Fun with Papa & Bama

Last week we were able to visit all our Grandparents who live close by. It wasn't planned to happen that way, it just did. And it was a wonderful week. On Wednesday we drove down to Elk Grove to visit Great Grandma & Grandpa Cox. Highlights of the trip include Grandpa (who is in his 80's & has had hip surgery this last year) getting on the swing outside with Hope, Bryce taking a bite out of one of Grandma's sewing patterns, Hope reading books on Grandma's lap & eating chocolate with Grandpa, and Bryce being rocked to sleep by Grandma. I think the best part was that as we left Hope said, "Momma! Bama's house again! Again!"

Friday we went to visit Grandma Christensen and again we had a great time. We fed the horses down the street, jumped on the trapoline, played with cousin Avery, threw frisbees to the dogs, and had a great time.

Saturday we went to Grandma & Grandpa Forman's house. We had a BBQ out on the veranda and drank up the sun and mild temperature. Hope repeated ran out to the play set (she calls it Papa's park) and ran herself into exhaustion. Despite a nap on Bama & Papa's bed she and Bryce fell asleep on the way home at 7pm!

Sunday we had planned to be out of town and due to Bryce's reoccuring GI struggles we decided that would be hard for him. We stayed home and because we had already told everyone in our ward that we would be gone we thought it would be strange for us to show up to church in our ward. In the morning we went to visit Grandma Dudley in her nursing home. She was delighted to see the kids. It breaks my heart to see her physically and mentally deteriorate, but I know it brightens her day to see and play with the kids. We then went to church with Grandma & Grandpa Christensen and had dinner with them. After church Hope was determined that being outside was the only place for her. She repeatedly was on the trampoline and playing with the dogs. We all had a great time.

The following pictures are of our visit Friday with Grandma Christensen. How blessed we are to have Grandparents!

Crawling & Teethies

I am guilty of one of the worst parenting offenses.....comparing your children! I keep expecting Bryce to follow the same growth and development timeline as Hope. It is just silly to compare when they are polar opposites in personality, size, and they are also different sexes. I have been anxious for Bryce to crawl (as Hope crawled by 7 months) and just this week (he is almost 9 months) he is starting to get it. He mostly scoots and does a strange form of tucking his right leg under his belly, but he makes it work. It has been great. He can move around, check out his world, get some exercise, play with Hope, etc. I kept trying to lure him to crawl with toys or other things to get him going. Then one night I put him in his room and ran into my room to change into pajamas. It was night and only a few lights were on. I came back and stood at the end of the hall. Wouldn't you know it he started crawling to get to me. :) My heart melted as I realized that I was more motivation to crawl then a toy. Jared, Hope, and I feel SO BLESSED to have him in our family. We love him! He lights up our life with his smile, his giggle, and just being his gentile self. He is also sporting two bottom teeth. The only picture that I captured of the teethies is a little bit blurry, but it was fun making Bryce giggle in attempt to get a good picture.

Momma......Buddy up?

Oh the funny little things that two year olds begin to do. When Bryce takes his morning nap I have to often quarantine Hope in my room with me or she will prematurely wake him up. She gets so excited for him to be awake that she throws open his door and says, "Hey Buddy!". The quarantine began when she started to quietly disappear, a minute later I heard baby crying, and a few seconds later she would reappear yelling, "Momma, Buddy up!!! Momma! Buddy UP!!!!!" That is usually when I sigh and quietly say, "thank you Hope". Now she constantly asks me in the morning or during nap time, "Momma, Buddy up?" I try to let her help me in little ways with him because she loves anything that has to do with Bryce. This particular morning I heard Bryce crying and let Hope out of my room with the instructions to go comfort Bryce because I needed two more minutes to finish something. She smiled and ran in saying, "its ok, buddy, its ok". She dumped out as many toys into the crib as she could manage and proceeded to climb in and play with him until I arrived. It warms my heart to see Hope and Bryce playing together and loving each other.

Big Girl......

It always is interesting to me that Hope prefers the food on my plate to the food on her plate. (Even if we are eating the same thing!) So today to save time and dishes I just had her share lunch with me. How else could you get a two year old to eat taco salad? Yum! Yum!

The real treat for our big girl was that I let her feed Bryce his food. I took these pictures on my cell phone so you can't see really well, but there is pear all over him. She was so excited when she was able to get it in his mouth! She then tasted it and decided that she wanted the pears for herself. I laughed and laughed as Bryce was swatting for the bowl and Hope was dodging his swinging arms. He hit the bowl a few times which sent pear all over Hope. It was hard to see a mess being made. But the kids enjoyed themselves and their bath afterwards. I have a feeling that Hope will be a big help as are family grows.