b+rice+son= briceson

so i know i may be a bit behind on the debate and the final decision of spelling, and i know rox and i arent exactly spelling savants and may have never actually grasped the concept of phonics, but b+rice+son= briceson and i am thankful to have a name i can spell so easily... and a nephew i can love so easily. i have this picture of him in goggles that makes me laugh so much and know without a doubt when i see it that this is the family he belongs in.

OLDEST and YOUNGEST

Well, our oldest and youngest grandchildren just headed back to Texas - and I'm feeling a little sad, as I always do when any one of them leaves, or when I have to leave them. But we sure enjoyed the visit, and Milah (bless her heart!) just sent me the sweetest picture of Dessie, sound asleep, arms wrapped around Charli Jo's car seat, and Charli Jo's little fingers wrapped tightly around one of Dessie's fingers. I'm so happy, and thankful, that our little Dessie finally has learned what each of you have known all along - that "family" (particularly "siblings") has so very little to do with bloodlines - and so much to do with love! No more "half sister" - just "my baby sister" - love will do that to you!
I love you all! -- Nonnie

Charli Jo is coming to visit!

Kamryn is so excited to see Charli Jo tomorrow! And she thinks it's amazing that Destiny has a baby sister. When I told her we would see Charli tomorrow she went on and on about how if Charli tried to climb on the stairs at Nonnie's house then she would go get Destiny and Destiny could take care of it because Charli is her baby sister. And if Charli wants to crawl over and play with Barbie's she can, and she doesn't mind if she chews on them a little, that's OK, and Destiny can just check on her because she is her sister! Apparently babies are babies in Kam's world, Charli, Evey, Bricey, all babies! I had to break it to her that Charli Jo wouldn't be crawling or climbing this weekend! But she still can't wait!

The Joy of Motherhood

At three years old, Owen is inarguably the messiest child every born! He can make a mess out of anything! Nevermind the fact that instead of drawing with markers Owen would rather bite the end off, take out the ink-filled center, get it all over his hands, and then rub it on the table (the red finger streaks that resemble something out of a horror film remain permanent). That is actually a mild example. You should see him eat a biscuit, or pop-tarts, which have now been ban in our house thanks to Owen. I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that he has entirely too much freedom within the house, but I really think part of it is just bread into him. I'm certain he gets it from Brant, I might add. So... all of this is leading up to the story of the potatoe soup! We had potatoe soup for dinner. Owen ate potatoe soup. I was proud, he ate pretty good, and did not make an incredibly large mess. That is untill it came time to get down from the table, a which time his hand hit the edge of the plate his bowl of soup was sitting on. I watched helplessly as a wide trail of potatoe soup splattered from the kitchen into the living room, spraying the table, the floor, and the curtain on the back door, not to mention anything else it came in contact with along the way! Messiest child ever born! Ahh...the joy of motherhood!

Cat Pools

So, What do you think? Pretty cute huh! Our new background is courtesy of Morgan, who obviously has too much time on her hands. Thanks Mo!

I had to tell you all what Owen said the other day, it was too funny. He came in and said he wanted to play in the cat pool. Daddy could put the air in it and the water with the hose and he could go swimming. (never mind that it's October and in the 50's here) I figured out he was talking about the blow up pool we got them this summer, but it is jungle themed with a blow up zebra head that sprays water, so I was confused about why he was calling it a cat pool. When I asked he said "that's what you call it". I then realized what he meat- It's not a cat pool, it's a kiddie pool!!!! We're still laughing over this!

....and the winner is......

After much discussion, consideration, opinion asking, wavering, and name writing, we have finally settled on a name spelling for Bubba B . When it was brought to our attention that BRISON would sound like Brisket and Prison ( I kept wondering why Google kept asking " Did you mean Prison" when I would type it into a search. Duh! Only one letter off.) we decided against this spelling. Neither of us liked the BRICEN or BRISEN spelling. We decided Diane didn't do such a bad job of spelling his name after all! It will stay BRICESON. So if you were planning any monogrammed adoption gifts, this is our final answer, so feel free to get started! : ) We still don't have a court date yet , but We are shooting for the 11th or 18th of December. We hope everyone can make it. It just wouldn't be the same with out everyone here to help us celebrate and a rousing game of Catch Phrase!

Names

I'm thinking maybe the spelling of the name is not so terribly important - people have overcome all sorts of "bad" names and have grown up to be wonderful and loving people, despite their name (i.e., "Fairy June" (which I believe is actually mispelled on her birth certificate as "Fairly"!). "Brison", because there's no "e" to make the"i" a long "i", might easily be mispronounced with a short "i", which would rhyme with prison - not so good! Briceson does look odd, but at least there's no mistaking how to pronounce it, so that could be a plus. Is Bryson a choice? That's a pretty typical spelling I think. But, bottom line, whether you leave it as is or change it up a bit, he's going to grow up loved and nurtured and cared for - and we'll just keep calling him by whatever silly, loveable little names we come up with! -- I love you! - Nonnie

How do you spell.........?

Ok, so this statement is heard very often in my house, and 99.99% of the time it is coming out of my mouth. Although Alison has started to ask it quite a bit too. Well the question here lately has been " How do you really spell Briceson?" We are pretty sure the ladder is incorrect because we can't find it on any baby name websites. This makes me kinda happy because I am always concerned that we spelled EveyLynns name wrong and at least I wasn't the one to jack B's name up. My friends have tried to convinced me that we didn't spell Evey's name wrong because we made it up and it isn't a " real name" so there is no wrong way to spell it, but I'm not sure I believe them. Some times late at night when I'm really tired but can't fall a sleep I get my self all worked up thinking that we should have spelled it EvieLynn, but then in the morning when I am rested and thinking more rationally I remember that I don't like the way that spelling looks. So I scribble her name several times on a piece of paper spelling it all different ways, and i always come back to EveyLynn as my favorite. I can not tell you how many times i have gone threw this silly process. I'm hoping by the time she is 3 or 4 I can give up second guessing the name we chose for her. We only had a couple of days to settle on a name, where most people have 9 months to pick one out. Maybe that is why it has taken longer for me to " settle into" the name. We call her every thing from Evey, June, Junie, June-June, Juniper, Revey Evey, Evelyn, & Fairy June. There are a lot more, but that gives you an idea of the many forms her name has taken on. I wonder which one she will prefer when she grows up? Anyways, back to the dilemma at hand. How do you spell Briceson? We were going to leave it the way his mother spelled it on his birth certificate, because all of his records are spelled like that, and it would just be easier. Plus for some reason I feel like his name isn't ours to change. I'm not sure why, but I think it is because it is really all he came to us with. His name and a little, dingy, white shirt with the name of the hospital he was borne in on it. His name is his. He has had it since he was borne, and it is the only real thing he has from his mother( well the only positive thing) and I think it would be disrespectful to her to change it. Is that weird? I truly believe she did the very best she was capable of in regards to him. And if her best was only using 2 times a week wile pregnant instead of 5 times, well then I'm glad she tried. And if participating in his life for only 6 months was the best she could do, then again I'm glad she tried. She made him, carried him, and she named him. I want to be able to tell him these parts of the story about his mom, and if we change his name it would be like saying she didn't do a good enough job. She did HER best. Does that make any since? Any who, Now that we are in the process of filling out all the adoption paper work, we can't help but wonder if we should just touch up the spelling she used a bit! Lord knows I am just as likely to spell a kids name wrong as she is. : ) I only wish she had had someone there who was capable of kindly and gently telling her she was spelling it wrong. Daniel likes the son ending better than the cen ending, and I'm not very fond of the Bryson spelling because it looks to much like Tyson and Byson. So we agreed on Brison. I'm sure she would appreciate us making that small correction for her son. She gave him his middle name too and it will be staying Gene. But the bad part is now we can't find it spelled Brison on any of the baby name wed sites either. So is this spelling wrong too, or just not used ? I mean really. It shouldn't be this hard, but we just want to make sure. We could use some opinions here. What do you think: leave it Briceson, which is obviously wrong, or go with Brison which may or may not be wrong? And just for your enjoyment some of the things we call B are Bubba B, Gene Bean, Gene-Gene burrito head ( this is Isaiah's favorite), Bri-Bri, and plane old Briceson Gene. Katie and Ken( Daniels dad) are the only ones who ever call him Brice. Ok, I will quit rambling on. We have to pick a spelling before we meet with the lawyer next week. What do you all think?

Texas, Wyoming, Korea, Oh My...!!

So We got some news on Daniel's job today. The good news is that he got the job here in Texas! The bad news is his " Carear Field Manager" ( some guy at some other base that manages the goings on of the Crew Chief carear field ) will not release him to the assignment. Which means he can not take the job. Because he has been in for 10 years, and will be putting on Tech. Sargent in Feb, he is like super HOT for a short tour most likely to Korea. No this does not mean Korean women find him super attractive, although I think he is super "HOT". This basically means its his turn to do the dirty work. For the past I would guess 20 or so years this assignment has been " unaccompanied" meaning you could not bring your family with you, and we have had several friends who have had to be away from there family's for 12 months. But about 6 months ago they opened this assignment up to accompanied tours, meaning your family can apply to come too, but instead of only going for 1 year, you have to commit to 3 years. We are hoping that if he does get orders to Korea, we will be able to go with him. I don't even want to think about a year with out him. Sooooooo we are pretty sure this is going to be where we end up before Aug of next year. He still has his application in for the job in Wyoming, but if they wouldn't let him take the job here, the chances are pretty slim they will let him have that job either. Sooooooo, who wants to take a vacation to Korea! ; ) I was looking forward to being here another 4 years and seeing Charli Jo grow up a bit! You all will just have to remind her every day who her favorite Aunt is! I was also excited about Alison being 13 before we had to move, but oh well. I think the big kids are excited about moving. They were really excited about going to Wyoming, or Montana, but last week when we told them daddy got a job here and we would be staying in Texas another 4 years, they didn't act as excited. Where ever we go I'm sure we will like it. Two good things about going to Korea is that when you leave there your are almost 99% guaranteed orders to the base of your choice, and he would be working on A-10's , instead of F-15's, so he would be qualified to work on more than one plane, so that would open up a lot more possible bases we could choose from. We are kinda hoping he will go a head and get the orders so we can start planning for whatever is next. Now that I have taken the time to type all of this, some Air Force AFI ( rules/laws) will change and all of this information will be null and void! : ) That's how the military seams to work!

Every thing else is going well around here. The babies are growing like weeds. Well Briceson is any how. EveyLynn has decided to take a break from growing for the past 6 months, but she has started talking quite a bit. I guess she can only do one thing at a time! Ali and I are the only ones who can tell what she is saying, but its a good start. We think we are going to be finalizing Bricesons adoption some time around the 1st week of December. We can try and push it back a bit if we need to so it is closer to Christmas break. Just let me know Lin. Um.... What else? we are going to also try and come home for Christmas this year, but not sure how all that is going to work out. Well, I got to get. Time to get babies up and start my whirl wind of a day! Its been a rainy few days so I have to think of ways to keep all four of them entertained in doors, and this gets to be a little like putting a cat in a bucket of water, with Briceson and Isaiah. B wakes up in the morning asking for " side peas"! That means "out side please". We might be making a trip to the McDonalds with an indoor Play-Play if it gets too bad. I love you all and will keep you updated on the Great Olsen Move of 2010! There could be more twists and turns to come! XOXOXO

Notes from Nonnie

Hey all my babies - I wanted to share these OUTSTANDING pictures of Brannon at his best! (Of course, they don't quite compete with the one of Dad at his best!) I'm also posting a picture of McKinley, Kamy and Owen "swaaaangin" on Uncle Mitch's tire swing -- the looks on their faces is just one of pure enjoyment, at its finest, as carefree as the wind. Makes me yearn for times gone by, when you kids were small and full of trouble!