Apparently I have allergies...

So for the past 3 weeks or so, I've been a mess. Sneezing, runny nose, crazy-itchy, red, watery eyes. Not to mention feeling like crap! After speaking with some friends, they all thought I was suffering from allergies. WHAT??? I've never had a problem with them, and I'm 35. Isn't it a little too late in life for me to just figure this out?

So, first I tried some Claritin--for about a week--no change. Then I tried Benadryl for several days. It helped a little, but wiped me out. And when you have an almost-two-year-old, you really should try and stay conscious. :) So then I tried Zyrtec--again no change. And frustration mounting by the minute. Seriously wanting my mojo back...

So yesterday I finally drug myself to a clinic and got a Rx for Allegra. Today was my first day on it, and so far, it looks like this might just be the magic pill I've been looking for. I still have a little bit of a runny nose, but everything else is WAY better. Hallelujah!! I'm just afraid that today will turn out to be a fluke and tomorrow will be crappy again. Saying a little prayer that won't be the case, though...

So if indeed I do feel better tomorrow again, I can get back to blogging. I know you're all excited about that! I just haven't had the energy to do the dishes lately, let alone blog. But I'm so ready to be myself again...here's hoping this good feeling lasts.

Pork Noodles

There are a few things that make a Woodman a Woodman (and for those of you whom I've met within the last 15 years, that's my maiden name).

You must LOVE these things:

1. Papacitas in Longview, TX...mmmmm
2. Watching "So I Married an Axe Murderer" or "Better Off Dead" (or any number of other awesome oldies but goodies...)
3. Playing Spades
4. Singing around the piano on Sunday afternoons
5. The New Years' Eve family dance, haha!
6. Pork Noodles

The list is actually much longer than this, but I don't have that much time, and these are the things that popped into my head--and made me a little homesick, for that matter... Anyways, my point is that although Tim is 0% Woodman, I still want him to love what I love. And have these things make him as happy as they make me.

I have made him pork noodles before, and he was less than thrilled, to say the least. So I hardly ever make it...VERY discouraging... Well, on Sunday, I had some leftover pork chops in the fridge that I didn't want to just grill like usual, so I decided to make pork noodles. Tim asked me to leave one pork chop for him to just grill because he didn't like pork noodles and had no desire to eat them. Fine. More for me.

So I made those noodles, and boy, were they good!!! Probably the best I've ever made. I think Dad would've been proud! In the meantime, Tim proceeded to grill his chops, while the kids and I devoured our pork noodles. As I got up to get a drink, Tim apparently took a bite off my plate, cause next thing I knew, he was dishing up what I had hoped would be my pork noodle leftovers for lunch the next day. I said, "I thought you don't like these."

He has been converted!!! So the bad news is, I didn't get to have leftovers the next day. But the fantastic news is that Tim now likes the quintessential Woodman comfort food and I will now be making it much more often. This makes me very happy. :)

I guess now I'll just have to keep hoping he wants to join in my Sunday afternoon music-fest to become true Woodman material. Not very likely...

Sydney is SIX!!!!

My sweet little girlie turned 6 last week. That means she starts first grade soon and will be going to school ALL day EVERY day in a few weeks. I have really mixed emotions about that. I'm excited for someone else to have to entertain her all the time, and I know she needs the stimulation and social outlet. I will just really miss her every day. And so will Jake! It's just he and I from here on out...

Anyways, here are some pictures from her birthday. She had a luau themed party and it was great! She greeted each girl at the door with "Aloha" and a lei and grass skirt. They all looked super-cute! She wanted to help with everything for the party, and she did. I got some pictures of her helping with the fruit skewers for lunch. I think it turned out to be a little harder than she had anticipated. And Jakey was so stinkin' cute just begging for some of his own. They turned out really cute and REALLY delicious. For her cake, I made flip-flops. I was pretty dang proud of myself! I don't do cute cakes...but this time, I did. A lot of work, but totally worth it. She picked out the colors and everything and loved it. And of course, she licked the bottom of the candle.

For her luau, I "taught" the girls how to do the hula a little, as if I knew what I was doing...haha! They ate it right up, though. We also played the Limbo, and who knew what a hit that would be!! The biggest fan, though, was Jake. He just giggled every time he came out from under that stick. He LOVED it! The girls did, too. Definitely gonna have to do that at all our parties in the future.

Once we were all done with games and a little craft, we had snow cones in the back yard--also a big hit! Sydney had a great time and loved having all her little girlie friends over to celebrate. I can't believe how big she's getting. We're already halfway to Young Womens!!! Help!!!

Mini-vacation to Utah

Last month Tim took a couple days off work and we drove down to Utah for a few days for a real quick vacation. His dad's siblings were having a reunion in Logan that Saturday, so we decided to make a long weekend trip out of it. First we went to the Sweet Candy Factory to see how they make taffy and other sweets. It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it (and it was free, always a plus in my book!). There were no cameras allowed, though, so no pics from in there...

Next, we drove to temple square. We hadn't taken the kids there in a long time, so it was kind-of new to some of them. Later that afternoon, my sister Maggie and my niece Megan came up and we all went to the Joseph Smith movie together. It's always so fun to see them! Once we were all super-hot and tired, we all went to the hotel and went swimming. Our hotel turned out to be really nice, and the pool was open 24/7, which was real nice. The next day, we went to Lagoon. The last time we went, there were huge thunderstorms that day, and the water park was closed. It was a let-down, to say the least. No let-down this time! It was a super-hot day. Maggie and Megan again joined us, which was awesome!

I realized when I was going through these photos that I have no pictures of Brandon from Lagoon. That's because he was always on the big rides, while I was not. :) Tim took him around at the beginning, then later Megan and Brandon buddied up and hit all the big stuff. It was great she could take him around to all of that. Tim and I are just too old for big roller-coasters these days...we're too old for a lot of things these days...

We spent most of the really hot hours at the water park, where my camera stayed in the locker, so no pictures from there. We all got to go on everything we wanted. Ryan and Sydney went down the kiddie waterfall/slide like a hundred times. SERIOUSLY. With 4 adults, we were able to take turns watching Jake in the shade and split up to go on things with the other kids. It was so nice to have the extra help! And company!

Once it was dark outside and we finally left the park, we all went to McDonald's and had a late dinner. Then we said goodbye to Mags and Meg and hit the sack. We slept way in the next morning. :)

Day #3 was Reunion in Logan day. The park we were at had a creek running along right by our pavilion, and the kids jumped right in! Ryan and Sydney could have stayed in there all day. They built a dam on one end with a bunch of rocks and had a great time. My niece Alyssa was able to come up and pretend to be a Bryson for the day. It was so great to see her!

Five of the eight Bryson siblings were there. There is definitely a family resemblance among all of them! I guess I know what Tim will look like in about 40 years, haha! We also realized that there were 3 different Sydneys there, all with different name spellings. We had to get a picture of all the Sydney Brysons. Syd thought that was pretty cool. She kept saying to people, "You can only be in this picture if your name is Sydney."

This last picture is just for your viewing enjoyment. I loved it to begin with, but then I started tweaking it on Picasa and this is the final result. Pretty sure I'm going to print it real big and frame it. His pink cheeks and blue eyes just melt my heart!

Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July, we went to the trailer and spent 5 days there. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've ever been camping for. Thankfully there was a pool and shower. :)

We had a great time. Lots of other Brysons were there, plus our friends, the Lewises came up with their trailer for the weekend. It was great to have lots of other kids for our kids to play with. We rarely saw Ryan. He was always in the woods with Conner and Cullen shooting his BB gun. That kid has finally decided that maybe it won't be so bad to be a hunter someday. That makes Tim REAL happy. :)

On the 4th, we drove up to Stanley (my first trip there) to see Red Fish Lake and watch fireworks later that night. The lake was beautiful, despite all the mosquitoes, and we vowed to go back later this summer and spend a whole day there. The fireworks show was surprisingly good. They lasted over half an hour. We even convinced Uncle Kippy to come and watch them with us, nothing short of a miracle. Stanley fireworks on July 4th might have to be a new family tradition...

I decided to make a collage of each of the kids rather than post a gajillion pictures on here. These are some of my favs. For those of you who don't know (I'm talking to you, Brittany Nicole, haha), you can click on each collage from Blogger and it will make it full-screen so you can see it better.

First off is Brandon. He's trying to get enough nights in a tent for his camping merit badge, so he set one up and that was his home for the whole time we were there. It sure makes our trailer seem bigger with one less person! He had a Harry Potter book with him on this trip, so he hung out in his tent and read a lot, but he did come out to play occasionally.

And now for Ryan. I realized I didn't have quite as many photos to choose from for him, since he was always back in the woods with his BB gun... He did make three big memories on this trip though.

1: Accidentally falling into Bull Trout Lake while we were fishing--fully clothed (and it was quite chilly that morning...). Oh, that I had had the camera with me then! It was pretty hilarious! I'm glad he's a good swimmer!

2: Shooting his first bird.

3: Losing his first molar.

All in all, a very memorable trip for him!

Now for my girlie.

***Disclaimer: never-mind her hair...I DON"T do it when we're camping!***

She LOVES camping!!! Especially when there are a lot of people there! She especially enjoyed playing with Caylee and the Lewis's dog Bella. Our dog, Molly, is way too hyper to let you lay on her back, but Bella would just let Sydney climb all over her and was cool with that. Syd loved it! She also loved making her patriotic shirt with Desiree. Tim and I had gone on a 4-wheeler ride, and when we came back, Des had all this paint and sponges and shirts out and was being all crafty with all the kids. I sure wish I was a cool mom like that...maybe next year!

And now for Jakey. Tim and I were remembering the other day how hard it was to go camping with him last year. He wasn't walking yet, so you had to hold him like ALL THE TIME. This year he has done awesome, though. He and Hunter, his cousin, get along really well, and he sleeps awesome in his little crib. He wanted to shoot guns like the big boys, so he would find a stick, hold it up in front of his face, and pretend to shoot. It was so cute! He also really did good with the fireworks. I was afraid he would be too scared, but he seemed to like them.

Ending the drought...

So last month I was this crazy-good blogger and had a ton of posts. Now that July has arrived (o.k., almost ended, for that matter...it's whatever...),

NOTHING.

I think the time has come to play catch-up and end the drought. So hopefully by the end of the week, I will be ready for August. Since it's coming, whether I'm ready or not.

I remember being so busy during the school year and being so excited to get this long list of things done once summer came...painting rooms/redecorating, scrap booking, blogging, crafting. What a joke!

Don't get me wrong--it's been a really fun summer--perhaps the first one in a long time that I didn't dread coming. The kids are old enough now that it's not quite as hard to have them out of school as it used to be. It just takes a lot of time and energy keeping them busy and entertained and still keeping up with the housework, etc.

We have done a lot of fun stuff the last month or so, and I hope to post something each day for the rest of this week and catch up...that's the goal, at least...

Ryan turned 10!!!

I just did this whole post and it disappeared before I could publish it...thanks a lot, Blogger! Ryan had his 10th birthday on Friday! A child entering a new decade makes you a little melancholy. Sometimes I really wish I could pause my life. Why must my children get bigger??? Of course it's so they can grow and progress and learn...blah, blah, blah. I just want my little babies back sometimes. But watching them grow and become independent is fun, too. Luckily for me, Jake has been such a little baby Ryan repeat that it's like getting to watch him grow up all over again. :)

Favorite gift: WII game--big surprise!

For our kids' birthdays, we let them either have a friend party or a nice dinner out with the family at a restaurant of their choosing. Ryan chose dinner out at Chili's. And like the Super-Mom that I am, I totally forgot to take the camera. Just know that we went, we ate, we enjoyed. :) And we spent...our family is growing, and a night out at Chili's costs a lot more than it used to...

Requested birthday dessert: Texas Sheet Cake. I don't blame him--I make an AWESOME Texas Sheet Cake. But it makes this whole huge pan, and it's like a gazillion calories per serving, I'm sure... Oh that I had more will power! Notice how he licked every single morsel from his fork! ( He is SOOO my child!)

All his loot. He had a great birthday and is excited to be in Webelos now for Cub Scouts.

Some of my favorite things about Ryan:

His calm, quiet temperament.

His blue eyes (they remind me of Tim's, sigh...).

His awesome piano abilities.

The way he helps with Jake.

His snuggles.

The fact that he actually sleeps in (which is more than I can say for the rest of my kids).

His love for puzzles (like me).

His awesome back-flips on the trampoline.

He is just a great kid and I can't wait to see who he becomes over the next ten years!