New Body Pillow

JoJo had decided to share... she gave Grayson a new "stuffed animal"... pay no mind to the fact that it is as big as she is!

Lake Much?

Gray learned to swim quickly this summer, she now despises the fact that she has to wear her life jacket until we're safely "at the beach" to swim...

She was trying to steal my floatie!

Everyone gets tuckered out at some point....

Cousins and Fun

Thanks to Uncle Juice and Aunt DeeDee, we will forever be going to 5 Guys!


Sophia and Gray were loving the Power Wheels... They were even taking turns:)

Jeffe/Daddy, the Floatie!

"Let's go in the 'Swirly Whirly'!!!" means: "Carry us around the lazy river!"

It's Over!

Something, something, something... Dark Side! I bought an iPhone...

Bristol Stool Chart

Please don't be offended... Try to see the humor/irony in it. I had to tell you... This is an actual slide in the lecture I will receive in less than an hour... It's a part of the curriculum. For once, I can say: "I go to school for THIS _____." Gotta love nursing school. . .

Just Something recent

The Progression

Yay! A great Brenner family picture! We were lucky enough to get this pic outside the museum in Cincinatti we visited on Sunday afternoon! We had a great time and both Ayla and Emma were troopers and very tired after a big afternoon! Later that night, you'd think taking a pic of Krystal and I would be no big deal, right? Think again. Someone started giggling, and it was over. Here's a series of pics Jamie took all within a matter of minutes. Here's what we lovingly refer to as: The Progression.


At this point we gave up, and called it a day. Our faces hurt.

Who Loves Mother Teresa?

I had to share something with you! I found a prayer written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It is the prayer of my heart. I'm going to nursing school, and I have found myself asking God to never let me become too jaded or worn. I asked Him to always remind me why I'm doing what I'm doing, and keep me focused with a servant's heart. A true blessing to me, I have found a prayer that I have taped to the inside of my Clinical Notebook and when I become a nurse, it will be lovingly taped to my locker for me to read and pray every day before work. (And perhaps a time or two during the shift on tough days:)

Dearest Lord, May I see You today and every day in the person of your sick, and while nursing them, minister to You. Though You hide yourself behind the unattractive guise of the irritable, the exacting and the unreasonable, may I still recognize You, and say "Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you."

Rain For Days

I LOVE the smell of rain! It's probably at the top of my list, up there with "winter" and "Fall" and the freshness of "snow".... love it...

But it's raining today, and I can't help but feel: Blah....restless, stir crazy, home sick, tired...and I've heard landowners, farmers, and ranchers start asking for the rain to stop so that they can actually get some work done. And so it goes, "you want what you can't have". If it's dry, you want rain...until it does, of course. Then you'd like it to stop. I want it to stop, I'm not going to lie.

Instead, I choose to pretend I'm in Belieze, like I was in the summer of 2003. In Central America, those countries have very distinct wet and dry seasons. During the dry season, it DOES NOT rain, and in wet season, it rains without ceasing for days on end, or just several times during the day, each day. We were there that summer for the first rain of the wet season... It was so dry and hot. Water reserves were lacking and they worried for dry forests that could catch flame at the slightest spark! it was 8 pm, dark as night, and we were a mile or so out from camp in a small opening in the forest. Our guide smelled the rain coming. He told us it was going reach us in about 10 minutes, and if we wanted to leave, we'd better head out quickly... some went, most stayed. We thought he was crazy, but sure enough, the rain came... It was the hardest rain I have ever felt! It actually hurt, and by the time we headed back to camp, we were all but RUNNING! It was a joyous occassion indeed! Everyone celebrated! They had been waiting for their rain, and it was finally here! The mood had lifted. Every local was ecstatic. It was a wonderful event to witness (and feel as we were soaked to the bones with no chance of drying off any time soon).

So today, I will celebrate the coming of the rain. I will be joyful and laugh while I lift my face towards Heaven. I will praise God for his never-ending provisions. I will give thanks for this VERY wet season!

Fun with Cousins in Frisco/McKinney

Fun in Frisco and McKinney with cousins! We got together to take a group pic of all the grandkids for Gimo's (Barbara) birthday. It was quite entertaining. Baby Aniston doesn't run around with the big kids yet, but Sophia and Hudson have just as much energy as Gray... they stay busy! Sophia LOVES her Uncle Jeff...

Watching Hudson and Gray just makes me smile. They are soo funny together!

Uncle Joel was blowing bubbles for the girls, this pictures just shows how much of it was bubbles, and how much of it was actually going all over her!

Cat Growth Chart

August 09-Cat 9 weeks-Gray 3.5 yrs

Dec 09-Cat 7 mos.-Gray 4 yrs

Background Check

Okay, I'm not 100% sure how this site works yet, but call me silly, I'm just going to do my best. I wanted to post a BUNCH of pictures... kind of catch up to where we are now. Pretty much, it'll probably be a lot of pictures of Grayson. I snagged just a few from home on my way out this morning, so I don't have all my favorites by any means, and even now, I'm imagining some pics I LOVE and don't have with me. But I do have a few, so here they are...

These first ones were all taken in early June 2009. Gray had just started coming and staying with us! She seems so small looking back.... she was only about 3 and a half years-old.

Wow, you have to be smarter than a silly website, but apparently, it's an issue for me! Okay, next up, let's skip ahead (because i couldn't grab EVERY picture this morning!) p.s. the summer months we're currently skipping were some of my favorites! We had an amazing time with Grayson, filled with swimming, birthday parties, new friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, Gimo and Papa Steve! (and the new Step-family: Poppy and JoJo, Uncle Mike-funny how roles have changed there!)

We visited Jeff's grandmother in Oklahoma last October (Gray had just turned 4). Gray had a great time, although the car drive was nuts! It was great for Jeff to see his Grandma with his daughter there too! She's only met her once, but every time we drive north on the high way, she tells us that "this is the way to Gigi's house! She's too smart...

Okay, I'm about to wrap this one up, because well, I keep messing up and have to re-upload pics!!!! Agh!!! Okay, these are just a couple from November 21-22, 2009.... She was too cute, she kept getting the ball/string wrapped around her! And then, while with Papa Steve and Gimo, she found part of my birthday gift.... the other party was a 15,726 piece prince set... It was as bad as a husband giving a new wood-working bench to his wife for Christmas! So funny....



We had a blast over Christmas! and had 5 million places to visit! We had got to go to McKinney to hang with the Wrights a couple weeks before for Sophia's Birthday! And while I don't have all the best pics, I have a few with me, so I'll post those! Jeff and I had just visited NYC the first week of Dec 09, so Gray's sporting her I heart NY Tee! Sing with me: "In New York...."

She totally just curled up with me while I was reading Breaking Dawn for the second time.... :) It was completely adoring. I left to do some shopping with the girls....and found this upon return:

And I thought I was special.... :)

K, I've got more, but well... I'm hungry, so I'm ending this bad boy. Maybe I'll feel better about all this when I feel caught up and current. Oh well, off to lunch. Gray will be here this evening, so there's always the chance we'll have more randomness to post:) Love that girl....