September Vacation

September 1st we left on a family vacation. We drove to Salt Lake and stayed there for 6 days hanging out with Auntie Angie, Uncle Bo, Zach, Nathan and Uncle Aaron. It was a really good time. We did so many fun things with them. We rode a real train up to Ogden and went to the Children's Museum, which is amazing! Tyler had his acting debut there during an interactive reading time where they have the kids come up on stage and act out the story the person is telling.

We also went up to Park City and hung out at the Outlet mall one day, and since it was Labor Day weekend, we found some great deals. We spent another day up by Park City at Olympic Park, where they have some fun family stuff to do. We went on two zip lines and rode a fun alpine slide. Tyler loved the slide so much John took him down a 2nd time.

Since this was our annual golf trip for John he golfed every morning we were there with his Uncle Jerry, and/or Aaron and Bo. Then they spent the afternoons with us doing fun family stuff. We got to meet a friend of Jerry and Nancy's from Taiwan named Vicky, and the kids LOVE her. She is a child magnet and they seem to think she's more of a play toy than a person. It was a lot of fun watching her laugh and play with all those boys.

After spending a week with family having so much fun we were sad to leave when the time came. But we were Vegas bound, and looking forward to it. Tyler absolutely loved Vegas and still asks when we are going back. We weren't sure what to expect of a Vegas trip with kids, but it was a lot of fun to watch the awe on Tyler's face at all the cool things there are to see there. The first night there, we went down to the Bellagio to see the water jets. Tyler love it, but then when we were leaving he saw a lady selling light swards. That's all we heard for about 12 hours until we could find someone the next night and get him one. We stayed at Mandalay Bay and we got to swim and do all sorts of fun things. However, one downside to taking kids to Vegas is that they have to nap, or everyone suffers and so that cut into some of the things we would have liked to do.

Unfortunately, after eating what we thought was a really awesome buffet dinner at the Bellagio on our 2nd and last night there, I got horribly sick...in fact I thought I might die.

Our plan after leaving Las Vegas was to drive to the Hoover Dam, take some time to look around a bit, then head to the Grand Canyon and spend some time there. From there we had a reservation in Flagstaff, AZ where we were going to spend the night and head to Durango, CO the next day. Well, since I was sooooo sick, we had to stop in Kingman, AZ which is only about 50 miles from the Hoover Dam...so I could be out of the car and I could get some rest. Poor John and the kids just had to hang out in the tiny little hotel room and watch TV...it wasn't fun for them. I slept for a few hours then we went to dinner...well they did, I just went along for the ride because I was feeling a bit better. Needless to say it wasn't our best vacation day!!!

I was bummed we didn't get to do much at the Hoover Dam. I was really excited to see it, take some pictures and maybe take a tour. Well, the most I got to see was the bathroom...and I don't remember much of that either! I took one picture and John took 3 or 4, but since we didn't do anything there they don't do much for our memories.

I don't want to say that being sick was a blessing, especially since I thought I might not make it at times...but it did allow us to make a couple good changes in our plans. Rather than staying the night in Flagstaff, we were able to spend time at the Grand Canyon then head for Durango. Since it was a bit further we actually ended up staying in Cortez, CO and then spent a couple hours at Mesa Verde. What a beautiful place!! I think we might make a trip there another time when we can do the guided tours through some of the dwellings that we couldn't get to this time. We might have been able to, but John wouldn't let me bring the backpack for Caleb before we left and it was impossible to do some of that stuff without it. It's alright, we had fun anyway!

All in all, vacation was awesome!! We can't wait for our next family adventure!

Toes...

That's what makes Caleb happy these days! That and his big brother, who is his favorite person on the planet. Life is good when you're 6 months old and the best part of your day is playing with your cute little grape-like toes.

That's how his day is, but life with two kids is crazy busy...great, but busy! Nobody really ever said that to me, so for my friends who might someday want more than two kids, you should know that it's harder to have two than one. Though I've heard three is easier than two, but I don't really plan on another baby just to check that theory.

We really never felt like we "adjusted" to life as parents with Tyler. We brought him home and he was easy and we were just suddenly a family of three instead of two. We never felt like we had to plan life around a baby with him, just smooth sailing. Two kids, however is not quite that simple, there were adjustments to be made and some of them seemed to take longer than we wanted. Now though, life has leveled out and we are quite used to our family of four.

Tyler never seemed to have any issues with baby brother, and we're happy for that. From the moment Caleb came home Tyler has wanted nothing more than for Caleb to play with him. We get closer to that every day, which pleases big brother to no end. The first time Caleb sat unassisted for more than a few seconds, Tyler saw that as his moment to play with him. Sitting is fun for Caleb but a dangerous thing too since Tyler usually takes the opportunity to give him hugs, which send him to a laying position.

Life is also faster with two kids. Caleb hit his 6 month mark this month and that flew by...I can't believe he's 1/2 way to a year old. He also broke his first little tooth on that day, which was so exciting, but also so sad! The cool thing is Tyler also broke his first tooth on his 6 month birthday...so we're consistent at least!

We hope to have a couple camping trips this summer, we'll see how Caleb does. He's pretty content as long as he's fed, so as long as we don't leave bottles at home he'll probably be fine. Tyler has camped though and will love it!

We got to spend some time with Auntie Angie and her family twice in May and that was fun for Tyler. He loves his cousins so much and doesn't get to play with them often, so he had a great time. Unfortunately, he and cousin Nathan (2 yrs) seem to bring out the ornery in each other....all in good fun though. We are also expecting Auntie Thresa and her clan here in the next few days or by the end of the week, and that's really fun! Tyler loves his cousin Taylor sooooo much and thinks she's pretty awesome (but really she is).

My goal is to get back to blogging and keep up with this so I'll post pictures through the summer as we have our fun in the sun and go on adventures that we can think up. Pictures to come...

Catching up to the New Year...

Oh so many things have happened since my last post. After vacation, we settled back into everyday life...working, playing, just hanging out

Before we knew it it was Halloween and time for trick-or-treating. Last year was pretty fun because Tyler enjoyed the candy, but this year was just awesome. After much going back and forth on what he wanted to be he finally settled on a monkey...and a cute little monkey he was!! At one point he was going to be a dinosaur, in fact for a couple months he was...then one day we were on the internet looking at costumes and I found a cute dinosaur costume and asked Tyler if he wanted that one. He looked at it for a minute and said to me with a concerned look on his face, "No mommy, I can't be a dinosaur for Halloween, I will scare myself." That's when we changed the plan and started choosing something else. Caleb was a pumpkin for Halloween, and since I'm the picture taker in the family I didn't get a picture of myself with my orange pumpkin shirt on. It was fun though, I found the iron on pumpkin face shapes and put them exactly where they should be on my extra large belly. We also made a family trip to the pumpkin patch, but it was a super cold and snowy day so we didn't stay long. We got our pumpkins and left pretty quickly.

John and Tyler had fun carving the pumpkins...okay so maybe not Tyler so much since there wasn't too much he could do. He loved playing with the seeds as John scraped them out of the pumpkin into a bowl.

As quickly as it came, Halloween was gone and in with Thanksgiving. We didn't do much, as John had to be at the station. Tyler and I went to hang out with my family until dinner time and then we headed to the station to eat with John and Dave and his family. The following Saturday we got together with the Blunt family for dinner.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we realized that it was waaaay past time to get the new baby's room ready for him...so we quickly started (and finished) that project. My husband is wonderful (no matter what I say sometimes ha ha) and I decided I wanted stripes and a chair-rail and he made it happen. The room is adorable, but it was a long weekend for my husband who really does not enjoy painting. He marked out all the stripe locations then taped and caulked ever single one and painted. Thanks to my mom and nieces who gave up an entire weekend to help us move things out of the room and paint.

Tyler had an early birthday party this year because we weren't sure when the baby would come and didn't want him to miss out on anything if I happened to be in the hospital on his birthday. For his party we went to a place in Loveland called Jump-in. It's full of inflatable castles and slides and was really the perfect location for a toddler party. The kids came and wore themselves out, ate cake and sandwiches and then everybody went home. For Tyler's actual birthday we hung out just the three of us and tried to make it a special day for him. We had lunch at Chik-fil-A and then took Tyler to his first movie in the theater. He enjoyed it, but also got a little restless. Good thing we were the only people in the theater because he felt the need to run up and down the stairs for a few minutes before we snagged him and made him finish watching the movie. All in all a good day for our buddy boy.

Then four days later we found ourselves driving to the hospital to have little Caleb. Scheduled c-section (since Tyler was a c-section) went well...though I was soooo nervous about it. Everything went as planned and our newest little family member was born at 9:36 am and weighed in at 9 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long and looked exactly like his big brother when he was born. There is still no doubt that these boys are brothers, as they look so much alike. The only difference is that Tyler was a teeny little peanut at 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 inches long. We didn't realize how much bigger Caleb was until we started comparing pictures from Tyler at his same age...and then the difference is significant. Caleb is also much hungrier than Tyler ever thought of being...because he's huge. Somehow I am managing to keep up with his appetite.

After much planning and last minute shopping Christmas finally arrived. Tyler couldn't wait for Santa's arrival. He kept telling us how Santa was going to come down our chimney and bring him stuff. It was an awesome year and so much fun. Tyler and I wrote Santa a letter on Christmas eve and for the first time we left Santa a cookie and some milk. I think Santa liked his cookie and milk and brought Tyler the one thing he asked for...a Mack the Truck tent. He also loaded the stockings full of so many fun things!!

Caleb didn't know it was Christmas, he really only cared about eating when it was time...but it was still a fun year with our new little gift! Tyler tells us almost every day that he's glad we have a baby and how much he loves him.

We are a hugely blessed family and couldn't be more grateful for our two awesome little boys (though we wish the little one would sleep through the night...) and are looking forward to 2010 and what new and exciting things life will bring for our little family of four.