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. =)