Visiting Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight!

We made it! We got to San Antonio this evening and the boys are thrilled to see Aunt Bella and Uncle Dwight. Dwight's sister, Dawn, made a DELICIOUS beef and broccoli noodle dish to welcome us and surprised us with peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Mitchell was in heaven, lol. After dinner and some hang out time, we put the kids to bed and had adult hang out time complete with The Amazing Spiderman 2. Poor Bryce always has a hard time sleeping anywhere but his own bed, but Aunt Dawn took two massive, fish-shaped pillows up to the boys and that helped Bryce get to sleep.

  

Bryce was fascinated with Aunt Bella's nutcracker teacher. He wanted Scrappy to have a look, too.

Bryce is pretending to be a puppy. Scrappy wasn't amused at first, but he warmed up eventually and started chasing Derek and Bryce around the house, haha!

 Sam and Scrappy were anxious to go outside to patrol the backyard. Big One and Little One!

 Aunt Bella teased a couple crawls out of Clara with the stuffed snake.

Breakthrough! Derek had been really nervous around the dogs, didn't want to pet them, didn't like it when they came too close, etc. Scrappy was much quieter and stiller as he slept on Uncle Dwight's lap and that gave Derek the confidence to start petting him. Woohoo!

Playing games on Aunt Bella's ipad and petting the puppy. :)

Aunt Bella helped Clara take some shaky steps

Aunt Bella loves her Clara!

Creeper Bryce waits to pounce!

Remembering 9/11

Derek and I talked a little bit about 9/11 this morning. He was mostly concerned that New York is missing two of its towers. A little before bedtime (he's only halfway changed into his pjs), I came into his room to find this: "Look Mom! It looks like the Twin Towers!" Very impressed that he A) remembered what we talked about and B) wanted to help restore something that was lost. This kid is awesome! I'm grateful for the brave and selfless men and women who fight and keep our country safe. I am honored to be raising the next generation to always remember and never forget their sacrifices for the exacting price of freedom.

Derek's Twin Towers

Clara's First Snack in the High Chair and Taking Pictures with Mommy

 Clara is a big girl now! She's juuuust big enough to sit in the high chair and eat some cheerios, even though she doesn't have any teeth... at all. She's just over nine months old. No teeth, roughly 15 lbs and still wearing 6 month old clothes. We love our itty bitty princess! She loved sitting up and chasing down the cheerios. Bryce offered her a little green train to chew on too. :) All the new activity tuckered her out and she snuggled very sweetly to sleep on my chest. Who could resist taking a picture of that? Bryce saw me taking pictures and insisted on doing the same thing with me. Then, he insisted on taking the picture, haha! He's so independent! We had fun while Derek was at PreK. :)

 She was so excited to be sitting in the high chair. Cheerios were just an added bonus for her. 

 Love those gummy smiles!

 Mmm... wooden train.

 Sweet Clara snuggles!

 Love my baby boy!

 Sweet Brycie Bryce kisses!

Bryce's attempt to take a picture. Heehee! He's a chunky doodle!

Baby Bunny

 Derek found a baby bunny just sitting in the grass today while we were at the park. I pulled out my phone to take a picture and promptly dropped it in the grass near the bunny.... so I had to retrieve it. Derek walked right up to the bunny and bent over to pick it up before it hopped a few paces away. I stepped in to catch it humanely and we carried it back to show Bryce and some of the other kids in the park. Our friends, the Griggs, arrived for our playdate at the park and Derek enthusiastically announced the baby bunny. Haha! Tamara pointed out a recent bite mark on the bunny's leg, which explained the lack of flight as I was trying to catch it. It wasn't swollen or infected, so I let the bunny go to heal normally and watched him hop into the bushes. We promptly went to wash hands in the bathroom. :)

 Baby bunny in the grass

 Bryce was so excited about the bunny, too. Look at that face!

Sweet little thing sat very still in my hand.

Brothers and Best Friends

Derek usually sleeps on the top bunk and Bryce on the bottom, but I found them on the bottom bunk like this tonight. So sweet!

Emeri's Second Birthday

Happy birthday, Emeri! We are so glad we got to spend time with Emeri on her birthday! Grandma made her such a pretty Olaf cake from the movie, Frozen, and the entire table was covered in presents with various shades of pink. :) Liz made a pin-the-nose-on-Olaf game that the kids loved. Everyone wanted to cheat to make sure they got the nose in the right place. Amy, Bella and the Burtons (from the ward) came over to help us celebrate. Lots of people = lots of fun! The best part of all was meeting Baby Oakley! Mitchell and I had gone to Liz and Austin's house to see Oakley a few hours after she was born, but Derek and Bryce hadn't met her yet. Bryce was enamoured and wanted so desperately to wake her up from her nap, but, thankfully, we dissuaded him with cake and games. 

Emeri had fun opening her presents with help and approving oohs and aahs from the on-looking cousins. :) This kid is going to have a great second year!

Emeri was so excited about Olaf on the cake!

Emeri, cake and presents!

Mommy and daughter

Isn't that a cool cake?

Aunt Bella laid claim to Clara for some Clara snuggles and Bryce begged Aunt Amy for a better vantage point. :)

He's not too sure about that hat...

Sweet Baby Oakley! Almost a month old.

Katelyn, Isaac, Andrew and Trouble... I mean, Derek :)

Mallory and Kevin Burton - we love them!

All the kids are inspecting Uncle Austin's hand-drawn Olaf. Very nice!

Blindfolded Isaac is waaaay off target

Closer, but still not quite

Birthday girl's turn!

 Derek's turn

Liz and Mallory!

Aunt Bella loves her Derek!

Aunt Bella loves her Bryce!

First present... a little apprehensive

Yarn mermaid doll from Aunt Kadi, Uncle Mitch, Derek, Bryce and Clara

Putting the yarn mermaid to sleep in the cool bunkbed from Grandma

Andrew was sad and Bauer was the only one willing to comfort him

Amy got some Oakley cuddles

Everyone loves Oakley!

Fort Fun

Derek built a fort around himself... and Clara. I found her as I excavated for Derek, but she seemed to enjoy being buried in pillows and blankets. I, on the other hand, was not pleased to find her buried. Still, one for the memory books. :)

Lunch Date with Nana and Co

Nana, Aunt Amy, Aunt Val and Ally came over for lunch today. Nana always likes to feed Clara baby food and Clara always likes to eat it. Aunt Val snuggled with Derek and Bryce on the rocking chair and Aunt Amy used her phone to facetime with Danny so Bryce could say hi. Ally did a great job holding and playing with Clara!

 Nana and Clara

 Bryce and Aunt Amy

 Ally!

 smirk

 Family!

 Mmm... carrots! Last time I gave her carrots, she made hilarious, disgusted faces. This time, she seemed to like carrots just fine.

 Happy girl!

 Clara, Aunt Val and Derek

 Aunt Amy, Danny (on facetime), Clara and Nana

Bryce is trying to figure out who that is on the shadowy screen... :)