Gardening with Brynnlee

I've got the hose Mama!

WHO is dirty? Not ME!!!

Those flowers look good enough to eat

I see a bug....

watching kids walk by the house

playing with the chimes Aunt Judi gave Mommy and Daddy... with a muddy hand

Time for a bath! Heading inside....

First Earthquake!

So, today Brynnlee and I took a little drive North to a mall in Mission Viejo to get Eric's birthday present. I learned two things - don't wait until the last minute to do birthday shopping and apparently I am supposed to have a signed permission slip from Eric before I take Brynnlee anywhere! : )

We had only been at the mall about 30 minutes when we stepped off the elevator and into a store. All of the sudden there was some loud banging and it almost seemed like there was another big thud that rattled the building. I looked around with one hand on the stroller - and realized that some CA natives apparently knew a lot better what was going on - but were not any cooler about handling it than I was! As I stood there trying to figure out what was going on the building started rocking, almost in a wave like fashion, and women started running out into the middle of the mall - one shouting EARTHQUAKE. Brynnlee was impressed with all the excitement but seemed no worse for wear when everything calmed down! We finished up our errands grabbed some lunch and are now safely back home. I am pretty sure Brynnlee has no idea she has now been in the midst of wild fires AND an earthquake all in her first year! What a tough girl! haha Not like her mommy with "overreact" as a middle name!



I am including this link http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/STORE/X14383980/ciim_display.html to a website with neat info about the earthquake - showing it's epicenter, etc. We were in Mission Viejo which was rated a IV on intensity - it says that is not very intense, but let us just agree - it was intense ENOUGH. :) Camp Pendleton was rated a III - another indicator we should have stayed home! Eric says he felt it - as did people as far South as San Diego and East to Las Vegas. All in all - neat, but something I could have lived without! : )



Brynnlee is now napping and I am going to get started on dinner. It is just unfortunate this does not qualify as a good reason not to cook.... : )

Love to all,

Jennie xoxo

ps

Almost as exciting, and big news to us - Brynnlee took her first step on Sunday. We have yet to see any others, but are certainly keeping 'one eye on the baby' at all times! : )

Family Day for HMLA/T-303

I am dying to share these pictures with you from Saturday. Brynnlee had such an exciting day down at Lake O'Neill (about 1 mile from our house for those of you that have not visited Camp P) with all the families from 303 that she pooped out and fell asleep on the 3 minute ride home. :) It is the first time she has ever slept through the transit of carseat to crib. Usually she wakes up and is too excited to see Abe to go back to sleep.

We arrived at the lake around 11am, dropped off the cake we baked for the cake walk and took a look around. There were pony rides, a petting zoo, balloon animals, a barbecue, face painting, clowns, paddle boats... you name it, it was there! The beautiful thing is it was FREE! : ) A church from just south of LA provided everything which was so thoughtful. I cannot begin to explain how awesome it was to go through the food line - Eric holding B and me with our food --- and a sweet woman at the end carried our drinks for us to a picnic table. Talk about FIVE STAR BARBECUE! It was so helpful for all the fams with babies and kids! I like food too much not to share the menu of chicken, burgers and hotdogs -- all delicious -- I know b/c I tasted it all! : ) Brynnlee nibbled a bit of everything and shared my macaroni salad. She is really good about trying new things - and if she doesn't like them they just end up on the front of her shirt. :)

Anyway, the excitement started when Daddy took her over to the water guns - she picked a huge one up all by herself. Then we hopped in a little fenced in 'petting zoo' where Brynnlee pet a bunny, a duck and chicken. Trust me, we sanitized the heck out of her after that.... yuck! The duck pecked her hand a little and she didnt even react - it was funny. After that we got in line to have her ride a pony. She was VERY unsure to start off but by the end was beaming from ear to ear, even when I thought she was going to get whiplash from the insane pace the horse care-taker was moving (that I had a hard time keeping up with in my sun dress and sandals!) She just smiled and laughed. She is a GOOD KID! : )

It was all so exciting - right up to the end. The Commanding Officer's wife encouraged us to let her pick a 'prize' out of a bin. In my mind I was thinking it wasn't going to go over so well with Brynnlee... until we leaned over the bin and there was a BABY DOLL! : ) Brynnlee started grunting (so lady-like!) and as soon as I put the doll in her reach she grabbed it, squeezed it and started kissing it. She got a pretty great reaction from the small group of people nearby -- and as you will see in the last picture I am including -- didn't let that baby go for quite some time!

Thanks for sharing in our excitement. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Eric is off work today and we are tying up some loose ends around the house... including painting an art table for Brynnlee to use so she won't wreck the new living room furniture. I will check back in later!

xoxo, Jennie