It's a...

BOY!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, we are adding a son to the mix! We are super excited to experience this new and crazy world of boydome (that's not a word, but it should be.)

Introducing Jude Daniel Bringard (or possibly spelled Daniyel, we have to wait and see who wins that battle)

picture #1: face and tummy shot

picture #2: foot

picture #3: little boy bits :-)

Here comes another one...

Hello all! I have been horrible about writing. I was working (student teaching) and going to school at night and mommy-ing and wife-ing. It was all just a bit too much! But I turn in my last paper tonight, and I graduate on Saturday!! NO MORE SCHOOL!!

It's good that I will be able to focus on staying home because we are expecting Squiddy #2 in October! Baby is healthy and kicking around quite well. No news yet on boy or girl... but soon! So hopefully after I get through the week, I will have more opportunities to blog--and more importantly--to catch up on all my blog reading!

Claire is wonderful when she's not coming to pieces during a tantrum (which is happening more and more these days!) She's learning to spend some quality time in "time-out." She talks CONSTANTLY! Even random people in the store remark on the non-stop stream of semi-intelligible chatter she keeps up. It's great, but tiring after the 385th "Mommy, Mommy Mommy" that she resorts to when she's run out of anything else to say. Her new favorite thing is the Tikki Room at Disneyland, and she always makes us sing the song. In fact she often demands "Mommy sing _____" Our other favorite demands: "Boy come! (talking to any random boy passing by) "Mommy watch me eat!" (really, kid? Do you need an audience for everything?!) "Walking all by myself!" and the always present "Eat food, I want snack!" Little Miss Bossy is in for quite a change when she's got a little brother or sister at home in the mix! I hope she can survive sharing the spotlight!

Disney Fun!

Hey everyone!

It has been quite some time since we posted, and I felt it was time to remedy that.

Yesterday we spent the day at Disneyland with Ryan from Sleeping at Last (one of my all time favorite bands) and Jeremy Larson of, well, himself. They are both great musicians, and I highly recommend you buy their stuff post haste. Shameless promotion aside, Jeremy took some great photos of Claire and we would be derelict in our duty as parents to not share them.







I dare you to find photos of a cuter child. In fact, dare etiquette be darned... I triple dog dare you.

She emerges from the cold hard fall (semester) and looks to the horizon (vacation) with hope for a New Year

Ok, ok, ok. So, that title was a bit dramatic! But, I didn't want to just put, "Happy New Year." I was feeling both long winded and silly. So, that was the result!

Well, school is out, and that means I actually have time to devote to my long-neglected blog! This post is going to be photo-heavy in an attempt to compensate for the neglect. In no particular order we have:

Claire in San Diego on a recent trip. She loved looking at the ocean and chasing the sea gulls. We loved eating one pound carne asada burritos from Adalberto's.

This next one was taken at Claim Jumper at our friend Tammi's birthday party. Claire WILL NOT SIT STILL in a restaurant! She was driving me crazy until I remembered some sage advice from I don't know who about letting kids gnaw on bones to keep them busy. Worked like a charm! Here she is trying to get two baby back ribs in her mouth at once.

Mikkele took this on her iPhone with a Polaroid app.

We were in Merced in November for my Great Grandfather's funeral. It was wonderful to celebrate his life with my family. This is Claire and Daddy in the hotel. I also have an amazing video from that trip of Claire and my niece Lucy dancing outside the door to a restaurant bar. I'll post it later.

Don't remember when I took this, but honestly, she's stinking cute!

Today we went to the park to play. It was so nice outside, that I let Claire run in the grass without her shoes. She had a blast! You may also notice her rocking the pigtails. It was the first time I've been able to get her hair up like that. It's hilarious though, because from the front you can't see them at all, they're so small!

She LOVES the slide! It was hard to get her to pause on the stairs for a photo. What a sweet face!

We spent New Years in Colorado Springs looking at property and celebrating my best friend Gwen's birthday (she actually lives here, but was in Colorado visiting her folks.) This is Claire on the plane to Denver. It was not a full flight, so the seat next to us was vacant. Claire loved sitting in her own chair. She eventually fell asleep and Kevin took a hilarious picture of her all sprawled out, but I don't have it.

We have a few resolutions for 2010:

1. Start aggressively saving money for a house

2. Decide where we want to live

3. Make Claire a big sister

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Hello and Merry Christmas! We had a very eventful Christmas. We went up to Kevin's parents house in Lemoore. Claire had a great time with her Grandparents and Aunts and Uncle. But then the flu struck! It started on the 24th with Claire vomiting all over herself in our new car. (It's officially a mommy-mobile now!) By the way, we bought a new car! A 2006 Honda Pilot. We love it! Anyhow, the flu didn't stop at Claire. I was the next victim and it had me requesting we pull over on the side of the 99 and then trying to sanitarily vomit in a MacDonalds bathroom. Last night it hit Kevin and his sister Mikkele (who is staying with us until she moves to Amsterdam on the 29th) And I just heard via Facebook that Kevin's dad and brother are also sick! So, that was fun.

The day we left for Lemoore we also had to deal with the sad realization that I was miscarrying. All in all Christmas 2009 was a little rough for the Bringards. But we're healing, and looking ahead to where the Lord is taking us next year. The hope of Christ is powerful. "The Lord stands with me and gives me strength."

The Life and Times of Us... well, mostly Claire

Oh my gosh! I can't believe I haven't posted since Halloween! Terrible! I have been working part time, going to school at night, and trying to be wife and mommy all at the same time, so it has left little room for blogging. But now that Christmas break is here, I can reacquaint myself with the computer!

In Claire news: She is talking nonstop! She has right around 45-50 words at last count (wow!), and she is putting 2 words together like Nightnight Dada, Blessyou Mamma, Milk please. She's hilarious: she will look at you very earnestly and bust out with paragraph level commentary that only she can understand. She nods her head, raises her eyebrows, and gestures just like she's telling a really great story. The she'll wait expectantly for your response when she's finished. Cracks us up! I've got some new pictures, and when I'm not feeling so sleepy, I'll get them from my phone and uploaded.

In other news: We're expecting Squiddy II! Our next little one will be born sometime around August 20th, right before Claire's 2nd birthday. Fun times! More to come later on that!

Halloween

For Halloween Claire was r2d2. Very cute, very dorky costume! I was princess Leah, and Kevin was supposed to be Han Solo but we were too last minute on that one, so he ended up wearing an old pirate costume. We had a party at our place. It was a good time. I only took phone pictures, so they're not too good. Hopefully I'll get someone elses and post them here soon. For now, here's our little robot:







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