We Moved!

Last month we said goodbye to Minnesota (hopefully for the last time ever!) and moved to North Carolina!

Packing with a toddler... Not fun! My dad and Chris drove the moving truck (with the Maxima towed behind) and the Highlander, they left Friday afternoon and got here Sunday. Friday (the day before we moved) Brynne spent the day with our preacher's family, then that night we spent the night there and she had to sleep in a little bitty pack and play. Saturday we flew to TN, then Sunday we went to church and spent the afternoon with Allison and the girls, and Monday we drove eight hours over to NC. It was a crazy few days, but overall Brynne did great with the whole transition.

Chris had the first week we were here off from work and it was great to have some help unloading all the boxes and getting everything put away quickly. I still don't have everything organized the way I would like, but I can't decide how I want it, so for now it stays put! Once I get everything the way I want I will post pictures!

Most of all we are thankful to be so much closer (driving distance!) to all our families! Chris' brother only lives an hour from us and we have already gotten together several times and Brynne talks about them all the time. We haven't made any trips to Tennessee yet, but Brynne and I are planning to go next month!

Easter 2013

We had a busy, but good Easter weekend! Saturday our church had an Easter block party for the community. There were bounce houses, face painting, cookie decorating, a cake walk, and of course an Easter egg hunt.

Brynne LOVED the bounce house! They had a small one for the little kids, but she didn't want anything to do with that one!

 

She didn't want to get out when it was time to leave! Chris was keeping up with her because I was in charge of taking pictures and he had to send someone in to get her! 

 

 

We had to do the egg hunt inside this year since there was still so much snow on the ground!

 

 

Apparently we should have gone over the whole egg hunt concept beforehand because Brynne was not overly interested!

 

 

 

 

There was no Sunday School on Sunday morning, so we were able to take our time getting ready and do Brynne's Easter basket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think she was most excited about the monies for her piggy!

 

 

 

 

We had a great service at church and then spent the rest of the day with the preacher and his family!

 

 

We had Amy take a few family pictures for us.

 

 

Then I snapped a few of Brynne in the dress I made her. She was pretty much over pictures at this point!

 

 

And I forgot to get a full dress shot, but I think I got one on my phone.

 

Now we're getting ready for Granny to get here on Wednesday!!

Quiet Book!

Brynne is loud by nature (thanks Chris :) ) and likes to talk a LOT! It has become quite difficult to keep her contained and quiet during church, so I decided to make a quiet book! There are tons of cute quiet book ideas on Pinterest!

 

The cover, it's not exactly what I wanted, but it'll do for now!

 

 

Count the watermelon seeds, I love watermelons!

 

 

 

The shapes matching page may have some changes soon. I put magnets in the shapes and on the page of the book so they would stay put, but it makes the shapes pretty heavy. It is causing some of them to come off the ribbon, as you can tell if you look close enough at the heart :) I may take all the magnets out and just let her lay them on the right spot.



 

 

Mr. Potato Head, all the body parts are stored in the suitcase.

 

Mrs. Potato Head

 

 

 

Brynne's usual take on the Potato Head, she always puts the shoes and mouths upside down and everything scrunched up at the top!

 

 

 

 

The little chick, pig, and cow are little finger puppets that stick down in the brown pocket. I need a better picture for the peek a boo mittens, but keep forgetting to print one!

 

 

Match the socks

 

 

 

Pull the socks out of the dryer and match them on the other page. They are also held in place with small magnets.

 

 

The flowers go in/out of the vase. And you can put the (fake) coins in the piggy bank. The coins are stored in the little velcro pocket at the bottom.

 

 

Back cover, I plan to write something in the circle, just not sure what yet! I'm thinking my initials.



Overall it was not a hard project, just time consuming! But it doesn't help that we went to TN for 5 weeks when I was half way done and then didn't pull the sewing machine out for 4+ weeks after we got home! I finished it just in time for church this past Sunday. She was not completely quiet, but definitely more quiet than usual so I call it a success!

Brynne is 2!

Today we celebrated Brynne's second birthday (again!)! We had a family birthday a couple of weeks ago while we were in TN and when we got back Allyson (our preacher's daughter) wanted to see Brynne on her birthday, so Amy, Allyson, and Lauren came up for lunch and cupcakes!

Here's the birthday girl!

 

Opening presents in TN.

 

 

Brooke waiting ever so patiently, haha!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to you!

 

 

Cupcake time gone wrong... She grabbed the candles and everyone freaked, so she did too. Never would touch the cupcake after that :(

 

 

 

These are just a few of our attempts at a picture this morning, she was NOT interested!

 

 

Between several Christmases in TN and her birthday in TN, Brynne became very accustomed to presents and points them out everywhere. She saw this one that Allyson and Lauren brought and talked about all during lunch. This was her face when I told her it was hers and she could open it, so cute!

 

 

YAY books!

 

 

Her present from us was a play kitchen and shopping cart. They were both a hit!

 

 

 

 

Sampling what she cooked up!

 

 

Cupcake time! We skipped the candles this time!

 

 

Happy birthday Brynne!! We love you and can't believe you are TWO!

Dishes, Dishes

Brynne loves to do the dishes! She asks to do it multiple times a day! Almost every night after dinner we set her up at the sink and let her go to town! Funniest part is she actually washes them!!

Washing the cup with the brush, haha! Apparently she has seen us do this just a few times!

This is from the first time I let her do it.



Washing:



And rinsing, again I think she's seen this a few times!



Hopefully by starting this tradition, she will just keep doing it once she's a teenager, HA!



Gymnastics!

Chris and I have always said our kids would need gymnastics because there is a good chance they will be tall and uncoordinated, so Brynne is taking gymnastics. There have been a couple of days where she didn't seem too interested, but I think she likes it overall.

They have several different rotations set up, but it's mostly just everyone doing what the kid wants to do. Here is Brynne jumping on one of the trampolines.



Crawling through a tunnel:



She can't actually hold herself up on the bar, but she likes to sway back and forth and say swing, swing.





Probably the most favorite part of class for all the kids is getting to go into the "big" gym! This is where all normal sized (instead of toddler sized) stuff is. There is also a giant slide. Brynne always wants to go down, but will never actually do it once she gets up there. I went down with her once and she went down once, but since then she won't do it.



I have always wondered how gymnasts learned to do their crazy tricks without hurting themselves all the time. Well here is how, this is a pit with foam blocks that is under the uneven bars. If they fall, they have a super soft landing!



Here she is at home practicing her somersaults. She is getting really good at them! She is also much closer to being able to jump. I guess the class is paying off!