Bryce

We are all very sad this week. My cousin Bryce died on Sunday from injuries he sustained in a car accident on Memorial Day. He was my cousin Andrea's son. Andreas's mom and my mom are sisters and Andrea and I are two years apart. We are all still in shock I think. He was 15 years old. He was a sweet kid. He always had a beautiful smile and a great tan. When he was real little he loved to spot school buses and was a Packers fan. He liked to play football and played for the Flora Wolves. He was born on Valentine's Day and I remember all the red balloons at the hospital that day and I remember thinking that he had a really cool birthday. His little brother Mason was born five years later on Washington's birthday and I always joked with Andrea that she liked to have her kids on holidays. Please pray for Andrea, Toby (his Dad) and all of Bryce's family. They are living every parent's nightmare right now. The above picture is of Bryce at Maleah and Carissa's birthday party at the end of March. I snapped it just a second before he smiled. I wish this picture would've caught his beautiful smile...

In other news, Maleah had a first swim lesson today and did great. I was so proud of her! I think she even surprised herself. She was a nervous wreck prior to going and was just sure that it was going to be horrible and that she was going to have to go under water. Well, surprise surprise. It wasn't horrible and she did put her face in the water and loved it! She has a great teacher and I think that makes all the difference.

Carissa is talking more and occasionally putting a couple of words together into little tiny micro sentences. But mostly she says "Uh-Oh!!" and "my sissy". She is also turning into a major mama's girl. She won't hardly let anybody else hold her and cries if I leave.

Maleah got a new toothbrush today. It came with stickers and she could decorate it herself. So she spent a lot of time on it and made it look really pretty. Then she held it up and told me "Look Mom, I made it look really sexy." I was like "What???". Where on earth did she get that? I have no idea. So then we had to discuss the definition of the word "sexy" and why it is not the same as "pretty" or "beautiful".

We love to watch reality shows on TLC and our favorites are 19 Kids and Counting and Kate Plus 8. But we also like Little People Big World and The Little Couple. So last night there was a new episode of The Little Couple on and we sat down to watch it. It didn't take me too long into the episode to realize that it wasn't appropriate. Apparently The Little Couple are trying to conceive a child via surragocy. Soooo, within the first two minutes of the show I was asked "What is sperm?". Oh. My. Gosh. I wasn't planning on answering that this week (or this year...). But I did. And I just explained that the daddy had a part in making the baby too and it had to do with that. It worked and she was satisfied with that. But I just know that she is probably still mulling that over in that brain of hers and trying to figure it all out.

We had a visit from Jason's Aunt Kay from Michigan and her friend Eune from Nebraska last weekend and it was so good to see them. They are so sweet!

I am currently doing the B90x program. It is a 90 day Bible reading challenge. Today is day 9 and I'm doing great with it. It's a lot of reading each day but I am really enjoying the challenge of it. I read the Bible last year too but not within 90 days! And it is surprising how much of it you forget when it's been awhile since you read it. I've given up my Facebook time to do my B90x so if I don't respond to you on there you might send me an email instead. I was spending too much time on Facebook anyway so it feels good to get away from it. It can be a little bit addicting!