Lovin Life

I have the greatest husband in the entire world! Brandon got up again today at 5, and went off to work.  Today is his first of three, 13+ hour days this week.  He is scheduled for 52 hours this week just at the studio with another 10 or so at the restaurant.  When I asked if he was going to be okay, he grinned and said, "It's no busier than last week, I'm just not taking Monday off." He is so proud of himself, I can see it on his face.   And I love being married to someone who is proud to support our family.  He is my favorite. 

Britain was so happy to see her daddy all day yesterday, the princess definitely misses him while he works so much.  

We were talking about her vocabulary yesterday, and I think she has pretty close to doubled it in the last month.  It is kind of amazing. Of course most of it is just repeating me or Brandon, but she loves anything with the word "go" in it. For example:

"Let's go"

"Ready, Set, Go!"

Also, yesterday she was sitting on the toilet and I asked "Did you go potty yet?" and then I checked and she hadn't so I said "say, 'No, not really.'" She repeated that one perfectly. It was so cute. 

Her favorite word is probably "cookie"  because I'm a sucker and I can't really say no when she pronounces it so well. It seems like she is practicing that one a lot. Silly girl.

Probably my favorite thing that she says/does right now is her "no, no, no" I don't have any idea where she learned it, but she wags her finger back and forth when she says it, and she says it all high pitched like the way I used to talk to my dolls.  It is the funniest thing ever! Last night when she put her foot up on the table, Brandon told her to put it down and we got to watch as she wagged her finger at her toes and scolded it with her "no, no, no"  

It made the whole day worth it.

I sure love my life. 

Anticipation!

I am getting a little excited to flee everyday life.  I am excited to trap my Brandon in the car with me for 8 solid hours! Bwahahahaha! He will get lots of questions that I've been wanting to ask, but have missed asking because he has been working so hard lately!
Miss Britain will be so excited to have a new playground to explore.  Our little apartment is really crampy when we spend days at a time inside without so much as running an errand.  We are both going to love having lots of room to lay on the floor and play.
I am trying frantically to get all my homework under control today and tonight so that I can relax and not spend hours at a time on the computer. Good luck to me :)
This is how Britain plays, methodically, for long periods of time, as long as she thinks she is playing with something she isn't allowed to have.. :)

With Mommy's buttons.

And, back into the bag :) Good Girl!

 Really fast, before I end this post, I wanted to share our fun adventure of late night snacking on the kitchen floor.  High class, I know ;)

Favorite snack!!! She even knows
what the carton looks like in the fridge!

Yummy, happy baby!

Checking In

I've been horrible about blogging recently.  And it makes me feel bad! But I've been working really hard in my classes, and they are somewhat demanding, so at least I'm not just being a bum all day.  I've also been making a new blog called my "Book of Remembrance" for my family history class. It has actually been really fun.  It's a semester long process, so most of it is undone, just set up for now, otherwise I would encourage you to look at it.  But I will show you what I made last night for a banner for it :)  I scrapbooked it and Brandon photo shopped it to look all professional. (Thanks Brandon!)  He even stayed up til 11pm working on it for me, and then woke up at 4 am for work. What a great husband!

Original Attempt

My Second Favorite

The Chosen One!

Not gunna lie, I think it turned out way stinking cute, and my favorite part-it represents me really well.  I got to do my favorite thing-scrapbook- for my second favorite thing-blogging!  It was truly cool, and made even more awesome by my best friend staying up so late just to help me.  FYI: The pictures above are not the finished project, Brandon's work is represented on the blog, these are just the pictures I took before he photo-shopped it! Thanks for caring Brandon!

Now on to the fun stuff you all care about! :) Pictures of Britain! Some of you already know this because I tell pretty much everyone I come in contact with-but my child is developing a very real personality! It is cute-and frustrating at times... So here she is in action:

Britain loves to read... Especially
mommy's books that are about to
fall apart... AGGGHHHH!

Britain doesn't get to  play with daddy
as much as she would like, but when
they do play- you can hardly
 tell who has more fun!

My favorite mini-me! Britain has found
my makeup, and this is the concentration
face she makes while she puts it on!

So Funny Stories (at least I think they're funny)

#1.  My downstairs neighbors had their baby, very recently... And I am so happy for them.  And weirdly enough I love hearing the little newborn cry that this child keeps making. It makes me smile, I hope baby's parents are fairing well and not getting overwhelmed.  I'm not smiling because the baby is crying, I smile because I love to sounds of brand-spankin'-new life.  It is precious.  So the funny part, is that I now have to carry my baby monitor everywhere because I hear the newborn crying and my instant thought is always that Britain is crying... Never mind the fact that she hasn't made that sweet cry in over a year... On top of this, I wake up at least once in the night when the baby wakes up.  I love that I can wake up to someone else's baby crying and just feel so happy (and a tad bit jealous).  Knowing that the child is so tiny makes me super happy, but I'm not sleeping very well because when I wake up to hear the baby crying, I tend to reminisce over my itty bitty Britain baby for about an hour. I find it humorous that I'm sleep deprived because I want the crying baby to be mine.  Yes, I'm ridiculous. 

#2.  My online classes started yesterday, and I was so excited that I think I did all the homework for one of the classes already.  I started on the other class after Britain went to bed last night and that was fun, but today I got really excited to work on more homework, but my iLearn isn't working.  That's where all my course work is.  The fact that this blog is working proves that school is out to get me. I thought it was hilarious that Facebook was working, but not any of my school links.  I think it's a weird sign telling me to pace myself or I'll lose steam fast this semester. 

#3.  One of my neighbors made something delicious for lunch.. I can smell it... More correctly I can smell the grilled onions... MY FAVORITE! I want to knock on doors and ask for the recipe when I find the right house. Yummy... Does this make me weird? Possibly.


#4.  Britain officially knows the word "bubble" and I officially know that she knows a lot more words than she lets on.  She is a stubborn goof.  She will only use the word if we play totally dumb and make our act believable. If she can tell that I'm pretending to not understand her pointing, then she throws a massive fit.  If she believes me, then she starts chanting "bub-bows, bub-bows" which I'm trying to get her to say without a fight.  She needs to use her words... Apparently I've been too lax about making her talk. 

This is Britain with her baby "Mo Mo" I don't know why
but it is one word she will say for me.

#5.  This story is only funny because of my intense enthusiasm for it.  Last night we bought all the potty training supplies that we hope to need.  I am so excited to start potty training-but I don't really know why... We were going to start this week, but then I decided (and Brandon agreed) that we should wait until we get back from Wyoming because we don't want her to regress, we don't want accidents in the car, we don't want accidents at Grandmas house and I don't want to stop too many times while driving...  But January 22nd! Here we come! Britain sat on her seat last night and loved it. She would grab toilet paper, and blow her nose, which was hilarious because you could tell she totally thought she was acting so big and doing everything just like mom, but she really had no clue what the point of sitting there was.  But she sure loves her big girl panties.  I am excited to get her out of diapers! No more fighting the diaper rashes! WAHOO! 

A Saturday

If you were to walk into my house right now you would think that something exploded...So, please don't walk in right now... haha! My house looks like I have done nothing today, but in truth I have actually done a lot.  I pulled everything out of Britain's closet and reorganized it.  2 years of baby supplies were re-boxed so that I can actually stack it all in the same place instead of having it in fifty million places all over my house.  My kitchen is still undone from breakfast, but that's okay... I have boxes all over my living room ready to be taken to the trash, I'm getting DI donations all ready for Monday. But most importantly, I got to quietly observe Britain creating a make believe world all around her.  She played in so many cute ways by herself and with her baby doll all morning. She rocked it, cuddled it, poked the nose, accidentally dropped/stepped on it.  But she was so cute with that pretend baby.  Britain is the sweetest person I have ever met. she is working on becoming well behaved.  :) She occasionally screams like a Pterodactyl (at least my imagination of the flying dinosaur... Maybe they don't scream at all...), but that's okay too.  It has been a really busy morning, and I am very content with it.  I hope that I can find ways to make every day productive and relaxing at the same time. 

I have officially been a stay at home mom for one week.  I don't miss working at all.  This is exactly what I want and exactly what we need. Thank you to everyone who supports me and blesses me daily.  You are not unnoticed. I appreciate all the sacrifices from everyone, that have led me back home to my Britain. This is the perfect life.  

Britain's Christmas 2012

I don't have much to say today, but here are some of my favorite pictures from the past month or so. We had a lot of fun this year with Britain getting excited and all the many blessings we enjoyed. What a great way to end 2012. And the last thing is a short video of Britain while she dances...and stays sitting...It's pretty awesome. Enjoy!

Getting the tree ready

In her Pretty dress

Stacking with Bucky

Christmas morning with Mom

Christmas morning with Dad :)

We got spoiled!

Adorable, enjoying new presents

All ready to leave, little grown up with her purse

Sydney, Brandon, Brady, Mom, Grandma VanWagenen & Natalie
Playing ticket to ride