Best Start to the New Year

Bryce has this crazy love for Oregon. I love family too but my goodness, he loves his home state. Oregon is not capable of doing anything wrong. So I had one happy husband for the 8 days we were there. 

Oregon family is a tad different from Utah family because Brycen and Cian both have cousins older than them AND cousins their age, rather than all younger (they do have some of those too).

Our ham with his cousin less then a month younger.

 Mike, Brycen, and Uncle Quinn

Uncle Quinn--people say that he is Bryce's twin. Hm...not seeing it. BUT that would explain why Cian didn't mind nearly as much to go to him than to others.

 Cian LOVES using utensils and thus, feeding himself. He often times won't eat unless he has a utensil and will not tolerate us spoon feeding him. He has to do it. So different than Brycen who if it was up to him, would still love for us to feed him and at times, we do.

 With Grandpa. 

Also different from Brycen who loved all strangers and grinned very easily, Cian is very shy. If anyone strange or unfamiliar shows him any kind of acknowledgement, Cian will grow very serious and turn his face away acting as though he never heard/saw them or was suddenly interested in the flock of birds traveling by.

Needless to say, it takes awhile for him to warm up.

 2009 and early 2010 were big years for Walker cousins to be born and now at 2-3 years old they finally communicate and play nicely. Lots of wrestling among the boys. There's one girl and 3 boys.

Grandma was pretty brave to have a cousin sleepover! Brycen did awesome (much better than me), it was his 1st night away from both Mommy and Daddy. Big milestone, if I do say so!

 Ahhh...Burgerville! You have to try it if you are ever in the Northwest! To die for... all of it!. The food and the shakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! The money is totally worth it.

 Now we are home and are finally starting to recover from sicknesses we caught just after arriving back. It has been a long week of cabin fever (and lots of playing hide-in-seek), running noses, doctor visits, pink eye, ear infections, hallucinations, fevers, coughs, and little sleep. Our sniffles and coughs could become their own choir.

..... It's been fun but I greatly anticipate the end. And I'm usually the one who never gets sick... and did. My voice is just starting to return, yesterday I hit rock bottom. Only a quarter of all my words spoken ever came out and it was a day of "Huh? What was that, Mom?" I soon gave up, it's amazing how quiet the house is without me :) I even tried to call my mom to wish her a happy birthday and she said, "It's not a good connection. I wish I knew what you were saying". The poor connection was my voice, or lack thereof.

On a positive note, Brycen is definitely our easy child these days. He was yawning quite a lot while sitting next to me so I told him (jokingly) to lay down and take a nap. And...he did!

He also has been telling us in the evening, "I'm tired and ready for bed". He is then out within 2 minutes. Sound dreamy? Oh, it is :)

My favorite responses from him right now: 

Mommy: "I bet you can't write your name". 

Brycen: "I sure can!" 

Mommy: "Brycen, can Cian play with your toys?"

Brycen: "He sure can!"

When asked to get me a diaper for Cian, "I sure will!"

Pretty, pretty cute.

2012 Rap-UP!...finally....

The day before our big (3 week!) trip out West, we visited the annual gingerbread house and Christmas tree display on Purdue's campus.

Cian entered the stage where he is a complete ham for pictures and I love it! Just wait...it gets pretty cheesy.

As for Brycen, we are lucky if he even glances the camera's way, let alone give a decent smile. And obviously, the camera had nothing on the girl in the above picture. He loves other kids.

 

 Pointing at the tree, it is rather large.

 Go up a level and you reach the top of it.

You would've never guessed from the pictures that, that night the Cian Monster started puking 30 minutes after he went to bed.  It was a good night of puking, and not so much packing or sleeping. 

The next morning, he seemed to be better so we frantically packed all day to get on the road to Chicago where we would stay the night to fly out early the next morning. Halfway to Chicago, Cian woke up and puked all over him, his carseat, and Daddy's coat (boy, was Daddy thrilled!). Our friends, the Belt's, were kind enough to let us stay with them--insisting that they already had the stomach bug-- so we arrived and we tried to scrub and clean as much as we could before bed. Luckily, Cian didn't throw up again that night or the entire flight the next day! It was better than we could've asked for. Unlucky though, our friends spent the next 2 weeks puking :( and Cian threw up on Uncle Dally's brand new (3 days old!) bed our first morning there. Dally was more than excited. But seriously, you have to break it in sometime, right? Sooner the better :)

Cian did recover though and we had a wonderful time in Utah.

 Someday I have to get one of these high chairs for our kids. I'm not sure if it comes standard now but the hump between the legs so they don't slip down (and out) and removal tray=genius!

 Brycen rarely let Uncle Dallin out of his sight.

 Trampoline Warehouse was a hit!

 The newest cousin--Mr. Liam, is pretty cute.

3 generations born 25 years apart.   50. 75 and 25 years old.

 ...with cute kids.

Christmas Eve Snow--it was the perfect white Christmas in my book.

 

 Especially with these people.

Christmas Eve with the missionary--definitely a highlight! He is serving in the Philippines. Technology IS pretty amazing.

As a mom, your lap grows pretty talented!

Christmas morning.

 Daddy finally got a cell phone upgrade (my surprise and gift to him). Aunt Katie and the Grandparents also made sure that we got spoiled this year. Thank you!!

 We are almost always waiting for Grandpa to open his stack of things.It's pretty much tradition now.

 Cousin bathtime.I seem to capture the good moment...it progressively got pretty teary.

 Cotton candy was sadly, the best part of the lunch out with Grandma Great. Golden Corral did not measure up that day.

 Our little ham at the BYU Basketball game!

 Playground just outside the stands...whoever built the stadium definitely did it right.

Uncle of the game (and probably, year) award goes to Dallin! He chased down Cosmo and captured the above moment. Brycen came back exclaiming, "He touched my head!He touched my head!"

And then...Uncle Dallin built this room size fort with the help of the food storage (he is pretty awesome!)

I'm not sure who liked Dallin's friend (s) more. Brycen would always tell Dallin, "Let's call your friends and have them come over!" Haha!

 Cousin photo. They are pretty cute.

And of course the trip isn't completely without: 1: a freezing visit to Temple Square.

AND...2: SKIING! With the white Christmas, it was the best skiing.... of... my... life.

 

Thanks to Grandma, skiing, family volleyball, and trips to the temple were possible. 

The Utah portion of our trip was literally--near perfect. I sure hope the family members in Texas and the Philippines are brushing up on their volleyball and skiing because to have them there, would've made it all perfect.