Happy New Year!

I am finally getting around to updating the blog and realizing that I have so much to say and don't have pictures for all of it.  First off, Bryant turned 17 months old on Christmas Eve and I did not take one picture.  We went to a Christmas pageant at one of the local churches and Bryant had a great time.  The kids dress up as shepards, angels, animals, kings, etc. and put on a little play.  We didn't think Bryant would dress up and go up on stage without us, so we just watched.  At the end, they took pictures of all the kids dressed up in their costumes and Bryant wandered up and stood in the pictures. 

At 17 months, I would say his motor skills are doing great and he is starting to get better about using words.  He loves to jump, kick and throw things (mostly balls), put together and take apart anything (mostly legos, blocks, and Mr. Potato Head), and screw and unscrew lids.  His words are no (his new favorite), Mocha, mama, dada, dog, outside, upstairs, downstairs, more, book, baby, ball, shoes, hat, bye, hi, bubble.  Most recently, I think he picked up saying "run, run, run" as he runs up and down the hallway. I may be missing a few, but those are the ones he says most frequently.

So then there was Christmas, which I actually did blog about, which brings us to the day after Christmas.  We hardly had any snow for Bryant to try out his new sled, so we took it down the icy driveway.  He wasn't too sure about it, but I think that was mostly due to the cold weather.

Oddly enough, I think he had the most fun in pulling the sled back up the hill, which I remember being my least favorite part!

Santa brought Bryant a remote control truck for Christmas and on Christmas day, he did not like it at all.  Now he is starting to realize that it is really fun!

That Saturday, my brother and his girls came up to play for a bit, and Grandma and Grandpa took us to the Carousel.  Bryant wasn't a big fan of riding the horse, but Zoey sure had fun.

Bryant and Reagan preferred riding on the bench

Bryant took one more trip around the Carousel on the bobcat.  You can grab rings as you go around and throw them in the baskets, so I grabbed a ring for him and he shared it with his friend, Evie, from daycare.  I was joking around that he already gave his first ring to a girl:)

On Sunday, Travis' good buddy Tim and his family stayed with us.  They have a 2 1/2 year old (Gage) and 9 month old (Ryder) little boys.  Bryant had so much fun trying to mimic everything that Gage did.  I wish I would have had my camera or video camera out.  They were dancing, playing trucks, and just being boys.  There was only one little disagreement when Bryant actually got jealous and wanted every toy that Gage was playing with.   We had so much fun and wish we could see them more!

Then it was time to ring in the new year.  We were pretty boring and didn't actually make it to midnight, but on New Years Day, we got great news.  Travis was offered a new job!  He will now have weekends off, so we can spend a lot more family time together!

Travis and I spoiled ourselves for our birthday and Christmas presents and bought a hot tub about a month ago.  We absolutely love it, but Bryant hadn't gotten an opportunity to play in it yet.  We turned down the temperature a bit the other day and Bryant got his first swim in the hot tub.  He loves to sit back and relax...

and kick!

On Saturday night, Bryant got to go to his first Carroll basketball game.  He was really overwhelmed at first and was glued to our laps.  After about 30 minutes of watching other kids dancing and playing, he started to get more brave.  It may have been the super pretzel with cheese too...Either way, I think fun was had by all whether watching the game (Trav and I) or watching other kids (Bryant).  Sorry for the long post, but I think I am all caught up now.  The Handl family has had quite the great start to 2014 and can't wait to see what else this year has in store for us!