Umm, it's been awhile...

Tyler and his cousins Tate, Lucas and Caleb at the Mesa Temple

Tyler and his cousin Tate ate the turkey drumstick on Christmas Eve

Austin stayed close to Daddy

I played Mary for the Christmas program

Tyler did the traditional "olive fingers"

Tyler insisted that he (not Austin) play baby Jesus

Christmas morning Tyler opened his cool Optimus Prime voice changing helmet

Then, he opened a treasure chest that Grandpa made for him.

Horrible picture, but this is Tyler's and my favorite new game (thanks Laura) GO DDR!

Austin discovered the joy of slides in AZ

Tyler had a great time keeping up with his cousins

Austin's cousin Lucas showed Austin how to slide head first

Mike showed Tyler how to jump off a swing and get a wood chip splinter

Tyler misses his cousins every day now!

We had a great vacation. First, Mike and i dropped the kids off in AZ and went on a cruise for my Granma's 80th birthday. We went to Mexico and had a great time. I will post some pictures of that later. We missed our kids after a week and went back to AZ for Christmas. Tyler had the time of his life playing with his cousins all day and into the night. ( Although he was very grouchy and off schedule) We had a fun, relaxing Christmas and headed back to freezing cold Illinois after almost 3 weeks of partying. Back to reality...

santa baby- an optimus prime for me

Tyler has asked Santa for an Optimus Prime transformer for Christmas. We are going to Mike's parents in AZ for Christmas, and we don't want to pack 99 suitcases. So, I thought, "easy, I'll just order it and have it shipped to AZ." No, not easy. Apparantly Optimus Prime is this years Cabbage Patch Kid, and is sold out everywhere. Some scam artists on e-bay are charging twice the price plus 20 bucks to ship it. Um, no thanks. I really don't know what to do. We are just hoping we can locate one before Christmas or Santa will have to leave an IOU under the tree. I'm not usually like this, but this is the first year Tyker really GETS Santa and I don't want to crush all his dreams. We need Tyler to believe in Santa for many more years. All I have to do is start "dialing" the North Pole to get Tyler's behavior to turn around (thanks Mom for using this on us). "No mom, I'll be good, I'm sorry, PLEASE don't call Santa!"

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

Austin started off the day with his favorite new activity. We are now using 5 times more TP than usual, but it is so cute!



Here is Tyler right before his pre-school Christmas program. He looked very handsome.


Austin was all over the place while we waited for his brother to sing.


Here is Tyler during the program. He actually sang this time and wasn't off in his own world.

Finally here is the "gingerbread" house Tyler made today at pre-school.

Tyler said a funny thing today. He was watching TV and every commercial he saw he would ask for that toy. I said Tyler, "how come you want EVEY toy you see, you can't have that many toys." He responded, "then why does every single toy have to be so cool?" Yes, the advertisers are certainly doing their job this holiday season.

Our Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a quiet affair at our house. Mike told me to purchase the biggest turkey I could find. We baked that, stuffing and mashed potatoes and waited until Austin's naptime. After the monkey was down, we ate. Tyler has been eating turkey sandwiches for a week now.
Tyler and I went to see a movie, while Mike cleaned up the mess . It was a good day. We had been getting all the toy ads and catalogs, so we told Tyler to circle like 4 things he wanted for Christmas so we could send his list to Santa. 4 turned into 400. I took some pictures of him hard at work. Tyler wanted Mike to transcribe a letter to Santa to go along with his circled pictures. It reads:

Dear Santa,

I love you Santa. I want the space man and the silver rock guy and snow-man guy, AND red rock guy with the motor-thing, and the racer, and the green rock guy, and the rocket ship. Please get me everything on this page. I was a good boy. I played with Austin today. I wrestled him too. I want to be a good boy to get a sticker, and I made my bed 5 times. I love you santa!

-Tyler








Here's Austin on Thanksgiving. He's not a greedy toy monster yet!

Happy Birthday Austin

Austin's 1st year has gone by so fast. We were so anxious for him to come. With Tyler I was nervous and didn't mind waiting. With Austin I knew I could be a mom. I had a harder pregnancy with Austin, and maybe that is why I was more anxious for his birth. I was induced on November 20th last year. Austin took his time, and was born 7 minutes into the 21st of November. He had a ton of hair (I was used to a bald baby). It wasn't much of an adjustment to have Austin as part of our family. Luckily, Tyler took to him right away, and loved him fiercly from the start. Right away Austin seemed to be a calmer soul than his brother, but we aren't sure if this is holding true anymore. Mike and I both thought that this baby might not be such a daddy's boy, but he is. Austin loves his dad just as much as Tyler. Austin is happy boy, and can charm anyone with his flirty smile. He is a pretty good sleeper, and an active player. He needs attention. Most days I call him my little cling-on. He's almost always happy while being held. He's a horrible eater, just like his brother (who has gotten so much better by the way). He dances and claps to music, and it is seriously the cutest thing you have ever seen. We love his wet, open mouth kisses, his Einstein hair, his bucky teeth and we can't imagine our lives without him!

2 uncoeperative boys

I was feeling artsy, it was a nice day; let's take pictures. NEVERMIND!

Tyler celebrating the 1st Thanksgiving

I feel guilty... While Austin was getting his tubes, Tyler was celebrating the 1st Thanksgiving with his pre-school class. They had a feast first (complete with some kids as pilgrims & some as Native Americans). Then, they had a presentation for the parents that I missed. I feel bad because I'm sure all the other parents were there. I missed his srumming and singing.

Austin showed some real live jealousy today. Tyler and Austin were both on Mike's lap and Austin was crying and trying to push Tyler off. As soon as Tyler got off Mike's lap Austin was fine. It's funny because Tyler has never been jealous of Austin. Even when he first came home from the hospital Tyler showed patience for him. And now Austin, as #2, is telling Tyler to take a hike. What a terd! (Mike thinks I spell terd wrong)