Back To Ya!

Hey anyone and everyone!!

THE WEATHER MAN IS DEAD!! Haha, whenever someone says "Back to you!" I will always think of that Will Ferrell skit on SNL when the teleprompters go out and they have no idea what to do...which then of course reminds me of the rest of Best of Will Ferrell Vol.'s 1 and 2 which are just HIlarious! If you have not seen them...wow...lets put it this way, if I had to sum up what its like living with Paul and Chris (and Josh) in a dorm, I would say Best of Will Ferrell Vol.'s 1 and 2. But lets not get me started on that because we had the greatest dorm room ever created and have no evidence of any kind it ever existed.

The real reason, this blog is entitled "Back To Ya!" is because that's what Amanda said last Monday. She said "Hey stay at home Dad, back to ya!" Now we are going into day 8 of experiment: See How Long Will Can Last With a Nonstop One Year Old Who Gets Into Anything and EVERYTHING. Sorry, I know that's a long title for the experiment, but I felt like it all need to be in the title. Anyway, I am still alive. Technically, Amanda had students last wed, but she has basically been back in school since last Monday so that's why its up to 8 days. Anyway, it is going well, I am trying to keep the schedule the same and Bry pretty good at letting me know if its time for a nap, a meal, a bottle, or more attention. Unfortunately, I think we need to work on him letting me know its time for a diaper change. Maybe its the teeth coming in, but he has had a few BAD rashes down under and I am trying to change frequently to prevent this from happening. The real test is going to come about mid-September when I get back into school too. Finding time to get my school work done and done at a level that I want it to be at could create a situation. I'm sure it will work out, even if that means a few late nights.

Amanda and I are super excited about the quickly upcoming Chicago Half-Marathon. Just last Sunday we ran a little over 12 miles in a little under 2 hours. This is VERY fats for both of us and it gives us motivation to finish the training strong. On good days we run about 10 min miles and when registering for the half-marathon we both put a projected finishing time of about 2:25. So for us to finish 12 miles well under our average was a huge boost for our confidence! We are running the half with some good friends which will also help a lot to finish the race! It is crazy to talk about our training now because we both just said tonight that "its ONLY 5 miles tomorrow..." ONLY 5 miles like its nothing. I am very proud of my wife and watching her push through cramps and blisters is just amazing!

Lastly, I am becoming very interested in photography. I have been watching an old friend from college's blog where he posts pictures he takes and I find it awesome and something I would love to get in to. I have been trying to do the best I can with the little digital camera I have and I am learning a lot through it, but it is never the same as when him or other people with the SLR's take them. Also the eye they have for a good shot or angle is just amazing to me. I took some of myself that I will put up, some turned out some did not, but you can be the judge. I was wondering if anyone has or know someone who has a good digital SLR camera that is not being used and would be willing to let me borrow for a while, I would love to play around with it. I will continue to do my best with what I have however. Here are some of them, hope you enjoy...

This one required a little editing (another area I am becoming very intrigued by!!)

Playing with exposure...Amanda does not like pictures like this

Played around a little with this one to get the next one, same picture different effects...

Just keeping my eyes, mind and feet open to possible pictures!

Those were just a few of what I did, but I had fun taking them and then playing with what I took. I will hopefully, be doing it a lot more. As my friend told me, "Just keep shooting..." so that's what I'll do!

Keep it here y'all

Love Will Amanda and Bryson

A month old party pics...

The first picture taken on the 1st anniversary of his birth!

Waiting for all the people to come!!


Finally, CAKE TIME!! He smiled as we sang him the song!


Post cake....he ate the WHOLE thing!

Playing with his new toys!!

Thanks to all of you who came and all of you who sent well wishes from afar! We had a blast celebrating Bryson's first birthday with everyone and cannot believe he is one already!! Soon he will be drivin....aoiurfygu8q295jnvfu98nhw...whoa sorry about that, I just passed out and my head hit the keyboard.

Love Will Amanda and Bryson

PARTAY!!!

Hey!

The party went GREAT and we had a lot of people show up and celebrate with us! Thanks to everyone who came and helped set up, tear down, and best of all eat all the food. Bryson had a good time playing and running around.

Keep it here for pictures!

Love Will Amanda and Bryson

If You Build It, They Will Come...EN RAH HA!!! and other updates

Hi there neighbor,
If you play farmtown on facebook, you could be my neighbor and I will watch over your farm on a fairly regular basis! Check it out, I'm Farmer Willis and my farm is call Boom Boom Plow Farm.

Anyway, it is 1st Birthday Eve and we are counting down the hours until Bryson officially turns one and then the big celebration. Actually, he will officially turn one during the celebration. We are very busy making the arrangements and getting all the supplies we will need for tomorrow. My Mom has labeled our house as party central and it is actually a very good name. This party has been the topic of all conversation the past week or so. Figuring out who is making what, who is coming, how much food to have, how many balloons to get, what needs to be done or cleaned around the house, and the list goes on. We purchased a couple canopies for this event and future events and we hope to get the set up part or all the way. However, the weather is not cooperating today and it might make tonight more of a hang out time than preparation time. This would be fine with me as my sister is coming in for the big bash and will be coming over tonight. It has been too long and Bryson has done too much growing since she last saw him! Things are falling into place though, and I think its going to be great and great fun! Over the last week or so, we have been singing Happy Birthday to Bry to get him used to it. He is starting to get it I think and hopeful he will clap at the end of it when everyone sings. We will see.

Amanda and I were talking last night and I came to the thought that I can believe that he is one, but it just happened so darn quick. It feels like just a month ago that I left work to be with Amanda and Aunt Meg drove all night to be with us. It feels like a few weeks ago, we were swaddling him up and feeding him every couple of hours. It feels like a week or two ago, he started crawling. It feels like a few days ago he was up on two legs cruising and walk/running all over the place and getting into EVERYTHING! And now he is one! Life is crazy and crazy fast.

EN RAH HA! Ha ha. Anyone know what movie this is from? Its from a British movie called Happy-Go-Lucky. It was yet another on a long string of not so good movies Amanda and I have been watching lately. It has been the summer of movies for us and it has been so much fun doing it. Every night we have watched a movie and usually they are pretty bad, but we just make fun of them.

Lastly, we got our new remote for the TV in the mail today it turns the TV on so I hope everything else works too! It has been awful trying to watch movies and TV without it. Its funny how much we rely on something so small. But we are back in action now and looking forward to finding the couch potato in us that we know is there!!

Keep it here folks!

Bosco's Blogfeed

Love Will Amanda and Bryson

The Cost of a One Year Old

Good Morning,

As it was my turn to get up with Bryson this morning, I found myself reflecting on yesterdays events and how it relates to the whole event starting August 8th of 2008. As that event draws nearer to its one year anniversary, I have to first praise God for his faithfulness and providence over the last year. We have never once had to worry about things like no food to feed Bryson, clothes to put on his back, or even where is he going to sleep tonight. We have never had to worry about how we are going to pay our bills, including mounting hospital bills. For all these things and many more, I have to say thank you to my Lord and Father.

I also knew and understood that he would need toys and other things to make his young childhood fun and developmental. Along with all the other convenience items I wanted in order to make it easier for Amanda and I to take care of him. Just recently, this even included purchasing an external hard drive in order to backup and store all of the pictures and videos we have been stacking up. Another example is a fence in order to keep him out of trouble and easier to watch. Also, we knew we wanted pictures taken every month. These are all things we had and idea that we wanted to get for both Bryson and ourselves.

However, yesterday proved that one year olds and especially one year olds that walk can cost, or shall I say, force you to spend on things completely unexpected. In our case, it was a TV remote. See we have a TV/DVD combo in our bedroom and as we found out last night, the remote does everything. There are volume, channel, open/close, stop, play/pause buttons and that's it. Let me back up...
Bryson is walking now and doing it very proficiently . Also, he is growing in height and arm length. This combo of walking, height, and arm length is a very costly combination for a baby to have. See even as I write this, he is walking around pulling things off shelves and tables. Yesterday, as I was tending to other things, Bryson happened to find our remote. Last night after we had basically turned every cover on our bed and checked every corner, we resigned to the fact that Bryson had lost it. I was curious about the cost of replacement, so I began to surf the net looking for a good deal. 30 dollars later, I had ordered a replacement remote. Checking and re-checking model numbers in order to be sure we get the right one, I clicked "buy it now." 7-10 days from now we will probably have found our original remote, but maybe that will just become another toy for our wonderful little boy.

And now I have to realize that Bryson will soon be forcing us to get or replace more and more expensive items. For the future I can only hope to minimize these expenses. Well, Amanda and Will, welcome to the world of children financing!

Keep it here boys and girls!!!!

Bosco's Blogfeed

Love Amanda Will and Bryson