Access Denied!

This week we had to put the baby gate up in the hall. Brynley has started to stand and cruise this week. She will follow anyone down the hall. She likes to go into rooms and eat things or make mischief!

Here she is discovering the gate. Madison and Zach thought it was fun to play on the other side. They both like to color and Brynn will eat their crayons so, they took the opportunity to color in peace!

Well, she didn't like the fact that she wasn't invited in the fun! She was crying and "yelling" the kids. So I grabbed the camera and called her name!!
She was so sad and mad at the same time!

Oh well, I hope you had a good laugh!

The Nativity

Madison is obsessed with the nativity. Starting at the beginning of December she takes any chance she can get to dress up like Mary! She even has Zach dress up like Joseph, both with blankets tied to their heads. Last night I went to check on her and she had a blanket draped over hear head like Mary, NO JOKE!

So the other day Zachary made a car ramp out of a box. Well Madison saw it and only thought one thing, Nativity!! Here eyes practically lit up! So her and Zach dug in their closets and found things that they could in their version of the Nativity.

Here is what they came up with......

Let me give you a little tour of the Nativity: Mary and Joseph are played by Dorothy and the Tin Man. The shepherds are The Mad Hatter, Flynn Ryder (from Rapunzel), and a green army guy poised and ready for battle! The Littlest Pet Shop pony is the donkey, and a dalmatian dog is a cow. Inside the basket is baby Jesus played by, Prince Eric (from Little Mermaid).

They were very proud of their work!

11 Months Already!

I can't believe that Brynley is already 11 months old!! I can't believe how fast the year has gone. She has become quite the silly baby. She growls and "barks" at things. Like the Christmas Tree. At first she just cried every time we came close to a tree. Then she would just sit and stare, now she "barks" and gently touches the branches.
*She is crawling everywhere and will eat anything you leave on the floor. Like legos and pennies! So far I have gotten it out of her
mouth before she actually swallows it!
*She has started standing and letting go for a few seconds.
*She has to friends at Church. Kaylee T. who is two weeks older, and Camie T. who is 3 months older but is about the same size.
* Brynn has one tooth on the bottom!
* She loves her blanket which we call "fluffy." Too bad it's a one and only and can't buy them anymore, which makes washing it hard!!!


I let her grab one just for the picture!

She wouldn't let it go!

This one makes her look so old! Almost no more baby!

Baby Godzilla!

Brynley has become BABY GODZILLA!!


Since Brynley has started crawling, she has figured out where the fun stuff is to play with! She will now follow Madison and Zachary where ever they go! She knows that if she follows them they are doing something fun!

So lately I have been hearing, "MOM, can you come and get Brynn! She is getting our stuff!!" We just laugh and tell them to deal with it. Zachary usually picks her up and brings her to us. But she turns right around and goes right back!!!

Christmas should be fun! We had our first encounter with a tree today and she just cried! So maybe she will leave it alone!

So I finally got a video of her crawling. She usually stops moving when I get the camera out! So this time I has her crawl toward the camera and that seemed to work!

Tree Lighting!

Every
year for the last
4 years we bundle up the
kids and head to downtown for
the annual tree lighting festival!
The downtown area is decked out for the
holidays! There is live music, beautiful light
displays, and a TON of people! The first place we
always head is to see Santa and Mrs. Clause! Zachary
always comments how pretty she is!! This year there were
animals! They had a reindeer and a camel! The kids got to pet
the reindeer, and Zachary kept asking how they could fly!! So I said
if you believe in Santa then reindeer can fly! And that seemed to answer
his question!
(how do you like my tree?!!)

The reindeer would just stand there and let hoards of people pet him! He/she was really cute and very fluffy!

Zachary was so excited to see Santa, and as you can see, Santa was trying to coax Ryleigh with a candy cane. So when we left Zach mentioned that Santa didn't ask him what he wanted. So I told him since Santa is magical, he always knows what you want, if you are a good boy!

As you can see we were pretty bundled up! Each of us had on at least 2-3 layers! No one complained that they were cold and Brynn was a champ!!


Down by the depot they always have this huge rope light display. It's Pooh Bear and piglet on a train!

Another fun thing that they have is a "Thomas the Train" free train ride for the kids. The cars are water barrels with a little wooden seat inside.

Madison chose to ride in the very back by herself!

Zachary loved that Ryleigh rode with him! They are pretty good buddies!

After all the fun stuff we took a walk around the walking paths and foot bridges. They said that there were 400,000+ lights that were used!! It's pretty amazing.
They have these little light displays and figures of bears and penguins We thought that this one was pretty funny!

Madison and Zachary were "warming" their bums by the "fire!"

On our way to the car we ran into Sparky the Fire Dog!

And the whole reason for the evening!! The enormous tree! It was grown locally in Wilder, Idaho. It is usually a multi-colored but this year they went all blue!!
We just love this time of year! If you have a chance and you live in the area go for a walk downtown! It's cold but so worth it!!

10 Months!

How can it be? My sweet baby is already 10 months old! I know it sounds corny but it seems like she was born last week! Time flies when there is more than one kid to take care of!


Brynley is such a great addition to our family. She is sweet, loving, funny, and above all adorable! Last month she weighed 19lb 12 oz and was 28inches long! She still has no teeth! Zach got two at 10 month and Madison didn't get any until she was one!
She was somewhat mobile until yesterday! Zachary was playing the Nintendo and she just crawled right over to him!!!! So we tried it again and she did it again!

Well today I forgot she could crawl and I went to switch over the laundry and she dumped a whole can of soda I had left unattended!!!

I took her outside for her 10 month picture and Madison came running down the street. Brynn got so excited!

She just loves Madison. She especially loves to pull her hair!!

This is her stink face! She usually does it when she is excited or sees something or someone she likes!!! Sometimes she will do it if you are eating something and she wants to try it too! Let's just say, she loves ice cream!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I can hear you all laughing!!

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever?!?!

In the end she really is a sweet baby!

The Predicament

So Brynley is a somewhat mobile baby now. When I took this video she was just starting to push herself around. Now she gets around pretty good, she's not crawling but she can pretty much get anywhere. As I am sitting here she has figured out how to pull herself up to the coffee table and grab what she needs!!



Here is Zachary and Brynley playing together!! They are
pretty good buddies!


She had somehow backed herself under the swing. She is not there one minute and the next she is under here playing. We let her play under there for a while!

Last, here is a picture of Brynley eating her first piece of Halloween Candy! A Dum-Dum sucker. She had it down to a stick in no time!

Our little Gobblins!

This year for Halloween, Madison decided to be a cowgirl again! That was just fine with us because we didn't have to buy anything!!

For the past few years Zachary's costumes have always been pretty basic. We find thing that we already have, or I make them. This year since the girls costumes were pretty inexpensive, he got to pick out what he wanted. So he chose a Transformer! He was so excited to put it on and wear a mask! It even has built in muscles!!

Brynley was a cute little snow leopard! I wanted her to be warm, and yet functional!

Isn't she just adorable!!

This is Zachary and his best buddy Alec! These two have been best friends since birth! Zach is older by 2.5 months! Alec and his family (our good friends Scott and Michele) moved to Utah this week! It was sad to see them go! It was a great 5 year run!

One last one of Brynley! this is her "stink face" the kid taught her!!

We hope everyone has a great Halloween!!

The Amazing Brynley!

Earlier this month, Brynley discovered a new talent and boy are we proud!
Madison and Zachary were never this talented and really for the most part didn't put things in their mouths. Brynn puts everything in her mouth! We have to be careful with legos, and barbie shoes that frequently get left on the floor!

We were packing for our trip to Utah and one of us gave her a golf ball to play with and this is what happened!

"Hmmm, this looks like it can fit"

"Yep it did!"

Hope you enjoy out talented baby!

9 months already!

I can't believe that Brynley is 9 months old! She is such a joy to have in our family! I think she came at the perfect time!



In the last 9 months she has become quite the traveler. With trips to, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, and Utah.


She decided that she likes to roll over and sit up. And since our trip to Utah she is more determined to crawl and pull herself up! Thanks Courtney for the example!


From our trip to the aerospace museum! Brynn learned how to fly a jet!

So here is our little star!
Brynley Grace McDowell
19lbs 12oz (50%)
28 inches long (50%)
Cute, adorable, funny, awesome, and totally lovable!!

Best Friends!

We had such a fun time visiting the Crockett's in Utah. We seen to get together about once a year and when we do the kids just seem to pick up right where we left off! All the kids get along so well, and have so much in common. Kristen and I kept sat how much the kids were alike!

Madison and Carly were about 2 when we became friends! They had such a fun time playing dress up, coloring, and make believe the whole weekend!

Zachary and Brandon have been buddies since birth!! Zach has is only 2 1/2 month older. The LOVE anything with wheels, and enjoyed having a boy to play with!

Brynley and Courtney are just 16 days apart!!! Brynn wasn't to sure of Courtney, since she was crawling and screeching at the top of her lungs!! But by the end of the weekend they bonded over cheerios and became friends!

Right before we left we took these good bye pictures! Thanks again Crockett family for having us! Hope to see you this coming summer!!!

Hill AFB and Aerospace Museum

On Saturday, while still in Utah we took the kids to the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum. It was free and really fun. The grounds outside were filled with a bunch of retired aircraft. You could walk along the paths and read about each of the airplanes. I think Travis and Robert were a little more excited than the kids, but we all had a good time!

One of the first planes we came to, the kids look so small compared to the plane!


This picture shows Travis in proportion to the plane! It was HUGE!

This is the one that Travis and Zachary were most excited to see.


As we went around the back of the plane, I saw a cool picture opportunity. Then after we took pictures we read the sign that says please don't climb on the aircraft's! Oops!

The boys were more willing to try it out! Travis had to lift the kids over his head to get them up there. It was a good 8 ft off the ground, maybe more?


After we walked around outside we headed inside to look at 2 hangers full of planes and memorabilia.