Snow Babies!

Every morning when Tyler wakes up he immediately runs to the window and looks outside to see if the sun is up. He knows if it is still dark out he will get told to go back to bed. On Christmas Eve, he not only found the sun, but in his words "lots of snow" too! Naturally, he ran into the next room and woke his cousin Haleigh up to go outside and play.

Haleigh was born and raised in the north, she is a pro at making snow angels.

Tyler on the other hand, was born in then north, spent 15 months of his life there, and visits every winter. He knew how to make a snow angel, but was a little confused as to where he should be making his angel. Here he is making his angel in the driveway. :-)

He was however, very good at taste testing the snow. No worries, Haleigh made sure it was clean snow!

I think he enjoyed it!?!

The Adventures of Elf On A Shelf (Aka Michael Jackson)

Tyler spent several days telling stories about a new elf friend at school named Sarah. After speaking with his teacher, I learned that they had been reading the book Elf On A Shelf and had their very own elf come to visit at school. While on a trip to Target, I found the Elf On A Shelf and showed it to Tyler. He was super excited to see Sarah at the store and wanted to purchase her. We told him he would have to wait, which caused an extreme amount of tears. Brandon is a sucker for these tears, so the next day he went back and purchased the kit. Tyler and I read the story that night and waited to see if Santa would send our very own elf. Tyler had forgotten about the Elf overnight and needed a little help remembering to look for him/her. After a few minutes of searching, he found the Elf on our mantel. In the story, you have to give your elf a name. Tyler decided that Michael Jackson was an appropriate name for our Elf. We found this to be a little strange since the name Michael Jackson isn't a name that comes up during conversation in our house. We later found out that a child at school had brought this name up when they were trying to name their classroom elf. Every day (or most days) Michael Jackson moved around our house. Here he is in our Christmas tree:
On top of our ceiling fan:

And in one of my Pointsettias:
He even followed us to South Carolina and was spotted on Grandma and Papa's mantel! When we returned home from our trip, so did Michael.

He also followed us all the way up to Michigan, but has now moved back up to the North Pole to live with Santa. Hopefully, next November Santa will send another elf to keep an eye on Tyler and Bailey!

Christmas with Grandma and Papa

With some of our family in South Carolina and the rest up in Michigan, we often find ourselves celebrating the holidays either before or after the actual holiday. This past weekend, we went to Grandma and Papa's house for an early Christmas. Mom, Tyler, Bailey, and I drove down Friday night so we could spend a few days. Here are some of the things that occured during the fun filled weekend.

Bailey and Grandma had a fantastic time playing peek-a-boo. She even learned how to clap!

Papa took some time to bond with his grand-daughter. She has been trying to get over a cold as well as cutting 2 teeth. Needless to say, she took full advantage of Papa's lap!

We all got up nice and early to open presents. Little Miss was much more interested in eating the paper and bows then opening up or playing with her new toys.

Tyler had a great time playing Santa's little helper and passing out presents to everyone.
Tyler was told that he wasn't going to get any toys this year. He did recieve the basics, underware, pj's, and socks, but was more then thrilled with his new box of art supplies. He immediatley hugged the roll of tape and exlaimed "it's my favorite!"After all gifts were opened, we took Tyler downstairs for his final surprise.

Once uncovered, we asked Ty what he thought of his new 4 wheeler, and he said "it's good." A little less excitment then we expected, but he enjoyed riding it around the neighborhood and down to the lake!

I Can Clap! 12-16-2011

The title says it all! She is so proud of herself!

Christmas Program

Tyler's preschool had their Christmas program on Thursday, December 15, 2011. Bailey fell asleep on the way their but it was short lived. :-)
Pator Timm High (that's his name, not his state of being) began the night with a prayer. What a funny guy! Every Wednesday he reads to the preschoolers. Tyler absolutely loves his stories!Tyler was such a proud shepherd!Santa made an appearance during the program too. The kids immediately realized his true identify which made for an adorable conversation. (Nice try Pastor Timm!)It's hard to tell from this picture, but Tyler's head is so small that his hat wouldn't stay up so he spent the entire program looking out of one eye, silly boy!Afterwards we all met for cookies and juice. Here is Tyler and his teacher Ms. Maureen. She rocks!! The kids were able to sit on Pastor Timm's, I mean Santa's lap too! Bailey LOVED him! No crying Santa pictures here!Ms. Maureen posing for a picture. (I told you it would be posted on my blog!)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Daddy and Tyler went to look at Christmas trees while Bailey and I napped. When we woke up, this is what we found! Tyler was very excited to get the tree inside to decorate (or in his words to decoration the tree).


While Ty and Brandon got the tree settled in, Bailey did a great job of supervising from her walker.

She looked pretty cute while doing so!

Gotta love this boy!

Not the best picture, Tyler wiggled, the final product turned out pretty good!
Merry Christmas!!

Where's The Tail?

Every year it seems that Tyler becomes more interested and involved in the holidays. With all the talk about Thanksgiving and the symbols that represent it, he was very eager to see the turkey. He even accompanied his dad to the store to purchase the frozen bird and felt the need to explain to me what the turkey was for. Boy would he soon be disappointed!

He woke up good and early Thanksgiving morning so he could help Dad with preparing the meal. While Bailey and I snuggled in bed, they were busy making lots of goodies for our dinner. When it came time for the turkey, Tyler just had to jump in and help!
After peeking into the cooker, Tyler's first response was "Where is the tail?" Which was then followed by "There's no head! What happened to the Turkey's head?" Both of these questions led to a very interesting conversation about turkeys and our dinner.

I had to get a picture of the two of them together for Bailey's first Thanksgiving. I love how she had to hold onto Tyler's collar for the picture.

Even though it was only the 4 of us this year, we still managed to have quite the spread of food.
For a child that normally eats very little for dinner, Tyler was very excited to dig into his turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!! :-)

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck!! 11-11-11

Bailey has reached that all important 6 month milestone and is now able to give those taste buds a workout on something other then her plastic toys. She was very eager upon entering her highchair, but very quickly changed her mind!

The first bite of rice cereal came back out of her month faster then it went in! Surprisingly, she opened right up for bite number 2 and even tried to help, but in the end this attempt had the same results.

With a little help from big brother Tyler I was able to attempt bite number 3, then she became wise to our tricks and decided opening her mouth wasn't going to happen.

In the end, I had a very messy and unhappy 6 month old. According to the Gerber website, it could take up to 10 attempts to get her to eat. I sure hope not!!