Brenna's Favorite Things: Dance Class and Merry-Go-Round!

Two of Brenna's favorite activities right now at amost 2 1/2, is surely dance class, which is every Monday morning and riding the new Merry-Go-Round at Downtown at the Gardens.  Here she is strutting her cute stuff at dance...

Her favorite part of class is when you get to hop like a frog on the colored spots.  She also loves when it's time to clean up the spots and she tries to pick up as many as possible and rush them back to Ms. Jessica.

And if we pass Downtown at the Gardens without stopping at the Merry-Go-Round, I will surely hear about it for hours on end.  I estimate that in 3 months the carousel has been there, we have probably ridden at least 40 times.  But look at how happy it makes her.  Thank God, Brett's coworker gave us a bunch of free passes or I'd have spent a fortune by now.

We recently went to Trey's 2nd birthday.  You can read all about it on my other blog (Click here).  It was really something.  Here are a just a few pics of Brenna from the party. 

This one was taken by Brooke.  She's so talented.  Not only are her pictures gorgeous but I admire her for how it seems like she never gets burnt out.  It takes A LOT of time to edit these and she is always posting new pics of Maren and Maren's friends for everyone to enjoy.  Some of my all time favorite pics of Brenna have been taken by either Brooke or my friend Lauren.  It's great to have friends who are great photogs!

Professional Photos - Holidays 2010

I live for Christmas cards.  I love getting them in the mail.  I especially love the ones with a nice coordinating and sometimes awkward family photo so I can see how everyone's families have grown and changed in a year's time.  The more perfect the families appear, the funnier I find the picture.  That goes for my own family pictures as well.  I love displaying the cards I receive and when I go to someone's house during the Holidays, I almost always look through their pile of cards even if I have no idea who the families are. I love it!

And yes I totally get that it's a little narcissistic to get the family all dressed up in coordinating outfits and get professional photographs done each year but I don't care.  Call me vain, roll your eyes at what is the adorableness of Brenna's Ralph Lauren ensemble (Thank you, Aunt Schecky) but as long as I have the littlest of strength left in my body in the month of December, I will schlept my family out to the beach or some grassy knoll and get a picture taken.   Because for that one second, it appears that we have it all together and I find that delightful and amusing.  I probably have residual snot in my hair and I may be bribing my kid with a lollipop or the empty threat of NEVER RIDING THE MERRY-GO-ROUND AGAIN, but you will never know that by the looks of our photo. :-)

My very good friend and photog, Lauren Donovan, of Lauren Donovan Photography took these pics.  Kudos to you Lauren.  I love them!!!  Thank you for your patience and beautiful work!

Christmas 2010

For some reason, I've been really burnt out with the blogging lately so I took a nice long break to just enjoy the moments themselves without hopping to the computer to record them right away.  I hope I can get back into it on a semi-regular basis because I know that I will love to look back and read all about our lives "when".  I also do this because I hope Brenna and any other future kids will also look back and see a glimpse into what life was like when they were little.   So without further adieu, here is our Christmas 2010 Recap!

We had such a nice Christmas this year.  We started out by baking cookies for Santa...

Pouring some milk for him and leaving some carrots for the reindeer.

Before bedtime, we needed to taste for quality-assurance.

In the middle of the night, Santa arrived and even left snowy footprints.

Brenna woke up around 5am and I brought her in our room past all the presents (which luckily she didn't even notice) and we all slept a few more hours in our bed.  Brett and I got up and started breakfast before Brenna came stumbling out.  She was half-asleep so didn't have a huge reaction to everything but she did enjoy playing with all her new toys and discovering new ones all throughout the morning. 

Daddy and Brenna playing with Mr. Potato Head in her new Monkey Tent.

Dress Up Time

One of my favorite memories was skyping with the grandparents and Brenna showing them all the goodies Santa brought her.


Christmas Eve at the Bloom House

Grammy fixing Brenna's hair....there's always a lot of this going on.