It's a Beautiful Saturday!

I am so excited the weather is cooling off here in the desert. It was GORGEOUS today and we spent the majority of it outside or out and about running errands!!

We met the Sligar's at the park this morning and let the kids play and dogs run around for awhile. Love and Jake are two of the cutest kids ever. Tyler had fun going in the baby swings and eating snacks in his stroller. There isn't much else for him to do right now... I can't wait till he can walk. I know I'll be eating those words here shortly... LOL. The dogs had a great time too and were able to get out some energy! Poor things never get much attention now... well park attention that is. They're still spoiled rotten at home.

~ Love, Chad & Tyler ~

~ Love ~

~ Jake playing in the sprinklers - This will sooo be Tyler soon ~
~ Tyler watching the kids play... He was getting very sleepy ~
~ Max, Hershey & Bailey ~

After Tyler woke up from his afternoon nap (much too short by the way) we went out in the backyard to play on his new toy from his birthday. He loves to spin the wheel up on top over and over. That's pretty much the only thing he's interested in at this point. haha. We spent another 30-45 minutes playing out back and enjoying the nice breeze until daddy came home. I'm loving it! It instantly puts me in a good mood!

I guess I was a little picture happy today! That's just part of the whole nice weather, good mood kind of thing : ) Enjoy the video too - Sorry it's sideways... I'm not sure how to change it.

12 Month Checkup

Tyler had his 12 month well visit today. Chad was working so I took him by myself. Everything looks great. His ears are clear, teeth are good, motorskills are good, etc, etc and everything else they examine at these visits. He only had 3 shots today, all of which he's had before so I knew he would react to them fine but I opted out of the MMR and chicken pox (for the time being) as I'm still so uneasy about it. I made this appointment a while ago and knew that I would have time to do the research I needed to do but this appointment came up out of nowhere and I had done nothing! So... I am now in research mode and will hopefully be able to make up my mind and feel at peace with it in the next couple of weeks.

Anyways... Here are the stats:
Weight: 24 lbs 2 oz (75th percentile)
Length: 29 3/4 inches (50th percentile)

Birthday Boy

We had a BIG celebration for Tyler's birthday yesterday. We had a great turnout with so many family and friends that came - About 50 adults and 15 kids! That's A LOT for our little house but I am praising God for the cool weather he gave us. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I had been checking the forecast all week. On Monday, the projected temperature for Saturday said 97 degrees. Saturday's forecast kept getting lower and lower throughout the week and what did it end up being?? 85!!!! It was gorgeous!!! The wind did pick up a bit as the day went on but it was tolerable and we were able to use our backyard.

We BBQ'd hamburgers and hot dogs. The kids loved the jumphouse that we rented for the day - It was a hit and kept them entertained the entire time. Tyler LOVED LOVED LOVED his cake. He devoured the thing! That was the highlight of my night just watching him dig in and eat it up. I didn't really expect anything less but it was so darn cute!

The night went by so fast! I've been thinking of that day for months and it was all over so quickly. Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated Ty's 1st Birthday. And also to those to drove in from out of town to be here. We love you!


* Here was his invitation - He's my little monkey.
The costume here also doubles as his Halloween costume in a few weeks : ) *

* I found a similar idea for this banner on a blog. It showed 13 pictures (birth and then each month of his first year) It turned out super cute! *

* Me, Micheal & Katie *

* The Jumper *
* Auntie Lolo and Ty *
* The Great Grandmas *
* Tyler trying out his new slide toy *
* The Birthday Boy *
* Tyler's Cake *
* The Big Cake *
* Mama and Ty - The wind was blowing my hair ALL day! *
* "Happy Birthday to you..." *
* "Mmmmmm" *
* Digging in... *
* "I Love Cake!" *
* The Aftermath *
* Opening gifts - "Thank you everybody!" *
Lots of new toys!
* And Dad 's excited about the toys too! *
* Happy Birthday Tyler. We Love You! *

1 Year Old

My baby boy is ONE today!! I have so many mixed emotions. I'm so happy that Chad and I have survived and Tyler's alive! LOL. No but really... my baby boy isn't a baby anymore. He is ALL over the place and our little animal. I miss our days of cuddling, nursing, sleeping together, etc. but I'm so looking to being able to interact with him more and more playing games, "talking" (words), etc.

We have his birthday party later on this afternoon and I'll post pictures of all the festivities later on. So far today he took a good morning nap, ran errands with me and Jess and then started his afternoon nap in the car on the way home and finished it up in his crib. He should be a happy baby for his big party!

Here are a few things we LOVE about our ONE-year-old:

• He'll eat just about anything we put in front of him. He's not a picky eater whatsoever (I probably just jinxed myself, lol)! He LOVES any kind of fruit!
• He loves taking baths. Sometimes we'll put him in the tub if he's just cranky and needs to change things up and he'll instantly be in a good mood.
• He loves playing with his doggies. Lately he'll just crawl up to them and lay by them or try and pet them. He likes to grab their tail and hold it still while they try and wag it. He cracks up and things it's the funniest thing!
• He's imitating us more and more. If we laugh a certain weird, funny way, he'll mimic that laugh.
• He loves to give us kisses! SO SWEET!
• He's becoming a better and better sleeper. We put him down around 7:30 and he wakes up around 6-6:30. Not too bad!

Happy Birthday Ty Ty! We LOVE YOU!

Free Children's Museum Admission

Hi Everyone,

Just found out this info from another blog I follow...

Over 130 Children's Museums across the country are offering a free child's admission this month with the purchase of an adult ticket. Find out more at Travels with Children. 

Children's Discovery Museum of the Desert is on the list! Woohoo!!

September has come and GONE!

And yet another month has come and gone... I feel like I say the same thing every month (which I know I do) in these monthly random posts but here are a few random pictures from September...

* Happy Boy *

* Taking pictures for his monkey birthday invitation *
* Also double as his halloween costume : ) *

* "Okay... enough mom!" *
* First time facing forward!! He absolutely LOVES the new view! *
* Gotta love being naked after bathtime *
* Beautiful Boy *

Copy Cat

I took this video the beginning of last week and have been wanting to post it. Tyler does a super cute thing now - When you ask him to copy you (while kind of smacking your lips... not sure how to describe it) he totally does it. Maybe it's just me being his mommy but I think it's so cute!!


Oh and at the end I'm trying to get him to wave bye. Still no luck. I wave to everyone these days - family, friends, strangers in the grocery store, toys, stuffed animals... you name it! He probably just think I'm crazy and doesn't want to participate... LOL.

Wicked Weekend

Chad and I went with the "Neighbors" (Gabe & Jessica) to see Wicked this weekend. We celebrated both mine and Jess' birthday for one last hurrah (this was Chad's birthday present to me) and also Jess' birthday gift. We left Saturday morning and Me-ma (grandma Lynne), Larry and Lauren watched Tyler through the night - THANK YOU!

Wicked was AMAZING!!!! Absolutely amazing!! It was my first big musical and I don't know how it is even going to compare to any others I see in the future. Jess' aunt has seen it 9 times and I can totally see why! I would see it again in a heartbeat! We went to the matinee while the boys played playstation in the hotel room. After the show we all went to Universal Citywalk for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then to a piano bar, which was also a good time. It was a fun mini getaway for the night! Thanks neighbors for a fun weekend!

Cooling Off...

It's finally starting to cool off!!! Well in the mornings that is... I took advantage of the nice weather last week and went to the park - TWICE! Woohoo! As long as you go around 8 or 9 and stay for a bit, it's pretty cool.

My mom met me at the park on Tuesday and we had a fun time. Tyler loves the swings and he tried the slide for the first time. He's still not too sure what to think of it though...

On Thursday morning I wanted to get out of the house and go to the park again. I chose a different park this time, which happened to be right across the street from Chad's dentist appointment that he was at. He was able to meet us there afterwards to hang out and then walk around. There were also ducks at the park and they get crazy! I saw one and threw one of Tyler's puffs on the ground to get it to come closer and next thing I know there's about 20 ducks swimming super fast, coming up onto the ground and surrounding the stroller - eegghhh!! Ty loved being outside and I can't wait for it to really cool off and we can go in the middle of the day or whenever.

I'm still here...

I just realized it's been a while since I posted... Things have been pretty busy around here! Here's a bit of an update...

The Dwelling Place and Mom2Mom have both started back up at church and I couldn't be more excited about both of them this year!!! We're doing another Beth Moore study at Dwelling Place called Living Beyond Yourself. It's all about the Fruit of the Spirit and it's going to be great. I can't wait to see what I'm going to get out of it. I'm also serving as a table leader at Mom2Mom this year. This is a huge step out of my box but I know God is going to do great things with it! I'm normally so nervous with meeting a bunch of new people, leading anything, etc. etc. but prayer has REALLY worked on this one. I've had such a peace the last 2 weeks and all of the fears I thought I had going into it have dissipated. I have an awesome table of amazing moms and I'm so excited about it!

I've been busy trying to get things ready for Tyler's 1st birthday party this weekend. How in the world is it already his first birthday?!?! Where has the time gone?!?! I was just telling Chad last night and although he didn't really understand I'm sure other mommies can relate... I've been thinking about Tyler's birthday and his birthday party for months now - months! Yet it seems like I have completely procrastinated on the actual planning and putting together of the party until just this last week! I'm leaving everything to the last minute and it's driving me insane. I think though, deep down, that I just don't want my baby to turn one. I know it's such an exciting time but he'll officially not be a little baby anymore : ( It was this day (Oct 1st) last year that I went to my weekly Dr's appointment and he made arrangements for me to go into the hospital on Wed, Oct 3rd to be induced. I spent the rest of the day finishing up things for work and was officially starting my maternity leave and spent Tuesday finishing up all the little things around the house and everything I needed to get done before going to the hospital. It's just crazy to reminisce on these things... Here's a picture of me the night before I went into the hospital. Chad and I went on one last date being a family of 2.