Swimming with the kiddos...

So in all these pictures I just couldn't get these two children of mine to smile at the camera at the same time!! Or even look at the camera for that matter!!! We are big time swimmers over here, well, actually just Brielle really... she's a little fish.. and these pictures are of one of our first times taking Bryce swimming as a family. He's been a handful of times now and absolutely loves the water!!! His favorite trick so far is when daddy balances him in the air like a cute baby cheerleader. He lights up and laughs! We love it! He is signed up to start swimming lessons in about 2 weeks, so hopefully he likes it and will eventually be as good a swimmer as his big sis Brielle!!! Cause she's amazing ;)

Updated pic's of the kids!!

My absolute favorite time of the day is when these two cuddle up with me in bed in the mornings. It kinda starts like this (most days): Bryce starts making noises about 7ish.. I quickly make him a bottle and put him in bed with me... we both fall back asleep till about 8 or 8:30, right about when Brielle comes in and wakes us both up and joins us in bed. We then goof off and cuddle in bed for about 20 minutes.. then we are out of bed and start the day!!

On extra good mornings, when Brielle comes in to wake us, sometimes I can get her to go back to sleep with us for like an hour!!! So I basically get to sleep in a lot. Yeah, I love it!!! ;) ..gotta soak it all up before they don't let me do this anymore!!

Brielle put on her own make-up the other day and kept saying, "Mommy, I'm beautiful now" ..I kept telling her she's already beautiful and that she did a great job putting on make-up :) -kinda hard to see her rosy red cheeks and dark eyes in this pic (above)-

The two gremlins being silly like always. They are so cute... these two love to play together already!! It's my favorite!

This is called "The Fish Hook" ..yeah, don't ask, Scott made it up and Brielle loves doing it to me and it drives me nuts! :) She sneakily says, "Mom, come here... FISH HOOK!" as she hooks her finger on the inside of my cheek, always laughing hysterically.


THE MANY POSES OF BRYCE MAN!!

So here's Bryce posing by the fireplace. He stands up on everything now and sadly, he falls all over the place now too :(

Bryce is what you would call an "Outside baby" ..the kid loves to be outside and can't get enough of it. He will be sad, fussy, crying, I mean anything bad you can think of, then take him outside and he immediately smiles and giggles and is soooo HAPPY!! It's so cute to watch cause it's honestly like clockwork every time. He's such a stinker!

So I thought these 3 pictures were so funny. Bryce, of course STANDING and of course standing by the WINDOW looking OUTSIDE!! If you look closely, you can see his face in his reflection of the window. In this one (above), he looks sad.....

this one he looks happy....

and this one he FINALLY notices me taking pictures of him. He's like, "Oh hey momma! Just lookin outside cause that's were I want to be.." Love this little guy!

Scott's Birthday!!!

Awe, Scotty turned 29!! Happy Birthday Scott!! This is the yummy ice cream cake Brielle and I made for him. It was quite scrumptious!!! We had a lot of fun making it too!! We are crazy for ice cream over here, so this cake was a MUST!

Scott and Brielle anxious to blow out those candles!!! Brielle just loves birthdays (what 3 year old doesn't!!) and talked about "dad's b-day cake" all day long!!

So finally, after we made the cake, froze the cake, surprised dad at work with b-day balloons and came home from dinner, it was time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out those candles!!

Quick pic of me and the kids after Scott's special day. We had a wonderful Birthday evening as a family and Scott is now one year older!! We are so grateful for such a special dad and are so glad we got to spend his birthday together!!

My two cutie patooties!!

Just wanted to post some updated pictures of the two rascals!! They are so much fun and I honestly don't know what I'd do without them. Bryce is now 7 1/2 months old and Brielle is 3 1/2 years old. I keep telling them to PLEASE stay little and that they aren't allowed to grow up anymore!! :( They are so cute and I just love them to pieces!!!! I am so grateful to be a mother!! I love it!

Little Miss Ashlee...

My good friend Ashlee came to visit about a month ago. She's from California so Utah is quite foreign to her :) She absolutely loves it though!! Every time she comes we go to Park City for some shopping and yummy food.

This time in Park City it happened to be the Sundance Film Festival, so that was fun to experience with her since it was my first time to go as well as hers...

We took baby Bryce with us and he was so good. The little guy just hung out in the stroller while we shopped and played. He barley made a peep, only to eat and smile at us :)

We had yummy sushi for dinner in this miniature restaurant on Main street that I'm surprised we even fit in!! The tables were practically overlapped!! It was delicious though...

On Ashlee's last night, we went up American Fork Canyon and looked at the pretty view and froze a bit in the snow :) We had a great time with her and are anticipating her next visit!! :)

Christmas and winter events...

The following pictures are of some events that took place over the holidays and the winter season we have been experiencing. Lots of snow, cold weather and spending time with family that we've been blessed to enjoy.

Of course we must start out with Brielle and Taeya and their visit to see Santa Clause :) Tayea's daddy had a work party where they played games, frosted cookies, made little crafts and of course got to see SANTA!!

Mrs. Clause was there too :) The girls got to tell Santa what they want for Christmas and they got toothbrushes for a little treat. What a great gift!!

OFF TO GET A CHRISTMAS TREE...

Probably the first week into December, we went and got a Christmas tree. Our very first tree ever (besides the dwarf, fake one in our window each year)!!! This was our first year to spend Christmas at our house so we most definitely had to get a real tree :)

It was a very cold night so we bundled up Bryce really good

This tree was the winner!!

I believe it was the next day that we went to grandma and grandpa's to make X-mas sugar cookies. A tradition that we absolutely love cause grandmas recipe is the absolute BEST!!

Daddy and Brielle and their adorable snow man they made together. Gotta love the snow!!

Probably a week later we got some more snow and Brielle and I played in it together without dad this time.

Oh ya know, just Brielle wanted to be buried in the snow like a little munchkin. She actually stayed like this for a while :)

And after all that snow activity, we came into a warm home to drink some yummy hot chocolate... Of course Bryce (below) came with us outside. Love to bundle that guy up and take him into the this cold weather. He liked it!! :)

CHRISTMAS EVE, EVE DINNER...

So my Aunt Jody does a Christmas Eve, EVE dinner that's on the evening before Christmas Eve. I think that's the 23rd :) So yeah, we all get together and EAT, sing Xmas songs, visit and the kids do a little reenactment of the nativity. It's pretty cute and its always good to see family that we don't see often

Um, we absolutely did leave Bryce out of all our pictures on this night. Mean huh!!! :)

CHRISTMAS EVE!!
So we spent Christmas Eve at grandma Sue's where we ate a big feast, opened presents from grandma and grandpa, stayed up late and played games. We had a wonderful time.

Brielle by our tree before heading to grandma's house. Oh how I love her home cooked meals!!!!!! Especially during the holidays!!

All, well most, of the grandkids by the tree. Oh and Sparky the dog too :)

About to open presents. Always an exciting moment :)

Emily and Steven trying to get serious with this game we were playing. I believe it's called "Word on the Street" and it's pretty fun.

The game got pretty intense and we laughed a lot that night while trying to get through it.

Bryce and Brielle in their Christmas jammies... SUPER ready for bed..

Of course the kids fell asleep on the drive home :) We quickly put them in their beds and off Scotty went to work on getting Brielle's BIG SANTA gift ready for Christmas morning...

Christmas Day!! Finally!!

Brielle on Christmas morning so happy to be sitting in her new BARBIE POWER-WHEEL!!!! She has been talking about this thing forever!!!!

Cute little Bryce Man!! His very first Christmas!! So, on Christmas morning we all slept in till about 9:30 and FINALLY Brielle woke up coming into our room not so sure how to start the morning off.... So we excitedly told her "Merry Christmas" and headed downstairs closing her eyes. We rushed into the family room where she found her beautiful PINK power-wheel!!

Yeah, driving it the house didn't really work out...

...So we dressed in warm clothes and hurried outside to drive the power-wheel in the street. Or should I say, Brielle's new Pink Barbie Jeep!!

Worked pretty good in the snow too...

After a morning of driving her new jeep and opening presents with the family, Brielle happily sits down with her new FUR REAL kitty that grandma and grandpa Hoyal got her.

And of course there's little Bryce Mobile who really has no idea what's going on :) He just acts like a baby the whole time being cute and fun!! He did get some fun little toys that he really likes to play with. Over all, we had a great Christmas season and enjoyed spending time with family!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season as well!!