Trip to Langley

What an awesome week leading up to Mother's Day! Brian had a last minute work trip and I just mentioned how bummed I was that there wasn't more than a weeks notice so I could have gone too. With several friends in the area and all, Bryce and I could totally stay out of his hair. 4hrs later and lots of searching he found tickets for us to go too. YEAH! Thankfully the Rocks opened up their home to us for the week. Jeff was TDY until the weekend, so that left Steph and I with the 3 kids. We had a great time and I only wished we would have broke out the video camera for our daily outings with all three car seats in the back of the 4 runner, Wyatt singing, Bryce trying really hard to copy his every move, and poor Natalie just taking in all the craziness. We may have gone through a few bottles of wine, morning coffee, and afternoon iced coffees to make it through. Here are a few pictures from our adventures.....
Too bad I didn't have anyone to take a picture of me when a computer glitch wouldn't allow my ticket to print at the Memphis airport, dashing through security....(with a Miss you need to calm down) ummm then someone needs to check my kids milk so I can catch the plane....to show up and the Jetway has already moved away from the plane.....My heart dropped bc 4 hrs until the next flight out and nothing in the Memphis airport to do, had me close to an anxiety attach. As I run up to the gate with the Bob, car seat, backpack, and rolling bag to beg for help and they actually listened or felt sorry for me and took me out to the plane. Thank You!

Bryce thinks all jets/planes are cool. Wyatt does too, but knows a lot about planes. We drive through the gate on base and he already notices the tail of AF1. Hey what do you think that big plane is here for? We park and have to walk a couple of blocks to get to the plane. UMM Kristen (after I have strapped Bryce and Natalie in the double Bob) You know I may not be able to walk very far....As we approach the plane hmmm that sure is a big plane. We get closer, HEY that is AF1 is the President here? Way cute!

Wyatt & Drake enjoying dessert....Bryce saying hey what is that thing my Mom won't let me have yet?

Kisses for Natalie


Wyatt loven on his sister and Miss Addison.

WYATT this is the coolest bike ever! Now if I could just figure out how to follow you around the circle .

Bryce and Wyatt looking on at the F22 & F15 in the distance.

Hey Dude you think we can get our Dad's jobs when we grow up?

Playground Fun!

Feeding a goat and not a bit shy about it.

Thanks Rock's for a great visit....maybe we will PCS somewhere a little more exciting next time for you guys to come visit us. :) Thanks Jeff for manning all the kids so we could shop and get our toes done. All with a very upset little man at your side and a constant Momma, Momma, Momma!

Middle of May!

The middle of May was busy. We had Daddy's birthday, an Air Show at Columbus, and a visit from The Great Grandparents and Aunt & Uncle. Sorry not much for words...but at least I am getting pictures on here. :)

The Air Show

Bryce thought all the jets were super cool, kept ear plugs in, and occasionally had to cover his ears.

Engines of the Mighty Eagle

Daddy's Birthday Celebration!

Bubbles!

Uncle Randy teaching me to blow into a bottle for funny noises

Cool shoes and a growth chart! Thanks Grandma :)

Memorial Day Weekend/Week

Better late than never! We hit Pitt again for the Memorial Day weekend/Week. Here is a photo preview of all the fun we had with family.

1st Plane Ride in Papa's Plane!

The Joseph Boys!

McKenna likes to fly too!

Hey I am getting in this plane on my own!

This is what I thought....HMMM so tired

On the ground I was fired up to play with all the controls.

Wow so many buttons to push...where do I start.

Helping Papa push the plane back into the hangar.

The Girls and Bryce ; Graduation and The ZOO!

Aunt Monica and Bryce with their black and red shades!

Everyone wants to help feed Bryce.

Oh yeah Daddy was working...see him in front of the Presidents Limo.

Celebrating Papa's birthday a little early. OH How I love to open presents...so much fun.

Papa needed new walking kicks and I had to try them out.

22 Months opps forgot to post...

Wow 2 is creeping up way too fast little man! You are a man on the move. Your favorite daily activity involves water. Playing with the hose, watering the flowers, playing with buckets of water, your little pool, the base pool, and the splash park. You love it so much that weather you understand your night time prayers or not you always remember to Thank God for Wa Wa, Mamma, and Dadda. Which I think is pretty funny. You have started to put together two words and will repeat about anything you see done or hear. Favorite two word phrases : Dadda work, Momma work and he adds home, milk please, Bro (Brody) wa wa (water) they play in the afternoon together a lot, oh and you like to say Momma, Dadda, Bry over and over again.
Sleep: Well over all you are a pretty good sleeper, 11-12 hrs at night and 2-3 hrs during the day. Until this week.....You did have tubes put in your little ears....did we traumatize you? The Dr said it went great and LOTS of junk was sucked out. So basically when you got your first ear infection at 18 mths and fought them for the last 4 mths the infection would go away but couldn't drain. So when they took you from me screaming to put you to sleep, it broke my heart. No sooner did I walk back into your room and Daddy was on the phone with the nurse and you were already asleep and surgery started. Then you were wheeled back into your room with 4 other people just praising how well you did. A nurse was riding on the bed with you and you sat in her lap and held Lion with big tears in your eyes. So back to the sleep thing....You suddenly won't go down for naps or night time anymore...without a huge fight and kid you have stamina in this department. So are you scared we won't be there when you wake up again? Lets see yesterday it took 2 hrs to get you down for nap, today 1.5 hrs. Not to mention we let you scream for more than 40 min ....UGGG So bottom line we have given up on several occasions at night and in the middle of the night bc we are too tired and you sleep just fine with us. Which normally means someone has to leave the bed, bc kid you don't stay very still and prefer to be on top of one of us when you sleep. Please child just tell us what is wrong. If it is still going on come Monday the ENT told us to bring you back in. It amazes me that you need two things to sleep, your lion and froggy, also in your bed are a blanket and taggie. What is funny is that if your are upset or want to be rocked you are standing up in your crib with all of these things in your arms and heaven for bid if we drop one or don't bring it to the rocking chair with us.
Lets pray that nothing else is wrong with your ears and this a random act of a toddler trying to get his way.....

On a side note since I forgot to post this...your ears are fine...and you are enjoying putting up a good fight for sleep or really just wanting one of us with you while you sleep.

Bryce and Daddy playing at the splash park! The ball rotating in the water was way cool.

This is just proof that Froggy and Lion are very important and that you are still very happy when you are brought into Mommy Daddy's bed no matter what time of the night! Himmmm is this the laugh of I win....

Playing catch up..what else is new!

Well Brian had several TDY's back to back (Ft Worth, Panama City, Honolulu) so Bryce and I decided to go visit my family. Since we live in a small town we hardly ever actually fly out of here...nor does Brian for work. So we drove together part of the way, dropped Brian off at the airport and off Bryce and I drove to visit family for 3 weeks.

We helped Grandma pack up the house she has lived in for 21 yrs and get her half way moved in to her new home....which is just too cute. Played with the cousins a lot, visited with Bryce's Great Grandparents and Great Aunt and Uncle. It is amazing how busy we were!

Bryce added a few new words while we were gone. He calls Grandma, GAGA and it was very important that he smell her vanilla Carmel coffee each morning. A few race cars may have ended up in it too...Bubbles, night night, and the use of Mama like there is no tomorrow. He had said it before, but not much. He loved to watch Daddy read him books on the TV every day, which was really cute and I highly recommend to those that have parents that travel. Bryce really likes the ones that he is in when daddy is reading to him. He tried the patience of his cousins as well and they all did great. Even poor Avery at 2.5....it sounded like this AUNT KRIS, BABY BRYCE NOT SHARING! and a big lip sticking out!

Bryce loves to help wash the car, water the plants, race his cars, fly his jets, and play outside. He was caught the other day reading Good Night Gorilla and saying some of the words..its was too cute. He likes the GOOD NIGHT page and you could here him G nit, G nit, G nit with different little voices just like we do.
After 3 wks in Evansville Grandma came back with us to spend her spring break. Here are some pictures of the last month and a half!

Kaleigh, Great Grandma Kate, Addison, & Bryce

Playing in the rice table at the Children's Museum with Kaleigh and Addison.

The kids with GaGa!
Big kiss from Avery, before he ripped her bow out of her hair.

Ga Ga's play ground!

Throwing leaves and sticks on Ga Ga's head sooo funny!The grocery store of the south...we have our own Piggly Wiggly though...
A trip isn't complete with a couple hundred Gator rides thanks to all his big cousins!
Still love to eat!
HMMM what does Uncle Ryan have on his head!

Easter picks to come...we spent the weekend hiking in Birmingham!

WOW 18 mths

Well my little man, where has the time gone? You are turning into a toddler right before our eyes and we can't even believe it. You are a strong willed, determined, little boy and we love you more every day. You have a language all of your own and every once in awhile we think we can make sense of it. The words you use most often are Daddy, yeah, no,no,no(with a finger wave)Bye Bye, vroom for anything that goes; and lots of others that happen every now and then. You have a lot of signs that you use daily(Please, eat, all done, thank you, milk, water, help, sorry, change(yes you tell us a lot of times when your diaper is dirty), apple, cookie, washing hands,) point with the best of them, and will take our hand to show us exactly what you are needing. You also can point to a number of body parts (head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, fingers, hand, foot, toes, belly and your elbow so far.)
In mid January you started to go to one nap a day and finally got over the nightly wakings, screaming, crying fits....wooo that was rough...You nap from 2-3 hrs a day and sleep a good 12 hrs at night. In your crib you use a pillow, soft blanket, and snuggle your Lion and froggy and are actually holding on to them when we check on you. You weigh in at a hefty 28lbs 4 oz and crack us up when you show us your muscles and that you enjoy doing pull ups on the pull up bar.
The weather for good old MS has been rather cold, keeping us inside...not his favorite place. Thankfully we have good friends that live down the street for many weekly play dates. He goes right to the garage door after Kyndee and I talk bc he is ready to go to Brody's house. If I tell him he is coming here, he runs to the front door and points to the curtain to be moved so he can watch patiently for his little friend. He loves to get into the fridge or climb into the fridge and run away with whatever he can get his hands on. Today it was grape tomatoes and when I get close he throws the container, which we all know isn't going to stay together so all over the family room floor they go. If he gets hurt and we didn't see what happened. He will take our hand show us where he is hurt and then show us what created the pain. Loves to help me clean the house and often goes around with a damp rag and helps clean....like the kitchen floor between milk and the 4 times a day he is eating he sees Momma cleaning that up a lot!
For some reason you think that whenever you are in the bathroom the toilet needs to be flushed, climbing on your rocking chair to turn on your light is a daily must, treasures are often found in the trash can that shouldn't be there, or throwing things into the shower that shouldn't get wet, a laptop open means it must be slammed shut and fast, a gate at the stairs means I should climb up the outside of the stair case, floor pillows help me climb onto the coffee table and couch, I don't need any help to climb on the fire place or open the fire place doors though. The word NO sir doesn't really phase you, instead you smile with your eyes closed and make a silly face. Your booster seat is used for time out on occasion and you do sit quietly....
Most important you make us smile every day even at 2:30am this morning when something woke you up that had to do with your window and a very poutty lip, but not sure what happened. After an hour or more of rocking and asking please you came to bed with us! To wake up WAYYYY to early by a cheek to cheek and a tweak of our nose...then you tried to climb onto daddy's head before I grabbed you and we had an early breakfast. Happy 18 months to our little Dude!

Late Videos from the Water Park at Disney

Finally all the video's and pictures are downloaded and organized. I can't take credit for that, but thanks to Brian I can finally put some more fun stuff on our blog! Thanks hun.

On our Disney Trip we also spent the day at Blizzard Beach, Bryce's first water park. I was amazed at how much he was allowed to do and he loved every minute of it too. I had my doubts and we did end up putting him in a life vest, but all went smooth.

He had so much fun, but prefered to go down on his belly.

He held onto the little handles and was good to go!

On the drive back from the airport....Disney makes me have the giggles.