Sand Wars - An Epic Battle

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

I've had several people asking me to post the pictures of the Epic Sand Fight that Cindy got into with her brother Chris last weekend in Carpinteria... So even though I should be sleeping, I'm tirelessly bringing the people what they want! VIVA LA BLOGGER!

Be warned - there are going to be a lot of pictures in this post. But think about it - when have you ever heard of an Epic Battle that didn't require a lot of pictures? Well there ya go. And on with the evidence! (click any of the pictures for the full, high definition battle royal)

As I mentioned near the close of the last record, Cindy did a sneak attack on Chris, by scooping up a big pile of sand with her foot and flinging it at him. Classic! Like so many comic book wimps of my childhood, getting sand kicked on them!

Just one problem... Chris didn't need to wait 6 to 8 weeks for Mr. Atlas' Muscle Building Kit to arrive in the mail. His many years in the Navy had prepared him for a moment such as this. By the time I got the camera on them, he was winding up for his first counter attack:



...and here's the pitch...



STEEEEEEEEE-RIKE!!!



Now, if you know my wife, you know that she doesn't take kindly to being struck. Even when it's by sand, courtesy of her baby brother. She was off after him with a fresh fistfull, and he was on the run!



Chris' next skirmish was using the Sand Shotgun approach. Notice how as he's throwing, there are already Sand Shrapnel pieces coming off...



...but it really came apart in the air...



...and Cindy retreated to the safety of the surf...



...where she quickly reloaded and began her next offensive! (while her stepdad Joe looked on, taking in the epic scope of it all)



Chris wasn't having any of that intimidation nonsense... He was all "Bring it on!"



Until she DID bring it on, at which point he went into a position I like to call "Oh Crap, She's Bringing It On!" or alternatively, "Invisible Beach Chair".



And Cindy Brought It.



Then Chris brought it back. (he must have kept his receipt!)



One final blow from Cindy...



And Chris went into "RETREAT!!!" mode. He had actually just fallen on his butt in the surf, but I was laughing so hard I missed the shot. Trust me, this one is only about half a second later... it was a quick recovery...



Watching her opponent slither up to dry land with his tail between his legs, my sweet, lovely wife struck a victory pose!



And then after thoroughly checking to make sure that neither of them was packing more sand grenades, a nice siblingly hug to show that it was all just fun and games!



Wow, doing play-by-play color commentary for a sand fight is a lot of work! Makes me wish I was back on that warm beach, relaxing and enjoying myself. But since that's not gonna happen, I may as well go to bed. Morning will come shockingly early as it is...

A Last Taste of Summer

Advertisers always love to do stupid things like "Christmas in July!"

I love summer. I could live in a climate where it's summer all year long, and be perfectly happy. The kind of juxtaposition that I'd be able to get behind is what we encountered a couple days ago... Yep, if you want to get my attention, throw something like "SUMMER IN OCTOBER" out there!!

Saturday in southern California was so gorgeous...



Where is Danee off to on a beautiful Summer's day in October?













The beach felt SO good, and Danee loved her first encounter with the ocean! Shortly after these pics, Cindy kicked a foot full of sand right at her brother Chris, which resulted in an epic sand battle, which will be documented here later...

Danee Made a Friend

Danee made the most of her layover at LAX Friday evening, befriending and completely bewitching a kindly older woman, who scoped us out from across the waiting area, and moved over and asked if she could play with our baby... They were instant best friends!



Danee's new friend was named Samena, and she very quickly learned that our baby girl's hands are faster than the eye... or even the eyeglasses!



Little Babykins had slept about 20 minutes on the flight to LAX, so she was WAY overdue for a nap... Samena had the magic touch, and after several minutes of playtime, it was naptime.



Naptime lasted through the rest of our layover...



...and then we had to put a frighteningly prompt finish to it, when I realized that our tickets were wrong - instead of our flight leaving from gate 71B (where this whole story took place), it was leaving from gate 71A! Thankfully they're next-door-neighbors, but by the time we realized it, our plan was nearly all boarded so we barely made it on! Danee was much happier after her nap and playtime, and Cindy and I were recharged after a break from travel-parenting.

Thanks Samena!!

Sunday Funnies

After A Hard Day...

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

After a hard day of practicing her patented blend of super-cute and super-naughty, and thoroughly trashing the living room, Danee laid down in the middle of the floor with her favorite Soft Thing, stuck her finger in her mouth, and drifted off to sleep!



And she is OUT! Picking her up and taking her down to her crib, the most she did was a contented sigh when she got there!

G'nite little angel baby!

A New Baby In The Family

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

Just a quick followup to my last post... My niece Michelle had her baby boy today, and Cindy has been sending lots of pictures - and he looks great!! She's also sent a video clip, but I can't get it off my phone no matter how I try, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Welcome to the family, and the world, to James Alan Holmes!











Official Stats: 4 Pounds, 13 Ounces, 17 Inches Long, came out crying, and doesn't want anybody messing with him! He seems like a perfectly strong baby boy who just happened to make his entrance six weeks earlier than planned.

Mom is also doing well - I talked to her, and she sounded great - not at all like someone who had just given birth, and she is loving her baby!

Well This Sure Beats A Day At The Office!

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

This morning started out normal enough... I got up ridiculously early to play racketball, (which I haven't done in months and wow did it feel good!) then started my morning routine of shuttling kids all over...

Right as I was walking out the door with Kaylee for the final kid-shuttle-operation before heading to the office, the phone rang. Since Cindy was serving breakfast to the daycare kids, I ran over and grabbed the phone. It was my sister Karen... She's in New Mexico on a business trip, and her daughter Michelle had gone into labor this morning - six weeks early!

All along, Cindy has always been someone you want on your side when you're having a baby. She's a pro, and would someday like to be a midwife. Add in our own experience with a Preemie just a few months ago (10 months? wow!), and Cindy was pretty much a MUST ATTEND to the birthing party. So she assured Karen that she'd go help out, I did a quick check-in at the office, and came home to hold things down here.

Translation? I GET TO PLAY WITH MY BABY TODAY!!!

And I'm not sure what's better than playing with the world's cutest 10 month old... who also just happens to LOVE spending time with her daddy... Just look!!













And now that I've posted the cuteness, she's getting fussy. Must be lunch time! This baby has decided that she really doesn't like bottles anymore, but she makes up for it by eating her weight in cereal and fruit every day!

Also, she just really cracked us both up... Cindy asked me to tend to her Farmville farm on Facebook while she was gone. So in the background on the computer, there are chickens clucking, cows mooing, goats making whatever sound goats make... And Danee has discovered the volume control for the computer speakers. She's discovered how to turn it WAY UP. It's a one-way trip for her.

I didn't notice she was playing with it, but just a second ago, a couple chickens started clucking at the same time, at full blast, and Danee just about jumped out of her adorable sleeper! Made me laugh out loud, and when she saw that, she started laughing too... LOVE this baby girl!!

Sunday Funnies

Friday Funny! (so what if it's saturday)

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs

Cindy and I had a Southwest flight attendant who sang the last part of the safety announcements, but this is approximately a million times cooler!!



And no, I've never gotten anything like that on United, or any other airline!

Kaylee's Birthday At The Fair

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs

Way back on September 15th, Our beloved Kaylee turned 13! Cindy took her out for a special "Mommy Day" and they went to the Puyallup Fair... At the time, Cindy promised pictures would follow shortly, and I'm happy to fulfill that order now.

KAYLEE & CINDY DO THE PUYALLUP:


Howdy, Y'all!


Squish, Squeeze, Squirt...


Soaring above the crowds...


Inside Weird Al's Brain in 3-D


Petting a goat shortly after winning a monkey who as of now, remains nameless.


Yes, Kaylee got to meet 50 Foot Weird Al, face to shin!


She also got to meet a tasty, tasty elephant ear...


And then it was home for Birthday Cake made by her loving stepdad... Who would not accept defeat, so when one corner of the cake stuck in the pan, ALL corners were lopped off! And when there weren't 13 individual candles, four candles were arranged as they would be on a pair of dice, showing a one and a three - Brilliant!

Happy Birthday to YOU, Kaylee! We Love You!!!

-mikey 'n' mommy

Ahem...

She has all of these:



And yet WHAT does she play with?



See that?





NO, we do NOT endorse, support, or agree with a baby's right to bear arms.

So maybe she just likes that it matches her outfit???

Danee's Big Girl Chair Is...

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

Last week I put up pictures of Danee sitting at the Big Table with the family, eating noodles, and basically being a Real Big Girl.

My cousin Amy (who does EXCELLENT photography, and in fact will be shooting our family's next set of pics) raised three important questions:

• Where did we get that wonderful seat?
• Who makes it?
• How big of a baby can it support?

Well, two of those are answered on the box it came in...

And as for the third question, we got it at Babies R Us, and even had a coupon for it! (Bonus!)

Thanks for asking Amy! It sounds like Branson will PROBABLY still fit in it...

Homecoming....

(By Cindy Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

Last weekend was Homecoming at Ellysa's High School. She plays in the PEP band again this year and had a great time watching her team WIN the big game Friday night.

Saturday was spent getting her hair and nails done and the end result.....

BEAUTIFUL!

Peter, Ellysa's date had a water polo tournament in Oregon all weekend and wasn't able to make it back in time to pick her up at the house (he barely made it in time before they closed the doors, poor kid got ready in the car on the way back into town, still managed to bring a very pretty corsage)

SO... Ellysa and several girl Friends all met at our house and went out to dinner together.

They were all lovely too!

Sunday Funnies

A Seat At The Big Table

(By Mike Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

So now that Danee is Ten Months Old, there were some changes that had to be made... You already saw one the other day - all the gates we're climbing over every day. But another change is that she was just plain too big to eat in her Bumbo anymore. She routinely *almost* tipped it over, and had also learned that she could scoot herself around the table in it, and was rescued on several occasions from nearly going over the edge.

So now, our little big girl sits at the big table, with the rest of her family!



And for her first time, we let her have some of our dinner too - she thought noodles were fun stuff!



Despite the fun of the noodles, not much of them ended up in her mouth... mostly they wound up in her lap, or on the floor. So she finished her first visit to the Big Table with one of her yummy rice crackers!





Already, she's discovering that she likes foods that don't come in jars with baby faces on them... Enchilada, scrambled eggs, scones and more!

Mealtime will never be the same again!

Check Up!

(By Cindy Brinkerhoff - from Keeping Up With The Brinkerhoffs)

Danee is growing beautifully, Wednesday was her latest check up. She is 10 moths old already!
I can hardly believe it,this babe of ours has come a long way from that 3lb, 4oz baby.

Here are her new stats:

15lbs. 11 oz.

26" long (she has finally doubled her length)

17.5 " Head - she is like a bobble head doll. I am sure her body will grow into it.

It is worth mentioning that Danee loves the tissue paper on the examination bed. She went crazy! By the time we left, she had eaten, ripped and wrapped her self in it like a burrito.
The Dr. commented "boy she is a busy one".... should I be concerned?