Ella Kirsten Rynearson is HERE!

Drumroll please.....my lovely, beautiful, sweet niece has arrived!!!

I flew down to San Diego on Thanksgiving evening to visit my adorable 2-day-old niece and WOW -she is sweet as can be. I am so glad I went down and I get to see her again at New Years when Dave, Cal, Dad & Carolyn are all in SD!

I did a full blog post on my "work" blog: http://blog.brookebryand.com and wanted to share a few more of the personal photos here:


Nana and me each taking our turn with Sweet Ella


Ella hanging out by Daddy's architecture/client plans...and Riggs taking a rest by his little sis




Riggs and Mommy Hanging Out


Riggs deciding on whether or not to kiss Ella (he didn't at this moment, but did earlier!)




Family photo of the brand new Rynearson Family (except for Jack & Reokie!)

I love you guys!! Thank you for giving me such an incredible, beautiful niece. May the spoiling begin!!!

Lots and lots more photos in the family gallery:

After His Daddy's Heart...First Pair of Shoes!

Cal turns 1 this Sunday (!) and all 5 of his grandparents are coming to town! Dave's parents arrived yesterday from CT and we took Cal to get his first pair of shoes. He's not quite walking yet, but is crawling all over the place and I realized recently at the playground that I'm not winning any mother-of-the-year points with a barefoot child on a public playground (duh).

Dave's first pair of shoes was from Stride Right, so we wanted to get Cal on the same path of shoe-obsession as his Daddy (and apparently his Mommy...more on that later). Check him out getting measured, etc:




Proud grandparents!



Dave's parents ("Grandma & Grandpa") accompanied me on the adventure and the shoes were a gift from his Great-Nana & Great-Grandpa (Dave's g-parents in CT)!

I should also mention that I got myself a present for Cal turning 1 (no need to judge me until you survive your first year of parenthood...this stuff is H-A-R-D!!!). Yep, mama got her first pair of "grown-up shoes"...Christian Louboutins. I got a "push present" when Cal was born (my new Canon 5D Mk II camera body), and then I decided I deserved a present for making it through Cal's first year...the most amazing, wonderful, emotional and certainly challenging year of my life to date. Our girlfriend, Monica, accompanied me to Barney's for my big purchase (thanks, M!) and I think Dave is still in shock that I (arguably the most frugal person east of the Mississippi) would throw down $ for shoes. Here they are, along with Cal's new shoes and a pair of Dave's favorite shoes that I see him "sunning" daily.