It's a boy!!

About a week after returning home from our trip to Texas, we were able to make a visit to the hospital and get an ultrasound of our baby. We dropped Claire and Everett off at their cousins' house and went to the hospital. I had debated for maybe a couple minutes about not finding out the gender and leaving it a surprise, but once we were there, we couldn't wait and we let them tell us right away. :)  We were even left with a video of the ultrasound this time. I shortened it and only included my favorite parts.



 The classic "it's a boy" picture. :)

 The best profile picture we could get, he wasn't cooperating with the technician.

 "hello everybody!"

After our ultrasound and finding out we had a little boy coming, we decided to put a few things together in a bag to show Claire and Everett to tell them the news. I think they were a little uncertain what to think, but overall they were excited for a brother. :)

easter surprise, part two

to make the week especially memorable, we decided to take my parents off to san antonio for a couple days. wednesday morning we all piled in our cars and headed down south. we checked into our hotel and decided to go swimming. well it sadly wasn't the warmest of days, and texas likes to keep their pools nice and cold in anticipation of the warmest of days. most of us couldn't do the full dip, but the kiddos seemed to still love it, everett especially. he was totally showing off his mad swimming skills thanks to his sweet floatie...

after swimming, we headed over to 'the magic time machine', a restaurant that does this whole theme thing where the waiters are dressed up as historical and literary characters. as a child, i remember loving this place, but as a grown-up, not so much. the waiters put on this whole show thing, when i just want to order, eat my food, and spend time with my family.

after dinner, we headed over to the riverwalk. six years ago when we were here last, amber and i missed out on the river boat ride, so we really wanted to make that happen. we made sure to do it at nighttime too for an added bonus. it was a great time and fun was had by all.

we then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. the next day we did the whole alamo thing. after that, we walked over to the mall and had lunch. from there, we made the long walk over to 'the tower of the americas', san antonio's version of the space needle. we watched a fun 4d video at the bottom before heading up. i don't do well with heights, so when we got up there, i decided to move as little as possible while my crazy wife and kids ran and skipped around at 750 feet up in the sky. after that, we headed over to check out the san antonio temple before heading back to abilene.

friday was spent checking out the prarie dogs (an abilene must), playing at a cool park, then swimming at the ymca. we didn't feel like we got our fill of swimming at the ice cold hotel pool so we decided to go to an indoor pool. after that we went to mr. gatti's (a chuck e cheese type place) and got our fill of pizza, arcade games, and fun little rides. claire especially loved the little roller coaster.

the next day we sadly had to leave my parents and start the long trip home. we stopped in colorado to see my sister and her family. my nephew was in a high school musical so we all went to that after dinner. the musical was based on a bunch of dr. seuss stories, so the kids really enjoyed it. the next day we were headed back home. it was such a great week. i hadn't been back to texas in so long. i do wish i could have seen more familiar faces from my old texas days, but i got to see the faces i wanted to see most - family. :)

easter surprise, part one

it rarely happens that we get the chance to travel for spring break. well this year was the exception. with a little bit of planning, most of the utah brysons decided to make a trip back home to texas. the extra special part of the trip was that we arranged to keep our visit unknown to my parents. my sister mandie made all the arrangements down in abilene, so we were all set for a fun week in texas. friday morning, our family, along with my neices kaylee and tasha, hopped in the car and began the long road trip to texas. we stopped for the night in new mexico to visit with amber's sister heather. we had such a blast that claire still asks when we can go back to her cousin natalie's house.

the next morning we were off on the second leg of our trip. the other half of the utah brysons drove through the night so we met up with them in abilene. we then all headed up to my parents' candy store in the mall. a few weeks back, my mom sent all of her granddaughters easter dresses and asked if we might send a picture of the girls in their dresses. we decided to do one better - at the risk of giving my mom a heart attack, we got all the girls dressed up and sent them into the store first. we caused quite a scene...

i think our surprise was a hit. we played at the mall, ate some dinner, and the kids got to ride a train around the mall. the guys then headed off to watch the priesthood session of general conference. we then headed home to get some sleep after a long day.

the next day was easter sunday and general conference, so between sessions we headed over to the cemetery to visit my sister's grave. what better way to celebrate the resurrection of our savior than by gathering together and remembering that we are an eternal family? death is nothing at all. it is merely a new phase in our lives. we don't bear our testimonies as often as we should, but amber and i do desire all to know that we know that, because of our lord Jesus Christ, families can be together forever. there is nothing we want more than that. after spending some time with our sister and after the second session of conference, we headed over to the church for our big easter dinner.

on monday we headed over to the abilene zoo. we took a quick train ride around the zoo, then toured the place on foot for a closer look.

after the zoo, we headed over to the nearby park (which these unskilled hands helped build over ten years ago) to play and to fly some kites.

after playing at the park, we headed over to the pavilion to have some dinner. after some finger-licking goodness, we had a giant easter egg hunt for the kiddos. it was so much fun watching them all run around looking for their eggs.

the next day all the girls went over to my neice's cosmetology school to get beautified. we then met back together for lunch at the park before heading to the mall, where i happened to run into my best friend from my younger texas years. we reminisced for a bit before we had to take off to watch my nephew's baseball game. he got a hit and ended up scoring, so he was pretty happy. we then ended the evening with some ice cream. that was our first half of the week, but because this blog is already pretty long, we'll continue the second half in another blog.

Soccer Class

For the month of February we had Claire enrolled in a Smart Soccer class. It was a fun little introductory class to soccer that involved the parents. Claire was pretty excited for another class and I think she enjoyed this one. :)

Just a Little Announcement...

I set up this photo shoot to make a little announcement. I wasn't sure how clear it was, but I got some cute photos. :) 

Everett will become a big brother this August. :)

stitches

in all my years, through all the dumb stuff i've done and all the full-contact sports i've played, i have never had to get stitches. i've broken a few bones, been thrown through a couple tables with barbed-wire on them, fallen off a bridge or two, had a couple concussions, and there was that one time in high school football practice that i got my chin cracked open and was told to get stitches, but stubbornly didn't go. yeah, my pride has gotten the best of me a time or two. but a pregnant wife trumps pride.

i was playing in a uvu flag football game. we were on defense and it was 4th and goal. the quarterback rolled my way so i rushed him. i went low to pull his flags, so when his arm came forward making the pass, his elbow connected squarely with my forehead. the qb started to complain that it was roughing the passer (it wasn't! i went low and his arm came into me!), which i started to argue with. he turned to argue back with me, but then the blood started pouring. i ran over to the sideline to find something to bandage it up. all the refs, players, and fans came over to gawk and help bandage me up. i hated it. the ref gave me a concussion test and everyone was advising me to go to the hospital to get it checked out, which i refused to do. they finally got me bandaged up and we were able to keep playing, which we won. i headed home to clean it up, but when my pregnant wife tearfully said that i needed to go to the urgent care center, there was no arguing with her. :)

as much as i hated everyone crowded around me at the field, i hated it more at the urgent care center. the first thing the doctor said was that if i wanted some nice, neat stitches, i probably should go to the er. he said he could do it, but it'd probably leave a bigger scar, which was the first good news i heard during the whole process. well, five stitches later, i was patched up. the stitches meant i had to miss my tackle game on saturday because my helmet would have torn my stitches right out. but they were out a week later and i will have a cool scar to remember the experience by. a cool harry potter scar. i am the boy who lived.

Valentine's Day

Back in February we went to a Valentine's Day party with friends. It's become an annual sort of thing with our little group of friends. It was a lot warmer this year so we had our party outside. It was full of fun, we passed out Valentine's, played some games (the kids learned a new game- red rover), celebrated a birthday, and decorated heart cookies. :)