Made With Love

My dear friend, Chelsea, gives handmade gifts. It's one reason why I love her.

She made Emma a blanket before she was born, and for Christmas this year, she made her these little guys.


Aren't they the sweetest? I'm in love.

Here's Emma opening her present.


And here she is hanging with her new friends.


I think she's particularly fond of the monkey. Must be her fondness for all things redish/orangeish.

Wordless Tuesday

The Don't-Worry-We're-Staying-Warm Edition

Daddy's Story

Here is the Daddy edition of telling Emma we are packing up and heading down south for the holidays.


Hi, Emma. Have I told you in just a few days we are going to be heading down south to see almost all of our family for Christmas?


That means we are loading up and driving down.


That's right, long hours in the car seat.


But when we make it there, you get to open presents from Santa Claus.


The End. Christmas is almost here and the Brew clan is ready to come down and celebrate the holidays with the fam.

Finals Week

Hello, finals week. Nice to see ya again. This is my daughter, Emma, and she will kindly be helping me write two 15 to 20 page papers and finish 20 hours of assistantship work by (cough) Tuesday.


It's a team effort around here.

First Gift of Christmas

I wondered whether Emma would actually be able to open a gift or two by herself this Christmas.

I'm


not


wondering


(Pause for an "I peeked at my present and I like it, Mama!" smile)


anymore.


She opened these little pots and pans in probably a minute. A minute! I was attaching gift tags to other gifts at the time and was so amazed at what she was doing that I just had to see if she'd get them all the way unwrapped. Luckily, our camera was just a few feet away so I could capture the moment.

Wordless Wedneday

The Merry-(Almost)-Christmas Edition

Christmas Tree

This year we decided to get a real Christmas tree.

So, off we went to the Christmas tree lot near our house.

There were trees of every kind, shape, and size.

Here's Emma with "the one." It was a love at first sight.


After tying it to top of our car, home we went


and inside the house it came.


We decorated it and Emma did the honor of putting the tree topper in place.


I'd say she likes her first Christmas tree. This is often where you can find her. Lights and ornaments fill her love tank.

No Parking

Well, the snow is still here and I (TB) am still playing Tetris with our cars. If my website doesn't work out, I might have a job in valet.

Parking on the street has become impossible as we live on a snow emergency street, meaning they plow each side every day. Our driveway was just cleared at 11 p.m. last night. The side streets that are safe to park on have not been plowed at all. Oh, and I have 3 cars (Ian's car is in Minnesota) that can't drive in more than one inch of snow without getting stuck (also taking safe parking streets out of the game). So what do I do?

I park all three cars on the side of our street that has been cleared and put them into the driveway at night. The other side of the street, which is the side we did use for parking, is pretty much a snow storage zone.

The best part is that where I park the 3 cars during the day might be the only street in Minnesota that people are allowed to park on or can at least maneuver through the snow on, so every time I grab a new car to move, I have to walk 30 more yards home as everyone keeps parking their cars on MY street. But that's ok, we got our driveway back last night, I'm growing new muscles, and walking around in -20 wind chill is not as bad as it used to be. Plus I have now figured out a way to fit 3 cars in a driveway that is meant to maybe fit 1 or 2 cars. Who said Tetris on Nintendo would never help me in real life?

The city of St. Paul said it is 38% done plowing and we just heard it is supposed to snow 3 to 5 more inches on Wednesday. So the difficult parking situation is going to get even more difficult.

But I would do it 100 times over again and again because the snow's fun and every time I'm done I get to come in and see this pretty little face and her mama's.

Sno-mageddon/pocalypse/nami

It came. And it was bigger than the 12 inches expected, as you can see.


It was one for the record books.

We're not exactly sure how much we received. We think somewhere around 20 inches because that's how much the airport received.

Speaking of the airport, it closed. And the city buses stopped running. And you may have seen on the news that the metrodome's roof collapsed.

Good thing we had pretty much everything we needed at home because we were truly snowed in with blizzard-like conditions. It was not safe to be outside.

So, we did a lot of looking outside.

We looked at the snow falling (Like her digs? That's called pooping through all possible pairs of pants in one day so that only non-matching baby legs remained. It happens.),


at the really excited sledders and cross-country skiers,


at Daddy coming in from shoveling, or shall we say, unburying our cars,


and at all of the cars getting stuck on our corner.


We also did lots and lots of playing to keep ourselves entertained.




And if by playing you also mean taking pictures of our daughter's bed head, yes, we may have done some of that, too.

Four Things

1. Our sweet girl turned 7 months old today. Oh how we adore her.


2. My semester is finally winding down. This is good on so many levels.

3. TB's online business launches in the Twin Cities tomorrow. I can't tell you how proud or excited I am for him. He's lived and breathed this website for many weeks and it's finally time to relinquish control, say a prayer, and hope it does its thing.

4. We plan to hunker down this weekend because we have a foot of snow coming on Saturday. That's on top of the 19 inches we have received so far this season. It's been the snowiest winter since 1991, the year of the famous Halloween blizzard. Following the snow will be temperatures as cold as 30 degrees below zero. Care for a little snowshoeing? Perhaps a little sledding? No thanks! But for what it's worth, living in a winter wonderland sure feels peaceful, magical, and quiet during the Christmas season. We've talked about making a pot of chili, lighting a fire in the fire place, wrapping some Christmas presents, watching some football, and renting a few movies. Hope you have a good weekend, too!

Wordless Wednesday

The Posing-In-Front-Of-My-Tree Edition

Lots of Thanksgiving, Part II

The second part of our Thanksgiving extravaganza came the day after, when lots of TB's family gathered together at his Dad's house for fun times and good food. I took as many pictures as I could, partly because I crave using my right brain and partly because I want Emma to have as many pictures as possible with and of everyone who loves her.

So, here goes.

The day started with us laying on a blanket in the sun. It probably wasn't warm by Texas standards, but given that we live in the North Pole and all, I'd say it was pretty warm. Here's our baby girl soaking up the rays.


A little later, TB's little sisters entertained Emma by throwing their dolls in the air as part of a cheerleading routine they made up :). Emma practically died right then and there. She laughed as hard as her Daddy can get her to laugh.


Then we celebrated Thanksgiving.

Emma & Great Grandpa


Emma & Step Great Grandma


The Brewtons


The Sadlers


More Brewtons


Emma & Great Grandpa (who she's obviously still enthralled with), Grandpa, Great Aunt, and Great Uncle


Grandkids (Emma had turned into a pumpkin by this time)


And, finally, some candids