Happy Howl-o-Ween

I'm a self proclaimed phone destroyer. Oh yes, I have destroyed every cell phone I have ever owned...plus one I didn't own. =( I must say, I don't think it is my fault. I am pretty sure that the cell phone creators fully intended for you to break your phone before your contract is up so that you have to purchase a new cell phone at extremely high prices! Anyway, needless to say I am currently borrowing my brother Adam's cell phone. Oh sure it was nice before I got my hands on it, but now it is destroyed.
On to other things....we have had a pretty exciting week.
First, on Monday we carved pumpkins! The kids loved digging out the pumpkin guts. Julia wants to help carve, but alas she is still a little young for super sharp objects, don't ya think?! Oh and Adam also carved pumpkins. He actually busted out some graph paper and created his very own template. However, after some very detailed cutting and apparently an accidental cut he delicately punched the pumpkin to pieces with his bear claws..umm I mean hands. Cuh-razy. Anyway, he must not have gotten the memo from me...when one of my poor spider legs fell off on the pumpkin I was carving I mearly shoved a toothpick into it...all better! Dad carved an alien pumpkin, per Julia's request. Aunt Kim, Nena, and John all played the parts of observers this year. Nonny helped cut the tops off and scoop out pumpkin guts!
On Friday we went to "trunk or treat" at the church. Julia and Bryce dressed up as Lilo and Stitch and trick or treated to their hearts content. So much candy was obtained! I was a little sad that everyone kept saying Bryce was Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. He wasn't....he was STITCH! and Julia wasn't a cute princess...she was LILO!! haha. Uncle Adam O, came along and afterwards mom came with us to eat dinner at Red Robin...yum.
On Saturday, Bryce, Julia, John and I all went to the Zoo to attend a friends birthday party and enjoy some animal viewing. Julia wore her "Jasmine" costume that she got from Uncle Bryans gfriend! Thanks Kim! Bryce wore a cute Green alien costume. The zoo wore us all out, but we came home and ate a snack and then it was time for the REAL trick or treating! Wahoo! Cousins Rylie and Colton, and Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Brett came over to the neighborhood and we trick or treated til Rylie was all tuckered out. Of course, John HAD to dress up again, as Jason. He loves to scare kids, adults, animals, babies...you name it. Anything for a laugh. John and Julia win the award for most addicted to candy, because even after Rylie and family went home they went out for MORE trick or treating. There is so much candy in the house that it will be insane trying to convince Julia for the next lifetime that we can't eat candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Bryce has also caught on to the fact that sugar is AWESOME and pretty much screams at you to give him a piece if he sees you with candy in your hands! Bryce has really increased the babbling this past week. He also has so many teeth now. The month of October was an insane teething month for Bryce and he has about 8 more teeth now...all molars! poor baby. Julia's favorite new activity this week is playing computer learning games on the computer. She is also very excited about the prospect of possibly starting two day preschool in January.

Pumpkin Farm

We got to do a few fun things a few weeks ago when John was out of school. We had planned a mini trip to a cool indoor water park in the area and we had to cancel last minute because Bryce got sick! =( again. After 5 days of fever and 2 different rashes, plus hives; he was finally all better and diagnosed with Roseola. pretty harmless virus, but still not fun! We did get to go to a pumpkin farm toward the end of the week. We fed animals, rode a hay ride, picked pumpkins to bring home and ....Julia and Johns favorite part.....chased chickens. There were a bunch of chickens around the entrance of the pumpkin farm and John decided to chase them...the hilarious sense of humor he has. "scaring people or animals is great fun" Julia caught on pretty quickly too and thought it was a jolly good time. Bryce also joined in by laughing at Julia and Daddy. My silly family. Julia actually cried when we left because she wanted to keep chasing these chickens.
Market Research
Ever been paid $45 for 15 minutes of your time? $30 for 30min of your time? I have!! and so has Julia! We have discovered the wonderful world of market research. Nothing too crazy; basically just demonstrating products or giving my opinion on certain products. What a fabulous and easy way to earn a few extra $$$! I have signed up online to a few companies that have BBB logos and seem legit and have been getting called pretty frequently. It has been a fun way for us to try new products while padding the pockets. =)
The kiddos: Julia loves to dress Bryce up like a princess. She also loves to wear his clothes. She will either dig in the clean laundry clothes and find Bryce's size 18 months clothes that easily fit her waist, but not so much in length and wear them or try to take Bryce's clothes off and wear them! Bryce goes along with pretty much anything his enchanting big sister does. She loves to give him sweet kisses when he is napping on the couch. He chases her around on the living room. Julia gave them both back packs the other day and each of them got a little toddler bike and they pretended they were going to school. Or so Julia said.

15 months! Bryce

B-dawg
Stats: length: 31 inches 50%
weight: 24 lbs 50%
Still loves to climb. He tired to scale the oven door a few weeks back and landed flat on his back as I raced to grab him. He fell before I could get to him. =( Bumped his head pretty good. Ever since we make sure we lock the oven and dishwasher door. I know that soon he will find something else to climb...actually the other day Kim opened the blinds and he climbed the window seal and stood in the window! Then started banging on the screen...oh so scary! Loves to cuddle with mommy. Loves playing with Julia and riding the little toddler bikes that we have. Says, Dada, mama, Adam and ?? I can't think of anything else, but says maybe one or two more things. Loves to scrunch his face and smile a big cheesy smile. Shakes his head no, for spite...lol. We love him!
Julia needs more structure than I provide. She is such a smart girl that she has been bored. She actually tells me that she is bored...I'm thinking...that must be nice! She also says how much she can't wait to be 5, so that she can go to school...=( . Well, as soon as we can afford it; I'd like to get her into a preschool program. She is an amazingly smart, wonderful girl. She is so helpful and always wants to change Bryce's diaper and help snap his onesies. She would carry him from room to room if she could, but he is only 10lbs less than she is! She loves to change/dress up...50x a day! She would do crafts...ie, color, cut, glue all day long, if she could. Still a very girly girl and I hope I don't prevent her from staying that way. I'm not so girly. I just don't buy lots of purses and shoes. She would buy hundreds of shoes and purses if she could.

I didn't fall off the Earth!

One day I will learn that I can't just quit posting when I "fall behind!" LOL Updates on Julia.....Julia's favorite phrase right now? "of course." She also like to pretend Bryce is her prince and she is the princess. She likes to pretend she is going to marry him, or her daddy. She gives me a ring and says, "with this ring, I thee wed." wow. this princess and wedding thing is really embedded into her head quite early. All I can say is...way to go Disney Princess!! grr. She says lots of comments that are hilarious, but I can't ever remember them when I get on here. Sept 17th she had her 4 year check up! It really hit home that she is four! I remember taking her into her first MD appt at a few days old and she was soooo little. (5 lbs!) now she is still little for her age....but so BIG to me! She is 32 lbs and therefore only in the 25% for weight. She is in the 40th percentile for height..not exactly sure what they said her height is....must be around 39 inches. She was so brave, as always, for her shots. They gave her 5!!! I know I would have been scared. She didn't even make a peep until #5...she and I both agreed that 5 was really too many! Julia has grown quite fond of cooking lately. She likes to watch cooking shows if she can and help out as much as she can in the kitchen. Unfortunately for her, I don't cook enough!! I do try, but it is hard with two little ones. I don't know how people shop, cook and clean. I think the answer is they don't, or they don't have play time with the kids....or maybe they do and they know all the answers. I might be missing something?! At any rate, the kids are doing well and seem to be happy and thriving. Julia also loves reading books or being read to. She loves going to the park, playing in the sand box, and jumping on the trampoline. She and Bryce also seem to enjoy riding in the little trailer attached to my bike!
Bryce continues to be attached to me at the hip, ankle, or whatever body part he can attach himself too. I do enjoy it, but sometimes it makes it hard to get things done. He gets jealous of Julia sitting on my lap. Hey, there is room for two here! Bryce is also quite the climber. He scales the couch, oven, any surface he can swing he little knees onto! Agh! I thought I had childproofed. He gives us a run for our money. Julia is so helpful and tries to keep him out of trouble too! What an awesome big sister. Bryce loves to dance. He shakes his little bum any chance he hears music or anyone tells him to dance. He is very cuddly and says dada non-stop. He is far more of a "schedule" kid than Julia ever was. He must be in bed to sleep, or he will fall asleep from pure exhaustion if he is in his car seat. Luckily for Bryce, I have figured out how to live by a schedule a little better than when Julia was a baby!
John is steadily working away at school. He really seems to be enjoying nursing school. huh, who knew? I am proud of him and hope he continues to do well and excel, if this is what will make him happy! Besides the long hours and long drive, school seems to be somewhat easier right now than it was before when he was taking so many science and math classes. Yesterday he went and got me and the 4-runner new tires! Yikes on the pocket book! However, he loves tires and I know he secretly enjoyed splurging on the tires...even if it was for the car that I mostly use! Thanks babe!
I am up to no good. I really enjoy the days with the kids, but also like to get out occasionally without them. Kim watched the kids a week or so ago and gave John and myself a much needed movie date! We watched The Final Destination in 3D. I thought it was crazy...and great! I've also taken up power walking on the treadmill at night while watching a movie. It helps me burn off any iota of energy I might have had left and gives me time to wind down after the kids and John fall asleep.

I'm BACK!...maybe =)

I can't believe it has been an entire month since I've posted! Well, I've been busy and so instead of just posting....I just thought a lot about all the things I should be posting.
Julia's 4th Birthday was nearly a month ago!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We started her birthday celebration with a cupcake party at Nonny's on monday night! Then we celebrated on August 18th (her actual birthday), with a Princess Tea Party in our home. There were 5 other little girls and Julia at her party. All the girls wore princess dresses and tiaras. First, we did their hair and everyone got a little tiara. The girls could pick ribbons or glitter to add to their hair. Then we helped the girls paint their finger nails. Next each of the girls took turns pulling the strings on the pull string pinata. yum! candy! After that each of the girls sat at the little princess tables and ate finger foods and then cake and ice cream! We finished the party with Julia opening up soooo much princess stuff. Julia had a great time!

haha, I wrote this a few weeks ago. I will add pictures soon! I had to start somewhere! I have successfully eradicated my previous group of followers by not posting for an entire month! whoops. sorry!

Worst 1st haircut ever!

Bryce got his first hair cut on Sept 7th. I was so nervous and then very nervous. It was for sure a horrible hair cut. Thanks Sports Clips Lady, I think I or his 4 year old sister could have done a better job. Bryce was sitting in the chair so calm and didn't even know what hit him. The crazy Edward-scissor hand lady chopped faster than I thought possible and nearly took off an ear in the process. I knew it was all down hill when the first cut she made was diagonal and way too short!! (right in the front) GRR. Good thing Bryce is a boy or I would have had a screaming fit. My poor Bryce-ables. oh and to add insult to injury ...at the end of the 3 minute, fastest/worst hair cut ever the lady was like....wow he was really good! ?!? really...then why did you just do a hack job on my sweet little baby boy?!

My lil sweeties!

I paid about $12 each for these pictures and I think that it is outrageous! I directly quoted my mom and told the crazy picture sales lady that buying pictures from her was like going to a used car sale lot. They take pictures of YOUR kids then try to sell them to you at TOP DOLLAR!!!! are you kidding me??!! I managed to talk the swindling lady down to a MERE $12 a picture!!! cuh-razy. The sales session was a pressure cooker like atmosphere and yes, it left me a little bitter. I hate, HATE buying things under pressure. I typically just walk away from rude, pushy sales people, but these are my kids pics. Anyway, without further ado.....here are my beautiful kids!

mini updates

Julia caught daddy in a smile! she is a budding photographer!


John is busy finishing up the last week of school. This upcoming week is finals. Then he will have a short two weeks off before he is back to school (LVN) in full force! He just tackled CPR for the health care provider this past week and I think he enjoyed it. Unfortunately, he is also dealing with a lot of dental pain these past few weeks. He will have to have a root canal on Friday...yikes. Not fun. I think he is actually looking forward to it because he says after the procedure the pain is gone! whoo hoo! Yesterday, Aug 8th was our 4th anniversary. We celebrate the day we were legally married. one day, maybe, I'll get that wedding that every little girl dreams of. I really don't need too much. A little ring ceremony, a small party with friends and family. A first dance as husband and wife. It's never too late to dream.


Julia is busy with the HARD life as a three-almost four year old. She is very sweet and intelligent. Her best friend is for sure Bryce.


It is so sweet. I am busy planning for her birthday and even have much of what we need for the party. There is still more shopping to be done! This year we are just doing a little princess tea party with just her and a few of her closest friends. Should be a great time!

Bryce has taken off on walking!!! as of today, Aug 10th! He is certainly an agile climber and keeps us on our toes. I'm attempting to wean him. A task far more difficult than I hoped it would be! My baby is turning into a little boy!

I am just busy with the business of running a household and bringing home the bacon. Nothing too much...lol!!!! Work at THHBP is still good, but I have been frustrated with some things around there lately. I think many of my co-workers feel the same. Only problem is that no one is saying too much, except to each other. Grrr. Hope things change soon....it gets old when you are frustrated in the work place.

New Pictures

My friend Joy Neville is AMAZING! I can't say enough great things about her picture taking abilities. She taught herself everything she knows. If you need a photographer call her! Anyway, she took pictures of Bryce for his birthday and they are awesome! She also got some of Julia too! Here is the link: www.joynevillephotography.smugmug.com Then look under Bryce's 1st birthday! Awesome! I will post some on here when she gives me the disk!

Swimming is the best!

The kids and I are BIG fans of swimming. We must have some fish genes. We have been to our local water park many times this summer. We even had our own back yard outfitted with a few blow up pools over the last few weeks. Julia is just shy of 4 and has never had a swim lesson. She is still doing pretty good and I think is beginning to swim. She holds her face under water for greater than 10 seconds and today she REALLY started to swim. I was so proud of her. She was SO pround of herself! Her face was all smiles and beaming. Tomorrow, when my sister goes with us I'll try to get some good pictures. until then...here are some fun videos of our backyard oasis. haha. One day I'd love to have an inground pool...there are numerous reasons not to have one now. The top one being that I probably would never rest thinking that the kids would somehow escape and get in the pool...yikes!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Bryce's 1st Birthday Party

I'm so exhausted. We had a wonderful birthday party. Pictures will say it all. We had lot's of family, friends, fun, and food!
Ugh, this slide show took numerous attempts to create! Plus, I've had bloggers block. I think it's because I joined the Facebook bandwagon and it's so much easier to use. I still like blogger because it's more of a journal for my family. Anyway, enjoy the show!

Another First

I can't believe I forgot to add that Bryce took his first step. I wanted to get it on video...grrr. Anyway, it was on his birthday!



Also here are some fun pics of Julia in her new swimsuit with her matching disney tinkerbell cup. I got her a new suit hoping it would keep her covered as her other swim suit seems to constantly fall off her shoulders. (and show her personals) well this suit isn't any better!!!! ugh. it actually seems too small which is wierd because Julia is small and I bought the suit a little big, or so I thought.
Cheers! (she loves to "cheers" with another person!)

Bryce's Bday Celebration

Am I really going to do a total of 3 posts for Bryce's Birthday? Guess so. Here goes number 2. (note to self, must do the same for Julia!) Bryce starting his day by watching Thomas the Train. I guess he loves this show. It has recently started coming on. He seriously sits still like this and stares at the TV...weird. He also seems to like Caillou. Well we are already planning Bryce's party for Saturday. Should be great fun. We knew we still had to do something to celebrate the actual day! (July 7th) I didn't know exactly what, except of course a little cake...but then Kim and Harry pulled through and decided to have a little celebration at his place of employment. Since uncle harry had to be there we decided to go to him. Thanks Uncle Harry! It was a fun night! The people who made this night so fun: Uncle Adam O Julia "happy faces" and Kim Bryce..."yummy...is that my coke???" and Uncle Harry The sweet little fam
immediately after singing happy birthday!

Adorable Julia

Julia is waiting patiently for HER birthday to come. She knows that first comes Bryce, then Uncle Adam O., then hers! (in a month!!!) Poor Julia has had to watch a lot of June and July birthdays to get to hers in August!
Julia and I had the opportunity to get a little away time today. We went to a favorite local water park this morning. We met up with a good friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in ages. She also has a 4 year old daughter. We had a great time and hopefully will be hanging out again soon! of course it is rare when I can catch a photo of us at the water park. we are always too busy playing. plus I'm always so busy watching the kids. NEVER take your eyes off a toddler around water.

Julia really is a wonderful little girl. She tries to always do what is right and loves her family so much! The picture below is of her reaching out and trying to hold Bryce's hand. Bryce had just newly gotten to turn his car seat around and both were very excited. (for different reasons) Bryce was excited to see the world a whole new way and so would not cooperate with Julia.

My sweet baby girl and me on the Fourth of July.

Her new favorite face to make. I am not sure why. She wasn't even mad here. I am positive I must make this face. It seemed so familiar. lol. my mini-me.

Happy First Birthday Bryce!

Yea! I got to turn my car seat around! 20 plus pounds and one year old! (actually a few days before, but whose counting?!)

We love you so much!
Kim, Julia, and I all sang happy birthday to Bryce at midnight. He smiled and even stopped nursing for a moment just to sing along. (we are in the process of weaning)
Bryce puts a smile on all of our faces. It is so fun to see him and his big sister together. Nothing sweeter than the two of them hugging and kissing.


Love those lips....where did he get those??? (mommy and daddy too!)

Love that dimple!

oh and he doesn't ever cry.....nor does he have a crazy temper. also, can't think of where he would get this trait from????

SO many Celebrations!

Happy Birthday mom (7/3)/Happy Birthday America(7/4)! What an awesome time we had celebrating in the 4th annual fun time at my mom's work on her birthday! Hot dogs/hamburgers and FUN! Oh did I mention HOT! The heat was on this year as we perched ourselves up on the parking garage to cook in the 100 plus weather. My dad even won the CRAZIEST, errr, I mean first person to stake out a spot on the roof. I'm not sure if that was a good award or not. Luckily, he didn't suffer a heat stroke or blow away in ashes. It was close to that. Julia did a fabulous job entertaining us with her insane dancing skillz. It truly horrifies me to think of what she will be like as a teenager with a hip booty shake like this NOW:

The food was yummy, the heat was crazy, and hanging out with my family was the best part! The fireworks show at the end was a nice bonus. I love fireworks. Oh, but the hour and 1/2 traffic home was obnoxious and unnecessary. We waited 40 minutes before we even tried to leave and it was still bad. I'm convinced it's because they don't just let the traffic lights do the job intended they hire police officers to do it...I'm sure they hate directing traffic too!

Congratulations John!

Today (wednesday) found out that John has been accepted into an LVN program at a local community college! Sweet! This is one step closer to adding another RN to the family. With the recession, it is even MORE difficult to go straight to an RN program than when I went to school. He has never actually applied to any other programs (LVN or RN), and still may consider applying straight to RN, but at least he can go this route if he wants. Anyway, the kids and I are very proud of him and wish him well.

John's mom is an LVN. His sister is an RN. In fact she introduced John and I, while we were in school together. So, I think that he has discovered the amazing job flexibility and demand of nurses. Plus, there are so many things you can do with a nursing degree.
Or maybe he just fell in love with the scrubs....

this picture of John was taken right before I went into the OR to have Bryce. They gave him these scrubs and he got to keep the top. They helped him put Bryce's feet prints on the scrub top.
Do you trust this face? I dunno...he looks a little nervous! Haha...probably because he has never been in an OR, or seen his wife in surgery. He missed Julia being born!

We love to party!

We all had a great time at a cousins 3rd birthday party on Saturday. We went to a fun party center with tons of big bounce toys. The kids and adults had a great time. It was the same place that Julia had her second b-day party, but they've expanded. So, it was much bigger and lots of great fun!
My sister and I have been working very hard on invitations to Bryce's upcoming Birthday Party! They are finally complete and I think they turned out great!
The first collage is of Bryce's actual Birthday, made by Kim. (thanks!) So cute!

This is pretty much the actual invitation...minus the wording. I didn't want to post our address or contact info on here. Starting in the upper left hand corner and moving counter clockwise when you end at the center pic....is Bryce on day one...then months one to eleven/now.

Things Bryce loves to do right now: stand alone, walk with the car of the toy roller coaster, he is not walking unsupported just yet, but it won't be long, go up and down the slide. Bryce doesn't go down the slide in the usual way....see pic below: (stolen from my sisters' blog spot! )

Julia's Birthday is less than a month after Bryce's; so we will have already started to preliminary planning for that. She has been excited about her birthday "coming up" for at least the last 5 months! She knows her birthday and when you ask her when it is, she can tell you with no hesitation....August 18th! Smart girl. Is it possible that I will have a 4 year old, in less than 2 months from now?!
Julia with a big bruise on her head....yikes! she must get the clumsiness from Nonny!

Julia's new favorite way to sleep. sprawled out and in her big girl bed. =)