The Land of the Giants

Family Christmas

2012-01-08T19:00:00.002-06:00

Christmas Eve and morning were spent here in our home. It was fun to have just our family together to create new traditions. Here are the kids gathered at our Christmas Eve dinner!

It was so fun seeing Tyson come down the stairs that morning. I loved how he paused at the top of the stairs for a picture when he thought I wanted one. When he came into our room that morning, I think he had forgotten that it was Christmas and once I reminded him, he was ready to go! He had asked for a racetrack and was so excited that Santa delivered. The day before Tyson had made a sticker picture and wanted to leave it to show Santa. I asked him if Santa could take it and if we should leave a note for him. All he wanted to say was: "Just Look, Santa" (meaning...don't take my picture!)

Camille got some baby doll things and some dress-up shoes, hoping she'll leave mine in the closet from now on. This girl loves to wear necklaces and shoes! She's trying them on here...and also testing out the doll play pen, which she's convinced is just for her.


Christmas morning we had yummy french toast and sausage and enjoyed playing with our toys until church, which wasn't until 3:00.

The next morning we headed off to Utah. We stayed through New Year's and had a really great time with Scott's family. We played lots of late night games, played volleyball, I snuck in some after Christmas sale shopping, and the kids just played and played with their cousins! I hardly saw Tyson! Here is Scott, his Dad and older brother enjoying the BYU bowl game (of course).

Grandma Howard had bought all her granddaughters the same adorable dress and we knew we had to get a picture with her! Camille was not too thrilled about the idea of pictures at the moment although she looked darling!

I just realized that I am not in a single one of these pictures! I promise I was there making it all happen! :)

2012-01-04T15:21:00.004-06:00

Finally I was able to publish one song from Tyson's preschool Christmas program. The quality of my video is not great but I love how he was trying to make the girl beside him feel better. Enjoy!

Christmas Joy

2011-12-20T16:47:00.013-06:00

We went to visit Santa at Scott's work. They always give the kids a nice toy and have cookies and crafts to do as well. Tyson loved talking with Santa and I alway laugh when Santa gives a big "humph" when trying to pick Tyson up on his lap. Camille didn't cry but leaned as far away from him as possible and would not make eye contact. I don't why this picture turned out fuzzy but you can kind of get the idea. Tyson had a preschool Christmas program which I was so excited to watch. He had been practicing his songs at home and knew all the words and actions. I have a video that I'm having trouble uploading...hopefully soon! Here he is with a cute friend of his that used to be in our ward and they are good buddies or a possible blossoming romance!
I love their Christmas Sunday attire and was thrilled I actually got a couple pictures of them both smiling together! Merry Christmas!

Tis the Season...

2011-12-19T15:24:00.005-06:00

I'll have to do December in a couple different posts. I always forget how busy this month can be! We started off the month by decorating our Christmas tree. As you can tell by Camille's face, she was enthralled with it as it went up. She's been pretty good about keeping the ornaments on, only taking a few off every once in a while. (I don't know why she was carrying around a toothbrush)

I love this pic of her finger carefully touching the light.
And I'm loving Tyson's hair in this one.
She's so good at smiling at the camera and I love her sparkly shoes! This month I put Tyson in a 4 week "Iron Chef" class at the community center. I knew it would be right up his alley and when he got to wear a chef hat he was in heaven! He's getting ready to make pizza!

Forget the spoon, my hands work just as good!

Camille is waiting for the final project!

Ta-da!

The last week, they got to make Christmas cookies!

Just a couple of our many activites! More to come!

2011-11-22T13:13:00.003-06:00

Tyson loves preschool! When I asked him what his favorite thing to do at preschool was, he said, "eating snacks." Each parent takes a turn bringing snacks in. This morning when I told Tyson it was preschool day, he jumps up and down and says, "Yay! Who's bringing the snacks today?" Oh, the important things. I believe/hope he is learning other things as well. :) He comes home with lots of fun art and pictures to share. He's a cute boy and definitely at an age that keeps us laughing. He talks non-stop about anything and everything and I need to do better at writing the funny things down. He's loves to imagine and pretend, loves to play with his animal toys and loves learning. He's got a quick mind that soaks things up and an amazing memory. I'm sure thankful for him and love him a lot!

Tyson's preschool picture-age 3

Such a Tease!

2011-11-13T19:10:00.003-06:00

Camille loves to tease Tyson. Sometimes while my very orderly son is playing with something, she will sneak up, grab one of his toys, and run away as fast as she can with a sly smile on her face. It cracks me up everytime although Tyson doesn't think its quite so funny. Here in this video, they were playing something cute together and so I tried to video it but then she randomly decideds body slam him and continues to put her feet on his face. I'm glad Tyson tolerates it and will play along with her on the majority of occasions. She is 15 months old and is getting quite the fun personality. She is my shadow most of the day which can drive me a tad crazy someyimes, but she's often smiling and happy so its a good balance. (sidenote: the high-pitched squeal is Tyson as well as the constant "cheeeeese")

Halloween

2011-11-01T17:34:00.006-05:00

We had our Ward Trunk-or-Treat party last weekend on Friday night...which was a big hit with Tyson. He was dressed up as a "builder" as he would tell you, and spent most of the week "fixing" things around our house. I made him the little tool belt and Grandma Turner found the vest for him. Camille was a cute little witch and I was amazed at how well she kept her headband/hat on. While some kids kept making multiple rounds around the trunks, Tyson made one lap and then was content to sit in the car and dig through his bucket of candy.

The local community center had some Halloween festivities that we headed off to on Saturday. We took the kiddos around our neighborhood and Camille would laugh everytime Tyson would go up to a door and come running back.

Camille loved exploring the candy bowl but I don't think she quite understands how good all those treats can be! But she did know that she wanted them in her basket!

This weekend was sure busy and I'm glad its all over!

2011-10-26T11:24:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, some good friends of mine graciously let me horn my way into their photo shoot and took some of our family. I love how they turned out and we definitely found some keepers! These are my favorites (the ones where everyone happened to not be blinking and all looking in the same direction with a decent smile on their face)!

Hitting the Trail!

2011-10-03T22:47:00.004-05:00

Tyson's preschool had a western day to go along with the big rodeo that was in town. They were asked to dress up like a cowboy and make a stick horse for to bring to class. Luckily I had most of the stuff from his Halloween costume with the exception of his "cowboy boots." This kid cracks me up. He insisted on wearing his snow boots. They are cowboy boots in his eye and who was I to tell him otherwise. At least they match his outfit!They then went on a "trail" ride around the school. I just thought this picture was funny with his ghetto hat and his snow boots....he was on a mission. His hat kept falling down and he just kept walking.

His class picture....They told him to say "Yee-haw" for the camera and that's exactly what he did! No one else seems quite as enthusiastic. Oh I sure love this cowboy!

We got tickets to go to the rodeo from Scott's work and Tyson loved it! It was really well put on and he thought the bucking horses were really cool. They also had a place where they showed farm animals and this pig was huge! She had also just given birth to 10 little piggies (they were there too) 6 days prior, so I'll give her a break. :)

Orchard picking

2011-09-29T13:53:00.006-05:00

Last week we headed off to another orchard to pick raspberries and some apples. Tyson enjoyed picking them and only had to be reminded a couple times, not to eat them until they were payed for! It reminded me of picking raspberries from my Grandma Turner's bushes in her backyard! Here's our raspberry loot which I made raspberry jam out of and it is so tasty! I almost like it better than my strawberry one!Camille enjoyed a few herself...Tyson quickly came over and said, "Mom don't take a picture of Camille without me!" So here they both are! Picking apples...he wanted them all!

Full of Hot Air...

2011-09-28T11:35:00.006-05:00

My friend came across this event that took place at an Apple Orchard in Council Bluffs where they have a hot air balloon launch and lighting. The weather was perfect and Tyson enjoyed playing with friends. Especially running around inside a balloon that they were blowing air into. (he's in green in the middle) It was a fun little atmosphere as they had music playing while the balloons were filling up. More and more kept blowing up and taking off and you could get so close to them.

At the end, they came back and lit up in different patterns and speeds. It was quite a cool show and a fun activity for a Friday night!

(of course my camera battery died at the very beginning, so thanks Shannon for taking these for me!)

I love Preschool!

2011-09-03T12:13:00.005-05:00

I mean...Tyson loves preschool! He started his first day last week and he just looked so cute and grown-up and of course we had to get a picture of the first day of school (he actually let me comb his hair a little). He was so excited and walked right in to find his name/animal on the carpet and he was there waiting for me to pick him up. Its two days a week for 2 and 15 minutes and I'm excited for him to have this time all on his own! It's fun to listen to him tell me all the things he did that day. Today he was the snack helper. We had to bring the snacks in and he got to help pass them out. I love him seeing him enjoy it and I think he'll thrive in this environment!

ONE

2011-08-31T14:13:00.011-05:00

Last week, Camille turned 1 (hence the large quantity of pictures coming up)! We sure love our cute girl and had fun celebrating with her throughout the day. In the morning, we cruised around the zoo. Then we had her favorite meal...baked ziti and opened presents. It is fair to say that Tyson rather enjoyed this part and was a big "help" to Camille opening them up. This one is from Grandma Turner.
Next came, cake time!! We had some neighbors come and enjoy it with us.

I put this one in there because Tyson snuck in at the last moment and blew out the candle.

I made a "watermelon" cake for her and thought it turned out cute. Waiting for cake....

Getting her first taste...

Tyson hopped in and I think you can tell by his face that he was enjoying the cake too.

Good stuff!

Now, Tyson latched on to one of Camille's presents. We gave her a picnic basket that sings and has plates and food and such. He carried that thing around all night in the crook of his arm. I kid you not. It did not leave his sight. He chased around his friends, holding that thing. This is exactly how I found him that night sleeping in his bed with it!
We had to take it in the car with us (which he also fell asleep with).
We all took our turn having picnics with him. Dad got to join him outside!

I'm happy to say its been a week and Tyson has finally relinquished control of the basket and Camille had had the chance to play with her own present.

Camille 1 year stats are:
Height- 33 1/4 inches (99% +)
Weight 25 lbs (95%)

She is such a fun girl to have around. I love when she flashes her smile and she does it quite frequently. She recieves a lot of love from her brother and tolerates it fairly well. She's in the clingy phase and likes to always be near me, but yet does well when I leave her with others. Her personality is definitely starting to develop and she's becoming quite the tease to her brother. When he's working on something (remember my son likes the order), she'll purposely come up take something from him and crawl away super fast in the other direction. He'll get a little irritated, chase her and get it back while she just laughs and laughs! I find it quite entertaining now, but can see it becoming more of an issue in the future! She's almost walking, she'll go from a sit to a stand without any help of furniture and take up to 5 steps before falling and she's quite the busy girl, moving from one thing to the next. I think she'll be my easy-going, free spirit child.

(getting into Tyson's leftover yogurt and spreading all over her face)

We sure love this Camilley girl and are so glad she's in our home. What a fun year it has been! Happy Birthday Camille!!

Sum Sum Summertime

2011-08-13T10:59:00.006-05:00

Back in June during the College World Series, Scott's work put on a barbeque near the stadium. We were waiting for the trolley to pick us up outside his work and I got one picture before my camera died. He loved the trolley though and would just sit and look out the window. He's so grown up these days. One day he told me he wanted to sit outside in the sun and he needed his sunglasses. He was just chillin there for a while. This summer Camille has mastered the stairs. She's been climbing them for a while and just recently figured out how to go down!We went to the Children's Museum here and they had a Dinosaur exhibit that Tyson loved. He wandered around and around these displays over and over again. He got to point a dinosaur...and play with this really cool ball extravanganza (for lack of a better word)It's been pretty hot and humid but recently we've had a break with some pretty nice weather and it was fun to sit outside and watch Scott mow the lawn. Please ignore my dead plant in the background....my other ones are still living!Tyson loves his sister (sometimes a little too roughly) and did this all on his own. She thinks he is pretty great too. My blued eyed girl is getting so big. I love her little personality emerging. She loves to mimick sounds and words but has yet to say Mama! She's mastered Daddy and uses that interchangably. Tyson has been carrying around a baby pig, mama pig and cow toy for the last week or more. They each had to have their own picture taken. I'll spare you all of those. These 2 cuties definitely keep us busy and entertained and we sure love em!

July Howard Reunion

2011-08-08T11:52:00.009-05:00

We had the opportunity to head off to another family reunion with the Howard side. It was in Duck Creek (near Cedar City), Ut and the weather was fantastic. A great break from the heat/humidity we'd been having in Nebraska. It was a quite a drive though and we split it up, driving 8 hours to Denver to stay the night with my sister and then heading 10 more hours to Duck Creek. We've got a DVD player in our new car (another blog in and of itself) and Tyson was in heaven.I love the big earphones stuck on his head too. I think this was Camille on the 13 hour drive back home...she was not amused.Camping is a little boy's heaven. Once there, Tyson wasted no time getting re-aquainted with his cousins and playing in the dirt. (This is Scott's brother's daughter, Laynee who is one month younger than Tyson) I'm telling ya...pure heaven!!

(two more cousins joined in the fun...Brigitte, 5 and Zade, 4)

One morning, a couple of us snuck off to Cedar City to catch Harry Potter 7. A pet store brought snakes to the theater and this is one of Scott's triplet sister, Jessica, holding a lot of snakes!One afternoon was spent throwing rocks in a river and climbing on logs with Dad and Uncle Sean. A worn out Camille and Scott. Thanks for putting them to sleep, Jess!Scott's dad rented out this lodge that had a room for everyone! Here we are gathered around playing a traditional game of Trivial Pursuit that I think lasted until around midnight.
We drove up to Sandy and got in around 7:30 pm to see my grandparents and to celebrate Scott's birthday. Then we left the next morning to head home. A lot of driving in a short amount of time but worth it. Camille shares her birthday with my Grandpa Turner so I was glad to get some pictures of them together!
Most of Scott's family also drove back up to Sandy and had Cafe Rio dinner and Cold Stone Creamery cake ready for him when we got back from my grandparents. Then they had a ping pong tournament which his sisters had rigged so all the boys could end up playing each other and ultimately Scott and his brother Gary would play for the championship. Well, somehow I manage to work my way up and beat Scott in the semi-finals and spoiled the whole outcome. Oops! And on his birthday of all days! Sorry Scott!

Happy 4th!

2011-07-05T20:00:00.005-05:00

We had a great 4th of July weekend and I just had to dress up Camille for the occasion so I made her this dress (you may see one similar on my sister's blog...these hankerchief dresses are so easy to make!)I put her hair in pigtails for the first time!!Tyson is looking all snazzy and ready for church too (not sure what Scott is doing in the background) :) Another shot of my patriotic girl!Matching girls!On Monday, 3 other family friends of ours and us went out to Fremont Lakes to roast hot dogs and make s'mores. We got a great location on a busy day and I'm bummed I didn't grab more pictures of all the kids running around or any of the adults, but did get this cute one of Camille enjoying a swing. The kids LOVED swimming in the lake. The two pasty boys on the right belong to me! All the dads were kind enough to go swimming with the kids while the wives sat on the beach to chat!Two cute swimmers...and one bathing beauty!Then we hurried over to a fabulous firework show! We were sitting on quite a steep hill and this shot caught me rolling backward while trying to position myself! No babies were harmed in this photo op. Lovely, right??However the kids were not thrilled with getting their pictures taken anyway.
It was a fun fun day and we drove home with 2 kids fast asleep in the back! The 4th of July is such a great holiday!!

This and that!

2011-07-01T10:48:00.005-05:00

Before our big trip, we have just been hanging around the house entertaining ourselves in different ways. A small box was a big hit.A little bit of snuggling on the couch goes a long way. Tyson wanted to be a cowboy one morning. He found his hat and told me he needed his boots and headed upstairs. Knowing we don't have cowboy boots, I wondered what he would come down with. They were his snow boots. Even cowboys can encounter bad weather sometimes.
My cousin, Marissa and her family came up from Kansas for a short trip on Memorial Day. She has twins(boy and girl) 2 months older than Tyson. Her son, Chance, and Tyson were 2 peas in a pod! It was too much fun to watch them together! (This is the only picture I have and I don't know why they came out so blurry) We've also been bowling with our summer passes a couple times. Tyson gets better each time.
Even with his dad showing him such great form, Tyson insisted on putting the ball on the ramp and then pushing it down with his belly...And sometimes with the ramp, he still ended up in the gutter, before the bumpers could help him. Not quite sure how that's possible but leave it to Tyson to figure it out!Hopefully, we'll have many more summer adventures in store for us.

The last of the Rushmore pics....

2011-06-27T14:58:00.009-05:00

Here the men are hanging out around the fire, while we went off and showered! Good to see they got some bonding time in.Our second day, we went to a chairlift/alpine slide in Keystone which had a great overlook of Mount Rushmore. Scott and Camille on the way up...

Future Presidents...The top also provided many photo opportunity with the grandparents and grandkids!

Tyson and I ready to head down the slide... The we headed over to a [free] Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, consisting of life size, conrete dinosaurs that were a little ghetto but the boys thought they were really cool. Score!Our next free excursion took us to a park called Storybook Island, where they had tons of displays based off of Disney movies, cartoons, Nursery Rhymes...everything.
Tyson was in heaven and ran from one thing to the next.We came back to rest a little, while my parents did some more exploring up to Deadwood and Sturgis. Camille was a little hesitant when Luke took her, but he worked his magic powers and had her melting into sleep in no time.

That night we packed up and headed off to the lighting ceremony of Mount Rushmore. When we sat down, they told us they were going to hurry the session along to try and beat the storm that was coming. We looked around and didn't notice any storm in the sky. When they started showing the little film, these dark clouds crept towards us along with a tiny little sprinkle and lightning in the distance. We headed back up the stairs to make a quick exit if needed. They soon played the national anthem and slowly the lights came on. When the final notes of the song played, the rain started POURING and the wind picked up BIG time!! Every started screaming and running for the cars which were down a long path away. Mass chaos! Then the hail started coming!! I threw Tyson in the stroller (Camille was asleep back at the campground with Luke and 3 of Kristin's kids) and Scott took off fast pushing him and weaving in and out of people towards the car. I took off after him leaving behind Kristin and Tanner (her son) and my parents to fend for themselves (again, I'm sorry) I took a lot of grief for it but I was trying to catch Scott and Tyson and figured everyone knew where the car was. We all made it to the car SOAKED to the bone and laughing hysterically!! Funny memory for sure! Morning of Departure!

We had to get a picture of all the crew in front of our shared cabin. It was cozy but fit all our needs and I think for the most part we all slept well. With the exception of my early rising kids.The co-chairs of the planning committee needed a picture of their own of course. We did good sister!! And one last shot of the family before we left. We are looking a little tired and dirty, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Too bad our kids won't remember such a fun trip, but at least there are lots of pictures!

Now that all these are finally journaled, I can move on to other posts about our everyday life here at home and our new big purchase! (sorry about all the weird spacing..I can't seem to fix it)

Vacation Time!

2011-06-16T14:39:00.011-05:00

This past weekend, we headed off to South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore and all the surrounding attractions. My sister and co-planner of this vacation and her family went with us along with our parents. I've been looking forward to this for months! So our first day, while the weater was nice, we headed off to the mountain, only 12 miles from our campground.

State flags leading up to Mount Rushmore. Very cool. (Scott's in there too)Camille was a tired girl and eventually fell asleep. She wore a bib a lot of the weekend because she is quite the drooler. Tired boy Meltdown #1Meltdown #2He's happy again. Love the moods of a 3 year old. He happened to just be climbing rocks when I snagged this picture. I love how it turned out. It was a very fun start to our trip. I loved seeing such a cool monument.

Excursion #2

2011-06-16T14:08:00.001-05:00

Our next stop on day 1, was through the Needles Highway where we went through 3 tunnels that are very narrowly cut through the mountain. One tunnel was surrounded by lots of cool rocks that the boys loved to hike around. The eye of the needle: This particular tunnel was 8'4" wide and 12' tall. We could touch the rock outside our car window. The family: Next, we went through the wildlife loop to view some buffalo and antelope. There were a couple herds right next to the road. I loved this part of the trip.
Toward the end of the loop there were some donkeys on the side of the road which I thought was random but stopped to take a picture anyways... (I was driving at this point) All of the sudden, one came over and stuck his head inside the car! I was flipping out and started to roll up my window but everyone said to keep it down. He was just sniffing around (notice the 2nd donkey looking suspicious) Then there were 2 donkey heads in my car. This was the drivers side and you can see how far I was leaning away from these guys. I don't think I can quite capture the sounds I was making while trying to avoid their mouths. We laughed about it all the way back to our cabin.We made a quick stop at Crazy Horse Memorial. I thought it was a waste of money. Only because you pay a lot of money to get in and you still don't get a close up of the monument. You had to look through binoculars to get a good view of it. And its only the profile. Now, the first weekend in June they let people hike all the way up to it which might have been cool, but we had just barely missed it. Tyson and Camille sharing the stroller, but not for long, don't worry.I thought we'd better document that we went there at least!

The 5K

2011-05-26T11:57:00.011-05:00

Last weekend, my friends and I signed ourselves up for a 5k. I originally thought it was around a little lake downtown and was excited that it would be flat. Not so. A few days before, I discovered that it would be over a pedestrian bridge. In theory it is pretty cool. It's the largest Pedestrian bridge in the US and the only one that connects two states (Nebraska and Iowa) and it crosses over the Missouri River. But its not really cool when you have to run up over it twice. I didn't like the incline. Anyways, we finished and here are some pictures to prove it.

The Racers: Me, Marykaye, and Melanie

(Apparently, I 'm really tall)

The Course:

(So we ran along the river a little ways, crossed the bridge, ran a little more, turned around and came back the same way)The Finish Line (hallelujah):The Finishers:The Fan Club:

(a little someone did not want to join the picture)

The Spider:

(he would pose for that however)I was glad I did it. Not during the race of course, but afterwards, yes. I may even do another one soon. Once I forget how hard this one was:)

2011-04-26T14:44:00.002-05:00

4 posts in 2 days! Hopefully I've made up for almost a 2 month absence!

Easter weekend

2011-04-26T12:18:00.010-05:00

We had an Easter Egg hunt with friends and it was quite enjoyable to watch Tyson run around looking for eggs. When he discovered the first egg had goodies inside, I had to encourage him to keep finding more instead of eating it right away. He got the hang of it quickly. Seems to be a common trend every year. When he promptly assessed that there were no more eggs to be found, he made his way inside and started eating. It took us awhile to figure out where he went (he was the only kid back inside chilling on the couch).

Easter morning he recieved his basket and was excited about everything. Its easy to please a 3 year old. He was especially thrilled about a dinosaur shirt his grandma gave him that he's worn for bed and daytime for 2 days straight.

And Camille is always happy to be along for ride.

It was fun getting them ready for church in their Easter outfits. The weather was great, one of the better ones we've had all April!Tyson is chewing on a piece of grass looking pensive and thoughtful, but who knows what's really going on in that head of his.But he did pull out a really cute GQ shot. I loved his little man outfit!Took awhile to get the best lighting and sibling shot (I'm catching Camille mid-dive off the porch) But its worth it when you get a good shot like this! And one like this...(Scott promised a jelly bean for a huge grin)

Almost a perfect shot with just Camille looking away but that's hard to get on a self-timer. We enjoyed a wonderful Sunday together celebrating our Savior's life and are truly grateful for our many blessings. Happy Easter!

Surprise!

2011-04-25T10:50:00.011-05:00

My sister and I flew in for a birthday weekend with mom! We kept it a complete surprise and just showed up at her house late at night (with the help of my dad, brother, and sister-in-law to make it work and lie through their teeth)! Here we are outside the house at nearly 11pm getting ready to knock on the door (poor Camille was almost done by that point but was a trooper). We are a little over the top I know but that's what makes it fun! Camille's shirt had an exclamation point on it and the back of our shirts said, "Party Time!"With the Birthday Girl! She loved it...of course! :)And just because you need one more shot of us being crazy! Can you tell we were free and ready for a much needed fun weekend! Dinner was spent at Macayo's with the family!My Grandpa Evans and my birthday buddy! We hit store after store and shopped like we'd never shopped before! Grandma was great to watch the 2 babies while we hit the fitting rooms! (It was fun to put Camille in shorts because it was in the 80's and 90's there...something we have yet to hit here!)Camille loved Graham..the feeling wasn't quite reciprocated just yet, probably because she mauled him, but I'm sure it will be in a few months. Learning to get along! So glad they are only 3 months apart and will be fun cousins later. Luckily we remembered right before we flew out to get a picture of us all together!

It was such a fun trip with all these girls! Already thinking about how we can do it again (although I'm not sure Scott would want to hear that...he was home with Tyson)

Kristin and I left about the same time at the airport and our gates were only 4 away from each so we got to hang out a little longer together. We think we are pretty funny sometimes. Me and my girl enjoying our girl's weekend!

Thank you Scott for letting me go on this fun excursion and keeping Tyson so happy here at home. Everytime I called they were doing something fun together! And thanks mom for being such a great sport! Happy Birthday!

A Career in Golf??

2011-04-25T10:26:00.005-05:00

Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, all had to start somewhere right? That's what I keep telling myself while watching Tyson in his golf class. That, and "Breathe, Kim, breathe." Our local community center had a tot (3-5) golf class and I thought we'd give it a go as his first "organized" sporting activity. He does good for the first twenty minutes (its 45 min. long) before he comes over looking for a snack in my purse. He likes to tell me everything he is doing or repeat to me what the instructor has told him to do. Its just a special time. This was actually one of his first shots where he did pretty good. He's coming to tell me what he just did and then it goes downhill from there... Here, he's investigating/reading what's on the flag. Hey, its important to know what you are putting to!And last but not least... he is doing snow angels on the gym floor. There are no words. It's probably best Scott can't witness this in person or else he might have a heart attack.
To give him credit, he is a young 3 year old and its right during his naptime. We have one more class tomorrow and I'll have to catch some more pictures and video to share. I do have a great time watching him and its hard to not get too involved, but that's the beauty of letting them learn for themselves, right?

Bonding Buddies

2011-04-25T10:02:00.005-05:00

I dreaded the day when I would have to push these huge carts around the grocery store. But Tyson loves them and it keeps him happy during the trips, so I guess I will just have to perfect my wide turns and try not to clip too many food stands as we cruise around the store. It's great that we can get 2 baths done at the same time now! Camille loves the company of her big brother everywhere she goes! Enjoying the one day of warm weather and green grass outside...I'm so glad these 2 can be buddies. Tyson enjoys having Camille around, except when she pulls his hair and gets him wet (drools on him). He loves giving her shoulder rides, going to see her in her crib when she wakes up, and making her laugh.

Camille

2011-03-02T12:11:00.005-06:00

Just a quick update on my cute 6 month old girl! (I know, she needs a bow). She had her 6 month check up recently, and of course is growing like a weed. She is 29 inches and weighs 18 lbs. Which is 99% for height and 88% for weight. I've never had a child in the 80's for anything before!! She is long and lean...a totally different body type than Tyson was/is. She is very quick to smile and has one bottom tooth poking through. She's my short napper and has been a little more finicky as far a food goes. We went for a walk yesterday since the weather was nice and she loved being outside and would laugh at Tyson as he walked in front of her. She loves being surrounded by people and will quietly observe what's going on around her. We sure love having her as part of our family!

Somebody's 3!

2011-03-01T09:58:00.009-06:00

For Tyson's 3rd birthday this year, we took him to a place called, The Amazing Pizza Machine. It's a pizza buffet with a ton of different arcade games, mini golf...etc. It was quite fun and Tyson took full advantage of the fact that we let him eat junk. Take those two drinks for instance...one is a slurpy and the other fruit punch I think... He decided it was best to try them together at the same time. Wow. I brought cupcakes for desset and he loved being sung the Happy Birthday song!Tyson loves his Uncle Sean (Scott's younger brother) who lives/works out here in Omaha and he brought some fun presents for Tyson. Tyson enjoyed playing all the games he could and collecting the tickets!The boys took the game playing seriously. This was in the kiddy section and all it was, was a big goofy horse with huge teeth that you tried to knock down with little balls. You don't quite get that vibe based on the picture.Camille was a trooper and just happy to be along for the ride. She's sure is pretty easy!The next morning, on his actually birthday, we opened presents. Here he is getting Candyland....we've played it over and over again. He got a pillow pet!! He really wanted a bee despite my attempts to get him to pick the dog. I think he likes it!Camille gave him a little robot to go with his robot dog from potty training.Dad took him to pick out his very own balloons that morning! He was jealous of the ones I got earlier for my birthday and loved having his very own to knock around. They were a hit with Camille too!

Don't laugh too hard at my cake. It was pretty impressive to a three year old boy:) Happy Birthday Tyson! We sure love your quirky, fun, big personality in our family!

Fun facts about Tyson:

At his 3 year check up he was 41 1/4 inches tall and weighs 43 lbs. Yowser! He had to get 3 shots in his leg but was really brave and just cried a little. However he did limp around the rest of the day, telling me the doctor hurt his leg.

Recent sayings:

Dad: Tyson, I need a special helper...

Tyson: Mom's a good helper.

Dad: Who are Nephi's brothers?

Tyson: Laman-ade.

(Having a discussion with Tyson about prayer.)

Dad: Tyson you have a Father in Heaven

Tyson: Ohhh....like Hercules??

A little while ago I was upstairs in my room with Camille trying to find a quiet space to feed her and put her to sleep. Sure enough Tyson comes up and starts chatting up a storm. I told him to go downstairs and I'll be there in a minute. He proceeds to walk down and I hear a thud thud thud...and knew he had fallen down the first set of stairs onto the landing. And then I heard a big "Ugghhhh" from him. He comes back up slowly and sighing the whole way. He walks back in saying, "I really hurt" and puts his head on my lap. He sits there quiet for a second and then says, "Ok, I try again!" and walks back out. I about died laughing. He was just so matter-a-fact about it all, that it was too funny.

V-Day

2011-03-01T08:52:00.004-06:00

Scott's mom gave Camille this cute dress a while back and she now fits in it. It was perfect for Valentine's Day. So we made sure to take pictures to send her.She especially loved all the ruffles.The kids each had cute little gifts in the morning from us and from Grandma Turner. It's fun to have little holidays like this with kids around. Tyson sure loves his baby sister. He likes to crawl up next to her when she is on the floor or just recently loves to give her a bottle. She just can't get enough of him! She is the happiest in the morning when he is running around and will just watch him wherever he goes and he loves to make her laugh. During his nap she just isn't the same. Glad that they are good friends for now!

Month of Milestones!

2011-02-26T13:20:00.002-06:00

With January and February being slow months around here because of snow and weather, it was a perfect time to get a couple things going. Including eating baby food! We got a little later start on it than I did with Tyson. You realize how time consuming it can be when you have another child around. But she is even happier now with a fuller belly and seems to enjoy her cereal and veggies so far.

Our second big milestone is finally having a potty trained boy!!! Two weeks before he turned 3, something finally clicked. I credit this Youtube video. We watched it a LOT and all of a sudden it was easy. We've had one accident in a month (the first day). He wakes up dry from his naps and only wears a pull-up at night, which a majority of the time is dry when he wakes up. Hall-e-lu-jah! I was worried about having to squeeze him into those size 6 diapers for much longer. He got a robot dog for completing his potty train chart and was pretty stoked!

My B-day...

2011-02-26T10:42:00.003-06:00

started with a these two boys making me pancakes for breakfast and went to work making me a birthday cake!and then a little tasting of the batter to make sure it was just right. Only the best for mom.We then headed to Panera Bread...yummy stuff!I was sung a great rendition of "Happy Birthday" that evening and eagerly assisted in blowing out my candles. A little spit on cake never hurt anyone. It was finger-lickin good.Camille was there to celebrate too.One of my favorite presents was a new camera! Still working out the angles but in the meantime, enjoy a nice view of my neck.
Here's to enjoying the last year in my 20's!!

Hurray for pictures!

2011-01-24T20:54:00.009-06:00

I have some pictures! Thanks to my mom and sister I've gotten a good amount of pictures from our Christmas vacation. I'm still missing some pictures of my family on Christmas morning but we have lots of other fun moments captured. For instance...a classic telling of the Nativity with none other than Grandma and Grandpa acting as Mary and Joseph. That's what happens when they tell us that we were in charge. Tyson went back and forth between being the donkey and a sheep (you can see his headband ears) and immediately parked himself in the manger to enjoy the rest of the story. Mary and Joseph and 2 cute granddaughters.Later we were led in carols by Rudolph or should I say Prancer...CHRISTMAS!
Tyson received lots of toys from Santa. Although Grandma outdid Santa with this laptop he got. He plays with it all the time and feels so cool. Here is my pretty Christmas girl all wrapped up in a Christmas bow. I had more of these on my camera and was bummed they were all lost but luckily my mom grabbed a shot too!2 cousins that will I hope will be great friends growing up! Look how long Camille is looking there at 4 months. (She was 15 lbs and 27 1/2 inches at her dr.'s appointment...an inch shorter than tyson but 6 lbs lighter)These 2 were great buddies. I hardly had to keep track of Tyson because they were so busy entertaining each other. Tyson still talks about all of the boys. Christmas afternoon, we went to a friend of my parent's house where he hooked up a trailer to horses and took us for a hayride around the neighborhood. The kids then got to ride some ponies around the yard and they loved it! Cute cousins on the hayride...Our family! Camille slept through it all!

Sunday morning in their Sunday best. Grandma bought all these matching outfits. Love the scowl on Tyson's face. The girls! We had lots of fun together! I think my mom thought we were...how should I put it...over the top, annoying maybe?? But frankly, we found ourselves to be hilarious! And she laughed a lot too (admit it mom!)Later that night, we went to visit the Arizona Temple lights. Sure was a nice change to just wear a light jacket and flip flops compared to cold, cold Omaha. One of the parks we spent time at with family had a cool lizard Tyson loved.

Grandma took the kids to the Arizona Science Museum too. It was a jam-packed week full of fun!

Holiday Re-cap

2011-01-04T09:34:00.003-06:00

I'd love to blog and share pictures about our warm Christmas in Arizona, but I can't. At least not the pictures. My dear camera, the one with all my Christmas morning pictures on it, is most likely sitting in a pile at an Arizona landfill. Gone out with all the Christmas wrapping paper and trash. And I'm so so sad about it. Luckily, I got nearly all the pictures downloaded onto the computer before our trip but it hurts thinking that I lost Camille's first Christmas and Tyson opening his blue truck from Santa. Fortunately, I will have other pictures from our vacation after Christmas from my mom and sister who took pictures of my family for me.

It really was a great time though. I wore flip flops the whole time (a nice change from Nebraska weather) and Scott enjoyed 3 days of golf. We went to the temple lights, a horse ride on a trailer, spent time with extended family, hit the stores, went to the Science Museum, acted out the nativity, and spent lots of time outside by taking trips to the neighborhood park. And I can't forget stuffing our faces with all the goodies/sweets my mom had on hand. Hopefully I'll be able to add pictures soon. Thanks for a great holiday Mom and Dad! Looking forward to a new year and hopefully a new camera soon...my birthday is coming up:)

All things Christmas-y

2010-12-20T15:32:00.007-06:00

I'm so behind on posts...so I'm trying to get them all done before more pictures get taken for Christmas. We're headed off to Arizona tomorrow so a week so it will be another long while before I post again.

Tyson keeps telling me that, "This is the best Christmas ever!" He told me that way back on December 5th. Not quite sure what we did at that point to make it so fun besides put up the Christmas tree. But I'm glad he's a happy and grateful boy! I've been trying to do some fun little Christmas things this year with him. We've got the countdown chain going, made snowflakes, decorated ornaments, played Christmas Bingo (a million times...that game is right up his organized ally) and of course went to see Santa. He's been asking for a blue truck. We've told him to tell Santa and at both our ward party and Scott's work party, he got presents (cool)! He was so excited about them but on the way home from the 2nd time we'd seen Santa, Tyson quietly said quietly and sadly to himself in the backseat, "oh, no blue truck." I think he thought that was it for Santa. So needless to say Christmas morning will be fun with him when he finally opens that blue truck!

He was just talking Santa's ear off...quite a difference from last years "No Ho-Ho!" episode.This last picture is just a random one but funny. I needed to cut Tyson's hair and he hates having it done, so I tried to bribe him with candy. This is how I found him eating them...he poured all the Nerds onto his belly and then proceeded to eat them off of it. His own personal plate!

Snow

2010-12-20T11:02:00.007-06:00

Buddled up from head to toe, Tyson went off to explore the wild front...yard. He climbed "mountains," followed bunny tracks (they're all over the lawn), made lots of footprints of his own, threw snowballs, and made a snow angel. He did not want to come inside. But with a promise of hot chocolate with marshmellows, he brought his runny nose in. Turns out he doesn't like hot chocolate.

Thanksgiving!

2010-12-20T10:09:00.009-06:00

As mentioned in the previous post, out Thanksgiving travel plans to Utah were thwarted due to the weather across Wyoming and if any of you have made the drive across that state, you know to avoid that as much as possible. We just didn't feel good about our car with 2 little kids trying to make the trek. Fortunately for us our friends, the Millers, took us in for the Thanksgiving holiday. And we sure had a great time! Splitting up the food made everything so easy and relaxing. Thank you Millers for a great time! Tyson sure enjoyed the chocolate pie!Melanie and I had great plans to map out our route for Black Friday but somehow the ads disappeared...and where did we find them? In the hands of our mocking husbands who were suddenly interested in the good deals. Notice the football on in the background as well...

We went out at midnight to Walmart (craziness) and again at 4 to Target and others. And I would say it was successful! Both in what we bought and in transforming Melanie into a black Friday shopper! I've noticed being tall really comes in handy during all the shopping chaos. I can spot the shortest lines, the products we were looking for, and my shopping partner. Its a fun time of year!

And I just threw these pictures of the kiddos in here because I think they were from the same weekend. Ty doesn't mind bundling up as much now that he's older and Camille spent the holidays working on some tummy time (3 months old)

The Big Game=A House Divided

2010-11-29T13:55:00.014-06:00

Thanksgiving weekend always provides for an interesting time at our house with the big Utah-BYU game. When I was pregnant with Tyson, I thought I was having a girl and so I made the deal with Scott that he could have the boys as BYU fans and I could have the girls as Ute fans. He has somehow convinced Tyson to like BYU despite my efforts to persuade him otherwise. But I won't let Camille slip through my fingers quite so easily! So here's our family on game day. At least we're equal in numbers so far!Because our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving was cancelled due to weather, we had our neighbors over to watch the game. We are a divided neighborhood as well. Our Ute neighbors, the Cravens, had their parents in town so we were doubled in number! I made them a sign to make sure they felt welcome (and to tease our other BYU neighbors who were brave enough to join our rowdy crowd!)
So here's our Ute crowd... And our two cute little Utes, Rachel and Camille! Our girls were born 7 weeks apart and we're raising them right and teaching them young!One of these kids is not like the others... Eden is 4 and she and Tyson get along really well. She teaches him all about princesses:)

I guess you can tell by their faces who won the game... Just kidding...Not about the game, the Utes did win (17-16)!! But Tyson was crying about something else and I hurried and snapped a picture for this very purpose. The second one, I told him to make a sad face face and it turned out perfect. Our poor kids are just little pawns in our rivalry!

We had to extend our red wearing into the next day for Sunday apparel. My mom found these adorable little socks (you can't really tell, but there are reindeer at the top with polka dot antlers). Then she made the jumper to match! She looked so cute and Christmasy! If you can't already tell, I love being a Ute!

Family life

2010-11-24T23:23:00.010-06:00

Here's a family photo after church last Sunday. I need to take more of them!She's in her bumbo seat and still a little unsteady. She has the craziest hairline. It's long towards the back half of her head but still short up front. I can totally make a little pony tail with the back top part. The back would be long too but its rubbing off so it makes for an interesting hair-do!
Love this face, as if saying, "enough already!" But look at her overalls all covered in drool. I definitely have another drooler on my hands which I thought I might escape since she isn't as big as Tyson. I was wrong, she blows bubbles and drools all day long!

And I can't have a post without this cute boy. He comes up with the funniest things and I just have to remember to write them down! Some of his classic sayings are:

When he toots, he'll say, "Oh excuse my bum."

I've been giving him some Flinstone vitamins and I call them his medicine. He loves them and could eat a ton so I have to ration them out. In order to try and get some he'll come up to me, fake a cough, and then say, "I sick. I need yedicine to feel me better."

The other day, I told him that "I loved him this much," with my arms stretched out wide. He then did the same thing back to me. Then I stretched my arms as wide as I could go while saying, "No, I love you this much!" To which he then replies, "Whoa, that's a lot of much!"

I sure love these kids!

While I was sleeping...

2010-11-24T23:15:00.004-06:00

My worst nightmare came true. You know the saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"? Let me tell you, I will NOT be shamed twice. I slept in only a little bit last Saturday and Scott thought he was so clever as to hurry and dress our kids. I swore I hid that shirt way back in the closet behind everything else. I could hardly hold her. ;) But I can promise though, this weekend for the big game, she and her mama will only be in RED!! (Might I add, I did not take this picture)

November stuff

2010-11-16T15:07:00.006-06:00

More updates. She's been very sweet and quick to smile. She is a great sleeper at night, usually making it all the way through til about 5 or 6. However, she's a terrible napper. I will get her to sleep, lay her down and she is back awake 20 minutes later. All throughout the day. So not much gets done around here these days. She does sleep good in her carseat, so if I need to run errands, she'll sleep a long time for me. She will often smile with her tongue sticking out, something she gets from Scott.

Here is Tyson being a big helper and measuring her. Speaking of which, I never put up her two month stats (now that she is almost 3 months). But she weighed 12 lbs. 15 oz. and was 24 3/4 inches long. Which is 95% and 99% percentile. That is about 3/4 of an inch shorter than Tyson was and 4 pounds lighter than him!! Crazy...he really was a fat baby! Tyson has been so good lately! He has just become so polite and funny and will say the funniest things. The other morning he woke up and came running into our room just talking away. He then goes into the bathroom where Scott is getting ready for work and combing his hair. Tyson then proceeds to chant. "Go Daddy, Go Daddy!" and then tells him he is handsome. He also likes to tattle on Scott. I was out shopping when Scott and Tyson call me on the phone telling me what they've been doing. Tyson tells me that him and Dad were playing trains and he asked dad to play with him but he didn't hear him because he was watching football. Sounds about right:)

Here's some short videos of Camille jabbering away and then laughing which she started this past week. So fun!

Yee-haw!

2010-10-29T21:51:00.007-05:00

Costumes were fun this year and for the most part pretty easy and inexpensive(always a plus). I only had to make the vests for each of them and stitched ribbon on her skirt and I was done! It was quite fun and I thought they turned out cute, I only wish the picture of Tyson was lighter. I would like to be able to claim I made those cute boots too, but Scott's aunt Caroline knitted those for Tyson when he was born. They fit perfectly!
We had a great ward trunk-or-treat where Tyson executed the "Trick-or-Treat" phrase perfectly. Of course, when candy is at the other end of it, who wouldn't say it right??

Halloween Festivities

2010-10-28T15:37:00.015-05:00

We took our annual trip to Vala's pumpkin patch last week and of course had Tyson stand to be measured. It was fun to look up our other two trips to see how he's grown. We saw a petting zoo, pig races, did a tractor ride, and other fun things. It always makes for a fun outing. We didn't even bring a stroller for Tyson...a big step... and he did really good to stay with us. Feeding a camel. You can see Tyson and I are not to into the whole thing. I did feed him also and the goo left on my hand was disgusting.You can tell on my face that I was really happy to be at that certain venue. Scott caught my face perfectly. Tyson loved these stupid dancing/singing animals and I'm thinking, "we paid money to come sit and watch this??" I finally bribed Tyson to leave!Needs no explanation...She was great!Searching for the perfect pumpkin...or climbing on them...one of the two.Yearly family photo op. Now we have 2 kids in it!We carved a pumpkin a few days ago and this kid always makes for an entertaining time. We drew out a pumpkin and let him decide what shapes the eyes and nose should be and then drew them on the paper. He then proceeded to be the task-master. When we would finish cutting out a piece he would say, "one triangle eye....check!" "A circle nose..check!" And then he would scribble them out on his paper. The mouth took the longest but he was diligent and would not cross it off until it was completely cut out, to which he replied, "One mouth, Check!" It had to be the funniest thing! So here he is holding up his checklist. He'll make a good boss someday. So here's our supervisor proudly displaying "his" work.And our littlest pumpkin too.

We have a great playgroup here and one day we went to a small pumpkin patch on a cute little farm. Which way to the pumpkins? They had huge tire swings, lots of chickens to feed, pony rides and fun play areas. What more could a little boy want??My 2 year old boy looking so big on that horse. I mean, really big. We took a hayride out to the field and...found a good one! Dibs!We also had a Halloween party for the kiddo's in our playgroup and did fun games and decorated cookies. We went a little crazy with the sprinkles. Tyson is a cowboy this year and Camille will be a cowgirl. Should be fun!

Our ward Halloween party/trunk or treat is coming up with more costume pics to follow! Can't wait.

Smiles all around!

2010-10-19T16:41:00.003-05:00

I couldn't decide which one I liked better so I put both!

Love her big grin, crazy hair and her over the top flower!

I sure love these 2 little ones! And I've quickly found that when they're both happy...mama's happy!

Blessing

2010-10-15T13:44:00.009-05:00

This past Sunday we blessed Camille. We were lucky that both sets of parents could come out and be here for it from Arizona and Utah. My mom made Camille's dress and it turned out so beautiful (thank you thank you!). She was wiped out from the day so we didn't get many pictures with her eyes open. She did great during the blessing, just looked around as she's pretty mellow for the most part! My neighbor and good friend made these cute little shoes for my baby shower and they fit just perfectly and looked so cute with her dress! (Thanks Jill!)Camille and Tyson were both out at church...Grandma and Grandpa Turner up top. And Grandma and Grandpa Howard on the bottom. Both came with fun gifts to spoil my kids. Grandparents are great! Our family of four!
It was a great day and everything went off without a hitch! Thanks to our parents for coming out, it was sure special to have you both here!

2010-10-04T10:33:00.002-05:00

For Grandma...She was mesmorized by Tyson running around.
Beginnings of a smile!

1 month!

2010-09-23T17:28:00.005-05:00

I feel like I've missed September. Like it just flew by while I was in some sort of fog. Aren't all the first few weeks of a new baby like that? We are slowing coming out of it. I mean, yesterday I showered before 2:00 (we won't mention today). I haven't tried going to the store yet with 2 kids. I think I'll avoid that as long as I can while trying not to be a hermit. We did go to a playgroup and managed alright. She's still a pretty mellow baby which is good because Tyson has been extra clingy. But he does love his sister, we just have to be careful just how much he loves her. Here are some shots from a couple days ago. Tyson being soft and attentive. Although it looks more like she's in pain but that's the best shot we got while he was holding her hand.

what's one more?

2010-09-18T10:26:00.002-05:00

Add thrush to the list. We just have to laugh. I took Camille in for a weight check (she's finally back to birth weight..yay) and discovered she also had thrush in her mouth. So they put this bright purple dye in her mouth that is supposed to kill it all in 24 hours. She was looking good! Not the shade of lipstick I would wear but everyone has their own style:)

3 weeks!

2010-09-15T22:01:00.009-05:00

It's been 3 weeks since I looked like this and I don't miss it at all! Although it hasn't been the easiest of times. Camille has been a really good baby, its been all me! My feet were so swollen for a week past my delivery which I didn't think was normal (turns out it is). I mean they were huge. Ankles the size of my calf and my feet felt so tight it hurt to move my toes and my flip flops left lines from wearing them. When the swelling finally went down, I had lost 10 lbs of strickly water weight. Next, a day after we got home from the hospital the second time, I was eating a tootsie roll pop when my tooth felt weird. I looked in the mirror and saw that I had broken off half my crown on my back tooth. So I had to go in to get that checked out and had it semi-fixed until I check with my physician and see if I can actually get the work done. Fun! Then I had mastitis and had to call in about that. More Fun! And last, I broke out in 5, yes 5 cold sores on my lip right before going back to church. I seriously have felt like an ogre. But, I have a sweet little girl who is all worth it! And luckily things are pretty much back to normal now and we are figuring out how to handle 2 kids.

Thank goodness my mother was here. She had Tyson a lot with all of these ailments going on and he was definitely taken good care of and had lots of attention. Thanks so much mom!

Grandma was drawing out Tyson's body on a piece of paper. That's one long little boy. We measured him recently and he is 39 3/4 inches long. I think you're supposed to double their height when they are 2 1/2 years old and that's how tall they'll be. If that's the case, he'll be about 6'8".

I was feeding Camille when Tyson came right up to sit beside me and fell asleep sitting up. Poor guy was wiped! I loved dressing Camille on her first Sunday back to church. Girls are really fun! She did pretty well and only started really crying during the last 5 minutes of my Sunday School lesson so we ended my class a little early.

I still can't totally tell who she looks like..we hear both but I think she's just another good mix like Tyson is.

Cute girl

2010-09-01T13:05:00.004-05:00

On our way home from the hospital with little Camille and a bow! (She left the hospital at 8lbs 15oz.

Big brother holding little sister for the first time.3 days old...Tyson wanting to join in on the picture taking...he's been a great big brother!Day 4 (Monday) sent us back to the hospital. Our little girl had quite a high jaundice level and had to be placed in an incubator under light and attached to an IV. We checked in at 2 that afternoon and had to stay the night. It was oh so fun and I didn't handle it well at first, but we adjusted and made it through and checked out at 4:00 the next day. Poor girl had to wear these foam goggles. I could only take her out to feed her and then put her right back in. Mostly she was sleeping when I put her back in but sometimes she was awake and I felt so bad to cover her eyes up when she wanted to look around. Picture time! Sure love this sweet girl. She's been really great so far with all this hospital visits and heel pokes to check her blood. There are 4 prick scabs on each heel. So sad, but she is on the mend and we are enjoying having her home finally!

Camille Ruth Howard

2010-08-27T15:34:00.004-05:00

Our newest little addtion arrived yesterday (Thursday August 26th) on my sister and my Grandpa's birthday! She weighed 9 lbs. 9oz. and is 22 inches long. The birth was a little bit harder than Tyson's which is a little strange considering he was about a pound heavier. But she made it by 4:38 pm. So far she doesn't cry too much and when she does its pretty dainty. She is quite cute and petite (as strange as that sounds, but compared to her brother...)has a good bit of brown hair. Although it may not look like it here...Tyson was really excited to see her and thought she was really cute. He has been asking about her at home as well. We named her middle name Ruth after my grandma Evans who passed away last Christmas around the time we found out we were pregnant. We are doing well (a little sore) and adjusting. I'll add some more pictures of her later because you can't really see her here... and she'll probably have a bow! Its fun to have some pink around!

2010-08-15T15:28:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the World's Largest Kool-aid stand! (Can you see Scott at the front of the line, right below the 3rd flag from the left?) Our family ventured about 2 hours west of Omaha to Hastings, Nebraska. Home of where Kool-aid was invented. So every August, they have a 3 day weekend to celebrate. We've been wanting to do this for a few years now and finally decided to go. You buy a $2 mug (or more for a fancy light up one like I'm holding) and get all the refills you want of any of the 14 flavors they offered all day long. We were a little sugared up and bloated after a while:) and wanted nothing but water the rest of the evening.Can't forget a photo opportunity with the Kool-aid Man himself! Not every day you see him!Tyson sure enjoyed his share of Kool-aid. I've never really given him kool-aid before and he sure guzzled it down. They had lots of little games for kids to do such as...

a bean bag toss and others. (Great side shot of the belly...thanks Scott)A "train" ride which Tyson thought was pretty fun...And of course dancing in the street to a senior band playing war time songs. We probably stayed there at least 20 min. watching him dance...the last 10 min. were all by himself in the street...I'll have to post the video of that.We were going to head to the Hastings Museum for more Kool-aid info and excitement, but one look back in our rearview mirror after being in the car 2 minutes, showed us that this sleepy boy with a great kool-aid mustache was done for the day.
It made for a fun little trip and I'm glad we went! It was getting pretty hot, so we were glad to leave around noon, but they had later events such as a concert, fireworks and a kool-aid drinking contest which we just the missed the preliminaries for that morning. I would have made sure Scott enter just for the heck of it and for the sake of pictures.

2010-08-12T19:27:00.004-05:00

Hopefully, this little guy will officially be a big brother in 12 days!

I had a doctors appointment on Friday and I'm progressing, to his surprise and mine and we've discussed being induced on the 26th of August (he just has to double check his calendar). We've been talking lots with Tyson about baby sister coming and how to take care of her. I think he will love her a lot but have a little bit of an adjustment with all the time she takes mom away from him. He is very sweet and calls the doll "cute" and will put his head to my belly and say, "What's happening baby?" We try to talk about what her name should be, but he is adamant that her name is Baby Sister. Feeding her bottles.

And here is just a random video of Tyson trying to jump off 2 feet. I know he's probably behind in this regard, but its hard getting 40+ lbs off the ground! He kept thinking I was taking a picture so would jump and say cheese all at once. Funny boy!
I should have one more post coming soon! I know 2 posts in a short amount of time..incredible!

Family Pics

2010-07-30T10:24:00.004-05:00

These are just some family shots we had done while in Park City for our reunion. Its amazing how we've grown from our last photo a couple years ago. The only way we could Tyson to stand there and not cry was if we said "Giraffe" instead of "Cheese" right before taking the picture. Whatever works. He warmed up to the idea of smiling later.A few of my favorites of him. I love when you can capture those candid shots to really get their true personality.
Excited to see this cute boy as an older brother!

As a pregnancy update... I went to my 35 week appointment yesterday and had an ultrasound to check the size of the baby. I don't know if being to a new doctor and him maybe not quite believing me when I say I have big babies, was the reason we had one or not. But anyways, this little girl is looking to make a big entrance also. Comments from the ultrasound tech such as, "you're having an epidural, right?" and "you haven't bought any newborn clothes yet have you?" led me to believe baby girl is large and in charge. They estimated that she could be about 6 lbs 12 oz. right now with her head in the 97%. So we'll definitely be induced at 39 weeks and lets hope that she doesn't have any more growth spurts in there during these next 4 weeks. I'm feeling good though, just a little extra tired at the end of the day and I am having lots of fun getting her room all ready. We are sure anxious to meet her, however she comes, and hope these next couple weeks go by quickly!

Oh...and no name yet!

Family Reunion-Turner Style

2010-07-10T12:25:00.011-05:00

Since I'm behind on blogging, I figured maybe if I put lots of pictures in, that will make up for it! This past week we had a family reunion with just my parents and siblings and our kids and it was a super fun, busy week. Living in 5 different states makes it kind of difficult to get together regularly, so we really took advantage of spending lots of time together. We shared a condo in Park City and were able to see and do lots of fun things. Day 1 included a trip to Lagoon. And here I am riding one of the very few rides I could go on (being pregnant and all). Tyson really liked the rides. You could never tell by some of his expressions in all the pictures because he would just stare, straight-faced as if observing and taking it all in. Totally fits his personality. But when we went to get him off, he would always say "Again!" after every ride. Luckily Grandpa and Scott were able to ride lots of rides with him.

2 of my sisters kids, Austin and Luke with Tyson. My Grandpa Evans also made the trip up and spent some time with us at Lagoon. Here they are, with cousin Easton, taking a break in the shade and enjoying a sucker. I know...we are starting to look a little hot and sweaty so it was nice to sit and enjoy a train ride for awhile.More blank stares...

Day 2, the boys went golfing in the morning and we met them for lunch at a fishing pond near Heber. These 2 boys loved throwing rocks (and sometimes duck poop) in the water and I thought for sure a couple times Tyson was going in as well. That evening we had family pictures taken, which I'm so excited to see. My little studs are posing during some down time. Men wore white polo's, women wore turquoise shirts and all the little grandsons wore these matching striped polo's.After 2 busy days we still had energy to play the family card game of "Oh Heck." Its a little tricky playing with so many people, but still fun to sit around together.

Day 3 involved the girls going shopping at the Outlets (a must while in Park City), while Scott took Tyson on the Alpine Slide (another must). And later that evening, we stopped by my aunt and uncles house with all my cousins there to eat, play, and set off fireworks. Happy 4th of July!Tyson thought the fireworks were pretty cool and would shout out all the colors he would see.

Day 4 consisted of really swollen feet and ankles...and our return trip home. My brother Mike, sister Kristin, me, and brother Steven the morning we left. Next time I'll open my eyes.

We had a ton of fun and were completely exhausted afterwards. Thanks Mom and Dad for setting the whole thing up!!

In other news: I'm less than 7 weeks away from delivery date (I'm planning on being induced a week early, hopefully on the 26th of August) and can't believe this second half of pregnancy has gone by so fast. And no, we still have no name ideas for this little girl (well any that we can agree on). So feel free to shout some out to us!

Lessons Learned During FHE

2010-06-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

During a family night lesson the other evening, we were going over some of the pictures of Christ in our picture book. One of the first pages we turn to is Jesus walking on the water. I explain to him what's happening in the picture to which he quickly replies, "Silly Jesus." I wish I could explain the tone of voice he said it in. Almost like a "that's ridiculous" type intonation.

We move on and get to a picture where Christ is reaching out to the children and we are explaining that He is nice to everyone and loves them and is so soft when He touches them. To which Tyson interprets and says, "We don't hit Jesus." Can you tell we often talk about being soft when we play?

His attention span was actually a lot longer than normal. Especially during the prayer which we mentioned before hand that there was ice cream pie for a treat. Never have I seen that child sit so still. It sure is a funny age and fun to watch him try and put his thoughts together as he speaks.
And I even have another post below!

2010-06-22T21:14:00.001-05:00

Tyson's way of eating a cupcake. No hands, just dive down and get it with your mouth.And save some for leftovers...
We moved Tyson into a big bed about a month ago. Scott's parents brought out their extra long bunk beds from when Scott was little. I guess they think Tyson will need an extra long twin in the future:) It sits pretty low to the ground and we've only found him sleeping on the floor a couple times. However he does love his new found freedom in the mornings. Early mornings. Like 5:30-6:00 early mornings. Now if you know me at all, I am not a morning person. So this has been an adjustment for all of us. We are trying different things to keep him in bed longer.

On this particular morning we went to the splash park down the street from our house. Stayed about 10 minutes before Tyson wanted to go home. Total waste of a swim diaper. After getting home, I went up to get his clothes and came down to find him totally zonked. And this is before noon!

He a white little boy alright. We could've used that sun today!

6 years and the Zoo

2010-05-25T15:58:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday Scott and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! We decided to go to the zoo in the morning with Tyson since he can never get enough of that place. We were going to go golfing that evening, but it was still so hot/humid and windy we decided to go out to a movie instead. Its sad that we couldn't even remember the last time we went to the movie theaters! So it was definitely a treat to go! So Happy Late Blogging Anniversary to my husband!We (I) decided to ride the sky tram at the zoo. We were clear at the farthest end of the zoo and it's a long walk back. And let's face it, I was tired and hot. Tyson was so intrigued by the whole thing. He still is talking about the rhino's in the muddy dirt that the tram passed over. Showing my bump that has definitely become more pronounced in the past 2 weeks or so. I'm 6 1/2 months this week.Tyson's investigative face on the tram. He gets those furrowed eyebrows when in deep concentration. A trait from his dad!Here he's trying to blow on this dandelion and wanting me to help. It's one of his new favorite thing to do and he likes to pick them when out for walks.
Fun day! It's been getting hot and muggy this past week. We've had great spring weather so far and now I'm just bracing myself for the last few months of pregnancy in the full summer heat!

Updates....finally

2010-05-21T15:54:00.007-05:00

Well I don't have much. Just a few updates on Tyson and baby girl stuff. Tyson is growing rapidly. His feet are already expanding out of the size 9 sandals I bought him for the summer. We'll be moving him to a big boy bed soon. Not because he crawls out, but because he's so big. I hate to give up the enclosed sleeping arrangement, but the poor kid needs his space. Not to mention we'll need the crib again in a few months (less than 100 days)! He loves to count and sing his ABC's as well as new songs he learns in nursery. Its fun to try and decipher the the song he is singing. Usually the actions give it away more than the words do. He loves animals and bugs, reading books, puzzles or playing trains usually more than playing with his basketball hoop. (yikes...we need to work on that!) His new thing to ask is, "What you doing mom?" or "What's happening?" (with something around him) or "You happy, mom?" (usually after he gets scolded). We've also experienced a few of the 2 year old tantrums which seem to have come overnight. Scott says he gets his stubborness from me. Maybe so. But he's also very good to say his thank-you's and to tell me that his food is good.I had him lay in his crib for a picture after nap time. I wasn't sure he'd do it but he thought it was really fun and wanted more pictures to be taken of him. See what I mean about being big...we'll just bypass the toddler bed and go straight to a twin size!I have been busy buying pink. It's been quite fun, I must admit. I've also been trying to get some projects done for her room. We've painted it a really light pink, I got her bumper and crib skirt (down below) before I even knew she was a girl. It was too cheap at Target to pass up so I hid it in our guest room closet behind my wedding dress thinking Scott would never find it. One day he came downstairs asking my why I had girl bedding upstairs. Apparently he was looking for wrapping paper and discovered it. Oops! Luckily we got to keep it and I saved him a bunch of money! I found these little lamps at a garage sale for a steal (My friend helps me bargain). Before, they were this plastic pink see through lamp with Dora around the top of one and cinderella princesses around the other. I took the beads off and spray painted it white and put the beads back on. They'll make perfect little night lights. I made this blanket after a pattern that my sister had from a blanket she made for Tyson. Easy and so fun!
We don't have a name yet...can't seem to agree on one as of now. Hopefully in the next 100 days we'll settle on one!

Looks like we'll be buying a lot of...

2010-04-14T22:15:00.000-05:00

PINK!!

All in a Days Work

2010-04-09T20:36:00.003-05:00

Learning the ropes of yardwork. Good thing he has a great mentor!

Easter Extravaganza

2010-04-05T11:57:00.007-05:00

Through Scott's work last week, we were able to go to this Easter Carnival event which had lots of games, prizes, and all things Easter. Tyson was able to do a few of the games, but I don't think totally understood what was going on. We just told him he would see bunnies and eggs which he was excited about!

Practicing his Plinko skills for "The Price is Right." We came home with lots of little trinkets to use in his own basket:)A clown made Tyson a balloon dinosaur which was cute but quickly disassembled at home.This past weekend we had a spur of the moment visit from my sister who lives in Denver. They were originally planning on going to Utah but with both freeways closed going that direction and already having bags packed, they headed here instead! I'd say we had a pretty fun visit. We colored eggs, had an easter egg hunt, painted my bedroom, went to the park to play and fly kites a couple times, made homemade strawberry jam, and had some Wii tournaments. All in just over 2 days! Here are Kristin's boys and Tyson coloring eggs. Glad we stripped Tyson. He proceeded to throw his first egg into the green causing a big splash and spill. He's showing off his work. On to the EGG HUNT! The boys had to each find their certain color egg that we hid and it took Tyson only a little while to catch on and go running around with the rest of the boys. He kept yelling "More Eggs!" Scott would just grab some out of his bucket and throw them back in the grass and Tyson would hurry and chase after them. Proudly displaying his loot! And look at that green grass! Such a relief to have over the snow...we've been having some really beautiful days of sunshine and good weather! After Tyson discovered the plastic eggs had candy in them, he went inside and started sucking on the dyed hard boiled egg trying to get some out of there, hence the blue face and hands.

It was so fun to see Tyson eating his cereal like a big boy (with an actual spoon instead of his hands still) like his cousins. They all looked so cute there together eating breakfast. It was a fun whirlwind weekend and I am completely exhausted:)Sadly I didn't get any pictures of my sister and I or her cute little baby girl, who Tyson loved, but not really all the attention I gave her. Hope we figure this out before his own sibling comes in a few months. Oh...as an update...I'm now over 18 weeks along and we find out what we are having in a week and a half (April 14). I'm super excited! Any predictions??

2 is the Magic Number!

2010-02-20T20:11:00.009-06:00

I know, I know. It's been too long. Believe me, I've heard it from the family. Our lives have been really boring, with the exception of Tyson's birthday (and mine, but those aren't as fun when you get older) which is my main reason back into blogging. The snow is still piled high outside, which is why we've been spending most of our time indoors and it can make for some dull days. We continue to get snow at least once a week. So. fun. But, all that aside, we did have a fun Valentine's Day and birthday celebration for my now 2 year old. I just hope I even remember how to download pictures:)

Valentines Day

I tried to make Valentine's Day a little fun and gave him some little gifts along with gifts from Grandma Turner (thanks) when he woke up in the morning. He really had no idea why he was getting these things, but he loved the cheap little trinkets and carried them all around for the rest of the day and kept him busy at church

Birthday Boy- 2

We made the mistake of giving him a present before the cake and once he opened his gift he wanted no part in giving it up. This first picture we had to lure him with the present to get him to sit by the cake so I could try and get a picture with the cake and him. You can see a little tear on his face from when we took it away to come eat cake. Don't mess with the toys. Lesson learned.Finally he was happy enough and wanted to say cheese in front of the camera (notice everyone else's cake is already eaten). Our neighbors came over to share cake (and those little sponge balls are still a big hit!)
Once, he got a taste of the frosting off of Scott's finger, he wanted to go in full force and lick the cake. Pretty funny!
One of his main presents this year was a train set. He loved opening presents and especially playing with his new things. We've played with his train in the morning...and at night (after bath). We have a hard time saying goodnight to these trains. That's a look of serious concentration. In the morning we went to this community center open gym for younger kids (kind of a free for all with lots of toys all over). And afterwards, I needed to pick up some things for his cake and I caved and let him ride in those stupid carts that are in the shape of cars and are 50 feet long and hard to maneuver through the aisles. It was his birthday after all and he loved it and kept saying he was going fast as he was driving the steering wheel. I hope I didn't start something I'll regret! It turned out to be a pretty fun day and we enjoyed celebrating with our big 2 year old.

Other Random Photos
Saying cheese while just kicking back and eating lunch.

Trying on mom's shoes. Cool dude!

And Finally... Another reason why 2 is the magic number (and also part of the reason I haven't been blogging)

We are very excited for Tyson to be a big brother! I'm due Sept. 2 (but planning on being induced a week early), so that makes me a little over 12 weeks along!

Christmas and Grandma

2010-01-11T13:59:00.010-06:00

Christmas this year was spent with the Howard side of the family. It consisted of 26 children and adults and made for a fun and crazy time. Christmas Eve, we attempted to go sledding with Tyson and the other cousins, but he didn't like being so buddled up (not good when we currently live in a climate where it dips in the negatives frequently). We couldn't get his snow boots on and once there, he decided that he couldn't do much with those mittens on. He hated having cold hands, but hated having gloves on more. It was a lose-lose situation for us. So before we made a quick exit, Scott tried to go sledding with him. He cried all the way up and all the way down. He trying to play on the playground here without much success. Christmas morning... Tyson peeking down on all the presents
Tyson had a hard time adjusting to the noise and chaos of a house full of people. So once downstairs, we had to really coax him into the room with his presents in it. Once distracted, he loved it!

If we look tired, its because we are! While the boys went out skiiing (a Howard Christmas tradition) I headed over to my aunts and uncle's house (and saw my grandparents and cousins and other aunts). Tyson loved this hat and kept it on for quite a while. Having a little guy around sure makes Christmas so much fun.

On a sadder note:

In Memory of Frances Ruth Evans

(picture taken at Christmas 3 years ago)

On Christmas morning, my dear grandmother, Frances Ruth Evans, passed away after a long battle with Alzheimers. She was 81 years old. I admire how my grandpa took on the challenges of caring for her and loved her deeply. Growing up near their home in Arizona, we were very close. I remember many sleepovers with sour dough pancakes and homemade maple syrup, pool parties and barbeques, card games around the kitchen table, and painting with her. This is my first grandparent to pass away and it was really hard. She truly was a smart, beautiful, talented woman who always exhibited such poise and grace. She was fun and witty and boy did she know how to have a party! While Scott drove back to Omaha, I flew with Tyson to Arizona to attend her funeral. It was a beautiful day and I was so glad to have been there. It has been difficult watching her slowly leave us mentally and though her passing is hard and we will miss her dearly, we know that we will see her again perfect and whole!

My family (missing Kristin) at the luncheon after her funeral.

2009-12-19T14:06:00.006-06:00

"NO HO-HO!"

Those were the words Tyson cried as we neared Santa the Santa at Scott's work last week. We didn't know quite what to expect because he likes Santa in books and on TV and can Ho-Ho-Ho with the best of them, but as we got close, his grip tightened on me and I knew it wasn't going to be good! He did enjoy the candy cane and had it gone within 10 minutes. Maybe next year Santa, but keep those candy canes coming!

Fun with Scott and Tyson

2009-12-09T12:19:00.007-06:00

See Scott...See Scott shovel the mounds of snow off our driveway. See Tyson...See Tyson watching Scott shovel mounds of snow off our driveway. See Scott's neighbors shoveling mounds of Snow off their driveways.

Shovel Scott Shovel!

Thanksgiving time..a little late

2009-12-06T13:34:00.000-06:00

We traveled to Denver for this past Thanksgiving to spend it with my sister and her family. It nice to have family live a short (8 hours) driving distance away. She was much more diligent at taking pictures than I was sadly, but that doesn't mean we didn't have a really great time. Between the delicious meal we had (which we were mocked for) and the gobs of shopping we did, it was an overall successful trip!

Here's Scott contributing his part to the meal, making the mashed potatoes!. Yes...we have to get pictures when the men cook :) They did turn out really good though. No pictures of Kristin and I making the turkey, pies, jello, and vegetables, but they were there too! Sitting down right before dinner trying to help Tyson be patient. He wanted nothing to do with his bib so he was stripped down, which turned out to be a good thing! We hit the Black Friday deals as best we could hitting 5 stores starting at 4:45 and getting done by 9:30. This is me scoring my dual portable DVD player at Target that came in handy on the trip home. Besides shopping and eating, we did spend some time at the park. Tyson loved this snow business and would stop and eat some whenever he had the chance. He left the swing set to come over to this snow area and sat there for 15 minutes before his hands became cold and he started to cry. Saying Cheese...

We had such a great time...thanks for putting us up Sis!

One of a Kind!

2009-12-02T14:16:00.000-06:00

Note: This post was written a little while ago, but I couldn't download pictures to go with it until now.
Scott and I joke about who Tyson takes after more (or whose random quirks he got). Between Scott's logical side and my quirky side, I think Tyson is a good mix. First, Tyson loves numbers (ahem...Scott). He knows 2 and 6 and 8 (don't ask me why those stand out to him) but whenever he sees one on a wall or sign, he'll shout it out. He loves to count things out even though he's not saying all the numbers..it's just jibberish (well, except the 2 and 6) but he has the intonation down.

Tyson loves puzzles, coloring and his new favorite thing, singing songs. Most mornings when I go to get him out of his crib, the first thing he says is, "E-i-e-i-o!" from Old McDonald.

He's also big into organizing things in lines and rows. We spent a good half hour lining up these toy milk cartons in front of the tv on the stand and then moving them to the side of the tv and then back again. Over and over.

We've done this with sharpie markers, lining them in one spot and moving to another to line them up again.

Everyday I find his cars sitting like this on the piano. Today we reached an all time low. We lined up mom's "stuff."(Please excuse his outfit. He was half dressed for the day.)

He saying more and more. Some of my favorite phrases are "Aww Man!" (similar to what Swiper the Fox says on Dora). He says, "Cute" all the time. He says it in this high voice and draws the word out. He'll say it about a soft blanket or a fuzzy animal and he'll come up to me and rub my hair and say it. Makes me laugh.

He's definitely a child that keeps us entertained.

Hopefully I'll get a Thanksgiving post up soon, but I hardly have any pictures. My sister took most of them:)

October Happenings

2009-11-05T14:17:00.009-06:00

I never posted pictures of our pumpkin carving, or our trick-or-treating so here is the leftover pictures of October activites before our November events officially start.

Pumpkin Carving: He didn't really want to touch the goo inside but thought it funny when I did. Yes it is marker on his face. He saw me marking the pattern on my pumpkin and wanted to do it on his smaller one.

Trick-or-Treating: On more houses than not, Tyson would have rather gone inside to play in each one then to get the candy. We only went to a few houses before Tyson wanted to chill and eat the goods, hence these following pictures. We got out the camping chair to pass out candy and he was content to sit there for a while and eat. This next goody is at dinner one night. He loves jello and kept smearing it on his head. It was too funny not to stop, plus he was going to the bath anyway, but I thought this stage ended when they first learn how eat people food.

Our tree had the prettiest fall colors on it, so when Tyson and I were outside, it was fun to play in the leaves. Too bad I couldn't get him to smile.
It's been a little cold lately, but today we are having 72 deg weather, so now that I hear Tyson waking from his nap, we'll be headed outside for more fun before we get snow!

My little Dragon

2009-10-26T15:05:00.007-05:00

Is it ok that I'm a little biased and think this is the cutest little dragon you have ever seen? I just can't help but chuckle whenever I look at these or see him in his costume. Saturday was our church Halloween party where the kids also went trunk-or-treating. It took a little coaxing to get Tyson into his costume and then to get him from car to car, but after a few stops of getting treats in his bucket, he was good to go. He'd get the candy, put it in his bucket and then hurry and shove his hand back into the person's treat basket for more. We had to quickly usher him to the next car before he got upset that he couldn't have more. These are just some pics of him running around in his costume.We came inside to get warm and this is him scoping out the goods of someone else's bucket. I can't help but laugh at his tail!
He would then proceed to line the candy all up before putting them all back in. I don't think he even knew what they truly were because he would be asking me to open them if he did. But I do think he's a little bit of an organizer!

Showing off!

This next video is just something that he picked up when we were at our neighbor's house. He learned how to "jump" off the bottom step from his little friend, Lauren. Although since she is older, she actually jumps. Tyson...well, you'll see. He gets ready to jump...

and he is so proud of himself ! His face right before he goes is hilarious!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

2009-10-18T14:14:00.008-05:00

We've been planning on going to our favorite pumpking patch this year and Scott had the brilliant idea of going during the Nebraska football game! Most everyone is a Cornhusker fan so I do most of my shopping during the football games because the stores are mostly empty. It was still pretty crowded but I think it was mostly due to the fact that it was the first time we've seen the sun all week! We went last year when Tyson was just 10 months old so it was a lot more entertaining when Tyson could actually run around. We took a picture by this sign last year...and of course had to do it again for another photo op. You can tell Tyson did not want to be held there with all these fun things around to do.

I love his faces in these two. The one below, you can really tell he's trying to pick up the pumpkin. He still tries to pick up the big pumpkin we brought home, but instead just rolls it around.

He loved the petting zoo. The goats kept sticking their heads out of these little squares when kids walk by because you can feed them. Tyson thought it was the funniest thing and loved to try and grab their faces.I caught him laughing at this goat. After playing with the the goats, he decided to become one.

We went to some pig races (you have to watch those at a pumpkin patch) and then I wanted to go on the hayride, but the line for it was super long. I tried to tell Scott to pretend it was a really popular ride at Disneyland...and everyone wants to go on it, but he didn't buy into it. I just wanted to get my money's worth while we were there. As a compromise, Scott found this next little ride nearby and graciously stepped aside so I could be the one to go :) It was a bunch of these small carts that were pulled by a John Deere tractor. The things we do for our kids! We 're kind of looking directly in the sun, but this was the only picture you could see Tyson's face. He was too busy scoping everything out.

Notice how my knees are nearly against my chest! Tyson just looks so cute and little in the cart. In this picture you can kind of see what the little train and all the adults looked like on it. At least I wasn't the only one!
Our last picture before we headed we picked out our pumpkins to take home. Scott lets me handle the pumpkin picking because he knows I can get a little particular. It will be fun to carve them and see what Tyson thinks of that new thing ! I'm sure another fun post awaits!

I love these cute pumpkin patches!

Princess??

2009-10-07T01:31:00.005-05:00

We bought this movie from the 5 dollar bin at Walmart, thinking maybe Tyson would like it one day. He was going through his daily ritual of pulling out all our DVD's and came across this one. Scott and I are sitting on the couch when he brings it to me and points to Fiona and says, "Mama." Thanks Tyson. So I point to Shrek and ask Tyson if that's Dad, to which he quickly says, "No!" We laugh it off and I hide my hurt feelings :) and then I ask him, "Where's Mama?" He then points to Fiona...again. You know, it's really my fault. I should have been buying him movies, like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast (although he probably would have pointed me out as the beast), or Sleeping Beauty and then maybe I would have been compared to those fine ladies. But for now, call me Fiona. Hey, at least she's a princess right?

I'm an old Ute!

2009-09-29T12:44:00.009-05:00

This past weekend, Utah volleyball had a big reunion. They were celebrating 35 years of Utah volleyball and my coach's 20 year mark. So we drove out half way on Wednesday and got there Thursday afternoon. On Friday night, they played BYU. It was so fun to be a part of and to see old friends. During the 2nd and 3rd game, all the alumni came out on the floor and lined up by the decade they played in. Utah won the game in 5 and afterwards, we went to a reception where we had food, told stories, and laughed a lot. I do miss my old teammates a lot! We also got this really cool jacket which of course, you can never have too many Utah jackets!

Some of the girls I played with! I played and lived with Jackie all 4 years (on my right) and it was so fun to see each other and our boys and catch up!! Lots of memories!

All these pictures are taken by Harold, the man in the middle...a super fan! He emails them all out which I'm glad because sadly, I didn't get any pictures. (And Kat, if you are reading this...you are such a dork..but I have to admit, so funny!)

A picture of the family. They gave us little bags of popcorn which kept Tyson still and in his seat for a little while. He did really well considering how loud and late it was. Scott did run around with him in the halls for a couple games so that I could enjoy myself!

On Saturday we had a sand volleyball tournament and it just reminded me again not only how long I've been away from volleyball but how out of shape I am. It was fun and I got a little sun as well! We squeezed in as many visits in our trip as possible, seeing my grandparents, aunts and uncle and my brother and wife. It was non stop trip of things planned and our little man was super! We drove all the way home on Sunday which was long but pretty easy with Tyson. Although I don't think we gotten in the car since we've been home!

Pros/Cons of Motherhood!

2009-09-16T12:30:00.009-05:00

(I was originally going to name this post 'Poo and BYU', but I didn't want to be too offensive!)

Don't let this cute boy fool you...

This little munchkin pooped in my tub in 3 different bath nights in one week! I can't tell you how sick I am of scooping it out of the tub and bleaching all his little bath toys that had the unfortunate experience of being in the water with him. N0 one ever tells you about these more glamorous parts of motherhood!

He did make it up to me though. This is something we've been working on and that I'm quite pleased with. :)

**Note: This may be disturbing to some BYU fans. Feel free to turn away now and/or plug your ears. haha :)

During the last BYU football game, Scott was teaching Tyson to say 'Cougar.' So while Scott's been at work, I've been trying to undo the damage. Instead of Tyson saying cougar, when asked, he says "Yuck!" I personally find it hilarious. Scott on the other hand...not so much! (Sorry about the camera work, he likes to climb all over me)

Party weekend = Picture overload!

2009-09-11T13:25:00.006-05:00

For Labor Day weekend, my sister and family came out to visit from Denver. It's been a long time since we've lived less than 10 hours away from each other, so we made sure to enjoy ourselves! Our first morning, the boys wanted to play out back. Great! Problem is, Tyson doesn't like to do the norm, or stay with the group. Since we're in the midwest and don't have fences the first thing Tyson does is bolt around to the front of the house and takes off down the sidewalk. Luke and the boys were kind enough to bring him back for me.

We also headed over to the Omaha Zoo (a must if you are a visitor) and spent lots of time there! I loved the gorillas as it was one of the very few times, Tyson would pause for a moment long enough to get a picture.
He's checking out the life size monkey wall, trying to figure out which one he's taller than.My sister has a similar shot on her blog, one of the few pics we could get them together. Her boy will sit for a picture, mine will not. Loved this guy!Ha! Caught him sitting down for a minute throughout the gorilla exhibit.First time on a carousel and he didn't know what to think of it. By the very end, he sort of cracked a smile! He loved the chicked we were riding though.My sister, Krisin, and her husband Luke, and the kids, Tanner, Austin, and Lukey! I loved spending time with these kids and their very fun and unique personalities!This peacock was our biggest fan during our lunch break. Luke thought it was really funny to throw pieces of bread right next to us so the bird would get up close and personal. Tanner was being very brave:)We finally exhausted Tyson in the aquarium where it was darker, but only lasted about 45 minutes. Yes he blanket is in the mouth.

Day 2 took us to the splash park near our home. The boys loved it and Tyson loved drinking the water out of these water shooting animals.
Here he is showing a little thigh for the ladies.We tuckered him out once again, this time during a meal (which surprisingly he didn't finish) and sitting straight up. Funny kid. He plays hard! The BYU game ended out our evening in which Kristin and I were instructed to take the two littlest ones out shopping so they didn't distract the men. But before we went, we took a picture with the flag Scott put up and all the boys. Yes, my kid is the chubby one without the shirt. I guess I'd rather have him shirtless, than wearing a BYU shirt! We went to Hobby Lobby and found some cute baby girl fabric for blankets for her little girl that's coming. And also ventured to JCPenney for some more cute girl items. It was proven once again that girl clothes are much cuter than boys!
It was a really fun weekend! Thanks for coming out Kristin and the boys!

I hate to run...

2009-08-29T14:24:00.000-05:00

but yet, I've started to. Something about still trying to shed those last couple pounds left over from you know who. I keep waiting for me to start to like running, but I don't. It's awful. Not gonna lie. Won't even pretend that I enjoy it.
However, on a more positive note from this negative attitude, I decided that I needed to have something to work towards or else I'm less motivated. So I decided to try a 5K, and I did one this morning!

At the starting line. I migrated to the back...no need to draw attention to myself.

Here's the proof I finished alive and well...see, I don't even have the proper running attire. My time was a couple minutes faster than I have been doing. It must have been the adrenaline plus the other runners that helped. Sadly, I did not finish ahead of the old man in his really short running shorts and no shirt. He took 1st place and I think I actually doubled his time. Who knew you can run it with a time in the teens. They said this was his 1200th 5K run, so I let him have the glory of the win this race. Next time, old man! Next time! The turn-around point of the run was right near a Kohls, and I was tempted to stop and shop. Doesn't that sound a lot more fun?

Here is part of my cheering section, minus Scott taking the pictures. ok...so he wasn't really cheering...but I'll take what I can get.

And last, what's a good post without pictures of this guy! Tyson weighed in at 34 lbs 10 oz. and was 37 1/2 inches tall at his last 18 month appointment. I looked up my stats in my babybook and was 34 inches at the same height, so needless to say, he'll be taller than me! He's in nursery now (Hip Hip Hooray!) and doing really well. This kid loves to play.

This is his classic dance pose. Fingers up and moves around. Learned these moves from his mama! He thought it was fun to play in his old bouncy seat and push the music button.

He fell asleep on the carpet watching his favorite movie as of now which is Open Season (the one with the bear and the deer). When he wants to watch it, he says, "Roar!" and I know he means the bear movie. This kids loves his blanket.He's a cute little guy!

Visitors!

2009-08-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

Scott's parents came out to visit us last week and it was fun to take them around to all the church history sites. We love having visitors! Here is Scott, Tyson, and his parents outside the Winter Quarters visitor center. We went on the hottest day of the year so far (100 deg...which may not seem to hot to some, but add in the humidity and its a different story). The boys also went golfing that same morning and Laurel (Scott's mom) and I took Tyson to the zoo. It's always good to sweat off a few pounds!
One day we took a day trip down to Kansas City (about 2 1/2 hours away) and saw Liberty Jail, Independence, Far West, and Adam-Ondi-Ahman. Tyson did so good in the car...the trick to keeping him happy the last hour of the drive....rocks! We found some when we stopped for dinner and he wanted to take them with him. We played a game which included hiding the rocks in his carseat, finding them, and then singing a song/dancing when we found the rocks. I apologize to my in-laws for singing the same song over and over in the car ride home! Now he Tyson is obssessed with picking up rocks and bringing them in the house. He will be my boy that bring bugs, dirt, and rocks home in his pocket to show to me. Apparently, I was the child who did that with my mom, so I guess its only fair. Anyways, here he is taking a break from the Independence visitor center tour, to play in the kids room. This kid would run from place to place. He rarely walks...just runs and its fun to see his cheeks jiggle up and down when does!

Scott and his mom at the Adam-ondi-Ahman look out. We've never been there before either so it was a fun stop. Not a whole lot to see but was beautiful.

Their visit seemed to go by fast because we crammed so much in at one time, but we had lots of fun! Thanks for coming out to see us!

(We welcome any and all visitors...)

My feathered friends...

2009-07-28T15:09:00.006-05:00

Those in my ward know that I've been trying to find ducks around our area. I've been asking around and been to two lakes and 4 ponds with no sign of ducks. I got it in my head that Tyson would just love to feed the ducks and I was just trying to plan a fun activity! I even had been carrying around bags of bread in my car in case we found some on our way home from somewhere. Well after all that searching, Scott finally found some (at a pond I'd already checked)! Well, not exactly ducks, but geese, but at this point I would take anything I could get. So Scott and I head over to the park and to where the "ducks" were sitting in the shade and tried to get them to eat our bread. Most were not too interested, but we did get a few followers. However, Tyson really had no interest. He wanted to play in the dirt, chase a dog that was walking by and play with dad on some pull-up bars in the park. So what do I get out of this long awaited, built up event? Me, by myself, feeding the geese, while Scott is getting a kick out of this and taking pictures!
Starts like this...Ends like this...they were getting a little to close for comfort (I'd heard mean things about geese).

Where is Tyson you may ask?...

Off doing this....And this...

And this...Any pictures of him feeding or even near the geese? No.

Splash park

2009-07-23T20:25:00.016-05:00

We have a splash park seriously, around the corner from our house (in case any family members or friends would like to visit us and bring their children....). It's growing on Tyson, but he mostly just wanders around the outside of it and plays in the water that spouts only a little bit out of the ground. He is not a fan of getting water dumped on the head or splashed in his face. Can't say I blame him. Those are a size 7 shoe and one of the only pairs we can find to fit his fat feet. What 17 month old wears a size 7??(doesn't he look tall in these pictures?)

Here he is throwing a mini tantrum because I wouldn't let him eat some random person's snacks that were sitting out. My child is the thief of the playground. You leave it out unattended, its fair game. This, for instance is not our bucket...but I appreciate other mothers who think ahead and bring toys so that my son can play with them!

Yes, Tyson is very white...almost glowing. Lets just blame it on his father and end the discussion. :)

He's also been busy doing others things. He says please both in sign language and vocally really emphatically when it comes to asking for food. I'll have to get it on tape because its quite funny. I'll be in the kitchen and he'll come running up, yelling please and rubbing his chest and I know exactly what he wants... food. Great system we got going on here! Tyson also enjoys sticking things in the VCR. I caught him putting a CD inside it, so I pull it out only to find another one. I look to see what else might be inside and found a kazoo. Go figure. He's a really sweet boy with lots of energy!

We love the Zoo!

2009-07-22T10:16:00.007-05:00

I'm bored of seeing my blog post (and according to my sister, she is too), but haven't taken any pictures to keep it updated. I had a great post for Scott's birthday (which was last Thursday...Happy Birthday Scott) and I wanted to scan some of his younger pictures in it but couldn't find them. So the blog didn't end up being published.

So finally on to new events....Last night the zoo had an Ice cream Safari where they had All-you-can-eat ice cream for just a few bucks! You know my boys enjoyed that! Only a small part of the zoo was open where they were giving away ice cream and that included the petting zoo. I thought Tyson would enjoy the goats everywhere but all he seemed interested in were the gravel and rocks! I could hardly catch a picture of him because he was on the move the whole time.

See...there he goes!

Here is another part of Tyson and a neighbor/church friend with a goat.

I think the goat was hoping these boys had snacks on them (which is usually the case for Tyson) and came sniffing around.

I can't believe I didn't get any shots of Tyson eating ice cream, but he enjoyed his fair share.

The 4th and Fireworks!

2009-07-05T14:45:00.011-05:00

I grew up in a household that celebrated each holiday in special ways. So I've tried to carry that on to my own family. I wanted the 4th to be fun, even if it meant our bbq was cooking hamburgers on our George Foreman, one at a time (its true) and eating slightly undercooked corn on the cob (also true). But we had to have a bbq on the Fourth of July...it's tradition afterall! Even though it's been only a year since we've lived in Nebraska, this is our 3rd Fourth of July here (the first being during an internship summer we spent here in 2007) and I think we've finally found the best place to watch fireworks. With only a few debates on where to park or whether or not to go back and get the chairs I'd forgotten, we ended up finding a great spot. Though Tyson would most likely never remember this year, I wanted to experience watching him, watching fireworks. Last year we watched it from our car and this year, by golly, we were going to watch it outside on a blanket with the rest of the folk!

We found a great way to keep him seated and quiet....Marshmellow Maties. A great show took place right above our heads and Tyson just sat and stared. Didn't cry, didn't really even move, just watched them. Made my day.

I couldn't help adding this picture of Tyson from last year on Fourth of July. He was almost 5 months old...It's amazing how much and how fast they grow!Hope you all had a festive 4th!

My Ty

2009-06-29T13:27:00.008-05:00

Things have been quite a bit slower this past week and so not much to blog about. So I thought I'd just post some random pictures of Tyson. He is one funny kid and its definitely fun to see his personality take shape. He's a pretty happy boy the majority of the time. He just like to be on the go, as evidenced by this picture... (He still likes to suck on his blankets when he's tired...I know it looks funny)
We were on a walk outside and he bent down to play with his shoes and just got a little top heavy and smacked his face on the sidewalk. I wish it was due to something a little more athletic but alas, he's only got the clumsy genes so far.

He had a big bruise on his forehead last Sunday at church because he tripped on a rug and banged his head against the window frame part on the church door. He was a nasty bruise that showed up right away. Then this week for church we took him looking like this! Please people..don't turn us in!

Speaking of church, we are on a countdown to nursery (about 7 weeks but I think I'll start sending around week 5 or 6)! I'm sure most of you know the feeling. We put him in there for a little bit on Sunday (I was teaching my sunday school class and Scott needed to play the piano in primary) and when Scott peeked in, Tyson was just chowing down on all the snacks. Go figure. Nursery should be no problem for this boy. Toys and Food = Tyson's best friends.

A few weeks ago, Tyson came out of the bathroom (its right around the corner there, by our front door) with a long stream of toilet paper trailing behind him. It came all the way out to our living room. I tell ya, this little man keeps me on my toes.

(I commend you Rissa for having 2 at this age!!)

Pioneering...

2009-06-16T20:56:00.008-05:00

Scott and I were called to be Trek parents back in April I believe. We were excited to go and it took a lot of preparation. It was this past weekend and I have lots of pictures but decided to post them on a new blog so that all of our "kids" could see them. I figured you may not want to go through them all. However, I'll put the link up so that you can see them if you want. My parents came up from Arizona so that they could watch Tyson for us, which gave me a lot of comfort while we were away. The separation was not easy, but we could secretly take our cell phones to check up on him. He was a happy boy and did just fine! Thank you so much Mom and Dad!! Besides watching Tyson, they helped paint a room, stained a shelf and hung it in Tyson's room, hung many more things around the house. My mom helped me make a flower arrangement to go in the alcove above the fireplace and designed a collage of pictures to hang on my bare wall! She also helped me re-arrange some items on my kitchen planter shelves which gave it much better flow. When are you next available to come out mom and dad??

Before the trek...I know what you are thinking...and it has something to do with being super jealous of our clothes! Starting out the trek with our kids

Enduring lots and lots of rain and lots and lots of mud. I've never been so muddy, dirty, and wet in my whole life!

Our group of kids on the last day and our poor banner that was tied to the back of our cart. Our name was the "Stormin' Mormons."

It was such a fun experience and I'm glad we had the chance to go. We grew a lot in many different ways. I'd definitely go back and do it all again in a heartbeat!

Click here to go to our Stormin' Mormon blog to view all the pictures and read a more detailed account of what happened on our trek.

Ice cream = Good

2009-06-10T10:08:00.003-05:00

Check-up time

2009-05-29T11:43:00.014-05:00

Tyson had his 15 month check-up today and the results are in: Weight- 33 lbs. Height- 35 1/2 inches. He is doing fine on everything else, just on a much larger scale than most! He is starting to repeat lots of words and has got lots of animal noises down. The other day, he was going through our DVD's (aka...pulling them all out) and he had "The Testaments" video out and he points and says, "Jesus." I was just beaming with pride, thinking he was so smart, while giving him lots of praise, until he pulls the next DVD out, points to Chris Tucker on the cover of Rush Hour and says, "Jesus." Guess we'll have to work on that one some more.

Anyways, we finished the tree ring that I talked about in our last post. Tyson was a big help as you can see. As we were stacking the bricks, he climbed right in the middle of it and starts throwing the soil and mulch out of it. He thought it was a grand ole time.

He also likes to climb on our kitchen chairs (and then on the table), our ottoman, and his newest find, into the cooler which I had out. That kept him entertained for about 20 minutes which is a long span of time!
We also took a trip to the zoo last week. They have a really cool jungle area with lots of animals close by to see. He liked the monkeys and would keep making the "aah, aah" monkey noise.

And this last picture just because I love his fat thighs and legs in those cute pajama shorts. They kept getting wedged up between his thighs and his diaper.

5

2009-05-24T13:58:00.007-05:00

Happy Anniversary! Scott and I just celebrated 5 years of marriage this past Friday! It was so fun to go on a real date with dinner and shopping and no Tyson. It has been a long time since Scott and I have done that and now I hope we'll be doing more of it! He also took the day off of work and we got to spend a fun morning at the zoo with Tyson. I also talked him into another home improvement project (putting a retaining wall around our tree in the front...not done yet, but we bought the supplies, so that's a start) Poor guy..never stood a chance! But he's lasted 5 years and has put up with all my crazy ideas thus far! Thanks for a great 5 years, Scott. I love you!

All work and some play!

2009-05-10T18:40:00.010-05:00

Happy Mother's Day! Here's what happened when mom took the day off of feeding Tyson lunch....

He improvises and it's off to the bath. (It's a yogurt and he can't get his hand in there and can't figure out how to totally work the spoon, so he's trying to drink it out.) This kid is a funny one and there are many times a day where he makes me laugh and a few times that drive me crazy. But I do love being a mom and I'm sure glad and thankful he's mine! I sure do have more of an appreciation for my own mother. Thanks mom and Happy Mother's Day!

We've been trying to get a lot of work done around the house lately, especially while the weathers nice, and I thought I'd share some of what we've done (only a select few have even shown interest, so it'll be boring for the rest!)We had to invest in a lawn mower. Looks like this is what Scott will be doing every Saturday. Lucky him!
Tyson is all boy. He loves being outside and especially finding this little dirt patch in our front yard. He loves sitting in it, playing with it, and yes, even eating it, and will cry when I bring him in the house. He loves going for walks and just being out back walking around in the grass. Maybe I'll be lucky and get some sun while being out there with him.

Below is the same dirt patch after we finally put flowers and shrubs in it! There's 2 shrubs in the back that are supposed to grow 3 feet tall (cross our fingers) and another bush that will blossom with flowers. Yay! I couldn't decide on other perennials to also put in it this year. It's such a commitment to plant flowers that will grow back over and over, so I just planted annuals this time around. They look small, and they are, but I'm hoping they will grow or I'll feel really bad about my first experience "gardening." The very first row, after planting them, I found out are actually shade plants and this part gets lots of sun, so I don't expect they will survive the summer. Oops!And last, here are some curtains I made to go over my kitchen sink (I scanned up so you can't see the dirty dishes). They actually weren't to hard to make. It's been fun being busy with the house. I'm not sure Scott enjoys it all that much but I sure am. My list is not done yet for him!

With a Quack Quack here...

2009-04-28T23:12:00.009-05:00

I know the title doesn't really fit but it's all I could think of. Sometimes that's the hardest part of the blog. Anyway, Tyson and I went to the zoo with some friends last week. It was in the 80's and was a great day to be outside. We spent some time in the aviary under a gazebo type thing and it felt so nice in the shade. Tyson loved being able to walk around and got very dirty doing it because he has a harder time walking in shoes. Poor kid, has feet like Fred Flinstone and can't fit in very many shoes that are made for new walkers. He is quickly growing out of a size 5! We had lunch there and another mom we didn't know came and was also feeding her 2 boys. Sure enough, Tyson thought what they had was better than what he was getting, so he started to grab food from their little bowl of Trix cereal. Other snacks are so much better than your own. Some fell on the floor and he made sure to clean up the mess! I let him. Oh well. This one picture I got was when he took his bag of fishy crackers and sat on the bridge to eat them. Or fell down and decided it was too much work to get back up again and was content to finish the bag right there. He did find out how to stuff the crackers between the railings on the bridge. Some birds eat fish, right? We didn't see too many animals this trip, but I bought a season pass, so we'll be going back. His favorite animals were the ducks. If I'd have known that I would have taken him to the local pond. We also saw some goats in the petting farm that he didn't know what to think of and tried to follow into their home. We also had Tyson's 1 year pictures taken (just 2 months late). He was a busy little squirt and it was hard to catch him still for more than a few seconds. I can't complain too much because he was a happy little guy.My little cutie pie!

Fun in the Sun!

2009-04-24T01:02:00.008-05:00

This past week, I found some cheap tickets and headed to California for my cousin's wedding. It was an added bonus that my parents, brother and sister and their families were there too.

Tyson and his grandpa. Tyson is now walking these days. Slow but steady.

Grandpa Turner and the 5 boys. My sister and I showed up at the wedding wearing the exact same style shirt, just different patterns. She and I both got them at Kohl's without knowing the other one did. I guess you can tell we are sisters when we buy the same outfit even though we're many states away. We felt like the Bobsy twins.

On Saturday we went to the beach. Tyson loved the water even though it was so cold. He especially loved the mud and would pick it up and throw it or put it in his mouth.

More of all the grandboys. He kept wanting to walk further and further into the water! After leaving Newport area, I drove back to Bakersfield with my sister for a few days. I also had the chance to spend the evening with Mike, Susanne and Easton and stayed up way to late laughing. Luke, who is my sister's youngest and 6 months older than Tyson, had a love-hate relationship. This is one of the few times they would actually sit next to each other. Tyson liked Luke alright, but every time Tyson would come near, Little Luke would scowl at him and say, "No, no, no." He even said that to tyson, while he was asleep in his carseat while driving. By our last day there, I guess Tyson had had enough of this treatment and bit Luke on the arm. I don't even know where it came from. They weren't fighting or anything, just sitting there. I guess Luke's arm looked like a tasty chicken wing. I do hope that behavior won't continue. Random. Sorry little Lukey!

Austin however, loved Tyson and was always curious about what he was doing. He was my little buddy too. In this next picture they look about the same size (they're really not though).

It was a very fun trip...Thanks for putting me up Kristin!

Cheek update

2009-04-03T14:49:00.010-05:00

Our little man is doing much better these days. His face started going down the very next day and by yesterday, I would say it was back to normal. What a random thing to happen! The doctor said sometimes it can turn into a reoccuring thing. Let's hope not, but now I'll know what it is if it does. I know his cheeks may still look swollen to some, but trust me, that's just his normal extra cute, extra chubby cheeks!As a side note he is starting to say a few words. Mama and Dad, ball, dog, car, wow, bottle (baba), banana (nana) and my personal favorite, cracker. This morning I was laying on the couch and he was playing with his books and he then crawls over to me, stands up right in front of my face and says "cracker." So I asked him if he wanted a cracker and he gets so excited, laughs and starts saying it over and over again. He knows what he wants I guess and enjoys being able to communicate that with me. Walking still eludes him. I think it will be sometime soon because he is taking quite a few steps but stills uses crawling as his main mode of transportation.

Never knew this gland existed!

2009-03-30T16:12:00.008-05:00

My poor guy! Last night, I started noticing that the left side of Tyson's face was looking swollen. We had just cut his hair so I thought his cheeks were just looking extra chubby, but sure enough, it was swelling and had a hard mound right in front of his ear. We went through possible scenarios of what it could be. He had fallen out of his crib on Saturday (yes, its true.. he was leaning over the railing and fell right out) so we thought maybe it was swelling because he hit his face. But it wasn't tender or bruised so we decided to wait overnight to see what it did and sure enough, it was a lot bigger in the morning! I was stressing waiting until my doctors office opened so I could get an appointment. We were just in there on Friday for a sinus infection and was on amoxicillin for that so it was extra weird he had swelling. At the doctor, she didn't know what it was and called in another Dr to get his opinion. They claimed it as the mystery of the day as neither one had seen it before. They said it looked like mumps but he didn't fit any of the other symptoms, plus he has had his vaccinations. So they made me an appointment to see an ENT in the afternoon. You can be assured I was freaking out a little. What it turns out to be is an infected and blocked parotid gland and it wasn't draining properly. Now he is on new antibiotics and the doctor said he will probably take a while (like many days)for the swelling to go back down. So it looks like he will be looking like this for a while longer.
I feel so bad for him, but it doesn't seem to bother him and he's as and busy and happy as ever!

Raining chocolate

2009-03-27T13:21:00.005-05:00

So, I was making myself a little snack (a graham cracker with peanut butter and chocolate chips...a treat only my mom could teach me) and as I was pulling out my big costco sized bag from the cupboard, something else fell and I tried to catch it. In the process, the bag tips over and starts pouring chocolate chips all over the counter (it was a full bag). Quite a few also fell on the floor. No big deal because guess who is there to help pick them up?? My little shadow! He was parked right in front of me on the floor and was part of the reason I couldn't properly grab hold of the bag. That and all my plate chargers he had pulled out of the cupboard. As I'm hurrying to gather all the ones on the floor, I can hear his little excited laugh as he's hurrying to shove in as many of the chocolate chips as possible. I picked up most of them before I took the picture.
Wow! Thanks mom! You can see little chocolate leftovers on his chin.

Later, as I'm changing him out of his pajamas, I find this... ...a big chocolate smudge on the middle of his back! How in the world did it get there? The only thing I can think of is after this happened, he wanted to cuddle with me on the couch because he hasn't been feeling good. So with the combination of his feverish body and leaning against me, I guess it just melted right where it landed. He's his momma's child all right!

Utah trip

2009-03-20T15:52:00.008-05:00

It was a fun trip to Utah and now I've finally gotten around to blogging about it. As I'm downloading pictures I realize I didn't take all that many. Oops! We enjoyed the funeral and it was a beautiful day. This may seem odd to some, but I've only been to one funeral in my life and that was when I was in the 7th grade for a boy in my sunday school class. I've only been to a few viewings and I've never experienced the interment/graveside dedication of the grave, that I can remember. I realized how fortunate I am to have my family with me. All 4 of my grandparents are living which is a rare thing and I'm so grateful I've grown up with all of them. Scott was a pallbearer and also played the piano for his sisters who sang at the funeral and it turned out really pretty.

All of Scott's siblings were there. It's fun that Tyson has lots of cousins, one that is only a month younger than him. He didn't really interact much but I'm sure he'll have fun when he gets older. We attempted to get all the kids lined up on the staircase for a picture and it was a little crazy. Tyson did not enjoy being picked up too much. There are 12 grandkids under the age of 10 with one more on the way (not us).

While in Utah, I was able to visit my grandparents and aunts and uncles. My cousin Kyle, who just got back from his mission in Taiwan, happened to be in Utah on a ski trip with his dad (they are from CA). I missed his homecoming but got to go out to dinner with them in Utah. When we get together it's always a lot of fun!

(notice the huge drool stain on Tyson's shirt...he's getting in 3 teeth..lovely)

I also saw my bro, Steven and my new sister-in-law, Chelsea. She makes a fun addition to our family. I got to play the Wii at their place, but unfortunately didn't take any pictures of it, but that's really ok. You don't want to see something that uncoordinated. (I'm talking about Steven of course;)) Tyson did great throughout the trip. He's a good little traveler and we were able to make the drive between 13-14 hours. It's always good to be back home and in our regular routine.

Grandma Robison

2009-03-10T13:14:00.008-05:00

Scott's grandma, Inge Robison, passed away on Sunday. She was a wonderful lady. Scott ate dinner at her house most Sundays since he's lived in Utah because she loved to be around her family. I've had the opportunity too since we've been married and in Utah and I'm glad I've gotten to know her well. This picture was taken around Thanksgiving time at her home with Scott, his mom, and Tyson. We are sad to lose her but are so happy that she is reunited with her dear husband and up walking around again! She would have been 90 years old in July. We are headed to Utah tomorrow to attend her funeral on Friday. Although we wish it were under different circumstances, we are excited to be with family and friends.

Happy Helper!

2009-03-02T11:07:00.007-06:00

I forgot to add that for Tyson's birthday, we went to the Children's Museum. Now I realize that he doesn't know what is going on but it was free through Scott's work and something to do on the weekend. They did have this wiggle area for babies and he loved to crawl around and explore all the toys. He also had his 1 year check-up shortly after his birthday and he's doing great. He was the biggest ham in front of the doctor showing her all his tricks like waving and patti cake and "so big." A ham...in this family? No way. He weighed 29 lbs 12 oz and was 34 1/4 inches tall. He's still not walking which is ok. He's busy enough already. In fact, I'd thought I'd share how helpful Tyson has been since he's turned 1.

He opens the door to the basement, plus others.

He helps me get the appliances out of the cabinets for dinner.

He likes to unload the dishwasher.

(He makes a beeline over to it when its open and crawls right in)

And best of all, he'll help me with the laundry! He's great at pulling it all out for me.

How lucky am I to have such a big helper around the house? Next up...yardwork!

You can have your cake and eat it too!

2009-02-20T14:58:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures and a video of Tyson eating his cake. We gave him the whole cake to start out with, to see what he would do. He loved the icing! After we took it away to cut off a smaller piece for him, he started signing the word "more." That's the only sign language we've taught him and boy has he taken to doing that word when it's meal time. I'm telling ya, this kid can pack it away. It might have been a mistake to teach him that word. Anyway, he loved his chocolate cake and kept clapping after every bite. I don't know where he picked up on that...I don't think I've clapped after I've eaten chocolate in front of him ;). He makes me laugh and I love him so much!

Okay..so I couldn't get the video to work. I'll have to keep trying. In the meantime, imagine him putting his fingers in the icing and sticking it in his mouth and going back for more and more each time.

#1

2009-02-19T12:18:00.009-06:00

Hard to believe only a year ago I looked like this...

Even more hard to believe, that Tyson looked like this...
I can't believe a year has gone by so quickly. Looking back at old pictures of his birth makes me realize how I've forgotten what it was like to care for a newborn. There are some similarities though that Tyson has kept through this past year.

We still love baths and are quite large in them.

We like to sleep in our carseat and quickly grow out of them.

And we still love to watch sports with our dad.

We sure love our big guy! We can't wait to have him dive into his cake tonight. I have no doubt he won't disappoint. We'll be sure to post pictures later!

What does one do for fun in February in Nebraska?

2009-02-10T15:53:00.009-06:00

(A post in response to a friend's subtle inquiry)

Well...

We wrestle with dad...

We play with boxes...

And when the weather is a warm 55 degrees outside, we play at the park! Me, being an Arizona girl, never thought I would say 55-60 deg. weather was warm. That is until I've experienced temperatures in the single digits and negatives. We have a park within a short walking distance from our house and that's where we headed for a couple days straight! Tyson loves the swings. I'm anxious to have him be able to walk around the playground on his own so he can enjoy more things but this will have to do for now

2009-01-30T23:53:00.003-06:00

Is it a bad sign when giving a bottle to your child, all he likes to do is play with your eyebrows? Dang those Turner genes.

Last 2 weeks!

2009-01-17T19:57:00.005-06:00

So I've fallen off the blogging map, but with good reason. We've had a busy couple weeks. Here are some of the fun things we've been able to do:
Visit Grandma and Grandpa Turner (sorry, no picture of you dad).
Spend time with my grandparents (Tyson's great-grandparents)

Play with Reggie...we love dogs!

Eat lots of yummy food!! Every last bit of it!

Visit old roommate Brenda and her darling girl, Kimmy

Get the kiddos together
Don't worry Jackie, your son isn't the only one my child likes to hit. Must be a roommate thing with him.

Pulling up to a standing position

Cut Tyson's hair. He was getting a mullet. And last but not least, made a shower curtain with my new sewing machine and finished my upstairs bathroom!