Bruce and Christie

Happy 1/2 Birthday ... to ME!

2011-10-23T11:17:00.007-04:00

Howdy ya'all!

Mommy said I needed to learn how to say that because we are moving to Texas next month. I'm pretty excited because "everything is bigger in Texas" so I should fit right in. When I went to the doctor for my 6 month appointment the nurse weighed me (19lbs) and measured me (28") and said, "almost the size of a 1 year old". I guess I'm big too!!!

This is my halloween costume. I've got some pretty kissable cheeks so mommy picked the monkey outfit. I'm happy that she did cause there is a banana I can chew on! Chewing on things is my favorite thing to do. If there are no toys around to chew on, I even chew my socks...mmm!

I learned how to hold my bottle and my sippy cup this month! Now I don't have to wait for mommy to help anymore. This makes us both happy!

That's all for now guys..it's time for church and I always make mommy and daddy late :)

I'm 3 months old!!

2011-07-08T11:40:00.004-04:00

HI GUYS! Guess what?!......I'm 3 months old!

I've been having a great time this past month. I'm learning new things, like how to hold my head up really well. I've come to realize that my mom is really funny and goofy so I've decided to smile and giggle at her all the time. I think she likes it!

Check me out reading my book. To be honest, I have NO CLUE what is on the pages....but the colors are great and the pages crinkle when I touch them...AWESOME!

You can see a couple of my other new tricks in this picture. I'm getting pretty good at grabbing things and I love to eat my fist. Sometimes I try to shove the whole thing in my mouth but I kind of have chubby hands....mommy calls me a little chunk but I think she likes chubby babies.

That's all for now guys. I still need to take a lot of naps so I've gotta head. I'll update you all again when I learn some new things. Maybe rolling over...???

Bodie Updates!

2011-06-02T11:03:00.009-04:00

Bodie is 8 weeks old today! Time FLIES!

We take weekly pictures of him so we can see how much he is growing. Here are a few of my favorites:

("just chillin'" at 2 weeks old)

(lovin' bath time at 6 weeks)

(dreaming of being a middle weight boxer at 7 weeks)

(nap time with mommy)

(the boys!)

So Bodie had a rough couple of weeks there at the beginning of life. He struggled with reflux, poor guy! Now that he is on a special formula he is doing much better. He's already made it through his first cold/ear infection which was probably worse for me than it was for him. I hated to hear him all congested and upset!

Now that he is over his sickness and the reflux is under control he has started sleeping better! WOOHOO!! He usually goes down between 9:30-10:30pm, wakes up once to eat, then gets up between 5:00-6:00am. After that its time for more napping. :)

Bodie has also started smiling and trying to giggle which is the cutest thing in the world! I'm so excited that he is starting to interact more.

He is a bit of a hungry, hungry hippo. He easily eats 4oz about every 2-3 hrs, except at night when he goes a longer stretch. He's tall too! I had to go buy him some 3-6 month sleepers today b/c he is outgrowing his others. He couldn't avoid the tall genes...he gets that from both sides of the family.

Obviously I could go on and on about my cute little man but I'll save it for another post.

Signed,

Proud momma!

Pictures of Bodie's First Day

2011-04-08T08:03:00.003-04:00

Click the title to go to the photo album of Bodie's first day.

Nursery updates!

2011-01-06T15:19:00.006-05:00

Well, Bruce had some time off during the holidays so, of course, we did another project!!

We decided not to use a bedding set for the nursery (like we originally planned) and to go with separates instead. This gave us a lot of freedom in choosing paint colors.

We started by painting three of the nursery walls a light green color.

The fourth wall we striped with light green, light turquoise, chocolate brown, and white. Each set of stripes for each color had to be measured, snapped with a chalk line, lined with painters tape, and painted. We had to do each color on separate days as well. Lots of work!!

Here is a picture of the finished stripe wall. I think it looks pretty cool! There was a little bleeding under the tape due to the texture of the wall but what can ya do? After the striped wall dried we put the crib and changing table up against it and it looked pretty good.

I'm going to try and paint an owl similar to the one below and hang it on one of the green walls. I'll make the eyes turquoise instead of pink, and I'll omit the name of course.

I'm getting really excited now that things are coming together!

Less than 3 months to go!!

Over half way there!

2010-12-08T14:04:00.006-05:00

I'm a little over 23 weeks pregnant now and I can't believe we are over half way there! April 3rd sounds far away, but by the time the holidays are over we will be in the 3rd trimester already. WHOA!

Our little man already has a first name, Bodie Edwards. Middle name still TBD though. There is still plenty of time for that. I think my short torso isn't leaving him a lot of room so my belly is already sticking out there pretty far!

He has been wiggling and kicking for a few weeks now which feels so cool. A little soccer player perhaps?? :)

So far we have slowly been collecting baby furniture and clothes to get the nursery ready. We picked out this crib and changing table (courtesy of my in laws) at a labor day sale. Thanks Hal and Karlene!

My mom got us our travel system (thanks again!). It has the option of flipping the handle so the baby can face you or face away. Pretty cool!

Here is the bedding set we picked out. We plan on painting the walls a muted green color.

So far we have been spoiled by grandparents which has been really nice for us! Bodie better get used to it...I bet his grandmas will keep on spoiling him for a long time :)

Kitchen cabinets are done!

2010-10-03T11:50:00.006-04:00

Thanks to the help of our friends, the Clarkes, and a free saturday afternoon...our kitchen cabinets are finally done!

The original plan was to paint them ourselves, but after a few missteps and a lot of good info from another customer at Lowe's, we realized it would be better to get them repainted by a professional.

Here is a before picture of the kitchen:

Below is a picture of our attempt to paint the cabinets with what turned out to be the wrong paint, the wrong sander, the wrong brushes, and the wrong technique. AWESOME! What you can't see in the picture are the very obvious blue streaks of the old stain showing through about 6 coats of paint.

Finally we were put in touch with a professional painter who gave us a great deal if we would

remove the doors and hardware and reattach them ourselves. This is the final product!!

Now we just need to touch up the wall paint and replace the counter tops .... someday :)

196 days and counting...

2010-09-22T15:41:00.005-04:00

About 196 days until the Edwards family becomes 3. That's right, we are pregnant and due at the beginning of April!!

Here is a picture of me at about 11 1/2 weeks pregnant. That is a combination of baby bump and pregnancy bloating, lol. So far I have been blessed with a fairly easy first trimester. I started having some mild nausea around 6 weeks and it went away at 10 weeks. Couldn't ask for better than that! Aside from a few other uncomfortable symptoms, things have been going really well.

Today we got to hear our little peanut's HB, 160 bpm! It was amazing. My friend, Jonelle, took her little boy to her OB appointment and the conversation went something like this. When they did the doppler her son said, "oh there's a choo-choo in mommy's belly!" The mom replied, "no, that's the baby." To which the son replied, "oh, the baby is riding a choo-choo in mommy's belly!!" I totally thought of this when the nurse found the heartbeat. That is exactly what it sounded like....a little choo-choo chugging away in there. :)

Now we are almost in the 2nd trimester and are starting to get really excited that this little bean is probably here to stay!

Project #1: Enlarge the patio

2010-05-30T20:17:00.007-04:00

We love our house, but wanted to make some improvements. We started with the patio, which was too small for a gazebo, table, and chairs. The solution was adding 3 feet on each side with paver stones.

We got started by digging out the grass around the existing patio

then laying down the paver base

The next steps were adding a layer of sand and putting the paver stones in place.

The pavers were level with each other, but not level with the existing patio, so we started again.

After putting down about 9 pavers (in 3 hours), we realized that the pavers were not 12"x12". Since the pattern would result in terrible misalignment between the pavers and the patio, we started again.

We dove right back into the project knowing we have a good design and construction technique (notice the level).

We ran out of time and had to put a tarp over the project to protect it from the incoming storm (and tornado warning). After two days, we hoped to pick up where we left off, but found we needed to start again. The pavers had shifted out of place.

In the final start, we used the design that we knew would work. Christie had mastered the technique of adjusting the amount and position of the sand to get pavers in the perfect orientation.

It was a long workday, but we the patio is now larger and we think it looks great. I got pretty dirty lifting and shifting pavers all day. Christie's work resulted in a patio to be proud of.

With a larger patio, the gazebo was put up and chairs were set out for relaxation.

With a fully functional patio, the grill was put to use for the first time.

Proud New Homeowners!

2010-05-30T19:47:00.004-04:00

We moved into our first home on cinco de mayo! We are thrilled to be homeowners and thrilled with the house that we own.

Santa LOVES having a yard:

You may notice the long grass - we have since been able to buy a mower and cut the grass.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the house as it was when we moved in.

View of the front

View of the back

Family Room

Kitchen

A great feature:

a rack in the microwave, making it easy to warm up two plates of food!

Camping in Michigan's Upper Peninsula/Mackinac Island

2010-05-16T19:31:00.011-04:00

Last August, we set out for a camping weekend in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with our friends the Hoopers (congratulations Tyler and Andrea - you made the blog again). We saw three of the five Great Lakes on the trip - Lake Michigan and Lake Huron as we crossed the Mackinac (pronounced Macki-naw) Bridge here:

We camped right on Lake Superior:

As a side note, we saw Lake Ontario on our trip to Niagara Falls. We got within a few miles of Lake Erie on a trip to Ohio, but we never actually saw it. Maybe we'll put that on the Bucket List.

Now, back the UP (Upper Peninsula) trip. A common food there is a pastie (rhymes with hasty). We heard good reviews, but were not impressed. I (Bruce) think it was like a dry pot pie with some odd spices. They apparently became common in the region when many Cornish people came over and took lumberjack jobs. For someone who just needs food to provide fuel to the body for a long work day, this was a great dish. For someone looking for good food, this is not a great dish.

Unfortunately, our trip was cut short. We went sight seeing for a day, but were hampered by wind and rain. We did see a waterfall during a short hike:

The wind was forecast to continue at 20mph through the night and into the next day. We decided to pack up our camp, which had already been rearranged by the wind. We spent the night in hotel and the next day at Mackinac Island.

While waiting for the boat, Hayden Hooper had a great time scaring birds away from the dock! He had so much fun that he has even mentioned the incident 7 months after it happened.

The weather on the island was beautiful! There are no cars allowed, so we rented bikes and rode around, starting here in the most commercialized part of the island...

continued on...

and on to more remote parts of the island.

We biked around the entire 8 mile perimeter, then got some ice cream before leaving. Most of us put it in our mouths, but Hayden wanted to save some for later.

In case you are wondering what the island was used for in the past, the Army stationed a few hundred troops there. You may be tempted to think that the Canadians were a big threat, but it was really the Indians (Native Americans) that were the concern. For many years, Mackinac Island was also the place for wealthy midwesterners to vacation. It is now accessible to all income levels.

Going back even further, the island had a Catholic missionary presence. Father Marquette established this chapel (yes, it was a chapel) in the 1600s.

Niagara Falls

2010-05-16T18:54:00.010-04:00

With only a few weeks left in Michigan, we finally made it to Niagara Falls. We drove out on Wednesday night (April 21) as soon as Christie finished her finals and had to be back by Thursday night because Bruce had a final on Friday. We thought the trip was the perfect length - the falls are amazing, but they really don't change so we didn't see a point to staying longer than an hour.

Here is a picture as we drove by the first time.

We quickly parked and found out how to get closer.

Since pictures don't do justice to Niagara Falls, we captured some video. The first video helps put the size in perspective.

Here is a panoramic view:

...and here is my (Bruce's) favorite video showing both the speed the water is travelling and how close you can actually get to the falls.

My First Half Marathon

2010-05-01T07:27:00.004-04:00

This last summer I decided to run the Mackinaw Island Great Turtle Half Marathon with a couple of my girl friends. The only other race I had run was a 5k, so it was an ambitious goal. I started a training routine that consisted of 2 short runs and 1 long run a week for about 10 weeks. I trained at a nice steady pace of about 10min miles so that was my goal pace for the race.

On October 23rd we headed over to Mackinaw City and stayed in a hotel for the night. The next morning be got up bright and early and caught the ferry over to the island. It was near 40 degrees and cloudy for the day of the race, kind of chilly until we all started running.

The race started around 11am and consisted of about 2-3 miles of road running, a long stretch of trail running, and then ended with another couple miles of road. I seemed to be slower than most people on the road but faster on the hills and trails.

I finished the race in about 2hr 10min which is exactly on my 10 min per mile pace!!

The only bummer was that I didn't eat nearly enough calories before the race and so I got really low blood sugar after the race. After forcing down some food and Powerade things seemed to get better. Overall is was a great race!

I would definitely consider doing another!

This was me just after finishing. Somehow I managed to sprint the last quarter mile or so to the finish. I even got a participation metal.

New Apartment

2009-10-26T20:20:00.005-04:00

It took a week or two, but we eventually got everything moved out of storage, into our apartment, and set up in way we liked it. Christie made sure we got some new decorations so it actually looks nice and doesn't have bare walls. I'm glad she's good at decorating because I certainly am not!

Here is a video and pictures of each of the rooms.

The front room, looking insideThe front room, looking outside
Our bedroom
More of our bedroom
The guest room/office
The office part of the guest room
The kitchen, with the root beer racks. There are now 138 root beers in the collection.

Santa's New Space

2009-10-26T20:17:00.003-04:00

After moving into our new apartment, Santa made it clear that he likes the patio area we have. This picture shows about half of our patio, which is fenced in.

Far West, MO

2009-10-26T19:53:00.005-04:00

As we drove out of Kansas City on our trip back to Michigan, we took a short detour and stopped by Far West, MO. Back in 1838, this town had about 5,000 people. An ambitious city plan was put together and is posted there today:

The plan included a temple and lots for many families. The roads were laid out in nice square patterns. Brigham Young must have loved the layout since Utah is laid out in a very similar manner.

The up and coming town was abandoned in 1839 after it was sieged and church leaders were arrested. The siege was not long after the October 30, 1838 massacre at Haun's Mill only 25 miles away (on today's indirect roads). Most of the church members left Missouri and moved north to Illinois.

Today, most of the area is farmland. The LDS temple plot and a Church of Christ (formerly Reorganized LDS) building are still there.

LDS Temple plot

Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) building - still used!

RLDS Temple in Independence, MO

2009-10-26T19:48:00.002-04:00

After a bit of a hiatus, it's time to start trying to catch back up with the blog. Just before we left Kansas City, MO this summer, we made a short trip over to Independence, MO to see the (formerly RLDS) Community of Christ temple. It certainly looks different than LDS temples. I tried to go inside, but the doors were locked and nobody was there. When it is open, anybody can enter.

"Huffin' for Healthy Hooters"

2009-08-10T14:09:00.003-04:00

That was the name of an all-male team of runners at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Kansas City. hehe

I was a bit inspired by all my athletic friends, like Natalie, and decided to give running a go. Now my family isn't really a "running"/"cardio" type family so all published race times are to be viewed with that in mind. That said, I was really proud that I ran in my first race on Sunday August 9th. The Race for the Cure 5k was the perfect opportunity to test the waters for my new hobby because the cause means a lot to my family. There is a whole legacy of breast cancer survivors on my maternal side so there's no time like the present to start fighting it.

Here is how it all started:

A couple weeks ago I decided that I'd attempt to start running as my main form of exercise. I bought the book "The Complete Book of Running for Women" and a new pair of running shoes and started hitting the park paths about 3 or so days a week.

After I discovered that I could run at least 3 or 4 miles without stopping it was time to try a race. Boy was I nervous that I would end up finishing with all the grandmas...not that there aren't some grandmas who could still kick my rear!! I saw some amazing people out there.

I joined 28,500 people in downtown Kansas City at 7:30am for the big race. I was amazing to see that many people out supporting the cause. There were people running with tags to mourn and celebrate friends and family who had fought breast cancer. It was hard not to both smile and get choked up at the beginning of the race.

(I know it looks like I'm speed walking in the picture...trust me...i runnin'!)

After the gun shot it was a struggle to get started at a decent pace with this many people but i somehow managed to run the entire hilly/windy 5k without stopping. And.....I was only 3 seconds from breaking 30minutes. The pic above is just before the finish line. All in all I would consider it a successful first race and I will be much less nervous for the next one!

Christie Goes Hair Trendy

2009-08-09T16:47:00.004-04:00

Well, I gave into to the trend and got bangs....that's right...bangs. Like when i was 10 yrs old, lol.

Since growing out your hair is a painfully slow process (esp. when it was hardly longer then a boy cut) I decided I needed some sort of change that would keep me interested in my hair so that I wouldn't cut it again.

This is the fun result of my hair boredom.

I think my dog is a cat?!

2009-07-15T12:44:00.004-04:00

Exhibit A: Dog sleeps on window sills just like a kitty. He has also been known to stand on them on all fours (does he think he has nine lives or something?!).

Exhibit B: Cat-dog has been known to lay on his back and swat at your hand if you move it toward his face....however this may be because your hand so too high for proper belly scratches and he is trying to reposition it...silly doggy. Or even more likely, he is trying to use his paws to catch your hand or toy so he can try and gnaw on it.

Either way I'm most certain he is a male...DEFINITELY nothing ladylike about the above!!

The Edwards and Hoopers head to Branson!

2009-07-14T15:11:00.004-04:00

So the best description we heard about Branson, MO is that it is the old people, non-gambling, christian version of Vegas. hehe kinda true. We had a good time though. While we were there we saw a ventriloquist/magician act (of which Bruce got to be the magician's assistant for intermission, lol). Probably more exciting though was the Chinese acrobats. Check out how tall Bruce looks compared to the acrobats!

They were fantastic; spinning 5 plates at once while doing balancing tricks, sending themselves flying rear end first through tiny rings that are 5' in the air and holding eachother up in contortionist poses while balancing on one arm...incredible things like that.

While we were there we saw a great fireworks show, Hayden got to see the inside of a fire truck and a lot of trucks (even a helicopter and a dinosaur!!), we caught up on our Hand and Foot, and we ate tons of frozen custard mmm!

Now we're just waitin' for the Hoopers to come visit KC so we can have a card game rematch!

St Louis Zoo

2009-06-07T23:25:00.006-04:00

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to St Louis to see our friends Tyler and Andrea Hooper. Since we love the zoo and St Louis has (arguably) the best zoo in the US, we decided to go visit. With 3 blogs about zoos in the past 6 months, it seems a theme is emerging.

The complete collection of St Louis zoo photos is here.

Tyler, Andrea, Christie, Bruce

Hayden in front

us, in front of the elephants

Andrea with Hayden

Have you ever seen a tiger in the water before?

We were literally six inches from this hippopottamus, or hippo-thomas as Hayden calls it. There was a large glass wall that allowed us to look into the water where the hippos were swimming/running. This guy kept turing around right in front of us and he usually knocked his nose into the glass!

Here are some elephants playing in the water to cool down. They even used the water fall to bathe themselves. In the picture, the baby elephant is squirting water from his trunk. He had a hard time staying up in the deep water. In fact, he sometimes stood at the bottom of the pool and just raised his trunk out of the water to breathe.

Kansas City Zoo

2009-06-07T22:58:00.005-04:00

Our first outing (other than Target and Walmart) was to the Kansas City Zoo. In fact, we became members of the zoo (read: season pass holders). Some of our favorite photos are below. The complete collection is here.

Meerkat

Serval

I had never even heard of this before!

Elephant

Our Apartment in Kansas City

2009-06-07T22:09:00.004-04:00

Since everyone is dying to find out what our apartment looks like, here it is! (What? You weren't dying to find out?)

The outside of our building.

A simple video tour

Santa Chewing on a Rawhide Stick

2009-06-07T21:32:00.004-04:00

The what LDS Church?

2009-05-17T23:10:00.005-04:00

I have heard of the RLDS (Reorganized LDS) Church, but they became the Community of Christ about ten years ago. It turns out there is a "Remnant" LDS Church. We drove past this building while looking at model homes. I doubt there are many outside of the Kansas City/Independence, MO area.

Welcome to Kansas City

2009-05-17T19:12:00.002-04:00

On May 4, this was our view as we pulled into Kansas City, Missouri about a week before Bruce's internship at Hallmark began. It turns out that the city borders Kansas City, Kansas and we only live two blocks from the state border.

Cute Picture of Santa

2009-03-29T20:48:00.003-04:00

He looks so cute and innocent....what you don't know is that this is his hiding place when he's been naughty (i.e. eating trash, run around with shoes in his mouth, chewing pens...or rolaids)

Winter in Ann Arbor

2009-03-29T17:08:00.004-04:00

This is what winter in Ann Arbor looks like. It seemed like we saw this for 6 months, but it was really only 4 months....which is still a bit too much. The first picture is looking at our apartment building.

The second picture is on the street behind us where we like to walk the dog.

Fortunately, it hasn't looked like this for a month. However, we are getting snow as I write.

New Interior Design

2009-03-08T12:06:00.001-04:00

With Christie's knack for interior design, we repainted our wall and moved the furniture around. It is now much brighter and feels more open. Here is the new look:

The old paint was a deep red that looked great, but felt darker.

More Pictures of Santa

2009-01-25T19:35:00.007-05:00

Santa can be very ornery and fussy, but there are times when he's very cute. This picture of him poking his head our from under the bed is a prime example...

...or take a look at him sleeping next to Christie.

We also got him a rope that he figured out how to put around his head. He soon took if off and eventually chewed it to shreds.

The Phoenix Zoo

2008-12-28T21:43:00.000-05:00

While on Christmas break in Arizona, we took a trip to the Phoenix Zoo, which happens to be a great place for animals from Africa! Here we are with giraffes and water buffalo-like animals.

Bruce grew up 5 miles from the LA zoo and his dad used to take the kids to the zoo every year. The highlight of every trip was when animals would relieve themselves. Fortunately, this trip was no disappointment and we saw the tiger below relieve herself.

We got to walk into a monkey area and watch them run around. We were within a foot of a monkey several times as they climbed trees, jumped across ropes, and ran across benches. The monkeys weigh only 1.5 lbs and one of them is over Christie's shoulder.

..and just for good measure, here's a picture of giraffes.

Santa's Little Helper....aka...BAD SANTA!!! BAD DOG!!!

2008-11-08T12:03:00.004-05:00

That's right, we've added a 7 month old puppy to our little family. He is 1/2 miniature pinscher, 1/2 beagle and we adopted him from our local humane society. The first week or two we had him he didn't bark, chew, or jump on things!! Too bad that all changed once he got settled in. Now he chews everything in sight (especially shoes!) and he barks to try and make us play with him. His redeeming qualities seem to be that he is already potty trained and he likes to take naps on his mama's lap :) And mom has to admit that she likes having company during the day when she is otherwise home alone.

Our Trip to the Toledo Zoo

2008-11-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

We took a trip in November to the Toledo Zoo with the Ross (Michigan) MBA Kids Club. The zoo is about an hour away and we figured it would be fun to see some animals. As it turned out, we actually went for the first night of Zoo Lights- the Christmas lights had just been put up all around the zoo. We posed for a picture in front of some lights, as did our friends Tyler, Andrea, and Hayden Hooper.

It was below 20 degrees that night and most of the animals decided it was too cold. Even the polar bear wouldn't come outside! The snakes were about the only animals we were able to see.

Bruce and Christie start a blog....

2008-10-11T19:52:00.003-04:00

October 11, 2008:
We are going to start a blog to keep you all informed about the things going on in our life:

We'll start with a recap of the summer. Bruce and Christie were married on August 2, 2008 in Bremerton, WA. After a 10 day honeymoon on St. Barthelemy we packed up the car and drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 3 days.

On September 2, 2008 Bruce officially started business school. Although school keep him occupied for upwards of 12 hrs a day, he is really enjoying all of his classes and clubs (this is a good sign!).

Christie will be starting her part-time telecommuting work with Lockheed Martin on Monday after a long stint as stay-at-home wife. She is very excited to have something to fill her days!