"Baby Tyler" turns three!

Hard to believe my little Ty-guy is three already. People were still referring to him as "baby Tyler" up until I had Zach and then I think we all realized that he wasn't a baby anymore. We had a fun time celebrating his birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa surprised the kids by showing up on Tyler's big day. They were thrilled! Tyler received some fun presents, one of which was his BYU uniform that Josh got for him.

He requested a Spiderman cake, and this is what I came up with.

Here are a few of my favorite things he's said as of late:

"You happy Mommy?" he always wants everyone to be happy.

When Whitney cries, he rubs her back and says "I'm sorry Whitney."

When I'm hugging him he says "I love you too, Mommy". He's so quick to say he loves someone or something.

Retells other people's stories as his own.

"Thank-oo mom"- he's a very grateful kid most of the time. Usually says this when I give him a meal he actually likes!

"Mommy don't be afraid from me" (don't worry about me)

"I will protet you" (I will protect you- says this when I tell him something is dangerous)

"Jesterday" (yesterday)

"moaney psycho" (motorcycle)

Oh, I could go on... these are just a few of my favorites. I sure do love my little man and am so grateful for each and every day I have with him. XO baby Tyler.

Some Christmas Festivities

I don't know if I've ever done the ginger bread thing, so this year we gave it a try. Whitney did a great job and used as much candy as possible. This was no surprise if you've seen her decorate cookies or anything for that matter. Tyler decorated the walls quite well, but while I was feeding Zach, he got bored and just smashed it all to pieces. That's really no surprise either;)
While Tyler was left unsupervised, he did some smashing of Whitney's creation. Gotta love little brothers!I took this "house" thing pretty literal and got some nice rock candies for the sides. I think it made a nice touch (for the 2 minutes the thing stood up)

This little guy just hung out, as usual. He's the most content little guy ever. Just smiles and babbles.

No winter post would be complete without a picture of Whitney on the sled, she'd do this all day long.
This was the last time my tree looked this good. Now, it's half decorated and I keep finding ornaments around the house. Pretty funny to look at now.


We also went to see "Santa" at the little store we have here. Still no eye contact for my kids with the man in Red. But seriously, if it were me, I wouldn't have eye contact either. Let's talk about this for a minute. I am seriously considering having my dad dress up as Santa and just do some sort of Skype situation where we have a video conference with Santa. Who wants to sit on some strangers lap because if you don't you may not get a present from him for Christmas? It's weird and I get the feeling that my kids aren't in to it (see above pics). I may be wrong, but probably not. Next year it's a video chat, who's with me? (I'm not trying to be a party pooper, but this Santa asked Whitney for a kiss! Blech! I about died! I'm sorry to be mean, just thought you should know were my "scroogery" is coming from.)

'Tis the season to be crafty!

Here are a few things I've been working on...

This is a Christmas dress I made for Whit. (Fabric is called Remix, by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman- Zig Zag, Red Pink Green- google it, there are so many other cute color ways in the collection.) It just said "Christmas" to me without being to "Christmasey" ya know?) Inspired by two of my favorite dresses on Project Runway this season. I fell in love with this Chevron print so I made something more kid friendly for my Whit. I did buy some of the black chevron print fabric above, but do I dare attempt a skirt or dress for myself? I don't think so, but OHHHH, it is so lovely! (How cute would a pencil skirt be?) I Probably will just end up making a pillow...wah,wah.

With the addition of Zachary, I was needing to make another stocking. Of course the exact fabric I needed isn't being made anymore and I couldn't find the exact trim to match so I had to get creative. It doesn't really match the other ones, but looks as if it belongs in the collection. I made a 6th stocking just in case we have another baby or if there's a lonely traveler who wants to spend Christmas with us. Once that one is up, it will look a little more cohesive... Don't know why the pic is so blurry, but you get the idea.

School decoration for Whitney's teacher, Mrs. Beus. She wanted to make something for her and she's always wanting to paint so this is what we came up with. It's just a paper mache letter that we painted and mod podged.I have a few more things I've been doing, but showing them might ruin the surprise for a few peeps. Good times gettin' crafty:)