The past couple of months have been very busy for us and it seems like time is speeding up instead of slowing down.  My baby brother Travis turned 21 years old!  We also celebrated Christmas twice at our house then flew to Arkansas to celebrate it a  third time.  This year we had a WHITE Christmas which was really neat.  Branson loved the snow!  We met a new niece, nephew, and uncle (brother-in-law) while visiting.  Unfortunately, we also caught the stomach flu but luckily it didn’t last very long.  We had a great visit with both sets of great grandparents and were able to see Jake & Beth’s new apartment as well as Molly & Eric’s new house.

We also had a really fun New Years party at our house.  Thank you to everyone who joined us.  The kids had a great time dancing and playing with their glow sticks.  The adults enjoyed taking a lot of pictures while sporting the 2010 glasses and hats!  It was great to ring in the new year with good friends!

Branson is almost 3-1/2 years old and I think he is almost completely potty trained.  It has been very frustrating at times.  He is still fascinated with numbers and always surprises us when he can read high numbers.  When we got to the airport he told us that we were at “four hundred and ten”.  We looked up and sure enough, that was our gate number.  He is really enjoying his big boy gym class without mommy …

Damon just had his nine month check-up today.  He is a whopping 23 pounds and is wearing size 18 month clothes already.  He is crawling EVERYWHERE.  His new favorite things are eating finger foods and standing while holding onto something.  He is such a happy baby and talks to everyone when we go places.  He has six teeth now and is getting more hair.  He is growing up way too fast!

Today Damon is eight months old already!  Time is going by so fast.  He has six teeth, can sit up, and is starting to army crawl.  He still has his beautiful blue eyes and is usually very happy.  He is eating fruits this week and loves them (no surprise!)

Branson is really enjoying Christmas this year.  He met Santa for the first time and sat on his lap for about five minutes talking up a storm.  He loves to point out different buildings when we drive around town - his favorites are Carl’s Jr, Fresh n Easy & the park.  We just finished decorating his play room and Daddy built a bulletin board for him.  He also loves to help in the kitchen.

Branson & Damon trunk-or-treated at the Grove this year with Mommy & Daddy.  We went to Ambers and then to our own neighborhood.  (I LOVE living in civilization!!!)  We had such a fun Halloween with Papa, Grandma, Sandra & Kalia.  We celebrated Thanksgiving at our own house this year.  It was sure nice not to have to drive about an hour each way.  Papa made a hickory flavored bbq’d turkey that was great!

We leave next week for our trip to Arkansas.  Hopefully both boys will do well with the flight.  It will be interesting traveling with two kids!  We are excited to see the family and have them meet Damon… and of course all of that good food!

That’s all for now, wishing you a very Merry Christmas!!!

We went to the doctor today for Damon’s six month check-up.  He is 20.5 lbs (90th percentile), 27-1/4″ height & 44-1/2 head circumference (75th percentile).  He is the BIG little brother!!!  Damon is now wearing 12 month clothes and is rolling all over the place.  He is just starting to pull up on his knees.  We noticed his two bottom teeth starting to come in last Saturday.  Damon is already eating rice cereal & oatmeal and will be starting with vegetables next.  His favorite thing to do right now is blow raspberries. 

Today is Branson’s third birthday!  It seems like just yesterday he was born.  Over the weekend we celebrated with a water party at our house!  The kids loved the water guns, water slide, and pools.  Today we are going to Toys R Us to pick out a toy, lunch with Grandma & Uncle Travis, and then Daddy is meeting all of us at Castle Park to play some arcade games.  Branson is still our slim jim at about 38″ tall and only 33 lbs.  He LOVES numbers and can recognize any number up to 100.  He also loves singing the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  One of his favorite things is sending and receiving mail.  He is truly a blessing to our family.  HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY, BRANSON!!! 

On August 2nd we celebrated our SIXTH wedding anniversary!  Those years have really gone by fast.  We snuck away for a cup of coffee then lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen.  The traditional anniversary gift is candy so I bought Josh (and me!) M&Ms that say “6 years already!” on one side and “Marie & Josh” on the other.  We are still enjoying them.

Damon had his first rice cereal last Wednesday.  He just seemed HUNGRY even after eating so we started it a little before Branson did.  He wasn’t sure about it at first and of course it wasn’t coming fast enough for our good eater.  He gets rice cereal twice a day and is adjusting to it pretty well.

We had Damon’s four month check-up today.  Do you wanna guess his weight???  He is now a whopping 17 lbs. 12 oz (95th percentile), 25-1/2 inches tall (70th percentile), and 42″ head circumference (50th percentile).  Damon is wearing size 6-9 months in clothes – Branson wore these when he was about nine months old.  He is now sleeping about 10-12 hours at night and smiles all the time.  He loves to talk to everyone, especially the ladies.  He looks like a real life Cabbage Patch doll just like mommy did as a baby. 

July has been a pretty busy month for our family.  We started out the month with a great 4th of July with our friends the Berry’s.  We enjoyed live music, great bbqing, fireworks, and friends at a block party in Riverside.  Branson finished up his swim lessons and by the last session he could jump in the water, go under, and swim to daddy!  He loves the water.  We also enjoyed Tavern Bay Beach Club in Lake Arrowhead with Grandma Romeyn and Lake Gregory water park/beach with the Formagus family.  Damon has already been to the beach three times!  Josh surprised me with American Idol tickets for my birthday.  The concert featured all top ten singers from last season and they were all amazing.  Our favorite was the winner Kris Allen who played the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and piano.  …but a close second was Danny Gokey who was my favorite all year!  My friend Tara and her daughter Samantha were able to visit for a second time this year which was a huge treat.  Her and Branson had a lot of fun at the park running through the water feature, playing cards, and chasing each other around.  Next Uncle Michael and Auntie Janae came from Las Vegas to meet Damon.  We had a really nice visit with them as well.  We had a really yummy dinner at Akinas and Branson got a kick out of the chef who cooked the food in front of us.  We played a few games of Pit and Apples to Apples while they were here, too and Janae even taught me how to cross stitch.

Branson is almost three years old!  It is so hard to believe that he is getting so big.  He is still obsessed with numbers and letters.  He loves to ask what everything says now and can read “Branson” and “Damon” when I write them on his doodle.  Damon is almost four months old now and 16 pounds!  He is the big little brother.  He is now officially sleeping through the night!!!  Damon loves to talk to people and smiles a lot.  He is such a good baby.

We hope your summer is going well!

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Josh’s sister Bethany gave birth to her first baby early this morning.  Ta’lyciana Dawn Williams was 6 lbs. 2 oz. and 19 inches long, born at 7:15 am in Arkansas.  Bethany had to have a c-section after being in labor for 12 hours!  Ta’lyciana is our fifth niece and her & mommy should be home tomorrow.  Congratulations!

Today we had the funeral services for my aunt Paula.  She was only 54 years old and had struggled with multiple sclerosis for most of her life.  Paula was diagnosed with cancer of the liver in December 2008 and given 3-6 months to live.  After receiving a phone call a few weeks ago telling us that the doctor had now only given her one week to live, me and the boys drove to Fullerton to visit with Paula.  It was horrible seeing her lying in bed unable to get up and looking so thin.  She was still very sharp when she was awake and got to meet Damon and talk to Branson.  I felt very good that our visit (especially Damon’s) brought a smile to her face.  She also reminisced about when her kids were babies.  Both boys were really good and we were able to stay almost two hours.  Just a couple of days after our visit, she lost consciousness, was unable to communicate, and passed away on July 1st.  Her passing was definitely too soon, but we are grateful that she isn’t suffering anymore.  It is still very strange to think that we won’t see her huge smile this Thanksgiving especially since last year we had no idea that she had cancer.  Please keep her husband and two children in your prayers.

Happy Summer!  We have been really busy lately with the boys so far.  At the end of May, we spent the weekend at the beach (yes with a 7 week old and a 2-1/2 year old!).  Our good friend The Crotty’s were visiting from Indiana and had a time share.  We had such a great time even though the weather wasn’t cooperating.  It felt like spring but at least Damon had his first beach trip.  He didn’t get out of the frontpack that Daddy was wearing because it was too cold and windy.  We also visited the Mission at San Juan Capistrano and it was beautifully landscaped!  The girls also snuck away for a pedicure.    We already miss you Tara, Neil, Samantha & Caden.  Josh’s parents also visited and met their new grandson.  We celebrated Father’s Day early with the California & Arkansas grandparents at Lake Gregory.  The guys didn’t do well fishing but we all had fun and both boys did so well.  It was really nice showing Josh’s parents our new house and church.  I also got spoiled with some good southern cookin’ and my Arkansas mom even made a casserole to freeze for later.  What a treat!  We also saw Uncle John and Aunt Gayle since they all drove together to California.  Next, we visited with Josh’s cousin Chad and his girls.  We had a lot of fun watching the Lakers win it all (!!!) at Shawn & Jenny’s house.  Right before we left our house Branson said he was visiting his cousins.  It was so cute!  He had such a great time playing with all the boys and Leah.  My good friend Xenia is also visiting from Illinois and came over yesterday with her daughter Lili to meet Damon.  It was good seeing her as well.  So, that is our summer so far.  We still have swim lesssons to go but had to reschedule after Branson hurt his nose.  Thank you everyone for your concern about Branson.  We’ve appreciated all of the calls, emails, and texts.  Today his nose is looking better.  The bruise is turning green and he hasn’t gotten black eyes yet.  We are keeping medicine and band-aids on it.  Yesterday he woke up from nap and it was bleeding again.  …I’m looking forward to it slowing down a bit. 

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We had a big scare with Branson in the middle of the night.  I had just gone to bed and heard a cry then a loud BANG.  I ran to Branson’s room to find him crouching on the ground and crying.  It didn’t sound like he was in pain so I thought he just had a bad dream.  I lifted him up and set him on his bed and his nose was bleeding a lot.  I called for Josh, got the tissues, then realized that he was starting to bruise.  There was a line across the top of his nose and as I was talking to Josh it was getting really swollen.  I grabbed the insurance card, blanket, sippy cup, and Josh took him to the emergency room at about midnight.  The doctor looked at him and luckily his nose was not broken.  We had to wake him up throughout the night to make sure he didn’t have a concussion and try to ice it (even though he hates it).  After sleeping in this morning, he seems to be pretty much back to normal.  He insisted that I put medicine on the scrapes and cover it with a Spiderman band-aid.  He was so brave and barely cried in the emergency room.  We’d like to thank our friend Chris Berry for stopping by the hospital to give Josh some company and make sure Branson was okay; that was very nice of you!   A couple of hours later, Branson came home with a bagful of goodies and he played with them all day.  So, he is okay!!!!

Earlier that day as we were watching the Lakers WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP, Branson was screaming “Lakers win – Kobe wins!”  I was so proud!