First Day of School

Today is the first day of school. Hooray!! Kiara is already in 2nd grade with Mrs Gonzales and Aidan is starting kindergarten with Ms. Gallegos. They were both very excited this morning. Stephanie even came over to do Kiara's hair before school. I'm glad to have them back at school but kind of sad they are growing up so fast. Things have been pretty quiet around here today.

Pictures (FINALLY) from the camping trip.

Rowan Stephanie and her hurt ankle

Shane and a "super gigante" smore

Avery and Kiara in the stick fort

Aidan in his "office"

Avery and Rowan by the fire

Logan taking a nap by the lake

Kiara and the marshmallow

Aidan and 2 marshmallows at once

The Hansen 6 in our matching Bryce Family Reunion shirts

Rowan and Grandpa fishing at Big Lake

Avery, her dolly Kiley and upside down Minnie Mouse

Rolling Over and Rice Cereal

Well it is official. My baby is growing up... He rolled over from his front to his back all by his self yesterday and then proceeded to try to scoot forward. We also started him on rice cereal this weekend. He thinks that is very fun. He has been trying to grab everyone's food lately and is very glad he has his own now. I'm not sure he thinks it tastes good, but he thinks it is fun to eat. He is such a cute boy and so fun. He likes to talk to everyone and is very generous with his smiles. He likes to be tickled and teased by his sister and brothers, but his mommy gets nervous when they aren't as soft as she thinks they need to be. The longer he is here the better it gets. Hooray for babies and especially baby Logan!

PS I keep updating this at work thus the lack of pictures. I will try to update it at home this week to put on pictures of Logan and the camping trip!

Bryce Family Reunion 2009

The week before 4th of July we spent in Hannagan Meadow with my whole family. All my brothers and sisters were there with their respective spouses and kiddos. We had lots of fun and did our best to stay out of trouble.

On Monday we drove up going through New Mexico. It was a fun drive because Shane had never been that way before so we had fun seeing a new road. The kids did pretty good, even Logan managed to fall asleep after only 15 minutes of crying. We made it to the cabins my mom and dad had rented and all piled out of the car. The kids spent the next 4 days running back and forth from our cabin to my parents.

Here are a few highlights from our big adventure:

The Office: Andrew, Kiara and Avery built a fort out of sticks on Thursday. Aidan was inside and I asked him several times if he wanted to go out and help build the fort. He said no each time. Later that afternoon we were all outside and the girls didn't want Aidan in their fort and he was getting mad and wanting to knock it down. Of course we said he couldn't do that, so instead he walked over by the fire pit and proceeded to move some logs around to make an "office." Later when we went over to check it out he showed us his office complete with rock phone, log email and pine needle staples. After roasting marshmallows that evening his office turned into a resturant that served excellent pizza and ice cream.

Spotlighting: Every night some group of us went spotlighting. On the last night Grandma, Grandpa and Stephanie took all the grandkids (minus Dallen, Josiah and Logan). They had quite the time. Rowan was sitting on Stephanie's lap with his head and torso all the way out the window. Everytime they saw an animal all the kids turned on their flashlights and pointed them towards whatever they were looking at even though their flashlights didn't even reach out of the truck. At one point as they were driving down a road Aidan screamed "I saw something!!" My dad slammed on his brakes and they asked him what he saw. He said "a real piece of wood." So being a good grandpa my dad backed up and they spotlighted this piece of wood. He was very excited about his "real" piece of wood. In addition to the "real" wood they saw elk, baby elk and even a bobcat.

An Officinal Doctor: Aidan was talking to Andrew and informed Andrew that he was an officinal doctor. Andrew asked him if he had gone to school for 8 years. Aidan told him that he had gone to school for 9 years and not only that, but he was going to kindergarten next year! Whoo hoo, my kind of doctor!

Stephanie and the bear: Stephanie, Aaron and Carrie went on an end of the road trip and Stephanie had to get out of the car to clear a piece of wood off the road. Aaron got out to help her and they heard rustling in the woods. When they looked up they saw a bear heading for them. They take off running back to the truck yelling at Carrie to get back in the car. As they are running Stephanie falls and twists her ankle. Luckily they scared the bear just as much as it scared them and everyone made it back safe with only a twisted ankle to show for it.

Super gigante marshmallows: Before leaving for camping we stopped at Bashas to get milk. In there they had "super gigante" marshmallows which were marshmallows 4 or 5 times the size of regular marshmallows. We couldn't pass them up and took some up to the cabin with us. They were a big hit with the kids, though they took a long time to roast. Shane and Andrew even made smores with them ending up with a huge ring of marshmallow all the way around their graham crackers. We also had smores with pink marshmallows and rolos. Carrie even showed us how to put a hershey kiss inside a roasted marshmallow for even more yumminess.

Fishing for "Real" fish: We went fishing at Big Lake on Wednesday. The kids had fun casting into the lake over and over even without hooks. Only Carrie and Aaron caught anything during the day but later that afternoon all the adults minus grandma and grandpa and us went to the river to try again. Everyone managed to catch something on that trip and Andrew even brought his back to the cabin to cook and eat. Aidan tried some and told Andrew it tasted like real fish. I think Andrew was glad to know he didn't catch a fake fish.

Water Fight: When we got home the reunion got to continue since Elizabeth and Andrew came down to Pima too. On Saturday Carrie and Aaron decided we needed to have a water fight. We got out our old baby pool and my mom and Elizabeth got water squirters and water bombs to facilitate this fight. The kids thought this was wonderful. They sat in the pool and squirted their aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa and mommy! I wasn't planning on being involved, but Aaron kind of dragged me into it. After a while my dad even came out. He grabbed the hose and was "watering the grass" by spraying all of us. Then he masterminded a plan to get my mom. On the count of 3 everyone, including the grandkids, ran and sprayed grandma. Needless to say grandma was very surprised and got completely drenched. After that the chairs on the porch weren't base anymore!

All in all it was an awesome week. We had fun being able to all hang out with no one having to run off to work or other responsibilities. Shane and I were glad we could play games at night and not be the only ones who had to go home to take care of kids. We just stuck all the kids in one side, closed the door and played games on the other side. Thanks to my mom and dad for setting it all up and being such a great mom and dad that we wanted to all get together!!

Aidan's Birthday

This is a catch up post...

Aidan's birthday was also in May. He turned 5 on May 8. I think he had a great day. We put up streamers and decorations the night before and Shane had the awesome idea to put up streamers like a set of railroad tracks. He was very excited when he woke up to train tracks on the living room ceiling. We made him a regular cake because he wanted a drawing of Thomas and James (yes the trains) racing on it. He declared what we came up with "awesome" so that made me glad. During the day he had his friend Rye over to play and they had fun playing Thomas and Star Wars. We had grandmas and grandpas over for cake and ice cream and he was very excited to open his presents. So excited in fact that he just opened and opened and opened without pausing to look or let us see what he got! He was excited to get some coloring books and some more trains, of course.

I am kind of sad to see my little boy turn 5 and know it is time for him to go to kindergarten and leave me. He has been my buddy for so long. He always has wanted to be cuddled and held and wanted to be with me. Lately he has been wanting to be more with daddy and do the fun things daddys get to do like fix the car, work outside and just be manly. He even discovered the joys of peeing outside and takes any opportunity he can to try it out. My little boy is growing up. I am sure he will do great in kindergarten. He always has lots and lots of questions and really enjoyed preschool. I am excited to see where he goes from here. He is the sweetest guy. Happy Birthday Aidan!!

Things I don't want to forget about today

1. Aidan putting on 4 shirts, one on top of the other. He told me he did that so that in the morning all he had to do was take off the top one and then he had on a clean shirt. What a timesaver! Maybe I should try it.

2. Rowan telling me he is a dinosaur at lunch, a rocket ship when he woke up from his nap, a pirate when he was playing with Aidan and a car any time he needed to run somewhere really fast all in the same day. But if you ask him his name, he is Rowan.

3. Logan giggling uncontrollably when I lifted lifted him up on my bed and tickled him in the super cute way only babies can.

4. Kiara finally being the super nice girl I knew was hiding under all the meanness of first grade. I'm glad she hasn't been hanging out with her friends for a few weeks and I got my nice girl back!

The Merry Month of May

May was full of craziness and fun. Kiara had a dance recital, finished 1st grade and got to go swimming at the Safford pool. Aidan finished preschool and made a stunning return as the dancing Tball player. Rowan's finger got better, though it still needs band aids and lots of kisses from time to time. Logan has gotten lots and lots bigger with lots of smiles, giggles and plenty of attention from his big brothers and big sister. Rowan has even decided he likes Logan after all and worries greatly about him when he cries. And just in case you were worried all the crying cars at our house are also comforted by Rowan. He puts them on his shoulder and pats them to help them stop crying.

Aidan is enjoying Tball again and is doing much better at getting to all the bases. He has even joined the throng chasing and then dogpiling on the ball each time it gets hit. Thankfully he is still dancing on the bases making tball that much more enjoyable for us!! Aidan is very excited for kindergarten to start and has us counting down the days.

Kiara is already ready for 2nd grade so she can have a "brother break." As much as she loves Logan she is still convinced she needs a sister as soon as possible.

Our garden is growing humongo and hopefully we will have tomatoes, watermelons and corn galore! In other news, I started working at the hospital in admitting to try and make up for Shane's lack of hours. It is going well and I enjoy it, but I really miss my kiddos and my honey.

That is May in a few lines. Hopefully June will have a better blog, but since it is half over, I'm not holding my breath!