A Day in the Life

We had such a fun-filled 4th of July weekend, but didn’t post anything about it! Scott came home from Missouri on the 2nd, and we spent the next couple of days just hanging out with him and the family. It helped that it was a holiday weekend, and everyone had the day off. And Cami got to come down! Yay!

We went to see fireworks on the 3rd at Andy Brown park, and kept Adelyn up way past her bedtime so she could see them too. She was amazed by them! I thought she would be scared by the booming, but she didn’t even flinch. We had a BBQ on the 4th of July, and made such yummy food! Bleu cheese burgers (courtesy of chef Zac), real Italian pasta salad from TJ, and dessert burgers and fries (courtesy of Bakerella’s recipe).  We also had to take Adelyn swimming to try out her new sunglasses. We thought we should get some for our Hawaii trip. They are so cute!

Lastly, Adelyn started crawling this weekend! Originally she would only crawl for food, but now she will crawl for toys, for the movies in the entertainment stand, or for mommy, etc. It is so fun to see her crawl across the room to get something, and sit up and look at me and smile so big.  She is so proud of herself! She flails her arms and giggles.  It’s so funny.

Thank you to my sweet husband for taking over this blog for the last two weeks. As you can tell, it has been very low on my priority list! I hope you all are not tired of our millions of pictures of our little angel, but we are struck by how small and precious she is, and want to capture every minute and every facial expression that she makes. Update on me: I am feeling great! I am trying to take it easy because I know that I had major surgery, but I am feeling so good that I want to be out and about! So I have to listen to my mother and mother-in-law when they tell me to take it slow for a while. And I am trying to catch up on that much needed sleep that new mothers (and fathers) don’t get enough of (although last night Adelyn slept for 5 hours in a row before I had to wake her to feed her!). Zac has been so good to help me get to bed early by taking Adelyn when he gets home from work.  Also, I don’t know what I would do without my parents and Zac’s parents (and Grandma Brassfield!) help the past 2 weeks. I am so grateful for our family!

So Andrea took the Photoshop class from BYU and loved it.  She has been playing around with Photoshop ever since.  I think it is neat because Photoshop skills are a thing that you can always use.  And if she can compensate for our poor photography skills that is great all in itself.

It is that time of year again when everyone is trying to send out a Christmas card as a year in review.  It is a difficult job to find a good photo of the whole family.  This year, Andrea took on the job of making my families Christmas card.  She touched up all the photos, and made us all look better.  Take a look and let us know what you think about Andrea’s first Photoshop Christmas Card.

Christmas season really gets me thinking about the people that matter most to me. This is partly because I am trying desperately to think of the perfect present for each person, but also because it is a time when family and friends celebrate together and spend more time with each other. I have been able and WILL be able to spend lots of time with those I love this month. Other things I am grateful for this month:

Christmas treats (thanks for the recipe email, Lisa:)

Library cards (books for free always make me happy)

Warm Clothes (it has been snowing on and off for the last week)

Thoughtful people who inspire me to be thoughtful myself

Christmas Music (I am hooked, I love it)

Displays of the Nativity scene to remind me that it’s Jesus’ birthday

Finding the perfect present idea, and anticipating the look on their face when they open it

One of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving Holiday is going to movies. I don’t really remember when it started but, I think it was when we went to the Adams Family back in good old 1991. This Thanksgiving we went to 2 movies and they were both great.

First we went to August Rush. This is a movie about a young man who is raised by the state of New York. He is constantly teased by the other boys in the orphanage because he says he can hear his parents in the world around him. He eventually runs away and ends up in New York City. The rest of the movie focuses on his amazing musical talent and how that brings him back to his parents. Some may argue, and rightly so, that the movie is predictable, and too sweet, but I thought the movie was wonderful. I enjoy going to movies that make you feel good. They invite you to lose yourself in the film and take you on a two hour journey. In my opinion this was exactly what August Rush did. The movie is entertaining and the music is great. This is one of the best movies of the year.

The other movie that we saw this weekend was Dan in Real Life. This was another good film about a widowed father and his struggles to raise his 3 daughters and take care of his own life. After returning to his boyhood home with all of his siblings and their children, Dan finds himself in a series of peculiar situations. The movie is fun and entertaining. One thing that amazed me is Steve Carrell is totally believable in his character and is totally different from his character Michael in The Office. Also all of the casting for the movie was done well. I can see myself in a few of Dan’s situations later in life and that scares me a little, but oh well we will just have to see. The moral of the story is nice and is really applicable to real life.

It was a great weekend and they were both excellent movies. Although the rest of the year has had some major box office disappointments, these were the exceptions to the norm. Go out and see both of these movies. Then leave a comment with your own reviews!