Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas eve at my parents house was pretty quiet this year. My family is spread out all over the country, and most of them stayed home this year. It was pretty sad, we missed them a lot. But we still had fun! We got to celebrate with my Mom and Dad, Matt, Stacie, Jack, Dave and Sarah. Of course we had amazing food provided by my mother! Then we did our traditional nativity play. After that, much to Ty's delight, it was bedtime. He had been asking to go to bed since we got there. Once the kids were in bed, we did the Santa thing. Sarah was my hero and helped me put together the train table for the boys. We stayed up until 2 am working on that and watching a movie. It was a lot of fun! I'm sad it is all over. 

The Nativity
Joseph, Mary and the Donkey. Apparently Joseph thought he needed the donkey more than Mary. 
Our little Wise Man. 
Our Shephard and Sheep. 
Cute curly haired sheep. 

The Christmas Jammies

I didn't think Ty would be that excited about opening pajamas, but he loved them.
The lil stinkers wouldn't look at me. 

Christmas Morning

Ty opening his fire truck
Cody figuring out how to open a present without big brothers help this time. 
We had a hard time pulling Cody away from the train, he just played with that all morning. 

Jack Photo Shoot

I got a lot of pictures of Jack, but that is because I think he is so cute! I thought these two pictures were adorable. The first one is hilarious! He wasn't too happy about my camera in his face. 

Christmas 2008

I am going backwards here, but these are the first pictures I edited. So I am going to start with Christmas day, then eve, then decorating the tree. So here we go. 

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He's 3?

The boys and I went to Cafe Rio for dinner tonight since Ryan wasn't going to be home until late and we had to get a gift card there. While we were eating, a waiter brought around samples of their desserts. Ty, Cody and I each got to try one and they were good. Ty had the Tres Leches. He loved it! I have never seen him so excited about a dessert. So, he talked me into getting him one. Well, we tried to get one, but the line was too long and they wouldn't let us cheat and not wait in line. So I told Ty we would have to get one on another day. He was not happy. He started his whining and demanding, "I want a dessert TODAY!" It was not pleasant. 

As we were walking to the car he was still going on about his dessert. I had had enough so I told him I didn't want to hear any more about it. I said if he whined about dessert again he wouldn't get to choose a movie from Blockbuster which is where we were going next. He stopped. 

After we got all buckled in Ty asked me if I wanted him to sing me the dessert song. I said sure. So he started "singing" his dessert song. 

I want a dessert today, but mom won't let me have one

I don't want to wait until another day

I want a dessert today

It sounded an awful lot like his whining a few minutes earlier, but he claimed it was singing. He then asked me, "Can I still pick out a movie if I sing the dessert song?"

He got me. Little stinker. I guess he just really needed to get that out one more time. 

SANTA

This year was the first time we attempted the visit to Santa. Ty has been asking for the same things since October. A fire truck, an ambulance, a helicopter and a toy with a red hammer. It is quite the list I know. Whenever you ask him what he wants for Christmas he never fails to mention all four of those things. This year he is actually understanding the things we tell him about Christmas. He knows that we celebrate it to celebrate Christ's birth, and he knows that Santa is going to bring him presents. 

The other day while shopping at the mall, we walked past Santa. I showed Ty and told him he should tell him what he wants for Christmas so he can be sure to bring them. He was so excited he ran through the exit door yelling, "I want a fire truck, an ambulance......." he got all the way up to Santa before I stopped him. I wasn't expecting that reaction. He is usually more cautious than that. I hadn't brought my camera and I didn't want to miss out on the photos, so I told him we would go back the next day and he could sit on his lap and tell him what he wants for Christmas. 

So here is Ty rattling off his list for Santa. Look how cute Santa is to hold Ty's hand and listen so intently to what he has to say.  Ty wasn't nervous about sitting on his lap at all. Cody wouldn't go near though. 

And here is Santa deep in thought, trying to decide if Ty deserves these gifts. 

(Maybe he can see the future and knows that when we got home Ty was notty and peed on the floor. I don't know what came over him.)

So our Santa experience went really well. Ty is so excited for Christmas, and unless we have another notty incident, Santa has told me he got his four requested items. 

Bahama Mamas

Ryan and I had the privilege to go to the Bahamas for Ryan's CPE training this year. What that means is I get to go sit on the beach, and Ryan has to go to class. HA HA HA! Just kidding. He only had class from 8-1, so he got a lot of sitting on the beach in too.  It was an amazing place. It wouldn't have been as amazing if my dear sister and brother in law hadn't agreed to come with their daughter from Ohio to watch my boys. Kat and my mom were so great, and my boys were happy and well cared for the whole time I was gone which made it easy for me to relax. Although I hear her daughter Lily is still trying to recover from the trauma my boys constant teasing caused her. She may never agree to do such a thing again.  

I have to tell a funny story about Ty. The first day we left he was a little out of control. He gets a little hyper when we go to Grandma's house, and he was especially  hyper because of all the new people he was with. So my brother David walked into the storage room to find that somebody had gotten into my moms chocolate turtles. There were a few with bites out of them. So David went and asked Ty if he was the one that got into them. Upon questioning, Ty answered, "I didn't touch the chocolate spiders." Well, there was David's answer, and we now refer to the turtles as chocolate spiders. 

But, back to the trip. Everything about it was great! The hotel, the food, the pina coladas, the company, the weather (minus the first day), the pina coladas (they were the best I have ever had).........I loved it! I got to celebrate my birthday there. I have never had a sunny 80 degree weather birthday. I hope we can visit again some day. Although I could do without the crazy cab ride back to the airport. I can't even describe it, the driver was insane.  

One bad thing about having a big camera is it is hard to travel with. So, I didn't get too many pictures and those I did get aren't that great. So, bare with me. 

The Atlantis hotel where we stayed. It is HUGE! This is a view from the marina where we liked to look at the yachts. We wished they were ours. 

I'm not kidding people, these are my only decent photos. I was pretty sad about it. The rest of the photos are from our fishing day. Ryan's boss is a mega fisherman, even bigger than Ryan, so he arranged for us all to go out fishing one day. 

Don't let my smile fool you. This boat ride made me pretty sick after awhile. The waves were pretty big. 

Me and my wahoo. Kind of gross I know. I mean it is okay to have pictures like this when you go fishing in Alaska, but this is the Bahamas. I am supposed to be on the beach with a pina colada. It was really cool though. Especially when Ryan caught a wahoo and then a shark came up and took it from him. Crazy! 
Ryan and his mahi mahi. 
Who's teeth are scarier? Mine or the Barracuda's? 

We were told this is Sean Connery's house. He apparently lives here 6 months out of the year. It was a pretty nice spread. 

So that was our trip. We got to stay for a week and it was so relaxing. I was so ready to come back and see my boys though. I missed them a lot. Thanks again Kat, Jacob, Lily, Mom and Dad for taking such good care of my little sweeties. 

Thanksgiving 2008 (edited)

We had a great Thanksgiving! We are so lucky to live so close to both of our families. We got to spend time with everyone. I forgot my camera for our first Thanksgiving dinner, which was at Ryan's brother Trevor's house. Believe me though, it was great! We had fun hanging out with Ryan's brothers, Grandparents and Aunt Suzi! Ty especially loved playing with Suzi. 

The next day we headed up to a Lodge that my Dad rents every other year for Thanksgiving. It is huge and has so many things to do. Not to mention it is beautiful. Everything about it is beautiful! We had a great turnout and got to see most of my Dad's side of the family. We hadn't seen some of them for over a year, so it was fun to catch up. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing! Everyone outdid themselves. From my brother's home made stuffing, to my dad's rolls, to my favorite thing, Aunt Marsha's yams (they are to die for!). I couldn't stop eating. It was yummy! We got to stay there for a few days, so we got to relax and have fun. Here are a few pictures of what we did. 

We had a hard time keeping track of Cody. Most likely he was on the balcony doing this, or running outside. Yes, he could open the door and escape! It was terrifying because there was a pond right outside the door. 
We went for a walk before the big dinner. We got to see ponds, horses, cows, and a rock climbing wall. 
This is Cody trying to give the horse a kiss. The horse wasn't falling for it. 

Ty thought this tunnel (bike rack) was pretty cool. 

Ryan rock climbing. Just so you know, I made it all the way to the top. Ryan only made it about half way. Guess I am the stronger one. :)
I didn't post this at first, for obvious reasons, but since people were commenting about it, I thought I should show proof. David's coat was very warm, but looks like a tent from this angle. 

Cody giving rock climbing a try. He wasn't such a fan. He looked pretty cute in the harness though. 

Ty climbing and repelling. I thought they did a pretty good job. I can't end this post without saying that I am very thankful for everything that I have. I won't list it all here, but I do want to say thank you to my Heavenly Father for my family, especially these two beautiful boys who I have the pleasure of raising. I love them so much!

Please Stand By.....

So much to post, so little time. Thanksgiving was awesome! Life has been crazy the last week and will continue to be crazy for the next week. I will update when we get home from our trip.

More Playin', More Pictures

Um, I am going a little picture crazy around here. I can't help it. I finally got my book in the mail so I can start learning how to use my camera. I am pretty excited. I took the boys to the park yesterday afternoon and I thought the lighting was really cool for pictures. (yeah, I don't know what good lighting is, but I wanted to try it out) So we went back to the park today to take a few pictures. It was harder then I thought, but it was fun. Ty's new favorite thing is to climb the tree at the park, and Cody likes to play on the old, rickety plastic animals. The main attractions at this park are the 5 slides, but my boys don't really care for slides at the moment. I don't get it. Here they are playing:

Lovin' on Chica

Ty loves the dogs. The dogs do not love Ty. Although he has tried very hard for a year now to win them over, they aren't having it. I think they lived too long without little ones around to be able to handle all that comes with a 3 year old and a 1 year old. While Ty is full of hugs and kisses for them, he is also full of chases, and tackles. They are not fond of any of it. Sierra shakes at the sight of my little monster, while Chica takes on a more courageous strategy. Endure it until an escape presents itself, then get the H-E-double toothpicks out of there. Today, Ty just wanted a cuddle buddy while he watched a show and Chica seemed like the perfect fit.

Cody had some kisses for Chica too. Ty got distracted when Cody joined the party and that is when Chica found her escape. She sat with him for a good 5 minutes though and that is a record. Maybe we're making progress.