Fire District Kids Party

The fire department does a kids Christmas party every year. Santa comes and they each get a gift. They always do it at our local skating rink in Brighton and it seems to be a big hit. I took Tyler last year, but we just hung out for a bit and left...he was too small to skate and I don't skate.

This year, I was looking forward to him having fun with his daddy...and no surprise, he did.

They won't let you carry little ones who are too small to be on their own skates, but they'll lend you an umbrella stroller to roll them around in. It was cute! A couple of the other firefighters have kids around Tyler's age, and apparently they were having a baby derby and racing the three kids around. I didn't get to see it, but if I get ahold of the pictures, I'll add them in.

Here are a couple shots of Tyler and his daddy rolling around. My nieces Jordan and Shauncey came with us too, but Jordan (the athletic one) kept falling down, and I didn't want to post those pictures of her....ha ha ha, love ya kid!!

Merry Christmas

Yeah...Santa came to the Blunt home. It was a good day! Sorry it took me a week to post anything about our Christmas. I've been trying to find a way to post a slideshow of the pictures so I didn't have a five mile long post. I hope you can all view the slideshow.

Tyler was so excited that Santa had brought him a tool bench. He got plenty of other gifts, but this still seems to be his favorite. He also got a lawnmower from his dumb parents and that thing is loud.

He got a "Cars" table and chairs that he loves to move around my living room and he uses the chairs when he's creating something at his tool bench...soooo cute! Oh, and he also got a bouncy horse that he loves, along with a bunch of various other trucks and toys and blocks and Lincoln Logs that he plays with off and on.

Enjoy the slideshow of Tyler's Christmas events.

Our Little "Monkey"

The pictures you are about to see will speak for themselves. However, let me tell you a quick story just to give you some background as to how this came about.

First, we were at a friend's house one Tuesday night to watch a show with them. This night, he was having multiple meltdowns and we decided to put him to bed in their office in their pack-n-play. Well, about five minutes of screaming and yelling later, their office door opened and out walked my son. Our friend Johna said, "You need to find a toddler bed because it won't be long before he's climbing out of his crib. Nope...I had myself convinced that it was just the mesh sides that helped him to crawl out...that and the fact that he was so mad when he did it.

That was a Tuesday and the rest of the week was fine...I still told myself Johna was wrong and this was an isolated incident. Well, the following Saturday, I was getting into the shower and Tyler wanted to go with me. I told him no, which ignited an angry, screaming temper trantrum of sorts. John came in the room and decided he needed a little quiet time to himself. He put him in his crib and about 20 seconds later, we heard a loud thump, John opened Tyler's bedroom door to find him standing there. I could hear him saying, "What are you doing?" Tyler didn't say anything to his dad, but went right between his legs and into my room to find me.

Still, we were convinced that the two incidents were only because he was angry when he was put into bed.

Well, the very next day after the angry "fall" out of his crib...and there is no doubt that it was a fall, I put Tyler down for his nap. I thought about telling him not to climb out of the crib, but didn't want to put any ideas in his head if he wasn't already thinking it. Well, that was a mistake because he called for me about 5 minutes later, and this is what I found when I walked into the room...


I immediately yelled for John to come see, and we grabbed a camera. All Tyler's blankets, stuffed animals and pillows were on the floor. We decided that was for a softer landing. But then he got to this point and realized that it was way too far and he wasn't going anywhere...thus calling for me to come help him.

Needless to say, we haven't had any more issues with Tyler trying to climb out of his crib. I tell him quite often at bedtime not to climb out and that if he needs anything to call for mommy or daddy. We're still planning on switching to a toddler bed soon though...just incase!!!

A visit from Santa!!

Oh, the joys of parenthood... it's so much fun to see your child's eyes light up and know you've done something to make them really happy.

On Tuesday of this week, (December 23rd to be exact), we made arrangements for Santa Clause and one of his elves to come visit Tyler at home.

The doorbell rang and our friend Julie Kloberdanz was at the door. She had come to visit her friend Tyler.

After she was there for about 5 minutes, the doorbell rang again...Tyler looked at me with big eyes and said, "Danpa's here." He calls Julie and her husband Dan "Danma" and "Danpa" rather than grandma and grandpa. So he went running to the door expecting Danpa, and found Santa and an elf. He got the biggest eyes ever and giggled, then ran back to where his daddy was standing with his hand on his mouth. He kept putting his hand on his mouth and laughing and then looking down. I think he was nervous and excited all at the same time.

We invited Santa and his elf into the house and Santa said hello and pulled out a gift for Tyler. Tyler opened his gift and then told Santa "thank you" and gave him a big hug (because mommy said so). Santa also had gifts for mommy and daddy, (a light up fire station and a fire truck to go with it), which Tyler helped open.

I think Tyler was glad to see Santa and would have warmed up to him after a few minutes. But, unfortunately, Santa was very busy and had to go finish getting ready for Christmas Eve. Hopefully he can come back again next year. Maybe Tyler will talk to him more then.

After Santa and his elf left, the doorbell rang again. This time, I asked Tyler who could be at the door, and he got very excited and said, "Danpa!" This time he was right. Danpa and Dantie (Dan's daughter Miranda) were at the door. We told them they had just missed Santa Clause and his elf. They were so disappointed....

Santa Clause is Coming to Town...

A couple weeks ago, we made a trip to the Flatirons Crossing Mall where we stood in line for 45 minutes so we could get a picture of our precious son with Santa Clause. This is Tyler's 3rd Christmas, but we have never made a visit to see Santa Clause, until this year. This being our first experience with this, we made a couple mistakes. First of all, we didn't realize that we could bring our own camera and take pictures ourselves...big mistake. Second, we didn't let Tyler see other kids sitting on Santa's lap before it was his turn. This was not entirely our own fault. The way the area is set up, there are trees all around where Santa sits so there really is no option to watch the other kids as they take their turns on Santa's lap.

We built up the trip all day long, and Tyler knew who the jolly old elf was, so he was really happy and excited when his daddy led him up to Santa and placed him on his lap. Oh, if only the girl had snapped the picture 5 seconds after Tyler was seated. He had the biggest grin and was so pleased with himself that he was with Santa...and then he looked at me and slowly looked to his right and saw the strange man with a huge beard...and realized he was there alone. Then he started saying "mommy" in a nervous voice while reaching out to me.

Santa was a good sport though and tried to sing, "If you're happy and you know it" while clapping Tyler's hands together. His helper elf was also trying desperately to get our son to smile...but to no avail. I was standing by the girl at the camera and was pointing to it and pleading with him to look at the camera and smile. Needless to say, she only got 4 or 5 pictures out of the 45 seconds Tyler sat there and we had an easy choice to make. This picture is the only decent one they got and so of course, was the one we picked...all it all it isn't terrible, considering that he was extremely nervous and ready to get off the strange man's lap!

Oh, well, better luck next year!!

Time for Christmas

Well, now that Thanksgiving and Tyler's Birthday are well behind us, it's time to get ready for Christmas (which we have not even come close to doing!). Last weekend, we put up our Christmas tree...and I spent the rest of the week putting out the rest of the house decorations. Then last Sunday, John put some lights on the house. Tyler is so excited when he sees houses with lights on them.

John took a couple pictures of Tyler helping me decorate the tree. Honestly, I think he would have been more help if he had bee asleep, but that's alright...he had fun and so did I. Now if we could just keep him from trying to plug and un-plug the tree, that would be great!

"oh, boy, I know my mommy said not to touch these, but that's all I want to do!!

"Look at all these pretty things Curious George...mommy said not to touch them."

Party! Party! Party!

Phew...it's done. What a relief it is to be done with a 2 year old's birthday party. I don't know where he harnesses his energy sometimes!

Tyler had his 2nd birthday party at the fire station. He got to invite some of his friends and his favorite family members. (well, I did that for him of course).

We wanted to stay simple so we didn't do a bunch of food. We just had the kids each make their own Christmas ornament and we had goldfish, pretzles and juice. Since our theme was Curious George, I made a cake that looked like two bananas.

Tyler loves Curious George the movie so much that I waited until last to have him open that and a CG stuffed animal that I had found. Unfortunately, all he could think about was the vacuum that he got from his buddy Logan. Actually, that was the first gift he opened and it took about 4 more gifts for him to figure out that the point was to open all the packages to see what was inside them. He was just angry that we took the vacuum away. Then he humoured us long enough to get all the rest of his gifts opened and was ready to get down and find that hidden vacuum. When he got his hands on his beloved new toy, he had his daddy open it and put it together so he could vacuum the room we were in. When we got home, I offered to put batteries in it for him and he got mad at me. When I did finally put batteries in it, he would turn it on and walk away from it...apparently he doesn't like that noise. So we took the batteries out and we're all happy!! Thank goodness!

Banana cake with George

banana cake...pre-George

my Buddy Logan riding my 4-wheeler

I love my Nanny soooo much


me and Logan playing with the 4-wheeler (mommy had to hide it so I could open gifts)

YUMMY!!! Cake and ice cream (I was much cleaner this year than I was last year)

I had fun blowing out the candles...so much that I asked mommy to light them again

I LOVE my new friend Curious George!


Me and my daddy...best buddies


I can't tell you how much I love my new vacuum...I help mommy by vacuuming everything!! And I mean EVERYTHING

It's A Great Birthday Charlie Brown

Okay, so it's not Charlie Brown, it's Tyler. But he did just have his 2nd birthday. It was last Thursday, December 4th. It was a fun day.

I took the day off to hang out with him. We got some snow, our first good snow for this year. We had a blast playing in it. This was really Tyler's first time playing in the snow. He got to wear his snowsuit that his Granny bought him last year for Christmas for the first time.

At first he didn't want to lay down in the snow, and got a little freaked out when I laid down to make a snow angel. Finally, John got him to lay in it.

His favorite part was scooping the snow into his mitten. We only had the ones that came with the snowsuit and they are the kind that their whole hand goes into, no finger or thumb sections. So it was a challenge, but he figured it out. I showed him to throw snowballs at his daddy and since he couldn't throw them far enough, he would get a scoop of snow and run up to us and put it on our legs.

Happy Turkey Day...gobble, gobble

Hello our family and friends!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are sad that we couldn't be with all of you on such a family oriented holiday.

John, unfortunately, had to work at the station that day. It was fine though, it still worked out well. We rotate families, so it worked out that he didn't have to miss our year at his familie's house. Tyler and I went to my grandma's (Nanny's) around 11 and had our turkey lunch there with our small family that lives near. Then we played our traditional game of Trivial Pursuit while Tyler napped. It was different this year as my Auntie Donalee was not there...the first year I can remember her not being here. She did, however, get to spend the holiday with family, as she is in San Diego doing a traveling nurse thing. She does take fun to a great level though.

Tyler had a great day. He loves to eat, and since the whole basis of Thanksgiving is to EAT, he thought it was great. He also got to help his Nanny make the rolls. He thought the bread machine was the coolest thing ever, and he got to push the buttons. Then when it was time to roll out the dough, he loved it. Although, he was trying to eat the raw dough before she could get the rolls out on the pan.

After our turkey lunch, Tyler and I headed to the fire station where John and his engineer (our friend Dave) had made a grand and delicious dinner. They made turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, jello salad, rolls, mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie. And yes, they made it all themselves. John even made delicious giblet gravy. I've never had it before, but it was awesome!! They cooked the turkey, boiled the potatoes and baked the pie all themselves. It was all so delicious!

Helping ball up the rolls for dinner, he is such a good helper

Tyler is so in love with his Nanny

This is such serious business, he has to stick out his tounge to concentrate!


Very important job of helping hold the jar...I don't think she could have done it without him. (at least that's probably what he's thinking)

Hangin' out with my Buddy!

A couple weeks ago, Tyler had his buddy Logan come hang out for awhile. He and Tyler see each other every so often, and get along pretty well. Most of our friends with kids have girls, so it's nice for Tyler to have a boy to hang out with that's close to his age. He has three boy cousins here who are 8, 6 and 3. Logan is only about 10 months older than Tyler, so he is not so old he wants to boss him around, and not so close to the same age that they fight. I do have a feeling though, that they could cause some trouble as they get older and have brilliant ideas to bounce off each other.

While Logan was here, we made some cookies. Nothing major, as I am not Betty Crocker. I just bought a couple of those pre-cut Pillsbury with snowmen and Christmas trees on them. They didn't care though. They were excited to think they were really helping make cookies. They took turns placing them on the cookie sheet. Although, there was no rhyme or reason to their placement, and I had to go back through and space them out so that we didn't end up with one big cookie.

We had fun and can't wait for the next time we get to hang out with Logan!

We are getting ready to make the most delicious cookies ever!

Yeah! Cookies, these will be soooo yummy!!

Cousin Jordan, the "Actress"

I know this is a Blunt family blog, but we are also very close to my nieces who live nearby. I wanted to post a couple pictures from my oldest niece’s debut in her high school play. She was very cute and the play was good. It was fun to see her up there, even though she didn’t have a speaking part. By the way, this is somewhat abnormal behavior for somebody in the Johnston family so we are still trying to figure out where she came from. I can’t remember anybody in my immediate family who would have even wanted to be an extra in a play. Good for her though. I must say too that she is turning out to be quite an awesome young lady. She constantly amazes me with her insight. I can see she’s going to do something special with her life and I can’t wait to find out what it’s going to be.

Jordan and a couple of her friends that were in the play. For those of you who don't know Jordan, she is the one on the far right.

Our little tomboy, tennis star NEVER wears dresses. We had to get a picture of her in a dress, that is...a REAL dress. Not one of her skort things that she plays tennis in.

Jordan is the one in the middle in the black dress

Jordan is in the yellow dress.

This was during the opening credits of the play. Jordan dropped all her stuff so the other girls rushed to pick it up and helped her off the stage. She was so convincing we thought it was an accident and that the embarrassed look she got was real.

Our Monkey

First, thank you to Auntie Angie who sent this costume for Tyler this year.

We didn't go trick-or-treating this year. Tyler is way too shy at this point to even say "trick-or-treat" when a stranger opens the door so I didn't even attempt it. Plus, his daddy was on shift at the fire station, so we would have had to go it alone. We did get him in the monkey suit again and went to visit his daddy at the station. (I'll post those pictures later)

We did take Tyler to Boo at the Zoo a couple weekends ago. As you can see from the pictures he was most interested in sitting in the wagon. I snapped these pictures while we were waiting in one of the long lines for candy. I guess he’s going to like looking at maps like his daddy does.

Happy Halloween

I know it’s just a bit late, but I did take Tyler to a pumpkin...well, let’s just call it a “bin”. I didn’t want to pay the entrance fee for a pumpkin patch because he really doesn’t get it yet, but I wanted pictures with him by pumpkins, so I took him to the bin at King Soopers. I probably shouldn’t give away my secret because I don’t think it’s too obvious where these were taken, but then again, if anyone wants to do that next year with your kids rather than traveling miles and miles to pay an outrageous amount to sit them in a mound of pumpkins for 5 minutes and then go home.