Who's the cutest puppy evah??

I'm thinking it's this one...



And who's the most talented, amazing daughter evah??
I'm thinking it's this one...





And who just became a finalist out of nearly 14,000 entries in the Photographer's Forum, Best of College Photography Contest??
I'm thinking it's BOTH of them!



(Er, Fuzzy object in photo is larger it than appears...)

Aren't they the cutest evah??



I love 'em...

~Beth

Oh, now I get it...

So, for the last couple of weeks I've been missing socks. LOTS of socks. In fact, I have so many missing socks that I can't make a single pair. For a further fact, the socks I'm wearing right now don't match. (TMI??). They're both white but not a matched pair. The other option I had this morning was one white and one white with blue stripes but they were, at least, the same TYPE of sock. Still not sure if I made the right choice.

Let's move forward to this afternoon. I plugged in my new printer/scanner (wheeee!) in order to play with it. And looky what I found behind the couch:

Hmmmmmmm.So I start looking around and next I found this under the piano:


Whaa...??

Why are all our socks everywhere??

Get it now?? I get it. I live with a sock thief. A first-degree sock thief. I'm sure a warrant will be issued shortly.



Who ME?? I'm innocent of these false and hurtful accusations. (Hmmmm. I wonder if black socks taste different than white ones...)

The little rat-face...

~Beth

My Daughter Is FBI...

She's Funny...


She's Beautiful...




She's Intelligent...


and today she was invited to join Mortar Board because she has a 3.38 GPA!! Mortar Board is a college National Honors Society. She's worked so hard since transferring to Cornell.

I'm so proud.
Snarfle.

~Beth

AHEM...

Paisley would like a moment of your time:



TO EVERYBODY: Hippee Nude Deer!!

I think something got lost in translation...

~Beth

Dear Santa...

This is Paisley Puppy speaking.

Mom said you would only bring me presents if I've been good so I thought you'd better hear my side of the story. I am good at being a puppy. I am good at naps.

I helped with the Christmas tree. I really thought "trim the tree" meant chomping the branches so they'd be shorter. Most parts of a pine tree ARE edible, you know.
And there was only a little bit of denting on some of the ornaments. Hardly noticeable at all.
Also I am good at sharing. I drove and drove and drove
and tooked some presents to all the homeless puppies and kitties at the shelter I used to live at. I tooked some yummies for the peoples too.
I know those peoples and puppies and kitties love me cuz I'm so good...although some of those kitties look a little mean...
I don't think you should leave any presents for those mean kitties. They're scary.


But mostly, Santa, I'm very, very good at being part of a family.
And if I could have just one wish for Christmas, please find forever homes for all the puppies and kitties alone in the shelters...even the mean, scary kitties.

Love and slurps,
Paisley Puppy

P.S. But if you have any extra bones or squeakies or cookies or toys, you can drop them off at my house.

My how time flies...

Busy, busy, busy. I can't believe it's already December! We've had a few changes this year including a new fuzzy addition.
Isn't she beautiful! And funny. And sooooooooooooo helpful. Yeah, helpful...like when we baked Christmas cookies last week. So, this is what happens when puppies are TOO helpful...Puppy jail. And you take down all your furry friends too.
Even with all the extra help, Jaina and I managed to bake up some mighty fine cookies this year. We focused on a number of new recipes and found several "keepers". This is the only chocolate cookie we've made so far and it made a HUGE batch, like 6 dozen.
And they have EVERYTHING in them: chocolate chips, cherries, nuts, sugar, brown sugar...We had to call in the manly re-enforcements just to stir it up! But, oh yum! They are evil-ly good.

I think we finished with 6 different kinds of cookies and a decorated peppermint stick.
At the end of Bake-Out 2009, the last sparkles in the bowl looked like this: Happy day...

While Jaina and I were having girl time in the kitchen, Daddy was playing in the blizzard with the snow dogs. This was Paisley Puppy's first snow. She was definitely channeling her inner Husky.

Here at the Brandstetter's we are ready for a joyous and festive Christmas! We wish you Love, Health and Happiness as we make our way through this the Sweetest of Seasons!
~Beth

I think my eyeballs are sunburned...

We SPF'ed 70 EVERYTHING that was naked. Florida sun has a "take no prisoners" attitude confirming that redheads have no business south of the Mason-Dixon line. But all in all, the kid and I came out of vacation pretty unscathed. So we'd we go? Land of magic Land of fun Land of sun? Well, sunny enough.

And no one ever wants another dessert as long as we live. Not when you're required to have dessert at every meal...including breakfast. Really, Disney?? Waffles and cuppy-cakes??

All-in-all a much more successful trip than the one at Christmas and my near-death experience. Although I did miss tooling around in the wheelchair. My feet hurt more this time around.

Now back to work... Bleh.