9 Months Old/Myrtle Beach

Bryce turned 9 months old last week while we were on vacation in Myrtle Beach!  We took him to the doctor yesterday, and he is doing great!  He is 19 pounds, 14 ounces (40th percentile) and 28 1/8 inches tall (50th percentile).  While I wouldn't say he is officially crawling yet, he scoots and pivots all over the room--we call him an inchworm!  He does get up on his knees a lot, but hasn't moved that way yet.  This month, he also started eating on his own more--grabbing finger foods himself and getting them to his mouth.  He still just has such a great disposition, and seems to really love life!  He is on a great schedule, and we just love this age.  He will sit and play on his own really well, but also loves interacting with his big brother.  He had a great first trip to the beach as well!

Our first big trip as a family of four went very well.  Traveling with both of them worked out fine--the boys were very good most of the time (thanks to snacks, the ipad, toys, and all the space in our minivan).  Grant became quite the little fish.  He started out pretty skeptical of swimming, and wouldn't let go of us, then went to swimming around all by himself by the end of the week.  He also loved digging in the sand and making sandcastles.  Bryce loved swimming for the first time as well and experiencing his first dip in the ocean!  All he did was smile and splash!  While this trip was a little crazier than in the past, especially since we had 4 little boys in the same condo, it was so much fun.  It's neat to see each year as we go back how much the boys change, making our experience different every year!  We go back to Cumberland this weekend with my family, so we are looking forward to having some more fun in the sun!

4th of July

Our house is on the right, hidden just past the trees.

It was so hot!

Bryce kept trying to eat the streamers so we had to remove most of them!

Mmmm...watermelon!

Water!

Grant wasn't so sure about being under there.

Relaxing after a busy week

We love our new neighborhood!  On the 4th, there was a parade for the kids, where we decorated the bikes and strollers, and walked down the street following the fire truck and police cars.  we ended down in the private drive off the cul-de-sac, where the fire truck stopped and turned on the hose on top of the ladder for the kids.  One of the houses hosting it had hot dogs, snacks, cookies, drinks, etc. for everyone as well.  It was such a blast!  We were able to meet a lot more neighbors that we hadn't met yet, and the neatest thing is that we discovered there are 3 other boys on the street that were all also born in April of 2010 like Grant!  What are the chances of that?!  There seem to be a few other ones around that may be good playmates for Bryce as well someday.   Of course it was super hot, but we had so much fun being a part of an event like this, and it proved to us even more that we made the right decision in moving here!  We celebrated at other family parties and friends' parties the rest of the week, and we are spending today, the hottest day of the year, inside trying to rest it all off.  Hopefully it will cool down soon!

8 Months Old/The Move

Goodbye House!

Happy 8 Month Birthday to Bryce!  He had quite a busy month!  He no longer is content in anything restraining like the bouncer, swing, or even the bumbo at times.  He loves to sit up on his own and play with toys.  He also likes to roll around on the floor.  He can get from sitting to his belly if he wants, though it's not very graceful.  No scooting or crawling yet, but while on his belly, he now pivots around and makes complete circles trying to get to things.  I'm guessing he will be on the move sometime this next month!  He still does like the exersaucer, though, which is nice.  After moving kind of slow in the eating department, he has now decided he loves to eat!  He eats all solids great, and is even already enjoying the little puffs and teething biscuits.  After being in the 10th percentile for weight a few months ago, he is chunking right up now and moving his way up the charts!  

The other big change for Bryce is that he is now in his own room with his own crib!  He was in our room at the old house up until the move 2 weeks ago, which wasn't working well for any of us anymore.  He was in a bassinet or the pack n play, and would wake up with any noise we made, and we would also wake up with any noise he made!  The first night at our new house, we put him in the real crib for the first time, expecting a long night with lots of waking up, and surprisingly he slept all night!  I guess he really just wanted a nice bed with a quiet room to himself.  

Speaking of the move, we are officially in our new house, and we said goodbye to our first house last Sunday.  It was a busy and exciting week getting everything out of there and over to the new place, but once we had a moment to walk around the last time and say goodbye, we did shed a few tears.  But we are so happy and excited about our new house, and we absolutely love it!  We still have a ton of unpacking to do, but for the most part we are starting to feel settled.  Grant loves all the space and especially thinks it's fun having our bedrooms up the steps.  He loves going all the around the house to the different rooms all day long.  He keeps saying he loves the new house!  We love playing on the deck and on our driveway, and Doug loves shooting basketball with our hoop.  We have already met a ton of neighbors, and they are all so nice and welcoming, bringing us cookies and meals, and we already know of a few little kids that are Grant's age!  We are looking forward to the 4th of July parade where we will decorate our bikes/stroller and follow the fire truck down the street.  These are the kinds of things we were looking for and hoping for our kids to have in our new neighborhood.  We are so blessed to have found this house, and we can't wait to raise our family here!

Cumberland

Feeding the ducks and fish

Loves the lake and his grandpa!

Happy Bryce!

Riding the truck at the mall

First swim of the season!

It was a little too cold for Bryce to swim

Had to bathe in the sink since we didn't have his bathtub!

Frozen yogurt

Bryce driving the golf cart

Grant replacing his divots

From Sunday to Wednesday of this week, Doug had to go to a conference in California, and while I wish we could have gone with him, the boys and I went to Lake Cumberland with my parents for those days.  We really missed having Doug with us, but we had a great time, and Grant absolutely loves it there.  We ate lunch by the lake, fed the ducks and fish by the dock of the marina, rode on the golf cart, swam in the baby pool, and much more!  A smile hardly ever left the boys' faces.  We are so lucky to have that condo as a place to go for vacations!

As soon as we came home, though, the reality hit us that we are moving in just a matter of days.  We get the keys to the house on Monday!!  All of the waiting is finally coming to an end.  As we are going crazy packing our stuff, making phone calls to change our address, etc., and get things set up for the new house, we are so excited, but we can't help but be a little sad about leaving our first home together.  We made so many memories here, and I wish Grant and Bryce would remember it, but we have plenty of pictures and videos of it to show them someday.  We are having painters come the first day, and we are having new carpet put in Wednesday, then the movers are coming for our big furniture on Thursday, so that will be our first night to stay there.  We have until the 18th to get out of our house, so we can use that time to take trips back and forth for all the other stuff.  We can't wait to start making new memories in this house!  I will be sure to post pics and updates of the move when I can.  Pray that it all goes smoothly for us!

7 Months Old!

Bryce is 7 months old today!  I remember thinking that when Grant turned 7 months he sounded so old all of a sudden, and I feel the same way with Bryce.  Although it seems to have gotten to this point even faster with Bryce.  I feel like time is just flying by, and I wish we could slow things down!  This has been another exciting month for our little Bryce.  First of all, as you can see in the last picture, he no longer has a toothless grin!  His first tooth appeared about 2 weeks ago, and the tooth right next to it just started emerging a few days ago.  Luckily, he hasn't seemed too bothered by it yet, so that's a plus!  He is also sitting up on his own now most of the time.  Every once in awhile he will fall over, but he already seems to know how to fall onto his belly like he would need to do to start crawling.  No other signs of crawling yet, though, which is fine with us!  He is also eating solid food pretty well.  He has had most of the vegetables and some of the fruits, and we just keep introducing more things.  He also started using a sippy cup.  He loves it!  He tends to just spit the water right back out though, but at least he is getting practice at holding it and drinking from it.  Bryce is such a happy little guy, and hardly ever fusses.  We are very lucky to have such a content, fun-loving, sweet little boy!

Sorry for the lack of updates/pictures lately.  Things are pretty hectic around here.  We are moving in 2 weeks, so of course we are getting ready for that.  Look for more posts this next month on that, on our trip to Cumberland next week, and more pictures soon!