Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

Hello Lasses and Laddies,

Well with the arrival of St. Patrick's day and me on my last spring break ever from school before I graduate I find myself in the unique position of having time on my hands. As you may have already guessed from the first two pictures, so far I've wasted most of that time fiddling around with Photoshop, but hey, I don't regret it. Nonetheless this has been an exciting month so here's the run down

Bryant has made many important strides in becoming a full fledged walker (get it......STRIDES:-) and has now taken up to 6 steps all by himself. This has opened up endless new avenues of exploration for our young boy who is enjoying his new freedoms of pulling down everything he can get his hands on and making huge messes. As for Shan and I....well... we're happy for him???

Brooke continues to be a social butterfly and has great fun playing with all her friends in her playgroup. One of her most recent landmarks is that she has finally crossed the alphabetical barrier as she can now sound out and read very simple books which she has a blast doing. The books are fun to go through and I continue to be enthralled by the tone and plot twists presented from books like "Mat and Sam" where two supposed friends go through adventures until suddenly at the end "Sam sat on Mat" for the surprise ending. (Yes that actually is one of her books)

Anyway, we hope all are doing well and we hope you all enjoy the pictures this fine Irish day!

This is the design we've chosen for the 8x20 foot tapestry we'll be hanging on our entryway wall.

Too much???

After having heard so many stories that involve talking animals, Brooke finally could no longer seperate fact from fiction and fell in love with a Bear.

I've just made this huge mess that I'll never have to take responsibility for cleaning up.....not unlike many of our modern day investment firms

It's important kids have solid role models to help teach our children the things that are really important in life:-)

Although this ride is fun, I think it's already a little too "baby-ish" for me

"This is the best ride I've ever been on!!!!!"

Just hanging out.

This is what I think of "Bedtime"!

"Where to Guvna?"

Bry and Grammie trying out his brand new shoes

"We've now assigned Brooke Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for dinner"

"Do you remember what I said in the tunnel?"

"For some reason I feel I should be getting ready for take-off."

"I love parks!!!"

Valentines '09

Happy Valentines Day!! Just thought I'd take a quick minute and post my beautiful wife's Valentine's day gift to me which was these pictures of the kids. My favorite is the cowboy one but they're all awesome! Hope everyone has a great day and we love you all.

Bumps, Bruises, and a Brand new Bob!

So over Christmas we just kinda slacked on the blog so I thought I'd take a quick minute to update everyone. First of all, Christmas was great. We spent most of the time here in Vegas where we had lots of fun seeing everyone and even getting to play in the snow a little. We went up to Utah over New Years where we had a fantastic time seeing Great Grandparents and bringing in the New Year with a great New Years Eve party. And since then we've just been trying to get used to a normal schedule again. Brooke is now in primary in church which she is very excited about and as you can see we decided to cut her hair......well actually she decided to cut her hair at home and we decided to cut the rest of it to match. Bryant is doing great. He is now to the cruising stage of movement so he trys to walk along with the furniture whenever he can. He also trys to walk by himself without holding on to anything after which he inevitably falls and conks his head on something making him look like a tough guy who gets in bar fights all the time. But he's still a very good natured little man and I'm sure we'll have a fully operational biped within a couple of months. Hope all is well and enjoy the pics!

Fun with Great Grandma and Grandpa "O"

Happy Grandparents

Bryant's preferred sleeping position on the day of the Sugar Bowl. TOUCHDOWN!

What's Christmas without a few reindeer with balloon antlers?

" And he goes up! No one can stop him....and he dunks it!"(Crowd cheering)

"I want a hairstyle that says approachable, yet stylish."

Daddy/Daughter time

" Cutest couple EVER!"

A plastic flower that Brooke decided to put in a pot

Some quality time with Great Grandpa Ken

"Hey, my great grandma is fun!"

"You put your right arm in...."

Brooke and a friend going for the PBA title

Bryant's morning hair. We love it.

No better place for some brother/sister bonding

"Do I have something on my face?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha (snort) ha ha ha ha (snort)"

"Who's ready to play?"

Vanna in training

"What is this coldish white dust falling from the sky?"

"I wonder how hard it is to hibernate?"

Elf-ing Ourselves

So every year at Christmas we go and do the little Elf Yourself videos and below are the fruits of our labors. We had to have 5 pictures or else they put in a really corny picture of an elf so Brooke insisted that Tinkerbell be the 5th member of our family. Enjoy!

Stayin Alive at Christmas Time!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Hoedown

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Fun Family Times

Here are some more fun pictures to enjoy. As you can see Shan got to go see the new "Twilight" with some friends and when I asked her how it was she just laughed and nodded her head in a lamenting fashion. Oh well, good try.

Bryant's a professional crawler now and is starting to build-up his speed so that's keeping us on our toes. Brooke's finding that he can now get "all up in her space" so it looks like we may have a good old fashioned turf war on our hands soon. Enjoy the pictures!

Shan and her playgroup girlfriends at the opening night of "Twilight"

"Ready or not here I come"


Brooke dancing around with the numerous braids Daddy decided to do

The unfortunate bushy outcome of the numerous braids Daddy decided to do

"I'm very Posh. That's a fancy word for fancy"

Does it get cuter than this?

Having lived in Vegas for so long, Brooke and Shan decide to start their own Cirque de Soleil show

Bryant tangled up in chair legs. The boy gets everywhere now.

Playing Catch-up

So since we haven't posted much in the past few months we thought we'd post some pictures we wanted to put up but never found the time to. Enjoy!


Brooke's leaf collection that she accrued on an afternoon walk


Bryant decked out in his basketball uniform getting ready for his future superstar status


Bryant and "Grandpa O" having fun on the balcony

Cinnamon Rolls anyone?

Bryant experiencing the freedom arising from his newfound mobility

Random picture I snapped during our car trip from Vegas to California. I think this picture illustrates exactly what our car trips are like.

Brooke and I inside the Bellagio Gardens.......

And at the Fountains (See video below)

Bryant acutally prefers to be on his feet than his knees so he does this quite a lot. When he has something a little taller to hold on to he'll actually do a full stand which I'll try to post a picture of later.

"Am I doing this right?"

Brooke and the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Me and Bry just hanging out.

And Now a Special Message From Bryant....

Brooke enjoying the water show. Bryant......not so much.