Bryson Reunion 2011

Last month was Tim's family reunion with all of his siblings.  Most of us get together all the time, but there are a couple that we don't see nearly as often, so it was nice to see them all together for the first time in quite a while.

Below:

Heidi, Randy, Tammy, Wally and Helen, Tim, Lane, Kip, Tina, and Shannon.  They're not anal like my family where we all have to be in age-order...

 On Friday we went to Roaring Springs, then played Minute to Win It that night.  On Saturday, we were told there would be a couple of water games, softball, and basketball.  I was thinking a few water balloons...I was wrong.  It ended up being Wally with a hose and free reign...yikes!

I had not brought towels or extra clothes or anything like that.  At one point about 30 minutes into the morning, Tim convinced me to play one of the games that seemed harmless enough.  Keep in mind that we had been at Roaring Springs the day before and I had embraced the wet hair/no make-up look all that day.  But this day, however, I looked pretty darn good--hair done, make-up nice, etc.  Long story short, Tim and Wally ended up dousing me.  No hair dryer or straightener in sight...and no desire to do my hair all over again anyway.  I wasn't really a good sport.  I think Tim has learned his lesson.  So there are no pics of me from that day...it's better that way. :)

Had I known just how wet we would get, I never would have let Sydney wear a white tee.  Good thing she's only 7 and not a teenager yet.

 Jake was happy to just throw balls and play catch with Dad.  That boy loves to throw!

Jake and his awesome daddy.  :)

 

Carpet Angels

I cleaned the carpet a couple of weeks ago.  I always do that after the kids go to bed, so it can dry overnight without being stepped on for 8-10 hours.  The kids woke up to an empty family room, and this is what they did right away.  I thought it was pretty funny.  Carpet angels, we called them. :)

 What's cuter than Buzz Lightyear jammies??

 Well, those Little Mermaid ones are pretty cute, too...

gettin our craft on!

While my momma was here, we played around with my vinyl cutter quite a bit.  Pretty sure I'm clean outta vinyl now, but that's a small price to pay for crafty time w/ my momma and all the cute things we made!  Here's what we did:

*I made Sydney her I am a child of God plaque with her name on it, but forgot to take a picture...

*I bought some simple glass canisters and made labels for them--love how they turned out!!!

*We made Mom a sign for her family room...she always tells the grand kids to "speak soft, kind, comforting words" so that's what her sign says...she likes it a lot!

*I made a sign to go above my pantry that says "simplify" to hopefully remind me to chill.

*We made my great-aunt Dottie a sign about dancing, since she's a dancin' queen and all.

It was so fun to craft and have fun and ignore the kids for the day while they harassed Poppa!



My momma and daddy :)

So like I said already, my parents came to visit  for about a week last month.  I only get to see them once or twice a year, and the kids haven't seen them in quite a while, since last time I flew to Texas all by myself.  It was such a great visit with them!  Sometimes I really miss just hanging out with them.  Thanks momma and daddy for coming to see us!!!!!

Since they were here, I used my dad's camera to get some good pictures of me and them to replace the ones on my lost camera from my trip back in June...that still makes me sad...but pictures with Mom and Dad make me happy.  And these turned out pretty great, I think!

Me and my daddy--I just love his huge smile!

Me and my momma--miss her already!

Discovery Center w/ G-ma and Poppa

While my parents were in town, we went to the Discovery Center. Sydney had gotten a free family pass on her field trip a few months ago, and they let us use it for all of us that day. We had so much fun. Tim even got to come since it was his Friday off. Then afterward, we went to the park for an impromptu picnic of fried chicken. Pretty great day!

I think my dad could have stayed there all day. Right up his alley!

Little Jake. :)

Ryan.

I love this pic of Jake on my mom's lap!

Sydney raising the nails as Ryan is lying on the bed of nails

Brandon and I made an arch!

Ryan's picture from the green screen room.

My pic from the same room...could my tongue be any bigger??

Brandon decided to go headless for his picture.

Sydney blowing bubbles in the giant bubble exhibit.

Silly faces--G-ma is on the other side.

I think she could stare at herself all day long.

Sydney's turn on the pulley chair.

Jake and my mom...you can't have too many grandma pictures!

Sydney's turn on the bed of nails...she thought she was pretty brave!

More Jake and G-ma.

Like I said, this was his kind of place...

Sydney and Brandon making a tornado.

More bubbles...this is to show that, yes, Tim was there. :)

Lue Lankie

When Jake was newborn, my oldest sister, Melanie, crocheted a blanket for him.  It's so soft!  He has loved it since he can remember.  Even before he could talk very well, he has called it "blue blankie."  But he just now can say the "b" at the beginning, so it actually sounded more like "lue lankie."  He has to have it every night and he asks for it when it's snuggle time and I make him take a nap.  It instantly calms him down.

 None of my other kids ever had a "blankie," but this kid loves his...it almost makes up for the fact that he would never take a binkie.

The best part is that he just came up to me and let out a shriek:  "That my blue blankie!!!" as he looked at the screen.  Love him. :)

Sydney is SEVEN!!!

Sydney turned 7 a couple weeks ago! I can't believe that this time next year, me baby girl will be getting baptized! She shares her birthday with my mom, and we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate with them both. My parents drove up from Texas and got here just a few hours before the party. Sydney chose to have a pool party at our neighbors' house where she swims all the time. It sure made planning easy--let the kids swim a long time, do presents, swim some more, have treats, and done! She had a great time and had a ton of friends over. I even played the role of "FUN MOMMY" and swam with the kids the whole time. I can be fun when I want to. :)

She got way too many presents...I guess that happens when you invite so many friends.  I love her face in the picture on the top in the middle--pure joy and excitement.  She felt pretty special getting presents on her party day, which was 2 days before her actual birthday.  She tried real hard to let me open her gifts from us that day too. That was taking "fun mommy" too far...she had to wait!

 For her treats, she wanted to same rainbow cupcakes that we had done for Ryan, but with purple added, of course, to girly them up.  We also had ice cream cones, in keeping with the easy-on-Mommy party theme.  All 24 cupcakes and 3 containers of ice cream disappeared in no time!

 My dad was a great entertainer to Jake once he had spent enough time in the pool and while I was still swimming with the kids.  Jake thought it was great fun to get his hands wet, then shake them on my dad's face.  I can see where that would be fun. :)  It was so great to see my kids with my parents...they don't get much time together each year...

Once it was Sydney's and Mom's real birthday, I let Syd open her presents from us.  She has been begging for new bedding for her room for months, and we had been "window" shopping several places.  She really loved this zebra bedding with purple and hot pink as accent colors.  So she mostly got stuff for her "new" room.  I was pretty excited that she's moved on from Littlest Pet Shop...

That day, I took my parents and the kids out to Winger's.  It was nice to be able to treat my parents to lunch for once.  Too bad our service at Winger's was A-W-F-U-L!!!  But in the words of my mother, "We made a memory!"

For dessert that night, we had raspberry Jello poke cake and homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries on top.  It was delish!  The best part, though, was Sydney...  Tim and my dad had gone to the little neighborhood park to fix the pump for our irrigation system and Syd wanted to go see what they were doing at one point.  She was gone for a while, then when she came back, she was COVERED in dirt (see photo above...).  I don't know that she's ever been that dirty.  I took the hose to her, but not until after I got a picture!  My sweet little girl--all boy!  That's why in the pics of her and my mom later at dessert shows her with wet hair--she had to have a spray down followed by a bath before dessert--typical Sydney Grace!