Holiday Travels

During our Christmas break, we took a trip to Utah to visit family and friends. Here are some highlights of our trip:

- Alyssa had her first (and second) plane ride; thanks to Benadryl, it was a success
- One or more of us was sick the ENTIRE trip, so we ended up mostly staying home and resting

- Because we were sick, we didn't get to see the majority of the people we went up to see

- Mike's brother got married to an awesome woman and now, between the two families, they have 7 kids (Russ has 3 and Kat has 4 - holy mackerel!)

- We found a REALLY good Japanese restaurant in Park City (and it was really cold up there too)

- Right before we left, there was a HUGE blizzard (the normally 40-minute drive to the airport took over 2 hours)

- Because of the blizzard, Mike got stuck in Utah an extra three days and missed New Year's Eve at home

Maybe our next trip will be more successful. Oh well, it was fun anyway and we enjoyed the time to relax. Now back to real life...

Merry Christmas from the Brimleys

Merry Christmas from the Brimley Family

We have had a busy year: Alyssa turned 1, Jenny started teaching full-time, and Mike started working a second job as a Realtor. We are thoroughly enjoying our Christmas vacation in Utah (though it's too cold!) and are looking forward to being home for New Year's. We wish you the best that Christmas and the New Year has to offer. Happy Holidays!

Happy First Birthday, Alyssa!!!

Alyssa is now officially one year old!!! And man, has it been a whirlwind year.

Alyssa is now walking (and usually running), has 16 teeth, and is 1 going on 16. She's got quite the spunky personality and is a barrel of laughs. She loves playing with older kids and trying to keep up with them. She'll be going to preschool starting in January, and we're sure she's going to love that.

We celebrated with family and a few friends and had a whale of a time! Here's a little taste of the fun...

Hanging out with Grandma...

Opening presents...

Oh wonderful cake...

"Alyssa, you want some cake?"

"Yes, I think I'll have some of cousin David's."

And he wasn't too happy about it.

She ate her WHOLE piece of cake all by herself.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing.

Happy Halloween!

Love,

The Pumpking Patch Family (aka the Brimleys)

Playing With Daddy

Baby's First Steps!!!!!

Alyssa has been taking a few steps and then falling for the last week or so. Then, yesterday, she up and walked all the way across the living room. I guess she finally got over her fears and went for it. Now, all she wants to do is walk. All the time. And she's been practicing her all-out flailing temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way.

So we got some of her walking and playing on video tonight, and here it is. The video camera is finally being used for its true purpose! Stay tuned, there will be more walking videos to come, I'm sure.

I Miss That Baby!

You know, the one who used to sleep all the time, stayed in 1 spot for what seemed like hours on end, and was content to just lay in my arms. This "new" baby is the busiest thing I've ever seen! If I could bottle her energy, I'd be a billionaire!

Alyssa is now a crawling machine and is starting to walk. Sometimes she gets crawling so fast her arms and legs can't keep up and she nose-dives into the floor. It's pretty hilarious. She can walk around as long as she's holding on to something, and has started to stand on her own for brief periods (as long as she doesn't realize she isn't holding on).

She's learned how cabinets and drawers work, so we've finally finished baby-proofing the cabinets in the kitchen.

In other news, I've started my second year of teaching high school science. I've been able to work full-time this year, which is great for the extra pay, but bad for my quickly diminishing amount of leisure time. I'm still working on getting organized and my classroom is a mess, but I'm pretty happy with how my classes are going so far.

Mike has transferred sites to be a roving behavior support assistant, going to various schools around the district to work with the students with the most severe behavior problems. He's also working part-time as a real estate agent. He got a lead today to list a 5 million dollar house and has a meeting with the owner next week. Woo hoo!