Happy Thanksgiving

I know it's a week past Thanksgiving, but life gets busy. We had a great relaxing Thanksgiving with the Alexanders. Gayle came up on Tuesday for a Nature Day at Sydney's school. Tyler loved spending time at Sydney's school. She did lots of fun activities. They sang songs in the circle, made paper, painted hands for hand prints, and made a nature frame. She also showed us the bird house she made and hung at school. The highlight was a nature walk. Grammy brought up binoculars that the kids loved! It was fun to see nature through their eyes. They love sticks and leaves. A great morning.



After Nature Day, Grammy took the kids back to her house for a sleep-over with her and Papa. Ryan and I were coming down the next day for the Thanksgiving holiday. The kids were so excited to go! They had lots of fun with Grammy and Papa. They went to lunch and each got a toy "iphone." They also painted a hanging to go in their rooms that says "I am a child of God." It turned out really cute. While they were there they helped Grammy make pies and each got to make their own individual pie. Tyler especially liked this on Thanksgiving. He ate the whole thing! He thought it was a great day. Sydney liked reading with Papa a Dr. Seuss book. They had a great time! For Thanksgiving Ryan helped cook the turkeys. They were yummy and looked absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed spending time together and having another wonderful weekend.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for many things. Mostly my family. I am thankful for a wonderful husband who takes great care of us. I am thankful for a daughter who makes me laugh and her wonderful perspective on life. I am thankful for a son who shows me life through the eyes of a child who is continually growing and learning every day. I am thankful for the little one that will be joining our family soon. We are excited for another precious spirit from our Heavenly Father. It is a great season of many thanks.

Journal

I have been using this blog as a journal to keep track of what my kids are doing in their lives. So I thought I would do an update on them.

I'll start with Sydney. My little Sydney is such a joy to be around. When she is home the house is never quiet. She loves asking questions and wants to know about everything around her. She loves the direction left. She always wants whichever is on the left. She wants to sit on the left. She loves left. Random I know. She also has been very interested in what she was like as a baby. The other day at dinner she asked me, "Mom when I was a baby did you go to the hospital and pick me out of a pen of babies?" She thought that we just showed up at the hospital one day and picked her out of a play pen. I explained that she came straight from Heavenly Father into our lives and there was no "pen" involved. :) She is everything girly. She loves skirts and dresses and wears them most everyday of the week. The only time when she wears pants is when I make her because it is so cold outside. She loves to dance and twirl and is a huge fan of Taylor Swift. She is a great big sister and tries to take care of Tyler and play with him. She did teach him about monsters in the playroom, which I was not very excited about. So she also has a bit of a tease in her. Sydney loves to watch Dancing with the Stars and has specific opinions about who she likes. It depends on their color of clothes, shoes, twirl factor and music. Not much to do with dancing. In the meantime she dances like Elaine on Seinfield. She's a very interpretive dancer. She is my angel and the light of my life. We always say "I love you as big as..." And then fill in the blank. Sydney, I love you to the moon and back.

Tyler is another joy in my life and completely opposite of girly. He loves his camo pants and wants to wear them every day. He also loves his Kachow slippers and is so cute when he runs around the house in them. He moves at a million miles an hour, but still gives the best hugs. He will randomly come up to me and give me kisses. Yesterday he was playing doctor and kept giving me pretend shots, and I would cry and say Ouch! He would immediately follow it with a kiss. It was a great game. Tyler loves dinosaurs. He has a big box of dinosaurs and puts them in a boat, a train, a car, whatever he can and plays with them all the time. He also loves cars and trucks. He likes to walk around with a toy in each hand. He is growing so big and being so helpful. He likes for me to give him chores around the house. I have found a few things that I can ask him to do and he loves it. I will ask him to take something and throw it away or go hand me something. He loves to be a helper. Whatever Sydney is doing Tyler wants to be involved in. He likes to sing and has such a sweet voice. He doesn't like loud noises like the vacuum or my hair dryer. He likes to be around people and yet enjoys his naps and playing alone sometimes. He loves hats. He will keep a hat on his head for hours, but he doesn't like shoes or socks on his feet. Every time we go somewhere in the car the first thing he does is take off his socks and shoes. Tyler is talking more and more everyday. The other day I was changing his poopy diaper and I said, "Tyler you stinky." He immediately replied, "I not stinky, I poopy!" I love my little boy!

Both of the kids bring Ryan and I such happiness. We are so blessed to be able to spend time with them and be their parents. Love you two!

Happy Halloween 2009

Halloween was a 2 day celebration. On Thursday Sydney had a party at her preschool all morning. They had games and food and trick-or-treating to the classrooms. It was an adventurous day. It started out with games and the kids loved painting their ghosts with marble paint. Then it was off to trick-or-treat. After the 2nd classroom the fire drill went off. It was really loud and scared poor Tyler. We all had to exit outside in the POURING rain and stand until the fire drill was over. Somebody had gone in and grabbed Tyler's coat, but he was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a short sleeved shirt and Sydney had a short sleeved dress on. I convinced her to wear Ty's coat and then when we went back inside she didn't want to take it off because she thought we were going to have to go back outside. After the drill Tyler kept asking to "go home," but we finally got him to enjoy the last of the trick-or-treating. Like I said, an adventure. One thing I love about my kids is that they are usually really nice to each other. Sydney was so excited to have Tyler at her school and enjoy what she enjoys every week. She wanted him to sit by her at circle and watched out for him in the big halls. When Sydney was picked to help during a story, she made sure that "Mickey" could help too. Tyler was very excited to be doing whatever Sydney was. It was a special day to see them love being together.

Luckily Halloween day was less eventful - no fire drills. We did chores in the morning and ran some errands around lunch time. We did run into Snow White at Costco. Sydney loved that and went over to tell her to say hello to Mickey. She even had a Snow White name tag! In the afternoon we all took naps (except Ryan, he had a church meeting - so he got blessings and we got rest :) ) I fixed the kids their favorite dinner, Macaroni and Cheese with peaches on the side. And it was finally time for some trick-or-treating. The kids dressed up as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Tyler did a great job leaving his Mickey ears on. It was fun to see them so excited to dress up. This year Ryan took them around to the houses and I stayed home and passed out candy. We got a total of 14 trick-or-treaters, including our 2 little mice. So I think I got the easier of the two. The kids loved going with Daddy and came home with way too much candy!! It was a great Halloween.

Happy 30th Birthday Ryan!!

Last week was Ryan's big 30. It was a fun day for our family. We started with our tradition to have donuts for birthday mornings. The kids were very excited for Daddy's birthday so they could have a donut. Since Ryan is 30 and not 2 or 4 I decided to forgo the sprinkled donuts for a cheese danish. After breakfast it was off to work as usual, or so Ryan thought. We were able to surprise him with a cake at work and the kids came in and sang Happy Birthday to him. They had a great time eating cake for lunch. Sydney loved serving the people at Ryan's work with the plates and napkins. Daddy was a good sport to let us show up at work and disrupt everything he was doing.

That night we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner. This is a favorite in our family. The kids love their grilled cheese sandwiches and we like the burgers. It is a great family style place to eat because my kids aren't the noisiest there. Or at least not too noticeable. After our lovely and healthy day of food (donuts for breakfast, cake for lunch and fast food for dinner) we were headed to the mall. Ryan decided he wanted to join the iphone cult. :) He loves his new phone and I love hearing Tyler say "iphone." It just makes me laugh. Happy birthday Ryan. We hope you had a great day and love you lots!

First Day of School

Sydney had her first day of preschool this week. She is attending preschool at Liberty High School at their preschool program. Her teachers name is Ms. Ackerman. So far she has really liked it. She goes from 9:00 am - 12:45 pm. She stays for lunch and likes all her student teachers in her class. This year there is another Sydney in the class so Sydney is known as Sydney A. She loves going outside to the playground and playing in the sand box. She also likes to play in the kitchen area and the block area. She enjoys calendar time and loves sitting on a letter during circle time. Tyler and I are adjusting to the quieter house. While Sydney was gone the first day, Tyler asked where she was every 5 minutes. "Where Sydney go?" was a constant. He even cried when she left the car. They are best of friends and love playing together. He gets very excited when it is time to pick her up. Here are a few pictures of her first day.

Weekend at Pacific City

Last weekend we were invited to go to a beach house in Pacific City with our friends the Rignells. We left Friday afternoon and they had dinner ready for us. I know great serviceable friends! We hung out Friday night and caught up on lives. The kids loved playing with their two girls.

Saturday morning I was able to spend some one-on-one time with Sydney. She is always up early and Saturdays and vacations are no exceptions. We were all sleeping in the same room and we didn't want her to wake up the whole house, so she and I went to get some hot chocolate at this cute cafe. We were a sight - she was in her pink nightgown and I forgot to grab shoes for her, so I was carrying her around. We found a seat by the table and saw that the surfers were out. We got in the car and parked right by the beach and sat and watched the surfers and drank our hot chocolate. It was a fun morning.

When we got back to the house the others were up so it was breakfast time. After breakfast we went to the beach with the kids. The weather was cool, but beautiful. The sun was out and clear skies. The kids loved playing in the sand and running up and down a big hill. We stayed clear of the water, but enjoyed land. Thanks to the Rignells for a great time. Here are some pictures of our weekend.

Last Days of Summer

One thing that Sydney wanted to do this summer again was to ride the carousel. She loved the carousel in Disneyland. It was her favorite ride. As you can see, it is not Tyler's. Sydney had a good time with Grammy and Papa. Her favorite horse's name was Razzle Dazzle. It had the colors pink and purple on it. Who could ask for more?














I have been trying to get some pictures of my kids together. As you can see, it is a difficult task. They are both darling, but I can't get both to focus on the camera at the same time and smile. It's a good thing their cute.

My little Tyler is all boy. He loves to make a mess when he eats. In the one picture he is "eating" applesauce. He kept asking for more to eat because it kept missing his mouth and getting in his hair. Oh well, bath morning.

Every night Ryan and I go check on Sydney and Tyler to make sure they are covered and sleeping in their beds. This was one night when we went and checked on Tyler. He LOVES his cars. This night he had every car in his room on his bed.

Sydney really likes to bake. Here she is baking with Daddy. I love when they bake together. They both have a great time and I get to eat something yummy.

End of Summer

It is the end of the summer - well for most people. Although the weather is slowly changing, Sydney doesn't start school until October 2 and Tyler will still be home with me. So I am enjoying every last bit of the summer that we can. The kids have done some really funny things lately. I'll give a short update on both.

I recently purchased some workbooks for Sydney to work on before school starts. She is very interested in how to spell words and we have been working on sounding out letters. She loves the books and calls it her "homework." This is VERY serious business to her. She loves doing her homework. She has even had Daddy check her work before he goes to work. She has a vivid imagination and has been having nightmares recently. She had one about "stinging bees" a few weeks ago. Daddy told her to think of the bees in the Bee Movie. He said, "they don't sting people." And she said, "Yes they do Daddy they sting the fat guy." It was hilarious - even at 3:00 in the morning. Her most recent dream was also hysterical. She dreamt that Tyler took all the lids off the markers and let them dry out so she couldn't use them to color. She was crying so hard about these markers. I went to the playroom and assured her that they were ok and she could color with them the next day. She was VERY upset about the markers. Oh how her little mind works.

Tyler is getting bigger and bigger. He talks a lot now. He's saying full sentences and loves having conversations. He loves to read books about "big trucks." He also knows how to count to 13. I thought it was only 10 but then last night he surprised me. I was organizing our closet last week and Tyler came running in and said, "Sydney hit me back." I was laughing so hard - of course after I told him not to hit. He was tattling on Sydney for hitting him after he hit her. Now that we know what he is saying he is also getting used to more time outs. But he is still as sweet as ever. He loves to give big hugs and kisses and worships Sydney and repeats whatever she says. He is getting so tall and losing his baby fat. He loves nursery and going to church on Sundays. He also likes to say prayers. He is getting better during sacrament meeting. It is nice to be able to stay in as a family, instead of one of us always being out in the hall.
Here are a few pictures from the last month.
















Grammy and Papa came up for dinner and Sydney loved coloring with them.

We went down to Salem and visited the Childrens Museum with Grammy. The kids love the museum. We colored with markers and enjoyed the warm outside. They especially like the grocery store area.

We planted some flowers this fall in our front yard. We talked about seeds and how plants grow. We are still waiting for the seeds to grow, but it was fun.

The kids pulled out the play dough and made some very interesting creations. They both liked the play scissors to cut their dough.

Daddy has been working really hard lately so we went downtown to see him and go to lunch. The kids really enjoy going to see Daddy at his office. They aren't the most quiet, but they get so excited to see Daddy in the middle of the day.

Tyler is so fun to cuddle with. He loves to sit on the couch with me and just relax.

I cleaned out the car and scrubbed down their carseats. The kids thought this was great to have the carseats in the house. They tipped them over a million times and laughed and laughed.

This is Sydney and Tyler hiding from the vacuum. They do not like the vacuum, especially Tyler. One advantage is that they clean up really fast so their toys don't get vacuumed.