Happy Birthday!

For Ty's Birthday we decided to celebrate by going to Chuck E Cheese. I didn't know if he was going to really enjoy it because he would able to do many arcade type games but he had a blast. I was actually really impressed with how cheap it could have been. We ended up buying a package with pizza and tokens but really you could go in there and just buy tokens. 20 tokens for 5 dollars and that's all you pay. It is 1 token for every game or ride and we had 25 tokens. We were there for an hour and a half, at least. It was a super fun activity and Ty still hasn't stopped talking about it. He loved that he was able to come home with prizes. It was definitely fun to watch him explore and I was glad that I could see he was enjoying his birthday celebration.

I think his favorite ride was the jet flying one that moved . Here he is with Todd, he really wouldn't take his eyes off the screen for a picture.

Here is my lazy attempt of a cars birthday cake. I had a much better picture in my head but when it came down to it, I just got lazy. I would love to decorate cakes but I don't have the patience. I was going to add green cactuses around the bottom egde but again I got lazy. Oh well, Ty's face was priceless when he saw all the cars on the cake and he is still trying to put them back up on the cake. As long as he liked it, I'm happy with it.

We officially have a two-year old!

I don't update my blog as much as I want to but I sure wasn't going to miss updating about my little toddler! He is definitely two! He has been acting like it for a few months with throwing his fair-share of tantrums. Although the tantrums can be rough, they are a small price to pay for the Joy that Tyson brings me and Todd everyday! He has such a sweet personality. He loves to give hugs and kisses and he is so good at saying thank you without being prompted. He loves his grandparents. He is probably more familiar with Todd's parents than with mine because we skype everyweek but I was surprised that after skyping with my parents last night he said "gramma and papa" opposed to the normal grandma and grandpa he says for Todd's parents. He is such a little talker. A few months ago, I would have thought for sure that he wouldn't be talking much by his birthday but in the last month or so his vocabulary has exploded! I can't list them all but here are a few of his favorites.

-two (for two years old)

- lineen queen (lightning mcqueen)

-Francesco (he actually says that one right)

-Thank You

-excuse me (or you. If Todd or I burb he will excuse himself, it's pretty cute)

-fox in socks (on of his favorite books)

-Daddy at work

-daddy at church

-Baby Colt (Our soon to be new addition)

-baby brother

-blankie

most of these he will use in sentences with a few added jibber-jabbers but it is so fun to be able to watch him grow and be able to understand and comprehend what I'm saying.

A funny story of last week, we were reading the picture scriptures together last week and all of the sudden he raised both arms over his head and yells, "fire!" in a deeper more defined voice. There was a picture of fire but I didn't know why he had to say it all funny. We laughed and he did it again three or four more times. He then pointed at the T.V. and from his toddler put together sentence I picked out "giraffe, fire, zebra movie" I realized that he was quoting the giraffe from Madagascar when he hits the sticks together and makes fire and then yells "fire" in the exact way that Ty was just yelling it. I thought it was hilarious because Todd and I quote movies all the time and I didn't know it was a hereditary trait. He'd only seen the movie once, maybe twice before.

I just can't believe that it has been two years already. Time really does fly and I have set a goal to make sure I don't let a moment pass by of enjoying my little two year old.

Fun family videos

Back to Blogging!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything new. Our laptop hard drive crashed in September and we had all of our pictures (3 years of our marriage and family memories) and home movies on it. I was soooo bummed to think that I had lost everything. Luckily a couple of weeks ago I took it in to office depot, I totally recommend, and they were able to save all of our pictures and videos minus a couple, but I'll live. It only cost 30 dollars too! I was so happy. But all of our pictures are on an external hard-drive now and I haven't transferred them over to our new computer. I really need to just print them off so I can have hard copies. Since then it's just been a matter of taking pictures of our different activities but I haven't been too good with that. Halloween gave me an opportunity to pull it out again and record our family fun so I hope you enjoy catching up with us.

This is his cheese face! He's been really good at smiling for the cameras.

Todd's pumpkin! It looks pretty amazing if I do say so myself. I didn't know I married such a talented pumpkin carver.

My pumpkin

The zoo here was having halloween days and we enjoyed getting more use out of his costume. there was trick-or-treating and little displays set up. There was also a corn maze that he absolutely loved. He was running through it so fast that Todd and I couldn't catch up with him before he would run right back through. We went through 4 or 5 times. He really got the hang of saying trick-or-treat and thank you. It is so cute. I would give him candy all day just to hear him say thank you if I could but I guess I'll be a good healthy mom. We also had a ward trunk-or-treat. This was Ty's first one since last year there was a pretty big storm. Ty really liked all of the decorations. We decorated our trunk with spiderwebs and i think he thinks they are still ther because every time we get in the car he says spiders and spiderwebs while pointing to the trunk.

I really had fun making his costume this year. I took a total of 4 hours (vest and chaps) and it is big enough that I think he will enjoy dressing up as a cowboy for years to come. With another boy on the way I'm sure I'll get another good halloween use out of it.

The zoo always has pony rides but we've always been hesitant because it's four dollars and I felt that if we let in once, every time we went back he would freak out if he saw the ponies. Well, Todd and I couldn't help it, he made such a cute cowboy that it seemed only natural that he get to ride his horse. And it was the last day of the season, so I'm hoping he doesn't remember it too much by next spring. Ty absolutely loved his horse. He would pet the mane and even got his "yee-haws" down. It was totally worth the four dollars to watch him have so much fun.

Camping!

Todd got some camping things for his birthday so we wanted to test them out. There are a few good places that I've heard about in Northern Indiana and a lot in Michigan. I'm excited to try out the Michigan ones but for our first real trip we decided to stay a little closer to home. We went to Chain-O-Lakes State Park which is only a 45 minute drive from Fort Wayne. I was a really nice campground and I really enjoyed that the tent sites were separated from the trailer sites. It was quiet and a little more private that way.

Things I liked about camping:

-watching Tyson explore and enjoy the wild outdoors

-sitting by the campfire with my family

-stargazing and sing twinkle-twinkle little star to Ty. It's now his favorite song.

-watching Tyson chase fireflies yelling star after them.

Things I didn't really like:

-mosquitoes

-dirty,dirty little boy

-going to sleep at midnight because the tent was obviously too exciting for a 1 1/2 year old to fall asleep in.

-really hard ground to sleep especially being 4 months pregnant (we got an air mattress for our next trip)

-waking up at 5:45 because Tyson couldn't sleep with the sun being up and the birds chirping

-leaving at 8:00 in the morning because Todd and I were exhausted from no sleep

All in all it was fun, I just can't figure why my parents went camping so much when I was younger. Actually, it's not so much as why but how. I know all my memories of camping were so much fun and I cherish them as great family getaways. It wasn't the easiest but we will for sure be doing it again because Tyson had so much fun and I want him to have those same fun filled memories that I did.

My little Water Dog

We've really enjoyed our apartment pool. Especially during that heatwave that broke through. I like the pool because there are actually two of them, on normal big person pool and a 16 in. wading pool. The water in the wading pool is always super warm so I mostly like to spend my time there and it really is perfect for Ty just playing around. We decided to buy him a flotation device to help feel more comfortable in the big pool. We bought one that has foam arm floaties that are connected by a foam piece around his front. I absolutely love it! Ty is able to float by him self and his head never really gets to close to go underwater except when he wants it to. I highly suggest this type of floaty to anyone who is looking for a good one. Here are some pictures of my boys having fun in the wading pool.

Catching up! 4th of July

So I've really been a bum! I finally downloaded my pictures and realized I have over 200. I won't post them all, goodness, but I know I need to update you all on how our little family is doing. We've had a great summer and I really want to share some of our memories with you. Starting off...4th of July. We ended up getting together a little potluck dinner with a few other couples in the ward and the missionaries. (sorry no pictures of that) We went to a park that had a really fun splash pad. It is probably my favorite park I've been to so far and it's the closest to our apartment. It is such an innovative park. It is wheelchair accessible and also has activities for the blind and deaf. So there are a lot of things that make sound and a really fun light chasing game. It's all manual power too, you have to turn cranks to get these games to run. I also love the park because it is all turf, well besides the cement in the water are, but that means no dirty grass and mud in the water. It's pretty much amazing.

Tyson still isn't quite sure of the splash pads but I finally coaxed him into touching it.

The turf and one of three playgrounds attached to the splashpad!

We didn't get to see fireworks because they didn't start until 10:30 so we bought sparklers instead and I think Tyson liked them just as much as he would have liked watching fireworks. I didn't feel too bad though because we went to a baseball game 4 days later and watched the fireworks there. Sorry no pictures of that either. He was amazed though!