The Brizendine Family

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

We had the most amazing Christmas this year and Delaney actually stayed healthy! She has been sick with some kind of virus or fever every year so far, so we were pumped that she was feeling good. Our church has services a few days in a row leading up to Christmas so we decided to attend the service on the 22nd. I cannot say enough good things about our church and all that it gives to the community. We are so blessed to have a church filled with people that love the Lord and live to serve Him everyday. I always want to make sure that Delaney knows the real meaning of Christmas and that Jesus is the reason for the season. Our Christmas service was truly a celebration fit for our king, Jesus Christ. Here are a few pictures before church.

The next day we went David's sister Traci's house for the Brizendine Christmas. We always have the best time with his family and Delaney loves being with them. She has several cousins on that side of the family ranging in age from 8weeks-18years. We are all really close and just laugh and have the best time. Delaney and her cousin Finley are 21months apart and are really starting to play with each other. It is so cute to watch them together. Delaney is so motherly toward her and always makes sure she is doing what she is supposed to. Finley's sister, Blakely, is only 8 weeks old so I know they will all three be really close growing up. She also loves and looks up to all her older cousins. She thinks they are just the coolest things ever and follows them around. They are all so sweet to include her and let her do whatever they are doing.

Christmas Eve we went over to my moms for Christmas. We always have Christmas Eve with her side of the family so we just get there early to do our presents with each other. Delaney is spoiled rotten by my mom and she just adores her (I think the feeling is mutual!). Anyway we had a great time. I am an only child so Delaney doesn't have any first cousins on my side of the family. I'm so glad we are so close with all my cousins and that she will grow up around all of their children. As always, my mom gave us WAY to much and spoiled all of us. One of my favorite presents was my Keurig coffee maker. I have been wanting one forever and I was totally caught off guard and surprised.

Christmas morning was alot of fun. We got up early to see what Santa brought and Delaney was so excited that she got her Minnie tricycle she had been talking to Santa about. She got a ton of baby things, a new baby and her bike. One of my favorite things she got was a Little People Nativity Set.

Once we had our Christmas at home we got ready and headed to see my Dad. Susan always cooks a brunch meal from scratch and it is so good. David talks about it for a month before we actually go and we look forward to it every year. They also gave us way to much and we are so blessed to have such great family on all sides. My grandparents and Susan's mom also came over to eat and visit with us. We love spending time with them. Christmas was amazing this year. We are most grateful for the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ. I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Zoolight Safari, Alabama Theatre and The Nutcracker

2012-01-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

Ok so these are my last two Christmas posts (who cares that it's already February, right?!) I wanted to blog about a few fun things we did over Christmas break that I hope to keep as a yearly tradition. The first thing we did that I loved was zoolight safari. We had been to zoolight before but did not get to go last year. Delaney was sick and it was so cold last year. This year the weather was so mild and perfect for walking around without a jacket. Delaney LOVED the train ride and we even got to see Santa! They also had "snow" (really it was just soap suds blowing bubbles everywhere). Delaney didn't seem to care and in her mind she got to see it snow.

We also went to the Alabama Theatre to see Polar Express. David and I had been before to see other Christmas movies but this was Delaney's first visit. She loved the beginning where they play the organ and have the sing a long, but she wasn't so excited about the movie. Funny because we have been to the real movie theatre and she did great. We only stayed until about half way through the movie and then called it a day. It was really fun though and I think we will try again next year.

The last thing we did that I am going to look forward to each year was seeing The Nutcracker. My mom's company gets free tickets to the production and they are great seats. It was such a fun experience and Delaney loved all the dancers. It was pretty much full of cute little girls, all dressed in their cute smocked dresses, hanging with their moms. We will for sure go back to see this production again next year.

Sparkle

2012-01-02T12:20:00.001-08:00

This was the first Christmas that Delaney's elf, who she named Sparkle, came to watch her and visit during Christmas. After a nap one day the doorbell rang and there was Sparkle sitting on the box he arrived from the North Pole in. We had somewhat prepared her for his arrival and talked about an elf possibly coming to visit. She was pumped and a little nervous when she first saw him. She chose his name pretty quickly and I attempted to read the book to her that went with him. She really wanted to touch him and couldn't understand why she couldn't have him. Really I knew if I let her play with him he would be lost after the first day. So Sparkle stayed with us from right after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve when he left with Santa to go back to the North Pole. It was really fun and Delaney enjoyed finding where he moved to every morning.

Mama's cookies and school Christmas party

2012-01-02T12:05:00.001-08:00

I come from a very Italian family on my mom's side and my Mama always made the best Italian cookies every Christmas. My Mama passed away a few months ago and I miss her so much. For the last couple of years my mom, my Aunt Marilyn, my cousin Kara and I have taken a day close to Christmas and tried our hand at her cookies. Luckily we had the recipe before she got to sick to give it to us. Her and my grandfather were both the BEST cooks and always had something that smelled amazing cooking in their house. I loved visiting and spending the night with them when I was little. I hope we can keep this tradition of making their cookies going for a long time to come. This was Delaney's first year to "help" with the cookies and she had a blast making her own version. I love spending time with my family!

Delaney had her school Christmas party right before I got out of school for Christmas break. This was her first party where they actually put on a show and sang a few songs. Needless to say her first professional performance was a flop! She had a major case of stage fright once she saw all the parents staring at her. She did stay in her place, but would not move her mouth an inch. Towards the end of the performance the little boy next to her accidentally hit her with his bell they were using for a song and it was all over. She tried so hard not to cry but I felt so sorry for her because I could see how hard she was holding back crying. I told David to get her and she went running straight to him and was so upset. Oh well, maybe next year will be more successful! The really important thing is that Delaney knows the real meaning of Christmas, and that we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We love her school and they did a great job preparing and crafting with all the kids!

Much happier once she was with Daddy!

Delaney, Finley and Santa!

2012-01-02T11:43:00.001-08:00

Delaney and Finley are so cute together these days and it's fun to see the dynamics of their relationship. Delaney loves her but acts like a little mommy to her at the same time. Finley loves to watch Delaney and wants to play with whatever she plays with and do what she does. I think these two are going to be best friends, along with Blakely when she gets a little older. Me and Steph decided to take some pictures of the girls and this was about the best we got! I have a feeling getting a good picture will be a little tricky for the next few years. I love these girls!

I mentioned that we have seen Santa a few times this year and that Delaney loved him. This particular Santa is in a neighborhood near ours, and sits out in his yard in a sleigh every night the week before Christmas. We had heard about him before but didn't get to take Delaney to see him last year. She loved him just like we assumed she would and thought she was big stuff getting to sit in his sleigh.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

I'm determined to catch up on this blog because we have been so busy with all the holidays. I'm going to just do a couple of post to sum up everything we have been up to. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were blessed to be able to see our families so much. We had Thanksgiving at my moms on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and then we went to Traci's on Thanksgiving day. We had a blast and love spending time with our families. The older Delaney gets the more fun it is to watch her play and interact with her cousins. I'm pretty sure she thinks they are the coolest people ever! She acts like such a big girl when she hangs out with "the big girls" (Lindsey and Brinley) and will sit and listen to music with them and do whatever they are doing. I'm glad she has such good cousins to look up to that I know will be a great example for her. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving 2011.

3 years

2011-12-22T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am a little behind on posting and while I was away Delaney turned 3! I say this every year that Delaney gets older, but I really don't know where the last year went. There is so much to say about the 3's so far. The attitude at 3 has really started to show. She is super spunky and really funny too. I am constantly amazed at what comes out of her mouth and I seriously laugh at something she says every single day. We went to the doctor a couple of weeks after she turned 3 and she is still as tiny as ever.. she weighed in at a whopping 26lbs (no %) and 35.75in (25%). She is keeping on the same growth curve and is growing perfectly at her own steady pace. Here are some facts and things Delaney says at 3 years old:

- She wears a 7.5 shoe and a size 2T clothes

- She sleeps from about 8:00-6:45ish

- We are almost potty trained and wear panties all the time. We still have a few accidents but are doing better

- She is super shy around people she doesn't know until she warms up

- She LOVES to dress up and only wants to wear princess dresses or tutus around the house. She even insists on sleeping in them some nights

- She loves princesses and Minnie and Mickey

- She is soooo loud and loves to put on a show for anyone she knows and especially our families

- She loves her cousins and playing with them

-She told David this morning when he told her to hold on a second- "Your making me nervous dad."

- The other morning David took her to school and she looked around his car and said, "Dad you need to clean your car."

- If you say something she doesn't understand she will repeat what you said and then add, "what does that even mean?"

- She love to boss our dogs around and is always telling them to say yes mam and do what she says.

- She hates for me to wear my hair all the way up and as soon as I put it up she says "I don't like your hair like that!"

- She still hates anything dressed up, except Santa.

- She is VERY opinionated about what she wears and wants to tell me what she is going to wear

- She loves to play teacher and be the boss

- She just had her first Christmas program at school and got a major case of stage fright and would not sing or move!

- She goes to a Christian preschool, which is why we chose that school, and she is really starting to learn about Jesus and His perfect love for us. I love to listen to her talk about Him and she will tell you all the things He created.

- She is very good at school and does not like getting in trouble, not the same case when she is at home!

- She knows the months of the year, most of the days of the week and can count to 10 in Spanish and 20 in English.

- She loves to dance and do cheers. She knows tons of my cheerleaders cheers and likes to do her toe touch all the time!

I know there are a million things that I am forgetting while I am writing this. She does so many new things everyday now that it is so hard to keep up with. We had her third birthday at ijump and it was her first "real" party out somewhere and not at a house. She had a blast and loved her friends being there to jump with her. Last year she was embarrassed when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her and this year she told me, "OK sing "Happy Birthday" to me now!" What a sassy little thing. Here are some pictures from her third birthday.

Blakely Ann

2011-12-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Delaney's newest cousin/best friend was born at the beginning of November and is just precious! We headed up to the hospital to meet her as soon as we could. Delaney was really excited to meet her and surprisingly asked to hold her. I let her sit and hold her (with my help of course) and she loved it. She didn't want to sit still for too long but she did really well with her. It is so fun to watch Delaney and Finley interact and play together now so I can't wait until Blakely can join in. These girls are going to have so much fun growing up together and I'm sure get into plenty of trouble together. We love you Blakely and are so glad to have you here perfect and healthy!

Decking the Halls

2011-12-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

We put up our tree really early this year and had tons of fun. Delaney has had her own little pink tree in her room for the last couple of years but we didn't decorate it. This year I let her pick out her own ornaments and go to town putting them on the tree. She also helped with the big tree some. She was so proud of herself and loved decorating her tree! The dogs also got in on a little of the decorating. I love Christmas and I love creating memories for Delaney. She is also REALLY into dressing up these days, which is why she is wearing a Cinderella dress to decorate the tree. I used to wish that she would be into playing dress up and now that's all she will wear at our house! Here are some highlights from decorating the tree...

Halloween 2011

2011-11-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween this year. The costume part was super easy because Delaney is really into princesses and already had the dress! We also went to the pumpkin patch with Delaney's class the Friday before Halloween. It was really fun and the weather was great. David and I both got to take off and go with her so that made it even more fun. There was so much to do there and Delaney loved every minute of it. She was asleep before we got out of the parking lot! Here are some pics from the class trip and Halloween night...

The princess!

Delaney with her sweet teacher!

More birthdays and a trip to the Zoo!

2011-11-13T06:47:00.000-08:00

Delaney went to her friend Nick's birthday recently and had a blast! It was in mid September and the weather ended up being perfect. They had a precious carnival theme with inflatables, pools and even a dunking booth. All the food was amazing and the cakes looked great! Here is the birthday boy enjoying a cupcake! Happy 2nd birthday Nick!

Enjoying her cupcake!

Hanging with Nick while he opened presents!

We also took a trip to the zoo. We had not been in awhile, so thought we would take Delaney back so she could see everything. She was so much more into seeing all the animals then she was last time we went. She LOVED the elephants and the baby lion cubs were adorable! It was the perfect fall day and I see many more zoo trips in our future. This age is so much fun and Delaney is just as spunky and full of personality as ever! Here are some pictures from our trip.

Finley turns 1!

2011-11-13T06:33:00.000-08:00

I'm still catching up so hopefully these will be the last few posts and then I will stay on top of things! My niece Finley turned one at the beginning of September and we had a great time celebrating her birthday! The girls are finally starting to notice each other more, and now that Finley is walking she is so much fun with Delaney. All David's family was able to make it and we love spending time with them. Delaney loves all her cousins and always has the best time with them. We just love Finley and can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you. Happy 1st birthday Finley!

Georgia Aquarium

2011-10-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

Right before we went back to school we got to visit the Georgia Aquarium with my cousin Kara and her soon to be husband Jon. We also met a new friend named Michael, who is going to be in Kara and Jon's wedding with Delaney. They are going to be the flower girl and the ring bearer so we thought it might be fun for them to meet before and play. Delaney loved him and had tons of fun at the aquarium. She calls my cousin Kara, KK, and Delaney is really close with her. We are so excited that Kara and Jon are getting married and love them so much.

We had never been to the Georgia aquarium and it was really neat. Delaney was so tired from the drive she fell asleep before we finished seeing everything. Micheal's grandmother works at the aquarium as a shark diver (how cool is that!), so we got to have a behind the scenes tour. We saw all the huge sharks being fed and we got to go to all the touch tanks in the back. I was really neat and something we would not normally get to do. Delaney had a blast and still talks about how Michael is going to walk down the aisle with her in KK's wedding. I blogged about how well Delaney did in the last wedding she was in recently and I'm hopping we can have a repeat performance of that! Ha! Well see how that goes! Here are some pictures of the trip and Delaney with Michael...

Earrings, finger paints and mouse ears!

2011-10-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

One milestone event in a girls life that Delaney recently experienced was getting her ears pierced! She had talked about it for a little while but I never really considered it until I started talking to some moms with older girls. Several of them talked about how they wished they would have gotten their girls done when they were younger because they were scared to do it when they got older and it was just more of a pain then. So I bit the bullet and let Delaney get hers done. I was so nervous and I'm so glad now that I let her do it. She did perfect and only cried for about 30 seconds after. They are doing great and we are done cleaning them for the 6 weeks.

She also got some finger paints from her Aunt Traci and I let her have at it after school one afternoon. She was so pumped to paint away and was so proud of her work!

Waiting to get her ears pierced!

About a minute after they were pierced!

Finger painting with her new paints..

Wearing mommy's Mickey ears from when I was little..

Family Visits

2011-10-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

We had some great family time this summer before we started back to school. My cousins girls were staying with their grandmother while their parents were on a trip and they got to come down to visit for awhile. Delaney LOVES getting to spend time with them and she things she is such a big girl when she is around them. They are great with her and entertain her so well. They all helped run their own little "restaurant" out of Delaney's kitchen and were cooking up a storm! We can't wait until we get to see them again soon. We have also been to a couple of Lia's soccer games since then and gotten to spend some more time with them. Here are some pictures from our visit this summer.

We also got to go spend some time with my grandparents right before school started back. Delaney love getting to spend time with them and she absolutely loves my Nana! She is so good with Delaney and tells her stories and reads her books just like she did when I was little. Delaney gets spoiled everytime we have a chance to see them. We love spending time with family and can't wait to see them again soon!

Beach Trip 2011

2011-09-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

I am sooo behind on blogging and have been in a whirl wind of activity ever since school started. I am teaching 7th grade English and helping coach the cheerleaders so I have a ton of fun things going on that have kept me super busy! Oh and then there is also an almost three year old and a husband that need me to take care of them as well! I am going to just do a couple of post at a time to get caught up and then really try to be better at updating so everytime I post I don't have to say, "I know I'm behind but I have been really busy!" Ha!

We went on a great beach trip this summer with my mom and we had so much fun. Delaney is at a really fun age and keeps us laughing all the time. We stayed in a condo across from the beach, which I really wasn't sure how I was going to like, and it was amazing! It was so nice and we quickly learned that my little priss of a child was NOT a fan of having sand anywhere on her! We ended up at the pool on most days having a blast so it worked out fine for us. If I'm being honest I'm not a huge fan of having sand on me either. We usually go to Destin but this time we stayed in Panama City about a mile from the new Peir Park shopping and miracle strip. We went there several times and the shopping was great, along with all kinds of rides and entertainment for kids. Delaney was so excited that they had a bouncy house and jumped her booty off! We had the best, most relaxing trip ever and can't wait to go back next year.

Warning: Picture Overload!

Silly Girl and Tiny Piggies!

2011-07-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Delaney loves to be silly these days and has quite the personality. She is always trying to make people laugh. She also LOVES bows and if we are anywhere but home she always has one in her hair. If it ever falls out she will run to me so I can put it back in. So this day she wanted to make sure she had her bases covered in the bow department and once again that the dogs participated in the festivities!

Her hair is also finally growing and the other day I was playing around with it and put it up in piggy tails. They were tiny to say the least but at least were getting there!

** More post to come on our most recent beach trip!

Delaney and her "best friends"

2011-07-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures a few weeks ago but we have been so busy with life that I haven't had a chance to post them. Delaney loves our pups most of the time and she drives them crazy. They are pretty good sports most of the time and let her do whatever. This day she insisted that they both wear bows and take pictures with her. They look super excited right?

Beach 2011

2011-06-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

We just got back from an awesome trip to Destin with David's sister Traci and her two boys, Hunter and Bradley. We were so excited that they invited us down and were glad to get away for a few days. Delaney had not been to the beach since she was about 8 months old so I was eager to see what she would think about it. We left after my 5:00pm class on Thursday night so we didn't get there until about 11:00pm. Delaney stayed awake almost the entire trip watching her Mickey Mouse DVD, and finally fell asleep when we were about 15min from the condo. She was a little confused about why it was taking so long to get there and kept saying she wanted to go to the beach. I promised her first thing in the morning we would walk over and see it.

We woke up early the next morning and she was talking about seeing the beach immediately. Once we got to the beach for the day Delaney wasn't to sure what she thought about the sand, but once she started playing she was fine. The next day she did not like it as much and was not excited about being dirty. We hung out at the pool a lot while we were there and she loves to swim! Delaney had so much fun hanging out with her Aunt Traci and her cousins. They were so patient with her and played with her a ton while we were at the beach with them. We had so much fun and can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks with Gigi! Here are some pictures from the trip.

I told her to show me on her face how excited she was to see the beach the first morning!

Summer is here!

2011-06-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

I have been a slacker in the picture taking department lately and we haven't been doing to much this summer so far besides swimming and playing outside. We have a membership to Alabama Adventure and Delaney is loving it so far this year. We have only been twice, and by the second time she was going down the big water slide all by herself and we could not get her off of it! She is out of school for the summer and hanging out with Daddy in June while I finish my last two classes for my Master's! Yay! I'm so glad I will be done for good at the end of June. Now if I can just find a job we will be all set.

Delaney was also in her first wedding at the of April. She was the flower girl in Clair Weaver's wedding. We love Clair and John and were so excited that we got to be a part of their special day. I wasn't sure what Delaney would do because she had to walk down the aisle all by herself (no ring bearer with her) and they got married in a cathedral church downtown so the aisle was really long! She did amazing, like she had done it a million times!! It was like she knew she had a job to do and she was going to get it done. She even kept the same pace walking slowly down the entire time. I was really shocked and so proud of my big girl! Here she is dancing the night away at the reception after a job well done.

We are going to the beach this weekend with David's sister Traci and we are so excited. We didn't get to go to the beach at all last year because I had so many classes to take and we are so ready! I plan to take lots of pictures since Delaney hasn't been to the beach when she was big enough to remember. We plan on plenty of swimming, relaxing and family time this summer!

Easter 2011!

2011-05-17T18:41:00.001-07:00

I'm so late with this post but wanted to make sure I included it for our recording purposes. We had a great Easter celebrating our risen Savior! Delaney goes to a christian preschool so they talk about the real meaning of Easter and read the Easter story. On Easter morning she was telling us "He's alive, He's alive, the angel said", not sure it was really the angel that said that, but you get the point that she is starting to learn the real meaning of Easter early! We are so amazed and grateful for the sacrifice our Savior made so that we could live and be forgiven for our sins.

We started off the first festivities with an Easter egg hunt at Delaney's school. They didn't really even hide the eggs, just dumped them all over the ground of the playground and let the kiddos go wild! Delaney filled her entire bucket up and was serious about her first egg hunt of 2011! After they finished hunting they played and had Popsicles.

We go to an amazing life giving church that we absolutely love! They offered Easter services all weekend long in order to give the most people possible the chance to hear about Christ. We opted to go on Friday night and as always it was great. We were excited because we all got to go as a big family with tons of David's family. After the service we met Traci and her family to eat a J. Alexanders.

When we woke up on Easter morning we found that the Easter bunny had found our house and left Delaney a few goodies. The best surprise Mickey and Minnie (seriously I had a hard time finding these things and finally ordered them from the Disney Store!). Delaney was ecstatic with her loot. We headed over to my moms a little later for more surprises and lunch with her side of the family. Delaney loves getting time to spend some play time with my cousins kids and act like she's a big girl. We had our annual egg hunt there as well and Delaney had tons of fun. Here are some pics from Easter day! We had such a great Easter and loved celebrating our RISEN SAVIOR with our family!!

Dawson Easter Egg Hunt and Dying Eggs

2011-04-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the Dawson Easter egg hunt the weekend before Easter and we had so much fun. We also went the year before so this was Delaney's second time to hunt. They also had inflatables, train rides and even pony rides! Staci was able to come down and bring Brock and Brinley to go with us as well. Delaney LOVES spending time with her cousins and she always has so much fun with them. As I'm writing this post she is looking at the picture of her and Brock saying, "he is funny!"

Brock came home with us after the festival so that Staci could go do some things she needed to get done for his birthday that night. I decided this was a good time to let Delaney dye eggs for the first time when she had her big cousin there to help. They had the best time and Delaney did pretty good for her first time. The biggest challenge was that she had no concept of handling the eggs carefully so most of hers ended up cracked before they even got put in the dye! We had such a fun day and can't wait for this every year!

Delaney, Finley and Tubes

2011-04-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

I did a post earlier on how great our Spring Break was, and while it was great we also did some not so fun things. Delaney had gone through five ear infections since November (we were averaging one a month at least). The antibiotics never seemed to work completely and if they did work she got another one in a couple of weeks. Our doctor recommended the ENT so we knew what was coming. We went for the first checkup and were scheduled to get tubes two days later and possibly have her adenoids out at the same time. The doctor told us that he would check her adenoids once they gave her the mask to go to sleep and if it was necessary to take them out they would put the IV meds in to put her all the way to sleep once she was already out from the mask. I was so nervous, but I was at least glad if they had to put my baby all the way to sleep she would already be out and not know they were sticking a needle in her foot! The surgery was so fast and she was only away from us for about 30 or 45 min. It was really only about 20min for the surgery and the doctor was back in the room telling us she did great. She did end up having to do the adenoids and tubes so she was put to sleep. I was NOT prepared for how pitiful she looked after surgery. I didn't realize they tape your eyes shut whenever you have any kind of "real" surgery (meaning they use an IV with general anesthesia) and they also had to put a breathing tube down her throat. When she got back to the room she was so out of it and barley awake. Her skin is really sensitive so her eyes were so swollen from the tape and her lips were huge from the breathing tube that had been down her throat and she was just scared. We stayed in recovery for about 45min and then they let us take her home. She just had tears running down her face but wasn't making any crying noise or anything and it was starting to freak me out. She must have known because when we got home she started to perk up and I went to lay down with her for a nap and she started talking more and more and in about 20min was back to normal and JUMPING on the bed! I was shocked! She took a good nap for about two hours and then she played like normal the rest of the day. The next two weeks were rough and she ran a really high fever and just felt awful. We really were not prepared for this as they told us there would be little to no recovery time. I think she may have picked up a virus or something at the hospital because her fever was over 103. Anyway she was back to herself after about two weeks and we can tell a huge difference in her. She seems to feel so much better and we haven't had an ear infection in over a month! Were hoping they stay away from now on!

Delaney playing with all the toys at the hospital waiting to go back for surgery.

The night before her surgery we kept Finley so Brent and David could go eat with some guys (Steph had to work). We had so much fun playing with Finley. She can sit up on her own now so it is so much easier for Delaney to interact with her and for Finley to be able to interact. D was going to feed Finley her bottle, but she kept wanting to take it out of her mouth and look at it and Finley was not OK with that! Delaney loves her cousin and I know they will have so much fun growing up together! Here are a few pics from the night!

Baby Talk- 28 months

2011-04-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

Delaney says that craziest and some of the funniest stuff so I want to make sure I remember the really good things. Here are a few of her latest favorites:

- D: (talking to our dog Mazi and holding the dogs head in her hands) Look at me!, (waiting) Do you need to go potty?

- She likes to tell stories and impersonate what the persons reaction to something was especially if they screamed.. for example: We went to feed some goats a few weeks ago at Oak Mountain and my mom came along. One of the goats jumped on her and she screamed. Since then Delaney will tell the whole story and say "when the goat jumped on Gigi's back she screamed like: AHHHH!" and then she starts laughing

- "I'm a pirate, ARGH!"- I'm not sure how she even knows what a pirate is but shes got the look down!

- The other day I said "Are you my buddy?" and she replied pointing her finger "I'm not your buddy, I'm Delaney!"

- If you ask her who her best friend is she usually responds with "Daddy's my best friend!" and then I'll pretend to cry and she will say "Mommy's my best friend and Daddy's my best friend!"- maybe we have a future politician on our hands. She will do the same when you ask her who's girl she is.

- She knows her full name "Delaney Michelle Brizendine" and mine and David's full name.

- The other day I asked her when her birthday was and she said "On Sundays"

- When we play outside she loves chasing the bubbles and she loves for you to blow them in her face. When she gets going she will start laughing and say "You are so funny!" to whoever is blowing the bubbles for her.

- Whenever she has an accident in her big girl panties she will say "I make Minnie sad" or whatever is on her panties.

- She uses the word "like" in her sentences in between her words sometimes

- She sings songs non stop- her favorite right now is "Jesus loves the little children" and instead of saying "red and yellow, black and white" she says "pink" because that's her favorite color. She also likes Old McDonald.

- Whenever she burps or any other bodily function that you say excuse me for she will say "excuse me I burped!" - we try telling her you can just say excuse me and not say what you did!

- She told me the other day "I'm a Sassafrass!"

- In the car the other day she was holding some makeup I had just bought and she held up two and said, "Which one of these is your favorite?", I wasn't paying attention and then she continued with, "Cmon lets talk about it!"

I think that's all for now! I hope everyone is having a good Monday. I have a ton of new post and pictures to get posted asap!

Spring Break!

2011-04-10T18:51:00.001-07:00

We did so many fun things over Spring break and I am just now getting around to posting about them. We went to Oak Mountain State Park, had a picnic and petted some goats. We also got to feed the goats corn and they were a little overly excited about it. One of them jumped on my moms back and she screamed so loud. Delaney thought that was just hilarious and has been talking about it for weeks now.

We also headed to the zoo to see some of the animals that we had not seen since last summer. Delaney had so much fun this time and was really interested in what all the animals were doing. She is quite the little personality these days and was showing off some of her modeling skills in the picture below! Ha! We saw gorillas eating grass and an elephant throwing sand on its back, all of which are very entertaining for a two year old. She had a blast and was really excited that daddy got to come with us on our outing.

The Rave movie theatre also offered a free showing of "Despicable Me" during the week of Spring Break so I figured we would give it a test run on a free movie before we pay to leave half way through! Well to my shock and surprise Delaney loved it and sat and watched the entire time. They even had booster seats for the little kids to sit on and they even offered a cup holder for their sippy cups! We had the best break and loved having so much family time to do fun things. We can't wait for summer!

Meeting the Backyardigans!

2011-03-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

My mom got us a family membership to the McWane Center for Christmas and we have gotten her money's worth for sure! Over Spring Break the Backyardigans came to visit the McWane. Delaney talked about seeing them for at least a month before we actually went to see them and was so excited about it. My cousin Kara went with us as well and Delaney was so excited she was with us. We got there a little early before one of their scheduled visiting times and she saw them at the front of the line as soon as we got there. She was jumping up and down, so excited to see them them the whole time we were in line. We waited for about 40 minutes or so and then it was our turn. Well Delaney acted like she didn't even know she was in line to see them. She DID NOT want to go near them, and I think they were a little bigger than she expected up close. Well we were getting a picture with them one way or another after standing in line that long, so I took the picture with her. I asked her if she wanted to give Pablo five and she responded, "No I not want to touch him!". She talked about them afterward so I guess she still thought it was fun that we saw them even if she wanted nothing to do with them right then!

Potty Training Fashion Show!

2011-03-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Delaney has been doing pretty good with potty training. She has been wearing big girl panties at school for about a week with only a few small accidents. We are trying to be consistent at home since they are doing so much work with her at school and she is doing so well. I am always nervous taking her out in public in her big girl panties though. Pull ups did not work with her at all because she just thought they were the same as a diaper. Anyway she is SUPER proud of all her big girl panties she picked out and insisted Mazi sit with her friends the other night so she could show off all her panties. She would hold up each pair and tell them what was on the panties and then carefully put them back in her pile and get a new pair out. It was pretty funny and Mazi was a really good sport!

Loving the weather!

2011-03-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

We have been having the best weather lately and taking full advantage whenever we can! Delaney loves being outside and I'm pretty sure she would sleep outside if I didn't make her come in. I took some pictures of my sweet baby girl the other day while we were out just for fun. It is so hard to get good pictures of her these days because she is always on the go. If you tell her to smile you get the worst fake smile ever, so you have to wait around to catch the real ones! Anyway I just wanted to share a few of my favorites from our park adventure the other day!

Bryant's visit and Build-A-Bear!

2011-03-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

Delaney's cousin Bryant came to visit a few weeks ago before he had to leave to have leg lengthening surgery. He was born with a rare condition and has already undergone many surgeries to lengthen his leg. This one is a major surgery and he will be in Baltimore for about four months. Delaney was sooooo excited to hang out with him before he left and I'm pretty sure he is on the top of her cool people list! He is so good with her and always takes time to play with her. He rode with us to the mall after church and he was trying to teach her all about money and what each thing was called. It was HILARIOUS to listen to their conversation. Delaney had no clue what he was talking about so when he would ask her something she would just start laughing hysterically. He was so confused about why she was laughing and not answering his questions! Delaney's Aunt Staci took Bryant and Delaney to build-a-bear while they were here. It was Delaney's first time and she had a blast! The only thing she was a little confused about was when you put the heart in the back and they ask them to do all this stuff with the heart like, "rub the heart on your head". Well Delaney thought that request, especially from a strange lady, was absolutely absurd and politely declined to do so. Her face was so funny! She loved every other part though and we will definitely be going back sometime. We had a blast on their visit and can't wait to see them again!

Random Stuff!

2011-03-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

I had a few pictures I just wanted to add for our memory purposes. We celebrated my birthday a couple of months ago and me and David went to dinner at The Bright Star in Bessemer. We LOVE this place but usually only go maybe a couple of times a year. I was so good, as usual! The last picture I just liked because it shows Delaney's sassy side! She is loving her sunglasses these days and sometimes even wears them inside. The story behind them: she HATES for the sun to be in her eyes in the car and will talk, or I should say yell, at the sun "YOU BRIGHT SUN!" It's pretty funny and I'm pretty sure she thinks that yelling at the sun isactually going to make it stop shining in her eyes! So we got some sunglasses to fix the problem and they seem to do the trick!

Meeting Baby Selah!

2011-02-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post about our visit with our friends to meet Anne Margaret or "Margie's" baby as Delaney calls her! One of our great family friends recently had a precious little girl named Selah and Delaney was so excited to finally meet her. We always talked about her when she was in Margie's tummy and Delaney was excited when I told her that Selah was out of Margie's tummy (ok well as much as a two year old can understand that!). She is perfect and is soooo precious! Delaney is excited to have another girl friend and when we talk about her she always says, "I want to be sweet to her!". She asked if she could "hold her" the first time we went to visit and it was the highlight of her day. For the next few days when we would talk about our visit she would say very proudly, "I got to hold her Mommy!". The other day when we visited she wanted to get in Selah's Nap Nanny so Lisa put her right up there and she had her milk and snack all buckled in to Selah's seat. She thought she was so cool all strapped in. We adore their entire family and they have all been such a huge part of Delaney's and all of our lives for awhile now. We are blessed to have them in our lives, love them all and are so excited for this perfect new addition to their family!

(I borrowed these pictures from Clair on facebook, I am horrible at remembering to take pics!)

Beautiful baby Selah!

Baby talk- 27 months

2011-02-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

Okay so I said I was going to start posting all the funny and new things Delaney is saying these days, but so far I haven't been very good! So I'm going to try and list the newest things that I can still remember. When she says something funny in the moment I think I will remember it forever to record it later and then I catch myself asking "what in the world was that she said"! So here are some recent things from Delaney:

-Sometimes when I ask her something or tell her to do something she will put her hands up and say "fine!"- not in a smarty pants way but just to be funny and it is so cute!

-She has started pretending a lot lately and today she was acting like her teacher at school during show and tell and her conversation went like this:
D: Okay fold your hands Mommy!
Me: Okay now what
D: ummmm (thinking) Delaney! Come on up and do your show and tell! She would then get whatever she was showing and then this conversation would start over only with it being Mommy's turn to come on up and show!

- She told me in the car the other day: "Mommy you give me headache!"

- She tells the dogs all the time: "stop barking Mazi, zip it up girls!"

- Anytime you say something like your silly she will respond with "I not silly I am Delaney!"

- She will say her blessing that they say at school and it is so precious!

- She also says her vowels and she will sing this song with them and at the end she waves her hands and screams "DOWELS" I love it because she says it exactly like I spelled it!

- She always tells David to "sit on the floor Daddy"! She wants him to sit next to her kitchen while she plays and she will always cook for him.

- If she is talking and David is watching T.V she will say "Daddy stop watching T.V and pay attention to me!"

- She also calls David babe sometimes when she doesn't want him to aggravate her and she will say "stop babe!"

- She talks about all her friends at school and tells me who her favorites are, along with who she thinks is "mean" and pushes people!

- She loves telling you Aubie says "war eagle" and then right after she will say "kick em in the butt big blue hey!"

- She will tell you her first and last name together now

- She sings songs ALL the time and singing is one of her favorite things to do at school

I feel like she says so many new things everyday and I can't keep up with everything! I really need to post more on the things she is saying because I know I will want to be able to look back and remember little things that she said at this age. She is really funny and super sharp with what she says and remembers. She is like an elephant and hardly ever forgets something you tell her even if you ask her about it days later. We love her so much and this is our favorite age so far! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Cooking Lessons

2011-02-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

Delaney was home sick last week for a couple of days. She just got a little virus and the poor girl does not eat anything when she is sick. We have been watching a Mickey Mouse movie that David brought her last time she was sick and Minnie cooks muffins in the movie. Well D decided when she was sick last week that she needed muffins too! David stopped on his way home and bought us the muffin mix and I let Delaney help me mix them up. She is really into cooking right now and she thought that was the coolest thing ever. I love having a little girl to do things like this with and I see many more cooking lessons in our future!

McWane Center

2011-02-09T18:18:00.001-08:00

My mom gave us a family pass to the McWane Center for Christmas and we have already gotten her moneys worth on it! We went for the first time the weekend after Christmas and it was the last day for the snow room and the trains. I had heard so many things about this exhibit and I was so excited that we made it before they took it down. Delaney had a blast and was very amused by the snow room. There was a little girl building a snow castle and Delaney really wanted to help her, but every time she came close to her the little girl yelled at her (by little girl I mean maybe like 7ish). Delaney kept her distance and didn't get upset so I just called her over and helped her build her own snow castle! She had a blast and we have been back a couple of times since then. I love it because everything is kid friendly and she can walk around and just do her own thing. She loves the water table and pushing the grocery carts around with food in them. I have a feeling we will be regular attenders seeing how much fun she has every time we go!

Finley and Delaney

2011-01-04T19:19:00.001-08:00

We are alive!! I have been the biggest slacker EVER and I determined to catch up on all my blogging asap. I have been so busy getting adjusted to my student teaching and trying to balance everything else as well. First off, I absolutely LOVE my placement for my student teaching. I know I definitely made the right choice in going back to school to get another degree to teach because I feel like I am doing what I was made to do everyday! I know some days will be better than others just like anything, but overall I am loving it.

Awhile back we had a visit with Delaney's new cousin Finley. She is just the sweetest and Delaney can't get enough of her. She adores her cousin and can't wait to teach her all kind of things. She thinks Finley can do everything she can do, and is constantly giving her toys or asking her to color. I'm sure these two will be the best of friends growing up and get into all kinds of trouble together! Tonight she was naming all the first names of our family and she all of a sudden said "Finley!.... I love Finley!". I love these pictures of them because they look like they are having a really important conversation!

Snow!

2011-01-04T19:10:00.001-08:00

We had a "white Christmas" this year and it was so fun! I have always loved Christmas so having one with a little snow on the ground made it that much better. We went to my dad's that morning and we actually took these when we got back. Delaney was sick so we didn't stay out to long, but she loved it and was not happy when we had to come back in. It has already snowed twice this winter and it's only January! I hope we have more snow this year and maybe even a really good snow that last longer than a few hours! Anyway here are some pictures of our first snow of the winter!

Christmas Day 2010

2011-01-04T18:38:00.001-08:00

Christmas Day this year was so much fun with Delaney. She really started to understand the concept of Santa and most importantly that it was Jesus's birthday. I'm a little behind on my posting because we have ALOT going on, but I'm planning to turn this blog into a book so I'm determined to get everything documented! Delaney was running a fever of almost 102 on Christmas Eve night and was not feeling the best the next morning but she was still really excited to see what Santa left for her! She had been talking about this kitchen for months and telling us how she was going to "cook" for us. Well she was pumped to see that Santa remembered what she had been wanting. She kept saying "thank you Santa" so enthusiastically. She is so funny with some of the things she comes up with these days! Her Aunts Traci and Staci got her so much for Christmas and one of the things they got her was an apron with her name monogrammed on it to cook with in her kitchen. It is precious and also came with a matching pot holder, mixing bowl, wooden spoon and rolling pin. She was really cute the first time she used it and thought she was big stuff! Mom came over pretty early to see what Santa left for Delaney and drink some coffee.

Once David and I gave D all her presents and did ours we got ready and headed to my Dad and Susan's. We always do a Christmas brunch with them and it is seriously the best breakfast food ever. Susan is a great cook and we always eat way to much. It was actually snowing on Christmas this year so we left about mid-afternoon before the roads started getting to bad. We had so much fun at my Dad and Susan's and they were also way to good to us. Susan's parents who we call Mama and Papa and my Dad's parents, my Nana and Papa, also joined us so we loved getting to spend time with them as well. Delaney had a blast there and got lots of attention and love! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family on both sides of our family. I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

2011-01-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

We do Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family and it is always so much fun! We headed over around lunch to do our Christmas with my mom first before everyone else got there. Mom was way to good to us this year and Delaney got so many good things from Gigi that she loved. Her favorites were this powerwheels car below, a princess table (to stay at Gigi's house) and a little princess tent (also to stay at Gigi's). Before we got there Santa also stopped by and left Delaney a note on the tree telling her where he hid a special surprise for her. The Santa present was a little people bus that she has played with so much! Growing up we always went to my grandmother's after church on Christmas Eve and Santa always stopped by while we were in church and left a card on the tree for each grandchild. I always looked forward to it and I'm so glad my mom is keeping this up with Delaney. After we got done doing our Christmas I put Delaney down for a nap and she slept until everyone got there around 5:00pm. We have so many little ones on my mom's side of the family so it was so fun to hang out with everyone. We wish we got to see them all more than just for big holidays! Here are some highlights from the day!

Finding her surprise from Santa

Delaney and Daddy with her "little people" bus from Santa

Loving her new car!

Gigi reading Delaney her card from Santa

School Christmas Party!

2011-01-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

David and I were both out of school so Delaney was home with us when her school had their Christmas party, or their "birthday part for Jesus", as Delaney told me (which makes me so happy they teach them the real meaning of Christmas at school because we try to teach her too). David got out of school early on the Friday of her party so we were all able to go and it was so fun. They had little gingerbread houses for each child to decorate. They also made little canvas art projects with their hands and feet for a reindeer and Christmas tree and the year painted above. It was so sweet and something I will have out every year at Christmas! I cannot say enough good things about Delaney's school. It took us (ok me) a long time to find somewhere I was excited about sending Delaney. I knew the time to send her was getting closer and when I found her school I loved it and just knew it would be great for her. She has adjusted so well and her teachers just love on her and make me feel so much better about leaving her. She has learned so much and I am so thankful and we are blessed to have such a great place for her to go. Anyway this post was really just about the Christmas party so I'll stop rambling now!

The Brizendine Family Christmas!

2010-12-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

We had Christmas with David's family on Sunday and we did it in Birmingham this time. We all went to eat at Logan's and then went back to Brent and Stephanie's house to have dessert, presents and lots of family time. It was a really fun time and Delaney had a blast hanging out with all her cousins. She seriously loves them all and wears herself out playing so hard every time we get a chance to see them. They are all wonderful to her and always take time to play with her and make her feel special. We also played our annual dirty Santa with the adults and three of us ended up with our own presents (me included!). I got a picture frame that I got from a boutique in Arkansas that had a booth at Christmas Village. I hope they come back next year because they have some amazing things and I would love to get another one!

Monday we had lunch at Mama G's in Homewood with David's sister Staci, Brent and Stephanie, Hunter and David's dad. It was alot of fun getting to spend more time with them before they all went home. We are having an amazing Christmas so far! We are headed to my moms tonight for our big Christmas with her family!

Christmas Festivities!

2010-12-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

We have been getting into the Christmas spirit around here and doing all kinds of fun things! We took Delaney to the Bass Pro Shop to see Santa a couple of weeks ago and she did great. She was super excited to see him when we were in line and watched all the kids before her go up and get their "prize" after. I think she was actually more excited about the candy cane prize than she was about sitting in Santa's lap. She was so brave and sat there in his lap like a big girl. She would not talk to him though and was soooo serious! Ha! It was pretty funny, but I was just proud of her that she didn't cry. The Galleria also has a train in it this year so we have been taking full advantage and Delaney LOVES riding. We have been looking at lights also and she gets so excited to see all the different displays. This Christmas is going to be so fun with her. She knows what she wants Santa to bring and will tell you she want: a kitchen, pots and pans to cook, crayons, a Princess straw cup (seriously!) and play food! She is going to be one happy little girl when she realizes how this all works on Christmas morning. I can't wait to see her face!

Another Shutterfly Post!

2010-11-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

Remember when I did a blog post about Shutterfly running a promotion for 50 free Christmas cards? Well it worked perfectly and I received my code for the free cards the next day. We have actually already gotten our cards and I am planning to send them out very soon. Now they are running another great promotion to get $25.00 off your next purchase for sharing a project. I received my Christmas cards very quickly and I was so pleased with how they turned out. What a great opportunity to show off our family Christmas card for this year! Here is the one we chose:

Peppermint Pink Christmas Card

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Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-29T11:20:00.001-08:00

We had such a great and busy Thanksgiving with lots of family! We started off our Thanksgiving break with my moms Thanksgiving on Sunday for lunch. Everyone was there and Delaney loved getting to play with all her cousins. The weather was perfect, 75 and sunny, so there was alot of playing outside to be done. She also got to meet her twin cousins for the first time. We relaxed for the next couple of days and I got some Christmas shopping done and then we headed to David's sister Traci's house on Thanksgiving day. We also did a little birthday celebration for Delaney while we were there because it was easier than trying to do something separate with everyone being out of town. Delaney loves all her aunt and uncles and they always make her feel so special. She got some great gifts and loved every minute playing with all her cousins too! We went up and saw my grandparents on my Dad's side on Saturday morning and spent some much needed time with them as well. Delaney loves getting to see "Nana" and "Papa" and she thinks they are great! She showed off her dance moves for them and played doll with Nana. We had the best Thanksgiving and are so thankful for the many many blessings in our life. God is so good and has blessed us way beyond what we deserve!

Delaney is TWO!

2010-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

I know I say I can hardly believe it everytime she hits another milestone, but seriously I'm going to need her to slow down on this growing up thing. She is so spunky and really smart. She is doing so much since the last time I updated so I'm going to try to include everything I can think of. She started school about two months ago and is learning so much. I knew she would learn things, but I mean she is learning a ton! Here are some things Delaney is doing at two...

- She knows all her ABC's and can sing the alphabet song getting all the letters correct

- She can count to ten, knows all the basic colors (pink being the favorite) and knows all the animal sounds

- She sings songs all the time and lots of them have motions so it's pretty entertaining to watch!

- She has a HUGE vocabulary and she talks in 5-7 word sentences that you can understand on a regular basis. The doctor was very surprised by her verbal skills at her two year checkup. Yay Delaney!

- She will repeat anything you say and she tells me stuff that her teacher says all the time. When I went to pick her up from school yesterday the teacher told me she got on to one of Delaney's friends for standing on the table and called him by his first and last name and Delaney also started using his full name! She said it was hilarious... I asked her about it and she did it for me as well!

- She weighs 20lbs 15oz (no percent) and is about 33in tall (25%)

- Wears 12-18m clothes (mostly 18m dresses), size 3 diaper and a size 5-5.5 shoe

- She has become less of a picky eater than she used to be and eats a variety of foods. Chicken and any fruit are probably her favorite. Of course she also loves pizza!

- She has finally started jumping and actually getting off the ground and really likes bouncy houses. We never had a jumperoo so I think that may be why she never really tried to jump.. now she loves it!

- She has a few friends at school that she talks about all them time.. Today when I picked her up she told me she "pushed Colin because he took her bow"! I don't know if she really pushed him but she knew he took her bow!

- Speaking of bows she is quite the diva when it comes to wearing bows. She LOVES them and ask me to put them on all the time. If her bow falls off she will bring it to me and ask me to put it back in!

- She is a girly girl and loves: babies, shoes, bows, blow drying her babies hair, walking around with a purse on, bracelets, dancing, talking on the phone and her lovies

- She is back in a crib from her big girl bed after continually waking up in the night and getting up super early. I read these were signs that they were not ready for a big bed and since she has always been a great sleeper I put the crib back up to see if that helped. Sure enough she went right back to her normal sleep schedule and sleeps from 7pm-7am.

- She has really started to LOVE school and they make feel so good about leaving her because they adore her. Several times when I have gone to pick her up they have told me that she follows directions so well and never does anything they tell her not to. They also told me that sometimes she will wake up from her nap on her cot and just sit there quietly and play with her bow and lovie until they tell her she can get up. I was surprised by this because at home shes not always in the greatest mood when she wakes up! (Not to brag by recording this info but I want to remember when I look back on this age!)

- She is great with me or David and doesn't seem to prefer one of us over the other most of the time (unless she's sick and then she wants mommy!)

- She has started using the potty at school and understands the concept of the potty. She tells me "I big girl and wear big girl panties". She doesn't wear big girl panties but I told her if she will use the potty she will get to wear big girl panties. We really haven't forced the potty issue at home because she doesn't want to use the potty at home. I asked the doc about this and he said it is very common for kids to potty at school and not want to do it at home.

- She loves to run and will take one of our dogs toys and have them chase her all over the house... its really funny.. she will stop and say aloud "ready, set, go! run, run, run!" and then she will take off

- She has a really sweet personality and does not like for anyone to be mad at her. This is probably why she is so good at school so I hope it continues! I got in trouble all the time for talking so I hope she can control herself a little better!

- She loves to clean. I think my OCDness may have rubbed off on her. Sometimes she will be coloring and she will line all the crayons up in a straight line

I'm sure I forgot some stuff because I really can't remember all the things she is doing. She does new stuff everyday now and this is my favorite age so far! We love you so much sweet girl and love every minute being your parents!

Halloween 2010!

2010-11-12T11:27:00.001-08:00

Sorry I'm a little late, but I guess better late than never right! We had such a fun and busy Halloween weekend. We started off on Friday night with a visit to the Hoover City Halloween festival at Veterans Park. David's sister Staci and her family got to come down for the weekend so we met them there. Delaney was so excited to see her cousins Brock, Bryant and Brinley. Then Sunday night we went to a local church that has a GREAT trunk or treat with free food, inflatables and tons of candy. Delaney wasn't super thrilled about getting candy but she was a trooper. Needless to say we had a really fun Halloween!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

2010-11-12T10:50:00.001-08:00

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Auburn vs. LSU

2010-11-01T09:43:00.001-07:00

We took Delaney down to Auburn for the first time for the LSU game. The weather was great and she had so much fun! The game was at 2:30 so Delaney was able to make it pretty much the whole time we were there. We took her to Tiger Walk (something I did when I was little with my family, but never in the four years I went to school there!) and she loved it. She played with my friends some during the game and then finally passed out on one of my best friends Karen. We won so we were also able to take her to Toomers Corner and let her check out all the action. She was amazed and loved seeing all the toilet paper. Here are a few pictures from our sweet girl's first trip to Auburn!

First Trip to the Dentist

2010-10-25T15:36:00.001-07:00

Delaney had her first visit to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and she did great! The dentist said her teeth looked great and to keep doing whatever were doing. He said her teeth were 90% exactly where they were supposed to be with just a slight overbite.. (I'm only recording this for us to I can remember because I know no one else would care about this!) She was so still for them to clean her teeth and they were very impressed with how good she did. All the people at the dentist office were great and she got a sticker and a bracelet out of the deal so she was happy. They also decorate their ceiling tiles with all of their patients hand prints so Delaney got to paint her and and do a hand print afterwards. It was a great first visit and we have our next routine visit in six months!

First Field Trip!

2010-10-25T13:08:00.001-07:00

Delaney went on her first official school field trip the other day to the pumpkin patch in Clanton. We met her class there and she had a blast. There is a little boy in her class named Guy and he and Delaney are big buddies so it was really cute to see them playing together. They ran up and gave each other the biggest hug when they got there. I think it's her first crush because she talks about him all the time. The pumpkin patch had all kinds of stuff for the kids to do and they got to play in inflatables, go on a Pony ride, a train ride and then a hayride to get a pumpkin. It was so much fun and we will definitely be back next year!

Papa and Gus!

2010-10-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

We went to visit my Dad a couple of weeks ago and Delaney was excited to see her Papa and Gus again! Gus is getting so big and is soooo pretty. He did great with Delaney and let her sit by him while he laid next to her. He is growing so fast and gets bigger by the week. She also enjoyed "driving" Papa's lawnmower. She loves her Papa so much and loves spending time with him!

Susan and my dad also got Delaney this precious vintage cardigan at a local craft festival so we had to get a few pictures to show it off! We can't wait to go back and visit again very soon!

Sporting Event Fun!

2010-10-11T10:14:00.001-07:00

I am a little behind so I'm going to combine some of our sports outings into one post. We got to go up to Gadsden recently and watch our nephew Hunter play football at Southside High School. We haven't ever gotten to take Delaney up and go to a game so we were excited to see him play. It was a great game and they ended up winning. Delaney LOVES playing with her cousins so she was happy to see Lindsey and Bradley in the stands and have a little fun with them after the game. She was running around the field like a crazy woman having so much fun!

We also got to see my little cousin Lia play soccer twice! They live in Huntsville so we had never seen her play before. They ended up having two games in Birmingham so we went to both and loved watching her play. She is awesome! Here are a few pictures from all the events!

Finley Brooke Brizendine

2010-09-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

We welcomed our new niece and Delaney's brand new cousin Finley on Sunday, September 5th! We have been talking about her for months and were so excited to finally meet her. She is beautiful and perfect in every way. She weighed in at 7lb 1oz and was 20in long (I think the length is right!) Delaney didn't really seem to notice all the commotion at the hospital, but we know her and Finley are going to have a blast growing up together! Meet our newest addition to the family...

Finley Brooke Brizendine

Delaney with her sweet new cousin... she looks super thrilled in this picture!

Already not cooperating to get a picture together... I see many more pictures like this in the future!

I love how much Delaney loves being around all her cousins.. here they are in the waiting room at the hospital having fun together... (We were missing a few!)

Baby Talk- 21 months

2010-09-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

So Delaney started school last week and she had some interesting thoughts on the whole thing. The first day when I woke her up to go she was pretty excited and our conversation went like this:

Me: Delaney wake up you get to go to school!
D: SCHOOL!! (with a huge smile)

When we dropped her off at school she went running in to play and would barley even tell us bye.

By the end of the week the excitement had worn off and the realization that this is a routine was settling in. We went to David's game Thursday and she saw her beloved Lili and went flying into her arms.. she proceeded to ask

Lili- How was your first week at school!
D: I don't like school..

We all started dying laughing, first because she was talking in a complete sentence and second because she was so certain on her opinion of school. That night while she was in the bath she revealed some more about her opinion of school...

Me: Do you like your teacher?
D: Uhuh
Me: Is her name Leann?
D: ANN!!
Me: Do you have fun at school?
D: I cry..
Me: You don't cry your a big girl
D: I don't wanna cry
Me: Did you meet any new friends at school?
D: Friend is Daney! (Delaney)

Once a again I was laughing hysterically but sad that she felt that way.. A lot of times she uses the word don't in every sentence even for things she is asking to do so that's what I'm telling myself! She has been doing great this week and has gone right to her teacher with no problem so I'm hoping the worst is over.

First Day of School

2010-08-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

Delaney started school for the first time this week! She had a great first day and there were no tears shed from anyone. We have her in a great school and I think it will be really good for her to be around other kids at this age. She ran into her classroom the first day and went straight for the baby dolls. I had to ask her to give me a kiss bye and even then all she would give me was a side kiss with no eye contact, ha! David went with me to drop her off the first day so I was glad he was able to see her off on her very first day. She was still excited this morning when I told her we were going to school so I'm hoping the excitement lasts. She did cry a little when I picked her up the first day because it was right after their nap and my girl is always a little grumpy when she wakes up. I'm sure she was a little taken aback waking up to a bunch of kids her age and not having any down time. I'm leaving her a little longer after nap today to see if that helps! I also started school this week so we are officially back into the swing of things. Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

My big girl!

2010-08-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Last week we finally went ahead and turned Delaney's bed into a toddler bed. I was really nervous about this transition because she has always been such a great sleeper and I hated to mess with a good thing! She has done amazing and hasn't gotten up one time at night since we changed her bed over or fallen off the bed! She still gets up about the same time she did before and still sleeps just as good. The funniest part is when she gets up in the morning and were still asleep she comes straight to our door and knocks calling "mommy!!".. It is so cute to wake up to her little voice at the door! Mom and I found her the cutest toddler quilt so she is all fixed up in her new bed!

Baby Talk- 21 Months

2010-08-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

Delaney has been talking up a storm for the past month or so and putting together some pretty good sentences. I got the idea of having the same post name to record all of her funny conversations from Morgan over at the Badyrka family blogspot. I thought it was such a great way to record this stuff so I don't forget it later. I was just telling someone the other day that I wish I had started my blog earlier because all the little things that happened when Delaney was a newborn I thought I would never forget and I have! Anyway I wanted to make sure I record this time with her because I know it will go by so fast. So here are a few of the things Delaney has been saying this month:

(while coloring with Gigi) Gigi: This page is done do you want me to turn it to a new page to color?
D: I don't want change page!! (very matter of fact)

Me: (I was looking for my mom in target) Mom?
D: (right behind me) MOM!
Me: Mom?
D: MOM!

While in Old Navy I was trying something on her and something happened she looked up and very dramatically said: Oh GOSH!

She also likes to throw in the occasional: Oh Man!

We have been working on using yes mam and no mam lately and she puts so much emphasis on the mam part it is hilarious! Sometimes when I call her now she will say "what" and I say we don't say "what" and she responds with a resounding and usually enthusiastic "MAM!"

After a time out the other day I asked her to apologize to me-
Me: Now tell me your sorry for (I can't remember what it was)
D: Sorry mommy
Me: OK you can go back and play I love you
D: I love you too mom!
Seriously melt my heart!

When David comes home from work D will say: "I miss you Daddy"! (this one you have to tell her to say but it is so sweet!)

I always tell David not to put his recliner up while Delaney is playing because it has these bars under it that she can get hurt on. Now she will go up to him if it's up and say "down!" "down!"

I'm sure I'll think of more to add later but those are just from recent days! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Our first and hopefully last...

2010-08-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Visit to the emergency room! Delaney pulled out a drawer a few nights ago and the face of it broke off when she pulled it and fell on her big toe. When I went to grab her there was blood all over the floor and gushing from her toe. It seemed ok for the next couple of days and then it started getting really red and bleeding again so the nurse was worried it might have an infection and wanted us to go downtown to childrens to have it checked out. I was shocked we were in and out in about an hour and everyone there was so great! Anyway her toe was fine and they said the redness was because it was a soft tissue injury and they also didn't think it was fractured. Delaney was such a ham while we were there and was such a good patient. The doctors commented several times they wished the adults they treated were as calm as she was! Hopefully we will never have to go back!

P.S- Her hospital gown looks like a miniature snuggie!

Lately!

2010-07-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

We have been having a lot of fun lately! We have been having a blast all summer at Alabama Adventure. Delaney loves the baby part and has even built up the courage to go down the big slide by herself (with me catching her at the bottom of course!) Her face is so funny in the picture of her on the slide because she always looks like she is concentrating so hard and then she will just smile so big when she gets off like she is so proud of herself! She has also become quite the fish in her floatie and will quickly tell you "nooooo" if you try to touch or help her while she is swimming. Its pretty funny to see her little booty floating down the lazy river smiling so big while she spins in circles in the water all by her lonesome (with careful supervision so she isn't taken out by any unsuspecting floats!) We also went to the McWane science center for the first time with my friend Elizabeth and her little girl Finley. Delaney and her are only a few months apart so they play well together (Ok more like play in the same area together because I'm not sure how much actual playing together goes on!) We had a ton of fun and there was so much for Delaney to do there. We plan on going back very soon.

In other news Delaney turned 20 months old and I can't believe how close to the big TWO she is getting! She experienced her first Popsicle on her own and loved it! She has also been really into wearing high heels (or any shoes for that matter!) and accessorizing! She is really so much fun at this age and does so many new things everyday. I am constantly in awe of how they learn so much in such a short period of time. We have started a bedtime routine now where we read her two of her kids Bible stories and then say her prayers before we put her down. Well say Oklets do our prayer hands and she will put her little hands together while David prays. It melts my heart! Anyway that's a general update on us! David is about to start back to school so were a little bummed we won't get to hang out everyday but that means football season is also close! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Summer Fun!

2010-07-12T06:17:00.001-07:00

We love summer and we also love that David is home with us during the summers! I love having the same schedule has him because it gives us so much family time during off time. We have been taking advantage and doing as many little summer activities as we can! One thing Delaney has come to love is playing with the hose pipe. It seriously entertains her for a long time and who wouldn't love a big spout of water to spray everyone that comes close to you with!

Meet Gus!

2010-07-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

We headed up to my dad's for a visit a couple of weeks ago and got to meet their newest member of the family. Meet Gus, a blue great Dane puppy, who is the most adorable thing ever!

My dad and Susan have had Danes since they have been married and Susan even had them before they were married. We have been waiting to meet this little guy since he was born and we were so excited to finally see him. I hear he has already pretty much doubled in size in the few weeks we haven't seen him so I can't wait to see him again! Delaney really liked him but I'm thinking it will be a different story when he gets a little more rowdy and grows out of his sleepy puppy phase where he sleeps all the time. We are so happy to have Gus in the family!

July 4th

2010-07-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

We had a great July 4th! We started the day off at church and then went to Full Moon for some BBQ. We all came home and had naps and then headed to Homewood to watch the fireworks. We have gone to downtown Homewood for the last few years and it is always fun. Delaney loved watching all the people! Hope everyone had a great July 4th!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-30T20:08:00.001-07:00

Delaney's First....

2010-06-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

Pedicure!! Ok so she didn't really get a pedicure but she was with me while I was getting one so I asked them if they would paint her toes. I figured if someone she didn't know was doing it she would probably be really still and I was right! She sat the entire time and watched everything they did.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-23T10:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

We have some wonderful dad's in our lives and wanted to say happy father's day to all of them! We spent some time with my dad and David's dad this weekend and had such a great time. David is such an amazing dad to Delaney and she loves him so much. She is his little buddy and they do all kinds of things together. I love that he is so willing to step up as a father and take his little girl anywhere with him by himself! (Ok so he doesn't always do things like I would when he's with her but I'm not going to complain!) Anyway we had a great weekend and hope everyone else did too!

General Update

2010-06-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

OK so I have been such a blog slacker lately! I am going to catch up and then I'm going to make sure I start keeping up. We have been keeping very busy and having a ton of fun! We have been playing at the library, going to Alabama Adventure, the zoo, spending time with family, going to our mommy and me playgroup at church and hanging out with David who is out for the summer! We started back our mommy and me playgroup at church last week and love it! We are so blessed to have such an amazing church to go to, Church of the Highlands, and we just love it! We had Elizabeth and her daughter Finley join us this morning and it was so fun (thanks for going girls we had so much fun!). I have know who Elizabeth was for awhile through people we both knew but she lived out of town and once she started a blog we started keeping up with them. Her daughter and Delaney are really close in age and had never had a chance to meet to we were so glad they came with us. They are actually moving back out of town but are here for awhile so we plan to see them more for sure! We go to the zoo with our friend Melissa and her little boy Nick a lot and always have a blast. My mom got us season passes to Alabama Adventure for Delaney's Easter present and we have already gotten our money out of them. Mom and I have taken her a lot and David and I have been together too so everyone is having fun! They have a great area for toddlers and Delaney LOVES it! We recently went to visit David's sister Staci in Georgia for her boys birthdays and we had so much fun hanging out with them. I think they are coming to Birmingham very soon so we can't wait to hang out with them more. We went to visit my Dad earlier this week and Delaney just loves her Papa! They are getting their newest addition this weekend (a Great Dane puppy) and we can't wait to meet him!

Delaney turned 19 months old on Monday as well. She has recently started telling me she has to go pee pee! She has done this for awhile when you change her diaper but the other day she came up to me in the living room with her diaper on and kept saying pee pee! I was a little shocked so I kept feeling to see if her diaper was warm like she had gone and sure enough a minute later I'm pretty sure she went! The same thing happened again at bath time so I sat her on the big potty since her diaper was already off and that totally freaked her out! We are not going to start potty training now but I don't think it will be to long! She starts school in the fall and the class she will be in starts wearing pull ups so I think that's probably when we will really start. She is growing up way to fast! Here are some pictures from our recent adventures!

Helping Daddy study for his test!

We travel with our babies and our lovey at all times!

Our new table from Gigi that Delaney is obsessed with! (thanks Gigi!)

Delaney and her friends Luke and Cameron at playgroup!

Fun in the Sun!

2010-05-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

So the other day we let Delaney try out the hose pipe and she loved it. After she showed so much love for the hose pipe I thought she might like to try out the sprinkler. Not so much! It was the day it rained so it was kind of cold outside and the water was freezing and she didn't want anything to do with it. David even got in with her and was running around like a crazy man and she was dying laughing at him. She thought it was really funny but not funny enough to join in!

18 months and General Update

2010-05-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have been somewhat of a slacker, but I actually wrote this entire post earlier in the week and when I went to edit it deleted the entire thing! And I was mad so I'm just now over it to rewrite the thing!

So we (well I) have been super busy these last two weeks taking a two week class, which happened to be my first class as a grad student! It was really intense and even included writing a TWENTY page paper due at the end of the first week along with class hours of 7:30am-7:00pm! It was a lot but I'm so glad I got an entire class credit knocked out in two weeks. So I'm back in the game of life now that I'm done. I start back in June but those will be a month long and only meet a couple days a week so it won't be nearly as intense!

On to what everyone cares about, Delaney! While I was away she turned 18 months old! I can't believe I have a year and a half old child and she will be two before I know it... I really need time to slow down. I remember her birthday so well that I can't imagine how that much time has gone by. We went for her 18 month checkup a couple of weeks ago and everything was great (except maybe how tiny she is) Here are some things Delaney is doing these days:

-She talks non stop! And I'm talking whole conversations, in sentences, in her own language... I can't wait to be able to understand what she is saying because she acts like its really important!

-She knows tons of words and can use them correctly to tell you what she wants. My favorite of course are "love you" and "mommy"

-She knows to say please when she wants something now

-The last couple of months she can recognize anyone she knows in pictures and will just start saying their name until you pay attention and tell her that's correct

-She weighs 18lb15oz (no %) and is 30.5in (25%)

-She wears mostly 12m clothes (some smaller some larger) and a 4.5 shoe

-Size 3 diaper

-She loves to push her baby stroller and always wants to go outside with it right after breakfast

-She has become a pretty picky eater.. She used to eat ANYTHING, even weird stuff, and now she likes something one day and doesn't like it the next. Were working on this! We are also on pedi-assure so we are making sure she gets what she needs!

-She knows tons of body parts (hands, finger, everything on her head, etc.)and can show you on herself

-She knows tons of animal sounds and its so cute to hear her make all of them!

-She is still a great sleeper and sleeps from 7pm-8am and usually takes one 2-3 hour nap

-She still has 8 teeth but her 4 molars are almost in

-She loves the dogs and my moms dog Tobi is her favorite

-We went to Alabama Adventure for the first time and she loved the water once she got used to it and was running in like a lifeguard! (think Baywatch!)

-She has her moments but for the most part she is happy go lucky and pretty laid back about things

-She is really sweet and sometimes will come up to me and cup my chin in her hands and just stare at me so sweet! (sometimes when she does it she will even give me a kiss)

-She has become a daddy's girl these last couple of weeks while I have been in class but well work on that while I'm off with her! For the most part she really doesn't have a preference for either one of us and loves being with either (unless she's sick and then its mommy all the way!)

-She has started trying to jump and will squat down all the way to the ground and stand up really fast but she still doesn't get off the ground. It's hilarious! She likes for you to jump to and will stand there and say chump, chump, chump! (jump)

We love you so much Delaney and are so glad God chose us to be your parents! You were made perfectly for our family and Daddy and I can't get enough of you!

A girls best friend?

2010-04-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Every one says dogs a man's best friend but I'm thinking Delaney may prove them wrong! She loves dogs even fake ones. She realized while we were outside this morning that our neighbors across from us have a fake dog on their doorstep and took the opportunity to make him feel welcome! She sat next to him and just talked to him for about 10 minutes. I have a feeling she will be spending a lot of time with her new friend so I hope the neighbors don't mind...

Disclaimer: Please excuse the tennis shoes with our sleeper! I usually let her play outside right after breakfast and its still a little chilly. I promise she doesn't go out in public like this!

** New post below **

Family Reunion

2010-04-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late on this post but last weekend we went to a family reunion at my Dad and Susan's to visit with Susan's family. It was at her parents house and we had a great time! The food was AMAZING and there was so much to eat. Delaney found one of those toys that you push around and the balls in the front of it pop around and she was entertained for the day! We really only get to see everyone a couple times of year there so it was neat to see how big every ones kids had gotten from last time. I was terrible and didn't get any pictures this time of everyone because I was to busy this time chasing Delaney around making sure she didn't take off on us! Mama and Papa have some really pretty flowers in their yard so I took a couple (or tried to but Delaney wasn't into it) of pictures of her in front of the flowers.

The other morning I was making Delaney breakfast and I had the fridge open. She likes to get the bottles off the door and play with them so I was letting her do that and I turned around to find she had also gotten the top to the chocolate sauce off and was having a ball licking the spout! Needless to say she had it all over her face but was just as happy as ever! My mom got us all Alabama Adventure season passes for Easter so we could use the water park for Delaney all summer and they open this weekend so we are going to go check it out Saturday. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Busy Morning!

2010-04-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

Delaney has had a very busy morning! Between sweeping the floor and going for a morning stroll with her baby she is worn out. We also stopped to pick flowers and occasionally to feed them to her baby for a snack..

**New post below **

Spring Fun and Great Grandparents

2010-04-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

We have had a pretty busy week and have done lots of fun things. One of the elementary schools around our area had a big spring fun festival last night so we went to that. They had all kinds of carnival rides, games and lots of food. Delaney was happy walking around picking up rocks and any ones bottles that were left on the ground. She did enjoy watching the rides and kids when she had a free second from her rock collecting!

Wednesday my grandmother and grandfather came to visit us. We were so excited because we don't get to see them as much as we would like to. Delaney had so much fun playing ball with them and they brought her a shape sorter which made for lots of entertainment. I was so excited because my grandmother surprised me and brought me a brand new sewing machine! I took a smocking class awhile back and had smocked Delaney a couple of things but stopped because it ended up being so expensive getting them sewn together. They also have a class for beginners sewing and specifically for putting dresses together. I had been talking about taking the sewing part for awhile but didn't have a machine so I am so excited I can take the class now! The next one isn't until June so I think I may go ahead and start a smocking project so I will have something to put together once my class rolls around! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Picnics, Playdates, and 17 months!

2010-04-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Delaney and I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and going to have picnics together. She actually does really well with them and will sit on the blanket with me and eat her lunch. Her new obsession is eating grapes. She loves them and could probably eat her weight in them if I let her!

Today we went and met my friend Brandi and her little girl Stella at the park to play and have a picnic. The girls are only a few days apart and we love to get them together and watch then interact. The last time we were able to do it they were not quite as mobile and it was so much fun to watch them today. They had a blast!

Delaney just turned 17 months last week! She is starting to talk so much more and repeats everything. A few new words that we use often are thank you, please, and love you. I LOVE to hear her say love you it is just the sweetest sound! Other than saying everything we do she is not doing to many other things that I didn't post on the last update. Here are some recent pictures from all our adventures!

Easter 2010

2010-04-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

We had such a great Easter this year! It was Delaney's second Easter but it was the first holiday she knew something was going on. We started off the weekend by meeting David's sister Staci and her family at ijump on Saturday. We had so much fun and I think they all did too. We all went to church on Saturday night and it was a great service. The service wasn't until 7:00pm so Delaney was so tired! She got a little upset for the first time ever in the nursery and she was so ready to go to sleep when we picked her up.

The next day we headed over to my moms. She ended up getting the stomach virus on Easter day :(. We had family coming from all over so I told her to stay in her room and we would handle everything. We were sad my mom didn't get to enjoy all the festivities with us but she was a great host and anyway :). Delaney had fun hunting eggs but she was done after she found about two! I can't wait (well I can wait because I don't want my baby to grow up) until Delaney is old enough to understand the real meaning of Easter and the sacrifice our Savior made for us. He is Risen! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend!

Small group hunt and visit with Papa

2010-04-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Delaney and I go to a mommy and me small group at our church on Wednesday mornings so this past week we had our Easter egg hunt with them. It was really fun and the weather was perfect. Delaney picked up a few eggs for her basket but she was choosy as to which ones she wanted. They had to be the right color/pattern or she just ignored them and went on to one she thought looked better! After we left small group we headed to my dads for a visit with Papa. Delaney loves my dad and we took her fishing for the first time. It was fun and her favorite thing was throwing rocks in the water and watching it splash. Papa ended up catching her first fish right before we were about to pack up and leave. Delaney was really amused by the fish and just stared at it forever. We got a few pictures and then threw the fish back and watched him swim away! We had such a fun day!

Easter Egg Hunt!

2010-03-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

We went to Delaney's first Easter egg hunt this weekend! It was at Dawson in Homewood and it was a blast. They had everything from Easter egg hunts to pony rides to bubble machines, train rides and puppet shows. The bubble machines were definitely Delaney's favorite thing and I think she would have stood in front of them until she was soaked if we let her. The egg hunt we did was just for two and under so they really just threw the eggs all in the grass and let the kids pick them up. Seriously it was really intense and the eggs were gone in about 60 seconds! Delaney was a little slow because she wanted to watch everyone and sometimes stare at the egg she was in front of before picking it up! She still managed to get five eggs and if you could have seen how many people there were and how fast they were I'd say she did pretty good for her first time. I held the basket for her but she picked up all the ones she wanted and put them in her basket herself! We are going to a couple more before Easter is over so she will be a pro before its all over. We have a busy week coming up so hope everyone has a great one!

**Lots of new post below**

Spring break!

2010-03-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a spring break in a really long time but now that I'm back in school I get a spring break again. Actually I will get one from now on since I'm in school for teaching! David's spring break was also the same week so we got to spend a family week together and just hung out and did some fun things. We went to lunch, played outside and took some really good naps! We also went to ijump on 280 and it was packed. Delaney and I had been before and loved it so we were glad David could come with us. She is not really big enough to do anything by herself but they let her do everything if we go with her and she loves it! We only had one really pretty day so we headed down to the zoo and no pun intended but it was a zoo! We had to park about a mile away and walk so I guess everyone thought it was a perfect day for the zoo. We had such a great week and loved having family days for a week!

Recent adventures

2010-03-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

David was gone a few weeks ago on a men's retreat so my mom came and stayed with me and Delaney. We had fun doing lots of girl things but we really missed David. I actually couldn't even talk to him while he was gone so it made it even harder! I made a little welcome home sign for Delaney to show him but by "show" she thought I meant tear up so I had to get creative and tape it to her back. Seriously taping it to her back was the only way to save the sign.

We also had a really pretty day a few weeks ago so we headed to the park to meet a friend and have a picnic. Delaney had a good time and is really starting to like playing at parks. Her favorite thing to do is swing and I'm pretty sure if I left her all day there she would be good! It was her friend Luke's first swing ride so we got a picture of the two of them. We are hoping for more pretty weather that last for more than a day soon!

16 months...

2010-03-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

OK so I have been such a slacker when it comes to the blog lately. I have been so busy trying to keep up with everything but I am going to make an effort to update regularly so I don't have to do a million posts at once! So during my slacking Delaney turned 16 months old! She is seriously learning new things everyday especially when it comes to words. Here are a few new things she is doing since the last month post:

- She says thank you a good bit of the time but we still have to remind her (Thanks Gerri you motivated me to get this down pat with your last post!) We have actually been working on "thank you" for a while but Delaney decided she forgot how to say it after we first learned it so we had to learn it again! I really want her to get this though because it is very important to us that Delaney have manners and be polite. Like my friend Gerri said I love when I see kids using manners so I want Delaney to be one of those polite kids too!

- She has a pretty large vocabulary when it comes to repeating things and she will repeat anything you tell her to

-We are officially off the bottle!! We actually have been bottle free for a few weeks but I have been a slacker so you wouldn't know that! It was really an easy transition and we never had any drama after getting off.

-Delaney had her first "time out" today. She didn't really understand exactly what was going but she knew she was in trouble. It broke my heart because she cried and was so upset but she calmed down before it was over sat there for her one minute and she was a new kid once she got up and went right back to happy and playing. She gets her feelings hurt very easy and is so sensitive so I have a feeling time out is going to be harder on us than it will be on her :)

-She has really gotten into her baby more this month and is really nurturing and sweet to her. She will rock her and put her in the stroller and push her around. I say this meaning more times than not because there are still times she will chunk the baby on the floor and push the stroller around empty!

So that is a few new things going on with Delaney this month! We also have had spring break, an Easter egg hunt, and a trip to the zoo so more post coming on those!

15 months

2010-03-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late on this post but we didn't have Delaney's 15 month well checkup until last Friday so I figured I would just wait until then. We have been so busy lately with me being in school but I am still loving it! What is Delaneys up to at 15 months:

-Stats: 18lb 10oz (3%), 30.25in (about 30%), and her head was 17.5in

-She pretty much will repeat any word you tell her. Here are the main words she uses on her own: mama, dada, cookie, Mazi, Gracie, no-no (she likes to tell our dogs this if they are trying to take her cookie that she is pretending to give them!), ball, hi, ni-ni (night night), cheese toast, boo, bye bye, and go go.

-She loves to wave and she walks around the house with her "purse" waving and telling us bye bye and then she will come back and do this over and over. It is hilarious!

-She is even more attached to her lovies than ever. She doesn't take them out of the house or the car usually but walks around the house with at least one! I got home yesterday and she had gotten all four of them out of the drawer and she was carrying all of them at once!

-She LOVES phones but has for a long time!

-She is wearing a size 3 diaper

-She likes all food pretty much but she really doesn't eat a ton. Well I should say she either eats a TON or she doesn't want anything it just depends.

-Her favorite food by far is spaghetti

-She continues to LOVE our dogs and she is actually really great and sweet to them most all the time

-She loves being outside so we can't wait for it to get warm

-She is starting to interact with other kids more and really play with them instead of just next to them.

-She is such a people person and will go with anyone. Short story: the other day mom and I were at Jason's deli and my mom was walking with her by the door so she could look out and an older man around 80ish came up and was talking to her and asked if she would come to him and she put her arms up and walked right to him. I was enjoying my lunch at the table when a strange man walked up to me holding my child! My mom was right behind him so don't think we just let her go with a stranger! She loves pretty much everyone but she really prefers men! (don't know how daddy feels about that!)

-She sleeps from about 7pm-7am most of the time

-She will hold up one finger when you ask her how old she is

-If you say "touchdown" she will throw up both arms and do the touchdown sign

Overall we are great! We just love Delaney so much we don't know what to do. She is such a joy to be around and we are so blessed! Here are some pictures of our sweet girl playing at the park a couple weeks ago.

Happy V-Day!

2010-02-16T13:12:00.001-08:00

We had a great valentines weekend. First it started off with snow on Friday and David got to leave school early so that was fun. Then Uncle Brent came over to visit that night and Delaney had so much fun playing with him. My mom kept Delaney for us on Saturday so me and David could go out and we went to eat at one of our favorite places Sumo! Dinner was great and then we went to a movie after. The next day we all got up and went to church and then out to lunch after with mom. She treated us at a steak place and the food was so good! We just came home after and all took a long nap and relaxed. We got Delaney just a few little goodies for Valentine's and as you can see she if really into giving kisses right now but especially to puppies. She gives our dogs kisses all the time so I got her a little stuffed dog in her bucket and she made sure right away that puppy wasn't left out on the kisses. Daddy read her the card we got her and I wanted to share because it was perfect for how we feel about her it said: "The day you were born we were struck by cupid all over again!" It was perfect! A little cheesy but seriously we really love that little girl more everyday. Here are some pictures from Valentines and the night before when me and David went out.

Snow Day!

2010-02-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures from playing in the snow today. Delaney wasn't so sure about it at first but once she checked it out she LOVED it! She didn't want to go back inside and was having so much fun tracking around in the grass.

Bathtime and Loveys

2010-02-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I have mentioned on here but Delaney has become pretty partial to her loveys lately and they do all kind of things together. She also LOVES our dogs and taking baths so it was only natural that lovey and the dogs (or really only one dog in this picture) accompany her to wait on her bath water! Delaney is so funny these days and she is constantly doing something to make me laugh!

What weve been up to and 14 months!

2010-01-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

Well I officially started school January 12th! I am loving it and am so excited about becoming a teacher! We have been pretty busy since then and Delaney and I have been going to some of David's last basketball games with him. I have been really busy balancing taking care of Delaney three days, going to school two, working at the dance studio one night, and keeping up with all the house stuff too! I LOVE it though and wouldn't have it any other way. I am going to do another post on the series Five we are doing at church and I'm going to use these as my new years resolution. I usually don't make resolutions but this is more of a way to make your life better everyday with little things rather than a resolution to do one big thing.

Also Delaney just turned 14 months old! I didn't do a 13 month post because there really wasn't that much new stuff from 12 months. She is really starting to learn things fast it seems like in the past month. Here is some of what Delaney is up to at 14 months:

-She has started talking more and here are some of the words she says that I can understand: mama, dada, thank you (sometimes), uh oh (in the right context), no, she will tell you to "hold" something for her, Tutu (my moms dog), Papa, Nana, and sometimes G.

-She has 5 teeth and is about to get 3 more that I can see

-Has a little bit of a temper if she is frustrated or can't do something (sounds a little like me !)

-She loves to play this game where David hides and pops out from behind the couch when she comes to find him and then she will run back to me laughing and do it over and over again

-She is a pretty happy little toddler and loves life most of the time

-She is still not off the bottle completely (bad mommy I know!)

-Some of her favorite foods are: spaghetti, graduate meals (ravioli and the pasta and veggies), pancakes, applesauce, peaches, bananas, green peas, green beans, mac n cheese, cheese toast, yogurt, nutrigrain bars, and grilled cheese. She pretty much will eat anything you give her but these are that ones she seems to like the most.

-She loves the dogs still and will now walk around making a kissing noise at them until they stop and give her a kiss

-She is still in some 6m some 9m and a few 12m clothes, is in a size 3 shoe and we just moved up to a size 3 diaper about a week ago

-She weighs almost 18lb and I'm not sure how long she is we go for a checkup at 15 months

-She loves to be outside and we are so excited about spring coming!

-She likes to get in her new chair she got for Christmas and she will finally watch a little TV and her favorite show is "jack's music show". I found it on demand on Nick Jr. and they are puppets that are colorful and sing and dance.

-She has found her voice and often will yell out at dinner to tell you what she wants.. we are working on our "inside voice". Also I am often told my voice carries and that I am loud and low and behold I think Delaney got my voice box!

-She has always slept with a lovey but has become more attached and now likes to carry one with her most of the time.. you can see her attachment in the pictures since she wouldn't even put it down to play with the basketball!

-Still does not really like her car seat

-She will imitate so many things you do now and it is hilarious for example yesterday David laid on the ground making snoring noises because D will always walk over when he does this and just lean down on her own and give him a kiss and it is so sweet. Anyway they were doing this yesterday and a few minutes later Delaney was laying on the ground making snoring noises by herself just waiting for us to notice and we were dying laughing!

You are so much fun Delaney and so very loved! Happy 14 months baby girl! Well here is why most of you read anyway a few pictures of Delaney recently!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T07:44:00.000-08:00

We had a great new years eve this year. David, Delaney and I stayed home and just had a few of my friends over. We decided to do it at our house so we could put Delaney to bed and we wouldn't have to leave her since she has been a little under the weather. We had SO much fun just talking and catching up. One of my best friends Lauren even came from Huntsville to hang out so it was great getting to see them and hang out for a night like old times! I lived with both Lauren and Karen, two of my very best friends, for the four years we were in college. We had so many fun times so it was like old times again except our husbands got to join us this time. They both got married pretty recently. We played Taboo some and just had the best time! On new years day mom came over and we cooked turkey and dressing (a new tradition we started last year) and had a great dinner. I like to say mom "helps" me but she probably does more than me! I'm not quite that good with this meal yet but I am learning! Anyway I got a few pictures while my friends were here and we got Delaney's new chair in so I put up a few pictures of her LOVING it! We are supposed to have SNOW here tomorrow so we are crossing our fingers and are getting excited!

Christmas recap!

2009-12-30T11:26:00.000-08:00

We have had a very fun and busy Christmas this year! I'm going to recap all of our Christmas trips into one post and put a few pictures from each one up. Christmas day we woke up about 8:00am and let Delaney walk out to see what Santa brought. I was really expecting her not to notice anything but she actually seemed pretty excited and went right over and started checking out all the new toys that were laid out. We hung out Christmas morning and my mom got up early and came to check out what Santa brought before we left to go visit with my Dad. We headed to my Dad's and got there about 11:30 and had brunch. It was so good and we always are excited about Susan's cooking on Christmas day! Delaney was actually sick the day before Christmas Eve and was still sick on Christmas but she still managed to have a good time. She got lots of money and clothes at my dads and a bag of just little stuff to play with. The bag consisted of aluminum pans, dish sponges, cups, some nerf balls and some animal figures... Let me tell you she LOVED the bag of just stuff to play with more than anything! My grandparents and Susan's parents came over to see us as well so we loved getting to see them. After we left my Dad's we headed over to David's parents to see them and exchange gifts. She got some more money and a precious sock monkey (Papaw picked it out himself and did a great job!) After we left there we headed home and rested for the rest of Christmas night as a family.

We had Christmas at my moms on Christmas Eve. We went over around 2:00 so we could do all our presents before her whole side of the family came over that night for dinner and gifts. Delaney got a whole summer wardrobe and her first cabbage patch doll. It's actually a "cuddly cabbage patch" so the only hard part on the doll is the front of the face so it's great for her now. She also got a big chair of her own that we actually have now returned and replaced with one of the anywhere chairs from pottery barn kids which she loved in the store. Then mom's side of the family came over and we had a great dinner before opening more gifts. Delaney is one blessed little girl and got so many toys! We love getting to see all of our family! David and I came home put Delaney in bed and watched some Christmas movies after Santa came to visit.

We had Christmas with the Brizendine side of the family at Traci's house in Gadsden. It was such a blast! We all met at a restaurant first and ate together and then went back to Traci and Todd's for presents and dessert. Delaney got tons of good things from everyone and had a blast hanging out with her cousins. One really cool thing I got was a braclet with Delaney's fingerprint in it. We fingerprinted her at her birthday party and then Traci had it made into a bracelet. She also got a light up talking cell phone, lots of clothes, and a great new diaper bag/backpack with her name monogramed on it. Delaney wasn't super excited to open presents this year because she still didn't really get all the excitment but she had fun watching us get exctied! We had a dirty santa swap with all the adults and we had so much fun stealing gifts from each other. We can't wait to see everyone again soon! Overall we had the best Christmas yet (except for being sick) I want to make sure Delaney knows the real meaning for Christmas and that it's really all about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and not just about presents! Anyway we had such a blessed Christmas and hope everyone else did too!

Recent Happenings

2009-12-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

We have been pretty busy these last few weeks. I have been trying to finish up everything for school because I am going back to get my fifth year degree in education and I am starting in January! Delaney is into everything but she is learning something new everyday and it is so fun to watch her. She is starting to be able to communicate and tell you what she wants so much better. I can tell there is probably going to be a frustrating stage coming up with her because she knows what she wants but is not quite able to verbalize it so if I get it wrong it is so frustrating to her! We went to visit my dad the other day and had a great time. Delaney loves her Papa and they even took a little nap together while we were there. Here are some random pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Zoolight Safari

2009-12-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

We went to the zoo last weekend for the Zoolight Safari. It was really fun and Delaney loved looking at all the lights. It rained all day that day but stopped by mid afternoon and it turned out to be perfect! Mom went with us and we all went to eat at Davenports before heading to the zoo. We had a great night!

Cheese Please!

2009-12-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

Last week was Delaney's first time at Chuckie Cheese. We went for her friend Jaxon's second birthday. I wasn't sure if there would really be that much she could do but she had a blast! We rode quite a few rides and I would say a good bit of the rides there were ok for her to ride (with my supervision of course!). I helped her play some games and she won 61 tickets so she got to pick a prize at the end. Ok I will admit I probably had as much fun as she did just watching her and "helping" her play games! She also got to meet Chuckie Cheese and I got a picture of them together. She was very interested in what he was and just kept staring so I didn't get a good one of her looking at me. Here are the pictures I got of her first time at Chuckie Cheese!

Baby it's cold outside!

2009-12-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

It has been freezing outside lately! Delaney and I have pretty much stayed inside but we did go out one day so wanted to share some cute pictures from the day. Don't know how many more outside trips we will have until it warms up!

Santa Claus is coming to town...

2009-12-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

We took Delaney to see Santa a couple of weeks ago and it went great. It was actually the day before Thanksgiving so we only had to stand in line for probably 20 minutes. We went with Delaney's friend Stella. The girls rode the carousel before we went to see Santa and both loved it. Delaney loved Santa from the line and was waving a throwing kisses to him. She was a little unsure when we put her on his lap but she did great and sat there for us to get some pictures. We are excited for Santa to visit our house this year!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year.. I was horrible and didn't take any pictures! I will have to make sure I do a better job at all the family outings for Christmas. We went to my moms that Sunday before Thanksgiving and had a big family lunch. Everything was sooo good and Delaney loved playing with all her big cousins. Thanksgiving night we went to Gardendale to eat dinner with my dad and all the family on that side. We don't see my cousins and their kids to often so it was great to hang out with them and see everyone. Finally we headed up to David's sister Traci's house the Saturday after Thanksgiving to do lunch with everyone. We had so much fun and Delaney had a blast. We can't wait to see everyone again at Christmas!

First Birthday Party!

2009-12-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

We had Delaney's first birthday party at a neighborhood clubhouse near our house the day after her birthday. The weather amazing and it ended up being about mid 70's and sunny all day. You never know in November what your going to get because last year this same weekend when she was born it was freezing when we left the hospital. She had a blast being the center of attention and just walked around and hung out with everyone. She got to be around lots of family and she got so many great gifts. She did great with everyone singing her happy birthday (I've heard from some of my friends that their babies did not like people singing them happy birthday). She loved her cake and was actually pretty neat while she ate (she is definitely my child with that!)...We love everyone that was there and are so glad you all were able to help us make Delaney's first birthday party so special! Lots of pictures below!

12 month pictures

2009-12-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little late and have been slacking on the blog so I'm going to do a few post to catch up. Delaney turned one on November 14th and I never posted her monthly pictures with the pink bear in her chair so here they are... I can't believe I have a one year old!

First birthday letter...

2009-11-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

Dear Delaney,

Wow I can't believe it has been a year already! I remember heading to the hospital to have you like it was yesterday. I remember thinking that in just a matter of hours you would be here and your Daddy and I would never be just a couple again but a family. We had no idea how much our lives would change for the better when you were born. Leaving the hospital with you was a little surreal and I couldn't believe they let us take you home and trusted us to take care of you all on our own. You were so beautiful and I still remember feeling like this was too good to be true and that we were just getting to babysit for some lucky parents who would get to take you home for good! Well that was us!

I remember seeing you for the very first time and the doctor saying wow she is long and big! I remember holding you for the first time and you just looked up at me with those sweet eyes and I was in love with you from the minute I held you! I remember daddy holding you and just kissing you over and over and telling you that he loved you. I could see in his eyes the second he held you that he would never be the same and that you had him wrapped around your tiny finger from the very beginning.

The first night at home with you was a little rough and you cried the entire night! Nothing I could do would comfort you and you seemed like a totally different baby from the hospital. I have to admit the first night alone with you I thought what have we gotten ourselves into! After constant crying for about 4 hours mommy was crying right along with you on the couch just holding and rocking you. It was a sight for sore eyes for sure! Once we got past that first night everything seemed to fall into place and you have been the best baby ever since. You pretty much always slept through the night from about 5 weeks on and mommy and daddy are very thankful for that!

I look at pictures of you from when you were born until now and it amazes me at all the milestones you have hit and how much you have grown. The smallest things you do make your daddy and I so excited. I remember when you first started smiling and I would do anything just to get one little smile out of you. Now you smile at me all the time and I never get tired of seeing that sweet smile.. Your smile is just amazing and when you smile your whole face lights up! Every milestone was so exciting and I loved being right there to cheer you on while you tried to master whatever new skill you were working on. I have learned that you are very persistent when you want to do something. You try and try again until you get it but you also seem to be very hard on yourself and get frustrated when you can't master what you are trying to do. You don't like to be told no and on occasion you get really upset and get your feelings hurt when we tell you no. You will try anything and after you have done it once you want to do it over and over again. You are constantly on the move and unless you are sleeping you are never still! You are a very good walker and I think that is due to the fact that you practice all the time!

I am so thankful for this past year with you! You have taught me so many things as well and I love being your mommy! I have learned to appreciate everyday and I have learned to be excited about little things (like getting to take a shower or get ready alone)! I thought I would be a mess when this day came but I look back on how great the first year has been and I'm not even a little sad but so excited for all the memories to come! The Lord blessed us with the most precious gift he has ever given us one year ago and we can never thank him enough. We really try to not worry about every little thing because we know that the Lord loves you more than we ever could and will watch over you and protect you! We have had so much fun with you this year little monkey and we love you more than you will ever know!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Here are some of my favorite pictures over the last year...

Delaney's One Year Check Up

2009-11-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

Well we went for little bits check up yesterday. She looked great and the doctor said she developmentally was advanced as far as the things she is doing and how well she is walking. She was a crazy woman while we were there and was in the best mood (that is until we had to get shots!) She just walked around room holding my camera case and as you can tell from the pictures she clearly was on a mission of some sort! One thing we were really looking forward to was switching to whole milk and being done with formula... well not so much for our tiny tot. Delaney was 16lb 10oz and was 28.25in her head was 17in... so that's about 2% for weight, about 25% for height, and about 2 or 3% for her head.. so while she is pretty well proportioned she's tiny... I think this has to do with the fact that she seriously is probably the most active one year old I have ever seen! The girl wants nothing to do with t.v and if she's awake shes on the go! Anyway now the pediatrician wants us to give her 16oz of pediasure a day! I didn't really think that much of it even though I knew it was somewhat expensive.. I was thinking more like formula expensive.. well with how much he wants her to have it would be more than double what formula cost a month. I'm going to check on the generic of pediasure and see what that cost.. the good news is that he is not worried at all that anything is wrong with her but he would just like her to gain a little weight. Once she gains a little weight he will let us stop and switch solely to whole milk. We go back in 6 weeks for a weight check and hopefully we will be done with all that then! Overall she looks amazing! Here are some things Delaney is up to at 12 months....

- She loves to read the Eric Carle book "Panda Bear, Panda Bear what do you see?"

- Her favorite page in the book is the one with the monkey on it and if you ask her how the monkey goes she will make the sound for you. She did this the other day on her own when we got to the page with the monkey.

- She's a walking maniac and she really just loves to walk around and carry things

- She for sure thinks shes in charge and will touch things we have told her no no to and just look at you... I think we have a stubborn one on our hands.

- She rides in the shopping cart for about 10 min tops now and then wants out. I made the mistake of letting her down in a store and since then we have been fighting about riding in the cart! Lesson learned

- She waves to everyone and sometimes well just be strolling in the mall or eating somewhere and she will just be waving when no one is even paying attention

- She will throw kisses to you

- She loves loves the dogs and loves for them to give her kisses

- She has enough hair to now put a little bow in

- She is in a size 2 diaper

- Wearing 9m clothes and some 12m, size 3 shoes

- She has the sweetest smile and shows it a lot

- Her top right tooth just came in so she now has 3 teeth

- She lights up when her daddy comes home and it is so sweet to see

- She loves pretty much everyone and will go right up and play with any kids that are around once she checks out the situation

Delaney you are such a blessing and we have had the best year with you! We love being your parents and watching you learn and explore... Here are some pictures from the doctor yesterday as well as some from playing at home!