Liz and Austin Arrive In Texas

We spent Wednesday evening at our apartment just hanging out and anxiously waiting for Austin and Liz and the kids to arrive. I finally put Derek to bed around 9 and figured he could play with his cousins in the morning. They arrived around 10:40 and we were all so excited to finally have them here! Isaac and Andrew were wide awake and, when we all thundered into the apartment, we realized Derek hadn't gone to bed either. Haha!

Bryce loves his Giga!

This is what Mitchell and Colton did for most of the night. :)

Papa pulled a movie up on his Ipad...

...Derek lost interest eventually and started playing with his cars.

Cousins finally meet!!

All they wanted to do was play - no sleep for them!

Emeri was adjusting to Uncle Colton.

What a cute set of cousins and uncles!

Mitchell sure loves Bryce!

We told Derek all week that Isaac was coming for Thanksgiving. He's showing Isaac all his toys and sharing so well.

Superman had to hold on to the bed to keep from flying away, lol.

Emeri and Papa

Happy Grandparents!

Welcome Home Colton!!

Welcome home Uncle Colton!! He's finally back from serving a two-year LDS mission to Puebla, Mexico. It was fun to talk to him on skype while he was gone, but it's so much nicer to talk to him in person. :) Giga and Papa met us at the airport to pick up Colton this morning and we were a little confused about the flight's arrival time and gate, so Papa and Derek were actually missing when Colton finally came through customs and baggage claim. Tammy was a short way away when Colton walked through the sliding door and I tried to wave him off til I could get Tammy's attention. I was juggling Bryce, my camera and Jeff's phone (we were conference calling Lanae, Sereen, Liz and Austin so they could "be there" too). In the process, I dropped all the calls, nearly dropped the camera and thanked my lucky stars that Bryce was already on the ground in his carseat or I probably would have dropped him too. :S It was a great morning though. :) They boys and I went home to wait for Mitchell to get off work (he was taking a half day) while Jeff and Tammy took Colton to the stake president's home to be released as a missionary. We all went to Cracker Barrel for a yummy breakfast and then split up for a bit. Jeff, Tammy, Colton, Mitchell and Derek went to see the house in Prosper and let Colton drop his luggage at the apartment. Bryce and I went to Kid to Kid so I could pick up a nursing pillow, nursing cover and some awesome swaddle blankets for super cheap. I love that store. :) Then we all met up at our apartment in Lewisville to watch Thor and eat yummy food, ice cream and brownies. It was an awesome day!!

Walking down the aisle. ;)

 So glad to have him home!

 Talking to Lanae. We called all the siblings back individually because I didn't know how to get Jeff's phone to conference call and he was still missing.

 We finally found Derek and Papa!

 Hi Uncle Colton!

Father and Son

 Nice tie :)

 He wanted to take a walk with Uncle Colton

 I can't believe Derek is almost three years old!!

 Uncle Colton is apparently hilarious. :)

 So sweet!

And on a side note, this is why gingerbread cousins shouldn't marry. ;)

Derek and Bryce

We had a blast this morning. Derek decided to run around as Superman and help all the little unhappy babies find their smile. The boys were so cute I just had to take pictures!

 Sweet little peeking baby!

 Baby burrito

He's not too fond of being barely swaddled. :)

Superman to the rescue!

I love Texas!

I'm totally proud of being an American, but I love the fact that I was born and raised in Texas. I love the open sky, the relatively mild winters (compared to Utah) and the awesome thunderstorms. Plus, the added bonus that rain doesn't taste like barely thawed battery acid here. Rain in Utah is ice cold and tastes disgusting. That's beside the point, though. We went out to Jeff and Tammy's apartment last night to hang out and let Bryce and Derek get some Giga/Papa time. It was so much fun!

He's such a big boy in his big boy booster seat! I thought it was so funny to see him falling alseep while still holding onto my cup. :)

Beautiful sunset in Prosper (left side of the car)

View out the right side of the car at the same time. Look at all that sky!!

Derek looooooves Papa's Truck. He's such a little boy!

Mr. Independent

Derek has gone off to Del Rio for almost a week! He's helping Tammy babysit Logan while Lanae adjusts to having two kids. Yay! Savanna was born yesterday and she's absolutely adorable!! As I write this, Derek has been gone almost three days. It's been a huge blessing to have time to catch up on sleep and spend time with Mitchell as well as Bryce, but I miss my little dude! I may or may not have shed some tears as I watched Tammy and Derek start off on the 8 hour trip out west. Blame it on the hormones. :) For some reason, I always end up making the biggest mess when packing for any trip. This time was no different and I've been cleaning pretty slowly the past few days. Today is the first super deep clean day, so I'm going to keep this post kind of short. 

I started getting Derek ready for the idea that he was going to see Logan about two weeks before he actually left. I think it helped him realize that a road trip was coming. The added bonus of riding with Giga (Tammy) was icing on the cake. Lol. Then I found a portable DVD player that had been marked down at Walmart and set Derek up with a few DVDs to take on the road. Turns out that has been a really smart purchase. Not only did it help keep him happy on the car ride, but Derek has been waking up at 5:30 am (thank you, Daylight Savings!), so Tammy just puts on a DVD for him and he stays quiet til Logan wakes up and then everybody can start their day. Hopefully he adjusts to the time change quickly. Here are the pictures from Monday. :)

 Finally! A picture of Giga and Bryce!

 Waiting for Giga to arrive. Such a handsome kid!

 How much junk can a kid need for a week?! This picture doesn't even include another duffle bag's worth of DVDs and unfamiliar toys to help keep the boys occupied and playing nicely. The wooden duck was a last minute stroke of genius. Logan will play with that thing for hours. :)

 Cheerfully waving and saying, "Bye, Mom!" Not a problem leaving Mom behind. :)

Blowing a kiss. He looks so big in the big boy booster seat!! I can't believe he's almost 3.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! We had a great Halloween! Derek, Bryce and I walked down to get the mail and found a package waiting for the boys from Grandpa Bazemore. Bryce got this cute bib and Derek had foam stickers and light sticks. Boy, was he in heaven! Thanks Dad! 

He insisted on pulling out each and every sticker and scattering them liberally all over the living room. Not too hard to clean up, since Derek can't figure out how to get the backing off. :)

Derek wanted to "color" (cuddle) on his couch with Bryce

He sure loves to protect Bryce from my camera

What cute boys!

We had a last minute invite from my mom to go trick or treating in her tricked out neighborhood and it was so much fun! Unfortunately, the little tiger cub decided to eat right as Mitchell and my mom were taking Derek to go trick or treating, so I didn't get to see that part. :( My mom sent me a cute video of Derek blitzing from house to house. Once he figured out how trick or treating worked, he'd run to one door, get the candy and sprint off to the next door. It was so cute! Good thing I put on his light-up Lightning McQueen shoes, too. It got dark pretty fast but I'm sure it was hard to miss a 3 foot blue fuzzy monster dashing down the sidewalk, lol. I'm glad Derek had such a great experience. Kind of bummed that most of my pictures of Bryce are so orange, but he was such a cute tiger, I couldn't resist posting!

Rawr!

Such a cute little Tigger-baby! Derek should have been Winnie the Pooh, haha!

Trying on another Halloween outfit. This one will definitely be for next year - it's still pretty long on him. 

Squish!!

Helping Nana with some dysfunctional decorations. The witch on the right is Derek's favorite. When you hit her feet, she cackles. The skeleton hanging on the left next to Mom was scaring kids left and right. Loud noises (like noisy trick or treaters) make the eyes light up red and it shakes and screams. Hehehe...

Peacefully sleeping. :)

Nana and her little dude

Brothers!

We took some brother pictures this morning. Bryce was thoroughly awake and Derek was loving being so up close and personal with his brother. I'm kind of protective after the welcome-to-our-family noogie Derek gave Bryce in the hospital. Right on the fontanels! UGH! Don't get me wrong, Derek gets plenty of interaction with Bryce, just usually very supervised interaction... think helicopter parent. I'm sure I'll relax when Bryce gets a little older. Anyway, these two were having such a good time, I just couldn't miss out on the golden photo opportunity. Bryce really has more hair than it seems in these pictures - it's just filthy. I have to wash it every other day because Derek rubs his head every few minutes, I hold his head when I nurse him and Mitchell can fit Bryce's entire head in one palm, so his hair gets lots of mileage. :) 

 Bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8:30 in the morning!

 This face reminded me of a face Derek made that looks pretty similar...

...see? Lol!

 Such cute brothers!

 I love Bryce's little gas smile!

Derek is so entertained with Bryce's hiccups that he started hiccuping too!

This kid has such big feet! He's going to be tall for sure!