Chelsey & Christian's Wedding

Congratulations to Chelsey and Christian! The happiest couple any of us have ever seen! We could not be happier for them.













Bride's Family

Groom's Family

Christmas 2010

Christmas was a little different this year. Generally we do Christmas Eve dinner but we made a last minute cancellation due to a broken water heater at my parents and a emergency back surgery for my Brother In Law. We still made sure to make cookies and watch a movie together by the tree, as a family. We put cookies and milk out for Santa and tucked Rhett into bed.
Christmas morning Rhett woke us up bright and early to open presents. He would play with each one before opening the next. It was so fun to see his excitement! We watched one of his new movies and ate breakfast together.
We got a call from Erin, my sister, that her family decided to come to California today and would be at my mom's that evening. We rearranged our plans and spent the day with Randy's family. It was a fun day together with cousins. We made it to my mom's just in time for my sister's arrival, for more presents and more food. It was so fun to be with our family. We missed Kylie and Cody this year. Kylie will luckily join us later in the week.



Opening presents from Santa

Ready to open presents at Nana's & Grandpa's

Rhett, Halle, Blake, Katie and Sadie

Movies and Popcorn

A new favorite thing to do at our house and how we have been passing some of our rainy days lately.

Noah's Ark at the Skirball

The Skirball Museum in LA has an ongoing Noah's Ark exhibit. Rhett and I went one morning and had a great time! Most of the exhibit is made of recycled materials. They can play with materials that allow them to make a storm, load the animals two by two onto the ark, climb through the ark on rope tunnels as well as a craft room and few other things.

"Snuggle Me"

This morning Rhett was in my bed watching cartoons and I was walking around the house picking up. I heard him calling, "MOM . . .MOM . . " so I went in to see what he needed. He said, "Mom, I am cold, come snuggle me" and patted on the bed next to him.
How could I resist!!!! I didn't. We snuggled. When Randy came in the room from showering he asked Dad to join in. We snuggled and watched a cartoon before Dad went off to work.

Thankful

Some of the things I am thankful for this year . . . .

1. Randy
2. Rhett
3. All of our Family
4. Good Friends
5. Church
6. Temples
7. Prophet’s Counsel
8. Priesthood Blessings
9. Prayer
10. Answers to Prayer
11. Fasting
12. Guidance from the Holy Spirit
13. Atonement
14. Jobs
15. 11 ½ months of no surgery/hospital
16. Spending time with my little family
17. Family Dinner’s in Randy’s office when he works late
18. Date Night
19. Rhett’s laugh
20. Morning cartoons on my bed with Rhett
21. Sunshine
22. Rain
23. Exercise
24. Good Food
25. Dishwasher
26. Washer/Dryer
27. Phones to communicate and keep in touch
28. Quiet
29. My Home
30. That Randy can build/fix/do anything!
31. Good Books – oh how I want time to read again!
32. Music
33. Vacations
34. Family Pictures

Saturday

We spent Saturday at home. The morning started with the traditional trip to the donut shop. Today we rode our bikes. We came home and started working on cleaning up the garage, doing some laundry, a good cleaning of the tile floor and general picking up. Rhett played on his slide and playhouse, rode his scooter and bike all around and played with the puppies. We ate dinner at home and finished off the night playing cars in the "tunnel" aka dining room table and reading books. It was a wonderfully productive enjoyable day at home as a family.

Halloween Festivities

Pumpkin Patch. Trunk or Treat. Spooky Halloween Dinner of Spaghetti with Spiders and Green Witch Finger's for Bread Sticks with Glow in the Dark Silverware. Trick or Treating with Cousins.

Rhett wanted NOTHING to do with dressing up! We showed him tons of costumes and his reply to each one was, "nope"! He is in a stage where everything has to be just so. I am not sure if that was the reasoning behind the not dressing up or what. I didn't care if he didn't want to dress up but didn't want him to be upset when he sees the other kids in costume and he doesn't have one. I also wanted him to get over whatever his issue was with it. I finally settled on a hard hat and tool belt. My reasons: he could wear his own clothes, I knew that would be important to him. It is a toy I knew he would love and so if he didn't use it as a costume we could still get use out of it. Trunk or Treat, he wore it for a bit and trick or treated to a few trunks. Success! Halloween night, he was excited to put it on and LOVED trick or treating with his cousins! It was so fun to see him get in the spirit of it!

Real Life

I want to make our blog about real life, not just a series of events so I am trying to post more every day things. Not doing a fantastic job at it but trying. This week was rough! I had to work in the office 3 days. Rhett gets so sad when I have to rush him off to someone's house rather then his normal morning ritual of cartoons in mom's bed. He did have a great time playing with his cousins, and having Nana and Grandpa and Noni play with him and spoil him. Thursday we spent all day at home playing, watching cartoons in mom's bed and spending some quality "make-up" time together. This week we ate cereal, macaroni and cheese or whatever you can find in the fridge for dinner most nights and the house didn't get picked up once. There were piles of matchbox cars under the dining room table or more commonly known as "the tunnel", coloring stuff, toys, shoes and the basketball hoop in the family room, piles of mail and other things on the kitchen counter and every single book Rhett owns on the floor in his room. That was our life this week!

Fun Times with Cousins

My AZ sister and her kids had a whole week off of school for Fall Break so they came to hang out. We had dinners, a sleepover, watched movies, went to the park and to Disneyland. We had a great time!


Sleepover


Fallon & Rhett

Trying to get a group picture. Not very successfully!

My Helper, Sadie!

Sadie is my niece. She is 6 going on 26. She is so grown up and such a little mother. With Randy down and out with his foot I had some additional chores to do. I enlisted Sadie's help. She came and spent the night one Friday night and helped entertain Rhett Saturday morning while I mowed the lawns and cleaned the pool etc. It was so great! She was so cute and such a big help! Rhett LOVED having her to play with and read to him. Pretty sure Sadie had a good time too! We took her on a little date to pizza and to pick a treat out at Claire's to thank her for her help. I wanted to make sure she would come back again! :)

Randy Wakeboarding

Seriously check out the air he gets! He is amazing! Unfortunately he has pretty much retired from wakeboarding now. He doesn't want another broken foot. Breaks my heart! Glad that I don't have to worry about another injury but so sad he can't do something he loves and is so good at.
So glad he also loves and is good at wake surfing. It is much milder!

Again!

We have been busy! Rhett and I spent 4 days in Arizona at my sister's house with my mom and other sister Kylie. We shopped, ate, crafted and hung out. We had a great time! We drove so that we could shop and have plenty of room for our goodies. It was a good idea because I bought a piece of furniture. We barely got all of our stuff home. The drive home was VERY long! We were 15 minutes away from home when we got stopped in traffic. It was 11pm. The freeway was shut down due to an accident. We got home 2 hours later at 1am. Rhett and I were sick, both had colds. I was beat! When Randy gets home from work Monday night, he tells me we are going to the lake on Thursday for the weekend. I didn't have the energy. I was at my break point. Working a full time job and taking care of a 2 year old doesn't leave much room for a whole lot else and I knew I had a busy week the next week. I protested a bit, but gave in. We packed up and headed out for the weekend. He had been working like a dog and needed the break. I knew it would be the last trip until next summer.
The lake was fantastic! The weather was great, there was no one there, and the water was like butter! It was amazing! Randy was pulling jumps like I haven't seen in years. He was grinning ear to ear, he was so excited! We were all excited for him! I got good water for the first time and boy does it make a difference! I usually give the good water to the boys who really need it to do their tricks but I might not be so giving from now on.
We were having a great time and then it happened . . . again!
Randy got hurt!
We weren't sure how bad at first because Randy is really good at dealing with pain and not wanting to make it a big deal. We continued on with everyone wake boarding and wake surfing and then went in for lunch. We unloaded the boat and I walked the kids up off the dock to the parking lot. I turned around and saw that Randy couldn't walk, he had his brother and brother-in-law on each side. I knew then, it was bad! I kept it together as long as I could. Randy's sister, Leslie took a walk with me and let me vent and cry. She has been in my shoes, worse actually, and knows the path well. Then we went back to the house and started the routine of nursing the patient and sole parenting.
Monday we went to the orthopedic surgeon. Because Randy's ankle is fused and doesn't move AT ALL, his foot took a beating and he has some hair line fractures in his foot.
Good News: no surgery, not a big deal, he will recover completely and quickly.
Bad News: about 4 weeks with no weight bearing.
We are so grateful it wasn't worse. Just frustrated, sad, overwhelmed to be here again.

Bryce Family Pics

Bryce Family Pics from the 50th Anniversary Celebration
Zions Ponderosa, Utah


The Bryce Family


The Grandkids (minus 2 of our favorite nephews)
One of my absolute favorite pics!!


Dee & Alana Bryce "Nana and Grandpa"


The Original Family
Gary, Jen, Shelley, Dee, Alana,Heather, Leslie, Randy

Family Pics 2010

Family Pictures are important to me. It is going to be a yearly tradition (like it or not!). They aren't always going to be perfect, one kid isn't going to be looking, one kid is going to have a meltdown etc. For example in the Bryce family pictures we took for Randy's parents 50th anniversary Rhett was screaming and crying! I didn't mind. That is the way it goes. I am sure there will be some great pictures to laugh about as the years go by.

My dear friend Liz (see Rosebud Photography on my sidebar) took these shots of us one evening. I love them! Thanks so much Liz!

Sunday Best

The cutest ever!!

Rhett loves his cousin Jake! Jake is 8 years old, SUPER into sports, so athletic, adorable and so sweet. He loves the little kids but has especially taken to Rhett since Jake has all little sisters. Rhett loves Jake and all the special attention he gets from him. Both boys were in Jake's room and Rhett found Jake's tie, Jake told Rhett he could take it home and where it to church on Sunday. Rhett was pretty excited! He loved that he got to wear the tie and look like his Daddy.

Lake Pyramid

We had a great day boating with the Moodys and the Whites (minus Jim) at Lake Pyramid! Our day started at 5am (since I am the best wife in the world and went to be the 3rd adult) so Nick and Randy could get good water and some wakeboard time in before the kids came. It turned out easier then I thought, I laid in the boat with Rhett asleep on my chest for most of the early morning hours, while Jake and Mike ran the flag for me. Everyone else got there around 11:30am. We had lunch and the kids played with their sand toys on the shore. Then it was back out on the boat for the remainder of the day. The kids all wakeboarded, skiied and surfed. Randy and I waked surfed . . . together . . on the same board. It was HILARIOUS! I was too nervous to try wake surfing by myself, the wake is just so big and you are so incredibly close to the back of the boat, so Randy did it with me. He did all the work and I just did what I was told. It was still nerve racking for a bit but it was really fun! If only we had remembered the video camera. We got Heather up on a wakeboard and then she tried wake surfing too! That was also quite entertaining. The kids were all so good and we had so much fun together! It was a great way to say goodbye to summer.

Santa Barbara Zoo

We went to the zoo with Nana (Randy's mom), Leslie (Randy's sister) and three of Rhett's cousins his age. It was crazy with four kids three and under (yes, even with 3 adults) but we had a good time. Rhett loved all the animals! Rhett was intrigued by the bugs and snake exhibit but did tell me a few times "I scared!". He loved being with the other kids! They ran from exhibit to exhibit, they rode down the hill a million times and had a great time on the train. Unfortunately I don't like the train so much since that is where I lost my wallet! And no one turned it in! I didn't really expect them too but was hopeful since the zoo is full of moms and little kids but nope! I had to cancel my cards and I am off to get a new driver license this week. Boo!

Addie, Rhett, Blake and Halle



Blake, Aunt Leslie and Addie

Halle, Nana and Rhett

Homemade Pizza