I'm a nut

Can you tell I love this photo :) There were so many other good ones from the pics i took ofher yesterday, but this was my favorite and i loved messing around with it for a few min in photoshop. This collage though is just a quick picasa creation, for those of you who care :) Priya is just such a social butterfly and has so much love to share that she managed to rip off another girl's bow in Sunday School today and tip a little boy over in Relief Society, all in the name of making friends! Thankfully, the moms weren't mad and they played happily after :)

PS I HATE that the colors in these photos aren't nearly as vibrant when they get posted on the blog! I may have to just over-do it just so it looks right on my blog! :P :D

4 ways my baby :)

I Love that cutie little smile & those sparkly eyes! :)

A Whole Nine Months!

My Cutie little princess is 9 months old today, Nov. 14th. I can't even believe it! From midnight on, I've been pretty sentimental, so this, my 100th post of the year is dedicated to my little beauty. Thought, i have to say, with her scratched up nose and the dent I put in her forhead this evening (Thanks to her mother, she had a run-in with a door jam-Sorry my beauty!) she's going for a more rugged cute today :)

Today we made a trip to the Natural History Museum (thanks mom & dad!) with our good friends! You can probably see why we refer to the other child-on-wheels her boyfriend :)

I love my little Sweatheart!  She is such a blessing!  Today I took her with me and she met one of the key doctors that helped make her little life possible and it just reminded me even more of what a miracle she is!  I love the way she discovers new things each day, like how over the last couple days she discoved how fun it is to stick your toung out to the side and lick your lips (to the point that she does it when she wakes up in the middle of the night and is making her lips a little raw!) and the joy of playing wih ketchup packets!  She has also started playing games a WHOLE lot more and enjoys squeeling and crawling just as fast as her little body will carry her every time we say "I'm gonna get you!!"'

I love you, Princess!  I hope you always know that!  You fill our lives with so much joy!

Love, Mom

On Oct 16th...

I was taking some engagement shots and thankfully my brother and his family joined me at the beautiful location! I was messin around for a few min before and after and these are some of the shots I got. Remeber, these were just for fun and unfortunatly I don't have a ton of time to mess with photos (or blog apparently). I know it's probably crazy, but since I do photos and get paid for it, I REALLY have to kind of choak back my feelings as I post more casual photos. Hannah & Travis started playing "patty cake" with Priya - who knew she would know what to do!

Pumpkin Carving! 10-24-08

I'm a loser! Here are some Halloween Photos, starting a week early :)

-Gotta love this face :)

Needless to say, the babies had a great time :)

::: BREAKING NEWS :::

(A friend sent this to me and i wanted to share! I hope you find this as entertaining as I did! Also, you can see what my closest friends think of me :) haha! Be assured that no offence is intended!)

In 2009 the government will start killing all the mentally ill people. I started crying when I thought of you. Run, little friend, run!
MENTAL HOSPITAL PHONE MENU
Hello and thank you for calling The State Mental Hospital.
Please select from the following options menu:
If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.
If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6.
If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the line so we can trace your call.
If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to the Mother Ship.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell You which number to press.
If you are manic-depressive, hang up. It doesn't matter which number you press, nothing will make you happy anyway.
If you are dyslexic, press 9-6-9-6.
If you are bipolar, please leave a message after the beep or before the beep or after the beep. But Please wait for the beep.
If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.
If you have low self-esteem, please hang up. Our operators are too busy to talk with you.
If you are menopausal, put the gun down, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. You won't be crazy forever.
If you are blonde, don't press any buttons. You'll just mess it up.
This coming week is National Mental Health Care week. You can do your part by remembering to contact at least one unstable person to show you care.
(Well, my job is done . Your turn!)
lol

Dear Blog...

Oh how I miss you! Through all of the chaos and clutter, you have been sorely neglected! And for that, I am sorry. I miss you and promise to return to you shortly. In the mean time, I hope you forgive me for my absent self, because my heart is never far from you ~ with love <3

BRENT UPDATE #12 WITH BREAKING NEWS!!! (and some blog additions)

THIS IS A NEW UPDATE! I know many of you get the updates, but I just wanted to share!! (Plus this has photos and a couple additional comments :)

""An email just recieved from my father, Brent's Dad:

"Brent is doing very well. Early Friday morning he had surgery to remove the tumor. We learned meeting with the surgeon on Thursday that there were some additional risks of surgery those we had not previously known. However, the surgery occurred without any complications. As soon as the surgeon removed the tumor, he turned the scalpel over to another surgeon who when into Brent's right side and into his lung and removed 11 small tumors. In addition brent had his chest port removed so he pretty much looks like zipper man. We are still waiting for the pathology reports on all the tumors removed. The hope is that it all dead cancer tissue and there is no active cells of either the primary or secondary cancer. If there is he may have to have future surgery on is left lung. For him the worst part is having the chest tube in his side. It causes a lot of pain and hinders movement. He had more tubes in him which have been gradually removed. He is down just to the chest tube and now takes pain medication by mouth. How long he will be in the Hospital depends on the drainage from the lung. As soon as it is small enough the tube can come out.

Today he had his first meal since Thursday night and he enjoyed it and had no problems. He has been up and walking around which helps.

Thank you for your concern, thoughts and prayers for Brent. They are much appreciated. Craig. "
THIS LITERALLY JUST IN WHILE I WAS COMPOSING THIS MESSAGE!! THE PATHOLOGY REPORTS JUST CAME BACK AND THE CANCER THEY REMOVED IS 100% DEAD!!! THAT MEANS AS FAR AS WE CAN TELL, HE'S CANCER FREE!!!! WAY TO GO, BRENT!!!Feel free to send your notes of congratulations to him here and we will make sure he gets them!!! Thankfully it looks like our will was the same as God's- WOO HOO, HE'S DOING GREAT!!! AND TO ALL OF YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! - LOVE, US :)""

Brent and 3 week younger neice Melissa, and Brent with girlfriend Laura - 2 of the AMAZING Angels that have been with Brent through out this experience... I am so grateful for you girls., and all the others that have been by his side - Dru, u rock!

Brent Update

This is the email I sent out as an update on Brent's condition, post surgery, though the photo above is most definitely pre- (he'd be so embarrassed to know I was showing this to you all!). Anyway, the email:

"Hello once again- As you know, Brent went under the knife on Friday. It was actually 2 surgeries, one right after another with 2 different doctors. First, one went in and removed the mass from his side - I guess they went in through his stomach, removing/moving organs to get to the tumor near his back. After that, the next doctor came in and removed 11 nodules from his right lung, which means he once again has a chest tube, like he did after his biopsy. With all of that, though, and 8 hours of surgery, once again it seems as though our prayers have been answered and all has gone well.

"After the surgery he was doing so well that he bypassed the stop in intensive care and was taken straight to his room. Today he was able to sit on the edge of his bed 3 or 4 times and seems to be doing really well. While he couldn't reply to many if any messages on Friday, I know his brother read him any and all messages to him, so if you've sent a text and he hasn't replied, just know he got your message and is grateful to know you are thinking of him.

"We love him so much and are once again thankful for the blessings of heaven that are being poured out upon us. This is still a time of struggle, and there are definitely times when fear tries to sneak in. However, our faith and the peace that comes through that faith, as well as your prayers have been with us and we are grateful to God for all we have and have been blessed with.

With love,"

Thanks a ton to all of my friends and family, especially that don't even know my brother that have gone out of their way to express concern and pray for our family. I could not ask for more loving friends. <3

Brenty Boy - Surgery this Friday

For those of you who don't know, my little brother Brent will be having major surgery in about 12 hours - well, 2 surgeries actually.

Nothing is wrong - his cancer is still under control and is presumed 100% dead! The doctors just want to remove the mass in his abdomen. and the remaining lesions from his lungs. This is going to be major surgery which will happen in Indiana under the hands of a specialist. Surgery is tomorrow, Friday, October 10th and he should be back at home about a week later.

During this critical time, my family and I are asking all of our friends and family for their prayers and thoughts of support. Thankfully, he is young, the doctors are skilled and hopefully many will be praying on his behalf.

We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for the miracles that have occurred so far and pray that they might continue.

Thank you.

Love,

Bree & Family

Revamp

So, instead of writing something, I redid the look of my blog. Hope you enjoy - if not, tough! ;) Oh, and the baby eating my little girl's head is my good friend Katie's son that is currently betrothed to my "offspring", as Crush would say (Finding Nemo) - i digress! I'm done - Have a beautiful day!

Sleepover and more baths!

Here I'm pretty sure they were watchig "Hairspray" - They all agreed that Link was cute :)

Play time!

Bath Time!

Where have you been?! Ok, where have I been!

WOAH! It's has been a cRAZy couple weeks! First of all, a bunch of my family came out here a week ago from Wisconsin and we had an AMAZING time! We did a little gardening, went to Boondocks, the Dino museum, had dinner at our house a few times, went to the zoo and went 4 wheeling! Oh, and we gave about half a Zillion baths! AND we had about half a dozen sleepovers! WHEW! What a truly WONDERFUL time!

Then the last few days we've been celebrating my birthday - Joe has been such a tricky guy! Truly I've never had such a nice birthday!! Thank you friends and family!!! I love it!

But back to my family visit, it really was great! I'll post some photos and narrate more soon! Just wanted to say hi to the blogging world! I don't know how much I'll be able to write in the next few days, but wanted to say I'm back!

PS - Priya finally learned to pull herself up today! Nothing is safe! :)

I'm a Corvette Baby!

Ok, so I'm REALLY behind on blogging, but I thought I'd steal this quiz from Julie as a way to jump back in to blogging! It's fast, so take it yourself and let me know what you are! :)

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Palin vs Gibson!

This is copied from http://alienrants.blogspot.com/2008/09/palin-v-gibson.html

"

Once again, Day by Day cartoon nails it.

What we didn't hear from Palin was this:"Well, Charlie, I was thinking...I ought to just whip up a batch of brownies and fly over to Russia and sit down with Putin, or whatever that new guy's name is. I mean, we need to just talk this through. We need to understand each other. We need consensus."No, that would be Obama foreign policy and Palin wasn't going there! "

I LOVE this post! Thanks 'One Vote'!

9-11

I just wanted to take a second to remember that horrible day 7 years ago that changed the world, as well as the heroes that showed the world what we're made of.

For me it was especially strange since I was in Uruguay and didn't have any access to the media. the only reason I knew anything had happened was because I was walking to teach English with my companion, Hermana Hamilton, and some people motioned to us and had us come into a restaurant, pointing to the TV. Since we weren't supposed to watch TV as missionaries, I didn't really know what to do, and just looked briefly. It was really hard to tell what was going on... lots of smoke and building, but I really couldn't tell what I was looking at. There were words on the screen -Torres Gemelas- but at that time, I didn't know what gemelas meant and was just confused. When I got to our English class, a new missionary knew what it meant, and the magnitude of what had happened began to sink in, though to be honest it was very hard to grasp and I know I didn't react with as much horror as I now feel when I think of that day.

A day or two later we got to see our mission president, but he seemed to assume we all already knew what had happened, so he didn't really give any details. It wasn't until weeks later when I received detailed letters from my brother Brian that I finally began to understand everything that had happened. The only thing I knew was that no matter the horrors in the world, His plan could bring peace and that's what we focused on as we continued our missionary service. The kindness of our neighbors was incredible as those who before wouldn't talk to us now stopped us and expressed their condolences.
-Bree

8-8-08 Photos - New Stuff :)

So, I was just looking thru some photos and found these from a month ago! Here she was trying her fresh food net for one of the first times... grapes I think... and finally realized she could DO something about having a hat on her head! Plus I love watching her read with Joey - she LOVES it!

More Crawling! Now she's got it!

She was really working hard at this tonight! I wasn't going to post anymore crawling vids for a while, but she was doing so well!... I couldn't help it :)

The vid is a little long... sorry I don't really have time to edit for length - I just want to get the stuff up and share and if I take time to edit it too much I'll never get it done!

You've gotta love the little outfit and the booty shakin! If only she had a mini-cheese head!

1st Pack Game for the Babe!

Priya's First Packer Game! Go Pack! And after a short gagging session when I first saw #12 where #4 should have been, I can say, Go Aaron Rogers! Here's a few pics of my sick little cutie babe and her daddy watching the end of the game:

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Get your own

Mommy & Baby

We've received several requests for more photos of Priya's parents and since recent video has been less than flattering, here is a nicer photo of Priya and Mommy :)

So sick... and SO tired!

Priya has been under the weather the last few days :( Today (Sunday) was especially sad, after a night of almost litteraly no sleep! The longest block of sleep she had after midnight was 20 minutes without being held and very little more than that IN our arms! Still, she managed to squeek a few smiles here and there. This is after a nice evening @ Craig & Deann's, after she had some food-ies and right before we threw her in the bath!

Crawling! Well, kind of

So, this was five days ago - she's doing MUCH better now, but it's still cute! I was on the phone with my parents at the time, so sorry for my random talking in the back :) Also, you've got to love the one sock on, one sock off that was a result of nap-time! Plus "mommy" was just weeding the garden, so please ignore my amazing "attractiveness"

Today was funny because she's been sick, so she was pretty off balance every time she tried to crawl and often her tail end would wobble and tip over, while the front half was working hard to keep movin forward - it craked me up everytime, though I'm sure she was less than thrilled!

We love our little explorer!

Sarah - FAR from Plain!

I can't help it -I have to briefly post about the VP Candidate, Sarah Palin! She seems like an amazing woman, who is not afraid to be tough and stand for what's right, and some how is able to maintain a very feminine appeal. To be honest, I'm grateful for Hillary and the path she has blazed for women everywhere! She has also made it easier for Sarah to show that you don't have to give up her femininity to be in politics.

Maybe I'm not saying things right. I just thought she was amazing and tough and easy to relate to as I heard her last night at the Rep. Convention (which I have NEVER had any desire to watch before by the way!) I am excited for politics in a way I never have been and currently could not be happier about McCain's choice for VP!

My father-in-law wrote an article analyzing her honestly thus far at http://alienrants.blogspot.com/2008/09/palin-screen-test.html -it's not long- check it out!

I can't wait to see how things shape up now with her on the ticket!