Bryson hairstyles

Bryson's hair is getting SO long! However, I refuse to get it cut until after he turns one. A lot of people have told me that if I cut it then it will never grow curly again and will be straight instead. I am sad at the thought of him losing his beautiful curls. I know I will have to break down soon and get him a trim or else I know Aaron might do it instead. Here's some pictures of his versatile hairdos. He also has a pretty mean mohawk but we'll save that for another day.

Here's his normal hairdo if I don't do anything special to it.

Here's his nerdy, businessman look.

Here's Bryson right after a bath. I put a little lotion in it and really play up his curls.

Look at how long his bangs are!

What am I?

After Bryson and I were playing in the pool today, we saw this bug sitting by the side. I managed to run inside grab my camera and attempt to lean close enough to the bug to get a picture of it while trying to keep Bryson from grabbing it. What is it?

We also saw this beautiful butterfly. They are often in the backyard among the oleander. He was sitting on the patio opening and closing his wings like crazy. I finally caught him with his wings open. Isn't he pretty?

Bryson snippets

I love Bryson's blue eyes! I remember when I was pregnant I was secretly hoping that our baby would have blue eyes, I think they are so pretty. Well Bryson has kept his blue eyes and he has my large eyes so we think they are so beautiful. The only problem is I am the only brown eyed person in our house, even the dogs both have blue eyes. Maybe our next kiddo will have brown.

I am trying hard to get a picture of Bryson's two top teeth; they are camera shy. Bryson waves and says bye-bye now. It is so cute! He loves to dance. He also signs to us for drink and eat which is very helpful. The funny thing is we will be sitting at the dinner table and he will make the sign for drink so we will give him his sippy cup and he will take a drink. Then immediately afterward, he will drop it to the floor, look at us and make the sign for drink again. He could play this game 50 times at one meal and not be tired of it. It is such a difficult decision for us, we don't want to not give him his cup back because we want him to know that it is good that he is signing the word drink to us and that we understand him and will get him what he wants. So we continue to pick it up, but its starting to drive me a little batty.

I remember before he was actually born I said that I didn't want my house changed much. I still wanted all of my pretty things and furniture and I didn't want to have to compromise. Well, my house has now been completely baby-tized and I don't care! Bryson has taken over the living room. His toys are everywhere, I have taken down all of my pretties. My thoughts and actions have changed so much from what I originally said and planned. We have installed the baby gates, we have Disney stickers on a special drawer in the kitchen just for him, we have a backseat that often has cheerios all over it and I love every second of it all.

Check out Bryson chillin' in his chair watching a Baby Einstein video. Such a big boy!

All grown up

Very pretty Cori

Oh goodness, kids get so big so fast; too big, too fast. Here's Cori getting ready for a night out of bowling with her friends, told you she would be in those shoes again soon. She made this cake for her friend Cailey because she is having to go to another school next year.

Here is the cake we made for our last day of Course 1. We are getting better, now its on to Course 2 for us.

California trip

What another wonderful trip to visit our family in California this year! Our vacation there was so close to Eureka Springs time and as luck would have it, we had some friends who were moving and happy to stay at our house while we were gone. It was nice staying up late talking about old times with Brenda and Jerry and their son Tucker while we were on our short break between trips. The dogs especially loved the attention from Jerry and I couldn't tell who was more attached. Then off Wednesday night to stay in Austin before our flight out on Thursday, if not it would've meant driving out at 3:00 am for a flight, ughh! Luckily we had a free hotel night for the Hilton and since it was just me and the kids, as Aaron was already in California on business, it was wonderful to have the hotel help with all of our bags and shuttle us back and forth to the airport.

Bryson did excellent on the flight both there and back. I was really worried about his ears bothering me. Mine always hurt after I fly. His seemed to do well. The only thing about Bryson is when he gets around a lot of people, he tends to show off. So while he slept most of the way on the trip to California, on the way back he was awake. He smiled, waved and laughed at everyone on the plane around him. He squealed and hollered in excitement which kept a lot of passengers from being able to fall asleep. Oh well, better than a screaming, crying baby I suppose. We met Aaron's sister, Kristie at the airport in San Jose and we hopped in our rental car for the drive up to Santa Rosa. Amazingly we navigated the old fashioned way with a map and us girls made it in great time for a relaxing night with Aaron's grandmother Doris and Aunt Flo.

Bryson quickly made friends with Doris' dog, Annie.

We all met up over the weekend and were joined by Aaron's dad, George, aunt Judy, uncle Steve, cousins Steve and Audrey, aunt Sue Ellen and uncle David for dinner together. Cori of course stayed at Audrey's as usual for the first couple nights; they make a great pair! Much of the family got together for a usual hilarious game of Apples to Apples. The only rituals we left out this trip was going to the wineries in Napa, going to Sonoma to visit Happy Dog and shopping at Lush in San Francisco. However, we did go to Dee's Diner in Sebastopol again this trip for some greasy hamburgers, milkshakes, sweet potato fries and garlic fries. George saved me a trip and brought me 2 pounds of assorted dark See's chocolates, mmmm, my favorite! Bryson really digged all the attention from everyone, he was really hamming it up. He showed off his walking skills and grew much better just in our few days there.

Monday we made our way back down to San Franciso. Cori had been asking for a famous David tour of the city. We met Nate and David for Dim Sum at Yank Sing, delicious! That place was so much crazy fun with all the staff bringing us carts and carts of new foods to try. The arcade at the Metreon was closed for renovation so that was a small downer for Cori who always looks forward to spending some time there. So we walked to a new mall close by and discovered there was an H & M there. Uh-oh, I had been wanting to take Cori shopping there for school clothes and we spent more time and money there than anticipated. Some how I managed to come out with "school" clothes too. David and Sue Ellen were patient at home cooking dinner while we shopped, thanks guys! We were all sitting eating dinner that night and we happened to have hamburgers and Rice-a-Roni. While we joked around about the irony of being in San Francisco and eating "the San Franciso treat", we looked down out the window and saw a trolley car riding below us, classic. Late that evening we went with Kristie to stay at her aunt Tracy's in San Jose before our flight out the next morning. It is always such a fun time when we visit, good food and always good company. Here our a few family pictures from the trip.

Bryson experienced both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans in one summer.

He is already such a well traveled kid!

Trying to catch up

As you may have noticed, our last couple of weeks have been quite busy! I have a few minutes to make an entry until Bry wakes up from his nap. First, I have to show another picture from Matt's wedding day. Here is evidence that Cori can wear a dress and still live to talk about it. I think I like her better when she looks thirteen. Check her out in her black patent wedges, you will see those again soon.

We didn't spend much time in Eureka Springs this time, we mostly saw family and that was great. Although we did get to sneak in a meal at my favorite there, the Mud Street Cafe. We had to leave early on Sunday for Aaron to make a flight out of Dallas to fly to Denver but we were able to meet Aaron's brother Ross for breakfast on our way back.