Eating REAL food (well kinda)

Ok, I have finally slowed down enough with my photography that I can get a couple personal blog posts done!  I need to catch up because little Brynn is growing up fast!  

Around 5 months Brynn was holding her own bottle.  Since she was young she always loved grabbing things while she was eating so it was only natural for her to want to grab her bottle.  She is not a pro yet and will drop it a few times while eating but we are proud of our little Brynn.  

Unlike a lot of people Russ and I were in NO hurry to feed Brynn solid foods.  I mean she eats formula ever 3 hours and is fine and content and she sleeps through he night so 

why mess with a good thing right?  

Well the big 6 month birthday came as we finally jumped into the world of baby food.  We first started rice cereal (yes I know, we just started feeding her this at 6 months, we are late bloomers) and then I went to the store and had no idea what I should be buying.  So I bought one of everything.  I bought rice cereal the regular and apple then looked over at the never-ending cute little glass containers full of solid food (will kinda solid) and there were so many to choose from, Yes, I did hear that we should start with the veggies so that is what we did.  Well the first time she tried rice cereal she hated it an gagged  Soooo funny!  Russ wasn't home and with his busy schedule I was not willing to wait any longer!  I did it without him but documented ever second of it.

Then it was daddy's turn to feed her.  It was funny watching this.  Getting that food in her mouth isn't really the easiest task!  =-)  

    After she got the hang of new foods and eating (and making lots of gag faces) she started to love it!  Her favorite foods right now are Apple rice cereal, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes and mangos!  Brynn is amazing.

Bathtime and sleeping.

I'm still playing a little catch up with my blog. I took these pictures in March of her (so you can see....I have quite a bit of catching up to do!) Newborn Brynn was such a sleepy baby but not the best sleeper at night. Well now Brynn is a great sleeper. She has been sleeping through the night since she was 3 months, she takes about 3 naps a day still right now (and she is almost 6 months!), she goes down without a fuss, she can sleep through noise and even fall asleep in the most uncomfortable positions. Here is one of those times....I left the room and came back to her like this.

She also loves her bath! She love licking the water, kicking around and playing with her toys. Whenever I pour water on her face she takes a deep breathe and jumps a little like she is scared. It's kind of funny.

She has learned to sit up since Easter and I have let her sit up in her baths now. A few days ago I gave her a bath in the sink and let her sit up on her own. I was watching her but the sink was so slippery and she is not the greatest at sitting up yet she slipped so fast and fell right under the water! AAHHH! I grabbed her and pulled her out and she was shaking and crying...It was soooo sad! I think she was a little traumatized. Let just say I hold her now in the sink.

But even after that she still loves her baths.

Baby Einstein is Brynns best friend

Well, I am not one to want my children to sit in front of the tube and rot their brains out but lately Baby Einstein has been helping me get things done around the house and helping me with catching up with my photography business as well. I sometimes feel guilty as a mom placing her in front of that colorful, mesmerizing TV but it is so nice to keep her occupied here and there to help me get things done. AND BRYNN LOVES IT. How does this little show keep her so obsessed? I just don't know but that woman who made it is a genius. My most recent discovery I have made with baby Einstein is that not only does it keep Brynn entertained, but it also puts her to sleep.

It's a great tool to get her to go down for naps without a complain. =-)

(one day I came out this funny sight!)

Caught her on tape.

Brynn likes to laugh....When she wants to.....

There is not one specific thing that makes her laugh. She has to be in the mood and sometimes random things can make her laugh....like wiping her bum. She is so funny. So because of this it is very hard to catch her on video laughing. I never am quick enough or prepared enough to catch it. But Russ was home this time next to me with his cell phone and we caught this little treasure on video. Love her laughs!

Balancing Life.....

I am having trouble finding balance in my life. How on earth am I supposed to run a business, retouch, call/email clients, fulfill orders, blog on my photography blog, clean my entire house (meaning vacuuming, dishes, cleaning bathrooms, picking up, sweeping....) make dinner, blog on my personal blog, take pictures of my sweet Brynn, have play dates with friends, have dates with my husband, find personal time for myself, read Brynn books and spend time with her, feed her every 3 hours, put her down for naps, walk Domino and play fetch with him, visit family, ready my scriptures, do laundry, hang up clothes, and eat healthy and exercise????? I fear that I am horrible at BALANCE. My life is crazy right now and I can't get everything done. How do I do it? It seem nearly impossible to me. My sweet sweet mother just hired someone to come clean my house (which is embarrassing but appreciated) I haven't lost a POUND since I have had Brynn (even when I go through my spurts of exercise and dieting nothing seems to be working and I can't keep consistent) I rarely go on date with Russ (which I TREASURE) and I feel like I am always on the computer working and ignoring Brynn.....haha....This is so tough! I need to SLOW it down and GET focused! But I feel like there is SO MUCH TO DO all the time that if you know me I just have a problem with FOCUS! I tend to start like 10 things but never finish them. How am I supposed to do this all?! and I only have 1 child and she isn't even crawling yet. What am I going to do when she is on the move all day long!? haha, oh man....Life is overwhelming. HELP! Any suggestions on how to accomplish all that I need and want to do! I just can't seem to figure it out.

With all that said....I am going to catch up on my blog. I will post short blogs with little tidbits of our life so I don't stress out and freak out. haha. I want to remember all of Brynn's discoveries and accomplishments. (I print my blogs as my journals) So this blogging thing is important to me.

Last month (at 4 months old) Brynn did the sweetest thing. She discovered her toes. I was so excited to watch her get so excited over these little piggies that of course I had to document it. and boy is she sweet. =-) She also enjoys chomping on her fingers. (i love the picture of the finger in her mouth..it's so her right now!)

Big news for Big girls!

Watch the video to see what big milestone Brynn accomplished at 4 months exactly!!

Sunday best

She just looked too cute. i couldn't resist her in her cute dress today.

zoo disaster.

So I thought since it was presidents day and Russ had the day off we would go and have a good ol' time at the zoo (Russ has never been to the Phoenix zoo and we never get a whole day to hang out together!) So since we have the most amazing baby in the world (so we thought) we packed her up with all her stuff and headed out.

We got there and were faced with a hard decision....do we become annual zoo members? Russ is all about a good deal and spending money wisely and he decided it would probably be worth it to sign up. When Brynn is a year old she will get a kick out of it! So basically you go twice in one year it pays for itself....Anywhoo, we walked in and we went right over to pet the stingrays (my favorite thing!) I LOVE to pet the animals, you name it, at petting zoos I am probably more excited than all the kids (on a side note have you ever been to the deer farm right outside of flagstaff?? It's basically my favorite place to be in the whole entire world.) While at the stingray exhibit I scratched Brynn on the hand...she made a sad face but didn't cry a tear. About a half hour after we arrived when we were walking to the other exhibits sweet Brynn was sitting peacefully in her stroller and suddenly Erupted In Screaming Cries!!! What the heck!?!? We check her car seat to see if anything was poking her, no poopy diaper, she was fed...I mean we checked all the possibilities and we couldn't figure out what it was! The ONLY guess I have is that maybe she was sucking on her fingers and made her scratch was sting (I did break the skin). I have no idea really though. If you know our Brynn she has a sweet little soft winy cry, this was a cry I have rarely experienced from her. So of course since we have never really had to deal with this kind of outburst (and especially not in public) we were a little flustered and were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. After about 10-15 mins of this I finally got her to fall asleep.

Man, that was exhausting.

I could see Russ was slightly embarrassed and he told me he was about ready to leave right after that. Anyways it kind of put a damper on our trip and after a poopy diaper and a feeding later we didn't end up making it around the whole park. The only thing I have to say is......

good thing we are annual members.

Frumpy to Fab just in time for Valentines Day.

I won Erin Larsens contest for a free hair make over HERE.

She is an old friend from high school and I was ecstatic to go see her and her boys and catch up (AND GET A NEW DO!) I am just tired of my hair. I have not idea what to do with it so I just said "Do you thing Erin!" She could do whatever she wanted to my hair (without taking the length off). Oh and Do I LOVE IT! Right in time for my Valentines date with Russ the next day. I went from Dark and flat, to bright and bouncy!

Erin, I LOVE IT!

Thanks for making me feel better about myself. I really do feel like a new woman.....it was just what I needed to get out of this hair rut.

For Valentine's day I cleaned the whole house for Russ and put all these cute notes all over the house. He took a pen and wrote a response on all of them. That was a nice surprise. I collected all the notes after and displayed them in our bathroom. (Don't mind the PG-13 ones on there. hahaha!)

I also put a card in his car with some treats and in the card it said....

Russ did a fun game for me....He gave me a sweet note and said "we both know that food is the key to both our hearts..." haha, yes we like to eat around here.....and he wrote this little poem and I had to fill in the blank for the last word (which was valentine) and he hid all the letters to the word valentine on snacks hidden in the kitchen. I actually had a hard time finding them all but I finally did! IT was a fun game and I got some yummy snacks out of it! =-)

Russ and I had a nice Valentines date last night. Russell's mom watched Brynn and we did dinner and a movie. We haven't seen a movie in the theaters for a while so it was nice. We saw "The Woman in Black"....I know, Romantic huh? =-) I love scary movies though so it was perfect. I did jump once.....it was pretty good for a scary movie (best one I've seen for a while.) Then to avoid the crazy restaurant scene we ate good ol chipotle. MMMMMM. DELISH. When We came back to pick up Brynn we walked in and Brynn and Grandpa were watching TV together. It was so cute I HAD to take a picture.

I will end this Valentines day post with a cute picture I made Russ take of me and Brynn before we went out. It was almost dark but I thought she looked so dang cute.

Hope you all had a Happy Valentines Day!