Artists in (my) residence

 I checked this book out at the library and did a few projects with Audrey and Ian. It was great to learn about famous artists and try to imitate their work. 

 Over MLK holiday weekend, I drove out to southern CA to visit my great friend Valerie who lived in Atlanta when we did. She has such an amazing family, and I enjoyed catching up with them, spending time with her adorable children, and girl time. I also got to go to lunch with my friend Bekah one day, but we forgot to do a picture.

A few more December pictures

Audrey's birthday was a fun day at school and packages and presents and cake at home!

A picture of my growing-up-seven-year-old 

Christmas bikes from Grammy and Grandpa

Before Christmas bikes came along, brothers had to ride hand-me-down pink!

December

December was pretty busy and very merry. The first week, Mr. B played his French horn in an orchestra performing The Messiah. Audrey's seventh birthday was that week as well, and she and I went to the mall to make a build-a-bear and have lunch and shop. We bought our Christmas tree and decorated, made lots of goodies and went to a few gatherings. I served Italian sodas at the church party, which was a hit. I took Audrey to the Nutcracker with my friend Annaka and her daughter Taylee. We got Audrey a fancy dress for the occasion. And we celebrated Christmas, just us, in our home. It was peaceful and fun and full of delicious food!

November

November's highlight was Thanksgiving: I made perfect gravy for the first time ever!! It has been my Achilles' heel in the kitchen, but finally victory was mine! My brother Paul came to visit again, which made the holiday much more celebratory. I nabbed a picture of him napping with Declan. And a picture of one of my pies. Mmm. Finally there is a photo of a praying mantis that Declan and I found in the yard one day. We love having grass and apparently we're inviting a new population, fun!

We got our yard done!

The first year we lived here, our backyard was a rectangle of dirt and weeds and pebbles. The kids had fun digging in the dirt, but it was not generally a fun place to hang out. So we saved up and got some basic landscaping done. We love it and it's a much nicer place to hang out. We've put a slide and some toys out there, and it's so great having a place to send the kids while I make dinner or when they need to get their energy out. And we enjoy all the sunshine and pleasant Arizona winter.

October

We had a very full October. We did a lot of fun Halloween activities (decorating cookies pictured), enjoyed fall break (some outings with the kids and me), Declan got his first haircut, Mr. B and I went to a Halloween party and I got a trophy for best dessert of the night, and the kids got to trick-or-treat twice! (once at the church trunk or treat) Ian insisted on wearing the same ghost costume as last year (a sheet with holes), Audrey wanted to be the tooth fairy, and Declan was stuffed into Ian's 2 year old costume: Frankenstein. All were extremely pleased to end the month with a bucket full of candy.

Happy Halloween from the Briens!

Amber reunion

I spent a fabulous weekend in Atlanta with Amber, getting caught up and having loads of girl time. We got together with several old friends, went out to eat, shopped til we dropped, and relaxed at home. Thanks to the Croxalls for a wonderful weekend!

First grade

Audrey started first grade! 

First day of school photo

"If I stand here, will you take my photo?"

"Me too!"

First photo attempt. :)

 Thank goodness for Mr. B. I was still pretty miserable from my tonsillectomy by the first day of school (August 5th), so he took care of getting her off to school each morning, getting the boys ready and off to playdates, and picking them all up, running the household, and serving me with food, drinks, popsicles, changing my sheets, vacuuming my room, making me as comfortable as possible. He is wonderful.

Tonsillectomy

On July 30th, a few days after arriving home from our long summer trip, I got my tonsils removed. It was what you'd expect. I was in bed for a week, then was still tired and sore for another week, but not in bed all day every day. By the two week mark, I was mostly back to myself. It's almost been three weeks, and I'm probably 90% myself. Still a bit fatigued and occasionally sore, but I'm back to my usual activities. I had the tonsillectomy because I had five cases of strep throat in three months, plus I have large, cryptic tonsils. So hopefully I will stay healthy now that they are gone! Bonus: no more tonsil stones, which have plagued me over the years. 

Road trip home

The night before we left Longview to drive back to Arizona, we decided to take the scenic route. We first stopped at Bonneville Dam to see the dam and the fish ladder, which was really neat. We got to drive along the Columbia river on our way out of Washington, and we ended up in a Boise hotel for the night. The next day we drove straight to Cedar City, where we spent the night at my friends' place (my college roomie Michelle and her family). We did not want to leave! Our kids and hers had so much fun together, and of course I was in heaven hanging out with Michelle. The next day we drove through Zion's National Park and headed towards Arizona. Mr. B had been driving, but after a few minutes in the Park, I made him pull over and let me drive. I get carsick with all those curves! After we left Zion's, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, largely because the sign cracked us up. The food wasn't great, but it was a nice leg stretch and fun place to be. 

 I guess the story is that the original business shortened the word homemade to save money on the sign and add folksy appeal, but in more recent years when the word "ho" took on its current meaning, the restaurant decided to run with it for marketing. Guess it worked on us!

We got back home that night and were relieved to find everything as we'd left it, and so grateful to be out of the car.

Titlow beach--low tide

In Tacoma, there is a beach (Titlow) that has amazing creatures to discover at low tide. Our last day in Puyallup happened to coincide with a super low tide, so we headed down to see what we could find.

A purple crab!

He loved being here but was unsure about the creatures

Aunt Laura and Ian

My brothers Ben and Kenny. Ben is a MASTER at finding creatures. He must have found 20+ huge crabs under rocks.

"Aunt Laura is making me hold this for the picture!"