Toddler Fun

Now that Brielle is a toddler, things have certainly been more fun. We have all morning to play together and she is able to get around and interact with other kids/people better. We've found some fun things to do around our neighborhood that are turning into really good outings.

1. Indoor Pool: In Sugarhouse (3 miles away) there is an indoor pool for the kids. They have "open plunge" hours and you can just go play in the pool. It has all kinds of cool things like a lazy river, a slide, big water toys, etc. Last week we invited Greg and his boys, Lincoln and Bradley, to go to the pool with us. It was cold and snowy outside, but warm and fun inside. The kids loved it. And so did the dads. We then took them out to dinner to McDonalds (I think our first time). We'll definitely be visiting the pool again. (I don't know why the pictures are so dark, it was not dark inside.)

2. Book Baby: Every Tuesday and Thursday they do story time for babies at the library. We've been going at 10am (Scott gets to come) and I am so impressed. They give you a hand out of songs that we'll be singing, which is great for me at home. There are lots of other kids Brie's age and she is soooooo excited to see them all. We sing songs and read books and then there are bubbles and music and toys and books for us to read together with her at the end. Brie usually just wants to walk around and check everyone out, but that is good for her too.

3. Kindermusic: We started Kindermusic this week. I am really excited about it. It is a pretty pricey little class, so I babysat a family in our ward to make the money to pay for it. Brie and I went on Monday and were greeted by a teacher and a class of 8 other kids her age and their moms/dads. We sang and danced around the room. We have books and music to listen to at home also. Can't wait for class next week.

4. Vacuum Tag: This is an unofficial game, but a fun one all the same. Brielle used to be afraid of the vacuum cleaner. She would want me to hold her as I vacuumed. She is now much braver, but still a little unsure. The game now is to get as close as she possibly dares while I push the vacuum around and then when it gets too close she runs and hides - just like playing wave tag at the beach! What a great time.

One Year Old Portraits

It's finally done. Brielle finally had her one year old pictures taken last night. We were not able to do it sooner because she had pneumonia and then a little bit of a black eye. We are all over those now and she was ready (somewhat) to pose. We went to Kiddie Kandids this time and actually had a very good experience. They don't work on commission so they weren't trying to push every photo product on us they could think of - you could have a blanket with her picture on it or a mug or a mouse pad, etc, etc. The photographer spent a lot of time with Brie (who kept running off) and was really good. We walked out of the place with a free 8 x 10 and didn't pay a dime.

We would like to buy some 5x7 prints for the grandparents, if you would like. Please take a look at the pictures and tell us which one you like the best. I'd like opinions from everyone so that we know what picture to get for us. Thanks.

Wedding Photo Album by Laura Buchanan

Laura and Alan had our name for Christmas this year. They asked us what we wanted and Scott told them that we would like a dust buster. This is true, with food falling on the floor as often as it does now, a dust buster would be great. I just could not ask my sister-in-law, Laura, who is the most creative, artsy, crafty person I know for a dust buster. I wanted to have something that used her really good taste and ideas. I couldn't think of what it could be until I glanced over to the book shelf and saw an empty album and a stack of wedding picture proofs. Perfect! So, I asked her to scrapbook our wedding pictures. Honestly, after I asked I was shocked that I did. That is a HUGE task. Poor Laura.

She was great though. She acted excited and took me shopping (while she was here for Christmas) for papers, etc. It was really fun to find the right paper and lay out. She then took all the supplies home to New York and started working. I was so pleasantly surprised when just a couple weeks later she said it was done! Wow! The photo album arrived in the mail and it is absolutely perfect! It's awesome. Scott and I love it. I am soooooo grateful to Laura for making such a special book for us. It means so much. I look through it every day. I want you to get to see it also. I wish you could see the colors and textures of the paper and the pictures a little better, but you'll get it.

A big THANK YOU to Laura, my scrapbooking queen of a sister-in-law.

Afternoon Nap

It's official. Brielle turned 13 months and automatically switched from two naps a day to one. It took me a few days to figure out what in the world she was doing. I would put her in bed for a morning nap and she would spend a whole hour running from one side of the crib to the other. She was NOT tired. Later she would finally go to sleep and sleep for a very long time. So, I tried waiting until later to put her down and that is what worked! Wow.

Now Brielle is awake all morning with Scott and I. We eat lunch and Scott goes off to work at about noon. Then Brie goes down for a nap at 1pm and sleeps until about 4 or 4:30. This may not seem like major news to you, but it has certainly turned my life upside down. She has completely changed my daily routine. We are all adjusting though and I think we are going to like the new schedule.

The picture above is at lunch time on one of the first days that we tried keeping her up longer. She did just fine until she was eating. I was cracking up laughing watching her head bob trying to stay awake. 

The Miracle of The Humidifier

I am so thrilled about having a humidifier. I thought I would share my joy and insights.

It's winter time and we are in Utah. It is soooooooooo dry here. We are constantly applying lotion, chap stick and drinking water because of how dry the air feels. The dry air really gets to us at night. It was about 10 degrees outside and the heater was trying to warm our house to 70 degrees inside, so it was blowing all night long. Brielle was coughing all night. Scott was coughing all night. I was just uncomfortable feeling like my throat had no moisture whatsoever. And Scott and I would lie in bed deciding if we should move to Hawaii or Florida. The solution was to buy another humidifier.

We read that most people are comfortable at a humidity level of 50%. In the winter time our furnaces in our offices and homes are running so much that we are living in about 10% humidity, which is dryer than the Sahara Desert.

We tried for a while to have one humidifier in the hall blowing into both rooms, but it didn't work. Now we have one in Brielle's room and one in our room. I was the happiest sleeper ever that first night - we all were! Everyone is sleeping better. Brielle isn't coughing at all and we all sleep soundly through the night with those sweet puffs of moisture being blown into the air. Hallelujah!

She Got Her Dance Moves From Me!

We always wondered what attributes our daughter would get from each of us. Would Brielle have my curly hair? Or Scott's blue eyes? etc. etc. Well, we figured out just who she gets her dance moves from! She can really shake it. Check her out in the video link below (sorry that you have to tilt your head, I took the video sideways by mistake.)

http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r136/aliciabuchanan/?action=view&current=MVI_0005.flv?t=1169440725

Day Dates

Scott's new schedule at work gives him Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. That is a whole three days at home! He has been working overtime most of those days off, but this week he didn't. We had all three of those days to do with what we wanted. So, we went on a couple dates during the day. We have to do day dates because we have a little girl who is a perfect clock work sleeper and is in bed asleep between 7pm and 8pm every night.

On Thursday we dropped Brielle off with Grandma Rama and Papa Fred. It makes me SOOOO happy that when we walk into their house she gets so excited. She puts out her arms to either Rama or Fred with a huge smile on her face. She is always thrilled to be there to play with them. She then heads right for all of Grandma's fun toys. We are very, very grateful that Fred and Rama are so close and so happy to watch Brielle sometimes. We left her in their good hands and went to a movie. We saw The Prestige at the dollar theater. It was the 11am showing. It is weird to be in a movie theater (with 2 other people) at 11am on a Thursday. The movie was quite interesting. We then went to lunch at The Fiddlers Elbow. We love the food there, but can't go usually because they serve alcohol so you can't bring children in. It was delicious! We then went back to pick up our Brie and took her home for a nap (and a nap for us as well). What a perfect date.

Friday we took Brielle to play with Grandma and Papa again. This time we drove to Bountiful to go to the temple (SLC was closed). We had a very nice session in the temple. It was a quiet, small session. I like that. The day was cold but very sunny and beautiful. We sat in the celestial room together and watched the sun come in through the windows and hit all the crystals on the big, beautiful chandeliers. When we went to pick up Brielle we all decided to go to the Sizzler for dinner. We had a very nice dinner with Fred and Rama. They are wonderful.

Today we just lounged around and watched it snow. Scott and I got to have three very nice days together. Tomorrow he is back to work. I'm grateful to have him as my husband. What a good man.

Hiding From The COLD

The high today in Salt Lake City is 15 degrees. The lows have been in the negatives. It is FREEZING!! This all began last week, the day my dad arrived from California. It started with a huge snow storm that lasted all day. Then the ARCTIC cold moved in. So, we are officially hiding out inside and not going out.

Another contributing factor in this decision is that Brielle has been so sick. She has had a really hard cough for a couple weeks now and a temperature and a runny nose. It's been awful. She throws up because she coughs so hard and can't sleep, which means I can't sleep. On that really bad snow storm day we went to the hospital for tests that Uncle Brian ordered. Thankfully, my dad was here to drive us on the snow covered roads. The x-rays showed that Brielle has viral pneumonia. This is something that can not be treated, so we are just waiting it out. She does seem to be feeling a bit better every day.

Luckily, I knew the cold was coming. I went to Kid to Kid last week when it was still normal temperatures and found a BIG winter coat for Brie. It's really cute and really warm and thick, but watching her walk around in it is a joke. This just might be her winter coat for years to come.

"I can't put my arms down."

Yep, you get kind of bored staying inside all day when it is too cold to go out. Good thing there aren't any pictures of the colander on my head.
 

Play Time with Samantha

We had a very special visit from Kamber, Brian and Samantha before they flew off to London again. We were so glad we got to spend some time with them at the end of their holiday trip. It is especially fun to see Brielle and Samantha together. They are two weeks apart. They were very excited to see each other, of course. They played with all of Brielle's new christmas and birthday toys. Scott and I had a great time seeing Kamber and Brian as well. What fun. I only wish they lived closer and we could see them more.

Brielle and Samantha played in Brielle's crib. They jumped around and had kind of a mosh pit in the crib. Looked like a good time.

They also played with Brie's new doll cradle and high chair.
Look how much taller Samantha is and how much more hair!
We exchanged birthday and christmas gifts. Brie got a new shirt and a really cool worm toy that she LOVES! We gave Samantha a new book and a doll to dress up.
They tried riding Brie's riding toy together, but that did not go over so well with either of them. At that point they were seperated and Brie went to bed and Samantha had some food before her all night and all day journey back home.
We loved the visit and can't wait for the next!

Clan Buchanan Root Beer Night

The party with the Buchanan family continued. We had a root beer taste testing night. This came about because when Scott and I were visiting Glenn and Renee in Oregon we had a Ginger Beer and Ginger Ale taste testing party. Glenn and Scott were desperate to know which Ginger Beer was the very best. Once that was discovered, we had to know what Root Beer was the very best.

We had 14 different bottled (they had to be bottled) root beers. We took a taste of each and had a score sheet to rate them on appearance, color, taste, carbonation and clarity (I think). My favorites were IBC and Henry Whineharts. It was a fun night. Here is the group with root beer cups in hand.
This is how Brielle enjoyed the evening while we were all downing root beer. She LOVES Annabelle and Clara's play room. Can you blame her? (Please note: Rachel always has this room so organized and tidy, but all the cousins had just torn through and Brie was left to enjoy.)
This is the Buchanan men singing scottish tunes. It's been awhile since they have all been together and they really enjoyed the reunion. Alan, Glenn, Scott, Brian and Fred in front.


Below is a movie clip of the Buchanan boys belting out their best root beer drinking Scottish songs.
http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r136/aliciabuchanan/?action=view&current=MVI_0026.flv