Catching up, Christmas and Snickerdoodles

Well, once again, I am behind. We had a lovely thanksgiving.............make that three! We had lunch with Todd's family, the afternoon at Mamaw Turley's and Dinner with my family. It was busy, but not rushed, and we enjoyed visiting with all of our family!
Let's see..........my birthday was next! I am now another decade older, but really 30 is just a number!! We had dinner for my birthday a couple of times........including an excellent steak prepared by my wonderful father-in-law!
Within a day or two of my birthday, Bryce finally decided he would like to be mobile. And, really, that's all it took. Once he decided he wanted to go somewhere.........he was off, and after crawling for only a couple of days, he starting pulling up on everything! Now he's beginning to cruise around the furniture.........it's all over with but the crying!! I now have TWO mobile kiddos to chase!
I believe that brings us to Christmas!!! We had a GREAT Christmas.....or maybe it was SEVEN! Blaine was so into it this year, and that made it so much more fun for all of us. Everytime he saw Santa, he asked for "a bulldozer and a little dump-truck to go with his big dump-truck at home!" Santa of course pulled through, and we've been scoopin' dirt ever since. Blaine 'ordered' a choo-choo train for Bryce and that is naturally exactly what he recieved! The funniest thing was that Blaine used a string from his robe to tie his bulldozer to Bryce's train, and then requested that we put Bryce on the train so he could pull him around! It was too cute! Bryce enjoyed all of the paper and extra holding, loving and attention he got..........I'm sure he'll enjoy his presents later too!! The boys got a great couch from Nana and Papa and a whole family of puppy dog pillow pets from various other people! The biggest 'hit' of Christmas as far as the presents were concerned was probably the (very inexpensive) 'Band'. Blaine has had a MILD (or maybe EXTREME) obsession with the band since football season. He loves everything band related, and has used everything from coat hangers to gun holsters as a 'band'. Grammy got him a Mickey Mouse band set.............and we've ALL been playing in the band!!

Todd and Blaine playing in the band on Christmas Eve

Todd and Boys after opening presents at Grammy's house

Bryce ready to eat dinner!

I guess I'm sort of back -tracking, but we have a family tradition of making snickerdoodles at Todd's parents house during the week leading up to Christmas. We usually make 3 to 4 double batches of these delicious little cookies. We eat lots of them, and share the rest with friends and family. This was Blaine's first year to participate in the snickerdoodle experience, and he LOVED every minute of it! Here are some pictures of the cookie making process.......

Halloween and Catching Up

Needless to say, I'm more than a little behind again. We've been busy, as usual for the last two months. Football every Friday night, and lots of things to fill up the days in between.
Bryce had his 6 month check up on 10/11/2010 and weighed in at 14 lbs. even he was also an even 25 in. This put him in the 5th and 10th percentiles respectively. Although he is quite small, he is perfectly proportioned! He is changing like crazy and will be 7 months old tomorrow. He started sleeping in his room this past week, and did great with it. He has always slept in his own bed, just in our room, so I guess that was mostly just for me! When I started disturbing him every time I moved, I decided it was time to move him out. It's a long way across the house, but at least I have a video monitor. Now we're all sleeping a little better.

Blaine is growing up way to fast. Our conversations with him these days are very entertaining. He has recently become obsessed with 'the band' as he calls it. I'm sure this is from us frequenting football games and 'peppew-wallies'. He has an impressive imagination and can turn almost anything into a 'band'. This is usually followed by him insisting that we all stand and put our hand on our 'tummy' and the other hand behind our back while he hums his version of the star spangled banner. Next up is usually the direction to hold your hand in the air with the other behind your back while he hums his version of the Murfreesboro Alma Matter. Then we must cheer for the rattlers and the 'peppew-wally' is over.

We had a nice Halloween. Todd and Blaine.......mostly Todd carved a good looking jack-o-lantern. We set it out at Grammy's house while we went trick-or-treating, which Blaine loved! He was dressed as a monkey and was a little apprehensive at first, but once he started to see his bucket filling up with candy...........he was over it! Bryce didn't really have a costume.........just a cute Halloween outfit! He enjoyed riding in the stroller and eventually went to sleep.

These first three pictures were taken several weeks ago on a Sunday morning before church, and the others are obviously Halloween pics! ENJOY!

Bryce - 5 months

It's been a busy month!
Football season is in full swing, and we've already had homecoming. Bryce turned 5 months old, and Blaine is officially 2 1/2!
We have enjoyed attending pep-rallies to cheer on our Rattlers, and hot, sticky football games to cheer them on some more. We are, however, looking forward to some cooler weather for our cheering!! The boys both LOVE going to the games. Bryce is a people watcher and enjoys sitting with Mamaw B.J. on the sidelines. Blaine enjoys what he understands of the game and cheering for 'Matt-Matt'........who just happens to play on every team and in every game, according to Blaine! AND, Mommy and Daddy enjoy being able to send them both to Grammy and Gramps's by half-time so they can ENJOY the second half of the game!!!
Blaine is learning to count and LOVES to sing.....many of his songs even have words in them now. He's also learned to recite several nursery rhymes!
Bryce had a check up this month and weighed in at 12lbs. 13oz. and 24 in. long, which are in the 5th and 10th percentiles respectively. He's my small-fry! He has started to eat oatmeal and peas and is looking forward to trying carrots this coming week. He wasn't too sure about eating 'real' food at first, but after the first couple of days he got the hang of it. He's also sitting up by himself and is developing quite a personality!
Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!

Bryce's first bites of oatmeal

Blaine and Rylan watching the homecoming parade

Me and my "LITTLE" brother

Matt-Matt and the boys at homecoming

Bryce - 4 months

It's hard to believe that 4 months have past since our sweet Bryce was born. He is so happy and such a blessing!
He had a check-up on July 21, at 3 1/2 months. He weighed in at 12 lbs. 8 oz and was 23 in. long. This put his weight in the 25th percentile and his height in the 10th percentile. For any of you who know Blaine, this all comes as quite a shock. Blaine was always in the 75th - 90th percentiles for weight at this stage in his life and usually around the 50th in height! So, I guess I have one big one and one little one. Bryce is plenty fat and very healthy; he's just a little guy! He's learning to do all kinds of knew things. He's always been a good sleeper, waking up only once each night since he was only 2 weeks old, but about three weeks ago he began sleeping all night. I usually put him down between 9 and 9:30, and he usually sleeps until 7 or 7:30 (or until Blaine comes in making too much noise for anyone to sleep!) He really seems to enjoy playing with his toys.......much more than Blaine did at this age. And, just today he started rolling over! He sits up well with support for balance, so I'm sure that will be his next new trick. Here are a few pictures of Bryce taken on his 4 month 'birthday'!

Football 2010

As most of you know, my brother, Matt will be a senior this year. Blaine thinks he and his friends are the most wonderful thing EVER!! Media day was last week, and I took the boys to take a few pictures with 'Matt-Matt' and his friends!

July

It seems I just can't keep up with this blog lately.....okay for quite some time now. I will do my best to catch up with at least a few pictures.

The boys are both doing great. Bryce is growing like crazy and changing everyday. He is beginning to develop his own little personality which is fun to watch! He is a happy baby and is sleeping quite well!

Blaine is a good big brother......most of the time. He ocassionally tries to stick thinkgs in Bryce's eyes, ears, nose, and or mouth, but he mostly just wants to love on him and hold him. He likes to 'help' change his diaper and give him his passy.

Blaine is also developing quite a personality himself. He has become so much more expressive in the past month. Some of his speech is still a little difficult to decifer, but he certainly knows what he's saying and what he wants!!! He is very head-strong (can't imagine where he gets that!! :) He is also proud that he is wearing 'big-boy' pants (underwear) all the time now, except at bed-time. We were still using diapers at bed-time, but he is now pretty insistent on pull-ups instead. He is so much fun, and I must often remind myself of that when he is laying in the floor because things didn't go quite the way he had planned...........Gotta love 2, in all it's glory!!

Here are some pics of the boys from the 4th of July! It is impossible to catch them both looking at the camera...........

Bath Time and Fishing Fun!

Again, my pictures have loaded in reverse order......I really must learn how to fix that problem!! Gramps recently got Blaine his first fishing pole and a new life jacket for the boat! Blaine was thrilled.........Today he got to go fishing with Daddy and Gramps in Nana's pond, and he 'caught' his first fish.

Here he is with Gramps and the fish

Daddy, Blaine, and the fish

Here is Blaine working on his casting skills (or lack there of)


And Blaine and Bryce recently took their first bath together! Blaine enjoyed it greatly and Bryce, well, he may have gotten a little more water in his face than he was accustom to!

Life with Bryce

Blaine is very into baseball right now. He LOVES to hit the ball!

Bryce's first trip to church

Ready for a baseball game!

This is the outfit and blanket we wanted to bring him home from the hospital in, but it was WAY to big. I had to send my mom out to get a premie outfit, and he really wasn't that tiny!

Trying to get a picture of these two together is impossible. Bryce always looks like he's trying to get away or begging for help!

Just after his first bath at home

First bath at home......I have a picture of Blaine that looks EXACTLY like this. I mean I'm not sure I could even tell them apart!

Bryce turned 1 month old yesterday. Unfortunately none of these pictures were taken yesterday because my camera battery died!!! I did get a couple with Grammy's camera, but I don't have those with me right now.............I will try to post them later.

Bryce is growing like a weed and getting cuter every day! He is a good baby and usually sleeps for about 6 hours during his first stretch each night. Our only problem is what seem to be regular tummy aches each evening. Some would probably call it collic, but it's really not true collic because I can get him to calm down by walking and bouncing. It really seems to be excessive gas that he just can't get rid of......other than that he is a good baby!! He's already been shopping alot, and he's been to at least 4 or 5 baseball games and church!!

Week before last the boys and I made our first solo trip to Wal-Mart! It was a smashing success. (I certainly don't expect future trips to be that easy!) Blain enjoyed the bus-like cart with the extra child attachment, and Bryce just slept.

So far Blaine seems to have adjusted well to being a big brother! He loves Bryce and likes to 'hold' him. He will try to give him his passy when he's crying, and he's always wanting to know if 'Baby Bryce' can play baseball with him. I think my favorite is when we are getting ready to leave, Blaine will walk over to Bryce's swing or bouncy seat and say, "Come on Baby Bryce, let's go"! He says it as if Bryce can just get up and walk out the door.

They are both wonderfully sweet boys, and we are so blessed to have such happy healthy children!

Bryce is Here!

Baby Bryce is here!
He weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and was 21 1/2 in. long
He is doing great and has a big brother who is VERY proud of him!