2015 in review from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

merry.

we are in idaho for christmas this year, and it's pretty thrilling. hope yours is great as well.

zoo lights!

we have been having a blast in utah with my family! i have done all my christmas shopping, we have been sledding, and have played outside in the snow, and eaten great food. i have gotten to reconnect with dear friends. hazel and cora mae's aunt and uncles have been the sweetest to them and they get played with almost constantly. it's really the best.

before john flew in, hazel and i went to the zoo lights together. such a fun outing! here's a few pics:

jingle bells from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

the last of the thanksgiving posts, i promise.

exploring martha's vineyard:

 on the ferry!

bonus thanksgiving pics:

boom.  documented.

thanksgiving part 3!

friday we went to walden pond!

we can never get a decent family photo with everyone looking.  will someone please teach me their secret?!

then back to the minute-man bridge...

then we went to lunch, and on to rockport, which is just the cutest, quaintest little port town ever.

 of course we had to buy some toffee from the candy store while we were there... and then nearly polish it off on the car ride home... $9 of toffee never goes as far as one would think...

we are almost done with thanksgiving posts!  yayyy

thanksgiving in plymouth. part two of our series.

on thanksgiving day we got ready and went to a monument i had never heard of in plymouth, massachusetts.  then we had thanksgiving dinner at plimouth {yes, that's how they spell it there} plantation, and our little heffalump, as you can see, is the cutest baby known to man.

agfag

then we took our full bellies and took a tour of an imitation wamapoke indian homes/grounds and a town full of "real life" {aka actors} pilgrims. see hazel above, singing jingle bells to me ^^^ also, look at hazel's face in the photo below.  right after this picture was taken she laid her head down on my shoulder and fell right asleep.

then we went and saw the most underwhelming national monument ever, plymouth rock.
and took a tour of the mayflower...

such a fun day!  thanks so much to mimi and grandpa for taking us!

more thanksgiving weekend pics to come!

makin play dough pizza from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

a boston thanksgiving, part one.

since john's aunt jayme, ryan and janessa, the harman fam, and us are all stranded out east for thanksgiving, george and leslie flew in and we made the most of it.  we all crammed into sweet jayme's two-bedroom apartment and had a blast!  the first day we went to faneuil hall market, ate delicious lobster rolls and clam chowder, looked in pretty little shops (see cupcake christmas tree below), and played on the pier.

we drove past the beautiful boston temple:

then we went to bunker hill memorial, and while the girls slept in the car with mimi, john and i hiked the 294 steps to the top.  

you can see all over boston from up there.

we saw the minute-men bridge, where the "shot heard round the world" was shot.  there are several homes where literary greats have lived right around that area, including ralph waldo emerson, who wrote the "concord hymn" commemorating the battle, which he actually witnessed with his own eyes! {i will have it be known that hazel requested a silly-face picture, and then didn't join me^^^}

there you have it!  day one of our boston thanksgiving.

life lately

just some photos of our life over the past two or three weeks...

1.  hazel in her happy place
2.  coramae munching on what could quite arguably be the best beef gyro of my life
3.  the leaves that i desperately loved that are all gone now
4.  making it outside to enjoy the 60ish weather we were having mid-november
5.  nighttime ritual, complete with diet coke

1.  sleeping eyelash profile... is there anything better?
2.  dadda and hazel on jane's carousel
3.  posing in front of darth vader.  p.s. does anyone really understand this side-smile thing she does sometimes?  because i don't.
4.  our apartment-living christmas tree.  we decorated it together as a family and it was very exciting
5.  mae mae humoring me with selfies

1.  wearing a dress my grandmother knit
2.  that's how i think nativities should be arranged too, hazel.  everyone peering in at baby Jesus.
3.  also, swings appear to be cora's happy place
4.  blue steel
5.  from our family photo shoot where i got zero good photos of all of us as a family... but we still had fun
6.  no caption necessary?

better vacuum. someone's on the move! from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

brooklyn birthdays!

last saturday we went to brooklyn to celebrate our cousin claire and aunt janessa's birthday!  it was so much fun!  we rode jane's carousel, took pictures by the brooklyn bridge, ate at julianna's, ate birthday cake and just hung out.  hazel had the best time.  we feel so so lucky to have family living so close!  thanks for inviting us, brunts!

the best view of any city park, ever?^^^

if cora mae doesn't look happy in a photo, it is most likely a fluke.  she always looks like this^^^

the pizza dreams are made of:

 just a view of downtown on our way to brooklyn.  nbd.
also, we discovered on this day that cora knows how to use a straw.  what!?!

the springfield firehouse

our play group went to the springfield fire station yesterday and took a tour.  after we left, hazel kept talking about how fun it was.  i'm so grateful for people in public service jobs - firemen, policemen, nurses, etc.  they truly make our community a safe and wonderful place to live.

 

look at the joy on hazel's face in the fire engine!
firefighter 7!  be still my heart.

philly with honey.

when my mom decided to come to town {and granted, she still probably would have come if we lived in a small town in wyoming} we thought we would probably get into the city at least a couple days while she was here.  would you believe that we never made it into the city!?  we saved it for the last day, and then the weather decided not to cooperate and it poured that day.  but, we did drive down to philly on saturday, because my mom was born and lived there the first three years of her life while her dad was going to dental school... plus, cheesesteaks.  here's some photos from our day in philly.  {i'll spare you from the photos of hazel throwing a complete crying fit when she powered right through nap time.}

 independence hall ^^

^^ not pictured: hazel in the stroller next to us, having a total fit!

who's that baby? from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

honey's in town!

honey has been hanging with us in new jersey the past few days!  we are beyond excited to have her here.  the girls are in heaven, and i'm in heaven, and we never ever want her to leave!  here's some photos from the zoo the other day:

look at our cora girl! she is the sweetest thing.

spot the cougar, and also, there were almost tears when hazel thought that she wasn't going to get the tiger.  

we really love our honey and the zoo.

love life: cora mae at 8 months

here's what is going on with cora mae at 8 months:

we call her heffalump 50% of the time

she tries everything we put in front of her

she has started crawling!

she stares at her big sister and smiles and laughs half the day

she loves playing on the ground with anything she can get her hands on, including cords

she is always touching the xbox power switch

she loves scrunching up her nose and breathing heavy - she thinks it's so funny

her favorite thing to do is look at herself in the mirror

she loves peekaboo and touching my face when we are nursing

she beams when daddy gets home

we love her so.

i don't know why this video turned out so pixelated!

BUT, you get the idea.

the leaves right now are unreal from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

5 little punkins from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

happy halloween from the guardians of the galaxy!

for halloween this year we were the guardians of the galaxy.  i really felt nerdy last night at the ward party when people said, "oh, i haven't seen that movie".

what?!?! it's like the best movie of all time!  and (i thought) so mainstream!

nevertheless, we loved playing our favorite heroes this year.  i only wish i hadn't painted my face green, since only 30% of the people at the party recognized me anyways ;)

costumes from years past:

halloween 2014

halloween 2013

halloween 2012 - we must not have dressed up this year?!

halloween 2011

halloween 2010

we weren't always a big fan of leaves.

but we are now.

here we go! from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.

we love outside.

- especially this time of year.