Uhm...

There are no words to describe the awesomeness of my friend Brenna. She's fabulous. And she was wonderful enough to share a picture of her Christmas tree on her blog that I think you all need to see. Why didn't I do this?

Speaking of Twilight, I've been dreaming about wonderful Edward lately. Ever since seeing the movie, all I want to do is re-read (for I don't even know what time) the Twilight series. Luckily for my sanity and the sake of everyone's Christmas presents, I've lent it to my mom and can't get to them until Christmas. But I will be devouring them (and, mentally, Edward) very soon. I can't wait. I might be just as excited to get my books back as I am to actually see my family. Plus, they live around the corner from Stephenie, and I will be stalking her, don't worry about that.

While day dreaming about cold marble skin, I realized I have something pretty dang close to an Edward of my own. While Dale isn't a blood sucking vampire (shucks), his middle name IS Edward, after his Grandpa Ed. I know, I'm blessed.

Candies for Christmas Party

I've been working the last couple days on some Red Velvet Cake Pops for our Ward Christmas Party this weekend. I finished them today! Aren't they so pretty? I just can't help myself, they're so yummy, I end up eating a few, and Brighton had to test one, too.

She's thinks they're great!

Gift Tags

So, I've finished my gifts tags 8 days before the Totally Awesome Gift Tag Exchange Party! I've been working on them for a LONG time, so I hope they're slightly comparable to all my other crafty friends' tags. If you're going to the party too, I'm sorry I've ruined the surprise for you! I am so excited, and can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Birthday Gift

A woman that Dale works with invited us to her two-year-old's birthday party this coming Sunday. I've been working on a gift and finally finished it today! (Well, it was done a few days ago, but I ran it through the washer and dryer just to be sure that nothing would come apart!) Aubrey's got a new outfit with matching clip, and her very own rag dolly! Brighton can't wait to party!

New Skirt

Brighton so graciously agreed to stay in her skirt after church on Sunday so that I could take some pictures. I made it out of a thrifted pillow case and hankie. I love it! I wish I could fit in a hankie skirt.
And here she is, reading, of course.

*I don't know what was happening with the pictures, but hopefully it's all better now!

Brighton's Reaction to the Christmas Tree

Brighton got up on Saturday morning, had some breakfast, and then we were super excited to film her reaction to the tree- not what we thought would happen. She's just fascinated with it. She talks to it. She goes and stands really close to it. But that's it. And there's another video for my family- who constantly tells me that I need to have more videos and pictures of myself on this blog. Here you go!

Sawyer

Whenever anything remotely blanket-like is on the floor, Sawyer is all over it. When I curl up in a blanket while watching a movie, I'm sharing it with him- he's on the floor tangled up in it. He SLEEPS with a blanket on his bed. So it really shouldn't have come as such a surprise to me that we caught him sleeping under the tree.

Christmas Time

After we put Brighton to bed on Friday, we broke out the Christmas decorations. Dale had the hard job- I made him put all the lights on. But he's really good at it huh? Look how pretty it is with just the lights on!

No, actually it's a pre-lit tree that we picked up on Friday from Costco. We've been talking about getting a fake tree. Dale's all for it, but it was a little hard for me to give up the wonderful smell. After a few hours, we were done! I am in love with our tree! (I wish now that I'd gotten started on those curtains already... they'd look great right about now.)

Since we have little B running around, we decided we'd hang the stockings above the TV. We didn't want her to pull the weights down on top of her head- that could be bad! And I put a bow on the bird cage that we have up there. It used to go on top of the tree, but the tree is so big, that the bow looks stupidly small.

Here's the man- the super tree decorator!

Reading to Brighton

These were taken on Friday night, before bedtime. Brighton loves books! She'll read them herself or she's started bringing them to us and then plopping into our laps. Here's daddy and Brighton reading the animal sounds.

What a good daddy!

Then she brought the book over to mommy.

Brighton and I share a favorite pastime- Reading! Yay!

Where's Brighton?

Dale has been on this cave man kick for some time now (long story, ask me and I'll tell you). He pats his chest and says, "Daddy," then he pats Brighton's chest and says, "Brighton." In this video I was quizzing Brighton, and she's been watching Daddy.

Thanksgiving Videos

Ok, so I'm finally getting around to putting up those videos I promised from Thanksgiving. I'm taking a break from all the things I should be doing, and doing something I NEED to do- keeping this blog up to date! These first two videos are of Brighton eating her pumpkin pie for breakfast. I liked them both, so wanted to share them both! We were putting the pie onto her fork (she'll only use a fork now; if there's no fork she'll just moosh everything up with her hands- but she can't get anything on the fork by herself so feeding her is a serious chore now) and then she'd feed herself. Enjoy!

This last video is a little hard to see, I'm sorry. Really bad lighting. Dale rented some Leslie Nielson movies for our Thanksgiving weekend. (Insert hugely sarcastic YAY!) While The Naked Gun was playing, Brighton was dancing like this during the entire song. I didn't get the camera in time, so you can only catch the tail end of it, but it was pretty hilarious. I'm excited to go home for Christmas and make B dance for everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving by ourselves this year. I miss my family year-round, but I definitely feel it the most when holidays and times for celebration come around. But it was nice to relax, hang out with Dale, watch movies, and play with Brighton all day! The garland above I made with this template. I love it! It's been hanging on our mirror in the living room since right after Halloween. I haven't decided if it's coming down in the next few days to make way for Christmas, or if I'll just leave it up. We can be thankful during Christmas, too, right?

This is Brighton and I at the table eating breakfast. Dale's family has a really fun tradition that I think we'll continue- they always ate pumpkin pie for breakfast. Trudy was telling me that she always felt that the pie was wasted because everyone got so stuffed on food that they couldn't find room for pie. The solution: have the pie for breakfast. Brighton thought it was a great idea!

Brighton fed herself some pie- we'd put it on the fork, and she'd eventually make it to her mouth. Sometimes she liked to put some on her finger and lick it off. I have some videos of her eating, but I'll put those up later. I don't really want to wait for the videos to load, but there's some good ones, so check back later!

The B-E-A-utiful chef, and our tiny meal for two and a half! We had some wonderful ham, with an oh-so-yummy brown suger glaze, homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, some yams (of course, I don't know WHY I didn't like them as a kid- they're covered in marshmallows for goodness sake!), cranberry sauce, and flakey biscuits! We felt the effects of the food quickly and retreated to the couch for some more lazy vegging in front of the TV. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Brighton's First Hamburger

We had McDonald's for dinner on Saturday night (I was lazy, Dale was starving, and we were out shopping- no way was I going home to make dinner). So we picked up some burgers on the way home. Brighton was excited for her first attempt at eating a burger. It pretty much fell apart before she got it to her mouth.

What A Steal!

Dale and I happened to go to Office Depot this past weekend, which is conveniently located next to Michael's and Marshalls, two of the best stores around. While there was nothing to hold my interest at Marshall's we did find some cool stuff at Michael's. We found these flower arrangements and they were on sale! For a steal! This one totally matches our house perfectly! We'll use it as a centerpiece when I've put the other one away for next year. This one was originally $50 and we got it for $6. I know, awesome.

This brown one I just fell in love with. I don't know why. Maybe it's the cool urn it's in, or those brown things with the holes in them, but I know that it's definitely because of the feathers. I couldn't pass THEM up!

So this one is going to sit on our dining table for fall. It was originally $40 and we got it for $5. I think I love them even more because they were so cheap!

Check out how fun it is!

So Stylish!

Brandy, this is for you! Brighton is starting to fit in those cute little clothes that you got for her! I had to take a picture and show you all how stylish Brighton is. She's even wearing her pants rolled up high like all the famous acctresses these days, mostly jsut because she's too short to walk in them.

And, yes, that is Harry Potter playing on the television. Brighton (mommy) loves these movies and I play them for her on a regular basis. She's fine with it as long as she gets to play with mommy's phone.

Brighton's Wardrobe Refashion

Brighton got this cute little outfit from Grandma Hibler. Grandma sent a bunch of cute second hand finds to us, and I really like this one. Unfortunately, there's a nice stain on the chest, which shows up much better in the picture than in real life. But I just thought it was a fun outfit (I love the pants), and maybe I could fix it up!

I cut out one of the little lollipops and appliqued it right onto a brand new shirt! I know, it's boring white, but I couldn't find any matching plain colored shirts, so this one had to work. I have three more lollipops, so I might just use them again for something....

Leaf Garland

I'm not sure if anyone would be interested, but I thought I'd put this up here anyways, just in case. I made a leaf garland to help bring the Autumn spirit into the house and wanted to show you how I made it, in case you wanted to make one for yourself, too! I bought a pack of these silk leaves from the dollar section at Target. Man, I love anything for a dollar. Does this ever happen to you- you see something for a dollar and you have to buy it simply because it's such a great deal? It happens to me all the time, and I really REALLY have to get out of that habit. Dollars add up!

The leaves were kind of organized by shape and color in the bag, so I threw them around to mix them up.

Just start grabbing them off the pile and sew them into a long chain (leave long tails on the ends so you can tie it up if you want). You can also cut them to fit a certain space and resew them together and put them somewhere new!

I draped them along the mantle for some fun color contrast, and I have another package that I'm going to sew together and maybe put on the dining room chandelier or anywhere else I can think of. If you decide to make one, let me know, I want to see it!

Anniversary Roses

Dale brought home some roses yesterday! Bright pink ones, too! The best kind, if you ask me...