The Jedi/Hogwarts Halloween '09

So Halloween has come and gone and I thought I'd put up a few pictures to commemorate its passing. Brooke decided a few months ago that she wanted to be Hermione Granger and Bryant (Kenny) decided that he wanted to be Yoda because Bryant (Kenny) likes Star Wars so much. Brooke is now really good friends with our neighbor's daughter and they decided to go trick or treating together. It was a lot of fun and pretty much exactly what you'd expect from two little girls dressed up in costumes, out on the street and hopped up on sugar: running, skipping, screaming, playing tag and giggling. Anyway it was a really great time and an excellent kick off to end of the year holidays!



Happy Hogwarts Halloween!

Braids were our chosen method to give Brooke that Hermionie-ish scraggly poofy hair. In the end we had 16 braids which Brooke loved having to play with.

"Presenting my daughter, Coolio"

One poofy haired Hermione at your service

Who knew the mysterious key to all of the Jedi's powers were a steady diet of lollipops?

"Mommy it's the emperor! Don't worry, I'll take care of him! AAAAHHHHH!"

Brooke with her new Texas neighborhood best friend Minnie Mouse.

(Skip)-a-dee-doo-dah!

And now here's the riveting story of two fictional fantasy characters who crossed paths one Hallows Eve. I will warn you this story is not for the faint of heart, but does demonstrate a valuable lesson about who would actually win if Hermione and Yoda ever actually got in a fight.

"Hi! My name is Hermione:-)"

"I'm one of the most powerful witches in the world except I have yet to find the spell capable of reining in my ridiculously large hair."

"And this is what I think of Jedi Masters who are short and green."

"I sense a disturbance in the Force. Dare to disrespect the Jedi Order someone has."

"Teach the poofy haired girl a lesson, I will with my awesome proportionally accurate lightsaber. "

"Oh Yoda, you reached beyond your means and now I have you and your lightsaber cornered. When will you learn that the Harry Potter series is vastly superior to anything that has ever come out of the Star Wars movies? "

Although generally a peacemaker, Hermione then turns to the most vicious wizarding spell to get rid of the Jedi once and for all. "Avada Keda......................"

"In despair I am. Stayed on swampy planet, I should have."

"Lift myself up, I must, and harness all the power of a true Jedi. Take that Hermione!"

"Escaped I have and demonstrate, I will, the strength of a true Jedi"

"Won, I have, but what prize will come to the victor of the great battle?"

"Get to be carried around everywhere by Daddy, I will, while sucking on a cherry DumDum;-)"

Moseying on Ahead

So a lot has happened in the last few months including a dental school graduation, a cruise, a family reunion, the Shakespeare Festival, dental licensing (in two states:-), decision to move, and finally an alarmingly rapid job and house hunt which has all led us to arrive at where we are today which is: TEXAS!!!! That's right! Shan and I have been planning for awhile to move out to Texas after dental school and our original plan was to work in Vegas for a year and then move to Texas, but due to some unforeseen events occurring in our lives we ended up accelerating our original plans and we now live right outside of San Antonio in a town called Cibolo. We found a great rental house that we are loving due to the increased living space and larger backyard and I have gotten a job as a dentist with a large practice that focuses almost exclusively on treating children which I have found can be challenging but quite rewarding. We actually only arrived here about a week and a half ago but we are already loving our new ward and neighborhood and looking forward to experiencing all that this area has to offer. As far as the last six months go, my original plan was to post individual blogs about all the events but lets face it, I'm not gonna do that. So I posted a few pictures as a summary blog post below this post. Enjoy!





Brooke and Bry searching for any secret passages in the new rental house






Bry now loves apples. He eats at least one a day with no signs of slowing




Grant and Alyssa had us over to make carmel apples to help make the Texas transition a little easier

"This carmel apple is going to be SOOOOO delicious"

Kisses Brooke received from her brand new friends the ants. She accidentally stepped in an anthill within an hour of moving into the new house and got a total of 45 bites.

"Wow this Texas place is different! It's like a galaxy far far away."

Brooke trying on a spacesuit at the children's museum in San Antonio

"All this moving has worn me out."

"First thing to do when moving to a new place? Get the Food!"

"Y'all come back now ya hear!"

The last six months

A final picture with Nate, Jamie and Luke before we leave





















"If your gonna do something, you should do it right!"

























Just a little pre-game stretching






















Shan above the city on our 7th anniversary!









Bry has become quite the climber. Not many toddlers can scale a 3 story building

Bry loves to fly!

Bry's first haircut

Fun at the Shakespeare Festival

Visiting Grandpa Ken

Fun at the Family Reunion

Brooke hamming it up on Country night at the reunion

Howdy Pardner

New Posts!!!

So April has been a busy month for us with a lot happening so here's the rundown. Brooke turned 4, Easter happened, I finished dental school, we went to Seattle, Bryant turned 1, and I found out I passed my dental boards. The posts for some reason are out of order which I guess doesn't really matter, but have fun with the pictures and there are videos interspersed throughout so make sure and watch out for them!

Random Pictures

So these are just some random extra pictures I happen to like but just didn't find a space for them in the other posts. Enjoy







I think this is the only closed mouth smile picture we have of Bry




Me and Bry at Nate's basketball game




Brooke playing around in her Easter dress

I just like it

Hooray!!

Hey everybody!

Bryant signing "Daddy". We've been watching some signing time videos and he's picked up a few things.

Smoosh Face!

"Hey Timmy!"

One thing Brooke liked most about Seattle was all the dogs she got to meet

We had spaghetti the other day and Brooke just went to town on her bowl of noodles

Brooke's stuffed basset hound Bassy. She originally named him Baster but we made her change it due to its likeness to another unsavory word.

Cute

Something's wrong with this mirror!

Brooke loves making up improv songs using any random object as her instrument. Enjoy!

"I'm going to be a dentist"

So after 4 years of constant studying, testing and stressing out I took my final national dental board licensing test 3 weeks ago, and I found out I passed! Yay! We don't really have many pictures of me passing cause I don't even know what that picture would look like, but we had a fun time celebrating and are so happy that dental school is finally over with. Now I just have to find a job. That should be easy right????

Bryant's 1 year old!!

So Bry finally turned 1 and he partied like it was 1999! We actually just had a really small get together where he opened presents,showed off his awesome new walking skills, and of course ate his traditional first birthday cake in his diaper. Bry says thanks to everyone for the great presents he got.





Hey everyone, It's my Birthday!



Alright, where are the presents?

This ball looks like a good place to start

Hey....Cars. Awesome!!!

"Here Bry, let me just get that for you"

"Does this car come with GPS?"

"Are you guys aware there's a DRAGON in here? Don't worry though, I caught him"

Here's the eating of the cake progression. Unfortunately it lasted too long to put on the video but this gives you the gist.

"Oooooo. Pretty cake!"

"Well I guess I'll just have one bite"

"Yum! This stuff is good!"

"So, can I just eat this whole thing then?"

"Oh wait! I get it! Here comes Papa!!!"

"I love this day!"

"Show me how the Piggy eats"

"That was great! Can I do it again?"

"Totally worth it!"

Bry playing with his ball on his birthday.

Parks, Pools and Basketball Games

Due to the weather warming up we have a lot more opportunity to go outside and the favorite place of both Brooke and Bryant is the park. Brooke is also finally taking swimming lessons this summer and hopefully will be a fully functional aquatic master within a few weeks. We also got to go to my brother Nate's team's basketball city final this year. His team won the championship and Brooke had a blast. Don't forget to check out the video's at the bottom.




"Hey this is a lot of fun"

"Look, I can do that too"

Brooke, posing for her basketball team photo

And Bry posing for his football team photo

Ready to go down the slide!

Arabesque

Always loves the tunnel!

"We rule this place!"

The cave-dwellers

Getting ready to go down the big slide!

Einstein???

Nothing better than some time on the swings

"Come on in. The water's fine."

"So I just drink this stuff and my skin is protected from the sun?"

"I've got to get my tan going before summer gets here."

Girls at the game!

"We won! We won! It's your birthday"

No, that's not the Easter Bunny! Just the school mascot.

"I'm beat!"

Brooke's cheer after Nate's game. She likes the cheerleaders more than the actual game.

All these activities can really wear you out.