Easter and Greyson's Birthday

Oh what fun . . . Greyson's one!  I literally can't believe that!!!  Wade and Joan (Dave's parents) came down a few days early and we celebrated and then we celebrated again with my family on Easter weekend when we were all together already.  Here are a few picts of our festivities. 

 Chad wanted to have a piniata for the party.  I didn't want to smash up a $20 purchase, so we made our own.  It was a lot of fun, and a lot of mess.  It didn't last long once we started taking swings at it.  But, everyone had a lot of fun with it and I'll have to remember to do another one. 

 My parents put on an egg hunt at their home this year.  It was a lot of fun and everyone of their grandkids were there.  That doesn't happen very often.  Here is all ten kiddos (9 boys and only 1 girl) with my parents.  It was a lot of fun. 

In order to make it fair, my mom had printed a sheet for each kid with how many of each color of egg they were to pick up.  It was so fun to watch each of them refer to their list and search.  Of course, the littlest ones just loaded up and we had to sort them out later.  Here is Chad consulting his guide. 

Is It Spring Yet?

Greyson will be 11 months this weekend.  WOW, wow, wow!!!  That means that a year ago, my neighbor and I were laying out on the grass each day so pregenant and just waiting to pop.  And now, almost a year!  Crazy!  Greyson is busy, but he has his own style of crawling which doesn't get him very far.  He lays on his tummy and uses his hands to turn himself in the directions he wants to go and his toes to push himself, usually backwards.  When he gets up on his hands and knees, he only stays for a minute and shows no interest in using them to propel himself forward.  Although this method of crawling keeps him more confided and out of things, it also makes him pretty angry.  He wants to GO places.  But, he is still so fun and so sweet.  He has three teeth now, two on the bottom and one on the top to the left of where his front teeth should be. 

We have been wishing Spring to come our way.  Several days last week were nice and the boys even went outside to play in the backyard.  Even Greyson has spent a few afternoons outside and he loves it!  We did plant some seeds indoors to get them going for when it does warm up.  The boys had fun putting the seeds int he soil and we even have a few sprouts.  We also have several empty holes in our planter because I have yet to get to the store and buy my cilantro seeds.  Put that on my to do list. 

What we've been up to . . .

We have had a great January and are excited to see what February brings.  We have celebrated the new year, 2 birthdays, a pay raise and positive 90-day-review, snowman season, gone sledding, you name it.  Here are a few pictures to show our fun. 

Two silly boys!  Tyler came out one night with his jammies pulled up to his armpits, honestly not realizing anything was funny about it.  Dave and I had such a laugh that Chad joined in the fun. 

 Sledding!  I have promised the boys I'd take them sledding for a while now, but then the day turns into cachos and we never go.  One Saturday, we finally made it out and we had such a fun time.  I mostly sat in a chair and held Greyson, but I got to go down a few times.  Chad would have never left and Tyler could have been happy just walking on the trails.  Fun memories. 

 We've been parting!  Greyson looked so darling in this party hat, and surprisingly, he didn't try to take it off.  We also have a tradition of having a snowman party each January.  This year, we ate our snowman.  We had snow (mashed tatos), carrot nose (carrots), coal eyes (roast), and his scarf (rolls-you gotta think outside the box on this one).  We watched the movie The Snowman  and cut out snowflakes form paper.  Then we went out for Coldstone.  It is always fun and makes the cold seem a little less unwelcoming for an evening. 

 This is Dave's birthday party.  He turned 31!  Old man, huh!  :)  Happy Birthday to ya. 

Hope you all had a wonderful start to your year as well.  We enjoy reading about your happenings on your blogs. 

Tyler's 3rd birthday

It is hard to believe that it has been three years since I was in the hospital with this guy. My, how the time has flown. He is truly the silliest little boy, and also the grouchiest, sweetest, most destructive, etc. He makes me laugh every day! (And I can't deny that he makes me frustrated probably every day too.)

I love to make birthdays feel like they are a special day. I asked Chad if he wanted to help me decorate once Tyler was asleep, but told him that I wanted to keep it a surprise. All day, he'd say to Tyler, "I'm not going to sleep with you." Then he'd remember the "surprise" part and look at Tyler and sweetly say, "I'm just kidding." He did stay awake and help me and I think Chad was probably more excited about the party than Tyler. This year for his birthday, Tyler was very adament that he wanted a "Mater and the Ghostlight" cake. So, here is how it turned out.

I thought it was acceptable. It was supposed to be covered in fondant, but for some reason, the recipe that I used before with no trouble was a disaster. So, we went with plan B and I think it worked. The sucker hanging from his hook is the "ghost light".

Just had to put in this last little picture of Tyler being Tyler. He loves to "cook" things with me and I find bowls, little cups and everything you can imagine full of water all over the house.

Christmas and New Year Celebrations

I know Christmas was a month ago; I feel like things are finally getting back to normal and I am playing catch-up. We had a great Christmas. Our boys are getting old enough to be excited and look forward to the celebrations. Here are a few pictures. So I don't know where I went wrong, but my boys are afraid of Santa. In past years, Chad has expressed that he didn't even want Santa to come into our house. He never wants to go and see him, so when he told me he wanted to see Santa this year, I was blown away. Once we were there, it took him several minutes to decide to get near him, and no way he would sit on his lap, but he did talk to him. That is a big step.

For New Years, we went bowling. It was a lot of fun! This was one of our traditions when I was a child. The bowling alley did a count down at 8pm, and handed out noise makers and hats. Our boys thought it was the most fun. Greyson fell asleep at 7 and slept on coats on the floor. I don't know how anyone does it with little ones. But we had a ton of fun.

Dave, me and Tyler all decked out for the count down.

These were the hats the boys got at the bowling alley. I'm sure this picture was taken at about 12:30 after we celebrated till the real new year at my sister in laws house. I can't believe they were still awake.

We sure had a fun holiday and look forward to a wonderful new year!

Christmas Preparations

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I do so love the Christmas season, and each year, I long for that feeling I had as a child when Christmas would come. It just "felt" different. I think as a kid, it was different because you were out of school. The house smelled and looked different. I have such good memories. Now, I work hard to create memories for my children. I hope they grow up to feel as I do, that Christmas time just "feels" different.

So this has nothing to do with getting ready for Christmas, but it was so cute, I just had to post it. Tyler loves to be pushed around in this laundry basket. Well, one night, Dave found him like this. He did it again the next night. I can't imagine that it is very comfortable, but oh so cute!

Gingerbread houses . . . what a mess. I always want to make them but they are always so messy. I just thought this picture showed how my two boys differ. Tyler build his house, then destroyed it, then broke it up, then ate it, then used the pieces to make a new "pile" and then ate it too, all in one day. Chad's house would still be here next Christmas if I didn't throw it out at some point when I can't stand it anymore.

Family picture. We tried to do a nice one, but someone always had their tounge out or eyes closed. This just worked better. One day soon, we'll go and get one done and then I'll post those. This picture is one of the reasons why I'm not sending Christmas cards this year.

This is our downstairs tree. Each year, I debate on whether to get a live tree for downstairs, or use our fake one. Note: our fake one was only $5 after Christmas our first year and it looks like a $5 tree. I hate it. I love live trees but I hate paying $55 + for one. And I can't seem to make myself pay $200 or more for a nice artificial one. This year, we found this beautiful tree for just $20. I was so proud, and I think it is more beautiful than any we've had before. Wishing you all a wonderful Merry Christmas!!!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Chad wanted to be Woody . . . AGAIN! So, after much convincing, I swayed him into being Buzz instead. Well, then Tyler wanted to be Buzz too. Problem-only one Buzz costume. A great neighbor lent us the Buzz costume in return for us loaning her a Woody costume. New problem-Tyler decided to be Woody instead. So . . . I had to make a new Woody, but I thought that was a fair deal; I'd much rather make Woody than even attempt to make Buzz. Here are their picts.

Chad with his pumpkin.

Tyler with his.

Greyson was a cow. It was what I had in the costume box that fit and that seems to be the way I operate as of late.

Here they are together. We had big plans that I was going to be Jessie and Dave was going to be Lotso (the big purple bear from Toy Story 3) but, those costumes never made it past the discussion table.

One last picture: At Chad's school, they did not get to dress up for Halloween. (Trust me, I was really bumbed. Really.) Instead, he got to do "crazy hair day". So, I had to paint Greyson's hair blue just to convince Chad it was cool enough to try. Then, Tyler never wants to be left out, so he did it too. Before the night was over, I had blue bangs too. We had a lot of fun, and Tyler and Greyson still have slightly blue scalps.