Praying, Swinging, Dancing...

Brice is awesome at praying. I know that lots of young kids say the cutest prayers and Brice is no different. However, there is something about Brice that I believe sets him apart from what I usually see or here. Brice is sensitive to people and will pray for you without being told to pray. Whenever we are not feeling well, Brice will pray for us. Dear Jesus, please help "insert Mommy or Daddy or whoever needs prayer here", be safe and well. Amen. One day I had told him I was not feeling well so he proceeded to pray very similar if not exactly as I said above. Then immediately afterwards he asked me if I felt better. Amazingly, I tell him I do and sure enough I start feeling much better. There is power in his prayer because he prays it sincerely and prays to the point.

Brice loves to be outside. His favorite thing lately is going to the park and swinging. He likes to slide and climb on the other toys, but swinging is probably his favorite. He gets this from him mom. Melanie loved to swing as a little girl and still jumps at the opportunity to swing when we go to the park. Brice will just sit there for hours and swing if we let him. He enjoys watching all the other kids play and just observing the different things they do. He will ask us where different people are at when we go back and they are not there. He likes to mimic the bigger kids that swing on there stomachs.

Another one of Brice's favorite things to do is dance and sing. He loves to praise and worship at church. I will have to get some pictures and even a video or two and post them. He will ask us to play his favorite praise songs at home and just dance around the living room and sing them. He loves for Melanie and I do dance and sing with him. It is actually tons of fun and really helps lift your spirit man up. He uses a couple dance moves that I taught him. There is one in particular that is hilarious. Again an excellent opportunity of some video. Most of all he just loves to worship God. Him and his good friend at church will get on their knees and just worship together. It is an awesome sight to see.

Here are some other fun/sweet/cool things that Brice does and enjoys doing.
1. He really enjoys spaghetti or "fabeggie" as he calls it. When Melanie is cooking it, he likes to feed us the uncooked noodles. Mmm Mmm good.
2. He likes to play ball. He will play basketball or catch with you. He is really talented, and I am looking forward to getting him into some organized sports when he is older. For now he just throws the ball with us or at the tv : ) (Of course he is trying to throw it to the people on tv)
3. He loves to play Doctor Mommy with Melanie. He will act like he is hurt and Melanie will doctor him up, or sometimes he just likes her to do a check up.
4. When someone gets hurt, he will ask them if they need a bandaid.
5. He really enjoys painting. For a while there, he painted every day almost. Melanie has a very large stack of his artwork and many people have been privileged to get a custom painted card (birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Valentine's, and others...)

There is so much more but I will save it for another post. I hope you have enjoyed reading about Brice and what is going on with him lately. I will try to post some more later this week. Have a blessed day!

Brice's first time to play in the snow

As you all probably know, we got a ton of snow earlier this year. Brice absolutely loved it. We took him out and pulled him around in the drive way in a clothes hamper. He would laugh and say "Do it again Daddy!". Absolutely priceless. Here are some of the snow pictures.



Little feet in the snow. It was actually pretty deep snow.



Melanie pushing Brice around the driveway.



Now pulling him. This is when he really started having fun.



See what I mean. :)



Brice with Melanie.



Me pulling Brice around with my nice gloves!







A few pictures of Brice with his snowman. He held on to him the whole time practically. Then we brought him in and put him in the freezer. He got him out the other day and he melted mostly. I think it might be back in the freezer now. Thank you God for the beautiful snow. It was so much fun to play outside with Brice and see him experience the joys of playing in the snow.

Brice is growing up fast : )

Here is my attempt of blogging again. I plan to keep his blog current so that people can see Brice grow even though they are not able to actually see him. I will start with pictures from the last few months.

Brice had an awesome Christmas. Here are some pictures from different Christmas get togethers.



Brice loves to read!



He is a big Elmo fan and got some grilling toys too.







He loves to play with his cousins!



He was a lot better at opening gifts this year, but his favorite thing to do is wrap a gift and give it to someone else. He loves to give gifts. He sings Happy Birthday to Melanie and I all the time.



Opening one of his gifts with his Aunt Tina.



Drawing on his Aquadoodle that he got from Aunt Tina.


Ready to drive home for the night : )


More pictures in the next post. Thank you everyone for your awesome Christmas gifts.

Merry Christmas indeed

So, I was thinking I should probably put up a new post since I am currently averaging one a month. Christmas was awesome as it always is. We spent this year going from place to place sharing time and gifts with family from both sides. We ate lots of good food, played in a couple of gift exchange games, and even enjoyed a small little Christmas celebration at home before traveling over 150 miles on Christmas day without leaving the DFW metroplex. Brice got lots of fun toys and has been enjoying many if not all of them already. There are too many to lists, and I would not want to leave anyone out. However, he is thankful for all of them as his other toys had seemingly become boring. Brice is walking now. He is much faster if he is cruising (i.e. holding on to something); however, he is getting braver each day with walking on his own. I am sure it won't be long and he will be running. Here are some random pictures of different Christmas celebrations and the holiday season. Enjoy!

Update on Brice

I am not going to post any pictures right now, but maybe later I will add some. I just wanted to update everyone on how Brice is doing. He is growing everyday in so many ways. He has learned to say a few words, although you might not recognize them without spending sometime around him. He has perfected Dada (and says it in different ways depending on what he wants). He is very good at saying Mama as well, but for some reason seems to say it more selectively. He does a great "quack, quack" when you ask him what a duck says. But it sounds more like "tack, tack". However, it is obvious that he knows what a duck says. He can also say "Bubba", which is what we often call him. He says "Nana" and "Papa". He can also say "baseball", sounds like "bball", but it is very cute. There are other words as well that he will mimic to the best of his ability, but I think those are the most distinct ones.

He is, in my opinion, within days of walking. He actually took his first two steps this morning and then lunged towards me. He walks around the house with his little car walkers without much problem at all. His main issue with those is turning, so we usually accompany him and steer the car when he needs help. He can climbs the stairs without help, although, we are always close behind as sometimes he does seem to slip. I will try to get some video of him walking and climbing the stairs and post that as well.

He is eating well, and growing too. I don't know how much he weighs exactly, but he is between 22-23 lbs. He seems long (tall) too, but I would be guessing to give you his height. He is absolutely amazing, and makes life for Melanie and I a blast. He really makes us smile regardless of circumstances. He is definetely a handful and requires alot of attention. We tend to probably think he needs even more than others would think is necessary, but I guess that is probably how parenting goes for most with their first child.

I hope you are all doing great. I am looking forward to seeing some of yall during the holidays, and for those that I don't see very often when we do cross paths I hope to find you smiling. Happy Belated Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. This is an awesome time of the year.

Pictures

I do not really have a specific thing to blog about today. I just thought I would update the blog with some pictures of Brice. I hope you all enjoy. He is doing great and getting closer to walking everyday. He has 12 teeth and loves to be outside.

Texas State Fair - call it a family tradition

So, this weekend we headed out to the State Fair of Texas. It ended up being my parents, Melanie, Brice, and myself after my sister and family were unable to attend due to illness. It probably worked out best this way though as they had wanted to go early and we didn't get out there until mid afternoon (I think 4 but I can't remember :) ).



Here we are headed up to the gate. We were really blessed with a fairly close on fair ground parking spot. Even after heading down the street that said "No Cash Parking". God's favor is great.
Brice got interested in this area when the dog's were barking. He really like dogs. However, we ended up getting down next to the ducks and I think chickens. Brice also like ducks. When you ask what a duck says he says "Quack quack quack". Of course, you have to speak Brice to know that is what he is saying.
Mommy didn't make the family picture as she was the camerawoman, so here is one of her and Brice. He almost appears as though he wasn't too interested in the camera :)

Here is a picture of us in the food pavillion. I believe the food is argueably the best part of the fair. Here is a list of what all we got while out there. Two loaded potatoes, 1 extra long cheese coney, Dr. Pepper, Ice Tea, Water, Turkey Leg, Corny Dog, Ice Cream, Funnel Cake, and Hot Chocolate. I won't disclose who had what, but one person at least tasted all but one food item.



When we were making our way from the food to the car show, we got to stop and watch a parade go through. Brice really enjoyed it. He was pointing at alot of the different people that came by. You can't tell much from the pictures, but there were a few floats, people on stilts, and other things. Quite catchy for a one year old.
Here is a good family picture with Big Tex in the background. I can't believe I am almost as tall as Big Tex. I guess State Fair food makes you big :)


Free games, free prizes... what's not to like. Above my Dad and I compete to see how fast we can put some boxes in the back of a Ford. Granted we were about 10 seconds slower than the fastest fair time, we had fun and got a free Ford koozie. We also played a rendition of the Price is Right's Plinko and Deal or No Deal. I got some sweet Ford tire valve covers (too bad I drive a Chevy) so Dad ended up with those. Dad got entered into a drawing for Cowboy's tickets. We both opted not to take a flashlight on Deal or No Deal and go for a whopping $11 (maybe $12). We both left that game empty handed. We also threw some footballs in a Toyota challenge. I scored two chapsticks for my willingness to go for a target that had only had 4 successful throws. Earlier we drove some Chevy's and filled out a couple surveys to get the bags you see my Dad and I wearing and the hat he has on. All in all we left with some good things.
Brice was extremely tired by now, but he had some fun playing in the back of a Ford pickup. I was distracted though as a nearby Robot answered a crowd of people's questions. Did anyone else see this? It was kind of creepy, but really cool.

Time to leave now. Brice is not asleep in this picture, but he is willingly laying down. This is a sure sign of his tiredness.

One last picture with Mommy and Nana before Brice surrenders himself to dreamland. He was so cute. He just layed his head on my shoulder and went to sleep. By then it was near 10:30 and he had been awake for a lot longer than he is used to. However, despite him being so tired for the most part he was in a great mood the entire fair. And as Brice called it a night, I too must do the same. It is almost 2am, and I need some sleep. Goodnight all (all = the 4 people that read this blog).