When the Sun Shines

The spring weather is finally here and we are LOVING IT!  We ventured outdoors the other day, without jackets, and enjoyed an afternoon at the park.  We figured BrinBug would like to play.  Surprisingly, she was less than impressed.  We tried the swings.  She hated it.  We did the slide.  She could take it or leave it.  She stood up to and walked around the stairs like a big girl, but was more excited about trying to eat the dirt...

She did however LOVE the grass.  One success!  And the day did officially wear her out.  She slept awesome.

Despite our best efforts, in the end, Bug's little cheeks and nose ended up a little pink.  Baby's first sunburn... bummer.  Tim told me on the way home that I was probably more excited about the park than Brin was.  That would appear to be true.  I did climb into that swing a little too eagerly... 

But all in all we had a good time.  I'm not willing to give up on my "fun family park day" visions just yet, so I'm sure we will make it a fairly regular thing.  Maybe she'll warm up to it a bit more after a while.

New Look

Goodbye March, hello April, and welcome Spring!!!

Oh blessed warm weather!  It is SO nice to not have to wear so many layers all the time.  Never mind that I did just buy a pair of on-sale-end-of-season boots that were a super good deal that now probably won't see much foot time until next fall, the sunshine is wonderful!

The breeze through the open windows did stir up that pesky little "spring itch" of mine though...
winter tends to make me lazy, and spring tends to make me antsy.  I get overloaded with visions of cleaning/revamping/completely re-doing everything.  So far last weekend fell victim to cleaning, and this blog took a hit when I decided it needed a fresh new look.  I've experimented with backgrounds before and always go back to my old ways.  So far I don't love it... we'll see how long it lasts.

A new haircut is next on my list.

We took Brin to the park the other day and, though she did not seem as thrilled as I thought she'd be, we got some fun photos... and some sunburns... dang.  She was the cutest little Easter baby I have ever seen though!!  :)  More on that to come later.

Happy Sunshiney Days from our warm happy family to yours!

Fort Night

Well, we had to brush a bit of dust off the dating jar already.  

We went a few weeks relying on our own creativity... 

and after counting grocery shopping as a date, we decided to just stick to the pre-printed papers plan.  

Last week our date jar activity pick was build a fort, a personal favorite.

We started construction early so Brin could play for a bit before bedtime.  We thought she would love it....

That was not the case.  We couldn't get one smile out of her!  Inside the fort she was all confused and strictly business and wanted out of there as soon as she could find an opening.

We had a good time though.  Tim considers himself a professional fort builder, and he really does make some pretty awesome ones.  It was super cozy and pretty roomy - perfect for dinner, a movie, and desert! (and falling asleep, which is what Tim did...)

What did we blog about before the baby?

I was sitting here getting ready to script yet another Brinlee update and was looking through our blog posts over the last few months and am now sitting here wondering...

What in the world did we do or talk about before we had this baby?

It's honestly kind of hard to remember.  Everyone said this little peanut was going to change our lives, and my blogging/journaling lately would certainly not dispute that.  This little sweetie is all we brag about these days!  And who wouldn't?! She is, after all, the cutest baby in the world!

Her 9 month appointment was a couple weeks ago and she is right on track!  She recently discovered her legs and since then has been the biggest busy-body.  That little scooter gets around, and gets into everything!  It's so fun to watch her explore and kind of funny to see what catches her eye.  We're having to keep an extra eye open and ear perked, but we're kind of in love with having her at our heels all the time.

I think I've said this about every age/milestone we've reached so far... but this 9-going-on-10 month era is my favorite!  How blessed we are to have such a sweet little spirit.  Love that girl!

PS: The lack of cute bows on her head in all of these pictures is not for a lack of trying.  This mama dolls up that baby as often as she can.  But along with her new found love of mobility came a new found sense of independence (and, dare I say, defiance?) and we cannot keep a bow on her to save our lives! ...bummer

Valentine's Day

Our first Valentine's Day as a family of three was excellent!  Tim and I have never really been into all the mushy stuff, but I found some fun goodies in the craft closet that Brin and I made a big mess with first thing in the morning.  She of course caught right on to the spirit of the holiday and enjoyed a day full of
     - cute pink clothes
     - yummy tasting cards (which weren't actually meant to be eaten)
     - and balloons!

Tim did take charge of dinner, and we ate like kings!

An evening in with my favorite two Valentines...
Fantastic!

To Boise To Boise

This past weekend we ventured over to the beautiful place called Boise and enjoyed a nice couple of days with family.  My sister had gotten us tickets to the ballet, which Tim was really thrilled about (read: definitely would have chosen a different Saturday night activity, if it were up to him).  He played fourth wheel like a champion though while my mom, sister, and I all googled over excerpts from Carmen and Don Quixote.  Brin spent the trip showing off her "new trick" (crawling... I can hardly believe it!) to Grandma and Grandpa Borup, and we shamelessly devoured WAY too much pizza at Primos, which actually turned out to be the only part of the trip we managed to photo document... you can see where our priorities are.