So Long T-Ball

bryson's season is over...and next year he will be on the "farm" team, so no more t-ball...but man did he have fun! he loves baseball - we definitely need to take him to a game soon! bryan captured this darling pic...

one of bryson's favorite parts of the game is the line-up at the end where the teams give each other high 5's...at the end of this particular game, bryson grabbed bodie and made him come with him - bodie was overjoyed!! so cute!

Bobby at 9 Months

bobby...at 9 months you are so ahead of your game. you are pulling yourself up and standing without assistance...you are teething, which means you are quite the fussy child at times, but that is only peppered through out your sweet temperament! 

this month we got to take you to a wedding of a dear friend and you did amazing. should i tell you here that you slept in a closet? should i tell you that it wasn't the first time? you love to be held, but more than that you love to know that we are near for when you want to explore in your crazy crawl on all fours. 

your mor mor got to watch you while we were at the wedding and had so much fun just being a mor mor to you alone...what a treat! you bring joy to everyone around you...when you aren't concerned about your teeth and we couldn't ask for a better baby boy!

Bryson's Swing

bryson is still taking lessons...he is not over the moon about golf and for now prefers t-ball, but he is improving quite a bit...as you can see!

Bobby at 8 Months

Bobby!!!! This is how we greet you every time we see you...and you love it...always a big big one tooth smile. the past coupla days you have been uncharacteristically fussy and i just saw today that your other little bottom tooth just cut...so that is what was up! glad that's outta the way and you can go back to your sweet little self. made me realize how amazingly lucky we are...you are such a joy to everyone!

you are getting so big - you were sick basically all of your 7th month, so i have big hopes for 8 months...you took your first antibiotic, which mommy did not want to do and held out as long as she could, but i think you were grateful to be able to breathe from your nose again and not have ear infections any more! yay to no more sick pug baby!




you celebrated your first Easter this month in Santa Barbara and you slept in the closet...which may or may not be a step up from the bathroom. tonight i put you in the crib in the boys room, but shhhhh...dont tell your brother bodie...mama is scared he is going to crawl in to "play" with you! fingers crossed he doesn't see you :)





we love to all play in the backyard for the afternoon. you love to sneak over to the garden and steal strawberries. move over bodie, there is a new strawburglar in town! you are crawling and climbing like crazy and you try so so hard to play with the big boys...its so fun to see - i know you are going to fit right in with those crazy guys!

we love you sweet bobby b!

Easter Pics

Here are a couple more Easter Pics...our family pics and a group shot of all the Westmont Alums...Bodie was in true picture taking form. the only difference is that i don't really care anymore...i think its kinda funny...i think when he is older and looking back at all of these pictures he may ask me why he looks so miserable...and i will just explain to him that is because he was! bodie does not smile unless bodie wants to smile. the end.

i do love my little dapper men in their bow ties...bryson had taken his off by then - it is a little too small for his neck, but they do look oh so handsome! but they dont need bow ties for that...

i already want to go back. i miss santa barbara so so much. its nice we still have friends that live there and a good excuse to go up every so often!

Easter Weekend Egg Hunt

we had another amazing time in santa barbara with good friends. i don't typically look at holidays as relaxing, but spending this holiday with dear friends makes this holiday one of my favorites! don't get me wrong - i love my family and love spending time with both my side and my husband's side, but unfortunately most of our families are not geographically close...

here are all the littles hunting the eggs...so fun this year! last year i dont think most of them quite knew what all was going on...but man...they picked it up this year!

the eggs were filled with *mostly* healthy snacks...bryson quickly put them back...we had *special* eggs for him, mostly with money in them...he was quite happy about that!

i get a little nervous about egg hunting because i feel like Easter is such a special spiritual holiday and I worry the eggs over-shadow that in the kiddos mind. its like stockings and presents at Christmas. I tried to tell them the Easter story before bed each night...but after the third time Bryson rolled his eyes and asked, "do we have to hear this again?" *sigh*...the balance between planting the seed and overkill...guess i fell toward the latter...

speaking of parenting...sorta...i marvel at my friends and what amazing parents they all are. it is so much fun to watch people you have known since you were in the early stages of becoming an adult and figuring things out to finding that person they want to be with to becoming a family and now having to parent...which they all do amazingly and i love having good friends to help figure stuff out with!

brothers unlike another

every day i marvel at how different these two are. you would think it wouldn't surprise me as much, but i am constantly blown away. blown away i tell you! i think that when you we had bryson, we didnt know a lot of people with babies (or kids) and so we just thought it was normal for a baby to cry for hours at a time. we thought it was normal for kids to throw tantrums until they puked, to make constant noise from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed, to be constantly moving and expending energy-energy-energy! we thought it was normal for them not to cuddle and freak out when being hugged, or rocked, or held still in any way. i guess...not normal like its the norm, more like that is the type of person you get when you mix my energy with bryan's energy...:)

then came bodie. as much as bryson loved to fight sleep, bodie would let us know when he was tired. i have NEVER heard the words "I am tired" uttered from bryson's lips...still...but bodie knows and now that he can speak he lets us know. but as loud as bryson is...bodie is just as quiet. as boisterous and smiley and all over the place as bryson is, bodie is solemn and calculating and watchful.

we were at the park the other day and were only there for about a half an hour when bodie said, "i wanna go home...take a nap". i was so shocked i started laughing. then he puckered his little lips and furrowed his brow even more, if you can picture it...and told me again. i took him into my lap and there he sat for the next half an hour....which is probably the amount of time bryson has ever sat in my lap in his 5.5 years of life combined.

i love that they are this way. i love that they compliment each other so well. i love that bryson brings out this goofy and boisterous side in bodie that few get to see. i love that they teach each other things because they see the world through such different lenses. i love that bryson's independent nature coincides so well with being the oldest brother. he is a natural leader and i think he is going to be an amazing big brother...if only we can temper the bossiness...hmmmm...(i realize these are my genes here mother!)

its so fun to watch their very distinct persons come out...and i can't wait for bobby to be in the mix (what am i saying? of course i can wait!) but this brother thing is very new to me and it is so fun to watch...well...that is perhaps an exaggeration...sometimes it is fun...the other day when bryson took bodie down a big twisty slide in a headlock i started to scream...then bodie came off the slide laughing...i dont get it...i dont get boys a lot of the time...but they are decent teachers :)