Brady's "mimi"

I've been meaning to post this for a week now but I kept forgetting.........So Brady likes little baby dolls. But he can't really say "baby" all the time so he says "mimi". Anytime we are anywhere and he hears a baby, or just a kid sometimes, he says "mimi". We live really close to Big Lots and I go in there from time to time to see what deals are lurking in the aisles screaming "Buy me! Buy me! I'm only $1.50!" And of course I can't resist! I find some cute toys and other such things in there all the time!

Anyway, the last 3 times we have been there, I've had Brady with me. In the toy section, there is a whole end of the aisle display of little baby dolls.The first time he saw them, he of course said "mimi" and took one off the shelf. There were little doll strollers right there as well that he loaded the baby in and took it for a stroll down the aisle. The second trip there he got the baby off the shelf and took it about 5 rows over to the back corner and put it in a chair and said "nigh nigh". (He actually did this 3 times I think before I said enough is enough and we had to get going!) So finally the third time as he announced "mimi" as we went past the aisle, I let him pick it up and put it in the cart. He played with it the rest of the time in the store and I bought it for him. I had been debating whether or not to just buy it for him all 3 of those times, and I finally just bought it for him.

Coincidentally, Aaron was out of town for 4 days while this purchase happened. And when I told him that I bought the doll for Brady, he playfully acused me (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here) of waiting until he went out of town to buy him a baby doll. You judge for yourself how well he loves this baby doll and if I bought it only to buy him a "girl toy":

Putting his "mimi" in his little booster chair and giving it the juice.



We let a friend from church borrow the exersaucer while family was in town visiting and we haven't put it away yet and Brady likes to climb in it. We tried to tell him it was only for babies and this was his solution!



Brady also likes to bring the baby to bed with him and make sure he is wrapped in one of his baby blankets. The baby has a blue outfit with a bear on it so it is a boy baby doll. Doesn't that make it better???? I think now Aaron sees how much Brady loves it but I don't think he is still totally 100% comfortable with him having it! Oh well-too bad!

Why did the chicken cross the road???

I saw this on my friend Melissa's blog and had to steal it from her and post it here because it was so funny! Enjoy and thanks Melissa!


BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road...ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

SARAH PALIN: BECAUSE, PRAISE JESUS, I WAS GONNA SHOOT HIS SORRY LIBERAL (BUTT) FOR BLOCKING MY VIEW OF RUSSIA !

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay, too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine... all the chickens in the world... crossing roads together...in peace.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?


Have I mentioned that I can't wait until this election is over??? I'm so tired of it!

Columbus Day

In the spirit of Columbus Day we decided to take a hike/walk together since Aaron had the day off. So actually I didn't decide it was in honor of Columbus Day until right now but still......
We hiked/walked on the tram path into Sabino Canyon and it was a gorgeous day. It's been a little cooler the last couple days and so we decided to take full advantage of this beautiful fall AZ weather (I think by the weekend it is supposed to be back to 90 again). We walked a total of 6 miles up and down and around into Sabino Canyon and back out.





The little creek was flowing somewhat from the top of Mt Lemmon all the way down into the canyon.

Luckily, we didn't see any mountain lions......

Besides the birds, lizards, a deer and a couple little fish in the creek this was the only type of wildlife we saw a lot of - but it was pretty big even though you can't tell the scale of this picture........ (we've seen some big tarantulas there before and some people have seen some rattlesnakes, mountain lions and javelinas too!)

But it is amazing what will grow in the strangest places!

And it's a good thing we weren't on bikes or this could have been us! (Some of the bridges have smaller passage ways and the trams have to go over them too.)

So we had a very productive Columbus Day and a really fun time together. Maybe when Brady gets a little older, we'll brave it out on the hiking trails but until then we'll have fun pushing the stroller on the roads!

Tag!

So I guess I have some blogging to catch up on after being away from it for a while! So here it goes! My friend Amber tagged me and now I am tagging as well so look out.....it might be you!

1. I think if I could possibly do whatever I wanted to as far as a job or whatever, I would be a Radio City Rockette! I always love watching them in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and who wouldn't want to have legs like that! I think I am too short though and sadly, I am past my dancing prime. I probably couldn't kick like that anymore......in fact, I know I can't! :(

2. If I could be on any reality TV show I think it would be the Amazing Race with Aaron. I really love that show and all the cool places they visit and cultures they get to experience. I think I might have to be working out and training a little more than I am now because some of the tasks they do are pretty physically demanding. It would be fun to try though.

3. I love the Food Network as well as cooking. Sometimes when I am cooking in my kitchen I am thinking in my head what I would be saying to the camera and how I would explain things and such as if I were on the Food Network. But I don't think I have ever done any of these things out loud.......I'm not that crazy!

4. Even though I love cooking, I don't do baking that much. In fact, I have never made bread or rolls from scratch (banana and pumpkin bread excluded). I think it is the yeast and the kneading and the rising and the punching and all that stuff that scares me. (Amber-you will have to give me personal bread lessons!) I haven't been able to do pie crusts from scratch yet either. I just buy the frozen.

5. I have the same first and middle name and the same birthday as one of my best friends. Jessica Ann, born on December 19th (but she is one year younger than me). Coincidentally, her husband and my husband have the same middle name as well - Todd, and they both majored in Economics at BYU.

6. When Aaron was going to propose to me, he went to my Dad first of course to ask permission. My Dad not only gave him permission but he also gave him a "stamp of approval" and litterally stamped his hand with his address stamp. I wish I would have taken a picture of that because it still makes me laugh thinking of it now.

7. After being at the Grand Canyon this last weekend, I think one day I want to do one of those 3 week trips down the Colorado River. I don't know if I actually could because I do like showering every day and having a comfortable place to sleep so we'll have to wait and see about that but it sounds nice! I've never done anything like that before and all the physical efforts it would take......well, I'm not really sure about that either but maybe I should start out with something smaller and work my way up?

OK, now it's someone else's turn!

Here's who I have tagged!

Margo
Lauren
Erica
Hollie
Christy
Sandra

Melissa

"Pumpy"

We just got a fun little Halloween package from Grandma Gray. She sent Brady some candy and toys and also those little gel-like window sticky things (I don't know what they're really called!). So I took out the sticky things and let Brady try to stick a couple to the window. He had fun sticking the little "Pumpy" (that's how he was saying pumpkin) to the window and even a little bat. I kept trying to get him to put the bat next to the Pumpy but he insisted that it go on top of the Pumpy. Silly little boy! Thanks Grandma Gray for the Pumpys!

Purcell visit

So this last week we had my family in town visiting us. So that is also why I have not posted anything in forever! My Mom, Dad, sister Melissa, brother-in-law Hadley and niece Ava all came from IL to stay with us. Brady is only about 5 weeks older than Ava so it was so fun to have them together again. We haven't seen them since the end of May so they have both grown so much and are talking so much more too.


So while they were visiting, we took a trip up to the Grand Canyon and Sedona and had a great time. We stayed at a cabin in Flagstaff and the babies had such a good time running around and playing we almost wanted to just stay around there the whole time. It was so cold there over the weekend though and the day we were at the Grand Canyon it started out raining and so overcast that we couldn't even see down into the canyon at the overlooks. But by lunch time, it started clearing up but it was still pretty cold and windy. It was all of our first times there (except my Dad) so it was such a pretty sight to see. When we went to Sedona the next day, it was a beautiful day and we had fun walking around and shopping and seeing all of the beautiful red rock there.
We also had a little mini crisis happen in Sedona. We had to take 2 cars to fit everyone in and we had so much stuff we had to strap the 2 strollers to the roof rack of our jeep. So as we were getting in the car and my dad was working on strapping the strollers down, I put Brady in the car and put the diaper bag down. I just set him in the seat because we weren't quite ready to leave yet. My brother-in-law started the car and went to help my dad with the strollers. Everyone else was getting stuff loaded in the jeep and trunk of the car. As I walked around to the other side of the car to get Brady before he got to the front seat, he was too fast and was already in the driver's seat. He then had to touch buttons and it happened to be the lock button he pushed right as I got to the driver's side window. Now luckily, we were parked in a covered parking and it wasn't too hot and the air conditioning was on. But he was in a running car by himself with the doors locked. We were freaking out and trying to figure out what to do first. He kept hitting the lock button and locking it but to get it unlocked you have to push up and he kept pushing down. Hadley was trying to get him to push it up and my sister was going to call some help and she saw 2 guys who worked for one of the shops right there. They had some tools in their truck and had Brady out in less than 5 minutes. But while we were standing there waiting for the guys to open the door, Brady figured out how to turn on the wipers and turned the car off! You can't put the car in drive or anything else without your foot on the brake so that's good! We all learned a very valuable lesson that day-ME most of all! We even had an extra set of keys but of course they were in the diaper bag in the car. 6 adults could do nothing for him and it was a horrible feeling. Maybe I shouldn't be posting this on my blog because someone will turn me into DCFS for being a horrible mother but if anyone else can take my advice, I guess it is worth sharing! And like I said, it was only a matter of about 5 minutes that he was in there and our prayers were answered when those 2 guys showed up out of nowhere to help us!

So anyway, I had too many pictures to post as pictures here so I made a slide show. My Mom is the photographer and so whenever she is around, nobody else takes pictures because she is the designated picture taker. Good work Mom!

OK, so I'm having issues with my slideshow so check back later for the pictures! Sorry!

Redecorated!

So while my sister Melissa was here visiting, she helped me pick out some new things and redecorate the top of my cabinets in the kitchen. I should have taken a before picture but the only thing that was up there before was some of those glass vases with different color beans in them. It looked OK, but my sister helped me shop and pick out and put them up there. (She and her sister-in-law used to help decorate the model homes that her in-law's family business built) I made the flower arrangements and I'm very proud of them because they turned out pretty. There isn't a whole lot of room from the top of the cabinets to the ceiling but we made it work. Now I just need to get some curtains for over the sink and the other window in the family room and it will look a whole lot better! I just haven't found the right ones yet or even the right fabric to make them with so I'll keep looking for that. The lighting was a little hard to get it not to glare or be too dark so the pictures are not professional but you get the idea! Thanks so much Melissa! I love how it turned out!