Ty vs Chair

I think its safe to say the chair won this round.

Check out that forehead!  And that's with a phone camera!  This was one of the bruises from Sunday's family lunch.  The cousins have so much fun playing together, but I think we are now going to outlaw running in the house, period.  At my house, we don't have much to hit since we took out most of the furniture so the kids have room to dance and make forts.  Adult seating is so overrated.  Most of the time we look around and find we are all playing on the floor and the dogs are on the couch anyway.

Please pay no attention to the orange crayon marks that cover my shower wall.  The boys and I share a bathroom, what can I say?  He drew me a "Humungasaur."  They like to draw things for me to enjoy the next morning when I take my shower.

Poor Tyler.  Please learn to put your arms out when you fall soon!

15th Anniversary & 1st BBQ of the Season!

Saturday we celebrated J's company's 15th anniversary.  I am so proud of him and how hard he and his Dad have worked to be where they are.  They have truly put their hearts and souls into this company and have been able to employ and help so many in the process all the while staying within their Christian beliefs!  Happy 15th, Ultra Violet Laser Supplies!

That's B, me, Ty, J and our nephew, Z-man at the celebrating.  The kids had a blast chasing each other in the ballroom and swiping mini eclairs and cakes from the dessert table.  I kept wanting to speak to them, but my dad-in-law said they were grandchildren of the owner and could do what they want!  Hey, it was his party!

J received a really nice plaque for his 15 years of outstanding hard work.  Did I mention how proud of him I am?

That's J and Tony, two of UVLSI's outstanding employees.

We got to see a lot of folks we haven't seen in years.  Great time.

Sunday we went to church and over to J's parent's house for lunch.  The kids had a good time playing, but it was a rough one for the little ones.  Ty fell and hit his head on a chair and then Z-man smashed his fingers in the front door.  This age is so tough on kids!  That's why we keep Ty with bangs!

Even though its the first day under 65 degrees in the last few weeks, I was hankering for a hamburger.  We fired up the grill and J made me a great hamburger for supper!  Baked potato and chocolate pudding for dessert.  I'm getting a little excited for summer now!

I'm currently watching B lay on the floor since "no one will play with him."  We are all on our electronics at the moment and he has forgotten how to play independently, apparently.

  I'm one step away from handing him the swiffer.  When I was growing up if we said we were bored, we got to go out to the front yard and pick up magnolia leaves. 

Doesn't work for Ty though, he loves to swiffer.

We finished up our night building forts.  I can't believe I didn't look at the clock before getting into this. 

They are tired and starting to melt down and will have a complete full on fit when its time to go upstairs in a few.  Ah well.



Saturday Mornings

I love it when my boys play well together.  Typical Saturday morning at my house.  We stay in our PJ's, watch some cartoons, and put pillows and blankets on the floor to snuggle.  And don't forget our stuffed animal pals!

Handsome little guys!

Date Night

Last weekend was a very busy weekend!  Friday night B had practice for Awana Games, so he and J headed on over to the church.  I had been feeling a little mommy guilt lately since we have been really working on positive reinforcement for B and he's been getting a lot of rewards lately and Ty is kind of left out.  Also, as I was cleaning up the toy table the other night, I realized that most everything over there is B's.  Ty really doesn't have  lot of toys to call his own.  Or that are age appropriate for him.  So Ty and I decided to have a little date night. 

We went to Target and visited the toy department and I just let him browse until he didn't want to browse anymore.  Its fun right now since he isn't at the age yet where he wants everything he sees and asks for me to buy him everything.  He just pushes every single button on every toy that's on the eye-level (for him) middle shelf.  And since it was a special trip for just him, I didn't have to rush him.  He kept going back to Buzz Lightyear. 

So when he was ready to go home, I asked if he wanted Buzz to come home with us and he said yes.  So now he has a Buzz with spaceship and a Woody with Bulls eye that is just for chubby little 2 1/2 yr old hands.  Yay, second child!  After meeting up with J and B, we stopped at Sonic for ice cream.  Its so funny how little we need to do to delight our kids.  We let them get out of their car seats to eat and climb around Pops's suburban and they were very entertained.

Ty is going through a little bit of a fear phase right now.  He told me the other night at bedtime he was "ske-yad"(scared).  I tucked him in with all of his stuffed pals and then went on downstairs.  About 30 minutes later he called out to me and when I went to check on him, he was sitting up in his bed, arms folded, with a big frown and said angrily,
"Mommy, I ske-yad AGAIN!"

Too funny.

What a Catch!

I got to be a Mystery Reader a couple of weeks ago in B-Man's class.  While there, his teacher announced that Braden was chosen for Catch of the Week! 

That means his behavior and good decisions earned him the right to bring things for show and tell daily, be the teacher's special helper, be line leader etc.  I am so proud of my little catch! 

My birthday week too!  I told him it was the best present he could have gotten me.  Then at church that Wednesday night we found out B was awarded a blue ribbon for Best Car Design for his Grand Prix car! 

You can read about his race here.  He received a trophy and ribbon and is going to take it to school to show his friends.  Hopefully he can tell them a little about Awanas too and how he learns about Jesus there.  We shall see.  It was such a great week!

"My Brudder"

Ty is such a mess. 

His little personality is really starting to come out.  He loves to make us laugh.  And he loves to MOVE!

He is still dealing with some 2 year old stubbornness and whining.  If you tell him "no," he will look at you like its the first time you have ever said that and he as no idea what it means.  That look is usually followed by a "but I want it" and then the wailing begins.

But most of the time, he is just so much fun.  He has a great belly laugh and likes to tell "knock knock jokes" even when he isn't sure what he is saying.  Sunday he kept on with this,

"Knock knock."

J, "Who's there?"

Ty, "um, music."

J, "Music who?"

Ty, "The music that you listen to."

Then Ty would throw his head back and laugh almost manically.  It was hysterical.  He did it like 10 times.

His latest funnyman thing?  While J and B are wrestling, Ty will run and jump on J's back yelling,

"Get off a my brudder!"

It is the cutest thing ever!  The boys tend to argue a lot right now, so I choose to focus on the fun things instead of the fussing and fighting. 

I know it's just a phase and we are all learning how to live together and love each other.  On those tough days when I feel like I'm fussing at them more than not, I get a little discouraged.  But my mom-in-law says even on those days, I'm teaching them to submit to authority.  Their authority right now is me and J, as their parents.  And when they are grown up, it will be God.  So they are learning something even on the days I don't feel like I'm having very many teachable moments!  Unless you count sitting on "the step" and counting carpet fibers a lesson!

I love watching my guys play together.  They are just the joy of my life. 

Even on the tough days.

Ashland Dragons

B told me the other night during prayers and song time that he has a crew at school and that he is the leader.  They are called the Out of Control Dragons, a.k.a. the Ashland Dragons.  I couldn't resist telling him that this little leader better be IN control while in the classroom. 

We talked a little about his role as the "leader" and how its important for him to do the right thing so his crew will follow him.  That's a good leader.  If he makes bad decisions and the crew follows him, that's a bad leader.  B explained to me, "well, I wouldn't say I was a perfect leader, but I'm not a really really bad leader either."  Well thank goodness for that!

I'm reading a book by Sharon Jaynes called Being a Great Mom Raising Great Kids.  Its talking about listening to your kids with your ears, eyes, heart, face, lips and mind.  If you don't know who your kid's best friend is, who his favorite teacher is, what his favorite song, or show is, what he may want to be when he grows up etc, you aren't spending enough time getting to know your kid.  I've been trying the last couple days to really listen to them.  Meaning stop what I'm doing when they are telling me something important and make eye contact, nod my head and ask some follow up questions.  I don't know if its coincidence or not, but B is talking to me up a storm.  I've been so worried about B's moodiness lately, its so wonderful to have him telling me about his crew, things that happened at school (more than, how was school... fine.), and somewhere in the middle of these conversations, we talk a little about leadership, a little about trust and telling the truth and some other important lessons.  He also listens when I tell him about some problem at work and I ask for his opinion.  He is so precious to me and I want him to feel valued.

I realize it isn't always completely feasible to stop what I'm doing, especially when I'm trying to get supper on the table before my hungry 2 yr old completely loses it, but I'm certainly going to take a crack at it.  Its completely worth hearing about a new friend he made today, or that he may want to be a college science teacher someday. 

I'll never get these days back.  They are growing up so quickly and like Pastor B says, we have to grow these relationships now, while they still think we know everything.  Then hopefully they will still come to us later, when they think they know everything.

Love being a mom.

First Tooth

I mentioned in an earlier post that pre-tooth tragedy, B lost his first tooth the normal way in January.  He was so excited to lose that thing and was trying to get it out before Christmas, but it didn't happen.  There is a big mystery relating to this tooth and how it came out.

B came home from school with this smile.  He's so handsome.  Then he proceeded to tell us that he was out on the playground and punched himself in his mouth while he was running and the tooth came out and he never saw it.  This seemed a bit odd to us, but since this incident, he has hit himself in the mouth while trying to twist the head off of one of his LEGO guys, so I guess its feasible.

We went to dinner with some friends a few days later and he told them that he fell down and hit his mouth and swallowed his tooth.  Hmmmm.  I was pretty disappointed with this whole situation because it was very apparent that my innocent little boy was telling a whopper and our trust was being broken.  I talked with him a few times about it and couldn't really get an answer so I let it go.

Fast forward to last weekend.  I was helping him look for one of his Ninjago swords and when looking through the items in his backpack, I found what looked like the top to one of those plastic tooth-looking boxes the nurses use to put your tooth if you lose it at school.  So I casually asked B what it was and he told me very nonchalantly that the nurse gave that to him to put his tooth in.  Wha???  When I asked for further clarification from the previous line of questioning, I got the blank stare answer. 

OK, that's Ty's blank stare, but it looks very similar.  I guess we may never know the details of the missing tooth mystery.

Here is the letter B wrote to the Tooth Fairy explaining his dilemma.

My "Goodfellas"

So this is what has been in my bathroom each morning for the last few days.



At first I thought the mob was trying to send me a message.  I finally realized that Ty is riding this ole nag into the bathroom to brush his teeth.  Then, in the mad rush to get to the TV remote before his big brother so he can turn on Backyardigans instead of Ben 10, he leaves his poor horse behind.  Glad to know I'm not in trouble with the mob! 

Fuhgeddaboudit!

Charleston Trip Picturefest!

Tyler and I took a long weekend to drive down to Charleston to visit the Ellis Family.

 

Check out my sister, Morgan's blog here. 

We couldn't bring Braden this time because he is now in Kindergarten and you can't just yank your kids out of Kindergarten anytime you want.  Justin had to work anyway, so they stayed home and had a "guys weekend."  J took B to his first circus and they had a blast.  The trip down was nice.  The sun was out and Ty watched a couple movies on the DVD player. 

 I swore I wouldn't use the DVD player on trips, but it made the long drive with a 2 year old a lot more pleasant.  I had the famous Estes giant bag of snacks in the passenger seat and the best thing about my little Honda is I can fish a pacifier out of almost any corner!

Ty and Hannah got along really well.  Hannah can be a bit bossy at times, like all 1st kids can be (including mine), and I was interested to see how they would do.  Ty listens and obeys for a little while and then you can hear them in there having this conversation. 

Hannah: "Tyler, you sit here and play like this." 

Tyler: "No, I no play like that." 

Hannah:  "Well then I'm not going to play with you." 

Tyler: "Ok, I play my-myself!"

Then they would be back to playing together in no time.  They were really cute together. 

 The only boy-like toy Hannah had was a couple of Ken dolls with questionable fashion sense.  Tyler adopted the one who dressed strangely like a Chippendale dancer.  He toted that thing around the whole weekend and pretended it was Buzz Lightyear. 

"To ninfinniny, and yawn!"

The weather wasn't very warm while we were there so instead of visiting our favorite beach, Folly Beach, we decided to go to a petting zoo on Friday.  They had their own bee hives too which was pretty cool.  We ate lunch there and picked up some honey from the gift shop to take home.

Hannah had no fear with the animals.

Tyler was a little more hesitant.

He said the goats were his favorite. 

He did like putting the food in the pipe for the horses to eat though.  The place had a big wooden train that the kids could climb on and they seemed to really like that.  I had a tough time trying to get them both to sit still long enough for a picture!

This is the little guy I'm blaming for the eye infection I woke up with Saturday!  He was cute and we could hand feed him.  Ty was smart not to participate.

The place also had two huge horse statues that Ty really enjoyed riding.

It was a great time at the petting zoo and Ty passed out on the way home, he was exhausted!  We bought a wooden toy sword for both he and Braden, which I now know was not a great idea.  They are so heavy and really hurt when getting whacked while trying to fold laundry.

We tried to go out to the park on Saturday morning but the kids were not feeling it.  They played for maybe 30 minutes and we gave up and went home.  I got some good pictures there, though.  They were so much happier playing in Hannah's room.  The entire trip Ty acted really tired and I'm not sure if just being off his schedule and away from home messed him up somehow.  He took 3 hour naps almost every day and was kind of grouchy.  But he loved Otis and Lulu, Billy and Morgan's two dogs.  He just wanted to follow them around and pet them.  I think he missed his puppies.  All and all it was a really fun trip.

Hannah hiding behind the tree during a very short game of Hide and Seek.

Me and Ty at the petting zoo.  Yeah, I'd say he belongs to me.

My pretty sister and her pretty daughter.

She's kind of goofy.

The kids swinging.  Too cute!

Uncle Billy and Ty playing on his phone.  One of Ty's favorite things to do.  He is trying to figure out something to do with his hands so he doesn't grab it and get in trouble.

The drive home was interesting with the eye infection and pending snow.  We got a beautiful snowfall that evening, which I thoroughly enjoyed after pulling in the driveway.  I booked it home from SC so we wouldn't get stuck in it.  God took good care of us the whole way and Ty was a trooper since we didn't stop much other than to fill up.

 I got to spend some good (and much needed) time destressing with my sister and her family.  Thanks so much for putting us up and feeding us, Mo!

Charleston Trip

Ty and I took a long weekend trip to Charleston, SC the week before last to see my sister and her family.  What a great time!  I'll add some pictures of our trip later.  Ty and his cousin, Hannah played so well together and we went to a petting zoo where we hand fed Lemurs!  Unfortunately, I brought home more than some homemade honey from the bee hives there.  Double eye infection.  Yuck.  I was stuck at home dabbing for 2 days.

When I got back, I was welcomed home with the affects of a slip and fall on some hardwood flooring by my firstborn.  Poor B lost a tooth and is about to loose another from falling.  His chin is bruised and three upper teeth are graying and bruised.  It was a bad hit!  He is doing ok though and it doesn't seem to bother him.  I'm so thankful he didn't need stitches!  It could have been worse.  Of course I did call the dentist who assured me the hit won't mess anything up with incoming permanent teeth.  Whew!

Here is a happy picture when you lose teeth the correct way.  He lost his first tooth in January of this year.  He was more excited than he was Christmas morning, I'm not kidding!

He is growing up too fast!