Brycen not only had one Christmas but two! First, we made a stop in Salt Lake City to spend 10 days with my family. Brycen did wonderful on the plane, he played pick-a-boo with the guy sitting next to us for the first hour and then crashed for the rest of it :) The joys of flying at night.
Brycen wanted to let my family know that he arrived and filled the house with beautiful aromas...and thus, needed a bath. Brycen is sporting a hair-do done by Daddy in this picture.
In SLC, it was soo lovely to have in-house babysitters that fought over who could hold Brycen next :) It felt so good to have so much help! And Bryce and I were able to go out a few times together without Brycen, the first time since he was born.
We were able to attend the temple TOGETHER (yes!), go to Music and the Spoken Word with Mike and Jenn, go SKIING twice (snowboarding for Bryce), and go to Savior of the World with the family (thanks to Aunt Stef and Lizzy who watched Brycen). Man, we were so spoiled.
Music and the Spoken Word with Mike and Jenn
SLC made sure to give us very healthy air our first weekend there
It cleared up later in the week though.
The ski/snowboarding group. We got my dad to come out with us--the first time in 25 years! It was cold!!
Not only did we have wonderful babysitters, but I think one of the best things about being home is not having to cook :) I loved having my meals prepared for me and my mom was the best and made fruit smoothies for Bryce and I every morning!! It was heaven..even when we woke up late (Brycen had some trouble adjusting and some nights were LONG), there were fruit smoothies ready for us in the freezer. Since we came back to Indiana...well our freezer doesn't work in quite the same way...and we are going through fruit smoothie withdrawals! Even though my mom did the bulk of the cooking, I tried to help out by doing alot of the dishes and helping make some the side dishes--it was so wonderful to not have to do all of it :D
Eating a carrot..
We also got to see lots of family while we were in the area; Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents on both sides. The Walker side held a Christmas party that we were able to attend and Brycen got to open his very first Christmas present. The Shields side held a few family dinners where we loved seeing everyone we could. Aunt Kelly was also very generous to give us the next size of boys clothing for Brycen :)
Opening his first gift.
Visiting with Great-Grandma Cryst and Shields Christmas Eve night
One of the new outfits from Great Aunt Kelly, picture taken by Aunt Jenn :)
Christmas was wonderful with lots of family, love, presents, swimming (on Christmas Eve) and sledding!
Brycen opening his Christmas Eve present
Christmas Morning
Our Christmas pajamas
Opening a gift from Uncle Isaiah!
At Cousins-Zachary's- Christmas Afternoon (to go sledding). Samantha made this hat, it was too small for her so she gave it to Brycen
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Second, we went to Portland, OR for 8 days.
Home Sweet Home
Every one of Bryce's siblings (he is one of 7) were able to come except for Quinn who is on a mission. There were lots of people, so crazy, but so fun!
Playing some Twister!
They held their Christmas on New Year's Eve so that everyone could come; complete with a delicious dinner, nativity, and family talent show!
At dinner..
Our cute little reindeer..
Brycen was a shepherd for the Nativity skit
With his sheep
Bryce's talent..
Brycen loves it!
Brycen crawled for everyone to see!
I hola hooped-still undefeated! Any takers?
Some of the nieces and nephews' talent..
Brycen went to bed around 9 but then woke up right before midnight to celebrate his first New Years!
He was trying to make sense of the dancing chaos of the other kids..
We also went to a party at one of the Walker's family friend's house where I inherited my first sewing machine (I'm so excited!) and we went to Bryce's brother (Richard's) house for a parent-pizza night out. Everyone else left their kids at the Grandparents (Bryce's parents) except for us. Brycen came along for the party because it was a 45 minute ride both ways, we would be gone for a quite a few hours, and he won't take a bottle. He also was teething and feeling a bit under the weather and when he is like that, he only wants me or Bryce. Bryce's parents had their hands full with 11 other kids so we decided to spare them a screaming one (even though they were more than willing).
Brycen had a ball with us as we played Balderdash (picking a definition out of the dictionary while one person goes out of the room, one person is in charge of giving the right definition while everyone else give their own definition and the person that comes back to the room has to decide which person gave the right definition), Bryce's siblings are pretty good at making up pretty crazy defiintions and making them sound reasonable (sometimes)! We also played Apples to Apples and had lots of healthy food. Pizza, ice cream, candy, oreos, yummy..
Family Picture
Bryce was also able to go snowboarding with his brothers, everyone went swimming, and we were able to go on a date to Burgerville (so yummy!) while Grandma watched Brycen.
Brycen curled with Grandma
And went swimming with everyone (in the same pool Bryce did when he was younger)
Snowboarding on Mount Hood
Bryce asked a stranger to take a picture of the group...either the stranger didn't like Bryce or they were very unobservant...or they just suck at taking pictures..or they hate snowboarders... because...that snowboard in the far bottom right corner of the picture belongs to Bryce...he wanted to be in the picture since he was part of the GROUP. oh well. haha
I think the best thing that came out of the trip to Oregon for Brycen was that he overcame his fear of kids! There were lots of them and he did just fine! He was even the aggressive, in your face one, sometimes. haha.
"Hi, my name is Brycen, do you mind if I bite you?" I'm not sure if Brycen sees everyone as his teething toy or what but he sure acted like it.
"Mommy, he just kicked me in the face...gotcha!" (Brycen with 5 month old cousin, Evans)
With Grandma and Evans
"Hey Mom! We need one of these!" He loved being able to walk around.
We really, really enjoyed the mild winter Portland was currently experiencing (never needed more than a light sweater or jacket) and it made it very hard to come back to the 0 degree weather in Indiana. I have been to Oregon several times and I know it rains 90% of the year but it never rained while I was there until this trip. They also got a few inches of snow (very rare) and it lead to the highway turning into a parking lot, lots of fun for the 3 family members flying in that night! Bryce's dad left for work (in Portland) at 7am that morning and didn't return home until 1am.
Since Bryce is one of the youngest siblings in his family, we are not the first to have a child like on my side of the family, everyone had their own children to deal with so we didn't have quite as many willing hands to hold Brycen all day but it was good to see how much the other children have grown, to see the one that was born in July for the first time (and be there for his blessing!), and to get a few minutes of relief here and there as people took their turns getting to know Brycen.
Sunday of Evans' Baby Blessing
The entire group
We took a 6am flight home though and I don't think we will ever do that again! We woke up at 3 (Brycen getting 5 hours of sleep when he is used to getting 10+) and were exhausted all day. The nice thing about it though was that one of Bryce's brothers (Joe and his family) were on the same first flight so we got to ride with them, we got back to Indiana at a decent hour, and because Brycen was so exhausted--he slept like a newborn again...slept the entire day...through both airplane trips and car trip home from the airport. It was also very hard to adjust between the 3 hour difference between Portland and Indiana time zones but we are back home, back on schedule, and it was totally worth it!
Back home in our HOT apartment...can you tell by what Brycen is wearing compared to what he wore in all the other pictures?
Our cat is having alittle tougher time adjusting though. I don't know if she will ever forgive us for leaving her alone for 3 weeks. She is in need of almost constant petting and she keeps a close watch on us in fear that we may disappear again and never come back. She has joined Bryce and I on our bed at night and seems to do pretty well with that and we prefer it (as opposed to her meowing all night). If she meows, she gets kicked off the bed and she learns quickly:)
