christmas delights

ok, disclaimer.  my photography skills apparently took a divebomb last month.  These beauties are the least of all the evils.  Scrolling through my Christmas photos was a slideshow of red-eye, bad lighting, and people with their backs to me.  Oh and also, I'm committing to start taking pictures of people besides just Camryn.  

the frontrunner now runs all the way to Provo! yay!

Alison and Zach came all the way from Dallas to ride it.  Oh, and to hang out with family and stuff. 

and the billboard free ride is oh so refreshing.  way better views than the freeway

oh yes, I knitted this.  My little rosy cheeked Swedish baby. 

Christmas Eve with the Staples

this is my father-in-law Staples with my brand new niece Reese Elizabeth.  And I really wish you could tell in this picture that she is rocking the craziest baby mohawk you've ever seen

ashley unveiling the yule cake

Maren testing out the blow-your-mind fun roller coaster toy thing

all the grand-kiddies.  keep your eye on Camryn . . .

she might try and rip your clothes off

Ashley and Jana demonstrating to Claire that her new beauty makeover counter is clearly the coolest present she's ever received

Tanner's oh-so-sexy new getup

and onward to the Bramhall's for Christmas Day. . . 

new infant hiking pack!! we're really excited about this one.  It made me really excited for spring, but we've actually already used it.  Twice.   Thanks mom and dad!

now if that face doesn't just melt your heart

sippy cup training with aunt Alison

oh my adorable Nolan.  Using his new walker like a champ and showing up the Staples baby at every level of motor skills development.  Also, on hair growing.  They've already chopped off something like 4 inches of to die for curly locks and it's still longer than Camryn's. 

Maddy sporting a way attractive face + the tackiest of all tacky Christmas sweaters that has lasted at least 3 decades and 3 Bramhall sisters

Camryn thinking "he got this and all I got was this stupid cape?"

Behold, the face of pure happiness

 

That's right, my child is pretty much excited out of her mind about 2 things:  waking up to ridiculous amounts of snow, and the infant hiking pack that my parents got us for Christmas.  So, I think I've effectively brainwashed her on at least the most important things.  I felt more than a little bit ridiculous this morning walking around the neighborhood with this thing on my back, but. . . not ridiculous enough to stop me.  Because, hello, there were six fresh inches of snow, there was no way I wasn't going to go out in it, and there was also no way I  wanted to push the stroller through it.  Make that our backup, hand me down from a friend jogging stroller, as our regular stroller is currently Out of Order thanks to the stairway of death (pictured below) that Tanner slipped down the other day (the whole thing, top to bottom), because it was covered in 2 solid inches of ice, stoller in hand, leaving me nearly widowed and our stroller missing a limb (aka wheel, snapped clean off).

Anyways, we are all thrilled about the hiking backpack, including and especially Camryn.  If there are any Provo moms out there fortunate enough to have one too, I am your woman if you need a hiking buddy to spend the summer with.

Poor Buddy. . . we probably should have gotten him a cover for Christmas. . .

The Staircase of Death:

mealtime blues

Upon discovering graham crackers, Camryn kind of decided that she doesn't want to eat anything that's not graham crackers ever ever ever again.  And it might be causing me something of a breakdown at the moment.  Because I'm pretty sure that only feeding your kid one food is a bad parenting technique and is how you end up on a "my 2 year old is obese" episode of Maury or Dr. Phil, but how important are vegetables, really?  Important enough to spend an hour each mealtime battling her various methods of objection to everything I try to feed her?  and by various methods I mean 1) blowing spit bubbles every time she spies an approaching spoon 2) throwing all non-graham cracker finger foods on the floor, 3) repetitions of what I like to call her "slump and thrust" move and generally just acting like her high chair is a prison to be escaped 4) screaming.  which is really quite rude, unnecessary, uncalled for, and unladylike if you ask me.  

oh, and scowling at me

We are not on very good terms right now, she and I.  

For a while now, I've been getting her to eat foods she doesn't like by trading off bites between vegetable and graham cracker.  But she's on to me.  And it seems that the days are past when she's content with a 50/50 chance that what's going into her mouth will taste good.  Also, toy diversions are long past effective.  I am one stumped and out of patience momma. 

by popular demand, here's some of the little lady

Ok, so no one's demanding them, but here you go anyway.  Our little lady will be 9 months old next week. 

i made her this polka dot onsie from a tutorial here.  Not the greatest picture but it's adorable and the pink paint is glittery.  which is awesome.  

I used different fabric paint to make this Muggle Born onsie for heather's boy on the way (she's a harry potter nerd and loved it)

Camryn's new favorite pastime.  Magnet alphabet letters on the side of the dishwasher.  Thank you stephanie!

a close second on the favorite pastimes list--eating mom's highlighters and lip gloss

and actual toys if they're available

these are the mittens I made her.  and you can't tell but she's yelling (not to be confused with crying or whining.  This is a straight up yell) which she does lately for long continuous stretches of time

has spent hours in the last week emptying mom's knitting bag and playing Harry Potter with the knitting needles.  I tried sooooo hard to capture one of the many moments where she widens her eyes, raises her eyebrows, opens her mouth wide and holds her wand high up in the air totally ready to cast a spell . . . but no success.  It sure is amusing though.  

"we're going outside right??  I'm so excited!!"

"ok, I was excited, now I'm just bored and annoyed that you won't put the camera down.  If I stop being cute will you take me outside already?"

BYU re-landscaped their south campus gardens and they are beeeeeautiful.  We'd go there for every walk if I was just a little bit less lazy.  

And tell me you don't want to just eat that little bow right up.