Halloween Happenings

We've been having a blast gearing up for Halloween!  Here's a list of the fun things we've done the past couple of days:

Toddler Walk:  Our neighborhood puts on a Halloween toddler walk every year.  It's always a fun thing for the little ones to get dressed up in their costumes.  We walk around the block and end up at one of the houses for cookies and punch.  Brielle had a blast with all of her little friends (we have pretty much all girls here in our neighborhood!) and the cookies at the end were, of course, worth it!

Brielle in the witch costume that Mom made

Daddy and Brielle at the Toddler Walk

Fall Festival:  Our community put on a Fall Festival this year, which was a BLAST!  They had a pumpkin patch, carnival rides, pony rides, a petting zoo, costume contest, rock climbing, bounce houses, and a chili cook off.  So fun!  We had a great time, and Brielle couldn't get enough of the animals and the airplane carnival ride.

 So happy with her airplane!

I'm loving the huge smile on her face.  Apparently, the sun was to bright for her to look at the camera.

Trunk or Treat:  Sadly, no pictures for this one, but we had a great time.  Brielle was introduced to the joys of trick-or-treating.  She learned that you can just steal candy from the other kids' buckets.  Easy Peasy, right?

Pumpkin Patch

Brielle and I took a trip to a pumpkin patch in old downtown Humble that was put on by the Methodist church.  It was a blast!  Our friends Emily and Brayden joined us for the fun.  The kids had a blast moving the pumpkins from one pallet to another and decorating the pumpkins they got to take home with stickers.  Brielle was so proud of her sticker jack-o-lanterns that she couldn't wait to show them to Daddy as soon as he got home!

One of Those Days

 Yes, this fits the situation to a T.  Brielle decided to forgo all morning naps this week.  What did I do?  I adapted.  We went to playgroup for the first time in months.  We hit up library story time.  We went to the park.  I was quite proud of myself.  Then things started piling up.  Yesterday, I lost my keys in the process of loading up the car.  I looked for them for 10 frantic minutes, and found them... in my hand.  I pushed for one nap today, only to have Brielle wake up 1/2 hour after she went down.  I think I may just be losing my ever-living mind...  One day at a time, right?

Birthday Extravaganza

We are now officially parents of a one-year-old.  It's hard to believe that a year has flown by!  Since Brielle's birthday was on Sunday this year, we took Saturday and played with her.  We went to the Downtown Aquarium to look at the fish and ride some rides.  It was a really fun place.  They even have a train ride that takes you through the middle of a shark tank.  Here are some highlights of our outing:

 

Outside the Aquarium

Looking at the fish

 The Diver's Mask

 White Tigers.  Yeah.  At at an aquarium.  Weird...

 On the Shark Train

 In the Shark Tank

 On the Carousel - Brielle's favorite ride

 On the Ferris Wheel

Back the the Carousel for one more ride

Sunday was full of presents and cake:

 Showing off her poodle and BYU cheerleader outfit

Sorry the video is a little long, but the dance at the end is worth it!

Singing Happy Birthday.  Notice how NOT impressed she is.

 Digging into her cupcake

 Loving the mess!

 Hi Mom!  My cupcake was delicious!!

Brielle also had her 12 month checkup today.  Her stats are as follows:

Height:  31 inches (95%)

Weight:  23 lbs. (80%)

At 12 months, Brielle can do LOTS of new things!  She says mama and daddy, often walks around the house calling for Daddy when he's at work.  She can understand when you ask her to bring you a ball, stuffed animal, diaper, or most anything else, usually with a big "Ohhhhhh" while she goes in pursuit of whatever you asked for.  She loves to dance, and we often find her dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or her new farm toy.  She loves to be pretty, and puts her stacking rings on her arm as bracelets.  She also loves to carry her purse around the house.

We love our little Briellie Bellie, and are SO glad that she came to us!  Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie!!

Labor Day

Instead of traveling on Labor Day weekend, we decided to actually labor.  Our kitchen went from this (focus on the walls, not the people):

to this:

I have some decorating to do, but I think I like the color.

Mark also did some yard work while Brielle watched from the window.  She can watch her daddy mow the whole back yard without moving from the window once!  Here she is waving from the window.

Pesto Presto

The one crop that really took off from our garden this year was my basil.  Last year I just let it all die, but this year I decided to make Pesto.  I found a great recipe here.  Then, because Pesto is only used in small quantities, I put it in ice cube trays and froze it.  The ice cube trays are perfect for individual portions of Pesto, and it was super easy to get the cubes of Pesto out once they were frozen.  I transferred the Pesto cubes to a freezer container, and now I can add Pesto to whatever I want in just a minute of defrosting in the microwave.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my pesto, but here is a picture I found that looks exactly like mine did:

So tonight I grabbed 2 cubes of my frozen pesto, some chicken, cheese, bread, tomatoes (from our garden - yum!), spinach, bacon, and our George Forman.  I grilled the chicken breasts on the George Forman and cut it into strips.  Then I slathered my defrosted pesto on 2 slices of bread (one for each sandwich), layered my chicken, cooked bacon, and cheese, topped with another slice of bread, and panini-ed the sandwiches on the George Forman.  After taking them off the grill, I opened them up and added the tomatoes and the spinach.  Easy peasy dinner and so delicious!  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my paninis either.  Sigh.  One day maybe I'll remember to grab my camera.

I love easy, delicious dinners like this.  And I love that I hand-made that Pesto.  Like from scratch.  :)

August Recap

We've had lots of fun this month with lots of visitors in town.  Brielle loved having someone else to play with besides just Mom all day long!

First, my wonderful high-school friend Jamie came for a visit.  We had a great time with her!  We took advantage of having a visitor and went to see the sites:  Nasa, the mall, and the Zoo.  Brielle was a little trooper and loved all of our field trip adventures - even with an ear infection.  Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera on any of our adventures, but Jamie did take some shots of us at the zoo:

 Watching the Jellyfish

The porcupine

The elephants

Perfect Photo-Op

It ended up being 110 degrees that day; the hottest I've ever seen in Houston.  Luckily there were snow cone machines in abundance, and we all got to cool off with one.

After Jamie left, Mark's high-school friend, Matt, came with his wife, Erin, and their daughter, Skylie.  Skylie is just a month older than Brielle.  Brielle was delighted to have a friend to play with full-time for a couple of days.  We had a great time catching up as well.  Thanks Matt and Erin for coming to play!

The Dads and their daughters

Good friends and good times

Since then, we've been busy with things such as:

 Making tutus.  I made this one for Brielle to have her picture taken in.  There will be a onesie with a cupcake on it in matching colors.  More posts on this later.

Working.  Mark works hard, sometimes bringing his work home so he can spend some time with Brielle before she goes to bed.  Brielle like to be just like Daddy and work on "her" laptop while he works on his.

Being silly.  Brielle's newest obsession is wearing Mommy's sunglasses around the house.  "I wear my sunglasses at night..." comes to mind...

Brielle also passed the 11-month mark.  Hard to believe that she's been with us for almost a year already!  In the past month she's accomplished walking, playing peek-a-boo, finding her head, and learning the shape of a circle.  Still working on the hair, though...