My Little Comedian

Brandt has always had the funnest personality. Now that he is getting older and talking a lot better, he says the most hilarious things. For example, the other day I was on the floor playing with blocks with him. We were stacking them up and suddenly he puts his hand out in front of him and says, "stand back ladies!" to my mom and me. He then proceeded in knocking over the blocks. If he doesn't think we're giving him the attention he deserves, he will emphatically say something like "guys, listen to me!" or "pay attention!" This is often done with hands on hips like a miniature adult. Monday when I got home from work I went to give him a kiss and he moved, so I said "buddy, didn't you miss me today?" He answered with, "no, I was at mamaw's. Then daddy came to get me." I inquired a little further with, "daddy came and got you, huh?" He held his hands out and very dramatically answered, "you were at work and the grocery store!" It was as if he was saying, "duh, mom, of course daddy came and got me since you obviously weren't going to." I actually hadn't even gone to the store that day, so not sure where he got that from, but it was funny anyway. He is such a tease, a trait I'm pretty sure he got from Bryce, and is constantly tickling us or taking something (like Bryce's hat or the remote) and running away with it hollering to come and try and get him. Often when I get to my mom's to pick him up he has locked the front door and is standing at the window watching me try to open the door and totally cracking up. His new favorite thing is when we ask him what we should name baby sister he almost always answers first with "papa Lloyd." Then I tell him that's already grandpa's name and he goes on down the list naming everyone he knows, giggling the entire time. He is definitely all boy, and thinks it's the funniest thing in the world if he toots, especially if he's sitting on your lap, and always makes a point to announce it. When he has a messy diaper he will say "oooh, I smell like dog poop, I smell like skunk poop, I smell like cow poop..." and the list goes on. My favorite is when he says "I smell like T poop." T is what he calls my little brother. :) Not only is he a tease, but he is also the biggest ham. He loves to entertain anyone who comes for a visit, especially his cousins, and the more he gets a reaction, the more he shows off. When we were at my mom and dad's for Christmas, he thought it was so fun to make Amanda Jean laugh. She's very dramatic and would cover her mouth with her hand and laugh hysterically at every little thing he did. This of course pleased him to no end, encouraged him to continue his antics, and made the rest of us laugh as well. Now Brandt copies the way she covered her mouth and laughed at him when he thinks something is funny. Oh how I wish I could spend every day watching him and enjoying all the fun things he does, but I guess for now I just have to try my hardest to take advantage of the time I do have with him and keep laughing at the small stuff. I hope I will still be able to do that when there is another little addition at our house to keep up with.

Christmas Morning 2009

After waiting patiently (sorta) all month, and Brandt only finding and opening a couple presents, Santa finally made his stop at our house. What an exciting morning it was!
Before the fun got started...Brandt woke up before my parents got there, so we had blocked off that part of the living room so he wouldn't see everything on his way to our room to wake us up. We kept him busy playing in our room til mamaw and bampa came.

Seeing everything waiting for him for the first time wearing his new Christmas jammies from mamaw Ellen and bampa Lloyd.

The biggest and most exciting "Santa present", which Brandt ran to first of course.

Since we live the closest, my parents and Curtis come to watch us open presents.

Brandt was excited to see his new rope (one of the only things he asked for) to go along with his roping steer.

Couldnt' wait to try it out. That's a pretty serious cowboy face!

Got it!!

Close-up shot of his new cowboy hat (the other thing he asked for since his has been too small for months but has still insisted on wearing it).

Trying to figure out how to get his loop back. I loved that this one thing could have kept him entertained half the day and he didn't even care that he still had more stuff to open. Wish we could all be so easily satisfied.

He was so excited about every new thing he opened and made sure to check it out good and play with it before moving on to the next present.

Bampa's job was to try to open all of the very child and adult proof toys.Brandt helped decorate the tree this year, and he had so much fun doing it. Every couple days he would move a few of the decorations around, but he was so careful with them and didn't break one of them. Of course, I forgot to take pictures, so this will have to do. He gets an ornament from us every year and was excited to put it on the tree after he opened it.

We decided to stay home for Christmas day this year since we had things scheduled with both of our families before and after Christmas. Brandt loved to be able to take time to play with all of his new stuff.

We gave him a set of bucking bulls with shutes and rodeo clowns. This bull was bucking extra high.

What a cutie!! He made Christmas so much fun this year and helped me remember what the important things in life really are at this time of year.

Seeing Santa 2009

Brandt anticipated Santa coming for the entire month of December. Everytime we heard a noise outside he would get all excited and run to either the window or door and holler "Santa's here; Santa's on our house, or Santa's on the roof!" Needless to say, he couldn't wait to sit on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party. The part he wasn't excited for was sitting at the table with all of us for the dinner and program prior to the long-awaited guest's arrival. So...we spent a lot of time wandering the halls and playing in the nursery (it didn't help that he skipped his nap that day.) As the time approached and we were making yet another lap around the hall, we happened to run into none other than Mrs. Claus (she was filling in for Santa this year). Brandt was so excited and got to talk to "Santa" before the other kids even knew she was there. It was hard to peel him away to go back in, but finally talked him into it. When she came in she made the rounds talking to people and hollering "ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas", and made a special stop at our table to talk to Brandt and let him ring her sleigh bells.
The pictures don't show how excited he was to sit on her lap and ring the sleigh bells again.

It ended up being a really fun night for Brandt and Mrs. Claus was the best Santa we've had for a long time!