It's not all about Bryce : )

Usually I keep the blog to updates about Bryce and his MANY ways but we also like to use it as a forum to keep you all posted on what's going on in our family as well. Today will be Erik's last day at his current job, they have had to eliminate his position as there just aren't any pools selling and we all know how the economy is.... Erik was notified a little over a week ago and this coming Tuesday would be 2 wks but w/the holiday and no work the co. has graciously let today be his last day but will pay him thru Tues.

So, we would like to ask all of you to join us in praying for a new job for Erik. We know this is a blessing in disquise and that God is faithful so we are not tossed about but we know the road ahead could very well be real bumpy and a true test of our faith. This is not the first time we have been down this road so we are prepared for whatever it is God has in store and trust that it will be for the best. Please pray that God would give us peace in the waiting and that the waiting would not be too long. Pray that God would provide a job close to home with flexible work schedule, professional atmosphere and retirement/401k etc. Pray for us that our if nec. our finances be stretched as only God can do and that he would be glorified thru us. Pray for Erik that he would be confident in his education and abilities and for his interviewing skills and the process.

We are blessed with the health of family and friends and have a little guy that could of had complications and developmental delays due to his prematurity but doesn't, we have a tremendous amount of things to be thankful for. God is working in ways we can not see and may never know but as long as we trust him and are obidient to his will we can be at perfect peace. We will not allow the enemy to rob us of our joy or cause our faith to faulter.

We love you all very much and are blessed to have you as family and friends. We thank you for your continued, love, support and prayers as we journey thru this life together.

We will keep you updated on the exciting times of the Billings!

Love, Krista & Erik

Wordless Wednesday.....

CONGRATULATIONS MONIQUE & CHRIS 6.21.08

We had a fun, dare I say....picture less? (I KNOW, it's unbelievable, me w/o my camera) Ah... mom to the rescue- her are few shots from mom..thanks mom! We had weekend filled with lots of family-( the best kind :). We went to Auntie Renee's and Uncle Gordy's and played with Jocelyn and Elyse and the kids had a great time together. It is such a joy to watch them interact w/each other they are just precious. And we swam a little then got ready for "the wedding"!

We went to my cousins (Monique (Mo)- Krista's dad's side) wedding and it was a beautiful late afternoon ceremony and everyone looked beautiful. All the girls had up do's and the boys were all clean shaved w/fresh slick haircuts. The Bride was stunning and everything that she worked so hard on came together beautifully!

Monique and Dad (Uncle Harold)

My Uncle Harold (FOB-that's father of the bride ya know :) ) had suspenders on to help alleviate any incidents like what transpired at my other cousins (Anne-Marie)wedding that being his pants kept slipping down and well it made for a very memorable first dance that my Dad and I get a good chuckle over... poor Uncle Harold.

The "Brother's" Harold and Billy

My my dad and brother were dapper dans! Mom, Alinda, Erik and myself looked our usual sharp selves...lol. It was a wonderful time and great visiting and getting caught up with everyone. I am hoping when mom and dad come back thru for the final leg of their visit that mom has some pictures I can post- The day just flies by too fast. They are a great couple and it was a wonderful day.

Erik and I decided at the last minute to leave Bryce w/the babysitter @ Aunt Renee's. It was a very good decision we were really able to relax and enjoy the celebration, plus he is such a little terrorist...who knows what he may have done- besides be cute and charming of course? I have to say when my cousins daughter Kaitlin (who was the cutest little flower girl...ever!) was out on the dance floor I was thinking how much fun it would be w/Bryce, then I remembered the calm w/o him and was blessed to know that we made the right decision :) Momma still loves ya Brycie but it was so good for mommy and daddy to have a "date night" as it were!

Cake...obviously

Ahhhh first dance

Aunt Renee' and MOB (Mother of the Bride : ) ) Aunt Linda

Mom and Dad

Korey and Alinda

Anne-Marie & Me

FOB- & Monique

Aaron and his "lady friend" ~ Jessie, also as luck would have it...haha the bouqet catcher and garter boy...hee hee are you next?

Tammy & Kelli

CONGRATULATIONS KELLI, JASON & JOCELYN ON YOUR NEW HOME...YIPPEEE

We spent Sunday hanging out in the pool and napping and just relaxing with the family and headed over to check out Kelli and Jason's new abode.. it is a great house and it is so exciting for Kelli to have room for all her wonderful art pieces she has created thru the years- she is incredibly talented and I can't wait to see how she customizes their home- very exciting time for them and lil miss jocelyn has plenty of room to sow her oats! Bryce of course is more than willing to help her break in her new digs! They were too cute together- Jocelyn would say Bryce, Bryce, Bryce and he would say Jocelyn it's sweet.

I am trying to get the rest of the family to get on the blog wagon, cause I LOVE it so much and have fun keeping every body updated, plus it's a great journal that chronicles all the things I'm bound to forget :) And well I get bored reading my own material. LOL! I have two other friends that I know of that blog and so I get to check out theirs so that's good for me for now. But bewarned... I'm coming for ya...hahaha!

Where have we been?

Well, mommy has still been feeling a little under the weather (fighting bronchitis, a sinus infection, and now a UTI...fun. And Bryce is getting over his ear infection and mommy is trying to keep up with his many mischievous ways and boy is he full of um :) . Thank goodness for daddy!

Water and playing with the water hose are still his first loves and also still the biggest challenge we have w/him. The many time outs have equated to longer play times but he still struggles with the rules. He has gotten to where he can go about 15 -20 minutes w/o spraying mommy or daddy and then a lapse in judgement and a slip of the trigger and we are wet and he is in a most miseable time out! Oh the fun.

Hopefully tonight we will be able to take him to the fair for some fun and animal viewing. I know he is going to go crazy for the livestock exhibition- just like last year! It's great to have his fresh view!

And this evening we went to the fair. We ran into some old friends which was really nice! Bryce had a blast riding the rides the little dare devil! The weather is absoulutely gorgeous it's like 80 outside and it is a beautiful evening. I of course took the camera only to discover that I had left the memory card at home......nice. Oh well I will hold the memories in my heart forever and you all will have to imagine his absoulute glee and joy as he flew down the big slide and his little squeals when we all went on the spinning dragons- the kid LOVEZ to spin! It was a really fun time, we got to see one of our friends children show her pigmy goat and she placed second- she has been placing much lower- 7th- so that was very nice to share in their excitement. Bryce loved the animals- big surprise...LOL.

Well that's it for now. We have a wedding this weekend so we should have some good pics of the cousins together.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!

TO ALL THE WONDERFUL MEN IN OUR LIVES WE WANT TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE FOR US AND SAY WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO GLAD YOU ARE ALL STILL ALIVE AND WITH US TODAY!

WE CHERISH OUR TIMES WITH YOU AND LOOK FORWARD TO MORE!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

I love my daddy because:

He always plays with me

He eats cookies for breakfast with me

He lets me get all wet and dirty

He holds my hand when we cross the street

He teaches me to play "ball"

He let's me help him with his projects

He chases me

He pretends that I can scare him

He buys me fun toys

He shows me the love of my heavenly father

He takes me to church

He plays hide & seek with me

He knows when I am scared and protects me

He loves me enough to discipline me

He loves chocolate...just like me

He let's me have a sip of soda once in a while

He loves my mommy just like me

He reads to me

He let's me read to him

He let's me drive his car

He let's me wear his hat

He let's me wear his shoes

He let's me take a shower with him

He picks me up when I fall down

He likes to check out bugs and ucky stuff like I do too

Is daddy really a grown up?

I want to be just like him when I grow up!

Coming up for air..

Bryce and Mommy have been sick. I have had bronchitis and a lovly sinus infection and little man has an ear infection w/a seal cough like mama. It's a sick bay ward :) I am happy to say we are ending the week feeling much better.

We are excited today cause Grammy & Papa are coming from Montana for a visit. So hopefully they should arrive in Petaluma this evening.

Bryce is testing everything this past week. I don't know if he's just feeling sassy cause he's been ill or if he is just testing to see what we will do but boy that kid...oh man. I am sure everyone knows what I am talking about, he will look right atcha and then in sheer defiance continue what he is doing or been told not to do. Especially challenging is him and his beloved water. With the weather being so nice and warm thru the evening I have been letting him use the water hose to spray and play. Unfortunately everyday w/o fail he has had to have this privledge taken away because he refuses to follow the rules..it is soooooo hard to pull the plug as it were because he so loves that time, but he has to know we mean business. Tears always insue with a toddler size meltdown..he's 2 what do we expect :) LOL...

Hopefully before too long he will be able to play with the water w/o incident :) Until then we just press on, loving him thru the rough patches!

FLASH BACK FRIDAY!

The things I say.... as per my mommy.

I am forever amazed at this lil' preemie guy. He is quite a little character. Before I forget and much more time goes by I wanted to update you all on some of the smart and fun things he is saying now at 27 mo or 2 yrs 3mo...lol. His sentence structure now is anywhere from 6-10 words and alot of his words are big - which is real cool. Here are some interesting things about little man. . Here ya go:

• What's that sound?
• What's that guy doing (regardless of gender cause well... he doesn't know : ) )
• I don't like it, it's ucky.
• This is old, don't like it, that's old
• It's sour
• Instead of saying yes he says uh huh or huh
• AGAIN to anything he likes
• Mores = more
• Where's daddy/mommy going? Wait, I'm comin too!!
• Stay here (with his hand up in a stop position) I'll be right back
• I just get the water hose. I need to turn on this water
• I NEED my sprays bottle
• OH NO..pretty much prefaces anything that his little self thinks is an injustice or tragic :) you can only imagine
• I'm reading my book go way
• He loves to ask you what's this esp. when he knows what it is...quite amusing, as it to show off in a humble way :)
• There are very few animals he doesn't know, and I'm talkin one's I have never even heard of.
• toucan, macaw, flamingo, rhinosorus, hippopotamus, motorcycle, backhoe, broccoli
• Put that here for me
• This is papa's favorite
• I got hang nail, I need to get the cippers and cut that
• See right there, look?
• He can count from 1-11
• Stumbles thru the ABC's but is getting them down
• Pee shu- for smelly
• Fah-sha (for father)
• I can't (this is new, don't know where he got it but we are working furiously to reprogram that one..yikes)!
• That's mine
• Watch me, I jump and I jump
• I need the window down, I want it down I like the wind on my face
• What's this? Oh I need this, it's mine, please.
• Let me hold that, put it here in my hand, I will hold that
• I don't want my diaper changed, no oh no stop

These will have to do for now my mind has gone to jello and I KNOW there is something I am missing.... I'll be back :)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAYS...getting harder for me...

Daddy HIT the ball and...

RUN, RUN, you run Daddy! Erik has a softball game tonight and it is early so he will get to go see daddy play. So we have been prepping Bryce and hyping him up for the game and he is the best coach. He was practicing with uncle Bucky last night~ he told Ryan "I'm the boss".. nice, well everyone may not know but one of my favorite light hearted sayings is " you're not the boss of me" and well... apparently it's slipped out around him and he is all to eager and pleased to use it :) LOL!! Hopefully I'll be able to get some action shots in between chasing Bryce around and socializing, should prove to tbe interesting~ hope Grandma's there to help :)

mmm. Daddy's team got creamed..but I had a great time running with Grandma and playing with Devon, peg the dog, and annie and angela and of course mommy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DADDY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIK~ WE LOVE YOU~ YOU ARE THE BEST HUSBAND & DADDY WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE? WE LOOK FORWARD TO MANY, MANY MORE :)

LOVE YOU DADDY!

more bath time

Bath time...sweet bath time...

Special Saturday Memories..

Today I transferred some of our 8mm videos of Bryce to DVD~ way cool. But the best part was after playing with him for most of the day, getting wet, washing his little tikes climbing jungle set, his table, his swing and the patio table, it was amazing to see him when he was first walking and so little and w/o words. And then flash back to earlier in the day when he is using all his favorite's, " oh no!, I'm found it, I NEED this/that/it, my turn, what's that sound mommy?, where'd daddy go?, I NEED it~(oh I mentioned that already?-yeah well that is his go to..very funny), mommy the waters not workin, come on, don't workin this one and my favorite is he says hmm or huh for yes and well...several other that are just so stinkin cute with his sweet little voice. Read this daddy, where did sammy the seal go daddy, what's that guy doing? Ok I'll stop... I just love it and I KNOW (sadly) this too will be a memory :) He had a full day of play and lots of fun- I didn't take many pictures today but really enjoyed being mommy today!!

FLASH BACK FRIDAY!

Where has the time gone?

Learning to self feed...oh how fun and he is still a messy marvin : 0 Look at the little chub...he's all thinned out..again..I miss his little body : ( The dreaded reaction to the mumps/measles and boy was it a reaction..poor little guy didn't seem to bother him but it was bad and it came and went for about 3 weeks....hmm.

Wordless Wednesday...

MEMORIAL DAY

And what's a day off w/out a day at the park? Woohoo...

And DONE!!!!

The day after the rain Bryce was still determined to get out there and play in it. I think the pictures tell the story all too well! He got outside while getting his diaper changed and then we thought he was going to come in since he was cold but Oh NO..nothing doing LOL... Anyway see the pics. I also want to note that the pictures where his leg is sticking out he is shaking the water off..what a hoot.