chris.reese.girls1.2.3.4

You know your daughter is anxious for her birthday when she stays up in her bed singing herself all the versions of "Happy Birthday" for over an hour before finally tuckering out... This week is crazy...but I am enjoying all the festivities!!! I will have scores of posts by the end of it all!

One of Paige's favorite games is the "sounds" game. She says a letter and we sound out and discover words starting with that letter. A few days ago this was our conversation: P: Mom! Let's do 'R'! Me: Okay, what sound does an R make? P: Ummmm, rrrrr Me: Yep! What makes an rrrrrr sound? P: I know! It's like Russell Branyan!! Do you know Russell Branyan? He plays first base for the Mariners.

Yesterday morning after preschool it wasn't raining, so we took advantage and went on the hunt for bright leaves. Good thing because that afternoon the rains returned and haven't stopped since. Fall is beautiful... And the girls , too!

The "digging into the cake" is the pinnacle performance marking a child's first year of life. I went to great lengths making Brynn her own special cake (which included dumping my first attempt down the garbage and running frantically to two grocery stores for Plan B), and wouldn't you know...the girl doesn't like cake! Not only does she not like it, she's scared of it!! Enjoy the sequence...and my guess at Brynn's thoughts... "Okay, here comes this thing on fire...I don't know how I feel about it..." "Okay, ummmm...I don't like this....I'm uncomfortable. Can you take this away..." "No really, I'm serious, this is making me very nervous, I don't like this AT ALL! Please!!" "What!? Dad is forcing me to have a bite!! Oh, this is horrible. I don't like this one bit! Please don't make me eat another bite!" And after only torturing our child momentarily, we stopped, of course. But... We decided ...

Little Miss Brynn is one ...yes, you read correctly....she's a full-fledged 12-months living, breathing 1-year old ! Don't ask me where the time has gone (and don't ask me when I will ween this girl...I'm holding on!). She is a spark in our lives we didn't know we were missing. She is so sweet and tender, full of loves and cuddles, and sheds tears any time her dad says, "No!" in the only stern way a father can. She is so emotionally soft and sweet and dainty...even when it comes to cake for goodness sake (see posts to come). Our big celebration was on the 11th with the Pettingills (our only local family). We are so glad they came to play, eat and help sing a birthday song to little Brynnie. Enjoy pics of the past few days as we celebrated!! Cousins! Paige, Brynn, Rylan, Addy, Carson Opening presents...it was a group effort! Brynn with her doll from Paige. I think she likes it! Shopping cart from Grandma Dalley...which is now a source of serious contentio...

I have a lot of pics to post about my little Brynn, but one will have to do for today. While my mom was in town two weeks ago, she agreed to trim Brynn's hair. I'll let you call it as you see it...is it a mullet, rat-tail, hilarious? Whatever it is, it needed to go. Unfortunately, I didn't take an "after" pic, but anything is better than this, right?! The "after" is cute. Just another step for my little girl as she moves from the "baby" to "toddler" stage. And after destroying yet another roll of toilet paper today, I'm not so sure I'm ready for a toddler!

The week prior to General Conference Paige learned all about Salmon in her preschool. We took a family field trip on Sunday in between sessions to check out the spawning salmon on the Cedar River! We saw a few and Paige tried to catch some with her fishing pole, which mostly entailed some practice casting; there was no hook or bait on the end of the line (plus, I think it's illegal). We enjoyed a nice walk and some sunshine! Chris' parents joined us for General Conference. They enjoyed the walk too! And this is three years ago, October 2006, when Paige had just turned one. We visited this same spot! It was fun to look back at the pics from three years ago...check out my teeny tiny Paige!

My parents visited at the end of September. We LOVED having them here! They saw Paige at swim, Paige's preschool, and Chris and my Dad got in 18 holes of golf. On Tuesday we took in the Museum of Flight. It was super fun and Paige really enjoyed it along with the adults. We even went inside the Concord (which my dad has flown on!) and an old Air Force One. My mom is hang-gliding...I crashed each time I tried, but I think she eventually landed once! Paige checking out the runway!

Kali Leenstra...my great friend and amazing photographer took our family pics last Saturday. After working on coordinating outfits for about a month, I'm happy with the end result. Kali did the rest...the pics are amazing. She makes it seem like my kids were perfect for the shoot, which was not the case, but that's what makes her so wonderful. Take a look... http://kalileenstraphoto.com/blog/?p=1117