Brenna's First Christmas!

12.29.08

Brenna is 4 months old today and oh my, how she's grown! She weighs 14 lb 11 oz and is 24 inches long and is now in the 75th percentile for weight and height. Nearly everyone who meets her for the first time always says "look at those cheeks!"

We had a wonderful Christmas and are very excited for the New Year! We spent a week in Coral Springs with family and friends and had a wonderful time with both the Blooms and the Epsteins. Brenna received many gifts and is very excited for her new ExcerSaucer but most of all, I think she just enjoyed spending time with family.

Some highlights of the week were:

1) Brenna giggling like crazy in her crib before we left for Coral Springs (video soon to come). We staged a mini photo shoot in her crib and she was sooo stinkin' cute as you can see below.





2) Christmas Eve at the my mom and dad's. Mom did a wonderful job and I enjoyed helping her cook and get ready for the night.

3) Christmas Morning with the Epsteins. We opened Brenna's gifts that morning and had breakfast with Grandma Joann, Grandpa Ed, and Aunt Cookie before they headed off to Atlanta to spend time with the Mussons.

4) Playing Wii (Grandpa Les's Xmas gift)

5) Brett and I sneaking off to a movie while Grammy Linda watched Brenna.

Here are some of my fav pics from the last week or so.

Brenna at 3 1/2 Months

12.18.08

Wow, its been a long time since I've updated the blog. Sorry about that - I guess I've been busy getting ready for the holidays. Let me start by giving an update on Brenna. She is 3.5 months old and weighs about 14.5 pounds right now. She had about 2 weeks where she would sleep in her co sleeper (flat on her back) rather than in her car seat but unfortuantely the last two nights, she's slept in her car seat again because she can't seem to get comfortable on her back at night. As far as sleep goes though, she has been WONDERFUL the last month. She tends to sleep from about 11pm-6am so life is soooo much better now that I get 6 hours of sleep in a row :-). Not only does she sleep 7 hours straight, but she'll usually go back to sleep after a bottle at 6:30am for another hour or two, so I think we're really lucky she is picking up on my need for sleep vs Brett's because he's never required nearly as much sleep as I do. She's not much of a napper during the day. She'll take maybe 3 catnaps during the day (10-30 mins each) but that's about it.

Brenna's favorite thing to do is lay and watch her mobile and she is content on her wiggle worm activity mat for quite some time staring and batting at all her hanging toys. She can now grab on to them and hold them for several seconds.


She eats 5-6 times a day between 30-36 oz total.

She gives us smiles all day long and has started to make little giggle noises too. :-)

As we're getting close to Christmas, I feel so blessed and lucky to have this little girl in our lives. She adds so much joy to our lives and the lives of our whole family.

Here are some pictures of Brenna and her pal Molly.

Video Giggle!

11.25.08

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brett and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the second year in a row. We had a lovely dinner and were joined by the McGovern trio of Colleen, Matt, and Brian which made the holiday even more fun. Here are some pics of Thanksgiving. We ate outside on the patio and fortunately the weather was just perfect this year.

Nice turkey, huh?!? The joke was that we had a 24 pound turkey and a 12 pound baby.

Too much turkey!

For the second year in a row, I wrote a poem for our Thanksgiving evites.

It's almost Thanksgiving and I just don't have the time
To compose a clever invitation in rhyme
But I suppose I'll do my best and continue the tradition
Oh, how my life has changed with just one small addition
So its time to plan dinner, no need to be stressed
For this is a year in which we all have been blessed
There was a wedding, a baby and now another one's on the way (referring to Alex)
And to give thanks for it all, we'll do a buffet!
If the weather is nice, the patio is where we'll eat
Arrive close to one, we'll handle the meat.
Joann is bringing chaurice and a cranberry jello mold
We have an extra fridge so desserts will stay cold.
Linda is bringing stuffing and carrots with green beans
No need to dress fancy, we'll most likely wear jeans
Jeff and Jackie, can you please bring a dish?
Broccoli Casserole or a veggie is what I would wish
We'll have many desserts;
Cookie is bringing the fruit
I can't wait to see the kids, they are both oh so cute.
But I'm sure at some point Brenna and Nick will start fussin'
What will it be like next year with a new Baby Musson?
Whoa, time to slow down, I'm thinking too far ahead,
And I'm not even that much of a planner, I leave that to Ed.
So back to this year's feast, can't wait to see you all
With the Epsteins, Blooms and Mussons it's always a ball!

After we ate, we all headed to the beach for a family pic. Cheesy yes, but it will be a fun memory.

November 20, 2008

11.20.08

The weather outside is beautiful today. Brenna loved going for a walk in her carrier wrap.

Today, Bren and I had lunch with my good friend, Claire, and her adorable little man Jack who is a week younger than Bren. Claire is such a sweety. I wish we lived closer.

November Highlights

11.19.08

11.17.08

Brenna and Molly Chillin'

Brenna loves her Bumbo seat!

Brenna meets Stephanie

Happy 90th Birthday, Fran!!! We Love you!!!

11.07.08 Fran's 90th Birthday Party! Today we celebrated Fran's 90th Birthday. She was born November 7, 1918. It amazes me to think about all that she has seen in her lifetime. She was grew up in Brooklyn, spent a significant amount of her childhood in an ophanage where she learned at the age of 12 or so that her best friend was also her sister. She got married, moved to Kentucky and worked her tail off in the grocery store that they owned. She has always had a ton of friends and an amazing sense of humor. She is progressive and kind and I'm so thankful that we were able to celebrate her today with a party at Mom and Dad's house. Here are some pictures from the party.

Fran and her pal Harriet








The birthday girl opening her gifts.

More gifts!

Kisses from Jeff.

Getting some help with cards and gifts.

The queen in her glory.

I worked hard and put together a slideshow of some of her favorite pics over the years. What a life she's had!