July/August/September

Well, I guess it's no surprise that I am behind AGAIN!! I tend to stay that way lately. July and August were VERY hot months here in Arkansas. We spent lots of time playing in the water because that was the only tolerable way to be outside. Somewhere I have pictures of the kids playing in the kiddie pools and on the slip and slide, but since I'm not sure where they are, you'll just have to use your imagination!! Bryce also got his first haircut this summer, but we left the curls in the back! I'm just not ready to part with those yet! I do have a couple of pics of that for your viewing pleasure....

September brought some much cooler weather, for which we were very grateful!!! It also brought the beginning of football season and homecoming. Our sweet friend Dylan was one of the little attendants, so I was asked to go and take lots of pictures!!! It was fun for everyone except Bryce; He was a little on the cranky side ALL day!! Blaine loved seeing everyone all dressed up, taking pictures, and especially the parade!

Speaking of the parade, September also brought the fair! Blaine and Bryce (and Todd)both LOVE animals, so we always enjoy going through all the show barns at the fair. We took the kids to Pike County fair, and we even managed to make it to the parade!! Our good friends, the Pettigrews, had a float in the parade, so we got to ride with them. Blaine loved it! The following weekend, we joined our cousins Kayla, Mark, and Rylan for a trip to the Four States fair and rodeo. It was the boys first trip to a rodeo, and they really seemed to enjoy it. Blaine and Rylan rode lots of rides, and everyone was exhausted by the time we were done.

WOW! I don't guess I realized how busy September was until I wrote it all down! I'll leave you all with a few picture of the kids from homecoming.......

May/June

I think this post will actually get me caught up. May was a busy month. We made our first cakes for someone other than family. Some of the ladies from church asked us to make the cakes for a wedding shower. We were very please with how they turned out. Here are a couple of pictures......

May was also the month of Matt's high school graduation. He's not a little boy anymore! He's officially all grown up! He plans to attend Southern Arkansas University in the fall and play football there. We are all very proud of him! Here are a few pictures from graduation.

This is the AWESOME graduation cake we made for Matt!! We thought the picture transfer turned out really well!

June has been a little less busy than May, so far anyway! We took the boys on their first camping trip, and I'm sad to say that I didn't take one single picture! We did have a really good time though!

We have also been swimming at Mrs. Genyne's.......Blaine has really become comfortable in the water this summer! He had a blast jumping off the diving board!Bryce had a lot of fun in the pool too, but he won't be still long enough for me to get a picture!!!

Lads to Leaders and Great Wolf Lodge

Every year our Church attends a youth conference called 'Lads to Leaders and Leaderettes'. Although our boys are not old enough to actually participate in the events, we were asked to go this year because there was an extra room. Todd and I were both very excited to go because we had both been wanting to know more about what goes on at the conference. We stayed at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine and had a fabulous weekend. Blaine even got to 'lead' a song (after the real competition was over), and they let him have a medal! He had a great time playing with the big boys and swimming in the pool!

Here he is with his medal!

Here he has on his monkey back pack. He would put it on himself and ask us to take him for a walk! It was too funny!

After the conference was over, we decided to stay an extra night in Grapevine. We had been wanting to check out the Great Wold Lodge. Since we were there, it was right across the street from our hotel, and they offered us an awesome veteran's discount, we couldn't resist. I can not say enough good things about this place! The kids had a blast, and so did we!! It is such a perfect place for families with kids of all ages. Blaine really came out of his 'water' shell in the 24 hours we were here. He went from not getting off the step or out of the shallow area or even wanting to go down the little slides, to jumping in the water unassisted, going under on his own, and wanting to go on the BIG slides instead of the little slides! Bryce also had a good time playing in the kiddie area. He really liked being able to climb on and off the canoe, and he would willingly go under water to 'swim' (be pushed) back and forth between Todd and I. Here are a few pictures of the boys playing in the water!

The canoe A little slide Coming off a big slide! I had to drag him on this the first time, and by the time we left, I had to drag him off of it!

Little Rock Zoo 2011

Todd had a few doctor appointments in Little Rock toward the end of April, so we decided it would be a good time to take the kids to the zoo. They had a blast, and other than the wind, it was a very enjoyable day!


Here are a few pictures from our day at the zoo.

I'm not sure how they convinced me to do this!

Fireman Blaine - Love this picture!

On the train!

This was Bryce's favortie place to hang out!

My cute little squirel - Bryce

Blaine with smokey........check out that wind-blown look!

This is what happens when you try to take their picture together!!

Bryce's First Birthday!

Okay..........So I'm only a little over two months behind!!! Bryce had a wonderful first birthday. Todd made him a very cute 'hot air balloon' birthday cake, and I took care of the bright blue cupcakes! He got lots of fun new toys and had fun being the center of attention!
A couple of weeks after his birthday, he had his one year check up! He weighed in at 18lbs. 4oz. and he was 28in. tall. These were in the 2nd and 4th percentiles respectively. He is still our small fry, but at least he's well proportioned! He doesn't look super skinny or anything........just little and increadibly cute!!

Here are a few pictures from his birthday party!

Blaine's Birthday and Bryce Walking

We've had a busy week!!! We had Blaine's third birthday on Saturday, Bryce cut his first tooth on Sunday, Blaine turned three on Monday, and Bryce turned 11 months old on Tuesday!! Blaine had a great Birthday party, even though we ended up having to move it in-doors because of the weather. I think the bounce house may have been more fun (i.e. easier for the adults) than the park would have been anyway!!! Todd and I made a Mickey Mouse cake, trying our hand at fondant for the first time. We thought it turned out quite well, especially considering we made our own fondant. And just in case you were wondering, homemade fondant tastes MUCH better than store bought!! Blaine got many exciting gifts for his birthday, but I think the highlight was probably his new 'big boy' bicycle!! Bryce had a blast at the party too........he had plenty of people to give him LOTS of attention. What more does a baby need?

On to Bryce related topics. He is growing and changing every day! He started walking about three weeks ago (a little past 10 months) and gets a little better at it each day. I'm still not sure I would consider it his main means of transportation though...........He walks till he falls down and then he crawls to the nearest object or person, then gets up and does the same things again. When he is super excited or in a big hurry to get somewhere, he intentionally drops to knees and crawls as fast as his little hands and knees will get him there! He is begining to say several words now including Ma-ma, Da-da, bye-bye, bye, bite, ball, hi, and uh-uh (uh-oh). His favorite past-time is eating!!! More often than not, if we sit down for a meal, he eats more than Blaine does these days! This is especially funny considering his weight is barely even on the charts at the 3rd percentile!! I'm really not sure where he puts it all!

I will leave you all with a few pictures from Blaine's Birthday party!