just so funny and quirky. He makes me laugh with all the silly little things his growing boy mind comes up with!

It's the most wonderful day of the year!

We went down to Prescott Valley to visit with my family this year for Christmas. It was such a great trip, but it was especially good because JD had arranged to have the 25th, 26th, and 27th off this year so we could go down, but one of his coworker friends agreed to take JD's Christmas Eve shift and JD already had the 23rd scheduled off so we got to work in 2 extra days! The trip ended up being the perfect amount of time and we had a really good visit while we were there.

On the night before Christmas Eve, JD and I surprised Morgan and Ian by hiding a golden ticket to take a ride on the Christmas Express under Morgan's pillow. Basically, she got all ready for bed and thought she was getting tucked in for the night, but then she saw 2 tickets in her bed and we all loaded up to go see the Valley of Lights.  We had fun pretending like our truck was a train and Morgan thought it was just about the silliest thing ever to have her Dad as a conductor and her Mom saying things like, "All aboard!" while loading them up. Ian kept randomly saying, "Toot! Toot!" and it is so fun to see how aware he is and how much he is starting to understand pretend play :)

Afterwards, we got to go see some of my friends at Rochelle's house. It was so fun and I had such a good time just chatting and goofing off with Rochelle and Ilene (I guess the husbands were fun too but that is unimportant :)

And so, on Christmas Eve, the kids got to open their Christmas Eve present and they were both thrilled to get the pajamas that they did. Morgan loves just about anything Hello Kitty, and Ian started yelling "Toot Toot!!" before he even got the paper all the way off of his Thomas the Train jammies.

Well, here are the pictures of the kids discovering their loot. Morgan wanted nothing more from Santa then a rainbow bear, and so she got one. She thinks it is pretty cool because "Santa even knowed me good enough to know I love rainbows AND ballerinas because my bear has a rainbow tutu!" Oh, and she got to see the spots where the "elves" stitched on all that rainbow fleece. I would be willing to bet those elves even got a gnarly blister from all that sewing *wink wink*

And Ian loved his train table. He plays with it all the time and it has been so fun to have with him. The kids finally have a reason to play in Ian's room too :) 

Santa brought me and JD a cage for our little monsters:

Hehehe just kidding of course :)

  But I think, that even with all the excitement of Christmas and Santa, the biggest hit of the Christmas presents was definitely this little guy that my Dad got for my Mom:

And, isn't Ian just the cutest ever?

Tiiiiiiii-ddddddddddduuuuuunnnnnnnlllllllll!

We went over and opened presents with Dave and Annette last night since we will be spending Christmas in AZ with my family. Ian got this car track and it has been a hit for sure! (except Howie isn't sure what he thinks of it)

Every time the cars get close to the tunnel Ian yells, "Tiiiiiiiiiiiii-dddduuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnellll!" ("TIME TUNNEL!" from dinosaur train)

It's Been a LONG Time...

    Okay. It's been a LONG time since I last blogged. So long, in fact, that I imagine I could probably write all my little secrets on this here blog and no one would even ever know them. Lessee.....a secret to tell......Well, the other day I was standing in my living room when, all the sudden...okay, that one is too juicy to tell just in the off chance that someone actually is checking up on me :)
   Here's the question on everybody's mind at this moment: What could have happened to wake Brytani from her blogging slumber? And I am going to answer that one, real soon, but first I have to say what put me into the coma. I got a little behind, and then I got a lot behind, and I got all anxious about how much I had to post, and then I got all sweaty in my palms and clammy and it was just easier to not think about the blog. BUT, every now and then, the little stinker of a blog would pop into my head and nag me about not keeping a good record of my children. Every so often a moment so beautiful that I would never want to forget it would come around, and I would think, "I need to blog this!" and then I would get all guilty, clammy, sweaty, yada yada yada, and file it away to be done when "I catch up". I may still catch up, and randomly post things from the last year that have happened while I have been sitting out of blogland, but for now, to rid myself of the anxiety, I am starting fresh.
       So fresh and so clean, clean.
                      I couldn't resist.

   We had a pretty good day today. The kids did several things that made me laugh {a lot}. We finally had one of the days I have been wishing we could have again. The kind where I am not crazy all day and they actually think their Mommy is a cool one :)

(This is Ian today after he found a hidden present in my room and brought it out to me saying "Ah-ha!")

 While our day went well, and we had fun, the real reason I wanted to blog was because tonight I had one of those moments I was talking about a minute ago, one of those ones that is so precious I don't want to forget it.
      I had just put Morgan to bed, and we had successfully gotten through her entire bedtime routine without me feeling like I was losing my mind (thanks to Morgan's suggestion that we ride the Dinosaur Train- we all climbed aboard the train to get us from the bathroom for brushing teeth to the bookshelf and finally all passengers had to exit the locomotive at bedtime station, Toot Toot!) and I was feeling pretty good about FINALLY having a "good mom day" again and enjoying my kids and making memories when I was sitting at the table, looking at some of the ads with Ian. He kept pointing to juice and getting excited, and he was really excited about the ice cream on sale at Smiths, and then he just laid his little head against my neck and whispered, "Love ya" Actually, he said, "Yuv ya" :)
   It was the first time he's ever said it and I don't want to ever forget that tender moment when I was doing something so tedious with my little bug and he felt like it was a good moment to speak up and say he loved me. We sat there for several minutes, me whispering to him that I loved him, and him whispering it back,"Yuv ya"
  You would think I would be used to my heart swelling up like the Grinch's does by now, but it still surprises me when my throat tightens up and I feel like my heart is going to burst from my chest with all the love it has for these two little angels. I love them so much and complicating it with more words sometimes seems like it loses its simple message that Ian expressed in just a soft whisper. Sometimes you don't need a lot of words. Sometimes, you just need, "Love ya."

I said...

I said she didn't have to take a nap, just a little rest. She was super grouchy and whiney and cry-ey, so I put on a cd and told her to just lay down and listen to the music and when it was over she could get up and come play with us some more.

I said she didn't have to sleep, but that didn't seem to stop her. Mission Accomplished!!!!