Pigtails and Teeth

Our baby is growing up!!! Alyssa got her first 2 teeth on the bottom, has enough hair for pigtails, and just today started doing more walking that just steps from location to location - she will now walk across the room just because she can:)

Wolf Howl and Fire Flies

Friday night we went to a Wolf Preserve that is just a few minutes away. We got to see several wolves up close and then they had us howl and the wolves howled back.

When we got home the kids went and caught fireflies. They were pretty good at it and caught several but were good about letting them go after a few minutes.

Fish Fish and More Fish

Fish has been a common word in our house for the past few weeks. Bryson and Kaitlyn left to stay with G&G barely swimming - Bryson a little bit and Kaitlyn wouldn't get her face wet. Two weeks later they are little fish. You can throw Bryson in the deep in and he can swim for 5 minutes without touching and then swim to the side when he needs a break - I love watching him take the tiniest breaths and then staying under water for a long time. Kaitlyn can swim the width of the pool underwater. They laugh at me but I just keep calling them Mr. and Miss Fish. Alyssa doesn't want to be left out and loves the water as much as the others. I never could get a photo of Bryson in the water cause he just spends all his time under water.




Unfortunetly I don't have a good video that does justice to how good Bryson does but this does show him as my Mr. Fish!!!

Speaking of fish, Bryson used some of the money he had been saving and bought his first fish. He even bought a fun space fish bowl and the food. He is a great child to have a fish cause he has remembered faithfully to feed it each morning without me ever needing to even think about it.

Stubborn or Smart

Alyssa is almost 16 months and still not walking. It is now getting funny cause we know she can do it so it is either because she is stubborn or smart (she knows crawling will get her there faster) - I think it is both. She will take 4-5 steps no problem and walks all around holding the tip of our finger. She loves to walk around pushing her little carebear push toy. The new thing she loves doing since the kids got back is to push them on it. We all can't stop laughing watching her push these big kids and little her and she can even get going pretty fast.



Truthfully I am grateful she is letting me enjoy her being little as long as possible:)

Only Child

Alyssa loves being an only child more than I even thought she would. Kevin had a conference in North Carolina last weekend and took Bryson and Kaitlyn with him and dropped them off at Grandpa and Grandma Garner's. We will drive out the end of next week and pick them up. I thought Alyssa would be lonely without the kids and you can tell she misses them but she is totally living it up. She loves that she gets to be in control of the schedule during the day and can have the 2 naps she likes to get but seldom does. Even with all the sleep she is getting she still enjoyed herself and slept in one morning 'til 10 and a few mornings later 'til 11. The first few days she was my helper in making sure the house was clean and organized from top to bottom. The first morning she was handing me the laundry, a piece at a time, and when she came to a wash cloth, she shook her head that she wouldn't give it to me and then proceeded to spend the next 15-20 minutes wiping the floor and the doors. She is going to be good little worker when she gets just a bit bigger.





Kevin and I are loving the honeymoon at home and the kids were both screaming with excitement on the phone today when I talked to them about all the fun they are having. We are just hoping that this won't kill off Grandpa and Grandma:) Thank you mom and dad (and Riley), we really owe you!!!

Visit to the Dairy

I still laugh to think that we had Kevin take a day off of work to go visit a dairy with us and we even had to pay. But even crazier than that is that at the end of the day we upgraded to a year membership! Kim, you should start charging for all your visitors - who thought a dairy could bring in money:)

Besides the bus tour of one of the dairies and saw them milking the cows (things are quite a bit different than what I remembered as a little girl), they have a fun museum; 3D/4D movie which had Kaitlyn and Alyssa crying when they "squirted" milk; a birthing barn (it had a red/yellow/green light so you knew when the action was taking place - several were born while we were there); they had a jumping something which was awesome



They had a train


They had tractors the kids could drive on their own




And Bryson's favorite was the climbing wall/jug of milk. Everyone was amazed at how well he did. He did it over and over and over and then got dad to do it with him and then mom to do it with him. He kept saying that he was better than his Uncle Brody.








If you come visit Indiana, look at the fun things you can do!!!

Soccer

Bryson's first season of soccer is over and he had a great time. The best thing of all was that he got a goal at his last game. It was pretty exciting for all of us but most of all for him!!! He is quite proud of his first trophy!

His coach had the boilermaker express come give rides at the end of the year celebration. None of us had gotten to ride it before and we all got several rides and long ones too.