Our Life in the Mountains

2009-10-09T07:41:00.004-07:00

Truett is 4 months old.

Pictures from Family Night on Tuesday.

True after falling asleep in the carrier on our walk home from the camp playground.

Sleeping partners.

2009-09-23T18:18:00.008-07:00

Thatcher's 2nd Birthday

Brandon and Ashley

Michelle, Danielle, Felecia, and True

Amy Jo, Ben, Thatcher, and Karen

True and his sleeping partner.

The After-party

2009-09-23T14:08:00.009-07:00

Connor put a pillow in Thatcher's shirt and shorts. He looked so funny.

We bought Beatles Rock Band and played during Family Night. Here we all are playing and dancing.

We had the front door open one evening and a bird flew in and hit our window. It was very disoriented. Connor was able to pick it up and carry it outside. It did not want to fly away. The boys enjoyed getting to hold the bird. Eventually, it felt better and took off.

Connor, Tripp, Uncle Ben, and Thatcher

Usually one of the boys sleeps in the bed and the other on the one that pulls out. The other night they decided they wanted to sleep together. I had to get some photos of how cute they are. From then on they have been sleeping together.
Felecia is one of True's favorite sleeping spots. As you can see she doesn't mind one bit.

A few weeks ago, the boys and I drove down to Alamogordo to meet friends at the Bouncy Place. They had such a great time.

2009-09-09T20:48:00.005-07:00

Here are all three Bryan boys at three months old. Can you tell them apart?

2009-09-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

Truett's three month old pictures.

2009-09-09T19:51:00.002-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the week of Family Camp.

Thatcher cleaning up the floor after dinner.

Uncle Ben, Truett, and Tripp

My Mom, Glenda, and Jan stopped in for a visit one evening. It was great to see them all. Here is Truett with Glenda and Jan.

Bryan Family

Crazy Eyes

Truett and Pat

Brittany and Truett

Random Photos

2009-08-04T14:27:00.005-07:00

Here are just a few random photos.

Truett and G Daddy

Thatcher and Tripp playing in the toy box.

Thatcher decided to hop into the bath before Neena could get his clothes off.

Chris, Kylee, and Truett

Truett is growing so much.

Here is what Truett did during the 4th of July parade in Capitan.

Tripp really wanted to go splash in the puddles during a rainstorm last month, but he didn't want to go without me.

Here are the most recent photos of True. These are about a week ago. It is hard to believe he turned two months old on Sunday.

Truett and Kelsi

Neena's Visit in June

2009-07-07T21:06:00.012-07:00

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We had a busy and exciting weekend. Hoping to get pictures on here very soon. Truett is doing very well and is growing so fast. It is hard to believe it has already been a month. He weighs 12lbs. already. Other news...TRIPP IS POTTY TRAINED...YEAH! Now, we only have two in diapers. It's an exciting time in the Bryan house!

Pictures from Neena's visit June 10-19. We had a great time and the boys enjoyed spending time with their Grandma from Idaho.

We don't have a sidewalk or paved driveway so the boys get to enjoy writing on the rocks around the house and on the floor of the porch.

Thatcher's "Oh, Man" face. He is too funny!

The long walk across the street to church. :)

Truett is still sleeping through service. I am very thankful for this.

Drove down to White Sands in Alamogordo on Sunday evening. It was a great time.

A little excited about flying his kite.

Truett really enjoys bath time.

Tripp standing naked in the living room window watching campers outside.

Finally More Photos

2009-06-13T19:54:00.022-07:00

Finally more pictures. A few of these are from before Truett was born when Memaw, Taylor, Aunt Kenzie, Wyatt, and Walker visited. The rest are more pics of friends meeting baby True and G Daddy and Uncle Mase flying in for a visit.

The Sunday before Truett was born.

Fun with cousins.

Jarett

Michelle

Shonda

Kyle

Sarah

Felecia and Amy Jo

Felecia

Amy Jo

Papa Bill

Brenda

Pat

Sue

Pastor Rick

Summer staff hanging out at the hospital.

Neva

Patrick

Eric and Debbie

Ashley

Tripp and Thatcher enjoyed playing in G Daddy's airplane.

Taking a cruise on Papa Bill's trike.

Wrestling with Uncle Maselyn. (Don't worry. No newborns were hurt in this photo shoot).

Bonita Park Summer Staff 2009

More Photos (not in any order)

2009-06-04T14:51:00.013-07:00

Samuel Truett Bryan is here!

2009-06-02T21:52:00.003-07:00

Nine pounds, 21 inches long, 15 inch head, and beautiful. Praise God that after 12 hours of labor both Truett and Kaylee are healthy. Expect many more great pictures in the days to come.

We're Having a Baby Today!!!

2009-06-02T04:51:00.002-07:00

Just called and confirmed with the OB department at our hospital, that every thing is according to planned. I will be induced between 7-8am. We are about to head in. Please pray for a safe and healthy delivery. Connor will be posting pictures as soon as he gets the chance. Check in this afternoon/evening and meet the new addition to our family!!!!

Tripp's 3rd Birthday and Other Stuff

2009-05-25T09:50:00.011-07:00

Pictures from an afternoon Tripp spent with Brittany and her Mom while I Connor and I were at the hospital on one of my false alarm visits. Brittany's mom is a kindergarten teacher in Capitan so Tripp got to play on the playground at school.

The summer staff traveled to Roswell on Saturday to see one of there fellow workers graduate from high school. Tripp was excited to get to go with Daddy to see Kelsi graduate. They had a great time. At the end of the ceremony, fireworks were shot off right over the stadium. Tripp was a little freaked out for a while. Here he is with Connor and then with Felicia.

Playing with the confetti on the field.

Congratulations Kelsi

They held Tripp up while trying to find Kelsi in the crowd.

Yesterday, we had a little party at the house for his 3rd birthday. It was a little last minute because we were expecting to have baby number three here by now. It was a beautiful day and Tripp had a great birthday celebration.

My mom got some great shots before and after church yesterday.

A Months Worth of Catching Up

2009-05-18T14:37:00.018-07:00

32 Weeks

34 Weeks

35 Weeks

36 Weeks

Silly faces time.

Playing drums after church with Uncle Ben.

John & Tori's wedding

Easter Break Pictures

2009-04-16T13:57:00.010-07:00

All of these pictures came from Brittany's camera. I was bad and did not get my camera out over the Easter holiday. Here are a few pictures of the boys playing with Easter presents from grandparents while on the way to the animal shelter. Ben adopted a puppy, and the boys wanted to go help him pick her up. While we were there, the boys played with a little chihuahua. No....we did not come home with a dog of our own, although, the boys really wanted to. They are going to have to wait a while for a puppy of their own.

On Saturday, Tripp went with Connor to play and climb in the gym. Tripp enjoyed jumping off the wall and swinging. He was even raised high in the air to touch the top of the wall.

You can barely see Tripp up at the top. He is so high.

We had easter lunch at the Adcock's home. Brittany's mom, who the boys call Tutu, cooked a delicious lunch for us and surprised the boys with lots of goodies. Thatcher slept through it all because he was sick, but Tripp had enough fun for the both of them. Brittany's brother Seth and his girlfriend Lara were also there. Tripp enjoyed playing with them, too.

Here I am 32 weeks prego. I think I look about 50 weeks though. :) Connor is showing off his gynormous belly, too.

Easter was also my birthday. You can see how much Tripp loves birthdays. He is so excited he can hardly contain himself. Thanks Brittany for the cupcake birthday cake. It was delicious!

Catching up

2009-04-14T12:06:00.007-07:00

Here are some photos from the last few weeks. I don't have easter photos posted yet, but I will get them on here soon I hope. On Saturday night before easter Thatcher came down with some kind of bug and was throwing up all night. We had to miss church on Sunday morning, which was a bummer, but we still had lunch at the Adcock's home. They insisted we still come if we felt up to it. Tripp had a great time playing with all his easter goodies, and Thatcher missed it all. He slept the whole time, and I am glad for that. Will post the photos soon!

Hanging out at the house.
Tripp giving Thatcher kisses.
Fun at the park. Tripp doing his first spider on the swings with Dad.

Tripp likes to go really high on the tire swing.

Thatcher enjoyed Tripp bouncing him up and down.

We took an evening walk down to the river behind the zip line so Tripp could throw rocks in the water. Here is Thatch playing with the tether balls by the zip line.

Down by the river. In these pictures, you can really see all the debris from the floods last summer.

Felicia and Ben

When we walked back up from the river to head back home, Thatcher decided to throw a little fit because he wanted to go back down to the water. It was his first throw himself on the ground tantrum, of course, I had to get photos. I got a great shot of his pouting bottom lip....a classic Thatch face.

A funny shot of Tripp waking up in a bad mood from his afternoon nap.

Thatcher, who woke up in a good mood, decided to join in on the photos.

Yesterday was Uncle Ben's birthday. We surprised him with cupcakes and Tripp helped him blow out the candles.

St. Patty's Day Party and Other Stuff

2009-04-03T23:27:00.008-07:00

I cannot believe I am just getting around to posting some of these photos. The first few photos are of The Herbert's St. Patty's Day Party. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Connor had to work so the boys and I had to go without him. Here is little Erin in the dress her aunt made her.

Thanks Henry and Stacy for a great party and awesome food. The cornbeef, cabbage, and potatoes was delicious.

The boys getting tired from all the fun. They attended the party in green dinosaur pj's which I thought were fun and festive.

The next photos are of the boys playing before bed. They had a lot of fun for the camera, and they had a lot of fun playing together.

On Wednesday, the boys and I went to the camp for staff volunteer meeting and lunch. We had a good time. The boys got a little rambunctious around the ending prayer. Here we are before I had to take them into the next room. There is a great shot of how huge I am in the next picture.

Yesterday, we met friends at the park. We didn't get to stay for long because it was so incredibly windy. The gusts we found out were up to 60 mph. I got some great funny faces of the boys while we were waiting on our friends to meet us.

Here are my friend Lisa's kids Luke and her daughter Allie. They are the same ages as Tripp and Thatcher within only a week of each other.

Avery, Lee, Lisa and Luke

Song for a Third Child

2009-04-01T14:23:00.002-07:00

I have been taking the opportunity of using the boys nap time everyday as my blog stalking, updating, Momma time. In my reading, I came across the popular poem "Babies Don't Keep" by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton. The mom, whose blog I was reading, had titled her post Song for a Fifth Child, since she is pregnant with her fifth. I have appropriately titled my post Song for a Third Child. As a stay at home mom I am constantly bombarded with the feelings of am I succeeding or am I failing basing most of this on the outward appearance of things....are the dishes done, is there laundry all over the bedroom floor, has the bathroom been cleaned, is the clutter in the living room still there?????? Today, God reminded of what succeeding and failing is truly based on....MY BOYS and the quality time spent with them each day. Before I get to emotional, I wanted to share the poem with all of you as a reminder of how precious our time is with our children and what is really important.

Babies Don’t Keep
By Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Lullabye, rockaby, lullabye loo.
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo,
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo,
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs;
Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

2009-03-24T13:18:00.010-07:00

Pictures of the boys having a great time during TNB (Tuesday Night Bouldering)

Dancing with Felecia.

Celebrating Kim and Stacey's birthdays at our Mom's prayer group.

A cute moment of all three boys.

Ben stopped by for a visit. I wonder why both boys are as close to him as they can get. Hmmmm. This is a thinker.

Celebrating Felecia's 20th birthday at Jorge's Cafe.

Felicia with the Hello Kitty cupcakes Tripp picked out for her.

We were checking to see if Tripp could lick his nose. He was so close.

Last week, my friend M'Lea from ACU came to town on vacation. We were neighbors in the freshman dorm, GATA sisters, and bridesmaids. We had not seen each other in years and enjoyed catching up. It was so much fun. Here we are at the park.

One of the days M'Lea was here, we drove to Cloudcroft, NM and visited another GATA sister Lauren. She and her husband live outside of Cloudcroft, and I had no idea. We enjoyed eating at Rebecca's Lodge and then playtime at Lauren's house with her daughter Madison.

Thatcher and Madison got along very well.

How is Momma feeling today?

2009-03-21T10:05:00.002-07:00

Photos by Brittany

2009-03-19T11:22:00.016-07:00

Brittany got a new camera while she was home for spring break. She let me copy the photos she took of our family off of her facebook account. Thanks Brittany they are great.

South Fork

2009-03-08T09:56:00.011-07:00

South Fork is one of our families favorite places, actually, a favorite among many of the locals here. Ashley Hutchison took some great photos of their last two Sunday afternoon bouldering and climbing trips. I wanted to share them with you.

IT'S A BOY!!

2009-03-03T14:54:00.009-07:00

Hello Again! Life has calmed down significantly here at the Bryan house. My hand is almost healed with just a few tender spots remaining, YEAH!!! Thatcher is doing well after his surgery this month. We had a post op in Albuquerque this past week and all is good. After the visit, we took the boys to the Abq. Zoo. The boys had a great time, and Connor and I got some great pictures.

I had a check-up yesterday, and we found out the gender of baby Bryan number 3.

IT'S A BOY!!
Yes, we are adding another boy to the Bryan family, our three sons.
We couldn't be more excited!

My mom came and stayed a few days after I burned my hand. We were messing with something in the kitchen, and turned back around to find this picture. The boys found the big bag of paper towels we had just bought, and were having a blast throwing the rolls all over the living room. It was hard to be too upset because they were too cute.

Visit to the Albuquerque Zoo

The boys maybe a minute after leaving the zoo. They crashed out.

Burns, Batteries, Etc.

2009-02-17T23:12:00.009-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the past month. There will not be much writing because I am typing one handed. Sunday evening I reached over to turn off the lamp next to the couch, and it exploded. A flame went through the middle fingers on my left hand and gave me second degree burns. The pain was pretty intense, but they gave me the good stuff at the ER that night. I am going to share photos of my hand first, and then we can go to prettier sights. I am hoping that by Monday it will be less sore and I will be able to use it more. Diaper changes among many other things are very challenging right now.
Thatcher gave us a scare last month. He broke open the remote control to our Apple TV and swallowed the nickle sized button shaped battery from inside. Neither Connor nor I saw him do it, and we were lucky enough to put clues together to figure it out. We assumed he would pass it, but that evening we were urged by Ben to call about it which ended us at the hospital getting x-ray's. To shorten, it was not leaving his stomach and, we had to rush to Albuquerque where the put him to sleep and went down his throat with a scope to get it out. The battery had already started to erode in his belly, and he had small spots in his stomach fom it. We also found out while we were there that if it had passed into his intestine it would have been even worse. So many things could have gone way worse and we are so thankful God was watching over us. We were given the battery after the surgery. It will be nice having a prop to illustrate the story when Thatch is older.
Last week I decided to cut my hair. I was planning on about shoulder length, but decided to see if I had enough to donate to Locks of Love an idea I got from M Spencer's blog. It turns out it was long enough, but i had to cut it right at the nape of my neck. It is the shortest I have ever had my hair. It was totally worth it!

Gettin' Ya' Caught Up

2009-01-21T13:55:00.015-07:00

Finally, I am getting around to sharing pictures from our Christmas and New Years. The first pictures are from our visit with my family in TX. On the drive there, we stopped in Abilene for a late dinner and our friend Lauren and her growing family joined us. We ate at our favorite restaurant Alfredo's.

Thatcher, Tripp, and Joliegh

Here are Lauren and I showing off our pregnant bellies. Me at about 17 weeks and Lauren at 8 months.

The whole family: Carson, Lauren, Joliegh, and ?

The first day at my parents was unseasonably warm. It was like 75 degrees. Connor and I took the boys to the park in Tyler to let them enjoy the nice weather.

Later that evening, we spent some time out at my parents and the kids played in the pasture and got to swing on the horse walker. Thatcher decided to try and eat some dirt. He didn't think it tasted very good.

Here are a few cute shots of Thatch attempting to climb the fence.

Sparks family Christmas photos.
Great-Memaw and Thatcher

Pappy and Kaylee

Cousin Justin and his wife Hannah

Sitting down for Sunday morning church at the house.

This is how Thatch enjoyed church.

Present time.

Aunt Carmen and Hannah

The guys watching all the excitement. You can tell they are thrilled.

Christmas is also Pappy's birthday.

Attempting to get a photo of the Walker clan.

Uncle Mase and Uncle Micah with the nephews.

One of the days of our visit, my mom rented a 15 passenger van so my brothers and sister and all the kids could ride together. We had lunch and that evening drove through Santa Land. I drive through Christmas lights and decorations display. It is miles of lights.

Tripp at lunch with the crazy hair.

Waiting to enter Santa Land, we were approached by vendors selling lights for kids. Of course, we had to get them one.

Since our family had to drive back home on Christmas day, we celebrated Christmas early on the 23rd. Here are a few photos of the crazy fun.

Uncle Blake and Uncle Connor

They day after we got home we enjoyed a visit from our friends Dallas and Tiffany. Dallas once worked with us at the camp and has been living with his wife Tiffany in Spokane, WA. It was great getting to see them. We miss having them around. Playing a little rock band. Notice Tripp likes playing the drums and Thatch enjoys the microphone.

December 30th, Connor and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. We enjoyed dinner out just the two of us.

Thatcher enjoyes eating crayons.

Bonita Parks 2nd annual New Year's Eve Party

The groups enjoyed a climbing contest, pinata, soda chugging contest, like five hundred balloons with bags of confetti released at midnight. The boys and I did not make it for the party, and honestly we were all three asleep that night by 9. Connor was the MC, and the guests had a blast. A special thanks to the nine past summer staff that helped out during the holiday season. It was great getting to see you all and we appreciated your hard work.

From top to bottom and left to right: Eric, Connor, Jessica, Karen, Amy Jo, Andrew, Jarrett, Felicia, Meghan, David, Kelsi, Asher, Shonda, and Danielle.