We love Chocolate World

Last Tuesday it was such a nice day, Bryce and I went to Chocolate World in Hershey. He "worked" hard that day. He donned his hard hat and filled the family a bucket full of chocolate. He even got a lunch box to bring home. In these pics, he was ready for bed, but just couldn't leave work at the factory that night!!
Later that day we went to play at the park--good thing too since 3 days later we had 8+ inches on snow fall. That snow is mostly gone now, so maybe we will get to the park again this week.

30 days....and counting

Today officially marks 30 days until we leave for Disney World. We are ALL SO EXCITED. I keep telling Bryce how much fun we are going to have and he is getting so excited. We bought a new Birnbaum book and he looks through what pictures there are and tells me what he wants to ride. We have been planning this for over a year, so poor Bryce probably thinks he is NEVER going.
He is 39 inches tall and most of the "adult/big kid" rides require 40 inches, but I measured him with his sneakers on the other day and he makes the measure!!!!
Well, I am off to order kid ID online so that we can keep him safe while we are there. They have these cool little plates you can place on the shoestrings in case---HEAVEN FORBID--you get separated. The person helping to find the parents has all the info on there they would need IE cell number, parents name etc...

Johnny Gymnast

Bryce has turned into a tumbling/jumping champion during the long winter. He gets excellent distance from his strong leg muscles. See below
Sorry the video is so grainy---we need to invest in a real CD video recorder instead of the one added to my digital camera.

I do believe he is getting a strong, little athletic body from his constant motion. Also, you can barely see his scar in these 2 pictures.


P.S. You can occassionally find him clothed!!!!
He must go through 3 outfits a day on a normal basis. He must get so tired of hearing me say, "Bryce, put your clothes back on!"

Big pants to fill

Bryce decided that he was going to wear Jason's pants the other night. I got a few pictures for posterity.

As you can see, Bryce has a loooooong way to go before he can fill these.

Not much to do but play inside

We haven't really been up to much since the start of the new year. January is usually a pretty quiet month for us. Bryce continues to play with his newest gifts. His favorite as you can see is still the trains. He loves his cool steam Thomas the train set. More accurately he loves to make a mess filling the water tower with WATER!!




We are all waiting "patiently" for our trip to Walt Disney World in April. I began a daily countdown calendar for Bryce. He was getting up every day asking if we were going to WDW today. I found a clip art Sourcer's Apprentice Mickey picture
and copied it over and over to make the total # of days until our trip--as of today it is 89. He X's off one Mickey each day, and he really looks forward to doing that. He knows just how long it is now until we go.

Packing peanuts are great!!

For Christmas, I received the beautiful clock I asked for from my parents. It was shipped from South Carolina, and the box had packing peanuts in it to protect the delicate clock.
Bryce found them and had a BLAST--all over my parent's carpet.

Nana and Pap's house

Our first house to visit was my parent's on Christmas Day. After I slept for a few hours, we enjoyed a great dinner with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and my aunt and cousin. It really was a wonderful time spent in one another's company.
Bryce was again showered with gifts, and he received the largest gift--size wise--at my parents. He is the proud owner of a kitchen/laundry set from Little Tykes. I will have to take some photos and post them later. He really enjoys making the grilled cheese sandwich on the stove top. He also unwrapped a huge wooden garage set, PJ's, various books, an Aqua-Doodle, a Little Mermaid Etch-A-Sketch(he loves it) and a few other things I can't remember at the moment.

Pap watching Bryce open his gifts

At first Pap Adam (Uncle Adam) and Bryce were fighting over the gift, and then....

Bryce won!!

Tuesday, we traveled to Jason's mom's(Grammy and Pap Earl) and then to his dad's(Pappy Jon and Grandma's (Yvonne)). Bryce's favorite present from Grammy was a plastic cylinder that must hold at least 30 little cars--works great with the wooden garage that my mom (Nana) bought him. His favorite from Pap Jon and Grandma is a toss up. He really likes his Cars book, but he also got a motion flat screen light with pictures and scenes from Cars as well. We hung it on the wall, and he loves to lay in bed and watch the scenes move by. Pap Adam and Amber bought Bryce a personalized Cars clock that looks great on the wall with the motion light, and a Play-doh play center. I haven't been brave enough to try that out yet. Bryce wants to make the bubble gum first. I bought him a Hubba Bubba bubble gum maker set--Bryce wanted to make it as soon as he unwrapped it. I think we might experiment later today.

Presents, presents everywhere....

Obviously Santa thought Bryce was a very good boy this year, and so did Jason and I. He made out like a bandit. The pictures below are the presents he received at home only. Remember, we went to 3 other houses--grandparents--where there were more presents for him to open and enjoy.

The presents wrapped and one of the last moments of quiet within the house. Luna the cat was not a present.

Busy opening gifts, Bryce takes a moment to smile. He was a little tired though. He was up until 1:30 am questioning Jason when Santa was coming. Then Bryce thought he heard Santa downstairs and kept waking up to ask Jason if Santa had come. I was at work.

Bryce in front of all of his unwrapped loot!!

The cool steam Thomas the train set was the biggest hit and he plays with the train daily.

Bryce also likes his Shake N Go raceway. Mom and Dad really like it too. His dinosaur is also in the picture along with various other little toys, and Bella the dog's christmas bone.

Making Christmas Cookies the Bryce Durham way

First, you smile for the camera

Next, you make sure that everyone is watching

Then, you paint the cookie with egg mixture

Next, you decorate the cookie with colored sugar--my favorite to use today is blue

Finally, you do a sugar shot using the cap from the decorating bottle and turn the tongue blue


Wednesday, my Mom and I spent 6+ hours making Christmas cookies with the added occasional decorating expertise of Bryce. A great time was had by all involved.

Choo Choo ride with Santa

Tonight we went on a train ride with Santa at Strasburg railroad. We first started out the day though at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord. When I say they had a lot of food, they really had a LOT of food. I have never seen a buffet that even beings to compare with this place. You will not go away hungry and the price was extremely reasonable. If you are visiting the Lancaster area, EVER, this is a must stop place. The gift shop downstairs also has anything you could ever imagine. They also have a farmer's market and bakery down the road, but we were unable to visit.
Bryce loved the train ride with Santa and actually shook his hand--as you can see in the photo. He made out like a bandit also--we had to browse in the gift shops too.

Gifts

Bryce got one of his Christmas presents early. He saw the DHL driver drop it off out front and wouldn't let it rest until I opened the box. Amazing how tears are still able to crush my willpower. Here he is playing with the Leapster.
The other pictures are of him in his robe that I bought him. It was a little pricey but too cute and too soft to pass up. It is a snowman robe and you can't really see the hat and eyes on top, but that is what's on the hood of the robe.

So long to preschool

Bryce was sick yesterday for the 4th time this season. He had a fever of 104.8 and was throwing up. His poor little body was shivering because of the fever, and he looked so pathetic. After much discussion and some very hard decisions, Jason and I decided to take Bryce out of preschool. Physically, I don't know how much more he can take, and MENTALLY I can't handle it anymore. We are going to try again in spring if the kids are not as sick at the preschool. We'll see is he can go in April and May. I am praying for a freezing cold winter so that the lower temps kill off all the viruses/cold bugs!!

Christmas is coming

Here's Bryce eating a popsicle after the hard work of putting our tree and train up last night.

I am so ready for Christmas this year, it is scary. I have all the presents bought--just not wrapped yet, but I have started on that too! Jason has a few presents to buy yet as well, but even he ahead of his own "last minute buying" schedule this year.
Last night we went and bought our tree and Bryce was so excited. Once it was decorated, Jason and Bryce put the train under the tree. Jason has been promising Bryce this all year long. Bryce's grandpa Cooper brought a brand new train down his last visit, and it fits perfectly under the tree. It even has a chugging sound and train whistle that blows as it rounds the track.
On our way to get the tree last night, we dropped off all 75+ of our Christmas cards at the Post Office for delivery--watch those mail boxes!! ***I told you I was doing great this year***
The only thing to do now, is try to keep the anticipation of a 3 year old under control for the next 3 or so weeks!!


Close-up of Bryce w/his Christmas tree and train.

Now I am NOT an artist, but here is a picture of the small farm we set up under the tree. It reminds us of Strasburg and the small farms that surround those train tracks. The blue circle is our chalked-on duck pond.

Week in Review

Nothing much new to report...
Bryce is starting to get over his THIRD cold of the season. As much as he loves preschool and it has done wonders for him, these places are little germ factories.
He also developed pink eye along the way and it is a knock down, drag out fight 3-4 times a day to put the drops in his eyes. We just started them last night, so I have 4-6 more days of blissful joy fighting w/a 3 yr old. You never really realize how strong your kids are until you have to do something like this to them!!! The poor kid gets ambushed every time he sleeps/naps so that he is unaware until I'm going to do it. He fights much less if I can catch him by surprise and sleepy---the awful things we as parents have to resort to in order to "HELP" our children.

I'll post some new pictures soon. Bryce gets to go see Santa on his train ride at Strasburg December 14th, so he is very excited about that. I would also like to take him very soon to see all the lights at Hershey Park (Sweet Lights) it is called.

Candy Lane 2006

Sunday, we all went to Candy Lane. All included my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, Jason, Bryce, and myself. Bryce had a great time as always, and I actually remembered to take the camera this time.
Here's a shot of Bryce and me coming down the Merry Dip slide
This is Bryce getting up and running to do it all over again
Bryce was NOT impressed with Frosty
Bryce loves to ride this train
It was a little chilly, but Bryce and I were all smiles

High School Reunion

Well, Saturday I went to my 10 year high school reunion. I dragged along my best friend--whom I've known since 2nd grade--and our husbands. We had a fun time, but it was not what I expected. I really don't know WHAT I expected, but there are still those cliques that existed back in high school. It didn't seem that many people traveled outside of that comfort zone. It was good to see people though.

Here's a picture of Jason and I all dressed up. We clean up well if I do say so myself.
Here is Shannon and me--a good friend to me since second grade, and my best friend for a long time.
Here's Terra and me. We became instant friends when she moved here in 7th or 8th grade. She did a lot of the organizing for the reunion.

So Bryce finally sat on Santa's lap without a screaming fit! He told him over and over that he wanted a dinosaur. By that, Bryce means he would like the $99.99 Roboreptile (for ages 8+) that he saw advertised in the BJ's circular. I guess we will have to go to Toys R Us and get the smaller, pre-school friendly version.

My handsome boy

Well, if you didn't know who Bryce took after before you can tell now. He is definately a good mix between Jason and I, but he got my sparkling smile!!! Here is his professional pre-school picture. Cute, isn't he??

Deer Bryce

Bryce loves the headband antlers he got last night in his Burger King kids meal!!