The Bryan Family Sampler

Monday, December 7, 2015

November Odds and Ends

First off, I finally updated pictures of Abby's room here.

(scroll down to the bottom of the post).

My wonderful mom had a birthday and we celebrated as a family.

My esteemed grandparents...

Matt wanted to have some Christmas puzzle races...

...and I finally finished up the one that's been on the card table forever...

I love this one :)

Honey had a birthday too.

We forgot until the end of the day and then Abby realized and ran downstairs to sing happy birthday to her. She also spelled out a cute little message in her food tray with carrots.

She's the best caretaker!

We had some lovely clouds...

And last but definitely not least,
I can finally post a picture of this cutie!
My sister's adoption was finalized!

It's so fun to skype and see this sweetheart!...and my sister too :)

Bryan Thanksgiving 2015

As usual, I'm not super confident with my words, so I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

There was a lot of game playing at our Thanksgiving celebration in Idaho Falls...

Mike was the fearless turkey preparator...I don't know if that's the right word or not but he did a great job of making that bird edible :)

The rest of us got a kick out of watching him go through the process...and being grateful it wasn't us :)

Ben spent a lot of time going up and down the stairs to the toy room...

Andy's parents were involved with the missionaries for Thanksgiving so that's why we planned a separate celebration. Nancy had a hard time being apart so she sent packages of things...among which were these fashionable turkey hats :)

Ben and Carter...

Other activities included swimming, shopping, playing in the snow and staying up late enjoying each others' company.

It's always a grand time when the Bryans get together!

Monday, November 9, 2015

Halloween 2015

I was pretty lame this year and didn't get a whole lot of pictures on Halloween.

Since Ben didn't get to wear his Thomas costume to school last year because of seizures, I decided to just have him use the same costume this year.

Here he is watching for the bus...

Matt was Harry Potter a couple of years ago but his teacher this year is a huge HP fan so he wanted to be the same thing this year. Easy :)...especially since Josh was HP two year ago as well so we had a size larger for Matt this year. Abby originally wanted to be a pirate but thankfully changed to an easier idea last minute. Here she is as a cute little smarty pants (I like that better than "nerd")

Josh was...I don't know what he was....

We bought a painting cover up suit thing for him because he wanted to put black tape on it and be a stick figure. However, when he tried it on, it was huge. He proceeded to stuff himself with pillows and looked so funny that he decided to ditch the tape. We had several thoughts of what he could call himelf...Baymax, a white oompaloompah, and I think, what he ended up telling people at school, the Michelin man.

Right before we went out to trick or treat to grandparents, Ben had a seizure. We knew his cluster was coming...he was long overdue so it was no surprise, but stinking timing :)

Andy stayed home with him while I took the other kids out.

Abby had her first year out trick or treating with friends and my parents and brothers came over for dinner and festivities as usual.

Fun night, just wish I had more pics :(

(Harry selfie)

Abby's 11! (and a room makeover)

Abby decided several months ago that for her birthday, she wanted us to redo her room. She's been in need of a new bed and she wanted to make the room fox themed.

Andy was willing to paint (I'm not a painter) and she wanted to help...

I searched forever online for a loft bed. Eventually, I decided on a mid, or low loft with dresser and bookshelf.

I was cutting it close when I ordered it and wasn't sure if it would be here in time for the big day but it ended up arriving the day before!

Mom made a fox quilt for her...documented here on her blog.

It's just perfect!

We were able to keep Abby out of her room while we set up the bed and everything else.

Mom brought the quilt over while she was at school.

She was absolutely thrilled!

I love this picture :)

I've kind of been holding off on this post because there were things that weren't completely in place on her birthday that have since been taken care of. I wanted to get a picture with the room complete, but the problem is, now that she's moved all of her things back in to the room, it's a mess. She's got to sort through and throw out a bunch of stuff before I can take some good pictures. I figured if I waited for it to be clean it would be quite a while before I posted...so here it is and hopefully later, I can add some more pictures :)

She found this bungee chair a few months ago at Bed Bath and Beyond.

There were a couple of things I ordered online less than a week before her birthday and was pretty sure we wouldn't be seeing them until after the room reveal but the fox picture (seen on the dresser above) and the fox pillow cover (you can't see it very well but it's in the lower left corner of the picture below) barely made it to our home in time...like the day of :)