Merry Christmas!

Merry, merry Christmas to everyone! We woke up this morning, and we all must have been on the "nice list" because Santa had stopped by and left us some goodies. Here's Blake playing with her snowman snow globe.
Even Copa & Maddie had their stockings stuffed. Copa was particularly excited to get to go through all the goodies in her stocking. Maddie hardly ever gets too excited about anything, and today was no different. They each got a life jacket from Santa. Those will come in really handy this summer on the boat. Here's Maddie modeling hers.
Copa in her life jacket
Both the girls humoring Mom for a nice holiday picture ;)
Well since we are quite a ways away from most of the family, we took some video of Christmas morning. It starts off in Blake's room (the light wasn't on) right when she got out of bed this morning. We've had issues with Blake leaking through her diaper overnight again, so we had to change her right away - hence the wardrobe change in the video. After we were all finished opening up Santa's gifts and going through our stockings, Blake ran up to Lauren and hugged her legs whining, "Santa!" Lauren asked her what was wrong and Blake cried, "Santa go home". I guess she thought he should stick around and play or something :)

Christmas Eve

It's been a Brune tradition to open up gifts from family on the evening of Christmas Eve. We were going to continue that tradtion and probably will when the kiddos get a little older. But, we decided to let Blake open gifts in the morning, so she would have plenty to keep her busy for the day. Plus, we didn't really want to try to adjust nap time, bath time, etc. for the gift opening ordeal just to have her go to bed right after opening presents. Here she is opening some of her loot.
So much fun!!!
Blake & Mom playing with some of the trains that Blake got from Mom & Dad.
Daddy got Blake the coolest little guitar book set with the characters from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Blake was JAMMIN!
Opening up all those gifts was a lot of work!
Right before we went to bed, Blake got really wide eyed and was peeking into the kitchen. She could hear voices from the TV that we had left on in the bedroom. Lauren explained to her that it was just the TV. Blake said, "oh...not Santa?!"

Vic & Trav Visit

One of Lauren's good friends from college and her husband stopped by for dinner on Thursday. They brought their 6 month old Brittany Spaniel, Jack. Blake and Jack completely wore each other out - it was very cute to watch them chase each other. We can't speak for Jack, but Blake went to bed pretty easy and slept well that night. Here's a picture of the two cuties.
Copa wasn't about to be out done by this little pip squeak ;)
We had a great visit, and can't wait for Vic to finally move back to Montana! It shouldn't be too long now...hopefully. Here's Blake and Vic hanging out.

Red Toes

Tuesday, Lauren was getting nail polish out to paint her toes and Blake kept asking to "paint toes". We hadn't ever painted Blake's toe nails before, but Lauren figured she'd see if Blake would really put up with the whole process. Amazingly enough, Blake LOVED it! She picked out a bright red and sparkles to go over the top :) Not the most lady-like picture, but Blake was happy to sit on her monkey bean bag and get her nails painted.
Here's a closeup of her beautiful toes. Lauren is going to have to practice a little more. It was REALLY hard painting those teeny tiny toe nails!

They look much better from a distance ;)

Blake was so pumped about her toes that she kept telling EVERYONE that she had "red toes". Of course, I would then have to explain to them what she was talking about. She told the receptionist, a boy in the lobby, the nurse and the doctor when we went in for one of Lauren's normal check-ups. Who knew it would be that big of a deal?! Otherwise, things are good here this week and we are ready for Christmas. The best of holiday wishes to you all!!!

Blake's Xmas Program

Blake's day care put on a Christmas program this year. There are 2 two year old classes, so they combined to put on a show for the parents. They just sang songs, but it was still pretty cute. Most of the little ones just sat there the whole time, but there are a few 3 year olds still in the class that did a good job of carrying the rest of the crew. Afterwards, the parents got to sit down with the kiddos and have a cookie and juice. Here's a picture of Lauren & Blake in front of one of the Christmas trees at the day care.
Daddy & Blake in front of the tree.
Blake & Daddy laughing at each other. Blake must not sit still very well, because Lauren noticed that the teacher had Gage, the wild child of the class, and Blake close by her side throughout the performance. The teacher also made a comment afterwards about how great Blake did to sit still through the whole thing ;) The video below shows the very beginning and then the very last song (when Blake finally got into it a little bit). You'll notice that several parents had to go stand up with their kids - there was quite a bit of crying throughout the performance. ENJOY!

Cursed Crayon, Sickness & Santa!

Well, the last couple weeks have been a little interesting to say the least. First off, Lauren thought she was having an extremely productive morning last Tuesday. She had cleaned dishes, vacuumed, got laundry going and all before 8 a.m. Then when she went to fold the clothes she had put in the dryer, she was shocked to find that an orange crayon had made it in the wash and melted in the dryer. Of course, it was a load of Blake's laundry that had pretty much every piece of clothing that she wears very often. Here's a pic of the back side of her blanket and a white sweater that were in the wash.
Needless to say, Lauren wasn't about to re-purchase Blake's whole wardrobe, so the research began as to how to possibly get it out. Blake was a pretty good trooper most of the day hanging out, playing quietly and watching movies while Mom tackled this massive chore.
Amazingly enough, 2 cans of WD-40, a bathtub full of boiling water, an old toothbrush, 2 bottles of white vinegar (to get the WD-40 smell out), about 15 scoops of Oxi-Clean and several washes later...
...most of it actually came out!!! Lauren didn't scrub Blake's blanket like she did all of the clothing, so you can kind of see some of the orange tinge left over in the "clean" pic. The only things that got ruined were a set of Halloween jammies (the orange kinda matches anyway) and a white short sleeved t-shirt - not too bad. BUT if it ever happens to you and you can afford to re-purchase the clothing, do it!!! It was quite literally back breaking work scrubbing, boiling water, soaking, washing, re-scrubbing, re-soaking, etc. The easiest part was cleaning the inside of the dryer - the magic eraser was very magical as far as Lauren was concerned that day.

Sunday rolled around and Bob was leaving to travel to Minot, ND again for more work meetings at 4 a.m. Lauren had been up since 2 a.m. puking on and off, but she really didn't think too much of it when he left. By 8 a.m. the constant puking and inability to keep ANYTHING down spurred Lauren to call the doctor to see when she should start getting concerned about dehydration or anything else. The doctor called in a prescription and told Lauren if she started feeling any cramping or contractions to go into the hospital (dehydration can evidently cause pre-term labor). By 10 a.m. Lauren was getting admitted to the hospital. After a few bags of fluids and some anti-nausea meds, she was feeling a little bit better. After being discharged from the hospital, Lauren started to get sick again, but the anti-nausea prescription and a good evening of the hot/cold chills "sweating it out" really seemed to help. A VERY special thank you to Jennifer for giving Lauren a ride to the hospital and watching Blake all day. And another VERY special thank you to a good big brother for flying up to make sure his little sister was alright at home alone with a two year old. It was very nice of him especially since it enabled Bob to be able to take care of business without having to turn around and make the long drive back to Billings. Uncle Chris is a pretty big deal to Blake now, by the way.

Lauren is finally feeling pretty much back to normal today and got to spend the day in Billings with Uncle Chris and little Blake. We even made a special visit to go see Santa.

Blake wouldn't give us a smile while she was on Santa's lap, but she kept talking about him afterwards. In fact, when she saw the picture of her and Santa she said that she liked his boots with the reindeer bells (we've been reading the Polar Express). Well, hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the holiday season!

Go Pats, Go!!!

Blake likes to help her daddy cheer on the Patriots. Lauren was trying to video tape it without Blake seeing the camera. But, she did end up seeing the camera and stops to give a big "CHEESE" for us ;) What a weirdo?!

In other news, Lauren celebrated her 30th birthday over the weekend. It was so great to get to go hang out with friends while Bob was so kind as to watch three little girls 3 years and younger. Blake's birthday wishes were priceless, "happy birthday cake, Mom!" Guess we can't blame her, the birthday cake is one of the highlights. Hope all is well with everyone!

NO-MAN!!!

Blake saw a snowman quite a few weeks ago. Lauren explained to her that when we got enough snow we could go make a snowman. It started snowing pretty good here around mid-November, but it was SO flippin' cold that the snow was super powdery and the wind chills were in the negatives. Almost everytime Blake would see that it was snowing out, she would run to our sliding glass door and yell, "NO-MAN!!!" Thankfully, it was warm enough today that we were able to head out and get Blake's "no-man" built. Here's our little girly getting all geared up to head outside.
Copa getting in on a photo op. Yeah, we're thinking it's probably time to ditch the sun flowers and scarecrow decorations by the front door, too ;)
Our happy little girl and her snowman. Amazingly enough, we didn't have a scarf anywhere around the house, so Lauren just used a beach towel. It'll probably be quite a while before we need those again anyway. No top hats either, so Lauren found yet another use for Blake's witch's hat from Halloween :)
It's a Blake-sized "no-man"
What a goofy girl?! Lauren should probably work on centering the subject in the frame before shooting such pics, but we got a good smile anyway.
Hanging out on the front porch.
Grandma & Grampy were also nice enough to help us put up the tree and some decorations while they were here. Here's our tree...
...and the stockings
Happpy holidays to all!!!

Let It Snow!

Winter has begun. Here's a picture from November 18th when it all began.
Unfortunately, it hasn't really stopped snowing or being flat out cold ever since. On a brighter note, Grandma & Grampy came to visit for Thanksgiving! They probably weren't too impressed with the -12 degree weather in Billings when their flight landed and probably less impressed that it didn't really warm up much while they were here. We had a great Thanksgiving feast and a wonderful visit with them both. In fact, we had so much fun that Lauren didn't really take any pics. Here is the lone picture that we got of Blake in her new snowman jammies.

Grampy was kind enough to stay an extra couple days to watch Blake while Lauren & Bob took a quick trip over to Minot, ND for some business meetings for Bob and a little quiet time for Lauren. THANKS Grampy!!!

Well, it did finally get above 32 degrees today, so maybe it'll warm up a little bit around here. This is what our front yard looks like right at the moment.


Hope the snow at least leaves you in the holiday spirit...if you weren't already ;)

Worland Weekend

Blake & Lauren headed down to Worland over the weekend to visit one of Lauren's college roommates, Jess, while Bob is out hunting. Blake and Beckett had tons of fun playing together and with Natalie. Beckett is only a month younger than Blake. We didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few. Beckett saying, "CHEESE" for the camera.
Blake giving her CHEESE!
Blake playing in a toy stroller/cart of some sort.
Lauren & Jess set up tables at a local craft fair in Worland and spent most of Saturday without kiddos. A VERY special thank you to Kyle, Guy & Jill for taking shifts watching the three kids - it was very much appreciated! It was a wonderful visit and we had some spectacular homemade nachos for dinner Saturday night - YUM!!! It was the perfect fix for the spicy cravings Lauren's been having with this pregnancy. Hopefully everyone else had an equally wonderful weekend.

Rainy Trick or Treating

Lauren got all the final touches finished up on Blake's costume last night. Here's the final product.
We finally gutted our pumpkins this morning. Blake was such a big helper.
Mom & Blake working on the pumpkins.
Lauren decided to go super simple on the pumpkins this year since we were sort of tight on time. Here's Mickey and a ghost.
And, the "B" is for Blake pumpkin.
our little witch
sweeping with the broom
We headed over to Columbus to trick or treat with Claire and Gracie again this year. Claire was a spider and Gracie was a lady bug.

Blake
Gracie & Claire
It started sprinkling pretty much right away, so we sort of cut the trick or treating short. Lauren wasn't too pumped about walking around in 45 degree weather wet, and Blake was starting to get cold. Here's our little cutie all warm and snug on the couch with some candy :)
HOPE EVERYONE HAD A WONDERFUL (AND WARMER/DRYER) HALLOWEEN!